A/N: It's been so long since I looked at this story. Hopefully this makes sense, cause I am totally out of whack for this chapter. I can't remember if I wanted a serious approach to this, or a more light one, so I just went with the light one. I pray that this is what you guys want and everything. Also I know I said I discontinued this but, I got bored and decided to maybe work on it a bit, because I can. Anyway, please enjoy this chapter.
Chapter nine: Arrival in Altera
"So what's Altera like Aisha?" Lu asked innocently.
For the past day or so the group of magicians had been travelling in silence, not knowing how to talk to each other. For Aisha, it was because she was worried of what might have become of her husband. The others were simply understood the fact that Aisha needed some time to accept the reality that had happened. So finally Lu had reached the peak of her patience with the silence.
The purple haired magician was not expecting the sudden question, but she recovered quickly.
"We're almost there," Aisha responded. "You can see for yourself then."
Finally at the end of the forest trail, there was what appeared to be a cliff edge, but it was empty without anything.
"Where too now?" Lu asked. "There doesn't seem to be anything."
Aisha pointed towards the sky, and everyone, apart from Eve and Add looked up at the massive shadowy object hidden within the clouds. As if bending to Aisha's will, the clouds seemed to disperse, and a object was easily identified as an island. An island floating in the sky.
"How do we get there?" Ciel asked, as Lu was too awestricken to say anything. "Surely we need an air ship of some kind to get there."
"Normally you would yes," Aisha answered. "However Ponggos don't use air ships, so they must have other means of transport."
As she said that, she drew a glowing red symbol in the air. It was elegant, symbolic circle, later followed by a single dove in the centre.
Once the symbol was complete, the dove blinked, before flapping it's wings. It flew forward until it seemed to be swallowed up by nothing. The air began to ripple from the red bird, till finally it was like a curtain had fallen, revealing a few woodens huts and groups of Ponggos with carriages filled with resources. One Ponggo seemed to be in charge of the operation and was shouting orders.
"Oi watch the goods! If I find a single dent in the steel I ordered, I will hold everyone of you responsible in both this life and the next!"
"Agatha!" Aisha called out, causing the bossy Ponggo to turn around.
This Ponggo had a yellow bandana tied tightly around her furry head. A similar colour scarf as wrapped around her neck. She wore a white and black stripe shirt, dirtied from her daily work. Lastly, a large pickaxe was strapped to her back, with hints of red which Aisha pretended not to notice.
Agatha's eyes widened (though it was hard to tell, as Ponggos generally had emotionless faces).
"About time you decided to visit Glenstid?" she asked.
"Yeah…"
"Which one are you?" she asked, making her way to Aisha. "Wait let me think. Not Specka right? She was the hyper active one that would always pet us, and definitely not that emo Noah…so that makes you Aisha…thank god, I don't have to put up with those two brats again."
Aisha laughed nervously, wondering if she was joking (seriously, they're all emotionless like Eve).
"I see you hold my sisters in high regard?" Aisha joked.
"That wasn't a joke," the Ponggo continued. "Your sisters can go eat dirt for all I care."
"…I see."
Agatha raised her hand, and tiptoed, as she strained to bring her hand to pet Aisha on the head.
"Do you mind lowering your head?" she asked.
The elemental master lowered her head, and the Ponggo gently patted her head.
"You have grown," Agatha stated. "Last time I saw you, you were so small, almost my height-"
"Actually I'm pretty sure I was still taller than-"
"Anyways, I'm assuming you want to enter Altera right?" Agatha interrupted, getting straight to the point. "And I'm assuming that these magicians are with you?"
The whole group nodded immediately.
"Your lucky that today we have the teleporter up, generally we only use it whenever we have goods needing to be shipped to Altera, but someone forgot to turn the damn thing off. And when I find whoever it is…" Agatha continued, before clearing her throat, realising that she was rambling on. "I'll send a message to Adel for you while you hop onto the teleporter. Follow me."
The group followed Agatha through the small camp, arriving right at the cliffs edge where a small platform stood. Sighing, she kicked it and muttered a few not so kind words at it, and a small trail of steam forced it's way out of the metal platform, before whirling could be heard from within.
Suddenly the platform shifted, and rose slightly, extending the platform out while it left behind a large hole. Inside the hole, a large metal ring rose, easily five metres tall. Once it finished rising, there was a small spark of electricity, before a purple portal appeared inside the ring.
"There she is," Agatha stated. "Quite the beauty isn't she?"
The group was speechless, while Add stepped closer, pulling out a pair of swirly glasses from his shirt pocket. Trailing his finger across the outer rim of the ring, the white haired boy drew back, pulling off his glasses before putting it back in his shirt pocket, the look of an excited child plastered on his face.
"Anti-magic nasodian alloy?" Add said. "Man, my opinion of you Ponggos just went up."
"Hey, listen sonny cause I'm only going to say this once," Agatha said, drawing the pickaxe strapped to her back. "Nasodian alloy is only illegal if your caught with it…but you didn't see anything, right?"
Playing along, the group watched as Add pretended to zip his lips with his fingers, before 'locking' it and 'throwing' the key away.
Ciel rolled his eyes, while Lu stood there confused at the action.
"Add's gone mad hasn't he," she whispered into Ara's ear.
"He was always mad," Ara whispered back.
"Anyway," Agatha said, grabbing everyone's attention. "Portals up and ready to go. Make sure when you jump in that you aren't touching anyone else as I'm not responsible when you find yourself swapping bodies with someone else."
The group of magicians walked in front of the portal, some feeling nervous while others just calmly stared at the purple portal.
"Just before you jump, I forgot to mention that no magician has ever used this portal before, so I'm not liable for any loss of limbs," Agatha said, giving a thumb's up. "So be sure to leave a review or comment to the council. Assuming you have both your hands then."
"Wait wha-" Aisha started to say, but Agatha slammed her hand on a red button (don't ask where she got it from…you don't want to know), which used the platform to throw the group into the portal.
Lu flew out of the portal first, landing facedown onto the rocky ground. She groaned, and tried to push herself up, but Ara soon followed and landed on the poor demon. This was soon followed by Add, Ciel, Eve, and finally Aisha as they all piled on top of the small demon.
"Get off," Lu forced out, as she struggled to breathe from the weight.
"Does everyone still have they're limbs?" Aisha asked, before letting out a huge groan.
"I can't feel my legs!" Ara screamed, grabbing a pair of legs tightly, causing Ciel to hiss in pain.
"Those are my legs you idiot!" Ciel shouted.
So as the group slowly pulled themselves together, we have Aisha, who is now wobbling slightly as she walked, her pale face, turning into a slight shade of green. We have Ciel, clutching his legs in pain, Lu holding her back in pain, and Ara lying on the ground, screaming that she couldn't feel her legs. Add and Eve watched the spectacle unfold, not bothering to step in.
"Mphmm mphmmph phmmhphpmh," Add said, not opening his mouth, but gesturing with his hands wildly.
"Add speak properly," Eve stated.
Add shook his head in response, point at his mouth, the gesturing the motion of him turning a key in a lock before throwing it away.
"So you refuse to talk because you locked your mouth and threw away the key?"
The white haired boy nodded.
"In that case," Eve said, before grabbing his head. "Let me tear it open for you."
So seeing as this group wouldn't be getting anything done soon, let's move somewhere else…
"Ignia, where are we headed?"
The two had been travelling for a day now, and Elsword still had no idea of the whereabouts. He was tired, and unlike Ignia he was a full-blooded human being that could be tired.
Ignia, held out her hand, and red glowing compass appeared easily, pointing towards the direction they were heading.
"We are going to save my older sister first," she said. "We need her to help me to find the other priestesses. She resides in Hamel's temple."
"Oh…which one?"
Ignia stopped walking.
"Which…one?" she asked. "There's more than one?"
Elsword nodded.
"Temple of Frozen Water, Temple of Trials," Elsword continued. "There's two temples in Hamel."
Ignia stayed silent. Her eyes widened in disbelief.
"Which one is the older temple?" the fire priestess asked.
"I don't know, I'm from Velder," Elsword stated.
There was a brief silence between the two, as Ignia sighed. Then she muttered one word.
"…Useless."
Elsword's hands started to shake uncontrollably, his face red and steaming.
"Says the host of a god! Aren't you supposed to be an all powerful being that knows everything or something?!"
"I'm the host of Rosso! The god of fire, how the hell was I supposed to know that mortals would be stupid enough to make another temple of water!?"
"Well, maybe if you kept in touch with the people that pray to you, you might realise what is happening down on this mortal world!"
"You wanna have a go at me kid! I'll set fire to your ass from here to the whole of next week!"
"I like to see you try! You're obviously not even that knowledgeable, so how powerful could you possibly be!"
"Oh, that is it! A week is too little! I'LL MAKE IT A WHOLE YEAR!"
"Um," Aisha call out to the large black gates leading to the pongo city. "I am Aisha Glenstid. I would like to see the Glenstid vaults please."
"Another Glenstid?" the guard muttered to no one in particular, before opening the gates.
"Another?" Aisha question. The purple haired girl didn't think to much of it and let it pass.
The group of magicians walked into the city, where the large black gates closed on them. The city wasn't what they were expecting, being very busy with lots of shouting and running along the streets. The buildings were merely either small huts or maybe a single story building.
A cough got the groups attention, to which they looked down at the ponggo addressing them.
A ponggo large black rimmed glasses with a fake large nose and moustache looked back at them. He wore a white shirt and a tie, to which he straightened it.
"Miss Glenstid and her travelling companions, please follow me and I'll lead you to your archives."
Aisha bowed respectively, thanking the ponggo.
Following the small creature, the group slowly made their way through the sea of ponggs, doing their best to keep up with their guide. It was a painful process, as Aisha being out in the front would lose sight of her guide regularly.
It thankfully didn't take that long until they reached the archives, being a single door on a small rectangle. It was shabby, and looked more like a toilet cubicle.
"We have arrived Miss Glenstid. Please, take your time."
Thanking the ponggo once more, Aisha opened the door and proceeded to walk down the stairs of the building. The rest followed, and in a single line continued down the stairs leading to the centre of the island. Finally after what seemed like forever, the group made it to the bottom, where a giant metal door stood in their way.
Seeing it, Aisha raised her right hand.
"Guys it's an archive that restricts the use of magic," Aisha stated. "Raise your right hands."
Eve, Add and Ciel immediately did so, while Ara and Lu were slightly reluctant at first. But upon seeing the others do it, they followed suit. As soon as it did, a blue light shot out from the door, wrapping itself around each of their wrists. Once the light faded, each had a glowing rune bracelet around her of their wrists.
The metal door clicked open, and it groaned as it opened towards them, revealing the countless books behind.
"Inside, magic is prohibited, so the bracelet stops you from using magic," Aisha explained.
Each of the group respectively tried to use their magic, only to find out that it does indeed stop them from using magic.
"So what are we looking for here?" Eve asked.
"Everything on the nasods," Aisha stated. "Before my family were bounty hunters, we were known during the war as an anti nasod unit. There might still be information here to fight against them. So spilt into groups of two, and spread out through the library. Hopefully we can go through all the shelves by today."
So the groups were separated into the following, Ara and Aisha, Lu and Ciel, and Add and Eve. Understanding their duties they each entered the library and to search.
The library was huge, and seemed to expand even further when walking further inwards. There seemed to be an endless amount of books. Aisha and Ara continued down their first shelves, before arriving to a large round table in the middle of the library. Aisha smiled, remembering the times where her father had been at that table, reading quietly whenever he had the spare time.
Her smile soon faded when she saw who was at the end of the table. A familiar looking tall dark haired boy with a sword strapped to his back. Beside him, a younger girl carried a huge pile of books in her arms. They both looked up at Ara and Aisha, their eyes, like a deer caught in a headlight.
"How did you get into my family's archive?" Aisha growled.