Today is so rainy.
But I had never been here, so I'm counting to my new friends here. An elf-like Corite called Sheizan, a short, dwarf-like Bellatian called Rext, and a cyborg-like Accretian called Asgir. They did not seem to hate each other, leading me to believe that this place was in harmony of the three race.
I forgot to introduce myself, I guess? My name is Ray. Ray Bardine Gallania. I'm a Rune Knight from the Kingdom of Rune-Midgard. Why I am here? Well. . .
To tell the truth, there has been some weird occurences everywhere. A few days ago when I was still at Prontera, someone appeared saying that he came from Shiltz. I don't believe happened back then will happen to me as well, though, so I'm unprepared for this. I just brought a few Yggdrasil Berries and Yggdrasil Leaves, and a few Aloe Leaflet to top it. I do brought my Lance and my Two-Handed Sword, other than my usual armor, a set of Full Plate, Boots, Manteau, Helm, Iron Cain, and Fin Helm.
It never crossed my mind that such event will happen to me.
I forgot to bring my dragon here, but the three of them say that thanks to me forgetting to do that they did not attack me. They say there's a lot of Dragonkin monsters here, and they would think that I'm one of those if I brought my dragon with me.
"Ray, here we are."
And. . . where are we? Oh yeah, according to my newly acquired friends, we are in the Beast Mountains.
An Awkward Journey
"Mahrs, huh?" Rext moaned, he looked stressful. I sighted what was in front of us: A small and tiny road full with small insects that Rext called the Mahrs.
"This is the most troublesome among the places here. . . We'll have to do something if we wanted to survive this trial."
I felt like they was exaggerating things. They're so small. I understand if the Thunder Lizards and the Red Haired Splinters back there is powerful, but I don't understand how something this small can be so powerful.
"Actually, if we managed to attack them without them attacking us first, I think we can survive." Sheizan say his mind.
"Would you mind being the bait? If they came near you, I can strike at all of them with one Tornado." Rext put his opinion forward. He draw his huge two-handed sword which he call a Hora Sword. Sheizan scratched his head.
Are these insects as powerful as they fear? I don't see such, though in my world such annoying creatures do exist, like the Anopheles or Hunter Fly, or even some insects that is more that meets the eye, like the Caterpillar.
I draw my Two-Handed Sword.
"Would you guys mind if I try to get rid of them?"
The three stared at each other. They seem to be confused at first, but then Sheizan nodded.
"Sure, try it out. If you really have a dragon as a pet, you should be able to defeat them."
He didn't seem to trust my ability, well, they navigate most of their way here, and I didn't do much but to avoid monsters as they were told.
"Remember to take down the Host Mahrs and the Queen Host Mahrs as quickly as possible. If Ray's attack didn't take them down, we will need to do things as fast as possible." Asgir said. Sheizan and Rext both looked not very satisfied with the situation they are in right now.
I step forward, taking a parrying stance as I do so. I remembered an old fashioned yet full-of-style technique, Two-Handed Quicken. I moved into the area where the insects roamed around.
One of them moved near enough to me, and made a loud, buzzing sound. It's an alarm. I knew that my life is in danger as soon as so many of them swarmed to me.
I need to do this right, or else. . .
I waited for the right moment that all of them moved inside my range. One of them moved near enough to me before the others, and stung me in my arm.
*sknikt!*
ARGHH! What. . . is this. . . power? It's just a small needle, but this pain. . . damn, is this why the three of them afraid of doing this?
I glanced at the three behind me. Sheizan changed his weapon to what seem to be a gatling gun, like a Gunslinger's weapon.
I have to trust them.
They are all close enough to me now. . .
"IGNITION BREAK!" I cried as loud as possible. I pushed my sword towards the earth, and hit the earth with all my might, creating a powerful, fiery spark as I do it.
The spark quickly expanded into an explosion, powerful enough to blast all the insects around me, but not some of the farthest.
There still a lot of them. I can heard footsteps from behind, and saw Rext charging next to me. He then spun wildly with his Hora Sword while he shouted 'Tornado!" with such a noise which pierces the rainy sky. I looked around and see that the rest of the insects are being shot by Sheizan and Asgir who fired at all insects around me.
I kept looking around. More and more insects are coming out of their nest. I can't use Ignition Break again after such a short time, but we can't do anything else. . .
What should we do. . .?
I looked for Rext, who are bracing for impact from one of the larger insects. Damn it, can't I do anything else. . .?
And suddenly, a flash of bright light covered us.
"JACK FROST!"
I can heard someone said a spell familiar to my ears. But, that spell isn't the only thing familiar to my ear.
The sound is familiar as well. The last voice I heard right before I was transferred here.
"Ray?" Yes, that light and soft tone, it's her. The girl with a long, waist-length straight hair, and dark brown eyes.
Alia Margare Croissante. A fellow adventurer. A Warlock.
A childhood friend.
I put my blockade away and looked at her. The insects had all dropped into the ground, by the force of a Jack Frost spell she had used.
"Ray!" She charged into me, and took me down with her as she hugged me tightly.
"Uh. . . Hey, Alia. . ." I tried to push her away, but looking at her crying face, I can't help but to let her be right now.
"Can you help her stand, Ray? We need to get out of this place first, before the insects spawning once more. This place's magic gave the insects a really weird style of appearing." Sheizan asked me. I nodded and grabbed Alia, then put her on my back.
"He. . . hey. . ." It seems that she protested me, but it's not that I don't care, we need to get out.
"At least, come this way." Rext lead the way. We moved into a place where it's calm enough, on a small road which connects Beast's Mountain to another place. But I felt kinda hot here, not significant, but I felt the differenct between this small path and Beast's Mountain. Also, it's raining no more.
I put Alia down. She looked kinda red.
"You're okay? Did you catch a cold, Alia?"
"As if!" She turned her head away from me. Could it be. . . that she really catch a cold? I put my gloves away and touched her forehead. It's kinda warm, and I can see her face turn red.
"I. . .I'm okay!" she forcefully put my hand away from her forehead.
It began to feel hot around here, the temperature changes drastically from the cold and rainy Beast Mountain to a hot, volcanic area-like one.
"Ah, yes, I almost forgot, here, take this." Rext threw two reddish stones to me, and I gave one to Alia. "It enables you to survive in the place we're about to arrive.
Then, we're out of that small road, arriving in an area full with volcanic activities, from flowing lava to a peak that sometimes bursts magma out of the crust. This place felt more dangerous than the last one, it reminds me to the Magma Dungeon or worse, Thor Volcano. Alia hold my hand tightly.
"It's okay, this place aren't as dangerous as it seems. The monsters here are weaker than the monsters in the Beast Mountain." Asgir told both of us. Alta loosen her grip, it seems that she's kinda relieved, but she stayed on guard.
"Shall we move on?" Rext asked. Both I and Alia nodded, Sheizan complied.
"I'd like to get out of this temporary alliance as quickly as possible." he mumbled.
"You're not the only one, now, let's go." Rext lead the way, followed by Asgir, then Sheizan, and then me and Alia on the back.
We passed through some fiery monsters there, and while it's true that the attacks of the monsters there aren't as frightening as those on the Beast Mountain, they still packs a punch.
But things changed when Sheizan told us all to stop.
"Wait. . ." he raised his right hand, gave with it with a signal to stop.
"He's. . . out of his lair." I can see some kind of fear in his eyes. Not a major one, but still quite a fear. Both Rext and Asgir moved forward and try to focus to see what he sees. Then, they too started to show some fear.
"Well. . . how could that be. . .? Belphegor himself out of his lair. . . Wondering what's he's into. . ."
"Who is Belphegor?" Alia asked. Asgir pointed out to a large, reddish, humanoid demon figure in the middle of a field encircled by streams of lava.
"Oh. . ." she gasped, but quickly regained control.
It's not like we rarely see something like that. It does seem if this Belphegor is really powerful and dangerous, but we are used to see some monsters whose power are the same or worse.
"I wonder who's beside him." Sheizan said. There's someone else beside the Belphegor. . . and it's a familiar figure.
"No way." I shook my head in terror. Beside the Belphegor, stood someone (or better, something) that I have not seen for quite some time. A tall, dark, skeleton warlock whose name would set anyone but the bravest of guilds in fear instantly.
"Dark Lord." Alia gasped again, and now she trembles.
"You know it?" Sheizan asked. I nodded. I can see both of Alia's hand are shaking. I grabbed one of her hands.
"What should we do. . . Ray?" she asked me, her sound is trembling.
"I don't think we should face them." Rext advised us. I agreed with him. Dark Lord is strong, if that Belphegor is really powerful, we are nothing but mere bugs to both of them.
"How should we avoid them?" I asked.
"We're in the Genial Springs, we can take a detour to another route to avoid them." Asgir told us. Well, a slight detour is better than facing two powerful enemies.
"Let's do that, then." I nodded. Sheizan walked first, he led our way through some infernal enemies. We walked through a small path to a hill where we can see quite a lot of the Volcanic Cauldron Area. It's actually quite refreshing.
"We're almost out, I think we can relax for awhile here. You might want to know, this place was meant to be kinda noxious, but this red stone we brought with us gave us immunity to the air." Rext told us as he sat on the cliff. Sheizan sighed a bit, but he smiled lightly as he gazed into the Volcanic Cauldron.
"I hope what we saw earlier wont make more problems than it should had be." Asgir told his mind to us. Well, I hope so too.
"Thanks. . . for helping us." I said to the three of them. Rext smiled.
"Before both of you came, a Half-Elf came here too. As well as a Werefox. After a few troubles, they was able to go back to their respective worlds from the Sette Ruins. Since that incident, the three races on Novus is on a truce to find the source of this trouble. That's why it's our duty to send you back home." he lightly told us.
"Did someone destroyed the border between worlds. . .?" Alia asked. To herself, it seems. I looked at her.
"Such thing could happen, my teacher said. When such thing happen, he said that things might be a little chaotic in the future." She said again. What might her teacher meant?
"Well, I guess, we better be going now." I said. Then, I can feel that Alia held my hand tightly. I held it back, and smiled at her. Her face turned red, again.
We finally headed to the exit, another small path. The landscape around us changed, from a fiery volcanic region, to a dusty and wild desert, with a lot of canyon around it.
"Here we are, Sette Desert. The ruins are in the center of this desert. Let's go." Rext scratched out his hand to me, which I accepted with my right hand.
"Yes!"
We took a walk through the desert, where guards from the three races can be seen patrolling around. Sheizan, Asgir, and Rext were greeted by many of them. It seems that they are quite famous.
"You guys are famous around here?"
The three of them turned back.
"Well. . . not really. . . We're just. . . Vice Archons~" Rext said lightly, while smiling brightly to both me and Alia.
"And that means. . .?"
"We're the second-in-command of our respective races in Novus."
Wow. That's one HUGE thing to know.
"That's. . . great. . .!" But then again, if they are really the second in command, why they don't just destroy these insects? I bet they can do it with ease.
"But, the insects back there. . ."
"Actually, we wanted to see your powers. I'm curious about them."
So that's the reason? Man. . .if you wanted to see it, you can just ask it. . ."
"Oh, by the way, this is my real weapon" Rext took out a silvery spear with an ominous aura surrounding it from a device, he struck the ground with it, creating a slight tremor. It's powerful, really powerful. Asgir and Sheizan let out their respective weapons, a bow and a huge gun-like weapon. Both have ominous aura similar to Rext's spear.
"Why don't you guys go against Belphegor, then?"
"We think we don't need to make any movements yet, and he is with the one which you seem to fear. Plus, it's still idiocy to fight Belphegor with five people, we might need two or more guilds only to fight him." Sheizan explained to us. That's well said. It's true that any attack must not be made recklessly against such powerful enemies.
"Well, we should return you as fast as possible."
We then walked to the ruins, which I can see just as we take a turn in a triangle crossing. It's huge, and yet, so old, for a planet with such advanced technology as this one.
As I enter the ruins, I can see the walls embedded with intriguing carvings.
"It's beautiful. . ." Alia gasped with a small voice. She's right. It's beautiful. There's three person of each race inside, they are aligned in a triangular pattern.
"We need the power of the three races to send you back." Asgir explained. "Step on the platform on the middle, please." He told us. I walked to the platform, followed by Alia. The three person who was aligned put their hand to the ground.
"You're ready?" Sheizan asked us. I nodded. Then, suddenly. . . *grab!* Alia hugged me. I was stunned for awhile, then I take a look on her face.
It's red. Blushing red, like an apple on its ripest form. Just before Sheizan counts, Alia whispered something to me. "I. . . like. . .you."
"Huh!"
"Then, One, two, three!" The surroundings change, into a colorful yet abstract place. A plane between planes, it seems.
Instantly, I felt the same sensation with the one from the time when I got transferred here.
But now, with a soft lips touching mine.
"Why. . .?" I asked Alia.
"I liked you from a long time. . . but I never had the chance to confess. . . you were always so busy with your guild. . . and your tasks as a Rune Knight. . . I'm sorry. . ." I can see tears shedding from her dark brown eyes.
No. . .it's not her fault at all. . . it's my fault. I never learned of her feelings, and yet, I never even convey my feelings for her.
I used to like her, but, I never had confidence in myself, then that I make myself busy with things to forgot about it, to the point that I got too busy to remember about things like this. But now. . .
"Then. . .will you be mine?" I asked her. She smiled, then hugged me tightly.
"Yes!"
A bright light flashes above us, then, the surroundings change into a familiar scene. A scene full with Poporing and Rocker around us.
"This is. . .near Prontera. . ." Alia told me. Well, I know it myself, this is where we first tried to hunt after I became a Swordsman, and she became a Mage.
"Shall we go back to Prontera?" Alia asked me. I shook my head.
"No. . . I think I wanted to be here a little longer. . . just the two of us. . ."
And then, we sat together, both of us, talking about good old days and our future.
Though we never know, when danger will bound to come.
-The End-