Chapter 2 - Lyra

Alex woke up in the middle of the night, the past few days had been terrible. Seth treated them worse each passing day, as of now, their hands and legs had been both tied by ropes and their mouth was gagged. They rested in an inn outside of Ellinia; still having a long way to go until reaching Perion. Suddenly, a figure leapt into Alex's room, grabbed him, and broke out. Alex stared the person for a brief moment and recognized her; she was the young waitress girl. He lied flat in her arms and tried to organize his thoughts, but the sweet smell coming from her made him lose concentration. He slightly moved his head for a more comfortable position, but as he did so, something soft touched his face. Keen to discover what it was, he turned inward and pressed his face into the girl's breasts. She grunted with annoyance and Alex quickly turned around, blushing furiously. Then, abruptly, she let go of Alex and threw him into the nearest bush. Alex let out a muffled scream through the gag.

He suddenly heard sounds of combat and quietly lifted his head above the bushes to study his surroundings. He saw Seth in a fight against two people, the girl on the left, and the old man who owned the café on the right.

"I thought these two were on Manji's side, but apparently, I'm wrong. Sigh, if I knew she was so strong, why did I defend her in the café," Alex regretted, "Anyways, I should go rescue dad now," but he was immobilized by the ropes.

"Who – who are you two?" Seth growled.

Neither the old man nor the girl answered. They both ran around Seth swiftly, throwing stars at him with Lucky Seven. Seth was backed into a corner.

"Wh – what's the meaning of this?" his voice full of panic.

Suddenly, a star hit Seth's katana and it fell out of his hands, the girl stepped forward and chucked a star at his face, but the old man caught it in mid air with his claw.

"Don't hurt him!" he shouted.

"But he has killed so many!" the girl argued.

"You did what you set out to do, so let's go, now!" the old man yelled out.

"Always have to do things your way. Fine, let's go" murmured the girl in a disappointed tone.

The two of them backed away from Seth and ran into the dark night. Seth stood at his spot, still sweating.

"What in wonderland?? What's wrong with these damned people?" cursed Seth, "they must've had too much free time, screwing around with me for no damn reason!"

He thought for a bit, then realized what he had just said and laughed at his own stupidity.

"Too bad I lost that sissy boy, but at least the Chief's not gone. Manji will still be pleased," he chuckled for a while and went back to the Inn.

Alex kneeled in the bushes and watched as Seth walked away, "I have to go rescue dad!" this thought appeared in his head numerous times.

There was one problem, Alex couldn't move, he was all tied up. He looked around to search for a method. To his luck, he found a star beside him; it must've been left there after the fight. He moved slowly towards it and held it in his hands, and then sawed through the rope bit by bit. After what seemed like an hour, he was finally free.

"I have to follow Seth if I want to rescue dad," thought Alex, "but first I have to disguise myself, so he won't notice me."

He took up some dirt from the ground, rubbed it on his face, and quickly ran back to the inn. It was nearly morning. Alex had searched every inch in the inn, but didn't find a single trace of his father or Seth.

"I guess I'll have to go to Perion by myself," Alex decided.

After long hours of traveling, Alex almost reached Ellinia. However, he was exhausted and hungry from the trip. So, he decided to ask for some food from the nearest home. Since Alex was born in a rich family, begging for food was one thing he had never done before. Even when he ran away from home, he took plenty of mesos with him, but this time, he was penniless. A woman opened the door; she had a broom in her hand with a murderous expression. Alex stood in front of the door with his face all red.

"Buh – Duh – Uhh," never had done this before, Alex blurted out.

"WHAT?" the woman shouted, she was in a bad mood after just having a fight with her husband, "from your dirty looks you probably want food, right? Well, you're not getting any. You're the one who took my husband's wand, aren't you? Made him go all mad at me, thinking that I took it!"

The woman, who was lost in the sensation of yelling at Alex, took her broom and smacked him. A bang was made when the broom collided with Alex's head. The woman suddenly looked apologetic, but nevertheless, shut the door in his face. Alex was stunned at the randomness of this happening.

"Well, let's try the next home."

Suddenly, the doors opened again. The woman came out with a smile on her face, handed Alex a piece of bread and closed the door. Alex stood with his eyes wide open, completely lost at the extreme randomness of the occurrence.

After a day of traveling, he entered the village of Ellinia. Rain started pouring down; Alex quickly ran to the nearest inn. To his surprise, this inn was incredibly packed of people. He found a place and sat down, "I'll just stay here for a bit," Alex thought.

"Hey, buddy," someone patted Alex on the back, "you mind if I sit here? There are no more seats left."

Alex turned around and came face to face with a boy about the same age as him, "sure," said Alex quietly, who didn't want to draw any attention.

"So you're here for the ceremony of Chun Ji, huh? It's gonna be great, I heard that the four rulers of Victoria Island will be there, and also Manji."

Alex shook at the mention of Manji's name. He was scared to ask for more information, but his desire to rescue his father quickly overcame his fear.

"What ceremony?" Alex smiled weakly.

The boy looked at Alex in amazement.

"WHAT? You mean you've never heard about this ceremony? Oh god. Where have you been man?" the boy screamed.

"So are you gonna tell me about it or what?" said Alex irritably.

"Alright, alright. Basically, this ceremony's being held because Chun Ji is quitting the Victorian alliance. Surely, you know about the Victorian alliance, right?"

"No?" Alex stared at the boy.

"God, how do I explain this? Okay, we're at war against Ludibrium Clock Tower."

Alex nodded his head.

"Good, you knew that at least. Well, the Victorian alliance was established to fight against the Phantasy Seekers."

"Phantasy Seekers?"

"Oh, that's what the Ludibrium Clock Tower people called themselves. How could you not have known this," the boy shook his head and continued, "the alliance was created by six powerful individuals, Dances with Balrog, Grendel the Really Old, Athena Pierce, Dark Lord, Manji, and Chun Ji," he paused for a second, "Just recently, the six of them got together, and decided they needed a leader for it, but the problem was how were they going to select one? That was an uneasy question. So Chun Ji came up with the idea of a competition, a competition that only involved fighting, and the winner, who's obviously the strongest of the six, will be the leader. None of the others agreed to this at first, but no one came up with a better idea, so in the end, they had no choice but to have the competition."

"So who won the competition?" Alex inquired.

"Hang on, I'm getting there. Look, since Chun Ji came up with the idea, he was full of confidence, but lemme tell you the whole story," the boy chuckled with a proud look in his eyes, "The first match was Manji against Grendel the Really Old, but for some odd reason, Manji didn't give much of a fight, and Grendel won easily. Then came the second match, Dances with Balrog versus Athena Pierce, they both gave up a good fight, but in the end, Dances with Balrog won. Finally, the third match began; it was the Dark Lord against Chun Ji. At first, Dark Lord refused to compete, he said he wasn't interested in being the leader, but Chun Ji wouldn't stop trying to convince him. So in the end, Dark Lord agreed to fight, but it was obvious he didn't put efforts into the fight, so Chun Ji won."

"Oh, so only three are left, Dances with Balrog, Grendel the Really Old, and Chun Ji," said Alex.

"Correct. Can you guess who won in the end?" asked the boy.

"Chun Ji?" said Alex, who seemed unsure.

"Of course not! Why would he quit the alliance if he had become the leader?" the boy shouted at Alex, "It was Dances with Balrog that won! And you know why Chun Ji is quitting the alliance?" the boy looked at Alex arrogantly, and whispered, "it might just be a rumor, but many people say that he's quitting out of shame, because…" The boy had his mouth opened wide, but suddenly stopped talking.

"What's wrong?" asked Alex, "Hello?"

Alex waved his hands in front of the boy and tried to get a reaction from him. Then, abruptly, the boy fell onto the table. Alex was bewildered, he examined the boy and something had caught his eyes. A black object was jammed into the boy's back; he took it out and realized it's a throwing star.

"Murder!!" someone beside Alex screamed.

Every pair of eyes was staring in Alex's direction now. Since no one wanted to be involved in this, most of them left in an instant. The inn was nearly emptied, leaving only Alex and two guys who lied on a table, fast asleep.

"Who killed him?" Alex pondered, "This is not good, I've drawn too much attention, if Manji finds out I'm here, I'm dead meat!"

Suddenly, steps were heard from outside the Inn.

"Aaron, this rain's not stopping, my clothes are soaked," a clear and pleasant voice came from outside the inn, "Can we go and stay in that inn for a bit?"

Alex trembled at the sound of this voice; it belonged to that waitress girl. He quickly made his hair messier to not be recognized by the girl.

"A bit of rest is good," Aaron replied, "And Lyra, you gotta stop with all these whining."

"Lyra? I thought her name was Jennifer," wondered Alex, who now finds the girl even more mysterious, "She must've used a fake name. And Aaron is probably that old man."

The two walked inside the inn. Alex couldn't help but look up. What he saw was way beyond expected. The girl was no longer emotionless and unattractive, instead she was fair-haired and pretty, her eyes were big and expressive, her skin was almost see-through, and she still had the same gorgeous body as before. Judging from her looks, she's approximately seventeen years old. The old man was nowhere near as old as when Alex first saw him, he was only in his thirties at max. But from their voice there was no doubt that these two were indeed the two from the café.

"What the?" Alex stared at both of them with large eyes, "How?"

One of the guys who were sleeping on a table moments ago suddenly let out a laughter and almost made Alex jump up.

"Haha, you guys are finally here," the guy said, he had spiky hair, "Lyra, you should've came a bit early, then you could've seen Arman's accuracy. See that body over there?"

"Whoa, is he dead?" the girl whimpered, and backed off a few steps, "How come there's no blood?"

"Relax, relax" he laughed, "He's not dead, Arman didn't use enough force for him to die."

Arman suddenly woke up, his eyes swollen after his nap.

"What's going on Erwin?" he rubbed his eyes, "Lyra? Aaron? You guys finally here?"

"Arman!" Aaron shouted, "Do you realize what you have done? You almost killed someone!"

"Chillax dude, I'm just fooling around. Besides, he's the one who started all the non-sense talking. Just leave him here for now, he'll wake up soon," Arman replied lazily, "Aaron, why do you always have to act so mature?"

"Because I am," Aaron replied, "I am the only one here who actually has some responsibilities."

"Okay, okay. We get it Aaron," said Lyra irritably, "By the way, where's Caden?"

"Already asking for Caden," Erwin snorted, "What about me?"

"What about you? You're standing right here alive as ever!" Lyra stomped her foot, "So tell me, where's Caden?"

"He went to the nearest casino," Erwin replied, "Should be coming anytime now."

"Gambling again?" Lyra had a displeased look in her eyes, "Someone should've stopped him, it's a really harmful sport."

"Stop him?? Are you mad?" Erwin almost shouted, "He would've knocked me out if I tried to stop him. Maybe if you tried..."

Everyone started laughing.

"What's so funny?" Lyra grunted.

"Caden's gambling because he has nothing better to do when you're not here," teased Erwin.

"Non-sense," said Lyra, but felt happy inside her heart.

"So what'd you guys find out in Henesys?" Arman turned to Aaron, "Did Manji really go after Chief Stan?"

Alex almost fell off his chair at Arman's sentence; he focused as hard as he can to hear what they were saying.

"He only sent Seth to do the job," Aaron responded.

Erwin suddenly burst out laughing at the mention of Seth's name.

"What are you laughing at," Arman looked at Erwin as if he had gone mad.

"Seth? You mean that guy who calls himself the sword of flashing light?" Erwin snickered, "I just remembered how Caden beat him up a few months ago."

"Caden beat him up?" asked Lyra, apparently interested in the subject, "Why would he do that?"

"Turned out Caden didn't like Seth's nickname. So when he saw him, Caden yelled out loudly, 'The sword of flashing light? More like the dork that no one likes!' You should've seen Seth's reaction; he jumped at Caden without even thinking. But he was no match for Caden. Caden went around him, kicked him in the butt, and he fell to the ground with a mouthful of dirt. Then when Seth turned around, Caden had already grabbed me and hid into the bushes."

Alex listened to this in excitement, suddenly liking this Caden person. Aaron, Lyra, and Arman all laughed hysterically after Erwin's story.

"Enough about Caden now," said Arman, "Tell us what happened in Henesys."

So Aaron told them the whole story, about how he and Lyra disguised themselves and pretended to own a café, and how Seth murdered Chief Stan's whole family, leaving only the Chief and his son. Then at the end of the story, he added how Lyra went to rescue Alex for defending her.

"Wow, he murdered a whole family of people?" Erwin said fearfully.

Suddenly, a middle-aged woman stormed inside the Inn.

"Where is Caden? Tell him to get out here!" She yelled with an enraged look in her eyes.