"Oy! Liliya! Naoya! Come over for a sec will you?"
"Coming!"
Kirin has been calling us quite frequently today, whether it's serious or not he calls us both
"What is it?"
"both of you, do you want to take a break?"
"eh? umm... Kirin? you alright?"
"hmm? is there something wrong?"
"ahh, nevermind, about the last question, no, we're well-rested even now, why'd you ask?"
"ahh, good. I thought I've been overworking both of you and both of you never ask so I assumed that both of you are tired"
"ahh... is that so~"
"stop it... anyway there's a huge Mana crystal in the caves of the dragon sky island so I'd like both of you to venture in a cave near north of them"
"Aye-aye cap'n!"
"good, although Naoya I have a different mission for you, you're companion will be Mei for this"
"EHH!!? Kirin! I thought we'll be together in this!"
"sorry but I need you in a different place, Naoya's quite capable but I'm afraid that he'll need Mei for this"
"then why don't you just dispatch Mei and Fenrir together?"
"hmm... quite viable, I keep forgetting that Fenrir's also here... fine, both of you party up together. Mei, I t-"
"Yes! I thought I'll be alone..."
"Liliya... you're better than that..."
"sorry Naoya but I just can't leave without you!"
"aww, so Liliya's the reason why my partner is fenrir"
"EEK! Naoya! hide me!"
chuckling, Mei seems to be fine with it, Kirin explained the mission to Mei and Naoya each.
"although I might be asking much but I think I'll join you two for a second"
"Eh!? really? what about the curse?"
"Mei has been making Mana stones with attributes isn't that right Mei?"
"s-so you found out... sorry, but it was still in the testing phase."
"don't worry, I suppose it's a surprise for me right? well sorry for spoiling the surprise for me but I couldn't help myself"
"Wait! Mei had a surprise for Kirin? Why didn't you tell me!?"
"compared to Fenrir, I think you're better to give a secret to if I know it'll fail"
"Wha- I can keep a secret! like Nao-hmphf!"
both Kirin and Mei laugh at Liliya and Naoya and Mei headed her way to the eastern Cavern, meanwhile Naoya and Liliya-
"So... you'll be joining us Kirin?"
"Yes, to be exact, I'll be using Mei's experiment for myself, I do like the Idea of using mana crystals as a way of offense so I want to try it"
"I think she got it in a world called earth... but I thought Earth was a magicless world."
"we'll talk while we traverse the plains. anyway yes, Earth is magicless but there are some occasions that magic somehow traverse through portals and find their way in a magicless world, although I do believe if there's magic in the world then chaos would be inevitable, it's like introducing a useful non-existent tool to a caveman"
"I see... what do you think Naoya?"
"I think it's ridiculous that there's some world that has no magic"
"yeah, me too. how could they live without magic?"
"well unlike ours, there's actually a subject that they have besides magic: science. science is what developed in their case, using the nature as their fuel..."
Kirin looked at their faces for a moment and realized that he was going to far, sighing, Kirin explained in less detail
"well, you know that we use magic here like dark, light, space and time right?"
"yeah, and some other worlds have fire, water, wind and so on"
"well, in earth, it's science and that only, I do believe that it's one of the strongest and slow developing magic in space time"
"really? I thought Space was the strongest magic"
Naoya, also thought about it, Liliya looked at Naoya and responded "I think Ritual is the strongest considering that you can manipulate almost everything with simple words and writing"
"well, both of you are right but in my perspective, science can manipulate anything and everything, science was in Sakuraba's writing here explaining the simple formulas and basic fundamentals but I still can't get it in my head right"
"wow... the 2nd generation sure was smart... smarter than our Kirin!"
"Hahaha... I can't argue with that, but he had a diary in the grand library and the insides of it were almost readable... he was an otherworlder I believe so I think he's writing wasn't that great but his diary proved that he learned it"
"Really? hey Naoya, how far do we need to go to arrive to the Dragon sky Island?"
"I believe... at least 4 days or less depending if we rest or not"
"then tell us the story Kirin!"
"wow... so eager... okay, then I'll tell about the 2nd Generation's experience
the second generation: Kirin Aiha, was an otherworlder of earth, on earth, the humans were pretty much bullies to him, no one gave a single care to him except his childhood friend, Kiana, I think his name from the past was Tion but he later changed it? I don't know. the rest is indecipherable but the next two pages is readable, Kirin was always subjected to the voices in his head, all the things he heard was 'Kill', 'destroy', 'suffer', 'assault' and so on, he deemed it to himself as depression but after being spawned by mana, the voices finally took physical form. one, two, six hands that were engulfed in shadow mist always choked, grabbed, and tried to kill him, while the people beside him were always killed, tortured, raped in one way or another. He later excluded himself in a cave so deep that no one could ever see him. his depression was so great that it formed life, a being made from the shadows he hated. Shifts was born from the shadows and held a grudge against him, at least that was what he believed.-"
"oh... that's..."
"sad right? well I think he wasn't alone always though, Shifts protected him ti'll end and managed to survive even after a few hundred years"
"there's more to the story right?"
"yes:
- Kirin, later on, knew what Shifts was, a being born from his own mist, the mist he despised for the longest time. knowing that, he tried to kill him with the shadows he was made in, Shifts took it head on as self defense. there was also a shadow mist that didn't resembled a hand but rather a spider's leg, sharp enough to even pierce the hardest stone"
"Oh! so it's like your hades' hand!?"
"yes, well continuing:
-Shifts took the spider leg out of the mist and transformed it into a scythe capable of slicing even the strongest steel, Kirin protected himself from the being he hated the most and ran out of Ether in the middle of the fight, the hands disappeared along with the hatred he yearned for it, for a moment, he saw life. he looked at Shifts and the shadows he hated returned, but not as something he controlled, it enveloped him turning him into a monster even Shifts couldn't defeat, He lost consciousness and saw the past that he hated, everything up to now was the most depressing, longest lifetime he would probably ever experienced, the monster wreaked havoc in all of Laplace and Shifts lost all will to move, nothing was seen in the monster again after defeating it and Shifts was nowhere to be seen even after his death. Motionless, he waited for the next person that he could call master"
"it's stories like that that make you think 'who made that?'"
"I think it was the 3rd generation. although I have never seen her, only as pictures"
"ahh... but if the second generation didn't create the 3rd generation then how could she spawn?"
"I don't know either... from what I know she spawned after the 2nd's death but then this story is unlikely to be the actual story if so..."
"hmm... well I can't really think like you, look! night time struck so lest take a rest and cook what we hunted today!"
"I guess the I did go too far with the story... how close are we?"
"2 or more days left if possible"
"hmm... then we'll rest up there"