Although it looked like a short distance it took close to five minutes to actually reach the outpost at full speed. I landed down just in front of Aurora, who had her bow nocked and raised, and behind Sky, who was holding her sword at her side. Not knowing what to expect I also drew out the Katana style blade from my left sheath.
We were stood on the outside of the wooden palisade, at the front of the closed gateway. Apart from the wind blowing sand across the barren plain, it was silent. I toggled my detection vision and tried to search for anything that I hadn't been able to see from the long range of before.
After a quick scan I couldn't see anything living within the area. Knowing that I may have missed something I checked with the others, "You two see anything?"
After a short pause Aurora spoke, "I see nothing."
A few seconds after this Sky sheathed her sword and turned away from the door. "You may want to move back a little." She spoke in a calm manner, but the smile on her face and the maniacal look in her eyes gave away that she was about to do something stupid.
I had no idea what she was about to do, but I instantly took her advice. Aurora did the same so that we were both a good 20 meters away from the gateway. Sky had moved only a small amount back from where she originally was, but now was facing the gate with her hand raised.
A change in the wind and a fluttering sound from my side caught my attention. Lilith had landed behind me and Aurora. She was looking on in fear at Sky. "What is she doing and why are you so far behind her?"
"Just roll with it." Aurora replied. Seemingly this did nothing to reassure Lilith, from the sigh she gave.
We turned back to Sky who had begun to shout something in a language I didn't understand, but recognised as Latin.
"In nomine Dei! ego Iubes flamma de caelo!"
Her entire arm was surrounded by flaming red circles that seemed to pulse stronger with every word she spoke. Just in front of her palm were brightly glowing blood red runes, shapes and foreign letters that floated in a chaotic manner.
"Solvite!" At this word the pulsing rings of flame rushed down her arm and seemingly into the floating runes. The runes initially gave off an almost blinding light, before rapidly reforming into a perfect sphere. Through gaps in the runes I could see that something akin to a small star was being contained inside of it.
Suddenly the sphere sped away from Sky's palm and directly towards the centre of the gate. Within a split second of the ball leaving her hand it smashed into the gateway and the shockwave given off from the proceeding explosion nearly knocked me off my feet.
As well as pushing me off balance I had to cover my face with my arms in order to block out to searing heat of the fireball. A hand grabbed my left shoulder and pulled me down to the ground so that I was I was crouching, presumable to avoid any flying pieces of debris.
The sound of rushing wind and the crackle of the destroyed wood could only just be heard through the roaring of the magical flames. The explosion was on par with some of the finale moves of the later Aincrad bosses and it was a complete surprise that Sky was anywhere close to having that sort of power.
About 30 seconds passed and the thunderous sound of the fire seemed to die down and disappear. However I could still hear the distinct sound of cracking wood and the thumping sound as heavy pieces of debris hit the sandy ground.
I looked up and saw that Sky was still standing as she was beforehand, seemingly unaffected by the blast that she had created. But this time she had her sword held in both of her hands and was tensed. Past her I could see the remains of the palisade.
Although the fireball had only been sent at the wooden gateway, the entire surrounding wall had been damaged in some way. The gateway itself was now a gaping hole of scorched earth and embers. Parts of the wooden wall had either been knocked down to the ground or were in the process of burning. It seemed as if the fire that had started had a good chance of spreading to the entire wall.
Looking to my side I saw that it was Aurora that had pulled me down. She was looking up at the gateway with a somewhat shocked expression, she too realised how much power was behind whatever Sky had just done.
"Well that's one way to make an entrance." The disgruntled comment came from behind us. Lilith once again was complaining at the way Sky had gone about something. This time however both I and Aurora simply ignored the comment.
I quickly looked above us to check that the debris had stopped falling before getting up and walking over to Sky. When I reached her I expected to see a superior and concentrated expression, but in reality I found that she looked completely shocked and was trying to stop herself from laughing.
"Sky, what the hell was that?" I asked this before Lilith could say anything, but I felt this was the same question that we all had.
"I have literally no idea." After saying this she lowered her sword, dropped to the ground and started to laugh. Her laugh sounded hollow though, as if she was trying to laugh and be happy but at the same time being held back by sadness.
"That was forbidden magic. Only a small group of people in the game are powerful enough to cast something like that and only a few of them with the knowledge of the words." Lilith filled in the blanks in our game knowledge, although, as anticipated, her annoyed tone had returned.
"So what you're saying is that all three of us could probably cast things like that?" Aurora was quick to the mark. She had a good point, as all three of us were close in level to each other there was the possibility that we could achieve similar.
"Theoretically, yes you could." Lilith's tone changed to one of a thinking craftsman. One that I recognised was similar to Steven's when he was only half paying attention.
"In reality though, most of Undine magic is healing magic. Whilst most of Sylph magic relies on the use of animals and living things. You may be able to use forbidden magic, but it will be nowhere near as powerful as a Salamander's destruction spells."
"That was much more fun than I had expected." Sky had stopped laughing now and stood back up with her sword held casually at her side. "And anyway if there was anyone inside, they'd have come out by now, or are too scared to even try and fight us. Simple." She said this with a fake light-heartedness and began to walk through the burning remnants of the gate.
Seeing her just walking through the gate alone led to the feeling that there was definitely something wrong with Sky, not too long ago she was serious and irritated at Lilith. But now she seemed to be holding a mask of happiness for some reason. It was also strange for her to literally blast her way through things, although she rarely seemed overly cautious, she always seemed on guard and concentrating.
Not long after Sky had passed the threshold of the gate I felt a familiar pressure on my arm. Aurora had grabbed hold of my arm tightly and was pulling me forward towards the gateway. I turned to look at her and she looked scared and upset, she probably had noticed the same change in Sky that I had. I wriggled my arm a bit so that her hand slid down so that I could hold it, an attempt at both reassuring her and myself.
As we reached the remnants of the burning gate I could feel a similar heat to when the fireball had first exploded against the wood. Both the ground and the air had yet to cool down even in the slightest, a testament to the power of the fireball that ripped the gateway apart.
I activated my detection vision once again, but as with the past times I could see no sign of any monsters or players. In front of me Sky was moving her head from side to side, seemingly doing the same as I just had. The fact that she promptly placed her sword back into its sheath showed that she had the same outcome as I had.
Seeing that I had failed to detect anything again and that Sky had already placed her sword away I moved to do similar. "Not yet." The quiet whisper came from Aurora who still had a tight grip on her bow, still with an arrow nocked. Sky signalled for us two to move forward.
I hesitated in moving, but once again Aurora began to pull me forward. As we passed over the burning ground of the destroyed gateway we had to cover our faces from the heat and were forced to run over it to avoid being burned. Although once past the burning heat I got my first proper look at the inside of the outpost.
The inside of the outpost seemed to have been arranged in a grid like pattern of roads, tents and temporary buildings. The buildings however were only in the centre of the area, with all of the tents in the remaining surrounding area.
Around the outside ring of the outpost were what seemed to be standard sleeping tents that had space enough for 2 or3 occupants. These tents were similar to upside down cones with dark red and gold canvases, with a silver spike to top them. After a quick look at the closest tents they all had their entrances shut and secured down with rope. I could see at least 40 of the silver tent tops around the outpost meaning that the outpost could easily hold around 80 players in acceptable comfort.
In the centre of the outpost were 3 different buildings that had been made from white planks of wood and a light coloured stone. One of the buildings had a second floor that rose above the other buildings and past the tent tops. However they were very simple 4 walled square buildings with a few visible windows that looked out over the outpost.
The path just behind the now broken gateway led in a straight line towards the largest of the three buildings, with 3 tents lined on either side of this path. "Lilith, do you know where the HQ or something of this place is?" Sky shouted with her head turned slightly to her shoulder towards us.
Lilith moved forward and up next to Sky and pointed directly ahead of us. "How about the big building in the middle?" This comment was made with heavy sarcasm; however this time she did have a good point.
"Lead the way then." Sky gave a slight theatrical bow, reminiscent of the mannerism shown by Val.