Author's Note: This was written in a week while in quarantine. I don't own anything.
The game is Arena of Valor and it's pretty good. Made by Tencent who owns Riot Games who made League of Legends. If anyone actually reads this because they like the characters in-game and want to read fanfics of it then you're a legend, homie. Anyways.
In the lore, the demons attacked almost immediately when the pieces they needed to revive Volkath were found. The minor change here is that they waited some months before the ritual. Errol's whereabouts and his doings will be explained in the story.
Also, fuck Mobile Legends :P
Italicized are thoughts.
Bold for Abyssal or other demonic characters/creatures.
Underlined are for Archons, Demigods and others from Veda.
Opening his eyes, Errol was greeted with the sight of a clear blue sky on a sunny and beautiful day. There was a problem, however, his view of the sky was incredibly narrowed due to the two tall buildings that surrounded the alleyway he had been lying in. He groaned in discomfort as he slowly sat up and rubbed his sore neck with his one 'good' arm. Speaking of which, Errol flexed the 'other' arm under his dark mantle and he could feel the restrained berserker fury run through his blood. Taking a deep breath to calm down, he stood up to dust himself off and tried to look as unthreatening as he could, despite his attire, before he would leave the alley. Fortunately for him, the alleys of the City of Mercenaries were kept clean enough to sleep on, hence why he was there in the first place. The only problem that could arise from staying in the streets were the more unlawful mercenaries hoping to threaten people for money. Errol had his fair share of street brawls with those types and he left them beaten but alive.
Coming out of the alley, Errol felt the corners of his lips lift up at the hustle and bustle of the city. People were busily walking to where they worked, chatting among themselves in groups and feeling the joys of not having been killed in the rise of the Dark Lord Volkath in his demonic return to the world of Athanor. A calm peace had finally settled and people were ready to start a brand-new day and, in a city named City of Mercenaries, Errol and his fellow mercs could finally take on clients that did not involve fighting demons because a surplus of new clients were more interested in their daily lives now. Ignoring the looks he got from the various men, women and other demi-humans, he began walking to his destination, the Mercenaries Guild.
It had been another awful night for Errol, but every night for him was dreadful, even after centuries of mentally living with the 'other Errol', it still wouldn't let him have a proper rest. He had gained a claustrophobia in his time as a Demon Hunter and sleeping outside the room of an inn helped to ease the process of going to sleep. Despite the piece of Volkath having been taken out from him, almost like a phantom pain, the voice of the 'other Errol' still persisted. He was getting used to it, he liked to suppose, his other side was invaluable for combat and offered strange imaginary conversations inside his head which staved off boredom and restlessness during the day. Coincidentally, he felt himself zone out as the voice spoke out.
"Hey! Crybaby! Hurry up! I'm raring for a fight!"
"Maybe if someone didn't keep me up all night instead of letting me sleep, I would've gotten up earlier."
"No excuses! We didn't even get in a fight yesterday!"
"Did you forget we were waiting for the official decree of the King to allow mercenaries to take non-demon related quests?"
"Stray demons are still out there! There had to be quests that hunted them down!"
"I stayed out of the war and it's staying that way."
"Bah! Another cowardly excuse!"
Refocusing to see if he had been going the right path to the Guild, he sighed at the relentless taunts of his other self. Errol had gained a respect for the Fallen Archon when he had been approached by the shadowy avatar of the Lord of Lokheim who wanted to have a conversation. He had learned much of who Volkath was and what he was fighting for and was even offered to join Lokheim's elite warriors and be trained under their champions, such as Zephys and Nakroth. Tainted as he was, Errol was still a Demon Hunter and declined under the promise that he would not ally himself with those of the Veda nor battle in the front-lines with Volkath's enemies. The Dark Lord granted Errol his request to be free from the conflict and let him be, even letting Errol know that he was open to future negotiations if he ever changed his mind. Not hearing anymore provocations from his other, he continued the conversation.
"You done yet?"
"No! And will you hurry up already! You'll pay for staving off from fighting by taking a client that wants us to kill someone or something!"
"You don't even know if we'll get any clients that wants us to fight something. There probably aren't any clients that have demons in their backyard anymore."
The voice moaned in despair.
"This is why we should have taken Volkath's offer to join his ranks! We could be killing all these people right now!"
"Sorry, not interested."
"Coward! We need combat! We need blood!"
"I'm not killing random civilians. They won't put up much of a fight anyway."
The voice settled down in agreement. Errol smirked at having won their little mental talk.
"Look, see? We're here."
Gazing at the grand building of the mercenary order, it was the focal point of the entire city, the very reason why the city even thrived in the Kingdom of Norman. Three things existed in the Kingdom of Norman that separated it from the rest of the other kingdoms, one was the aristocratic nation-states such as the nobles of the Rose, the second was the Magic Academy where the most prominent mages of Athanor gathered and learned in the ways of magic, and the third was the Mercenary Guild where any aspiring adventurer could apply to be hired for their services. After he was awoken by the Ghostwalker Hayate and transported to Lokheim, he was eventually allowed to leave the Abyssal continent once the piece of Volkath was removed from him in preparation to the ritual. Errol wandered the Federation of the Free and then the Kingdom of Norman, knowing full well he could never return to the Demon Hunters association because they would sooner terminate him or lock him into a dungeon before they would ever allow him to join their ranks again.
"Not like we'd be interested," the voice cackled. Errol absentmindedly nodded in agreement.
After travelling around for a while, he found himself in the City of Mercenaries, hearing a way for his combat prowess to be of use as well as helping him earn a living, he earnestly applied for a position as a mercenary. He had caused quite a controversy within the Mercenary Order for his almost demonic abilities. As far as Errol knew, they were considering two choices: Errol be given a quest by the Order itself to hunt down an Abyssal monster and test his capabilities or send their best mercenaries after him and send him off to the Demon Hunters for an execution. Luckily for him, the Order weren't the most righteous people in Athanor and was given the task to hunt the monster.
Errol would return a couple of weeks later with the shard of the Abyssal monster and soon granted the position of an official mercenary. He took a few clients' quests before the King announced that the mercenaries be more involved in the war. Errol would distance himself from the Guild under the claim he was hunting demons and returned to wandering. Once the war ended, Errol returned and waited for the King to announce that mercenaries could now be allowed to take any mission a client would ask for.
Walking up the steps to the entrance, Errol noticed the unfamiliar faces of armored guards and sensed them tense up at the sight of him.
"New guards. They think we're dangerous," the voice maliciously thought, "let's show them they were right!"
Closing his eyes to calm down the urge to slaughter, he continued walking towards the armored men and the grips on their weapons strengthened. Stopping a short distance from them, he looked at them as unthreatening as he could and weakly spoke out,
"Listen, I'm a mercenary. Calm down."
The two guards looked at each other and then back to Errol, a clear suspicion in their eyes. He could understand why they were looking at him like that. There weren't many mercenaries that looked as menacing as he did with the demonic skin visible on almost half his face, his glowing orange eye and the fact that he wore a large black mantle that was hiding what could be a dangerous weapon.
"Can you please just let me through?" Errol asked, impatience slowly building inside him. The sight of these nervous looking guards was beginning to irritate him and his other self. He wouldn't dare show off his arm around in public but Errol was confident that he could kill the guards barehanded and with only his human arm. He only hoped it wouldn't reach that point.
"Hey! Say something already! You letting me in or what?" He said, aggravated.
"Not until you show what's inside that mantle," one of them managed to stammer out.
"What do you think? It's obviously a weapon, I'm a mercenary!"
They backed up slightly but saw his point and were about to reluctantly let him off until a more familiar sight to their eyes appeared, a beautiful lady in a blue cadet uniform top with an orange scarf that dangled behind her left shoulder, white pants and armed with two abnormally long pistols.
"Whoa, haven't seen you in a while," the sharpshooter said, looking at Errol with a faint recognition, "I haven't seen you since the war began. Where've you been?"
Errol blinked in response; he didn't recognize this woman at all. He remembered seeing photos of her in the Guild but never personally met her.
"Have we met this chick or not?"
"Sorry, I'm not sure I know who you are," Errol mumbled out, "you've seen me before?"
Nodding to his question, "I remember the Guild allowing a scary looking guy to enter a few times before Lokheim attacked and began their ritual. You took some clients I was hoping to take too," she laughed after.
Scratching the back of neck, Errol sheepishly apologized but she waved it off, stating that it wasn't a big deal before stretching out a hand in his direction.
"My name's Violet, the Guild's very own Pistol Assassin." She introduced herself with a wink.
Errol hesitated for a second before grasping her hand and shook it firmly, "Errol, former Demon Hunter." Seeing her eyes widen in surprise made him consider pulling her in and crushing her with his other arm but fortunately for both parties, that wouldn't happen.
"I used to be a Demon Hunter too! I was even a deputy commander before I left," she brightly told with a smile on her face.
Errol, however, wanted this conversation to end as fast as possible before she started asking questions about his days as a Demon Hunter from over centuries ago.
"That's impressive and all… but can you help me get inside the building?" Errol chuckled almost nervously, "they aren't convinced I'm an official mercenary of the Guild," pointing at the guards behind him with his thumb.
Looking at the two guards, Violet briefly gave them a share glare that made the guards flinch in fear, before hurrying them both in as more and more people were beginning to line up at the entrance, waiting for Errol and Violet to get inside.
Finally entering the building, Errol breathed a sigh of relief while Violet giggled in his expense.
"If you didn't look so frightening, maybe they would've believed you," she said, sticking her tongue out at him as they walked together to the Guild's receptionist.
Errol weakly chuckled, "There's a reason why I wear this thing, you know?" A sudden, dark thought ran across his thoughts, accidentally slipping out, "I'd look even scarier without it."
Violet's eyes narrowed but softened at the sight of the solemn look on the strange man's face. She was suspicious but, nonetheless, believed it wasn't her business to pry into fellow colleagues' affairs. Deciding to switch to a different topic, she asked a few unrelated questions while they were still walking. "Oh yeah! You didn't answer my question a while ago."
Raising an eyebrow, "Is this about the war?"
Violet nodded in response. Staying silent for a few seconds, considering what he could and could not say, he finally replied.
"I didn't want any part of it. So, I wandered around the Federation of the Free, and got into a bit of trouble while I was there," seeing Violet about to open her mouth to ask, he quickly added, "trust me, you don't want to know." He laughed a bit at the quizzical look on her face.
"But aren't you a former Demon Hunter?" Violet asked, a tad concerned, "We're lucky we were able to drive them back and they only left because Volkath was successfully resurrected. We needed all the help we could get."
Errol's smile died down and his eyes raised up to gaze at the ceiling, "I don't know. I guess I was just tired of fighting them for so long."
"You don't look old enough to be saying that, you know?" Violet jokingly said. "It's been awhile since I left the Demon Hunters though, when did you sign up?"
Errol was beginning to get nervous; this conversation was heading into dangerous territories; he couldn't just say he was in the Demon Hunters' ranks hundreds of years ago. He wasn't confident he could trust Violet with his origin and if word went around that he survived the cliff fall, Errol wouldn't find it particularly funny if they started hunting him down again.
After racking his brain for answer, he replied with a vague date, "I guess it was a few years ago? I didn't stay for too long though. It was… a little too stressful."
"And being a mercenary isn't?" Violet jokingly said. He gave only a shrug in response.
Finally reaching the receptionist's desk, Errol, wanting to escape their conversation, let Violet go first, who went off to chat with the receptionist for clients she might be interested in taking. A few minutes passed before she was given a set of papers detailing her mission that she was satisfied with. After a few seconds of looking through it, she looked up from her papers to look at him, gave him a sweet smile and waved him a goodbye.
"See ya, blondie."
Errol's cheeks reddened faintly, he had to admit that Violet was quite the looker for a lady working in the mercenary business. He wouldn't mind seeing her again as long as they wouldn't have to talk about the Demon Hunters. Giving her back a wave of his own, she walked out of the lobby and off to the large hall where clients gathered to either line up to a different receptionist that would write down what services they were asking for or were waiting for a merc to come in and meet them to inquire about their mission.
"Well, well, well, looks like you have a different method of going wild on someone, eh?"
"Just shut up!"
He shook his head and proceeded to talk to the receptionist. This employee at the very least, he remembered from a few months back and wouldn't go through the same trouble as with the guards.
"You're that special mercenary from back then, right?" the receptionist cheerily asked. Errol nodded in response, to which she snapped her fingers and summoned out several different folders that she magically flipped through with a wave of her hand. Her eyes, which had glowed blue as a result of her magic, rapidly darted through the different folders and, despite the speed of how she went through each folder, was able to pick out different files in specific folders and floated them onto her desk. Once she finished, the blue glow had disappeared and the folders disappeared into of thin air. Softly exhaling, she grabbed the stacks of papers that had been placed onto the desk and handed them to him.
"These missions you might be interested in but as always you can reshuffle for new ones if none of em catch your eye. Give em a look through and tell me which and how many you'll take, alright?" She finished with a cute smile on her face.
"Ahhh, thank you."
Taking the stack of papers with his left hand, he moved a bit away from the receptionist to allow the other mercenaries who had lined up behind him to come next and speak with her. It always took time to go through a book or several papers with one hand and Errol got used to taking much longer than an average person to go through such things. Placing them on the large counter of the receptionist, he read through each of the files to see what he liked to take.
"Oh! This one! It needs us to kill something!"
"That one's gonna take time to finish, it's all the way in Afata."
"Beastfolks, elves and living plants…"
"Yeah, yeah, no need to tell me." Errol thought, aware of why the other 'Errol' didn't take kindly to the 'people' of Afata, who were responsible for striking Volkath down a long time ago. Not to mention, they played a pivotal role once again in the recent war.
Errol continued to the next one. A mission from a client special enough to be left unnamed.
"This one! We get to hunt down a fugitive assassin!"
"Why would some rich guy want to ask this of the Mercenary Order? Shadow Hand? Seems a bit complicated."
"We go to shady areas anyway! Just take it and let's move to the next one!"
Errol supposed he could run into this person in his wandering around and set the files aside before moving to the file below it.
"Abyssal monster terrorizing a city. Not too difficult and a good exercise."
"This one needs us to visit the Federation of the Free… Not enough gold to travel there again."
Setting it away, he began looking through the next one, a student of magic wanting to travel from where they were temporarily staying, a city named Moulin to the north of the City of Mercenaries, to Carano or the Magic Academy but in need of a guardian.
"What about this one? Taking someone to Carano doesn't sound too bad and pays decently. It'd be fine as long as we stay away from the Academy itself."
The voice gave a disgusted sound.
"You want us to give someone a tour to that damn city? That's pathetic!"
"Apparently an enemy of her father sent people after this person… Looks like you might get the fight you want and I don't have to go through the trouble of running out of gold."
"No."
Regardless of the voice's objection, Errol took it out anyway and placed it on top of the Fugitive quest files. Perhaps he was feeling a bit compassionate of someone getting hunted down as well. Only a couple remained now and Errol wasn't so sure of the rest of them.
"Sighting of Corrupter agents in Rosenberg? Does the Order think we can sneak in and investigate?"
"Bo-ring."
"The rest of these are just demon cleanup duty…"
"Not bo-ring."
"Still not interested."
"Bah! Just take one!"
Rolling his eyes, he supposed not taking one would make the Guild find him suspicious and decided to take one sited nearby the duchy of Bach.
"That's all of em."
"What about that one that fell?"
Somewhat surprised that the voice caught the sight of it before he could, he kneeled down to pick it up. He did wonder if this one was with the rest that he was given.
"You sure this is ours?"
"How the hell should I know? Hurry up."
Giving it a brief read, the paper simply asked for a mercenary to take someone to the Kingdom of Okka and to somewhere they were familiar enough of to go back home. It was a rather vague mission and Errol almost dismissed it if it wasn't for the slight shimmer of the paper itself.
"Magic?"
"Dimensional Magic. The likes used by the Archmagus D'arcy."
This already set warning bells in the head of Errol. There were five people that he knew of that would recognize him the most. One was most likely back in Lokheim, Zephys. The others were Hayate and the two exotic looking warriors. However, the most dangerous person that would recognize him was the legendary mage, D'arcy. He was most likely in the Magic Academy and while Errol could afford travelling to Carano, stepping anywhere near the Academy was much too dangerous.
"If someone of that caliber created this paper for you to read…"
"Damn it."
"It says the client is waiting outside the Guild."
"Look for someone with… pink hair?"
The two of them almost stopped thinking for an entire minute. Once that was over, Errol decided to pocket the strange, magical piece of paper. Grabbing the missions he wanted to take and piling them on top of what he did not want to, he went back to the receptionist and told her of which he was taking with him. Letting her do her business with the papers; performing the magic of copying them and creating exact duplications. After which, she handed him the copies and gave him a smile.
"Pleasure doing business and I'm – I mean, we're glad to have you back." She awkwardly said, a bit shy. He gave a similarly awkward laugh in return before thanking her and moving to the large hall out of the lobby.
"Three missions, the girl who wants to learn magic is waiting over at Moulin, the client who wants those demons put down should be in the waiting area, and finally the client for the fugitive is some anonymous elite in Holff that doesn't want to meet us."
"And then there's the Dimensional magi outside the Guild."
"Already such a fantastic day. Can't wait to meet them."
After having a chat with the client, who Errol had unintentionally terrified, about the demons that he had sighted to the northwest of Bach and how they posed a danger to a certain land property the man was planning to "legally" make use of. For certain "completely legal" reasons, he wasn't confident enough to ask the knights of the duchy to deal with such a big problem. A famed Dragonslayer would've likely made easy work of stray demons that wandered from the battlefield but the client was more worried about what would come after if he asked such a responsible and righteous person for help. He thought it prudent that a random nobody would come in, slay the demons as quietly as possible, be given monetary reward and not ask any questions. Needless to say, Errol was the right man for the job. After getting valuable information from the man such as location, proof of successful hunt, number of spotted demons and their features, and others bits of intel, they settled the payment after the demons would be hunted down.
Now, Errol stood to the side of the exit of the Guild, leaning back on the wall next to the frame of the large wooden door and gathering strange looks from ordinary mercs and clients who were leaving. He was cautious of a possible ambush as soon as he would leave the building and was readying himself to spot any trace of pink as fast as possible. Dimensional magic would make almost any preparation meaningless and he was prepared to move as quickly as he could to dodge magic attacks and rip the offending attacker apart. Gathering his courage, he peeked his head out just enough to get a look of the outside environment and was shocked at the large crowd that gathered outside of the building.
The removal of mission restrictions would explain a large amount of people but it was only a few hours from dawn and most people would usually be at the Guild at around noon. Errol backed away from the door and pondered his next action. He knew that it would be more dangerous to head out with so many characters outside and an attack could from any one of them. On the other hand, anyone that would be hunting him down probably wouldn't risk harming innocents, especially with deadly magic. The biggest problem would be trying to find the client, even if they had such a unique hair color, the world of Athanor was full of the strangest looking people and non-people. Maybe if he was walking with somebody, an attacker would be more hesitant?
"Any candidates for meat shield duty?"
"We'd freak people out faster than we could stick to them…"
"What do you think you're doing?"
Errol jolted up from his thoughts.
Violet and a friend of hers, who was wearing a strange bodysuit and carrying a very sharp looking sword, were walking towards him all of a sudden. The voice looked to belong to the blonde friend whose voice made the nearby passerby's immediately turn their heads for reasons unknown to Errol. Judging by how nervous they looked, it didn't look like those reasons meant she was someone he could ignore.
"Huh?" Errol said, a little dumbfounded.
Violet's friend repeated herself, "Who are you and why are you hanging around there suspiciously?"
"Oh, don't worry about him too much, he's a not a bad guy. His name is Errol, he's one of us." Violet herself answered for him.
An idea suddenly struck Errol. As embarrassing as it was, he thought it might work. With that in mind, he began walking towards them and consequently made Violet's friend grip her sword in preparation for a fight. However, what they didn't expect was for Errol to suddenly waltz his way next to Violet and put his left arm over her shoulder. Seeing the two stare at him wide-eyed, he tried to give as confident of a smile as he could. This only served to make the two even more confused at what he was playing and at this point, even Errol had no clue what he was even doing or what to do next.
"Uhhh… I need some help," he managed to get out.
Violet raised an eyebrow at that, "With getting a date?"
Errol could almost feel the death glares on his back from some of the men in the 'audience' that were slowly gathering nearby. Asides from mentally panicking at how awful this idea really was, he did wonder why the two ladies were particularly popular in the Guild but this was the least of his worries. Feeling more and more rising pressure around him, he wracked his head for an answer.
But he found none. And thus,
"Yes?" He said, almost as if it were a question.
He half-expected to be hit or even shot but was mentally relieved that Violet at least looked a bit flustered at his 'apparent' honesty. She gave him a coy smile before responding.
"Hmmm… Alright then, the café next street. You know it?"
Wide-eyed of the approval, it took him a few seconds to comprehend until it finally hit him. Needless to say, he wasn't experienced with women and only went as far as some of the Demon Hunters he fought alongside with centuries ago or the village women he visited while hunting. In both cases, he freaked them out by fighting and looking like a complete psychopath. Being half-dead for hundreds of years also meant he'd have to adjust to a world with progress in technology, magic, culture and society. In the few months since Volkath allowed him to walk free, Errol had been doing his best to adapt through his time wandering Athanor and working as a mercenary and interacting with different types of people. All of that, unfortunately, was not enough for him to learn if relationships were any different from then.
"How far can something as simple as… 'dating' be so different now?" Errol thought before giving a nod of assent.
"Then you're buying?" she cheekily said, giving a playful grin.
Errol blinked a few times and then genuinely smiled for the first time in what seemed like forever. A surprising sight that actually made him somewhat attractive to Violet and the still staring audience.
"Not so different at least."
Just as everything looked seemingly wrapped up that even the people looking at them were beginning to walk away, one person was quite unsatisfied at being ignored for so long.
"Um, excuse me?"
Looking at the blonde with a blade, Errol had seemingly forgotten that this person was previously accompanying Violet. She caught the look he was giving her and decided to introduce her 'friend.'
"Errol, this here is Butterfly," she said as she gestured to the person in question.
"Butterfly? Like the insect?" Errol replied, tilting his head a bit in confusion.
"It's my codename, if that wasn't obvious."
"Oh! I see…"
A few seconds passed in an awkward pause. None of three knew how to exactly progress from there but Violet decided to be the one to force it.
"Alrighty then, I guess that's it for today, Butterfly. Errol here is gonna be buying me coffee."
Suddenly he was aware of the state of his funds and reluctantly resigned himself to the fate of having coffee and pastries for both his breakfast and lunch.
"All this just to be able to get outside..."
With that in mind, he pulled Violet a little bit closer to him and walked her to the exit, flustering her a bit. Butterfly didn't have anything to say as she stared at them leave with a strange look in the eyes. One thing was for sure, she was on the look out for this dangerous looking merc.
Errol expected to be blasted immediately as soon as he stepped outside but was pleasantly relieved that he found no such attack. There was still, however, a large crowd gathered all over the courtyard of the Guild and they all seemed to be fascinated over a person in the middle of it all, someone that had-
"Pink hair! It's the Dimensional magician!"
Perhaps the magi could not attack because they had gotten the attention of everyone, Errol assumed, but understood why everyone was interested in this person. From afar, she looked like a celestial being, but more important was that she did not look especially dangerous. Her hair wasn't only pink but had shining gold streaks in it as well, a kind of beauty he had never seen, the closest comparison he could make was the allure of Veera and Marja. Though there was a distinct difference between them, those two were beauty that signified sensuality while this strange client held an attractive innocence. Even from his distance he could admire it but then Errol realized, how in the world was he supposed to get anywhere near her.
Turning to Violet, he was considering that maybe he could lead her to break up the crowd.
"Hey, Violet. What's going on?"
"No clues here," she says, shrugging.
"Should we check it out?"
"Maaaybe."
Mentally sighing to himself, he gently urged her to come along with a little push and was grateful she didn't give resistance. Walking closer to the crowd, he asked someone on the outer edges of it what was going on to gain a perspective on why they were surrounding the poor celestial girl.
"Oi. You there, what's going on here?"
"Eh?"
A man who had been trying to stand on his tiptoes to unsuccessfully get a better look, turned around to face Errol, who had called out any one of the crowd members to get an answer. Luckily for him, this man was aware of what Errol wanted to know.
"Oh! Someone from the Veda suddenly popped out in the middle of the streets!"
"Someone from the Veda?" This time, Violet was the one asking questions.
"Well… we're not exactly sure of that… She just looked like the type and some of us are thinking we can ask to join their military… or something."
Errol wasn't exactly sure what to think of that. He had no knowledge of the Veda asides from what the 'people' of Lokheim had told him and what he'd heard from them weren't exactly unbiased. At the very least, the words he could trust the most about Ilumia and the other Archons came from Volkath and Maloch. Both of them knew the demigods very well and Volkath would think it to be unbecoming to be deceitful with Errol. Lokheim's General, Maloch, in the few occasions he was able to talk to him, might look and act demonic but he only held words that he truly knew what to say and was passionate of. On the contrary, he could not trust Veera and Marja's words, they were far too cunning against people that weren't their respective lovers. However, the four of them had something similar to say.
Do not trust and keep away from Ilumia.
"What about the rest of the crowd?"
"How would I know? Maybe they wanna ask a deity out?" The stranger said, now a little frustrated at them.
This was beginning to waste time now, Errol decided he'd have to do this the rough way, though in fairness, he never thought of another method besides that. Violet was a bit surprised of him removing his arm over her shoulder but was curious as to what Errol would do and why he was so interested in whoever the crowd was surrounding. She did not expect him to take a few steps back and then jump so quickly into the sky that she could barely caught where he went. Up in the air, Errol had to make sure that his mantle stayed put and would still be properly in place when he landed right exactly in the space separating the probable Archon and the crowd. Although he was used to landing on his tainted arm from this height, he was sure his demonically enhanced body would not mind the impact. Landing on his arm might also kill people in the crowd and he would rather not have that happen.
High up in the sky at the climax of his leap, he spun around in place as he took in a deep breath of air and admired the morning sunlit view of the entire city and beyond.
"It's been awhile."
Feeling the pull of gravity gradually dropping him back down, he carefully directed himself into a good landing spot using his mantle to slightly glide himself. In any other case, he could use his demonic arm to move himself midair and land in any nearby spot but that involved blighting everyone in the crowd, crippling them with his meager but efficient Abyssal magic. Right before he impacted the ground, he put himself in a crouching position so that he could wrap his right arm around his body and legs while his human arm gripped onto his mantle.
Fortunately, Errol wouldn't need to worry about accidentally colliding into a person because members of the crowd took notice of the dark figure in the sky and quickly backed away, some even falling over each other in their hurry. Finding a much freer space, he landed with a loud slam as tingles of pain ran through his legs. Standing up from his crouched position, he felt rather nervous at all the looks everybody was giving him and he had to doublecheck if his right arm was still hidden away from all sides. Finally, digging through the pocket in his pants, he fished out the magical piece of paper he had on him and shoved it in the direction of the celestial beauty.
"Were you the one who made this?"
Errol was, to say the least, absolutely stunned. The pink and golden hair he saw from afar, the gentle flow of it from the breeze so much more beautiful to look at from a closer distance. She wore a pink and white bodysuit that ended only up to her waist and, peering down, he noticed her legs were completely translucent. Topping it all off were the brilliant pink eyes staring at him with plenty of anxiety.
"Y-y-you're the one who's helping me?"
"What do you mean?"
"I didn't think s-someone so scary would be the one to pick that paper up…"
He got a little embarrassed at that. He had instantly suspected malintent but with a paper as bare as that, he didn't think of it as anything beyond a possible threat. The last thing he would have expected from a powerful magician was a request for help and that presented a big glaring question in his head.
"You're from Veda then, right? The paper said something about taking you to Okka."
"Y-yes, that's right…"
"But why would someone that knows how to use Dimensional magic need help with travelling?"
"Dimensional magic?" She tilted her head, puzzled.
"Eh? We – I mean, I recognized the magic in this paper as something along those lines…"
She paused for a bit in thought.
"You mean like this?" Putting a hand up, a dimensional void grew into existence just right above her hand. "I can use these to create portals and teleport. Xeniel helped me learn how to use it but he never said it in your language."
"Xeniel!?"
"We'll talk about that later… But right now…"
"Then why can't you just send yourself back?"
She clasped her hands together and fidgeted shyly, "Something went wrong with it and I ended up all the way here… I'm worried it might send me somewhere worse…"
"Like Lokheim?"
She gave a quick nod to answer and it made him think of what to do with the girl.
"Do we help her or not?"
"Or we turn her against the Veda."
"That's… not an option I was even considering."
"But I am you! So you thought of it as well."
While the other Errol made a good point, that didn't mean he would do it anyway.
"We could just hand her to another mercenary… Maybe Violet could do it?"
"You think we can really trust other mercs to take her there?!"
"We don't trust anybody for anything."
"Still not a reason why we should do it ourselves."
"What about information? She has to know something about the Veda, right?"
"I suppose it would be worth our time then. Just in case they try to kill us!"
"Come on, like that would happen… No way we're that unlucky…"
"You think?"
Thinking about it one more time, being as prepared as possible might be a better idea when it came to the idea of interacting or escaping from Archons. Plus, it would be wise for him to learn what positions the Veda thought of the rest of the people of Athanor. He had learned much from Volkath and those in Lokheim who turned against the Veda and it would only be fair to know who's actually the true hero or villain between Volkath or Ilumia, or if nobody was good or bad and it all came down to a difference in ideologies.
"Alright, let's take a trip to Okka."
Sharply turning his head to her direction, enough to get her full attention, Errol gave his most intense gaze straight into her eyes to try and show his conviction but she got flustered by it anyway and averted his sight.
"Y-yes? Why are you looking at me like that?"
"You never mentioned your name?"
"Oh! Hi, I'm Rouie…"
"Rouie, I'll be happy to take you to Okka."
"Really? But why?"
Holding out his hand for a handshake, he answered, "My name is Errol, former Demon Hunter. I'll keep any possible targets of Lokheim away from harm."
"You're quite the liar," the voice cackled inside his head.
"Ahh, I see! Thank you… Errol."
He flushed a little red at how cute she acted.
"Are we going there now?"
Errol paused. He had failed to keep in mind several things. One, he could not afford a trip via the train system created by advances in magic to Okka as of now. Two, he did not have enough gold to sustain two people for a week of travel on foot. Three, in order to earn gold, he needed to finish one of his missions and Rouie had to tag along until then. Four, the student he had to take to Carano was waiting at Moulin and by then, he would be taking care of two people. Five, he said his name and former profession out loud in the middle of a crowd. Six, he needed to rent a room in an inn for Rouie to sleep in. And finally, his most dreadful realization, he had just left Violet, who was still in the crowd and watching the whole thing, to talk to another girl right in front of her just as they were about to have a date.
"See? I told you we were unlucky."
"Just… shut up…"
More coming soon, maybe. In a week at the least. Leave a review and the like. Play the game if you read this for some reason without knowing the game and want to know about the characters.