Panatura was… Nice. Nothing could ever match up to my homeland of course, but the streets were clean, and for once in a foreign country the people were agreeable, albeit strange at times. They gave me odd looks as I wandered through their streets, like I was the weird one, although I suppose that I may be too finely dressed to blend in with the general public. Luckily I didn’t plan to be in town for long, this was just my first stop on my journey around the continent… I didn’t exactly know where I was going, but anywhere that wasn’t home would do.

I am Valefor, of the family Ralokas, though they don’t allow me to use that name anymore. I came here with no objective, all I wanted was to get away, but now what to do… I sit down to contemplate my actions from here, perhaps get some food? Or maybe move on immediately, I don’t know if they are after me, or if they even think it’s worth it coming after me, either way it’s not wise for me to stay in one place for too long. In my deep thought, I hadn’t noticed a small figure approaching me, or perhaps they were trying to stay hidden. They were short, no taller than a child in stature, and had avian features similar to those of an owl, the cloak draped around their neck had space in it to house its wings, whoever they were, they sat next to me on the bench, “How odd,” I thought to myself, “The townspeople around have been pleasant enough, but none have directly approached me.”

“Hi.” The small thing said, looking up at me, it’s voice high-pitched yet not unpleasant, definitely male. He sounded like a child as well. His gaze bore heavily into me, as though seeing through me entirely, his eyes almost too big for his head.

“Um.. Hi?” I said, trying my best to be friendly to this complete stranger, “Who might you be?” I asked, hoping to ascertain the boy’s identity.

“Hoolio.” He answered me, his eyes diverting from mine to quickly run their gaze all over my body, “You’re shiny.” he said innocently.

“Yes, I guess you could say that!” I couldn’t help but laugh, the small boy had obviously never been to Litoren, what I’m currently wearing would be considered normal there, although I suppose that here my armour be a bit of an oddity. “Um… if you do not mind me asking, what are you doing in Panatura, Hoolio?” I asked, wondering if his parents are around anywhere.

“Um…” He trails off, thinking, I can almost see the thoughts running through his head, “Making money.” He finally answers me, his eyes shifting from side to side as he fidgets with his hands, a glint of silver appearing from his sleeve before he pushes it back up there.

“Right, isn’t that your parent’s job?” I continue to question him, now wondering about the safety of the kid, “Also, where are your parents?”

“Don’t have ‘em,” Hoolio told me bluntly, “Haven’t had them for a while actually, I’ve sorta just been… around.”

“That’s… I’m sorry.” I tell him, looking away, it’s hard for me to face him like nothing just happened, “Well…” I turn back to him, “I was just about to grab a bite to eat, if you’d like something too?” At the mention of food his eyes whip around towards my face.

“Yes please!” He says, standing up almost instantly, I step up off the bench too, forced to look down at him, he can’t be more than half my height, the poor little guy.

“I’m Valefor, by the way.” I tell him, looking around at the plaza for a moment before turning back to him, he’s looking at me with his arms raised in my direction, his hands opening and closing rapidly. “Um… are you alright Hoolio?” I ask him.

“Uppies.” He says, looking at me with an exaggerated cuteness which is hard to resist. I hope I interpret his request correctly as I pick him up and he climbs up my body, scaling it like a mountain until he sits upon my shoulders, “You give good uppies.” he sighs contentedly, sinking into what I can only assume to be a more comfortable position.

I line up in a queue formed around one of the nearby street food vendors as the smell of hot food drifts through the air. I had decided on Litorese food, I'd been eating on the road for long enough that all I want now is a taste of home. I wait for… maybe 5 minutes without the line moving before I start to get restless. I want to inquire as to the nature of the delay but I also don’t want to lose my place in the line, I wait for slightly longer before I step out of the queue to investigate. A man stands at the front of the line, arguing with the stallholder, his hair seems to be set aflame, actually… no, it is made of fire. He stands at about my height and wears a bandana around the lower part of his face. Horns jut out from his forehead.

“No, no.” he argues, “I’m trying to give you money to purchase goods, this is quite literally a standard exchange of currency for products, you must serve me.” He sounds aggravated, but tired, like he’d dealt with this before, perhaps countless times.

“And I say no to you.” Replies the shopkeeper, who is obviously of Litorese descent, standing tall with light blue skin, his white hair pulled back into a short ponytail, he looks down at the other man with his arms crossed, “I reserve my right to refuse service to anyone,” he declares before adding “especially people like you.”

His scathing remark is met with outrage by the argumentative man at the front of the line, whose hair seems to flare up as he storms away from the stall, “Sorry for that everyone, ten percent off for all of you!” he apologises to the line of waiting customers, who’ve finally started moving again, unfortunately due to my curiosity this means that I have to start at the very back of the line.

“Valefor I’m hungryyy,” Hoolio whines, reminding me of his presence upon my shoulders, “This line is like, a bajillion miles long, do you have any food on you?”

“No, child,” I respond, “Unfortunately I ran out of food on the way here, however, I must thank you for reminding me to restock.”

“Oi!” He cries with indignation, “I’m not a kid! I’m… almost an adult! And stop using big fancy words, talk like normal!”

“Is my manner of speech abnormal?” I ask, “Right, I’ll be sure to speak… normally, from now on.” I assure him, looking for a shorter queue to enter, after all, I have no clue how long it’s been since the kid had last eaten. As my vision darts around the square, several things catch my eye, people and buildings alike. I see a very tall, furry, armoured individual, towering over the rest of the crowd, loudly preaching the word of some god from a far off pantheon, nobody seems to be paying attention to him, I doubt any of them have even heard of the god he speaks of. Another man stands in a nearby alleyway, my eyes linger on him for an extra moment, assessing whether he could be of any danger to Hoolio and I, he has a strange mechanism across his back and his face is hidden to the world by a wide brimmed hat, the entirety of his body being hidden by a long coat and various fabrics, likely to hide his identity while participating in criminal activity.

Finally, I find another food stall amongst the crush of people, to my dismay it sells Exardean food, but at least the line is shorter, I begin to walk towards it, pushing my way through the crowd while Hoolio exclaims tiredly, as though starving, “Yaaayyy, food is soon…” My path towards the stall, however, would shortly be diverted, as both Hoolio and I are sent crashing to the ground by a figure, although small in stature they were great in speed as they slammed into my body, pushing Hoolio off of my shoulders just before we hit the floor. The figure lands on top of me and I cushion their fall, although this seems to be fortunate, as they appear to be a rather frail, old individual, their wrinkled hands pushing up off of my body to sit straight up on the floor.

“Oh… despair… I’m terribly sorry.” they mutter, refusing to make eye contact with me as I myself position myself upright. “I… I bring terrible news, but nobody will hear me,” they explain, “they all think me mad!” They laugh, pushing themselves off of the hard floor, trembling slightly as they regain their balance, their legs almost buckling in on themselves, “I suppose I shall leave you now, apologies once again, but I must find someone who will listen.”

I, myself, stand up, Hoolio takes this as a cue to retake his position upon my shoulders as I tower over the smaller person. “No, wait just a moment,” I say, “maybe I’ll believe your news, I mean, you can’t tell me something like that and expect me to just walk away. Anyway, you don’t seem to be in much of a state to go anywhere, let’s go find somewhere you can rest and recuperate while you explain what you need to say.” I grip their shoulder tightly as I steer them towards a nearby bench, their legs nearly giving out multiple times while I assist with their balance, catching them when they almost fall.

I help them into a sitting position while I sit next to them, “Right, now then, do tell.” I say before being interrupted by another person. A young woman approaches, evidently a tiefling as displayed by her purple skin, horns and tail, she even has a forked tongue that occasionally flicks out from behind her lips. “I… um… saw what happened, I just wanted to make sure that you were both alright?” she asks tentatively, reaching her hand out to examine the state of the older of us, as she leans down to get a closer look I notice an abnormal bag on her back, perhaps concealing a weapon of some kind, I think to myself that I may have to be careful with this one, my hand unconsciously drifts to the weapon at my back, however, the woman notices where I’m looking and my movements and connects the two actions, recoiling from us.

Her tail whips around nervously as she holds her hands close to her chest, “N-no, I mean you no harm!” she explains, reaching into her bag and pulling out an instrument, a double-necked flute, “M-my name is Saki Yuki, I’m a travelling bard… I think.” I am perplexed by her hesitation, but accept her explanation nonetheless, removing my hand from my back and relaxing, returning it to its regular place.

“So what is it that you want, Saki Yuki?” I ask, she looks askance as though guilty of some crime I am presently unaware of.

“I… overheard your conversation and I was curious, what’s this “terrible news” that you mean to share?” she asks, turning her head to the older individual.

“I… goodness, I have not even introduced myself properly,” they realise, “I am Angtal, prophet of the temple of the world tree, and I bring news, no, a vision pertaining to the end of days, in other words, the end of the very world as we know it.” At this, a chill ran down my spine, I now understand why people tried to dismiss this person as crazy… They don’t want to believe that the end of the world is coming.

“The world is gonna end?” Hoolio pipes up on my back, “That’s crazy, the world’s been around for like, a thousand years. That’s about as long as it takes Valefor to get me my food.” he attempts to admonish me, forgetting that I offered to purchase him something out of my own kindness and not obligation.

Angtal merely laughs at this suggestion, “How innocent you are, young one,” they chuckle, “even I am far older than a mere one thousand years, and the world is much older than I. '' they explain vaguely.

“So then,” I steer the conversation back on to the important topic, the coming armageddon, “How is it that this event is to come to pass?” I ask the prophet, trying to discern the world’s method of ruin.

“That… is complicated.” They turn to me, a sombre look spreading across their face, “You see, I only see glimpses into the future, flashes of what will come to pass, I do not know the exact method of this world’s destruction, but I do understand what will happen before it… and after it.” As they say this, a collective look of confusion spreads across our faces, Hoolio is the first to comment on anything.

“Ok but, if there’s no world, then there’s nothing, how can something happen after the world is gone?” he asks, putting a genuinely thoughtful question into more childish language.

“You’re quite insightful for one your age…” Angtal comments, Hoolio physically puffs up, looking quite proud of himself for asking this question. “You see, this is where things get complicated. I have foreseen two things, the end of days, and a… beginning of days.” They begin, trying to explain this concept in a way we will understand. “I’m going to assume you all know of the Aether Cycle?” they question, all of us nodding our heads.

The Aether Cycle, as it is known, is the purification of a magical material called the Aether, a crystalline substance which can grant complete control over one of the four elements when used by any given individual, becoming attuned to the element native to the land in which it is consumed. Not much is known about how this cycle works other than that it takes exactly 1000 years to complete, but the newest cycle is almost complete, and whenever this happens, the nation descends into war with the rulers of each nation attempting to get their hands on this piece of Aether.

“Something is… different about this cycle, I do not know what it is but I can feel it.” the prophet explains, the air of doom falling over the gathered group. “What I do know is that the completion of this cycle will bring about the end of days. Whoever obtains this piece of Aether will be the only being left at the destruction of our universe, and will be able to remake the universe anew in their own image after a million years of nothingness.”

Hoolio looks surprised, as though trying to process this information, “A million is… a lot of years…” he mutters, completely stunned by the concept of a span of time this large.

“Correct, Hoolio.” I tell him, “So… if you know this, Angtal, why don’t you do something to stop the cycle from being completed, that would prevent the end of the world from coming about, right?”

Angtal looks away from me, averting their gaze downwards and refusing to look me in the eye, an odd quality of stillness settles in the air around us, the tall preacher even stopping in his praise of his god to listen in to our conversation. “You see… it is too late to prevent the completion of the Aether Cycle.” They explain, choking slightly on their words, “The world is going to end… and there’s nothing we can do to stop it.”

The world itself seems to go quiet, the sounds of the bustling crowd around us being drowned out by the weight of this realisation. I tentatively ask, “And… when will this event happen?”

“In 5 years time.” Angtal says bluntly, “In 5 years, existence as we know it will be erased, including you and everyone you love.”

For just a moment, it feels like my heart stops, the weight of this revelation crashing in on me. 5 years… to an elf like me… that’s nothing, at 184 years of age I was still a young adult by human standards, and… goodness… Zae would never reach adulthood… “I-I refuse to believe this.” I stammer, “I will not cease to exist in a measly 5 years.” I look them up and down before my eyes meet theirs, “You’re crazy, Angtal, and a liar.”

“And so you may say you refuse to believe me,” they reply, “but listen to yourself, you’re afraid of the end, you do not wish to accept your fate. I believed you to be different from the others, but you still deny how rapidly our fates are approaching.” They stand up off the bench, now completely recovered from our fall, “I must make my way back to the temple, if you believe me and, by chance, wish to hear more specific details, you can follow me.” They begin to walk away before looking back behind them, “Also, I have tea and cookies.”

At this last comment, Hoolio shakes me, “Valefor, we need to go, they have food! And it’s free, that’s way better than your food.” He says to me, hopping off the bench and trying to pull me in the prophet’s direction, causing me to stand up from the bench as well.

“Fine, Hoolio, we’ll go, but not for the food… no matter how morbid the subject might be, my curiosity is piqued.” I say, slowly following him in the direction of the prophet with Saki coming along behind me, this is until I feel a hand on my shoulder, it’s soft, and tickles against my face slightly.

I look up at the man who the hand belongs to, and it’s the preacher, he appears to be a gnoll, a race foreign to this land, but I know of their existence from my education. When he speaks to me, he speaks with a voice that is oddly a higher pitch than what one would expect from a man of his stature, “If you don’t mind… I would like to come with you, that fellow’s prophecy, well, I don’t like the sound of it one bit and I’d like to find out more.”

“Uh… sure, I don’t believe any of us have a problem with you coming with us. Any objections?” I look around to see if the little party we’ve formed has any problems, my eyes drift from Hoolio to the strange man from the alley, and then to Saki… wait… “You,” I say, calling out the covered man, pointing at him “When did you get here, who are you?”

“Name’s Glue, the rest is none of your business.” he says, rudely shouldering past me, beginning to head up the path to the temple of the prophet, his coat blowing in the wind behind him as he storms after them.

“Well, wasn’t he just delightful,” I say, looking around behind me, “Anybody else want to come along? Might as well ask if you’re all going to keep inviting yourselves.”

“Actually,” someone pipes up from the small crowd that has gathered around us, “I- I’m interested!” a man steps in front of the crowd, he has an assortment of potion bottles at his side and wears a pair of goggles on his forehead. He’s shorter than me, about the height of Saki, not including her horns, his skin is as black as charcoal and his eyes glow like the embers of a dying fire.

“It was a rhetorical question…” I mumble under my breath, “Right, who are you then?” I ask, looking down at the man.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

“The name’s Xhleyntreotcf Uzbehetdikjgocbmtu!” He tells me, confusing the entire group, “But that’s usually too hard for most people, my friends just call me Xhyn!” he puts his hand forward to shake mine, I take it firmly, it’s warm, uncomfortably so. I shake his hand for a brief moment before dropping it.

“Ok, so this is everyone?” I ask looking around at the ragtag group of people that have gathered around me. “Perfect. Let’s get a move on.” I begin to walk, following the path of the prophet with the rest of the group following behind me, it doesn’t take long before Hoolio flaps his way up onto my shoulders, taking his “uppies” without permission. We move together in an awkward silence, which was to be expected from a group of complete strangers. After a while I attempt to break the ice, turning to Saki beside me, “Hey, you’re a travelling bard, right?” I ask, motioning to the bag at her back, “Maybe you could play us some music?”

She perks up at the suggestion, excitedly reaching into her bag and pulling out her flute, “Of course!” She brings the flute to her lips and begins playing an entrancing melody, making the lack of talking less awkward, with everyone appreciating the music. After a while, Hoolio turns around, his head doing a complete 180 degree turn so that he doesn’t have to get off my back as he looks at Xhyn.

“So, Zleentreeo… Xhyn,” he stumbles over the pronunciation of his true name, pointing at the potion bottles strapped to his side, “Who are you? What do you do? What are they for? What do they do? You look funny, why do you look like that?” He peppers Xhyn with questions relentlessly until he is stopped, interrupted by him.

“You ask… a lot of questions, kid.” He laughs, taking one of the potion bottles from his belt and examining it, “First and second question, I’m Xhyn, I’m an alchemist that wants to travel the world before I take over the family business, that’s why I’m here. Although, judging by what that prophet guy said I won’t ever be taking over that business.” he sighs, seemingly disappointed by this discovery. “Anyway, the potions are my experiments, I kinda just throw ingredients together and see what happens, and I never know what they do until I drink them. As for why I look like this… you’ve never seen a fire genasi before? We usually look like this, where are you even from? Most places have at least a genasi just roaming around, living their lives.”

At this, Hoolio flips his head back around so that he’s not looking at Xhyn before calling back at him, “That’s none of your business!” he says defensively, sinking into my shoulders and resting his chin on the top of my head. At this point we reach the prophet’s temple, the Temple of the World Tree, the enormous tree that lies at the centre of this continent. On my various visits I had never noticed the small building carved of stone buried between it’s enormous roots, overgrown with plants, the only part not completely covered by greenery being the entryway into the building itself. I step inside of the building, the darkness immediately surrounding me as there is little natural light inside of the single room. The temple reveals itself to be less of a place of worship and more of a home for Angtal. What must be hundreds of books line the walls and lay discarded on the floor, most of them bound but a sparse few of them being sheafs of paper that are kept in loose collections. Angtal greets us, sitting on the floor in front of an already boiling kettle, they look up at us as we walk in, smiling, “Ah, so you did decide to come.” They say, “Tea?” They ask, pouring the water from the kettle into a small set of mugs that they give to us individually. I take a sip out of politeness and it is unbelievably bitter, more so than any cup of tea I’ve tasted in my entire life.

“Thank you…” I say, placing the cup in front of me as I too take a seat on the floor, “But I don’t think I’ll be partaking.” They look slightly disappointed before smiling sadly and taking the cup.

“Well, I suppose that’s more for me.” They say before tipping the contents of my cup into theirs, which had already been drained. “If the tea is not to your liking, try the biscuits.” They wave their hand towards an old tin in which I find several biscuits, one of which I take and hand to Hoolio.

“There,” I whisper to him as I take him off my back and set him on the floor next to me, “That’ll be enough to hold you over until we can get you something more substantial.” I watch as he takes a full-bodied bite, putting himself completely into the action of clamping his jaws down on this biscuit and nearly breaking his beak on it, the biscuit so aged that its once soft body has become hardened like wood.

“Valefor,” Hoolio whispers at me, “I’m still hungry.” He says bluntly, bordering on crying as he looks up at me, as though silently pleading for something with which he could fill his probably tiny stomach.

“Right then,” Angtal says, all of us snapping our heads around to look at them, “the parts that I neglected to tell you back in the square.” They pause, all of us waiting for them to speak with bated breath, hanging on each and every word. “Unfortunately… as I have said I cannot see the events that will directly lead to the end of all things, the way my prophetic abilities work… well, I can see glimpses into the future, events that can and will come to pass, these events are always concrete, however, everything around them can be changed.”

“What’s the point of changing anything around that?” Xhyn asks, “If everything’s going to end anyway, then what’s the point of changing the surrounding events?”

“Another insightful young man, good, I like that,” Angtal comments, “yes, of course everything is going to end, that has already been set in motion, but I cannot see past that, despite having the knowledge that there will be another beginning. Basically, I’m saying that, although things may be pointless to change in this world, we can at least guarantee the future of the next one by ensuring that a reasonable person obtains the Aether this cycle and creates a world that people can thrive in.” They look around at the group that has been assembled before him, this ragtag assortment of people from various locations around the continent.

“One last thing,” They start, “certain people have more of a… “connection” to fate, and have greater power to change events in the future than the average person. As though you have been tied together by destiny, the entire group that has come here to learn this information has this connection, the presence of “fate-blessed” individuals permeates this room in a way that even I have never experienced.” With this statement, we all look at them with bewilderment in our eyes.

“So you’re telling us,” the one named Glue says, breaking the silence “that, by complete coincidence, a huge group of these super rare special people has just come together in this one room, and on top of that, I’m one of them?”

“Precisely,” Angtal answers, “except for the fact that there’s one more individual in the group that I just described who isn’t currently, technically, in the room with us right now.” They turn their head to face the closed window and call, “You can come out now, whoever’s listening at the window, you do know that my invitation extended to you as well, correct?”

A man timidly steps around into the doorway, looking around the room guiltily, his gaze not meeting any of ours as we stare at him. He steps into the room slowly, saying nothing but a muttered “Sorry about that…” as he sits down, looking into his lap to avoid us. I now recognise him as the aggravated individual that held up the queue for our food earlier that day, the man whose very being seemed to be set aflame, although now I notice other details, like the glaive at his back and his eyes being completely without pupils or irises.

“Now that’s everyone!” Angtal says, clasping their hands together and smiling, “And what a promising group of young people you are!” They beam at us before suddenly becoming sombre, speaking in hushed tones “Now, listen closely, simply by associating with me you have placed yourselves in great danger. There is a group of very dangerous individuals that I have been hiding myself away from, by addressing the town today they will have become aware of my presence and will soon send somebody to dispatch me, they do not want this information to get out, however, they do not know exactly who I have told, keep what I have told you as your most closely guarded secret.”

As they speak, we hear a loud BANG come from the capital, the sounds of screams and people’s cries echo up the hills and into the temple, I immediately jump to my feet in alarm. “That will be them.” Angtal says, hiding behind their bed, “Unfortunately this is the best place that I can hide, now the rest of you need to get away immediately. Go!” They command, I turn towards the doorway, but look back at them.

“Can you not come with us? If we can stop whoever’s doing this then surely we can take you to somewhere safe.” I ask them, they shake their head.

“No, impossible, not only will I be a detriment to you, but I can only foresee terrible things befalling you if I were to go with you, now leave!” They plead with us, “They will surely be here soon, if you value your lives, run!”

“Y’know,” Hoolio says to me, hopping up on to my shoulders, “I usually don’t take advice from dried up old guys, but that seems like a pretty good tip.”

“Hold on, Hoolio,” I stop him, “Angtal was hospitable to us, even invited us into their home, and I’m sure the information they gave us will be indispensable in the coming future, the least we can do to return the favour is try to protect them.” Hearing this, Hoolio angrily groans at me before sighing, as though resigning himself to his fate.

“Fine.” he says, “Come on, let’s go.” He slumps down on my shoulders, getting comfortable, but also pulling various things from who knows where, a small bag, a bow… a knife?! No matter, knowing that he’s armed eases my conscience, although I still don’t like bringing a child into battle with me.

“Well, I don’t know about the rest of you,” I say, addressing the room, “but I’m going to go and see what I can do to save the town as well as Angtal. You can either help me, or not. Are any of you with me?” As I ask this, I can see everyone in the room nodding their heads one by one.

Saki takes their flute out of their bag. Glue unstraps the mechanism at their back, cocking a lever that makes an oddly satisfying chunk sound. The man of fire takes his glaive from behind his back. The tall, priestlike man readies a sword and a shield, which is branded with an insignia I have never seen before, two paws tied together, outstretched in the shape of a heart. Xhyn unstraps some of his potions and hurriedly looks through his collection, seeing if he has anything that could be useful. I myself ready my double scimitar, apologising as Hoolio has to shift around uncomfortably so I can take it off of my back.

“Ok, I’ve never seen any of you fight before so… I cannot formulate a plan.” I say, not really inspiring any confidence in our ragtag group. “However, I’m sure you’re all capable individuals on the battlefield. Let’s go save Panatura.” Everyone looks at me determinedly as I turn my back on them, leading the way out of the doorway… as soon as I peek my head out of the building I can see what has become of the continent’s capital.

The pristine, glimmering buildings of the capital city still shine, though in a more sinister light, as at least a quarter of the town has been completely engulfed by a flame which flickers shades of purples and black, the light coming from it making the town glow purple, even in the daylight. Although it is widespread, the fire has not seemed to do any damage to the structures of the town, leaving it intact, though I still see crowds of townspeople running from it, even from here, the streets covered by the “fire” are lined with bodies, withered and dried.

“It’s worse than I thought!” I call back to the others, “Come, we must help them!” I begin to run towards the city, going as fast as my legs will carry me. Despite my apparent speed, the larger man still manages to outrun me, leading the way towards the destruction. The cries and screams of terror only become more apparent as we get closer, though now we can hear a voice shouting over the crush of people running away.

“Come on, why run? I don’t bite!” The voice calls, it has an odd quality to it, deep and, weirdly, angry. “Just tell me where they are and nobody has to get hurt anymore! This’ll all go away!” We reach the town, running through the streets towards the sound of this man’s voice until we see him, casually strolling through the city amongst the path of destruction he’s carved, the fire he seemingly creates doesn’t do damage, but he does.

He is clad entirely in black armour from his shoulders to his toes, although he chooses to not wear a helmet, displaying his short, spiky black hair. He turns to us and I can clearly see that his face is full of malice, his gaze alone scares me, but I do not let it show. He smiles smugly at us as he spots us, his mouth becoming upturned at one of its corners as he turns his body, walking slowly towards the group, his violet eyes are crazed, but collected, they’re clearly the eyes of a madman. In his hands he holds a pair of weapons I identify as tonfa, although unlike their traditional counterparts, they’re bladed, and they look wickedly sharp.

“What about you, hm?” He addresses us as a collective, “Surely a group such as yourselves that are actively running into danger have to know where this prophet is, could you point me in their direction?”

Saki steps forward into his path, as though trying to protect us, “U-um, actually, I do know where they are!” She tells him, pointing him back in the direction he came, “They’re that way, can’t miss them, I wish you luck in your search!” She says brightly, almost too cheery as she lies through her teeth. The man continues to walk towards us, soon coming face to face with Saki.

His eyes rest on her for a moment before he laughs, a deep, maniacal laugh, before stopping, becoming completely still and serious, “What d’you take me for? An idiot?” He leaps up on the spot, sending a flying kick into Saki’s face, launching her several feet away, skittering across the floor and bouncing multiple times before she comes to a stop. “Now then, do any of you want to give me a reasonable answer?” When he asks us, we all ready our weapons, preparing for his inevitable attack. None of us answer. “No? None of you? Fine, I’ll get it out of you the hard way.” Before he even finishes talking he rushes at us, arms outstretched, and we ready ourselves for combat.

Hoolio leaps off of my back as I run forward to meet the man in combat, our blades clashing, letting out a flash of sparks. His strength is almost immediately overwhelming, but he smiles through it, as though taunting me. He pushes through our clash, knocking me back as he closes the distance slicing my face, drawing first blood as the scarlet liquid douses his blade. “C’mon, you can do better than that!” He teases as an arrow sticks itself in his side, having been fired by Hoolio behind me. “Brat…” the man in black says, “That doesn’t hurt a bit!” He claims, tearing the arrow out of himself as blood spurts from his side, leaving a fleshy hole where the projectile used to be.

Warmth flushes over my face, I look behind me and the preacher has his hand held out towards me, a yellow glow emanating from it as the wound on my face closes instantly, he calls to me, “Don’t question it, and don’t take your eyes off of him!” I am reminded of my opponent and I whip my head around to see him coming at me, his blade raised, ready to end my life. It would have, too, if it weren’t for the flaming man rushing in front of me and blocking his blade with the hilt of his glaive.

“You’re sloppy,” he tells me, looking back while his glaive pushes against a tonfa, “get around him! We’ll do better if he’s surrounded!” I consider his advice and decide he knows better than I, rushing around to the other side of him as their blades separate, the flaming man flicks his glaive back around instantly and nicks the man in black through his armour, making a small cut as he uses his momentum to spin fully around, readying his blade again with a flourish. Another arrow comes from behind, this time fired by Saki, striking the man in his leg before he tears it out of himself again, leaving another hole leaking blood.

Fire strikes the man in the face, I look in the direction it came from and Glue stands there, holding his mechanism at his shoulder, the tip of it smoking as he flicks the lever, ejecting a small capsule which he catches in his hand, “What’re you lookin’ at?” He asks me directly, “Get back to fighting!” I set aside my confusion and get back to my opponent, slashing at his back twice, both strikes he blocks without even looking by holding his tonfa behind his back while he uses the other to attack the preacher, who charges at our shared enemy, stopping just in time to block his oncoming strike with his shield.

“Come on guys, this man is nothing, we can do this!” The preacher calls, emitting a yellow aura as I feel strength seep into my bones, invigorating me to fight harder. The three of us surrounding him relentlessly attack him, with those of us who are attacking him from a distance not letting up either, Saki and Hoolio pepper him with arrows while Xhyn and Glue continuously cover him in acid and fire respectively.

“Enough defending… I let you surround me easily! It won’t happen again!” As he says this, his blades seem to become a mirage in front of him, waving slowly but leaving afterimages. He throws fire in my face and it doesn’t burn, but I can feel it sap away at my life force as he shouts “Death by 1000 papercuts!” Disappearing and then reappearing behind the preacher, whose fur slowly becomes matted with blood as he bleeds from every inch of his skin, tiny cuts suddenly opening up all over him, slicing his body open in what must be hundreds of different places.

The preacher gasps in pain, clutching at his sides and then running his hands all over his body before standing tall, “I… cannot heal myself of these wounds, can we end this quickly… please?” He asks, shielding himself from another attack by the man, looking back at us pleadingly. I run forward to attack the man again, but my strikes are continuously intercepted, this is before the man of fire clashes with him, leaving me open to hit him with a low swipe, my blade sinking deep into his leg, meeting bone.

He gasps, but less in pain and more out of surprise, “You’ll pay for that…” he grumbles menacingly, striking me across the chest, leaving a gaping cut as he slices me through my armour. The white bone of my ribs shows just barely through my chest before the cut seals itself as I’m once again healed by the preacher. A blur races beside me, not even properly visible before a knife embeds itself in the man’s chest, I spot Hoolio behind him, having appeared from seemingly out of nowhere holding another knife.

We keep him occupied, not giving him many opportunities to strike as we launch attack after attack on him. He launches a withering kick into the stomach of the flaming man, launching him backwards, though he lands off balance. I take this as an opportunity to come out from behind the preacher to surprise him, kicking his legs out from under him and slashing at him twice with my weapons.

He catches both strikes with his bare hands, the blades cutting into his palms.

“Alright, I think this has gone on for long enough.” he says standing casually as though he’s taken no damage… Actually, when I look at him, I realise that there is not a single cut or bruise on his body, he’s been left completely unharmed. “This was… a fun little sparring match, we’ll be sure to keep an eye on you lot.” He tells us, pressing a button on a device he conjured in his hand, causing a portal to materialise which he vanishes into. The portal disappears as quickly as it appeared. We’re left beaten and bruised, but alive, the preacher immediately tending to those of us that were wounded, his yellow aura fizzling out into nothing as I feel exhaustion wash over me. We make sure everybody’s ok while we’re approached by a group of people, tentatively stepping towards us.

“You… it was you that drove him away, wasn’t it?” The leader of the group asks, dressed in finery, looking to be in a position of power over the rest of the civilians.

I turn to him, nodding once, slowly, “Yes, it was us, we defeated the man clad in black.” Before I even finish my sentence, a cheer erupts from the small crowd, rushing around us to congratulate us on our victory. It feels… nice, my good deed being awarded by praise from the townspeople, something that had never happened back home. I allow myself to indulge for just a moment before I address them directly, “So sorry to interrupt you all, but we have urgent business to attend to.” I say as I push my way gently through the crowd, making my way back to the prophet’s temple, I hear the others following behind me.

The leader of the group calls out behind me, “Be sure to come back later!” He says, “We shall have a feast in your honour! The heroes of Panatura!”

Heroes, I heard him correctly, but it feels like such a strange title to be addressed by, although it wasn’t incorrect. That’s what we are now. Heroes.

We walk up the path together, basking in the feeling of victory, Hoolio bouncing around our ankles excitedly, “And then I was like, ‘Zoooommmm Kapow!’ And I stabbed him! And then he kicked you, that wasn’t nice, what’s your name by the way?” he asks the flaming man, who, ironically, gives him the cold shoulder.

“That’s none of your business.” He answers, being the only one of us who refuses to celebrate, instead trudging silently up the path with us, choosing not to communicate.

“Fine then,” Hoolio answers, “I’ll name you then. Hmmm, you’re all burn-y and stuff… how about… Matchstick!” The one christened as “Matchstick” simply turns his head, looking away from the little kid.

“If that’s what you want to call me by, then be my guest, I don’t care.” He says, although I swear I can hear him faintly laughing through his bandana.

Finally, we reach the temple of the world tree, entering with smiles on our faces, ready to deliver the good news, “Hey Angtal! We…” I trail off, the smile vanishing from my face. The temple is trashed, even dirtier than it was before, signs of a conflict are evident on the walls, scratches and blade marks covering it.

And the prophet is missing.