The boat creaked and moaned as Gareth, Kent, Alice and I rowed on our way to Crescent Lake; Kent said that in order to get to the island where the volcano is we were going to need a small boat to traverse lakes and hopefully the town would sell boats to get us through the area. As we rowed I looked to see the wood around the boat was beginning to rot and splinter letting water in to the lower area; we've been keeping up on maintaining the boat so why was it now falling apart?

"Hey guys?" I said getting the others attention, "Should we be worried about the water leaking into the boat?" I turned everyone's attention to the leaks currently letting in water and they all gave a look of small worry.

"It must be the rotting sea." Kent said trying to explain the sudden decay, "With the water crystal unavailable the sea waters are turning rotten and destroying boats that travel them."

"And you decided now to tell us this!" Alice yelled pissed at just learning this crucial fact.

"That must be why those pirates were raiding that town." Gareth said thinking as the water slowly rose to his knees; looking down I saw the same was happening around me, "Anyone else have wet legs?"

"We should get out of here, now!" We all abandoned the lower area heading for the main deck on top; when we got to the top I looked up to see Lissa was currently in the crow's nest and Hana was dispatching some of the monsters that had gotten onboard, out the side of the boat I could see we were approaching a dock near a cresent shaped lake with a small town in the center. I looked down to see the boat was slowly sinking into the murky water; I'm guessing we didn't want that water to touch our skin; looking back at everyone I saw as Gareth and Kent had moved to the front trying to measure the distance and I'm guessing they were going to swim for it, "Stop guys, the water is rotting the wood, I don't think we want to know what happens to our skin." They stopped, backing up from the head of the boat; looking over I watched as Alice climbed up to the crow's nest hastily with a scared look on her face, that right she can't swim; she has the right idea though, "This way!" I motioned to the crow's nest and everyone headed for it hastily; the first one to go up was Gareth and the Kent followed by Hana, once Hana was far enough up the ladder I climbed on as the deck was almost consumed by the water. Luckily the boat still had some momentum as it headed for the dock but at this rate we wouldn't make it before the boat was completely underwater and we were six feet under! As I climbed into the crow's nest I noticed that the sails had unfurled and were completely open; rope must have broken…wait that's it, "Does anyone know a wind spell?"

"I did find an old air tome at the magic shop; I haven't had a chance to read it though." She said pulling out a worn tome.

"Hope you can read fast because I need you to cast it on those sails and fast!"

"We can't use actual wind power so we'll just use magic wind!" Hana said coming to my realization. I looked down to see the entire deck was now under dark murky possibly poisonous water.

"Lissa?"

"Hang on; I think I have the basics down." She quickly closed the book and shoved it into her bag, as she pulled her hands out another book fell out but she was too focus to notice; I picked it up catching a glance at the cover, 'beastiary' she had a record of monsters on her? I looked to see she was trying to cause a gust of wind; she breathed deeply with her eyes closed before extending her hand softly, "Aero!" As she exclaimed those words I could feel a strong wind push us and watched as the sails shot forward catching the wind and pushing us forward closer to the docks as the sails disintegrated as they touched the water; come on! There was suddenly a jerking halt as we came just to the dock; the boat must have hit the earth in the water, as it sank I took a look and if we jumped we could make it but our legs would shatter on impact.

"Everyone jump and roll!" Everyone gave me a nod and they all jumped onto the land; jumping forward I tucked into a roll and rolled along the grass landing on my back relieved that my legs were intact. I looked up at the boat to see Hana hadn't jumped yet and had a pensive and fearful look on her face; she was wearing a dress, she couldn't roll! As the post began to sink it I looked at it and turned to Alice, "Blast the post!" She hastily shot a blast of fire and it burned the wood away leaving a sliver left of where she hit; the post fell forward as the crow's nest came crashing down, "Jump!" Hana jumped and I scrambled catching her sending us tumbling into the ground as the post hit the earth and then fell backwards into the sea disappearing.

"Whew…everyone okay?" Alice asked with a relieved sigh at which everyone nodded in response, "Good…but now we have a bigger problem."

"Yeah, now we're stuck on land with no way around the world." Kent said with a look of deep thought stuck on his face.

"We're not getting a boat again that's for sure!" Gareth said dusting himself off, "The water is way too dangerous to cross."

"At least sea water is." Lissa added, "Until we fix the water crystal we can't travel the seas. I also don't think we can get our hands on another ship anytime soon." She was right about that, a ship wasn't going to be easy to come across and a dingy ship would be destroyed by the monsters swarming the sea, unfortunately they were immune to the poison water which made our job much harder on too many levels to count.

"Um…would you mind getting up?" I looked down to see I was over Hana currently and got up dusting my coat off as she got up dusting her dress off, "How chivalrous of you to catch me Soren, my knight in shining armor." She gave me a smile and giggled making me blush at the strange compliment.

"Tch…shameless flirt!" Alice said annoyed as she pushed me over to the main group, "Come on, we're on land so let's head for crescent lake." She pushed me forcefully getting us to move towa- ow! Did she just pinch me in th- ow! Again!? Ow!

We approached the small town and I was surprised to find it was even smaller than we thought it was; every shop was connected by the same road and the inn was one of the first buildings you would see when you enter the town with the item shop next to it and a church a few feet from the inn. With how small the town looked it was amazing to enter the shops and see high level weapons and magic on the shelves; every weapon was mythril quality and I think I even saw a death spell in the black magic shop.

"This is a game changer." Alice said with a strange smile on her face.

"You really think you need it?" I asked and she shrugged.

"You never know when we might need a spell to completely get rid of an enemy." As she said that Lissa pulled the book off of the shelf and read the inside.

"Only kills those who the caster truly considers an enemy."

"That's oddly specific." Alice said skeptical.

"I'm guessing it was the cause of either a break up or bitter divorce." I said with a chuckle; we all turned to the clerk who had a pissed off look on her face.

"Trying to use a death spell on me in an argument, you better believe I dumped his sorry ass." We all gave each other an awkward look and decided to just grab the spells and head out to meet up with Gareth, Kent and Hana near the equipment shops. When we approached the weapon shop all three of them came out with Gareth in patches of armor covering various parts of his body.

"Like my new armor?" He asked polishing his right shoulder plate.

"It's less than half of the actual armor, as far as I'm concerned you have nothing on!" Kent said poking his unprotected left arm.

"What is your obsession with bits of armor?" I asked remembering his last outfit in the Mushroom Kingdom.

"It protects vital areas and keeps my mobility high."

"No it doesn't, you desecrate the good integrity of metalsmiths the way you wear your armor!" Kent yelled pent up.

"You're really passionate about armor aren't you?" Lissa asked obviously amazed at his outburst.

"Armor is a necessity when you're a warrior; unless you're a mage or black belt you always need armor." He replied with a hint of proudness in his speech, "Which is why I'm disappointed in you two!" He pointed to me and Gareth; me!?

"Me!? Why me!?"

"You can't use magic and your skill with two blades and even one blade is sub-par, your speed is decent but armor would still increase how useful you become on the battle field. Yet you insist on fighting in that tattered black cloak." I looked at my coat to see the ends were slightly burnt and there were holes in a few areas; guess I needed a repair.

"I enjoy my mobility, it makes it easier to block and dodge hits. Gareth can you do a patch job on this for me?" I asked handing my coat to him.

"Patch job? What do you take me for? It'll look brand new when I'm done." Gareth said boasting his skill, his skill was on par with what he boasted though, and after all he was in girl scouts, "Why are you chuckling?"

"No reason. Anyway did anyone find a small boat?" Everyone shook their heads; thought so, where were we going to find a boat to take us through the rivers here, it seems like were up a creek without a paddle…or a canoe.

"I did hear about a group of elders that live in this town, maybe they could help us out." Lissa pointed out.

"Where are they?" Hana asked.

"They're on the outskirts, on a path behind the magic shops."

"Really? The town is so small you wouldn't even notice it." She was right about that, this town could fit into the palm of a giant; noticing any path hidden path would be pretty difficult as every inch of the town was packed. We moved in between the two shops and to the right was a bridge leading into a wooded thicket; walking along it the silence set in as we moved further into the woods. The woods suddenly separated into a large circular area and in that area were twelve elderly men all sitting in a circle and all with peaceful looks on their faces. The strangest part was that we could feel the wind blow around us; the wind should still be dead as long as the wind crystal is inactive, it was like this area is outside the laws of the world…or is the only area still in full effect of the laws.

"You must be the Warriors of Light." One man stood up and turned to us and then to Kent and Hana, "Well two of you. You've done well to make it this far and even more to bring these ones as well." He motioned to Alice, Gareth, Lissa and I, "I am to assume that you do not belong to this world?" What!?

"How did you know?"

"We've lived long boy and in that time we've tapped into the multiple dimensional possibilities that exist for our world. For some there have been times where we never meet the warriors of light, sometimes on their own and in some rare cases they are accompanied by one more with something unique to them."

"What?"

"They don't exist in any other dimensional possibility. Out of the millions of possibilities the unique extra only exist in one possibility, they may be different with each we see but we never see them again." Travelers only exist in one universe…but the theory says that every choice we make opens a multitude of alternate universes; it's impossible for anyone to defy those rules, if the law works here then every choice a traveler makes should open a massive amount of universes…does that mean travelers exist outside the laws of the universe…or is there something more to it?

"There is one I have seen multiple times though."

"Who?"

"A man is a cloak covered from head to toe."

"The boss!?" Lissa said shocked.

"He's been here before!?" Alice asked surprised at the news we received.

"How can he do that?" Gareth asked, "For that matter how can he travel from world to world?" We turned to Lissa who looked flustered.

"I-I don't know, in the time I spent there I never understood how he was able to move from world to world seamlessly. It never made sense to me." She looked down sadly as she said that. This was just getting stranger; we know now that travelers exist in only one universe per world and that the cloaked guy can travel to worlds and universes on his own as many times as he pleases, but know the question becomes why travelers only exist in one universe and why the cloaked guy can travel as he pleases. No matter how much I learn about our circumstance there are always more questions without answers; at this rate my head was going to explode!

"Calm down Soren." Alice said putting her hand on my shoulder, "Remember, when we finish this up we get all our questions answered."

"Just stop worrying about it for now." Gareth added in.

"You're only going to hurt yourself worrying about it right now." Lissa said, "I'm not sure what you three are talking about but right now we have to keep moving forward okay?"

"Thanks guys, I'll try not to think about it so much, can't make any promises though."

"If I catch you freaking about it again then I get to hit you, deal?" Alice said raising her fist.

"Deal…and thanks."

"What are friends for?" She giggled as she said that and I chuckled back.

"Ahem!" We all turned to Kent and Hana who each had a different expression with Hana looking confused and Kent looking pissed, "Mind explaining it to us!?" The old man raised his hand and moved over to the two of them.

"Like the rest I must do this, the less you know the better." He threw a strange powder in their face and it sprinkled as the flailed, "That should get rid of their memory of your little talk, I'd be careful with future conversations though." He did that to protect us…but protect us from what?

"Why did you do that?"

"Everyone has their reasons for what they do and for the task you four are to face it is better if those who travel this world know as little as possible." Even though he said that I felt a little wrong deceiving the people we were traveling with, it felt…wrong to me.

"I suppose with what happens at the end it is better if they don't know." Gareth said, "We just ghost through these worlds anyway."

"Really?"

"It's the safest way actually." Alice said, "If they knew that people from other world could invade then it would cause tension and fear to run throughout the world, we would be destroying the world by telling them of this possibility." She was right, if I was told that I could be attacked by someone from another world before all this then I would live with fear and dread at the possibility for the rest of my life.

"I guess…still…."

"It might feel wrong but we don't have a choice." Lissa said, "Every world the boss touched became worse because they knew of his power. In order to protect this world we have to keep it a secret." It doesn't feel right but if we have to then…I guess I don't have a choice.

After Kent and Hana came back to their senses one of the elders gave us a canoe to help us in our travels; with that canoe we could move through the rivers around the area and hopefully make our way to the volcano where the fire crystal was. Unfortunately for us the canoe could only hold four people in it at once which meant two of us would have to wait behind at town while the other four headed for the crystal. We decided that Lissa would come as she was the only one who knew white magic and Kent would go so he could protect the mages of the group with his armor, Gareth was also going as an extra attacker which meant it came down to either Alice or Hana to go while the other waited in town with me.

"I think Alice should go." Kent said, "She has good fighting skills and black magic that can be added to weapons unlike Hana who can only cast powerful spells."

"So you want usability over strength?" Lissa asked.

"Yep, it helps to make the party stronger instead of blast apart the enemy."

"Blasting apart seems like a winner to me." Gareth said with a chuckle, "I vote Hana."

"I don't mind staying." Hana answered, "It gives me time to get to know Soren better." As she said that she scooted closer to me; what was she doing?

"I think I need to stay, you guys can get back quicker if you blast them apart anyway." Alice said glaring at Hana as she moved next to me.

"I don't mind either of them." Lissa said obviously trying not to ruffle any feathers, "What about you Soren?"

"Me!?" Don't throw me under the bus Lissa!

"Yeah Soren, who should stay here with you?" Alice asked with a hint of hostility in her voice; I was dead meat if I answered wrong, I could feel it.

"Um…how about…rock-paper-scissors?" She gave me a glare and turned to Hana.

"Alright then! Ready Hana?"

"Ready!" Whew; dodged that bullet…or at least just took it in the shoulder.

Gareth

"See you guys in a bit." Soren said with a wave, Alice also gave a wave to with a smile on her face; despite losing rock-paper-scissors she looked okay with it, well at least we have Hana with us, "Oh I almost forgot." Soren pulled out a book from his bag and handed it to Lissa who gave a small gasp, "You dropped this in the crow's nest." I looked over her shoulder to see a book with the words 'beastiary' on the cover; what was it?

"My book! Thanks a lot, I was wondering where this went when we crashed!" Lissa said excited.

"What is it?" I asked honestly confused, I had never seen a book like that before.

"It's a book with a record of monsters and 'beast' hence the name 'beastiary' Gareth." Soren explained, that makes sense; I've only read tattered fable books at the orphanage so I've never come across a book like this…but is I had to guess then I'd say this book is exclusive to video games.

"Where did you pick up that gem Lissa?"

"Oh…I didn't buy it. It's my own personal copy." Really, she made that book?

"Mind if I take a look?"

"I don't know…it's not complete yet."

"It's got to have some useful stuff in it though."

"…Okay then." She handed me the book and I flipped through the pages; each monster had and illustration on one page and a description on the other, the description were long and over descriptive with their color preferences and combat strategy and the area where they show up and- ohhhh my head kind of hurts.

"Careful Gareth." Alice said pulling the book from me and flipping through the pages, "There is an abundance of information, some of these things I didn't even notice before. How did you keep track of all this?"

"When I fight an enemy I take notice of what I can in the tide of battle."

"Still, there's stuff here about the Lich I don't think any of us even took notice of at all; his tendency to block or dodge is even on here! This is amazing!"

"You can keep track of those things?" Usually I just work through the tendencies but her book makes it sound like she could think up a whole new strategy.

"Well…my eye can catch things that others dismiss or notice and I have a secret obsession for keeping records, it was a way for me to keep my head from being filled with all this info and soon turned into something I really love to do." Really?

"That's pretty cool. To keep track of all that info is something but to be able to make a good sketch and description is really amazing." As I said that she looked away with a hint of pink forming on her cheeks.

"Well…thanks Gareth…that means a lot."

"I think we're all set." Kent said as he picked up an ore, "Gareth you and me are paddling while Hana and Lissa direct us."

"Sounds good to me." I replied catching the paddle he tossed at me, "See you two later." With that Soren saluted us off as Alice waved goodbye. We crossed the threshold into the mountainous area where the only travel was by river; Hana had us going all over the place as she seemed to contradict herself with where she pointed until we ended up in a dead ended area of land.

"Hana, are you sure you have a good sense of direction?" I asked confused at where we were because it sure wasn't a volcano!

"Well…maybe I don't have a perfect sense of direction."

"We circled the same mountain four times." Lisa pointed out.

"I knew that was the same mountain!" Kent said a little peeved at Hana; if she was this bad at direction I better not let Alice lead us ever. I looked around and noticed a small opening near where we got off; I approached the opening of the cave and as I stood there I could feel a cold breeze blow through me from the opening, the inside must be below freezing if I'm shivering from just the entrance.

"That chill." I jumped as Hana was next to me suddenly; how did she do that, "I think this is the Cavern of Ice Kent!"

"The Cavern of Ice!? I thought that was just a myth?" He approached us with Lissa behind him and we all stood at the entrance feeling the cold breeze emanate from the opening, "It's definetly as cold as they say it is."

"What's in there?" I asked a bit excited at the idea of a legendary area; this is the rush of a lifetime!

"Apparently the Levistone, an item said to make it possible for you to soar through the sky like a bird." There's an item that would allow us to fly? That's awesome, with it we wouldn't need the boat, we could just fly all over the land!

"I say we go for it!" I said ready to dive into the cold opening.

"We have to activate the fire crystal first!" Kent said grabbing me by my collar before I could even get in, "Besides they say that the cold inside the cave is too cold for any human to withstand!"

"We're not ordinary though, we have a fire specialist with us." I replied pointing to Hana who waved.

"That doesn't mean we should just blindly go in!"

"We need a new form of transportation and who knows when we'll get this chance again!"

"Gareth, pace yourself remember?" Lissa said trying to calm me, I wasn't going to be swayed on this matter though; I had to take the plung!

"I'm going in, anyone following?"

"Damnit fine!" Kent said walking in front of me, "But just because we need the power on our adventure!" He loved it, I could just feel it.

The inside was much colder than the doorway let on but with Hana's fire spell and Lissa's nulfrost spell we were able to avoid frostbite and keep moving. The cave was pretty standard with monsters popping up from different areas and traps being laid out in areas with chest and treasure but soon we came upon a room with cracked ice lining the floor in different patches. In the center of the room was a floating stone and behind it was a strange giant red orb; as I tried to approach it Lissa stopped me and pointed to the patches taking her scythe and poking the holes open so we wouldn't fall into them. As we approached the strange shaped stone I heard a long exhale and felt the hair on my neck stand on end; something was about to attack! I jumped backwards over the whole as a giant head with one eye appeared out of nowhere; as I jumped back I landed on ice and my feet slipped out from under me sending me crashing to the ground.

"This entire room is lined with ice, don't move too much or too fast and you should be fine!" Kent explained as he pulled out his sword and shield; standing up I pulled out my battle axe as Hana pulled out her staff and Lissa readied her scythe. The head shot ice blasts at us as I blocked and Kent used his shield, Lissa slid to the side using the ice to her advantage and Hana shot retaliating fire spells canceling its spell; I jumped forward and swung trying to cleave the skull as it produced an ice shield. As the shield broke the icicles that formed honed in on me making me spin my axe to block what I could; two of the needled pierced my defense and struck knocking me backwards into Lissa who slid again and made me crash into the far wall.

"Sorry Gareth."

"It's okay, just keep fighting!" I stood up and watched as Kent got closer and aimed for the eye as it created another barrier of ice which knocked Kent back as well; this thing was smarter than I thought!

"Gareth, go for one side, Lissa go for the back and Hana aim for the other side!" Kent yelled obviously ready to execute a plan; Soren's plans aren't half-bad so I'll give him a chance. I moved and aimed for his right as Hana aligned herself on his left and Lissa got into position near his back; we all moved in attacking all at once as he created three different shields, as he maintained this Kent moved in and thrusted with his blade directly into the large eye. There was no loud shriek but just a sudden loss of concentration letting all of our attacks connect destroying the creature and sending it down one of the many ice holes, "Good job everyone, I think we found the Levistone." Kent moved forward and grabbed the floating stone but as he did that the red orb behind it began to fade away leaving a figure that fell to the ground with a thud; hastily shoving the stone in his bag Kent moved over to the figure as we gathered around it to see who it was. He was African American by his complexion and had a strong body, his face looked familiar to me and he seemed familiar, "It's Pent!" Another WOL?

"He looks like Gareth." I took a second look and realized Lissa was right, his face looked exactly like mine; that's why he looked so familiar…I've got to wonder why so far three of the WOLs look exactly like me, Alice and Soren though.

"We should get him back to town first; it's not very good to be unconscious in a place this cold." We hurried back and as I followed behind I had to wonder a few things. Was it coincidence that the WOLs look like us? We saw the face of the last one and she doesn't look like Lissa; who could she be then and where is her earth counterpart? Lastly, how are we going to fit five people into the canoe?