Threats, Threats, And More Threats

A small girl and boy high fived in the distance and lifted up a chaplet out of the water. Its rarity was rare. It was a clear glass ball filled with a little water at the bottom, but on top of the water was an orange liquid. It was almost like a honey consistency the way the liquid shaped itself in the chaplet. A small girl-like figure was holding a balloon made out of the liquid on the inside and looking at it.

Everyone gawked at it as this chaplet called the “Swiss Chaplet.” A thieving man snuck up behind and grabbed the chaplet out of their hands. He sprinted off, while everyone chased after him. Surprisingly, Souta stepped in and ran quicker than any of the others to get to him. He tackled him to the ground and the chaplet flew up in the air. It headed towards the ground, but nobody was in range to get it. If it broke, then whatever power it held would be unleashed and would be wasted for the young boy and girl.

As it fell and fell, not more than an inch above the ground, Wally appeared out of nowhere and held the chaplet between his thumb and index finger.

He also pulled Souta off of the man who he continued to punch over and over. The man apologized profusely, but Wally had to drag Souta off who did not seem to care.

He returned the chaplets to the young children.

Wally: “I believe this belongs to you both. Keep that safe now. There may be others that try to do that…As for you sir, I am in position to kick you out for doing that. However, I’ll give you a warning. Do it again and there won’t be another warning. In fact, even though this is under the Association, I can throw you in prison for doing that. How does Wallchester Prison sound?”

???: “W-Wallchester?! Please no! Please! That place is known for high end criminals. I’m not that strong, I swear. I don’t want to be thrown in with all of those people. Even with their mana restrained there, they will kill me! Please! I won’t do it again. I swear!”

Wally let him off the hook.

The surrounding people that watched the events heard him say Wallchester and anyone who even had a thought of stealing chaplets from others or doing anything bad, quickly got rid of that thought.

Wallchester Prison was a large square purple cube made out of Amethyst crystals. It was known through the world of its terrifying inmates and strict rules. It was half a mile long in width and height also. Standard criminals did end up here sometimes, but this place was meant for those who were evil down to their core beliefs. Each individual cell was guarded by someone who locked eyes with you the entire time. The guards in charge of each cell switched every hour and people were not allowed to leave. The entire prison was warped with mana lines from multiple strong individuals who oversaw the operations. Along with this, a legendary chaplet known as the Anti Matter Chaplet ensured that nobody in the entire place could use mana except for those who were in control of those chaplets, not even the guards. One lady controlled everything.

Considering this, there were 6 of these chaplets in the whole world, and they had all 6 just for this here. People feared this place worse than death. Whenever it was mentioned, people became cowards and begged on their knees like the man in front of them. The reputation of the woman that ran the place was more than enough to scare people.

Wally: “Everyone, please resume and have fun. If I do so recommend, I would try the basements of these buildings. Do look in the crevices of everywhere. If any are here, then they would be well hidden. Oh? Look at that…A chaplet right underneath my feet in this bush. Ah, a Renderer Chaplet, not to be confused with the Render Chaplet. Don’t be fooled. Its galaxy color-like appearance does not make it even uncommon. It is a common chaplet that produces any type of clothing you like, but you must imagine it. I suppose it is good for making money, but many people have this chaplet, so the quality of clothing has become quite abused. Here kid, take this too. Don’t let anyone snatch that from you. If they do, then you can tell me directly.”

Naoki and Souta headed off before he was done talking. They took to his advice and headed to the basements of the abandoned buildings. It was still a few hours before sunset, but they figured they could spend the rest of the day looking there.

The first building had a kitchen underneath with many drawers filled with nothing. The second building’s basement had many tools for crafting. Someone in the past seemed to have taken up the hobby of making their own weapons. They still found nothing. The third basement was a dungeon. It had 2 prison cells that were locked and inside were 2 skeletons lying on the floor.

Souta: “Looks like Wally didn’t do a good job at cleaning this place up before he brought us here. Sick freaks. Probably using women to satisfy their needs. This place looks like a chemistry lab…Hey, what is this?”

Souta pulled out 2 small brown rectangular boxes with locks on them. Naoki busted them open. The one on the left were syringes filled with a type of liquid serum. On the right were 2 of the same chaplets.

Souta: “Naoki, these are Poison Chaplets. What sick bastard did this?”

Naoki: “Wait let me see that…It’s as if they were excreting the poison from the chaplet to use over and over again. It’s an uncommon chaplet, but instead of finding more and more, they figured out a way to extract the liquid and the chaplet seemed to regenerate back to its original state. Fascinating.”

Souta: “It won’t be fascinating when I shove this chaplet down the mouth of the dude that did this. Don’t get me wrong, I hate people and I can mess with whoever I want, but if someone else does it, then I’ll have my way with them.”

Naoki: “Keep these in your pocket. We’ll sell them to the Association to pay some guides in the future to take us to certain places. Although, I’m hoping we can find it here and get it over with. Don’t show anyone those syringes. That’s a revolutionary idea that could cause some chaos. Although, I know you love to cause chaos, you idiot.”

They ventured back to the surface to look at the outside of the buildings. They checked in between every crack possible while others around them began to find more chaplets. They saw someone go down to the sewers, which they figured they would follow them down there.

Down the ladder, they went to an open area that smelled like garbage. They could stand the smell, but the others didn’t think it was worth it and went back up, trash talking Souta and Naoki on the way. Souta turned around to punch him, but Naoki stopped his fist before he could.

Souta: “This is disgusting. We better find something down here.”

Naoki: “It’s too dark to see anything. You got a light?”

Souta: “Yeah here. I think I have a Loom Chaplet…Ah, here it is. If we don’t find a chaplet down here, then I might go punch the crap out of that guy’s skull.”

Naoki: “Yeah whatever makes you happy and not wanting to kill everyone every second.”

Souta: “That’s not true. People just make it difficult not to. It’s not my fault that they are so rude and ignorant..Say, Naoki. Not that I like to get all touchy into each other's personal lives, but I’ve known you for a long time. If there is one person that I actually would be upset if they died, it would be you. I’ve seen you happy and I’ve seen you sad. I’ve seen you angry and I’ve seen you calm. I guess where I’m trying to go with this is, what are you going to do when this is all said and done?”

Naoki: “Dunno. I haven’t thought that far. I told you before that I only have tunnel vision for this.”

Souta: “I get that. I do. You do what you have to do and I’m here to stop anyone that gets in the way. But, what are you going to do if you do find it? You don’t even know what it does. Not that I care either way. You could destroy the world if that’s what it does and I’d gladly perish with it, but what if it's not something that is worth it in the end?”

Naoki: “Remember when we were kids and we were playing at Aunt Sally’s house with the wooden swords. You beat me over and over again like it was muscle memory. Most times I would go down with only a light tap of the sword despite my size advantage over you.”

Souta: “Ha! Yeah, I remember that. What of it?”

Naoki: “Every single time that you did that, I wanted to give up and go back inside. Enjoy some nice sugary drinks and watch you practice swordsmanship. But, Aunt Sally always used to tell me, “Failure is not when you lose. Failure is when you don’t even try. Whether you succeed or not, that is not failure. If you have given your all and you can no longer continue, then you are worthy of moving on, but do not live in what could’ve been.”

Souta: “Yeah, she was a smart one alright. I remember her funeral like it was yesterday. Her homemade cookies were so good that we put the recipe in a jar next to her grave. Oh man, I laughed at that. Everyone thought I was crazy that day. All those people were crying and I was just laughing. Not my fault nobody else looked at the memories. She lived a long life and died in her sleep. Best way possible to go out. I don’t regret a thing.”

Naoki: “I do regret that I can’t have one last cookie. Even following those stupid directions, it never seemed to come out right. Maybe one day we can see her again, maybe in Heaven.”

Souta: “Let’s hope that she got to a good realm. You know my feelings on that…Wait, stop. Look at these tracks. They are old and a little faded, but someone was down here. Agh, this might just be some homeless kid that lives down here and had to move. What’s he doing all the way down here? This is the end of the sewer and there’s no food around here. At least head up the tunnel and see what city you end up in.”

Naoki: “These are weeks old, if not months. This person is long gone. I don’t see any chaplets. It could have been someone looking for them too. Wait, there are tiny shards of ice in the corner. How has this not melted yet? Interesting. We can come back when the big fella isn’t here to check out this tunnel. Mark it down on the map. We’ve covered most of this town. Let’s go check out the waterfall now.”

As they emerged to the surface, they heard screaming from a woman. A large black figure was hovering over her with a cube floating behind it.

???: “Help…Help me! Someone help me!”

It inched closer to her with its dark sword and before someone could jump to it, Wally appeared and sliced the creature in half. Instead of falling to the ground, it evaporated into thin air.

Wally: “Are you alright, miss?”

???: “Y-Yes. Thank you very much Wally sir.”

Wally thought to himself, ‘That Relter wasn’t real. Did someone find a Nightshape Chaplet? That’s a sick joke if it is. Death’s Isle is not that far, but these creatures wouldn’t make their way over here. I remember the story of the Flaen Family. They should only be drawn to the land itself because of the mana output from that day, although the body felt real. Wait a second, when did 2 people exit my range. They’re going to Death’s Isle!”

Wally: “Yes, yes. Everyone carry on. You are in good hands. Please just in case, everyone make your way to the ravines. We will all be heading down there for the night. I will relay it to everyone else. Please arrive there at 6 o’clock. It is less than half a mile away, so you still have some time.”

Wally dashed off as quickly as a tiger.

For his size, it was extremely impressive, although his title as a swordsman certainly gave him the benefit of the doubt. ‘Damn idiots,’ he thought. ‘I put 1 major rule into play and they go do it anyways. Why couldn’t they just come back when this event was over. They could die themselves without me being responsible.’

He arrived at the entrance of the forest and maneuvered through the trees, passing by hundreds of Relters, some in their fairy forms. He killed some on the way to the Royal Castle, or what remained of it. Giant Relters chased after Wally also, but they were too slow to catch up with him despite his mass. He ignored the rest and called out to the 2 people that he was missing. They still weren’t in distance for him, so he closed his eyes and focused. His large sword rattled with blue mana lines and when he opened his eyes again, his pupils dilated dark blue and his eyes swirled with mana lines only.

Wally: “Expand.”

His radius now contained 3 miles, but he still did not see them. He worried about their fate. If they were dead, then he could not track them, but he was sure that they had to have come here to look for chaplets. ‘Goddammit,’ he screamed in his mind.

He walked inside the rotting walls of the castle. Black liquid was stained everywhere. He followed the stairs down to a room with broken glass and machines. In the middle was an empty pool that extended pretty deep. He hopped down into it because when he looked closer, he could see the pool wasn’t completely empty. There was a small portion of black liquid down there that he wanted to observe.

Wally: “Antimatter. Great, so this stuff was never fully extracted from here. Who did you put in charge of this boss? They didn’t do a great job. How long has this stuff been here?”

A line of the black liquid stretched up the side of the wall to the top. ‘Crap. If those kids got their hands on this, then I can’t track them. It certainly looks like they did.’

He went back up and checked out upstairs to the throne room. Red stairs led up to the throne that sat way at the top, almost close to the ceiling. Other chairs lined the floor of the downstairs, but most were broken. Wally looked around and opened a door in the back right corner that led to a bedroom that was completely intact. Still, he didn’t find them.

He checked the rest of the castle, but ultimately found nothing. He went back outside to scan again while killing Relters that stood in his way.

Wally: “That antimatter has to wear off eventually. Where are you clueless brats?”

It was at this moment that he thought this, that he heard a scream from a man. In the distance, maybe a mile and a half away, he saw a camera flash bright. He sprinted in this direction, seeing a giant Relter attacking two men.

‘Dammit. I’m not gonna make it in time.’ He pulled out his long sword from his back and aimed it at the ground where the Relter was standing from a long distance away. His large body lit up in dark and thick blue mana lines even extending throughout his hair.

Wally: “You better reach that ground dammit…Bones of Incarcigen.”

5 different paths of blue bones stretched all the way to the ground where the men stood and broke the ground in half. It threw off the large Relter who stumbled backwards before swinging his sword again.

Wally loaded up his arm and chucked 2 common chaplets their way. One he threw at the Relter, which was a Smoke Chaplet that blurred his vision. The other was a Rose Chaplet that encircled them in a cage. He continued to rush over there as more Relters were beginning to get attracted to them.

???: “Wally sir. Is that you? Help us! Please!”

Wally: “When I’m done here. You’re both expelled from this group! Crimson Severance!”

Dark blue slashes of blood worked their way around the cage, killing all the Relters that stood around them, but not harming the cage.

The giant Relter still was confused, so Wally let them out of the cage to swiftly get away. The 2 men hugged him and an inkling of a liquid came off of the one man’s finger and onto Wally. He felt it on his clothing and pushed the two away as a large sword came swinging down at them.

He fell to one knee, but blocked it with his sword as his mana lines went away.

Wally: “You idiots! Wipe that antimatter off of yourselves! Go hide behind a tree. I’ll take care of this.”

Even without mana, Wally was amongst the high and esteemed class of physicality in swordsmanship. He had trained for years as a kid without mana…As a child, his mother and father could not soothe his hunger. He yearned for more food, more than they could keep up with. They weren’t poor, but they weren’t rich either. He gained many friends because of his appearance and ability to eat almost anything. People thought he was hilarious for what he could do and his personality certainly showed it as well.

Besides this, he was kind at heart too. He always protected those in need or those who were bullied. When he grew older, he remained in the same mindset. He was never really that strong with a sword despite his build, but his body made up for it. He was slow and could never master his footwork or the art of a sword.

His parents sent him away to a friend of theirs that taught swordsmanship. Wally did not really yearn for any dream in particular, so he went along with whatever his parents suggested. He was always eager to learn and he quickly grasped the concept and understanding of his body, but nothing to an extent of much power.

A few years later when he was a teenager, his parents passed away both at the age of 60. His father had been dealing with a disease that would not go away, and his mother could not deal with the pain of her husband dying so early. She had a heart attack a few days later from the stress.

Wally had taken it upon himself to bury them and was the only one that attended the funeral. He had insisted that he didn’t want others to attend. He wanted to be the only one because he did not want to be seen as weak after all these years of staying strong in front of others.

He did not cry at all when placing them in the ground, but weeped uncontrollably at the sight of their gravestones when it was all said and done.

Something about this interaction triggered something inside of Wally. This wasn’t normally how one gained strength. It was through constant training and fighting that others learned to master their powers, but for Wally, it was different. His heart set ablaze and his blood boiled from mixed emotions. Large pools of mana swirled inside of him from anger, sadness, depression, anxiety, but happiness as well from the memories that they had.

Along with quickly learning how to use his sword, he taught himself how to control this mana that shaped him. He was able to use abilities that connected to his own body like his own blood and bones that connected this to his sword. Wally even wore his dad’s viking helmet that he loved and framed it on display to look at everyday in honor of him when he became a Great Swordsman.

He was different from almost everyone in the world, however, he didn’t care. One day, a man named Masaru approached him and offered him a position as a Great Swordsman. He did not think he was deemed worthy of this title, but because of his willingness to go with the flow of things, he took it and learned even more how to master his technique from this man from dangerous missions and constant training. He was able to truly master everything that made him who he was…

Wally looked at the Relter with no mana existing in him at this moment. He took a deep breath and with one foul swoop, he sliced the head of the Relter onto the ground with his physical prowess.

???: “Thank you Wally sir! Thank you!”

Wally: “What is wrong with both of you? You come to this place knowing you’re not strong and then zap away your only mana by touching that antimatter?”

???: “We’re both sorry, truly. We didn’t know what it was and thought maybe it would lead us to a chaplet over here. We are mainly here just to take pictures of everything. We sell them for a living. See…we even got one of you slicing that thing’s head off.”

Wally took the picture and ripped it in half.

Wally: “Come on. You’re both being expedited back to the Association. Grab on to me. I’m using this Yellow Egress Chaplet to take you back.”

???: “Dang it. Looks like we have to go back. We got some decent pictures. We can at least sell these when we get ba–”

Wally’s eyes widened like never before.

The antimatter wore off as well as the two men in front of him, but that was not the problem. The men he had just saved were standing in front of him with tree roots through their chests.

???: “W-Wally, sir? Wh-What’s this…?”

They fell to the floor with pools of blood. Wally did not even question why he could not sense this thing either. It wasn’t human. It was a pile of bones and tree roots behind a mask and a ripped black cape. The creature lifted his boney finger up to his mouth and shushed Wally.

Just from this alone, waves of sound echoed at Wally, but he stood his ground in deep resolve of the men he had sworn to protect on this trip.

Wally: “Red Thread Execution!”

Wisps of thick blood shot out of his sword and contained the creature’s roots and bones that tried to attack. Wally kicked him with both legs, slamming him into a tree. The skeleton laughed eerily and sent the exact same attack Wally’s way while Wally used the same attack to deflect off of it.

Wally: “You can use my abilities? You’re not using a Nightshape Chaplet. What the hell are you? Answer me and I might kill you faster than slowly gutting you for killing those men.”

Tree roots once again shot out of his body, but this time, dark blue bones and blood emerged from underground. He sensed this and shoved his sword in dirt, creating a crack in the ground that split it in half. The endless attacks did not stop though. The skeleton lifted his hand shrouded in a green flame and from the ground rose a silhouette of a person. It was a woman with long light blue silverish hair and purple eyes. She wore a witches gown and began to chant incantations to target Wally.

He felt like he had seen her before, but couldn’t put a name to the face.

Repeated attacks combined from the two. The girl continuously shot different elements at him. Swirling flames mixed with hardened rocks flew at his feet trying to knock him to the ground while the strands of blood tried to pierce his insides.

Wally: “Threads Basket of Fate! Commence!”

The trees' leaves turned red along with the sky above them. Even the people on the scavenger hunt for chaplets that were now at the ravine could see it, and Naoki and Souta specifically were wondering what was going on.

Red web-like structures made of blood locked Wally in a cage. The same material came rushing down from the sky in an inescapable blanket of blood. The skeleton’s attacks could no longer reach Wally. His cage that he was in was beyond strong.

Wally: “Come on. Let’s see what you’re really made of. Once these threads hit the ground, you’re going to be pushed to the center of the world. Show me what you truly are. Stop holding back. I’m going to torture you endlessly for killing those men.”

The skeleton laughed and once again put his finger up to his mouth to shush Wally. The ghosted girl went back underground along with himself, ultimately disappearing from the scene. A blue light flashed down from the sky and a sword struck the ground where the skeleton was, which created multiple craters that expanded one after another at least 100 feet deep and wide. Out from the crater came a familiar face to Wally, but one he did not want to see right now.