Visions

After momentary silence the two think about what she saw, Layrn looks down with a fierce gaze. “None of you better die out there, this is what I’ve been training you for. Do you understand?”

Joshua salutes his captain and heads back to his quarters where he collects his bags throwing them over his shoulder as he quickly makes his way back to the gate where Orthon is waiting on him.

“Hey Joshua.” Orthon waves his hand running up to his friend. “I heard what happened from captain Gyles, I’m sorry you have to be stuck out there.”

“It’s alright Orthon, I’ve been mentally preparing for worse anyways.” Joshua replies as he places a hand on his shoulder.

Quickly going off topic, Orthon continues. “On a positive note, Gyles is a hundred times better than Gytha; Even though he is more hands off when it comes to our training.”

Joshua just stands there listening to his friend ramble with a smile on his face. As he finishes Joshua asks a question. “Can you keep me updated on the goings on in camp while we are gone?”

Orthon gives Joshua a thumbs up. “You bet, we can talk more later.” The young boy waves his hand as he runs back to his new squad’s cabin.

“He always has so much energy.” Joshua yawns as he gets a reaction from his internal companion.

“Same with the twins, I wonder how they all function. Besides that however, what’s your plan now kid?”

“Same as before, I’m just glad we finished setting up the camp earlier. Although it sucks.”

“What sucks.” Draxis questions as he interrupts Joshua mid-sentence.

Rolling his eyes, he instantly feels a sharp pain roll down his back. “Apologizes master, I just volunteered to stay up the first night and I don’t even have the barrier runes set up yet. I had planned on doing that tomorrow.”

Draxis lets out a laugh as he releases the pressure on Joshua’s body. “I thought so brat… In the very least you’re not alone, as I don’t need to sleep. I’ll help you stay awake.”

Joshua sighs, “I don’t think that makes it any better, but I appreciate it.”

After making quickly making haste, exiting the gate, and climbing Shiraia, Joshua reaches the summit long before his comrades. Pulling out a dagger he starts the process of getting the barrier runes carved into the surrounding perimeter. Eventually sealing them with his blood. After that, with an exhausted sight, he makes his way up to the top of their ‘watchtower’. Taking a moment to himself, he places his hands on the railing and looks off into the distance. “It may not be much, but I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished. I just hope the others are mentally prepared for what comes next.”

Not even a moment later Joshua stumbles back clutching his head as his brain begins to rattle, another memory resurfacing. It was Gytha strung up with wires, her corpse being fed upon by scavenger birds. Wanting to throw up at the visual, he drops to a knee covering his mouth.

“What’s wrong kid? More memories.” Draxis questions as Joshua quickly replies with a hushed tone. “Yeah, this time it was very gruesome in detail.”

“Don’t let it get to you kid; things aren’t playing out the same as last time.” Draxis replies attempting to comfort his pupil. “After all the stronger you get, the closer we get to finding my body.”

Removing the hand from his mouth, breathing heavily, Joshua pants. "I hope so."

After his little chat, Joshua stands up looking towards the trail leading to their camps entrance; his squad slowly making their way up. Making his way down the watchtower, he starts walking around the perimeter patiently. As he making his way to the far north side of their camp, Joshua notices small opening in the rocks and takes a look inside. As his eyes adjust to the darkness, he realizes that it’s a perfect resting place.

“I think I’ll probably stay in here then, there’s very little sunlight and its cool.” Walking away from the opening he makes a mental note. “It’s further away from the others and should still give me a fair amount of privacy. I can always get a makeshift door. But for now, I think I’m going to take a break. I’ve got a long night ahead of me.” After a short while, his team finally reaches the summit. Entering into the gate, they begin placing their things down and setting up their respective tents. They were decently spread out with Wilhelm being the closest to his hideaway.

The tents are a mixture of colors and patchwork. Green, brown, black, and gray. Nonetheless they all seem to hold up just fine as in the center of all the tents is a decently sized fire pit. Surrounding them is just an expanse of dirt and grass leading to the perimeter. After setting everything up, the four of them gather around the fire pit. The sun slowly descending in the background as the moon pierces the horizon. Eventually they begin to discuss what their plans are alongside today’s events.

“So, anyone got an idea why the hell we got kicked out a day early?” Vilhelm frustratingly questions as he throws his arms in the air.

Susanna shakes her head, “Maybe someone saw the progress up here and figured we’d be fine. Either that or someone has it out for us.”

Wilhelm's pipes up with an idea shortly after. “Maybe Gytha? I mean not only did one of her squad members shift over to stag squad, but she also didn’t seem to like Layrn at all.” Everyone eventually just shrugs it off as Susanna looks to their vice-captain.

“What say you, Joshua?” Susanna muses wondering what their leader thinks.

Joshua opens his tired eyes with a sigh. “If what Layrn relayed to me was true, then it was mainly because of Andric, not to say Gytha and Weil weren’t involved either. She told me that she lost a vote. For some reason, Andric was hard pressed to get us out of Blackwood.”

“She wasn’t exactly sure why, but I guess he got what he wanted. I have my own suspicions about him.” Joshua pauses as Wilhelm curiously asks what they were.

“I personally believe that he wants to be able to move around freely in there without interruption. Currently we are the strongest squad and even have the commandant’s attention. Perhaps he even wants him distracted by all the praise we were getting.”

“But what is he even capable of doing, that he needs the commandant t0 not be distracted?” Susanna questions with a puzzled gaze.

“Hell if I know, I just have bad feeling about all this. Because of this that though, I asked Orthon to meet with me at the gate every few days to keep me updated.”

“You’ve really got this planned out huh.” Vilhelm interrupts.

“What about our captain?” Wilhelm asks shifting the topic.

“Well for Layrn, she’ll said she’d meet us up here periodically to see how we are doing as well as oversee some of our sparring sessions.”

“What about our regular training routine?” Vilhelm questions.

“We will continue trekking up and down mount Shiraia. As for calisthenics, we’ll just do them up here rather than in the drill hall. I mean we have plenty of space to work with.” Joshua pauses spreading his arms out and pointing out the size of their new camp.

Everyone nods in agreement looking around. After that, they all continue talking for the next couple hours. Everything getting quieter as the night drags on. Eventually it was close to midnight. The moon was 3/4th of the way risen, and so everyone goes back to their individual tents as Joshua makes his way back to their watch tower his blade readied on his side.

Patiently waiting for his squad mates to fall asleep, Joshua makes his way out of the camp quietly with his bag. Undoing a small seal on the front gate so he can leave the premises. Re-closing it behind him, he begins following down a trail he marked on an earlier expedition. It eventually leads him to a small spring that’s out of the way and covered by a thick grove. Pushing himself through the brush, he makes his way to the edge of the water, stripping himself down and lowering himself into the surprisingly warm water. The warmth soothing his muscles as he pools some the water in his hands as he brushes his hands along his face and through his hair.

As the water helps him wake back up, he converses with his master. “I’m surprised you sensed this place earlier Draxis, I never knew this place existed. The last time I surveyed these lands all I found was that single river running along the edge of the mountain in the forest.”

"Yeah, but did you actually have a chance to survey anything properly last time, I mean you were lucky to even be alive!"

Joshua look down.

Draxis makes a sound like he’s very proud of himself, which causes Joshua to sweat drop. “Back on topic though, I’m not sure how to describe it. I just don’t understand how half a mountain can be dead and the other alive.”

Staring towards the sky incomprehensibly, Draxis replies. “I surprise myself kid. I can even sense that this water links to something in the mountain range. As for this mountain who knows, maybe there’s something here that drained the life force of the other half. Could be a beast, or an artifact; anything is possible.”

Joshua continues stretching his worn-out limbs and cleans himself off from the days of training and construction. Sitting back down he closes his eyes as he attempts to sense their camp, making sure his squad was still safe and sound.

Suddenly though, a thought springs to mind. “I bet there’s very powerful beast sleeping in the mountain. It would probably have to be mythical for it to have that big of an impact. It took me a second, but I remember Roxanne telling me about the different ranks of monster kind.”

“What’s a dragon ranked as?” Draxis questions with pride.

“They would be Transcendent, even though they were supposed to all be gone! At least as far as I knew."

"Knew it!”

Back to focusing on his aura sense, he can sense only the four of their heart beats near the top of the mountain. Relieved, he lets out a yawn as he decides to continue his mission to connect his third aura node. Forty minutes pass and it is now about 20% restored. Draxis interrupts his thoughts.. “We should probably head back kid.” Joshua nods his head in response as he redresses himself, throwing on a clean outfit and tucking the other one into his bag. Now wearing thin black pants and a plain black tee, he gets started on his trek back to camp. Thankfully without surprises or interruptions.

After making it back, he quietly deactivates the gates seal and slips in, re-sealing the perimeter with a proper barrier rune this time. Unwrapping his finger tip, he uses pressure on it as a drop of blood falls on the sigil as a luminescent green glow wraps around Shiraia’s summit. A clear sign that the barrier is completely established. Smiling at his handiwork, he mumbles quietly to himself with self-confidence. “Anything without a reasonable amount of power won’t be breaking through this anytime soon.” "Heh." Draxis snickers.

Walking away from the gate, he makes his way around his squad mates tents quietly avoiding them so they can get some rest. At the end of his journey, he makes his way to where he would be staying eventually and hung up his wet clothes to dry. After dropping his things off, he heads back up the watch tower, looking around seeing nothing of interest. Aside from a green light flickering in Blackwood’s left most gate. “I guess this is what I’ll be doing the rest of the night, at least the air is cool. Pain in my ass.”

Eventually a few hours pass as drowsiness creeps into Joshua's mind. Quickly shaking himself awake he crosses his legs and sits down activating aura sight as he starts peering out from his current location. To distract himself, he wants to test how far he can actually see. Maybe he can even find the creature that stole the life force of half the mountain. As he begins, he feels the peaceful life energy of his sleeping team members, then the barrier he crafted, then the fragmented nature encircling the summit itself. Eventually he peers out so far that he can vaguely sense most the beasts on the mountain itself.

Instantly a visual image of the mountain zooms out overlooking blackwood. As he takes in the view, his aura vision becomes choppy as it starts flickering in and out. Clutching his head with both of his hands a splitting headache forces him to collapse to his knees. He screams in agony, as blood starts leaking from his nose and eyes.

A sealed away memory comes forth, slamming into the forefront of his mind. Details that were long buried and filled with trauma.

A once blue-sky morphs into a cascade of red, cadets and instructors running around in a hurry as they barricade themselves in their drill halls. The sun shines with a terrifyingly bright white corona as its very core begins to dim, looking almost lifeless.

A massive explosion soon rocks Blackwood rending a massive fissure nearly splitting the place in two. A massive crevice opens up and swallowing up the main training grounds as the massive blackwood tree gets uprooted and spontaneously burns into green ash.

A large black and purple mass of energy erupts into the sky causing the air itself to grow dense. At its climax, the once brightly shining sun is stained into a dreadful black as its beautiful corona as if being beaten into submission becomes illuminated by a sickening purple glow. It’s as if the sun itself gets corrupted just like he was.

As a multitude of beasts climb out of the crevices, they begin seeking whom they may devour. Their ghastly green eyes and tattered frames oozing contempt, as if their very existence was a sin against creation.

Regaining his consciousness, Joshua grasps at his chest trying to control his breathing as he begins rapidly hyperventilating. His body and aura stream going into complete shock. Reacting instinctively, Draxis assumes control of his body and starts refocusing and aligning his aura network that just got knocked out of equilibrium. “Kid, forgive me for stealing your body. If I don’t do this you will die.” A shift occurs as Joshua is pushed into the recesses of his own mind as Draxis assumes control.

Taking his newfound nails, he digs them into five key places. His shoulders, his collarbone, his solar plexus and his navel. As the flesh is torn, a murky red energy leaks out as Joshua’s body stabilizes. As his senses faintly return, He looks down to see his shirt thrown off, blood dripping down his torso. “What the hell just happened.” Joshua's left eye turns dim, as his right eye burns draconic. He clutches his head, his vision spinning.

Propping himself up, he closes his eyes as Draxis screams vibrating Joshua's brain. “What the hell did you see? Tell me now kid!”

“The Dawning of the Black Sun.”