by Max Jager
"You guys are really leaving?" Pex asked quietly. "Are you not coming back?"
"I don't know Pex" Estellese answered. "We were trapped in this world against our will, and it nearly killed us. I'm going to miss you, and everyone here, but I don't know if I can come back. And not because I don't want to, part of me does, but I, just don't know."
"Oh." Pex lowered her head.
Mendelen took a step towards his room "Well, I'm exhausted. I think it's a safe bet to say we all are. Let's get to sleep for tonight, and all meet on the ground in the center of town tomorrow for our final goodbyes before we log out? Who knows when the kid will message us, could be late."
"Sounds good to me." Zanath replied.
"Can I come? To the final goodbyes?" Pex asked.
"Of course you can, I'd want you to be there. You're a good friend Pex." Estellese answered.
Pex nodded. "Alright, thank you. I'm really tired and not feeling well. I'm going to head home. Goodnight everyone." Her voice was quiet and she sounded upset.
"I'm tired too, and I'm sorry Pex. 'Night everyone, and no leaving early Kaden." Estellese replied.
Pex flew home and everyone went to their rooms to sleep for the night.
The next morning came before they knew it. Estellese stretched as she awoke, she had slept in a little since she had wings now and could just fly down to get there faster. The thought of going back to the real world and losing her wings and her new friends was a little sad, but she needed to go home. She got out of bed and flew down to the center of town. To her surprise everyone was already there, even Pex.
"So, we are all here?" Kaden asked. "Did we all read the message?"
Mendelen and Zanath nodded, but said nothing. Pex looked confused and walked over to Estellese to stand beside her.
"I didn't read mine yet." Estellese replied. She waved her hand palm-down in front of herself and the virtual keyboard opened up, along with a big screen in front of her. Pex was staring at the keyboard and screen, trying to take it all in and trying to summon her own, but it didn't work. Estellese saw a message she assumed was from Thomas and touched it, and it opened up. Pex read it over her shoulder.
"I'm sorry. I am so sorry. My father lied to me. Don't die, this is your real body, you're in here just like I am and my father won't give you the immortality he gave me. I am so sorry. It's my fault, I told him I wanted friends, I never thought he'd trap people in here! I am so sorry!"
After reading just the first two words Estellese's heart dropped. She didn't need to read the rest of it to know what it said, but she did anyways. "This isn't one of Kaden's jokes, is it? If this message is really a fake message from Kaden, I swear I will kill him."
"It is not. I'm not that big of an asshole." Kaden replied.
"Where is Thomas? He seems really upset in this message, we need to tell him it isn't his fault." Estellese asked.
Kaden shrugged. "I woke up pretty early, and I thought the same thing. Innkeeper said Thomas never went to his room last night. So I asked around town, found a shop hovering lower to the ground for the elves who are here. Shopkeeper said they saw him leaving town in a hurry, with the girl and his dog. Shopkeep also said he did seem really upset. So I sent Thomas a message saying thanks for the info, and that it wasn't his fault. He hasn't replied."
"I'm going to message him too then." Estellese replied. "It's not his fault, I don't want him to be upset. Poor kid is probably going through enough as it is."
"More importantly, what do we do now?" Mendelen asked. "If what he says is true we can't get back to the real world, and if it isn't we still don't know how to get back anyways. Plus now we know just how much danger we are in. I guess we always knew, but now it's confirmed. If these are our real bodies, we don't want to die here."
"Um." Pex said quietly. "I know this is a bad time, and I am very sorry for you all. But Estell, my offer still stands. If you would like to live with me, you can. I can't extend that offer to your friends, my father would not approve and I haven't gotten my own home yet. Plus we don't have the space, but he survived the battle and I spoke to him about you and he is okay with you."
"Thank you Pex." Estellese replied quietly.
"I feel really selfish saying it, because I didn't want you to go, and now you can't, and I feel bad. But, I just wanted you to know the offer still stands." Pex sheepishly mumbled.
"I will probably take you up on that offer, I really appreciate it. It sounded good before and if I really can't go home, I need to find a new home here." Estellese said. "At least partially, like I said before, I want to explore and see the world too."
"You can come with me." Kaden started. "I also intend to explore. With my portals you can easily explore the world, then come back here via portals to rest between trips."
"Thanks Kaden." Estellese replied.
"I also think I'll be out exploring the world." Mendelen spoke up "I didn't really feel at home in either city, might settle down in the elven village eventually but for now I think I'll just wander. If you and Estell go together can I tag along?" He asked.
"Nope, I only extend my offer to Estell." Kaden sarcastically replied. "Of course you can come along dude, we are all friends we should stick together." As soon as he said that everyone turned to Zanath, who was remaining quiet as usual..
"I was thinking of settling down in Elwood village with the elves. But I'll need money for that, so if we are all going out on more adventures I'm up for tagging along. If we find another dungeon we can make some good cash off it." Zanath answered.
"The elves don't like us killing things though, like we did in the last dungeon." Estellese pointed out.
"Um." Pex spoke up. "Actually, those dungeon thingies, the elves don't actually mind if you kill the creatures in those. If we are talking about the same thing. We do it all the time. Those creatures are… Different. Lifeless. Telepaths can't find any thoughts in their heads, empaths can't sense any emotions in them. We've studied them, they don't eat or sleep, they don't even move or breathe until someone is inside the dungeon. And when they see someone they are always hostile and always attack without any sense of self-preservation. It's kinda creepy if you ask me."
"But the elves were really pissed off at us for killing a dungeon of creatures before." Mendelen pointed out.
Pex shrugged. "I am not sure why, maybe it was the context? We do it all the time and so do they. It is a good source of money, but it's pretty 'd have to ask them personally why they got mad over it. I mean, if you were killing the creatures outside dungeons, then yeah they don't like that unless you have to do it. But the ones in dungeons, they kill those all the time."
Estellese looked up at the others. "Well, adventuring, world exploring, and dungeon hunting?" She asked. To which everyone nodded in agreement.
"Sounds good to me. But first," Kaden started "Let's take a few weeks off. Since we got here, it's been non-stop training, fighting to survive, battles, and stress. We deserve a break before we set out again, and for once we are in no rush to leave."
Everyone laughed lightly "Heck yes, couldn't agree more" Mendelen replied. "Anyone have anything else to add?" He asked. When nobody answered he continued talking "Well, I'm heading off to explore the city and see what they got here."
"I'm teleporting to the battlefield to scavenge for weapons. Then I'm selling them and teleporting to the elven city to buy that huge scythe I wanted." Kaden replied. "I should be back by this evening, the portals will make traveling much quicker."
"Can you open them that far away?" Mendelen asked.
"Uh, yes and no." Kaden answered. "It's hard for me to place them exactly where I need them if it isn't within my line of sight, and the further away the less accurate I am. But with practice I probably could. For now I'm just gonna take it in small steps, I'll just have to step through a few portals to get there and back instead of one."
"Estell, you can come see your room and get it organized the way you like it. And we should get you some more clot
hes so you're not stuck wearing the same ones every day." Pex spoke up.
"That sounds good to me." Estellese replied, "See you guys around." She added as her and Pex flew off.
"See you around." Mendelen turned and walked away.
"You got plans?" Kaden asked Zanath.
"Sleep." Zanath replied. "I haven't slept well in weeks, looking forward to just crashing and getting some much needed rest. I'll figure out what to do after that when I get there."
"You think there will ever be a way to get back to the real world?" Kaden asked.
"Weird question. I don't know." Zanath replied. "If we got in here, theoretically there should be a way to reverse the process and get back out. I have not given up on looking for a way out if that's what you mean, but I think it might be something we need to discover in a lab. I don't think we will find any exit waiting for us within the world, we will need to research and build our own way out." He sighed. "But then the question becomes, if we finally find a way to get out, by the time we figure it out and make it, will we want to leave? It could take years and by then, without a doubt this life will have become as real to us as our previous life was. This world will be just as real to us as our old one was, and same with the relationships we forged in this world. I know I would still want to leave, but I can't say the same for the rest of you."
Kaden nodded "I agree, if it took that long, I don't know if I'd want to leave. I can see that happening to all of us, even you. Well if you ever need help figuring things out, let me know. Sometimes you just need an insane person to look at your experiments to see something you didn't see."
Zanath chuckled and shook his head "I'll keep that in mind."
"Good luck." Kaden replied. As he spoke a portal opened beside him and he walked through it, the portal disappeared as soon as Kaden was on the other side.
And Zanath finally went to bed.
They never saw Thomas, Rex, or Inami again after that day, despite searching all over for them. Estellese moved in with Pex and began living with her, they became close friends and Pex even began referring to Estellese as her "alien sister" due to the similarities they shared. The guys went out to explore the world and Estellese spent a great deal of time traveling with the guys and going on adventures with them, but also lived in the fairy city studying magic with Pex, her time was almost evenly split between the two.
Months passed, and in time they inevitably began to go their separate ways. Estellese became more focused on her magic studies. Zanath and Mendelen both got small homes in the Elwood village with the elves, and Kaden continued avoiding towns which resulted in him remaining alone out in the wilderness when everyone else had gone home.
Zanath got involved in helping teach the elves as much about modern technology as he could, and he also spent a lot of time in his makeshift lab, looking for a way out and also experimenting with different technologies. While Mendelen, like Kaden, began wandering the world on his own from time to time. They all still got together for new adventures and to explore dungeons when they found them, and they frequently visited each other, but it wasn't as much as it was when they started out, they spent a lot of time focused on their own lives, without the others now. But, that was to be expected, they no longer needed each other to survive, and they now had to figure out how to make their new lives in this world normal and fulfilling. Despite the distance, they remained very close friends.
The alphas were still rapidly growing more powerful with each day but they realized that the stronger they got, the slower they gained more power. It became clear that there would be a limit to how powerful they would become, they weren't going to get much tougher than the elves or fairies. While their initial powers came quickly, within weeks, it took months for their power to double and leave them as strong as the average elven/fairy soldier, and it slowed down even further from there. It was a year and a half before they felt like they had peaked at their maximum potential, they were still growing stronger but at such a slow rate it no longer really mattered. Despite this, they still gained power faster than the elves or fairies, who would've taken ten years of training to reach what the Alphas did in a year and a half. Each of the Alphas grew stronger in areas that they focused the most on throughout their new lives.
Mendelen became significantly stronger and faster due to his time traveling and fighting, and while he never mastered an element he did make a trip to Altia and worked closely with the fairies to create a few spells that were unique to him.
Zanath gained superhuman speed and even better accuracy with ranged weapons. But that wasn't all, he became much more intelligent due to all the time he spent in his lab and helping the elves. The one thing that never slowed down was how fast he could learn new material, he was learning new things at an incredibly fast rate. Zanath didn't just help the elves gain modern technology, he surpassed modern technology. However, his new inventions were things he kept to himself, they were prototypes and not ready to be used by the general public, but his inventions were quickly making modern technology look old.
Estellese primarily focused on studying her magic, in time she mastered the fire and earth elements, and also learned a small arsenal of other elemental spells, just quick spells she could use in a pinch. She otherwise became more physically durable, a little stronger and a little faster over time, but her physical improvements were nothing compared to her newfound magical skills.
Kaden bought himself the massive scythe he had wanted, and he also bought himself some intimidating looking black armor. In time he became superhumanly fast and strong, and he learned a few minor spells. Kaden never stopped exploring the world, never stopped battling monsters, never stopped fighting for survival in the wilderness, even after everyone else found a home and settled down. He became more knowledgeable of the world and his portals became more and more accurate with each passing day.
It was a little over two years after that battle with the abyssal demon, when Estellese received a message from Kaden. Kaden was not the type of person to stay in contact, or send many messages, so when she received a message titled "We have a problem. -Kaden" she opened it immediately.
"I need you guys to give me your coordinates immediately so I can open a portal for you to come here. We have a major problem in the Emory forest, and I need you guys here ASAP to figure out what we are going to do. -Kaden"
"Pex, I need to step out for a minute. I'm going to the Emory forest." Estellese said as she passed Pex in the hall.
"That's a bit far, why are you going there?" Pex asked.
"Kaden says something is wrong, and says he needs us. He is bringing us all there via portal so it should be a quick trip." Estellese answered.
"I would come with you, but I gotta get to the library. Job won't do itself. Please be safe sis." Pex replied. "Plus I'm no good at fighting anyways, so I'd probably just hold you guys back again."
"I will be safe, no worries. And if you ever want to come with us again you can, it never hurts to have another magic user." Estellese replied.
Pex shook her head. "Last time I came to a dungeon I just got in the way, made you guys worry, and didn't really do much. I do not belong on the battlefield, and honestly I'm not really interested in learning, fighting just isn't my thing. I'll stick to my library. But thanks, if you're ever just exploring I might come along."
Estellese nodded "Alright, well have fun. I don't know when I'll be back, but it shouldn't be more than a day or two. As usual." She left the house and messaged Kaden. It wasn't long before a portal opened in front of her and she stepped through it.
- Next Chapter: Grim News -
Chapter 20: Grim News
- Chapter 20: Grim News -
Estellese stepped out of the portal to find herself in the Emory forest again. The area looked familiar, this was the same clearing they had tried to camp in back at the beginning of their journey. Why did Kaden bring her here?
"Hey Estell, how are things going?" Mendelen greeted. Zanath and Kaden were not
far behind him and they both looked very concerned.
"Well, things were going pretty good until I got this message, what's going on?" Estellese asked.
Mendelen lowered his head and stepped aside to let her see what Kaden had found. There were four corpses on the ground in the clearing ahead of them, covered in stab and slash wounds. It was a startling reminder of what almost happened to their own group back when they ran into the werewolves here.
Estellese gasped and covered her mouth in shock "Those are… Humans… Why are there humans here?"
"I asked myself the same question." Kaden spoke up. "So I looked around the area to see if there was any survivors, and well, Jess." He said as he gestured to his friends.
A short, younger woman with long brown hair and sharp blue eyes stepped out from behind Kaden and walked into the middle of the group. She looked to be about twenty-one wore a black hoodie with a yellow blouse underneath and wore black leggings that were a little torn up. She had headphones around her neck that were quietly playing soothing music, but she was shaking like a leaf. She looked terrified, and it was unclear whether she was more afraid of whatever had killed the other humans nearby her; or the tall man wearing spiky black armor and wielding a giant scythe. Kaden had an odd choice of attire, it made him look intimidating and that was not helping.
