Departure towards the end

Volkan has his eyes closed and a smile on his face. All the members stare at him in disbelief.

As we look back from the entrance to the underground part of the mesa, many members of the guild begin to emerge. All of them were injured and lying down back on the library, unable to move. They are now completely fine.

This was Volkan’s last gift. The chance to fight back this calamity with full force.

His body is carefully moved and positioned together with all the other corpses left by yesterday’s raid.

We ready ourselves once again. This time with every single member of the resting guild present we begin the prayer.

“Oh goddess. She, who watches over us all. Please guide these lost souls who have met their ends in suffering. May only dreams find them in their eternal slumber.”

The voices of over a hundred members can be heard. Holding back tears as best as they can. Soon after, all the bodies are enveloped in the orange light and begin rising in the direction of the blue sky.

I can’t hold back my sadness. My tears run down my face.

(Olivia, Salazar, Volkan. I’m sorry I wasn’t good enough to protect all of you.)

As the ritual is over. Everyone around me takes a deep breath to recompose themselves, and just like that a switch is flipped. They start to run around getting ready for the long trip as quickly as possible.

My sadness is replaced with rage as I remember the orc kin smile.

“Tanaka. I’ll kill you even if it’s that last thing I do with my life.”

Like a well-oiled machine, in just a few minutes dozens of carriages are prepared to leave and everyone else is already dressed in their guilds’ attire.

“Looks like everyone is ready.” Lumiere says.

“So, what are we waiting for?” I ask

“For someone to give the call to leave. In particular, I would say that call would be more effective if it was done by the one chosen by Sonala.” Juni says.

“You guys want me to lead the charge?!”

“You have to, Akihiko. Volkan called you Sonala’s Champion. It can’t be anyone else!” Ruina says.

“But I don’t…”

“Akihiko” Gora holds my hand. “We are here for you. You can do this. Not only because you were chosen by Sonala herself, but because we trust you. Volkan trusted you!”

She’s right. There’s no time left for insecurities or fear. I climb up the leading carriage.

“EXCUSE ME!!!” I scream.

Everyone looks towards me. My face is on fire from embarrassment but as I look at my friends, they give me courage to continue.

“For those who don’t know me yet, I’m Akihiko. The one Volkan mentioned in his last speech. The one chosen by Sonala. Right now, every second matters so I’ll be brief” I can feel the sweat dripping down my face, but I keep going. “If you asked me right now why I was chosen by Sonala, I couldn’t give you an answer. I believe there’s plenty of people better suited for this role than me. But in the end, I was the one chosen, I was the one both Sonala and Volkan decided to put their hopes on. So, I can answer you all with absolute certainty that I will make sure I carry out their expectations of me. But I also know I can’t do this alone, so I ask of you all, PLEASE LEND ME YOUR STRENGHT TO WARD OFF THIS CALAMITY!”

“OF COURSE!” All the guild members answer me in unison.

The confidence boost I got from this response made me feel like I could do anything.

“WE ARE HEADING OFF!” I scream.

“YES!” They all answer back.

We begin to get inside the carriages. Me, Juni, Lafanda and Mimi in one. Gora, Lumiere and Ruina on another.

Gora comes over to me just before we leave.

“You really are amazing Akihiko. I know you could do this.” She says.

“Thank you so much Gora, you holding my hand like that really helped me to gather up the courage.

Her face goes bright red once again.

“G-good to know. Maybe when this is all over w-we could hold hands even more. But I mean, only if you would like to!”

(What, hold hands? Like a date? A date with a girl? No, that can’t be, right?)

“W-well sure. If would love to.”

“Really?! Okay then!” Her eyes shine with happiness and she rushes back to her carriage.

Lumiere and Ruina come closer.

“You look cute together.” Ruina says.

“What do you mean together?! I don’t even know if Gora likes me!”

“Oh, but she does.” Lumiere says.

“What?”

“And you like her too, right? You think she’s pretty.” Ruina says with a mischievous smile.

“Wait! How do you know that I like her!”

“You talk in your sleep, dude.” Lumiere says to me. “Back in that cave entrance, when she was carrying you back to the capital, you wouldn’t shut up about the pretty orc girl who saved you.”

I could die of embarrassment right now. They go back to their carriage laughing.

(A girl likes me…)

“Aki, your face is all red.” Lafanda says poking her head out of the carriage.

“Did something good happen?” Juni asks.

“N-n-nothing at all! We’re leaving right now!”

The horses begin to move, and I take the charge towards the northern area of the continent. All the other carriages follow right behind, and we begin our long track.

We go at full speed for as long as we can, even using blessings on the horses to make sure they have energy to continue for longer periods of time. As we travel, more and more carriages join us, from the guild members who weren’t at the headquarters but still have come to join our cause.

The only stops we made was to change horses at mesas and restock supplies. The black sky served as a constant reminder of the little time we had left.

As the sun sets on the distance we reach the midpoint of the deadline. The color black perfectly cutting the sky in half. The bright blue sky fades away and, in its place, the dark blue of the night filled with stars. The moon is barely visible.

We stay with our guards up, but no slumberwalker appears. It is odd, but at the same time we are not surprised. However, we are certain that eventually we will have an encounter with them before the end of the night.

As we get closer to the edge of the continent the terrain begins to change. The common green vegetation of the plains are being replaced with sand and more tropical and beach like plants such as palm trees.

But the most noticeable difference is the elevation, we reached a point where we just kept going down. Going even lower than the ground we were used to, the mountain walls on our side begin to go higher like we are descending into a ravine.

Eventually we reach a point where it is not possible to continue by carriage, and we all get off and start heading on foot.

We can smell the sea, and the sounds of waves are getting closer. Up ahead we can see that the ravine passage opens into a wide area. We come out from a crack on massive rocky cliffside.

A massive beach located between the cliffs we came from and the ocean is before us. At the end of it, almost reaching the water, we can see a cave opening.

Surrounding its entrance, almost like they are guarding it, I can see hundreds of slumberwalkers, walking aimlessly around the sands, perched on the cliffs, some even into the water.

“So, there’s where they were gathering.” Lumiere says.

The sky is almost completely black, with only a small sliver of stars remaining. We must have less than an hour left before the curse takes place.

“This is it. He is inside that cave. He must be.” I say.

“Then there’s only one final thing for us to do.” Juni says.

“We are breaking through!” Gora says, cracking her knuckles.

This ends tonight.