Hi. I don't know how to write. Also I've been dealing with someone unfavourable but… hey, I'm back. This chapter is an introduction to the next seraph and what we should be doing instead of ruining the game's plot xD;; But we ruined it anyway.
The walk was mostly quiet, save for our footsteps as we headed towards the city of Pendrago and the downpour continued. The work of Cardinal Forton. Sighing heavily as we trekked through the Pearloats Pasture to Aevar's destination, I knew that there's really nothing we can do this time. Last time I'd been here… I'd assisted Zaveid in killing the Cardinal. That had been a turning point for Sorey, and I'd royally screwed it up last time. I knew we needed to skip past Pendrago, but Aevar did have some business to attend to there. So we trudged through, heading to the city real quick.
"Looks like we might need to take care of the Cardinal again." Zaveid sighs, before sneezing. I just shake my head and continued forward. We couldn't. If we did, we'd screw up the process of things here. We'd head to Gododdin instead after Aevar was done with the business. Walking along wasn't too difficult. The path was memorized in my head, and yet I took the way that my feet lead me. The path I'd gone was straight for the Crucible in the game, and then after beating it, I went to Pendrago… That was right. How could I have forgotten? Sighing deeply, we head towards Pendrago as quickly as our feet would take us, hoping that what we had to do wouldn't come to pass again. Aevar's business there was only to drop off a package at the inn before we left. As we did, it was then that Sorey and the others arrived.
So we'd just made it before they had. How odd was that….
I bristle, ready for a fight, while Sorey puts his hands up in a gesture of surrender. Staring, I watched as his seraphim appear. Lailah puts her hands in front of her, clasping them near the hem of her dress. It was her that walked towards me.
"Melanie, about what happened in Marlind..."
"Save it, Lailah. I know how you all think of me. Nothing but a liar who wants to bring the gentle shepherd, Sorey, down," I snap back before she can continue. "Listen, I said I'd explain everything later. As in later, when it's safest to say and I could've actually helped you guys."
Lailah recoils a little, but looked away. My gaze is drawn from her to Dezel. Zaveid can hardly suppress his surprise at seeing him, and I hear a small noise come from him. Somehow, and I don't know how, he had actually reeled himself in and didn't make a comment. Sorey walks over to me and I step away as soon as he went to put his hand on my shoulder. Certainly, we'd acted as friends before but now I knew how they thought of me.
Nothing was going to change that. I wasn't taking their charity now that they were actually thinking. Maybe that was a bit irrational of me, but I didn't even care at that point. From what happened in Marlind, I wasn't going to be so forgiving so easily. I'd had so many things happen to me because I forgave so easily, so much hurt and pain… I wasn't going to let that happen again.
"Melanie..." Sorey looks like a kicked puppy. I look away from him. "We came to apologize."
"Save it. I'm not forgiving you that easily. None of you. It just happened a couple days ago, so of course I'm still mad about it. Maybe when you grow up, I'll accept it."
Harsh. Aevar looks at me strangely and then sighed.
"Sorry about her. She's just trying to deal with some things at the moment." He gives a small bow, in which Sorey return. "We're on our way to deliver something to a lady in Gododdin, so we'll be seeing you soon, Shepherd."
He take my wrist and lead me out of the area. After that, we have to head to the Biroclef Ridge. On our way we'd see another Crucible but I know I could do nothing about them. It was only Sorey and the others, not another Shepherd that shouldn't even exist in the world and a Zaveid from the destroyed Glenwood…. I don't have the power of purification, anyway. Heading that way was the only thing that we could do at this point, so we went back to the Meadow of Triumph.
"So, where to from here?" Aevar asks once the rain let up and we weren't being drenched by it. I gesture to the leaning tower in the distance.
"The Biroclef Ridge is to the south." Exit to South Ridge was what popped into my head, and I faintly remember that I had to take another route but… without Sergei's assistance, we'd have to do what we could to get there. I hoped that Zaveid's Wind Rush ability would help us get by the obstacles. When I remember Aevar needed to be my Squire to do so, I stop in my tracks.
"Zaveid, he needs to be my Squire. I don't know the ancient language..." I mutter to Zaveid. Within an instant, he appeared by my side, folding his arms against his chest.
"Don't worry about it. He seems pretty dedicated to his tasks. How about Hihogelih Eiben? It translates to 'Aevar the Dedicated'," Zaveid offers. I glance at him and ran it over in my head. Hihogelih Eiben…? That would make sense. Though… I wonder if it was true for him. Would Zaveid know how to make the Squire's pact? Probably not.. So that means I'd have to walk him through it. I really, really don't feel up to that, though. Honestly, we're not the 'official' type of Prime Lord and Shepherd. I can't purify anything and Zaveid sure the hell didn't take an oath for the power of purification. This left us at a standstill. Either walk him through it or hope to hell Wind Rush could extend to Aevar.
There was the little matter of having Sub Lords, though. I turn back the way we came, just to look into the distance. If I focus hard enough, I can see the Rayfalke Spiritcrest from where I stand. That mountain was tall, and was a point where Seraphim of the Earth had been born a long time ago… It was Eizen's domain now, so that meant…
"Aren't you gonna make him your Squire?"
Zaveid's voice jolted me out of my thoughts, and I have to look at him for a moment before sighing. Right. Squireship. Squire… stuff. Squiredom.. Okay, I really need to stop thinking about that in a Kronk-like manner. Shaking my head, I swallow a bit putting my hands on my hips and keeping my gaze on him.
"Do you know how to make the Squire pact?" I ask.
"Uh.."
"Guess that's a no, then. I'd have to walk you through but it's… hard to remember from when I was the other Sorey's squire for a time..." I sigh and walk forward. "When we get to actually be around them without having to tip-toe around, I'll ask Lailah about it. She's been a Prime Lord longest. I just remember the Sub Lord pact."
"And how the hell do you know that?" Zaveid asked, quirking a brow. I shake my head, looking away.
"We saw Lailah and Edna's pact, right? We just have to fix it for each sub lord. There's water, earth and fire we need to get." I tick off each element on my fingers. We needed the Sub Lords if we were going to help Sorey in his fight against Heldalf. But… if anything, we'd have to figure out how to save our Earth Seraph. I still remembered the fight against Zaveid, and my leg throbs in pain a little. I wince, looking at it. Saving Eizen… was a sort of pipe dream. But if I could find a way, if we could just figure out how…
"When you two lovebirds are done chatting, can we get going? If we keep standing around, that shepherd and his seraphim are going to find us!" Aevar said. I nodded, heading forward. Goddodin was where we were supposed to go… but I couldn't help but wonder if we should attempt-
No, it's too soon. Eizen would have to wait. We'd have to get to him before this world's Zaveid joins Sorey. Everyone did that sidequest for Edna's second mystic arte but it wasn't worth the pain and suffering. If I had three other seraphim, I could possibly do it.. But then.. I needed to make sure we had enough bullets left in the off chance…
No, no. We weren't killing him.
We weren't. No one believed there was a chance to saving Eizen. But there was something left of him in there. AI or not, it was a shot in the dark, and a shot I was going to take. This was my decision, and thus I needed to do it correctly or suffer the consequences of telling Edna her brother was dead. And I hate breaking promises. Giving a small sigh to myself as we walk on, a blast of fire and a yell was what diverted us to a battle.
A young man, with long black hair tipped in pink and wearing travelling clothes, was fighting a hellion and was injured. The hellion was advancing, and there really wasn't much I could do. Not without armatization, and I didn't want to immediately fall into that. It was a crutch I didn't need. I just had to fight. Looking to both Zaveid and Aevar, I just give a nod and gesture towards the hellion. We could beat it back, we could. Just give the seraph enough time to escape and we, too, could get the hell out. It was probably the fact I was too used to just fighting now that I was the… second to leap into action. Zaveid, obviously, was the first. Fighting hellions was his thing, so he was always ready. So it seemed, anyway. I had to wonder briefly, while dancing about on the battlefield throwing punches and dishing out kicks like no one's business, if this was really supposed to be 'normal' for me. Probably not.
"Mel-!" Was all I got as a warning before something hit my side and I was smacked into a cliff. Suddenly disoriented, I felt pain all in my left side. Breathing in hurt but.. my arm didn't hurt at all. Clamping a hand over where my ribs were only caused me more pain. Busted. Damn it. Struggling to get up while dealing with the pain of busted ribs, I refused to cry out in pain despite the fact it hurt so badly. It'd derail from the fight.
I'd be fine.
Rushing back into the battle, not giving a thought to how badly it'd affect me if I fought in this condition, I fought with everything I had. Having to dodge hurt, having to breathe hurt, moving my left arm hurt because it was attached to the left side of my body, everything hurt. But I had to work through it. I heard Zaveid yell, and then I felt extreme pain. It was then I cried out as I hit the ground again, shoved aside, and grasped my left side. Pain. Nothing but pain. Through tear-blurred eyes, I could see the man warding off the hellion with flames.
A fire seraph… how lucky.
That was my last thought before everything went black.
Yeah I know, been gone since January. Been… well, not motivated to write this, honestly. It's pretty personal reasons why, but I was dealing with someone not-so-savoury for months until just a couple days ago. So that's why this update is so late. I apologize about this, and how crappy it is right now.
I'll set this as a semi-filler chapter. Sorry for not answering reviews, either. I haven't had much of a good day.
