- ORIS, OUTSKIRTS -
Darrel's howling could be heard from within the sphere of mana, and the clouds in the sky continued to rotate around the area.
"Lieutenant, if this goes on we will have erratic weather patterns in this region for some time." One of the knights clad in golden armor stated.
"Will you tend to the squires?" The Lieutenant queried his companion.
"It's not like I have a choice."
This was the first time the Lieutenant had spoken a full sentence since all he had done earlier was call out to his men when they blundered during their scuffle with Darrel.
The Lieutenant sighed as he jumped off his trembling mount, then he brazenly approached the mana sphere that Darrel had conjured. The Lieutenant sighed and then gripped the straps on his gauntlets, then proceeded to tighten them before extending his hand towards the swirling mana sphere.
[Fsst!!]
The sphere that had been expanding ever so steadily and aggressively repelling everything in its path suddenly popped like a bubble of water, the Lieutenant stood in a refined battle posture with his index and middle fingers pointing straight at Darrel.
The other knight in gold watched for a moment, then proceeded to help Calestian and Reginald who had drowsily witnessed this feat before falling unconscious.
"Plain mana manipulation…" The Lieutenant murmured.
Darrel stood in disarray at what had occurred, he recalled the fury that had consumed him before when he had burst into outrage and unknowingly set off a mana explosion. The first two Holy knights had been hurled away several feet across the sandy dunes, but this man clad in gold had repelled his formidable defense with just two fingers.
'What a ridiculous monster.' Darrel contemplated. 'I knew that the two knights in gold were stronger, but this guy needs a whole new definition of strong.'
Darrel recalled his earlier predicament with the previous knights, he had thought defeating the two knights would gain scare the rest and allow him to escape, but he had not expected the sudden fit of rage and temporal power spike.
When the leader of the group dismounted his horse and effortlessly counter his power, Darrel realized that he had only made himself a bigger target.
As Darrel looked on at the Lieutenant in awe, he noticed that he appeared younger than his men, his face had a youthful look and he stood just a few inches above Darrel, and this may have been because of the armor he was wearing.
"I will say this once more, surrender prisoner."
There was no way for Darrel to win this battle let alone escape it, his enemies had superior armor, and weapons, and were familiar with the terrain. He had suspected this earlier, and now his suspicions had grown stronger, and every fiber of his being was telling him to run.
'Fight or flight?'
Unfortunately, both these options were now obsolete, but as Darrel pondered only one option had been set on the table by the knights in gold, but a man can not simply be told to just surrender.
"You forgot to say one thing..."
Without a word, the Lieutenant merely eyed Darrel expecting him to complete his statement.
"Or die!"
Darrel immediately charged at the Lieutenant with the sword he had taken from Calestian in his hand. If this was the end of the line for him, Darrel would prefer he died fighting as any man would, and perhaps such an act would blot out the transgressions of his former life.
'Just maybe...'
The lieutenant raised his hands, then clenched his armored fists. His stance remained as elegant as a statue locked in an everlasting duel against the elements.
"Oh, I see what you mean now..."
The Lieutenant suddenly replied to Darrel's earlier statement, and before Darrel could swing the hefty sword, he saw a shimmering light in his eyes which was immediately followed by a striking whisper.
"Sadly the only things that I call death upon are threats to Moriandia and her people." Darrel heard the Lieutenant speak, his body suddenly fell limb and drowsiness filled his eyes. "You are but a speck of dust on its golden floors."
- ORIS -
Rumors about a prisoner who had gone toe-toe with two Holy Knights and their squires spread through the camp like an epidemic, it was said that he did not use any spells during the battle and it had taken the combined efforts of the two Lieutenants to bring him down.
"The squires are still recovering as we speak."
"Why in Quara are we transporting him without them?"
Darrel woke up after the continuous swaying, his first thought was that he had been in a nightmare all along, but when his eyes opened he was greeted by iron chains and steel bars to sate his fears.
Unfortunately, after his recent tussle with one of the Holy Knights, his will to rebel had been tremendously beaten down.
"My body feels all mushy…" Darrel muttered.
The chains on his wrist were heavy, but something else seemed to be weighing him down. Darrel tried to recall what had happened when he fought against the Lieutenant, however, it all appeared as a blur in his mind.
"It's because of the iron."
A hoarse voice spoke from behind him, Darrel shuffled around just to take a look at who had spoken to him, and right next to his cage was another cage within it was a prisoner.
"Who are you?"
"Luca, pleasure." He responded hastily. "Tell me mate, between you and the Lieutenant, which one of you is stronger?"
'A rumor sack!'
This was the first impression that Darrel had on the young man sitting in the other cage, he could barely hide the annoyance he had plastered on his face. These were the types of individuals that got close to people just to get information that the world was desperate to know about, and they would sell each word for a profit.
'Reporters were the worst, not that I have ever had a run-in with the press, but maybe I suppose I can humor him.'
Darrel had heard the guards whisper about him, and most of them seemed scared of what he had managed to fail to accomplish. However, to weaken the enemy further, he believed it would be wise to sow fear and discord among them.
Like a dialogue box in a text-based RPG, Darrel decided to go with the more probable answer to his query as he placed his erect thumb on his chest.
Snap!* Snap!* Snap!*
"I knew it." Luca snapped his fingers in the manner of a eureka gesture. "I saw the clouds and the lightning."
"Lightning? That happened?"
Darrel peered at the iron cuffs as he recalled the final moments during his last-ditch effort, the first sensation that came upon his body was that of acknowledgment of the fact that someone else was far stronger than he was, and this was not a feeling that had to be taught to anyone, it came to every person naturally.
'Like an instinct.'
At that moment Darrel had felt the true chasm between him and the Lieutenant, the fact that he could barely recall how he had been defeated affirmed it all.
"Where are we?"
"You don't know this place?" Luca asked, surprised. "It's bloody Mount Oris, look at the size of that thing you can't miss that anywhere mate."
Luca replied while pointing at the looming mountain and its cloud-impaling peak, as Darrel wondered how long it would take for them to scale to the mountain's peak.
"Are we climbing that?"
"Climbing? This is a dungeon-mining-prison."
"A what now?"
"A prison!"
Darrel's realization sparked in him like a flash of lightning, this explained most of what he was going through, the cuffs, the chains, the guards, and of course the carriage carrying caged individuals.
Luca continued to explain to Darrel about Dungeon-Mines, which were structures located across Morland, some of these were known to be ruins belonging to ancient civilizations while others were known to have been lairs that once harbored dangerous monsters.
"Before a Dungeon-Mine can be established, adventurers from across Morland are hired to clear its denizens," Luca explained. "These could be slimes, goblins, and even rare monsters like basilisks and wyrms."
"So what happens after that?"
"Yeah right, once that is done the Mining Guilds then come in to create a mining settlement and begin extracting raw materials as well as other treasures buried deeper in the dungeons."
"I see, so what is this Dungeon Mining Prison?"
"That… Well, the Empire cares little about guilds in its province." Luca's tone dampened. "So instead they created a new system where all criminals are to serve 'dungeon minings' for their offenses."
"Cheap labor."
Luca nodded in approval.
Darrel looked up at the abnormally tall mountain called Oris and wondered how long he would be there as a prisoner, however, his thoughts rushed back to the time he spent in his former world and the memories he wished he had kept locked away.