Ah, can you smell that? It's the smell of a new day!
And today, Ran decided to not head to Max's as he wanted to prepare himself for tomorrow's horde.
So, he got to doing what he knows best. Concentration! After three months, he can now easily create a replica of his sword to a tee, not to mention he doesn't have to worry about his soul heart destabilizing or anything like that. And luckily, after the past few days, he's gotten some inspiration and was going to practice a bit to get it just right.
Well, don't let me stop you! Go do your thing and I look forward to what you have for us tomorrow.
And so, he started putting his thoughts into practice and everything seemed to be going well. Well, that was until a certain visitor knocked on his door.
Knock knock.
Ran stopped what he was doing and opened the door only to find a familiar face.
"Queenie?" Ran looked at the person standing in front of him, Queenie. At first, she had her normal expression on, cold and distant. Yet, when she laid eyes on our sweet boi Ran, she immediately went red.
Aw s**t, Ran you forgot to wear your hood you crook! Are you trying to seduce her!?
They stared at each other for a bit before Queenie's face went so red, she had to take a deep breath to cool her face down. She tried to regain her cold and distant persona, but within Rans presence, her red face was anything but cold.
She had seen the unseeable! Now, face the consequences!
His wavy red hair had already grown to about his waist as he hadn't cut his hair since the beginning of everything and after waking up, his hair had been disheveled. It was all swept to his right side and covered part of his face and eye; leaving his left side untouched. Yet that bedside manner and that sparkling amber-blue eye had awakened a primal urge within Queenie.
"H-he's asking for your presence and is waiting for you in the training grounds." She stuttered briefly, turned away and disappeared from Rans sight within seconds. She ran away at full force!
Ran was amused by her behavior, but paid it no heed. Plus, he already had guessed who wished for his "presence".
At the training grounds:
The early morning sun shone on the students and teachers alike as they trained harder than ever before, especially since some of them will be attending the horde tomorrow. After all, no one wants to die and harvested, least be mentioned that they instead saw this as an opportunity to ascend to new heights.
And most teachers as well will be attending said horde as the King had mandated them to do so in the name of their state. Most of these teachers were in their thirties while the older ones had reached their forties. The oldest are in their fifties and at that point they will stay to supervise whoever didn't leave and because… their old. Not to mention they're wisdom shouldn't be wasted on some horde, but rather on the masses.
And whilst they trained with one another, there was one particular teacher who stood on his lonesome. He watched the sun directly as it slowly reached its peak at noon.
And even weirder, this teacher seemed to be much younger than the olders; being around his mid-twenties, give or take a year. And while he wasn't the strongest teacher here, he certainly gave the… creepiest vibe, or rather, the most unwilling and unfriendly.
Yet at that moment, that very same teacher was called upon.
"Teacher Lanx?" Ran asked from behind. Lanx turned around as he saw a white-hooded figure whose face was hidden. He smiled.
"Ran, you know that you don't have to call me that. We… both know why each of us is here today." He commenced showing an apologetic smile as he began.
"Phew… first, let me say I'm sorry." His apologetic smile intensified slightly. Yet, Ran already knew as he could feel it. This fellow wasn't truly sorry and Ran doubted he ever felt such a thing as guilt.
How did he know? Apart from the whole vibe and attitude thing, there was one simple yet excruciatingly clear detail that bursts this whole can of worms open. And that is the fact that he had sent Queenie to fetch him rather than visit Ran in person. And truthfully, Ran couldn't care less. He wasn't gonna blame Lanx for anything that happened during that time and his lack of action towards his responsibilities.
Not to mention he was never attached to this place or this teacher. This was all just a means to an end.
And while Ran had already moved on as this was basically an act on Lanx's part, Lanx had actually managed to bring back Ran's attention with a couple of words; ones that Ran never would have expected.
Lanx sighed and his apologetic smile intensified yet again before he continued speaking. "Secondly, you've offended some powerful people haven't you?" Lanx's smile suddenly dropped and turned into a frown. It was unknown as to why he was frowning, however. Why?
Well, they continued their conversation and it went into very strange and borderline creepy places.
Firstly, apparently after they first met after the trial, that night, he was suddenly met with near disaster while he was sleeping.
As he slept, he suddenly heard a noise and when he woke up, he had almost died! Why? It was quite simple really. It all had to do with the fact that at some point in the night, his window was opened and a bird flew in. Of course, like any other normal bird, it flew up to Lanx and landed on his chest without his knowledge.
Then, like any other normal bird, it began furiously pecking at his neck, again without his knowledge or awareness. By the time he woke up and figured what was happening, the bird had already burrowed a small and bloody hole. It took hold of his jugular; deciding whether or not he would live or die in that moment.
But it got weirder. A voice, one like he had never heard before, one so powerfully unique it immediately put him into a trance, spoke from seemingly nowhere. That didn't stop him from listening to it's strange and unquestionable words.
"Ran-" it paused for a second as if to make sure he would not mishear before continuing, "deliver him to the Thousand Mountain, east side, west of the thirtieth mountain. Do so, and you will be rewarded. If not, then only death awaits." The bird then began to squeeze, causing Lanx to cough up blood while turning his skin blue from asphyxiation.
The voice, which felt feminine, seemed to reverberate through the whole house he lived in, shaking his whole body as it spoke; though no one else had heard it.
And if you think that was weird, then what if I told you, the bird was the one speaking? Its pitch black beak opened as the voice spoke, though it didn't seem to be coming from the mouth. Stranger yet, the bird had runes covering most of its beak, ones that Lanx had never seen before.
It was an exceptionally magical experience for him and he even kind of liked it a little. He even admitted to accepting the request for the reward rather than the threat; truly, a wise and trustworthy villain he is.
Ran, again, paid no heed to that. Rather, he was quite interested in what kind of bird it was. So he asked.
"Bird?" He asked questioningly. Lanx responded with, "a raven. Ah, I can still remember those pitch black eyes, staring deep into my eyes as it spoke to me. Its voice, ah Ran you wouldn't be able to forget it even if you only heard it once." His face changed as if he was reminiscing on the events that had transpired that night.
From there, the raven let go of his neck, flew away (without Lanx retaliating) and disappeared. The whole thing happened so quick, Lanx sometimes gets the idea that it was all just a dream. Apparently, the wound on his neck disappeared after the raven left his house.
Soon, this line of conversation ended, but Lanx didn't expect Ran to forgive him. And he was fine with that. But he at least hoped to make it up to him, you know, let bygones be bygones. Ran didn't know if
what he said was the truth, but he got the feeling that he wasn't lying. And he always trusted his gut, so he, again, tried to move on.
"Oh! You're going to the horde tomorrow, right? Hope you don't die, haha!" He laughed at his own sick joke before he continued. "How about I make it up to you. Why don't you use me as your sparring partner for today?" He pointed at his sick face as a seemingly normal, yet simultaneously sick, smile crept onto his face.
Ran admitted to that as he wanted to practice this move he was trying to practice, so he chose to spend the rest of his day just practicing.
***
And like that, another day passed.
This time, when he entered the Ocean, the pace of the deterioration of the crystals increased yet again. Most of them started to just straight fall off, or break apart into multiple, dull, pieces.
And again, that damn disturbance was there! Atop his head, again! And it was bigger than it was before, again! If it was the size of a ping pong ball, then now it reached the size of a baseball.
At this point, it was already absorbing most if not all the mist itself and only at the end did Ran notice something wrong.
That's because, when he looked around, all the crystals were destroyed! All the mist, gone! Everything was gone!
Boom! He was kicked out of the Ocean when he woke up, taking the disturbance along with him.