Looking at the horizon, the setting sun behind her, she saw the old Fairystar Tower.
Making sure no one saw her, she jumped off the edge, and materialized a magic circle sturdy enough to fly there.
Alurrie traced her eyes across the tower, and feeling no life from it, she sped forward, the wind whipping her.
In a few minutes, she reached it and entered using a window from the highest floor.
Spotting a bookshelf to the left, she instictively looked at its surroundings, ensuring no traps were active.
Taking a thick volume, she began reading through it, trying to memorize all of the information in it.
Using her free hand to take out the black book right next to it, she placed it down on the table and opened it.
Throwing the book she just read away, she looked inside the black book.
Inside it were pages of magic circles, and those alone.
If she weren't Lady Kasarana's protege, she would've let it go.
Using the tip of her left index finger, she began flowing magic towards the book, and the pages flew out, forming a line of circles.
The circles began etching the message within them on the wall behind them.
"Time Magic and Space Magic can only be unlocked to the world when one event has altered the flow of time, heading towards a different conclusion."
A second line began forming underneath it. written the same way the first line was written.
"If you are affected, however, check your palm."
She checked hers, and saw the lines changing.
"My God. . . What could this mean?"
A third line left a cryptic message, before the rings separated themselves back to pages and fell to the ground.
"The source holds the key role, and the curtain rises on destiny's rewritten play towards a new ending."
Alurrie took a step backward in surprise from the revelation, then laughed.
"So my hunch was true. They have books that can tell me about the last 2 elements!"
Cleaning the room she was in, she readied it to be her base in the meantime.
Flushing dust out with a blast of air, she aired the sheets of the bed and readied herself to immersion in finding the information she needed in the old tower's library.
She was as giddy as a child, excited over what she might learn in the libraries.
"If memory serves me right, there was a book sorter in the middle of the library, some sort of magic device to search for books easier."
A loud rumble from her stomach snapped her back from thinking.
"Well, first things first. Food, bath, then research."
Finding a rune-marked stone slab beside the room's doorway, she tapped it with her staff and activated it.
The stone slab began moving while a terminal-like pillar rose from the ground, and uncovered a button on its top.
Light came from the crystal, flooding the once-dim and quiet tower from top to bottom, magic humming lightly from the crystal.
Gazing at its splendor, another vision attacked her mind.
It was hazy, but she could feel a large blade pierce her abdomen, and a gauntleted hand slowly crush her skull.
The hilt touched her torso, one side touching the end of her sternum and the other covering her navel.
A burning smell filled her nostrils as blood gushed from her mouth.
She couldn't speak or see, but she could hear the screams of dying monsters around her, along with their generation of 6 Heroes.
And they weren't in Cliffland, but in a nest, while inhuman roars nearly rendered her deaf.
Then it dawned on her, that this wasn't Velskud's Black Dragon's Nest.
It was Rothius' Black Dragon Nest, and they had just failed to kill him.
How or why the vision suddenly attacked her was unclear to her.
It ended after she felt the blade being pulled out of her body, returning her to her senses.
Understanding it as memories of another her in another time, in another space, she stepped on the slab, and it brought her to the level where the kitchen was.
A weak, warm wall of air was there, keeping ingredients as fresh as though it was picked just that morning.
Even the meats hanging on the hooks were all fresh, like it had just been butchered.
The silence overwhelmed her as she prepared to cook.
Placing wood in the furnace, she let loose a thin jet of flames which started the fire.
Spreading a thin amount of oil over the slanted iron board, she began slicing some ham while waiting for the oil to start sizzling.
Cutting the end part of a loaf of bread and taking a bite out of it, she began wondering how all of it was kept fresh.
Locating a staff at each corner, all of them expelling air that kept the room sterilized and extended the food's longevity.
"These might be the ones keeping the food from spoiling or going stale. Better leave them as they are."
The oil began sizzling and she threw the slices of ham to the iron board, and fried them.
Preparing herself some sandwiches, she piled them on a plate and headed back to her makeshift base.
She ate in silence while reading through handpicked volumes from the shelf.
"Least I could do now is study the possible after-effects of the timestream's change in course, if it DID happen."
Reading through the book, she noticed a few pages which stood out.
"Scrap notes. Better include them in leafing through."
Taking those out of the book, she piled them up as she marked the page she'll go back to after the notes by bending the corner of the page.
Checking the notes, she immediately recognized it as her master's handwriting, done during her time training here.
"Time and Space Magic is unstable, and nearly unusable in its current state. However, if one event is strong enough to change the main flow, then the 2 branches of magic might stabilize."
Letting her hair down, she looked at the other pages.
"More Magic Circles. Wonder what's recorded."
Tapping the other four pages with her staff, they floated a few inches from the table, formed a small stack, and stuck themselves to the wall as such.
A voice recording of Kasarana played.
"By the time someone plays this, I am long gone."
"I am recording this to record my findings in Time and Space Magic."
"In my findings, only an event that alters the timestream can unlock all its potential."
"Even if you, dear listener, try to hunt down the books where I learned them, you'd learn the same as I did."
The pages then flew towards her, with one sticking to her forehead, one stuck to each of her palms, and the last stuck itself in between her breasts.
Kasarana's knowledge about all of the time and space manipulation spells flooded to her, invading her mind and body, etching themselves among the skills she already knew.
Alurrie's brain felt like it was about to explode from the information flow, throbbing painfully.
The pain was almost enough to make her snap, and every second felt like an hour during the transfer.
She thrashed about, unable to bear the pain, hands clasping open and closed, her eyes rolling to the back of her head.
Her body felt like electricity ran through it at fast speed, up and down.
Memory transfer ended faster than it seemed, and she slumped on her chair, gasping for air.
Regaining proper breath was a bit of a task for her, as she felt her lungs were close to empty.
Heavily breathing in and out, gasp after gasp, she closed her eyes as she tried to relax.
"I think I still need to find anything Master Kasarana might have missed, and I'll stay here longer."
Standing up, she braced herself and turned in for the night, unaware that a crow was watching her as she slept.
Dropping a letter with a rose inside, it flew away into the night.
7 Years had passed, and she did manage to uncover more secrets than her master did.
An ancient colosseum underneath the tower and the large, half-dead monster that made its Nest in it.
She also uncovered the Old Witch Queen's set, a staff made out of gnarled and twisted white monster bone and its partner, an ornate cube, with the monster's soul sealed inside.
Inanimate machines made for the sole purpose of maintaining and helping were in the tower's core, which she reanimated by linking their cores to the tower's.
But that morning, an unexpected visitor had arrived.
It was Lars, who had come to pick her up, with his usual stern look.
"And what brings you here, Lars?"
"Nickolaus summons you. Better pack your stuff and get ready to leave."
"The reason being?"
"He's grown impatient, without 7 full years of no contact whatsoever-"
"I was absorbed in my research-"
"He demands your presence, and I am prepared to bring you there, conscious or otherwise-"
"You have to understand, Lars, I just can't abandon everything so suddenly-"
"He's extremely-"
"Furious?"
"No. Lonely, and eager to get married."
Alurrie slapped her forehead, and bid Lars welcome in the tower, with the latter marvelling how alive the place seemed.
In the few minutes that had passed which seemed like a moment, Alurrie came down via the stone slab, clothes collected in one box and her notes in another.
Slinging her staff on her back holster, and tossing the cube up and down in her left hand, she raised a finger and the two boxes lifted themselves to the air, a few steps behind her.
"Seeing as I have made my betrothed wait that long, might as well rush going there. You got transportation?"
Lars pointed outside to a massive Black Horse, twice as large as a normal horse, with blood-red eyes.
"Any news concerning Rothius?"
Lars' frown deepened, a sign of something bad.
"He has fallen. Became the new Black Dragon completely. Knows no friend, only foes. Or so the knights and Clergy say."
"Has he attacked anything so far?"
"None, only those who dared attack him, mostly the Holy Order who seeks his head."
A sharp pain hit her head, and she screamed in pain, her palms stuck close to her temples.
Within the throbbing red in her mind, she saw a vision.
In a barren wasteland, with corpses of soldiers, warriors, sorceresses, clerics, archers, academics, and monsters, all messily piled up around, two figures stood in the middle.
A fiercely-blazing red aura wrapped a black figure, while the white figure had a blue aura, burning like the red one.
Both figures stretched out an arm, with something shining in their hands.
The light was almost blinding, yet found herself unable to close her eyes, both black and white swirling in a massive tornado in front of her.
And amidst the mixing light and dark, 2 previously-unseen dragons stood where the combatants had been.
A black dragon with 12 wings and 3 heads stood on front of a silver-and-gold dragon, which had the same amount of wings, but had only 1 head.
Deafening roars rang in her ears, nearly making her eardrums explode.
A sea of flames filled the area far beyond what she could see after the black and white light subsided.
Amidst it all, two human-sized figures were where the two dragons had been, wielding swords which seemed to have been pulled out from the flames.
Out of the black figure, words issued out of its mouth.
"First Release! Sorrowful Tears Of The Impartial Judge!"
The white figure followed suit, and uttered as well.
"First Release! Mad Tears Of The Ruthless Tyrant!"
A curtain of bullets flew everywhere as the two fully extended their arms, each hitting their counterpart with perfect accuracy.
Both attacked at the same time, and an explosion was seen, blacking her out.
Her body limped down, and Lars caught her with one arm.
"What happened?"
"A vision. No big deal, it happens from time to time."
"Visions? Of what?"
"POssible futures. Did you not feel a sudden shift years ago?"
Lars swallowed, his face grim and still in thought.
He slowly nodded, his eyes looking straight to hers.
"Years ago, an event broke the flow of time. The world itself changed to accomodate the new direction our fates took."
Slowly lifting her and hoisting her over his shoulder, he walked out of the tower.
As soon as he was a good distance away from the main door, the tower shut itself down.
Summoning the second horse via its medal, he placed Alurrie over it while he sat on his, her levitating cargo following her.
With a loud shout from Lars, the horses reared and began galloping towards Nick's village.
As soon as they were in a safe distance, the tower crumbled to the ground.
"Just like a demon's castle when the battle's over, and the maiden is saved, eh?"
On the way, they were blocked by a small platoon of Orcs.
"Tch. Bastards."
Triggering a switch on his mace, it became a long whip, its chains spiked.
"Let's dance, foul beasts."
The orcs roared at him and charged, weapons at the ready.
Lars readied his whip, and hit the foremost orc leading the charge, each spike on the chain's links biting through its skin, piercing muscle and bone.
With a strong yank, the chains ripped that orc in pieces and wounded the ones near it.
The chains snaked their way back into the handle, and Lars let it out again, catching a wounded orc's ankle.
"I guess letting loose a bit will do."
Pulling the chain, he used the orc's body as a makeshift impact ball.
"Come forth!"
Using the pull of the chain as momentum, he used the orc's body to hit its companions until it stopped making squeals of pain.
"Dead already?"
He slammed it hard on the ground, building momentum for it by jumping high and bounce-kicking off a tree.
Hearing that loud howl of pain, Lars confirmed the orc was just playing dead, and continued his assault.
The leg where the chain bit looked as if it would tear off at any given moment, blood oozing out where the flesh was punctured.
The orc's bone began breaking, along with the one where the spikes embedded themselves in both loud and weak snaps.
An orc tried to sneak up behind Lars, which got its club caught in between the blades of Lars' mace.
With a jump, he tossed the orc behind him upwards with a kick and sent it crashing down to the ground with the chained orc.
A loud crash accompanied by the melody of breaking bones and dying moans rang for a few seconds in that old road.
Lars flicked the whip's switch to the other way, and the chain retracted back to the handle, and jumped back to his horse.
A loud shout, and the horses moved towards their destination.
In a few hours, they reached the border of Nick's village, the setting sun behind them.
Nick was at the gate, leaning against the large wooden pillar, his large axe at the opposite.
"At last, you've arrived. So, how was the trip?"
Lars jumped off the horse, and tossed its medal at Nick.
"For mere foals, they sure are fast. I would've preferred the older horses, but hey, whatever gets the job done."
The two shook hands when Lars was in range, and shared a wide grin.
Nick snapped, and a tall Kali caught Alurrie as the horse was sucked into the medallion.
"Take her inside, if you don't mind. Her cargo will follow you on their own.
With a light bow, the Kali carried the unconscious Alurrie inside.
Night fell, and she regained consciousness, beside Nick, who was snoring as loud as ever, with a thin trace of drool going down one of his cheeks.
She sat up, and covered herself with another, warmer blanket.
Reminiscing about the time she spent with Rothius, she found herself quietly sobbing.
"He's not here when I need him the most. Tomorrow's my wedding, damn it!"
As soon as she finished that sentence, as if a heavy-handed chance, a crow as big as a falcon. landed on the open window.
By instinct, she reached out and held its small head in both her hands.
She saw what had happened to Rothius' wife, his execution of her murderers, and his acceptance of becoming the Black Dragon.
And now, he's roaming the land, eliminating monsters and humans, alone, with no one to even comfort him.
His exact location was deep in the Desert Dragon's Nest, devouring the dragon bit by bit.
And it's quite far, near the edge of Western Lagendia, the Great Desert.
He was there, in the depths of loneliness and sadness, slowly being driven to the edge of insanity.
Letting go of the crow, she looked at it, and smiled.
"I saw everything. You were with him the whole time."
It cawed, and flew away, towards the midnight sky.
"So that's why. . . He went away to try and seal himself still. . ."
Wiping her tears, she gave the moon one last look, and went in Nick's arms, lightly kissing his lips.
His warmth felt almost different, like the home she had lost years ago.
The following day, their wedding took place.
She wore that white dress, and Nick, for the first time, wore a formal white suit.
Lars wore a formal white suit as well, but kept his weapons at hand just in case.
The ceremony was quick, but the festivities lasted for 3 days.
And 9 months later, she bore a child.
A male, which mostly took from his father, but had his mother's hair and eye color, a fierce red.
The most notable feature was the two moles beneath his lower lip, one near his chin and the other a bit above it.
One morning, while breastfeeding her baby, she saw a hooded figure outside the village, near a tree.
Although unsure, she had a feeling that she knew him, a sense of familiarity flooded her.
The hooded figure threw a knife her way, and she dodged it.
On that knife's four-sided handle were four words.
Pulling it out of the wall, she read the words etched to it.
"Life. Joy. Luck. Strength. It's just like him."
She tried giving it a comforting smile, but the figure was nowhere to be found.
And in its place, was a sword, planted where it stood.
She traced her gaze towards the blue sky, a smile on her face, even as tears flowed down her cheeks.
"Really, he hasn't changed one bit."
And in the years she spent with her husband and closest friend, all three raised the boy.
8 years had passed since then, and the boy gained strength, bit by bit.
As the child of a Sorceress and a Barbarian, it had the abilities of both.
The child was named Edmond, and was being groomed by his father to succeed him as the next Village Chief, should something ever happen.
Just as cheerful and laid-back as his father, but sharp-minded and observant like his mother.
Their peaceful lives had an abrupt pause when the news of Rothius' return to Central Lagendia.
"This might be bad or good news, depending on the situation of Rothius' mentality."
Nick, sitting on the mat as usual, one hand on his knee and another fiddling with his axe, furrowed his brows.
Lars, who was sipping tea while leaning against the wall, rested one hand on the mace on the holster on his waist.
"Nick, this situation, what's your assessment?"
A grin formed on Nick's face as he looked at his wife and partner-in-arms.
"Lars, and Alurrie, if it's Rothius, we can turn the danger around. If it's him, we can convince him, that even all these years, my village is still a safe haven for me."
Alurrie stood up, and pulled out her staff and cube from the stand.
"Let me do it, dear. If he still reveres whatever shred of humanity he has, he won't lay a hand on me."
Nick slightly shifted in his seat, and nodded.
Lars frowned, but found himself slowly nodding.
"I leave by nightfall. Take care of little Edmond will you, dear?"
"I'll see to it he's safe."
She gave her husband a smile, walked over to him, and gave him a sweet kiss.
"And may we do have luck on our side."
Nightfall came, and she managed to pinpoint Rothius' location via divination using a map of Saint Haven.
"Here I go."
Opening a portal by snapping her fingers, she could feel the heat of battle.
Nick, Lars, and Edmond saw her off, with Edmond clinging to his father.
"Take care, Mama!"
"I will, dearie. Mama will be back by sunrise or the day after tomorrow, OK?"
Nick went over and kissed her forehead, while Lars gave her a warm pat on the shoulder.
Wearing the hood of her cloak, she stepped therough the portal, and closed it.
"And that's where you first saw me."
Seleece lit up a cigar, and opened a flask of whiskey.
"Hope you don't mind, I need the drink."
Taking a large swig and a puff of the cigar, Seleece looked at the sky.
"Then, Rothius does possess humanity within him. That seems to be in our favor."
Alurrie looked towards the horizon, a light look on her face.
"Now, it's your turn, Seleece."
"I'll save it for later, titty lady. We're almost there."
Seleece pointed to the port, and there it was.
The port to Nickolaus' village.
"Finally, I get to meet the two men who had given Rothius his humanity back, eh?"
And as she finished that sentence, Rothius stepped out of the ship's inside and walked over to the edge of the ship.
""Alurrie! Seleece! Once we set foot in there. . .""
Rothius stuck his thumb out, and brought it down.
". . . It's time for Hell on Lagendia."