We started moving at dawn. The time was 0600 on the dot.
I wanted to see if I had signal on my comm at another area near where we had camped, but there was none. The last time that I messaged Belle was yesterday morning, 0853, and the last thing I said was, When I get back, I'll do exactly that to you… ending our conversation on a flirtatious tone before entering these mountain ruins. I wondered if she had messaged back to that, or even perhaps this morning, but my comm might as well been completely dead.
"Yo, Dweeb, time to go!" Snow shouted at me from afar.
I took one last look past the gray clouds before heading to them. It looked like an ocean with an abandoned city underneath. Looking at it gave me an eerie calm, but there was no turning back now until we retrieved the Zion Orb.
I slipped my comm in my pocket and began to head over to them, but I felt a strange presence and stopped.
I couldn't sense aura, but the stillness of the feeling was deafening to my senses. The fact that it had appeared to be nothing at all was what caught my attention.
I looked back to the mountain ruins, but there was nothing…
"Dweeb! Come on, man, you can stroke your cock later!" Rex yelled.
"I'm coming!"
"I bet you are!"
"Ass," I said under my breath.
When we finally arrived and entered the abandoned city, we were welcomed with massive highways and crashed vehicles, all covered in weeds and vines. The buildings were not only large but also extremely advanced—more advanced, I'd say, than all the Valley Kingdom, even with our skyscrapers, hovering vehicles, and airships that populated the skies. I could only wonder what this place looked like in its prime…
"What was this place called again?" I asked.
Ryo hopped off from an extended road that the tectonic plates had shifted years ago. When he landed, he replied, "This place is called Lys Anima. It means 'Light Soul' in an ancient language back in the day. It's long since been abandoned for centuries; even the Great Alliance and even the Four Kingdoms were not yet established until a century later, after this place was left to the weeds. It was apparently a city of the future, a place where it was seen as the beacon of this world because of the lights that would emanate from it. It was the capital of the world. But a great calamity happened between the Keeper and another powerful entity that wrought chaos over all the land, wiping out half of the world's population. Centuries passed, and many civilizations grew with Lys Anima at the center of their inspiration. The world we live, the Kingdom's, everything was inspired by this grand city that once was. But even today, we have only become a fraction of what this place was. Now it is solely a place that grows Zion Orbs and is the home now to Higher Grade 3 and up beasts."
"Oh, don't remind me!" Rex shivered, "Those undead we accidentally ran into back in those mountain ruins were fucking scary!"
"Yeah, I was expecting to see more mixed beasts like that Behemoth. Beasts like Zonrogue-lycanbears, lioncats, and the like… some of these are creatures I've only heard in stories." Snow added.
"I told you we'd be running into abnormalities on this mission." Zeno said, going on, "I've never had to retrieve a Zion Orb before, but I've had missions close to this area and the monsters we ran into were otherworldly… for example, that Grade 2 Sentinel that Ryo killed, it is basically a giant clump of undead that forms when a plethora of corpses reside near a large pool of mana. With it being so near Lys Anima—a Zion Orb mine—it makes sense why it exists."
Rex shivered just thinking about all those dead bodies. "And it's only a Grade 2? Who the fuck decided that?" He whined and squirmed from behind, "And what about that undead army!? Why do they exist?"
"Same reason, just on a smaller scale. A corpse mixed with the overflowing pool of mana that courses through the ground. But if they were ever to leave this area, they would not survive because the mana residing in it would wither away to nothingness due to low mana supply from the lands beyond. Perhaps they would last a few days near a Kingdom, but with mages on watch, they would never let it get to that point."
"And what happens if one of those things bites you? Will you turn into an undead as well?" I asked.
"You read too many Webtoons, Dweeb, there's no way—" Rex said before Zeno had cut him off.
"Yes, actually."
Rex made an embarrassing peep. "You've got to be fucking-fucking me!"
"That is why they are considered Grade 2 beasts as well—well… in a horde at least. Like what we ran into back in those mountain ruins. But not to worry, you never see any undead near Kingdoms, towns, or villages… in theory." Zeno replied academically.
"In theory!?" Rex whined, "Why did you have to end that sentence with 'in theory'!?"
"Because there have been cases of undead near some villages and towns before. I've never encountered them until this mission, but those cases were fairly recent—about a month or so ago…"
"Please stop talking, Zeno!" Rex begged.
"Can you shut the fuck up, Rex? I'm trying to analyze the mist here, but I can't do that when I keep hearing your GODDAMN VOICE!" Snow said, shouting toward the end.
"It has been quiet since we arrived…" Ryo said.
We stood near each other, facing in all directions as the mist seemed to get thicker where we were. Rex cowered between Ryo and Zeno as we got into formation.
The area we were in looked to be some kind of elevated plaza with towering skyscrapers, each positioned to face the center of where we were. Giant, busted projection screens decorated them from high above along with a centuries worth of vines from the ground up. We surveyed both the surrounding area and the sky above us.
Then, from Rex's direction, we heard the sounds of shuffling…
"W-W-What was that!?" Rex squealed.
"Shh!" Snow hushed him as he closed his eyes and raised his hands in the air, feeling the haze seeping through his fingers.
Silence filled the air around us as we remained where we were.
Ever so silent...
Then Snow opened his eyes and said calmly, "Fifteen hundred."
It was on Zeno's side as he clasped his hands, and black pillars shielded us from a loud, sudden crash.
Rex fell on his ass as he said, "What the flying fuck!?"
"Flying is right…" Zeno said.
Right then, massive wings darted out to both sides of the pillars, and then a large claw gripped the edge of the black pillars where Rex was nearest. "Fuck me, fuck me, FUCK ME!!"
The claw swept away Zeno's pillars like dust, shattering them as it revealed itself.
Through the mist and the silence, the echo of a roar followed as its large head revealed to us all.
"Dragon!!" Ryo shouted.
It charged a blast from its mouth as they all scattered, and I remained behind.
When its gaping mouth glowed its deadly fire, I stood before it defiantly as I said, "Bring it."
The fire coursed and spread upon the ground like a burning sea, holding its gaping mouth above, lurking over me.
From the side, in a blink, Ryo held an electric burning claymore that was whipped to his side, ready to swing. On the other side was Snow with two steam gauntlets, also ready to strike.
But it saw them both and shot down its wings to block their strikes, and it was harder than the toughest iron.
Two shots then fired from elsewhere as they trailed in a controlled path. They hovered the dragon's head as it still let loose its fire over me and blocked the other two's attacks. And then when the bullets were in position, they stabbed into the dragon's glowing yellow eyes, flinching it and ceasing its fire temporarily.
The fire stopped as quickly as it started, leaving only ashes and cinders and me at its wake, still standing there.
"Now this is a real dragon. Not a mix. Not a conjured abomination. Not a fake!" I said, recalling all my past experiences.
I dashed forward with one elongated left step and my right fist behind me as I aimed for its black armored chest.
The minute I stepped, my boot screeched, and I dramatically thrusted my fist toward its course.
It howled in the wind and then struck the beast dead center, rippling massive cracks along its proud armored scales. The reverberations coursed over to where Ryo and Snow had struck, shattering its armored wings from the pressure they had made from their strikes.
And then at last it flew.
Blinded with its armor and wings shattered, and having taken a direct strike, it crashed into a nearby building, flying over the ledge of the extended road we stood upon.
And then lastly, to make sure it didn't get back up, Zeno stepped out from behind me and held a hand with a semi-incantation already in place, and chanted, "Pierce," as black spikes emerged from within the puncture of the building the dragon went through. They stabbed endlessly as it screeched a final cry and died from inside the building.
As we regrouped, Zeno said, "A bit much, but it couldn't be helped… nothing personal, Ryo."
"None taken. Though it was a rare beast and the mark my Guild bears, it had to be put down, lest we were the ones to go in its place."
The beast faded into ashes as we watched the wind carry its silent remains into the ethers. And we all held our heads down in prayer and gave it a moment of silence.
This was our way of paying respect to it since it was also a beast of symbolization. Whenever mages killed a rare single species: dragons, panthers, wolves… we prayed and witnessed its leaving from the world since there were not many of them in this day and age. They also say it was for good fortune or to have one's way with the Keeper. But I cared not for such things. For out of the five of us, and I had no idea why, but I was praying to another God.
After we paid our respects, we continued onward, deeper into Lys Anima.
***
We fought through hordes of Grade 3 and up monsters, undead in the mix, as we entered a wrecked cathedral in the city. It was an enormous construct in both height and width.
There were more stairs in the place than anything else as they led and crossed in different directions above us. Some of the flights of stairs had broken off over time, leaving the place an absolute, scattered mess.
When we looked upward to the high ceiling, lights fluttered above and exited through the broken glass windows out into the sky.
"This place is a goddamn nightmare," Snow said solemnly as we observed the light above. "Those stairs don't look too sturdy…"
"Aye. Good thing we're not here to go up…" Ryo responded dryly as we all looked to the gaping hole at the center of the place before us. Inside was pitch black—a void, and perhaps the gateway to hell.
"They did this every ten years?" Rex asked.
"Apparently," I replied.
"Wild…"
"There stairs going down or…" I uttered.
Zeno stepped past us all and faced back to us as he said, "How do you think?" Then jumped backward into the void.
"Fucking hell…" Snow said.
"Why… Why is this mission full of jumping to our doom into unknown fucking places!" Rex complained.
I shrugged at them nonchalantly as I went next, saying, "I like it."
"OF COURSE YOU DO, YOU PSYCHOPATH! YOU SMILE WHEN YOU FIGHT! THAT'S PSYCHOPATH BEHAVIOR!" Rex shouted as I proceeded to step off the ledge with my hands in my pockets, but before I did… I raised one of my hands and tapped Rex's back.
The quite realization of my action led him to delay his response as he fell into the unknown void.
"DWEEB! WHYYY!? AHHHH!!" his scream echoed as he disappeared into the darkness.
I snickered at Snow as he chuckled maniacally at what I had just done.
"Last one in's a bitch," I said as I stepped off into nothingness, and all I heard behind me was Snow's gripes as he tried to beat Ryo to it, following shortly behind.
My hair fluttered against the wind with an emotionless expression effortlessly sown on my face. I was already quite used to falling from great heights; if anything, I enjoyed them—even if I was falling into a seemingly never-ending abyss.
Suddenly, the pitch-black wisped away as we fell through the ceiling of a vast underground room. It was surprisingly more put together than the place we entered above.
As I continued to fall, I noticed grand platforms that layered over each other like giant stairs. In the middle was a suspended glowing white aura within floating bronze intersecting rings, resembling an orb.
Zeno and Rex were below me as we continued to fall. I shouted at him through the wind and Rex screams, "Is that it?"
"No. Believe it or not—it's deeper down."
"What is that, then? And what is this place?"
"It's called the Sanctuary, and that is a lesser Zion Orb for Sub Kingdoms. I've only studied it. This is my first time being here in person."
"Why do they call it the Sanctuary?" I asked.
"Well, look around…"
I continued observing the place, and it was crawling with monsters. I had only barely noticed.
"Ryo!" Zeno shouted above us.
"Here!" he responded as he and Snow, finally made it through the giant hole in the ceiling. Rex was still screaming all the while in between us.
"We're gonna have Rex maneuver us over there," Zeno said to him, pointing to the bottom of the lesser Zion Orb and hovering bronze rings that looked so close, yet so far at the same time. There was another pitch-black hole below it. "Unless you can grow your wings and fly us all there?" He looked at me.
I remained in my relaxed position, looking as if I were sitting in the air, hands still in my pockets, as I replied, "No can do."
"Alright, well in that case—I need our designated taxi to stop screaming… REX!"
Ryo then positioned his body to point downward so as to gain speed and catch up to us—Rex specifically, who was flailing about.
"Rex, we—"
"Fuck you guys!"
"Just this once…"
"No! You're all mean! You know I hate heights! And yet he"—he pointed to me with tears in his eyes—"you all—!"
"There will be no more unnecessary falling after this. I can guarantee you that."
"You're having me lead us to another hole, you liar!"
"…" Ryo cleared his throat. "—after this and that…"
"You promise?"
Ryo didn't respond for a moment—still freefalling.
"YOU PROMISE!?" Rex pushed.
"… Yes, I promise…" Ryo finally said; his social skills radiating like the heart of this crew he was.
"YOU'RE LYING!" Rex whined, but proceeded to do it anyway.
As he wept, he threw his hands in a hand sign and connected us all, each with a string of green aura that connected back to him. The strings disappeared as he chanted,
"Trajectory Magic: Path Weaver!"
Though he had said this while weeping, we had begun flying in another direction toward the next black hole.
Monsters screeched and bellowed as we flew over them from high above; they had to have been all Grade 2 and Grade 1 monsters. It was best that we avoided time-wasting battles—and just this area in general.
"Wanna snag that while we're at it?" I asked, referring to the lesser Zion Orb.
"Sounds reasonable, right?" Snow at last chimed in.
"I wish it were so simple," Ryo said. "unfortunately, the special magic item we brought to store the Zion Orb we're after can only hold one Orb at a time… storing another would destroy the magic item."
"Boo…" I said without another thought.
As we neared it, I noticed some of the beasts that were able to fly begin to head over to us.
"Can we go any faster?" I shouted.
"This is as fast as we can go! My magic is Trajectory, not Speejectory!" Rex shouted back. Though we were already going at racing speeds, the monsters that were flying toward us were Grade 1s… we had to lose them—now.
We had gotten closer, but as we neared, a Grade 1 monster flew up from ahead of us. A batlizard on steroids—a Noctryss.
"Fuckin' hell!" Snow shouted as the beast screeched an ear-piercing roar and emitted a dark aura from its wings.
"Dark magic… we're screwed if we let it cast anything!" Zeno said.
"Aye…" Ryo said under his breath, remembering his last encounter with such an ability.
I remembered that odd encounter as well, when a part of my memories had manifested at the same time of Demi's defeat and I saw Ryo, having delivered the final blow.
I could tell the battle was immensely taxing on him. But there were five of us now.
"Straight line!" I shouted, and Rex repositioned us with Ryo behind, him in the center, Snow, Zeno, and then me at the front—on a direct path to the Noctryss.
I shrouded myself in vantablack, crossed my arms over Zeno's ankles, locking them there; he did the same, locking onto Snow's, Snow's to Rex's, and Rex's to Ryo's.
Zeno then began layering black bars onto us, becoming a shield from the impending impact with only my legs and boots leading the charge, Snow emitted his steam so that he can keep everyone's mana regulated and protect Rex from what Ryo was about to do, Rex kept us going the course, and Ryo—with a hand sign and perhaps the one that was to do the most in this moment—chanted,
"Firebolt Magic: Roaring Blaze!"
His body was cloaked in a staticky flame as it flared outward, rushing us faster. Thanks to Snow's healing steam, Rex was unaffected by Ryo's blaze, and we blasted through the air like a missile as my Tantra enforced heels made contact to the Grade 1 beast.
A splattering noise filled our ears. Like the sound of flesh exploding sight unseen. We pierced the beast, disintegrating it as its monster chunks pounded onto Zeno's black shield.
We were finally in the clear. We just need to get away from the other Grade 1s flying behind us.
As we sped down and into the next black void, we disengaged our form and free-fell into the darkness once more.
When I looked up, the Grade 1 beasts gathered there, but they did not pursue us.
"They're not following!" I spoke.
"Perhaps, there is something down here even they do not want to run into…" Zeno replied.
Rex wailed after he said that, "ZENO DON'T SAY THOSE THINGS PLEASE! IT'S NOT FUNNY!"
"Unfortunately, it may not be a joke…"
We fell endlessly through the gaping black, though it was not as far down as the first one we jumped through. And as we entered this new place, it was more like a cave than the pristine Sanctuary we came from.
At last, we saw it. The priceless item that we took two weeks to get, and two weeks to go back with. The single piece needed to get the Valley Kingdom's barriers back up. And the whole reason we plunged this deep into wherever we were now…
It glowed bright, crystal blue, as we all gazed upon it like moths to a flame, lighting up this cave in a heliochrome glow.
"The Zion Orb!" we all said as we continued to freefall, and a massive beast's gaping mouth slammed its jaws onto us from behind.