Chapter 18 -The Truth II-
“Ezar?” I subconsciously said, letting the faintest of hope go through me, giving more of a reason to find Alter and the rest. I could use this as a lead, as a first step for this investigation.
But the hope that entered me, left me at the very same rate as it came. The reason was that I didn’t know where this place was.
“Yes, it's called The Dimension of the Dragons.” My grandfather Dale said.
“Meaning?” I asked with the little hope I had.
Dale gave me a smirk but it was quickly erased. “Meaning that we need a portal to the dimension where the dragons have taken them, to their homeland.” Both my parents stood as quickly as possible when my grandfather’s words went through their ears. I could see their facial expressions of fear and concern, “Father are you saying to send a rescue team to get them? To this so-called Dimension of the Dragons? We don’t even know what is going on there or what to expect from that place.
“There could be powerful creatures lurking in there, hell even more powerful than our strongest soldiers combined!” My father lashed at grandfather, but quickly sat down on the chair behind him. Covering his head with his hands while leaning forward almost like he was rethinking his words.
Mother then looked at him and said, “Dale, is there a reason why you would want to bring Alter and the girls back?”
The old elf stood quiet for a moment, holding up his hand a crystal shard. We all glanced at it carefully trying to figure out what it meant. But the more I looked into it the more confused I became.
“What’s interesting about this particular piece is that it was found in a ruin, not far from here” He finally admitted, holding the shard with two fingers to show it clearly to us. “Initially I had sent a party of AA-rank adventurers to clear the ruin but not everything went as planned.”
“Has something gone wrong during their clearance process?” I question, but it was already being answered as he walked over to the seats in front of me and mother.
But the instinct of guilt and unease appeared in his face, sweat pouring down on his hands, almost squinting his silver eyes. “Out of the party of ten AA-rank members who went into the ruin, only one came out heavily injured.” He spoke with hesitation. “How is that possible,” my dad jumped in. “How can a party of ten AA-rank adventurers go into a ruin where nothing is dangerous only for one of them to come out almost on the brink of death!”
My grandfather scoffed at my father's words, “I was getting to that moment when you interrupted me.” Realizing what he had just done, my father, Vamir, motioned my grandfather to continue. “The adventurer has stated that a large number of low-rank basilisk were guarding a nearby door. Of course since they went in they thought it was a good opportunity to kill and get whatever there was on the other side, but something was wrong. The basilisk had weapons and armor that were seen as crafted by intelligent creatures.”
The conversation was getting to nowhere, the more grandfather kept on adding the more foggy the situation got. “Knowing this, I decided to go there myself along with a couple of talented mages. But by the time we got there, there were no monsters. Only the empty cold breeze that came from the entrance. At least that was what we had thought, letting our guard down one of the mages got snatched out of our sight. One by one, no trails left behind, almost as if they were being commanded by someone or something. With only three mages left we got in formation, covering our backs with each other, slicing and cutting what got in our paths until we went to the door the adventurer described. A red double-door with golden frames around it. Upon entering, the only thing we found was the shard and many ancient writings.”
The eagerness of knowing took over in my voice that even my parents noticed and saw it as a new emotion that they had barely discovered of their daughter, “What did the writing say?”
Putting both of his hands up, stopping my eagerness from overflowing more than it was. “Calm down child, we have only decoded some parts, not all. Matter of fact it is being worked on as we speak. But I don’t think that what I’m about to say is going to ease your mind or know when it comes to the situation in the world.”
The teasing, joking, and loving grandfather took a deep breath and let out a sigh and a serious one. Making me know without any words that what he was about to say, was the pinnacle of it.
“Like I said we still haven’t decoded everything and we don’t even know if we got this right or not. But the writings on the walls said, ‘upon collecting and forging the crystal shards together. The world you once knew and grew to love will be destroyed by the entity inside it. If not for the war that is to come…’
“That is all we have gotten, it would take more time before we get the whole prophecy translated.” Grandfather said, looking at the floor giving in to his thoughts. “I don’t know if we will get to see the beginning or the ending of this prophecy, but one thing is for sure, our roles have been decided for a long time, whether we like it or not.” He finished, looking at each one of us, letting us know that what he had just said was true.
I could’ve imagined the roles that were decided for but I couldn’t let some ancient person tell me what to do and what not to do. That’s what I told myself, to reinforce my emotions and determination.
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Come at me with everything you got prophecy. I won’t back down, not now…
-3 Hours Later-
I-it’s so lonely here, the only thing left here is memories.
Neither old or new.
The buildings where hundreds of students from different races came to study and learn were burnt down and some even disappeared from existence.
Even though four days have passed, black and white ashes still remain scattered across the landscape of the academy and the city.
Parents of students who couldn’t make it, mourned their children, not leaving their soulless bodies.
Some blamed the council for failing to protect them, some are saying that they would be better off with a rebellion.
The council has been in hiding for these past few days, in the meeting room trying to determine whether they reveal the cause of the attack or not.
Sympathy and sadness were the only things that were felt during this, sympathy for the students and parents, sadness for the academy.
As I kept walking, my eyes spectated the surroundings until a figure of a student was spotted. He appeared to be around my age if not Alter’s age. His wheat-haired moved as the light breeze came through.
His worried expression was all over his face, trying to look for something or more like someone important. I walked to his direction in hopes of knowing what he was doing here. But the closer I got the more his dark eye bags became noticeable, how long had he been searching here? I asked myself, is whatever he is looking for that important.
Being five steps away from him, his head turned to where I was. Does he too have a mana ring,
“Oh it’s you,” He replied, as he turned his head back where he was searching.
‘Oh it’s you’ what type of response is that to a princess of the Elven Kingdom? Annoyed by his response I launched a normal size water drop shaped like a circle at him.
NOAH BURKE
He has to be here. Somewhere in these collapsed buildings, waiting for someone. Don’t worry, I will find you, I won’t give up on you like other people have.
I kept searching through the burnt and collapsed buildings, looking for a small sign, something that could lead me to him. I have lost count of how many days and nights have passed since the attack. And probably it's been that long since Alter has disappeared without a trace.
The principle has not been sighted either. People say that she planned the attack, some say she ran away with the funds. Nothing has been confirmed, but the rumors keep floating aimlessly around the city.
Corpses of the students that fell on the attack are just outside the gate– or should I say it was a gate. During my endless searches I would hear cries and weeping in the background, their parents were the ones crying their lost ones.
I shook my head to these needless thoughts, blinking twice I noticed the sun had already been out, it was morning. Focusing on finding Alter, I felt an aura behind me, though it wasn’t familiar but in some sense it was.
I turned my head to the unfamiliar aura, to my surprise it was the elf princess, Charlotte Bamford. Without much emotion I let out a few words to her, “Oh it’s you.” What does she want, does she come here to just bother me. She should help me since she knows Alter, was what I said to myself, but they were quickly cut off to the feel of cold water landing on my head and my clothes.
The cold water hit me like a slap that a girl had given me after she had gotten mad.
It had woken me up, no more like it had sober me up. I knew he wouldn’t fall like this, there was probably another answer, something that should be useful.
Without much thought, I place both my hands on the princess’s shoulders. “Thank you for that, without you doing that I would have kept on looking here when he isn’t here.”
Her pale showed confusion and flabbergasted, a redness showed on her cheeks and her purple eyes widened. “W-What are you talking about?”
“Your water spell had woken me up, I know that Alter could have not died here in the academy. He must be somewhere else!.” I exclaimed, happily that my hope had awakened again, knowing that my friend had been alive somewhere and I needed to find him.
Charlotte's expression then changed to my words, her hands had grabbed mine.
“So you don’t know?” She said in a low tone that was audibly.
My fingers twitched, my heart beat was so loud that it felt like it was next to my ear. “What are you talking about?” I asked, scared of what was going to come out her mouth.
“Alter is alive,” she finally said, adding more but hesitating. “But…”
“But what!?”
“But… he’s been taken to a different dimension.”
I let go of her shoulders, consternation hit my body making me fall into my knees. The confidence I had just moments ago had been long gone, I didn’t know what to do anymore.
Does fate really not want me to help my friend?
Do the gods want us to be hopeless?
There was mana being used in the background, before I knew it a big gust of wind had hit me and flew me ten feet back. My hands were already sore, I couldn’t even get up or support myself without shaking.
“W-What was that for?” My voice was low but loud enough for the elf to hear and respond, “You haven’t even let me finish before you got into your depressive state. Look we’re going to save Alter, meaning that we will go to that dimension. But to do that we need people, mages, strong enough to go in and out. There are not many people we can take and there are not many strong people. That’s the reason why I need to get stronger, stronger than ever to be able to handle this kind of situation without being able to take help from others. So what do you say, do you want to join me for the rescue mission?”
Charlotte then extended her arm to me with a smile that was bright and warm.