CHAPTER R13: SOULMATE
(RIDE’S POV)
In the gaudy inn room, was the party Providence discussing our plans for the future. Away from prying eyes.
“Are you sure I can have this?” Vidya, the newest member of our party asked us. In her hands was a platinum coin. The reward from the request.
“I spoke to the guys and we all agreed that the coin belongs to Miss Effinshia. She was the one who did all the work after all. I think it’s best if you keep it Viddy.” Lanarya explained.
“Yeah, since you are the one closest to her, you might as well be the one to keep the coin until we meet her again,” Kranis said. Holding his left shoulder in pain. His voice sounded strained.
When Lanarya brought it up, we were all ready to agree, but Kranis was very opposed to the idea. Lanarya had to resort to some physical persuasion to get him on board.
“I see… I’ll guard this with my life. I won’t let you down!”
“No… you don’t have to go that far…” Tyle remarked.
I let out a small laugh before asking the team: “So… where do we go next? Do we go to Makaran as planned?"
"It's about a few weeks of travel from here to there. I'm not so sure if she could take it." Tyle said, his eyes on Vidya.
"..." Vidya remained silent.
"Maybe we should go somewhere nearer?" I asked the team.
Scorch burrowed his eyebrows and started to think deeply. "Somewhere nearer? Can't really think of one."
The other members remain silent and thought about their next destination as well.
It was Lanarya who broke it. "Hey, guys. How about Lachite?"
"Lachite?" I asked.
"Yeah Lachite! It may be a few weeks from here to there, but there are a bunch of small towns and villages that we can travel to in between!" Lanarya added.
"Sounds good an all, but what is in Lachite? Going there would mean going away from Makaran." Kranis asked the blonde swordsman.
The others nodded with him, including me.
Lachite is the Rydark's second-largest city. It could be called its second capital. But that was the extent that I know about the city. I know that it's big, but I didn't know what was the speciality of that city.
"Lachite is the city of angels guys! The Ten'hims fortress city of Skygourge makes pits stop there once every so often! You get to see actual Angel Folks flying around!"
Now that she mentioned it… yeah… I do recall hearing stories of Sky fortress coming down onto Lachite.
"Angel folks?! Let's go there them. I never got to see an angel folk in their Majestic form! The first one I saw was in a slave pen and they were sad sights…" Vidya clamour in excitement before turning into a sorrowful look.
I let out a wry smile before looking towards the others. Looks like there aren't any objections.
"Then it's decided then, we travel to Lachite. Get ready guys, we leave tonight. Finally, I get to get away from this lousy inn."
We all nodded and stood up to prepare ourselves for the trip. All except Vidya.
"Umm… Question." Vidya asked. Her hand raised into the air.
"Yeah?" I replied.
"What do I need to prepare for travels like this?"
Oh right… She's new to all this. We took a few minutes of our time to explain to her our procedures. What do we bring, how do we sleep, how do we travel, and et cetera.
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"Fuehhh?! You sleep next to each other in the middle of the woods?!" Vidya shouted when we told her about our sleeping arrangements.
Ohhh… this response. This is the response I expected from a normal person!
"Yep, we keep watch at night too. We use a shift system and.. Ahh don't worry about that Viddy, you can keep watch with me till you get used to things." Lanarya answered not understanding what her predicament is about.
"Forget about that! What about baths and laundry?! And, and, and… what about… restroom breaks?" Vidya asked, her voice suddenly low and her eyes darted towards us guys.
"We just take turns to take bath I guess. Ahh, there won't be a river or a source of water every night so sometimes we would have to go days without taking one. Yeah, it sucks… my body gets all sticky and stuff. Long travels always take a toll on my hair…" Lanarya responded while caressing her hair.
"Wait, you take turns to take a bath and private stuff in the open?!" Vidya then covered her body with her hands before giving off an intense glare towards us guys.
"Yeah? What's wrong with that? Sometimes you gotta do what you have to do you know Viddy." Lanarya responded. Once again, not understanding the girl’s predicament.
Yeah... This is how I expected a normal person to react the first time we had to this. Lanarya is a bit of a special case huh.
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Thus, we quickly packed up and left the city in a hurry, through a small and unused entrance on the west side of the city. Thanks to the help of the two guild masters we were able to gain permission to use the small gate to leave the city undetected. By the time people realised that the coin had already been claimed, we would have been gone and hopefully be in Lachite by then.
The first day of travelling was rather eventful. We had to teach Vidya all sorts of things regarding adventuring and the first night went just as what one would expect.
With a little bit of chaos.
Toilet breaks and bath time were rather awkward. We kept to ourselves and didn’t do anything bad of course, but I feel like we gain quite a bit of animosity from Vidya. The nights were a harder thing for her to deal with. However, she soon found an elegant situation to our sleeping arrangements. She would just conjure up a wall to separate the guys from the girls.
Every night without fail she would conjure up one such wall.
“No no no! If we are to do this, there needs to be a wall between us!” She said.
I couldn’t agree more.
Things got along much smoother when she finally got used to the travel. Too used to it. It was the tenth day when she let of a bored yawn.
“How long more till we reach Lachite? I didn’t realise that travelling was this boring. All we do is walk for hours. My feet are sore.” She complained.
"About a day or two more I think," I answered.
Scorch let out a small chuckle, “The novelty wears off fast, doesn’t it? Back when I was a child, I would often shout out about going on adventures and stuff, but when it really comes down to it, just walking for days often gets boring fast.”
“I didn’t want to complain or anything. I just didn’t expect it to be… so dull.” Vidya then looked towards the skies.
Tried too, but her sight was blocked by dense leaves and canopies. Having nothing to view up there, she started to check out every single party member. Slowly staring and analysing a member before moving on to the next. Finally, her eyes fell upon me.
“Hey Ride,” Vidya called out to me.
“Hmm? What is it?”
“I’ve been wanting to ask for a while now. Ever since we first met actually… but your mana… It’s red in colour right?” She asked.
“Yeah, I guess… What about it?” I asked back, not seeing what is her question suppose to mean.
“It’s just that… aren’t mana suppose to be blue in colour?” She asked, curiosity on her face.
“Huh? You can cast spells up to grade five and you don’t know that?” Tyle cuts into the conversation.
Vidya then hid her face underneath her witch hat. “The books I’ve read never mention these stuff alright… And everyone I’ve ever met only had blue mana. Even Sis Effy had blue mana… Is it rare to have mana colour other than blue?”
“Not really,” I answered back. “Lanarya has yellow colour mana. Elves have mostly green colour, Ak’hims black and red and Ten’hims white and yellow.:
“Fueh? You have yellow colour mana, Lana?” Vidya put a hand over her mouth and looked over to Lanarya.
“Yeap.” She drew out her sword before doing something with it. A faint yellow glow shimmered on the sword. She then sheathed it back.
“Wow… that’s pretty cool. I wonder why different people have different mana…” She wondered.
“Nobody knows. Some researchers say that It affects someone’s nature and disposition, while others say it affects what kind of magic affinity a person has. Some people say that different mana caters to different elemental spirits. Most people agree that it’s a racial trait though. As it is more common for a certain race to have a certain colour of mana. But it doesn’t explain why blue is the most common mana colour across all races.” Tyle gave a long drawn out explanation.
“I see. Thanks for telling me that. It’s a good thing to know,” Vidya gave a slight bow towards Tyle.
“No problem,” Tyle answered while fixing his glasses. He seemed pretty proud of himself if I had to say.
“Oh right! I have another thing to ask, why… hmm? What's wrong, guys?” Vidya stopped mid-sentence as he saw is still as a rock.
It’s because Kranis, who have kept silent all this while suddenly give us a hand signal. One telling us to be prepared for anything.
I nodded to the others and we immediately dropped our luggage. Vidya stared at us and got even more confused.
“Ehh? What’s wrong? Why is everyone dropping their bags?” She asked.
Kranis brought his finger to his mouth, “Shhh! Be quiet.”
Vidya heard this and immediately covered her mouth with both her hands. Everyone else dropped their luggage and drew out their weapons.
I sent Tyle a short glance and he shot me back a glance as well. We both then moved towards the back of the party. Putting Vidya in the middle of all of us. It seemed that Vidya was now aware of the situation and got into an alert stance as well. A short while later we heard a multitude of footsteps. It sounded like it belongs to something small, but there were a lot of them. It rang out all across us.
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Then, appearing from a bush nearby was a small green-skinned creature with a long nose and a disfigured body.
A goblin.
It was a small one and without weapons. It looked to be injured and seemed to be crying for help with a small voice that sounded like a child’s cry. It walked slowly towards us with his arms out, as if wanting to hug us.
The footsteps all around us grew even louder.
*Chak
Kranis immediately shot an arrow towards the goblin before it could come closer to us, instantly killing it. Vidya had a look of shock. As if she couldn’t believe that we would kill a harmless innocent-looking goblin like that.
But here’s the thing. Goblins are never harmless. And they are certainly not innocent either.
“Ride from your side! A whole bunch of them!” Kranis yelled out to me.
Probably noticing that they no longer have the element of surprise, a whole bunch of goblins came out and jumped at me. Among them were some large ones, hobgoblins, and even those wearing armour, Warrior goblins. They jumped towards our general direction. Their aim was the weakest one of all of us.
Vidya.
I wasn’t about to let them do as they please. During the past month, I have been trying to perfect the crescent blade. Although I’m nowhere near to perfecting it, I think I can pull off a decent looking one now. Aattroo Phia’s and Effinshia’s advice rang out in my mind.
I charge mana into my blade and it glowed red. Just like what Effinshia told me, by only charging one edge of the blade, but with Aattroo’s advice to control the output of the mana and slowly converting it into magic power.
Swinging my sword in a simple horizontal motion, I yelled out: “Crescent Blade!”
*Shing!
A large red crescent blade appeared in front of me. Larger than any Crescent Blade I’ve ever done. Small vacuum pockets sucked in the air around me and caused my hair to flutter about. The goblins who were hit by the Crescent Blade got sliced in half, while the others were blown back away by the sheer force of the grade four skill.
“Huff, Huff…”
Did I run out of breath? So early into a battle and so fast?
“More of them incoming! Get ready.” Kranis yelled again.
“Roger!” everyone yelled out as we get ready for the intense battle ahead.
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The battle with the goblins lasted a short while before they realized that they were outmatched and soon ran away. We took as many goblin ears as possible and quickly fled the area.
The goblins attacks on us were rather unprecedented. We never heard of any presence of goblins around Lachite. The numbers and the types of goblins that attacked us only show that there was a bigger group in the forest. We had to take extra steps to stay safe. We would have to warn the guild and guards when we arrive at Lachite.
That night we didn't light a campfire. We only sit closely next to a soft light lamp. We wrapped ourselves in thick cloth as it was cold and set traps and alarm triggers all around us to alert us if any intruders come by.
"I'm sorry guys…" Vidya to us all of a sudden.
"What?" I asked. Where is this coming from?
"I keep holding you all back. During that fight I did nothing but cause troubles…" she continued.
"That? Don't worry too much about it. We got out of there alive and that's all that matters," Scorch consoled her.
"But still, the amount of times I…"
"Didn't you hear the big guy? Don't worry about it." Kranis said. "All things considering you did pretty well for a first-timer. You didn't panic and get yourself into danger at least. But maybe aim those spells better."
"Agreed." I concur with Kranis.
Although she didn't help much in the battle, she did stay calmed and tried throwing spells at the goblins. The whole thing backfired when we realised that most of her spells are large area of effect spells which almost hit us. We did tell her to use a spell with a smaller scale but it was hard for her to hit a small and agile creature like a goblin. Some of the spells almost hit us as well.
Vidya stared downwards, her hands clutched tightly. "I don't feel like I belong here. I feel so… useless."
… this feeling. It's the same as what I told Miss Effinshia.
"Don't be. I remember my first time fighting, compared to that, you did like infinitely better. So don't feel so down." I said to Vidya. Trying to cheer her up.
It was the truth too. My first time fighting against monsters all I had was nothing but my wit and screamed around like an idiot, just flailing around my weapon.
"Ehhh, I find that hard to believe," Vidya throw me a sceptical look.
"It's true. I can tell you that Tyle's first time was just as bad if not worse as what happened today." I looked towards Tyle.
Tyle blushed and looked away. "...Don't talk about that."
"See?" I said.
Vidya had her mouth opened as she stared at Tyle. "What about you Lana?"
"So it comes to me huh. Ehehe…" Lanarya scratched the back of her head. "My first time… was with my grandmama. I remembered getting scolded so hard because I kept swinging my sword without care of the people around me. Says that I'm just as much of a danger as the enemies. Her words stick with me and I try to be more aware of things now."
"I see." Vidya lips curved into a smile. "Thanks, guys, I'll try harder next time."
"Now that that's done, let's get some sleep. Tyle, you are up for first shift." Kranis tells the party.
"Urghh," Tyle replied.
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In a world with nothing but white was me just sitting. In front of me was a girl with long purple twin tails just staring at me with a bored look. Her head resting on her palm as she groaned in displeasure when she saw me.
This place again… When and how did I… get here?
"Are you satisfied with this?" The purple-haired girl asked me.
Satisfied? Satisfied with what?
"Satisfied with all of this? Your power… or rather the lack of it. This whole charade. Don't you want to make the people who destroyed your hometown pay? Why are you walking around like this and acting like nothing matters? Why are you so… much of a coward?" She asked me.
I don't understand what is she trying to say here.
The girl let out a sigh, as if she could read my mind. "Don't you wish to be more powerful so you can protect those that you love my master? Don’t you want to be not useless?” She asked me.
Based on the few times I've been here, I knew my voice won't come out. But I feel like speaking out anyways.
"I guess I don't mind being a little bit more powerful,” outside of expectations, my voice did actually come out of my mouth this time.
My voice! I can speak!
"Ahhhh eeee ooooo iiii uuuu," I speak out random vocal cords to confirm that I indeed could speak.
I looked towards the girl only to see her looking at me with her eyes widened, her mouth agape.
"Ooohhhhhh!!!!" She then stood up before coming right at me. "We can finally communicate! My master! What a wonderful day today is! My little boy has grown up!" She wiped a bit of tears from her eyes before winding her arm.
*Smack!
She then hit me in the face with her fist. I reeled backwards and let out a moan of pain.
Ouch...
Touching my sore face I yelled at her, “That hurts! What was that for?!”
“Amazing! You aren’t passing out!” She shouted in excitement before throwing a few more jabs and kicks towards me. “Take this you shitty master!”
Ow ow ow ow ow! Stop that!
I stood up and immediately backed away from her.
She only let out a smile of someone satisfied. “Ahhh, I always wanted to do that, but you always pass away the moment I did. This calls for a celebration my master! You know what? As a special gift, I'll answer you a single question! Shoot away! I’m rather knowledgeable about stuff.”
Don’t act like you didn’t just hit me. That’s physical violence!
Also, a single question huh? A part of me was tempted to ask why is she always so angry at me but I decided to ask a more sensible question instead.
“Where am I? Who are you?” I asked her.
“That’s two questions my useless master.” She said before sitting down crossed legged. Her long hair scattered across the floor. She then closed her eyes for a while, probably thinking about how to answer me.
“For the first question. You could say this is your soul’s domain my master. Or rather our soul’s domain,” She answered before looking around, endless white meet her eyes. “As you can see, it’s bland as it can be. Colourless and lifeless.”
“My soul’s domain? This is? I expected my soul to be more… colourful.” I took a look around the place as well. All I could see is endless white.
“Do not be frightened, my cowardly master. This is normal... I think. It is not a sign that our souls are plain and have no value. It simply means you are too shitty to be able to see the true extent of your soul and mine.”
“Our souls?” I asked her.
She let out a look of disbelief before putting her palm on her face. “This domain is made out of two souls, yours and mine. Have you not been listening to what I said?”
“Wait what? Why? Are you telling me that you live here?”
“Obviously? Why else would I be here in your damn soul? Do you have rot for a brain, my master?” She picked up something from the floor before throwing it at me.
Ouch!
What was that? What did she picked up and threw at me? Was that a rock?
“For the second question. I don’t think I need to answer that. You’ve probably figured it out by now, what I am.” She said as she lied down on the white floor.
Yeah… I think I know.
“You… are the cursed sword right?” I asked her.
“CURSED?!” She yelled and stood up immediately. “Years of service and you dare call me cursed?!” She yelled louder before breaking out into a sprint which ended with her giving me a dropkick.
How bizarre… I could feel my head turned and my neck snapped from her action. But I felt no pain. Instead, it was as if a rather dense fog appeared inside my head. I then blacked out.
I woke up that morning, yelling out a scream before touching my neck and cheeks to make sure that they are alright. Next to me was the cur-... purple sword, sheathed within the special scabbard that I made to differentiate my two swords. Everyone else jolted awake when they heard my scream. I had to tell them that I had a stupid dream. It was rather embarrassing.
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“Ahhh! One more day and we will arrive in Lachite!” Vidya said as she stretched out her joints.
“One more day and we can take a hot bath again!” Lanarya joined in.
The two girls can then be seen talking to each other about what they are going to do when they reach Lachite. It never seems to amaze me at how close they are to each other.
"Look, Lana! The forest's edge!" Vidya yelled out in excitement as she ran ahead of us.
Lanarya soon followed with a smile on her face.
"Sheez, these two," Tyle commented after seeing that the two girls were out of hearing range.
The rest of us guys let out a small laugh and kept our pace up. To catch up to them, they are probably at the forest's edge now.
Out of nowhere, I heard a loud roar coming from a faraway distance. I looked towards the skies only to see a pillar made of purple light in a location far far away from us. It glowed brightly for a few seconds before dispersing.
"What...was that?" I asked my friends.
"I don't… know," Tyle responded back.
"That pillar looked like shot up right into the skies and into the clouds…" Kranis remarked.
We remained still, just talking to each other. Theorizing about what was that purple pillar of light that we just saw when all of a sudden we could hear Vidya's scream.
We all got into alert, before looking to each other to see if we all heard the same thing. After affirming that we did, we then sprinted towards the forest's edge.
We ran past the bushes and the foliage and the first thing that came into my eyes is the sight of a large troll about to swing down its large club onto Vidya and Lanarya.
"Iron Body!" Lanarya yelled out.
*Clang!
The club hit Lanarya directly and rebounded. Lanarya then slumped down to the ground trying to catch her breath. Vidya yelled out in fear, her legs were shaking and she sat still on the ground frozen.
The troll then rebalanced himself before raising his club to land another blow on them.
I speed up my sprint and draw out my sword to launch a sword thrust at the troll. Hoping to prevent the attack from hitting them.
Time slowed down to a crawl and I could see everything moving slowly. Including me.
What the...?
"Don't use that thrash! Draw me or they will die!" A familiar enigmatic voice rang in my head.
Is that the cursed sword talking to me?
Before I could reply, I heard another voice. An emotionless voice, but resolute.
"Force Redirector."
A white translucent bubble appeared over the girls and a woman with long straight black walked past me. She wore a large robe which covers her attire, a large round spectacle over her eyes. In her hands was some sort of box made out of mechanical parts. Everyone was in slow motion, except for her who walked as if time moved as normal. Her movements were unnatural; as if she was a doll. Like a golem.
"Time dilation factor over ninety-three per cent. Searching for source." Her voice was a normal woman's voice but her tone was passionless.
She then started looking around for a source before ending on me. Her dead cold eyes stared right into mine in a fashion I'm all too used to by now. Right into my soul. My body shivered at her action but I couldn't do a thing.
"Out of the way!" In another sudden moment, I was pushed aside. Another woman had run past me.
This time it was a girl with long black hair tied into a side ponytail. She wore a rather unusual outfit with a short skirt and had her thighs exposed. In her hands was a short short glowing blue. Despite everything else slowing down to a crawl, she was sprinting full speed towards the troll.
"Universal Law Enforcer." The emotionless woman said and the sound of glass breaking could be heard as things started moving normally again.
I immediately fell down to the ground as a result from the woman pushing me. I quickly looked towards the girls and saw that the troll's club bounced off the white bubble and was flung away rather far. The woman with the side ponytail then jump on the barrier, high up into the skies.
"Engetsu Raigeki!" She yelled as she crashed right onto the trolls face. A lightning spark was seen in between her previous position and her current location on top of the trolls face.
*Kapow!
With a single hit, the troll lost his entire upper body and fell down to the ground.
The woman then swiped her sword clean from the blood and other impurities before sheathing it into her scabbard perfectly with a single flowing motion.
She then took a look at me. She had azure blue eyes and was using it to stare yet again, directly into my soul.
This was the single most intense one yet. It was as if something inside me was violated. As if somebody stripped me naked and tossed me into a stadium full of savage monsters. My heart was beating fast and my breath ragged. Sweat was dripping from my face. It ended when the woman finally stopped staring and looked towards the west. The direction of where the purple pillar first appeared a few minutes ago.
Or was it a few seconds? I couldn't tell. Also, why does everyone stare at me like that?