Lloyd leisurely strolled across the citadel cobblestone.
The streets were filled with hundreds of stands and warm festive decorations. The city keepers still decided to host a harvest festival this year, despite the recent wreckage brought about by the capitol. Dozens of citizens were all hanging up tenacious depictions of corpses that roam the night, many also carving grotesque features onto pumpkins and gourds. Some painted devilish features resembling the many monsters that roam the pumpkin moon over bamboo-carved masks. Farmers and ranchers from outside the citadel traveled across the roads to sell their many goods and harvests, while city folk set up shops to sell drinks and waxed candles. The savory smell of roasted chicken and bell pepper kebabs filled the streets, alongside the sweetness of hot churro pretzels straight out of the fryer and sprinkled with a light seasoning of cane sugar.
Lloyd decided to order both, the lines stretching across several stands, and immediately devoured them afterward. The once hot and humid temperatures surrounding the jungle have now mellowed down to warm and sometimes even chilling air. The once glittering emerald leaves that once tore across the bright, umber castle were now burnt in shades of bloody crimson. Withering, crispy orange leaves blanketed the rubble pavement in lumps of sierra dunes.
He stepped into the city center, where huge crowds of bustling citizens gathered around the giant stone fountain. The city center was surrounded by a ring of seven lavish streetlights engraved with flames and dragons. A gilded banner was hung up on each pole, every one resembling a day until Halloween. Lloyd was told by a commoner that every day one banner would be burned down until none were left, which by that time would be hallows' eve. The marble statue of Yharim that sat on top of the fountain was now decorated with candles on the rim of the well, and a gourd lantern was placed on its hand instead of the iron goblet.
Suddenly, two guards armored in tarragon began to space the crowd away to clear a path. The two then joined beside a woman who looked very important. She was covered with a cloak resembling the wings of a moth and painted in shades of greyish-brown. Her head was also covered with a wooden mask shaped like a moth head, with sharp eyes and fluffy tufts. She had a crescent-bladed Ultisword hung behind her back which Lloyd quickly recognized was Yharim's old blade.
Who's that? Lloyd asked
That's the citykeeper, Fenrieth, don't you remember at all? They corrected themselves.
"Citizens of the Golden Capitol," The Citykeeper said, "We have come to announce much dire news and begin the harvest ritual. It has been told to me that this year a pumpkin moon will be unleashed. But fret not, as the figure responsible for your safety we have rallied up our skilled mages to dampen the fuel that burns away at the nightmare energy, causing for a more placid hallow's eve this time."
The crowd began to bustle with conversation. Some sighed with relief while others theorized it wouldn't be enough. Lloyd particularly didn't think much of it. They did feel like going out and slaying some more harvest spirits but it was nice that the citizens were safe, even though he didn't care much about them.
"Besides that, let us start the countdown to Halloween by burning down the first banner."
Fenrieth and the guards approached the first banner in the circle and she unsheathed the ultisword, which flew out as cleanly as a feather. She then gripped it tightly and within half a second a thin blazing arch of flames swung across the cloth. The banner was sliced in half, the two pieces dropping down in a ball of fire. The fine cloth withered into ashes as sparks flew into the air and seemingly disappeared in a rift.
Clouds of black chemicals and gases erupted below him and clouded his field of view.
Gardens of scoria vents surrounded his body, burning away steam like hot furnaces. A Rusty broken metal anchor was melded into the sides of ducts, kelp sprouting from the rust and interweaving across each iron ring. The frog between his shoulders swam down into the crevices to feast on the puffer carcasses before they went rotten or eaten by devil fish, a happy grin over its face. The man returned towards the next glimmer of blue, slowly avoiding any other fish searching across each vent. Once reaching the final tooth, he slowly unsheathed it out from its tenebris case and stabbed it into the tentacle.
And that's the final tooth.
Well done, now head back to the cove before any more devil fish arrive.
The man did what he was told. He began to swim south to the cavern before a peculiar sight sparkled under the vent gardens. Between the jagged boulders that surrounded the vents was a bright red-orange aura peeking through the cracks.
woah...
The man looked down at his skin, his veins glowed a faint red, matching the aura. As he approached closer, his veins were even brighter. The man slightly pushed aside the huge boulder with all his strength and slipped into the space. Right when he swam in he immediately fell to the ground onto a floor of granulated stones. The space was devoid of any water and hotter than a forge. The vent garden sat atop a cavern coated with thick layers of obsidian and hellstone. Beams of flowing magma slowly drifted down from each vent. Chiseled cracks on the obsidian discharged small whistles of steam every few seconds. Petrified drops of molten rock cooled down back to stone splattered the cavern ceiling like black stalactites. The frog the man carried peeked out and nearly blinded itself from the beaming magma, which he chuckled at.
A mana field seems to be blocking this area from anything without a greater mana force, which is why no water has leaked through. Be careful around here, I can sense this place has an extremely high concentration of chaotic magic, who knows what can dwell here?
This magic...this aura...I don't know it feels familiar for some reason...
(*rrrrrrrr. ch-k*)
A series of mechanical snaps and clicks rang into his left ear. The man quickly bolted toward the direction of the noise. below the stone he hid behind was a huge lake of magma, with a strange figure crouching down on a piece of stone near the lakebed. Upon closer inspection, it seemed to be some sort of metal skeleton. Tubes were augmented across the mechanical frame's body and a large clear visor was fixed into its face, the view clouded by the heat. Large curved blades were built under two of four of its arms and hacked into serration. The was hardly even possible to get a good view of the figure, due to the blinding red flames behind it, but the man saw and knew that thing was not to be messed with.
What the hell is that thing...
The movements of the figure were uncanny. each twist and step of its body were near human but not quite, along with sharp robotic sounds echoing every time a joint moved into place. The figure reached out one of its spindly arms over the magma lake. The metal bones of his forearm folded down and out extended a smaller mechanical limb that held down a small vile. Carefully, the figure dunked the vile into the lake and collected a tiny sample of the magma. It then raised the vile up and grabbed it with its other hand, examining it closely for several seconds.
It seems placid, for now, we should probably get going before it spots us.
The figure opened a cache hidden within its thigh and out came a rusty handle. It clicked a switch on the handle and it then projected a bright blue screen. The figure read over the screen for another few seconds while placing the vile down on a smaller cache within its thigh. The crumbled gravel spread across the stone cliffs made him tense up with each step, hoping the noise was too little for the thing to hear. But right after the man's leg fell down on a pile of slated rocks, which crunched down and scraped across the gravel.
Suddenly, a red light beeped love the side of the figure's visor, and its head immediately bolted toward the man in a blink. It loosened its joints and began to slowly walk in his direction. The figure raised its smaller and a rifle materialized into its hands like strings of code. The gun was much like the weapons used in Yharim's military, with red lights blinking across the barrel surface and from inside. The figure looked right at the man, red lights blinking all over its face. The frog behind the man croaked in fear.
It gripped the rifle from under and loaded it with a snap.
Weapons: The tentacles (not an item just magic), Abyss Shocker, Blood Thorn, Black Anurian
Tools: Magic mirror, Spell Tome
Armor: (no armor)
Accessories: Eidolist cape (CalVan)
Health: 100/100
