Joshua POV:
ARGHHH, THE AIR AROUND RELIC IS BEING... DISTORTED.. I CAN BARELY STAND MY GROUND, GOD THAT FUCKER IS CHOKING HIM.. NO, HE'S BREAKING HIS REALITY, HIS SOUL! SHIT, HOW DO I APPROACH, HASHIRU ISN'T COMING UP WITH ANYTHING...
A few hours earlier, 3 Am...
...Hm? Rays of light are touching my face.. no.. it's not light? Sitting up from my bed, I look around to see everything is still dark, what touched me? But as I look to Relicta a terrible headache attacks me, everything Caelum said earlier came rushing back now with me sober. What the hell was she talking about? Relicta betraying me? That can't be... right? No no, why am I doubting HIM?! If he wanted he could already killed me long ago, ugh, such a pain, I'm gonna go for a walk.. God's revival? Betrayal? MY death? Boloney.
Opening the door, it makes a loud creak and cold wind come running in, has it always been.. this cold, or is it just me?
Walking through the dark corridor, I feel an eerie aura, suddenly, a void portal opens and Hashiru comes to my arm, freaking out and shaking in all directions, It was never like this, usually Hashiru only does this when I'm in danger... Am I in danger? Were Caelum words actually true? NO! That can't be, holding on tight to sword, I turn back wanting to wake Relicta up to alert of him of the danger, but confirming my suspicion, the corridor behind me has no doors nor window, just endlessly stretching... Shit.
Hashiru starts glowing, this is my cue to SLASH! With my the trail of my sword, reality comes back to me, I was lying on the floor and Hashiru on top of me, swiftly getting up, I realized the dead bodies of a few workers around me, in their arms are weapons and tomes of magic, tsk.
Rushing back to our room, but before I could reach the door, something white flashed before me, blinding me in a short moment, but when I looked up I was at a different place, it was a dark room with bright glasses to resemble figures from different religion in this kingdom, around me are pillars of stone, a teleportation spell?
"Correct Master Joshua"
Hmph, such an arrogant tone, looking back I find a dummy looking figure, it's eyes were covered by golden spikes and beside that, it has wings, torn wings that probably can't fly. This figure feels so familiar yet I can barely make anything out of my foggy memories in my time here in the past. The figure spoke up as it bows
"My name is-"
I dashed forward and quickly got above its head, taking out my sword ready for decapitation
"Shut your ass up."
Although that would have been how I wanted it to play out with a badass line like that, but the figure turns to sand as my sword goes through it, sensing its presence behind me, I do a back kick but only meets with the air.
"You was always an impatience one Young Master. My name is Serial Platus. The prophet of this kingdom and a loyal servant to your father, King Eiko Miyakoto. I have teleport you here in order to restrain you."
....Serial?
"You're... you're that fucking miserable vampire mom always told me to avoid in the basement???"
It sighed out loud
"Her majesty has some questionable teachings it seems, but regardless, I must stop you in your tracks according to my lord's gracious demand. Please do not struggle Young Master, I hold mastery over the strings of fate and the collision of sand, fighting me will bare you only consequences."
I laugh out loud
"FATE? Then just kill me and Relicta dumbass... or you can't?"
Waiting for a reply but eventually he answers
"If it'll make you willing to stay in one place, then I shall confess that I can only control the cause of the eventual fate and not the result itself, the result of one's fate can only be decided by oneself, that's why I am unable to stop you two much to my dislike of my own limitations. Now Master Joshua, would you still struggle? Or is it that you will sit down and have a pleasant chat with me."
I raise my sword, he's able to see fate itself yet doesn't know I already made up my mind the first time I set foot into this castle. He sulks a bit and reply
"Then... forgive me if I hurt you too much."
From his back, the pair of torn wings start to flap, faster and faster until he is in the air, I hold up Hashiru, control over strings of fate and collision of sand was it? Hm.
"Hashiru, ACTIVATE!"
"FUTILE YOUNG MASTER!"
He flings to me, furiously attacking with his newly revealed claws until the thick clothes, I step back but feel myself descending slowly, looking down to see the floor has turned into quick sand, tsk. But too bad, Hashiru has already figured out a way. That solution lies in the determination to reach my goal, to ignore all that stands in my way, to bare the cause and endure it all, to exist without a past and to move on without a cause of present, it LIES IN MY COURAGE! I raise Hashiru and turns it toward it and stab myself with it, Serial has a look of shock but recompose himself, running toward me again seemingly wants to pull it out but the area around us starts to cracks and eventually shifts then stop, everything still looks relatively normal around until Serial gets a view of outside, it was pitch black, absolute darkness,
"Confused Serial? Welcome to the void! My partner's practical home, we'll be here until he wakes up and come to void your existence away or.. I kill you and leave with Hashiru. If you think about just torturing me with all kind of death and traps with your strings of fate then I'm sorry to tell you Hashiru temporary enhanced my body and with the void side effect, Ican exist without a future, past or present, you're in a corner, give it up."
Serial stay silent, then fall onto the ground lying face down, from his back, the thick mummy cloth start to shed and from here, a shadowy sphere start to float up, it has... strings? No, tentacles? attach to the main body, everything beside the not-moving mummy was black, but then it opened its eyes, a horrific flood of blood come rushing out, then when I was distracted to jump up to a high platform, the head open its mouth full of teeth and let out a loud screech that shook everything around us, below it opened a portal and it escaped from the void.. that was something. Where did it go I wonder, but it was none of my business, Hashiru worked and I'm alive and well, time to get out of here, Hashiru, ACTIVATE!
Jumping out of the void, I find myself walking toward the room's door and kicking it down, only to realized the sun is already up, it felt like minutes but it has been hours, tsk, talk about time difference in the void and reality, I gotta rush back to Relicta QUICK!
Running on the streets, the citizens screamed my name but I had to ignore them.. something was off, Hashiru started glowing, indicating another danger is here, it turns its edge up the sky, looking up and dashing back at the same time, a phoenix came crashing down creating a fiery pillar.. who is this? Doesn't matter, Relicta is my top priority, ACTIVATE!
With Hashiru enhancing me and itself ice power, I prepare to strike but realize we're in the streets and there's people nearby, shit some of them are already burnt to dust by the crash, I have to run and dodge as many people as I can.
The flaming figure started furiously blast it's attacks at me with full ill intentions, I'll give credits to the persistency but the patterns are too clear for me to be hit, carefully dodging each blast and freezing it mid air to secure the people's safety, I keep on running, avoiding the figure at all cost, but as I run more and more, the attacks get more furious with each step I took, who do you think you are?! HASHIRU! ACTIVATE! Enhancing myself with agility and wind power, I took flight as the figure swiftly follow behind, only for me to have one brief second of becoming faster than light itself to go behind the attacker's back and pierce it's body with my ever so sharp blade, the figure screams out in pain, this tone? A woman? Doesn't matter, taking my sword out, I stab her in the leg one more time, as she falls down I grab her by the neck and activate wind speed again, in a flicker of a blink, her head crash down to the ground as I flip forward and make my escape, I hope she has health insurance, that head slam didn't kill but it sure as hell killed a brain cell or two.
Breaking the front door of the castle apart, many workers saw me and before they could pull out their weapons, with one clean move, I struck them down with Hashiru's lightning enhancement, god I love agility.
While all this bloodshed happens, a loud screech shows up in the air, causing everything to shake, shit I feel Relicta's voidly presence there, rushing down the hallways, I was abruptly stopped by my mother, Heiwa, standing before me in the corridor, behind her is the library door's blast open.
"MOTHER. DO NOT BE A FOOL AND LET ME PASS."
She doesn't reply but before I know it, I was thrown away behind her, looking up I see Caelum standing there with a knife facing down, mom... saved me? Mother looks back to me, letting out a weak smile and a drop of tear running down her eye,
"Joshua... I loved you every day since you vanished from my arms, please let me redeem myself as your mother, save your friend Relicta, he is a good one, the deception in your mind that Caelum put on you, I already dispel it, the one who informed me this is Relicta's god, Pesho, God of Fertility."
As she finishes her sentence, Caelum immediately appear behind mother as she gets ready to attack but with a soft hand gesture of a snap, Caelum and mother is no where to be seen..
Coming up to the entrance of the library, there stand a screaming five tailed fox, without much hesitation, I pull out Hashiru and in a flash, stab through her and turning my sword, I take another clean slice to turn her into 2 pieces, running toward of weakened comrade, I informed him about everything that has happened up to this point, Relicta was worried about mother but I assured him its alright.. although knowing the man that I call my father, I can't truly be sure, as the fox begins to regenerate, I break a wall in the hallway and Relicta opened up a void for us to escape, but upon reaching the other side, something shook badly behind us, looking back to see everything in a million different pieces, shit Leone is here, just as the void closed, Leone barely made it through and is now grabbing Relicta's neck, this was too fast for me react at all, trying to move my body but in return, nothing worked, the area around us started to get shatter as Leone breaks reality apart, Hashiru isn't responding, what should I do, GOD WHAT DO I DO? I DON'T WANNA FUCKING LOSE RELICTA, I CAN'T, HIS SOUL IS BEGINNING TO BREAK! I CAN'T BARE THE PA-
Just as I started to panic and feeling hopeless, Relicta reach down to Leone arm, not trying to escape but just to hold it, upon contact Leone disappeared into thin air... void.. he got voided..
I fall down onto the ground, absolutely relived that we managed to make it out safely, Relicta fell face down, as we breath heavily, I begin to look around us, around us was rocks and a ceiling with dropping water.. is this a cave?
Coming over to get him up, we settled down for a bit, setting up a small camp, resting before the silence is broken by me asking,
"So.. who's Pesho?"
He sounds pissed answering me
"Is that the first thing you ask? Get a fucking grip of what happened, but if you wanna know, he's one of the gods we're helping at the moment, he's a residence in my head... literally, he told me about the fact that we're gonna get attacked this moment and the fact a fucking BLIND vampire told the king to cut our heads off, but aside from that, Pesho is a great help, he can't navigate his way to your head though, you don't have any mana at all."
Ugh.. the mana issue again
"Yeah yeah whatever, cool god, that's good. About the vampire, his name is Serial Platus and I don't think the lad's blind at all, I fought and came out victorious, as you can probably guessed already, all thanks to your void side effect and Hashiru."
He laugh out loud, holding onto his side as if its starting to hurt
"BAHAHAHAHAHAH.. PLATUS?? PLAT-FUCKING-US? OH MY GOODNESS, A VAMPIRE, THAT SOUNDS SO COOL AND HIS NAME IS FUCKING PLATUS... BAAHAHAHAHAHAH, I'M SORRY BUT I CAN'T DEAL WITH IT."
I let out a small giggle, he's too chill despite our predicament,
"Whatever you say, let's address the elephant in the room.. what now?"
Quiet floats in the air for a few moments before he speaks up again, in a firm tone,
"We need to train ourselves and lock ourselves up in this cave for a time being, Pesho told me that other people who are also blessed is ten or even hundred of times more powerful than us, not the most ideal situation to go out, no? Beside, he told me that there should be a kind of shrine here, if we can find it that is."
Shrine? In this desolated cave? People more powerful than us in the hundred folds? Oh god..
"Alright, let's go find that little cute shrine now, I just hope the maiden there's gonna treat us right, if there's anyone at all, I don't mind it though."
Relicta let out a devious grin
"Afraid of ghosts? Or are you afraid of humans interaction mate?"
Tsk, teasing me again
"Yeah yeah shut it, let's find that thing already"
As we travel further into the cave and eventually go up, we go in what I feel like is a repeatedly up and down road, which is kinda strange but after some hours, we saw a spark in the distant,
"Huh? Is that it? This is a little too simple"
Relicta is skeptical of what we're seeing but I gotta agree with him, this does feels a little too easy compared to what we normally face, but then he loosen up his guard and shrug it off
"Pesho told me to calm down, maybe we're just paranoid"
I shake my head, hand still on Hashiru
"I'm more paranoid about how much you trust that god, Pesho or something. sounds like Piss-so, but let's head there now."
As we talk toward the sparking light, a loud chant can be heard from it.. it sounds like a festival of some sort, it sounds exciting even, it gives off a festive vibes but I grip Hashiru even hard, looking over, I feel more reassure to see Relicta also raising his hands ever so slightly, clearly ready to void away any trouble that comes looking for us.
As we finally reach what seems like a village, it became even stranger, a village having a festival... in a cave? This just GOTTA be a trap,
"Stay sharp."
I warned Relicta and slowly go look for the noise, eventually finding a group of people sitting around a table with what seems like beverage, upon counting it was only 2 people that I can spot, there could be more but I can't be sure. When I was about to back off, one of them stood up, it was a male figure, he was tall and muscular, on his head is a long horn that stretched out from his forehead, he only wore a long pants, exposing his manly features in his upper body, his skin was a blue shade, I could feel powerful aura from him, he looks around but then lock his eyes with me,
"Hey.. I didn't know we got visitors, you and your tiny friend! Come over here, why are you hiding in the shadows?"
He spotted that us, not knowing what to do, Relicta fearlessly came out first and raise his hands up, showing no weapons, the other person at the table became quiet and looked back at us with sharp eyes that pierced through me, Relicta starts the conversation
"Heya, we mean no harm, you guys see, me and my partner here got into quite a predicament and now we're forced to locked ourselves up in this cave, I'm sorry if I'm wording this terribly but we need to stay here and train ourselves, if you don't want us here, we can leave, no problem needed, no problem wanted."
Silence consumes the air as their eyes scan us, but then one of them speaks up, a blonde hair woman wearing a black and red robe that looks like a witch outfit, she points toward Relicta
"This one... I can't feel anything from him at all, it seems they're not lying though, the big one with the sword doesn't seems to have any bad intentions, he's weakened even."
The blue man then invites us over to the table with a cheerful voice
"Well? Come here then, let's get to know each other, if you really don't mean any harm then we have no reason to chase you away pal, don't be shy, we have beer too!"
Relicta let out a forced smile
"Ahaha really? That's amazing, you know I can cook so if you're hungry, I can make something."
The blue man's smile suddenly disappear from his face, in a serious tone he says,
"Hey.. I know you're not trying anything funny but don't lie or force smiles and all that, I hate when people do that, if you wanna leave then do so, you don't need to linger and make this even more awkward."
Without much of an option, me and Relicta comply and head over the the wooden table, we sat on the empty seats and the blue man introduce himself,
"My name's Cawum, I'm a blue oni or demon as you call us, I'm in charge of this little village we live in, we have been living here for as long as we can remember, we get visitors from time to time but our experiences with outsider has been... mixed.
He then points over to the blonde woman
Her name's Pascy, she's our magnificent magician here, she's amazing really, she does all kind of magic stuff that I'm foreign to, she's really socially awkward to bare with her will ya?"
Relicta replies to him
"Of course! My partner here by no means is social at all, my name's Kanjuden Relicta, he's Miyakoto Joshua, nice to meet you"
Reaching his hand out for a shake, Cawum didn't hesitate to shake Relicta's hand, then he turns to Pascy but she just sits there, retracting his hand, he askes
"It'll be our utmost gratitude if you have even the smallest spare place for us to stay, we're not really fond of sleeping on cold hard stone like this"
Cawum laughs out loud then gulp down some beer
"AHAHAH! Of course friend, what're you on about, we have a spare house, you can stay for the duration of whatever you need to do, it's very dusted though, hope you don't have an allergy AHAHAHHA!"
Oh this is gonna be a lot of trouble..
TO BE CONTINUED...