LIA BENVENTI
[As soon as Team A finished rescuing Aether]
"Yes, that's right."
"Okay then by what time will the patient be arriving?"
"In another hour or so."
"Okay I understand, please do make yourselves comfortable in the meantime".
The person in charge here was surprisingly very kind so getting a few rooms was not a problem.
The hospital was hidden in the lawless city beyond a barrier cast by a seven star demon long ago. It was a reasonably large hospital with various facilities. We were allowed to stay here under the guise that we were on a top secret mission.
The fact that there were two captains with us made it easier for me to convince her.
"Now then," Cecilia said with a sigh, "do we wait for them or do we arrange transport immediately?"
"No, we'll wait for brother and sister." Cynthia called Aether her brother and Kathyln her sister.
"Yeah, I agree, without both the cap'ns we can't get off this island anyways." Sapphire looked around and then sat on the sofa with a thud.
"Fine, so shall we head over to our rooms, freshen up and wait or do we go out and get some clothes because honestly," I smelled bad. Very bad. "I am reeking of the sea."
***
In the end we decided to go shopping but..
"Where are? Cecilia I though you said that this was the right way?"
Yes. We got lost and started fighting among ourselves. The last rays of the sun were now dying.
"Huuh? You're blaming me? Sapphire you can't even tell which side is north and which side is south for Morax's sake!"
"Oh don't you dare bring Morax into this!"
Blah blah blah blah. Yeah that's about it.
Morax was Sapphire's ideal type. Her dream man you could say. Not that a man like him could actually exist.
Morax was revered among the Users as a god. No. The greatest demon would be correct. There were also rumours of Asmodeus searching for him.
"Can you both just shut up." Good job Weaver.
"Huh?"
"Huh?"
Yes. They said it at the same time.
"Excuse me! you're not much better!"
Aaaaagh!!
"Fools, if you had let me lead the way we would've bought our clothes and returned already."
"Hah! If you think you can then why don't you take us now!"
[2 hours later]
"Aaagh"
"Where haave weeee commmmmmmeea!" Sapphire was beginning to breakdown.
"How can this be possible, I'm sure I went the right way.."
Sure Minerva, was the destination hell?
Cynthia, who was quiet all this time received an invite from Lord Morax to speak.
"Like how dumb do you guys have to be to lead us to a shady cave with a god-tier barrier on it instead of a shopping complex."
Ouch. But she was right. We had ended up coming to a shady cave in the middle of a hellish forest. The trees had red barks and the soil was like blood. There was a lot of mist too. It was now night both inside and outside the forest.
The leaves of the trees were blue in colour. The fact that they looked like there were on fire didn't help at all.
"Well anyways, we can't go shopping now so might as well check out this cave you know.."
I realised that new clothes would remain a dream for me and Team A would've probably arrived by now.
"Guys we should go back." Cecilia decided to resign.
She did have a point since the others must've reached by now and would be wondering where we were. We had to get off this island before we got caught up in something bad.
After all, we were in the lawless zone. Inside pandemonium.
"Oh yeah? And who's going to navigate through this forest genius?" Sapphire had reached her limit long ago.
"Stop. We won't achieve anything by fighting among ourselves."
At least Minerva had a cool head. Probably because of the blood in her veins.
Only a fool or a hermit would not have heard of the Weaver name.
The Great dwarf Vblahk Weaver had forged great swords for the warriors of eras gone by. Their weapons were the backbones of all the armies that fought long ago in the great war against the demons and otherworlders.
The special feature of a dwarf of the Weaver lineage was that they were not short like the rest of their kin. They were just as tall as humans and looked the same too. The only thing that differentiated them from humans were the patterns on their bodies that they had since birth.
How do I know this? Well there was a reason why I was ranked first in archaic studies and had the highest score in it among all the Users ever.
Memory power!!
It was a skill that I had been honing since childhood. It was a skill that I thought was required for the position of captain.
In fact, it was one of the skills that I needed to learn at the Classrooms.
But in the end, she defeated me. I couldn't be the captain after all.
The gap between us was too great...it was as if she was blessed by Lord Morax.
Kathyln Igriss...she was our captain.
Oh well, moving on to the current situation.
We were stuck in a scary forest in a land not known to us. Even at the empire, there was no information about this place in any of the geography books.
The cave in front of us had a hight tier archaic barrier.
To have a high tier barrier in the middle of a forest that was impossible to navigate...just what was hidden here?
Cecilia and Sapphire were arguing about whether or not to enter the cave.
As for Cynthia, she was trying to convince them to leave.
Minerva was silently watching over us, probably thinking of the best possible choice.
A part of me wanted to disable the barrier and enter the cave, but what was alarming was that my heart was beating madly. Like it was intimidated by the presence of something in the cave. I felt it pounding against my chest, trying to break out.
But as Users, we were always taught to explore the unknown and finish the mission. Even if we had to sacrifice a few people.
I had to stay silent and act normal.
The silence continued for a few more seconds until... the ground started shaking.
Our eyes widened and all our gazes met the same place. The barrier was shaking.
Then it stopped and returned to normal.
All of us froze in shock.
No...no, it couldn't be.
A high tier barrier in an unknown forest...blood red soil and crimson hell trees...made to keep something from coming out rather than stopping the entry…
The weight of the situation was rapidly escalating.
"Guys I think we should get of here asap!" anxiety seemed to have gotten the better of Sapphire.
Cecilia and Minerva looked at each other and nodded.
"What? I don't understand?"
'We're going in."
"What! are you crazy?! that's a high tier barrier Minerva! I know you have special blood in you but we can't fight whatever's in there!"
"Who says we need to fight?" Cynthia shared the same opinion as the other two.
"I'm going in. Follow me."
Sapphire and I exchanged looks and sighed. We didn't have time to argue and there was no point in turning back now.
"Fine. Let me at least get my war bow out."
I stretched my hand and closed my eyes.
"Fading Twilight." The warbow materialized in my hands with its brilliant jade shine.
I couldn't help but admire the beauty of this bow. I was really lucky to get it.
We followed Minerva into the cave after turning off the barrier from the outside.
***
"Hey wait up! How come you're not stopping?!"
We were walking through the cave and we suddenly stopped at a crossroad. I could see that the cave had many tunnels and caves inside it.
"Huh? Of course I am, we have no idea what's in any of these tunnels so we should pick one at random."
"That's true but do you really think it'll be that easy to find whatever's in this place?"
"No, but we can't just keep wandering around aimlessly without knowing where we're going all day, right? Its best to split up and find the way out of here."
"Yes but-"
"So let's split up for now and meet back at the entrance of this cave after an hour."
We agreed to split up and left the cave.
After a few minutes of walking, I found a small cave and decided to rest there.
It was a small cave with a little bit of light coming in.
I placed my bow on my back and took out a towel and a bottle of water from my dimensional storage. I was still thirsty from being in the sea for too long.
I tried to think about what happened in the cave.
The ground had started shaking. Then the barrier had started shaking and then it stopped and returned to normal.
At that time, I had felt my heart beating against my chest.
I couldn't help but be scared.
This feeling was new to me. It was as if something was watching me.
Something that was much stronger than me.
I was scared. I couldn't even stand up.
If only I knew who or what was in the cave...
I would've been more courageous.
But now I have to deal with something that is much stronger than me.
It was a good thing that I had Sapphire with me.
Sapphire was a riot in battle. She had a physique blessed by Lord Morax. Even Kathyln would have a hard time in a 1v1 against Sapphire.
I didn't know why she was so confident though.
Her personality was the polar opposite of her abilities.
But I had no time to think about that now.
I had to concentrate on finding a way out of here.
I closed my eyes and meditated.
"Fading Twilight."
A bow made of jade appeared in my hands.
I had gotten used to this feeling by now.
I could see the mana running through the bow.
Weapons of descension weren't originally meant for Users. They were wielded by human heroes of the past who could wield mana.
Even though I could see this pure jade mana, I couldn't wield it. But if someone got a descender's weapon as their weapon of descension, it would be a different story.
Aether for instance had the rarest and most revered weapon among all. It was dubbed 'Blade of the 15th Fallen' because it belonged to the unknown 15th descender.
It was said to have pure divine energy. Something that contradicted our existence. Divine energy was very rare and a weapon containing it was most often a descender's weapon.
But wait that wasn't important now. I had to get out of here. This path is a dead end. The light coming in wasn't from here. It was being reflected from somewhere else.
"Hey Sapphire, let's go back. This isn't the right route.."
I looked back and found sapphire with her shirt off. I subconsciously pressed my hands to my chest.
I felt a strange sense of defeat as I saw her unfair figure.
"Oh! okay then, let's go." She tied her shirt around her waist.
Her voice pulled me back to reality. I shook my head and we returned to the main cave.
The others were there.
"So where did you guys go?"
"Well we went into two different tunnels but nothing happened. We just kept walking and-"
"Don't tell me you two ended up going to the same tunnel?!"
"No, no, no, we didn't go to the same tunnel. We went in two different ones but..."
"But what? What happened?"
"Nothing happened at all. The two tunnels were connected so we decided to go back together."
"Strange...ours was connected too. The only person who hasn't arrived yet is cynthia."
"She went… there right?" Minerva took a step forward and pointed to a tunnel that was on the right. It seemed to be heading down, that was probably where she was now.
"She should be back soon."
Cynthia had a habit of running away super fast when things got dangerous.
"Anyways, let's group up with her and leave. This cave was a waste."
"Fine."
We waited for about 5 minutes until we heard footsteps.
"Did you find a way out?"
"Yep. I found a way out."
"Great job."
"Oh no. Don't thank me."
Something was off, her eyes were shaking, she was sweating profusely.
"Cynthia what did you see down there?" I asked her.
"Dr..rr"
"What? Clearly. Again." Cecilia asked her.
"A dragon."
My head began spinning and memories started to flow through my head.
***
"Praise the dragon! The people of Aisah will always worship the dragon! All hail The -------!"
My head was hurting. These memories weren't mine. They were blurred. It hurt.
***
"Oh lords. Lia are you fine?" Minerva grabbed my hand.
"Lia?!" Sapphire rushed to me.
Cecilia gasped in shock.
The world around me seemed to be spinning.
A deep voice reached out.
"How fun?"
I fainted.