Koda placed the edge of his hand against his forehead, a futile attempt to shield his eyes from the blinding rays being emitted by the fiery star hanging in the sky. Sweat trickled down his hair and into his eyes, making it that much more difficult to see, the salty liquid causing a sharp stinging sensation to form in and around his bright green eyes.
Three days had passed since the talk with Vex and now, following what the young royal had said, Koda and Julia were preparing to head to the Gate leading to the Lana Realm. In the beginning, Koda had debated on whether or not to actually go to the Market but he made up his mind once he considered that Aria would probably drag him out by the hair if he refused. Not wanting to put up with any of her verbal complaints and puppy dog eyes, Koda was up bright and early on the very day that he and Julia were to go shopping with the duo. Truthfully, Koda was itching for some training as ever since the talk with Vex, he hadn't bothered to even leave his own home. Of course, training would have to wait for the time being.
"Hopefully we can make this trip quick," Koda muttered as he turned around to gaze at the front of his home. He was still waiting for Julia to come out and had been waiting for a good ten minutes or so. Despite having a lot of patience for most things, his ability to wait diminished in certain circumstances. This being one of them. "She's sure taking her sweet time."
Still though, it wasn't as if Koda had any right to groan about how long Julia was taking as he himself had once made her stand to the side while he and Kuu duked it out in the Rift Realm. It could even be said that being late or making others wait was a hobby of his, always causing those around him to get annoyed and/or worry. While he didn't do this intentionally, it still prevented him from being able to say anything when someone else was running late.
"It sure is hot out today," Koda said as he gazed at the cloudless sky. "Even though its supposed to be winter. The hell is up with the spike in temperature. I feel like I'm going to melt!"
In the years leading up to the present, the temperature had been relatively stable, with each season bringing about the seasonal changes that one would expect. Cold winters, hot summers, and so on. This year however had been completely different as the heat had spiked to an unprecedented level, making it hot almost all year round. Koda didn't know what had caused such a dramatic change, but he felt as if it was connected to the increase in the rifts that had been popping up in both the Demonic Forest and Rasa realm. With so much demonic energy pouring out from the larger rifts, it was possible that it lead to an increase in the temperature overall.
Koda wanted to check out his theory, but heading into a rift and straight into the Demonic Realm was basically suicide. No matter how skilled one was, if you weren't at least Veni class, the rank of a Guardian Knight leader, then one would be easily killed by even low ranking humanoid demons who watched over each and every rift. Even low class intelligent demons completely outmatched regular Guardian Mages. For Koda who wasn't even the rank of the weakest Guardian, it was impossible.
"Rifts. Rips in space that lead to another world." Koda recited the words he had once read in a textbook before. It had been written by someone who had once walked inside and managed to return alive, though at the cost of an arm. "Said world is a haven for demons and filled with enough demonic energy to make one feel short of breath."
"I have travelled through only a small portion of the realm but I can already say that demons are far stronger then anything we can possibly muster," Julia continued as she stepped up next to Koda. She was wearing a short red dress adorned with white stripes near the top and bottom. She looked stunning as she gave the white haired youth a small smile. "I believe that quote was from one of the older books right? Even those who've never read it know the exact words. It's quite popular."
Koda grinned as he took her hand, his fingers entwining with her own. "Yeah. It was written by one of the Legends if I'm not mistaken. I think it was the 25th. The story says that he lost an arm while travelling through it but its hard to say how much of it was true considering he disappeared from the Kingdom shortly after writing it."
Koda and Julia began walking forward while they discussed topics surrounding Legends and other stories they were involved in. As Legends, or Legendary Guardians as they were officially called, were considered to be the strongest of their time, there were MANY stories regarding them. Whether they were exaggerated or not could be debated, but it was quite clear that each and every one of the Legends were strong to the point of it being utterly ridiculous.
It took the two of them around twenty minutes by foot to reach the Gate despite it only being 600 feet away from their home. This was largely due to the fact that Koda and Julia would stop every now and then to debate about their individual viewpoints about certain Legends. It took twice as long to reach the Gate because of differing opinions, but eventually they did reach it. Standing next to the Gate were Vex and Aria, waiting for the two of them in the shade of a slanted slab of earth that hadn't been there the day before.
"It's about time the two of you showed up," Vex said with a smile as Koda and Julia walked up to them. "I assume Koda was the reason for the delay? You never change do you brother?"
"Nah, this time it was Juju's fault," Koda responded. "Blaming me for being late is fair though."
Aria nodded as she pulled both Koda and Julia into tight hug. "True. You aren't exactly known for punctuality. Its surprising that Julia was the one holding you up this time." She stepped back and gave a small but warm smile. "It's been a while guys. How have you been?"
Aria Tomura. Sister to Vex and a friend that Koda and Julia had long been acquainted with. For years she had come nearly every other day to visit them and it was only recently that she had stopped coming by. This was largely due in part to Aria's increasing responsibilities as a princess of Argio which had only taken effect the moment she was two months away from turning fourteen. Now with her birthday only a week away, she was almost always busy with one thing or another so it was surprising that she was even accompanying them on the shopping trip. It should also be mentioned that her brother Vex didn't have this problem as most of the affairs were left to the women. It seemed a bit wrong but thats how it usually worked for royalty.
Today Aria wore a sea blue blouse paired with a matching skirt that accentuated her slightly pale skin. On her neck she wore a brooch with a large ruby placed in the center of it, a bright red color that stood out from the rest of her outfit. Aria definitely had the looks of true royalty but her demeanor and the way she talked normally through that image out the window. When nobles heard how she naturally spoke, they would always give her strange looks and mostly pretend they hadn't heard her. To them, she spoke like an uncivilized commoner without any class, however they couldn't say that to her face as she still had royal blood coursing through her veins.
"How long has it been?" Julia asked with a laugh. "About two months if I'm not mistaken. We've been doing great. It has been a tad boring without you guys though."
Vex clapped his hands together, interrupting the two of them. "Okay okay, lets just cut to the chase. I'll need you guys to drink these for me. It'll disguise you while you're in the Lana Realm. If you recall correctly, Koda was banned from entering the noble realm after blowing up a city block." Vex held up two vials of a yellowish liquid that seemed to glow in the bright morning light.
"Lets be honest here," Koda said as he snatched one of the vials away from Vex. "Even if I hadn't done that, they still wouldn't have let me go back. Slum residents are forbidden from entering there. Hell the only reason there's even a Gate to the Lana realm in the first place is for convenience. Me blowing up a block two years ago doesn't mean diddly squat."
Vex smirked as he handed the other vial to Julia. He personally found this subject amusing and Koda knew it, being regularly teased from all of them to no end while Vex laughed. It hadn't even been entirely his own fault, but rather Kuu's.
"These are disguise medicants?" Julia asked as she pulled off the cork that was plugged into the top of the vial. A faint lemony scent wafted up and into her nose as she inhaled deeply. "They smell good. I was under the impression that they usually had a pungent odor to them."
"Well thats only true for the low class ones," Aria replied. "These are top class medicants which won't wear off for a full 24 hours. Neat right?!"
Koda shrugged as he poured the entirety of vial contents into his mouth and swallowed it. It tasted bitter and rather sour at first but it quickly faded and was replaced by an intense heat radiating from his whole body. It was as if he was being burned alive as the temperature seemed to rise by 20 degrees. With the already intense heat from the sun, he felt like he was going to pass out. After a few minutes though, the heat subsided, leaving him with a cool sensation that spread through him little by little.
"How do you feel?" Vex asked. "You look much better like this. Your ugly mug needed to tuning."
"Shut up," Koda snapped. He was surprised when a different, much deeper voice, escaped from his mouth. He didn't know what he looked like but he was sure that he was radically different from before. "This is super freaky." When he held up his hand, the color had changed from tan to pale white.
Koda looked over at Julia and did a double take. To him she didn't look that much different, but it was clear that wouldn't be the case with others. Her skin color was slightly darker and her once pointy ears had disappeared, leaving her with small rounded ears similar to those of humans. Her long blonde hair had changed into a dark red that went well with the color of her dress. She still possessed her beauty and feminine charm from before but now she had taken on a sort of human look that had its own appeal.
Julia covered her mouth as she stifled a giggle. "Don't get me wrong love, you're still amazing, but you look ridiculous with black hair. You haven't changed much but your black hair is hilariously ugly."
"I dont know," Vex said as he scratched his chin. "I think it suits him. Same hairstyle as my brother. Very fitting."
Koda did his best not curse as his hand twitched towards one of his daggers.
Vex, seeing this, laughed as he swung an arm over Koda's shoulders. "Its fine. Its fine. Lets just get going."
After a few more playful taunts, bad jokes, and a suggested haircut, the four of them finally walked through the large portal known as a Gate and into the Lana realm. Once on the other side, two intimidating figures clad in red stepped through the Gate and into the Rasa realm.
"Fire Knights," Koda muttered silently as he watched them leave. Guardians who belonged to the Guardian Knight group specializing in fire. They were lead by the Veni level, fire magic special type Guardian Viridian Ignis, a real powerhouse that could almost be considered Legend level. All those Guardians who wielded fire wore the red suit with white stripes belonging to that of the Fire Knights. (("If I recall, they're the strongest Knights out of all the elements. Getting past them would've been annoying."))
Fire, air, lightning, earth, water, ice, darkness, light, spatial. These nine elements each belonged to different groups such as water being handled by Water Knights and ice being slung around by Ice Knights. Each element was further divided into three categories based on what the wielder could do with it and they were attack, defense, and support. The categories were pretty much self explanatory and one could figure it out for themselves if they weren't too dumb. Attack type mages could mostly only launch attacks while having no support or defense spells. Defense lacked attack and support and support was great in buffs but normally weak on the battlefield. There were times that any of the three could learn a spell from another category thereby placing them into the realm of the special types but it was very rare.
The majority of the current Veni, respective leaders of their Elemental squads, were specialists, with only the water wielder Umor Aqua, being a support type Guardian. Being a specialist was a big deal and enhanced the power and capabilities of Knights, hence why the Fire Knights were among the strongest. Among the nine Elemental Knight squads, the Fire Knights possessed a total of twelve extremely powerful special type Guardians who excelled in combat. They took pride in being known as the strongest and the moral of the team was always well maintained.
"Why are the Fire Knights guarding the Gate?" Julia asked as they walked away. She had noticed them as well and wasn't too pleased to learn that they were the ones overseeing the passage to and from the Rasa realm. "More importantly, why aren't they going to stop us when we're clearly residents of the slums?"
"Who would stop us when we have the higher rank?" Vex asked in return as they walked further into the Lana realm. "Lets be honest. No Guardians will even think of stopping me or the people I'm with unless you carry a sign to parade that fact that you're from the Slums."
"Bruh, lets stop talking for now and actually get to walking. We have roughly a mile to go before we actually make it to Wisteria Market. Let's pick up the pace." Aria took Julia's hand and pulled her into a run, leaving Vex and Koda behind.
"Shall we get going then?" Vex asked as he watched the two run ahead of them. "I promise not to make fun of your hair again...much."
Koda smiled and gave Vex a mock punch towards the back of his shoulder. "Whatever man, just try and keep up."