The black markings appeared on Tommie's body as he meditated under the waterfall for the twentieth time that day. It had been a week since he and the others arrived at the Graveyard Fields. He could now use the Sage Arts for about thirty minutes, performing spell after spell without passing out.
Though, everyone was still anxious about whether his Sage Arts would be enough to defeat Divol. They also had to deal with the Seven Ministers, whose strength rivaled that of Great Knights.
Claudia especially was tense. They'd fought many villains in the past - from rogue mages to giant monsters - but they'd never gone against someone like Divol. They hadn't even thought someone like him could exist until recently.
She sat on a rock next to a small cyan lake, resting with Diana from their sparring. As Tommie practiced his Sage Art, they practiced their Sword Arts (simple Enhancing Magic Arts).
"Diana?" She asked as Diana took up a big mouthful of water from the lake.
"Hm?" Diana threw her hair back and washed her face with the clean spring water.
"Do you think we can win?"
"Who knows. Maybe we'll win, and everyone will call us heroes. Or, we'll all die."
"Well, thank you for the uplifting words, sis," She rolled her eyes.
"Come on, there's gonna be two outcomes. One where we lose and one where we win. I believe in Tommie. I believe that we'll win." Diana put her hand on her shoulder. "Do you not believe in Tommie?"
Claudia paused hesitantly before squashing her cheeks resolutely. "I believe in Tommie," She stood up, "Let's train. We have no time to waste."
"That's my big sister," Diana stood opposite her, and they continued sparring.
(Claudia is older than Diana by two minutes. Their mother died during birth, so the doctors had to do a caesarian section to get them out; they pulled Claudia out first. This is a common occurrence with women who have twins.)
Elfie practiced her archery with Precision Magic (a subtype of Enhancing Magic). She was in a massive empty stretch of grass in the east of the Graveyard Fields. Elfie used a longbow crafted from elf wood - some of the highest quality wood in the world. Until she was sixteen, she lived in an elf village whose blacksmith made the bow for her.
Though, Elfie wasn't an elf. The elves found her as a baby and took care of her. She set out on an adventure near her seventeenth birthday and about a year later, she found Tommie, a kind aristocrat boy. He joined her, running from his royal duties.
Her training was simple. She just kept shooting at a wood target she made with Madella. It was about a kilometer away and slightly hidden in the fog, so she had to rely on Madella, who stood by the target, to signal that she hit it.
During the beginning of the week, she'd hit the bullseye rarely. Though, she didn't celebrate whenever she did hit it as she would've usually. She knew that to stand a chance against Divol and the Seven Ministers, she needed to be able to hit it consistently.
Slowly, she started to hit it with more frequency and power than before. Claudia suggested for her to use Strength Enhancing Magic right after using Precision Magic. So now, her arrows blasted through the wood instead of just making a small dent.
She was using regular unenchanted arrows. Normally, in battle, she used arrows that she imbued with Enhancing Magic every night. They are so powerful that they can shoot through steel.
She planned to continue practicing for hours more, but Higorius returned from his expedition, where he checked Divol's movements. He sent the Graveyard Fields' souls to gather Tommie and the others at Madella's grave and informed them of everything he found.
"Things have gotten extremely bad. Divol has begun his empire; five more countries have fallen under his hand. His armies are moving toward the Ailav and Julin Empires." (Ailav and Julin were actual countries that were large Empires until three centuries ago), "We have to go. Fast. Have you mastered the Sage Arts, Tommie?"
Tommie nodded.
"Good. We leave in three hours for The Tower of Hell." Higorius left with Madella to prepare their supplies.
"Got it," Tommie replied, confident.
"Can I eat? I can't fight on an empty stomach," Elfie said.
"You'll have to hunt the monsters in the North." A soul, a young teen, said.
"There are monsters here!?" Elfie exclaimed, salivating at the thought of eating monster meat - most monsters taste astonishingly good. She ran off into the distance to spend the next hour frantically hunting wild monsters.
Claudia and Diana sharpened their swords and rested to replenish their mana with Tommie. After a while, Higorius returned with a bag of food and supplies for the long journey to Divol's castle.
"Are you all ready?" He asked and noticed that Elfie wasn't there. "Where is she?"
"She's probably gonna be another half an hour," Diana said.
"Elfie's got a huge appetite," Tommie chuckled. Higorius sighed and sat down with them, sending the teen soul who told her about the monsters to go fetch her. He hesitated to go to the monster areas but swallowed his fear and hurried there.
As he approached the first monster area, a forest, he saw Elfie walking with a big grin on her face toward him. She carried a large half-eaten fish monster on her shoulder.
"Now I can fight with my full strength," She said to the soul before sprinting back to the graves. He sighed in frustration and followed her, though she was much faster than him.
"Sorry, I got a bit carried away," Elfie apologized to Higorius.
"It's alright. Divol doesn't kill people he deems useful or else we would've had to fight him long ago. So, if we win, we must rehabilitate them all." Higorius stood up.
"Are we going?" Claudia asked, nervous.
"Yes. We are about to set off on a journey so hazardous, we may die." Higorius' words made her anxiety worse.
"We won't die," Tommie began, "I'm sure Luneia is watching over us."
Megora was a faithful believer in the Moon. So likewise, her character, Claudia, was too. "She has to be." She said, mumbling the prayer: "Let the moons guide us; oh, Luneia, our holy priestess, bring salvation to our souls."
She took a deep breath, composing herself, and stepped forward. "I'm ready."
Higorius nodded contentedly and called the Anidrous wolves before turning to Madella. They shared a glance of silence, knowing that this may be the last time they see each other.
"Thank you, Higorius. Thank you for keeping me company." She tried to touch his face, but her hand slipped through it.
"Thank you for guiding me." Higorius bowed respectfully.
"You should really shave that beard." She said as the Anidrous Wolves arrived.
"You know I can't do that." He smiled and turned away, hiding his teary eyes. "So long." He started walking first.
"Thank you," The others bowed at her too and joined Higorius.
"So long…" Madella watched Higorius and the heroes climb on the Anidrous Wolves and depart on their journey. She gritted her teeth, frustrated with herself because she was more worried about Divol than them.
They ended the session, and everyone sighed. They wanted to play more, but it was already night.
"I can't wait to fight you, Paley," Ponna said as he took a grape from the bowl he shared with Nova and Diz.
"Same here," Paley replied, stretching his legs from the hours he spent sitting. "Mom, can I go take a bath?"
"Sure. Just don't be too long." Madella instructed. He nodded, stretched again, and made his way upstairs, taking off his shirt on the stairs. Bacha followed him routinely, making Negie and Dillie hesitantly glance at each other before joining her.
Paley put his shirt and pants on the floor - in front of the bathroom door – and went in. He quickly posed in the mirror above the polished wood sink Teerom made. His physique was starting coming along nicely, but most importantly to Paley, he generally felt stronger.
He made his way to the bathtub, a circular wooden tub, after dimming the light. A few days ago, he helped Teerom install a light system with sliding switches that dimmed a flame. The flame was inside a small glass container, and it was created by a fire runestone that was to be replaced every six months.
(The runestone has a spell set on it that releases a minimum and maximum amount of fire – the range of brightness - for safety purposes.)
Paley pushed a big blue button and activated the bathtub, making water flood into the tub and fill it in a few seconds. Some water spilled, but that's what tended to happen with low-quality tubs. Next, he used another slider, next to the blue button, to set the temperature.
He liked his baths warm, so he set it to the max and quickly went in to feel it warm up.
'Magic's great…' He thought as the soothing water relaxed his muscles and washed away the dirt on him.
"What're you doing?" Dillie asked Bacha, who sat on the bed by the bathroom door with a change of his clothes in her hands.
"I'm waiting for Paley to come out so that I can give him his clothes." She answered casually.
"Can't he get them himself?" Negie asked.
"Yeah, but I want to see him naked," Bacha said boldly.
"Huh!?" Dillie and Negie blushed. "A-And how long does it take him to come out exactly?" Dillie asked, gulping.
"About an hour. He really likes baths."
"I see…" Negie glanced at Dillie and they quietly sat beside Bacha, who turned on her Planteripeida ring.
"Woah! What's that?" Negie tried to touch the hologram of a herb it displayed.
"It's a ring that Paley gave me." She tapped a circle that turned off descriptions on herbs, "Baobiji," She read out the name of the herb the ring displayed before saying everything she knew about it,
"Found in hot and dry climates, especially deserts. Formed by the condensation of mana on a dead worm, attracting more worms to it that stay there until they die and add to the mass of the component. Eventually, it becomes a hard stick with a sickly red color and bright red streaks on it." Her incredible memory impressed Dillie and Negie,
"Baobiji is mainly a potion component used for torture in many countries situated near or in deserts.
Its effect: it creates flesh-eating worms inside the body that eat their way to fresh air and die.
Additional notes: use it on Dillie and Negie if they try to take Paley away from me." Bacha turned to them, giving them a squint of suspicion. She turned the descriptions back on, checked if she got it right, and turned them off before looking at the next herb.
After about fifty minutes, Paley finally came out, his body gleaming and steaming. The three girls all watched him, though Dillie and Negie were slightly disappointed that he had a big towel wrapped around him that covered most of his abdomen and legs.
"Thank you, Bacha," He took his change of clothes and began untying the towel. Dillie and Negie panicked, screaming and shutting their eyes. "What're you yelling for?" Paley put on his pants nonchalantly and then his shirt. (Peasants often don't wear underwear, plus Paley just likes it free down there.)
"You just did that in front of us!" They shouted hypocritically.
"What exactly did I do that was wrong? You didn't see my privates, did you?"
"Huh?" They looked to Bacha, who cluelessly looked back at them.
"I saw them," She grinned mischievously.
"You done?" Teerom asked as he walked up the stairs with Jurie.
"Mhm." Paley nodded and motioned to the bathroom overflowing with steam, "It's steamy in there, though,"
"You know I like it warm too," He made his way into the bathroom after giving his clothes to Jurie, who sat right in front of the door in wait.
After a night full of chatter, they all went to bed at around 1 am. It normally would've been an annoyance for Paley as he liked to wake up early to train, but he didn't plan on doing that for the next week. He wanted to enjoy it with everyone. Though, he did still meditate in his free time to try learning Arts.
The next morning, before getting into their Dungeons and Dragons session, they all made plans to go to the mana zone after lunch.
Divol stood in a hazy cobble street with small marble houses on either side. The skies were a deep blue with a bright sun shining over him. He took a deep breath as he realized where he was. 2050 years ago, when he was 40, he came here, to Plece.
"A nightmare," He mumbled to himself, "You still wish to haunt me… Dommas." He turned around to see a young boy who looked a lot like Tommie with his bright blonde hair and kind face.
"You came to my city. And tried to steal our magic. Why? Why did you kill us all?" Dommas asked in reply.
"Because… I…" Divol sighed and shook his head, "You aren't even real."
"No, I'm not. You know that what you are doing is wrong. You know that you are evil. Why do you do this? I know it's not for vengeance." Dommas stepped forward.
"You are a fragment of my mind. You already know why." Divol retorted.
"Say it. Say it out loud." Dommas insisted, widening his eyes and staring into his soul. But Divol wasn't the least bit scared. "My descendant has come to kill you. You know that."
"Yes. I do."
"You know it isn't just a prophecy. It is the future." Dommas gritted his teeth with hatred, "It is fate!" He shouted, but the next moment, his rageful expression turned into one of shock as Divol drove a knife of ice through his stomach.
"I hate the concept of fate," Divol said with pure malice in his tone, "Only fools believe in the idea of purpose and meaningfulness. Nothing in this world matters. That is why it deserves to burn to cinders."
Dommas' face morphed into Tommie's face, and the Sage Arts' black marks appeared on his body.
"You will lose!" He screamed.
Divol woke up from his nightmare in a shoddy inn room. He slowly sat up in his uncomfortable bed before walking over to the window. Menacingly, he stared out at the city before him. The street lights twinkled brighter than the stars in the night sky. The unsuspecting people were spending their night, as usual, either hanging out outside or asleep inside.
The wet dirt path crunched under the Anidrous Wolves' paws as they carried Tommie and the others to the Tower of Hell. It had rained last night and it was still cloudy despite being midday. The grass around them took a darker hue, refusing to dry back to its original bright green.
It was a mostly silent, heavy journey. Higorius looked up to see the three moons, Luneium, Luneius, and Luneme in the sky. "He who doth conquer the trinities…" He mumbled to himself, glancing at Tommie who looked back at him in mutual understanding.
"Guys?" Elfie noticed two figures in the distance approaching, "We've got company," The Anidrous Wolves stopped, watching the two in the distance intently. As they came closer, Diana realized they were knights, one, a woman, and the other, a man. They were the two knights that Divol twisted to his cause and promoted to High Knights.
The two knights seemed to have noticed them and suddenly began running, closing the distance frighteningly fast.
"Are they part of the Seven Ministers?" Claudia asked.
"No," Higorius replied.
"Who cares. Let's go!" Diana shouted and sprinted forward. Claudia followed after her.
"We'll support you!" Elfie shouted, readying her bow. Tommie and Higorius also readied some healing and enhancing spells, though Higorius was much better at Healing Magic than Tommie.
Diana and Claudia clashed with the two High Knights, their swords stopping each others' momentum.
"Who are you?" The female knight asked, jumping away when Claudia began to overpower her.
"Who are *you*?" Diana retorted; she was about equal to the male knight's strength.
"We are Divol's High Knights. Now, who are you?"
"Your enemy," Claudia jumped forward and thrust her sword at the female knight's stomach, slightly piercing through the white, magic-imbued plating. The female knight immediately returned with an upward slash aimed at her chin.
Luckily, Claudia dodged and swung her sword at her head, but the female knight evaded her attack and thrust her blade into Claudia's chest plate, throwing her backward. Claudia was extremely good at quickly casting spells, so she managed to cast a protection spell in time to lighten the blow.
Diana, on the other hand, was struggling. The male knight had her on the defensive, landing hit after hit on her lightweight armor.
After three more consecutive attacks, he went for her head, but one of Elfie's arrows hit his sword, throwing him backward along with it. Diana took the chance and lunged her sword at his stomach.
He managed to roll out of the way of the fatal wound. Her sword hit the ground with such power that it generated a shockwave. Although he'd rolled out of the way, her blade still managed to cut through a large chunk of his side. He groaned in pain and jumped to his feet, retreating to catch his breath and pick up his sword.
"Wind Blast!" The female knight cast and threw a ball of powerful air into Claudia's chest, sending her tumbling onto the ground. "You're strong…" She said, standing straight and holding her sword upright right in front of her. It was a stance to use an Art.
"But not strong enough. Wind Art: Typhoon!" She emitted a soft pale blue glow, and spell markings appeared on her sword. Her body snapped forward, closing the gap between her and Claudia. Then, she swung her sword in a continuous spinning motion up and down.
It wasn't a fast attack, but every time she swung downwards, it was so powerful that it generated a gust of wind. Claudia had no choice but to create a shield barrier (a barrier shaped like a shield), but after taking three consecutive hits, it began to crack.
At that moment, the male knight dodged past Diana and ran behind Claudia, thrusting his blade toward her lower back. She was stuck; she could feel his blade piercing through her armor almost in slow motion.
Fortunately, Diana countered them by punching her blade into the back of the female knight's knee, who fell to the ground, groaning in pain.
"Reha!!" The male knight froze for a moment, losing the strength he put into his sword. The moment was enough for Claudia to use Protection Magic on her back and deflect the blade. She turned around and lugged her sword into his right shoulder.
"Looks like they didn't need our help, Tommie," Higorius said, surprised.
"Thank you, sis." Claudia helped Diana, who had twisted her ankle and was now panting on the ground, to her feet. "Higorius. We need help." She shouted.
"Come on," Higorius tapped the middle wolf's head.
"I take back what I said," The left wolf began, "They are strong."
"They are the twins of Deroma. Of course, they are." Elfie said with pride.
(Deroma used to be an Empire that covered all of Eri and some parts of Hijia and Nijia. That was during Baddyu, the second Quimnia's time. Now, it's a relatively big country allied with Illitor.)
"We should restrain them," Claudia said, watching the two knights carefully.
"Hehehe," The female knight began laughing, "HAHAHA!" they both burst out into forced malicious laughter and took out Ice runestones, throwing them into the air and slicing them in half before bolting off.
"Wind Blast!" Tommie put his hands together and created a gust of wind that traveled between Claudia and Diana and pushed the runestones away. They activated, exploding into balls of ice spikes away from them.
"Tch," The two knights looked back as they sprinted off toward Divol's castle.
"They're going to report back to Divol. Dillie will definitely come for us." Higorius said, biting his thumb.
"We're going to fight her eventually," Elfie said, "Let's go,"
They continued toward Divol's castle, wary of any new enemies. Diana especially was on edge, which Tommie noticed.
"Are you okay?" He asked.
"Yeah, I am." She replied distantly.
"You don't seem okay."
"Yeah, sorry, it's just- I don't know. Those two weren't as strong as I thought they'd be."
"Yeah, I agree," Claudia added, "They were definitely High Knights, but they used low-tier spells."
"They were holding back?" Elfie asked.
"I don't know for sure… Maybe they aren't completely under Divol's spell."
In dreadful silence, they continued toward the Tower of Hell.