The once lively village was nowhere to be seen. In its place was now a very large, round, deep concave on the earth’s surface – similar to a bowl.
On the edge of the large concave were Aesar and Ryfon. Their mouths were at a gape, their eyes widen while shifting it over the large concave, and a dumbfound expression were plastered on their faces.
“What happened?” Aesar’s soft voice broke the silence. His face was now deadpan while still examining the area.
“I don’t know,” answered Ryfon with a demoralized and darkly menacing look.
At this, Aesar let out a loud, spine-chilling gale from his mouth. His hands clenched tightly on his now ghastly pale palm. His dark grey nails turned pitch black and started to elongated causing thick, red liquid to stain the dirt beneath him. Anger and sadness could be relayed from his scream.
Aesar wanted to know. He wanted go to the direction to where the mysterious black orb came from. He wanted to decimate whatever caused the anomaly – whether it be a living or non-living thing. But his mind was in turmoil and his broken heart made him lose the drive to execute his desires and just wanted to mourn.
As he mourned he unclenched his now blood dripping right hand on his necklace. He glanced at a black luster, circular gem that hung on a white thread, placed around his neck. This was a present from his dear mother gave when he turned 5 years of age. Since he had a pitiful amount of strange mana, his dear mother worried about his safety, always fearing that he would not have enough strength to protect himself, for that reason she gave him a mana stone.
The mana stone would be charged with magic and it would allow the one who held it to access the stored mana for various uses. Amara taught him how to harness the mana inside the stone and use it to cast spells or body enchantment.
But it was later realized that he had no such need of the mana stone. His body was amazing, it could do wondrous things. The skin that wraps hi body was incredibly tough, even tougher than the Orthrus he fought with Ryfon. His strength could rival powerful, magically enhanced creatures and many other things. To top it off, he had a natural healing ability that could put any healing spells he’d seen to shame; all of these without the need of mana. It had always baffled everyone in the village and amplified their curiosity to what he was. And because of this, he had also piqued interest in himself.
Nonetheless, he treasured the beautiful necklace his dear mother gave him.
Still tightly grasping the necklace with trembling hands, waves of sadness surged inside him. ‘I missed Her,’ were his only thoughts.
Ryfon on the other hand stayed silent with a grimaced face. He blocked out Aesar’s blood curdling scream as his eyes calculatedly observed, and contemplated about the situation. Something was bothering him, something that did not quite click.
Moments after Aesar silenced and with a now dark and despairing look, Ryfon’s head shifted up as if realizing something.
Everything started to fit together ever since he saw the large mysterious sphere. The details of the dark sphere, the dirt path it created, and the concaved area before them.
Aesar noticed this change in Ryfon’s look, but in his despair he passed it off and stayed down casted with all hope lost in his eyes. He could not deny what was in front of him.
“Realm,” with a single word uttered under the breath of Ryfon, Aesar looked up towards him, only to see Ryfon with a glint of hope in his eyes.
From this, it got Aesar full attention which ushered Ryfon for an explanation.
At this Ryfon said, “I think it’d make sense.” He looked at Aesar and continued, “That black sphere might be a portal to a different realm.”
Aesar’s mood had turned completely from Ryfon’s words. Hope and determination soon filled his eyes. There was a chance, a chance that everyone could be alive. His thoughts soon turned sharp and calculating from trying to grasp the situation.
Aesar contemplated. What indication would let Ryfon led to such a conclusion? The area affected by the black orb.
Seeing the new look from Aesar as if he was also catching up to something, Ryfon continued and nodded, “The area affected by the orb did not have any indication of destruction. It was as if the sphere ate it up.” Ryfon stopped and stared at Aesar who now has reckoning look.
Ryfon concluded that it was a portal to a different realm indicated by the multiple lights from the black sphere; those lights were stars, stars from a different realm, he deducted. Ryfon was no stranger to the night sky and the knowledge of different realms. The plethora of books he and Aesar read from elder Khilseith covered a variety of subjects.
“How do you know it was a portal to a different realm?” questioned Aesar still in a state of dispair. Not having a good look of the black sphere, he was not aware of the detailed description of the black sphere.
“That star-like light within the black sphere resembled the stars. But the placing of the star is not familiar to me – it’s different from the one in our realm. The real question though is how to do we get them back.”
From this, it was clear that they were not well versed in realms or going to and from one.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Not saying anymore, they traveled on the dirt path where the direction of the portal came from.
They contained multiple emotions within them, anger, sadness, and hope. They wanted vengeance and it was clear from their blood thirsty aura they emitted.
****Aesar POV****
Ryfon and I followed the dirt path the portal created in great speeds.
Rage and sadness were the dominating me, but I stayed focus at our current task. If we get to the area where the strange anomaly happened, we might get clues to what happened and find a way to transport to the realm the village went in.
After swiftly making our way along the dirt path, we could see charred ground in a small opening a head. This was probably the farthest me and Ryfon had gone up north in the forest.
Arriving to our destination we split up carefully inspecting a large charred area. But that was all we saw, a devastated mark on the earth. I grew impatient and angrier. I could tell the Ryfon was in the same state as me.
After finding nothing, Ryfon and I moved to an area with a cliff that had a black scorched side.
The two full moons in the night sky shone on the open area where Ryfon and I were now at. It was a beautiful night, the stars in the night sky sparkled and the light from the two full moons reflected on the surface of the ground. But under the moonlight were our anguished faces.
I turned towards Ryfon hoping he’d have something.
At this, he opened his mouth, “Maybe we can go to the Cyri Empire or anyone knowledgeable about traversing to realms.”
He was right. This was our only chance at finding my dear mother and everyone else. Although the books I’ve read contained subjects about different realms, it was not informative on opening portals to different realms.
Realms were like different worlds, or rather a different space from what I have read. From what I know there are about 100 to 150 realms in existence, and the one I currently reside in was called Helios. Some realms does not contain life, others are like prisons.
Thinking about it, something came to mind.
“Ryfon... the Fallen. Maybe if we could capture one we can traverse through different realms,” I said with a clear voice.
Ryfon had a look that he had contemplated about my suggestion before I mentioned it.
The Fallen were beings that were banished to a void realm. Not much I know about them, but they were powerful beings. They were once keepers of multitudes of realms. But from there conceitedness, they started a war that spanned for several millennia; banishing their planet to a void realm by the united works of several deities from different worlds and other powerful beings. The remaining Fallens were slaughtered and killed off completely from every realm they occupied. This all happened nearly a hundred thousand years ago.
Although, it seems like the Fallens have been active. Small attacks have been conducted from them lately for the past millennia, but it the attacks seemed to serve no purpose from our perspective.
About 700 years ago an army of Fallens appeared in Helios. It seemed as though they were just randomly attacking who’s purpose was to cause mayhem. But some knew better, Fallens were powerful and intelligent, they would have some sort of ulterior motive behind the attacks, but they could not figure it out.
One of the places attacked in Helios was an elven city. My honored grandfather led a group of survivors into the Forest of Asteria, in hopes of surviving. And that’s how our village came to be.
The Fallens were attacked by powerful creatures in the forest preventing them from chasing the survivors.
After the attacked they vanished, presumably by traversing back to their realm.
Although there have been small attacks here and there reported, it was not as grand as the attack from 700 hundred years ago.
With their ability to go to different realms, Ryfon and I may be able to get back the village.
“We could head to the Cyri empire and see if they having anything or anyone useful. Meanwhile, we can engage in activities involving the Fallens,” Ryfon suggested.
It was the best and our only plan, so we agreed upon it. But before we would leave the forest we planned on scouring the forest for anymore leads. We also planned to go to a dragon and ask for information. It would not be hard to find one. On the western side of the forest were large mountain ranges that spanned along the side for hundreds of kilometers; that place are home to dragons.
Dragons, being the strongest race by a big margin caused the two of us showed a hint of anxiety. But this did not deter us. We have never fought a full dragon; the closest to one we’ve fought would be a hydra, and we fared well against multiple ones at the same time, so we had some confidence, but we were still cautious.
After agreeing to what we would do next, we set our plans into motion.
‘My dear mother, I hope you are safe.’
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AN: Interactions between the world and Aesar will happen soon.
Map of the Forest of Asteria + aftermath
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