Playing with madness
chapter 2
The party set out for Mt Aleph. Pietro explained earlier that morning that they might not be able to just waltz on up. Mt Aleph was a sacred place to the people of Vale and he doubted they'd let strangers from out of town climb up there without them being challenged by some form of guards. They also hadn't seen any sign of the man in black all day. They dismissed any thoughts of him and continued on. They crossed a bridge over a the river running through Vale. Not a ripple creased the peaceful deep blue surface of the river save from where the waterfall flowed into this part of the river. Some fish leapt out of the water before diving back in with a small splash, Lars eyed them hungrily. "We just ate breakfast Lars. You can't be hungry again already." sighed Pietro.
"But Pietro, those fish look soooo tasty." groaned Lars.
Pietro sighed again. Lars' mind seemed to constantly follow a simple loop. Food, drink, burn stuff, repeat. If this loop was broken that's when Hinaro and Pietro knew something was wrong.
Hinaro noticed a beautiful young girl sitting cross legged on the bank across the river from a large house with a pier extending out into the wide part of the river. Her hand submerged in the river, swirling the water in front of her. Hinaro seemed to be the only person to any pay attention to this. He stared blankly at her for about a minute or so, his mouth agape. Lars took no notice and continued on up the hill towards Vale sanctum. Pietro Noticed that Hinaro had fallen behind. He called back "Hey, Hinaro!" but Hinaro seemed to pay him no heed. Pietro shrugged and called Lars back before walking back to the bridge to retrieve Hinaro.
"What are you staring at Hinaro?" asked Pietro, brushing a lock of purple hair out of his face, looking around for what had caught Hinaro's undivided attention.
Hinaro shook himself "Nothing, I'll be back in a second." Hinaro hurried away from Pietro before he could read Hinaro's mind. He crossed the remainder of the bridge, past the small clump of trees and down the stairs to his right. Hinaro passed under the bridge all the while being observed by Pietro. Hinaro calmly walked over to the girl by the river. Pietro shrugged and decided to follow Hinaro, Lars trailing behind him, who stopped to pick an apple from the small clump of trees.
"Hey!" said Hinaro with a keen smile across his face.
"Oh, hi." replied the stranger absent-mindedly. Still staring at the little vortex in the water she had created with her hand. "And who might you be?" the stranger said before Hinaro can get another word in. Looking at Hinaro out the corners of her eyes.
noting what he was doing with his own.
"I be Hinaro and uuhh...who might you be?" Hinaro said charmingly all the while pervily eyeing her up.
The girl seemingly snapped day dreaming, even though she'd been aware of Hinaro before he even came close to her. She cast douse, drowning Hinaro's confidence, leaving him spluttering.
"That should teach you to stop being such a perv!" yelled the girl, a smug look appeared on her face as a couple of the villagers turned their attention to the noise.
"Never." said Hinaro cheekily under his breath.
She pushed past him like he was below her with his pervy ways. Hinaro was standing dripping wet and speechless, she had somehow caught him perving! "No one has ever caught me before." he babbled to himself inside his head.
Pietro smiled kindly at her as she passed him. she stopped and started chatting to with him. For all the information stored in Pietro's head, if there was one thing he knew nothing about, it was girls. Pietro started stammering and his cheeks turned red. He had never been any good at talking to girls. Especially not pretty ones.
Pietro gave her a quick eye over. She wore a light blue one piece dress which reached down to her knees, a white belt around her waist. Over this she wore a navy blue coat which reached to her waist. She wore dark blue stockings that went all the way up her legs and small white shoes. She wore a small golden pendant around her neck but it appeared to be missing a stone or gem from the center. She was extremely pretty. She had long flowing blue hair, just like a river, pale skin and deep blue eyes.
Hinaro glared at Pietro with a mixture of annoyance that the girl was talking to him and amusement because he was stammering and getting all embarrassed. Hinaro's eyes caught sight of something and were drawn to below the girls waist.
Lars walked up behind Hinaro, coming down from the apple trees, chewing loudly on another apple. "Why are you staring at that girls ass Hinaro?" he asked loudly.
The girl spun round on her heel with a fiery glow in her eyes and slapped Hinaro across the face, hard, while yelling "Pervert!" at the stunned Hinaro.
Pietro and Lars burst out laughing at Hinaro's misfortune. Pietro summoned up his courage and spoke up "I...I didn't catch y-your name." He said trying to keep calm and not to make a fool of himself. Hinaro glared at Lars with a burning stare while massaging his red marked cheek. Lars, being slow as he was, didn't seem to notice. Maybe his element protected him from feeling the burning gaze boring into the back of his skull.
"Avalon, and yours?" Avalon replied politely.
"P-Pietro." he managed to say before falling silent and smiling, his face red, passively rubbing the back of his head.
"We have to be going now we have...shall we say 'important business' to attend too', it was nice meeting you though." Hinaro said. She glared at Hinaro again then smiled at Pietro before hurrying away with a thoughtful look on her face.
"She seemed curious when we told her we were here on business, don't you think Hinaro?" said Pietro, recovering from his previous state.
"Ummm...yeah, we might want to watch her back...I mean our backs in case she shows up again." Hinaro said.
"Nice save Hinaro." chuckled Pietro. "She is a water adept but we have no idea what she is capable of so we'd best be careful." he added.
"A water ade...wait, how do you know that?!" exclaimed Hinaro.
"Mind reading abilities are extremely useful." He grinned at Hinaro.
Hinaro acknowledged him with a smile and a small laugh.
The party continued north through the village passing the small cottages inhabited by the residents of Vale. Navigating their way through the village with relative ease, Hinaro leading them wrong way twice and being corrected by Pietro both times. Lars wandering off at various points, smelling food, only to be dragged away from it by the other two. As they passed through the small group of houses where Vale's mayor resided. Hinaro couldn't help overhearing a conversation.
"Garet! Hurry up!" yelled a young male voice.
There was the sound of a window opening. The threefold turned the corner to see a boy with wild blonde hair and bright blue eyes standing outside a very large house, his hands cupped around his mouth to amplify his voice. A young red headed boy with spiky hair leaned out the open window.
"Quit yelling Isaac! I'm nearly ready. I've just gotta put on my tunic." said the boy with the spiky hair.
"You slept in again didn't you? I heard there are some strangers in town, three guys. We're gonna go meet up with Felix, Jenna and Avalon and find out who they are." said the boy named Isaac.
"Really?! Awesome!" The boy named Garet disappeared from the window and sounds of things being thrown about the room could be heard from the window. The Isaac boy sighed and sat down to wait on the grass.
"Heh, reminds me of when we were younger." laughed Pietro. A memory of himself and Hinaro waiting impatiently outside house in Bilibin surfaced in his mind. Master Hammet, the great merchant was in town and the boys had been waiting on Lars so they could go see what weird and wonderful foreign stuff was on sale at the market.
Hinaro laughed having the exact same memory come to mind at Pietro's comment. Lars took a moment to catch on before a huffy look crossed his face. "Hey, I was eating! I couldn't help being late!" he yelled.
"At the rate you eat you would of thought you would have been early." pointed out Pietro.
Lars made an annoyed sighing sound before turning to hurry on. Pietro and Hinaro just looked at each other an shrugged before following him.
The party approached Vale sanctum on their way to Mt Aleph. Being very wary of any elders or villagers that might see them climbing up to the sacred mountain. They climbed the stairs in front of the sanctum, keeping a look out for the village healers. "I don't see anyone. Let's go!" said Lars walking forwards round the side of the sanctum and up the path to Mt Aleph.
The sanctum doors opened. Hinaro and Pietro panicked and jumped behind the two stone pillars at the top of the stairs for cover. A healer walked out the sanctum doors into the morning sun, whistling a familiar tune softly to himself, and turned the corner that Lars had gone round.
The other two peeked out from their hiding places, their eyes darting from Lars to the healer and back again. Pietro recognized the tune the healer had been whistling, "'Golden Sun: book one is the title of that piece I think" thought Pietro. "An old tune passed down from the golden age. An ode to the power of alchemy." Pietro shook his head. Sometimes it was really annoying to know so much. He should be concentrating on the problem at hand.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing!" yelled the robed man. Spotting Lars walking past the tree near the path to Mt Aleph.
Lars froze. He quickly dropped onto the grass and crawled into a large flowering bush next to the tree. A faint "You saw nothing." could be heard from the bush. Hinaro couldn't help but laugh at this. Pietro's jaw dropped at Lars' stupidity. He slapped a palm to his forehead and growled in frustration.
The healer dragged Lars from the bush. "No one is permitted to climb Mt Aleph without permission from the great healer. Now away with you." the healer said as he pushed Lars towards the steps in front of the sanctum.
The three of them descended the stairs. "Well what do we do now?" asked Hinaro.
"There were bees in that bush." complained Lars, rubbing some stings on his arm.
Hinaro just laughed at him. Pietro scanned their surroundings carefully. He noticed a high ledge over the other side of the river. "I think I have a plan." stated Pietro.
"Ok, lead on." said Hinaro.
Pietro led them across the river again and out into a less populated area of Vale, where a single cottage resided. The party climbed the stairs in front of the cottage and walked over to the right side of the cottage. Hinaro glanced through the window. An old man with silver hair and spectacles was unpacking boxes of books inside. "To think! Lord Babi allowed me to move from Tolbi to Vale, at the foot of Mt Aleph to further my research into alchemy! What luck!" The old man said cheerily to himself.
"Come, Hinaro. Whatever the old man is up to surely can't be as important as our quest." said Pietro.
"You have a Point, my friend." reasoned Hinaro.
They had climbed the ledges beside that old man's cottage and came out on top of the high ledge Pietro had spotted earlier. Pietro explained his plan to them.
"You want us to do what?!" Yelled Hinaro and Lars in unison.
"Like I said. If I cast Whirlwind over the river, you can jump from here to the whirlwind and then over to the other side and the tree will hide us from the patrolling healers. It's simple." explained Pietro.
"I don't like this." grumbled Lars.
"That's only cause you can't eat it." remarked Hinaro.
Pietro sighed and cast Whirlwind. "Go on Hinaro." he said.
Hinaro frowned. He stepped back and took a running jump landing in the swirling mass of air. He struggled to stand up straight and threw himself to the opposing bank landing in a roll.
"See. Its easy." smiled Pietro. "You next Lars.".
"But...but if I miss I'll fall in the river." frowned Lars. "And you'd better not make me land in that bee bush!" said Lars anxiously
Pietro remembered the Mars adepts dislike for water. "Well then don't miss." he smiled encouragingly.
Lars leapt for the whirlwind. Lars was heavy and not the most agile of people. Pietro had to move the whirlwind to catch him, letting out a sigh of relief when the bulky Mars adept was caught up in the wind. Lars landed on his feet on the opposing bank, Hinaro grabbing him before he fell back into the river.
Pietro simply jumped giving himself a slight tailwind with his psynergy so that he cleared the gap in one jump.
"Come on. Onward to Mt Aleph and ever closer to completing our quest." said Hinaro motioning them to follow him.
Four young teenagers and and older girl stood on the bridge near the sanctum, watching the party of three.
"Is that them?" asked Isaac.
Avalon squinted at the party. "Yes Isaac, that's them." sighed Jenna impatiently.
"I know them!" burst out Avalon. "I met them earlier.".
"Are you serious?" asked Felix.
"Yeah. I dunno the blonde one's name, I think it was Hinaro, but he's a pervy jerk. Dunno the red hair one's either but he's pretty dim and food obsessed from what I gathered earlier. The purple haired one is called Pietro, he's really shy but he's also really intelligent and he was nice and friendly to me." she smiled.
"The red haired one sounds like Garet." Isaac smiled.
"Oi, don't be mean I'm not stupid!" Garet punched Isaac in the arm.
"Lies, anyway I wish I could meet them they seem so cool." said Jenna.
"But they've gone up to Mt Aleph, so we can't follow them any more." said Felix "Let's go visit that new person that moved in at the edge of town." he suggested.
Isaac, Garet and Jenna nodded in agreement and followed Felix away.
Avalon stared after the party of three. "They said they had business to take care of." she thought to herself. "I wonder what it was..." Avalon thought for a second. She made up her mind. She slowly started walking towards the path by the sanctum.
No one saw. No one was around. "Perfect." thought the man. He stepped out of the shadow of the cliff beside the sanctum, disabling his Cloak Psynergy. He looked about one last time before starting up the stairs that lead to Mt Aleph. He wouldn't let that party of fools interrupt his mission but first he had to retrieve that piece of paper. He was sure it was them who had set his cloak alight and stolen the piece of paper in the process at the inn last night. He would deal with them when the time came. He disappeared from view round the corner at the top of the stairs on the path to Mt Aleph.
As they climbed the trail, Hinaro and Pietro pushed on quickly. However, Lars was a few meters behind them. "Hurry up Lars! Were nearly there!" shouted Hinaro, panting for the effort of the climb.
"Yeah...I'm going...as fast...as...I...can." replied Lars, panting in between every breath.
The party approached the plaza before the stairs leading to the doors of the Sol Sanctum. "We cant go through, there is no exit according to the map we took from that guy, but there is a small pathway just over there." Pietro pointed out a small and thin dusty trail winding around the edge of Mt Aleph. Pietro directed them of to the East.
The threefold carried on up the path until they came to large plateau near the summit. They stopped to rest.
"Can we eat now?" asked Lars, falling onto his behind down on the ground.
"Do you see anything to eat Lars?" said Pietro upon reaching the plateau.
"Ugh, finally. Some rest!" Hinaro cheered, gasping for air.
"Yeah, I could do with some rest too." said Pietro, although nowhere near as worn out as Hinaro or Lars.
Just as they finished resting and prepared to leave. A dark figure emerged from the shadows of the mountain.
"Hm, I was wondering how long it would take you three to get here." Said the man clearly visible.
"You, your the guy that was staying in Vale. Who are you and what are you doing here?" demanded Pietro.
"My name is Xao and the rest will become clear when you give me my map back." said the black clad man angrily.
"Yeah, well your going to have to try take it back." said Hinaro confidently.
Xao unsheathed his katana in preparation. He waited eagerly for the party to attack.
They seemed to remain there, waiting, so Xao made the first move, he dashed towards them with his large unwieldly katana and took a large swipe across the three of them. Pietro anticipated the attack and swiftly ducked under it and shouted to Hinaro "You and Lars keep him busy! I need to gather my Psynergy."
Hinaro quickly caught the blade on his vambrace and knocked away the katana sending Xao off balance. Hinaro countered with his fist on target, Xao managed to parry and spun on his heel delivering a swift kick to Hinaro's jaw.
Lars cast Flare wall at Xao. He jumped forwards, avoiding the flames, and swung several strikes at Lars. Lars defended all the blows using his axe. Lars swung his axe downwards, deflecting the attack and trapping the katana blade in the ground. Lars grinned smugly at Xao. Xao simply gave a grunt and drew his other arm back, thrusting it forwards he fired a jet of water, hitting Lars square in the chest. Throwing him back.
Pietro swung his arm across his front in a crescent, directing his psynergy, casting Storm ray. Xao dashed towards Pietro and swung his katana wide, cutting straight through Pietro's attack with ease. Pietro let out a gasp and spun to the side, narrowly avoiding a swift downward slash from the katana. Xao tried to backhand blow Pietro's face with his right hand. Pietro raised one of his daggers barely managing to defend himself from the blow. Xao twisted and struck at Pietro with his left knee. Pietro hadn't expected this and was caught off guard, Xao's knee connected with Pietro 's side, knocking the wind out of him. The man punched Pietro in the gut causing him to fall to his knees. Pietro coughed and a spatter of crimson smeared the ground in front of him. He felt the katana's long blade level with his throat. The cold steel pressing lightly against his skin. Pietro gritted his teeth and prepared for the finishing stroke but it never came.
Xao gave a grunt as Hinaro's fist connected with his face, knocking him away from Pietro. "I got your back." laughed Hinaro, helping Pietro up.
"Water adepts are in abundance today it seems." commented Lars, stepping up beside his companions. Pietro and Hinaro just stared at him, thinking their ears had just deceived them.
"That's a big word for you Lars." says Pietro sniggered.
"What?" Lars said, a confused look on his face, not quite getting what Pietro was on about. He wasn't paying much attention to Pietro anyway. He was totally fixated on Xao, letting his warriors instinct take over, trying to predict what he would do next.
Xao stabbed his weapon into the ground and laughed. "Just try it, worms!" he mocked. He focused his Psynergy. His mind fixed on the water vapour in the air. He bent it and shaped it to his will, forming large chunks of ice in the air above him. He cast his Hail Prism, using his Psynergy to throw the ice towards the party.
Hinaro nodded to Lars and Pietro, using a mental link opened up by Pietro to communicate with each other. They dashed forward to meet the oncoming attack. Hinaro stopped and stood in the path of an oncoming block. Timing it perfectly Hinaro performed a somersault kick, knocking the block skywards, before landing and kicking off the ground immediately following the block upwards.
Pietro jumped, placing one foot on the stationary Lars' shoulder and using him as a platform to launch himself even higher. At the peak of his jump Pietro flipped forwards and landed in a crouch on the ascending ice block.
Hinaro rose up behind the block as it slowed to a halt in the air. "Ready!" he yelled. Pietro nodded, a smile plastered across his face. "Go!". Hinaro punched the block with all his might. The block hurtled towards Xao at an alarming rate.
Lars braced himself and caught another of the oncoming blocks. He held it in both arms and swung himself round. He let go of the block, launching it towards Xao's stationary form.
Xao folded his arms and watched with amusement. Whatever they were trying to do. It wasn't going to work.
Pietro drew his daggers. Xao jumped back pulling his katana free from the dirt. As he went, the block of his crashed into the ground where he had been moments before. The ice shattered and Pietro launched himself forwards. He slashed at Xao with the dagger held in his left hand. Xao jumped away just out of reach. Pietro cursed and hit the dirt. He quickly recovered, rolling into a kneeling position. He cast Astral Blast, throwing his arm forwards.
Xao spun around, casting Glacier as he went, the ice forming a wall between himself and Pietro. Pietro grimaced "This man is exceptionally fast." he thought "He can even keep up with me". Pietro's Astral Blast collided with the wall, it shattered from the blow but serving it's purpose and blocked Pietro's attack. Xao slashed with his katana as he turned and cleaved the block Lars had thrown clean in two, the two half crashed harmlessly around him. He reversed his grip on his weapon and brought it back. The blade clashed with the head of Lars' axe as Lars jumped at him, sending sparks flying.
Xao swung his katana overpowering Lars, pushing him back. He sliced at Lars twice, repelling him further.
Xao re-adjusted his hold on the katana's handle and laughed again, mocking their failed attempts to attack him.
Pietro and Lars picked themselves up and prepared themselves to attack again. Xao raised his weapon, the blade pointed at the two adepts, focusing on them. It was just the distraction Hinaro needed.
The sand behind Xao swirled rapidly. Hinaro's form appeared out of the sand and became whole. Xao's eyes became wide with shock as Hinaro's hand planted itself on his back. Hinaro cast Ragnarok , blasting Xao across the dusty earth, bouncing and rolling like a rag doll. Hinaro followed up by punching the ground, casting Quake Sphere. Xao was thrown into the air.
Lars cast Fireball, unleashing multitudes of fireballs from the palm of his hand. Xao was thrown back and forth as the fireballs struck him scorching his clothes and flesh. Xao fell from the air. He struck the ground, hard. He struggled to his feet before collapsing to his knees with a grunt.
Hinaro jumped towards Xao and shouted "Send him up again.". Pietro nodded and stirred up a whirlwind, launching Xao into the air once more.
Hinaro drew his sword and threw it forwards. He jumped upwards and cast Gaia. Hinaro's sword was caught in the spell and launched upwards. Hinaro landed on his sword perfectly, being carried up the way with it. Xao was caught off guard as Hinaro appeared above him, riding on his sword. Hinaro spun in the air above Xao, sheathing his weapon as he twisted. He thrust his leg downwards and brought his heel crashing down on Xao's head. His motionless body hurtled towards the ground at an alarming rate. "Now Lars!" yelled Hinaro. Lars cast Eruption. Two large spouts of magma burst through the ground from the depths of Mt Aleph. Pietro summoned up a powerful gale sweeping the magma into a horizontal stream in the air, engulfing Xao, sweeping him away in a river of lava before he touched the ground.
"Nice." commented Hinaro as he landed beside Lars.
"He's finished." said Pietro calmly. Dusting his robe down.
The magma flow subsided. Xao slowly got to his feet, shaking, the threefold couldn't tell if he was shaking because of pain, of excitement or something else. He started laughing, growing steadily louder. His laughter echoing all around Mt Aleph. Water started to form and swirl violently around him. His laughter grew louder and the water started to swirl in a violent vortex around him. The wind picked up and started pulling at their clothes. The water's swirling had formed a vortex of air. It was pulling at the party, threatening to pull them in. The party struggled to keep their footing against the strength of the vortex. It spread outwards and formed itself into long tendrils. The limbs of water started lashing at the three if them. The blows were powerful and the water felt sharp, tearing into their skin, cutting them as if they were knives. Hinaro let out a yell "We have to get out of here!" Hinaro gave a grunt as another tendril lashed at Hinaro, cutting a gash across his abdomen. "His Psynergy, it's too strong, we cant escape!".
"Just...hang in...there..." yelled Pietro over the howling of the wind.
All the water around him uncoiled into huge tendrils extending in every direction. The tendrils split apart forming hundreds of floating gobbets of water. The gobbets of water took shape and solidified into long thin needles of ice. He unleashed one last blast of Psynergy, launching every needle at once.
Pietro took a strong hit to the leg. The cold passed through his body unbelievably quickly. Pietro let out a gasp, his breath turned to steam in front of his face. he'd never felt such terrible cold...
Lars tried to block them with his axe but it was futile. One hit him in the shoulder, causing him to break his guard. Another struck him in the leg, knocking him off balance. Several more needles embedded themselves into Lars' body. Lars fell to one knee. Xao unleashed a torrent of water, slamming Lars into the wall. Lars slumped to the floor, knocked unconscious from the blow.
Pietro felt to the floor. He couldn't move, his body was numb with the cold. He let out another shallow breath, his vision blurred before his eyes. He couldn't keep his eyes open any long. He was so cold. Frost had formed on his face. Pietro closed his eyes and passed out.
"PIETRO!! LARS!!" shouted Hinaro desperately. He slipped forwards, the dirt coming free from under his feet.
"It's no use, they're out cold." he thought to himself.
Before he could go react, several ice needles impaled him into the wall, Hinaro spat blood from his mouth upon impact, knocking him down, just before he passed out he noticed a figure of a girl . As his vision fades the girl says "I thought you would have put up more of a fight, I thought you were better than this Hinaro."
"Wait...come back...who...are you?" Hinaro mumbles with the last of his breath before passing out with the rest of his party.