A wisp of shadowy smoke bolted down a snowy path. This dark cloud, that was stretched from the speed it was racing at, was Loid Alkaver. He is the owner of an inn at Heroca Town, and right now, he was moving as fast as he could in his dispersed shadow form.
From what he had gathered earlier, something terrible was happening at his village. He wasn’t sure what, but judging from the increasingly apparent cries, it was something he had to get to immediately.
Loid had left his shadow element skills alone for years. After quitting Neo, and moving to Heroca Town, he told himself he would never use the shadow element again.
That is, of course, if he could help it. If something drastic was happening though, he had no qualms using the power he had used in fighting wars many years ago.
Rocko and Phil were somewhere behind him, trying to catch up. In dispersion form, he could move faster than any normal person could run. He paid little mind to the fact that using any shadow skills would unsettle them, seeing as they had not ever seen Loid use elemental strength before.
Dispersion itself is a shadow elemental skill. One that took time to master, and was quite risky to use. The skill was only reserved for highly trained shadow elementals. The user’s entire physical body melts into a shadowy mist, that can then travel freely, and in the air. In this form one can get through small passages that would otherwise be inaccessible. This was exclusive only to the shadow class.
As a downside, when entering dispersion form, one must constantly focus on composing their mind. If one stays in a smoky state for too long, and loses concentration, they will disperse too much and fade away entirely, unable to be recollected to return to physical form. It was walking a tight rope, a fine line.
Too many arrogant elementals entered the wispy state and never returned again. Gone, without a trace. No dead body, nothing. They just stopped existing. There are theories that their mind is still out there in the wind, unable to interact with anything, unable to be seen by anyone. For most though, it is generally accepted that they just perish.
Loid knew the risks, and knew that he hadn’t practiced in years, but found himself quite focused. If he started to feel himself slip away, he would instantly reform. He should be alright.
The dark cloud finally made it to the edge of Heroca Town. When it did, the shadowy smoke condensed itself, and Loid’s physical body appeared.
He was in utter shock at what he saw. The village was burning, most of the houses were on fire. His mind raced to decide if this was the doing of one person or a group of people, but without hesitation, ran into the village.
When he got to the main road, there was chaos. Some of the villagers were fighting raiders dressed in rough leather. A woman had a bucket of water and was throwing it onto her roof. Other villagers were trying to get their families out of the house.
In all the confusion, Loid ran up to the closest skirmish and knocked out one of the foreign raiders he knew not to be of the village. The man who was fighting the raider previously was panting, trying to catch his breath.
“Loid…” he uttered.
“What’s happening?!” He demanded.
“They came out of nowhere. I don’t understand,” the villager could barely get out. He had cuts and bruises on him from the fight.
Loid looked up as he heard a screaming woman. Another raider had grabbed her and was pulling her away.
Loid held up his arm, and a shadowy tendril escaped from his palm. It lunged for the attacker, and wrapped itself around him.
The raider let out a cry in confusion as he tried to figure out what was happening. The woman ran. The tendril retracted and dragged the raider towards Loid.
When the rough looking man in leather was fully reeled in, Loid delivered a swift blow to his face, as hard as he could.
Loid didn’t have answers, but he knew he had to neutralize every attacker of this raiding party.
“Hey, we have an elemental!” Loid heard someone yell in the distance. Several attackers looked over at him. Someone had seen him using his shadow skills.
He assumed a defensive stance. They started running towards him. Most of them had random blunt objects they had been using as weapons, and seemed very unorganized.
Loid’s training at Neo instantly kicked in, and when the first thug charged at him, he dispatched him with ease. A second was running behind the first had a crowbar in hand, mid swing. He dodged it, and delivered a punch to their face.
“Get em’ Loid! Knock them out!” Some of the villagers chimed.
“Get these fires put out!” Loid instructed.
He had all the attackers focused on him now. With the raiders off of the villagers, the townsfolk could work on putting out the fires that consumed the roofs. Some of the attackers seemed concerned, a little hesitant, but knew trying to take out Loid was the only thing they could do.
Two more charged at him. He readied himself. As they got close, he held out his arms, and two more shadowy tendrils flew out of him. They shot right into the attackers chests, and both of them fell backwards.
The other raiders looked terrified. They ran.
Loid saw the villagers throwing water on the fires around him. He knew if he hadn’t shown up, this entire town would’ve been ruined.
“Sherry,” he said quietly to himself.
Loid dispersed into shadowy smoke again. He raced off to the inn.
“Rocko! Rocko! Our village is on fire!” Phil yelled out.
Rocko was wheezing behind him trying to catch up. “On fire?!” He responded.
“Look!”
The two were standing at the outskirts of town, in the same spot that Loid had been earlier. Bright orange flames lit up most of the houses, with columns of black smoke above that. It truly looked like a nightmare.
“Oh, man. Someone’s cooking fire got out of control again. It spread to all the houses.” Rocko mentioned.
“Should we try to put it out?” Phil asked.
“Duh!”
Both of the dimwits ran into town. When they got to the heart of the town, a few of the villagers saw them. They instructed Rocko and Phil to grab buckets of water and try to put out the fires with them.
As Rocko ran to the water reserve for another bucket, he noticed a rough looking young man in tattered leathers lying unconscious on the ground. Rocko didn’t recognize him.
“Who’s this guy?” Rocko asked.
“That’s a raider! Rocko, we’re being attacked. Don’t you get it?!” An older man said to him.
“OH!” Rocko started to move faster.
“Sherry!” Loid cried out. He had arrived at the inn, and it too, was on fire. He bashed the door open, hot flames dancing around the walls of the building.
He covered his face to stop himself from inhaling smoke. He cried out his wife’s name again. He didn’t see her anywhere. He checked the bedrooms, kitchen, and closets. She wasn’t there.
The inn was creaking. The fire had already consumed much of the inn’s support beams. He couldn’t stay in there too much longer.
“Sherry! Are you in here?!” A board fell from above. He held his arms over his head to stop it from hurting him. He coughed a few times.
He checked a little longer, but found no one in the inn. He ran out as the one of the largest buildings in the town started to cave in on itself.
My home, my life, all burning down! Where is my wife?! Who is responsible for this?!
When he got back outside to the main road, he saw man with a thin black beard. He had on a flame bandanna, leather vest, and chains hanging from his pants.
Without hesitation, a fireball formed in his hand, and he threw it at Loid. Loid tackled the ground in an attempt to dodge it.
“Are you the shadow elemental?” The man demanded in a gravelly voice.
Loid looked up at him from the ground. He swore he saw him throw that fireball. This was a fire elemental, and seemed to be the most prominent of all the attackers so far.
“Are you the one attacking this helpless village?” Loid demanded back. He got back up from the ground.
“That’s right, and you’ll burn along with the rest of this place.” The fire elemental held out his arms and they became like flamethrowers. The heat was intense, and at that split second Loid had to disperse and fly to the side. The attacker’s arms followed the direction of Loid’s smoke, and the flames brushed along him.
Even in dispersion, he could feel the burning heat of the flames. This man was good, he produced large amounts of fire that only skilled fire elementals could do.
The more of an element you could produce, the more you had spent time focusing and concentrating on the art for a long period of time. It was apparent that this man was devoted to the craft.
However, Loid’s training at Neo was not wasted on him. Once he was clear of the fire, he reformed. He spent no time preparing his attack. Two large shadowy tendrils escaped from his back this time and shot over his shoulders. They were much larger than what he had created before, and at the end of the tendrils were shadowy hands, fingers and all.
They shot out at an incredible speed, hands open, ready to grab the assailant. The fire elemental’s eyes widen at the sight, and in that moment, Loid could tell that the attacker had underestimated him.
The shadowy hands grasped around his entire body, binding the hothead in place.
“Not bad, old man!” He declared as his body struggled to get free.
The shadow arms held him in place for a bit, until he let out a yell, and his entire body burst into flames. The fire was so hot that Loid couldn’t keep his shadowy appendages in place anymore, and they faded away.
Loid was feeling as if he was fighting in the war once again. This was the first elemental fight he had been in since he had been fighting fellow elementals that worked for Belek Harmon.
Seeing how this elemental performed an intermediate fire skill, he tried guessing where he might’ve learned the art. He pulled off Fire Burst without issue. It was a skill in which the user became a bomb, casting fire from them in every direction, all while focusing on the flames not damaging the caster themselves.
Just like dispersion, this was quite a risky skill to use. If you weren’t careful, you would burn yourself alive, along with anything else around you.
The man was too reckless to be trained at Neo. He wasn’t stuck up enough to be from Arkana. Those were the only two official schools to learn the elements. This must’ve been a hedge elemental. One who learns their path either on their own or from a noncertified source.
“I didn’t think a shadow elemental as yourself would be hanging around in some crappy village in the middle of these god forsaken mountains!” The fire elemental said. “You’ve been quite a pain to our whole operation here.”
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“And what operation would that be? Burning down my home? Looting the town? Or is this all just for the thrill?” Loid demanded.
The hothead laughed. “You think so badly of me that I’d just be doing this for fun? Of course I’m trying to get something out of it!”
Another fire attack. Huge flames shot out at Loid. This time Loid performed shadow blink, a skill that can teleport the user a short distance. He appeared behind the fire elemental, and put him into a choke hold.
The man in the flame bandanna grunted, noticing that Loid somehow got his arms around him. If Loid could just get him unconscious, he wouldn’t be a threat anymore. Just a few more seconds.
Unfortunately though, the man was stronger than he looked. He reached behind and grabbed Loid by the back of his shirt, and flipped him over himself, causing Loid to land into the snow in front of him.
The fire elemental’s fist turned red hot, and he slammed it into the ground where Loid had been, right after Loid had rolled away.
Before Loid could get back up, flames were shooting out of his hands again. This time, Loid didn’t have enough time to react, and was sprayed. He put his arms up to shield himself some.
When the flames died down, Loid’s clothes were charred, his skin was burned a bit. His silver hair, which had fallen forward a bit during the fight, was singed. He coughed a few times.
“You’re something else, you know that? Where’d you learn that stuff? Are you ex-Neo?” He said in his gravelly voice.
Loid didn’t respond. He just tried getting back up.
“Well whatever you are, you did pretty good. But I think it’s time to wrap things up.” The fire elemental held out his hand for one more attack.
In that moment though, a massive ice wall appeared, separating both Loid and the hothead.
“Huh?” The fire elemental took a few steps backward in shock as the new ice attack had made itself known.
“You’ve picked a bad village to set fire to, young man.” He heard in a raspy, undying voice.
When he turned around, he saw a robed figure. His robes were dark blue, with golden trim. He noticed the impressive golden cross necklace that hung to his chest. When he looked at his face, it was hidden with a black mask.
Marin looked quite mysterious in the man’s eyes. Where had he come from?
“And who are you, mystery man? What’s with the mask? Some sort of superhero? Ha!”
“I will be your undoing. But perhaps I will spare you certain death if you answer for me why you have attacked this place,” Marin explained.
“I don’t have to answer to you! I don’t have to answer to anyone here!” The fire elemental raised both his hands for an attack. Marin’s arm raised as well.
When the man adjusted his hands to let loose a massive fiery attack, Marin’s own hand closed into a fist.
No fire escaped from the hothead.
“Huh?” He jerked his arms again. No flames. He looked up in horror at Marin.
“No… it can’t be… N-nullification?” He stood there stunned.
“I’ll give you one more chance to explain yourself.”
The man was filled with anger and confusion. He tried pushing out several different fire attacks, but none worked. Finally, he cursed and lunged at Marin.
Marin waved his other hand and his legs froze into place. He stopped running. In shock, he looked down at his legs, then back up at Marin.
“Damn you! I’ll burn this place to the ground! I’ll kill you!” With his might, he shattered the ice around his legs and ran for Marin again.
“What a shame.” Marin shot a long icicle from him, and it went through the man’s chest. He fell over dead.
After he stared at the fire elemental on the ground for a few seconds, he looked back up at the chaos. Houses were still burning, flames dancing on the roofs. He pointed himself towards it all, and with a few hand movements, froze all the flames on the buildings.
He then heard several people running. He turned around, and watched the remaining attackers running for their lives out of the village. Marin didn’t bother with them.
He looked back over to his ice wall he had first made when he showed up. With a wave of his hand, the ice wall shattered, the shards vanishing. Loid was now revealed, barely standing, trying to catch his breath.
“King Marin…” He uttered.
“I hope he didn’t get you too bad.” Marin walked up to him. “If I had showed up here a little earlier I could’ve saved you that fight.”
“My wife… I don’t know where she is!” Loid got out.
Marin became concerned. His head started darting around. “We’ll find her.”
The villagers had all calmed down. They had been staring in awe at the frozen flames on their houses. They looked like upside down icicles.
“Everyone!” Marin announced. They all turned to look at him. “Has anyone seen the innkeeper’s wife, Sherry? Is she okay?”
They looked at each other. Finally a woman from the crowd shouted out.
“We tried evacuating the elderly as soon as the attacks started. They might be at the edge of town now, on the other side!”
Marin and Loid took off in that direction. After running for a bit, they saw Rocko.
“Loid! King Marin!”
“Rocko!” Loid said in relief. “You’re okay! Where’s Phil? Have you seen my wife?”
Rocko nodded yes. “Phil went with the elderly to take care of them and protect them. They’re further down the road behind a few houses.” He pointed in a general area.
Now all three of them were running. They passed by a few more buildings before they finally found a small crowd of older people. Phil was with them trying to calm them down.
One older lady turned and saw Loid. It was Sherry.
“Thank goodness,” Loid said. He ran up to hug her.
“Loid! Oh Loid! You’re here!” She said, all relieved. When they stopped hugging, she looked him over.
“Oh my God, look at you! You’re all burned up! What happened?” She demanded.
“It was an attack, honey. A gang of hooligans, led by a strong fire elemental. I had to fight him.” Loid explained to her.
“Oh dear. Are you okay? Are you hurt?” She was feeling his arms over his ripped sleeves.
“I might have perished, if it wasn’t for this man right here,” he pointed over at Marin.
Sherry’s eyes widened at the sight of him. “You? You saved my husband?”
Marin looked down a bit. He wasn’t looking to receive any credit. “I merely assisted him. He is quite the fighter, your husband.”
She walked over to him and grabbed his arms. “You have my thanks for saving him, and saving our village.” She paused a bit as she looked at his mask that covered his face.
“My husband says you’re the king of Nocturne Castle. Is that true?”
“Indeed it is, ma’am.”
Some of the other elderly villagers looked at him in confusion and shock.
“I am… a long lost heir, you could say. I have returned to claim my castle and my kingdom.” Marin looked up at Loid, and nodded, in a way they both understood.
“Well, a returning king is a big deal. I hope you have plenty of subordinates to help you out.” She gave him a firm pat on the arm.
Marin smiled under the mask. “I’m still working that out.”
The attack was over. Heroca’s fires had either died down, was put out by water, or frozen by Marin. Regardless of how it was extinguished, light smoke drifted from the remains. Any attackers that were left had bolted from the town after their leader had died. The town was at peace once again.
The damage though, was lasting. Roughly half of the buildings that made up the snowy town had burned down. Half of the remaining ones had been seriously damaged. Only a few houses happened to be unscathed.
Some of the villagers perished in the fight too, unfortunately. People put them on stretchers. Raiders who had died were being drug on the ground by others. They were all cleaning up and salvaging what they had left.
Some of the older villagers were instructing Rocko and Phil on what they could do to help. As the villagers moved rubble and tried to clean, Loid and Marin walked down the main street.
“I can’t thank you enough for your help,” Loid said.
“Don’t mention it. It was just by chance I had seen the village in flames before I left. I can’t believe this happened. Has is happened before?”
“No, never. In the ten years I’ve lived here, there has never been an attack. It’s so coincidental that this happened as you woke up. I’m glad you were here to defend us.” Loid explained.
As they walked by, several villagers cheered for Marin and Loid. A few came up to shake Marin’s glove covered hand in gratitude for helping them.
Before walking too much longer, an older woman approached them. She had on glasses, and hair that was part brown, part gray in a loose ponytail.
“Oh, Helva. Hello,” Loid greeted. He shook her hand. Loid turned to look at Marin.
“Sullivan, this is the mayor of Heroca Town, Helva Yoren.” He explained.
“Pleasure to meet you, ma’am. I am King Marin of Nocturne.” He stuck his hand out to shake hers.
“I’ve heard a bit about you, King Marin. You claim to be the rightful ruler of Nocturne Castle up there?” She asked.
“I am that. I have returned to restore the castle to its former glory, the way it was 200 years ago.” Marin explained.
“Well, that shouldn’t be a problem. Whether you are truly the king or not doesn’t matter to me. No one’s made claim to that castle in all this time. If you want to take it over, that’s fine by me. It’s in a terrible state, it will take quite a bit of work to get it up and running again.”
“That is the plan, Ms. Yoren.” Marin responded.
She looked at him for a moment in thought. Then she turned to look at Loid.
“Can I talk to you both privately in the town hall for a bit? I’d like to let some stuff be known.” She stated.
They both agreed. All three of them headed for the largest house in Heroca, which happened to not get attacked at all, miraculously. It had wooden walls around it, making it the only fortified building in the whole village.
They entered the building. The front room was large, the ceiling rising up to almost three stories. In the middle of the room was a fire pit, with doors lining both walls. In the center was a large chair in which she normally sat to conduct her business.
With this talk however, she did not sit down. The three stood near the entrance, not a single other person in the building. She started.
“Heroca Town has already been struggling. Most of the denizens here have been unable to pay their property tax.” She looked over at Loid briefly. “We have not been getting business here like we used to. Traffic has dwindled to almost nothing. No one is coming out here with prospects anymore, funding the village.”
“Why do you think that is?” Marin asked.
“Could be the fact that snow has made this place quite difficult to get to. It had started becoming quite cold out here over the last few decades. And because of that, it accumulates way too much. Traveling out here has become much more tedious.”
She went on. “I’ve been mayor for 50 years and it has only gotten colder the entire time. Long ago, our summers were fair. Crops could still grow in the right season. Now, snow falls year round. It sits on the ground at all times. Only the elders of this village remember what it used to be like.”
Marin and Loid kept their heads down in thought.
“And now, with this attack, over half of Heroca has perished. We will not be able to recover. This town will have to be abandoned.” She paused for a bit to let it sink in, and to give them a chance to say something.
“Loid, your inn has burned down. The general shop has burned down. Our imports building has burned down. No one has the funds to rebuild!” She added.
“So where is everyone going to go?” Marin asked.
“I’m not sure. Most have lived in these mountains for decades. I don’t think they could call another place home.” Helva responded.
Loid and Marin looked at each other for a bit. Marin started to get an idea. It was going to be a far shot, but it was worth trying. If the villagers did not want to leave this mountain range, maybe they could be slightly displaced.
“What if they didn’t have to leave the mountains? What if… They moved into the castle. With me.”
“That castle?! It’s in no condition to live in,” she reminded him.
“It’s going to get restored. Everyone can live in there and work for me.” Marin bargained.
“And I assume you have a massive pile of gold to feed everyone and take care of their needs along with that?” Helva asked sarcastically.
“I… have the gold.” Marin said.
Loid was looking at him, starting to doubt this claim. Marin started to debate whether he should make this fact be known, but he had enough trust in an official like the mayor, and Loid as well at this point.
“There is a large fortune of gold inside Nocturne Castle that has been undiscovered and undisturbed since the sabotage of it over 200 years ago. I am the only one that knows about it.”
He thought about how Phil and Rocko had seen the vault door, but remembered that earlier he had convinced them a giant sleeping monster was locked inside, and he was keeping it prisoner. They easily bought it.
“Really?” Loid said surprisingly.
“That’s why you’ve come back,” Helva said.
No, that’s not why I’ve come back, Ms. Yoren. I’ve never left. I’ve been here all this time. But I will have to agree with you, seeing as the truth about me can’t be believed easily.
Marin nodded. “I can take care of the entire village.”
Helva stayed silent for a bit in thought. What a weighty decision. What a risk. At this point though, they didn’t have too many better options.
“You’ll have to go out there and convince them all,” Helva finally said.
“I’ll do my best.” Marin started to walk away, but Loid grabbed his arm.
“Sullivan, that’s at least fifty people. Are you sure you can take care of them all?” Loid asked.
Marin nodded. “For the time being. At least until Nocturne can become profitable again. I’m not looking to hemorrhage my fortune indefinitely.”
He started for the door. Before he let himself out, he turned to look at both of them.
“We’ll make this work. Anyone who doesn’t want to take my offer is free not to. I’m not in the business of taking slaves or prisoners.” With that, he went out the door.