Elliot awoke to the sound of people talking. There were muffled conversations around him, seemingly not wanting to disturb his sleep.
How considerate. He chuckled in his mind.
He sat up and saw everyone inside the room. It was already morning. The sun lit the entire room through the thin white sheets.
"You're awake!" Connor cheered. He had recovered to his human form and is now okay. Ed canceled the Ethereum just on time before Connor could reach a more critical stage. Elliot's potions also helped him recover faster, taking him only a fraction of how long it took for Elliot to recover from his Ethereum accident.
"Welcome to the Alorde Castle's Medical Wing. Judging from how you look, you seem okay," Lance chuckled. "Does it hurt somewhere."
"No." Elliot looked around and a frown appeared on his face. "Did Ripple and Frost leave again?"
Lance snorted. "Traumatized much? They just went out for air, don't worry."
This made a smile form in Elliot's lips. "Okay."
"Err, guys?" Ed called out. He walked over and clicked his tongue, handing Lance a piece of paper.
"It seems like I was wrong," Lance said.
Elliot frowned. "Why?"
Lance gave him the note that made him let out a disappointed sigh.
'To Elliot and his party,
We don't know how to pay your kindess for saving Ripple. It seems like you made a plan to distract Cain while Lance and Midnight save her.'
"Wait, I was the bait?" Elliot scoffed. "And I didn't even get informed beforehand?"
"Shh," Connor shushed him. "I'm reading."
"Unbelievable," Elliot tsked.
'We thank you all for your efforts. We know you want us to stay but we don't think we're up for Adventuring anymore. We're going to go back North and like we originally planned before Ripple's capture. Again, we are grateful for all your help, Ed, Hope, Connor, Lance, and Elliot. Thank you for being such good friends. We hope our paths will cross once again.
Frost.'
On the bottom left corner there was a scribble which they suspect was from Ripple.
'We're basically saying that you can't handle us. We don't mean to offend you though.'
"So, they're gone?" Connor asked.
Elliot pursed his lips. "I guess so."
"And I thought we were finally getting girls in our team," Ed sighed. "What a waste."
"They couldn't join the guild anyway," Elliot said with a sad smile. "Azure Scorch is an all-male guild."
"Well, they could at least join the party," Ed sighed. "The closest thing we had to girls was Connor's cute acts but then he's a fiery demonic beast now. He even beat a Guardian to a pulp!"
"Then Hope was a cute little kid that brought Lance's 'maternal instinct' he called 'Inner Momma'," Elliot laughed. "But then the next week, Hope grew even taller than me! Larger too."
"At least we still have your puny height," Lance snorted. "That's the only feminine thing we have in this group now."
Elliot kicked Lance in the face. "Don't you dare mock my height! I'm average."
"5'4 is indeed an average," Lance said. "For girls!"
Elliot chased his friend around the tower that made the other members of the group laugh. It was as if a new chapter of their lives had closed. They knew a new chapter would open up and they were ready for it.
They just didn't know that it would come so soon.
That night, Elliot was shaken from his sleep by a fierce and ominous aura coming to them at an alarming speed. He was back in his dorm with the others but it seemed like it was rather silent in the dorms.
He sat up and ran outside, only to see no one there. He slept a little early that night out of exhaustion and it was just past 9 PM. Everyone else were still drinking at the guild house.
He went to the guild hall and saw everyone inside the hall calm. "Don't you feel it?"
"Feel what?" Connor asked.
"That aura…" Elliot trailed off and ran outside. He ran to the roof of the guild house and saw five figures standing at the edge of the rooftop.
They feel it too. He thought.
"What's coming?" Elliot asked. "There's something that's coming and it seems strong."
Lance was the first one to turn. Elliot's eyes widened after seeing how he looked.
His face was red with anger, eyes brimming with tears. He shook his head and smiled. "It's nothing."
"What is coming?" Elliot repeated.
"Something you can't handle," Frederick said. He lowered his hands and a burst of blue flames appeared on his palms. The flames trailed down to his leg, forming a pair of boots that he used to fly. "Everyone, get ready!"
"Lance," Midnight called and walked back. "Open it up."
Lance nodded and brandished his black sword. He pointed at the moon and shot a black spell to it. When the spell reached high up, exploding mid-air and clearing the sky. The clouds disperesed and showed the beautiful crescent moon that shoned brightly.
"Black Morph: Ruler of the Dark Abyss."
Midnight ran to the edge of the rooftop and leaped. Elliot was about to run to save him when an explosion of aura made him shiver in fear.
A black colossal beast with a head and body of a lion, tail of a peacock, and wings of an eagle flew and went after Frederick.
"What is happening?" Connor asked as he ran to them. The other members of their party followed him along with George and a Ranger named Ethan. "I think I just felt the Underworld again."
Luck and Sun followed their Midnight. Luck surrounded himself of his music magic to fly while Sun morphed, forming wings and turned legs into talons.
"I really don't like when it's night," Sun said. "This is all I can do."
"That's fine," Luck said and continued whistling.
"You guys should stay here," Lance said to the others. He unsheathed his white sword and formed a pair of wings from his weapons. "Especially you, Elliot. Don't ever come."
He leaped out of the roof and trailed after the other four. Their actions left Elliot puzzled.
They were going after a very strong opponent and they did not want Elliot to go with them. It would make sense if there was a Boss-ranked beast out there but their faces and auras were filled to the brim with killing intent.
Either this beast was an infamous beast or this wasn't a beast at all.
It was like they were hiding something from him. Like they were keeping a big secret.
"I'm gonna go after them," Elliot said.
Connor held his arm, "Are you crazy? Lance just said not to go, especially you, and you still want to go?"
"They're keeping something from me," Elliot said. "I feel like I'm involved in this somehow. Like I'm the center of everything."
"But what if you're not?" Connor retorted. "What if everything you thought is wrong and that you're actually not the cause of this?"
Elliot paused. "Then I–"
He was cut off by a loud roar from Midnight's beast form. They ran to the edge of the roof and squinted their eyes to see what was coming from afar. In the middle of the woods, flames, white and black auras were being fired.
Elliot reached even further until he saw a familiar skill. Dragons made of earth, similar to the dragons made of water from the Forest of Gray Lake. There were also two of them like last time.
"What are they fighting, Ethan?" George asked the Ranger.
Ethan whispered a skill under his breath and stared at the woods.
"You can see them?" Elliot turned to Ethan..
He nodded and inspected the skirmish that was going on. His dark green eyes glowed as he used his ability.
Being a Ranger allows Ethan to see in the dark brighter than anyone and can see long distances. His aura perception was also remarkable, even more than average Rangers. He was able to sense auras and their fluctuations from afar.
"Two beasts, serpent-type dragons, that seemed to be made of soil are battling against them. It doesn't look like a beast since I couldn't see its life force but it's still pretty strong. Our members' auras looked distressed, angry even."
"Do you see the caster of the spell?" Elliot asked.
Ethan shook his head, "I don't see or feel any other person except for them."
Elliot's shoulder dropped and a sigh escaped his lips. "Okay."
When Elliot was about to go down with the others, a voice sounded from behind them.
"Looking for me?"
From thin air, a powerful figure emerged. Elliot snapped his head at the direction and saw the man from the Gray Lake.
His long gray locks and his sinister smile were clear as day.
"W-What are you doing here?" Elliot stuttered.
'Hostile Non-Human detected.'
<< /// >>
Level 100
Class: Classless
Subclass: None
Occupation: None
Race: Angel