Goldspear

“What… exactly is this Voice you are referring to?” Haruki asked.

As they walked on the rustic dirt road, Kiera turned to him, looking as if it was supposed to be obvious. Still, she sighed and explained:

“Well – the Voice is our Lord. The origin of all things. There is an invisible pull between everything in existence. Some pulls are strong enough to draw out a calling from certain individuals. That’s what grants us our unique abilities. We call it an Echo.”

Haruki blinked, trying to process it. A single presence, weaving everything together? Powers handed down not by birthright or training, but by some… resonance? His mind raced with images of comic book heroes and manga heroes back on Earth, but those were just ink on pages. What Kiera was talking about seemed… heavier.

“An Echo…” he muttered, testing the word on his tongue.

Kiera nodded:

“Everyone has one. It’s what defines us. Some are simple – like strength beyond measure or enhanced eyesight. Others… stranger. Flames, storms, shadows.” She gestured with her hand, and a faint shimmer of heat curled around her palm before fading.

Haruki stared, wide-eyed.

“That’s… incredible.”

But then her expression hardened slightly, a shadow briefly crossing her face as she said:

“Not all powers come from the Voice, though. Some… are different. They twist the order instead of harmonizing with it. Those who wield such power are called Wizards.”

“Wizards…” Haruki thought back to his encounter with that monster at the blue castle. It called itself that same word.

Kiera then gave a sharp nod.

“Nobody truly knows where their power comes from. Some whisper it’s stolen. Others say it’s a curse. But one thing is certain: it does not belong to the Voice.”

Haruki felt a chill, his awe mingling with unease. In a single morning he had gone from a nobody on Earth to a coward in danger, to standing beside a girl who could summon fire – and now hearing about this Lord who bound all things, and the monsters who defied it.

“The Wizards… you know – I ran into one a few days ago,” Haruki said.

Kiera instantly stopped dead in her tracks.

“What?”

He turned back to her, feeling the weight of that single-worded question. He then explained:

“Back when I first got here. There was this… blue castle.”

Her eyes widened:

“You went inside that place? Haruki, that fortress has been standing there nearly a decade. Nobody who sets foot in it ever comes back out.” Her voice had dropped, urgent and almost fearful. “You’re telling me you actually went in?”

“Well… when I was transported to this world, I was basically dropped into the castle.” Haruki swallowed hard. Barely able to make out the next words, “I saw the Wizard living in that place. He was… really tall. Pale like a corpse. He moved around the castle like he was living inside the walls. It was awful.”

Kiera’s face went pale. But Haruki continued:

“I don’t even know how I made it out. One second, I thought I was dead. The next… I was outside. So I ran into the woods as fast as I could.”

The dirt road stretched silent around them, only the rustle of leaves and the caw of a crow in the distance filling the air.

Kiera’s hands curled into fists, still visibly trembling:

“That’s… absolutely insane. You have no idea how fortunate you are.”

“I guess so…”

“No, no, you really don’t get it. Wizards are – immensely powerful. A Follower level fighter like me stands absolutely no chance of beating a single Wizard. Usually even three Deacons would struggle against their magicks.”

Deacons – the word began ringing in his ears. Deacon Loto, the man who told him to meet at the capital, Haruki was still unsure what the title meant. All these new words circling him now, making things hard to keep track of.

Kiera let out a slow breath, unclenching her fists, her eyes still darting warily before realizing that Haruki would obviously not understand what a Deacon actually was. So here – she told him:

“There’s way too much ground for us to cover. I’ll tell you on the way to Goldspear. There is no way I’ll let you continue going alone. You’re obviously going to die.”

“Hurtful… but true…”

“Come on. It’ll get dark soon.”

The dirt road wound out of the trees, walking for a few days now. All worry and fatigue seemed to disappear now that the world suddenly began to open. Haruki blinked, as if the morning sun had grown tenfold brighter.

Before them stretched a city so vast it seemed to press against the horizon itself. Spires rose like spears of light, gilded tips catching the sun until the whole skyline shimmered in gold. The walls surrounding Goldspear were unlike anything Haruki had ever imagined. Layered rings of white stone veined with glimmers of metal, so tall and broad they looked less built than carved from some sleeping mountain. Beyond them, the city’s avenues spread outward like rays of a sunburst, each line of stonework and tower converging on a distant, radiant heart.

The sound reached him next. Distant bells, overlapping voices, the faint rumble of carts and footsteps, like the breathing of something alive. A breeze swept over the plain, carrying the sharp tang of metal, the smoke of a thousand chimneys, and most surprisingly – the sweetness of burning incense.

Haruki slowed his pace without realizing, his chest tightening at the immensity of it all. Goldspear was not just a city. It was a statement, a proclamation etched into earth and sky: this was the center of something greater.

Kiera stopped beside him, following his awed gaze with the faintest smile:

“Welcome – to the Weapon of Heaven.”

He turned to her, asking:

“Is that what you call it?”

But she smiled back:

“That’s what everyone calls it.”

She then pointed her finger, and his eyes were drawn first to the structure dominating the very center: an impossibly vast cathedral of white and emerald glass, its roof a mosaic of interlocking sunbursts. The light fractured and poured through its surface, scattering shards of color across the air so that the whole building seemed alive.

“That,” Kiera said, her voice reverent despite her usual bluntness, “is the Naikaia. The Church. The Voice is worshiped there. There – we hear the songs of the skies and the gold of the earth.”

Haruki’s gaze was still drinking it all in when she gestured again, farther off, to a sweeping complex that unfurled like a fortress of knowledge. Towers capped with green crystals stood against the sky, their light casting strange emerald shadows across the lower streets. Bridges arched between them like suspended ribbons, and below sprawled wide courtyards where figures in cloaks moved with purpose.

“And there,” Kiera continued, “is the Emerald Academy. Where the best Holy Hunters on the planet go to train.”

Haruki swallowed hard, realizing both awe and dread were coiling in him together. His feet felt heavier now. Goldspear might be glorious, but it was also a forge. And for a moment, as the bells tolled again, he wondered whether he was being welcomed… or summoned.

He then asked her:

“Do… do you train at the Academy as well?”

She shook her head:

“I wish. But… I don’t have the funds for that. Living here for a week would cost me three months’ worth of labor. It’s better for me to get a Follower’s Hunter License and take on missions myself. I won’t be able to take on higher ranked missions, but money is money.”

Goldspear stretched wider and taller than Haruki’s eyes could take in. From the ridge they descended, he felt swallowed by the sheer immensity of it. It was not simply a place to live; it looked like something carved out of divine bones.

Forever shining.

The closer they walked in, the more Haruki realized that the main Naikaia at the center of the city was not the only church building. Rather, there were several other smaller similar buildings scattered all around. Lesser Naikaias? Haruki wondered to himself.

“Whoa, what are those?” Haruki asked, nodding to one of the smaller chapels, its roof tiled green like jade, smoke curling from the brass incense decorating its door.

Kiera followed his gaze, then answered:

“Local congregations. Not everyone worships in the main Naikaia. Some districts keep their own. All under the same authority, however.”

Haruki slowed his footsteps the moment he noticed a circle of children outside that chapel, tossing little carved dice that glowed faintly with runes. Their laughter drifted into the clamor of bells and the murmur of prayer.

The crowds of Goldspear then began pouring in, pressing against Haruki and Kiera as the two of them tried to pass through. The peoples here were dazzling with variety. Stocky dwarves with braided copper beards trundled barrels across stone bridges, their boots striking like drumbeats. Then Haruki began noticing these tall elves, just like in those fantasy manga back home, cloaked in feathered silks and shimmering armor plates. Their voices were as smooth as wind over glass.

Then the Goblins in patched leather darted between food carts and other shops, hawking skewers of spiced meat, rare jewels, leather armor, and numerous other items Haruki recognized from his video games. He felt as if he was in some kind of ultra-realistic simulation. Only this one had no off switch of any kind.

Behind them were stranger beings still: a cluster of centaurs, their hooves clattering against marble streets, their torsos armored in lacquered wood and iron. Here, Haruki walked on without realizing he had bumped into someone. So turning and about to apologize, only to then find himself straining his neck up toward the lumbering tree-person in front of him – a figure whose body was all bark and roots, crowned with living leaves that rustled even though no wind was blowing. His eyes glowed of a faint amber, deep and old, yet he carried a child on his branch as easily as a human would.

The air itself was alive: faraway incense mixing with the salt of the roasted meat, the tang of dwarven forge-smoke, and the faint sweetness of elven perfumes. Above it all rose the sound of bells, not only from the great Naikaia, but from countless smaller towers, each ringing in their own rhythm, creating a chorus that washed through the city like a tide.

Deeper into this world now.

Haruki found himself lost in the magick.