Asta?

After finishing his sentence, he reaches for the door to enter in to camp as he suddenly clutches his chest. A strange pulsating feeling pounding through his body. His squad mates begin freaking out wondering what’s wrong as Joshua’s eyes gloss over and he freezes in place.

----------

In a place frozen in time Joshua stands within a pitch-black void, nothingness all around aside from a piercing set of golden eyes before him and black chains dangling from seemingly nothing. Purple energy swirling in the distance.

The black chains wrap around his torso and legs binding him in place. “What the hell is this?” he looks around in a panic as he tries to reach for his blade, yet it’s nowhere to be found.

“CHILD YOUR FATE IS UNCERTAIN, DON’T SPEAK ON THE FALLEN REALITY, OR ELSE YOU’LL REAP WHAT IS OWED. THE WORDS OF MAN CARRY THE POWER OF LIFE AND DEATH.” Hearing the pounding voice echoing in his head, he feels like his skulls is about to split wide open as he understands what the voice means.

“Don’t speak of the regression, alright you bastard.” Looking forward he sees a reflection of himself in the darkness, chains wrapped all around him as they squeeze tightly around his reflection as it gets crushed into pulp in their grasp.

Looking away quickly from the sight, the image already burned into his mind he mumbles. “Whatever this thing is, it's warning me.”

Trembling in the creatures presence his hands shake as sweat pours down his face. Closing his eyes, he places his hands together and prays for this sight to end. Almost immediately after, as if hearing his call, a golden light with a familiar warmth envelops him as he is set free from the void.

Just like that, his eyes open. Back in his body as if time hadn’t past at all. Taking a deep breath, he takes a moment to regain his composure. His squad mate with heavy concern about his well being, start asking questions.

Being mentally perturbed by what he had just witnessed, what happened to his reflection, and their constant questions, all of their pestering causes him to snap.

Stopping them in their tracks he yells out swinging his arms out as a red and black aura pushes them back. The air burning around him. “ENOUGH WOLF SQUAD.” The three of them back off immediately, Susanna looking visibly hurt by his words.

“Give me a moment to myself please.” Brushing everyone aside Joshua, with his eyes glowing red makes his way back to his chambers. Closing the curtain, he sits down in the cool darkness.

Taking a deep breath Draxis interrupts his thoughts. “Hey kid, you okay?”

“Honestly, I’m not sure, I don’t know what the hell that thing was and besides that, how am I supposed to even save this damn place if I can’t even talk about the past.”

“Do you have anything you can use to infiltrate the camp? If Andric has to do with the birthing of this ritual, perhaps there are some clues and documents in his chambers you can use to bypass causality?”

“What good would that do, After all if we go off of what Layrn mentioned, we don’t even know where the ritual site is.”

Taking a moment to think about what was just said though, something comes to mind. A vague conversation that he overheard a long time ago when he was stuck in the medical ward. He couldn’t quite remember who was talking to him, but Andric definitely was there and he mentioned a massive chamber underneath Blackwood, with ‘untapped potential’. “That must where he’s been staying all this time.”

“Brilliant thought process kid, do you know how to get down there?” Draxis questions.

“Yeah, I vividly remember seeing a very strange stairwell behind his desk when we dropped off those monsters. That must be it.” Standing back up quickly he grabs his notebook and spends the next couple hours with Draxis planning his next mission. Albeit neglecting his poor squad mates who are still very concerned about him.

Shortly before nightfall Wilhelm approaches his ‘room’ and enters in without permission fully prepared to be chewed out as he checks on their captain, only to be greeted by Joshua being clad in dark clothing. His face obscured by a mask.

In shock at the sight, Wilhelm backs up and asks if everything was alright. Nodding in response, Joshua confirms he’s okay as the two have a small conversation about what Joshua’s plan is and for him to keep this from the others.

“I don’t want them getting involved, what I’m about to do is extremely dangerous.”

“I can see that clearly Joshua, but why didn’t you just tell us? We know you’re carrying a burden on your back. We’re here to help you, you just have to ask.” Wilhelm replies, a bit of power shining through his voice.

Joshua sighs behind the mask. “I’m not allowed to talk about what I saw apparently, I genuinely appreciate the concern, but if I can do anything to stop this coming destruction, I have to take the risk.”

Somewhat understanding where Joshua's coming from, Wil continues himself. “This place sucks Joshua, you know that; aside from Layrn’s training and us being given all these extra freedoms, the quality of life is disappointing at best. We have to sleep at the top of a mountain for crying out loud. I’ve known that since we arrived, aside from Orthon, nobody here shows any promise. I mean I get that this place isn’t a prime training site and more of a punishment for me and Vil, but shouldn’t we all just get our things together with Anna and bail before everything goes down.”

The memories of the past flicker in his mind. “I wish it was that easy, but trying to escape this place by foot is impossible. We’re too far away from civilization, not to mention the lack of supplies. Aside from that, the people here may be weak, but they’re still the future of our clan. I refuse to watch everyone die again.” Steeling his resolve Joshua zeroes in on his plan.

A few minutes later, Joshua questions how the other two are doing. “Well, Vil went to sleep early after training with me and I’m pretty sure you hurt Anna’s feelings she ended up heading back out to work off her frustrations, so If I were you, I’d apologize.”

“That can wait until later, there is much to be done.” Joshua commands Wilhelm to come with him. Unable to reject his command, he does as he's told. The two of them make their way quietly to the entrance of the camp and sneak out the front gate.

“As you can tell, you’re coming with me now, I didn’t exactly plan for this. However, since you showed up, it’s a little too late to back out now.”

Stunned into silence, Wilhelm questions what Joshua is doing. “Where are we going?”

“Infiltrating Andric’s quarters, I’m almost 100% he has something to do with Blackwood’s destruction. Do you trust me?”

“Of course, you haven’t made a bad call concerning us thus far, so I have no reason to doubt your decision-making skills. Well aside from being a jerk.”

With a serious tone Joshua continues. “Very well, I’m going to warn you now, what were about to do better stay between the two of us. I don’t want anyone else finding out, as this is severe breach of protocol and we can get in an ungodly amount of trouble with father If he finds out.”

“Understood captain.” Wilhelm nods his head.

The two of them make their way down the trail in complete silence before Joshua stops on a dime and turns to his brother. “Now we begin.” Seeing that they're ways away from both camps Joshua draws a line on the ground with his blade.

“I hate doing this one, it always hurts.” Unsheathing his blade, he draws a rune on the ground before stabbing into his hand squeezing the blood over it as it begins to glow with a blue luminescence.

Collapsing to his knees Wilhelm attempts to step towards him but immediately stops at Joshua’s outstretched hand. “What is this, captain?”

Not responding to the question, Joshua takes a deep breath before coming back to his feet as he steps into its area of effect. His body flashes black and white eventually turning ethereal as he continues the ritual by drawing a shadow rune on his forehead as his entire body turns invisible, his eyes completely blacking out.

“Your turn Wilhelm.” Joshua commands as taking a step back, he closes his eyes and mutters to himself. “You got yourself into this Wilhelm, take it with stride.” Stepping forward into the rune a similar process occurs as Joshua draws a rune on his forehead as well. The two of them blink at each other before Joshua speaks.

“This should make us completely invisible for the next three hours. Now we have to head in quickly and get to his office, hopefully he’s going to be asleep soon or at least out of our way. Worst case he’s in his office, either way we should be in the clear.” Wilhelm nods without words. The two of them quickly make their way to Blackwood as Joshua undoes the lock on the gate as the two-sneak in completely undetected.

Unsure of how Joshua knows the things he does, Wilhelm nonetheless trusts him. Following his captain all the way to Andric’s office. At the locked door, Joshua pulls out a small knife and forces it between the door and framework as it quietly pops open.

Very quickly, the two of them sneak in shutting the door behind them. Surveying the room, Joshua lifts his finger signaling Wilhelm to follow his lead as they carefully begin looking for the stairwell he remembers seeing. Eventually they find it tucked away behind Andric’s desk completely unlocked. “Andric must be down there.”

Wilhelm look towards Joshua and gives him a signal that he’s prepared. “Very well, if we get detected this could end poorly for the two of us. Be ready to fight for your life.

“Yes captain, but didn’t he beat a lich?”

“I bet that was just a lie to boost his ego. The only people who can kill a lich are aura masters, mages, or elite holy knights. Which he is neither, I’m pretty sure he can’t even use aura.” Joshua shakes his head as the two of them begin their decent down the long staircase.

Down into the chamber chains and loose wires dangle about. The scent of rust, and blood permeate throughout the air. As they continue their decent, the scent of death causes the two of them to pause Wilhelm nearly puking. “Ugh.” Joshua wraps excess cloth over his mask leading Wilhelm to do the same to his mouth.

“This stench, just what the hell has he been doing down here.” Joshua complains aloud.

“Clearly not cleaning up after himself.” Wilhelm chokes out trying to lighten the mood as they quietly make their way down into a long corridor causing Draxis to chuckle in Joshua’s mind. “Heh, nice one Wilhelm.”

“Not now,” Joshua replies audibly

“Did you say something captain?” Wilhelm whispers.

“Just talking to myself Wil.” Looking around, they eventually make their way to the nearest doorway. Joshua peeps his head around to see what awaits them there. To his surprise the room is completely empty aside from a lone corpse on a table.

Motioning Wilhelm to enter with him the two of them approach the body, Wil turns around at the sight. Reading a small tag on the toe of the body reveals it to be Verianna. The memory of the young girl flashing through his mind.

“She was supposed to be on wolf squad. What in the hell happened to her?” Turning to face Wilhelm he continues, “This is Verianna, do you remember her?”

His stomach churns as he nods. “Yeah, she was assigned to wolf squad shortly before you arrived, but she went missing shortly after arriving herself. I never got much of a chance to speak to her; she was really quiet and very smart. “Not smart enough though...”

Turning back around to her body, Joshua begins chanting in a language foreign to Wilhelm as he finishes by kissing his fingertips and placing them on her forehead. “Rest in peace Verianna, may Serox free your soul from this vile place.”

“When did you start learning the language of angel's Joshua?”

“One should be respectful to the dead to allow them to move on peacefully.” Wilhelm accepts the answer even though Joshua doesn’t answer his actual question.

Stopping at the door way Joshua holds his arm out stopping Wilhelm. “This is a heads up. After we leave this room, we could run into Andric. He shouldn’t be able to sense us as long as we don’t use our aura, but just in case let’s keep our noise to a minimum.”

Wilhelm nods his head as they make their way out of the room and across the hall to the opposing side. The door quietly creaks open as they make their way inside to see a personal library.

As they rummage through the books, nothing in particular catches Joshua’s eye. On the other hand a small picture intrigues Wilhelm. It’s a photo of a brown hair, blue eyed woman who looked to be in her early 30’s. Following this, Joshua walks around to the other side of the desk and decides to pick a specific book with a green substance on its cover and start reading it.

Flipping through the pages it’s clear to him that it’s a recording log, but from where is the question. Turning his head to his brother he whispers quietly. “Hey Wil, I think I may have found something, come here.” Setting down the photo, he makes his way over to Joshua. “Let me read a few aloud.”

“Go ahead captain.” Joshua proceeds to flip to the most interesting entries.

Entry 1- It’s been such a long day and these knights won’t let up, just who do

they think they are. Can’t a man have a moment to himself.

If there were only a way to deal with this lich by myself. But we have barely found a lead and it’s been over a month.

Entry 4- It’s been a few days and we got attacked by a bunch of undead, thankfully the soldiers they sent with me are equipped to deal with these abominations.

Aside from that we finally found a lead. One of the thralls sent out by the lich had a document marked for delivery to the Sirris Forest. Just what would a demonic bastard be doing in a place like that though.

Entry 11- It’s been a few weeks since we made our way to the Sirris forest a bunch of soldiers have already fallen, if not for the emissaries from the holy order our losses would be much greater. What I would do to get this whole debacle over with…

Entry 17- A lot has happened since the last entry, over half of my soldiers are dead, the forest was set on fire by a Flaming Tyrant before we finally slain the damn beast.

Maybe this is what the lich wanted in the first place; I wonder if he was expecting to resurrect anyone. Hah, too bad for him the holy order has been purifying all the corpses.

Entry 20- It’s been a few days since my last entry. I don’t understand what this freaks goal is, clearly, it’s not amassing an army.

Every time he sends his minions after us, we simply cut them down and tear them to shreds. On top of this, I’ve heard this strange humming since we entered his domain, so have a few of the others. Something is very off about this place.

Entry 22- Yesterday a voice began calling out to me, its name is Asta, it’s been offering guidance to help me bypass the lich’s magic. Thus far it’s come quite in handy, although I’m not quite sure what it wants in return. Either way I’m ready to get this show on the road already.

Entry 25-The voice whispers to me as we get closer to our destination. We’ve already ambushed his minions multiple times thanks to Asta and according to him we’re on a straight shot to that damn lich. Shouldn’t be long now.

Entry 29- Why did I ever accept that things help, things have gone from bad to worse, most of our troops are dead, it’s just me and a few of the holy order. I don’t know why, but they’ve been giving me some strange looks the past few days. The hell do they think they are...

Entry 31- I don’t know how, but we killed the lich. Asta came back and led me to its phylactery. After destroying it, a strange sensation fell over me and now I feel invigorated unlike anything I’ve ever felt in my life. Is this how Gail feels with his aura. Its intoxicating.

Entry 34- The holy order dare tried to attack me, their savior. How dare they, if it wasn’t for me everyone would have long been dead. I guess I’ll need to show them who they’re really trifling with.

Asta has been very supportive of my growth and plans on leading me to even greater heights. I can’t wait to see what he has in store.

“Asta? What kind of name is that.” Wilhelm interrupts, confusion on his face.

“Astaroth….” Joshua’s face drops in realization.