Chapter 4

The adventurers were gathered at the head of the ship’s deck. The smell of their unwashed bodies and stale beers wafted into nostrils as the giant dragon wings pushed the air out of the way and flew through the sky.

“Well, the expedition has started, huh?” A rough voice boomed at the head of the ship to some cheers from the crowd. A black lamellar cuirass wrapped around his body above a red yukata. The only other piece of armour was a black and red handguard on his left arm. The other pieces were probably stashed in the packed sack he had slung around his shoulder. The man, Cerrin, continued, “Hah, Ya might cheer but who knows what we have in store?” he scratched his stubble before speaking matter-of-factly, “I mean, tha only other expedition ended up with everyone disappearing from the face of tha earth. In fact, we call this an expedition but where tha hell are we goin' on a journey too?”

Cerrin paused for a minute, examining the expressions the people before him wore. The majority showed a hint of fear, some pondered in deep thoughts, whilst a few along with Sagil held a firm expression. The frightened ones couldn't be blamed though. What Cerrin said was true and everyone knew inside that whatever they have to do won't be easy - if they even find out what that would be.

Cerrin grinned slightly and shook his head. "Yeah, we don't know. But we are here to find out. Now, I don't like this colour but..." He trailed off as he pulled a sky-blue cloak from his sack. He held it before his audience for a second, showing off the golden sigil embroidered in the centre of its back, and stated, "this sigil was the mark of tha golden alliance," before throwing it over his shoulders. "It was tha alliance that was formed to fight back against the demons that invaded our continent hundreds of years ago and fought us off for a hundred years until we gave in."

Cerrin paused and glanced around, a morose cloud hanging over him "We are obviously fine with the demons now though. They're probably the worst affected by this shit in the sky after all. Not one could even join us, except a half." Cerrin pushed the cloud away with a slap to his face, getting back to what he was saying. "Anyways, that shit was just over twenty years ago and when we rid the world of that parasite demon God, tha alliance was disbanded. The golden alliance was brought back when this darkness shit started happening." He explained, looking up at the dark mist that was much thicker than what floated above the DragonLands. "And we are strong. Some of the strongest in tha world. Some of ya are strong, close to us. Some of ya are weak, far from us. Yet, all of you are determined, that's why you are here. Whatever is in store for us on this journey, whether it ends in a couple of minutes or twenty years, whether it ends in success, failure, or stagnation, we will have put everything into making it succeed and getting rid of this shit mist!"

The crowd clapped and cheered; their worried expressions rejuvenated with hope.

“And if you still don’t feel like ya in safe hands” Cerrin started, waling over to stairs leading below the deck and peeking down, motioning up. “Ya can see the hands for ya’self.”

The crowd murmured as seven figures, draped in the same cloaks as the one Cerrin wore, emerged from below the deck at the stairs Cerrin had just peeked down.

A voluptuous robed woman smiled upon the crowd. Next to her, a tall wolf stood proud on its hind legs, its furry black body wrapped in black chains that led all the way to his wrists. It stood tall next to another wolf. It was beautiful and more feminine yet its body exuded power and quickness.

Slithering ahead was a murky green lizard. Its ocellated scales were covered by rags draped over its tough body. Unlike the others, its cloak could barely be seen with the dragon-like wings folded on his back that protruded from two rips in the cloak.

Hampering behind were two others. One was a tall scrawny man who slouched with his hands in his pocket. One could only wonder how he could see with a black mop on his head covering his eyes. Behind even him was a small girl, clutching a large book in one hand and a staff in the other. She hid most of her face under the hood of the cloak but her violet twin tails fell out and hung over her chest.

It was obvious to everyone aboard the ship that these were strong, even the ones that hadn't heard their tales. It wasn't just the powerful maw the wolves had, nor the fierce glare of the lizard. The smiling scantily clad woman gave off the aura that nobody could touch her. Everyone could even tell that the mophead wasn't to be messed with; he could obviously see with nothing but his hair in his eyes, and his deft feet made no noise even on sturdy floorboards.

Six of them, including Cerrin, gathered to say something. The little girl stood still and didn’t join them. She closed her book and looked up. Something caught her attention as she lifted her eyelids up and muttered a mess of words.

"Everyone!" Her high-pitch voice yelled, yanking the crowd’s attention. "Get ready and draw your swords and ready magic!" She clutched her staff as she stared not too far in the distance.

Everyone gripped their weapons, thought of incantations in their head and looked up at the sky. The dark mist was thick, blotting out all but a few rays of sunshine. Then, a few seconds after the girl had warned everyone. The mist faded. Yet, it didn't reveal the bright blue sky.

The girl motioned to the lizard who grabbed the reigns that wrapped around the dragon's head. He yanked them down and shouted, “Be careful, get as low as possible."

The dragon folded its wings and dived down at the fastest angle that wouldn't throw everyone into the sea.

Sagil grabbed hold of Misaka as they tumbled down the ship, slamming against a wooden wall. He winced as his body convulsed in pain, pulling his eyes from the sky. Of course, this would happen.

The sky was a strange grey, black and purple. This time, it didn’t form a small whirlpool below but the entire sky. As the dragon dove closer to the ocean surface the strange sky came with it. It was like the sky was falling. However, Sagil noticed something that he hadn't seen before. Mixed in with those colours were yellow and white. He glanced back to the head of the ship where the small girl stood with gritted teeth. Her staff was raised high in the air, its purple ball at the end glowing brightly. She was fighting to stop the disaster to come but she only delayed it.

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Then, the dragon ship was suddenly coated with darkness skimmed across the ocean surface. It was like the waves had risen and engulfed the ship in not water but dark mist. The only thing lighting the darkness was the glow of the girl's magic.

The other members of the golden alliance couldn't do a thing.

The woman tried supporting the girl but her magic wouldn't work. Cerrin tried reproducing what he did to save Sagil earlier but his flame perished as soon as it lit. The others stood ready to attack.

Then, the lizard shot into the air, flying towards the strange sky. The closer he got the more the girl's magic faded until the white and yellow was gone. They were in near darkness.

Crack!

A large shattering sound erupted and the dragon roared in pain. It almost threw everyone overboard as it shot back into the air. The women finally got a spell off, casting light across the ship.

Thousands of tiny black bats filled the air. They shot toward each and every person on the boat. The golden alliance attacked them all with one swift motion. Sagil just rolled out of the way of one and Misaka flew to the side to dodge hers. Most of the other adventurers struggled to evade them as the ship shifted around. Suddenly, sparks of white electricity spewed from a hole in the ship. The lizard flew out, his ocellated scales soaked in darkness. He cried as he pointed his sword in the air; white lightning flew from the tip and hit each and every bat insight.

However, as its thunderous noise coursed through the air, none of the black bats was killed. Neither were the ones the other golden alliance members dealt with.

The ship finally regained some balance as the dragon recovered. As the black bats flew back into their prey everyone swung back.

As this happened the dark veil around the ship started to fade and the strange colours in the sky went back up

The dragon let out a roar as steel flew through darkness, hardened claws passed through the darkness, and random magic flew past darkness. Some managed to narrowly avoid the darkness' retaliation but others were hit. They were coated with darkness and fell to the floor. As they tried to struggle back to their feet their bodies simply disappeared.

With no time to be surprised, the mist duplicated as it twisted back to attack. Sagil caught a young kid calling for his mum and others slumped to the floor in despair.

"Focus!" Misaka cried, knocking him out of the way of one attack as the next flew through her green wings.

"No!" Sagil cried, unleashing a wild blow through the darkness, smashing his sword into the hardwood, cracking it through the middle. He threw it to the side as the sharp end broke off and dove to Misaka, grabbing her and rolling to the side of another attack. "Don't die!"

"I won't!" She cried as she jumped in the direction of another attack. She tensed her back muscles but her wings didn’t sprout. "Shit!"

Her face was blank and Sagil couldn’t believe it as he lobbed his bag in between. Then, another adventurer stumbled into her as he dodged an attack. Misaka fell to the floor as she watched the darkness pass through dodge the bag and swallow the adventurer.

Sagil pulled his sister to her feet, running in and out of a swarm of darkness flying past him. He finally reached his bag and pulled out the long object wrapped in white cloth that had spilt out of it. "Don't just dodge! It avoided my bag so maybe we can at least make it think we can hurt it!" Sagil yelled, tearing the white cloth and sheathe off of the black katana.

He glanced back to Misaka as a ball of darkness slashed past his face. She was wobbly without her knees as she stumbled away from the attack only to fall into the path of another.

"Shit!" Sagil spat, thrusting his arm in front, piercing the air with his sharp blade as the ball swerved up. He had no time to rest though as it multiplied by three. He dodged one as another flew into a bear in front. It tried slamming a great axe into its side but the ball passed right through and engulfed the bear. Sagil gulped, turning his head into an attack. He stumbled backwards and it curved towards him. It was inches from his face and he lifted the sword up in the nick of time.

The sword split the darkness into two halves that fired past Sagil and into another man.

Sagil's eyes widened as another one fired at him. He brought his sword up to parry but it faded as it reached.

Each and every piece of darkness shooting around faded into the air. The strange sky above turned blue and daylight returned.

The darkness was gone save a thin layer of mist resting on the ocean surface around the clouds.

The deck of the ship was a mess with things strewn everywhere: swords, greatswords, staffs, half-staffs. axes, great axes, short bows, slingshots, wands, damage and collapsed adventurers.

The dark mist was gone but the air was now filled with despair.

As Sagil collapsed as well, crawling to his sister, the dragon tried speaking. It wheezed and spluttered but eventually gained its strength and boomed, "It... looks like we have reached the edge of the world."

Not far in front, the sea seemed to suddenly drop. Nothing lay past it but the bright sky. Sagil tried peering off the edge of the ship with deep breaths but he could see nothing.

No one else said a thing. The survivors were all crestfallen. Eventually, Cerrin seemed to build his resolve and stepped up, ready to speak.

As he got to his feet though, he was sent falling down the ship, and barely grabbed onto one of the dragon's red spikes before he was sent into the ocean. No, the void.

The dragon had suddenly started falling from the sky as it reached the edge of the sea. It whirled in the air, throwing everyone overboard. It didn't have any control. It was dead.

Sagil tumbled into the void as he tried reaching out to Misaka. However, before he could, grey, black and purple filled the void space. It erupted past them from below and fell past them from above. Each falling body in his vision dwindled as they were consumed by the darkness. He desperately clutched at the air as Misaka reached out to him. His fingertips brushed hers but he could not stick to her. He threw his hand towards her again and she stretched her arm even further. They were about to come together when the darkness threw them apart.

Sagil was alone. Surrounded by grey, black and purple. He was freefalling, with no sense of direction. There was no ground, ocean or sky. He closed his eyes, focusing on ignoring everything.

But suddenly he stopped tumbling. He was sat-cross legged on the grey, black and purple. Was he floating or sitting? He didn't know. All he knew was that all around him was the abyss.

"So," A voice muttered. "The sword has returned to the abyss, huh?"

Sagil swore he saw a movement in the abyss and looked around.

Nothing was there. It was just abyss. Who said that? Where was he? Where was Misaka? Where was everyone else?

A flood of questions crossed his mind.

"You walked right into the origin of the darkness."

"Wh-what?!" Sagil stammered, stumbling to his feet. He looked all around but no one was there. To the side was grey, black and purple. Above was grey, black and purple. Underneath was grey, black and purple. He could only grip the hilt of his dark sword in case anything happened.

"You’re a smart guy, Sagil Yuudai!” A laugh echoed in the abyss. “Your father was the one who tore open the realms and leaked the abyss! You were right to hate him.”

Sagil tightened his grip on his sword, trying to freeze his trembling hands.

“That’s enough,” A rigid voice coursed through the abyss, silencing the laughter, before simply stating, “one question.”

Sagil gulped. The flood of questions swirling faster in his head. He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. His body was trembling as he stared into the abyss. “Five seconds. One question. Before you lose it.” The stiff voice boomed.

Sagil gulped down all the questions probing his mind except one that stayed afloat.

"Where's my sister?"