Chapter 20 - Inevitability
Ronan had instinctively put his hands in front of him when the darkness surrounded them. He peeked to find himself standing in an expanse of black. No matter where he looked, he couldn't see anything, save for himself. Another thing had also caught his attention: everyone was gone.
"Guys, where are you? Elesis? Lass?" he shouted.
He ran blindly in the darkness, calling out their names, in vain. It seemed like the darkness had no end. Sometimes, the ground he stepped on didn't level out like a plane. What he touched and felt all around him was unknown to him, and he was getting overly tense about it. He ended up thinking about how the others are doing in this abyss, especially Elesis.
"Scared yet of being alone?"
Ronan's eyebrows furrowed.
"Hahaha. I wonder how long you'll keep that fearless expression in your face."
"As long as it takes to get us all out of here," the magic knight replied
"How chivalrous. To think you had barely recovered from extensively summoning a winged dragon, and now you have the knack to say you'll lead everyone out."
The disembodied voice was right in one thing. Summoning had taken a bit out of him. But, that didn't mean he can't search for a way out of this illusion. "As a knight, my duty is to protect those that I care about, even if it's the last thing I'll do."
"The last thing you'll do... Very interesting."
Ronan heard a girl shouting behind him.
"You okay, Miss Amy?" Jin asked the dancer gripping tightly to his arm.
"I think so. It's just that I find this place too dark that it's scary," she admitted.
"Well, we are actually kind of lost in this darkness." Amy gripped his arm harder. "Ah, but don't worry, I'll protect you."
"You promise?"
The red-headed fighter nodded.
"How sweet."
Amy hid herself behind Jin, looking warily all around them. "Sh-show yourself, you coward," she forced out.
"You're not very convincing, girlie."
"Then, just come out so we can fight you already!" Jin yelled.
"That's more like it. But, as tempting as that sounds, that's not quite possible. Just because I'm talking to you doesn't exactly mean I'm in your present area."
"Then where are you?"
"Isn't that what you're supposed to find out for yourself?"
Jin was ticked. Amy was tapping his shoulder. She pointed in front of them. There was a guy some distance away from them. They both nodded towards each other, and charged towards their target.
"It's going to take us forever to find the others," Elesis griped, leading the two elves behind her.
"Well, you never know. They might turn up sooner than expected. I mean, we found you just after a few moments of walking," Lire cheered.
"How do you even get to stay that optimistic in this kind of situation?"
"Aren't I always?"
"Oh, thought that it was because of someone's warm hand."
Lire's checks burned when she realized that she and Ryan had been holding hands the whole time Elesis was with them. Since they had a mutual understanding of each other's feelings, she thought it would be fine. But the sword-girl in front of her was making her think otherwise.
"Hey, Ryan, you're being quieter than usual," Elesis mentioned.
"Ah, sorry 'bout that. It's jus' been buggin' me since we got taken in by this darkness," he muttered
"Well, spill it." The two girls looked expectantly at him, stopping their feet from going forward.
"Uh, 'kay then," he nervously started. "Lire, you remember what I told you and Arme when I woke up after gettin' knocked out a while ago?"
"Uhm, you only told me. Arme took the memory with magic," Lire cleared.
"Argh, specifics. An'ways, I was talking about a voice talking to me, right?"
"What about it?" Ryan crossed his arms and waited for it to dawn on her. "You can't mean that's the same voice as the one that possessed Black Fairy Queen a while ago?"
The druid nodded. "An' considerin' he has admitted bein' Sieghart's kidnapper..." He looked at Elesis.
"Wait a minute, are you saying this guy who keeps talking from that black bug's mouth is-"
"The one who has your grandfather held captive?"
Elesis turned around. The Black Fairy Queen was there. But, her constantly irritating smile was gone. Her eyes were slits, looking like they lack the energy to fully open. She was also not levitating with her wings as usual. In fact, her wings weren't even twitching either.
"Just who are you?" Elesis asked, swords drawn.
A male sigh. "It's so hard having to repeat explaining this. My physical body is not here, so hurting this fay woman would do you little good. I'd just lose my host body. Furthermore, I'd prefer to keep my identity secret, so you'll get nothing out of me."
"Why, you! Why kidnap my grandfather even?"
"Why? I guess it's because I found your group interesting. As for my choice of hostage, he was the most convenient one to take, lounging around in an open area."
Are you kidding me, Elesis wondered. Even Lass can't sneak up to that guy when asleep.
"If I explained what I can do to you, you'd understand how I accosted Sieghart, no? Nah, you might find out who I am."
"Oi, oi. You lead all the monsters to a rampage just 'coz you found us interestin'?" Ryan asked.
"Don't you know how much harm you've put everyone through, and you're only reason to do this is for entertainment?" Lire included.
A side of the fairy's lips turned up a bit.
"Did I mention you were only for me to have fun with? I simply said you were interesting. It might be better to call you experimental subjects than playthings."
"Experimental subjects?" Elesis repeated.
"You can say there's something that I'd want to find out for myself. And you children would allow me to learn it."
"Whatever it is, we want no part of it!" she retorted. The elves nodded in agreement. Two lights began to glow intensely. One was red, the other lime, from beneath the girls' clothes located at the center of their chests. Elesis pulled her necklace out to see how bright it shone.
"You had no choice once you took them."
"Well, we don't want it anymore!" She snapped the cord. "You can have it back!" She threw it hard towards the black fairy. But, before it even flew halfway, it suddenly stopped flying and became stationary.
"Uh, uh. I can't let that happen. You'd realize its importance in time. But for now..."
Lire yelped as her necklace forcefully pulled itself away from her. She gasped as she held her neck with one hand, while Ryan was helping her stay up. The lime necklace floated a foot beside the red one. And after a while, the Elesis' fiercely ignited while Lire's seemed to will a gust around itself.
"The heck?" Ryan muttered.
"Consider this your first test."
The flames grew to engulf a space ten times the size of its necklace, and so did the gusts, that were starting to blow at their hair and tug at their clothes. They could only remain fixated as the two necklaces began to come closer. The winds fanned the flames, increasing the effective area where it could burn.
"The fire that burns in the sky. Its most important product is light. It shines upon shadows, to allow sight."
The sphere of fire dissipated, and out of it came a shining silhouette of a small ball. Inside, the two necklaces were spinning rapidly together in the center.
"The sun can find the truth, and can eliminate secrets. Now, let's see how you fight the truth."
The ball fired a beam of light towards the three of them. It was a slow moving laser that was easy enough to be dodged, despite moving a straight line. Elesis was irritated with its speed and abruptly cut the beam in half.
"So, you understand how it works? The test will now commence."
The ball shone brighter, and fired off beams in quick succession all around it. They were still slow-moving, but their density made them deadly.
Elesis gritted her teeth as she sliced at those coming towards the three of them with Ryan . Lire took careful aim to fire stopshots. A beam slightly grazed upon a stray lock of Elesis' hair, and it instantly evaporated.
"Dang, we gotta be careful in takin' care of this thing," Ryan warned.
"It's a symbol of light. Persistent and radiant," Lire explained while nocking arrows. "How do you stop something like that?"
"There's a way," Elesis told them. She hacked at another beam with one of her blades. It seemed their weapons were the only things that could hit the rays without getting destroyed. "We just have to break it."