Yo, lLegendsl kinda sorta here. If you haven't checked my profile, I'm in a... haitus... coma... halfway? Something around those lines. I'll post stuff irregularly (if you haven't known I haven't posted in a while... wow) But for the few who are still into GC fanfic (it's like a ghost town in here, but more library than town. Ghost library?), here is an update for my terrible story.
I am not active again. Well, not yet anyway. I never got around to publishing this because I felt it was still kinda bad, but I checked the last time I updated and I'm going, "Holy shet, a year?!" Anyway, here it is, and expect changes to this chapter; I'm still not satisfied with it.
Disclaimer: I don't even know who owns Grand Chase anymore (._. ) . But I know it's not me.
Chapter 9: Finding the Orc Temple
In the silence of her office, the Knight Master grieved for those who were lost in the battle. Covering her face with her hands, she wanted nothing more than to retire to her chambers and sleep for a week. It did feel like she was dreaming; every aftermath of a battle, even those in the Five Year War, ended in a quiet lull. The chaos and cacophony were no more, and the screams of men and women who battled for blood and survival were replaced with hushed whispers and mourning for the dead. However, her duties as Knight Master would not allow such leisure; there were reports to read, documents to sign, citizens to visit, and meetings to attend.
And so she indulged in the feeling of unreality, until the world brought her back and the faces of the dead were no more than a distant nightmare.
Something sharp poked her in the shoulder twice. "Quite the sorry sight out there."
The Knight Master stood up so fast she knocked her chair over and slashed behind her, where the haughty and condescending voice came from. The rapier met only glass, and the large window shattered into a glimmering cascade in the sunset as the pieces fell to the distant ground.
A smug chuckle from behind her. "Oh, I'm sorry. Did I scare you?"
Slowly turning around, the Knight Master narrowed her eyes in dull anger. Standing in the center of her office were two people. To be more exact, one of them, a large, purple-skinned butler whose build could pose for a bodyguard was standing. The other, a young woman looking in her late teens with the same skin tone, had her legs crossed while floating, as if sitting on an invisible stool. Both had a faint dangerous aura about them. What was disconcerting was that both of them had pointed ears, like elves, but also horns. Almost like...
The Knight Master's face darkened even more. "I never thought I would be cursed with the company of Asmodians. Are you planning to attack Serdin?"
The male demon spoke in a surprisingly civilized fashion. "Rest assured, milady, we have no intention of doing harm to the city. We came here for-"
"Silence, Jeeves!" Flashing a glare at her butler, who merely sighed in defeat, the woman proclaimed, "What he meant to say was, you should feel fortunate that we deemed this place a waste of time to destroy! In fact, if you get on your knees and beg, I might allow you weaklings to assist me on my quest."
"I don't have time for this." Brushing her hair out of her eyes, the Knight Master stared at the girl with renewed contempt. "As you might have seen, I'm busy. If you have the time to make empty threats, you have time to get the hell out of my sight." Gesturing behind the demons, she seethed with quiet intensity, "There's the door."
For a second, the Knight Master thought it would come to blows, as the younger demon's face contorted into an expression of hate and anger over being humiliated and told what to do. At the last moment, however, she took a deep breath and remained silent as she composed herself. The girl sneered, "You might want to listen then, if you don't want these people to suffer."
"Are you threatening Serdin?" The animosity in the room suddenly became suffocating.
"Not us," the butler calmly interjected. "But dark times will soon come to both this world and our home of Elyos. Even as we speak, you deal with a threat to your world - a "Kaze'aze" - and unrest grows in ours. What we ask for is not domination, but cooperation."
The Knight Master raised an eyebrow. Although still skeptical of the two, at least the elder demon had a semblence of courtesy. "How are we to help you?"
"We heard that this Grand Chase is an elite unit dedicated to stopping threats to the world. What we would like is any information and news about abnormalities - spacial anomalies, surges of demonic magic, dimensional tears - anything that could pertain to a portal."
"Why a portal? Is there something dangerous sealed in Aernas?"
"Yes... and no." The butler looked over at his mistress, as if asking for permission to divulge further information. Taking the eyeroll he got as an affirmative, he continued, "The easiest solution to Elyos's problem is sealed away somewhere in this world. If we succeed in our endeavors, we can potentially halt our...issue from escalating any further. The only problem is - "
"He's a weakling, a coward, practically useless except as a meat shield, acts as a substitute chew toy for Mary, and..." The female demon swiped the air with her clawed hand and began howling out insults and curses, making it apparent that she and their 'solution' didn't quite get along.
"Enough!" The Knight Master pinched the bridge of her nose in exasperation. She sighed, "And if you fail to find him? What will happen?"
The two visitors fell silent before the butler said in a serious tone, "Should we fail, our world will be torn asunder, and Aernas will be dragged into the chaos."
Venturing out into a sandstorm was definitely not the best idea ever, Arme grumbled in her mind.
Their entire journey was almost entirely silent, partly because of the grim memories of Serdin, and partly because of the destruction wrought by the traveling orc party. Backtracking to the Orc Temple was a cinch; even a drunkard could follow the warpath that the monsters laid out. They came across villages three times, and without exception, all were reduced to a hellish landscape, smoking ruins with mutilated corpses scattered about.
Will every place we see be like this? The dead's glassy eyes still seemed to stare at her as they walked away from scene after scene, and every time Arme closed her eyes, images of blood, fire, and destruction briefly replaced the world around her.
The morbidity seemed to affect Elesis and Lire too; Lire's smile was fleeting with hints of sadness while Elesis seemed tense and grim with determination. Everyone had their weapons within arm's reach throughout the journey. With the possibility of stragglers, they all jumped at even the slightest disturbance, denying them good rest for the last two nights.
It was only when they reached the edge of the desert leading to the Orc Temple did they start to relax and speak again.
"We're almost there," Elesis said as she sipped from her canteen.
Lire squinted, attempting to survey the sandy landscape around her. "This place..." she whispered. "It feels... lifeless."
"What do you mean?" Arme asked. "Surely there's cacti or some kind of small animal that lives here."
"I would have thought so too, but I can barely feel anything. Even in a desert, you can sense the tiny sparks of life in the sands. This place is more like... a wasteland."
Letting the elf's statement sink in, the three began their trek towards the Orc Temple. As if it was expecting them, a sandstorm picked up mere minutes after entering the area. At first, it was mild, but the winds only steadily increased in severity. It was not long before they were forced to stop. The Violet Mage took first watch, in case a lost orc happened to come across their camp.
Which brought them to their current situation of being stuck in nowhere, blind, tired, and clueless.
Covering her eyes as the wind picked up, Arme shouted, "If only I could see something - I might be able to find out where we are!"
Elesis's voice was barely audible. "We can't be lost! We've been traveling in a straight line!"
"That doesn't mean we haven't passed the Temple, brick-for-brains!" Arme rubbed her eyes again, trying to relieve the irritation from the sand. "Gods damn this sand!" she screamed in frustration.
"Why are you complaining about a little sand? It's not that bad."
Arme turned around and stumbled to where she thought Elesis was. Bringing her face close to the general area of Elesis's, she replied snarkily, "I agree, but why don't you try opening your eyes first before saying something like that?"
The knight's eyes opened immediately, only to squint in the storm. "I didn't have my eyes closed! I... I was just lost in thought!"
Gods save us when that happens. Arme wanted nothing more than to just wildly throw spells at the desert until she dropped from lack of mana. How much longer will we have to sit here?! She began pacing around before colliding with a hooded figure.
"Ack! Sorry, Lire!"
Lire winced and pulled the hood tighter around her ears. "I'll be fine, but I really can't take this wind much longer."
Arme could sympathize. As someone who lived on an island for their entire life, it was no surprise that these harsh conditions caused Lire such discomfort. Although, to be fair, none of us were really ready for this. "You want me to see if I can calm this wind? I should be able to."
"That's a very kind offer, but won't it be an exhausting spell? Stopping a sandstorm like this is beyond most magicians."
Arme puffed her chest and boasted, "You're looking at the prodigy Violet Mage, Arme Glenstid, who is capable of casting enough high-rank magic to make the senior mages gaze upon me in envy! A task like this will be nothing!"
Lire's smile became a little more visible. "Well, if you insist..."
Arme immediately set to work. Expanding and opening her mind to the world, she willed the winds to calm. To her, the greatest thing about magic was its flexibility; limited only by one's imagination, a mage could perform a task through a near-infinite amount of means if they have the mana for it. In this case, she simply stopped them with force of mind - it was a good test of her limits, and she was too tired and irritated to think of a more elaborate method.
Almost immediately, the winds around them faded to a buzz, and sand no longer blew so hard into their eyes.
"Arme," Lire nervously whispered, "Drop the spell now."
"Why? We can finally see!" Slowly, the circular area where the wind did not blow expanded outward, revealing crumbling totems and ruined architecture. Arme pointed at them. "Look! We must be super close to the Orc Temple!"
"T-that's great and all, but please stop the spell. I have a feeling that-"
"Didn't you say that you sensed no life in the desert? They must be gone still."
"ARME, STOP!"
The vast desert became entirely visible, and the sun beat down upon them from the clear skies.
"..."
"..."
Elesis swore, scrambling to her feet with weapon ready.
Barely ten meters away was the orc war-band, camping out the sandstorm. In one fluid moment, all eyes in the warband turned to the three girls that magically appeared from the sands.
Arme whispered in a rushed tone, "I thought you said there was no life here!"
Lire smiled worriedly and apologetically while nocking an arrow. "Maybe I should have mentioned we elves can only sense forest life..."
The howling wind was replaced by the battle-cries of at least two hundred orcs and the ground trembled under heavy footsteps as the war-band charged.
Keep calm, Arme. Keep ca- Damn it all! We're going to be raped. We're going to be killed. We're going to be eaten! And maybe not in that order, either! "What do we do?! There's nowhere to run!"
Elesis growled, "You're right; the sand will only slow us down. We can't hide either in this flat and barren wasteland. So we fight!" Adding her voice to the noise, she charged into the fray without hesitation, cutting down any unfortunate enough to be in her sword's reach.
Lire launched a few arrows to thin the horde before kicking her bag towards Arme. In an authoritative tone, she said, "I have two mana potions left in there. Drink them and blast them away with the largest area spell you know!"
That in itself would be no problem, but...
Arme stammered, "B-but what about you guys? You'll be caught in the line of fire!"
"We don't have time to worry about that! Elesis is going to get overrun by the bulk of the horde alone, and I can't make enough arrows in that short amount of time. Get somewhere safe where you won't be interrupted and cast the spell! We'll worry about dodging... whatever it is... you throw at us when it happens." With a muttered prayer, Lire leaped into the fight, kicking an orc's skull in with an audible crack.
Frantically, Arme downed the two potions, choking and coughing at the influx of mana. Drinking so quickly would likely cause mild potion poisoning later, but Arme would worry about that later; if she didn't hurry, her comrades would die trying to stall. Closing her eyes, she willed herself a hundred feet away from the fight. At this range, even she could be caught by the spell, but any farther would reduce the impact of the spell. Arme quickly began the incantation.
While not the strongest in her arsenal, it is still a Forbidden Spell in inhabited areas due to the amount of widespread destruction it can cause to land, buildings, and people. It is also forbidden due to the high likeliness of friendly fire in warfare. In fact, a mage would more likely hit his allies harder than his enemies due to the positioning; proper positioning would force them near the front-lines, where they would risk almost immediate death. Fortunately for her, it was several hundred orcs versus the three Chasers, and none of the orcs bothered to look her way.
"Oh countless stars that wander the heavens, descend and purify the land! Meteor!"
Slowly, the sky darkened as clouds moved in and obscured the sun. A distant rumble caught everyone's attention, and Arme noticed a lull in the battle as everyone looked upwards. In a streak of red light, the first of the meteors collided with the ground, erupting outward in a spew of sand, orcs, blood, and fire. Realizing the danger, the horde scattered, desperately trying to dodge the impacts. Ferocious battle-cries became roars of terror, and Arme watched in numb horror as meteor after meteor fell from the sky, disintegrating anyone near them.
What have I done?!
As the spell reached its end, she collapsed from lack of mana and the abominable sight that she had created. Vision darkening, she desperately thought, They'll survive. They will make it. They have to. Please...
Don't die because of me. And Arme knew no more.
A/N: Seriously though, it's dead silent here.