Part 1
White steam was slowly drifting in a small room filled with human sized capsules, a young woman wearing long black dress and flowing blue hair was floating above the steam, the delicate woman stared fixedly at the open capsule.
"Good morning brother Allegro."
"Sister Ariel is it? What is with that body?" A handsome man looked to be around his mid twenties slowly got up from the
capsule, his hair was light orange, and neatly combed back, giving him a slightly slick look. Despite his long slumber, no bed hair was present. He gave the impression of a serious man, with an air of nobility, and confidence.
The woman gave a light chuckle, "your about the 6th person to ask that, but now that you are awake at least one of the top management of this place is now active."
Allegro gave a curt nod, "so Maya is still in hibernation huh, what of mister Saia?"
Ariel put a finger on her cheek, "well he was one of the first to awake, but his situation is a bit complicated, the last recording from the ship I gave him showed him being abducted by what seemed to be pirates."
He nodded slightly with a serious look,"it is him after all so we shouldn't worry too much."
"I think the same, but as soon as Kalithas found out she left to find the ship that abducted him, since we have several sightings of the vessel she should be able to find it."
Allegro furrowed his brow a bit, "I hope she doesn't over do it."
"Allegro you worry too much, it would be a shame to have that kind of face, constantly frowning. Besides we don't know enough about this world, this is a good opportunity to capture one of those guys, and gain information."
After looking at Ariel's floating form quietly, Allegro nodded.
"Well I am in charge of security unlike the 5 section heads, I have to think about the overall safety of our family, but you're right, at the very least we should obtain more information."
Ariel nodded in a satisfied manner, "yep, yep just listen to me."
After some careful consideration Allegro lightly tapped his forehead in thought, "well please fill me in on what happened while I was asleep, it's better to form some plans for the future."
Ariel just smiled, and shook her head. "You just woke up, you should rest a bit more first, and get some nutrients into your body."
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The flames were raging wildly, flashes of red and orange erupted throughout the deck, and mess hall.
Men all over the place were lying limply on the floor, wood and metal scattered all over the place were chipped and twisted.
The bodies looked to have been covered by wood and metal, some of the corpses on deck looked completely wet while others looked like their skin had melted, a lone man dressed in flashy clothes was staring at a slim figure in fear.
A black shadow darted across the flames, occasionally flashes of silver danced across the room sending streams of blood flying in the air, and screaming men falling to the ground.
Ever since the dark elf, and that man escaped he had run into nothing but trouble. Jacques cursed his luck under his breath, his black hair was long and greasy, and his face grew more sweaty from the anxiety, and heat.
She had somehow boarded unto the ship like a ghost, and silently murdered a vast majority of the crew, and as soon as she was discovered, a battle in the ship occurred, where his remaining crew was cut down effortlessly. The young woman's hair was flailing wildly in the wind, silver strands of hair lightly gleaming from the surrounding fire, her illuminated eyes shined like rubies. Her face was devoid of emotion, but looked calm, and cold.
Even though his life was in danger Jacques could not help but be slightly charmed at the sight and be momentarily lost in a daze, however his life was still in danger, and as he pointed his weapon at her, his body felt incredibly heavy, and his head started to ache, eventually his consciousness sunk into a sea of darkness. All around him a slight static danced in the air, around his body.
Kalithas looked at his limp form, "I hope the brain Hypoxia wasn't too severe, I still need to bring him back for interrogation after all."
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Saia was currently staring over the side of the island, all he could see was mist, and clouds enveloping his entire view. It was a strange sight looking at flocks of birds flying below him rather then above. The sun was dimming behind the clouds, and night was about to fall.
Nearby a woman with tanned skin, pointy ears, and light purple hair was slowly roasting something over a crackling fire. The woman waved her hands a bit distorting her leather clothes against her body.
"Saia, the birds should be ready in a few minutes."
Saia dusted off the dirt, and began to walk back to the camping site, "coming Seles."
It had been 3 days since the forced teleport, Seles had consumed an enormous amount of stamina, so had to rest. Saia had hunted nearby animals, and plants he found edible through trial, and error, to help her regain energy. Occasionally he would see a strange insignia glowing around her body causing her to rapidly turn feverish, and her breathing to to turn shallow. But moments later it would disappear, and her breathing would calm down.
Saia had contemplated on trying to examine her, but due to his lack of understanding on elven physiology, he took a wait and see approach, eventually she was up on the third day, without signs of weariness. At first he observed her movements, gestures, and external heat signature, but no anomaly showed up anymore. Eventually he let the issue pass, and decided to act when necessary.
As Saia calmly chewed on the roasted bird, savoring the crispy skin, and gamey meat he began to organize his thoughts.
"Well Seles, can you first tell me where we are right now?"
Seles slowly finished chewing on a bird leg, after plucking a large leaf she wiped her mouth, and washed her hand on a nearby pond.
"Well first of all, as you can see, we're on an floating island sky port, since the minor teleportation wouldn't send us very far, it should be around 10 to 50 Kilometers from the slave ship, since the ship was near the Galian borders, I'm pretty sure we should be somewhere inside that country."
Saia nodded a bit and collected his thoughts, "I'm actually fairly new to this area so I really have no idea where the location of Galian country is, or what a sky port would be."
Seles couldn't help but give a sarcastic reply, "were you living as a hermit or something?"
After remaining silent for a bit, he stared entire her eyes, and gave a joking smile, Sorry I have a few things I'd like to remain quiet about, I hope you understand."
"It's ok, everyone has their own secrets, and things they would rather not talk about, since I do owe you for a few things I'll help you as best as I can, as for the contract I can set one up for you now that I recovered."
After taking a another bite of the bird meat Saia lightly smiled at Seles, "sorry, anyways the contract isn't needed, I trust you enough for that."
"Well from the description you gave me before, you were around the Avarian ocean, and should be near 3 continents."
"The continent to the south where we are currently, would be Gressian continent."
With a light cough she continued, "the Gressian continent is home to various human empires, and the famous dragon kingdom, the continent in the east is called the Certamen continent, home to the Holy Anglin Empire ruled by immortal emperor, and the beastmen tribes that share borders with them."
With a raised finger she pointed North, "finally to the Northern continent which is the largest one in that region is called the dark lands, while it isn't really dark or desolate, the humans just labeled it as such.
That area is home to the majority of the demon races, and some beastmen tribes, while there are various countries, and tribes located in that continent, the largest power there, is lead by the demon empress Ralashantra."
Saia calmly thought for a bit,"...and these Islands?"
"The floating Islands exist all around the world, some prefer to call them sky islands, some of the islands hold strategic importance and had been converted into sky fortresses. Others were used as commercial towns, or for mining purposes, those ones in the outskirts hold no value, and are left alone. It's a common place to find drifters, pirates, or unsavory character around them."
"That's not all is it?"
"You're right, the sky islands led to the founding of sky ports, you saw those giant crystals on the slave ship those pirates were using right?"
Saia recalled those huge crystals strapped upon the wooden ship.
"Those crystal orbs allow for flight, there's a network between many countries that regulate the sky transports, trading goods, and sky routes, since many sky islands are right above some cities, you can expect those ones to be heavily guarded."
Seles concentrated on her thoughts, and continued.
"Incidentally there exists a floating continent called Alanoa, it's hypothesized the islands were off shoots from that continent, there is no set location for that continent because it travels around the world."
Afterwards, she gave a light sigh, "let us stop, It's also getting dark, sleep here for now, and find a nearby sky port in the morning."
"We're sorta broke you know?" Saia lightly chimed in.
"Well we can either find a job, or become stowaways. The sky ports usually attract a lot of people, so their quite beautiful as well."
Saia just smiled, either way was fine with him.
A bright place filled with flowers, a landscape filled with mud, and decay. A place filled with luxurious furniture, and gold furnishings, a place filled with rotten stench, and dirty stains. A face filled with warmth, and love, and a face distorted by anger, vengeance, and grief.
"Really, everything has their own charm." Saia muttered to himself, as he wore ironic smile.
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The travel through the wilderness only lasted for a few days, as bright lights in the distance easily signaled where the port lay. During the small hike there wasn't any encounter with any hostile creatures, they eventually reached a bustling town located near the edge of the sky island. Massive towers of marble, and individually sized square shaped homes covered a large portion of the view.
Massive piers, and docks stretched out from the islands to support gigantic ships floating around the docks, and was covered by clouds. Some of the floating ships looked to be made of wood, some of them iron, and some of them made of marble, the shapes and sizes were innumerable.
There were even gigantic creatures hanging around the docks, with small buildings nestled on their backs, one of them looked like a whale floating in the clouds lazily, with hundreds of armed soldier walking around its back. Saia couldn't help but wonder what makes a massive creature of that size float in the sky.
The streets were teeming with people, a majority of them were human, but a few looked to be of different races, each were selling their wares, and vending food, the sky port looked to be teeming with life.
Seles had went inside a large building that offered employment, from what she had said there were various guild, citizen, and government sponsored jobs that dealt with various tasks, and offered rewards for them.
The tasks ranged from material collecting, monster hunting, exploring ruins, general labor, to recruitment ads by merchants, nobles, and even local governments.
Some of the more dangerous occupations involving joining military campaigns, armed conflicts, and monster subjugation had much stricter requirements from the clients. Incidentally mercenary groups must register with the guilds in order to accept mercenary contracts provided by the guilds.
The guilds are mostly impartial, and run on an international scale, they accept jobs from all countries, so the political power, and financial leverage they have is not to be underestimated.
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Saia had followed the dark elf from behind, and entered a white wooden door, the inside looked like a small bar with a receptionist desk. Men, and women just sat around in the nearby tables drinking calmly.
Saia had half expected that mean looking men glaring at everyone, were itching to start a fight the moment some weak looking guy entered. In short, he had probably read too many books, and developed a habit of imagining a common scenario in his head. He shook his head at the stupid thoughts, and moved onward.
As soon as he thought that, a large man with various scars covering his face, and wearing metallic gloves, stopped Saia, and glared at him.
"Hey bro, is that dark elf with you?"
Saia looked at the man slightly smiling, "yes, it would seem so."
The man with shoulder length shaggy brown hair gave a light sneer to Saia "how about you take a break, and let me escort her, weak little shits like you can't protect fine women."
Saia tried to swallow his laughter, honestly it's been such a stereotypical scenario in stories, but for it to actually happen to him, he couldn't help but find it refreshing. The world was already starting to be amusing.
"She probably doesn't need any protection though."
The large man frowned, "I don't need your opinion punk."
As the man was about to grab Saia, thin black threads shot out, and wrapped around the hulking man.
A woman's voice talked calmly, "the threads are made from Farian Tyrant Spider's silk, struggle anymore, and you'll be ripped to shreds."
The owner of the voice was Seles, thin black strands of thread could be see coming from her sleeves, and gloves.
"Violence is prohibited in the guild you know," after a light warning the threads receded, and the man was set free.
The man looked at Seles, and blushed slightly, "sorry, it was my bad, I was just a little drunk," after smiling at Seles he started to back off.
As the man left he gave a light glare to Saia before leaving, to Saia it looked like a little boy trying to show off to a girl, in a way Saia found the actions slightly funny, and misguided.
"Do you know that man, your ex-boyfriend?"
With a light dismissive wave of her hand, she glared at at Saia, "don't know him."
Staring at the gloves Seles was wearing, more and more question popped into Saia's head, "those gloves, seem to have a lot of functions..."
The dark elf dangled a thin thread from her gloved fingers, "the threads are hidden inside my gloves, and jacket, I use animation to control it's movement, and reinforcement to control it's power, the gloves act like a catalyst that manifest the composition of energy spikes, and..."
Saia looked slightly confused, Seles seemed to be able guess what Saia was thinking about.
"Incantations are used when the magic being formed is too complex, or the caster lacks the necessary talent, or lack items to cast the spell without incantations."
Back in the olden days, humans from a gate world had invaded our people in this world, their machines, and weapons killed many magicians who were too slow to cast magic, and mighty warriors were killed instantly despite their heavy armor."
"So conflict, led to rapid advancement, and change?"
Seles nodded.
"The conflict had forced us to advance our magic technology, the various advancements eventually led us to topple the humans, and force them back to the gate. Incantations have been replaced with items with pre-recorded magic formations, magic attributes used to enhance physical abilities have been improved over many years, and casting magic can now come from a simple key words, or gestures. Naturally mana, and stamina will be taken from the user."
Seles used her index finger, and drew a small pattern in the air, immediately spikes of black energy floated in front of her fingers, she combined them to form a spear, she shrunk them unto her palm, and it flew around her hand slowly, and the energy eventually dissipated.
"I can cast an incantation to create black energy spikes, and the magic formation in my gloves will absorb the process, if another person can't cast the magic to begin with, the gloves will not work for them."
"Naturally things like runes, magic territory, mana pools, mana cultivation, mana purity, and catalysts would help the process, as well as the persons talent with the 5 magical attributes."
The terms meant absolutely nothing to Saia, in fact his grasp of the language was slightly passable, the words coming out of her mouth, would be no different than gibberish, and an information dump, to which their would be no references.
"The down side is that the variety of spells is limited to the amount of magi-tech items, if the materials for that items are high class, the spell itself becomes more potent, so these things are fairly expensive, some people use a mix of items, and incantations for their spells."
Saia's face kept wearing a permanent grin, but his mind was trying to understand the terms.
Seles stared at Saia with a slightly amused face, but had a piercing stare.
"But, everyone should already know something like that, right?"
He merely smiled, and nodded.
The answers she provided gave birth to even more questions, she had used too many terms he could not understand, he had to put them aside, they still needed funds to enter a sky transport, "so what kind of job did you get from the guild?
With a dead pan expression she said, "well first of all you'll have to sign up with the guild."
Saia went up to the receptionist desk, a young man with black hair, and red rimmed glasses gave a light smile, "welcome, I hear from miss Seles that you wanted to sign up for the guild, please include you name, race, and specialties."
The man handed out a paper form and a pen, Saia couldn't really call himself a regular human, and had no idea what he could list as a specialty, so he merely made up a race with the word human in it and included some of his hobbies. The written words were a unique mix of latin, and sub languages. With a lot of help from Seles, he managed to complete his form.
He never really cared about the form, and wrote what he felt like, after a few minutes the receptionist received the form, and glanced over it, with a slightly puzzled look, the man read it.
"Saia Peregrinus, race is... High human...?, specialties include, botany, painting, medicine, biology, psychology, self defense, investigative study, fishing, hiking, baby sitting, poetry..."
The man was slightly puzzled, and a bit disturbed. He could not tell if it was a joke or not, the race was unheard of, and the list of specialties held no pattern whatsoever, and seemed like a jumble of random hobbies, he eventually gave a light sigh, and handed over a bronze colored card with a spell insignia grafted on it.
"Normally we would have had to do a light back ground check on you, and given you examinations, but since miss Seles who is a gold ranking member is vouching for you, then we have nothing more to say in that regard."
"Please use this card to conduct future business with the guild, the card will contain your rank, and information. At the moment you are the lowest ranking at C Class, bronze rank, you may only receive requests suitable to your rank."
Saia gave a light nod and took the card, Seles grabbed his card, and talked to the receptionist, after a few minutes she came back, "we're going to join a subjugation request in a nearby village."
He was surprised and looked at Seles, waiting for an explanation.
Seles gave a nasty smile, "I listed you as being under apprenticeship with me on this job, so you get a free pass by coming with me."
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A large campfire was crackling as metal canteens were being slowly cooked over the fire, various meats, and vegetables were slowly being heated up, creating an aromatic smell drifting in the camp.
Around the blazing fire was a rough looking man with a heavy orange beard, and shaved head, his name was Garan, strange magic tattoos were carefully arranged across his face, and across his exposed muscular upper body.
Next to him was the man Saia had encountered before name Alan, ironically his shaggy brown hair is now neat and combed, if it weren't for all those scars he could be considered fairly handsome in a rugged way, he occasionally drifted from glaring at Saia to sneaking a few looks at Seles. Saia couldn't help but smile at such a scene, was it naivety, or simplicity?
A little farther back was a woman wearing a blue hood, and robe, she looked to be around 30 years old, she had light brown hair tied in a ponytail, her features were fairly mature yet quite beautiful. In her hand was a long metallic rod, with carvings on the edges, her name was Alanda.
Finally the person tending the fire was a youthful young man with long blond hair tied in a ponytail, he was wearing slim fitting silver armor that glowed a dull blue. Carefully crafted runes spread all across his armor. On his sides sat two scabbards, and a small pouch on his back. He was called Aztlan.
The six people here were part of the subjugation group to investigate strange noises around a nearby village on sky island.
Aztlan was over viewing the particulars of the mission.
"Around 15 days ago, loud screeching noises were heard by the villagers , every night the sounds grew louder, and closer, the villagers investigated a bit, and found a tunnel carved deep into the Islands."
"13 day ago, people in the village started disappearing, at first it was just a little boy, then a woman, then an entire family went missing."
"A request for some people to investigate the matter was posted 9 days ago at the guild, two B-class, silver ranked members had investigated the issue, but they never returned to report to the guild."
Alanda walked up the the campfire and sat down, "I know one of them, it was a battle mage I was acquainted with before, she specialized in close quarters magic combat, with a variety of fire spell. It's hard to imagine she was done in..."
She let out a long depressing sigh, with a cloudy expression wrapped across her face, Aztlan patted her on the back, "we have 4 silver, and 1 gold ranker, we will definitely get to the bottom of this... plus, we have a new guy to help us out."
Aztlan lightly smiled at Saia to show he wasn't being left out, Saia didn't particularly mind, but did think it was nice of Aztlan albeit unnecessary worry.
"The tunnel from what the villagers have said, seemed to go very deep, we have no idea how far the tunnels will reach, or how stable it is either so preparation will be necessary. Anyways we're about 2 days away from the village, lets finish eating, and have a good night's rest."
With a light smile Aztlan handed each person a portion of the cooked stew.
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drag* drag* drag* a tall figure spanning 2 meters tall was dragging a body across the soil, red liquid can be seen smeared across the ground.
"Painful! Unbearable! It hurts! It hurts!" A loud, and deep voice kept repeating the same words over, and over.
The figure slashed, and clawed at its own throat, it threw away the limp body, and continued to claw away, eventually loud screeching sounds echoed throughout the night sky.
The figure stopped, and reached for the limp body, mounds of dirt kept falling away from it's long brown arms, and continued to drag the body into the long winding tunnels, a small voice could be heard at a distance from the entrance.
"Painful! Unbearable! It hurts! It hurts!" Eventually the voice disappeared, and a long eerie silence followed.
That night the stars grew even more beautiful, and the village grew even more deathly quiet, as if waiting for the next tragedy to follow.
Notes:brain Hypoxia occurs when lack of oxygen reaches the brain, causing the brain cells and the body to not function properly.
I prefer some slight balance so, had to up the tech levels of this world via magic.
Part 2
The wind was blowing wildly, and the rain was pouring down constantly. In the distance a small village could be seen, surrounded by small hills. The warm light from the houses in the village were a welcoming sight to the weary travelers.
A person with blonde hair tied in a ponytail, that looked in their late teens was knocking on a door. The house was the mayor's residence, and the person who posted the Job listing for the guild.
The six travelers were supposed to have met with the mayor prior to starting the subjugation request.
The blonde haired youth named Aztlan turned around to face his companions, they were wearing hoods, and cloaks to shelter from the rain. "There's no response, let's just rest at the nearby church to take shelter from the rain, and we'll try again in the morning."
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
In the distance right beside the hill lay a large wooden church, these buildings allowed travelers to spend the night to hide themselves from the weather.
"Hah," a tanned woman with light purple hair seated herself near the altar, "that damn mayor, he posted a job request but won't meet the people he asked for." Seles placed down a large leather case on the tiled floor, and leaned on the benches.
"Well we don't know his circumstances, let me dry your bodies first," a woman with brown hair tied in a pony tail with a calm, and mature look started to recite a spell with her metal staff.
"Water of life, surrounding bliss, encompassing night, heed my words, gather unto my will, Aqua ball!"
From the surrounding room, droplets of water slowly gathered unto her hand, light drops of soft liquid slowly trailed away from the wet, and damp clothes, eventually leaving everything dry.
Seles walked over, and sat near Saia, "currently it's raining, which means using water based spells would not take too much effort or stamina as there is already sources of water, this is called magic territory, the incantation she used right now basically describes our surroundings, the incantations are adjusted usually to match where we are, what she feels, and what she needs, it's more an issue of imagery, and feelings."
"Thanks for the explanation Seles," Saia gave a warm smile and continued to stare at a stone statue in the center of the altar. The statue depicted an androgynous form, holding unto a dead flower, crushed in it's hands.
"If you don't mind me asking, what is that statue doing? Saia stared fixedly at the statue asking no one in particular.
A large balding man with an orange beard was standing around doing stretches, "that's the god of the new world, it really has no official name, it's spread pretty widely among the human nations recently, the flower represents the old world, I myself am not all that religious so that's all I know."
With a light wave Saia gave his thanks, after staring at the statue for a few minutes Saia slowly closed his eyes.
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"Empty, empty, empty!" A large man with rugged features, and scars all over his face, burst open the door of a house, "empty again!"
Alan had found nobody located at the mayor's house, everyone eventually decided to search the other houses, they were all completely empty of people.
Saia entered the small house, the furniture was tidy, and some of the houses even had food set on the table, "judging by how neat everything is, it seems as if they all stopped what they were doing, and left, no signs of struggle at all."
Saia's eye was now glowing red, the people around him were listening to him calmly, while showing a deep interest in why his right eye was glowing.
He continued, "four different finger prints on the door, it matches the amount of people in the bed rooms, but the plates in the dining room shows it's for 5 people."
"The foot prints are useless to track as they would have been washed away by the rain, the valuables are still in the house as well, only strange point is there's pollen all over the place, but then again there is also flowers all over this area."
With her hands folded Seles added, "an accomplice, or maybe a spell to lure everyone away?"
Alan groaned, "it's been like that with all the houses here!"
Saia slowly walked to the dining room, and sat on the table, and slowly began eating the cold food. Everyone stared at him with surprise on their faces, with a light motion Saia indicated for everyone to eat, "look's like there is no poison, and I don't detect anything odd either, it's best to regain our energy as the tunnels will most likely give us our answer."
Aztlan gave a bright smile, and sat next to Saia, "let's eat, I know the location of the tunnels so the distance shouldn't be very far."
As everyone started to eat Saia wrinkled his nose while sitting next to Aztlan, "this smell is...?"
Alan snuck around the house, pocketing some of the valuables.
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A gigantic tunnel was now in view digging deep into the hills, the rain had caused the soil to become muddy, so walking became a chore.
"The tunnel is much bigger than previous descriptions," Aztlan looked a bit confused.
"Was it enlarged?" Alanda chimed in, Saia walked past everyone and continued, "well doesn't matter, lets go".
Alan with an annoyed expression muttered under his breath "damn rookie, acting like the leader."
The deeper they traveled, the larger the tunnel expanded, they have been walking for nearly an hour. Alanda had summoned forth orbs of light to provide vision, Saia looked at the floor, and his eye turned red, "looks like foot prints, many of them, some them them don't seem human.
As the group walked farther, they noticed the tunnel split into 3 paths, "judging by the foot prints, they went into 2 paths, the left, and right."
Aztlan pointed out, "well since there are 6 of us, should we go 2 paths each?"
"We don't know how many forked paths exist the deeper we go, splitting up might make us isolated," Seles pointed out.
Saia glanced at the tunnels, "some of the forked paths might even be dead ends, or traps."
Eventually they decided to send 3 people to the right and 3 to the left in order to follow the foot prints. Group 1 was Seles, Alan, and Garan on the left path, Group 2 was Saia, Alanda and Aztlan on the right path.
Originally Saia was to follow Seles, Seles had the highest combat potential and Saia was a rookie, Seles assured everyone on Saia's ability, and eventually the groups were formed.
In his mind Saia was worried less about Seles, and more about the people not grouped with Seles. In order to assure group survival, it was better for Saia, and Seles to split up.
Group 1 had continued moving deeper, and deeper, eventually they spotted a large opening inside the tunnels. The balls of light floated around eventually revealed tons of vines covering the vast chamber, hundreds of giant white flower bulbs were pulsating around the room, the petals formed into a giant container.
Seles smelled something, with a light frown, she formed black energy spikes on her fingers, and fired them at one of the bulbs.
The bulb instantly collapsed, and the giant petals opened, green liquid poured out and one small body could be seen, it was the body of a little girl.
Before anything else, she shot her wires into the ceiling.
"Just in case."
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Group 2 had entered what seemed to be a grand hallway, Aztlan lightly touched one of the statues lined up in the underground hallway, they were old, and many were broken, and cracked. The statue was of a woman with blooming flowers decorated all over her body.
"Do you recognize this statue Aztlan?" Saia asked curiously. Aztlan shook his head, "I've never seen this statue before, it doesn't remind me of any of the gods I've seen."
As they walked along the hallway, they noticed a dramatic rise in the temperature of the room, Saia's right eye was glowing red, "above!"
Dirt and soil fell down from the ceiling, a gigantic vine crashed into the floor, and immediately bloomed gigantic blossoming flowers, and released tons of spores.
Saia took out two metal canisters from his long black coat, after pouring both of them into his mouth he spat out a large flame that exploded on contact with the the spores, creating flashes of fire, and a burst of ashes.
After seeing the fire Saia made, Alanda threw a small orb unto the ground, she then smashed her staff unto the orb which released 5 small red magic circles, it spread out from the point of impact. The bracelet on her wrists started to glow red, "innocence of Flame, realm of fire, under this dark cold tunnel, embrace my warmth, and heed my contract, I sum.."
Before Alanda was about to finish her words, vines started to sprout from the walls, the floors and the ceiling. All of it rushed towards her body, a blur of blue light rushed into the vines, and the vines turned into scattered chunks of green, Aztlan had used reinforcement magic on his legs to increase his speed, and rush into the vines to protect Alanda, his two swords were glowing blue, and red.
Alanda continued the spell without even looking at the scene, "...summon thee Pyro Fairies."
After Alanda finished her summon, 4 more vines surged out from under her feet, Aztlan shouted, "sword wave." After activating the keyword, Aztlan mightily swung down the sword, an arc of chilling air rushed to the vines, and froze them instantly.
The remaining vines spat out thorns, aiming at Saia's back while he was burning down the large vine.
Alanda pointed her fingers at Saia's back, as if using telepathy, 5 small figures guarded Saia's back emitting an aura of intense heat, the thorns were turned to ashes.
Saia looked at the creatures, tiny little figures of androgynous humans glowing red with fiery butterfly wings, they were flying around Saia in a playful manner, "cute, I'm pretty sure Anastasia would love these."
"Aren't they cute, the room was too small to summon anything bigger," Alanda smiled as she stroked a fairy with her finger, and the fairy hugged her fingers.
Aztlan walked past Saia, and headed deeper into the tunnels, "well whatever tried to attack us probably didn't want us to get closer, let's keep pushing."
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From the looks of it, the little girl was still breathing. Alan, and Garan had been busy freeing the unconscious people, as Seles was seeing to the girl her ears perked up. She stared directly at the completely dark entrance; brought her scythe up with 1 hand, and she slashed the air. Green globs had shot out directly from the darkness, and was absorbed by the small black ripple of energy left in the air by the slash.
Garan's magic tattoos glowed, and he rushed directly into the the darkness, using his fingers he swatted away green liquid flying at him, the moment it touched the floor a small sizzling sound could be heard.
As he approached the figure, he performed a palm strike into it's chest, the figure shot out thorns from underneath its body, piercing into Garan, Garan raged "to think it could so easily pierce through my body strengthening magic!"
With a wild howl Garan sent the giant figure flying backwards with a double palm strike.
The giant figure let out a loud screech, stunning Garan for a few seconds, gigantic thorns shot out form the giant's body aiming at Garan, black flashes of light exploded in front of Garan's head, Garan shouted, "thanks" and continued the charge.
Seles used reinforcement mana to strengthen her body, and immediately kicked a wall, shooting her body like a bullet into the fight.
As Alan ran in to join Seles, a loud crash exploded next to him, throwing him crashing into the floor. Two more figures had broken down a layer of the tunnel walls, and rushed at Alan. The figures looked like two hulking humanoids with pieces of soil, and wooden flesh, with green plants growing out from their bodies, their hollow eyes glowed a deep green.
As their gigantic hands were about to reach his body, he screamed, "impact!" Using his 2 metal gloves he pumped both his fists together creating a loud energy wave, the energy wave enveloped around his body, and forced the attackers back.
Alan jumped up to regain his posture, but as soon as he jumped up, Vines crashed from behind him, and restricted one of his legs, causing him to trip, and smash his head into the dirt floor.
Seles being a dark elf had excellent hearing, and night vision, she immediately heard the disturbance near where Alan was, the amount of noise in the other room meant he was in trouble.
Garan body slammed the giant figure into the wall eventually crushing it's body, the creature screamed, "Painful! Inbearable! It hurts! It hurts!" Garan focused reinforcement mana into his fingers, and dug his hands into the creatures head.
After a loud crunch the figure ceased movement, Garan let out a loud laugh, "hahaha not bad buddy, but you're still green."
Seles had rushed into the room where Alan was, Alan was unconscious, and lying on the ground, with a bloody gash on his head. She immediately threw 5 spikes into the back of one of the giant figures, the gigantic creature screamed in pain, and focused on her.
The 2 creatures lumbered forward, one shot thorns at her, while the others made a gesture, and vines from the walls started to lunge towards her.
As soon as the vines approached her they were cut into pieces, green liquid was dripping around the dark elf, she created a barrier of wires like a spider web around her.
Immediately Seles jumped back and started to recite a spell, "lord of confinement, judgment of the void, in this dark world show your dominance, unholy binding, initiate!"
All of a sudden, loud metallic jingling sounds could be heard, black chains started to sprout from the back of one of the creatures, the chains wrapped around it's body, eventually causing the creature to tumble forward unto the ground. On the back of the creature, 5 black spikes melted into a pentagram, eventually forming a magic circle.
Seles had used the energy spikes to form a pentagram on it's back, she used her formation mana to mold, and change the shape of the spikes into a magic circle, and used an incantation to activate it.
The other creature spat out globs of acid from it's mouth to melt the thread, and hopefully hit her.
With a light smile she twirled her scythe around her, creating a barrier of black energy that absorbed the acid. She then started another incantation, "light of darkness, lonely night, pierce the untold depths, disdain the greed of the living, pierce the unforgiven, twilight pillar!" The scythe started glowing, acting as a support for the spell.
The massive creature could see black light even darker than the shadows forming all around the room, giant beams of black light shot towards it's body in multiple directions. The light caused decay, and weakened it's body, eventually after being hit by multiple bursts of dark light, it's body decayed, and withered away.
Seles grinned lightly, and stared around the room, "guess it didn't notice huh."
The thread she created around the room did indeed form a barrier, but some of the threads have been used to form a simple pattern that resembled magic circles. Seles had used the magic circles as an neutral outlet for her spells, and used the scythe to empower her spell for using dark magic.
Due to how simply designed the magic circles were, the potency of the spell was lower, but multiple attacks had been more then enough to kill the creature.
Seles began to walk over and check on Alan.
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Group 2 had encountered nothing but hostile vines as they approached a large room, a gigantic flower instantly blossomed. A beautiful woman stepped out from the flower, her skin was a deep green, and flowers sprouted all across her body, emitting pollen into the air.
"Humans again! Damn you, and your god for causing us all this grief!"
With a loud shriek, the woman flew through the air aiming at Saia. Aztlan jumped into the air to meet her dead on, using his sword to form two slashes aiming for her neck. The woman brought out a glowing green whip, and tried to entangle his swords. They eventually collided, and struggled on the ground.
The whip that was latched unto his red sword like an anaconda, immediately blossomed flowers, and pollen shot out.
Aztlan clicked his tongue, and let go of his weapon, he kneed her in the stomach in order to move out of the way. Saia sprang forward, and threw 3 small canisters at her, the green woman used the whip, and threw the blade at Saia.
Saia jumped back, and grabbed the sword hilt, then tossed it into the air, Aztlan was already in the air grabbed the other sword, and was already pouncing on the woman.
The green woman shot thorns from her hand at the canisters, the canisters instantly froze the vines and let out a large cold explosion of ice. The other 2 canisters let out some gas that melted the pollen in the air.
As Aztlan approached the green woman, leaves sprouted from her back like wings and started to shoot towards him like razor blades. The leaf blades were torched by the small fairies, guarding him.
Aztlan shouted, "cross thunder!" The blades edges started to collect energy eventually turning into electricity, they shot out towards her.
The green woman enveloped herself in large flower petals, the cross shaped slash penetrated the petals, and flung her to the ground.
The woman cried as tears streamed down her face. "Not again!"
The woman flung seeds all around her, the seeds instantly formed into flowers, the flower shot out acid at the group.
Two large white snakes gave out a loud hiss, and started to breathe cold mist unto the flowers quickly freezing each one. Alanda had summoned them during the course of the fight.
The woman realized she was slowly being cornered, with a loud angry shriek, she used the vine's thorns to cut scars all across her body, the green liquid splashed unto the floor creating a sizzling sound.
The woman made a light gesture, and the acid on the floor formed into a miniature whirl wind, and started to scatter the acid in all directions. Saia shot an orb from his left arm, the orb resembled a ball of black light, the ball ran into the tornado, with a loud rumble the tornado dwindled, and the acid started to condense around the black orb.
Saia walked up the the woman slowly and said, "guess it's over huh?"
The green woman slumped unto the floor, closed her eyes, and nodded.
"You damn humans, if it weren't for your god..."
Saia's interest started to peak at these key words, he walked up to her, and with a light whisper he talked into her ears, "I'm not a human of this world, and don't follow this god, maybe we can help each other?"
The green woman calmed down as if tired, and silently listened to what Saia was saying. Acting as if she had given up she spoke, "speak, what is it you want?"
Aztlan, and Alanda lowered their guard, and also interested in what she was, as she does not resemble a dryad so her existence is something new to them.
Saia spread his arms and asked, "what is this place for and what are you trying to do?"
The woman called herself Edea, "I was capturing the filthy humans worshiping the god of the new world, implanting their bodies with plants to control their movement, and protect the tunnel.
Saia pondered, "Heh.. so this is like an similar form of a Dinocampus coccinellae "(1)
Edea's face was growing more and more pale,"..you see, the original inhabitants of this world were my people, governed by our god Celesta."
"Gods...eh," the word held different meanings for different people, but Saia was only growing more interested in what she considers a god.
Edea slowly smiled as she thought about the past, "many tens of thousands of years ago, before this planet was populated by the other races, we were the ones that flourished in these lands, it was joyous, and the world was bountiful, our kind had spread around the world."
With a light frown she continued, "eventually the tranquility didn't last, rifts started to appear around our world, strange beings from other worlds had constantly invaded, and slowly made gains in our world, after thousands of years of conflict we began weakening."
"Other worlds..you mean gate worlds right?" Saia wanted to clarify the information.
Edea slowly nodded her head, "Is that what you call them now? Anyways the beings eventually constructed a giant altar, that brought forth a powerful god into our world, the god, and his army eventually invaded into our holy palace where our goddess protected the core of the world. After many days, and nights our goddess was eventually slain, and the core was stolen."
"Overtime our kinds ability to reproduce grew lower, and lower, and eventually we were wiped out by the invaders. New races slowly traveled into our world, and settled down." I being the last of my kind hid myself away in this island."
"While venturing outside, I saw that hateful statue, I don't know how the human's came to worship that being, but I was already fed up, and decided to use those humans for myself, part in anger, and apart in necessity."
Edea face grew more and more pale, "you, you are called Saia right? I did as promised, come here."
With an expectant expression, Saia placed his ear next to Edea, after whispering something into his ear, she gave Saia a small green crystal, Edea whispered some more, and Saia paused for a few seconds after a little thought he nodded.
Edea gave a sad smile, and said, "Sorry for the trouble, and...thank you..."
Saia looked at her lifeless eyes, he stretched out his finger, and closed them. Then whispered silently to her, "How interesting, leave it to me."
Aztlan looked at the crystal in his hands, "What is that, what did she tell you?"
"Sorry it's a secret between us, I hope you understand," Saia gave a small apologetic expression.
With a loud sigh Aztlan got back up and walked towards where they had come, "time to go back, lets find the others."
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Outside the tunnel a line of people could be seen slowly walking out into the light, the captured villagers had regained consciousness, Alan was laying on the side of the road unconscious, while his life was not in danger, Saia judged he would be out for awhile longer.
Eventually the mayor had given the reward, after splitting the reward into 6 ways, the reward was 5000 silver Bank notes per person.
A large feast was held during the night, large fire lanterns littered the village center, loud sounds of laughter, and music could be heard. Roasted pig, mounds of grilled vegetables, and bird meat, created a wonderful aroma throughout the village.
Alanda had dragged an awkward Aztlan into a dance with her, Alanda's eyes were glistening under the moonlight. Saia glanced at the two, "guess she's having fun," everyone's wearing casual clothes except Aztlan who's wearing armor completely covering him, "what a stiff guy."
Alan was still unconscious in bed, Garan was laughing loudly while taking in barrels of alcohol, Saia lightly drank some wine in his cup, "a hint of fruit, some mild spices, and little acidity.. Not bad."
Seles clapped him on his back and started to lean on him, he could hear random gibberish coming from Seles, and could feel something large and soft poking his back, "Oi, you're already drunk?" With a light sigh, he put her on a bench to rest.
Saia stared back at the direction of the tunnel, a large rumbling could be heard, later that day they would find the tunnel had collapsed.
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Next morning, Alan and Garan had said their goodbyes, and left. Alanda had recovered her missing friends, she also tried to interrogate Saia lightly but to no avail, eventually she gave up, and gave her goodbyes.
Aztlan had also tried to get information from Saia, but eventually gave up with a wry smile, "If we meet again i'll definitely ask you again, next time I hope for a better answer."
With a light wave Saia stared at Aztlan disappearing in the distance.
Saia, and Seles walked to the the blocked entrance, to give the tunnel one last glance before they left. She turned towards him, and asked, "do you believe what that woman said?"
With a light shrug Saia changed the topic, "in the end, what were those giant creatures you encountered?" Saia had remembered her story, and was slightly confused on the existence of those things.
"No idea, but those creatures looked to have been under a curse, almost like a punishment, why did you ask?"
With a small smile Saia didn't answer, as they walked away from the tunnel Saia whispered gently, "grow well," he spoke these words to no one in particular.
As Saia, and Seles walked slowly towards the sky port, he suddenly remembered something, "hey Seles, I have a question"
"Hmm?"
"Seles, do guys wear perfume?"
Seles gave Saia a weird look, "no, generally males rub an odorless material that absorbs odor."
Saia thought for a bit, as he stared at the starry skies, with a light smile he said, "is that right..."
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Notes: Dinocampus coccinellae basically a wasp that injects it eggs and chemicals into a ladybug, the lady bug acts like normal, as its insides are being devoured by the larvae from the eggs. Once the larvae goes out of the ladybugs body it makes a cocoon, the ladybug remains a mindless zombie that will protect the cocoon. -that's roughly how I interpret it.