> Socen Kingdom and Cerceli Kingdom are the descendants of the ancient Solodian empire before it split, and have spent hundreds of years in-fighting to claim back the land that they claim to be theirs. Overtime, Cercelian develops ‘magical’ properties that are much more reliant on the art of Invocation, while through Soul Energy mutation, Socenians have an increasing number of Energy-based Technocrafts and Blacksmiths, making them the Tech hub of the midlands. This garnered interest from Nappin and Wetnam immigrants who are primarily Tech-savvy Energy-typed Flair users, and the Socenian welcomed them as they did with the war-keen Tsarovich in order to wage wars across the land, up until their downfall to the nomadic Mange tribes.

Excerpt from "Everyone is a Superhero: Artworks, Abilities, Maps, Characters, and Easter Eggs"

Eugene De Lavet

There isn't anything fancy inside that box, only a small, sloppily folded letter. Whoever wrote that letter had to be in great hurry. Despite the letter's lack of aesthetics, Azra takes it out of the box and peels it off, revealing a blank sheet of paper with inky strokes of words, or what I assume to be words, inside. It's not in a language I'm familiar with, but more in a form of alien strokes and blocks. The only thing suggesting those blocks are words is the fact they're arranged in lines like how sentences are usually written. Or at least, how Tamara taught us to write.

"Why didn't they just use Inglish?" Lek inquires. "Dude, like ninety percent of your population speaks Inglish, even the coastal tribes."

"Okay linguistic professor, you've can travel through physical planes. I'm sure you've been to other realms. Can you recognize these squibbles?" I ask him.

"I travel as a tourist! I have better things to do than reading human words."

"What thing?"

"You know, tourist things! Like learning how to curse in foreign languages and disregarding local cultures."

Evictus pushes me aside and punch on my arms. "Can you two stop squabbling inside the great chieftain residence? I hate commoditions that I don't cause."

"So violent!" I step back. "I thought we were bros?"

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"Being bros gives me the right to punch you in the face."

Melodi gives both of us a death glare, and we shut up. We both know better than to mess with an angry girl.

"Can you read these letters?" Melodi asks Azra.

The Commander doesn't reply. He studies the paper for a long time, squinting and licking his lips each time he flips it over.

"He's making me anxious and hopeful at the same time." I hear Alleria whispering to Melodi. "Maybe he's cracking it."

Finally, Azra folds the paper, puts it back into the box, then turns to us and says, "I can't read it."

Great. He spent five minutes and that's his answer.

Azra looks at me with his expression unchanged. "I know what you're thinking, Eugene, and I've spent my time productively. I think what this language is. This is Xanese, the language of the floating kingdom of Xan. The place should be half a day's ride from here."

"Imagine you stole a golden box hoping for grand treasure inside, only to get an undecipherable piece of paper. Such a bait, honestly."

"The word is indecipherable, Eugene." Melodi intervenes. "And every treasure hunter knows that you're expected to find clues one after another. Artifact hunters don't get rich overnight."

I shrug. "I don't know. Leviathan went treasure hunting once at Gamestopper Gate and he came back with sacks of Soul Dust."

Azra gives Evictus our thanks for the time he lent us then takes the box. As we're about to leave, Evictus runs to the door and extends his arms to block the way. "Not yet," he says. "There's one thing I need you to help us out with. Normally, we can deal with whatever thrown at us ourselves, but things are getting out of hand lately. Besides, I'm laz—uh, busy."

"What is it?" asks Azra.

"You said you're our protectors, right? This town is going to need your patronage."

***

"So you're saying we're gonna fight giant skeletons?" This is the first thing I ask Commander Azra once we get out of Evictus' tent. The Chieftain wanted us to handle some GagaPokemons (or whatever they're called) for him, and we accepted under the condition that we can recruit the village's best talent to aid us on our journey afterwards.

"Yes," he replies.

"You should've told me that before accepting the request! I would've said something that wasn't 'I accept'!"

"Suck it up, bro," Lek bumps the side of his blobby body into my head. "Not his fault you don't know what a Gashadokuro is. Melodi wasn't surprised because she actually studied Theory."

"How should I know what a GagaPokemon is? The word has five syllable! I can't even spell the name properly!"

Alleria snickers. "Mel, honey. Care to educate our boy here on what a Gashadokuro is?"

Melodi sighs as she recites with a voice like one of Leviathan's robots, "Gashadokuros are the embodiment of people whose bodies weren't properly buried. Their souls wander about in the Inter-Entity realm, stuck between Soul Realm and Human Realm. It seems like an ancient battlefield once took place at this location. If I remember correctly, it takes at least five hundred years for a wandering soul to grow into creatures of that size. Settlers probably didn't know this when they turned this sandy sea into a village."

"Or maybe the settlers themselves fought in that battle," Lek adds. "The skeletons rise up every year. Random soul rifts don't appear that frequently and punctually unless the creatures tear the soul fabric themselves. These guys seem to hold a grudge."

"Or someone might have tampered with the spatial fabric," Azra says.

"How?" Melodi knits her brows. "It takes a tremendous amount of reserves to even locate the spatial fabric through numerous Soul Rifts."

"Exactly. And this place used to be a densely-grown forest akin to Likimi just two hundred years ago. In fact, this place used to be under the patronage of Forest Warden Angelo Haag. But now it's a barren desert. Do you think it's a coincidence?"

"Who's Angelo Haag?" I ask.

Azra's about to answer my question, but then an unfamiliar female voice interrupts him, "A traitor. The biggest traitor of all traitors."