Ian was lying down facing the broken ceiling with the occasional urge to sneeze due to the settling dusts from the ceiling. A blue dragon was sitting on his right, waiting for the orders of his master. Meanwhile, a Champion of God was standing by his side. Ian sat up, aware of whose presence he was in.

The only Champion of God he knew was his former mentor, Guru Adrastos, who could somehow remove his memories from afar and make him forget who he was. Ian had some thought about it, of whether his past memories was worth going back to the Luna Monolith for.

Euriel Taywern, the youngest elf who joined the Champion of Gods. From her background stories, Ian only heard that her family was attacked by Abyss monsters when she was a child. As a result of trying to escape, she was blinded, and her left leg and right arm was completely ripped off. Despite her disabilities, she managed to navigate through the night like it was the day and take down chaos dungeons. Her achievements eventually reached its peak and had the recognition of the Night Mistress.

“By the orders of the round of Champion, you were supposed to be locked in the Luna Monolith under the care of Guru Adrastos. What are you doing here?”

“Oh nothing much, just enjoying the stench from the miasma and the southern views. Pitch black scenery is best.” Ian smiled with a hint of sarcasm.

Ian’s eyes couldn’t even follow her movements. He could only be sure that it wasn’t teleportation based on the slight movement of the wind. Her breath behind him close to his ear, holding his dagger on his neck. With a quick pat, he noticed that the diary on his fingers was gone as well.

“I have orders to bring you back to the library, Ian. You can spend your days without your memories.”

She pinned him down by his shoulder using her metallic arm. For such a frail elf, her grip was strong, almost crushing his spine.

“Tell me, how did you escape?” She demanded, placing the dagger closer to his chest.

“And you didn’t have orders to take down Krystol? He destroyed an entire continent!” Ian responded. Even with the dagger on his neck, he could afford to be cocky a little. Since, her orders was to bring him back to the library, not to kill him.

Hearing that, she immediately grabbed him by his armor on his left shoulder and ripped it off. Ian didn’t respond much, not knowing what she was after. In the dark Abyss, where demons could spring out of nowhere, his chest was laid barren.

“That’s sexual harassment.” Ian commented.

“Shut up.” Euriel said, pushing him down to the ground with a thud. She used her metallic arm to pin him down. Being blind, she used her left hand to trace down his torso, as if she was searching for something.

“Um, what are you doing?” Ian enquired, feeling ticklish on his chest.

“The tattoo. How many do you have already?”

“Can’t you see for yourself?”

Euriel turned her head towards him, giving him an ‘Are you serious?’ expression. There was no other manner of expression other than her using her left hand to wave in front of her eyes. The black blindfold only blew with the wind slightly.

“And here I thought the blindfold was intentional.” Ian commented. He grabbed her left hand and guided it to the center of his chest. “The tattoo is over here,” he spoke softly this time.

She traced the tattoo on his chest. Where the symbol was, she recognized an eight-pointed star, decorated with four intricate triangles above a seven-sided star.

“You unlocked the Tree of Enlil. Oh no… Do I have to kill you, or do I not? There’s no point of bringing you back to Luna Monolith now, is there?” She pondered, pushing him down harder at his shoulder.

“I would prefer the part where I’m not dead.” Ian replied, struggling to escape.

She increased her pressure on his chest, so hard that it was difficult to breath. “I-I’m sorry!” He exclaimed. When he said that, she released her pressure slightly, allowing him to take in the miasmic air.

After a moment of contemplation, she realized. “The Diary of Solace.”

“If it’s a diary, I’ve already put it in my bag. Why would you want an blank diary?” Ian lied, hoping that she wouldn’t notice that the diary was in his left hand. Blind people tend to miss things in plain sight.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

She stopped awhile, turning towards him. “Say that again, but slower.” Ian suppressed his urge to gulp down, knowing that she was wary of his eyes.

“It’s in my bag,” he sighed, trying to redirect his thoughts. To sway the powers of mind reading, there were two methods. One was to purchase a very expensive artifact that can shield you, the other was to redirect your thoughts. Reading a person’s mind was like reading a book, according to literature.

“Then what’s that thing on your left hand?” she asked, pointing to his left arm. Ian’s heart skipped a beat when he saw her pointing towards the book.

“My favorite book. Don’t even bother.” Ian said, placing the book back on the ground.

Euriel gave a sigh, “It seems that losing your memories doesn’t stop you from lying.” She tapped on his heart twice with her index finger.

Ian rested his head on the ground, “Right, you can tell. Here, take the diary.” He said, handing the book over to the elf. The elf snatched the book from his hands, feeling its leathery surface and the bindings at the back.

“Right. I will discuss your matter with the rest of the Champions. Closing the portal and allowing the Creations to freely enjoy the bliss of Axtral takes priority.” Euriel stood up, channeling the book into a portal. Handy to have a spell like that, Ian thought.

Ian remembered, holding out his bag. “Ah yes, about the portal. I brought magical chunks that can close it.”

Before Ian could even finish his sentence, Euriel disappeared from his side and reappeared right in front of the Abyss portal. Holding up her left hand, she summoned a giant radiant light, one that resembled the moon beams, and fired it straight into the Abyss portal.

Ian drew his breath in as a response, amazed by the power that she could draw out from thin air. The radiant light burned everything that enveloped in its path, though it seemed as gentle as the moonlight, but the disintegration of the surrounding rocks and the ground proved otherwise.

The Abyss portal gave a huge explosion sound as it imploded from within. It collapsed on its own weight, as the void repaired itself as the pieces of reality mended itself.

Champions of Gods can do things like these without breaking a sweat. It was the equivalent of the energy that could power an airship for weeks! Ian nodded slightly. With that much power, he was sure that they could take care of Krystol in one swoop.

“That should do it. Any demons that are derived from this portal would surely be weakened.” She said, dusting her hands.

“If the Champions are so powerful, why can’t you help Iolite in the first place?” Ian asked calmly.

Euriel turned over, her lips unmoving for a brief moment. “That was because an angel’s barrier was casted.”

His eyes narrowed in return, “What does that even mean?”

“It means that no one except those approved by the angel could enter the barrier. In this case, Krystol somehow could control the core of the angel, making him choose who could enter.” Euriel explained with a cold tone, her hands tucked neatly at her hips.

Even if she was blind, he could sense her silent judgement. “It was a hundred years! Couldn’t you ask your deity, or don’t you have any other way to take down the shield?”

“You have amnesia. Right.”

“Unless you bring me back,” Ian whispered under his breath.

“You see, angels are the avatars of a single— I repeat, a single deity. Meaning that they could only channel the powers from the God who created them. To prevent an internal conflict between the Gods, powers of an angel or the Champion of Gods should never cross paths with another since Champions of Gods are the representatives of their deities.” Euriel explained.

“Right, got it. Because the Gods can’t keep their temper, so you can’t destroy the shield.” Ian said with a hint of sarcasm, nodding his head.

“It’s more complicated than that.” Euriel hissed. “You’re giving me a migraine. Any unnecessary moves would trigger a war.”

“If you remember clearly, there was a war that ended badly because of you.”

Euriel then kept silent and gazed up to the evening skies. “Trust me when I say that this. That war was nothing compared to what could have been. History has already begun.”

Euriel pivoted on her heel, her long, flowing robes billowing around her as she turned her back on him. Ian's eyes were fixated on her beautiful, dark blue hair that shimmered with hints of orange in the waning light of the evening. Suddenly, she vanished before his eyes, only to reappear in an instant right before the majestic, blue dragon's back.

“Let’s go, Rudavark. We need to go back to Aehas.” Her silvery voice commanded.

Ian's gaze was transfixed on the majestic dragon as it unfurled its wings and took to the skies, each beat of its powerful wings stirring up a gust of wind that tousled Ian's hair.

He just shook his head. “I have no idea what any of those means.”

Ian took a deep breath. The miasma fully diffused into the fresh air, and the evening night slowly transformed into the night. “What a nice, starry night. A perfect day to read.” Ian’s face turned into a slow grin.

He picked up the blue diary from the floor, which was embroidered with gold metal and featured the Solace family sign in the center. “Never trust a blind person to retrieve a book,” he chuckled, flipping to the first page.

Unlike what he heard, it was not empty, but filled with characters from different languages. Ian could only read and write a few, like Elven, Dwarvish, and Common. But even with that knowledge, the book was almost impossible to read. A single passage could be written in five different languages.

Ian placed his finger on the first paragraph of the Diary, trying to study it. “One, two… Seems to be a recurring pattern here. At least for the first paragraph, an infernal character is written in every three to four words. What’s this language, Abyssal?”

The sharp edges of the character was typical of the Abyssal language. Or it could be Druidic. Why would a holy book include Infernal and Abyssal languages?