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Goal:
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Follow and support me on all platforms if you enjoy my work. The more support I get, the better quality content I can churn out. I stream every day from 8pm EST to 12am EST from Thursday to Tuesday. 12pm to 12am EST on Wednesday.
Also, if you sign up now, you'll get a sneak peek look at characters and scenes from the Manga adaptation of my original novel, NameLess. Obviously you'll also get extra chapters, but that goes without saying.
Those who purchase $20 tier and above will get first dibs on the first printed physical version of the Manga and novel (can be shipped).
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"So. Why did you save them Yarra? The red and blue Rookies. I thought everyone here were your enemies."
From atop the tall dune of sand, overlooking an enormous crater that had once housed the Spider Dome, Yamagaio shook his head. Pulling the book he had been perusing before out of his pocket, he turned away and began walking towards the Rift leading back to Ornera.
"Not that I owe you an explanation Goblin, but....they were old friends." Yamagaio's look seemed to sadden. "A good old maso-caustic youth and his brother."
Nessinpa looked back towards the crater, sand falling back into its depths as the wind gradually picked up. What had once been a marvelous structure of Athrafstos was now naught but a mixture of rocks and sand, everything having been erased down to the cellular level. Looking at it, one would never guess that a simple necklace could produce such an effect.
"Why didn't you say anything when they were here?"
"I'll meet with him when the time is right." Yamagaio flipped the page of his book, glancing up towards the sky. "I can't face him the way I am now. I could never hope to stand in front of him while that group remains alive."
"Well. We got what we came for. Let's go inform the Master."
Yamagaio glanced backwards, stopping momentarily. "I'll see you again, young Jakklo. May you live long and prosper."
A sudden blast of wind kicked up around the two of them as they walked away from the crater, a thick screen of sand quickly surrounding them. When the cloud of grounded rock finally dissipated, the two individuals were nowhere to be seen, as if they had never existed in the first place. All that remained was a sea of seemingly endless sand.
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"It seems they left no survivors. They burned everything to the ground."
"No! NO! There HAS to be someone here!! ANYONE!!"
"Jak-"
"NO! I CANT LET THIS BE IT!! THEY WERE STRONG!! THEY WOULDNT HAVE BEEN BEATEN SO EASILY!! Why couldn't I have been here??!! WHY?? WHY??!!"
"Jak."
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"Jak. Hey Jak."
The image of melted corpses and decimated houses disappeared as Jak snapped into reality, his eyes shooting open. Breathing heavily, the youth struggled to slow his heart, sweat covering every part of his being. Putting a hand to his head, he struggled to gain some composure, crimson orbs flicking from Mako to Meru, of whom were knelt down next to him.
"Welcome back to the world of the living." Mako smiled widely. "I hope you enjoyed your beauty sleep. It's probably the last you'll get for a while."
Meru looked like she wanted to speak up and say something as well, but she stayed silent immediately averting her gaze when she and Jak made eye contact. It was hard to tell but she was acting a tad different compared to when they had first met her. At the same time though, Jak had only just met her so he couldn't really say anything about Meru or her personality traits. All he knew was that she refused to fully meet his or Makos gaze as well as kept to herself whilst staying close.
Jak let out a small puff of air as he sat up, hips digging into the sand as he wiggled into a crisscross position. "What's the situation? How are we still alive?"
"Yeah....the situation." Mako smiled bitterly, stepping aside. "Why don't you tell me?"
They were on some kind of beach.
That's the first thing that clicked within the redheads mind the moment he shifted focus unto his surroundings.
Soft white sand, completely different from the rough and course beige particles Jak had seen since entering 'Ard Araml's confines. Unidentifiable trees casting shade over the various individuals milling about the area without a singular care in the world. Waves of almost perfectly translucent blue water forming and breaking against the shoreline. A blazing sun resting at the peak of a cloudless blue sky, warming up everything's it came into contact with.
Needless to say, the three individuals were no longer in the world of 'Ard Araml. If the presence of a whole beach wasn't convincing, the missing second sun was more than enough for Jak to put two and two together.
The redhead didn't say a word as he pushed himself off the sand and onto his two feet, taking the time to brush off the many grains that stuck to his skin and clothes.
As confused as Jak was, he wasn't too panicked by the sudden outcome. As long as he wasn't dead, he could continue to push towards his own goals.
"Give me the run down. How long have we been here for?"
"Ever since I woke up. So maybe ten minutes?" Mako glanced around, looking from the beach to the passerbys. "Nobody seems to be too interested in our sudden appearance, aside from some odd glances and a few hostile glares. We aren't in the Forsaken World and I would even go so far as to say we aren't in Ornera either. The gravity in the area is far too weak for it to make any sort of sense."
"Gotcha. How'd we end up here anyways?" Jak tapped himself, ensuring that he still had Masamune on his hip as well as his cape. "Did Psycho send us here?"
Tink.
Just out of the corner of his eye, Jak noticed Meru holding something out to him, prompting him to immediately look towards it.
It was a stone, a neon white rock with a weird hieroglyphic embedded into the very front of it. Though small, about the size of the redheads thumb, it hummed with magical power.
(("This rock.....")) The image of the falling object replayed in his head, the same one that had appeared just before the Antimatter Necklace went off. (("A teleportation stone. It fell from above us before the explosion. This is what stopped us from dying? But where did it come from?"))
So many things had happened within the last few hours to the point that Jak would need a few sheets of paper and an ample amount of time to piece together. Old questions had been answered and left new ones in their wake, far more questions than had existed in the first place. Events after events seemed to pile up one after another, leaving the redhead with almost no chance to breath. The Vox Lion trap. The Slave Room. Uglio's room. Luckily, Jak was used to living on the move and dealing with unfortunate circumstances.
"May I have that?" Jak asked, holding out his hand.
Meru nodded without making eye contact, placing the Teleportation Stone directly into the redheads palm.
"Thanks." He gave her a small nod before slipping it into his pocket.
"So, what's our next move?" Mako posed the biggest question one could make in the situation. "Obviously we should question the locals about our whereabouts, but maybe you have some other plan, Jakky?"
"Let's ask the locals." - Jak
"Such a great plan actually. I wonder what intelligent individual came up with it." - Mako
"Shut it.- Jak
"I bet he's heart stoppingly handsome and stronger than all of his friends.- Mako
"I'll cut you." - Jak
While the two began to bicker and mess around, Meru was watching their surrounding environment. As such, she was the first to notice when things began to slow to a complete stop.
Literally.
The crashing of the waves against the sand. The gentle sway of the trees as their leaves and branches were pushed by the flowing wind. The casual stroll of those within the confines of the beach.
All of it became frozen in place. All of it except for the Meru and the bright haired duo.
Silently, the young Water Spirit tugged gently on the back of Jaks cape.
Immediately, the fiery redhead halted his back and forth with his fellow rookie, turning his attention towards Meru. In the process, he witnessed what the girl wanted to show him.
Right to the left of them, some dozen or so meters away, a small paragraph of floating words was phasing in and out of existence. Scribbled in some unidentifiable language, the words glowed a bright neon orange, making it hard to miss unless actively trying to avoid looking at it.
"Hey. Story interrupter." Jak moved closer to the lines of text, Meru following closely behind, still fixed to the youths cape.
"Is that what we're going with?" Mako let out a frustrated sigh as he walked over. "It wasnt that big of a deal. No need to drag it out."
"Cool story." Jak brushed aside his friends complaint before gesturing to the scribbles floating in front of them. "Can you read this?"
The blue-haired adventurer stepped into the vicinity, leaning towards where the fiery redhead was pointing. Frowning ever so slightly as his azure hues landed on the many lines of text, Mako reached out touched the lines of words directly. After a full minute had passed and Jak was just about to move on, the Rookie spoke up, index finger tracing its way along the scribbles.
"Know the world and choose a path. To find love is the samurai's task. To return to the home one holds dear. To five women, make your feelings clear." Mako paused in between each line, clearly struggling a bit during the translation. "That's pretty much all there is. Obviously, it's not a perfect one for one since it's written in Delyuoi, the language of the mermaids, but it's close enough."
"And you know Delyuoi....why?" Jak raised an eyebrow as Mako stepped back from the outline.
"Mermaids are gorgeous, have you seen one?" Mako shrugged his shoulders.
"Have YOU seen one?" Jak rebuttalled.
"Gotta be prepared. Anyways. The real question is, why is Delyuoi being used in this fashion, and even to the point of stopping time? It isn't exactly a common language. Whats the purpose of it?"
"Maybe they thought mermaids would be around." - Jak
"You're so funny. A real knee slapper." - Mako
"Whatever it is. We'll need to figure it out real soon. - Jak