Tales of Errantia.
Welcome back! Not much going on, just decided to update this story right quick before either going back and working on my other stories or making one around FFVIIR. That's to be decided. Anyway here's chapter two.
A lot happens in the span of 2,500 words. So, let me know if it's moving too fast.
Warning: Some elements were taken from the anime, if you know it, you will see it. Or maybe I made it up, I don't know since it has been a long time since I watched it.
Edit: I tried to make it smoother and answer some questions that I made in the writing that I now noticed.
Reviews:
NK9: Thank you! I like this concept and wished it was explored more. I also just like Sorey as a character and wanted more of Symonne, felt like the game didn't utilize her enough. Also felt like the characters didn't live up to their narratives enough, either. But I still really like them.
Chapter 2: End of the beginning.
-0-
I set Symonne down on the bed, where she snored without a care in the world. I turned to the man I saved back in the Aldina Plains, as he called it. The man I saved was named Val Halloway. A Stonebury farmer.
"I can't thank you enough Sorey. If it weren't for you, I would have stayed a Daemon!"
Daemon, so that's what they called Hellions back in the day. That was good to know, I wanted to blend in and not cause a commotion.
"How did you do it?"
"Huh?"
"You know? Saving me?"
They were alone, thank the Empyreans. They were in a room at the inn with the door closed, two beds, one for Symonne, the other for me. I needed more information on what's happening.
The less information about me, however, the better. I didn't want to get into any mess.
"Val, do you know anybody here? You've been a Daemon for maybe awhile with how strong you were." He wasn't that strong, but from what I sensed and saw, the other Daemons avoided him.
The man looked surprised before he turned his head and face drooped slightly, "No, No one knows, The Halloway's moved out quite some time ago, Just as the settlers got here and started building the town. After I turned, they wanted nothing to do with this place. Somewhere in Eastgand, they said. But…"
"But?"
"The Abbey stopped them and took them away." Val shook at the mention, yet my senses couldn't tell if it was fear or anger. Maybe it was both.
"The Abbey?"
"Yes, The Abbey. You don't know them?"
"No, I—usually don't go that far from my abode." The man raised one eyebrow and lowered the other.
"I see. Well, the Abbey formed three years ago, its full name is Exorcist's Abbey of the Church of Midgand." The way Val spoke was that of reverence, so why was he scared?
"They must be a force of good with the way you talk about them, but you looked scared when you said they took your family."
The man took a deep sigh before looking at me straight into my eyes.
"They must've taken them because I was turned into a Daemon, I was infected by the Daemonblight." That was a new word. I would like some answers on that, but that would raise some more suspicions, especially with the look Val gave him when I didn't know what the Abbey was.
"I see…"
"Yeah. Because I was infected, they took my family into custody. they usually do this to make sure the family isn't infected as well. The Abbey is always cautious when it comes to this." It seemed that no one knew of Malevolence, which meant the Abbey either didn't know or it was something else.
"So, no one knows where they took your family?"
"Not one clue."
I needed more answers, but for now, I needed to get so-Urk!
"Hack! Hack! UUuurgghh!"
My body slammed into the wooden floor; my body shook without mercy. I tried to move, but I couldn't get past my hands and knees on the ground. I wanted to puke, vomit blood from my mouth.
"Sorey! Sorey!"
My eyes were probably bloodshot since Val took a step back.
What was happening to my body? This pain was familiar, I knew this pain. I recognize it. This burning, foul, rushing, pain.
It was when the explosion happened.
It was when Mikleo and I lost Gramps.
Black spots appeared at the edges of my visions before they consumed my sight.
-0-
?
I opened my eyes, and I saw light. The burning white-hot lights. The warm orangish lights. And a dark-blue expanse…
Flames of purification surrounded the surface of the ground. The ground, reddish-brown rock that formed small crags around. No greenery, trees, or bushes, just an uneven land of rock, not as far as the eye can see, though.
It smelt of nothing.
And the light, the light in the sky. It was filled with stars that looked like a spiral that converged in the middle, forming the bright white light at the center.
"My flames are yours…"
I whipped my head backward. That voice. It was the one Maotelus used to talk about someone named Velvet, or was it the color?
"Maotelus, why am I here, what's going on!?"
The flames moved with my voice. It went higher as I grew louder. These aren't mine; they were the fifth Empyreans.
Nothing was said by him.
Yet why did I feel this empty, nauseating, peck at the back of my head. I turned back and saw the purple reddish malevolence ahead of me.
It was the one I purified, or I thought I purified with the flames.
They were inside me.
And it surged at me.
I put up my arms, good'll that do. Yet the flames moved with me. They moved ahead of me, blocking the pure malevolence from attacking me.
It grabbed it, wrapping like tendrils around it, and squeezed. It howled as the hundreds of stars started to grow brighter, and brighter, and brighter.
The flames surrounded me, it felt like it was a part of me, I was one with the flames, it was warm, comforting, and it held me like a mother would a child.
I did not want this.
"It's yours."
No. I refuse—Please—Please let me rest.
"Sorey."
I did my job, I failed. There's nothing to do now. My role is over.
"You did not! You saved people, is this not the same? Your 'role' isn't over! Please…"
…Why ask more of me?
"These flames aren't mine anymore, they don't work for me."
...
"They are used differently. Please, save them."
.
.
.
This was my job, this was my role to play, I thought that I chose to be the shepherd, yet now I know, after trials and tribulations. Through my blood, my sweat, my tears.
This was my life now. I chose to become someone I now did not want to be. Everything happens for a reason. Consequences and actions are a cycle, just like life and death.
"…rrrRRRRRRAAAAAGHHHH!" I felt the temperature of the flames drop to sub-zero. Where it once squeezed it now strangled.
The stars grew into a white void as they surrounded my visions. It went around the rock of land I was on.
The malevolence was pathetic, it shriveled and screamed, thrashing, and failing, it snuffed out of existence.
"Huh, Huh—Huh…"
There. I. Saved. Someone.
"…"
I was met with silence. A silence that felt loud in my eardrums, I could feel my heart beating.
The white void and flames consumed me.
And I woke up.
That felt like a blatant lie.
-0-
I wanted to go back to sleep, actual sleep, not a weird trance where I had to destroy malevolence.
Looking through the window, the dark blue night encompassed the sky. Raindrops clung to the outside of the window. It rushed down to the floor that any longer, there might've been a flood.
That felt more inviting than being in here.
Putting on the shepherd's cloak and grabbing my ceremonial sword, I headed out. Looking back at Symonne, who hasn't woken up, I felt something rise from my stomach, before pushing it down and moving towards the exit.
I moved past the table counter and ignored the person manning it.
No one was outside, which makes sense, the hard rain and it being night made for a bad combo.
I didn't know where I was going, but I didn't care.
There were people to save.
-0-
The Aldina Plains, many Hellions ran amok here. The water rushed down my face as I scanned the area. Wolves, wyverns, monster trees, and birds surrounded the area.
I had to move my hair out of the way, only for it to go down between my eyes and covering my left. It clung to me like a leech. It was an annoyance.
The flames helped me sense the malevolence from… Everywhere.
And it seemed that they could sense it as well, maybe this was one of the differences, I had to ignore the feeling that came from my stomach.
So, I ran.
The blue flames and lightning lit up my sword as rushed toward the Hellions.
"Sonic Thrust!" Tearing through the horde of Hellions. I begin my assault.
"Freezing wind, Earth dragon fang, Raging winds!"
Swift and like a tornado, I span, pivot, charged, to cut, dodge, slam the Hellions. Blocking a dive from a Wyvern, my feet dug into the mud and was dragged back, yanking my arm to the side, deflecting the strike and the wyvern crashed in front of the other monsters.
Thunder roared as I reared my fist and drove it forward, "Beast Thunder!"
It pummeled its way into the bodies of multiple Hellions before blue flames ate at their bodies. It grabbed at the malevolence and descended upon like rabid animals.
And it flowed within me.
Falling to one knee, I focused on myself, and squeezed at the pit of malevolence, and forced it to dissipate.
Ba-bump. Ba-bump, Ba-bump.
The beating rang in my ears as I took a look around, my chest expanded—before contracting as I let out air through my nose.
My white cloak was soaked, my blue buttoned shirt was soaked, along with my black undershirt. Everything was soaked, from my earrings to my boots.
The hellions were reverted, most were animals, only a few were humans. They all slept peacefully, if he didn't get them back to Stonebury, they could catch a cold and maybe die due to exhaustion from the fight.
The sky was clouded, thunder rang, and rain poured.
…!
My senses roared at me to turn to the tallest mountain. Something was there. I could see the malevolence pour out from the top of it.
It felt familiar. A dragon.
The mountain got bigger, I finally noticed it was because I started walking towards it. My body moved before I could process it.
I didn't stop moving.
I fought through more and more Hellions on my way to find a way up there. Each time, transforming them back into their original form, whether that be a person or an animal.
"Heavenly Torrent, Steel Render, Trihawk, Crimson Edge!"
Flicking my sword arm, letting water spew onto my enemies, locking their view, before spinning clockwise kicking them with my right heel and slashed at them afterword, forcing their heads up, and ignited my sword and Surged through all of them.
This was getting annoying. If they just disappear, that would be grand.
Rearing my fist back, I plunged it into the ground, "Beast Thunder!" the thunder crashed into the ground, allowing me enough time to run towards the mountain.
Vines. That's good.
Now I just had to get up there. Then I can…
What was I doing again? Why was I doing this again?
.
.
.
Right. I was the shepherd. This was my duty. I picked up my pace towards the peak. Healing myself along the way. Time to face a mistake. What was the mistake again?
-0-
The peak was very bland, a couple of flower beds here and there, but nothing special. Walking to the elevated and more wide area, I saw it.
It wasn't like Eizen, this dragon was long, had short limbs, it was green, and had giant horns on its head like antlers. The most notable part of it was the black wings full of pure malevolence.
Its head perked up when it saw me.
"Alright, time to end this."
It roared back.
"Oh no you don't!"
The wind grew harsher as a mini-tornado rushed in front of me. I had to stab my sword into the ground to not be blown back. The wind blew back the rain around them and the dragon.
I choked on my own air.
In a long black jacket that reached below his hips, blue pants with big black and brown boots with two white holsters, white hair, and an all too familiar necklace, stood a tanned skin scowling man, protecting the dragon. And he was dripping wet, too.
Zaveid.
"Stay away from her!" flicking his left hand, he brought out a pendulum. He began spellcasting.
"Wait, Zavei-!" Why the hell was he protecting a Hellion!?
"Ready for dirty dancing? Hell's Gate!"
I jumped out of the way before rolling into a ready stance. "Stop! I'm not here to fight!" Lying was not my strong suit.
"Then why the hell are you here! There's no other reason to be here!" It wasn't just the obvious circumstance that tore through my reasoning, but the plain tone I said it, man, my words just reeked of desperation.
Zaveid ran towards me with not a second to lose, igniting a projectile in front of him, and rushed me with a fist cocked back, "Constrictor!"
Blocking the projectile, the fist flew towards my face, I span to dodge it and was on my back foot before two pendulums slammed into my cheek and went left to right, sending me reeling and flying.
"Nh, Damnit." I picked myself up before sidestepping to the left as the fist that punched the ground my body was previously.
Pivoting, I smacked his face with my sword arm's elbow before spinning back and going to drive my sword fist into his gut, He blocked just in time to catch it, flinching at the force for it, because of that, I twisted my fist counterclockwise, making him bend at an unbalance angle. I stepped in and drove my same elbow right between the eyes.
"Gah!" He staggered back before wiping the blood from his nose. This was a younger Zaveid, and a much weaker one too. Wait, there were bruises on his body I didn't place.
"you're good, but it's going to take a lot m-! Hurk!"
A long-tail slammed into his body before he could finish, making him crash into the ground and dropping his weapons. Along with a sleek black weapon. Siegfried.
"Zaveid!" I ran without caution towards my would-be friend. He was beaten and bruised. He struggled to open his eyes, only opening his left one. "That hurt, babe…"
Babe? So this was…
Of course it was.
"Hhmm-You know, it's not good to show compassion to an enemy." Zaveid looks at me with questioning eyes. "And you know my name..."
…
"Hey. Don't you dar-Hm! Don't you dare hurt her! You hear me!" We both knew what he meant by hurt.
"I hear you. I know."
"!..."
Taking my ceremonial sword, which was as dull as can be, and hearing a small hurt gasp from the back, takes Zaveid saw it as well now.
"You seem to matter to him." My voice was quiet as a soft breeze. In this thunderous storm, no one would be able to hear it. Yet, somehow, the dragon heard it as it locked eyes with me.
"I'll save you. I don't know if this new way of purifying can work on dragons, but it's worth a shot." Readying it and setting it alight of pure blue flames.
"So C'mon! Give me your best shot!"
"rrrRRRRRRAAAAGHHRRRRR!"
I failed once, but this was something I refuse to let go by. I consumed Malevolence now, or—something close to it., to consume one of the dragons was a death warrant or try to at least.
But I cared.
Or better said, I cared now.
Next update: To be decided.
