by John Nest
Yet, even after killing ten-thousand chaneques, there was still nothing. Not a single notification window popped up.
Disheartened, Smoke logged out and intended to stay out for awhile.
* * * * * *
A frustrated Nash stepped out of his game pod. He reached for his phone and saw a text message from Sherry. She updated him about Adrizol’s Inspection. Personally, he thought that they could do without Verbrannt becoming a city. However, Mamelon, Thyrsus, and Sharanga were all for it. So, Sherry, who was on the fence, leaned towards agreeing on the visit.
“It’s really up to you,” said Nash out loud as he typed the words on his phone.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
“You ready to go?” asked Seth from behind his door.
“Almost, just give me a few seconds,” said Nash, wiping the blood from his nose. He still had nosebleeds from time to time, but it had lessened over the week of his playing in Mictlan.
“What about Donny?” went on Seth.
“Said he had to do some school work at a friend’s house,” answered Nash, while getting ready.
Seth sighed. “Did you ask for his friend’s number?”
“No,” said Nash, getting out of his room. “Donny’s got his own phone.”
“Bet he just wants to ditch going to the Detectives,” pointed out Seth. “You know Mima always said that you’re too trusting. That’s why you get duped a lot in Zectas.”
Hearing this, Nash’s eyes widened with realization. “Yeah? Well, I’ve been strict about letting people in Verbrannt. And I’ve… also made sure the guild members go through rigorous screening.”
Seth shook his head. “But what about the times when someone asks for your help?”
“Um… well… When is it ever bad to help?” reasoned out Nash, leading the way outside their home. “Besides, my gut isn’t wrong all of the time!”
It took them less than an hour to reach the police station. When they arrived, they immediately walked over to the desks of two lean men in their thirties; Detective Alonzo Faltoso and Detective Ray Malear.
“Nash, Seth, how’re you two doing?” greeted Detective Faltoso, shaking their hands.
Both of the Smoak brothers remained stoic and simply nodded.
“Ray, we got it set up in the media room, right?” Detective Faltoso asked his partner.
“Yeah, yeah,” replied Detective Malear, standing up and leading them to the said room. “Now, listen, it’s not much but we’ve recovered some of the deleted videos off a camera on an ATM.”
With only one whiff inside, Nash and Seth could tell that the room also served as their break room. The rancid smell of nicotine lingered.
Detective Malear had them sit on plastic chairs and got one of the tiny black remotes set on the table.
“It’s just two minutes,” said Detective Faltoso. “But we’d still like you to look at it anyway.”
Turning on the screen, they saw a group of four men going into a subway entrance.
“We were hoping that you could identify any of them,” went on Detective Faltoso.
“What about face recognition? Didn’t you run it through your database?” asked Seth, incredulous.
“Of course we did,” answered Detective Malear, somewhat impatient. “That’s why we’d like you to see these,” he added, putting down folders of sixteen people on the table. Each folder had complete names, address, employment, and other basic information of a person. “Those are the ones that matched up with the program.”
Seth’s cheeks turned red, but he quickly lowered his head and began reading through the folders.
On the other hand, Nash kept watching the two-minute video.
After Seth’s sixth folder, he called out to his brother. “You want to maybe look at this too?”
“Yeah, sure. But I want to know about the white van that suddenly disappears,” Nash said to the Detectives.
“What are you talking about?” asked Detective Faltoso.
“What van?” added Detective Malear.
“The one in the video,” replied Nash, pointing at the screen and replayed the video again.
Seth, Detective Faltoso, and Detective Malear watched it again.
“There!” blurted out Nash, pausing the video.
Yet, the monitor only displayed the same four men heading for the subway.
“What van, Kid?” asked Detective Malear, annoyed.
“Yeah, I don’t see any van,” said Seth.
“Wait, wait, I missed it when I paused,” explained Nash. He kept on rewinding and pausing to the moment where there was supposed to be a white van, but he could never get it in frame.
“Are you sure you saw it?” whispered Seth. After watching his brother try for more than fifty times.
“Detective Faltoso, can I please borrow one of your computers?” asked Seth politely.
“What you need to update your bitter or something?” asked Detective Malear. “Don’t you Kids do that with your phone?”
“No, I’d like to watch the video frame by frame,” answered Seth.
“Sure, sure. This way,” said Detective Faltoso. “Ray, we got that video in a thumb drive, right?”
“Yeah,” sourly replied Detective Malear.
As soon as Seth got in front of the computer, he began installing softwares for image enhancements and video editing. First, he captured the best frame for the for men and enhanced their faces.
“Maybe this will get fewer hits,” Seth said out loud and saved the image. Next, he scrolled frame by frame to the moment where Nash kept insisting on seeing a white van.
“There,” blurted out Nash.
Carefully, Seth proceeded frame by frame but still found nothing.
“You missed it again,” said Nash. “Can you do it slower than that?”
Seth stared at his brother, doubtful. “I can, but…”
“But what?” asked Nash.
“It would mean that you saw it at over a hundred frames per second,” explained Seth. But he did as he was instructed and slowed the frames even farther.
Seth’s mouth fell open at the sight of a white van caught in a single frame. The Detectives both looked at each other with astounded expressions.
“No way you could’ve seen that!” exclaimed Seth.
“Detectives,” called out Nash. “Think you can find out why that ambulance disappears?”
* * * * * *
Refreshed, Smoke opened his eyes to the pitch blackness of the void. ‘Might as well check on those eggs,’ he thought and headed for the barren Insel. He diligently cleared out all of the chaneque plagued floating islands along the way. As he traveled, random thoughts popped into his head. ‘Bet they’re already at Monstro Afiado. Wonder if Jeter’s already done training?’
When he got to the kiln, a flashing green progress bar displayed on top of it. His Dragon Hatchery had done its job.
Excited, he quickly opened it up and retrieved one of the wyvern eggs.
– INCUBATION FAILURE
After reading the notification window, his smiled turned sour just as the egg hardened into stone.
He clicked his tongue and carefully retrieve the second one.
+ INCUBATION SUCCESSFUL
Be sure to imprint on your hatched creature!
CRACK CRACK CRACK
Egg shells fell on the brown soil as a forked tongue hissed out of it. A white slimy creature slithered out of the egg and turned its yellow eyes at Smoke. Upon closer inspection, he saw two tiny horns on top of its head. It looked nothing like its gray monstrous parents.
+ IMPRINT SUCCESSFUL
+ Acquired rare pet: baby wyvern
> Name your pet.
Before he could come up with a name, the little snake-like wyvern slithered its way up to his neck and coiled itself around it.
Smoke choked. He quickly pulled on the baby wyvern’s body and it uncoiled a bit. “Easy there, Pal,” he said, patting it on the head, feeling its bumpy horns. “So, what should I
name you?” he asked. The wyvern’s scales felt slimy but in a soothing way. “How about Sly?” The minute wyvern hissed its tongue at Smoke. “Okay, okay. What about Ice?” The wyvern shook its head and let out a gray mist.
– [ENCUMBERED] Ponderous Mist has increased your weight by two times.
“Whoa! Guess you’re your parent’s kid after all,” said Smoke, seeing nothing but the thick fog. Although it was far from the ten times encumbrance, he still felt his body had grown heavy. But it also had a strange sweet scent, smelling awfully like bananas. “Yeah, you really got the pipes for this.” He paused and tried walking out of the Ponderous Mist, but could do nothing as the wyvern kept spewing it out. Then, he remembered a similar experience. “Hey! What about Vape? Think you’d like that?”
Abruptly, the wyvern stopped producing the Ponderous Mist and settled down around his neck to sleep.
“Hm… Vape it is, then,” he said, stroking the baby wyvern on the head.
After naming his wyvern, the ecstatic Smoke picked up the second egg. But as soon as he picked it up, Vape writhed out of Smoke’s neck and flicked the egg off his hands. The egg broke upon contact with the ground.
Then, Smoke remembered the footnote on hatching draconic creatures—survival of the fittest. A guaranteed way of assuring this was getting rid of the competition from the start. The same way sharks eat their siblings inside their mother’s womb.
Smoke had half a mind to reprimand Vape, but it stared at Smoke with innocent eyes. He realized that this was hardwired into its system.
“Let me just put up something for them,” he said, saddened by the outcome of Vape’s siblings.
Using his Earth Manipulation, Smoke put up two statues of adult wyverns and placed the hardened egg and cracked egg under them.
“Alright, Vape, let’s get going,” he said, heading for the next grassy floating island. But as they began to move, Vape let out another round of Ponderous Mist and slowed down his movements.
“What are you doing? I can barely see anything,” he said, frantically waving his hands but the smog still remained. “Vape, quit it.” But the wyvern did not stop producing the mist. His hands, patted around his neck, trying to stop Vape. Then, the wyvern ceased breathing out the gray fog as soon as Smoke stroked its head. “You can’t be serious?” The moment he stopped stroking Vape, the Ponderous Mist came out again. “Fine!” he said, putting his hand back on Vape’s snake-like head.
It proved to be extremely difficult at first, but Smoke eventually got the hang of Vape and its Ponderous Mist around him.
Whenever Smoke reached a vine-bridge with a grassy Insel up ahead, he stopped stroking Vape and attacked the floating island from within the Ponderous Mist. Fortunately, his flame swords and poison arrows were not that affected. But it did take him longer than before.
Despite the difficulties of being with Vape, he had grown accustomed to having the baby wyvern around his neck. Now, that Igniz had been incarnated, he missed having someone around to listen to him blab on.
The baby wyvern did stop puffing out smoke whenever it slept, which was about twelve hours a day. Whenever Smoke logged out, he put up a small kiln and placed Vape in it. Vape did not seem to mind and understood that it needed to stay there until his return.
Days turned into weeks. In his hunt for more chaneques, Smoke reached beyond the area of Monstro Afiado and entered into Monstro Blindado. All the while with Vape always coiled around his neck.
After doing this for so long, Smoke could now attack the chaneques even with his eyes closed, which was practically the case since Vape always covered him in Ponderous Mist anyway.
Suddenly, while he was still firing his poison arrows and slashing with his flame swords, a notification window popped up.
+ Learned Ability: Ponderous Mist Walker
Passive
Level: Beginner Level 1
Experience: (0/1,000)
You gained this ability after being exposed to the Ponderous Mist for 2,160 hours.
Inside the mist you have:
> Clear Vision
> Normal Movement
“Whoa!” cried out Smoke, ecstatic.
Yet, weirdly enough, the moment he gained the ability, Vape also stopped producing the Ponderous Mist.
“Hey? What are you doing now?” he said to the baby wyvern around his neck. “I want to see how this works!”
Fueled by his curiosity, Smoke stepped onto a chaneque Insel rather than fighting them from the safety of a vine-bridge. Equipped with his twin hook swords, he came rushing for the nearest red horned imp.
SWOOOOOSH
As he had hoped, Vape released a thick fog of Ponderous Mist and engulfed the chaneque near him in it. He began attacking it, ignoring the child like chant that spooked him.
Blinded and encumbered, the chaneque could barely attack Smoke but it did get in a few hits. Yet, not enough to make him retreat to the bridge.
He smiled when he finally managed to hit the chaneque once. Ignoring the fact that it took him over thirty swings. “Ponderous Mist for the win!” he shouted.
Before Smoke could continue attacking the chaneque, he felt a tingling sensation… the sensation of being teleported.
* * * * * *
Opening his eyes, Smoke found himself on top of a large lily pad. It was in the middle of the largest lake he had ever seen in Mictlan.
KOKAK KOKAK RIBBIT RIBBIT QUAKEN QUAKEN CROAC CROAC
Instinctively, he covered his ears at the deafening sound of the coyotls. Hundreds of coyotls peeked above the water, their coyote-heads dripping wet, their ballooned throats expanding.
Vape instantly let out another round of Ponderous Mist, concealing Smoke in it.
Then, a notification window popped up.
– Entered Monstro Blindado
– The floating island of Yahui—the beast of Mixtec. Here, it is revered as the lord of the water. It answers only to the rulers of Mictlan: Mictlantec and his wife Micteca.
Closing the window, he searched for a way off the Insel. Looking around, he found a monolithic stone in front of him. While he was devising a plan to reach the stone, it suddenly turned and faced him.
At once, the ear-splitting croaking ceased and the coyotls disappeared into the lake. The stone revealed itself to be the shell of a monstrous turtle.
Despite its behemoth size, Yahui was quick. It blew out of its mouth and dispersed Vape’s Ponderous Mist. Its golden eyes stared at Smoke. “Tell me, is that how you train to be a Light Bringer?”
Cowering in fear, Vape tightened itself around Smoke’s neck. He stroke the snake-like wyvern and tried to calm it down. “I’m not sure,” he replied, amazed at the sheer size of the turtle that spoke.
“But you are here for Lord Xolotl’s amulet, right?” said Yahui.
“I am,” said Smoke, confused why he answered so.
“Bwahahahaha!” chuckled Yahui. Violent waves churned the great lake as its enormous belly shook. “As you are now, there is no way for you to defeat me.” It paused as it pondered. “Cipactli, maybe? If you had more people with you. But not the Naguals,” it mumbled.
Unknowningly, Smoke nodded. Vape hissed out its forked tongue. He quickly covered the baby wyvern’s head, fearing it would piss off Yahui.
“To be honest… I am not completely against Lord Xolotl’s actions…” said Yahui. “But the order of King Mictlantec is absolute.”
“Of course,” replied Smoke, still thinking of a way out of this mess.
“But that’s the very reason why I brought you here,” blurted out Yahui. “I was watching you fight those chaneques—” It stopped talking as it suddenly burst into laughter, making waves of water fall out of the floating island. “Oh, my! You nearly drained my Insel dry with your actions.”
“Excuse me?” asked Smoke, confused.
“Nothing, nothing. Simply found your pathetic attempts hilarious!” chortled Yahui, clearly trying to stop itself from laughing. “Anyway, I brought you here because I
was hoping you could do something for me.”
“Ah!” answered Smoke, his eyes widened with realization.
“If you’ll indulge me. I’d like to bounce some ideas,” began the giant turtle. “This is a common question to the ones still living. They question of the gods’ existence. If there is a god, why is there so much evil in the world?”
“But the religions of Zectas—” Smoke cut himself off as Yahui continued speaking.
“It’s a common question, but it is misplaced,” said Yahui, pausing to stare outward, beyond its great lake and into the abyss of the void. “In everything, we must have balance. Dark and light. Evil and good. Silence and sound. Without one, the other cannot exist.”
Remaining silent, Smoke nodded as he pondered on Yahui’s words.
“Now, I am at a crossroads. On one hand, I am for Lord Xolotl’s actions, but on the other, I have to uphold King Mictlantec’s command.”
“Well, you can give me the amulet and no one has to know,” suggested Smoke. To which Vape nodded its tiny horned cranium.
“A soul chooses, a slave obeys,” replied Yahui, shaking its head. “It must be through fair combat.” went on the gigantic turtle. “I suggest that we exchange blows. I will receive your most powerful attack, and afterward, you shall accept mine. If you do this and survive, I shall take it as my defeat and give you Lord Xolotl’s amulet.”
“Eh? You serious?” said Smoke, grinning with excitement.
“Ho-oh! Think you can survive my attack?” said Yahui. “Is that a ‘Yes’ then?”
“I’d be honored to exchange blows with you Lord Yahui,” said Smoke.
“No! Call me Yahui,” replied the gigantic turtle. “The title of Lord should only be given to those who have done something worthwhile… Be it for evil or good.”
