Ren woke up while covered in cold sweats, he grunted as his eyes slowly opened and he saw a unfamiliar hand on his chest. He tried to move himself back and assess his situation but his body was sluggish and didn't respond to him, he looked up and saw a beautiful blonde woman with piercing blue eyes staring back at him.
"Who the hell are you, where's my master."
Ren asked suspiciously.
"You must be the first boy to ever forget this stunning face, the names Elena I believe we already met."
Ren was shocked, but now he paid attention, he could see those sharp pointy ears, and the resemblance in facial features.
"Oi, is the brat healed yet."
The rough voice of Roxy spoke as she stepped out of the shade.
"Of course, he is, I wouldn't mistreat my little hero, its thanks to him I'm still alive and kicking"
She said pinching his cheek.
"Now that I see him up close, he's quite the cutie, im sure hell grow up to be quite the heart breaker, hmmm, I'm not one to pluck unripe fruit but maybe when he's older I can repay him… with my body."
She said flashing a charming file and leaning closer to him. Ren just continued to stare at her blankly, with an expression that seemed to ask if she was alright in her head.
"odd, is this thing on."
Elena said, looking down at her own cleavage in confusion. Roxy laughed heartily.
"As if the brat would be attracted to a vulgar granny like you."
Roxy said while continuing to laugh, causing Elena to pout.
"im sure he will realise his mistake later on."
She said, trying to console herself. After Roxy finished laughing, her face turned serious, she turned to Elena and spoke her mind.
"Now that the brat is fine, we need to clear up your mess, it might not be too late."
She said thinking back to the island, the beasts must have done some serious damage by now. More importantly Olivia was there. Elena had a complicated expression on her face, her memories where a bit hazy, but Roxy had filled her in while she was healing Ren. Even though she couldn't be blamed, she still felt the guilt.
"I clean up my own mess."
Elena said her eyes turned fully white and began to glow with a dazzling radiance, her hair turned white and her face began to age rapidly. Roxy who was caught off guard by her sudden transformation.
"Wait, you don't need to do that much. I'm sure if I go down there I can-."
"As powerful as you are, it will still take you a good bit of time to kill all those beasts, in that time even more people will die, this is the quickest and easiest method, plus ten years isn't that big of a deal to an elf."
Elena interrupted her and started chanting, trails of light began to rise up out of her body. Ren looked at her with fascination, he seemed to be entranced by the dazzling light. It seemed kind and warm. He tugged on Roxy's sleeve and asked her to explain what was going on.
"it's a high tier healing spell that's specific to the elf race, it works a bit like your trait, but it consumes your life span instead of vitality, I don't know the details but if she's using up ten years, it will cover the whole kingdom and then some. Oh, that's right, it was called judgement rain. It heals everything that the caster deems as an ally, while annihilating anything the caster deems as an enemy."
Roxy explained. Ren took a deep breath, a spell that can cover an entire kingdom, that was simply insane, it seemed that while Roxy specialised in combat, Elena specialised in healing, which explained why even though she healed him, he didn't feel the least bit tired unlike when Roxy treated him. When it came to their specialities, this woman was at the same level as his master.
By now Elena had finished chanting and a white radiance surged outward from her body like a pulse of light. Her face changed back to normal, and her hair slowly regained its blonde colour. Her face looked as pale as a ghost, and her exhaustion was clear to see, she yawned drearily and placed her hands together in prayer.
"In the name of the ever-loving mother Ishtr. May those fallen find eternal peace. May those who sinned face judgement and may those who have lost their loved ones find happiness."
The prayer was short but sweet, her simple words made Ren feel oddly calm and clear minded. In this new found clarity Ren remembered something and instantly alerted the other two.
"What happened to the parasite, what even was it."
His question earned the confusion of Roxy and Elena but they quickly caught on.
"Oh, that black worm, last I checked you blasted it to bits brat. I'm not sure what it was though"
Roxy said, earning Elena's scepticism, who gave Roxy an irate glance.
"Really… you don't know what is going on when all of the facts have been laid out in front of you. I was corrupted, does that ring any bells… no. Still acting dumb, how about this the I used a formation that was powered by a soul. You should know what this means, only one race is capable of this… demons."
Elena said while glaring at Roxy who sighed.
"That's impossible, they're extinct."
Just as Elena was about to retort her, the various parts of the parasite's carcass dissolved into a thick black smoke that gathered in the sky forming a black amalgamation that was shaped into a hideous skull with two large horns protruding from either side of its head.
"WHO DARES INTERRUPT THIS GREAT ONE'S PLANS."
A thunderous voice echoed throughout the island as the skull looked down on them from the skies. Roxy felt the monstrously evil aura emanate the skull. That confirmed it, this ancient aura could only belong to one thing… demon kind.
"So, what if we did. What are you gonna do about it… cry?"
Roxy shouted back, not willing to lose a war of words with a floating skull that didn't even have vocal cords. The skull didn't seem to like her response and its thunderous voice boomed out once again.
"SILENCE MORTAL, if my true body was here, you heretics would have already perished. But fear not your end will come… Huh, what's this I sense the blood of my traitorous kin. No matter, my preparations are deeper than what you can imagine, we will meet again… if you can survive that is."
With that, the skull disappeared into thin air. Ren couldn't help but feel that in its last moments, it was staring down at him with those empty eye sockets.
Before he could tell this to Roxy, the ground began to pulsate, he looked down and noticed that the ground was giving of a faint purple glow.
"Shit."
Roxy shouted, she knew what this glow meant, the whole island had been transformed into a teleportation array, presumably the very same one that had relocated all those beasts that laid siege to the kingdom.
This was bad, She and Elena would be fine due to their strength, but Ren definitely wouldn't be. Whatever that floating skull did, it caused the formation to go haywire, if Ren was caught up in it, she had no idea where he would end up. She had to do something but unfortunately, she was too little too late.
"Meet me back in the village brat."
These where the last words Ren had heard before his vision filled with purple and he disappeared into thin air.
"SHIT… SHIT, SHIT."
Roxy shouted while stomping at the ground causing it to be blasted apart. Elena sighed there was a concerned expression on her face, Ren was her saviour after all, but first she needed to calm down Roxy.
"Did you know that repeating yourself wont change anything or are you that dumb."
Elena said putting her hand on Roxy's shoulder, who stopped venting her frustrations on the blameless ground.
"You're right… it's time to leave."
Roxy said while sighing, as angry as she was she realised there was no helping the situation.
"Are we going after the kid, any idea where he ended up."
Elena asked, wanting to know what Roxy had in mind. Roxy thought about it for a while before replying.
"No, that brat is capable enough to make it back in one piece, a formation with no destination will be attracted towards the biggest spatial anomaly nearby, without fail… which means one thing."
"He's headed towards Akyl."
Elena finished Roxy's sentence for her making them both look towards each other with worried gazes.
"There's no helping it, the brat's patient enough to put up with that lazy fool, after we make sure the kingdom's alright, we should focus on gathering our other team mates, now that we found the reason behind the corruption, our investigation is over."
Roxy said while gazing off into the distance.
***
One day later.
On the widest balcony of the Ventus kingdom Princess Tang Yue looked down at the multitude of citizens teeming below her, hundreds of thousands of citizens gathered here today to listen to the princess victory speech, multiple images recording artifacts were trained on the princess and the hundred or so soldiers behind her, among them where some familiar faces.
Olivia, Zi Xi, Yang Chen, Li Hao and even Roxy were stood behind her making solemn faces. The princess readied herself before addressing the crowd.
"Dear citizen's today I stand in front of you as a Queen-to-be… As a Queen I hope to fill the massive shoes left behind by my father. I want to take this moment to remind myself that before being a queen I will always be a proud daughter first, I'm proud to be the daughter of a selfless man who fought to give us all a better future in the face of overwhelming odds. His sacrifice will not be forgotten and if I am half the ruler, he was then I could die without regrets.
As my father led us onto the battle field he said something that really struck a chord with me, he said we were going to laugh in the face of adversity, and I think that all the brave warriors behind me can agree that this is exactly what we did.
I hope that going forward we can incorporate this into our own lives, if it seems hopeless and nothing can be done, we laugh loudly in the face of adversity and tell fate to piss off. This will ensure that the wills of those soldiers fallen in battle my father included, will live on in our hearts.
Before we celebrate, I would like to mention a few people by name. These people were outsiders to our kingdom, they had no reason to fight for us, yet they put their lives on the line, fighting alongside us shedding blood and tears for the sake of our nation.
First there is my close friend Olivia, one of the kindest people I know and did not hesitate in joining me in the battlefield, thank you I will never forget this debt.
Next is a kid with a scary gaze but a soft heart, Ren. Even though he fought on a different battlefield his contributions where significant, due to his actions a miracle occurred.
The next person told me not to name her, but she is probably the strongest person I ever had the pleasure of knowing, it was because of her we even had a fighting chance to begin with.
Over these past few days, I have seen the kindness of the rest of the human race, I know that we have had closed off our borders to the outside world, but now I hope to establish relations with other kingdoms.
But this is a discussion for another day. Honestly, I could name every single hero of the battle and I will… But for now, let us remind ourselves that we won, and now it's time to celebrate."
Cheers filled the palace grounds as celebrations began. This day was never forgotten.
***
Several days later in the Kingdom of shadows, Umbra.
William sat on his throne swirling around a wine glass filled with a red liquid to thick to be wine. There was a bitter smile on his face, seemed almost ethereal on his almost unhuman-like face.
Here he was, ruler of the kingdom he had sworn to protect, his injuries were healed and there seemed to be no complications… well there was one. Ren. William had no idea where he was or what he was doing, he only knew he was alive and that caused an uncomfortable feeling in the man who now had everything in his grasp.
There was a loud knock at the door and a solider wearing black armour entered the throne room, in his hands was a crumpled newspaper.
"My, King news from the kingdom of wind, I think it might interest you."
The soldier stated respectfully causing William to frown, all he had heard was these past few days was information regarding the kingdom of wind, it seemed to be the hottest topic on the continent of Axtel, frankly he was sick of it. Despite this he still accepted the paper, A king was meant to be diligent after all. The newspaper had a picture of the princess standing solemnly with a hundred soldiers behind her.
William read it thoroughly and his expression froze.
"The princess personally thanks the outsiders who helped in the fight, namely Ren, Olivia and one other who wasn't named."
When he read this sentence the room began to get colder as a ruthless expression appeared on his face.
"So this was where you were, son."
He said out loud, he quickly scanned the picture once again. Although Ren wasn't present, he noticed something interesting. A girl to be exact, she was one of those standing behind the princess and she had the common facial features as someone from the kingdom of shadows.
"Ren's comrade perhaps."
William thought to himself, the coincidence of two people from his kingdom being there was two big to be overlooked, this girl definitely knew Ren. Judging by her tanned skin and brown hair, it was likely that she belonged to one of the villages outside the capital. A cold smile suffused on Williams lips. That day Ren fell into a river, the place he ended up was likely the village that girl was from
"Relay my orders to the army, burn down every village downstream of capital, no survivors are permitted. If there are those concerned about our food supply being destroyed, tell them I am in talks with the kingdom of light and with the help of my daughter, will secure new trade routes by winter."
The soldier who was initially shocked by the order, quickly regained his composure.
"Yes my king."