A thud sounded, and a man fell to the floor of black. Slowly, the void returned its coloring to a pure white, and all noise ceased. The sacred tree continued shining with a lush glow just meters away, as Agathon, the king of the elves, watched in disbelief.
His eyes widened, strands of graying hair crumbled to his side as his mouth went agape. With chapped, trembling lips, he spoke. “Spiritus Mora… The World Spirit... Lost?”
In the distance, Arth’Roth stood over the wounded Mora. His blade convulsed back into a black orb that soon after dispersed, and he turned to look at the spirit. Mora continued clutching his trident, nearly as strong as he was grating his teeth. A flow of bluish liquid seeped from under him, but he struggled to get up all the same.
“I’ve placed a rather mortal wound on you, Mora,” Arth’Roth spoke casually. “You should lay still, and maybe finally listen to me?”
“Screw
Elyenora laid in a chair between two beds set out for her comrades, Samuel and Sereia. Neither showed signs of waking up anytime soon, and she was still pondering on whether Mon'Ter was alive or not. It ate away at her, enough so that she wasn't even sure if she was processing it or blanking out. The elves, Lanos and Namir, had gathered personnel from outside the keep. They had managed to round up everyone unconscious and were now taking care of them in this large hall full of beds, everything seemed more or less fine with the people, but panic was slowly setting into the ranks of the guards and medics tending to the victims. The king had vanished, along with their connection to the spirit world, and as an extension, their deity. Words and murmurs travelled, creating circles, twists and turns throughout the area. The center of the hall had beds, with those in need of care under a healer’s hands. Many seemed like some curse had been afflicted upon them, as if
“Mon’Ter…?” Mora tentatively called out while furrowing his brow. “I know you hear me; it’s time to wake up.”Looming silence proceeded."I'm starting to get angry now, child!" Mora finally got fed up with trying to make Mon’Ter awaken as he tugged at the creature's arm with enough force to lift him up. "Wake up now!"Yet again, no response."Ugh… Is he still going to keep sleeping?" Mora's expression turned in complete exasperation as he held his head low.In that moment, a whimper sounded from not too far away. "M-my lord..." Agathon neared, his crumbling visage crawling towards the pond of the sacred tree."Agathon," Mora's gaze cleared as he took in a breath. "You..."The elderly person on the ground looking nothing like his previous kingly image, he had wrinkled skin, short gray hair that still fell apart even now. His limbs stretched forward and his stained cloak soon began
Mon'Ter and Agathon walked forth, stepping along a path made of what they deemed stars. The surroundings were filled with blue and golden light, with the latter being the dominant hue. The duo walked without any other distraction, safe the trail of color before them. After walking for about a few minutes of making mile-long steps, Agathon turned back to Mon'Ter. "So, this is what the in-between looks like, such beauty, wouldn't you say?" he quizzed. "Yes, it is quite pretty," Mon'Ter pursed his lips, looking around. The vast void filled with aurora was unlike any sight he'd laid his eye on before, it was so otherworldly. "I wish I could show this to Ely and the others." "The princess?" Agathon mused, holding a soft smile under his nose. "My, I'm sure she'd be awe struck too. And while we’re on a side note, I see you've suddenly gained a better understanding of speech? You don't seem to stutter at all now, Mr. Chimera." "I guess not," Mon'Ter t
"Here we are," Lanos said, opening the doors to the teleportation chamber.It was a large circular room made of arrays of runic glyphs, each engraved onto the walls. The center was an empty space which rose to a meter above the ground, where it had been enchanted to have a stable transference of data to the other point. A simple platform was present at the center, upon which was a spherical stone that stood amidst the glyphs. It was a fascinating place, one which drew the attention of the princess and her companions."Whoooa," Mon'Ter exclaimed with a continuation. "This looks familiar!""Hm, yes, quite the magical sight," Samuel said, admiring the runic engravings as he did so."This is from where we will travel to the dungeon," Lanos said monotonously."It looks quite like father's own teleportation circle," Sereia commented."That it does," Samuel said, looking over at the stone. "What is that for, though? Lord Gaia had no such stone in h
As the light covered the members of the party, their line of sight shifted and changed. Eventually, the source of illumination faded only to reveal a new scenery far away from the Elven forest of colorations. It was one of simple greenery, yet even that held its own right to beauty.A large plain expanded to one directions, circular one at that, with numerous trees acting as the horizon border. These trees were lush, they held few leaves but thick vines ran around their trunk and branches, giving them a sense of serious protection. Between each of the trees laid a path, and to be more precise, it held part of a road leading towards the center of the plain, where in the distance one could see a basic village and its farmers living amongst it."Woah!" Namir panned his head around in amazement. "It's all green!""What else would it be? This isn't your forest, its Benulis," Sereia chuckled."I've never seen it like that, though!" Namir hopped around, zooming
No one knew what to say to the lad's question. No one who understood magic, at least."Whoa! Your magic thingo sure looks powerful! It was quite fast too, I'm definitely impressed with it," Mon'Ter grinned ear to ear as his gaze moved along the stone pillars that spiked through the golems. Their tips still burned with bright flames from the loud explosions they’d caused."Ha! Ha! Ha! Thank you for the applause! Even though you can't really applaud!" Namir puffed his chest out and raised his nose high, quite proud of his accomplishment."What is applause?" Mon'Ter asked, still not knowing why the others were acting so silent and surprised.He didn't understand.He didn't understand how weird the thing Namir did was."Without writing runes..." Elyenora mumbled. "But how...?""Did he really!?" Sereia shouted. "Oh, man! How?! I'm so jealous of that!""Weep all you want, I'll just bask in my amazing glory over here," the kid's
"Good work, everyone!" Elyenora said with a smile as they stopped for a short moment out of fatigue. "We've practically cleared the first floor, this place has been a real trip, so let's just be happy we all made it unscathed.""That was a lot of fun!" Namir said cheerfully. "Especially the part where you fought off all those spiders, Mon'Ter! That was fun to see!""I'd say your little stunt at the entrance was most impressive!" Sereia grinned at the kid."What was most impressive was you hiding behind the princess from the spiders!" he laughed at her.She turned red for a moment, then yelled. "Hey! Shush!"The group got a chuckle out of the situation, and then Mon'Ter spoke up. "Now we just have to take out the guardian person, right?""Yeah, and we can move onto the second floor hence after," Samuel affirmed. "Mind you, it should get a lot tougher after that. To my knowledge that's where rogue spirits begin to appear.""So, I think
Lanos placed his hand on the altar and a mechanism stabbed it with a stone spike, he winced as the drop of blood left his palm and the magic activated."What's going to happen now?" Namir called out from behind him in the distance.Lanos could still hear them, but he wasn't sure how much longer that would last. As soon as he had put his hand on the pedestal, magical energy of bygone ages shot up all around him, absorbing him in a sea of light before darkness swallowed him whole. The star filled wall began turning dark as if it was being polluted or corrupted from the inside. The party could not see what was happening through the wall anymore, and their worry grew by the second."I guess that will happen," Sereia smiled wryly as she knocked a few times on the dark wall of magic, it caused a few ripples to move across it and didn't seem to allow others to enter."I hope he's okay," Elyenora said, half to herself and half to everyone listening."He'll