The three-dimensional map melted into liquid, flowing inward until it condensed into a sphere.
A second later, everything around them—including their own bodies, without exception—transformed into a blank purple magic circle.
Next, they beheld massive, thorny blue spheres—not just one, but trillions of them. As the process continued, white chains lined with purple fur appeared.
Further still, purple hands clasped one another, followed by spheres sprouting tentacles. Each sphere possessed a different count of tentacles: some had one, some had two, others had sixteen; some tentacles were straight, others overlapped; some existed as solitary spheres, while others were fused together.
They observed that the solitary spheres possessed tentacles in multiples of four. Except for Alut, none of them understood why, nor did they recognize what these tentacled spheres were. But Alut knew.
Atoms, Alut thought.
Perhaps these are our microscopic organ structures... No, this is the very fabric of reality.
He noticed spheres with uniquely shaped, thorny tentacles—which he deduced were Suryawari's atoms.
Then, all vision vanished into absolute darkness. They tried to scream, but no sound escaped.
Alut was terrified, but he knew screaming was futile. They were now at a subatomic scale—the Quantum reality—where Lunons could no longer propagate light.
He recognized this dark void: the quark realm. Only six interaction particles could function at this level:
Hofergenon, the mass carrier;
Trosuron, the quark binder;
Crefenon, the vibrational identity changer;
Stanfion, the flavor identity changer;
Manastron, the magic carrier with virtual mana forms; and
Fragtheson, the reality alterer.
To communicate at this scale, one had to utilize these six interaction effects; any other method would fail completely.
Alut attempted to sense Manastron, but before he could complete the process, their vision snapped back to normal. They gasped in shock.
"Ah, never mind," Alut sighed.
"[Arriving at destination]," the robotic voice announced.
"Vector unification, smart method!" King Danara commanded.
[Calculating occupants... Success.Total: 3,000 individuals]
[Generating procedural terrain... Success.]
[Activating spatial extension magic... Success.]
[Activating illusion-to-reality magic... Success.]
[Applying magic to capital city... Success.]
[Executing transport...]
Their vision shifted once more. Leaving the people of Adaika Duchy and Lord Rastanura behind, the entire royal family, along with Alut and Suryawari, found themselves standing in the center of a massive chamber.
The pristine white floor was crafted from polished andesite. Looking up at the ceiling and walls, they saw countless golden northern patterns encased within golden rings. Three of the walls—the left, the front, and the rear—featured doors intricately carved with eagle motifs, imbuing the entire hall with a majestic grandeur.
"Now, follow me to the throne room," King Danara requested.
They already knew where the throne room was, but out of respect for the King of Falias, none dared step ahead of him. They waited for King Danara's second shadow to teleport first. Although King Danara preferred they walk ahead, he knew he had to lead to maintain royal etiquette. His second shadow teleported five meters toward the left wall as he began to walk toward it, followed closely by Princess Cruini and Queen Sajari.
Alut and Suryawari's second shadows followed in sequence before they stepped forward. The heavy doors parted automatically once the royal family came within three meters.
"Welcome, Your Majesty," greeted the guards standing on either side of the entrance, clad in metallic armor radiating a crimson aura.
"Don't keep guests waiting merely for the sake of formality!" King Danara instructed.
Leaving Princess Cruini, who walked straight ahead, King Danara and Queen Sajari turned toward the right corner, with Alut and Suryawari following behind. At the end of the right corridor stood a gate carved with a tiger head, forged from a purplish-blue metal known as Harmen—an extraordinarily rare material with a mere three divide by ten thousand success rate in high-tier alchemy.
On the left side of the room stood a group of people, though one man stood out starkly from the rest. He possessed almond-shaped, gentle eyes with black irises, fair white skin, and an orange shawl draped across his body from shoulders to knees.
His sharp-chinned face was elegantly framed by sky-blue hair. His most striking feature was a necklace of gold beads carved into delicate flowers. King Danara addressed him in the Veneyir language.
"
Fisette fage tiro, fyar (Present your report, sir)," King Danara spoke, gazing gently at the diplomat.
The
Veneyir language consisted of three distinct dialects:
Ancient Veneyir, spoken exclusively by the elusive
Arfema tribes;
Jitarya Veneyir, the language of the Jitarya Kingdom; and
Rulak Veneyir, spoken in the northern continent's Rulak Kingdom.
Ancient Veneyir was exceptionally rare, as almost no one had ever encountered the Arfema; any claim of meeting them was widely assumed to be a lie. King Danara was speaking in Jitarya Veneyir.
"
Katef namu Ardea Saulas, katef roumlat orfu Jitarya suthim quisok barguet tirola delajz difane rampage wissalo titirge. Gon defkal katefta quisok barqua tem damon Antasen gutinu delajouz kataki rampage nodema eksotem katefta diaz rudel (My name is Ardea Saulas, a diplomat from the Jitarya Kingdom. I seek your assistance to deal with the sea species' rampage. If possible, we kindly request the demons of the Antasen tribe to lead the rampage so our ecosystem remains intact)," Ardea pleaded.
Everyone present recognized the Jitarya Kingdom, located on the second southern continent—a landmass shaped like an inverted bat's head, known as the Camudrea continent. While the royal family sympathized with his plight, Falias lacked a diplomat capable of negotiating with the demons of the Antasenian tribe.
"
Katefta pridome som fyar, diarze roumlas katefta porgue Antaseniach, kofti (We ask for your forgiveness, Sir; we have yet to engage in diplomacy with the Antasenian, but—)," King Danara replied, before turning his gaze toward Alut. "You must help him."
"Why me?!" Alut protested.
"It doesn't matter; I shall seek aid from another kingdom," Ardea sighed.
King Danara knew that when diplomats reverted to his own language, it signaled one of two emotional states: frustration or relief. In this instance, it was clear Ardea was thoroughly frustrated.
"Alut!" King Danara barked.
"Can Your Majesty not send your royal knights instead?!" Alut pressed.
"Facing a rampage is the duty of a hero!" King Danara warned. "I do not care if you refuse. I am sending you to assist the Jitarya Kingdom!"
"Alut, you must accept!" a man wearing a black robe warned.
Alut thought he could compromise with him; the man was one of his own fathers. And Alut knew that man was the Duke of the Drakea Duchy, Duke Sujara Arbalam.
"Why me? I never asked to be a hero—"
Duke Arbalam slapped him.
"Yes, you never asked to be a hero!" Duke Arbalam said, staring at him coldly. "You failed to save your parents, and now you want to reject your role?"
"Did you hear what Arbalam said?" King Danara asked.
"What date is it now?" Duke Arbalam stared at King Danara.
"
Thirteenth of Aries in
two thousand four Lumerus," King Danara replied.
"
Ir dwax thereg rampage? (When did the rampage take place?)" Duke Arbalam asked Ardea.
"
Kor dwezin de pass (Two weeks from now)," Ardea answered.
A shadow appeared five meters behind Alut. They knew someone was coming, so they stared at the gate.
From the corner Alut and King Danara had walked from earlier, someone appeared.
His body was covered in blue metal armor, except for his face. They knew that man was a knight. In Alut's memory, the knight was Dukali.
"Danger," Dukali gasped, breathless. "Something dangerous is at the southeast gate."
"What happened?" King Danara asked.
"A
Biastonar raid—no, that's a
Biastonar rampage," Dukali panted.
"Are you sure that is a rampage?" King Danara verified.
"Yes, Your Majesty," Dukali confirmed breathlessly.
"Alut," King Danara stared at him.
Alut knew he had no option to refuse, so he accepted his duty reluctantly. He tried to sense mana and utilized his
Promactum eyeglasses to locate the monsters.
He closed his eyes, and his vision shifted to a field with fresh grass on both sides. In the middle, right where he stood, was a dirt road made of hard ground.
Turning around, he could see the city gate with its cracked wall. He turned back toward the road.
Approaching him were beasts with a comical appearance. Their heads were those of monkeys, complete with protruding tongues sticking out in an idiotic and annoying expression. Yet, their bodies exuded the overwhelming presence of an absolute predator—a giant centipede with crocodile-like armored skin along its back. That monster was two hundred its total.
Alut clearly recognized the monsters as Biastonar—among the worst abominations nature could create. Proof that in nature, even something comical could become deadly.
His first instinct was to run, but running was not an option.
He forced himself to calm down, deciding not to ask his younger sister for help.
Instead, he focused his mind on the most unstable element he knew.
"Ah, Rimanium..." he whispered.
He planned to synthesize Rimanium out of thin air. He knew Rimanium was a hyperisotope of Dracolium. Both Dracolium and Rimanium contained 126 hadrons within their atomic cores. The difference between the two elements lay in the quarks that comprised their hadrons.
Rimanium possessed two types of hadrons: Damlaton, composed of two scilio quarks and one afro quark; and Ragnathon, composed of three afro quarks.
Dracolium, on the other hand, possessed two different hadrons: Azetron, composed of two fruo quarks and one desco quark; and Semion, composed of two desco quarks and one fruo quark.
To his knowledge, an afro quark carried a charge of negative one (-1), while a scilio quark carried a charge of positive one-half (+1/2). However, both quarks were prone to highly sensitive decay; if their energy levels fluctuated even slightly, it would trigger a catastrophic, highly poisonous explosion. Furthermore, Rimanium was known as the "Zombie Element"—because whenever it was exposed to mana, it would continually repair itself and explode with poisonous force over and over again.
He knew this decision would devastate the environment, but he had no other choice.
Before he could sense the mana inside his head, someone leapt at him from atop one of the beasts. He had no time to dodge.
The man wore a green robe that gave him the aura of a wanderer, while the thick wools he wore indicated an origin from an Arctic region. Alut realized such attire was impossible for someone from this continent.
Pain shot through Alut's hand as he parried the man's sword with his bare palm. Blood flowed from his hand, but it transformed into crimson dust before touching the ground. The man stared at him with glassy eyes. His disappointment felt unreasonable, yet that emotion was clearly visible beneath his wolf mask.
Alut didn't want to squander the chance. He slashed the man's right shoulder, making it bleed—and that blood, too, turned into crimson dust. The man leapt high into the air and became pale green light then vanished, leaving the Biastonar behind for Alut to face.
Please sign in to leave a comment.