"Follow my words closely Nova. You shall travel the lands for as long as it takes, leading the life of a vagabond. You shall recruit the greatest fighters you can find, each of a different mana type. Discriminate by no standard, heritage, status, or infamy, and judge strictly by their actions and morals. With these instructions in mind, scatter to the winds, and complete my instructions to the best of your ability. Now go my trusted soldier, I know you can do so."
 As Nova walked down the road, these words echoed through his mind. He didn't quite understand why the king would send him on such a journey, nor what would motivate him to gather so many powerful people. Nova's home city, Nexus, had always been an incredibly prosperous and well-protected kingdom, so he didn't know why the king seemed even more of it. But he believed firmly that if his liege believed they needed it, then it was to be taken seriously.
Nova had now realized, however, that he departed with no actual plan. He had always been too busy attending to his knightly duties to pay much attention to much else. Sure, he had talked to many great warriors before, but Nova had an idea he thought was better. He decided to go to one of the villages close to the kingdom to see if he could find any leads.Â
However, as he thought more and more about the predicament he found himself in, he heard a distant scream. Immediately, Nova began to dart towards the distressing shout. As soon as he got closer to the screams, he saw a woman, running, trying to escape something. It was a beast that was quite familiar to him. It was a Scabbard Boa, an all too common animal through the outskirts of the kingdom, its defining trait being its tail being able to reveal a hard, iron-like, sharp bone, which it uses to pierce into prey, which for its size, would include humans. To save the random traveler, Nova quickly unsheathed his sword, and before the snake could get any closer, Nova pierced its skull with his blade, ending the creature's life nearly instantly.Â
"Are you alright madam? Did the boa hurt you in any way?"
"Yeah, I'm alright, thank you, sir!" The woman exclaimed with thankfulness in her voice. Now that she had stopped running, Nova finally got a good look at herâthe woman. The lady had bright orange hair, as well as coral pink colored eyes. The most striking feature, however, was the small horn that resided on the right side of her face, which had a small curve to it, with the tip of it pointing directly upwards.
"My name is Okami by the way, who might you be?" The lady asked, which came as a bit of a surprise to Nova, as most that lived by this area already somewhat knew him.
"Nova Galax, one of the highest-ranking knights from the kingdom of Nexus, pleased to meet you!"
"Same to you," she smiled, "What will you do with the beast?"
"Welp, can't let this meat go to waste, can we? I can start a fire if you want to eat some," Nova asks the newly acquainted Okami, though all she did was look at him with disgust.
"Really? You just killed the beast and your first thought is to eat it? I thought you were a knight, not some brute!" She scolded him.
"Geez, I get it, I was just offering, I'm just gonna take it to the town I'm going to then." He began to walk off, but then Okami called him back again,
"Wait a second! I don't want to be attacked by another one of those loathsome beasts. Do you mind if I go with you?"
Nova had no qualms with her tagging along but did warn her "Yeah, you can follow me, but I am doing important work, and I can't afford to make a pitstop to whatever village you're a part of"
"Oh, that's quite alright, I'm traveling around as a nomad for the time being, so it's no bother to me."
With her explaining her situation, Nova didn't see any other reason he would object, so he picked up the beast he had slain, and the two continued down to the nearest town Nova could think of.
While traveling down the road toward the nearest town Nova could think of, Okami revealed herself to be quite the inquisitive person.
"So you said you were from Nexus? What's it like over there?"
"It's a pretty large city, a vivacious place, you won't find any cities quite like it!" he responded.
She then asked him about his two weapons, "So those two weapons, they're made of pure aetherite right?"Â
"Yep, I formed these blades with aetherite gifted to me by Nexus' king." Nova grabbed one of his blades to show it off. The entire sword, from the hilt to the blade's tip, was glistening white, reflecting his mana type.
Okami looked in awe at the pristine metal, "So the color must mean that you're a basic mana type aren't you?"
"That's right, it ran in my family, I'm guessing you are a beast mana type aren't you?" Nova asked her right back.
"O-oh, yeah, I have a few ancestors and it just happened to appear in me," Nova noticed as she said this, she seemed to show a bit of embarrassment, though he wasn't sure why, but he decided not to pry further.
"Well, it seems that we're almost here, I hope my business doesn't bother you too much, I need to explore this town for a bit," Nova told her apologetically, even though she was tagging along with him.
Okami, however, looked confused, "What could a big-shot knight like you have to do in a quaint little town like this?"
"Well first," Nova explained, "I have to drop off this massive hunk of meat to the local butcher, and secondly, I have to find out a little more about a certain rumor ."