It felt like it had been dark for a very long time for me. For a while I felt like I didn’t even have a solid footing on where I even was. It just felt like I was floating aimlessly in an endless void, headed towards a place I could not even see or picture in my mind. It was an eerie feeling and I felt something in my chest as if my heart was sinking. It wasn’t too long after that when I felt like all of a sudden I had gained an accelerated speed as if I was falling somewhere. I wanted to scream out but I couldn’t. I wanted to lash out with any powers, skills or ability I had, but I couldn’t. I didn’t know what was happening before finally I landed with a stump on my two feet as I felt I had reached solid ground.
Soon the darkness receded slowly, revealing what looked like a round table with chairs around it on a balcony of what looked like an extravagant palace upon white cliffs that were reminiscent of the white cliffs of Dover but instead of the strait of England, I could only see the seemingly endless ocean. The balcony was overlooking what I could make out to be a pristine and large Port city as I also saw numerous ships of ancient design sailing to and fro the ports. It was honestly a beautiful view as I could even feel the breeze upon my hair and flowing over my skin and the sunset that bathed ocean water in an orange hew was stunning to see.
“The view is quite lovely, isn’t it?” I heard the voice of a woman talking near me as I immediately jerked my head in surprise as I saw what looked like a young woman with dark auburn hair wearing a white Greco-Roman style dress that was reminiscent of the very early Etruscan dresses I had learned about in history with distinctive patterns and draped over by a blue-coloured cloak with elaborate embroidery on it. “I like to spend hours here just basking in the warm light of the sun and feeling the wind breeze through my hair.”
The woman was undoubtedly stunning as when I saw her, trying to figure out who she was, we had made eye contact and I felt like I had probably frozen like a deer in the sights of a predator as besides her natural beauty, the aura that surrounded her was just different. Soon enough the woman laughed as she saw my stunned look. I was still busy trying to wrack my brain to inquire as to who this woman was, but as she spoke again, the familiar voice of hers finally gave me a clue.
“How have you been enjoying Orbis, so far, Charles?” The woman called out once more, now directly addressing me “I hope my blessing has been of help to you.”
“To what do I owe the pleasure, Lady Intea? Or was it Ianna? I can’t seem to find the right way to call you people…” I said as I scratched the back of my head
“Intea is what they would call the Goddess of Knowledge but to my understanding you do not consider me or any of my compatriots to be deities… so you can just call me Ianna.”
“I meant no disrespect, milady, but It would be against my moral principles to acquiesce to the deity of any save the one true Saviour of Humanity, Jesus Christ.”
“How very pious of you, indeed. But, it does not surprise me that the Emperor who himself had to deal with the consequences of the Protestant reformation would be so zealous. I do not envy you.”
“Quite so. Now to answer your questions, this world has been so far, quite Interesting indeed. And yes, your so-called ‘blessings’ have proven to be of great help to me so far and for that I give you my thanks. But on to more pressing matters, where am I? Has my lease on this life finally expired?”
“Don’t worry, you’re still alive, Charles. Would it be too much to believe that I had only wanted to see you in person like this? I overheard you complaining to your friend Ivan that you were dissatisfied that I had only come in the form of a disembodied voice so I’ve called you here to rectify that.” As she said that she gave me a smile as she crossed her arms and cocked her head slightly to the side “So, how is it? Are you disappointed?”
“I can’t say I am, milady. But I do indeed find it hard to believe that that would be the only reason…” I said as I approached a seat on the table “May I?”
“Please make yourself feel welcome, though I’m terribly sorry for the lack of refreshments. The only thing I could offer you right now is this view…” As Ianna said that she welcomed me to sit across from her “You’ll be seeing this place soon enough. What I’m showing you now is merely a glimpse of what once was and what perhaps soon shall be again…”
“Milady, I must confess that I am not as intellectually inclined as you are and I must persuade you to use simpler terms when speaking to me. Perhaps something a little less vague…?”
“Hahahaha… You really are something, huh. Where we are at right now is but a glimpse of what once was the Palace of Megasras… a city now lost to ruin and destruction. My Soterios spent a better part of a decade building what he envisioned to be utopia.”
“I see… How long are you planning to converse with me, if I may ask?”
“My, am I so dull a company that you would be so hard pressed as to find an excuse to leave?”“On the contrary, if I have a lengthy amount of time, I could think of quite a few interesting topics of conversation.”
“Oh? Please do tell me what you think would be an ‘interesting topic’?”
“Well for starters, you still have yet to inform me what the main purpose that I and any of my other compatriots were summoned to this world…”
Ianna made a difficult expression as she gave a soft chuckle before looking out the balcony as the sun made a glint in her eye. “I don’t think I have an answer to satisfy you, Charles.”
“Why would that be the case?”
“Because I do not know.” Ianna said matter of factly as she turned to look back at me still with a smile on her face.
”You don’t… know?” A million questions popped into my head. Clearly these beings had at least some clue as to how any of these systems worked. What with them giving out all these blessings and even being able to summon me into this sort of parallel dimension. The confusion in my brain was caught by Intea who still retained a sort of understanding smile. “...Are you all at least at the liberty to tell me what you are?”
“You know my name, so I assume you’ve read up on the heroes of old who became gods?”
“The heroes of old died and were wiped out after the great betrayal of Vindex…”
“...It wasn’t so simple…” Ianna now had a difficult expression on her face as she sighed “What happened over two thousand years ago, was complex. I don’t even know how to begin to explain it. Misunderstandings, betrayals, wars…” Ianna got up from her seat as she gracefully stood against the balcony’s railings and looked towards the sea “Back then we were split amongst ourselves. Some wanted to stay on Orbis, protecting and ruling the mortals as their gods. Some wanted nothing more than to find a way back to where we came from… To our world, Charles.”
As Ianna said that, her smile returned, but the atmosphere around the landscape somehow shifted as the previously cloudless blue sky darkened and storms of thunder appeared. From the balcony I could see the seas were now raging as countless ships capsized and monsters appeared, wreaking destruction from the ocean as I saw glimpses of a few ‘heroes’ fending off the waves of monsters. Oddly enough, on top of some of those monsters I could see some other ‘heroes’ fighting against the heroes on land. Blazes of flames from the sky like comets came crashing upon the city, causing everything to rumble and shake like an earthquake of great magnitude had hit the city. As all of this was transpiring, Ianna kept calm as she kept her graceful and serene demeanour while looking at me with a pained yet kindly gaze.
“...We didn’t choose how we ended up here, nor did we know how to leave this place… We were less gods and more.. Prisoners… My only hope for you and your friends is, if you can… do not repeat the mistakes we made. Live your life as you choose but remember that there are others with you. I wish you luck on the rest of your journey wherever it may lead you. I apologise for not being able to give you a straight answer, but hopefully you’d forgive me. If the chance ever comes again, until the next time we meet.”
As Ianna said that, a huge pillar of blue light appeared on the ocean a distance away from where we were at as it shot to the skies and the energy impact caused a gigantic tidal wave to head towards the city, not to mention the sonic shock from the explosion had ripped apart most things in its path as I was even on the ground holding on to dear life as I felt like I was about to be blown away. The last thing I remembered seeing within that world was Ianna smiling and waving at me with such a radiant expression as the tidal wave had arrived and consumed her. And with that everything went black for me.
***
Sabatsday, 4th of Febrinna, 5662 AE, 468th Year of the 5th Era
I felt incredibly groggy as I had opened my eyes. I took a few short moments to reorient myself as I took a look at the ceiling and saw that I was inside of my tent at the encampment near Anteron. I instinctively started coughing as I felt my chest had filled up with so much phlegm that I just had to cough and puke it all out. My instinctive action spitting out all that phlegm to the ground beside me seemed to have startled the apparent knight who was watching over my tent. He looked at me with a very surprised expression before immediately rushing out to inform the others of my awakening.
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I had quickly gotten up as I rubbed my eyes and started to walk out the tent. I took a quick glance down and saw that I was wearing a loosely-fitted tunic and brown pants that were relatively clean. When I saw my body I noticed that not a single trace of injury was left upon it and if people didn’t already know what I had gotten through in my fight against Malcanis, they would be none the wiser to my exploits. When I went outside, I saw that the sky was darkened but was filled with so many sparkling and shining stars. Unlike the days before, the atmosphere felt significantly lighter as if the dark shade that was cloaking these forests had been lifted.
Not long after I came out of my camp and started doing a couple of stretches, I heard familiar voices that sounded like they were glad to see me. As I looked up, I saw Hunt and Ivan were the first ones to rush up to me. I gave Ivan a brotherly hug as I said, “It’s good to see you up. Took your time, eh? Hahahahah!!” The two of us laughed as it was clear that I was being funnily hypocritical.
“Alright so how long was I out for?” I asked in a matter-of-fact kind of way.
“Give or take 25 hours…” Ivan answered
“Oh, that’s not too bad. I’d honestly expected worse.”
“Pfft, you two are really just something else!” Hunt chuckled as he shook his head while slapping the side of my arms “Never in my youth had I seen people more reckless yet somehow managed to come back almost relatively unharmed each time. It is nothing short of divine favour.”
“You’re not too far off there, I think.” I said cheekily before my stomach grumbled “Anyways, I am unbelievably famished right now.”
“Alright, come on over. We had just finished cooking dinner!” Hunt brought us over to the main campfire where I saw our food was being cooked. Some meat, being grilled over the fire. It was no five star gourmet meal, but when you’re this hungry, things like that don’t really matter too much. Regardless, as I sat down near the campfire I was greeted by the rest of the party who were already there. The atmosphere was far livelier than before and frankly, the oppressive sense of dread that once permeated the air before the raid on the fort was now almost completely gone. The only thing now that caught my eye was the sight of Mother Margaret caressing what looked to be a wolf-pup that had an eerily familiar snow-white fur resting upon her lap. I shook my head and rubbed my eyes to make sure I wasn’t seeing things and when I opened them, lo and behold, the pup was still there resting like it didn’t have a care in the world.
“Alright, I’m sorry for bringing this up about now, but… I never realised the Reverend mother ever kept a pet puppy…” I said as I pointed towards the small white ball of fur.
As if sensing my inquisitive gaze, the pup opened its eyes and looked at me revealing its crimson coloured irises before looking at me with an odd expression.
“Wait… don’t tell me, is that…?” I finally pieced together the clues as I asked
“Charles, I’d like you to meet the newest member of our little expedition, Zuri!” Mother Margaret held the wolf pup up towards me before glomping it the next second “Isn’t he just the cutest?”
The next moment, the Wolf pup’s body started to glow in a light hue before it started to grow in size and transformed his body into that of what looked to be a young child no older than six or seven years old wearing nothing but some shorts. He was a pretty regal-looking young boy but his most distinctive feature was of course the fact that he was albino.
“Zuri! What did I tell you, if you wanted to change back your forms, you should put your clothes on else you’ll get a cold!” Honestly Margaret looked like a grandmother scolding her young grandson like that.
“Argh! Unhand me, priestess! This is far too embarrassing!” The child said in a defiant tone as he was struggling to get out of Margaret’s clutches but to no avail. Margaret only looked at the young boy with a stern look as I noticed a fire aura gathering around her to which the young boy stopped struggling and only looked down with a whimper.
“You stay put right here while I try and get some clothes for you!”
“...Lord Malcanis, is that you?” I finally asked the boy to which he looked at me and nodded.
“Your actions earlier in stopping me along with that big man over there, were commendable…” The boy finally said “Something must have happened when you broke the center of corruption in me and turned me into this regressed state. When I came to, I was already being cared for by that Priestess. Also, please call me by my proper name. I will not be called by the moniker those accursed Elves had given me!”
“Alright, Zuri it is then…” I said cheekily to which the boy wanted to protest but he just heaved a sigh before tucking his legs to his chest as waited for Margaret.
Hunt immediately informed me after that of what had transpired during the time I was out cold. As Zuri had explained, after we beat him, he somehow turned into the current state he was in and immediately told Hunt who he saw was the leader of the expedition all he knew. Zuri proved reasonable as he immediately surrendered. He was in no position to fight especially now that he was in such a state, he was only little better in strength than a common soldier as he had lost a good chunk of his mana reservers not to mention the obvious fact that he now physically resembled a child.
“...What Ivan had told me earlier about the entire conversation you had with Zuri corroborated his story…” Hunt said as he looked at the child with a beleaguered expression “To think I would be speaking personally with the Dread Wolf himself. He who was fabled to be the Father of Werewolves, terror to the Imperium… A living legend.”
Zuri had a proud look as he heard Hunt praising his legends.
“Quite underwhelming now that you see him in person, eh?” Ivan said with a laugh to which Zuri only glared back at the man.
“Ivan, stop bullying the poor child!” Jen said as she in turn glomped the young boy, bringing his head to her bosom. I could see Zuri slightly blushing as she did so.
“Oy! That ‘boy’ is a two millenia-old werewolf!” Ivan retorted back. Soon enough, Margaret had returned with a small tunic she had sown and put it on the young child before she also gave him a red cloak to wear.
“I have lost most of my power and I would have to trouble you all with my well-being for the time being… I swear I won’t be a burden!” Zuri said adamantly
Regardless of that, that still didn’t change the fact that all of this had to be reported to the guild along with the issue of the so-called Cult of Malcanis.
“So did you gather anything of interest in regards to the Cult of Malcanis? Perhaps the existence of other cells or any other secret activity they were planning?” I asked Hunt who only shook his head.
“I don’t know whether we should be thankful but we didn’t find anything of much import, well except for maybe a certain letter found in the cult leader’s quarters.” Hunt said “You and Ivan had slaughtered practically all of them and there were no more prisoners left within the cells of the fort who could provide us with information. We had discovered the cult leader’s journal and despite the fact we were missing his corpse, we had identified the man as a ‘Wolfram Moonlet’. A son of disenfranchised beast folk of the disparate wolf clans, he had formed a small following after coming across ‘ancient tomes’ of blood magic to which he used to gather others of the same ilk and promised them a return towards the ‘old ways’ under the auspices of the great Ancestor-God Malcanis.”
“A load of bullshit!” Zuri spouted
“Language!” Margaret immediately scolded the boy as she poked his cheek
“Quite so.” Hunt continued to recount his findings “Ever since the end of the war, many of the families of these Wolfkin faced discrimination throughout the empire especially after the inquisition had launched its investigation into the Empire on charges of heresy and blood magic. This caused hundreds to thousands of wolfkin to escape the empire, and a good number of them settled here in Feldonia. While most of the secret knowledge and tomes were burnt, some evidently managed to survive and it fell to the hands of the current cult of Malcanis… They had planned to summon Malcanis through their dastardly means and usher into what they assumed to be a ‘new era’ of Beast rule. If an expedition the size of our platoon here was enough to wipe them out, they were definitely delusional.”
“I completely disavow any relations to these madmen! It is utterly disgusting and shameful the things that they did!” Zuri chimed in once more “And I never consented to any notion of becoming a god and being worshiped by anyone! I believe not in any fairy tales of so-called deities. Even the ‘heroes’ of old were no true gods!”
Seeing Zuri get like that, Margaret merely ruffled his hair affectionately before pinching his cheeks, “You’re right, Zuri, there are indeed no ‘gods’. There is only the One God, Almighty who reigns in Heaven Above, the Creator of all…”
Zuri wanted to protest once more but a stern look from the Reverend Mother was enough to get him to stay quiet. Regardless of that, I tried to steer the conversation back to the topic at hand.
“So what of this letter you found, Hunt?” I asked
“Here it is.” Hunt handed the piece of parchment over to me as he began to describe its contents. There was no remarkable or identifiable seal on it, well obviously if it was something to be a secret they would at least hide it to that extent. When I saw the letter, I could read the letters but I could not understand it. “No remarkable seals or features on it. Not even a trace of magic could be sensed. It’s written in an archaic form of Latin, similar to what the Elves of the old empire used and we had Zuri read it for us.”
“The message only said, ‘Summon the Wolf of Dread and wreak havoc upon the lands of the Griffon. Our lord will reward you and your followers for it. Remember your oath.’...”
“That is awfully vague.” I retorted
“Indeed so. Hence why I will need to contact the Headquarters of the Association regardless of the outcome.” Hunt said as he crossed his arms looking at the campfire. “That alongside the issue of the griffon and wyverns that you dealt with… Long reports will need to be filed and the Prince-Imperial might have to get involved and come with me to the capital as well… There’s also the matter with Zuri here…”
“How the hell are we going to explain the presence of Lord Malcanis himself in the flesh… A figure of legend from a bygone era two thousand years past. Not to mention the fact if word of this or even just a rumour was to spread. I don’t think the beastman clans would stand idly by if they knew an important figure of their nation’s heritage is running around today.”
“...I’d have to consult with the Prince-Imperial about that as well…” Hunt gave out another sigh.
“Well, looks like Alfred is going to have his work cut out for him.” I said as I took a skewer from the grill and ate the meat on it. “I wish you two luck, but honestly, I want no more work for the rest of this expedition, hahaha! I think I’ve had my fill of adventure for the time being.”
And I wasn’t lying. The adventure I was on this time barely lasted over a week, but it already felt more eventful than many a year’s-worth of experience from my past life. Though I say that, I’d be lying if I said I wanted this to be my last adventure. I still don’t know what the future will hold, but life is bound to be full of surprises.