Volume 3 Chapter 1 A Doomsday of Fire

Chapter 1 A Doomsday of Fire

I

Slowly, Aislina walked into Cuore Celeste, inside which lay the Sanctum of Life.

In the 47th century, high elves built the Sanctum of Life in an attempt to purify this world polluted by humans with a ritual called the Rain of Regrowth. However, doing so would neutralize materials such as necrovirus and machinite which were significant for the development of human technology.

Therefore, the assassins, a band of human warriors, stopped the plan of the high elves when their manas had run out because of the ritual of the Rain of Regrowth. They forged a gemstone called Cuore Celeste to seal the Sanctum of Life into another dimension.

Now, Aislina, Yanni, Starsha, and Floria had found the gemstone, and Aislina, the last elf in this dimension, had opened the portal towards the Sanctum of Life.

Everyone used to think that she was the last elf on this earth until they found out that there might be other elves trapped inside the Cuore Celeste by the assassins.

Carefully, she walked into the portal which was like a ray of rainbow and disappeared inside it.

Yanni, Floria and Starsha breathed a sigh of relief. Aislina succeeded.

It meant a lot.

The three had known Aislina for seven years since their childhood. Their friendship with Aislina was indestructible.

However, Aislina was going to live with the elves in the Sanctum of Life now. After all, she was an elf and she was too different from them humans. Her life could be centuries, and to her, the lives of humans were too short. They could not accompany Aislina throughout her full journey of life.

Aislina belonged to the Sanctum of Life anyway. There, She could find her real friends who could be with her for her lifetime.

While the siblings and Starsha were deep in thought, something strange happened.

There was a spherical thing moving towards them in the distant sky. It resembled some sort of fireball.

“What is that?” asked Yanni.

“I don’t know, it looks like a shooting star,” guessed Floria.

“A shooting star? Is it normal that there’s a shooting star during the daytime?” pursued Yanni.

“It is not normal. It is a fiery meteor. According to the ancient astrologists, a fiery meteor during the daytime is a bad omen,” muttered Starsha.

“Bad Omen? That’s not good,” commented Yanni.

What’s worse, that fiery meteor was moving towards them, or to be more precise, towards Cuore Celeste.

That shooting star was getting closer and closer.

Now the three could see this fiery meteor clearly.

It was about 3 metres in diameter and there seemed to be a gigantic winged humanoid figure inside that burning sphere.

“Watch out!” yelled Yanni. He ran in front of the girls, holding up his solarite shield.

That burning shooting star, or a fiery meteor according to Starsha, didn’t stop. It collided into Yanni’s shield directly and the impact of the meteor and the solarite shield produced a formidable surge of scorching shockwave.

They were standing at the top of a small hill right now and the shockwave sent Floria and Starsha hurtling off the cliff. Screaming hysterically, the girls were falling down from a height of dozens metres.

Fortunately, Floria responded quickly. She shot out an arrow with rope onto the wall of the cliff and held Starsha’s hand. The rope buffered their falling process and they didn’t hurt much when they kissed the ground.

The girls looked upwards in order to check if Yanni was Okay. Fortunately, Solarite could absorb fire and Yanni wasn’t hurt much by that fireball.

Now there was a monstrous humanoid standing in front of Yanni.

He was about two metres tall and formidably muscular. His skin was like grey magmatic rock with some dark red cracks, inside which streamed horrible lava. On his back there was a pair of fiendish batwing with a wingspan of almost three metres and on his head there was a pair of demonic horns.

His head somehow looked like human skull and his eyes were burning with fearsome fire.

It was really a surprise attack. Yanni had no idea what this monstrous man wanted or how powerful he was. Yanni was holding Cuore Celeste tight. He looked at the gemstone. Aislina was inside it and that was why he had to protect it at all costs and perhaps it was this gemstone that this demonic man came for.

“Who are you?” demanded Yanni.

“My name is Haemus. I am the imperator of Riounian Army,” the demonic man introduced himself in accented Normanish.

“Then you’re from Riounia, the hostile kingdom that had been fighting with us Normanians for decades,” murmured Yanni.

“That’s right, dirty Normanian. Give the gemstone to me and I will spare your life,” commanded Haemus, that fiery fiendish man in front of Yanni.

“I will never give it to you …” growled Yanni.

“Since that, you go die!” roared Haemus.

Haemus took out his weapons, a burning whip and a fiery sword, both of which were glowing in red light.

Wielding his whips, Haemus lashed at Yanni, and holding up his shield, Yanni tried to parry Haemus’ attack. However, the flaming whip of Haemus wound round Yanni’s shield, and with a forceful pull, Haemus ripped off Yanni’s shield, thus disarmed him.

Fiercely, Haemus brandished his whip and sword, approaching Yanni step by step. Yanni stepped backwards and carelessly fell off the cliff.

Fortunately, he had gotten two reliable teammates. Seeing Yanni jumping down, Floria and Starsha ran to the place where Yanni was about to hit the ground and caught him there in time.

Flapping his batwing, Haemus landed on the ground and pointed his sword at the three.

Starsha charged towards that fiery abomination, daggers in hand.

The two weapons of Haemus were cooperative. The whip was for mid-range combat while the sword was for melee combat. Haemus swinged his whip at Starsha, but with elegant dancing steps, Starsha dodged all the whiplashes and made her way to the front of Haemus.

Anyway, though Haemus was far stronger than Starsha, the latter was much more agile than the former. Starsha slashed her dagger towards her opponent. Her slashes were so fast that both of her daggers turned into blurry shadows.

For sure Haemus couldn’t deal with this. Soon, Starsha’s solarite daggers cut several bloody scars on Haemus’ body.

Now Haemus was completely irritated. He flapped his wings with full strength and produced a shockwave, which sent Starsha hurtling in the air for several metres.

While Starsha was fighting with Haemus, Floria was loading her bow. She unbent her fingers and shot a supersonic arrow. The arrow pierced into the chest of Haemus.

Vomiting blood, Haemus roared wrathfully. Floria shot a series of arrows, all of which poked into Haemus’ skin.

With unstoppable rage, Haemus threw his sword towards Floria. Floria dodged the sword, and while her attention had been drawn, Haemus slashed his whip and it entangled Yanni ankle. Haemus pulled his whip and dragged Yanni to the front of him.

Yanni just jumped down from a height of four floors. He was injured awfully and now he had no strength to fight back anymore.

Haemus took the gemstone from Yanni’s hand.

The instant Haemus touched the gemstone, it turned red and started to burn.

“Aislina …” murmured Yanni weakly.

Aislina was inside that gemstone.

“Give us back the gemstone!” commanded Floria, aiming her bow at Haemus.

Haemus didn’t say anything. He knew that it was difficult to fight these three barbarians simultaneously. Now he had fulfilled his purpose of taking the gemstone and it was not a place to dawdle. With this thought, he flapped his wings and soared into the sky.

“Adieus, nasty Normanians!” Haemus smirked and flew away, his figure disappearing in the distant sky gradually.

II

Floria and Starsha took Yanni to the tent of the Farseer. He had passed out because of pain.

When the Farseer saw Yanni, she was surprised.

“What has happened? Has Aislina entered Cuore Celeste? Why is Yanni injured?” asked the Farseer with concern.

“That’s complicated. Just after Aislina went into that gemstone, a gigantic demonic man attacked us. He said that he was from Riounia. His name was Haemus,” answered Starsha.

“A demonic man? From Riounia? In fact, I knew few about Riounia. It was a distant kingdom to the east of us. Anyway, let’s heal Yanni first. It will be much easier with Aislina’s magic, but she is not here, alas ... Luckily, I know some herbalism and I’ll take care of Yanni,” muttered the Farseer.

Floria and Starsha went out of the tent and took a walk.

It was a beautiful and peaceful morning.

Beside the tent was the Dream Forest where elves used to inhabit. However, as the world of nature kept being polluted by humans, elves began to die. Now, since Aislina was gone, no elves lived in this once-prosperous forest anymore.

Two years ago, this forest was destroyed by the Grey Factory but now it had nearly completely regrown. It became a vibrant world once again.

Except that collapsed temple, there was no sign that this place had just been attacked by a fiendish man from a distant kingdom.

“It is such a surprise attack,” commented Starsha.

“That’s true,” agreed Floria.

“We shall take back that gemstone. Aislina is in there,” muttered Starsha.

“Let’s go to Riounia. It’s such a luck that that monster has told us that he was from Riounia, or we would lose track of the gemstone forever,” proposed Floria.

“Another adventure is calling us,” murmured Starsha.

“Yeah. That fiendish thing also said that he was the imperator of Riounian Army. I guess it wouldn’t be difficult to find him with this information. It’s a bad habit for him to introduce his title to everyone he met, including his enemy,” consented Floria.

“Correct. His vanity will ruin his plan,” summarized Starsha.

“Is that thing a human? Or does he have any magical ability? Why does his skin look like some sort of magma rock?” queried Floria.

“It may be elementalics,” guessed Starsha.

“elementalics? What is that?” pursued Floria.

“Just like necrology for Normania and mechanics for Desertia, Riounia has elementalics. It is a science instead of magic. elementalists mine a kind of ore called elementium and use it to generate energy. The power of that demonic man must have something to do with fire elementium. However, I always thought that elementalics isn’t that powerful and fire elementium can only be used to cook a dinner. That’s all I know and I guess my mom knows more. She is knowledgeable,” answered Starsha.

“Let’s ask her at the dinner. She must be concentrated taking care of Yanni right now,” advised Floria.

Starsha nodded in agreement.

“Let’s take a walk in the Dream Forest now. Anyway, there is nothing we can do for Yanni and Aislina now. We know nothing about herbalism so we cannot help my mother, and we cannot go to save Aislina without Yanni,”

“That’s true” Floria smiled.

III

When Floria and Starsha came back, it had been already at noon.

Yanni was taking a rest in the tent of Starsha and her mother.

He looked rather distracted. After all, Cuore Celeste had been taken away by Haemus and Aislina was inside that gemstone.

“Hey, you’re back,” greeted Yanni when his sister and Starsha entered the tent.

“Do you feel better now, Yanni? You just jumped from fourth floor!” asked Floria with concern.

“I am much better. Thanks to the Spring of Sylvana in my veins. I am physiologically stronger than normal humans anyway,” answered Yanni, forcing a smile.

“That’s great,” Floria breathed a sigh of relief.

“We have to go to Riounia and find Haemus. He has taken the gemstone. Aislina is in there! We shall set off immediately after we finished dinner!” blurted Yanni.

“You’re right. There’s no time for us to waste. We shall act as quickly as possible before it’s too late. However, we need to prepare the food. Aislina is not with us now and we cannot store food and other things inside her pocket dimension anymore. Therefore, we need something to pack the baggage,” sighed Floria.

Yanni nodded. Floria was right. Aislina was not with them now and everything would be different. Soon it was the dinner time. The Farseer was cooking while Floria were messaging Yanni’s wounded part and Starsha was packing their baggage.

There was a stable in the Camp of Wildshadow Tribe and therefore the horses could help them carry their baggage. If they rode horses to Riounia, the journey would take them approximately one month.

At around 13:00, the lunch was ready. Sitting around the table, Floria, Starsha, Yanni and the Farseer started to eat. The Farseer had prepared some lettuces and steamed chicken for them. They were austere and unpretentious but delicious.

However, they all had no appetite to eat, after all, Aislina was in danger. Though they were powerful with their solarite weapons, Aislina was not with them and she was without doubt the strongest one among them. Without her, things would be much more difficult.

Quietly, the sunlight of the noon flew through the window of the tent and cast shadows of everything inside the tent. Illuminated by the sunlight, everything inside the room was rendered warm-orange-toned.

It was a peaceful noon, but everyone in the tent knew that a storm was about to come. They were travelling to a distant kingdom in the east to save their best friend.

“Mom, how much do you know about Riounia and its elementalics?” queried Starsha.

“There are four elementals in this world, water, earth, air and fire. They’re the essence of all materials in this universe. elementalists are devoted to uncover the mystery hidden inside the elementals by researching elementium, the ore that contained pure elementalical power,” answered the Farseer.

“What is the aim of the elementalists?” asked Floria.

“Their aim is similar to the aims of the necrologists and the mechanists. They believe that human civilization will evolve after they manipulate the energy of elementium. For example, fire elementium can help them to cook and water elementium can help them to irrigate,” explained the Farseer.

“Are there any side effects of elementalics just like necrology polluting the world of nature?” pursued Floria.

“In fact, side effects aren’t important. Those sciences are not the source of the degradation of humans. The source of degradation is inside us humans,” drawled the Farseer.

“By the way, what language does Riounians speak?” inquired Starsha.

“In the Riounia live the Riounians and the Dragonbornes. Riounians and Normanians are hostile to each other, while the Dragonbornes are always friendly, peaceful and kind. Riounians speak Riounish, while Dragonbornes speak Drakonish,” responded the Farseer.

the Farseer showed them what the script of Riounish and Night Elvish look like in her Book of Languages:

Riounish is written with a system of abugida: ꡋꡞ ꡜꡝꡧ [Hello]

Drakonish written in a system of logograph: 你好 [Hello]

“They were like alien script to me, if I meet them, I’d rather try to speak Normanian or Desertian,” sighed Starsha.

“Good idea, since the two kingdoms are at war, many Riounians have learnt Normanish for negotiation et cetera. Desertian is also a traditional second language of Riounians as well as Dragonbornes,” agreed the Farseer.

In the distance, the Grey Factory was still there. However, there were ivies growing everywhere on the outer wall. The factory had already become a symbol that belonged to the last era …