Chapter 9

-Astrid and Nikolai-

A new much colder chill rushes over Astrid and Nikolai.

“Astrid!? Big Brother?”

Astrid frames his face with desperate urgency “Silas will never leave us. Remember the promise he made?”

She holds the boy close. In her mind she thinks to herself “Silas please come home to us soon.”

-Alban, Kang, and Yulinka-

In a snow covered land Alban, Kang, and Yulinka walk upto a intricate gate that appears to be built into the side of a mountain. Two guards stand at attention. When they reach the entrance the guards stand at attention and allows the three to pass.

Before stepping foot inside the cavern Alban stops. “Kang? Do you sense it. An awakening is occurring.”

“I do Lord Galwell, this level of mana though I don’t think I have ever felt something like this before. Have you Lord Galwell?”

Yulinka looks at them puzzled. “Awakening like someone activating a spectral weapon for the first time? How is it possible to sense it from the surface?”

Alban looks at hes amused, “Even more baffling is that I feel like it might be coming from the direction of Tricot.”

“The Creation Event?” Yulinka is shocked.

“Yes and with this amount of mana that spectral weapon is no doubt a cataclysm class weapon.”

-Capital city of Midri, Royal Palace-

In an Eastern styled royal palace a young girl in a long kimono. She is sitting at a table as a maid pour her some tea. As she stares into this steaming cup of tea she finally speaks to the man standing near her. The man appears to be a body guard or a knight even.

“Nobira? Do you feel the Ki changes in the air?”

The knight bows to her “Yes Princess Asako. Such immense Ki releasing into the world like this reminds me of the tale of Rokigo.”

The princess stares longingly out of a nearby window and out to the ornate and dazzling capital.

“Nobira, do you think whoever released that Ki can save our land?”

Nobira quickly interjects with a warning, “Princess! You mustn’t speak so candidly. Even you as a member of the royal family may be at risk if the wrong ears were to hear you speak of such things.”

“I’m sorry Nobira.” The princess continues to look longingly out the window yet she also seems like she’s looking beyond the capital.

-Bagalow woods, Elven capital-

Deep within a vibrant green forest is a sprawling city of buildings built in the air, attached to trees, and even some built into the oldest and biggest of trees in the forest.

Beings, Elves, go about their lives here in this forest city. In the largest and oldest of the trees is the elvish royal palace.

In the royal palace the highest ranking of the elves are meeting to discuss the disturbances detected in Tricot.

“Why should we bother with the human regions? We get regular creation events and our people are prospering. It would do us no use to send an envoy.” Shouts an older elvish man.

“Still we can’t deny that based on the mana patterns the event in Tricot is the first cataclysm level event in over 5 decades. It would be prudent that we get ahold of any Spectral items found within, especially before the Guild finds and claims them.” A much younger elven man comments.

Suddenly the youngest elf in the room stands. He was sitting at the end of the table, obviously a man of importance.

“I agree with the Army commander that we need to secure whatever advantage we can get over the Guild. They keep encroaching on our lands everyday.”

“Is this what you truly wish for our Prince?” Asks the older elf that was opposed to sending troops into Tricot.

“Yes, I Raibyn Oriren, first prince of the Alwin Elvish Kingdom command an envoy to be deployed to Tricot post haste.”

The prince leaves the conference room and into what appears to be a study behind it. In it a young elf woman in a complicated and ornate pink dress is sitting drinking a glass of tea. “Dearest brother, how did the meeting go?”

The prince sits down on the couch next to her and motions to her to ask for permission to lay his head down on her lap. The elf princess gives him a warm smile and a subtle nod of her head.

Soon and without any remorse lays his head on her lap with a look that can only be described as a satisfied cat.

He finally answers her question, “We are sending an envoy to Tricot to explore the Creation Event and hopefully gather more resources before those bastards with the Guild do.”

She looks down at him with a worried face, “Dearest brother you weren’t… happening to think about joining said envoy… were you?”

He slowly looked up at her with a scared look on his face, “Maybe… A little?”

Her face turns dark, “Get up now!”

“Yyyyes ma’am!” He quickly obeys.

She pulls him close, “Don’t you dare leave me behind brother!”

“I won’t sis. I promise.”

He starts to rub her back as she melts into their shared embrace when suddenly they sense a cold chill and they both jump up.

“Brother, someone awakened a horrible power!”

“I know I feel it too. This sensation it’s almost like the prophecy in the Oakvale.”

They look at each other with great concern.

*****

In the dungeon room of the creation event Rugger and Tallow are a bloody mess huddled up behind Kaylin. They remain conscious but barely.

“Bring him back you stupid piece of shit!” Kaylin rages as she slices through tendril after tendril but keeping close to her two wounded allies.

“Kaylin enough. If you want to have any chance of survival you're going to have to assault the main body.” Ruggar yells at her.

“But if I do that then you two will…”

“It’s fine Kaylin, Rugger and I would rather at least one of our party survives.”

Rugger looks at her with pity, “Listen Kaylin, I’m sorry about the kid. The least you can do is live to carry on his memory and tell his family about how strong and brave he was.”

Kaylin begins to cry, finally accepting the truth of their situation and of Silas’s death.

As she steels herself for the fight ahead a sudden burst of mana begins to envelop Silas and the sword stuck in the ground near him. Suddenly new ancient texts are revolving around them.

Then just as suddenly as the mana burst occurred it disperses leaving Silas’s body floating in the air with the sword now in his hand. Around the sword mana crackles into the air, a dark purple and in the shape of lightning.

The sound of a woman echoes around them. “Wake up Darling”

Silas's eyes open and he floats to the ground. His eyes glow purple like the lightning engrossing his sword.

Before Kaylin can say anything Silas jettisons across the room. Everywhere he steps the tendrils disintegrate in purple lightning.

He jets around the room faster than the tendrils can respawn.

Finally he clashes with the rainbow shield produced by the entity's main body. The clash sends shock waves across the room sending Kaylin falling on to her rear end.

*****

Inside the cavern and near the Creation Event Clint and Tsubomi are knocked over by the shock of Silas’s clash with the shield.

“What the hell is going on Clint?” Tsubomi yells out as her ear still rings from the sound of the clash. She is so flustered that she didn’t even bother to keep her usual formal tone with him.

“Someone stole my Spectral Weapon, that's what happening!” Clint jumps up and back on his feet then barrels towards the clash at full speed.

*****

In a different, much further part of the caverns Alban, Kang, and Yulinka are actually able to feel and hear the clash. Not as powerful as what Clint and Tsubomi were able to feel or hear.

Alban looks at the two who both appear confused as to what the sound and sensation was. “Whomever activated the Spectral Weapon in Tricot is battling an entity and given the fact we could feel and hear that from all this way means it’s most certainly a Cataclysm class.”

He then starts laughing, “Miss Yulinka, I suspect we will have plenty of data for your analysis when we finally reach Guild HQ.”

*****

Back in the dungeon Silas’s sword and the shield are still stuck in a clash.

“I need more, more, more!” Silas shouts into the void.

As if listening to his demands the edges of his body begin to distort into the purple mana lightning that engrossed the sword. Slowly the shield begins to crack, but as it cracks further and further Silas figure distorts further until it looks like he is engulfed in purple flames.

Kaylin looks on in awe as Silas’s form morphs in the flames to resemble a woman wearing a regal dress. The woman and dress both appear to be made of the purple flames.

The shield shatters and in that moment the entity is stabbed by Silas and with the sword lodged into the entity they run across it. All the way up to the top of it creating a giant gash engulfed in the purple flames.

Then while they are in the air above the entity the sword begins to glow in an even brighter purple. It glows so bright it looks like a purple cross.

Then without warning Silas crashes down into it. When his body hits the ground the entity shatters into millions of tiny light purple sparkles.

*****

Despite the enemy having been defeated, Silas is still engulfed in the purple flames. At least now his appearance is of his own however the flames appear to be going crazy. Growing bigger and wilder with every passing second.

The room is still a void with ancient text scrolling all around the sides.

Kaylin thinks to herself, “This can’t end like this. I have to do something to save him and get us out of here.”

As Silas’s eyes begin to shutter closed his outline appears to resemble the woman again.

Then suddenly the ceiling cracked and shattered into shards as a man came tumbling down. He has a glowing spear pointed down and he is directly above Silas.

As Silas began falling forward the man sent his spear piercing through Sila’s chest.

As the spear hit the other side of the ground locking Silas into an upright, albeit slightly tilted position, the rest of the dungeons' void walls shattered revealing a massive open space. A new geofront that has been formed by them clearing the Creation Events dungeon.