Paley took everyone to the mana zone on Wednesday. He took them to the Fulguron's nest, where Amasha explained the valiant way he saved him from the Fulguron. He made up the latter half since he'd passed out, and Paley didn't remember it.
Rauba wanted to practice her magic, so Paley flew her to the top of the tree, where they usually trained together. Hig joined her at some point, trying to cancel her firebolts with air blasts. He got burnt now and then, but Paley was there to heal him. Rauba had become a much stronger Fire mage ever since she began training with Paley.
For lunch, they set up a picnic with steak sandwiches that Madella, Paley, and Negie had prepared together. Negie's parents were often overwhelmed by work, leaving her home alone with her siblings. She had to cook lunch for herself and them every day.
"Paley, look." Bacha sat down next to Paley and showed him a map of the area she'd been drawing. The map was just a collage of a bunch of sheets of paper.
"Wow, you've done so much," He inspected it. It wasn't a professionally made map; she'd drawn semi-accurate lines showing the different areas. She circled smaller areas where she found specific herbs growing.
For example, he found that East of the lake, there was a bush of Keilp - a herb that induced vomiting. She held her head up expectantly, and he petted her. "I'm impressed," He complimented. The group shared a moment of mutual silence, grateful for Paley.
The orphans had much more money to spend and now went to school thanks to him. He took Iji, Ketto, Ott, Homar, Negie, and many others out of a life of servitude. Even Libon, he'd helped. If it wasn't for Paley, he'd still be an arrogant noble, but now he can stand up to his parents and be kind to others. The same went for Elhom and Tugas.
Nova and Ponna would've never had the incredible final villain, Divol, for their last game of Dungeons and Dragons. Hig wouldn't have become a professional monster hunter as he'd always dreamed.
Most importantly, Dillie and Negie, two girls who thought they could never fall in love, fell head over heels for him.
"You really are an angel," Madella mumbled to herself as she watched the group chatting and laughing the day away. At some point, Paley suddenly told the Magic Club that he was a Quimnia.
"HUH!??" They shouted, having extremely shocked reactions to him using the four main magic types. Nova's face was stuck in shock, and he looked a lot like Ghostface.
"D-D-D-D-D," Megora stuttered.
"Yes, I did tell everyone else." Paley sighed. "I can fly. I can run super fast. I can use Healing Magic." He listed before they could ask him. "And you've already seen my Golems."
"I was the first to know about it," Rauba said quietly and proudly.
"I was the first stranger to know about it." Dillie tried to one-up her and glanced mischievously at Negie.
"I was the first brown person to know about it," Negie said with dense confidence.
"That doesn't cou- Fine, I'm the first Hijian person to know about it." Dillie fought.
Jurie giggled at them fighting.
"What's up?" Teerom asked.
"While they're fighting over him, he's just sitting there staring at the sky," She pointed to Paley, who was coolly watching the clouds.
"Heh, he doesn't have a single clue, does he?" He laughed with her.
They ended up forgetting to play DnD that day, but they still had four days to complete their game, so they didn't worry. They spent the rest of that evening jumping into the lake off an earth diving board that Paley made. He didn't join them; he sat down under a tree and read a book while making sure that no one got hurt.
At around 10 pm, they went back to the orphanage for a hearty dinner. Negie helped Madella and Paley cook some traditional lamb curry. Amasha, Negie, Dillie, Hig, Rauba, and Paley wolfed it down, but the others couldn't handle the extra spice Negie added.
Bacha ran upstairs, fanning her mouth, and quickly put together a minty concoction from eucalyptus leaves she'd bought from the market.
"Bacha! I want some of that!" Adimia, who'd been tumbling around the ground, ran up with Reben.
Paley spent the rest of the night watching them wash the spice from their tongues frantically. Bacha refused to use up her last few eucalyptus leaves, so they had to take turns rinsing their mouths in the sink.
"What did you put in that?" Teerom asked, letting Ketto use the sink next.
"My home country's signature pepper. We call it Thaeegaram." Negie's parents come from a country called Andi, a medium-sized country with a major overpopulation issue. That was why they moved to Lusitra. Also, it was the only country that would accept them.
"Is it really that spicy?" Hig asked.
"Yes! My mouth is dying!" Ketto gargled.
"Negie," Paley turned to Negie, "would you be alright with teaching me more about your culture's food? I really like it."
Negie almost jumped with joy. "Of course!" She exclaimed.
"Is everyone okay now?" Madella asked; the spice had affected her badly too. They all sat upstairs with ice blocks that Paley made on their tongues. Thaeegaram chili was about 85,000 Scoville Heat Units, nearly as spicy as a Habanero. Negie, Dillie, Rauba, and Hig were all used to spice since they liked it, and Paley, although he felt pain, it rarely emotionally affected him. And he liked spicy food.
"Yeah…" Ponna sighed.
"Negie, never put that Thigrem chili in the food again," Homar said.
"It's Thaeegaram." Negie corrected.
"I didn't think it was that bad." Adimia bullshitted.
"What do you mean!? You were the one rolling around on the ground!" Teerom argued.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever, pal." Adimia laughed, "What do you guys say about a pillow fight?"
"Let's do it," Libon snatched up a pillow.
"Sure," Teerom, as much as he wanted to be a cool older brother, was still a kid at heart.
"I'll pass on that." Tugas and Liba raised their hands, but the fight had already begun.
"And no magic, Paley!" Adimia pointed to Paley, who had created a barrier around him.
"That's fine because I don't even need magic to annihilate you all," Paley said cockily.
"We'll see about that," Adimia charged him with two pillows in his hands, running past the others who had begun their own individual duels. "Double strike pound!" He yelled and barraged Paley with the two pillows, though he dodged them all with ease.
"Don't hurt yourselves!" Madella escaped downstairs.
"Wait! Take me with you!" Tugas tried to join her, but Reben dragged him back in and smacked a pillow into his face. Amasha jumped from a bed and hammered another one onto him. They laughed at him.
"You little-" Tugas stood up.
"Tugas!" Libon threw him a pillow, and he retaliated.
"Megora!" Liba found Megora amidst the chaos.
"In a deathmatch… You mustn't trust even your family," Megora laughed and attacked Liba with her pillow.
(They all bought their own pillows for the stay)
Then, the unexpected happened. They suddenly heard a cackle filled with malice and joy. It was Rauba. She was fighting Jurie and Teerom, who had teamed up. For a moment, they all stopped, taking in the fact that Rauba laughed out loud. It was as unexpected as getting a laugh out of Paley.
She stopped and looked around at the others staring at her in awe.
"You have a great laugh, Rauba." Jurie complimented, turning Rauba a deep red.
"You do," Paley chuckled.
And the pillow fight continued.
The next day, in Dungeons and Dragons:
Tommie, who had passed out from the Vamali Staff entering his body, rested on Elfie's lap. They all rode on a giant flying white monster. It had large wings with no feathers and looked like a soft egg.
"We could've taken you to Lusetra or whatever," The Anidrous Wolves complained.
"It's much faster with Eggy," Teerom said.
"Five days ago, we sent a message to the Church about Divol's whereabouts and his plan. All the Churches are afraid to react, but if we tell the Moon Church where he will be, they should be confident enough to act." Jurie explained.
"About that… We're not on very good terms with the Church," Claudia said.
"Yeah, we're Wanted in a lot of countries. They don't really like the idea of rogue heroes." Diana added.
"It doesn't matter." Higorius began, "Because, after this, you'll be the heroes who saved the world."
"Thanks for the encouragement, old man." Elfie nudged him, annoying him.
Divol stood in the middle of a destroyed city upon a pillar of ice. Five of his Seven Ministers stood around him on the rooftops that were still standing.
"I can't wait to fight them!" Bacha said eagerly. Her character, named Bacha, was an incredibly attractive version of herself that wore plants as clothes. The only difference from real life was that her character had much longer hair.
"I want to try out my new spell on them," Rauba said, playing with a ball of fire. She looked pretty much the same, wearing an enormous rose ball gown.
"Can I fight The Great Sage?" Amasha asked. He wore pure gold armor and looked completely different. He was a thirty-year-old, rough-looking knight with a chiseled jawline, holding a magic sword emanating pure 'awesomeness' as he described it.
"We're all gonna fight him," Reben added. His character took after Adimia, though he wore lightweight armor instead of full-body armor. He wielded only one sword, and it was imbued with Fire Magic.
"No, our job is to kill anyone else there. Paley- Divol will take care of The Great Sage." Adimia said.
"It's *Lord* Divol!" Dillie said sharply.
"Lord Divol." Adimia corrected himself.
"What about Teerom and Jurie?" Rauba asked.
"They requested for human feelings, and I fulfilled that wish," Divol began, "But now, I must take it back. Bacha, can you make a counter potion?"
"I can make anything for you," She replied.
In a secluded part of Eri, thousands of knights gathered in the Moon Church's headquarters. It was a massive building shaped like a sphere. (This isn't the actual Moon Church HQ, it's Nova's representation of it.)
It hovered above a giant glowing turquoise lake where long slithering figures swam. Sunlight never fell through the Illusion Magic enveloping the whole area, meaning that it was always night inside.
At the top of the sphere was a giant hall with a giant table in the middle. Large, thin windows lined the sides with banners of the three different moons. A statue of Luneia, the Moon's Priestess, watched over the conference table from a raised platform. The knights all came in through the doors in the archway opposite the statue.
They all walked over with prestige to the Priestess and kneeled to show respect. The last to enter the room were the knights of the highest status, the High Knights, and the Great Knight. They marched to the Priestess too but poured pure water - that they kept under moonlight for a week - into bowls beside her feet.
(Believers in the Moon Church believe that you can demonstrate your faith to the Priestess by nurturing something under the three moons' light. Some opt for plants, but most use water. The water, when placed next to Luneia's statue, happens to evaporate after six days.)
"Let us begin," The Great Knight, Negie, sat in the chair in front of Luneia. She looked the same, apart from, again, being way more attractive since she was around twenty years old. There were only six High Knights there, and they were Paley's apprentices – Libon, Elhom, Tugas, Iji, Ketto, Ott, and Homar.
"I'm sure you've all heard about Divol." She looked around and everyone nodded gloomily, "He is one of the most handsome men on the planet and likewise one of the strongest. A great threat to our world he is. We do not know who he is, or what he wants. All that we know is that we must stop him!" Negie's speech wasn't good, but by the NPC's standards, it was so good they all cheered.
"B-But how will we defeat this man?" Libon asked.
"The Church has received a message from two of his Ministers. They wish to rebel. In their message, they wrote of a prophecy that a man called The Great Sage will defeat him. We just have to support this man."
"You trust in a message from his Ministers? It's a trap. It must be." Iji said.
"Does it matter? If it's a trap we must fight our way to victory. I know you all know of the massacres he has committed. Wherever he goes, he leaves mountains of innocent bodies. We set out for Lusetra today. Today we stop him!" The knights, including the High Knights, all cheered.
Tommie woke up as the flying monster everyone rode flew over a stretch of ocean.
"Morning," Elfie greeted.
"Hey…" He held his head, trying to suppress a migraine.
"Tommie, I know it's a lot to ask, but do you think you can use Dark Magic?" Higorius requested.
"Sure," Tommie looked for the Vamali Staff with his hands, "Where is it?"
"It went inside you, remember?" Claudia reminded.
"Oh, right," Tommie tried to visualize a ball of black essence on his hand, and though that *was* what dense Dark Magic looked like, it didn't work. He soon grew worried that the Vamali Staff was nullifying his magic, but luckily he could still burst flames into life.
"I can't use it," He said.
"Well, are you at least okay?" Elfie asked, showing a rare amount of affection, "You do have a demon's flesh inside you."
In real life, the word Demon bought chills to Dillie; she was still paranoid about the Watchman, being haunted by it some nights. Though, her fear vanished when Paley held her hand and gave her a warm look of understanding. He was gesturing to her that "It's alright," and she believed him, holding his hand back.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Tommie replied, "I just- I don't feel so good." He held his stomach, getting a sudden urge to vomit.
"Tommie?"
"Don't puke on me," Eggy, the flying monster they rode, said. (In real life, the majority of humans can't hear monsters. Different types of monsters also can't understand each other.)
"I won't!" Tommie rushed to the monster's tail and vomited into the air. He composed himself and returned to the group to try to use Dark Magic again. But it didn't work. He couldn't bring forth anything.
The oceans below transitioned into land, and he stopped trying to use it as they approached a town. It was devastated. Huge brownish-green roots had unnaturally grown all over it; the came out of the ground and went back in where houses were, destroying them.
All of the roots joined in the middle of the town into a giant tree, atop which there was a throne made of plants. But there was no one on it.
Instead of smoke, a faint lime-colored gas filled the air, emitted by the giant tree.
"What the hell happened here?" Diana.
"It must've been The Alchemist… Bach-"
"Hello!" Bacha appeared behind them and trapped them and Eggy in a plant net. "What a cute pet. I want it." She released the net at the bottom so that it would travel up, letting go of Eggy. Then she tightened it again, so that it only trapped Tommie and the others.
She flew to Eggy's head and took out a strange blue potion from a pouch on her exposed hip. While keeping the others in the air with the net, she created a giant seed with her Plant Magic and poured the potion inside.
"Open wide!" She forced Eggy's mouth open with plants and threw the seed into his mouth. Suddenly, Eggy stopped flying and vibrated violently as he fell to the ground.
"Eggy!" Teerom and Jurie watched their monster friend slowly cease to move, thinking it died. But it sprung back to life with blank eyes and flew up to Bacha, letting her sit on its head.
"This will save me some mana." She petted Eggy. "Teerom. Jurie. Divol told you that this would happen." She said with a somewhat stern tone.
"It doesn't have to happen. All those innocent people don't have to die!" Teerom argued; Jurie nodded anxiously in agreement. Bacha gave them an icy glare, emulating Paley.
"You make a fair point. But I just can't agree with you." She took out another potion, a dark purple potion with swirling patterns, from between her breasts and threw it at them. The glass had a spell on it that let her make the potion explode at will.
When it reached them, she made it burst; the liquid immediately vaporized upon contact with air. The purple gas it released entered everyone's bodies and put them to sleep – it took a little longer for the Anidrous Wolves.
They all woke up five hours later, tied to masts atop a mountain of corpses. The putrid rotten smell punched at their noses. They were in the central plaza of Gouen in Lusetra.
"They're awake!" Amasha called the other Ministers, who rushed over as fast as they could from a game of Lejja (Similar to Shogi).
The town around them was burning. It was Rauba's doing, she enjoyed burning down large urban areas to test out her new spells. Higorius cried out when he looked at the foot of the mountain of corpses.
The Anidrous Wolves lay there motionless.
"What have you done to them!?" Higorius shouted.
"So much noise…" Divol slowly walked toward them from the end of a large street. Frost generated at his feet, and his breath was visible; he'd just finished slaughtering dozens of knights.
"Divol!" Tommie growled, gritting his teeth in fury.
"Why do you want to disturb this blissful peace? Do you hear it? The quiet? The silence? Isn't it beautiful?" Divol grinned, making Dillie and Bacha nearly faint (in real life, Paley just told everyone he was grinning).
Diana used her Strength Enhancing spell, Strength Boost, and broke out of the bindings. The Ministers watched calmly as she tried to attack Divol, none of her swings hitting him. He grabbed her by the neck and threw her onto the ground, picking her up right after to beat her with an ice gauntlet.
"Diana!" Tommie activated the Sage Arts to break out; the others also broke out - Higorius with Claudia's help.
"Where are Teerom and Jurie?" Claudia asked.
"Where they belong," Rauba answered.
"Oh, I wanna fight!" Amasha, Adimia, and Reben jumped down to join the battle. Tommie couldn't muster the full Sage Arts because he was too nervous. As a result, his spells were significantly weaker than he wanted.
He tried for Divol's head with a wave of fire, but Divol used a large wall of ice to block it. Once the spell was over, he broke through the ice and thrust Tommie away with a cuboid of ice, then catching him in an ice glove. Tommie groaned from the feeling of burning ice on his skin – his clothes were torn.
Higorius got the short end of the stick. He was up against Adimia, one of the three strongest knights in the world.
"I don't enjoy hurting the weak." Adimia readied his Dragonslayer, the great Air Magic sword.
"That, my friend… is bullshit." Higorius said.
"Hey, no swearing," Madella told him off in real life.
"Right, sorry," Hig replied and continued.
Adimia attacked first, swinging that incredibly heavy sword with ease. Higorius could do nothing but hide behind his strongest barrier, though within a few hits from the Dragonslayer, it was breaking. His thoughts became clouded, and he had no idea what to do when Adimia broke through the barrier and swung his Dragonslayer at him.
"Watch out!" Elfie threw herself into Higorius. Adimia's Dragonslayer hit the ground, and they realized how lucky they both were that they dodged it when it generated a large shockwave and cut halfway into the ground.
"Get away from here, Higorius. I'll handle him." Elfie put on an air of confidence despite visibly shaking at the monstrous strength before her.
"You called me by my name." Higorius stumbled to his feet, keeping his bear up.
"Yes, I did, now go!" She backflipped onto a large piece of rubble, barraging Adimia with arrows.
"No. I will fight alongside you, Elfie." Higorius ran a few steps behind her and boosted her with Strength Enhancing spells.
"You stubborn old man," Elfie grinned, trying to keep Adimia away by shooting at him with her Enhanced Arrows, but he easily parried the away with his great sword and menacingly continued toward her.
Diana and Claudia were both fighting Amasha and Reben. It was a simple exchange of swordsmanship, but Amasha and Reben came out on top, overpowering the twins with ease. Both of them used the Flame Arts. Their attacks flowed with such calm expertise that Diana and Claudia were thrown off by them.
Amasha landed a lethal hit on Claudia's side even though she'd dodged.
"They're delaying their attacks!" Claudia said as she retreated.
"Is that surprising?" Reben chuckled and swung his sword, covered in fire, at Diana. She dodged to the left, but he had delayed the attack by a second, now redirecting it to where she dodged.
Diana was afraid to die. Reben's sword neared at frightening speed, not even giving her time to have her life flash before her eyes.
"Do not kill them!" Divol ordered and Reben stopped attacking, taking a step back in frustration. Adimia, who had reached Elfie and was about to slice her head off, also stopped.
"Luna, guys. Have some self-control, will you?" Bacha and Rauba jumped down from the rooftops.
"They're strong. They'll be useful." Rauba said, looking to Divol.
"Yeah. Don't kill the others. We'll take them back with The Sage."
"Sleep potion?" Bacha asked eagerly.
"Sleep Potion." Divol nodded, and she threw three purple potions at Tommie and the others. The Ministers continued breathing as normal since they were far too strong to be affected by the Sleep Potion.
"I won't forgive you…" Tommie reached his hand out from the ground toward Divol, who watched him coldly as a corrupted Eggy came to pick them all up.