Ten years later

Ten years ago humans looked up to the stars and thought of finally achieving their dream of conquering the galaxy. But now here they were drifting thought the world like leaves over a forgotten pool. Orchestralia was once a thriving nation, you could say that each town and city were their own little piece of music and they unified together to create one of the of the most amazing and complex song known to the world.

But after the tragic events of The Invasion that song had fallen silent leaving only a echo of what it once was. The tragedy that befell Ringabell City was not an isolated incident, far from it. All over the world creatures of unknown origins invaded every major cities in the world and destroyed them without mercy.

Some of these creatures shared a lot of similarities to the animals of Earth while other look completely alien. But if there was one major thing that differentiated them from animals. It was their incredible powers.

Each of them had an affinity with an element of nature that they could use at whim. Not only that but they were also incredibly durable. Even guns and explosives didn't affected them. The only things human's weapons would accomplish against them would be to make them angry. We have come to call these creatures Elementum Bestia, or Elestia for short.

While regular Elestia can be fearsome there are some out there that are much more fearsome than others. The worse of them were the eight creatures that bought the downfall of humanity ten years ago. People all over the world have given them many names over the years. Demons, gods, kaiju, spirits. But in the end despite all the differences between these eight creatures people have settled on one name to call them by: Dragons.

Each of them represented one Nature of the Elestia. There's Vulcan the Dragon of Fire, Zeus the Dragon of Lightning, Amphirite the Dragon of Water, Gaia the Dragon of Earth, Zephyrus the Dragon of Wind, Ogma the Dragon of the Mind, Thanatos the Dragon of Death and finally Boreas the Dragon of Ice.

These creatures are said to have lived for millenia before coming to Earth and the Elestia apparently saw them as their deities. After ten long years humanity had all but given up on fighting these creatures, after multiple failed attempt at killing them...

- - - - -

Oliver Wilden was not that different from everyone else. For years he had kept his head down and tried his best to survive as best as he could. Some people would call him a coward, a vagabond that would leave all behind at the first sign of hardship. Roaming the ruins of what used to be Orchestralia and feeding on the scrap of everyone else. And maybe they weren't wrong, but what else was he supposed to do?

Elestia would regularly attack small settlements. Even the ones lucky enough to have a wall could easily get wipe out when they attracted the attention of too many wind Elestia. Or when something strong enough to destroy walls came too close to town. Oliver had seen too many setttlements fall over the years, so many settlements claimed to be safe and said that their community could endure any harships. But in the end they fell like all the others.

So Oliver began to drift from town to town leaving when trouble started brewing or when people stopped giving him their leftovers. Everyday he dreamed of getting revenge on these damn monsters for taking the only family he had. But he knew it was just wishful thinking. He was just another orphan like many others wandering aimlessly in this broken world.

One day he decided to return to Melody Town. Over the years it had become one of his most reliable source of food and it also was one of the place that felt most like home. While most town simply tried to survive Melody Town was one of the last few settlement that clinged to the ideals of the old world. It was one of the last few towns that still had restaurants not only that but running water too. Not every towns could claim that.

But it had one problem, it was a town without a wall. Now this would be considered suicide to most town out there. But this town had a special piece of equipment that would create sound frequencies that would keep Elestia away. But he wondered how long this technology would last. And when it would inevitably fail the town would perish in a matter of hours. Many people have tried to convince the mayor to build a wall before it's too late. But the old man was an obstinate old coot and thought he would lose something valuable by building a wall like everyone else.

Oliver would normally steer clear of a ticking time bomb like this. But the town had something valuable to him that he couldn't pass on. There was an infamous restaurant here that gave away free food to poor kids like him. Sure the food they gave away were very close to their expiration date but he really couldn't look at a gifted horse in the mouth in his situation.

But as soon as he came close to town he could feel that something was wrong. There was the faint scent of burning iron that he became more or less accustomed to in the last few years. ''Damn, the Knights are here.'' He cursed under his breath before peeking from behind a wall at the busy streets.

Just as he had predicted they were there, The Knights of Humanity. Some saw them as saviors but most people thought of them as extremists. They wore large powerful armors that covered their entire body. It was by all definition a walking tank, it was completely imprevious to most man-made weapons and even from attacks of weaker Elestia. Two large strips of light ran from their head all the way to their toes each of the Knights had different color of light on their armor some were red, other were blue and other were green.

One of the Knights with red glowing stripe of lights on his armor dragged out a middle age man out in the streets with one hand. In the other hand he held what might looked like a normal brown rabbit to an untrained eyes. But the small antlers protruding from it's head and the predatory magenta eyes it had made Oliver recognise it for what it really was. ''An Elestia? Why did that man have that thing with him?'' Oliver asked to no one but himself.

''Cedric Romalos! You are declared guilty of treason for housing an enemy of humanity!'' The Knight with red stripes of light yelled for everyone to hear.

''No please don't hurt Irwin! He was only a pet I swear! I didn't use him for anything else!'' But his words fell on deaf ears. The Knight extended his right arm toward the Elestia. His hand started glowing with red energy before it formed into a fireball in the palm of his hand. The middle age man cried out in despair as the rabbit-like creature was engulfed into flames.

Then the Knight turned toward Cedric and threw another fireball at him. The man screamed in agony as fire devoured him. After only a few seconds there was nothing left of him but ashes on the ground. Seeing this Oliver decided to quietly take his leave before he could attract unwanted attention to himself. To a point he agreed with the Knights, someone had to deal with those damn monsters once and for all. But even he thought they were going too far. He didn't understand why anyone would want one of these beasts as pets. But the man had clearly not deserved to die just because of his unhealthy love for creatures that could kill him in an instant.

Oliver then came across a building he was very familiar with. Back in the days this place was just another restaurant from a big chain of fast food. Nowaday it was one of the only remaining place of it's kind. Most people would go throught the front door, but people like him had another place they go to.

The brown haired boy made his way toward one of the back door close to the dumpster and knocked loudly on the rusted metalic door. An old woman with many wrinkles opened up the door and sighed in annoyance when she saw who it was behind the door.

''Oliver Wilden, I thought I told you two months ago to not come back here. You're taking away the food for the kids who actually live here.'' She said with barely conceled contempt.

''Oh come on I told you I would only leave for a while and two months is quite a while wouldn't you agree? Beside you know I won't budge from here until I at least get something.'' He said with a challenging smirk.

The woman sighed in irritation. ''Fine I'll give you something, but after that you better get out of this town. If I gave food to any wandering kids that come to town I would go bankrupt.'' She closed the door behind herself loudly and Oliver had to wait a few minutes before she came back.

The woman opened the door and rudely shoved a poorly wrapped burger in the boy's hand. ''Now get out of here I don't want to see you again.'' She said angrily before slamming the door in his face.

Oliver groaned before walking away unwrapping and eating his burger while doing so. He ate the burger like a ravenous animal but once he was finished he grimaced. ''Ugh I'm pretty sure she gave me something that was past the expiration date, damn old witch.'' He muttered angrily under his breath.

''So where am I going next? Look like I'm not welcomed here anymore. Let's see Getaro has almost run out of ressources so it's not even worth thinking about. Accorda got overun by Earth Elestia last week so definetly not. Violina might be a good place but it's way too close to Boreas territory for my tastes... What about Bajoon? Sure they're a bunch of stuck up but I might work something with one of the local, Bajoon it is then.''

''Do you always talk to yourself?'' The voice made him jump in shock and when he turned around he saw a girl that looked around his age. She looked a lot more healthier than most kids on the streets so he assumed she wasn't homeless like him.

The girl was wearing a white hoodie and a pair of jeans. She had a brown pouch hanging from her side which looked suspiciously empty. She had a long blonde hair that swayed freely into the soft spring wind and her green eyes glinted like an emerald as the sun hit them just in the right angle. Her skin was pale, not in an unhealthy way but enough to make Oliver questioned if she was a shut-in.

''Well I'm the only person that like to hear the sound of my voice, so I might as well huh?'' He replied in a sarcastic way, the girl chuckled in response.

''So do you live here?'' She asked to him.

At this Oliver rose an eyebrow before pointing toward his old worn down shirt that had a hole on the left sleeve and his baggy shorts that was too big for him and only stayed in place thanks to the cord that were tightly attached around Oliver. ''Do I look like I live anywhere?'' He said gesturing to himself.

The girl slightly recoiled at the question before she developed a look of sadness. ''Oh I'm sorry... I know it might sound weird but can you tell me what year it is?''

Oliver looked at the girl with a confused expression. This girl was not normal, most people would look the other way when seeing him wandering in town. Not only that but she looked even more lost than him and that's saying something. ''Huh last time I check it was the year 2079, Why? Are you some sort of time traveler or something?''

At that the girl responded with a full blown chuckle. ''Ah I wish! No... I've just been out of civilisation for a long time.''

At that Oliver nodded in understanding. ''Yeah I know how that feel.'' The two of them stood there awkwardly for a while. Finally Oliver decided to break the silence. ''So anyway my name is Oliver Wilden, what's yours?'' He said while sticking out a hand for her to shake. The girl hesitantly reached for his hand before responding.

''Clara Ba- I mean Just Clara.'' She corrected herself quickly.

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

Oliver knew she was hiding something but he didn't really want to press for information. Everyone had something they'd rather not tell, especially these days. ''Well Clara, it was nice to meet you. But I have to start on my journey if I want to avoid sleeping in the forest, so see ya.'' But before he could leave the girl grabbed him by the arm. Oliver looked back at her with an unamused frown plastered on his face.

''Wait! I... Need your help with something.'' She said with a pleading look in her eyes.

Oliver sighed at that and shook his head. ''Look you're really pretty, but there's no way I'm helping a stranger out of nowhere like this.'' He proceeded to get his arm free and tried once again to walk away. but Clara quickly ran in front of him and stood her ground to block his route. Oliver sighed in annoyance. ''I told you I'm not helping you. The only reason a girl would ask for the help of someone like me would be because whatever you need is dangerous. There's no way I'm putting myself in danger for someone I just met.''

''I can make it worth your while.'' She said witha grin and Oliver raised an eyebrow.

''Look I might be a teenager but I'm not that desperate-'' He started to say in a insulted tone but the girl quickly shook her head and flailed her arms around in a panicked manner.

''No, not that! There's an amazing and rare treasures at the place I want to go to. Help me retrieve one specific thing from that place and all the rest can be your!'' She exclaimed while lifting both of her hands in the air for emphasis.

Oliver paused at that, the way she said that sounded like he could land a lot of money from this little mission. Sure it was still dangerous but it's not like he had much to lose anymore so might as well risk it all for a chance to get out of this hole right? Oliver sighed.''Fine but if you're lying to me you won't live long enough to regret it.''

Clara shook her head and smiled confidently. ''I'm not lying, you won't regret coming with me.''

The brown haired boy crossed his arms. ''Alright then, lead the way.'' Both of them started walking further into the town. No one bothered them as they entered inside the alleys. They continued to walk for almost half an hour until they reached the rundown part of town. Then they stopped in front of an old abandoned factory that had clearly been used as makeshift base after the fall of civilisation. A lot of windows had been broken. The ones close to the ground had been close off by planks of woods. The windows on upper floor had been left untouched. The previous owners probably assumed no one would bother to climb the building. The doors had been locked with old rusty padlocks and all over the wall there were warnings in red paint that promised death to anyone that dared enter inside the building.

''So this is the place?'' Oliver asked calmly, death threaths was nothing new to him and the place didn't look that threathening compared to some place he had snuck into.

''Yes, but be careful this might not look like it but this place once belonged to very dangerous people.'' She said with a frown on her face.

As they approached the locked door Oliver scratched his chin. ''Maybe there's something we can use to break this thing, wait here while I look around.'' But just as he turned around he heard the sound of something snapping. Looking back he saw that Clara had somehow managed to snap the padlock in half. ''What? How did you do that?''

She shrugged with an innocent look in her eyes. ''I have my ways.''

Oliver rolled his eyes and huffed at her. ''Whatever let's get this over with.'' He said before kicking the door opened. The building interior was really dark. But there was just enough sunlight filtering throught the broken windows and the gaping hole in the ceiling for them to see where they were going. Clara led him to a door that led downstair. Oliver almost triped more than once due to the lack of light. But they managed to make their way in the basement without too much problems.

Surprisingly the basement was more illuminated than the first floor. Some complicated contraciptions lined up the walls. Some of them were still active, even if the place looked like it had been abandoned a long time ago.

''So what are we looking for exactly?'' Oliver asked but Clara just walked away instead of responding to him. ''Fine, I guess I don't need to know.'' He muttered under his breath before following her.

They soon came in front of a metalic door. The girl turned toward Oliver. ''I guess I should have asked this before, but you know how to unlock a door with a bobby pin right?''

Oliver rosed an eyebrow. ''So that's what you needed my help with?'' He asked incrediously.

''Well yes and no, there's actually a much more important reason why you're here. But I don't really know how to unlock door myself, so I was kind of hoping you could.'' Clara said while rubbing the back of her head sheepishly.

''Well yeah I wouldn't have survived this long if I didn't know how to unlock a door or two. Unfortunately I'm all out of bobby pins right now.'' He said while crossing his arms.

At that the girl smiled proudly before retreving something from the pouch hanging on the side of her waist. ''Here you can have one of mine.''

Oliver quickly went to work on the door it took him about two minutes before the door finally gave a soft click and he gently pushed the door open. The first thing that struck him was the eery green light pouring out of the room. There was also many smells wafting out from it. The more prominent one was the smell of stale air, there was also a smell of sterilization but it was very faint. As if the room hadn't been sterlized in a long time. There was also a third smell that Oliver couldn't really describe but it was very strange and alien to him. As soon as he stepped inside he froze in shock.

The room was massive and it was filled with rows and rows of strange pods lining up the walls. Inside the pods was a strange green glowing substance. Even more surprising were the creatures of all shape and size all sleeping inside of them. One of the pods that immediatly caught his attention looked like it had exploded from the inside and there was dried up goo laying in front of it.

''What the hell is this?! I thought this was some random bandits hideout, but this is creepy as hell!'' Oliver exclaimed in shock.

Clara sighed at that. ''I guess it was not realistic to think you wouldn't catch on. Yes this use to be a base for the CGO, but they abandoned it after the Knights became more active in the area.''

He looked at her in disbelief. ''Wait, the Cult of The Great Ones has technology like this? I thought they were just a bunch of lunatics hiding in a hole somewhere.''

Clara laughed hollowly at that and shook her head which made her blonde hair wave gently in the air. ''Oh if only that was true. But we have lost enough time, come with me.'' Oliver groaned in annoyance as the girl briskly walked away from him. Not even waiting for him to catch up for one second. She stopped once they came in front of a faintly glowing terminal. ''This is it, this is the reason why I bought you here.''

He looked at the machine with an apprehensive expression. ''What? Are you expecting me to hack this? I'm really not familiar with computers. There's not much of them left since the Elestia fucked up the entire world.''

Clara shook her head in response. ''No I just want you to use the terminal to release something important to me. It's very simple even an idiot could do it.''

Oliver looked at her with a unamused expression. ''if it's so simple why did you drag me here? You could have done this yourself.'' She sighed at that before approaching the terminal. But before she could lay a hand on it a small jolt of electricity shocked her hand away. She yelped and covered her hurted hand with her fingers.

Oliver immediatly ran up to her side and looked at her with a concerned look. ''What the hell was that?! is your hand okay?''

Clara hissed in pain for a few seconds before nodding with an angry expression. ''This terminal was made so only certain types of people could use it.'' She said in a clearly bitter tone.

''And what make you think I'm one of those people?'' Oliver asked curiously.

''Believe me, I'm certain you will be able to use the terminal, now do it.'' She said with an impatient frown on her face.

Oliver groaned in annoyance. ''Fine, but you said this was gonna be worth my while. All I'm seeing now is a bunch of monsters being imprisoned right where they belong.''

Clara gave him a dirty expression, her green eyes lighting up with a dangerous fire. ''Your apparent dislike for Elestia is noted. But there is something in here that I promise will be very useful to you.''

He shrugged at this and relaxed a little bit. ''Fine whatever, but if you try to double-cross me I might just take what you came here for instead.'' Clara snorted at that but said nothing more. Oliver sat on the chair in front of the terminal and saw many icons pop up on the screen.

''Okay now you should open something called P-forty-five, do you see it?'' Clar asked eagerly.

Oliver looked at the screen before he remembered something very important. ''Umm, I know that's gonna sound dumb... But I don't know how to read.'' He said with a sheepish expression.

Clara slapped her forehead in frustration. ''Are you serious?! How the heck do you not know how to read at your age?!'' She asked incrediously.

''Hey! It's not like there's that many school left in this world and most of them cost a fortune to attend to! Beside you never told me I would need to read to help you with this thing!'' He replied defensively.

Clara sighed before stepping behind him. ''Fine, I guess I'll just have to tell you what to do. First you must click on this and then you'll see many numbers pop up, click on this one.'' And with a final push of the button they could hear a faint hissing coming from further away as well as the alien smell from earlier becoming stronger.

As soon as she heard the sound Clara started running without any hesitation. ''H-hey wait for me!'' Oliver yelled before running at full speed toward the fleeing blonde girl. Once he catched up to her he almost fell down on the floor as his foot slipped on a green liquid that covered a large part of the floor. Oliver recoiled in disgust as he stare down at the mysterious liquid. ''What the hell is this?''

Meanwhile Clara was too busy to take notice of Oliver's predicament. Instead she was solely focus on a being that was slowly waking up from it's slumber. ''Marie! Are you okay?'' The being apparently known as Marie slowly opened up her eyes and let out a small squeaking sound.

''Oh Marie! I'm so glad you're okay! I'm sorry I had to leave without you, but I'm here now! But I bet that from your perspective it hasn't been that long huh?'' She said with a small laugh.

He finally took notice of who she was talking to and he immediatly regretted coming to this little expedition. The being in question looked like a white mouse with hazel brown eyes. But this mouse was a bit bigger than normal members of it's species, easily about the size of a kitten. The most surprising thing about the being however was the fact that it had wings and not leather wings like one would expect from a rodent, but feathered wings like a bird.

''Are you kidding me?!'' Oliver roared angrily. ''You're telling me we went throught all this trouble just so you could save some damn Elestia?! You should have let it rot here where it belong!''

Clara glared icily back at him. ''Stop shouting! You're scaring Marie!'' She yelled at him with narrowed eyes.

Oliver laughed in pure disbelief. ''And you arleady gave it a name as well. That's it I'm getting out of here, there's no way in hell I'm hanging out with a lover of these damn monsters.'' He was about to storm off and leave her alone with the Elestia. But just before he could cross the doorframe her voice stopped him.

''Fine you can leave, but if you do you'll miss out on the reward for helping me.'' She said in a smug tone.

That immediatly caught his attention. ''Wait, so you were serious about that? I was begining to think you scammed me.'' He said to her.

Clara looked offended at the accusation. ''You can think what you want of me, but I'm a woman of my words. Come with me I will show you something precious I found last time I was here.'' Oliver was reluctant to follow her especially when he saw her delicately putting the Elestia in her pouch. The small mouse-like creature poke out it's head from the pouch and squeaked furiously at Oliver.

But in the end he couldn't resist the promise of treasures and so he followed Clara deeper into the hideout. They stepped inside what looked like an office room filled to the brims with all sort of papers. Oliver couldn't begin to guess why someone would need so many of them. At the back of the room he could see a balding man with thick glasses hanging out with someone Oliver knew very well.

''Professor Dogwood? Why does these crazy people have a picture of a respectable man like him?'' He asked with a perplexed expression.

Clara didn't respond to his question instead she walked toward a rug in the middle of the room and tossed it aside, revealing a small trap door in the floor. Opening it up revealed a small wooden box she took it and presented it at Oliver. ''Here it is, these will be very useful whether you use them or sell them at a very high price. If you do end up selling them try to give them to people who wont's misuse them alright?''

Curious Oliver opened up the box and he lost his breath, both from wonder and horror at what was inside. ''Are those what I think it is?'' He asked arleady knowing the answer not not wanting to believe it.

Clara nodded with a grin litting up her face. Inside the box were eight precious gems, all of similar shape but all of them were of a different colors. From left to right there was icy blue, red, navy blue, green, yellow, brown, purple and finally black. ''Draconid Gems, like I said it will be very useful to you whether you use them or sell them.'' She said in a proud tone.

Oliver looked at her with an offended expression. ''There's no way I'm using one of these things.''

She shrugged and rolled her eyes at him. ''That's your loss, but I'm sure you can make a small fortune if you sell them somewhere where they're in high demand. Like the Ding Dong Resistance for example.''

Oliver sighed he really didn't want to risk to go to that forsaken place. But she was right, if he sold them these things, he wouldn't need to worry for food for a year at least. ''Well I guess it was worth it in the end. Money is money after all, even if it does end up helping those monsters lovers.'' He said in clear distaste. Clara shook her head in annoyance before walking away. Oliver followed her, they walked in silence almost all the way throught.

Clara stopped once she noticed the still lit up terminal from earlier. ''We should turn off the terminal. if the CGO come back here they might get suspicious if they see it still open.'' She said to him.

Oliver grunted in response before making his way toward the worn down machine, ''So I press the red button to turn it off right?''

Clara eyes widened in horror at that. ''No wait!'' But it was too late with a press of a button the lights all turned red and a loud blaring sound filled the entire hideout.

''W-what's happening?'' Oliver asked fearfully. The Elestia in the girl's pouch began to squeak in a high pitch tone.

Clara turned toward him her face drained of all color. ''Run!''