...
"Mhmm, welcome back."
"So, how's everyone been treating you?"
"Everyone is nice and wonderful. As expected, they're all just like you."
"What'd you mean? I thought I was unique."
"Well, when your sister and mother are as forward as you are, then it's not much of a difference at all."
"You do have a point."
"I guess it runs in the family."
"Definitely. What about the kids then?"
"Oh, they're sweet and lovely. I do have trouble keeping up with them. Maybe it's because I am not moving like I used to when I was still a maid. "
"Well, you're going to be a noble now."
"And I am also going to bear an elf value and leave my humanity behind."
"Signals of Hololive 3: The Legend of IRyS"
CHAPTER 5: Cheerful yet Mortifying
Ayer does not know why those dreams keep on appearing.
But there was one thing he was certain of: the young one he saw in his dreams was very similar to the one who was unconscious.
He woke up to find himself on the bed. He was alone for a moment there before he felt his hand being held by something. He looked down to see Riss holding his hand while she slept by the edge of the bed.
Ayer stared at Riss. He was happy to see the girl he had been crushing on for a year or so was beside him, holding his hand. His smile faded as he failed to notice Ghevanna snickering in the corner of the room, making him feel embarrassed.
The commotion woke Riss up groggily. It appeared that she was not sleeping properly due to the bags under her eyes. She then noticed Ayer and hugged him while Ghevanna left. Ayer was seriously embarrassed to see Riss like this, but he felt her tears from his back and that she was crying. He went quiet to hug her back as she started muttering that she was glad that he was alive.
After that, Riss broke the hug and laughed at her childish display. Ayer did not mind it and laughed alongside as well. Suddenly, the door swung open with Ghevanna, who was whistling and looking at the two with a grin, Sir Grant, who was nervous and looking at the side, the captain knight standing behind Ghevanna, whom Ayer recognized as Captain Thom, and last but not the least, Ghastly, who was glad to see him well.
The boy asked what was going on, asking why Sir Grant and Captain Thom of the knights were It was Ghevanna who introduced herself as the princess of the Hana Kingdom. Hearing that she was the majesty of the land, Riss and Ayer tried to bow down before her to greet her, but Ghevanna told them not to. Besides, she then said that she never saw two kids who were so hard on her as to even give her a lesson.
Ayer and Riss got shivers down their spines when they remembered how they beat her up in the forest. This got Captain Thom angry, but the princess told him to not mind it and simply laugh at the reaction of the two. It was then Sir Grant's turn, as he apologized to the two kids. He reasoned out that his objective of searching the artifacts was very confidential per the order of the princess and thought the two kids had stolen it.
He then Ayer a small pocket. It was a small, three-dimensional storage pocket. It was the gauntlets and the chestplate that Ayer obtained, along with some food and water. The boy was shocked to see the pocket. It was a very expensive item that several countries would die for just to get it. But Ghevanna does not mind; after all, it will be useful for her journey with their future hero.
Ghastly asked Ayer what he would do next, and the boy answered that they must deliver the unconscious girl to the sage. Ghevanna then handed over to Ayer the map that Mage Marlin gave to him. Ghastly would like to follow them to ensure their safety, and besides, they need an adult by their side.
The three left the place after they finished preparing. They bid farewell to the others as they head straight to their objective. In the far northern east of Dome City, a cave can be found, famously known as the Cave of Challenges.
It was said that the sage was a person who was not easy to ask for help after experiencing several people who were scamming his help. And people who will ask for his help must pass through a trial to see if they are the people who are willing enough to be acknowledged.
The group had no other choice but to go there instead. Upon arriving at the cave, they immediately headed inside and were greeted with numerous puzzles and complex hallways. Some even required their magic abilities to be put to use in order to proceed. Since they had some experience, it was mostly Ayer and Riss who did the puzzle.
Fortunately, they had the capability to continue despite lacking manpower. There were small monsters here and there, but Ghastly was able to deal with them as Riss carried the unconscious girl.
Suddenly, the cave started to shake, and they saw a boulder rolling down on them from behind where they came from. They immediately ran fast as Ghastly took and carried the unconscious girl on her back. The place they were running towards seemed to take forever and they were getting numb when the exit finally showed up and they immediately jumped towards it.
They rolled on the ground, with Ghastly protecting the unconscious girl from the fall. They took a small break from that tension and tried to catch up with their breath. While they were resting, a pair of sorceresses who looked like Ghastly but wore blue cloaks instead of purple, appeared before them and asked why they were here.
The boy asked if they knew about the sage and that they wanted to ask for his help. He showed the unconscious girl as a proven fact. The two witches looked at each other. The boy did not like it when they seemed to be troubled. Then the witches told them that they knew the sage and told them to wait for a moment.
The boy's eyes lit up with hope as he thanked them politely before they went away. Now, they just need to wait in order to get help. This news brought smiles from Ghastly and Riss.
They waited. Still, an hour had already passed and no one came. The boy looked at Ghastly and Riss, who simply nodded. Hours passed, and it appeared that it was already almost dusk. They'd been waiting for a long time now and this caused great concern, so Ghastly told Ayer that they should get going instead.
They wasted enough time already, and the more they waited, the more likely they were to encounter something dangerous up ahead if night came.
No choice left, the two kids agreed. They then continued and they saw a forest up ahead. They hesitated but nonetheless continued their way towards their destination. When suddenly, a large spider appeared to block their way. Ghastly seemed to recognize the said spider by telling the kids that it was a Giant Poison Spider.
She did not know why it was here, but she then gave the unconscious girl to Ayer, who told them to run while she distracted them. The boy did not like what was happening, but he stuck by his faith in Ghastly, so he instead told her to be careful. The two kids maneuvered around the spider as Ghastly attacked it.
Fortunately, the two kids managed their way around and continued on their way. They heard a screech behind them, but they ignored it and ran away from it.
They found their way out of the forest, but what greeted them before them was a broken land, separated into two. They looked around, trying to find a bridge that could lead them to the other side. They heard the screech again, and this time they looked back, only to find three giant spiders crawling towards them.
Now that Ayer looked closely at it, those spiders are similar to what he dreamt about back in Carnia. He returned back to reality as he cast an icy platform that could lift them up. He then controlled the platform by flying towards the other land.
Thanks to the absurd amount of magic he had, he could remain in the air for as long as he could. Everything was fine when the spider spit a sticky thread. Riss was startled as she almost slipped on the platform. He felt that he was being pulled and he looked back to see the sticky threads from the spiders.
He wanted to destroy the thread but he would have to lose his focus on the platform, so he instead told Riss that he would boost his control so she had to hold on tight. The girl nodded as she gripped the sides and pressed her weight against the unconscious girl.
He readied himself and boosted his control. Slowly but steadily, the threads started to break. The spiders tried to pull it back, but it was being pulled in their direction, closer and closer to the cliff's yelled to hold on as he poured more of his magic to boost his control. In the end, it worked out, as the sticky thread broke and the spiders got pulled down to the abyss below. But the sudden boost threw the boy out of control, and they slammed into the tree on the other side of the land before Ayer could stop.
...
He woke up to find himself standing in the darkness. Before him was a man floating in the air, hugging himself with his legs. He was naked. The boy then heard three voices, and they were the voices of the Spirit Kings. There appeared before him the three Spirit Kings of Cold: the Snow, the Ice, and the Glaciers.
The boy asked what was going on and they told him that the man he was seeing right now was the hero who saved the continent from the Deity of Blaze. The hero was supposed to pass on to the afterlife, but his lingering regrets about the past did not let him go, and thus he was forced back to the world. However, his soul merged with Ayer's when he was born. Silently waiting for the right moment to enter the mind of the boy to be recognized.
He was called the Inheritor of Cold because he would be the one who would completely seal the Deity of Blaze. The artifacts of Caliber cannot contain the Deity of Blaze any longer, so the boy must collect them all and seal them through the furthest north of the continent. There, he will need to bury them and the rest will be for the Spirit Kings to continue.
They then plead with the boy to find a way for the soul of Caliber to move on. And they will help the boy with their power inside him. This gave the boy no choice but to agree.
The last Spirit King that Ayer must visit is the Spirit King of Permafrost, the strongest Cold Spirit King. Then Ayer asked about the soul of Caliber. They told him that he must not let others know about Caliber inside him or else he will face the same difficulties that Caliber had faced before.
The boy understood his role and his purpose and asked one more time, "Will everything go back to normal after this?" This, in turn, got him no clear answer from the Spirit Kings. They simply told him to be prepared for what would happen at the right moment.
...
Ayer gasped as he woke up in his sleep. It felt like he had lost air in his lungs and was breathing hard. He looked around to find himself in a house with Riss, the unconscious girl, and Ghastly near him. He asked what happened, and both Ghastly and Riss filled him in that ever since they escaped the cave, everything was just an illusion until now. Apparently, some evil doers demanded the appearance of the sage to find the remaining artifacts of Caliber, to which the said sage refused. But those evil doers forced their way in and the sage had no choice but to mentally damage them. They will recover by the next year.
The pair of blue mages whom they met before apologized to them. After the incident, no one asked for the sage's help, even when the king of Hana appeared to ask for the sage's help. One of the king's subjects was a high priest by the name of "Solus." He was mad at the sage's unwillingness to help the king, and after this, they left.
As of today, the sage was branded as a traitor, but everyone who knew the sage knew that it was false. Nonetheless, the number of people who only know the sage by name was increasing, and they were drawn to it.
The sage appeared before Ayer, to whom the boy apologized for barging in unannounced. The sage accepted his apology and asked what help the boy needed. He told the sage that he had met Mage Marlin and that he recommended his name. Then he asked if the sage could help save the unconscious girl that was with them.
The sage was one step ahead of Ayer and told him that he had already examined her. He told Ayer that the girl had an extraordinary psyche. The sage did not tell the boy what it was and instead showed Ayer a dark crystal with a small snowflake inside it. The sage told Ayer that it was a Stone of the Dreams and that it would help the boy enter the mind of the unconscious girl, via dreams, to wake her up. However, it must have energy from the dark elf, an elder to be exact.
The boy asked why, and the sage answered him that this stone came from them. To activate its usage requires the magic of its creator's race. However, the sage cannot request the power of the dark elves because they are known for not listening to others without directly confronting them, as they read the purpose of everyone who came before them.
The sage told the boy that he must go alone into the land of the dark elves to find their territory. He can only go alone, for if he brought someone with him, they would be seen as invaders and kill them all.
It was all due to the mistakes they made in the past. They took part in the war and had to go against the hero Caliber, who sealed away the Deity of Blaze. After facing defeat, they left the human lands and were tucked away from the corners of the continent.
Ayer reluctantly agreed to do this. But when Riss pleaded with him not to, the boy had nothing to say to convince her to support him. So he told everyone to leave for a moment and they would talk.
After everyone left, Ayer told Riss to never say this to anyone. He told the truth about the hero Caliber who merged with his soul, his dreams, and his role, and the boy thought that perhaps the unconscious girl he had seen in his dreams involving Caliber's past should hold a secret that he must discover in order for the hero to pass away and take all the artifacts and seal them in the continent's farthest north.
So he told Riss that he must do this and promised her that he would be fine. The girl could not help but hold his hands and pray in front of him. Ayer felt her shaking voice and her hands tightening around his. He felt the urge to hug back, but he held himself back.
After a few minutes or so, Riss calmed down and agreed with him. The boy then called to the sage that he was ready. They exited the house, with Riss still holding his hand. The sage summoned a portal before them, and he gave the boy two stone crystals. He must break the pink stone to let him talk to the dark elf, and the other one if he is ready to go back here after he got the power of the elder from the dark elf.
Ayer looked at Riss and gave her a farewell. They let go of their hands and Riss could only watch as the boy entered the portal. A bright light exploded and after that
...Ayer was nowhere to be seen.
...
The boy opened his eyes to find himself in a wasteland. He looked around and noticed that no clear sign of life could be seen. Not to mention, it was night time as well, but thanks to the stars from the clear sky, he could see his way.
He needed to find the territory, but he didn't know where in his current state. Thankfully, though, the wasteland he was in right now was plain and not some forest, so he could see from afar. Since the race he was looking for were dark elves, he deduced that they may be somewhere in a forest area. And true enough, he saw a forest just up ahead. There was no path towards it, so the place he must have been right must be a random location.
He made his way towards the said forest, unaware that another person was following him.
He arrived in front of the forest and noticed that its leaves were black instead of green. This gave him eerie vibes, but he entered the forest nonetheless. Everything was silent, but he still continued.
He felt like he was going in circles and he could not find his way deeper, so he tried to turn the area in which he stepped into ice. With that, he continued walking. Fortunately, he felt like going deeper this time around thanks to the trails he left behind as a way for him to know that he had already ventured into this part.
He found a clearing and, alas, he ran towards it. After he jumped forward, he was suddenly face-to-face with a bow and an arrow aimed right at his face. He looked up to find a woman bearing the characteristics of a dark elf. The boy calmly told the dark elf woman to not kill him, and he raised his arms.
The dark elf woman said nothing as she went closer to him and pulled his wand from him. She then asked what he was doing here, to which he replied that he needed power from their elder in order to activate the Stone of the Dreams. earned him a shocked look from the dark elf woman who demanded he show the said stone.
Ayer showed the stone, and the dark elf woman dropped her weapon as she took the stone from his hand. The boy saw the tears starting to flow out of the dark elf woman's eyes as she looked closely at it. Her personality towards him changed as she laughed and apologized to him for doing that. She introduced herself as "Mora" and said that she was a daughter of the chieftain in their territory.