Volume 1 Chapter 7 Doomsday of Dream Forest

Chapter 7 Doomsday of Dream Forest

I

All fighters need weapons. Now since that the physiology of Yanni and his friends had been enhanced by the power of the Spring of Sylvana, they had the potential to become three of the greatest fighters in this world, and they needed some handy weapons.

There was a kind of alloy called lunarite invented by elves and there were still some lunarite left in the Shrine of Hephaestus now, using which, Yanni was forging weapons for his friends, and the girls were watching him, sitting on the chairs in the shrine.

It was the next morning after their exodus from the Grey Factory, and in this new cloudless day, sunlight was making its way into the shrine through the glass window on the dome.

Although Yanni was not very strong, he had been working out a lot in his work as a smith. Therefore, he had some hard muscles, which was swelling beautifully since he was now hammering the weapon on the anvil with force.

“Floria …” called Starsha.

“What’s up?” Floria raised her eyebrows.

“Your brother is so … look at his muscles, he is so attractive,” purred Starsha, looking at Yanni with great interest.

“You’re such a nympho, Starsha,” complaint Floria.

“I’m not a nympho, babe,” Starsha protested, her eyes still fixed on Yanni.

“What are you talking about? are you talking about nymphs?” questioned Aislina suddenly.

“Yeah, nymphs,” stammered Starsha embarrassedly.

“Nymph once existed and lived with us elves, however …” narrated Aislina, lifting her eyes towards the dome of the shrine.

“Is nymph extinct now?” inquired Floria.

Aislina didn’t say anything but nodded with sadness.

“Oh, that’s a tragic story …” sighed Floria.

“In fact, I think we’re a team now, right, guys?” Starsha pointed out.

“Yes, we’re a team,” agreed Aislina.

“I think one of the most important thing a team shall have is a, uh, a positive atmosphere. We shall be happy and happiness and hope can make ourselves more likely to succeed in this seemingly impossible quest. Aislina, I know that you’re sometimes sad because you’re the last one of your race and Floria, I also know that you’re sometimes unhappy because you don’t have a boyfriend,” suggested Starsha.

“I am never worrying about not having a boyfriend, OK?” Floria flushed.

“Oh, I know, I know. Your beloved brother is better than all boyfriends in the world, right?” giggled Starsha, “what I want to say is, we shall try to be positive, girls. Although this world is dark and sometimes hope can die and as my mother always says, the future is uncertain. Be happy and hug your life because, the ones you love are always there with you,” grinned Starsha.

“That’s mushy, Starsha,” breathed Floria.

“I’ll sing a song about it,” announced Starsha, “about our friendship! Because friendship is magic, my friends. My little …” sang Starsha.

Just as Starsha was about to sing her epic song about friendship, Yanni walked towards them and exclaimed in excitement, “It’s finished, the weapons!”

There was a bow for Floria, because Floria was a hunter and she was good with archery and marksmanship. For Starsha, Yanni forged two daggers. As a bard, Starsha was also a brilliant dancer, and her dancing skills made her far more agile than others. Being agile weapons, this pair of daggers would for sure suit her well.

As for his own weapon, Yanni forged a shield.

All the weapons were made of lunarite and thus they would be luminous under the moonlight.

“Yanni, damn you! You disrupted my splendid song about friendship!” complaint Starsha.

“I’m sorry,” Yanni scratched his head, “well, I’m sweating all over and it’s hot here. I think I need to take a walk outside and shoot some breeze.”

“I’ll go with you, Yanni, since it’s dangerous outside tonight. I’m sure the Grey Factory is searching for us in order to take back the Cube of Necrus. If anything happens, I can protect you,” suggested Aislina.

“Yep, you’re right,” Yanni nodded.

“Be careful, brother,” said Floria softly.

“We will,” promised Yanni.

II

Yanni and Aislina were taking a walk together, wandering through the ruins of the once prosperous elven village.

It was comfortable outside. For the majority of time, Yanni and Floria visited Dream Forest at dusk or at night, because during the daytime Yanni had to work and Floria had to hunt.

Therefore, Yanni had seldom appreciated the fine views of Dream Forest during the daytime, when the Dream Forest didn’t seem mysterious anymore, and the elven buildings looked a little grey and old in comparison to the bright and vigorous sunlight.

There were still some animals that Yanni didn’t recognize making strange noises in the shadow of the trees.

Though this forest was still facing a fate in which it would wither and die with all kinds of mythical creatures that used to live inside it becoming extinct one by one, there was still hope.

After all, for the plants, during the daytime they could bath themselves under the sunlight and keep photosynthesizing to bring more energy of Life to this world.

The sun was shining upon Yanni and Aislina but it was not hot at all, because the breeze was blowing softly against them, stroked by which, the sweat on Yanni’s skin was vaporizing.

The trees were shaking slightly in the breeze too. Some leaves were leaving the branches and then falling to the ground blown by the wind, after which, the ants and other insects would eat them. That was the circle of life, which would never stop functioning regardless of how heavily the forest had been polluted by the Grey Factory. The circle of life would never stop until the end of the world.

“It’s so cool and comfortable outside,” Yanni smiled joyfully.

“Thank you, Yanni, for choosing to stand by my side. You’ve betrayed Master Mortis, therefore you will lose everything as a human, including fame and fortune,” expressed Aislina shyly.

“I didn’t betray Master Mortis, because I have never been on his side at all. You’re my best friend, Aislina. No matter what happens, I won’t leave you alone,” promised Yanni.

“I’m your best friend? But I am not even a human …” breathed Aislina.

“You’re like one of my family, Aislina, and you’ll never be alone. You’re like another sister of me,” Yanni pointed out, looking at Aislina affectionately.

“I am like your sister now, but after half a decade, I’ll be like your granddaughter, since as an elf, I’ll stop aging after eighteen,” sighed Aislina.

“That will be a strange experience for you,” murmured Yanni.

“After you leave this world, I will be lonely again. However, I can make some new friends, but that’s different. In fact, I really hope that I can be a human like you sometimes, so that I can become old together with you guys,” murmured Aislina.

“An elf who want to be a human? That’s unprecedent,” whispered Yanni.

“But you’re not typical humans, you’re more like an elf. No, you’re not like an elf. You’re like … umm, you’re like Yanni, you’re unique.” stammered Aislina.

Yanni flushed. He wasn’t very good at talking with girls because doing so would make him rather nervous.

Suddenly, Aislina saw something on the edge of the sky. It was a pyramid-like black thing floating high upon the sky and coming towards them.

“Do you see that? What is that?” exclaimed Aislina.

“That’s a necroplane, a kind of aircraft built by the Grey Factory. Master Mortis is coming, we shall head back to the shrine to warn Floria and Starsha now,” commanded Yanni.

III

Necroplanes were one of the greatest things invented by the Grey Factory.

People had been dreaming about flying on the sky since ancient times, and this dream was finally fulfilled by the Grey Factory. Master Mortis invented the those necroplanes and enabled humans to fly with the wings of necrology.

A necroplane looked like a floating tomb, but its size was extremely big, and the shape was more like a pyramid than a regular tomb. During the daytime, when a necroplane was flying on the sky, it would cast enormous black shadow on the ground. What’s worse, there were cannons fixed on the surface of the Necroplane, which definitely had destructive power.

To the Grey Factory, necroplanes were not only aircrafts, but also flying bases of operation.

Inside the necroplane, Sir Bellum and Master Mortis were talking with each other about the upcoming battle.

“That elf girl has strong magic, Master Mortis. I think we’d better not attack such recklessly,” warned Sir Bellum.

“You have no right to tell me what to do, Bellum. No matter how strong and successful you’re, I am the leader of the Grey Factory and my level is far higher than you, so you’re not supposed to question me,” scolded Master Mortis.

“I’m sorry, my master” apologized Sir Bellum.

“Anyway, it’s true that the elf girl is powerful, however, I can be more powerful than her,” bragged Master Mortis, with a mysteriously wicked smile.

He took out a syringe, inside which there was weird green liquid.

"What is this, my master?” asked Sir Bellum.

“This is the delta variant of necrovirus. It is expensive so I only have one tube of it on hand. The alpha variant that you were injected with only made you mutate physically, but this delta variant of necrovirus that I am going to inject myself with will make me mutate psychically, enabling me to manipulate wicked energy,” answered Master Mortis.

After Master Mortis plugged the syringe into his vein, he screamed madly as if he were suffering a pain beyond the comprehension of humans.

“Master Mortis?” whispered Sir Bellum quietly.

“I’m fine,” roared Master Mortis. He buried his face in his hands with extreme pain and after about one minute, he stopped squealing. Obviously, he had fully integrated with the virus.

Master Mortis held out his right hand, at the centre of which, blue ghastly fire started to burn. He then moved his fingers a little and that flame of ghost fire commenced to fly between his fingers.

“What is that? Are you controlling that flame of fire?” queried Sir Bellum.

“The virus made me mutate psychically and enabled me to manipulate dark energy. I will completely break that elf girl and decimate this Dream Forest, burning it to the ground. After Aislina is dead, I will take back the Cube of Necrus, with which I will bring higher civilization to this world, and on one will be able to stop me anymore,” bragged Master Mortis.

Master Mortis then took out a mask resembling human skull and put on his black hood. Along with his skull-like mask, he looked exactly like the grim reaper, the personification of death itself.

“You look glorious with the mask, Master Mortis,” commented Sir Bellum adoringly.

“No, it’s not the mask that makes me glorious. It’s my wisdom and my excellence that make me glorious,” Master Mortis corrected him and asked, “by the way, have the cannons been ready?”

“Yes, it has been ready, Master Mortis,” answered Sir Bellum.

“Since that, let’s fire off and destroy this ugly forest!” commanded Master Mortis.

The necroplane had arrived over the village of elves, casting black shadow all over that area and turning the day into the murkiest night.

The cannons were ignited and the doomsday of Dream Forest had come finally.

IV

Floria and Starsha were sitting inside the Shrine of Hephaestus.

“Aislina was a great girl,” breathed Starsha.

“Yes, she is,” agreed Floria.

“However, she is a little melancholic. If she can be more positive, she will be hellishly charming,” Starsha pointed out.

“But if you were her, you would be melancholic too. After all, she had lost everything. Even though we’re with her, she will lose us one day, because elves can live for centuries. One day we will all leave her. She could have been broken because of everything that she has experienced, but she is still struggling and hoping for a better life,” Floria pointed out.

“I believe that there is a way to make her happy. She is so kind and wonderful. I think she deserves merriment and felicity,” sighed Starsha.

“That’s true,” purred Floria.

“It’s so fantastic, Floria. 24 hours ago, we’re just two normal girls living in a tribe of barbarians, but now we’re on a journey which can change this world,” explained Starsha, her eyes closed and her mind deep in thoughts.

“Yep, it’s fantastic,” Floria nodded.

Just at that moment, Starsha felt something wrong. The ground was shaking and there were some sounds of explosion in the distance. No, not in the distance. Those explosions were in fact quite close to the Shrine of Hephaestus where they were right now.

“Do you hear that?” questioned Starsha, her voice trembling in the bad feeling that something was going to happen.

“Yes, I do. The ground is shaking slightly and something is exploding,” answered Floria.

Just as this words were spoken, with a rumbling sound, the ceiling of the shrine was blasted into fragments of marble. The ceiling was collapsing and the white marble which used to compose the ceiling was falling down upon them and soon they would be smashed into pieces by those falling stones.

Yanni and Aislina suddenly appeared at this very moment.

Aislina bent over and touched the ground with her right hand, inside which, a flash green light appeared and after that, some vines came out from the underground and formed a barrier of hemisphere shape. This barrier of vines successfully protected them from being struck by the falling marble.

The four were sticking together inside the barrier of vines.

“What is happening?” questioned Floria.

“Master Mortis is coming. He has driven a necroplane here,” replied Yanni.

“The necroplane with cannons?” inquired Starsha.

“Yes,” responded Yanni.

“We’re doomed,” Starsha buried her face into her hands in despair.

“We’re not doomed yet, for we have been granted with power by the Spring of Sylvana and Aislina is capable of powerful magic, therefore, we can fight against them,” Yanni cheered her up.

“Yanni’s right. We’ll fight against them,” agreed Floria, her lunarite bow held tight in her hands.

After about one minute, the sounds of marble crushing against the vines disappeared.

Aislina breathed a sigh of relief and those vines composing the barrier came back to the underground. After the vines disappeared, they were able to see the surroundings.

The whole village was destroyed and burnt to the ground. Blue demonic fire was burning everywhere with pillars of necrological smoke rising straight up to the sky.

The necroplane was floating over them, casting monstrous shadow on the ground, making the whole destroyed village sink into the world of shadowiness and the cannons on the necroplane seemed to be recharging and without doubt, there would be another wave of attack soon.