The First Protector

Frein dodged an opening barrage of concentrated meiyal projectiles. Small speeding pellets fast enough for him to consider them as meiyal bullets. Not that he had any experience to dodging bullets prior to this one—and even back on Earth, but the reflexes and reaction he needed to employ to avoid them simply invoked that impression.

The pellets pierced through The Mist’s veil, unlike his feet which ran on the cloudy formation, treating it like a wall. Frein twisted and spun out of the barrage, eager to find the right angle of attack.

Rindea observed him, unhindered by the continuous production and propulsion of meiyal as though she was simply breathing.

Frein found his attack line and pushed himself, zigzagging through a rain of meiyal bullets. Three rapid changes in direction brought him close to the First Protector. He swirled upwards for a Siffera empowered spinning kick. He was getting more and more used to the fact that a mere flex of his strength could lend him such great inertia and momentum and practically defy gravity for a moment.

Rindea smiled. A flash of blinding light forced Frein to abandon his attack and go on full defense just in time to protect himself from a burst of meiyal. It threw him straight back to The Mist’s wall. The impact was strong but negligible.

“Do the practitioners of the modern era only have hand-to-hand techniques now?” Rindea asked, lifting her barrage but forming more small pellets around her. “Or is this a Visitor thing?”

“It’s a Visitor thing,” Frein confirmed. “I don’t have enough time to learn anything else before I arrived.”

“How long have you been here?”

“Less than two weeks.”

“Ah. You’re quite skilled for someone who’s trained for only two weeks.”

“I’ve been at it for half a year, training at Schrodie’s Realm, in preparation for Brymeia.”

Rindea’s forehead curled. “Who’s Schrodie?”

In response, Frein did the same. “How come you know I’m the Visitor and not know Schrodie?”

“It was of a faunel’s final words. But we shall speak of this after your test is over. You cannot talk your way into a respite until then.”

The gathered meiyal bullets swarmed at him from all directions. Frein Drew his Exhibit to open his Display, pouring four-meiyal to intensify his Siffera. His amplified defense withstood the attack, but it did not leave him unscathed. Suffice to say, he was lucky enough to protect his vitals.

Or were they intentionally avoided?

“Push a layer of meiyal around your body using Siffera, if you can,” Rindea suggested as she gathered the next wave of attacks. “Kristella always made mention of it when teaching advanced Meiyal Arts. I never got used to it.”

She offered to wait for Frein to attempt her suggestion and the Visitor obliged. He was surprised to discover how easy it was and immediately gave credit to Elizzel.

“It wasn’t me,” the faunel pointed out. “That’s Emerald Guidance at work. I don’t Draw your Meiyal Arts.” By the sound of her tone, she seemed rather preoccupied with something. Frein was too busy to think about it.

Another wave of meiyal bullets rained down from all directions. This time, his defense was more solid and completely negated the attacks.

“Good.” Satisfied, Rindea multiplied her output by tenfold. Small particles of meiyal surrounded her like stars on a galaxy. She was practically glowing. “Dodge, defend, or attack. Your choice. Last for one whole minute, and I’ll consider you ready. If your meiyal aura breaks, then you’ve failed.”

With that, the star shower commenced.

Frein breathed in and elevated his focus. Empowered by Siffera, his instincts, premonitions, calculations, and observations fused into a cohesive union. It removed doubt, hesitation, and fear, and enforced trust in his own abilities.

He focused on minute movements, swaying with just the right motion to let multiple meiyal bullets to pass through by a hair’s width. It minimized risk of overcommitting to one direction and allowed him to follow-up with the next movement with ease.

The Visitor took careful steps when he could, avoiding stepping backwards to prevent any miscalculations from strays that he couldn’t see behind him. Instead, he slipped to the side when needed. Most of the projectiles concentrated on him, while some were simply sprayed for intimidation. The trick was figuring out which sides were spacious enough for him to move in.

It took him a good twenty seconds of clearance before the first of the projectiles hit his arm. Rindea had been steadily increasing the amount of meiyal bullets. Frein simply responded by doing better. He pushed Siffera a bit more, concentrated a little more, trusted his instincts a little more.

Second by second, Frein’s Siffera eventually reached its zenith. His mind predicted a meiyal bullet’s trajectory the moment it formed beside Rindea. He found the most optimal spot to dodge, how far out he should pivot his feet for the next move, where each of his limbs should be positioned, and when and how exactly to move to the next. He saw exactly where he would be cornered and where a speeding bullet would hit him—by how much force and how much defense he should invest to minimize the damage.

Frein began to see visions of himself, options of possibilities a few seconds ahead.

And then, snap.

Art fatigue slammed on him like the world itself ended. Siffera erased and he fell on his knees. The barrage stopped. Meiyal bullets halted themselves inches away from his face.

“One minute,” Rindea said, dispersing all meiyal bullets into residues.

“It hasn’t even been thirty seconds,” Frein replied, gasping for air.

“In real-time, yes. But for you, it has been a minute. How many versions did you see?”

“Five.”

“How far ahead?”

“About three or four seconds.”

“Barely a glimpse, but the potential is present.” The First Protector gestured for the Visitor to take a rest. "Very good."

Almost immediately, Frein felt relief and fell on his back, causing sand to scatter everywhere. Rindea sat beside him. She stared at him for a while.

“You remind me of Evanclad. Not his looks…attitude, maybe?” she said while fiddling with a strand of her golden locks.

“I have a girlfriend.”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Rindea started with a chuckle which broke into an outright laugh. “Rejected twice! Thousands of years apart! Guess I was never meant to find love.”

“You must’ve had countless suitors.”

“I only ever opened my heart for someone once, Frein. My mother got to him first, but I have no regrets. I’ve been showered with love and worship all my life.”

“Looks like you’ve had your fill, then.”

Silence dragged on for a while. Frein took the time to recuperate and organize his thoughts. Four-meiyal had supplied him with an abundance of meiyal and assisted him in efficiently Drawing Meiyal Arts. And yet, the state at which he saw future versions of himself only lasted a few seconds. He considered dismissing it to lack of resource, but that, in itself, was contrary to the effects that four-meiyal—or even Emerald Guidance—provided him.

He was missing something essential.

“The faunel I spoke of was named Alphazzel,” Rindea began.

“Faunel of History and Disasters,” Elizzel said, appearing on Frein’s other side. She sat on a more casual position unlike the First Protector. But the way her legs bent to their sides gave Frein doubts on whether she felt comfortable or not. She didn’t weigh anything anyway. "He was the greatest of us."

“Was?” he asked, trying to concentrate on the discussion.

“Correct,” Rindea continued. “The first faunel to ever communicate with mortals. He perished during the sealing of the Fourth One.”

“The Four Sealed Ones?”

“You know of them?”

“Only heard the name—title,” Frein replied. “Katherine—my girlfriend—she’s a Lady of the Void. Heard it from one of her stories, but she didn’t have the books about them.”

“Highly guarded secrets,” Rindea confirmed. “Think of the Four as Deitars on the brink of godhood. They survived the repercussions of the Divine Severing through malevolent means. Means that I will not mention, for they deserve to be cast into oblivion and forgotten.

“Evanclad, while uniting his people, defending them against Void Encounters, and among other things, also took the lead in hunting down these Deitars in order to bring their evil to an end.”

“Based on the name, he wasn’t successful,” Frein guessed.

“Yes. Unlike Evanclad and his army who have lost their connection to the Forgotten Deities, the Deitars have significant control on their divine authority as well as deeper insights to their Destiny. While the First Monarch managed to overpower each one through sheer brute force, sacrificing millions of lives to save billions, they were truly powerless when it came to ending them for good.

“He had no choice but to seal them. Alas, this brings us to the Fourth Sealed One. I was there when Evanclad established the final seal on The Great Oblimoth, Thraxzim’gar.”

“Oblimoth?”

“Obliteration Behemoths. I have not the heart nor the will to explain to you in detail. I’m sure Katherine has records of them. All I can say is that they can devastate entire lands by simply walking on them.”

“You’re saying there are many of them?” Frein fought the desire to ask more questions, but one slipped instantaneously.

“Aside from Thraxzim’gar, another one or three were spotted during my entire lifetime. It was difficult to tell if the sightings were of the same one or a different Oblimoth.”

“And Alphazzel helped seal Thraxzim’gar?” Frein asked, trying to return to their initial topic.

“That’s when he was also able to establish a link through other worlds, enabling the existence of you, Visitors.”

“So, you know why there has to be one?” Frein couldn’t control his heart from getting too excited.

“Of sorts, but I doubt I have the whole picture,” Rindea replied. She sighed once. “I know that you are here to search for something. What? I don’t know. It’s something that only you will be able to find. By peeking through Destiny, you can inch your way closer to it. And once you’ve found it? Again, I don’t know.”

Frein immediately clung on to the thing that mattered most out of all this. Peeking through Destiny. Was that the thing he did earlier, when he found versions of himself a few seconds into the future? He saw Rindea smile.

“You really do remind me of him.”

Frein ignored her comment. “Do you just regularly go around searching for Visitors to talk to within The Mist?”

The First Protector shook her head. “It’s just a coincidence.”

Frein doubted that, but kept his silence. He was the first Visitor for Irista Nation, true, but to find an iconic historical figure literally in symbiosis with a Nightmare just so she could meet him felt a little too orchestrated for him.

“Alphazzel made many precautions and guides to help future Visitors. My happenstance was not one of them. He was long gone before I became a Nightmare, remember? By the looks of it, I just so happened to be the closest one to you.”

“And so, you have fulfilled your purpose, Rindea Fallsween, First Protector.” A voice echoed from behind him.

Schrodie appeared out of nowhere, her distorted image would’ve been a familiar sight if not for the abruptness of her revelation. “Greetings, First Protector. Now that the Visitor has established a connection, I am now able to retrieve you and guide you to a higher purpose, should you wish to partake, or to eternal rest.”

“And you are?” Rindea asked. Despite the suddenness of the situation, she remained perfectly calm.

“I am Schrodie, the Gatekeeper. Birthed by the Destinies of Brymeia and Zerax’thum, I am tasked, along with other responsibilities—” she glanced at Frein, “—to usher the heroic souls of Brymeia to a purpose that will further benefit her. I suspect you have had your fill with playing tug-of-war with this Deep Nightmare, yes? It is time for you join the others. Continue your service, or rest. Your choice.”

The First Protector’s eyes shined with expectations. “What did my mother choose?”

“I’m afraid Mineltha’s destiny is fully confidential. I am, however, willing to tell you of Minavelle.”

“Please.”

Schrodie’s distortion melded into another elf that resembled Rindea, fully armored with a fiercer set of eyes. “I chose to serve,” she said proudly.

“Then I’ll do the same!” Rindea bounced on her feet before turning back to Frein. “But first, I’d like to leave the Visitor with a gift.”

“Take all the time you need,” Schrodie said, standing aside.

Rindea lifted an arm and presented a hand. Precise formations of meiyal started to lift from her palm, coalescing into a blue, radiant particle enclosed in a crimson, transparent cube. She gestured for Frein to take it.

The Visitor stood and accepted the gift. “What is this?”

“When I tested you, I saw the Emerald Guidance resonate from within your meiyal system. I didn’t have enough time when Kristella formulated Meiyal Arts, but I did work on it for a while.” Rindea looked at the small orb with fondness, recalling streams of memories from her past.

“That, right there, is my Exhibit. It’s yours now. Most of them will reject you. Even with the help of Elizzel, it’ll probably still cost you all of your strength. Make sure you are safe before you Gather it, but do not waste too much time.”

“Well, then,” Schrodie approached, not skipping a beat, and stretched out an arm. Rindea took it while sparing a wink towards Frein. “See you around, Elizzel, Frein.”

“Wait!”

But of course, she didn’t wait.

Along with Rindea and Schrodie’s transportation, The Mist That Carries the Nightmare also dispersed. It simply vanished as though it was never a Deep Nightmare in the first place.

The sand underneath him and Elizzel also returned to ground and dirt. When the lasts of the thick fog evaporated, Frein saw Kristel, Enza, Sam, and Katherine engaged in some sort of discussion.

They stared at each other for a while.

“Hey,” Katherine began, reaching him in just a second. “You alright? What do you have there?”

She was a mess. Frein Drew his Mesiffera and saw all the damage and injuries she was enduring. Samesia worked overtime to keep her alive and she was doing her best to look tough. The change in her eyes immediately told him that she realized he figured her out.

“I’ll be okay,” she said in defense.

“Can I trust you on that?”

“You can. We have help arriving soon. I can keep this up for a few more hours before it becomes critical.”

“That’s assuming nothing else attacks us beforehand.”

“The only things left around are lesser Nightmares,” Katherine said.

“I can handle them.” Kristel sat with Enza who gave her a lick. “We can handle them.”

Something had changed in the Princess as well. He didn’t have the time to figure it out.

“Frein,” Elizzel interrupted, gesturing towards Rindea’s Exhibit. “We should take care of this as soon as possible.”

“Alright.” Frein looked at Katherine and gave her a kiss. “I have to Gather this, but it might be too much for me. Don’t panic if I fall unconscious. I’ll explain it to you after I wake up. Make sure you get medical help right away, understand? I’ll be fine, as long as you’re fine.”

“Alright, I understand.”

“Can you make sure she gets treatment?” Frein asked the Princess.

“You can trust me.”

“Will you guys stop ganging up on me? I already said yes. Just go and Gather whatever that is already!”

With their thoughts unified through the Tether, Elizzel merged with Frein. He opened his Display and produced four-meiyal along with his own to surround Rindea’s Exhibit before Gathering them again. It was remarkably easier this time around and the entire process lasted for only under a minute.

The collection of meiyal-charge materials erupted into chaos from within Frein. Many of them rejected his meiyal system and instantly disintegrated, each causing strain throughout his core. The rapid destruction from within left him no time to observe which was which.

Katherine’s voice from the outside didn’t help. Elizzel’s struggle didn’t help. Frein held on as each material exploded to nothingness.

He blacked out and fell to the ground.

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