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“Are… you sure we’re in the right place?”
Julian was now standing in front of an old building. A building that seemed like it didn’t belong in Sky Net at all—granted, it was on the Ground Level, but the fact that it was tucked between two skyscrapers made its antique exterior even more obvious.
[Yes, Julian.] MEGAN softly chuckled, her words a little playful, [I am sure we are in the right place.]
“I’ve also checked the reviews of this place, it’s really good.”
And Ellie was actually also there, carrying a large duffel bag as she took a long, and very deep breath. The old building reflected in her eyes, her eyes that showed both excitement and a slight trace of nervousness.
“Are you sure about coming with me, Ellie?” Julian asked, noticing how tightly Ellie was gripping her bag.
“Yes.” Ellie nodded firmly, though her gaze was fixed on the wooden entrance. “I just… don’t want to be helpless if something happens again.”
“Hm…” Julian tilted his head to the side to closely listen to Ellie’s breath, taking a moment to make sure that she wasn’t nervous. But with how still her breaths were, it would seem her resolution was even higher than his.
“Let’s go, let’s go!” She was even the first to step forward and enter the building, and almost instantly, the stillness of the old building faded away. A heavy, pulsing rhythm quickly hit both her and Julian as an intense silence whispered in their ears—the air was heavy, incredibly so.
There were rows of mats everywhere, with 3 sparring rooms all occupied by both men and women; all of them, moving with a heavy purpose, quite literally. Their muscles flexed under the bright lights, their grunts and groans completely filling the air.
This old building was a gym. A dojo, to be exact.
“This is…” Ellie took in a small gulp, her eyes darting around the chaotic and explosive scenery in front of her. She almost forgot to breathe for a second, and if didn’t whisper under her breath, then she probably still wouldn’t be breathing, “I’ll… go check in at the front desk. MEGAN’s already sent them an online application, so I shouldn’t take long. Are you… fine here by yourself?”
“I am.” Julian hummed. And not even a second later, he could hear Ellie just running away; the excitement in her steps almost enough to drown the intensity in the air.
[I think it’s a good idea that she came.] MEGAN whispered in his mind, [It will help her mind cool off with everything that’s happened to her, Julian.]
“Hm.” And now with him left alone, Julian calmly started listening to the rhythm of the moving bodies around him, pulsing throughout the large hall and causing the hair on the back of his neck to slightly stand up.
His senses have been overwhelmed a lot of times ever since he discovered Otherworld, and now once again, it was as if he could feel everyone moving. Their breaths, the rustle of their clothes, and even the slight tension and change in their muscles—he could hear and feel them all.
Despite Ellie’s request to stay near the entrance, Julian slowly wandered farther inside. His cane that was tapping softly on the floor, drawing a few glances here and there.
After all, how could they not be curious about Julian? He was blind, but most importantly, he was built like a brick wall, no. He was the entire fortress itself. And since Julian was currently wearing a tight-fit sports shirt, the shape of his body was even more obvious.
And very soon, a muscular man who was even taller than Julian strode up to him. The man’s eyes looked at him from head to toe, and once again… Julian found himself being circled by someone.
“Ho…?” The man stopped in front of him, offering a low grunt of approval as he finished studying Julian. “You here to learn how to fight? And is that your girl over there by the counter?”
“Yes… and yes.” Julian replied, facing his shoulder toward who he could really only assume to be a trainer.
“Huh…” The trainer raised an eyebrow, glancing at Julian’s cane. “But you’re blind.”
“I know,” Julian answered without any hesitation.
“You know, huh?” The trainer’s eyes narrowed as he stared at Julian’s face—and without even any warning, he raised his fist and shot it straight toward Julian’s face. The room seemed to hold its breath, the impact mere inches away—
Snap!
A loud sound echoed throughout the entire gym, causing everyone to turn their attention to the two, only to see the trainer’s fist right in front of Julian’s face. Everyone was in shock, how could they not be?
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Their trainer just struck a blind, defenseless man. If none of them knew the trainer, then they would have definitely already called the cops. But they all knew him, and he was definitely not the kind of man who would bully someone.
And then they saw it—the fist did not actually hit the blind man’s face at all, no. It was the cane. It was the cane that was hit.
“You…” Of course, the one that was most perplexed was the trainer himself. There shouldn’t have been any time for Julian to raise his cane, much less block his fist. He had no intention to hit Julian at all and planned to stop his fist an inch away from the front of his nose.
The groans and grunts of the people were quickly replaced by murmurs, everyone’s eyes were now glued to Julian, wondering who he was and what just happened.
“Impressive…” The trainer’s expression shifted from surprise to intrigue. He took a step back, his eyes locked on Julian, “But let’s see what you can really do.”
“I was just lucky.” Julian whispered.
“Heh. Sure you are.”
[Julian, be careful—according to the test we did earlier, you could probably flip a small car.] MEGAN whispered in his mind as soon as she saw the trainer go into a stance, [If you accidentally hit him with just a little more power than intended… you could kill him.]
“W—”
“Julian!?” Fortunately for everyone there, however, the trainer did not get the chance to test Julian at all as Ellie’s voice broke through the murmurs, “Is everything alright!?”
The trainer stared at Julian for a few seconds before finally relaxing, softly chuckling in response while retracting his stance.
“Oh, everything’s more than alright.” The trainer looked at all the curious faces before turning to Ellie, “This gym’s about to have the most fun it’s had in years.”
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“Stop staring at the seikrobos, pretty boy. You’re starting to make it nervous.”
After his intense and unexpected encounter in the gym, Julian returned to Artemia a few hours later. The early morning light spilled softly over the landscape outside the city of Ethaca—a vast and open field, which almost felt like it would drown you if you stared for too long.
Julian, however, had not even looked at the horizon even once.
He was now standing before a seikrobos, his fingers tracing the creature’s feathered fur, curious whether it looked as strange as it felt. He had only touched a single animal before—an owl. Ellie had brought it home one day, insisting they take care of it.
Unfortunately, a week later, it was shot after escaping their apartment and eating the neighbor’s cat. This seikrobos, however, reminded him of that owl—its feathered texture was similar, even if its overall build was likely worlds apart.
The seikrobos was massive, standing taller than him with thick, muscular legs, short arms, a long neck, and an elongated head.
The way Cyrus explained it to him, it looked like a mix of three extinct Earth creatures: a T-rex, an ostrich, and a greyhound, though that meant little to Julian since he didn’t know what any of those looked like.
But whether they looked weird or not didn’t really matter at all, they were extremely handy; Juliet was able to hang all of their supplies on their back without a problem at all.
“What’s the holdup? Let’s go, let’s go!” Cyrus was already mounted on his personal seikrobos, bouncing with barely contained excitement. The moment he’d heard about Julian’s plans to travel to the next city, he’d informed the chat and even updated Julian’s social media feeds through MEGAN.
Yes. He and MEGAN have created several social media pages for Julian. They have really only advertised it with the chat—but soon, they planned on opening it up to the public. But of course, that would have to wait.
“The chat’s already eating this up, Sword Junkie.” Cyrus rubbed his palms together, a soft and almost mischievous chuckle escaping his lips, “Even if nothing happens during this journey, people love a long, quiet trek. Some of them would even sleep while the stream is going.”
“...People do that?” Julian finally removed his gaze from the seikrobos as he moved to its side, trying to figure out how exactly he would mount the thing. But after a few moments of consideration, he decided to stop overthinking and just go for it.
He made several attempts, though his movements were a bit stiff. Each time he tried to swing his leg over, the seikrobos shifted slightly, leaving him half-dangling. The creature huffed, casting Julian a look of reluctant tolerance—or maybe it was just getting back at him for staring at it so long.
Julian tried one more time, but before he could raise his leg, Juliet’s laughter burst out from behind him.
“Pft… forget it, Julian.” Juliet patted his shoulder several times, shaking her head before waving Julian to follow her, “Just ride with me for now.”
“That…” Julian glanced back at the seikrobos, but it took another step away before he could even do anything else. And so, with a sigh, Julian just gave up and joined Juliet on her mount, while the seikrobos that was supposed to be for him was designated to carry all the luggage instead.
“Uhm…” Juliet thought he would hesitate to ride behind her, but not at all. Not only did Julian did not hesitate, but he also wrapped his arms around her waist without saying anything at all, causing Juliet to flinch.
She glanced back at Julian, but he wasn’t reacting at all and he had this clueless expression on his face that he always has.
“You know, pretty boy…” Juliet sighed as she grabbed the reins, “...you–no, don’t mind my words.”
“Alright, is everyone set!?” Cyrus seemed to be completely used to riding a seikrobos as he circled around Julian, making sure to get the right angle,
“Alright, Chat. The Sword Junkie is now leaving Ethaca and into the wild world of Artemia. We are finally going to see him go through an adventure, face failures, meet new species. And maybe…”
Cyrus whispered as he made sure to focus on Juliet’s face, “...Find love? But what about Ellie, his long-time partner and confidant back on Earth? Well…
…I suppose we just have to find out in the next chapters of… Sword Junkie: Journey to Artemia!”
***
“How many attacks have we had the past few weeks?”
Somewhere back on Earth, in a vast room lit up by a wall of surveillance footage, live maps, and countless images and videos of daemons, hundreds of people were currently scrambling about without pause.
The only ones who were not running around were the two people who were overseeing the entire room from above; their eyes, reflecting everything that was happening. The chaos, however, seemed to weigh nothing compared to the conversation they were having.
“52%.”
“52%!?”
“Yes. And it’s rising each day. Based on the spike, it’s possible…
…that a Daemon Wave would be happening again soon. And it will be the biggest one yet.”