Chapter 24 Chapter 23 Rebirth

The blinding sunlight brought Aaron back to consciousness.He raised his head, the wind and sand were blowing against his cheeks, he spit out fine grains of sand, struggled to get up, and glanced around, seeing a piece of yellow sand in his sight. They left him in the desert to die. "Coward!" he cried, "letting the desert take my life will not absolve you of your sins!" He knelt on the ground, his knees trembling unconsciously. Although he tried to stand up several times, his weak body could only let himself lie on the ground, waiting to die slowly—he felt dizzy. This time it was supposed to help the Krasians—how could they betray themselves like this?

"Don't lie to yourself," said the voice in your head. You've betrayed others yourself. You left your father when he needed you most, you left Kappa before your training was up, you left Ray without a hug. Root and Eliza, and Mary... who will miss you, Parzine?" Jadir asked, "You can't fill a tear jar—" He was right. If he died, Aaron knew that the only people who would care about his death were probably businessmen who were worried that their own losses would be greater than his own.Maybe this is the price he must pay for betraying everyone who loved him, maybe he should just lie down and die.

His feet were weak.The sand seemed to be pulling him, beckoning him into its embrace.Just as he was about to give up, something caught his eye. There was a pocket of water in the sand a few feet away.Did Jadir's conscience find out?Or was it left by one of his men in sympathy for the betrayed messenger? Aaron crawled to the water bag and clung to it like a lifeline—perhaps someone still mourns his death. But that doesn't change anything.Even if he returns to Krasia, no one will believe Qing En's words and question Shalumka.As long as Jadir gives an order, Daer Sharum will kill Aaron without hesitation.

Just let them take the spear you risked your life for?he asked himself.Let them take the Dawn Runner, the Portable Sigil, and all your stuff? Thinking of this, Aaron couldn't help touching his waist, and then breathed a sigh of relief, realizing that he hadn't lost everything.Also around his waist was the leather pouch he carried with him when he fought in the Great Labyrinth, containing a set of small sigil tools, his herbal pouch, and his notebook. This notebook brought back what little confidence it had left.Aaron has lost other books, but all of them combined are less important than this notebook.Since the day he left Miln, Aaron had copied all the new magic seals he had learned into this notebook, including the magic seals on the spear.

Since they want it so much, let them keep that goddamn spear, thought Aaron, and I can make another one. He stood up straight, picked up the water bag, took a sip, hung it on his shoulders, and climbed the nearest sand dune. He set up a pergola with his hands, vaguely seeing the mirage-like Krasia Castle in the distance, in order to determine the direction to the Dawn Oasis.Without his horse, the journey would have involved a week in the desert without the protection of a sigil.His water would run out before he got there, but he didn't think it would be the biggest problem—the sand demons might take his life before he died of thirst.

Aaron chewed pigroot grass as he walked—the herb was bitter and made his stomach churn—and he was covered in demon scratches, and the pig root prevented infection.Plus, the nausea was better than the abdominal pain that would ensue when he didn't have food, and every step he took was painful.He pulled his top over his head to shield him from the sun, which resulted in severe sunburn on his back.In fact, his skin was bruised and purple from the previous beatings, and there were red marks on the bruises. Despite a dry mouth and swollen throat, he drank very little water.Aaron kept going until after the sun had completely sunk over the dunes to the west.He felt that he was not moving forward at all, but the footprints gradually disappearing in the wind and sand behind him surprised him.

After the night fell, the monsters in the center of the earth and the severe cold were enough to kill him.Aaron hid and buried himself in the sand to maintain his body temperature while avoiding the demon.He tore off a page of white paper from his notebook and rolled it into a long and thin breathing tube, but buried in the sand still made him feel suffocated, and worried that he would be discovered by the earth core monster.When the sun rises and warms the sand, climb out of the sand and continue stumbling forward, feeling as if you haven't rested at all. He kept on going, day after day, night after night.With little food, rest, and little water to drink, his body was getting weaker and weaker.His skin was cracked and bleeding, but he turned a blind eye and persisted through gritted teeth.The sun is getting brighter, but the horizon is still far away.

His shoes don't know where they fell.He wasn't sure when or how it fell.The soles of his feet stepped directly on the hot sand, burning with pain and burns, covered with blood blisters and hard calluses.He tore off his sleeves, wrapped the soles of his feet and continued on his way. From time to time he fell, sometimes got up immediately, and sometimes fainted for a while.Sometimes, he would roll all the way down the dunes after a fall.Exhausted, he viewed the situation as good luck, as it would make the descent less painful. When the drinking water ran out, he had forgotten how many days he had walked.He crawled along the desert road, but had no idea how far it was.His mouth was dry and cracked, and even the wounds and blisters no longer secreted pus, as if his body had been parched.He fell again, and then tried to find a reason for himself to get up again.

Aaron woke up suddenly, his face wet with sweat.It was dark, and the fact made him despair, but he had no energy to be afraid.He looked down to find his face on the edge of the oasis, his hands in the water. He doesn't know how he got there.The last thing he remembered was...he had no idea what the last thing he remembered was.He doesn't know how he got across the desert, but he doesn't care.He succeeded, and that's the point.Under the protection of the magic seal of the oasis spire in the depths, he was safe. Aaron greedily drank the water of the oasis.Moments later, he started throwing up and forced himself to sip water.When his thirst was gone, he closed his eyes again and slept so peacefully for the first time in over a week.

After waking up, Aaron went to the oasis storage to search.In addition to food, he also took a lot of supplies and equipment: sheets, herbs, a set of spare magic seal tools.Due to his weakness, he spent the next few days eating dried food, drinking clean water, and cleaning his wounds.After a few days, he can go out and gather fresh fruit.After a week, he had the strength to fish.After two weeks, he could stand up and stretch his limbs without pain. The oasis holds enough supplies to get him out of the desert.Maybe he will crawl out of the barren desert at the edge of the desert, half dead, but from another perspective, that is also hope.

There are still a few spears in the Oasis cache, but these sharp wooden sticks are nothing short of pathetic compared to the great metal spears that were taken from them.In the absence of varnish to reinforce the magic seal, once the symbols engraved on the wooden handle pierced the hard shell of the earth core monster, it would be destroyed immediately. so what should I do now?He has sigils enough to sinter the lives of demons, but without a weapon to carve them into, these sigils are useless. He considered drawing the Sigil of Attack on the stone.He can throw stones, and even throw stones at earth core monsters... Aaron laughed.If he wanted to get that close to the devil, he might as well draw the magic seal on his own hand.He paused, considering the thought seriously.Can this be done?If he could, he would have a weapon that no one could take away, a weapon that no geocentric monster could shoot down or sneak up on when he was empty-handed. Aaron took out his notebook and studied the sigils drawn on the spearhead and tail.These are the offensive sigils, and the ones inscribed on the spear are defensive sigils.He noticed that the sigil on the butt of the spear was not connected to the other sigils, nor was the sigil on the spearhead.These sigils are independent of each other, the same symbols are repeated, engraved in a circle, and there are also at the bottom of the spear tail. Perhaps they represent two different ways of chopping and punching. As the sun went down, Aaron drew the sigil of slamming in the sand and practiced it until he felt sure.He took out the brush and paint bowl from the sigil tool, and carefully painted the sigil on the palm of his left hand.He blew lightly on the rune until the paint was completely dry. It is much more difficult to draw the right hand, but based on experience, Aaron knows that as long as he concentrates, the skill of drawing the magic seal with the left hand is not inferior to that of the right hand, but it will take a longer time. As darkness fell, Aaron moved his palms lightly, making sure that these movements would not cause the sigil paint to crack or fall off.Satisfied, he walked to the spire guarding the oasis, watched the demons surround the force field, and smelled the scent of untouchable prey. There was nothing unusual about finding his first goblin: a sand demon about four feet long, with slender forelimbs, muscular hind legs, and a long, spiked tail that wagged back and forth when Aaron made eye contact. After a while, it rushed towards the magic seal net.As it jumped up, Aaron stepped aside and covered the two magic seals with his hands.The magic seal partially failed, and the earth core monster fell to his side, confused because it did not meet the resisting force field.He quickly withdrew his palm and re-established the magic seal.In any case, the demon must die.Either he died at the hands of Aaron, or he died in the sun after killing him because he could not escape the magic seal of the oasis. The demon regained its balance, turned around, hissed, its mouth full of sharp teeth, and circled around Aaron, its muscles tensed, and its tail flicked extremely fast.Then, with a roar like a feline, it jumped up again. Aaron stepped forward, palms out, his hands longer than the demon's forelimbs.The scaled chest of the earth core monster collided with the magic seal, a magic light burst out and a scream was made, and the body bounced back immediately.It fell heavily to the ground, and white smoke rose repeatedly from the place where the chest and the palm were in contact.Aaron smiled. The demon got up and started circling again, this time more cautiously than before.It is not used to dealing with prey that will fight back, but it quickly regains its courage and pounces on the attack again. Aaron grabbed the front paw of the geocentric monster, leaned back, kicked the opponent in the abdomen, and threw it backwards.As soon as he made contact with the other party, the magic seal in his palm glowed immediately, and he could feel the operation of the magic.The magic light had no effect on him, but it made the shell of the earth core monster sizzling, but a slightly tingling energy appeared in his palm, as if they couldn't find a way to vent it.The feeling went up and made his arms tremble. They turned over at the same time, and Aaron responded to the roar of the inner earth monster with a roar.The demon licked his scorched wrist, trying to relieve the burning pain. Aaron saw a trace of respect in its eyes, admiration and fear.This time, he was the predator. His confidence almost brought misfortune.The demon yelped and pounced, and this time, Aaron was too slow to react.Black claws slashed across his chest as he tried to dodge sideways.He threw his fist back desperately, forgetting that the sigil was drawn on the palm of his hand.The gnarled scales of the goblin chafed at his knuckles and tore at his skin, but the punch had no effect.The demon struck back, knocking Aaron down. Facing life or death, Aaron scrambles and scrambles to dodge the demon's claws, fangs and barbed tail.He tried to get up, but the demon jumped on top of him, pinning him back to the ground again.Aaron drew his knees and put his feet between the demon and himself to block the demon's pressure, but the hot stench of its mouth was sprayed on his face, and the teeth were within an inch of his cheek. Aaron gritted his teeth and grabbed the demon's ears.The magic light blazed, and the earth core monster screamed again and again, but Aaron clung to him tightly.The magic light became more and more dazzling, and white smoke began to emit from the devil's ears.It struggled frantically, flailing its claws, desperately trying to escape.But Aaron had grabbed hold of it and wouldn't let it go.The longer he grasped, the stronger the tingling sensation in his palm, as if energy was accumulating in his hand.He squeezed his palms inward, and was surprised to find that the closer the palms were squeezed, the more the demon's skull seemed to become softer and began to liquefy. The strength of the monster in the center of the earth weakened, and Aaron turned to the side, pressing the demon to the ground instead.The demon's claws gripped feebly at his arms, trying to break them apart, but in vain. In the end, Aaron squeezed hard and clapped his palms together. The demon's brain burst, and the whole head was crushed to pieces.