Gentle clouds covered the morning sun as it rose above the forest. Daybreak was only a few hours ago, and the town square was beginning to fill. People of all ages and sizes who came from different races walked by while others rushed.
A lone Frosty dazed off into the distance as she sat herself on a wooden bench. Children laughed from the occupied seats around her while they munched on warm, steaming bread or skewered meat.
The sounds of the town were welcoming. Despite it being a cold morning, their voices felt warm and comfortable. But most importantly, their souls seemed content. As a Frostbitten, like her brother, she had some sort of power that separated her from others.
It was the power to devour souls.
“Maybe this is a curse as well, huh.” She pondered aimlessly.
She wondered whether she was worthy to be in such a comforting place. After all, the nature of her power was nothing sweet nor light-hearted. The symbol of death, the scythe, was her weapon which only made things worse – and even garnered her the nickname of ‘The Reaper’ from where she was from.
As she delved in a sea of thoughts, a shadow elapsed over her. A faint heat was felt beside her, as were the smell of something delicious.
“Here. This’ll make you feel better.” A muffled voice claimed as the figure stuffed their face with tender meat and bread. “It’s delicious. You don’t wanna miss out.”
The steaming bun filled with the tender meat hovered just by her face. She sighed and frowned a little at Khaos’ easy-going personality.
“Thanks. We’re still waiting for Exrite?” She asked before taking a small bite.
“Yeah. He just left for the blacksmith across the town.”
A brief silence followed as Frosty chewed her food. A dense pack of people were beginning to form by the golden entrance of the second largest building in Farshard. It was just across the town’s square, close to a pathway leading to a populated marketplace.
“I wonder what it’s like in one of those.” Frosty muttered.
The building was none other than the Guild, a widespread, mostly human phenomenon that kept adventurers and traders afloat, as well as provided income to supporting kingdoms. While its innerworkings were a mystery, it was praised by mostly the nearby people and kingdoms. However, even amongst the lands, they all had their individual tweaks and differences. Some, like in the few towns they visited on the way past the Katho Region, contracted human bounties and assassinations.
“Humans are quite fickle, aren’t they?”
Khaos swallowed and looked up at the sky for a moment before landing them back on the swollen crowd.
“What’s wrong about being fickle? Look over there. See that bunny-eared man? Do you think they would be laughing like that if they couldn’t change?”
As much as Frosty wanted to rebut, she refrained and let loose of a silent sigh.
“You’re always like that – always finding a silver lining in everything.” Frosty stared at the crowd with growing easiness in her gentle eyes. “But I guess this place is different than the rest. Here, people can smile no matter who they are.”
A warm smile formed across her face.
Aside from wars initiated because of different beliefs or Gods – there was the race wars. They were an equally despicable act of brutality that even made the Demons seem far more ‘human’ than humans were. It was a hearty sight to see that the demi-humans were treated fairly so far in their travels through the Truebirth kingdom. But upon seeing their smiling faces –
Her heart wrenched and buckled to the memories of the mangled demi-humans they had come across during their escape from Enthile. The souls she harvested in order to end their suffering, and the many more she killed out of uncontrollable rage – it was beyond a nightmare.
Another bite from the still steaming food seemed to calm her down. The laughter of children and their patters were their music for the time being, as they patiently waited for a certain someone to return.
* * *
He looked at the silver blade and saw his face in the reflection. It was thinner than he had remembered, but it didn’t concern him. At least the blade was no longer chipped.
A satisfying click sounded as he sheathed the blade behind his back. He followed the stone road from the open blacksmith where black fumes rose, and the sound of pummelled metal chimed endlessly. It seemed dangerous to smelt metal in an open area, but the smith seemed experienced in their work. And the blade was proof of it – however, the price was higher than expected, coming up to a fifteen copper coins, just five shy of a silver coin.
Soon he reached the town square, where people of all sorts filled his vision. Mostly they were humans, second to them seemed to be demi-humans. It was surprising. Few could even be seen operating small food stalls, and others mingling with adventurers nearest the guild.
Amongst those seated along the benches scattered around the square, he spotted the two distinct faces and clothing of his companions and approached. It was fairly easy spotting a giant armoured man and a woman in near complete dark blue.
“Done?” Frosty asked with her arms crossed as Exrite stood in front of them.
He tapped the handle of his blade. “Yep. Pretty quick as well.”
“That’s good. So long as that blade of yours doesn’t break, then we should be good to go.” She pushed herself onto her feet. “Khaos?”
“Huh-! Oh! Sorry, I thought I saw something weird for a second.” He shot out of his trance with a violent jolt.
The two standing traced his eyes and landed on a small group of travellers. At first glance, there would be no reason to stare. Adventurers came in all shapes and forms, no matter how ridiculous some looked. However, these felt like an exception – their clothing was nothing they had ever seen before.
It didn’t resemble any ordinary customs they’d known of. No one on their path to Farshard had clothing as intriguing as theirs.
“They probably came from somewhere far, just like us.” Frosty tried to reason, but she too was strangely drawn to the phenomenon.
Strange writing and patterns littered across their clothing, almost like an entirely different language. Their clothes weren’t protective in any way as they bared skin in many places. To come from a faraway land in such attire was next to impossible, especially with how unscathed they appeared. Another person had what Khaos could only describe as an upside-down noose.
Exrite’s blood froze for a moment as realisation struck him light lightning. In the past, it wasn’t unheard of people who arrived from other worlds. In fact, it was part of the written history of Six Point.
With a wry smile, Exrite spoke with a low voice.
“Hey, what are the odds of seeing people from another world walking around like that?”
“You wouldn’t even know if you even saw one, but… “ Frosty’s eyes narrowed slightly.
It was almost certain that they weren’t anywhere near or far from here. They stood out like a rose in a daffodil garden. They stared, awestruck by the small group of travellers. They could have sworn that such events only occurred after every few thousand years, and normally it’d be no more than one or two people.
Then they remembered.
“The Maiden of Time disappeared. Did that have to do anything with it?” Khaos seemingly read their mind and spoke with a low, deep voice.
While they didn’t know how exactly it could affect the rate or quantity of people being summoned from other worlds, they didn’t cross her out of the equation.
Instead-
“The Maiden of Realms would most likely be responsible for this kind of thing. Guess they weren’t lying about balance between the Maiden’s being disrupted.” Exrite’s voice hinted some sort of concern, but not nearly enough to hide his amazement to seeing people from another world for the first time.
“Another mystery of the oh-so-great world of Corozin.” A sigh left from Frosty as she shook her head and dismissed the travellers. “We’re about to meet the Gods, remember? C’mon, snap out of it.”
She was right. Their meeting with the Gods were an infinitely more important ordeal than the phenomenon before them. She had already left the two in their stead, prompting them to hastily catch up with her.
At the far end of the bustling western road from the town square, a gate could be seen and behind it, a forest of round, vanilla trees. A fair crowd had gathered by the snow-caked forest, each testing their luck by venturing through. Moments later, those that walked into the forest had appeared walking back towards the mouth of the forest in dumbfound.
Inkshard warned them about the barrier and its nature – it was an endless loop without their permission. One could enter a thousand times and they’d still exit the through the exact same way each time. Birds that flocked through in the sky seemingly disappeared into thin air, only to reappear further away.
It was an obscure magic that was difficult to wrap their head around, particularly for Exrite. While he wasn’t potent in magic like Frosty, he still was very interested in its inner workings. But as it stood, the magic deployed by the Gods was something that left an impossible impression on him.
At the of the mouth of the forest, Frosty reached into her pocket and nodded to the smooth touch.
“Everyone have your marks on you?” She made sure to keep her voice down.
While a bit away from the crowd, she didn’t want to risk anything.
“Got mine on me.” Khaos nodded, patting the side of his armoured thigh.
“Yep.” A quick reply from Exrite. “You have the shard?”
“Right here.” She tapped another pocket.
They stared into the depths of the pale forest with glistening eyes as their hearts rattled in excitement. No light could be seen beyond a certain point within. It stared back at them, awaiting their inevitable venture. The wind howled. Soft rustling from the furry leaves did little to ease their hearts.
With a hearty sigh, Exrite lead the charge.
“Let’s go!”
* * *
The forest surrounding them quickly became an encroaching thicket. Dim rays of light occasionally passed through the small gaps left by the round leaves, illuminating little of the path ahead. The emerald grass seemed to be becoming more sparse as they delved further and further into the abyss beyond.
A silent glance from behind by Exrite showed no difference from the front – there was an infinite darkness looming in all directions. They had finally reached the point of no return, and the only way out now was to continue forward. The little ray of light high above was all they had of the outside world. It was an intoxicating endeavour for the group as they kept closely to one another.
Only minutes had elapsed since they entered the forest, and the scenery had already devolved into an unholy amalgamation of nothing but an endless void. Frosty shut her eyes for a moment and summoned a ball of light in anticipation of the rays to disappear, illuminating their surroundings by a few meters in a bright white. Thinner were the trees now – their boastful trunks which spanned meters across had become half their size. And from there, it only kept shrinking.
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They became narrower and narrower, until they finally became uniformly think. When they looked up, they saw a night sky in the absence of the stars – a lonely voyage in nothing but an empty void.
As they continued on with hearts forged of steel, Exrite pointed something out.
“There’s a fine fog under us. It’ll probably get worse like everything else here. Don’t you guys dare split up.” His voice was sterner than usual.
It seemed like he was beginning to suffer the effects of his surroundings. Fear swelled within his heart as they ventured further in. Khaos looked fine and was constantly on the lookout, while Frosty kept a keen gaze ahead and focused on maintaining their only source of light.
“What is this place anyway?” Khaos asked, wanting to create some smalltalk in the midst of their voyage.
“Dunno. Your guess is as good as mine. If we were in the Children of Balance’s domain, then I doubt they’d leave us here like this.” Exrite stated as he felt the smooth grip of the crossbow by his waist.
“These are Gods we’re talking about Exrite. There’s no way to find out what they’re scheming. For all we know, they could be toying with us.” Frosty said with edge in her voice.
Goodwill from the Gods was utter nonsense in her eyes. After the prosecution of her race and their manipulation of people, even of their own followers – there was no reason to trust them.
“I’ll have to go on board with Frosty on this one. I can’t think of what would happen to you if you went alone. Unless you can use light magic?” Khaos slowly said as he turned to Exrite curiously.
“I wish it was that easy. There’s no mana in this place from the looks of it. I’d end up using my own lifeforce and… yeah. Keep on dying trying to make light.” Exrite explained casually.
“Then how’s she doing that?” He pointed out in confusion.
“… Souls are awfully potent with mana.” Frosty admitted with a solemn distaste.
“I see… “ Khaos trailed off and continued to survey their surroundings.
Silence once again befell the group as they further advanced with little to no sense of direction. All they could do was submit to the darkness and follow a straight path ‘ahead’.
As Exrite mentioned, the fog was growing in height. It was only up to their ankles just minutes prior, and now was surrounding their knees. They could no longer see the ground below them.
“Watch your step.” Exrite called out. “There might be pits up ahead.”
He could not afford to dismiss the fog. Even though the ground hadn’t changed dramatically since they first entered the forest, he did not want to risk anything – they were in uncharted territory. If there was a time for the elevation to suddenly change, then it’d be now while they were blind.
While this happened, the trees had become so slender that one could embrace a tree and link their hands effortlessly around. Despite being less claustrophobic, it shifted the tone of the forest into something more sinister. If there was something lurking within the depths of the abyss, then there would be no place to hide.
As the though tickled Exrite’s mind, something in the distance caught his eye.
“Turn it off! Quick!” He instinctively yelled through his teeth and held out an arm to stop the two from moving any further.
Within an instant, Frosty dismissed her magic and followed Exrite to the ground in a crawl. They looked up at Khaos in the pitch blackness with narrowed eyes as he stood still, almost pale in the face. His clunky armour would without a doubt be heard by whatever the beast was.
Before them, not twenty meters away, was a glowing face. It held a static, uncanny smile and emotionless, blank eyes that seemed to return their gaze. It grew closer, then stopped abruptly. The fog beneath it hazed around it as it turned both sides, wondering where they had gone.
Exrite inched his hand towards his waist, touching the handle of his crossbow as Frosty held her mouth shut with both hands. Khaos cemented himself like a statue, unmoving in the midst of the cascading darkness that had become their greatest ally in the face of adversity.
The pale mask suddenly began trembling uncontrollably when it realised it had lost sight of its prey. It shook and tremored the ground before exploding into a dangerous red colour, its smile now twisted into a menacing frown. It wandered aimlessly within their vision, occasionally bumping into the trees.
Exrite moved his hand away from the crossbow and began to slowly pat the ground beneath him. Seconds became hours as his sense of time became skewed by the fear that threatened to consume him. Finally, he found something. Held in his sweaty palm, was a small rock. He carefully brought it close to his face and quickly threw it away to the side.
The small thud was quiet, but to the creature it was like a cry. It flew away in the direction of the rock, leaving them alone as they watched it disappear into the darkness of the abyss.
Until-
A quiet whimper slipped the clumsy lips of Frosty.
It returned into their vision, and this time, faster than it left. Within that moment, all of their senses fired up. It was either fight or flight, and without even second guessing themselves-
“FUCKING RUUUUNNNN!” Exrite yelled out at the top of his lungs as scooped Frosty up by her arm and made a break for it in the darkness ahead.
While they couldn’t see a thing, they could hear each other’s heavy, desperate breaths and footsteps that echoed infinitely within the abyss. The eerie creature gave a relentless chase as sickly crawling noises emitted from beneath it.
Frosty turned for a split second and was lucky enough to see the new body of the creature from the little light the face gave off.
“GET DOWN!” She cried and dove into a prone position, kissing the dirt.
No one thought for a second to verify the reason and immediately lowered their bodies. Within a moment, the sound of wind breaking burst their ears as countless snaps echoed around them.
There was no escape.
“No choice, huh!?” Khaos smashed his fist against the invisible ground and caused a light tremor. “Sis!”
“I’m already on it!” Frosty acknowledged him an made haste to return to her feet and create a source of light.
A pale ball fired from a yellow magic circle formed in her palms and shot into the depths of the sky, exploding brilliantly as welcoming light painted their general surroundings. The trees around them were cleanly shredded into two, but their upper trunks remained oddly missing.
Not even a second after the light had revealed the beast’s true nature, an iron bolt struck dead centre of its glowing-red face. The attacker was nowhere in sight, rather, they were hidden within the blankets of darkness at the edge of the light.
The creature’s centipede-like body squirmed in frustration as one of its four segmented arms sliced the bolt, leaving but a stub within its cranium. It screamed with unholy vigour that banished the surrounding fog into the darkness beyond.
With lightning speed, Frosty had left her previous spot and searched the air with a hand. There, she grasped onto something – a transparent scythe materialised in her grasp as she dashed for the abomination.
The clawed arms of the beast swung like pendulums at the approaching girl. She jumped to the side, avoiding what she could while she clashed with others in a fabulous array of bright blue sparks.
Another bolt fired, drawing an arm away from immediate combat. Khaos launched himself forward as Frosty tanked most of the swipes. As he grew close to the body of the beast, mandibles exploded in a mound of green ooze from its face and smashed its head against him. He mightily tanked the hit and held off the mandibles in each hand.
“T-Tough piece of shit.” He broke into a smile, high from the rush of battle.
Another bolt pierced the beast, embedding itself into the spiny neck as green blood trickled from the wound. Frosty continued to dodge and block the incoming barrage of blades, almost dancing with them as countless blue sparks erupted from the clash against the blade of her scythe. However, this couldn’t last forever.
Unlike Khaos, she didn’t have the stamina or strength to endure sustained combat, especially against something that hit like a boulder. A blade managed to graze her shoulder and right arm as her movements slowly dulled.
Exrite knew that supporting them from afar would do little to help. The impact of the bolts had very little effect on the creature thus far, and Frosty was beginning to be overwhelmed.
“Hold on just a bit longer!” He cried and made a dash around the light, keeping himself well within the shroud of darkness.
“E-Easy for you to say!” Frosty cried as she avoided a close call with a horizontal sweep.
Khaos’ grip was finally beginning to do some damage to the mandibles, which initiated a response from one of the arms. It quickly hovered over him and aimed directly for his head.
“Don’t underestimate a Frostbitten-!”
The mandibles crumbled under his grip, freeing him at last before he side-stepped the blade. It sunk heavily into the ground, stuck in place. With a draw of an arm and a fist forged with steel, he sent a decimating punch which shattered the reflective blade of the creature into hundreds of pieces.
It screamed in agony and focused all its arms onto Khaos alone, leaving Frosty with some time to breathe. Before it could swing however, it let out another cry and pinned another arm into the ground. Bewilderment filled their faces for a moment until they saw a figure emerge from above the creature. There was no cliché battle cry – it was as stealthy as a kill could be.
The unsuspecting creature did not see it coming.
Exrite used his falling momentum to help embed the blade deep into the head of the creature. The blade met with resistance from the black nothingness behind the face, but still managed to cleanly follow through, right until the hilt.
The creature roared one final time before submitting into an infinite silence. Frosty fell onto her back, the scythe returning to thin air as Khaos dropped to his knees.
“That killed it?” Khaos asked as he exhaled with a pained heave.
Exrite twisted the blade slightly. No reaction. He fell into a seated position and sighed in a pained relief.
“I hope so.” He gritted his teeth and rubbed his lower back. “For a second there, I thought I lost my lower body.”
“Geez… “ Frosty glossed over the many sliced legs of the beast, where an incremental amount of green, viscous blood pooled beneath. “What the hell was that thing?”
“I don’t know, but at least it’s dead now. That’s all that matters. But damn, talk about a surprise. Did it have a body like that the whole time?” Khaos groaned, his fist a bloody mess and mangled from the punch against the blade.
“No idea… “ Exrite answered weakly. “Was this supposed to be a trial?”
Such a thing would be impossible for any normal human. They only succeeded because they were far too abnormal. Frosty’s impeccable movement combined with Khaos’ terrifying strength was beyond reasonable. While he could hold his own even against Frosty, he could not imagine himself being overwhelmingly stronger. After all, he was only human. An immortal human, that is.
Frosty laughed at the words that fell from his mouth. “This? A trial? The Gods truly are heartless if that’s the case. You find out you’ve been called to their lair and then face this abomination… I’m sure they’d love to see that.”
She turned to her side and pondered on the grim thought.
The light still held strong high above them, being the only true victor of the battle. Frosty was exhausted, Khaos was unable to use his right hand and Exrite felt like something was sapping his energy away.
He looked back down at the empty void and stared, intrigued by the confined darkness. A faint sound played from it – it was Soothing. Soft. Beautiful…
As he inched closer, he could faintly hear the voices from his friends. But the sound entranced him with its elegant song, until –
“Eh-?” A sharp pain surged though his body.
His eyes rolled down and saw a hand sunken deeply into his stomach. A pair of little legs stood in front of him, just above the head of the beast. They trailed up sluggishly and were met with light blue, glowing eyes. It was a child.
“Get away from him!” Khaos climbed back onto his feet and was about to make a wild dash, however-
“Silence.” The girl spoke with an echo.
As if her words held absolute authority over him, Khaos’ war cry came to an abrupt end.
“Now, carry that girl.” As told, Khaos did so against his will. The scooped Frosty tried to fight back but to no avail as her body failed to muster any reserved strength.
“Snap out of it Khaos! You can’t let her control you!” She wailed and begged for her brother to come to reason.
But reality was cruel.
“As for you – ahhh! I can’t believe you hid when I tried to pick you up. I had a nice smile and everything! Then you go and run away, then kill one of my bodies. Bad people need to be punished, you know?” The little girl shoved her hand up Exrite’s open wound and began to fiddle with whatever organs she pleased.
His eyes rolled back into their sockets at the excruciating sensation. It felt like his insides were being gouged out constantly. Drool began to leave his mouth as he desperately tried to cling onto his consciousness. If he went out here, what would happen to his friends? Such a though kept his body invigorated with enough energy to keep him awake.
“You kept our Gods waiting, you know? You have to pay the price, right?” She said as she tilted her head adorably with an uncanny smile.
She was crazy. No, insane. If this was someone who worked under them, then he could only dread at the thought of what the Gods were truly like. The child’s long, light blue hair basked in the light above. She looked similar to Inkshard in her youth, but her strength was beyond mortal comprehension. Just by speaking she could enslave Khaos.
“We’re already late because of this nonsense fight. Let’s go, fragment carrier.” She tugged on his insides and pulled out a red, squishy mass of vascular goop. “Ahhh, sorry. How does this go again?”
“Bw-argh- p-ple-ese- “ Exrite could only let out muffled gurgles as blood continued to spew endlessly from his mouth.
“Maybe I shouldn’t have done that. Oh well, at least you won’t die, right?”
Exrite, for the first time, felt like he really was going to die. Terror struck him like never before as she slipped her hand from his body and stood behind him. She scooped him up from beneath his arms. She dragged him back along the body of the creature and made their way towards the idle Khaos and silent Frosty who trembled in terror.
“Not too far now. Just hang tight and we’ll be there in no time. Boy! Let’s go!” The little girl commanded as she neared the other two with Exrite held carefully in her possession.
Khaos didn’t respond.
“Tch. What’s this one’s name?”
“K-Khaos.”
“Many thanks young one. Khaos, let’s go!” She yelled cheerfully as she dragged Exrite’s limp body into the impeding darkness ahead. “My technique hasn’t been perfected yet since there’re only so many people to use it on. I haven’t seen anyone around here for a long time!”
Frosty remained quiet as she helplessly submitted to her fate, hearing the grinding noises made by her brother’s armour and Exrite’s occasional hoarse growls. They followed the orders of the child and travelled in a seemingly endless void for what felt like an eternity.
A bright, blue light shone from far away like a star. It doused the darkness with light and revealed their surroundings. Frosty was drawn to the light like a moth, unable to part her eyes away from its sombre majesty. Whatever that light was, it was surely where their voyage would come to end – the lair of the Children of Balance.
Now, only now, could she pray to a God.