The golden light that filled Julius's room pulled him from the embrace of slumber, slowly opening his eyes to take in his surroundings. The night he had spent with Jericho was long and emotional, and he woke to find himself lying on his bed over the sheets, covering his eyes as if to block the brightness of the sun.
Jericho had left his room late at night before he slept, leaving him to rest after comforting him. With these memories still coming back to him one after the other, Julius sat up and stared down at his hand, already missing the soothing warmth that she radiated.
A knock on his door snapped him out of his drowsy state, and causing his gaze to flicker up to the door that resonated with each firm hit.
[Julius]: "Mh-! C-coming!"
Julius swiftly shuffled off his bed and rushed over to crack open the door. But just as the door handle clicks, a hand is placed on the other side that practically forces it open, startling Julius and swinging out all the way to reveal a tall, blonde knight who speaks with a loud tone.
[Julius]: "Wah!"
[Hikerix]: "Yo! Good morning Julius!"
Julius's eyes widened at the unexpected sight of Hikerix, taking a moment to recover from the shock of the door being pushed open, and moving a step forward while rubbing his eyes with his fist.
[Julius]: "Oh, it's you Hikerix! Um, good morning. What can I do for you?"
The knight leaned against the door frame and pointed his thumb behind him, smirking with a friendly face, and now slightly lowered tone of voice.
[Hikerix]: "Wanna come for a walk with me? I'll show ya' all the good spots to eat."
[Julius]: "Me? Oh um... Sure, that does sound nice."
[Hikerix]: "Sweet! Come on. It's down this way."
Hikerix waved at Julius as he pushed off the wall, gesturing for him to follow.
[Julius]: "A-ah, wait. We're going right now?"
[Hikerix]: "Course' we are! Come on, no time to waste."
Upon hastily tripping over to Hikerix, Julius hears the door next to him click, and slowly creak open.
Coming out from the room is a messy haired Lisa, letting out a loud yawn and covering her mouth until it ends. Her eyes slowly track to Julius and light up like fireworks the second she sees him.
[Lisa]: "Oooh- OH! J!"
[Julius]: "Hmhm, Morning, Lisa."
A soft thud is heard as Lisa quickly drags her feet over to Julius, crashing into him with a hug-- resulting in a quiet 'Oomf!' noise to gasp out of him.
Leaning against the hallway wall, Hikerix watches in amusement and softly chuckles to himself, his gaze taking subtle glances around him on several occasions.
[Lisa]: "Did you see the fireworks last night? You didn't miss them right!?"
[Julius]: "Yes I saw them. I was watching from the balcony in my room."
Her eyes lit up some more when he confirms that he did indeed see the show last night, and she practically drools at the memory of them.
Hikerix had taken Muriel's group down to one of the watchtowers in the city-- one with an amazing view of the event. Every little colorful explosion had Lisa in awe, and the rest of the group wasn't too far behind in being just as captivated.
--To everyone's surprise, even Alcard had found himself entranced by them.
[Lisa]: "Weren't they pretty! There were so many!"
[Julius]: "Hmhm, yes they were."
Julius gave Lisa a few pats on the head before she reluctantly lets go and notices Hikerix behind him. She outstretches her arm and waves at him enthusiastically.
[Lisa]: "Good morning Sir Hikerix! Or is it Sir Asura? I forget how that works."
Lisa scratches her head which gets a soft chuckle out of the knight, who just as enthusiastically waves back.
[Hikerix]: "Good morning Miss Astoria. It's a preference thing. Just Hikerix is fine, how did you sleep? Was the bed to your liking?"
Lisa brought her fists to her chest and nodded vigorously, her eyes sparkling as she thinks about the comfy bed.
[Lisa]: "Mh! Mh! The bed was super duper comfy, I slept sooooo~ good!"
[Hikerix]: "Haha, I'm glad to hear it. I was just taking Julius here down to my favorite cafe, would you like to join us?"
Lisa sighs and looks down in disappointment, once again scratching her head.
[Lisa]: "I'd love to, but mom's asking me to come with her again today. Queen Jericho is taking us all out for breakfast."
[Hikerix]: "Taking you to breakfast you say? I bet it's Davia's Eatery. It's a fancy place, I know you'll have a great time."
Hikerix leaned forwards and brought his hand up to his mouth-- as if telling her a secret.
[Hikerix]: "Definitely try the mango cake, trust me, you'll love it."
[Lisa]: "Mango cake? That does sound really yummy. I'll absolutely try mango cake!"
The knight smiles and throws a thumbs up at her-- an action that she reciprocates, committing his advice to memory.
[Lisa]: "I should probably go find mom now. Will you come with me tomorrow J? Pretty please?"
Julius softly chuckles and plants several more pats on Lisa's head, hearing her let out a pleased hum as she leans into them.
[Julius]: "Absolutely! I'll join you tomorrow, I promise."
[Lisa]: "For real!? I can't wait! I'll see you tonight J! Bye bye!"
Lisa starts to walk away, waving at Julius with a wide smile that sparkles with glee. Julius's chest softly rumbles as he hums in delight, returning the wave to her.
[Julius]: "Bye bye! Make sure to tell Jericho where I am!"
[Lisa]: "Mmhm! I will!"
Hikerix waits for Julius to continue walking, gently pushing himself off the wall to lead him down the fancy halls once more with a smile on his face.
[Hikerix]: "She's very energetic, even when she's just woken up. She remind me of my subordinate."
[Julius]: "I guess so, yeah. Honestly, you'd never expect her to be as strong as she is."
Hikerix glances back at Julius with an intrigued face, taking interest in Julius's statement.
[Hikerix]: "Oh? Magically talented, is she?"
[Julius]: "Yeah. She uses flames. From what I've heard and seen, she's pretty powerful too."
Hearing that Lisa uses fire magic seems to intrigue Hikerix even more, now fully turning his head towards Julius and slowing his pace to walk next to him.
[Hikerix]: "Fire huh, is that so? I know a thing about fire magic too."
[Julius]: "Really? Is your attunement fire, Hikerix?"
The knight smiles very proudly and points his thumb at himself-- if he hadn't been wearing armor, you would be able to see that he was also flexing his arm. His voice raises once again, bordering on a shout.
[Hikerix]: "That's right! The knights in this city call me 'The Dawn Of Flames'!"
A brief moment of deafening silence fill the halls, nothing being heard but their footsteps and the subtle clattering of Hikerix's armor.
[Julius]: "A-ah. That... Doesn't make a lot of sense."
Hikerix's jaw drops as a shade of disappointment covers his face, feeling slightly hurt.
[Hikerix]: "Aaaagh!"
[Julius]: "Sorry... It's cool though. I like it."
Hikerix smiles and waves dismissively at him, softly chuckling to himself.
[Hikerix]: "Aah it's alright. I'm still working on a good name. When I did some research on Cataphrania's royal guard, I felt a little jealous of their nicknames, so I thought I'd make one. It's a cool thing right? Titles are cool!"
[Julius]: "Y-yeah... I don't know much about their nicknames, and I've only met three of them."
[Hikerix]: "Three of them!? For real!? You should consider yourself lucky, man. Though, I guess since it's Lady Astoria, it's a given that you'd end up meeting them."
[Julius]: "There's, um... Four, right?"
Hikerix nods and hums in affirmation, smiling at Julius with admiration.
[Hikerix]: "You might consider it a good thing you haven't met the wolf yet though. I've heard he's quite... Rough."
[Julius]: "The... Wolf?"
[Hikerix]: "Mmhm. A demi-human, and the last royal guard you've yet to meet-- one that's been in Cataphrania's army for a very long time. Pretty badass from what I can tell."
Julius nods as he tries to picture a strong wolf person in his head, imagining someone with a similar build to Alcard, a comparison that was very far off.
[Julius]: "Could you tell me more about him? You seem to know a lot."
[Hikerix]: "Ah, just some things here and there. Cataphrania isn't too hot about their inner workings being written down, so unless you're in that circle of pals, knowledge is limited."
Subconsciously staring at the painting on the walls as they walk, Julius brings his hand up to his chin in thought, finally dragging his attention back to Hikerix to prove that he's listening.
[Julius]: "Really? I would have thought that a kingdom that big would have some pretty thick history books. You know what he looks like though, don't you? What else about him?"
[Hikerix]: "Mainly just that he's tall. Like, super tall. I'm talkin' seven feet, maybe eight."
[Julius]: "Huh!? He's that big!? Jeez, my image of him was totally off then."
Hikerix laughs, mostly because he had the same reaction when he heard the wolf's height for the first time.
[Hikerix]: "That's exactly what I thought, but no! He's huge, and he has a personality to match. Super mean apparently."
[Julius]: "Interesting... Honesty I've never really thought about the royal guard that much, they all sound really intriguing though. Do you think him being mean is just a demi-human thing?"
Hikerix shrugs, throwing his palms up with a clueless face.
[Hikerix]: "Beats me. He's been a knight for a long long time, so I guess it could be all that he's been through. I mean, it was him that led the force to capture an Embodiment, so I bet ya' he's seen a thing or two that definitely contributed."
[Julius]: "Embodiment? What's that?"
Hikerix turned to face Julius's clearly clueless face, feeling his own shock that he didn't immediately know what he was talking about.
[Hikerix]: "Eh? How do you not know?"
[Julius]: "Ah-... Well. I just don't... Could you fill me in?"
Letting it slip that Julius was not from this world now could still cause complications-- he knew this well, and tried his best to keep it from coming up, despite being terrible at lying.
[Hikerix]: "How could... Agh, whatever, I guess it happens. The Embodiment's are a group of powerful sorcerers that used to terrify anyone just by knowing that they were out there. Super evil people. They're a bunch of elusive assholes, so finding them was no easy task, you kind of just had to wait for them to pop up. It wasn't until many years ago now, that their leader was captured and sealed away somewhere. Ever since then, their activity has dropped significantly. While that was a good thing, it also meant that tracking them down was a hell of a lot harder."
Julius tries his best to commit all of that information to memory, simply just staring at Hikerix with interest, listening to him explain the seemingly well-known title of 'Embodiment'.
[Julius]: "Uuh- huh... Just, how powerful. Who can you compare them to that I would know? Maybe someone like Alcard?"
[Hikerix]: "Very, Strong, Julius. But I'm really not sure, I think Alcard scares them, can't imagine they haven't heard the story of the strongest knight fighting an immortal plague by now. I'd be scared if that were my enemy too."
As Julius takes a moment to himself to think, he feels a metallic glove lightly tap his shoulder, looking back up to see Hikerix's grinning face.
The topic had gotten a bit serious, so moving on was probably for the best in order to ease the atmosphere.
[Hikerix]: "Hey, we're nearly there."
[Julius]: "We walked for quite a long time, are you taking me to a different section of the city?"
[Hikerix]: "That's right! I live on this side, it's also where the cafe is that I'm taking you to, so get excited."
A smile quickly grows on Julius's face, just trying to imagine what kind of food could be unique to Rantari, and how it would all taste.
"They have mango's here clearly, so what else could be similar to my world?" Julius thought.
The hallway led to a large door, one with the same size and design of the entrance that they had gone through when they arrived. Filled with engravings and arches.
[Hikerix]: "The walk there isn't long, and it's actually the closest cafe to my house, how convenient is that!?"
[Julius]: "Mh, very."
The door opens to a large channel filled with water, lined with large streets on either side that housed stores which varied in size, design, and product. The canal was safely separated from the streets with fancy, arching marble fences.
Above them in the sky was a dome of branches, filled with perfectly green leaves. And between the cracks of the colossal branches was a bright, peachy light of the morning sun, one that perfectly shined upon the city's mainly white architecture, bathing it in a golden hue.
Julius found it rather impressive that Hikerix didn't blink twice at how beautiful the city was as they walked along the canal. Though, as someone who has lived here their entire life, one could only assume that they would grow numb to it.
[Julius]: "I feel like this place gets prettier every time I see it."
[Hikerix]: "Oh? It does tend to do that, haha."
Julius joyfully takes in the sights of Rantari's streets, especially enjoying the brief few seconds when they would walk past a cafe or restaurant, and a strong scent of food would blow into his face.
[Hikerix]: "Let me tell you though, you don't wanna be here when Autumn comes around. The clean up of giant leaves... SUCKS!"
The two share a long laugh, Julius only able to picture how that would play out, and wondering where the leaves even go at such a time-- Assuming they just burn them with magic or something.
[Hikerix]: "Here it is! My favorite place in the whole city."
Julius took in the sight of a small, comfy store that had a very sweet smell coming from within. He looked over the many signs out front, reading that most of them had the words "Rantari's Finest Sweets And Desserts" written on them in various colors and fonts.
[Julius]: "It smells so good!"
[Hikerix]: "Right? Right!? And we aren't even in the door yet. Come on, ill get you my favorite order. On me."
Julius nodded enthusiastically and hummed in gratitude, his mouth starting to already drool despite being meters from the door.
The soft chime of a bell is heard as the two walk inside, and the second they do, the strong aroma of rich sweetness grew ten fold.
[Julius]: "O-oooh~"
His eyes wandered around the shelves and displays that showed off different types of cakes and deserts, all in different sizes and shapes, ranging from a simple circle, to hearts, to stars and even letters.
Sticking by the knight's side, he followed him to the empty counter. Hikerix watched Julius in amusement, knowing exactly how he feels, because Hikerix felt the same way the first time he walked inside this store.
[Hikerix]: "Doree!? You back there!?"
Hikerix gently brought his fist down on a small bell repeatedly while shouting out for someone, the high pitched ringing filling the air for a brief moment until it stops when they hear footsteps rushing over from the back room behind the counter.
After a short moment, Julius watches as a demi-human leans around the door frame, and light up in excitement as they see that their customer was Hikerix-- clearly a well known patron.
The demi-human was a short, cream furred fox lady, wearing a white apron that was stained with icing in a whole spectrum of colors.
[Doree]: "Sir Hikerix! Welcome! Welcome! Oooooh~ Have you brought a new friend today? Who's this? Is he a new underling? What happened to Ray!? Wait, don't tell me he DIED! Oh goodness, have you replaced him that easily!? Sorry, sorry, he's probably not dead, what am I thinking. Forget it, just tell me, who's this young man?"
Julius is immediately taken back from the roller coaster of emotions that this woman had gone through in such a short time, her voice rising and lowering erratically.
Hikerix looks to his side at Julius, wearing a subtle face of embarrassment.
[Hikerix]: "Ray is fine. Not dead, but uhh... Thanks for worrying. This is Julius. He's just visiting for a few days, so I thought I'd take him to the best desserts store in the whole city."
The fox woman's multicolored eyes light up with excitement and pride, feeling honored that he called her store the best.
[Doree]: "OOOH~ Hikerix! You know just what to say to make a fox happy! It's so nice to meet you Julius!"
Julius gets his face to form a warm smile, despite being rather intimidated by her eccentric personality.
He tries to bring his arm up to wave at her, but he is quickly caught and brought into a strong hug by Doree, leaning over the counter placing his face directly into her neck and softly shaking him from side to side-- causing a soft blush to appear on Julius's face.
[Julius]: "A-ah!"
She lets him go abruptly, which nearly knocks him backwards, but Hikerix lands his hand onto Julius's back, keeping him upright.
[Doree]: "SO! What will it be!? Your usual, Sir Hikerix?"
[Hikerix]: "Yep! I'll take two boxes this time actually, one for the wife."
Julius watches with keen interest as Hikerix reaches into the top portion of his chest armor, pulling out a small sack that rattles with every movement.
[Doree]: "Yessireee! Two boxes... That will be thirty Karaa!"
Hikerix reaches into the bag and takes out several small coins, their silver color shining in the light of the lantern that hangs from the ceiling.
[Julius]: "Isn't that uncomfortable? Keeping coins... Um... K-Karaa? in there?"
[Hikerix]: "Well, yeah, but it looks cool! And that's all that really matters."
Taking the coins happily, Doree reaches down and places two white boxes onto the counter, one stacked upon the other, Julius taking very good notice at the round shaped pastries that reside within.
"Ooh, they have doughnuts here too!? Awesome!" Julius thought, still watching the comfortable interaction between the knight and the baker.
[Doree]: "Here ya' go! Thanks for coming you two. Tell Jiro I said hellooooo!"
Julius returned Doree's ecstatic smile and took a vivid interest in her eyes-- noticing that they were made up of many different colors, like a pastel rainbow.
[Hikerix]: "Thanks Doree! She knows!"
[Julius]: "Thank you D-Doree. It's nice to meet you."
Doree lets out a sort of squeal as she waves back at Julius, her eyes once more lighting up as they walk out, setting off the soft chime once again.
[Julius]: "So, are these doughnuts? I'm so happy to see that you have them here!"
[Hikerix]: "Not just any donuts. Pineapple ones!"
"P-... Pineapple donuts?" Julius thinks, never having heard of them before.
He looks down at the stacked boxes being held by a grinning Hikerix, peering in through the clear film on the top of the box, observing the yellow glaze that covers each and every one.
[Julius]: "Can't say I've ever had... Pineapple... Donuts."
[Hikerix]: "They're rare, but trust me, they're good!"
[Julius]: "I'll hear you out then."
Hikerix leads Julius over to a group of tables, placing the boxes down and taking a seat-- followed by Julius, who sits next to him on the white chairs, overlooking a group of boys that kick around a ball, bursting with laughter.
[Hikerix]: "Here, try the first one."
Flicking open one of the boxes, Hikerix takes out a glazed doughnut, and hands it over to Julius with practiced gentleness-- making sure to set the other box aside that was reserved for his wife.
[Julius]: "Oh, thank you!"
[Hikerix]: "Go ahead. Tell me what ya' think."
Julius takes a cautious but eager bite, making sure to get plenty of the yellow glazing. His face turns subtly surprised as he is hit with a strong pineapple taste, but then shifts into one of pure enjoyment as the aftertaste kicks in and fills his mouth with a sweet, but delicious mix of flavors.
Hikerix watches with extreme focus, bringing us elbows onto the table as he waits for a reaction, and when he finally gets one, his eyes light up and he smiles proudly.
[Hikerix]: "Good? Is that good? It's good right!"
[Julius]: "Mmmmh! It's so good. You were right."
[Hikerix]: "Aaaah, I knew you'd love them!"
Hikerix celebrates his win by taking his own pastry out of the box and shoving half of it into his mouth in one large bite-- an eccentric action that nearly makes Julius choke out of amusement.
The two laugh as Hikerix chews with a very pleased look on his face, happy to have introduced a new friend to his favorite treat.
[Julius]: "So, Hikerix. I didn't know you had a wife."
The knight takes a large swallow to quickly get over the huge mouthful of doughnut he had eaten, bringing his hand up to rub his neck.
[Hikerix]: "Ahh, that. Yeah... Her name's Jiro, she's actually the one who introduced me to these. Aren't I lucky!"
[Julius]: "Ohh, I see. So they also have a sentimental value to you as well."
[Hikerix]: "Mmhm!"
Hikerix hums in agreement, shoving his face with another pastry.
[Hikerix]: "Mh!"
The knight swallows the large bite and raises his hand at Julius, taking a moment to clear his throat before he speaks.
[Hikerix]: "Speaking of Jiro. I'm gonna go drop these off to her, okay?"
[Julius]: "Oh, yeah that's fine. Do you want me to come with, or?"
Julius places his hand on the table as he watches Hikerix stand up with the other box, waving his hand dismissively with a smile.
[Hikerix]: "Nah, I'll only be a minute, I live just around the corner."
[Julius]: "Ah, alrighty!"
[Hikerix]: "Wait here for me, I'll be back. Promise, I won't be too long!"
Julius hums positively as he waves goodbye to Hikerix-- a temporary leave that left him a little clueless as to what to do.
Being so far from the rest of the group, he knew he shouldn't go wander or anything in case he got lost, so he simply just watched the game of ball that took place on a small field in front of him-- resting his chin on his hand as he leaned on the table.
[Julius]: "What kind of rules are these kids playing by? They don't seem to make any sense at all."
He watches as the kids kicked around the ball seemingly blindly at each other. Or at least that's what it looked like to him.
He watched for a while until he sees the ball fly in a perfect arch into the air, getting itself completely wedged on a water duct that poked out of a building adjacent to the field.
The kids quickly explode into panic since they can't reach it-- but just as quickly, they get to scheming about how to get it back, trying various things such as swinging with sticks, throwing rocks, and even towering on top of each other to reach it.
Giving up on all those ideas far too quickly, they look around for help, settling their joint gazes on Julius.
[Boy1]: "Hey!! You over there!"
[Julius]: "Gh! U-um... Yeah!?"
Julius raises his head from his palm, trying to shout quietly at the boys, knowing exactly what they're about to ask already.
[Boy1]: "Can you help us get our ball!!? It's stuck!!"
[Boy2]: "Yeah!! Can you mister!!?"
Julius groans in uncertainty, looking over in the direction that Hikerix walked off in, checking to see if he had time to help out.
Seeing no sign of the knight, he stood up, and made his way over to the field-- being immediately greeted with the combined cheers of the boys.
Looking up at the ball, Julius knew he wouldn't be able to reach it simply by jumping, so he slowly reached up at the wall, and tried to push himself up, using leverage from an adjacent water duct to try and climb closer.
[Boy2]: "So close! Keep going!"
[Julius]: "Ghhh! Hnn!"
He stretched his body as far as he could, reaching for the ball and just lightly touching it with the tip of his finger.
He couldn't help but notice how the ball looked-- it was very similar in pattern to one that he used to own, one that he would gently throw around with his niece. The sudden connection serves as motivation to push further, enough to lightly scrape the ball and free it from its confine.
[Julius]: "Hah!"
The last exhale of breath causes him to slide back down, and watches as the ball bounces forwards towards the canal.
[Boy1]: "Wait, no!"
[Boy3]: "Ahhh! Quick, get it!"
[Julius]: "Ah!-"
Alongside the flock of boys, Julius runs for the ball, watching as it bounces around and rolls towards the canal of water that leads off the city, on track to sliding underneath the railing and falling down.
Julius gets ahead of the boys quickly and almost touches it again, throwing himself towards the ball-- something that leads him to slide half way under the marble barrier, reaching for the ball as it falls down towards the water.
[Boy1]: "NO! Catch it!!"
[Julius]: "Hnnn!"
He stretches his arm down for the ball as it falls, seemingly in slow motion to Julius, but upon making contact with it with the tip of his index finger, he hears another voice-- one that sounded far closer, like it resonated from within.
---
"Here, catch the ball Julie! Heehehe!"
---
[Julius]: "A-ah! That's!-"
As if conjured by his nieces voice, stricken from the memory of his childhood ball itself, Julius's eyes shock open as he stretches for the ball further, despite it being far out of his reach now.
The ball reaches water level, but right before it hits the liquid, the water seems to contort and dent, making room for a giant burst of air that explodes into a strong gust of wind, spraying water all over Julius, and launching the ball far into the air behind him.
[Julius]: "Gah!!"
Sounds of cheering and 'ooh's' can be heard from behind, no doubt caused by the group of boys that are also awestruck at the explosion of wind-- but also more excited that their ball was returned to them.
[Julius]: "W-... What..."
He crawls out from the barrier, and stood up again, rubbing his neck as water droplets fell from his face, a look of pure confusion written all over it.
[Boy2]: "Woah! He's a sorcerer!"
[Boy1]: "Sorcerer! We're so lucky! Sorcerer!"
[Boy4]: "Woww! Hey mister, are you okay?"
Julius feels confused again, looking down at his hand briefly before a droplet of blood lands on it, followed by two more.
[Julius]: "A-Ah... What the..."
He brings his hand up to his face, noticing that his nose had started to bleed fairly heavily. Julius was not one to get nose bleeds, even on the heavy treatment he had in his world, so he knew that his sudden injury could only mean one thing.
[Julius]: "Mana exertion?... So that means... That thing with the ball was..."
The kids looked at him with concern and confusion as he mumbled to himself-- Julius cuts himself off once he notices the looks that the kids were giving him, and a wide smile takes form on his face, replacing the previous mix of emotions.
[Julius]: "I... I need to go find Hikerix! Have fun with your ball guys!"
Julius chuckles with excitement, waving at the group of boys that continue to play as he runs off, picking up the box of doughnuts on his way past.
"Just around the corner, let's see... That place looks big and fancy, that's gotta be it!" Julius thinks, still somewhat laughing to himself, feeling a tingly flutter throughout his body-- undoubtedly caused by his excitement, already thinking of Lisa's reaction to him awakening his attunement.
[Julius]: "Hmm... Asura! This is the place."
Reading the words "Asura Residence" on the stone slate at the front fence, he felt joy that he hadn't gotten lost on his way. He walks up to the door and gives a firm knock, hearing the hollow wood click slightly.
[Julius]: "O-oh-..."
Julius watched the door push open, caused by his knock-- as if the door was not properly latched the last time it was closed. He looks around with the white pastry box in hand, taking a moment to think.
He swallows heavily, stuck between whether he should let himself in, or just close the door and wait outside. Eventually though, his excitement gets the best of him, and he takes a step inside.
Through the door, into the Asura residence-- Julius begins to search for Hikerix.
---