Chapter 1
The Day of Oracles
It was Zonza's birthday. 'I can't believe it another uneventful birthday' he thought to himself. Zonza was a street rat in a small village called Nasr in the world of Fincayra. Angel Tears, his swords, were belted to his sides. He sat outside a shop doing nothing. So what if he had turned 18. He really didn't care. He had never had a birthday party as a kid. His birthday was just another Wednesday for him.
His birthday had just happened to fall on the day of Oracles. On that day the Chosen One was to receive the Oracles from the heavens above. Dagda and Lorilanda the gods of the Otherworld were the oracles. The Chosen One must overcome several trials to receive the Oracles. The Chosen One was a girl and that's all he knew about her.
Zonza was the strongest in the village. The demons out in on the plains of Nasr were too strong for him to go out on his own. His drawn back and secluded personality had earned him nothing in life and he knew that. Will all his free time and constantly getting robbed of what little money he had he started training himself. A small stone of Onyx was embedded in his upper arm. It was enchanted. It was the last keepsake he had of his father. It was enchanted to improve his strength, speed, and accuracy.
Zonza sighed. There population of the village was around 35 people. Out of all those people he was the strongest. The small army of minutemen they had would be easily taken out. They had struck a deal with a couple other larger towns to protect the Chosen from pillaging bandits. The Chosen was the last person to save them all from mana deprivation.
The angel's of Novacine have a crystal, a crystal of everlasting mana. The crystal was stocked with everlasting mana but only for so long. The chosen was a descendent of the Angels of Novacine. The Chosen was needed for a ritual to relight the mana in the world.
Zonza sighed. What did he care if this was the day of the Oracles? He wasn't in anyway related to this event no matter how much the Chosen was from there own village. He sighed. The Chosen's journey wasn't easy and they were looking for help. He shook the thought from his mind. They wouldn't want help from a guy living on the streets. He shook his blue hair out of his eyes.
A man. He recognized him; he had a long sword belted to his waist. Zonza didn't know his name but he had recognized him hanging around the Chosen. He had mostly black clothing except for the white trim on it and his hair was a light greenish color. He glanced at Zonza. He met up with a girl. She was his age. Red hair, green clad clothes. She was the Chosen. Zonza thought she was good looking. Oh well she's going to die on her journey and it wasn't his problem. Even if the mana made all live able to live. Without mana crops won't grow. Magicians can't perform spells. It wasn't his problem the world never loved him he didn't love the world.
A third person came up to the Chosen's group. He had silver hair and he was short. He looked to be about 13. 'A half elf.' He thought, the strong feeling of a blood transfusion between humans and elves. The group glanced again at him. 'Oh no there not dragging me into this' he thought. They moved over to him. The man with the long sword on his belt spoke first. "My name is Alpine." He said. Zonza glared at them all for disturbing his thoughts. The small half elf shivered as if Zonza had doused him in ice-cold water. Zonza spoke after a while "And my name is Zonza," The girl smiled. She seemed unnaturally nice. "are you here for any specific reason or just to waist my time." The Chosen's smile slid off her face and was replaced by a look of annoyance. After a moment of silence the Chosen finally spoke. "We need your help." Zonza glared. "Do I get anything out of 'helping' you?" he asked. The half elf glared right back at him now. "It shouldn't be a matter of what you get out of it. If you don't help this world could come to an end as we know it." The half elf said. Zonza had stopped glaring. "I don't like this world what so ever why would I want to save it?" The Chosen looked at him pitifully. "What about those that do love this world?" She asked. "They never cared about me I don't care about them. And with that he turned and left.
Zonza walked through the village. He had left the Chosen's group far behind. The temple of Lorilanda was the only place he ever felt welcome, so obviously that was where he was going. He didn't like the world that much was true, but the only reason for that was because his parents. Pastor Marche had tried to tell him to view things differently. He tried to tell him that it was his parent's fault that he wasn't liked. His parents had dumped him onto the streets at the age of 5 and walked away without looking back. His nights alone often consisted of him dreaming of that memory. He always woke up sweating.
Once he reached the temple of Lorilanda he entered it. Each time he came here its absolute beauty had never stopped amazing him. He always smiled when he came here. It was the only place he did smile. He walked back into the back rooms. He found Pastor Marche reading a religious book. "Hello Pastor." Zonza said. Pastor Marche looked up from his book and smiled brightly. "Zonza my good boy how are you?" He asked happily. Pastor Marche had always enjoyed Zonza's company or so Zonza thought. He couldn't always tell but it seemed like he genuinely enjoyed his company. "The Chosen and her group asked me to join their group to save the world not long ago." Zonza said. Pastor Marche looked surprised for a moment but then smiled even wider. "That is a great honor and what did you say to that?" he asked eagerly. No matter how old Pastor Marche was he always had a way to surprise Zonza with his unlimited amounts of energy. Zonza didn't answer. "Oh no Zonza you didn't deny them did you?" Pastor Marche said franticly. Zonza nodded silently. "Foolish boy this is about you hating the world again isn't it." Zonza, once again, didn't answer.
Pastor Marche gave Zonza a long-winded lecture about how stupid he was to deny the Chosen help and that it was his parents fault the world disliked him. He had heard this lecture so many times he could almost say it word for word. When Pastor Marche had finally finished Zonza said, "So you think I did the wrong thing." Pastor Marche nodded "Indeed you did my boy. You see this could be your chance to make the world accept you as a normal human being instead of the homeless thug they think you are. Zonza nodded. "Pastor Marche if it's alright I'm going to leave now." The Pastor nodded and let him leave.
Zonza knew that the Chosen would receive the oracles at the Trinity Temple. The trinity temple was outside of town. It was named the Trinity Temple because it was constructed to be a place where all where welcome good or evil and worship the three gods, Rhita Gawr, Lorilanda, and Dagda.
Rhita Gawr. There are few words for him, Evil, Deathly, and a couple other choice words. He is the evil in the Otherworld. He seeks to rule Fincayra and the Otherworld. He has others do his dirty work though. He never shows his role in a plot. He uses and misguides people.
Zonza had never been outside the village's walls. The demons roamed freely out there. Some attack in packs others attack alone. He was hesitant to leave the city walls to travel to the Trinity Temple. He rested a hand on the hilt of one of his swords, Angel Tears. He sighed. It was his time to bring himself a new light in the world. If he died before he had even reached the temple his death would have been pointless. He would need to be smart about his actions. Pastor Marche always said there was a difference between rushing and acting fast.
Zonza left the village in a hurry. A couple undead were the first things he came across. He drew Angel Tears. This would have a lot easier if he had accepted and went with the Chosen's group. Of course his stubbornness and rudeness that had been writhing in side of him all his life flared. He wasn't even sure if they would want his help after the way he was before. He cut down one undead, dodging the attacks of all three. Two left. Maybe this wouldn't be so hard.
After he had cleaned up the rest of the undead he tended to his wounds as fast as he could. He might not even have to rely on the sword-magic he knew. Even though he knew a lot of sword-magic he couldn't perform most of it and yet others required other items. He returned to his travel to the Trinity Temple. Hell if he were lucky they'd already be dead. He knew that he wouldn't have that sorta luck.
And of course his life had no luck whatsoever. There were signs that the Chosen had reached the temple successfully. They were nowhere to be found though. He left down a hall to the right. Down a flight of stairs and nothing turned up. He was just about to leave to go back upstairs when he spotted something wrong with the wall. It stuck out slightly and it was a different type of rock than the surrounding obsidian. It was a black tinted glass. It was a door. He pressed up against the wall until he found a block with a natural handhold thing. He tugged on it and pulled the door open. It slid into the wall as if on rollers. He could here fighting in the distance.
He entered the hall. It was considerably smaller, to hard to avoid anything like a demon. The corridor ended over a large jump. He was overlooking a room. It was a high-ceilinged room and he was at the top. It was dark and he couldn't see the fighting below though he could here it. No stairs no nothing to get down. Now that proved a problem. He took off his cloak and used it as a parachute. He floated down. The weight and wind proved to be too much though. The cloak tore and he plummeted down.
He hit the ground with a thud. He could now see the scene, that had not long ago, he couldn't see. He got up with nothing broken, though he knew he would be waking up with a bruise the size of Fincayra itself tomorrow. He jumped up. Alpine stared "why are you here." He was so shocked he had stopped fighting. Zonza blocked a pincer of a large bug with his swords. He thrust his other sword into the unarmored belly of the huge bug.
"God you people do need my help if you can't take down a bug twice your size." Alpine glared. "Half Elf what is your name?" The silver haired boy looked up. "Korokoro." Zonza nodded. "And yours oh Chosen One?" He said sarcastically. "Akila." She said quietly. He nodded again "I have decided to help you." Alpine was the first to question him "Why?" Zonza sighed, "You need my help desperately." Alpine rolled his eyes. "Well are we going after the Oracle or what?" Akila nodded.
She led the way deeper into the temple. They all followed. Korokoro worked out a couple of enchantments many would have fallen too. The boy was young but very skilled at his talent. He was currently unraveling a strong enchantment that he said would probably either instantly kill them or infect them with something so they would die slowly.
Even the Chosen was clueless to why there were so many traps to the Oracle. Zonza just took this as they were walking blindly into something bad. He wasn't sure what yet but he was almost sure he wouldn't like it. Oh well he would rather die in a good name than die without one any day.
They reached what Akila called the inner sanctuary. A round alter was in the middle of the room. According to Akila this was where she would receive the Oracle from Dagda and Lorilanda. Zonza seemed doubtful but stuck with the group the whole way and he would stick with them the whole journey after this.
The room suddenly lit up with a bright flash of white light. Two glowing orbs floated down above the alter in the middle of the room. They lit up again with a less blinding flash of light. Floating just above the alter was Dagda and Lorilanda. They smiled at Akila and the others in turn.
Zonza from the several flashes of light was temporarily blinded. He stumbled around the room knocking into things much to Alpine's amusement. Dagda smiled weakly at the blinded human. It was Lorilanda that finally spoke first "As I'm sure you have already guessed my name is Lorilanda, goddess of rebirth and creating." Dagda was next to speak "And I am Dagda."
Zonza had regained some sight and was now glaring at Alpine. He rested his hand on the hilt of one of his swords. Dagda eyed him with something that looked like annoyance or wonder.
"Chosen One we have come to you to tell you where to go for your mission as Chosen. I hope the group you have rounded up is competent for this journey will not be easy. The plague of mana deprivation will always be around though you are the only chance to rid to the world of it for a while." Zonza was daydreaming slightly right now of what better things he could be doing right now. On and on the speech went. The only ones paying any attention were Dagda and Akila. Finally Dagda said "to start we will give you a choice do you accept this task of reviving the world." Akila nodded and said, "I do with all my heart." Dagda took that as a true answer and said, "Then go forth and travel south the first mana gate." Zonza snapped out of his reverie
They left the temple with no other encounters with overly large bugs. When they were outside the temple Akila suddenly bowed in Zonza's direction. He stared in wonder. "Thank you for deciding to protect me and save the world." Zonza blushed slightly "D-Don't m-mention it." He stammered.
It was late and they needed to set up camp. By the time the moon had risen and the sun had long since set, they had camp set up. They were all currently eating next to a tent that was his. He had retrieved it from Nasr. They all ate in silence, none of them where comfortable enough to talk with Zonza in their presence. Zonza sighed and left into his tent. He was done eating. He crawled into his bedroll and the last thing he could remember before falling asleep was thinking 'I guess this wasn't such a bad birthday afterall.'