image [https://imgur.com/zCoDJSw.jpg]

-BEEP BEEP- -BEEP BEEP-

-2311 Hours-

-11 hour Hibernation mode: ended-

-Initiating wake-up sequence-

-…-

-Initializing Empyrion OS … initialization complete-

-…-

-2315 Hours. Wake up sequence complete-

-Good evening, Yalda (＾▽＾)-

Strength began to emerge in my tired eyes as they fluttered open. The first thing I saw was Uncle and Indena staring over me like hawks. Marek was here too, but sitting in the corner, asleep.

Thank goodness it had only been a little under twelve hours since I went under. Last time I used the mana cannon, I was out for a few days. Uncle must have been tending to my systems, making sure they were recovering more efficiently.

“Oi! Blue Boy!” Indena shouted to Marek. “Wake up. The Shrimp's back.”

I conjured up a little strength to speak. “Where did I go?” I playfully asked.

“We're on a boat, heading for the mainland, Erdareich,” Uncle said, partially catching the humor of my question.

Seeing that nobody was in a panic, I assumed the golden bull was finished, and that we’d at least managed to stop the troubles at Seaport Blue.

I turned to Uncle with a groggy look.

“Sorry, Uncle. I had to use the mana cannon again.”

He patted my head, letting me know all was good. As he did, Samael slithered down his arm and coiled up on the pillow next to me.

“Melpomene filled us in on the details. You made the right choice,” he said.

It sure was relieving to know everyone was okay. But what happened to The Actor? I know he didn’t get caught up in the blast.

“The theatrical man you met up there, Indena has confirmed he was affiliated with the Family of Sai,” Uncle said. “Unfortunately, it appears he escaped, and his minions have kidnaped Yamin.”

Oh no! It’s horrible that he actually stole Yamin away. That wasn’t good at all.

It seemed like Mella’s fears were being realized. Yamin was a target for our enemy, and probably due to some sort of potential she had within her. But what was this dark potential that Mella kept bringing up?

“You know, I remember that actor guy doing plays all the time for kids,” Indena said. “His magic was always for show, not very strong in a fight.”

Putting video game terms into play, and my own experience, he was a summoner. The type to hang back and let minions do all the work while he provided energy for them. Given how I was able to take down all the demons he spawned, and Uncle took out the pirates, it pretty much confirmed what Indena said about him not being very strong.

The biggest concern now was figuring out what he was doing and where he was taking Yamin. He obviously had connections to demons, but it wasn’t clear to us exactly what that was.

If I had to guess, I feel like he was probably one of many people who were sneaking around the world and stealing mana to summon demons. This was the second time I’d seen it now, the first being Janus back in Elysium. Once is a coincidence, twice is a connection.

“Do we know where he’s heading?” I asked.

“Same place we were always going,” Uncle answered.

Verrenville.

They all came to this conclusion based on a few factors. First was that The Actor made it clear that he was under the leadership of a demon lord named Belphegor. And given how a demon domain was growing in Verrenville, not very far across the water channel from port Blue, it’s the most likely spot to start our search.

All of that was supported by the fact that Yamin originally lived in that town. So maybe something was hunting her.

Why take her in the first place though? Why call her a star of the show? Why did Mella want her dead?

Not enough pieces of the puzzle were fitting together yet, but this was our only shot in the dark to save her and everyone else too. All roads lead to that town and an awful demon lord within it.

Demon lord…it sounded like something out of an anime. Was I really going to have to fight a thing like that? This is what I was made for, after all…

Beyond the demons, there was also another problem. That gold seed that The Actor had.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Uncle, did Mella tell you about the golden seed?”

“Afraid so. It’s nothing but trouble.”

He wasn’t familiar with what it was, but his disgruntled face told me that he wasn’t completely clueless. It was some sort of power up or drug. I never got the impression that the golden bull reached his full power, so who knows what would have happened had its powers got to that point?

“If you ever encounter anything like that again, initiate Containment Protocol 596,” Uncle ordered. “But use your own discretion. If it’s better to kill it, do it.

*Beep beep*

“Okay, Uncle.”

Containment Protocol 596-A was as follows; Any unknown parasitic/viral/supernatural lifeform, especially the likes of which from unknown origins to the operator, must be contained within an established quarantine zone.

There were three other tiers to this protocol, finally ending in a scorched earth policy if a mass contamination or outbreak were to happen. Not something I wanted to deal with personally…but Uncle likely wanted to catch whatever that was to study it. We had the facilities back home to do it too.

Anyways, I noticed Mella wasn’t here either. She was off preparing to go to Verrenvill as well, but apparently it wasn’t to help out, it was to defeat Indena so she could finish off Yamin.

Not only a demon, but a cult, and a witch…things were about to get very busy.

-☆☆☆-

It was late in the night. The others were sleeping in their rooms on the boat, preparing for the coming day and its many promises of difficulty. I was well awake, since I’d slept for 11 hours straight.

I found myself on deck, looking up. The open sky was so twinkly, full of bright stars.

A bright white and green cloud controlled a large portion of the sky. That was our galaxy, Seresta Majoris.

Two big moons traveled across the apex of it all. One gray as stone, known as Darmos. Named after the god of destruction and chaos. The second moon was bright yellow, known as Ecla. It gets its name from the goddess of fertility and harvest. Two very different stories, polar opposites, but both gave their names to a very beautiful sight.

This was my first real time taking in the night sky. I’ve been so busy lately that I didn’t even really think to look up at night. It was no less amazing then my imagination hoped for, if anything it was better.

Just watching all this made me worry about Yamin. I know she liked to stargaze too, and she would have loved talking about this stuff with me.

While concerned about her safety, I summoned my spear and held it up like I was ready to attack something. I was going to need this if I wanted to free her from our enemies.

The spear was normally bluish white, but right now it looked a lot more rainbowy, sprinkling with vibrant colours all over. It was pretty cute.

I swung it around a few times, hitting imaginary targets, but without my combat mode engaged, I toppled over from the weight of the thrusts.

“Oof!” I hit the ground hard. “Dang it. That hurt.”

In my attempt to recover, I remembered I leveled up a little bit, which meant I had some Skill Points to spend.

Let’s see…I’ve used Lesser Heal enough to where I can give it a slight boost. It was for sure a priority. The earlier in a game you can have a decent healing ability, the better off your party will be. That's the way I see it.

Now it was Lesser Heal +1. If I get it past +5, it seems like it’ll reach its next major milestone.

I really wanted to upgrade my spear though, but that still required me to use it more. I tried swinging it again, but the weight of its force was hard to overcome.

Meanwhile, I didn’t realize Uncle had been watching me.

“Hi, Uncle.” I said when I noticed him.

“Yalda, you’re still awake?” Uncle asked.

He flew up to my side in his crystal bee form. He hadn’t used that in a while.

“Sorry, Uncle. I couldn’t sleep.”

He didn’t blame me, since he couldn’t sleep either. Stress was a disease.

“I noticed you're working hard up here,” he transformed back into his human form and took up my spear. “Hmm…Spear of Destiny?” He raised his brow. “What a curious name.”

I shrugged. “I don’t know where that name came from.”

Kinda’ cool name though. It made it sound very powerful.

“Did you come up with that term, or did you hear it from somewhere?” he asked.

I shrugged again.

“It was just the name it had when I started using it.”

I’m new to how things are named in my systems. All I know is that I saw an old spear head in the Urnan city church, and my head made a copy of it out of stardust.

“Well…” he handed the weapon back to me, “it appears you have a W.O.C.”

“A wah…?” I tilted my head and made a funny face.

"W.O.C. Weapon of Choice.” He had a silly smirk on his face.

Isn’t a woc a big frying pan for cooking? Or am I thinking of a wok? Hmm…

“Every Exceed has a personal weapon they favour,” he continued. “It seems you’ve chosen the spear.”

I wonder if any Exceed ever favoured a frying pan as a weapon. Wouldn’t that be silly? No wonder we were going extinct.

Anyways, I liked using my spear. I still wasn’t very good with it, but it was pretty cool.

Uncle wasn’t proficient with a spear, but he offered to help me train with it.

“I really need to learn how to use this thing,” I said, trying to hold it up on my own.

“You’re not the only one.” He spawned a weapon I’d never seen before. It was a longsword, burning with white flames. That thing looked like an endgame boss weapon.

“Uncle, where’d you get a cool weapon like that?!”

“I’ve had it for a long, long time. You could say it’s my W.O.C, but I’ve lost some skill with it over the years. I think we’ll be on equal footing if we spar,” he winked.

He looked awesome holding it up! Now all he needed to do was equip his armour, and he’d look like a real stardust knight.

"Uncle, can you train me a little?" I asked, getting inspired by how cool he was.

"Sure. Why don't we pick up where we left off before?"

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image [https://imgur.com/pHDwkUY.jpg]

-Seresta Majoris-

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