“Another door? How many more?” Staas asked.
Finished with the second boss, they’ve now arrived at the entrance of the third boss. This time the door is painted in gold with carvings of snake, lady, and child. As always the torch at the sides of the double door lit up as soon as they came in front of the door, as a sign that they’d reached the checkpoint and safety from the roaming monsters.
“1 more after this,” Adra answered. “If we manage to beat this golden door, we’ll meet the platinum door where the owner of this lair resided. Probably with all of the other wyrms.”
“Whoa, halfway complete! Then let’s end this!”
This time, Staas is the one who opened the door and the first one to enter the room. He's quite excited as so far the fight has been a lot of fun for him since the enemies didn’t falter from him punishing them. He had a lot of hope for the boss behind the golden door,
“Alright… alright… All-father bless me, please bless the decision I'm making.” The room was dark and misty, Gytha didn’t know where the Lamia was, nor did she know if turning off her charm would expose Adra to the aphrodisiac or not. The girl isn’t that keen of a person, she didn’t realize that her nose no longer smell Lamia’s scent. Although it's hard to blame her since she was never able to experience it with her always outside the range of the boss stench. “There!” She undid her spell, and light began to crawl back into Adra’s eyes. The half-mer was no longer affected by hypnosis. “Whoa, that was… weird…?” Adra felt his body cooling down after leaving the charm, as Gytha’s blessing turned up his temperature a bit. It’s probably like you’re about to catch a cold. “Mr. Adra!” She’s glad he didn’t get swiped by the aphrodisiac like before. “What should we do? We got separated from Staas! I can’t even hear his voice anymore.” “Hmm…” Adra began
“Last one eh…? Never thought in my life I’ll finish a lair with only three people, nor I ever finish one in the first place…” The three of our riders stood in front of the last double door, this time it was made out of pure platinum, something that only exists in a lair. The door was times bigger than all the previous doors, with a lot more detailed carving and fuming with the flow of magic. All kinds of dragonic patterns along with the story of them massacring merfolks farms can be seen drawn from top left to top right, bottom right then bottom left. “You’re the one guiding us throughout the raid, be more proud of yourself!” Gytha put a smile of encouragement for the half-mer. “You’re damn right about that!” That cheeky face finally back after all the tenseness since the first step they took into the lair. “But… this is the last stage, the ultimate challenge. We don’t know how many wyrms are in there.” “Well… I have no intention of turning back after
“All-father?” Adra curled his face, feeling ever so confused with what he just heard. “Does the All-father follow you around, Gytha?” He muttered to the girl, hoping Yllynmawr won’t take any offense from his rudeness. Adra has far strayed away from the path of faith. His history made him no longer care nor rely upon both the Goddess and the All-father. This drove him clueless about Staas long slumber, what form he’s taking or how he created the elements along with all the 9 essences which are now spread across the Champions of Elements. “Uh…” Gytha was conflicted about whether she was supposed to tell him about Staas or not. “It’s the other way around.” But seeing the King of Wyrm just blatantly greeted Staas, the half-mer won’t be getting out of this cave without knowing who the All-father is. “Huh? Is He like guiding you or something?” Adra was still left clueless. “Just be quiet and listen.” Hushed the girl with index finger stood before her lips.<
"Elen! We finished the commission!" Gytha waved to the wind elf receptionist behind the counter at the Azuresheet tavern. "Thanks the Goddess! I'm so worried… why did you finish this late? Or did you go somewhere first before coming here?" The girl's face was exceptionally pale when they came back, but after a huge sigh of relief, she finally showed her color again. "Nope! No no no! We literally just arrived." Gytha shook her head. "Anyway, here's the [Commission Paper]~" "And here's the proof." Adra showed the receptionists the proof right after Gytha gave the paper to the elven girl. Besides clearing the lair, the three also spent much time chatting with the King of Wyrm, especially about the current Ice Queen. The night has already blown the moon high, the tavern had become even crowdier than then in the morning with more adventurers coming after just getting back from their commission. The atmosphere was really lively, with people dancing
“You think she has slept yet?” “Nope… I can hear the water on her pool moving. Though her presence is a bit weak...” After having officially become an adventurer, Staas and Gytha went straight back to Riviera’s palace. Adra on the other hand spent his night drinking in the tavern, he needed to throw away some burden out of his mind. *Knock!* *Knock!* Gytha knocked on the giant double doors of the throne room. The response was silent for a while, the two got pretty worried that the sound wouldn’t actually reach her since the first time they came here they just barge in without any notification. “Come in!” But the Naiad invited them in, though her voice sounded a bit startled. Having her permission, Staas quickly pushed the door wide open. It was pretty dark inside, with only moonlight shining on Riviera’s pool throne where she lay comfortably in the water, gazing at the two enterings her room with her half-closed sleepy eyes. “Uh… did w
“Fair warning for you Stabby, you missed… a lot.” A crack spawn in the space behind the Naiad as if there was something about to break out of an invisible wall. *Bam!* A second later, that crack shattered, and from it, Streams of Memory began to flow calmly around the three. It was slow and soothing, a lot more peaceful and easy to follow compared to Gytha’s. “Let’s start from where you left, Stabby~” With that being said, the Naiad walked closer to the stream and commence her life recap. Her history began when Staas or Nimfrik was absent as he was recovering his energy of creation through deep slumber. The first scene they saw was the meeting of the 8 Champions of Elements plus Isergia. They all gathered at the Village of Nymphs, in front of the Center Tree of the Spirit Grove. The nymphs grew out a table out of tree branches that wrapped around each other, along with some chairs for the Champions to sit. At that very
“So does that mean Staas is not the most powerful entity currently in our world?” Gytha threw her question with a sense of worry. “Right now… I don’t know. But after he gains back all his essence then yes. Weirdly enough, all the Castaway are mortals with human lifespan.” Weirdly enough, Riviera didn’t seem to even a bit saddened by their departure. “They are probably in heaven now, their main destination in the first place. But their arrival to this world carried so much impact that lots of adventurers actually worship them.” Her voice tone and body language gestured she wanted to move on from this topic. “What a bizarre being.” Rich words coming from Staas. The stream hastened their flow and another scene carried away among the three. The vortex, however, perished and invited back the blank space around them. The branch also unite into a single stream, showing an image of the Naiad just chilling on her pool throne, but her room was completely empty
by: Serpadraa of Wolfcrown “Adra! Adra! Wake up, Adra!” I remembered that night clearly. The moon was at the peak of her grace, beautiful and ever so calming. “Why are you shouting, mother?” But that panic expression on my mother’s face, it was lightless. “No time to explain, we need to meet your father at the north gate!” Her movement was rash and disordered, she kept pushing me to get out of bed and out of the house. She didn’t even bother to lock the door. “Outside the village? This late!?” You can’t blame me for being confused, my life wasn’t harsh or cursed by poverty. But I’m not so spoiled that I neglect my mother’s order. I still followed them even if it sounded absurd. “Talk less, walk more!” That was what she said, but as we all know, I’m a half-mer. The mer part came from my mother as she is a mermaid, and they aren’t really built to be excel on land like humans do. So she struggled really hard to keep up with