“I need you to tell me everything Sy?” I said as I was sitting at the table opposite him. He was busy chomping into a banana shaped fruit that was bright purple, with a fury skin with a texture similar to a kiwi fruit. I hated them, they were so bitter they made my eyes water, but Sy he was almost as obsessed with them as those mushrooms he would casually pop throughout the day. He insisted the fruit helped with muscle recovery but even then, I would rather let my muscles recover the old fashioned way and endure the pain.
The juices dribbled down into his thick beard as he made audible non nom noises as he finished what I had counted to be his fourth Figera fruit. Raven was sat beside me, she was tucking into a broth that Sy had fashioned with the help of her, the gravy was thick and full of flavour, Sy had told me the name of the animal that’s meat he had used but I wasn’t able to pronounce it, from how Sy had described them they were similar to bisons, but for a main of silver fur that was far larger and four horns protruding from their heads instead of two.
Sy finished up the figera fruit with a belch and leant back on his stool and patted his stomach with satisfaction.
“I’ll have to work this off later,” He said with a smile, bringing an arm up to mo at his sodden beard, there were bits of pulp that had stuck to it which turned my stomach a little.
“Sy,” I said, “I need you to tell me everything you can about Belzebere and about the Guardians and the Chaos Blade. Fidget said you would tell me all about them, if that is the case, I need to know as much as possible. I can’t keep running around not knowing what the hell I am letting myself in for, it’s not fair on me and it isn’t fair on Raven.
Raven remained unmoved, seemingly more interested in eating a second bowl of the broth and I wondered if she already knew all of this stuff. I imagined she did given that she was actually from this world, unlike me.
"Where are my manners, sorry I was just so hungry that I kind of got caught up and when I get like that there isn’t any getting through to me. Now bear with me here, there is a fair bit for me to explain so if you have any questions do not hesitate to ask.”
I nodded, leaning forward on the table, I wanted to know everything, I needed to.
“Once upon a time,”
I couldn’t help but snort at the start of Sy’s story, this couldn’t be further away from a fairy tale, I quickly raised my hands to apologise when Sy cast me a disapproving stare.
“As I was saying, once upon a time there was prosperity across all of Erentar, war was a distant memory, frowned upon by all of this continent, that was seen as something more primitive lands engaged in. Crops grew, villages, tows and cities were in their prime. Sustainability breathed new life covering every section of land, as far as you could see. We had a council that served everyone, we had no need for the few warriors, rogues or sorcerers that we had, Erentar had never had to defend itself. Not since the days of the Dark Knight Vorgrim, a Deathnight that was hell bent on destroying everything, to rule all of Erentar. Vorgrim was a distant memory, the faintest of whispers on the wind, the story you told children to behave themselves. That was until the day where Belzebere appeared, seemingly out of the blue, and if the stories of Vorgrim were true, she made him look like a duckling.”
Magenta gave Sy a dissatisfied quack to which he patted her on the head to reassure her.
“Where did she come from?” I asked.
“No one knows, the first thing they knew of her was when she single handedly levelled the city of Ruma, showing power that Erentar had not seen the likes of for hundreds of years, like I said, not since the days of Vorgrim. That was twenty years ago and to this day no one knows or understand why she tore Ruma down, she showed no mercy, but like Vorgrim her class was rare, unique, you see she was a Deathnight.”
“What is a Deathnight?” I asked, it felt weird to say it out loud, like the class itself should not be spoken out loud.
Sy leaned in closer, bringing his voice down to just above a whisper which was strange given there were only the three of us here, four if you counted Magenta. “It is a forbidden class, deemed two destructive, too corrupted for any person to master. Think of it as a sorceress with untapped access to the most heinous magic and a Paladin with the powers to sustain and heal themselves while having the attacking prowess of a Berserker. She has literally proven to be undefeatable, and the scary thing is she seems to be only getting stronger and stronger. Over time she has conquered more lands, with each City she destroys her armies only grow in size and yes I said armies as she has multiple. We know now that she travelled from Deep South past the borders of Netharia to reach Erentar but beyond that we have no further information on her, her backstory her motives anything. It’s hard to defeat a villain who you do not know what their end game is. She seemingly just likes the destruction and she cannot be negotiated with. She has a stronghold, the Dreadforge Of Azoreth but slowly she is destroying more and more of Erentar, I estimate she must have taken over at least fifty five percent of the continent. Do you have any idea how much that is.”
“Erm, no,” I said, mater of factly.
“Well think of back home, then times it by about fifty and you get the general gist of it.”
The way he dressed, his northern accent, I couldn’t help but think that Sy was from where I was, that this world wasn’t where he was from either, but it didn’t feel like the right time to ask about how he ended up here.
“Belzebere has been a force for death and destruction, no one remotely strong enough to face her. Until we learn about Chaos Dust.”
I looked at the metallic orb that sat at the head of the table like a prized trophy, it was wrapped in a rough piece of torn fabric, that Sy had found. As an inanimate object, it had an ominous air about it, and I kind of understood, I had felt the surge of power as I accidentally tapped into it inside the labyrinth.
“We learnt that only a select few could interact with the Orb’s Of Zephyr which produce Chaos Dust, those that seemed powerful enough to wield it. There were warriors who were deemed worthy by the gods to be able to interact with the chaos powder. Fidget who you already know, Zurin, he was a powerful mage and Fidget’s mentor, then there was Gretchin, she was a strong Dwarves Warrior, the strongest we had, an absolute tank on the battle field. Rane was our Paladin and our leader, his wisdom and courage unlike anyone else.” Sy paused for a moment as he recalled everyone’s names, there was a a glazed look in his eyes as he spoke about each of them. “ Then there was Ruby, who Fidget mentioned before, she never got involved in the fighting but with her research she was able to tap into the Chaos Powder on a wider scale. And it is through her that we came came up with the concept of the Chaos Blades. Each of the guardians, chose to harness their power into a singular blade, more powerful than any weapon crafted in the forges of Torenspire. That one weapon strong enough to destroy Belzebere. It was not easy and it took a long time for the Guardians to to collect the necessary components, the strongest ore’s to be melted into the hardest of metals. When Ruby figured out how to channel the chaos sense from each guardian, the Chaos Powder being the conduit, each Guardian sacrificed their ability to tap into their own Chaos Modes so that they could craft this weapon, they were desperate to destroy Belzebere. Everyone was. It took them one hundred days to craft it, each of the guardians involved in the smithing at the greta forge, the only one which fires burnt strong enough. Every hammer blow delivered by the Guardians one. At a time as their power was siphoned into the blade, it was the best chance Enterar had. When the mythical weapon was finished, the Guardians formed a council meeting and through deliberation that Rane would wield the Chaos Blade, that he would bring peace back to our world.”
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“Except they failed,” I said, my voice delicate, it was affecting Sy like I hadn’t seen before as he explained everything thus, his voice becoming cracked and broken, his eyes welling with tears.
“From what you had said and our last communication from Fidget it would appear they did, that means they are all gone, but somehow Fidget survived, somehow she summoned you here and somehow that blade still exists, even if it is in scattered fragments. Now I have been communicating what I know to Ruby, she can help after all she was key in helping craft the Chaos Blade, there is no one else that know Choas Powder more than she does, and if what Fidget is said is true, that for some reason the fragments of the blade have scattered around the continent then hopefully she can help us go in the right direction. There aint no doubt about it Silas and brother I am sorry for the burden that has been placed on you but you have to help collect the fragments, you have to help reforge the Chaos Blade. It is the only way that we can stop Belzebere.”
“What if I can’t? What if I fail?”
“Then we are all doomed,”
The weight of the pressure was suffocating, for a moment I felt like I was about to start choking when I tried to breath, my chest feeling heavy, my mind whirling with anxiety. Out of everyone, out of all the people that could have been summoned here they chose me, I didn’t want to let anyone down, despite not knowing many people here but the burden hit me in the chest like a sledge hammer.
“Are you ok?” Sy asked, he looked solemn he was clear how much it was that was being asked of me.
“It’s just, back where I am from I would be the last person left with such a monumentally important mission. From what you are saying the fate of this world is relying in me.”
“The gods do move in mysterious ways, but if they brought you here when Fidget asked for help, then there is no doubt they have seen something in you that perhaps you haven’t realised.
A quack just beyond Sy’s house diverted the conversation and Sy seemed to perk up as he looked over his shoulder. Sure enough Mal swooped down landing on the ground beside the bench, he shook himself off, from the top of his head to the tip of his tail feathers before padding towards Sy.
His feet slapped on the ground as he approached and he carried what looked like a letter in his beak, how long he had been flying with that in his beak I had no clue but Mal looked tired. Magenta gave a quick fire series of quacks ad hopped down from the table before nuzzling into Mal after he had placed the letter at Sy’s feet. “Thank you buddy,” he said patting Mal on the head who gave a satisfactory look in return. “This must be from Ruby.”
Sy scanned the letter, I couldn’t tell if it was concern or stress that was showing on his face but either way it wasn’t necessarily a good thing. “What does it say?” Sy waived his hand at me dismissively as he started muttering under his breath as he read the letter.
“What do you think it says?” I asked Raven, the only sign I could make was you but at least it was progress. She shrugged her shoulders, she seemed odd this evening, like she wasn’t quite happy with the conversation, distant and uninterested. Surely she would want to know what had been happening and what was going on. “
You two have got to move, and fast.” Sy said, folding the letter up and placing it on the table.
“What’s wrong? Is it Ruby?”
“It is and I think she is going to be able to help you guys in more than one way. I mean I was going to send you guys up to her to learn more about chaos powder, after all she is the expert. She says she thinks she knows where part of the chaos blade is and that she is happy for you to head over to her camp, if you can call it that, its more like a research laboratory.”
“She knows where the blade is or a fragment,” I asked.
“Well given Fidget said the Chaos Blade had split into pieces i’m going to hazard a guess that it is a fragment. Still the sooner you can collect all the fragments, the sooner we are going to be able to reforge the blade. One more thing,” he said, “I’m going to give you access to something, if you just bear with me one moment.” Mini Map UnlockedIn the bottom left a large circle popped up with what looked like a map of our current location. The box itself had a golden edge to it with a a compass surrounding it. There was a North, East, South and West marker that rotated around depending on which way I turned.
"That's pretty cool," I said with a smile, I could see a rectangular shape on the map ahead of me, which I assumed was Sy's house and there was a blue space to the rear of me, which I looked like the lagoon that sat at the bottom of the oasis. "Wait a minute, could you not have given me access to this sooner? Like when we were looking for the Labyrinth?" I couldn't help but shake my head at Sy, this would have certainly been so much more helpful if we had it sooner but still better late than never.
"I could have, but that would not have tested you with finding the Labyrinth or the orb, and you managed both without it." Sy raised his hand to the back of his head and gave me a nervous smile. "That said you are going to be travelling a lot farther now and with that you are going to need this map or I can guarantee that you are going to get yourself lost." He focussed for a moment and I assumed he was navigating his own menu, his tongue was out slightly while he was concentrating. "Ok let me know when you see us appear on your mini map."I focussed on the map and at first nothing happened but then a four little blue dots appeared in a formation around my own white dot.
"There are some blue dots." I said.
"Great, it's working. Those dots represent, me Raven, Mal and Magenta. We are friendly, remember that. Red dots you want to be careful around, that means there are hostiles and Green's are people or creatures that you can interact with, they are neither friendly or hostile and which colour they turn will depend on your interactions with them."
"Sounds simple enough," I said. "Now let's get you ready to head out, I am going to place a marker on your map, that is where you need to go." Sure enough a purple dot appeared on the outer edge of my map, beyond its periphery.
"Just head in the direction of the purple dot, that is now your waypoint, it will help make sure that generally you are heading in the right direction. We best get you ready, this next part of your journey is not going to be easy, I can only hope the training you have had will have prepared you for what is to come." Sy slapped me on the shoulder and looked deep into my eyes. "I've kind of enjoyed having you around, both of you in fact." He looked down at Raven and smiled at her, she simply waved it away.
Mal and Magenta both gave a quack.
"I am going to be able to stay in contact with you, so if you need to know anything you are not sure about, do not hesitate to call me. I can't stress how important it is that you reach Ruby and learn how to use the chaos powder as well as start to learn how to use it. Then you may stand a chance of gathering the fragments of the Chaos Blade."