Instantly something had crashed right in front of me. The pressure created by the impact blew me back crashing into Venus. We both fell onto the floor as we saw a dark silhouette appearing from the dust cloud.
"I've been ordered to return you two to the Queen, so both of you will be coming with me." A low and demanding voice echoed around as the silhouette approached us. The voice was familiar, something we both recognised to the point of freezing us in place.
"We don't have time, let us go." I said as I swiftly stood up, shaking my intimidation away. I had no time to deal with this, I walked towards Nox, showing no signs of fear as Venus stayed behind, still frozen by his presence. He unsheathed both of his swords, but was in a relaxed position. As I walked closer, his aura started to affect me more and more, I felt fatigued, nauseous and incredibly frightened, this can't be his aura alone. There must be something else to it, but he is a Graceless.
Soon I stood in front of him, looking him straight in the eyes, though I felt like I was going to collapse, I needed to stand my ground. As I looked into his eyes, I noticed how dead they were, pitch black eyes with no visible pupil, scars surrounding his face. It was almost as though I was staring into an endless void and I was soon getting lost.
"The Queen knew you would leave," he said as he put his hand on my shoulder. "If you didn't have the guts to stand up to me, I wouldn't have allowed you to go and would have taken you prisoner." Though his intentions were light-hearted, his voice boomed around in my ear, and my body was still slowly collapsing due to his aura.
"Take this," he said as he proceeded to put some kind of necklace around my neck. "The Queen told me to give this to you if you passed the test, it's imbued with the Queen's magic, it should keep The Entities curse at bay." I looked at him again with shock and relief as he turned around.
"If you are going to The Kingdom of Humania, do your best not to gain the attention of King Irie." He said as he jumped into the sky with extreme speed. Leaving behind black feathers and a crater where he once stood. I instantly collapse to the floor and throw up, hyperventilating at the same time.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA," I laugh maniacally as Venus, unfrozen by the disappearance of Nox, rushes to my side.
"Would have been nice to have this before I got the quest," I said as I looked at the charm with annoyance and relief. The charm was made from a wood, but it wasn't Avery wood. It was an orange type of wood that was polished and shiny, the wood swirled around what seemed to be glass. The glass contained the same water that The Queen used to create that dome around me before, that must be what blocks The Entities magic.
I went to my menu and noticed that the quest I had been given was glitched and misshaped, signifying that the charm was working.
"YES, YES, YES," I jumped up in excitement forgetting my nausea. I hugged the charm tightly then kissed it.
'I am forever in your dept Queen Siren." I said to myself as I continued jumping around like a child, then throwing up again as my nausea returned to me. Venus looks at me with confusion and silence as she helps me get rid of my nausea.
"We are still going to Humania," I said as I stood up again slowly this time.
"Why wouldn't we go just because you got that charm." She said with a suspicious look on her face.
"Oh, hahahahahah, nothing, nothing, don't worry about it." I said awkwardly as I walked away trying to avoid her gaze.
"So how do we get there," I said, getting a weird sense of deja vu.
"We fly there."
"Of fucking course we do." I said, already knowing her answer.
"But Humania is a little too far for me to fly there in one go, we will have to take a break on our way." She said as she walked towards me, getting ready to pick me up. Knowing that resisting wouldn't help, I let her pick me up. I kind of felt like a princess. As she prepared herself, I looked at the quest paper again.
--------------------
Quest: Go to The Kingdom of Humania and execute the Mad Alchemist for conducting half-breed experiments.
Warning: Beware of unknown creatures and poisons.
Reward: 100 guild points and 100,000 Aurum
--------------------
Defeat a Mad Alchemist they say, is he really that hard to beat? Considering this was on the Celestine board, there must be a reason why this is considered a hard quest. I then looked at the reward and saw that I would be given Aurum.
"Venus, what is Aurum?" I said, stopping her preparations.
"Aurum is the currency used in every nation."
I remembered some of the prices next to the fruit in the marketplace. I saw the number 2 tagged upon the fruit so it must mean that they cost 2 Aurum. Which means 100,000 Aurum is a lot of money.
She then took off, I grabbed her waist and held on tightly, sparks engulfed her body once again increasing her speed to the point of creating a sonic boom. Instead of instantly reaching our location we flew for a good minute, it seemed as if the world was moving in slow motion, though my vision was blocked most of the time due to the incredible speed and the purple sparks flying all over the place.
As I pressed my head against Venus's chest I noticed her heartbeat was beating fast - really fast - I tried counting it, but soon it beat so fast it was uncountable. Suddenly we reached the ground, but it was a clumsy landing, Venus dropped me to the floor.
"OW," I exclaimed.
"What was that for?" I said as I looked at Venus, but something was wrong. Suddenly she collapsed on the floor and was sweating profusely. Her heartbeat was even faster than before and her breathing was incredibly fast. The sparks that engulfed Venus's body continued to stay.
"SHIT, SHIT, SHIT, SHIT, VENUS WHAT'S HAPPENING TO YOU." I yelled in panic not knowing what to do, as I grabbed her hand.
"M-m-mas," she tried speaking but was interrupted by her sudden fainting.
"FUCK, what can I do, this isn't like a normal cold or anything." I looked around at our surroundings to see if there was anything that could help me. We were in a forest, though I could hear running water nearby. The forest wasn't made from Avery wood, it was made from the same wood the charm was made from. The wood was a light orange and the leaves were a very dark green unlike the Avery woods light green and grey wood. Why are the trees different?
I tried to follow the noise to reach the running water, but continued to get distracted by the various animal-like noises I kept hearing. I heard screeches though sometimes I heard something that resembled a song. Scared I would get lost, I ran back to where Venus was. Only to see.
That she wasn't there.
"VENUS?!, VENUS," I yelled at the top of my lungs as I looked as the burnt crater created from her sparks burnt the leaves and grass around her. I then noticed that there was a sudden pathway created leading from where Venus was laying. I saw burnt leaves on the trail, and also noticed that the flowers, and all the other types of plants seemed to have been parted to the side, but not forcefully almost as if done with magic.
"VENUS?!, I kept yelling as I ran down the path. Who took her? Why did they take her? Please be okay.
I soon reached the end of the path. Beyond the path seemed to be more forest. I looked around to see if there was another path but there wasn't. I decided to keep walking in the direction where the path was leading.
As soon as I stepped off the path, my hands touched a hard surface. There was a barrier, or something invisible blocking me from continuing on the path. I pushed on the barrier and noticed that my hands were slipping in, as my hands slowly went through the barrier lit up with a light green magic and started pulsating. I then suddenly fell right into the barrier and landed on my face.
When I got up, I noticed I wasn't in the forest anymore, or at least it didn't look like it was part of the forest. It was a paradise, the same trees from outside where in this paradise except there were small cliffs and running waterfalls. There were houses made from the light orange wood that surrounded a giant version of the same trees around me.
"Where the fuck, am I?" I said as I looked around, a small river was in front of me and there were stepping stones leading to the other side so I could access the village in front of me. As soon as I got to the other side of the river, 3 creatures popped from below the ground and aimed their bows at me.
"WHU ESA URRUU," it yelled at me, pulling his bow further back. Though I was in panic, I soon came to realise that these were Dryads, though they weren't dressed like the Dryads I saw in Harpania, I could still tell they were.
"EKRAWAS NA," the dryad yelled at me again.
"I don't know what you're saying, haha," I nervously said, hoping they would understand.
"AHEM, WHO ARE YOU," he yelled at me again, without skipping a beat, in Humanian.
"I am Oliver, my companion and I crash landed and I am looking for her. She is a Harpy with purple feathers dressed as a royal servant."
"GUARDS," a voice in the back boomed as the guards flinched and looked behind them.
"Put your weapons down," a Dryad walked towards the guards elegantly. She was a tall Dryad with brown feathers on her tree-like body, though she still had the features of a regular woman. She had long green, leaf-like hair with the same colour for her eyes. She wore something that resembled a Japanese kimono, with leaves plastered onto it creating a dazzling design.
She walked past the guards and towards me, "Are you the human that was with the Spark Sick Harpy?"
"Y-yeah," I said, distracted by her seductive walk.
"Welcome - to the Dryads' Forest."