“Call Ijyela?” Nyx asked.
Don’t.
“What? She knows this system best. We need to-”
Nyx. Don’t.
I put my hand on the icy crystals creating a shell around the bed. “Oskis!”
A blast of fire emerged from my palm, searing into the ice. Trickles of water ran down the sides of the bed, dripping onto the floor. I kept the heat on for a few more seconds, and the ice completely melted, revealing the crystal capsule underneath.
A woman lay inside, asleep. She had dark skin and black, curly hair. Her eyes were a radiant green — or at least they would have been if they were actually open. I couldn’t even tell if she was breathing or not.
I placed my hand on the crystal casing. Do people breathe when they’re cryo-frozen?
“How am I supposed to know?” Nyx asked. “What the heck happened here though? Was there always that much ice in her chamber?”
“No. This probably happened because of a slow build up.”
“Eh? Doesn’t Ijyela come by this place often?”
My finger traced a line across the crystal chassis. “Used to.”
“Oh.” His voice quietened.
“You know, sometimes I wonder why I still keep this woman alive.”
“Don’t tell me…You’re in love with her?” Nyx said, in his most kiddish voice possible.
I rolled my eyes. “Yes, because that’s a thing I’d totally do.”
“Wait, really?”
“Of course not!”
“Okay, okay, I was just checking.”
“Seriously though,” I said. “This woman betrayed us before, and yet we saved her, and then we kept her here, thinking she’d help us out sometime. It’s been months since we brought her, and she’s been no help. Yet I continue to keep her here.”
“Hey, don’t ask me to psychoanalyze you. I literally live in your mind and I definitely don’t want to give this place a closer look.”
I sighed. “You and your jokes.”
“Okay look,” the spirit said. “This lady is an expendable source for us, and she’s very, very strong. Stronger than everyone but you and the Death Lord. If the time comes, it’d be useful to wake her up.”
“True,” I said. “I mean, that was the reasoning we used to keep her here in the first place.”
“And that reasoning remains.”
“Diablo,” Acnologia said. “The Aurora has disappeared.”
Thanks.
“Come on.” I turned around.
“Wait, that’s it?” Nyx asked. “No more inner contemplations?”
“None.” I grinned and walked back up the stairs. I stepped out of the doorway of my house, and turned my eyes to the overcast skies. The green aurora was now gone, replaced by just the gray of the clouds.
“Where were you?” A voice called from behind me.
A knight of black armor stood a couple of yards ahead, flashing a grin on his face.
“What do you need Oris?” I turned around.
“I want a face off.” The young man stepped down onto the streets.
“You realize I’m currently close to four times your level, right?”
“I don’t want to faceoff with our power.” he said. “I want to faceoff with our skill.”
“Not following.”
“Swordsmanship.” He lifted his blade. “Faceoff against me using just your sword. No Eternal powers or tricks.”
“I’m still a whole lot stronger than you are.” I walked past him. “Plus, I really don’t have the time for this.”
“I’m sure you wouldn’t want Freya knowing about your little trip downstairs, would you?”
I stopped, and then I sighed. “You saw that, huh?”
“Yup,” he grinned. “And boy am I glad that I did.”
This is annoying.
I knew Oris would tell Freya if I let the chance go, and that was something I really couldn’t do. There was no telling how the elf would react if she found out I went down to see Irmeia.
Well, actually I knew exactly how she’d react, and that’s why I didn’t want her to know.
I turned around, with a smile on my face. “Fine.” I lifted Dawnbreaker out of its sheath. “Ready?”
He gripped his blade. “Go.”
I leapt forward, and made sure to not use my high-agility skill. I slashed at his chest, but he blocked. A strong resistance came over my strike and I pulled back, impressed.
“I could have just muscled my way into landing a hit.” I grinned and slashed again.
“That isn’t a test of skill.” The Knight blocked and slid his blade across mine, directing Dawnbreaker to the floor and somehow jabbing at me with his weapon. I swirled around, swinging my blade up. The young knight met my strike with his own forceful one, blocking my attack easily.
I grinned. Time to take it up a notch. I slid up to the nearest wall and pushed off it. My fingers gripped the sword blade tighter and I swung hard, hitting the top of his sword with every strike. He switched to multiple defensive stances, and I hit the top of his blade every time, fending it away from his body.
His speed however was pretty good, and he had an even better hustle going on. He dropped to the ground and slashed upwards. I jumped back, sliding across the surface.
“Okay, you’re going too easy on him,” Nyx said.
You think? I looked at the young Knight step up to me. Fine.
My free hand reached out to my side, and a stream of lights shot to it. In a flash, I had a sword of misty white in my hand, contrasting the black blade I had in my other. I slashed inward with both blades, catching the young man completely off guard.
My blades held onto his sword, and the friction between the metals kept the weapons still. I slide Dawnbreaker further up his weapon and applied more pressure. His sword bent from the force.
And then it snapped.
The metal halves dropped to the floor with a soft, almost-inaudible thud.
“Uh oh.” I looked up. “That wasn’t your favorite sword, or something was it?”
“No,” he said. “But you said you wouldn’t use your full strength.”
I stuck my tongue out. “Old habits.”
He sighed. “Fine.”
“So, I get your promise now?”
“Yeah, yeah.” He waved his hand. “I won’t tell Freya anything.”
“Won’t tell me what?” A hand clutched my shoulder, and though there was no pressure on it, I felt like it could end me if it wanted to.
I slowly turned around. An elf with silver eyes stood there, wearing a stern look on her face.
“Wow, this is bound to be good,” Nyx chuckled.
“Tell me what, Zoran?” She raised an eyebrow.
“Hi there!” I said, sliding my swords into the sheaths. “You’re back already. Are Viola and Nyx okay?”
“Yes, they are.” Her voice was cold. “I, on the other hand, am very perplexed by what it is that you’re trying to hide from me.”
I sighed. “I went down to see Irmeia.”
She blinked. “And you wanted to hide that from me? Why?”
“You know…”
“Because I ‘disapprove’ of such things?”
My hand ran along my sword sheath.
She sighed. “No one’s trying to control you,” she said. “I do not like that that woman is still being held in our village, especially after what she did to us. Well, what she did to you. You, however, seem to have a differing opinion, and I respect that. That difference doesn’t mean I’m going to blast you for going and seeing her.”
You’ve done that indirectly before. But I kept quiet and nodded.
“Ah, there you two are.” Ijyela walked up to us, with Krof behind her and struggling to keep up.
Nyx chuckled. “He really is an old man.”
Actually, I think she’s hundreds of years older.
“Alright, what did you guys find?” Freya asked.
I turned to Oris and waved him away. The Kni
ght nodded and picked up the pieces of his broken sword before heading out.
“Well.” Ijyela stepped closer to us. “From what I was able to determine at the moment, I have the location to about twenty different places the presences were sensed in.”
“And by location we mean precise locations,” Krof said. “You should be able to get to exactly that spot if you use the information we have.”
“Wow,” Freya said. “I’m impressed. You managed to do that in quite a short while.”
“Well, it took quite a bit of effort,” Freya said. “We also may have annoyed quite a few people”
I chuckled. “That’s just how we do things.”
“So, where’s the closest location?”
“Give me a second,” Ijyela said.
She slid open her Ga’em menu and worked through a few options.
DING!
A screen opened up before me, and I could tell immediately that it was showing a map of our region. Our village, Ikarius, sat towards the left, while in the center stood the two entities — the Kingdom of Aingard towards the north, and the Dargonian Empire at the south. Farther right to that were the Hexel Ruins, a dark expanse of land with close to no life in it.
Red dots appeared on the map, pulsating in many regions within the Kingdom and Empire, but nothing outside it.
“I’m surprised there’s nothing in Hexel,” I said. “Did you try contacting your brother once again?”
She nodded. “No response. He’s probably busy taking care of something else. It is not like he can drop everything and talk to me. Nor do we have that kind of relationship.”
“Alright so which one is the closest Eternal beacon from here?” Freya asked. “There are too many for me to accurately pinpoint one.”
Ijyela sighed. “That would happen to be this one.”
She pointed to one of the beacons on my map. It was smack in the horizontal center of the kingdom, and was a little south to the vertical center as well.
Haven’t been to that place before, I realized. No clue what it’s like.
Freya, on the other hand, had her eyes wide.
Well, SHE seems like she knows a thing or two.
“What happened?” I asked.
“What do you mean?” She asked. I stared at her, and then she sighed. “Of course, you wouldn’t remember what that is. The place that Ijyela just pointed to is no normal city. It’s the capital of the Alliance of Light.”
“It is?” I asked.
Ijyela nodded. “Unfortunately, that is the nearest beacon from us. The others are nearly half a day further away. And I cannot provide enough imagery for you to use your Shadow Travel skill to get to them.”
“We can wait and find a better spot to visit first if you wish,” Krof said.
“No, that’s fine,” I said. “This actually works out.”
He frowned. “Really?”
“The Alliance of Light has been very quiet lately,” I said. “It wouldn’t be against our interests to find out what they’re up to.”
“But the safety concerns?”
“They haven’t had any strong warriors since Markus Goodfield. And honestly, even if they show up with a thousand Markus Goodfields, I could probably take them out, given the level I’m at right now.”
“That’s probably true,” Nyx said.
“Wait, so we’re actually doing this?” Freya blinked.
I grinned. "We're going to go pay our old ‘friends’ a visit."
***
CHAPTER FOUR
“You didn’t have to come, you know?” I said.
I sat on Acnologia’s back, gripping the rough scales on the side of his neck.
“I’m coming regardless.” Freya sat right behind me. Her hair flowed in the wind, turning into a cascade of black and one streak of silver.
“Boy, you really just want to be alone, don’t you?” Nyx asked.
I rolled my eyes. Well, yeah.
After about an hour of travel, a small city emerged on the ground ahead of us. But it definitely wasn’t the capital, because I recognized this place, as did Freya.
“Langsdale,” the elf whispered.
I nodded. “It’s been a while.”
“It’s been more than a year.”
A tall square wall stood around the entire city, and inside it was a cluster of buildings. Most of them were small and simple, but the occasional tall ones also existed. Further into the city, another wall rose up, this one circular. It was much higher than the outer wall and seemed much thicker too. Inside the second enclosure stood a cluster of tall towers, each of them painted pristine white and rising more than twenty stories high.
The Lumina knights.
The Alliance of Light had small factions within it, and the most prominent — and best known one of the lot — were the Lumina Knights. In fact, I didn’t even know the names of any other faction within the Alliance at the moment.
“That’s just because they haven’t attacked you yet,” Nyx chuckled.
I grinned. How else would I know of them, if they haven’t attacked me?
“Still looks the same.” Freya smiled at the city.
I gazed at her, but said nothing. There wasn’t anything I could add on by speaking, and there was certainly a lot I could ruin by doing so.
“Diablo,” Acnologia spoke. “Hang on.”
A blast sounded from ahead, and the Dragon swerved to his side. A beam of writhing, white energy rose from the middle of the city and broke through the skies. My legs clutched tight around the Dragon’s neck as the beast tilted away, letting the attack shoot by us.
“What the heck was that?” I blinked.
“Anti-Dragon measures?” Freya asked. “I don’t know.”
“Who the hell has Anti-Dragon measures?”
“People who know about you and Acnologia.”
Another blast sounded, and the Dragon dived down. The beam passed a few feet above us now, sending a searing heat down onto our faces.
It’d definitely hurt to get hit by that thing.
“Let’s hope we don’t get experimental data on that,” Nyx said.
The sounds intensified, and before we even realized, three blasts were making their way to us, ready to strike into the Dragon. The beast folded in its wings, plummeting down just in time. The blast seared over us once again, and more heat poured out of this one.
“They’re stronger now,” I whispered.
“Seems like it,” Freya said. “What do we do?”
Acnologia rose back up to the skies. The Lumina Headquarters stood about ten yards ahead of us, and at its very center were a large pack of Knights in White armor, all crowded around massive metallic cannons of pure white. A faint hum echoed from them, a sign that the weapons were powering up.
“Alright, that’s enough.” I thrust my hand forward. “Yulesio!” I yelled.
A massive blast of darkness shot out my palms, and was the width of many houses. The beam struck the middle of the city, and a loud explosion boomed. Flames and smoke rose from the inner enclosure, and a chain of explosions sounded right after.
“Yulesio!” I attacked once more with the second blast of darkness, purging the remaining survivors of both man and machine. Flames of black rose high within the walls, but never spilled out. The Lumina Knights headquarters were burning, but the city itself was safe, with not a single fire within it.
“Zoran.” Freya stiffened. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“And risk letting them using that weaponry on us again?” I asked. “Who knows how far those attacks will strike, and how hard they can hit. I don’t want to find out by actually being involved in one.”
She stayed quiet, and averted her eyes.
Acnologia rose into the air, flying through the clouds and rising above them. A layer of chilling mist laced my skin, and then a calmness filled my head. Sounds of life ceased from around us, leaving just the still air and silence. Rays of afternoon light shone bright onto the clouds under us, giv
ing them a dull orange tinge.
The elf sat still behind me. She looked down to the clouds, but less as if she was looking at them, and more as though she was looking past them.
I sighed, but said nothing. An argument would be useless right now.
“Yeah,” Nyx said. “Just forget about it.”
But what does she mean I didn’t have to do that? I frowned. Do you really think it’d be a good idea to risk them attacking us with those things?
“Good job. I see you understood the phrase ‘forget about it’ perfectly.”
Shut up. I mean, I definitely did have to do what I just did. Acnologia, could you have dodged all those attacks?
“Do not drag me into this,” the Dragon chuckled. “However, I most certainly could have dodged maybe ten of those attacks consecutively. Any higher and it would be an issue.”
And if that attack landed? I clenched my fists. What happens then? Do we know how strong it is?
“We do not,” the Dragon said. “Diablo, I think you should calm down. I understand your annoyance, but now is not the time for this.”
I sighed. I know. I’m sorry.
“There is no need for apologies.”
“That place you just attacked meant something to Freya, Diablo,” Nyx said. “It is understandable she would be emotional that you attacked it. It is understandable for her to think you have no good reason for doing so either. Do not dwell on it too much. It is a simple case of emotions speaking over rationality.”
I nodded.
“Uhh, Zoran?” The elf tapped my shoulder.
I put on my best ‘normal’ face and turned. “Yeah?”
“I just got a message from Ijyela. And she says the signature we’re headed to just disappeared.”
My eyes widened. “What?!”
“I’m not sure what happened. Neither is she. But we can confirm the signature is gone. Her contacts all seem to have reported the same thing just a few minutes ago.”
“How the heck does the signature for an Eternal disappear like that?! Was it phony to begin with?”
The elf bit her lip. “I’m not sure. It’s perplexing.”
“I’ll say,” I muttered. “Where’s the next nearest signature.”
The Eternal: A Boxed Set (World of Ga'em Book 6) Page 98
