"It's hard to breathe around here."

May stared at the ocean in the distance, feeling a weight in her lungs.

"Something happened here recently. The air is choked with magical particles. Tell me if it's too bad."

Orion and May made it to the place where him and Velridar met for the first time. Everything looked normal, if you ignored the difficulty to breathe.

The weather returned to normal after the storm, the sea was the same as ever, and nothing was out of place.

Only the shining item in Orion's hand was out of place.

'It's past being a simple blinking light at this point. This is definitely the place.'

The wand in hand, he observed the surroundings.

"How are we going to find what's hidden?"

This was a first for May. She never went out of Turric after being found by Eric, so everything was refreshing to her. Obtaining an exceptional leave from her Lord was the best opportunity for her, which is why she followed Orion.

Not that she could have stayed behind, since Orion was told to bring her along.

"We look around. If you notice anything out of place, that's probably what we're looking for."

"..."

With 'Eagle Eye' and 'Calm Analysis', Orion tried to find any form of changes, or distortion.

'If it's not in plain sight, then there's a portal somewhere. How do we find it, that's the problem.'

But while his attention was on the scenery, May was having an internal conversation.

'#*ù#'

'Where?'

'*àù*'

Her eyes instinctively followed an invisible line drawn in her vision. The line continued in the distance, and stopped at one point.

'Do I follow it?'

'i'

'Alright.'

May walked to the beginning of the line. When she got close to it, the tail end vanished, while the head continued toward its destination.

Noticing how May quietly walked away, he came to the conclusion that she might have learned something.

'Is the elemental leading her to its home? This is worth checking.'

He followed her until she arrived near the waves crashing on the beach. Just then, as she was about to walk further into the sea, Orion grabbed her arm.

"I'm sorry, but I can't let you go further. I won't let you drown on my watch."

"Eh?"

The water was past her ankles, and she only realized that now. If Orion let her continue mindlessly, she would have definitely been lost to the sea.

"I'm sorry, it's just..."

Orion shook his head.

"What do you see?"

She looked in front of her and pointed in the direction the line was going at.

"If it's going in the sea, then we can't continue. It's way too dangerous, and we don't have any ways to go underwater."

Thinking, he came to a conclusion.

"Even I can't do anything against the sea. I can't breathe underwater, just like you. Let's forget about it for now. We can always return another time."

He turned around, and returned to dry land, followed by a disappointed May.

"Aren't you upset that we can't go forward?"

Staring at the wand in his hand, he smiled.

"Of course it's upsetting. It's something I personally want, to find the factions that went in hiding. I want to record as much as possible of the ones living on this continent. It's my ambition."

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

'I thought it was to fight that sealed Apostle? So even he has dreams.'

Orion noticed her expression.

"I can guess what you are thinking. It's out of place for someone like me, isn't it?"

She nodded her head with a smile.

"Yes, it is. Amelia told me that you were a man who loved training, and that what you are doing in the world is for fighting that Apostle before he returns."

"I would have never imagined you being the adventurer type."

May was very honest with her feelings.

"I wouldn't say that I am an adventurer. I have always found knowledge to be a wonderful thing."

His smile was warmer than usual when he explained.

"Immersing yourself in records, stories, a biography, anything that can bring you more details about the world around you. I grew up with reading as my only hobby for a long time, and before I knew it, training became my other hobby."

'I also want to find every books that 'N' wrote. This man was a very knowledgeable person.'

He kept the last part to himself.

"Hmm. That's unexpected. But not that strange. It's great to have something you like to do."

"What about you? You also have something like that?"

Orion asked back to continue the conversation, or else an awkward silence would most likely take place, as their plan to find the gate to the elemental realm stopped there.

"Well. Maybe. I never really thought about it. Since my days are just working the soldiers until they pass out from exhaustion, I haven't had much time for anything else."

But one thing surfaced from the depth of her mind.

'I...'

She thought of Caroline. The one who helped her, kept her company, shopped with her...

"I enjoy protecting the lives of our citizens. I also enjoy my time with a few people."

Her words came out naturally, which surprised her. But that wasn't all.

"H-Huh?"

Orion's face began to blur in front of her, and she lost her balance. She fell in his arms, and lost consciousness.

"Hey! What's happening to you?"

He looked at her face, and noticed that she was unresponsive.

"What now?"

Even though he felt quite tired already, he did not panic.

'Maybe she was simply exhausted? I made her wait a few hours in the cold too.'

'Or maybe that was the magic in the air that made her lose consciousness.'

Observing her face, he didn't notice any pain.

Picking her up in his arms, Orion was about to leave the area.

"Hmm?"

On the way to the portal, he felt heat emanating from her body, which meant only one thing.

'Her fire elemental is doing something?'

Just as he thought that, the crystal in her nape appeared, and a red beam of light flew toward the place May tried to swim through.

The light continued in a straight line, and formed what seemed to be steps made of fire above the water.

*Sigh*

"No choice, I guess. I can't betray your expectation, can I?"

He turned around and walked toward the sea.

"..."

"It won't burn me I hope."

His foot touched the fiery step, but nothing happened.

'It's solid.'

With that confirmed, Orion walked on the steps.

...

Ten minutes later.

Orion turned around.

'We're quite far from the coast now. How far do I have until we arrive?'

With May in his arms, he carefully avoided falling into the dark sea.

'Is Velridar sleeping around here?'

He tried to see through the water, but he couldn't see anything past a few meters.

While his thoughts wandered aimlessly, waiting to arrive at the end of the stairs, it finally happened.

"Is that the last one? There's still nothing around here."

With a dry smile, he looked around.

"Nothing but the sea."

After waiting for a minute, he looked at the wand in his hand.

'It's really hard to hold someone, and have something in your hands. If I had known this would happen...'

The wand's jewels were so bright, it was hard to think he wasn't at the right spot.

"So, how do we go from here to the elemental realm? Got an idea?"

His voice fell in deaf ears, as May was unconscious. But, he wasn't talking to her.

The crystal's heartbeat like pulse kept going steadily, as the previous beam of red light went to one particular point above him.

'Above us?'

When Orion looked above, the air cracked. A noise similar to glass breaking, muffled by the sea's wind, was heard.

A vortex of fire the size of a house appeared.

"So that's the gate to their realm."

Before he understood what happened next, gravity got inversed, and they got pulled inside the vortex.

Both were swallowed instantly. The red steps vanished, and the vortex closed, as if nothing ever happened.

~

'I'm going to be sick.'

Orion found himself in a distorted void of colors. He was freefalling with May in his arms infinitely.

He closed his eyes to avoid the sickness to get to him, and felt his surroundings with magic.

'This place is just chaos. Nothing else.'

Elements merged together in an unnatural manner, before separating and merging with the next one. There was nothing normal about this space.

'What have I gotten myself into?'

For a few minutes, he kept falling down without doing anything, but at one point, he lost his patience.

'Alright, we're going home. I can't do that forever. If there's nothing, then there's nothing.'

He opened a portal under his feet.

'What?!'

His body phased through the portal as if it never existed to begin with.

'What is this place?! Damn it! Was it a mistake?'

Stuck in this weird space, he tried multiple times again to escape, but every try was unsuccessful. At one point, he gave up, and simply endured the weirdness around him.

He even let his mind wander aimlessly.

While this was happening to him, the elements inside his body were getting agitated. The longer Orion stayed in this vortex of elements, the more they reacted.

After an hour, everything changed.

Orion opened his eyes, feeling something inside him that was quite unusual.

'What are you guys doing?'

The voices of his elements were getting angrier.

'Break.'

'Out.'

His light element appeared next to him, and began to cover Orion and May both. The dark element also appeared, and formed a sort of spiraling energy under his feet.

And lastly.

'Bored.'

His void element appeared between the other two elements, and forced the space to break by creating a void under the spiral.

The vortex cracked more and more, until it exploded like a mirror.

Protected by his three elements, they returned inside him as his gaze found a place to land on.

In a loud crash, Orion broke the ground in a spider web shape from the speed at which he fell.

'That hurt quite a bit. Did a bone broke?'

Placing May on the ground, he healed himself, before picking her up again.

'Thanks for the help.'

'Food.'

'Sure, eat some magic as a reward.'

As he felt his magic deplete, he looked around.

'This place is...'

His eyes opened wide when found what he was looking for.

"Elementals!"