The Oni swung his claymore, effortlessly, onto his shoulder as he turned around to the man he just saved. "Yo! My name's Itto, you doing alright, bro?" He practically shouted to the man he saved with a blindingly enthusiastic smile. He had just defeated an entire gang of Nobushi on his own and despite that Elias couldn't see a single injury.
Elias moved his hand from covering an injury on his shoulder, a stable flow of crimson dripped from the gash. Nevertheless he glanced back at the Oni with his own smile, "I'm sure I'll be fine. Thanks for your help."
The Oni's smile only grew, "Woah man you're pretty tough, huh." As he spoke he pulled out a comb to brush back his hair.
"It's nothing really just a light scratch. I'm Elias by the way, thank you for your aid." Elias answered him expressing his gratitude while introducing himself.
"Ugh, no need to be so formal bro!" He expressed a lack of care for formalities with a sound of disgust and an eye roll. "Kuki always tries to make me more formal but it's WAY too tiring..." He adds.
"Ah I see.." Elias responds with a slight deadpan as Itto stands in front of him majestically glowing with self pride.
"Anyway! Where you heading bro! I The One and Oni will be your guide and guard for the journey!" He shouted while putting his come away and beaming with a somewhat dumb joy.
"Ah yes.. I'm heading for the Narukami Shrine. You don't have to take me, I'll be fine." Hearing Elias' words Itto quickly shook is head and made an X shape with his arms in refutal.
"Nuh-uh! No way, this road is way too dangerous right now, bro!" Elias sighed in acceptance, he knew no matter how hard he tried he wouldn't be able to convince Itto. He was way too.... Passionate.
Elias gave in not wanting to waste any energy and accepted the Oni's offer. Together they began to make their way towards the Narukami Shrine. The roads ahead were all relatively clear, every now and then there would be a merchant passing them heading towards Inazuma City but there was no more Nobushi throughout the entire journey to the foot of Mount Yogou.
"Well here we are Mount Yogou!" Aratki Itto shouted as he looked up at the tall mountain, after eventually calming down a bit he turned back towards Elias.
"Sadly I won't be able to see you up bro! I'm temporarily banned from the shrine!" He explained and not once did his smile even falter. It was as if he didn't know he did anything wrong. Elias couldn't help but wonder how he managed to get banned from The Narukami Shirine but from the look on Itto's face he assumed he didn't even know what the connotations of being banned were...
"Uh...?" He shook himself from his thoughts before continuing, "That's fine you've been plenty of help." Elias finished causing The Oni's grin to glow even brighter.
"Well Kuki is probably looking for me! If you ever wanna join a gang come find me!" He shouted as he turned and begun walking away from Elias. In the short time Elias had known him he could tell that this Kuki person was probably dealing with a lot of annoyances.
---
Elias made his way into the main area of the Shrine, by now it was around midnight — Yae Miko sat comfortable with her chin resting on the palm of her hand as she admired the soft blue hue emitting from the Sacred Sakura under the soft darkness of the night. A gentle silence hung in the air as Elias stood for a moment to admire the scene before him.
"Did something happen while I was gone?" Elias' voice echoed quietly through the shrine breaking the thin layer of silence, he was still curious about whatever was drawing energy from the Leylines. By the looks of the Sacred Sakura it hadn't been damaged in anyway.
Yae Miko lifted her head off of her palm and slowly shifted her body around to face Elias, "You were out quite late." She said as almost an inaudible whisper, her ever-present teasing smile of course still present.
She let out a soft breath before speaking once more, "A New guest came while you were gone is all." She finally answered Elias' question. Though, this only gave him more questions.
"A new guest?" Hearing him ask for confirmation she simply nodded.
"He was quite an interesting one in my opinion, the energy of the Sacred Sakura seemed to be drawn to him." She explained as she held her hand out to catch a falling cherry blossom. She bore a curious facial expression as she tried to recall what she had saw.
Her explanation blossomed something within Elias as his eyes widened, though only for a short period of time. He was able to quickly conceal his shock.
"I have to admit they might even be more mysterious than you are Elias White." She announced while slowly stepping towards, him she made a close and careful observation of his appearance. Elias bore messy hair as dark as the night sky and his eyes were a stark contrast of bright gold. Though he wasn't extraordinarily tall, but he was taller than her.
"Where are they now?" He looked around himself as he spoke trying to spot anyone nearby.
"After I showed him his room he went straight in saying hes had a long day." Elias' expression contorted in thought he raised a hand to his face and deeply focused on the Leylines connecting to the Sacred Sakura.
The energy around the Sakura was still visibly displaced, he watched as the energy cycled and danced in the air traveling into a room off the side of the shrine.
'So they're still siphoning energy from the Leylines? If they are sleeping could it mean they are doing it unconsciously? So many questions yet so many answer, I'm. Certain this must be a sovereign though.' Elias thoughts continued to spread like a wildfire and he was only brought back down to earth by the sensation of warmth on his ear.
Standing extremely close, way too close to him was Yae Miko her mouth was practically touching Elias' right ear, "You're such a cutie when your lost in thought." She whispered, as Elias realized what he was feeling on his ear his body shuddered and he recoiled away covering his ear with both hands.
"W-What were you doing..!" He said in a shouted whisper, his face shot with embarrassment and clear bead of sweat ran down the side of his face.
"Oh nothing at all really~" Yae Miko hummed with a cheeky grin. "Just bringing you back to land of the living." She said as she strolled back towards the Sacred Sakura.
"I wasn't that deep in thought..." She didn't say anything and just nodded sarcastically. This resulted in a sigh from Elias who had given up, there was no way he could win against her anyway...
"Oh yeah. This Noctis guy said he planned on meeting the Electro Archon at some point."Yae Miko declared changing the topic of conversation and causing Elias to perk up.
'The Electro Archon?' Elias' eyes widened in realization and somewhat panic, 'if he's a sovereign I can only imagine he's after the Gnosis and considering this is the Electro Archon... The electro sovereign...' Yae Miko this time flicked the tip of his nose.
"Lost in thought once again. Are you perhaps entranced by my beauty." She teased with a sultry smirk.
"No, apologies I was just wondering why someone would be stupid enough to want a meeting with The Electro Archon" Yae Miko feigned disappointment, at least Elias is pretty sure she did?
"It is true. I too have no clue why he wants to meet the Ei... However, I do hope he's threat enough to bring her from the Plane of Euthymia.." She muttered the last bit but Elias was just about able to make out what she said.
"Oh he definitely is..." He muttered to himself gaining a confused glare from Yae Miko. "Nevermind me, talking to myself." He added on shaking her curiosities away. She glared towards him suspiciously but he was too deep in thought to notice.
He continued speaking as if nothing had happened, "That's all you know about him then?"
"Practically as much as I know of you, right?" She responded, answering his question but also sending on obvious jab his way.
"You know as much about me as anyone else could, there just isn't much to know." She narrowed her gaze onto him suspiciously.
"I find that hard to believe." She argued, her gaze was focused, almost fixated onto him, "After all you seem rather curious about the new guest. It's also a bit suspicious they came to stay her only a day after you did.." She theorized thought it was more like Elias was standing as the defendant in a trial, Yae of course the prosecution.
Elias sighed and raised his hands in a sign of forfeit, "I don't know him, I swear. I'm just curious is all. It's human nature after all, right?"
Yae Miko let out a light 'Hmph' before speaking, "I suppose that is true but it's still suspicious, it's not like I have a reason to trust you but I guess I'll drop it for now." Hearing she was going to drop the subject for now garnered a sigh of relief from the young man.
"I think I'm going to head in for the night soon. It's a long trip to get to Inazuma City and back." He spoke, "The mountain climb doesn't make it any easier either.." He sneakily added though Yae Miko only responded with a little chuckle.
"A young man such as yourself can't deal with a bit of cardio?" She quickly shot back holding her hand to her mouth as if to hide her smirk, or muffle her voice, Elias couldn't really tell. He assumed it wasn't the former because Yae Miko doesn't seem the kind of person who is scared to insult someone to their face.
Elias let out an exhausted sigh, "Well... I'm going to my room now.." He huffed as he trotted along into the shrine and down the halls, he didn't bother turning back to see Miko's expression he knew she would either be smiling at him or not even bothering, going back to her focus on the Sacred Sakura.
As he walked down the halls he spotted the room where the Leyline energy was being drawn to. Elias felt a shiver go down his spine, he didn't like the aura around the room. For a moment he debated knocking on the door to introduce himself and confirm his suspicions but ultimately he decided against it and veered himself away from the room.
Eventually, he came to the door of his own room. He slid the door open gently and exhaustededly shuffled the the bed before flopping down onto the bed. For a while he just looked up towards the ceiling thinking blankly. He stayed like that for a long while.
So far his life had been interesting though he was curious how things were going back there he knew he wasn't particularly missing much. Nevertheless he did wonder when he would run into one of the outlanders. It shouldn't be that long until he sees one. They might hold a grudge against him if they found out who he was but that could be easily solved. Right now the main problem should be the possibility of the Sovereigns reviving.
No one really knows much about the Dragon Sovereigns, who's to tell if they revive with their memories intact or not. Elias hadn't done anything to garner any hate from them but he knows all too well the power the dragons hold, even compared to Archons.
(A/N) Woohoo chapter done. I do apologize that this chapter was slightly late I got a bit distracted lmao.
Anyway this was another fun write in my opinion, its a bit hard not giving too much away so I throw in hints here and there I might be too obvious or
Oh yeah! Elias Appearance, while this is the appearance I'm going with for the story imagine him however you want. Free will is great thing huh