The Exalt [Cultivation Fantasy]

Oscar's eyelids trembled in his deep sleep as visions of the past swirled in his dreams, his thoughts unable to focus on a single one. It felt uncomfortable, very unsettling, like an itch in the throat, unable to be scratched or appeased. Memories flashed rapidly in a hazy fog. His heart raced faster than ever. Oscar was suffocating, lost within the chaos of thought and memory, adrift in the nonsensical waves of incomprehensible scenes.

It hurt. It hurt all over. Oscar wished for it to end. Even in the recesses of his dreams, he found no comfort, not a hint of respite for him. Suddenly, the jumbled sounds of memories and the overlapping voices of everyone he knew slowly quieted to a low, muffled tone. The memories and thoughts quelled down, and Oscar likened it to drifting afloat on a still lake, peaceful, calm, and the sound of soft waves breaking against his body.

"Ah….It's nice." Oscar wandered away from the dreams and woke up. His cheeks were wet from tears. Oscar was confused about when he started crying, but he did for certain, as seen by these droplets running down the sides of his head. The last memory was blacking out after Avril woke up.

"Oh, you're awake. She feels relieved that Oscar finally woke up. He had been sleeping for the past few days and showed no signs of movement. She wonders if he's hungry. She made some spectacular tomato soup." Avril's cheerful and cheeky words helped his vision focus. Forcing himself to look closely, he noticed Avril's face was upside down in front of him with a smile. Her gloved hands were cupping his ears.

"What?" Few days…he was asleep for a few days, according to her. Oscar struggled to lift his head, lost strength, and leaned back onto Avril's lap. "Why can't I move my body well? What happened in the past few days?"

"Slow down. Slow down." Avril closed his eyes with her hand. He heard her next words more clearly with the loss of his sight. "Demon had been using your body for the past few days to help get everything in order. He also challenged Adam to a full fight yesterday and used the full Guise. So, you can't move for at least another few hours. She is angry at Demon for being so reckless while Oscar is resting. She gave him a scolding every time, but he brushed her off like a piece of lint."

"How's Erden?" Oscar coughed.

Avril brought some water to his lips, tilting it slightly not to discomfort him. Oscar drank, feeling better already before Avril continued to talk. "Erden challenged Tort numerous times and fought with Demon. He's also resting right behind me."

"Hey, Oscar. Glad to see you're up again. It's torture to be next to Demon for a long time." Erden leaned his face in from the side, a beastly growl of displeasure. Greeting his friend with a smile, Oscar relaxed and allowed himself to rest more.

"So…do you want to talk about what happened earlier?" Avril turned Oscar's head back to her. "Feeling it may be too much to ask, she tells Oscar about herself. No more secrets; he already knows enough. Maybe after this, he may feel more inclined to talk."

Oscar stayed still, not that he couldn't move anyway, but more in the sense of focusing on Avril with all his attention. Avril moved her gloved hands before Oscar's eyes and removed the gloves. His eyes widened in surprise, and his face went blank. Now he couldn't move from shock. He expected her hands to have similar injuries as her right face by how she was so secretive earlier, but not to this extent.

'Just how much did she suffer?' Oscar couldn't even shudder at the number of scars, burn marks, cuts, and more on his hands. Not a single unmaimed part existed on her hands, down to her very fingertips. She hesitated but also removed her mask, showing the right side of her face. "What…what happened?"

"I remember everything I did while under Sevon's anger-inducing hypnosis. I ran into someone I knew from the past and couldn't control myself any longer." Avril's hands trembled. Tears fell from her and landed on Oscar's forehead, a slight trickle, but Oscar felt their stifling weight.

Avril started to narrate as she always had done, "After the battle and in her dreams, she finally remembered her entire past before the horrors. She used to live happily with her mother and older sister in a nice town, dreaming about adventuring through the world. But then it turned into a nightmare. She doesn't know what happened to her mother and sister, but she was taken by a group and sold as a slave."

Oscar gazed sadly at Avril's crying face. He suspected she was a slave. She couldn't read, wanted to be useful to the point of learning Reis, and had many scars and signs of abuse.

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"She remembers now that mother always told stories without needing a book, always waving her hands around with voice changes to make my sister and I love it more." Avril wiped her tears, rubbing her face against Erden, who leaned in to comfort her. "She lived for so long as a slave, and once her anima was discovered, her hell truly began. Given to one of the most powerful people in the world and gifted to a cruel mistress who delighted in forcing her to use her anima in battles and torturing her. Due to the mistress's cruelty, she could no longer stomach meat. Every day was hell. Moving from the place to place as the mistress's tool."

"Then, a chance came. While out with the mistress, she discovered a flickering portal. The mistress never bound her in chains, never fearing that she would run. For some reason, at the moment, she found a flicker of strength to resist and run through the portal." Avril rubbed her reddened eyes and regained her smile. "From there, Oscar knows the rest. She met a wounded stranger and went on the adventure she had always dreamed of. She's happy to have come here." She leaned down and pecked him on the forehead, a warm touch that lingered after she parted. "Thank you, Oscar."

"You left out many details there, but…thank you for trusting me." Oscar forced his hand to move even though the consequences of Guise pulled him at every inch. He placed his hand on her cheek, over the scars on the right side. "So many scars….and you're still alive and smiling. I wish I were like you."

"You're better than me. Do you want to talk now? What's on your mind?" Avril brushed aside Oscar's hair to free up his forehead.

"Tired. I'm tired." Oscar spoke dryly.

"Tired?" Avril asked.

"Everything I do always seems to put me two steps forward but three steps back in another way. Every inch I gain closer to home only reveals the more pressing it may be to do so." Oscar told Avril everything about Sevon's past with Kais. She went across a variety of emotions before a look of horror at the end. "You and I may be hunted now. I want to go home, but how much more trouble will I bring to its doorstep? When will I ever be free of all of this? We conquered this city but learned about a more frightening enemy. There is no rest. There is only an endless crawl with no end in sight."

"She doesn't know what to say." Avril cupped his ears. "Oscar has too much to do, too much to worry about. She can only give him some moment of rest right now, but not before asking a question. Oscar, what do you want?"

"To go home…." Oscar answered.

"And I want to find my family. Now that she remembers her family, she must know what happened to them. Forget the enemy, forget the Four Lords, forget it all. Focus on getting out of Shattirma." Avril pinched his cheeks, and he winced once. "We talked for a long while. Let's get you up." Avril lifted his body and put him on Erden to rest and ride. "There's something I need to show you."

The palace was mostly empty other than the few patrols. The bulk of the forces and top officers were with Sevon and Adam, according to Avril. She took him on a long winding path and smiled before opening the door. Its contents stirred Oscar's heart, and his eyes shone brightly for the first time.

"A library?" Oscar laughed and gripped Erden. It was a large collection of books, not comparable to the Neptune Archives, but the first he had seen in seventeen years. Tomes and scrolls lined the shelves. Avril patted Oscar's back and giggled with a teasing look.

"Now we have enough time to read these. We can even take them with us." Avril removed a book from a shelf and flipped it to a random page. "Remember, you have to teach me how to read."

"You already know how to read!" Oscar snapped jokingly at her false statement.

"What…I just like reading together….page by page." Avril mumbled her last few words and looked away. She dragged Erden by the antler and moved to another place in the palace. It was the finest fabricator workshop he had ever seen, with a great furnace made of metal lion's heads. Avril kept looking delighted at his improving mood.

Finally, she led him into the treasury. Oscar dropped his jaw at the refined bars of pure metal, the plants divided into bundles, the number of armaments, the cases of elixirs, and precious jewels. Could this wealth be enough for them to return home? Avril seemed to know his thoughts and sighed, "Master said it's not nearly enough. The Pathrisers are very stingy. He said you need ten times this amount."

"Ten times this amount?" The large treasury before him was not enough. Oscar gulped at the astronomical price of going home.

"Also, we need to train. They have lots of cores and elixirs here for our use." Avril put many in her space pocket. "We also have to think about the proper distribution of rewards, salaries, and future spending for the next battles." After eleven months, her understanding of running an organization deepened, which helped Oscar, but her bluntness struck deep.

"Ah….Anything else?" Oscar asked.

"Sevon and Adam wanted to speak with you. There's something concerning the other Lords." Avril led Oscar to the main hall, where many of his top leaders, such as Fenu, bowed in reverence. Their eyes revealed a great zeal and loyalty. Oscar expected this reaction after a victory, but not to this extent.

"You're up, little brother. I wonder if yesterday made you too tired." Adam laughed his usual maniacal smile.

"Shut up. I heard there was something to discuss." Oscar turned to Sevon, the old Marshal Exalt with a pipe in his mouth.

"Indeed," Sevon exhaled a puff of smoke and held up a sealed letter. "It's a mandate by the other three Lords, inviting you to their gathering next year." He opened the letter and began to read. "To Lord Demon, the new ruler of Brightburn City. You are invited to the Four Lords Gathering to discuss your rulership and the state of the Burning Valley."

"A trap?" Oscar asked.

"Most certainly. And we're going." Sevon smiled. "The climax of our plan is here. The time has come for us to take the Burning Valley."

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