Soon… very, very soon… the tide of this war shall change…
Those troublesome demon generals will not hinder the outcome of this war!
******
It's high noon, the sun shines brightly upon the wide open plains, making the green grassy landscape irradiated with shadow from the moving clouds. Two young men sitting on the warm grass, one of them lies down with his head on his two hands against the ground.
The one with the black hair known as Marco Istinggar is a seventeen-year old teenager. He is an explorer. He has jet-black colored hair. Most of the time he wears his explorer outfit which is mostly in mint color.
"Haaah...." Marco exhaled.
"There you go sighing again, M-Marco... this is t-the twentieth time you did it," his friend commented.
"I can't believe it, Scias! I swear I've loaded my pouch with full ammunition. But it turns out it was yesterday's. Dammit all!" Marco yelled.
"Heh… it means we should c-call it a d-day. Let's go home." Scias bore a small smirk.
"Oh, yeah, great! Yeaaaahhh.... Just greaaaat! The hunting season ends at two this afternoon, you know?" said Marco reasoning frowningly.
"Heh, come on, enough whining. Let's go back to the town. If we're lucky, we might still have enough time to extract w-what we got," Scias gets up from the grass and started walking away.
Marco had no other choice. He reluctantly followed him back into town.
Scias Trophe, a 25-year-old man whose occupation is a mercenary. He declared it that way, though he rarely acts like one. He has an astonishingly tall stature of 6'3 while Marco only 5'5. His hair is blonde. His sharp bangs covered his forehead. He's easy to spot anywhere around, just look for a tall guy, wearing dark-green outfits, blonde hair, and equipped with a katana.
Marco met him for the first time three years ago during his first visit to the Starlynx Kingdom. Scias has this dead-inside-eyes that time… he refused to talk at all to the young explorer and asked him to leave him be. Well, what can you expect from a soldier? Even so, Marco tried to open a conversation and talked to him for some time until he opened his mouth and said "Scias Trophe, now l-leave," he lightly shouted.
"YAY!" Marco mumbled as if he's the winner of the grand-prize of a bingo game.
Long story short, Marco met him again at Seaside Port here in Areda a year later. Scias didn't wear his soldier armor anymore... But Marco can realize it's him without a second thought. When he saw him, he jumped in closer like a person who just saw a falling angel from the sky. Marco shouted his name, thus he glanced at him, but he simply glared at me with his mouth opened a bit.
He walked closer to the young explorer while holding his luggage on his left hand. He then asked…
"...have we met before?"
"Blasts!" Marco thought.
Scias then said to him that he couldn't remember every single person he met due to numerous amounts of people he saw daily. He also stated something about not getting too attached or something like that. Under unknown reasons, he quitted being a soldier and left the mainland and came here in Areda.
He joined the mercenary ranks with no effort because of his previous self as a soldier, although he rarely participated in doing the job. For some reasons he spends most of his time being alone. On some occasions Marco saw him spent a lot of time alone in the corner points of the town's wall, even when it's raining. He watched him doing the same thing over, over, and over again for three months.
Even when rumors began to spread about Scias being a 'murderer' back when he's a soldier, he didn't care at all. He kept staying alone with the rumors flying around.
Marco could not stand looking at this saddened guy, so he tried to approach him the same way he did back at Starlynx Kingdom...when Scias saw the boy getting closer to him, he then got a sparkle of realization. He did meet some annoying brat that kept asking for his name a year ago.
"...you're not scared?" He asked softly, yet his eyes are locked into the wall. He refused to look at the young boy.
"Why should I be scared?" Marco replied. "Hey, hey... why do you love sticking around here by yourself, though?"
"U-Uh... it's not your business. You don't h-have to... t-talk to me," He continued briefly. His voice stuttered as he spoke.
"You're not a scary man, in fact, you're a cool guy!" Marco praised him a bit.
"Hah...? Cool guy, you say?" He replied in a cringed face. He quickly looked at him and glared for a moment. Sometimes it gave Marco the creeps.
"How foolish… what do you f-find interesting from me...? I'm just a Fire Elementalist," he conveyed with a threatening tone. "Go away, kid. I'm n-not in the m-mood to deal with the likes of y-you—"
Unexpectedly, the young boy went excited.
"—UWOOOAAH! Fire?! Did you say fire?! You're a Fire Elementalist?! COOL!" Marco praised him even more. It is pure out of his heart because he rarely saw one, only hearing much from tales from his father. Instead of getting scared, he gets much more excited.
"Show me! Show me what you got!" he shouted in excitement. Scias put an empty glare for a few seconds. He lets out a long heavy breath.
"Just this once," he said shortly. He then held out his right hand while having his index finger aimed into the raining sky. He then casted a fire-orange colored magic circle. He started a magic in a very, very soft voice.
"Fire Line."
A small fire faded in into the magic circle, then it bursted high into the sky shaping like a thin thread made of fire. Marco was focused so much at the fire he casted and when the fire fades out... So did Scias. He literally rushed back to his cabin in silence.
After that moment, Marco always come and spent some time with the loner mercenary, until the moment he never ran off from him when Marco came to him.
Marco also tried to speak with the townsfolk of Areda about Scias' nature, he explained about him as best as he could. The townsfolk liked Marco as who he is, so they listened to every word he spew on them.
A week later... All bad rumors about Scias had gone into thin air. Eventually people are now trying to get to know him better.
After a rough week trying to assure people, Marco reached success. After another week, Scias began to feel the effects of him being treated differently, and of course, into the better. One day, he came to Marco's house and bowed down immediately as Marco opened the door. Marco got slightly panicked by his actions. He told him to stand back up and had him explain himself.
Scias bowed his head a little once more. He gave his thanks to the explorer. Marco simply nodded with his carefree attitude and shook his hands. He reintroduced himself in return.
"I'm Marco, Marco Istinggar. I know it's been rough for ya. But don't you worry, I will do what I can to help you smooth things out, hehe."
"...I think you've known my name. But umm... S-Scias, Scias Trophe, p-pleased to meet you."
"What the heck with that tone of yours? Just relax, mate!"
"H-Huh... I'm accustomed still with m-my attitude of being a soldier..."
"Well, then! Let's start changing that today! I'll teach you how to deal with things here," said Marco enthusiastically.
"Why...?"
"Eh?"
"Why would you do something like that, m-moreover to a mere f-fool like me?"
"Erm... now that you asked it... how am I supposed to put it, ahh...?"
"..."
"No particular reason, tho. I just think you need a proper light bulb to lighten your day."
"Huh? What's that about? I d-don't understand..."
"Hmf... no need to understand it, either, mate, I just wanted to make sure you can enjoy your daily life in our island."
Ever since then, he always got along with Marco, even when he's venturing out of Areda, Scias stood by his side, he helped him a lot whenever the young explorer face a tough situation. He fought devious monsters they faced in their adventures.
They became good friends ever since... even until now.
Although Scias got himself able to interact with everyone, he still has some trouble talking openly to other people. But he can talk to Marco normally.
Marco's carefree and friendly attitude soon changed him into the better.
And now... within the strange mixed-up world, the two are glad that they're still together. Strangely, however...
Every inhabitants of Areda Island doesn't give a shite about the Dimensional Impact. They just continue on with their lives, despite the treaty they signed with the empire one year prior.