Welcome to chapter 6 and I really hope you guys are enjoying my story so far, this story is really hard to write because I need to tie up so many plot points I haven't even mentioned yet...yeah whoops my fault. Enjoy this chapter and have fun reading.
"You have yourself a deal princess" Serena laughed but unlike last time didn't kick him, only lightly punching him in the arm.
"You are never going to stop calling me that are you?" Yuri shook his head.
"Not until I can find a new name for ya" Serena sighed.
"Fine but I'm going to find a name to call you and you can't complain"
"Whatever you say" Yuri honestly didn't care if he got a nickname, he would just find it funny and if he really didn't like it he could just ignore it. Both teens then realised it was about midnight and that they had spent hours just talking, then the sleepiness started kicking in, they both yawned and looked at one another and quietly laughed.
"We should probably go to sleep now so we can start training tomorrow" Serena agreed, they both had to start training and work on their skills both physical and spiritual.
"Where can we sleep?" Yuri pointed towards his little house.
"We can sleep there for some reason I have two beds so we can both sleep comfortably" they both walked off into the house and both noticed how dusty his house had gotten. It was a small house after all, with one bedroom, a kitchen, a washroom (bathroom) and a living room.
"Ha..ha I should've expected it to be this dusty, I haven't been back in about a year sorry bout that" Yuri nervously laughed, he did always have trouble keeping his room clean.
"Don't worry all I want to do is sleep so at the moment I don't care" Serena was already grabbing the bedding from next to the bed and preparing for bed.
The moment she was done she flopped on the bed and curled up in the covers, Yuri couldn't blame her, she had been through quite a lot that day.
"Goodnight Yuri sleep well" Yuri settled into his bed a few metres away from hers and started closing his eyes.
"Good night Serena"
"I hate to inform you sire but they got away once again, they were last spotted near the silver oak inn the men we sent in...there were no survivors" the king was silent.
"But no fear your majesty we have sent out my faithful demons and my pet, they are tracking them down as we speak"
"How long until they are found?"
The king's loyal servant, formally known as the doktor just smirked.
"Not long sir...not long"
Meanwhile, in another part of the castle the king's son, Reiji Akaba was trying to sneak out into the garden making sure he avoided any royal staff. He knew that most of them were only loyal to the king due to fear and therefore they feared his as well but he didn't want to risk anything, though he did have some allies within the wall of his home.
"Prince Akaba stop"
Well...shit
He turned around hiding his small distress and kept his calm composure, he knew how to get out of this, he always did.
"Yes am I needed?" The guard in front of him recognised him as an upper-class knight, probably why he had the guts to address him.
"I apologise sir but as you know we must know your whereabouts at all times" he hated his father's rules.
"Well if you must know I was going to the gardens to get some fresh air as well as pick some flowers for my sister" (in this reira is known as a girl and was kind of adopted by Reiji...I'll explain later)
The knight relaxed a little and bowed towards the firstborn prince
"Yes sir I apologise for stopping you, please send lady Reira my regards" Reiji watched as the older man walked away and smiled sadly. Not all the men that worked for his father were bad people but he knew his father either turned them into bad people or got rid of people who he found...weak or traitors.
Reiji returned to his mission and continued towards the garden and the west wall, he wasn't lying when he said where he was going but he found that somehow it was safer, to tell the truth when going places then people would leave him alone because they saw he was doing nothing out of the ordinary.
Once he got out into the gardens, Reiji headed over to one of the trees closest to the wall and grabbed out a notebook he was hiding in his vest. All he had to do now was wait for the signal and Reiji didn't have to wait long, a few minutes after arriving he looked up and saw a falcon flying overhead.
He was here...
"Tsukikage I trust you're doing well" he looked up and saw a man dressed in blue ninja attire hiding in the branches above.
"Yes sir, have we any new news?"
"Here" he raised a note slightly so the man could see "this is all I could find but I now know why he's hunting those girls, send this to the lancers immediately"
"Yes sir stay safe" Tsukikage nodded and vanished.
Reiji signed and walked over to some rose bushes and picked out a small light pink rose to bring to Reira, she wasn't allowed out very often so this would at least bring a smile to her face, even if only for a little bit. His father hated her but tolerated her because of Reiji but she was often confined to her room so that she wouldn't get in his way. But he promised his little sister it wouldn't always be like this, he was going to free her along with the entire country.
Soon he was going to put an end to his father's reign forever
"Yuri"
Yuri perked up having heard his name but all he could see was a thick layer of fog
"Yuri" He heard the voice again, the voice sound so familiar, like Serena but he knew it wasn't her. He looked around trying to see a glimpse of anything through the fog.
Where was Serena? He tried to yell her name but found he couldn't speak or make any noise. What was this?
"Please save them, stop my..." Yuri couldn't hear the end of the sentence but he heard the desperate request. Save who?
"Come to the west wind forest and find us, we are your only hope" he then saw a blinding light and the silhouette of four dragons...the ones from the legend.
"Yuri"
"Yuri"
"Yuri" the boy then woke up startled and fell out of his bed, looking up at the girl who had abruptly woke him up.
"Well good morning princess next time be a little more gentle when waking me up" Serena sighed and lightly kicked his leg.
"Well I'm sorry but I barely touched you or made any noise but you seem a bit startled, you ok?" Serena finished off in a concerned tone. Yuri got up from his awkward spot on the floor and explained his dream to Serena. If it were any other person they'd probably call him crazy...crazier...he was working on it, but not her. She actually listened to what he had to say and believed him, with doubts but he couldn't blame her, even he doubted him.
"That really is odd but you said you had weird dreams like that before right? So it must mean something but we need to prepare, there are plenty of predators and monsters in that Forrest and as strong as we are, we should probably train more so do you have any ideas?" Yuri looked over at a bookshelf and walked over to it examining the books on the shelf.
"Ok we have a few options for training today, we could work on our true magic, our physical abilities or learn a secondary magic or enchantments" he turned to face Serena who was just looking at him with a confused look.
"What?"
"What do you mean true magic and secondary magic?" Was she kidding? Did she really not know?
"You're kidding right?"
"No I honestly don't understand so if you would like to explain that would be great" Serena said sarcastically, she hadn't been very far out of her town and never went out of her way to learn much about magic, so it made sense.
Yuri sighed
"Ok so true magic refers to the magic that an individual is born with, only about five percent of the people are born with a true magic. For you and I, we were lucky having been born with magic we are what people would call 'mystics' but now we would be most likely to be called devils because of our pig or a king" Serena nodded.
"Being a mystic also makes it easier for a person to learn a secondary magic, a type of magic we learn and are not born with there are also spells which are specific techniques with our magic. (Imagine fairy tail magic like the attacks dragon slayers use) There are also or enchantments, but just so you know secondary magic or true magic and enchantments are similar but are definitely not the same"
Yuri looked over to Serena to see if she was still paying attention and to his surprise, she was still attentive as ever, he smiled and continued his lecture.
"Magic, true or secondary is the power we control and usually only works when the user is using it, like your healing power, the user must be consciously using the magic for it to work, but there are sorts of exceptions, take my magic for example. I can control and rapidly growl plants around me and grow any plant that can be found in that area but that doesn't mean that when I'm not using the magic that doesn't mean the plants I grow will die, get it?"
Serena laughed nervously.
"Not exactly sorry" Yuri didn't blame her, he was kinda crap at teaching.
"Ok so with magic, the user must be consciously using it for the magic to work, like if you heal someone it will only happen if you activate it. The only exception is if the magic directly changes or influences something like my plants and spells are techniques used for specific uses and attacks, that a better explanation?" Serena understood this time and nodded.
"Good and enchantments are spells that can work long term without the constant need to be using your power and is usually channelled through an object get it?"
"Yep, it's still a bit confusing but I get it, are there any other exceptions?"
"Only if the person using the magic are extremely strong or one minded, if someone is hell-bent on using a type of magic it becomes natural so they don't have to be consciously activating it but that's incredibly rare and unhealthy for your mind...but enough explanations for one day what should we work on today"
Serena looked at her hands and thought of her other...true magic.
"Can I work on developing my light magic, I want to find a better way of using it" Yuri reached up at grabbed a book and flipped through the pages.
"Here you're lucky I got an element magic encyclopaedia...thing, it says that light magic had many different sub-magic forms and techniques so you can read through this" he threw the book at her which she easily caught but she got up at grabbed his hand and dragged him out of the room.
"Before we start anything else let's have breakfast, I'm starving"
The two teenagers started preparing breakfast and sat down quietly eating while Serena simply looked around the room. He had a nice place here, she thought...it was better than her old place with her brother but she was still kind of homesick.
"Hey, Yuri when did you get this place? It's really nice here" Yuri looked around taking in the room around him.
"When I was a kid I found this place abandoned, so I decided to restore it so I had a place to stay whenever I needed it" Serena nodded, nowadays people had to make the most of what they had, but that didn't make life bad, it depended on how they used what they had.
"Also where did you get this book?" She gestured to the encyclopaedia he gave her "I highly doubt you were born with it" Yuri laughed and started cleaning their dishes.
"No I was definitely not born with it I found it when I first got here, funny enough it was the cleanest and least run down thing here" they both laughed slightly.
"Ok time to start our first day of training I'll let you read inside while I'll work outside and then in a few hours we'll see if you've picked anything up good luck...princess" Yuri ran outside cackling hearing Serena yelling behind him.
This will be fun
Serena huffed at Yuri's antics, this will never stop so she had to get used to it. Serena grabbed the book at walked back to the bedroom to start reading. She flicked through the pages and came across light magic and noticed there was an entire chapter detailing how the magic was used and how rare the magic was. According to the book, light magic was one of the rarest types of magic and was one of the hardest to learn...great.
"Using light is one of the most varied types of magic but those mystics with pure light magic are extremely rare, not only can they generate light from nothing they can create anything on earth that can generate light itself. Light magic is more of a defensive form of magic but offensive forms of this magic can be learned" Serena read out loud hoping it would help her understand.
The book basically said that if someone had light magic they could potentially use any other magic connected to it. That was good.
"Light magic often gives the mythic healing and purely properties, whether it be self-healing or purification and healing magic varies from person to person. " that made sense...then she realised something
Yuri was right, their plan would work, they could purify Zarc's magic, all she had to do was learn.
"DAMN IT!" Serena fell back onto the bed and curled next to the book. She knew this would be hard and that she couldn't save her sisters without working for it but she thought it would be easier. She was naive, she would be the first to admit and she wasn't afraid to, but there wasn't anything she wouldn't do for her sisters, learning and developing her stupid magic was nothing.
"Ok Serena you can do this, it's showtime"
Meanwhile outside Yuri was tending to some of his vines around the outskirts of his territory, considering they hadn't been treated in months they were still alive and thriving. Usually, Yuri would be happy to see his plants growing so beautifully but not now knowing what they were.
These plants were the source of his poisons...the poisons that had harmed so many and killed even more...
Yuri reached over to one of the flowers growing from the vine, the flowers that supplied the toxins to make his poisons...
Not anymore
Yuri stepped back and raised his hands, a magenta light resonating from them as the vines adorning the bramble walls started to die and wilt away. He watched as all the vines around his boundaries wilted away and signed in both relief and regret. He never noticed how many toxic flowers he had but he needed to do this. It pained him to kill so many of his plants but he didn't need them anymore, he wasn't going to kill people with his poisons anymore. He know there was always a chance he try and just use his blades but it wouldn't be easy with Serena around.
He would stop him from returning to his old self, and he would be grateful for that, even if future him didn't agree at points he knew overall it was a good choice. The first good choice he's made in years.
Yuri looked around and wondered what he should do now, he couldn't make his poisons for...oblivious reasons and he didn't have his book. He then had an idea, he could use his magic and practice while also making something both Serena and himself could use later. He decided to make an obstacle course, that way they would focus on their physical abilities while he could work on his magic abilities now. Serena would be so proud...
"Two birds, one stone" But he didn't quite think things through.
"Hey, yuri what ya doing..." Serena walked outside to find yuri but want quite expect the odd structures she found behind him.
"Ok I'm positive that wasn't here before, what did you do? Yuri turned to Serena and dragged her over to the beginning of the course.
"Well I had an idea that could benefit both of us during our training, I spend the day making this obstacle course so we could practice our physical strength while I got to practice using my magic in ways I haven't used them before, what do you think?" Serena could hear the excitement in his voice and found it quite cute he was getting so hyper over a simple obstacle course.
He was so cute...wait what?
Serena did a double-take as she registered what she just thought. He wasn't...cute no just his actions, she thought his actions were cute...that's all. Serena clicked back into reality when she noticed him looking at her expectantly, she still had to answer him didn't she?
"It's a really good idea, this way we have an easy way of working on our acrobatic skills, how long did this take?" Yuri's facial expression changed to one much more tired and fed up.
"Well, I started shortly after I left the house and now since it's about six o'clock I'd say around ten hours" Serena reached to pat his arm and check his face closer, he must be exhausted if he used his magic almost constantly for all that time.
"Are you ok? You must be exhausted, don't tell me you used your magic all that time?" Yuri felt his face flush at Serena's close proximity and her concern. It was hard to believe he had someone who cared about him again...he enjoyed it more than he thought.
"Don't worry I made sure to take breaks in between but now it's time to test it out"
"Wait what?"
"You heard me, it's time to see how well we can use the course" Yuri walked over to the beginning of the course and gestured for Serena to stand at the side so that she could watch. He, even though he was tired wanted to show off his abilities to Serena and prove he was stronger than she thought.
Wait...why did he want to show off and get her approval? Why did he want to impress her? It couldn't be...
"Come on Yuri you can do it" Yuri ignored his thoughts and focused on what was in front of him. He had to stay focused.
"Three, two, one, GO!" Yuri started the course and jumped onto the first platform. While this was happening Serena was silently thinking to herself feeling something was wrong. He had spent hours doing this and while she didn't doubt his abilities there was no way he had perfected it. Then she noticed an error. One of the branches he was meant to jump to was thinner than the others and she highly doubted would hold his weight.
"Yuri stop don't jump!" Yuri looked over at he slightly but didn't register what she had said until he jumped, once he grabbed the branch he heard the branch snap and felt himself fall to the ground, he didn't even have time to stop himself. He hit the ground and heard the voice of a girl screaming his name, right before everything went black.
"YURI!"
"Arg..ar what the fuck happened?" Yuri looked around and saw that instead of being on the ground outside he was inside on his bed.
What happened?
He was still kind of dizzy from the fall but noticed he wasn't in much pain considering he fell a good ten meters from the ground. Yuri looked and noticed that Serena had just walked in with a glass of water wearing a sad expression...why?
"Ser...Serena?" Serena's head snapped up at the sound of his voice, almost dropping the glass of water. She quickly put the glass down and rushed over to him embracing him as tight as she could.
"Thank god you're ok, never do that again you hear" Yuri was stunned but hugged back as well as he could.
"What happened?"
Serena separated from him, helped him sit up and gave him the glass of water.
"You fell while doing that jump, I noticed that the branch was too weak to carry your weight but I couldn't tell you in time...I'm so sorry"
"Hey it's not your fault and if anything happened you healed me right, I notice I'm not feeling much pain all I have is a few aches" he notice Serena turn away and whimper slightly, she was stronger than this.
"Don't be so confident dumbass, you could have died. I may be able to heal people but I can't bring back the dead if you had landed any worse you could have died on impact and I didn't know the extent of your injuries...for all I know you might never have woken up" at this point Serena could feel her eye water but nothing she couldn't manage. She then felt Yuri reach her and pull her in for another hug.
"Yeah you're right, I'm sorry next time I'll be more careful and thank you for saving me" Serena calmed down and hugged him back. She could relax now..he was safe...for now. She separated once more and punched him hard in the shoulder.
"You better be careful otherwise a simple fall will be the least of your worries" Yuri just started then broke into laughter, he was starting to get it, this was her weird form of showing affection and honestly he wasn't surprised.
"Whatever you say, princess"
"Obviously they came this way... but where did they go from here?" The hooded figure asked his three other companions. His voice was cold but did hold any malice.
"Hard to say but I'm sure he'll find them..." the other voice was sad and weak, he knew what was coming.
"Come on we need to go and remember no harm can come to the girl and midnight venom...you've heard our orders...let's go"
Ok yay, I'm done. Sorry if this chapter was confusing and/or kinda boring but I thought it would be a good idea to 'try' and explain how the magic in this world works and explain it in the best way I could. I might try and explain more about the law and such in a later chapter but we'll see. Sorry. I know this chapter was weak but the content I was trying to put into the chapter was important and I promise the next chapter will be better. Feel free to give opinions and constructive criticism but as usual no flames... bye guys until next time. Also, I need a nickname for Yuri please help.
~luna