A Word of Darkness

Good evening everyone. I am currently writing a book and thought I'd throw it out here to see if people like it. Now, I know it's poorly written here and there, and there are even some holes in the story. But I hope you get a good impression of it. This is also a little old version(the previous version of the current to be precise) of the story, but that's intended. Both so people don't copy it and call it their own story, but also because I don't have the current version from where I am now. So withouth further delay... Enjoy. (PS: Sorry the weird format. It's a book after all.)


A WORD OF DARKNESS
A long time ago, in a small valley, a man came to twist his leg as he walked
along the road in the valley. The man sat down and looked around. "Guess it
can't be helped." The man said and took off his knapsack. He brushed some
dust off the top of it as he smiled satisfied around at the small spot he sat. He
took a sword up from the knapsack. The sword was big and long, yet light and
sharp. He smiled even more as he could see himself in the shine of the
polished surface of the blade. He stood up and stroked the sword against his
twisted limb and raised the sword into the air.
"I sacrifice my leg for new life!" Said the man and stabbed the sword into a
pedestal which out of nowhere had appeared beneath his bare feet.
After stabbing the sword into the pedestal, the man felled backwards and died.
Ten years later, a small village was built around the pedestal in the very same


valley. It was a lovely and pretty village. Storia was its name. Fewer than one
hundred lived there. But at the same day when just ten days had passed from
the man's death, a Boy was born. The Boy was born one storm-full night with
a purple gem in his right hand. Only the half of it was visible at the top of the
boy's hand. Seiken was the given name to the boy. He didn't cry when he was
born, he just peered around as the curious little boy he was.
Twenty years passed... And Seiken had grown to be a handsome young man.
He had made four friends in the small village. Lisa, Joe, Canslash and Yimbo.
They were all good friends which used to hang out a lot of times. Storia had
become a nice little place for people to live in peace. Most people used to
work as farmers to make their living; others tried themselves as fishermen in
the small river which went past the side of the village. The village was made of
straw-huts with the Pedestal with the sword in the middle. There was not much
to do in the village, but practice with swords. Using magic was forbidden as
they could kill themselves by only trying to perform a spell without something
they called "Siren's Triangle". The elders of the village had spoken of it as a
lost artifact that grants the user the ability to clear his/hers mind of anything
but magic, making the user able of performing even the greatest kind of spells.
When Seiken woke up this day, he came to remember it was his birthday. So
he jumped into his new nice cloths and looked into the polished stone which
stood in the living-room which his father had found in the mountain. He looked
down at his brown leather boots and slowly looked upwards on his loose black
pants which were tied around his waist with a rope, Upwards on his chest
where he only had a loose white shirt which revealed the top of his chest.
Then he looked himself into the eyes. Those Brown beautiful eyes sparkled of
excitement as he smiled for himself. He tied a bandanna around his head,
making his black-brown hair stay a bit more up instead of covering his face.
He gave his mother a kiss and ran out the door to meet up with his friends.
Lisa stood already outside his house in a white dress which her mum had
made for her. She smiled widely while both of her clear blue eyes shone nicely
by the sun as well with her lovely pink lips. She had her golden-yellow hair
hanging down her back. "Good morning, Sleepyhead! Congratulations with
your birthday!" She smiled and waved as she saw Seiken came out of his
house. They both started to talk a bit with each other before Yimbo and

Canslash showed up. They were brothers so they had the exact same cloths.
Brown leather shoes, white loose pants and nothing on their chest. They also
congratulated Seiken with his birthday like Lisa did, but they lifted him into the
air, carrying him down to the "Battlefield" where they used to practice Sword-
fighting. Lisa didn't like to play with swords, so she used to just sitting by and
cheer on them. Sometimes she did magic when no adults where nearby. She
had mastered the art of creating small flames already, so she was trying to
master the art of ice.
When they got down to the Battlefield, Canslash and Yimbo started to
practice-fight with each other. Seiken and Lisa cheered for them, but Canslash
won. He's starting to master the sword-fighting art.
"Since this is my birthday, I will now do a magic spell for each of you." Seiken
said and clapped his hands to each other a few times before holding them
tightly to each other. "This one is for Canslash." He slowly opened his hands,
slightly opening his eyes wider as he could see he was creating lightning-
sparks between his hands. He surged his energy harder and made it spark
even more and it faded away into a small electrical firework. He breathed out
thanking the gods that everything went alright. Seiken had never performed
any magic spell before. He clapped his hands to each other again and slowly
opened them, revealing a small ice ball between them. "This one is for you,
Yimbo." He made the ball spin around before he let go of his left hand and
shot a chicken which ran past them with his ice bolt. "Woah, way to go,
Seiken! That was thrilling, man!"
He laughed and then looked at Lisa. She stood there excited and wondered
what kind of magic spell he would do for her. He smiled and looked her deeper
into her eyes. They was all at the same age so Seiken thought it was best to
not get too close to Lisa as he was not the only one which seemed to be
interested in her. He knitted his hands and pulled them to himself as he said.
"Lisa. This one is for you." Sparks and gloomy-glowing orbs appeared around
him as he focused his energy as hard as he could. His body was lighten with a
mystical force which just moved faster and faster until Seiken rise his hands
into the air, letting go of the massive force. A big dragon was formed by the
magical spell which flew around them in a terrific speed. They panicked
slightly and ran to a pile of hay, hiding in it. "Seiken, Stop it!" Shouted

Canslash, Yimbo and Lisa at the same time, all with a shivering Voice. Seiken
didn't seem to react at first as he gazed at the dragon, wondering how he
could possibly create such magic spell before he replied. "I-I can't!". The
dragon flew far into the sky before crashing in the roof of Lisa's House. The
house was immediately consumed by an enormous fire. The peoples in the
village screamed and ran around in panic as the dragon hit the house. “Oh
no!” Said the four of them who lay in the hay. Lisa ran into the village with a
horrified expression on her face.
Seiken felt shivers down his spine as he realized what he just had done. He
decided to run after Lisa, but stopped as he was about to exit the Battlefield. It
was like something pierced through his heart, at least he felt like it! He turned
around, looked around and then he saw it.
On the top of the southern hill stood a man.
The man didn't seem to move, but gaze out over the valley.
Seiken, Canslash and Yimbo ran after Lisa, finding her just outside of the
house, crying. They grabbed her arms and pulled her backwards away from
the heat. Canslash and Yimbo went to the well to get some buckets of water
which the other villagers had prepared. Some of the villagers where already
trying to kill the flames with water.
After a while, the flames were gone. So was Lisa's house. Lisa sat on the
edge of the well gazing onto the ruins as her tears flow down her cheeks as
Joe who recently showed up tried to soothe her. Lisa's Parents died as her
father was the only doctor of the village. Her mother was giving birth during
Seiken's magic-show, and her father was helping her. "Get her more away
from here!" shouted Seiken at the guys. They lifted Lisa up, carrying her to a
pile of hay where they carefully placed her. Joe sat down beside her, patting
her head as he tried to soothe her as well as he could while Yimbo and
Canslash went back to Seiken. Seiken had noticed two black appearances
which was her parents. It was not a pretty sight and he wanted to spare Lisa
for the sight.
After a while, everything calmed down. Peoples had gathered around the


ashes of the house, mourning and trying to salvage goods from the house.
"What have I done..." Seiken covered his face with his hands, knowing that
Lisa would hate him for the rest of his life now. He peered down into the purple
gem on his hand, noticing a slight hint of a red spark inside it before it faded
away. He blinked his eyes, trying to see if he could see it again, but with no
luck.
Seiken suddenly felt a hand on his shoulders. He felt his feet left the ground,
noticing his father were lifting him up. His father was the hugest guy in the
town, also the local blacksmith. He carried Seiken behind their house to the
place where the "Battlefield" was located. Lisa, Joe, Canslash and Yimbo were
already there. Lisa sat in a pile of hay with a expression over her face as she
had seen a ghost. She lifted a hand and stroke over her left tear-stained cheek
and peered over at Joe who stood right next to Seiken's father, Yimbo and
Canslash who lied on the ground, seeming pretty up-beaten and then finally
on Seiken, getting a slightly angry expression over her face. His father was
known for giving out hard punishments to the children of Storia if they had
done something wrong. "What have I said about doing spells, kid?!" He started
shouting at Seiken. Seiken attempt to defend himself as good as he could but
got a blackout when he felt his father's fist into his stomach. He could see his
angry face and the clear blue sky as everything faded.
Seiken could hear something far in the distance. “W-wah…? Am I dreaming?”
He stood up and looked around. By the looks, it seemed like he was in heaven
due all the clouds, blue-white sky and a faint white fog surrounding him. He
could see something far away. He rubbed his eyes, making sure if it was a
dream or not, but everything seemed real. He slowly walked towards the
sound that could remind of the sound of a harp. When he got closer he could
see an Angel playing a harp. The Angel was crying and stopped playing as
Seiken got close. She looked at him and faintly smiled. *Boing* A string of the
harp was released from the harp and hovered over to Seiken. He watched the
string intensely and gasped as it sparkled gently with white light. The string
straightened up and suddenly flew into Seiken’s mouth and went down into his
belly. Seiken got startled at first and attempted to cough it up again, but then
he could feel a warm feeling within his chest, knowing that it was positive to
have it inside him. The string faded away within him as Seiken’s attention was


drawn to his gem in the hand. It was sparkling again, but this time it was a
clear white light dancing inside it that slowly faded away. He felt weaker and
weaker as the white light faded away and eventually fainted.
Seiken could see something sparkling… He groaned in pain as he shut his
eyes hardly before slowly opening them, noticing money on the ground right
next to him. The sun shone on them, making a sparkling light hit Seiken as he
pulled himself together, stood up and looked around. The entire village was in
flames. Everything was burning. With a horrified expression over his face he
ran around in the village, trying to find anyone amongst the burning houses
without any luck. He stopped up for a second, thinking a bit. He realized this
must be a bad dream and smacked his face with his fist once. Nothing
happened... He tried again, again and again, but with no luck. He widened his
eyes, realizing this was reality. He ran to the battlefield to look after Lisa. He
could see something far away, seeing a big prison-wagon going along the
road a bit downward the mountainside as he slowed down and eventually
walked to a pile of hay and felled onto his knees. He gazed into the distance,
noticing it was that man who was standing on the top hill earlier that day,
seeming to lead the export. He also saw that many of the villagers of Storia
were trapped inside the wagon along with many other prisoners. If flames
hadn't surrounded the place, he would've gone after them, but he couldn't.
All he could was to stay behind looking at the caravan as it slowly went away.
"*Cough* *Cough*". Seiken peered around, looking at the pile of hay he was
sitting in. Suddenly he could feel that something moved. Lisa crawled out of it,
coughing. Seiken jumped off the hay, reaching out a hand for her and helped
her up on her feet while brushing dust and hay away from her cloths.
"MURDERER!" Lisa screamed when she noticed that Seiken helped her up.
She went to the village-center, attempting to get away from Seiken. He came
after her as he looked around, noticing the village had been pillaged. "Lisa,
Wait!" said Seiken as he got close to her. Lisa leaned herself against the
sword in the pedestal, coughing. Seiken sat down beside her, looking at her as
he reached out his hand for her. Lisa peered up at him, knowing that he's a
good person. But at the moment, she hated him for what he had done to her
and her family.



*Smack!* She hit his face with her hand, facing her face away from him. A
wave of heat struck through the village. Seiken felt a wave of weakness rush
through his body, leaving him rather crippled for a few seconds before he
looked at Lisa and the sword. He had no other choice than grab Lisa even she
wanted or not, take the sword from the pedestal to be able to defend himself
and her and leave the village while they still had time. He grabbed her hand
and the sword, pulling both to himself, ending up with Lisa standing and the
sword in his Right hand, He ran towards the Forest that was haunted.
Lisa didn't seem to react but running with him as he still held her hand.
They reached the edge of the forest which the adults had warned them from to
enter.
Seiken took a deep breath and entered the forest with Lisa and the sword, a
sunny afternoon...
The forest was quite dense but had a small path going straight through it. The
forest floor was mostly grassy with a few patches of moss. There was also
several soft soils around on the ground that was risky to thread on one might


fall down into an underground cave or an endless hole.
Seiken's parents haven't told him where the path ended, but Seiken hoped it
would end up in a city named Shana, a city which was named after the
legendary hunter whom was known for slaying dragons. She was often spoken
of in children’s stories. He hoped to stay there a few days until he had figured
out what to do.
After walking for a while, without seeing any signs of animals, Lisa asked
where Seiken were taking her. She was walking behind Seiken, a bit to the left
to him when Seiken said he didn’t knew but hoped they ended up in Shana.
She kept looking at his back, not wanting to talk to him at all as all she could
think of what that recently had happened.
The light in the forest started to fade away as the evening slowly faded in. It
was the nights and evenings the parents had warned the children about.
"S-Seiken?" said Lisa, shivering slightly as strange noises and sounds slightly
began to appear around them as they walked along the path. Seiken didn’t
hear Lisa and kept walking. “Seiken?” Lisa tried again, touching his left
shoulder carefully. They both stopped. Seiken was looking down on the
ground a bit before he peered over his shoulder with a smile across his face.
“I’m tired.” Lisa said carefully while she looked down into the ground, making a
little circle in the dirt. Seiken knew that if they stopped in the middle of the
woods, they would be dead for sure before the next day. “Let’s continue a bit
more, okay?” He looked forwards again, slowly starting to walk again. He had
only shown Lisa the left side of his face when he turned around since he was
crying on the right side. He was actually quite scared and didn’t know what to
do at all, but he had to keep going and smiling, hoping that Lisa wouldn’t
notice his fear. With a shivering nod, Lisa kept going on behind Seiken,
peering around carefully.
After they had been walking for a while, the little path widened up and turned
out to lead into a meadow of Lotuses. "Lotus? A-at a place like this?" Lisa said
to herself in her head before she went to the edge of the meadow. Seiken took
off his shirt and sat down at a moss-covered rock by the meadow, trying to
make a scabbard out of the shirt for the sword. Lisa went deeper and deeper
into the ocean of Lotuses. In the middle of the flowers were a small spot with
grass. In the middle of the spot grew a Black lotus. Lisa went towards the
black lotus at once she spotted it. Seiken, who somehow finally had managed
to make a scabbard, came over to Lisa who were sitting on her knees in front
of the black lotus, wondering what she was about to do with Seiken that had
killed her family, and what she should do next in her life. She had no home, no
place to return to, no money, no food or water, she only had Seiken. She felt
her tears flow down her cheeks again as she sat there, feeling how the
moonlight that shone slightly through the trees illuminates her and the lotus
with its enchanting light.


"Are you... Alright?" Seiken asked, looking down at Lisa and the flower while
wondering if it was really safe to walk around in the meadow as they couldn't
tell whenever they step into soft soil or not or maybe get attacked by a
poisonous snake. Lisa picked the Black lotus and held it up before Seiken,
wanting to give it to him as a symbol of her grief and anger against him but
also as a symbol of cooperation.
As Seiken saw the Lotus, He suddenly felt a rush of rage and anger as a chilly
feeling rushing through his body. Groaning and moaning, he covered his eyes
with his left arm, noticing the gem on his right hand glowing strongly blue. He
slightly breathed out more and more easily and uncovered his eyes, peering
around. Lisa had taken a few steps back, looking at him.
Seiken grabbed the Black Lotus and threw it away. Lisa looked at him with a
disappointing expression before he took Lisa's hand and ran down the
meadow, hoping to find the next part of the path or maybe the exit of the
forest. Lisa wondered why they were in such rush and what that just had
happened to Seiken since he all of a sudden started to groan and moan as
well rushing her with him through the meadow with all the pretty lotuses.
Suddenly the ground started to shake. The shaking grew stronger and
stronger as Seiken ran down the meadow with Lisa. Lisa threw a glance over
her shoulders, making big eyes when she saw a big "wave" of lotuses coming
towards them in a speed quicker than theirs. The ocean of lotuses didn’t seem
to end as they got deeper and deeper into the forest. "Seiken! Behind us!" Lisa
shouted as she kept looking back at the huge wave. All of a sudden the big


wave stopped. However, the wave didn't flat out with the ground. It were still
curved but standing completely still. "S-Seiken? I think we can stop now. The
Wave stopped." Seiken and Lisa stopped to regain their breath.
All of a sudden, the ground trembled greatly. Since Seiken had quick reflexes,
he grabbed something he thought was Lisa’s hand and started to run further
down the meadow. Lisa had tripped over into the meadow, and was lying
amongst the flowers. "S-Seiken! Don't leave me!" Seiken stopped and looked
over at Lisa on the ground, starting to run back to her, but he tripped over
because of some vines that had appeared on the ground. He struggled to get
loose from the vine, but it seemed to be controlled as the vine entangled his
feet. He could hear Lisa shouting his name over and over again but suddenly
she stopped halfway through his name and became silent. Seiken kept
struggling with the vine before he managed to look how Lisa was doing.
Seiken made big eyes when he saw a huge black appearance where Lisa
tripped over. He closed his eyes, hoped for that he could still use magic even
due his strange behavior of his gem. He clapped his hands against each other
rapidly before curving them, focusing energy of fire into a ball that he threw
towards the appearance. The fireball exploded against a tree right next to the
appearance, allowing Seiken to see its identity before it were consumed by
shadows again.
"G-Gyrono!" Seiken said with a shaking voice. Gyrono was a dire beast which
was the monster in all of the children's stories. Gyrono where one of many
beasts in this forest and had awakened when Lisa picked the flower from his
"bed" Gyrono was a big monster which could remind of a dog, but with vines
instead of hair.
Seiken drew his sword, cutting vines off his legs and stood up, looking over at
Gyrono that had caught Lisa in one of his vines on its left side. Lisa was
unconscious and couldn’t resist the loose grip Gyrono had on her. Seiken held
his sword up in front of himself, being ready for any kind of attacks Gyrono
might attempt. Seiken silently whispered to Lisa even though she couldn’t hear
him."This is going to be allright, Lisa... Just trust me." When he finished the
last word, he was attacked by two vines from Gyrono’s body. He dodged and
cut over them both as they passed by. Seiken slowly walked forward, still on


guard for Gyrono’s attacks. Each step he took, two vines were whipping
against him, one hitting and the other cut off by Seiken’s sword. When Seiken
had reached Gyrono’s legs, he gazed up on the fierce best that was as tall as
a building. Seiken attempted to hit Gyrono in the face by throwing the sword,
but by the time he was about to throw the sword, Gyrono held Lisa just right in
front of Seiken, making him unable to attack as he couldn’t hurt Lisa. Gyrono
kept holding Lisa as a shield when he noticed that Seiken didn’t attack as long
he held her in front of him. Gyrono’s vines were all over her body, going under
her cloths, through her hair, even over her chest.
Seiken then saw something sparkling in his gem again. It was the string! The
string glowed faintly but gave out waves of faint energy as Seiken peered
deeply into the gem. He noticed that his sword was faintly glowing purple and
his right hand had a strange blue aura surging from it. He attempted to gather
magic in his right hand, and surprisingly it went easily fast to gather up a fairly
big fireball in his hand which he threw against Gyrono’s leg. Gyrono roared out
in pain and attempted to run away, the opposite direction Lisa and Seiken had
came. Seiken ran after Gyrono, but the fierce beast was a lot faster than him.
When Seiken was about to lose the sight of Gyrono, it turned around and
charged against Seiken. Seiken thought of this as a great opportunity to strike
back at it with his sword and charged against him as well. Seiken had surged
up another fireball that he had ready by his right hand as he charged against
Gyrono. As they both engaged, Gyrono roared loudly and stung Seiken in the
chest by its nose. Seiken wasn’t prepared for this and got thrown across the
meadow and far into woods just after he managed to impale his sword into
Gyrono’s Eye and let go of the fireball, letting it fly up into the air before it
hailed down into a tree that was immediately consumed by an enormous fire.
Seiken landed against a tree that knocked him out before he fell down onto the
ground next to his sword. The last thing he could remember before the
darkness consumed his mind was the feeling of his body being drenched in
the rain which came as a sudden downpour.
Seiken could feel softness inside. He felt quite comfortable as he slightly


opened his eyes more and more as he was about to regain consciousness. He
could see something white swaying in the wind just above him. He sat up,
noticing he was inside a quite beautiful room. Everything was clean; he lay in a
big bed, carpet on the floor, big mirror on the wall with golden decoration. The
white swaying thing turned out to be curtains that were gently swaying into the
room by the frisky summer-air that came as a breeze in the window.
Seiken made big eyes to find himself at such a place like this. He just
remembered Lisa and turned around in the bed, hoping she’d be in the room
as well, but with no luck. Seiken let out a sigh as he could hear someone
coming behind the door. He placed his feet on the floor and just then noticed
he was naked. Quickly, Seiken looked for his cloths that were to be found
nowhere. The door went wide open and a girl came in. She had cloths in her
hands and wore cloths like maids did according to the fairy tales that Seiken
had heard.
“Oh, I’m glad you’re awake! Lady Iriya found you at the edge of the forest one
week ago and you’ve been sleeping till now. Are you feeling alright?” the maid
said as she placed the cloths on a chair next to him. He had luckily covered
his lower body with the sheet before the maid came in and smiled at her,
thanking for her kindness. “Thank you. I’m Seiken. You shouldn’t take this
good care of me. I have no money, so I can’t repay your kindness. Though, is
Lady Iriya home at the moment? I’d like to thank her personally.” The maid
smiled at Seiken and told him that they didn’t mind at all to take care of him;
also that Iriya wouldn’t be home until later. “Say, Lady Iriya didn’t find
someone else with me, did she?” Seiken said with a hope in his heart that he
hadn’t lost Lisa. The maid made a bit concerned face and shook her head.
“You wasn’t alone, dear?” She replied before making a slightly sad face when
Seiken told her that he was together with Lisa. “I’m sorry to hear this. We’ll
keep you informed if we find anyone nearby the forest in the coming days.”.
Seiken smiled back at the maid who was smiling back at him softly through the
door before she closed it. The maid went downstairs to take care of the
laundry so Seiken could get dressed. The cloths he had received were a pair
of brown leathery shoes, white linen pants, Blue shirt with a Brown vest. The
cloths seemed to fit him perfectly, just as if they were sewn for him. Seiken
opened the door and walked into a huge hall. Seiken slowly walked into the
huge hall, gasping and looking around, thinking that he must’ve been found by


a rich family. He came to two huge curtains and opened them, allowing the
path to a terrace to be open. He stepped out onto the terrace, finding the view
of a huge garden of flowers, small rivers and a view of the edge of a forest.
Seiken made big eyes by this sight. He could see the maid on a terrace next to
him hanging up the laundry to dry in the sun. He could also see far over their
property which was quite amazing. A river went through the landscape which
with a little help from the sun, seemed like a stream of gold. There were also
fountains located around on the lawn. The thing that drew most attention from
Seiken was the size of it all. And the biggest thing there was a large pond,
almost a lake that lay peacefully at the far side of it all.
Seiken became eager to see more of this exciting place and went back into
the hall, finding a stair that went far down. When he got to the bottom of the
stairs, he stood in front of the entrance to the mansion. He could hear
footsteps behind him and could see a butler coming his way. The butler
stopped in front of him, introduced himself and asked if he could assist Seiken
with something. Seiken was still amazed about the service at this place and
carefully asked where his sword was stored. The butler went to a statue of a
knight that stood against the wall and picked up a small key from its pocket.
The butler pulled the halberd that the statue was holding and the statue turned
around, revealing a little door in the back of the statue. He used the key in the
keyhole and as he twisted the key inside the hole, the sound of releasing
water was heard. The door slowly opened itself, allowing the butler to reach
his hand into the darkness in the door, drawing Seiken’s sword out of the little
door. The butler held the sword that had been covered in water, forth for him.
Seiken smiled, bowed before him, thanked him and took the sword lightly in
his left hand.
Suddenly a huge noise was to be heard in the room, the sound was rumbling
through the walls. Two knights had opened the entrance doors and held them
open as a girl walked in between them. Seiken looked at her and thought at
once it was Lisa, but after blinking a few times, he could see it was someone
that looked like her in a moderate way. The woman walked to Seiken and
smiled.” Oh, you’re awake! I’m glad you’re alright. I was quite worried about
you when I found you at the edge of the forest last week. But it’s a relief to see
you’re okay. I’m Iriya, the lady of this Mansion. I hope you’ve had a nice stay
this far.” Seiken smiled as he had got to meet with Iriya so he could thank her


properly.”Thank you very much for your kindness, Iriya. I don’t know what
would’ve happened to me if you hadn’t found me… But is there anything I can
do to repay your kindness?” Iriya giggled softly and smiled at Seiken. “My, you
surely are a cutie. I’m afraid I don’t have many things you could do. There are
a lot of dangerous things going on in Ontiry lately. Oh, but if you wouldn’t
mind, could you find my cat for me? It’s a big city and my little kitty often gets
lost in the streets of Ontiry.”
Seiken smiled and nodded at
Iriya as finding a little cat
shouldn’t be too much hassle,
she had saved his life after all.
On the way out of the Mansion,
Seiken saw a picture on the
wall. It was
A picture of a woman, who
wore a cape, hood, bow and
looked just like Iriya. Seiken
thought it was her mother on
the picture and was member of
a marksmanship club or
something.
As Seiken got out of the
mansion, there was a straight
road to a huge gate just in front
of him. The gate was made of iron and Seiken wondered how he was
supposed to open the gate as he could impossibly even make it budge even if
it was open. When Seiken got to the gate, a sound of iron grinding against
stone tore itself through the air. The gate mysterious opened itself and Seiken
went outside, walking slowly while wondering how the big gate could move like
that.
He went further down the street that led into Ontiry. The mansion lied a bit out
of the city so he had to walk for a while. When he came to the city, he got lost


at once. Every building was made of stone, there were windows and the city
gave Seiken an expression of being quite rich.
Seiken started to look for the little cat. Iriya had given him descriptions about
what the cat looked like, a long-haired little white kitty with a red ribbon and a
golden bell around its neck.
Seiken searched in every slum of the town, along every street, around every
corner and around each restaurant that was to be found, but with no luck. It
had gotten late and it was almost pitch-dark when Seiken decided to give it
another try the next day. As he were walking back to the mansion, or at least
that direction he thought it’d be, he could hear music. He peered around
himself, noticing there was a street-musician on the other side of the street.
Seiken thought it was a nice tune from the flute he was playing and went to the
other side and sat down in front of him to listen. Seiken sat there for many
minutes with his eyes closed, just listening to the music. Suddenly the
musician stopped playing. “Give me your money, please.” Apparently he had
gotten tired of playing and playing with Seiken just sitting there, enjoying it all
for free.
Seiken stood up and said with a sad face: “I’m sorry, I don’t have any mo-
“Seiken stopped as he saw a little kitty yawning just next to the musician,
matching the descriptions that Iriya had given him about her cat. “Is that cat
yours?” Asked Seiken and sat down next to him, patting the cat gently so the
bell rang faintly. The musician didn’t seem to react at all, but playing further on
his flute with a rather sad tune. Seiken took the cat in his arms and walked in
the direction he thought the mansion was. Seiken thought that the musician
only had the cat for company when he was playing and understood that
someday someone would come to take the cat back.
When Seiken got to the mansion, the gates were already open. Iriya stood in
front of the entrance with the knights with her. “You found her!” Said Iriya and
was filled with joy when she saw Seiken with her cat. The cat jumped down on
the ground and ran as fast as she could to Iriya and jumped into her arms,
licking her face. Seiken stood there and watched the happiness of the owner
and a pet that was reunited. “Ohw, how can I ever thank you for this? Please
accept this as a token of my gratitude.” She flipped a coin over to Seiken. He
caught it nicely and peered at it. It was no normal coin, but a badge.”Welcome
to the Midnight Show!” was engraved in it. Seiken then looked up at Iriya.


“Midnight Show?” Said Seiken and tilted his head slightly, wondering what that
was. Iriya smiled and told him that she did a man a favor not long ago, and he
gave her a free ticket to a show that’s going to be held that very night Seiken
caught her cat.”Please accept it, I still feel that I owe you, but if you see that
show, I’m sure you’ll be satisfied!” She blinked at him slightly teasingly and
went inside with her meowing kitty while telling the cat with a soothing voice
that she’ll find some milk for her.
By the name of the show, Seiken thought that it was going to be held at
midnight. He went back into the town and found the building where the show
was to be held, right across the street where the musician sat. The musician
wasn’t there anymore. Seiken opened the door to the building that was quite
big and had a huge sign on the entrance. ”Midnight Show!” said the sign.
When he got inside he was met by a man in a red uniform and shiny golden
buttons on the chest. “Stop there. I’m afraid we’re all sold out for tonight.
Come back tomorrow.” Seiken was startled by the man coming out of
nowhere. “W-what? Sold out? But, I have this with me.” Seiken showed the
man the badge.”Hey! Where did you get that?!” The man grabbed Seiken in
the arm, pulling him to himself while Seiken struggled, attempting to get loose.
“I got it! Iriya gave it to me as a reward for finding her cat!” The man let go of
Seiken’s arm and apologized for his behavior. “Oh, why didn’t you say so at
once? I’m the man who gave Iriya that token. But since you’re coming in her
place, I guess I’ll have to give you that place to sit…” Seiken didn’t really
caught what he meant, but nodded and smiled as he was let into the show-hall
with lots of seats that was taken by nicely-dressed peoples. It was all filled up,
but a seat in the middle of the crowd. Peoples stared at Seiken as he walked
to his seat, someone whispering, thinking he looked strange in those cloths
and wondered why he couldn’t dress himself a bit more suiting for the evening.
The moment Seiken sat down on the seat, the room became pitch-black. Then
the scene was light-up and the curtains was risen. In the background of the
Scene there was a big black font which said;”Midnight Show”. The scene was
filled with showgirls in golden suits that started to move and dance around to
the music that an orchestra was playing. The show’s plot was about a couple
that loved each other, but didn’t realize it before the male died.
Seiken did and applaud when he heard the others in the hall did the same,


and thought the show was over since it was all black again. But then the scene
was lit up once again and six golden showgirls stood there. They seemed to
be in some sort of trance and dazzled around while the orchestra plaid a
rather strange, yet sad song. Slowly, a big silver-moon slid down from the roof
and stopped right in front of the font on the scene. On the moon sat a Silvery-
dressed showgirl. Everyone could see clearly that she was crying while she
sang the ballad of a girl that stole the stars. When the last word escaped her
silvery-painted lips, she closed her eyes before she slowly opened them again.
Her eyes were red and her tears had become blood. “You will all die tonight.”
The silver woman said in a rather demonic voice. Seiken wondered if this was
a part of the show as well, or if she was threatening them, but when he heard
everyone giving applauds, he applauded as well, thinking it was just a part of
the show.
All of a sudden Seiken felt he started to fall. His seat had collapsed and he
was falling down into a large dark tunnel. He could hear other peoples
screaming as everyone else in the hall were falling. The tunnel widened and
light was to be seen. He could see spikes made of wooden logs standing up
from the ground far beneath him while he was falling. Without knowing it, the
string appeared in his hand and formed itself as an eye and looked down at
the spikes. Suddenly, the spike that was right beneath Seiken moved to the
left just before Seiken hit the water that the spikes were sticking up from.
Seiken couldn’t swim, but luckily the water was shallow. He crawled out of the
water and peered up on the spikes. Many of the peoples had been impaled
and wounded by the spikes. It was lots of blood flowing out of the dead bodies,
also the wounded ones. Seiken took a look around himself, finding himself in
the middle of a gladiator ring. On the seats where the crowd is supposed to sit,
sat lots of monsters. Goblins, Imps, Trolls, Orcs, and creatures that Seiken
never had heard of or seen before. There was just a small pond of water
where the spikes came from, but it was enough to kill at least twenty five of the
three hundred peoples that was watching the show. Seiken tried to find a King,
or a leader for this ring by looking at the highest seat in the ring. A troll sat
there, smiling coldly down at his prisoners.
There were three gates in the circle. The survivors had gathered behind the
spikes when two of the gates slowly opened. Four lions walked into the ring
and yawned before they licked their mouth, seeming to prepare for a meal.


Seiken and the others realized fast that they were their meal. There was
nothing they could use to defend themselves with but sand and water. Seiken
remembered he had his sword at Iriya’s place and therefore was unarmed.
Though, he still had the magic, he was unsure if it was wise to use it right now
as the gem in his hand had started to turn deeply purple. The string was gone,
but a small green flame was to be seen dancing inside of the gem. Seiken
attempted to cast the same spell he did for Lisa at his Birthday, hoping for it
would scorch every monster around him, even the lions. He focused his
energy and took the same position as back then, surging his energy through
his hands for a while. Meanwhile, one of the survivors had gotten too close the
lions, trying to soothe them by patting them. One of the lions was just to attack
the woman, but Seiken released the energy towards the woman, making icy
spikes shatter out of her chest, letting the cold glaciers covered in blood
impale the attacking lion, leaving its dead and devastated corpse on the
ground with the legs shaking of cramps.
Seiken got startled when the ice penetrated itself out of the woman so much
that he felled backwards. In fear he was paralyzed as he realized he had killed
another innocent human with his magic when he only tried to help. The three
other lions got more aggressive to see their pal hit the ground and started to
chase the survivors around. Seiken stood up and hoped his next spell would
be a lot better. He attempted to create fireballs in his hands like he did back in
the forest. Due the stressed feelings he had, he messed up by putting his own
hands on fire. He had developed an own magic spell if a spell should fail and
attack himself. Seiken put both of his hands on his chest. “Release!” shouted
Seiken and the fire disappeared; leaving bruises on his chest since the fire
had burnt itself through his vest, but strangely not spread. Seiken looked
around, trying to locate the Lions. Two of them had captured two survivors and
were feasting on them right next to each other. Seiken felt his body get hotter
and hotter, and in a desperate attempt to get rid of the hot feeling, he did an
energy release, letting rays of fire shine out of his body, eventually hitting the
two feasting lions, nicely burning them into two black carcasses.
Seiken felled down onto his knees, exhausted of all the magic spells he had
been casting. The survivors had managed to surround a lion, slowly moving in.
The lion felt threatened and attacked one of the survivors, made a slaughter
out of him while all the others jumped over the lion, punching, kicking and


attempting to hurt it in any way till it stopped moving.
The crowd that had been cheering on the lions from the very beginning had
now calmed and didn’t even make a single sound as the last lion was dead.
Seiken had finally regain his breath and stood now up with the others. He was
hurt, but could bear with it. The final gate now slowly opened and the crowd
had started to liven up again, cheering on a name as the gate opened.
“Kraptipass!” did the crowd cheer. Seiken and the others could hear the name
chime through the area.
The final gate was now fully opened, however, nothing came out. Seiken could
all of a sudden feel something grasping around his foot. He looked down,
seeing a hand grabbing his right foot, but there was no ordinary hand, it was a
skeletal hand! Seiken attempted to shake it off, but then another hand grabbed
his other foot before a skeletal head slowly appeared through the sand in front
of him. He could hear screaming, and when he looked around, he could see
the others being attacked by skeletons from beneath their feet. Seiken felled
over on his knees, getting just in range to punch the skeleton. The skull
cracked as his fist hit it, and crumbled into dust. The hands on his feet also
crumbled into dust.
Seiken ran to help the others, but it was too late. They had been too late with
retaliating, so all that was left was a big red pile of flesh, organs and bones.
Seiken was surrounded by skeletons, someone bloody and someone just
sandy. The skeletons gathered themselves in a circle before they started to fall
apart, crumbling into dust. Seiken raised his hand with the gem in, hoping to
get cheered on by the crowd for defeating the skeletons but with no effect.
Instead of getting cheered on, Seiken felt the ground shaking while the crowd
kept cheering at Kraptipass. Seiken noticed the circle of bone dust was gone,
but instead, in the middle of the place where the circle had been, a huge
skeletal hand reached up from the sand. Kraptipass, the skeletal lord had
been released. Seiken had heard of the Skeletal Lord when he was a little boy
when he overheard a story that was only for adults. Kraptipass was a huge
Skeleton with a huge sword that he used both hands to lift and a boney armor
that covered his chest. Kraptipass was said to live where thousands of
humans had been slaughtered. Kraptipass stood now in front of Seiken,


roaring at him so Seiken could feel his breath that smelled of thousand dead
corpses. Seiken thought he’d throw up by the stench, but managed to keep it
down.

---

Kraptipass swung its sword after Seiken, but since it was so big and heavy,
Seiken managed to run away in good time before it hit the ground. The crowd
kept going on, cheering louder and louder while Seiken struggled to keep
himself alive against the Skeletal Lord. Seiken knew he had no chance at all to
defeat such a dreadful undead, however, thought of possibilities to take it
down.
Seiken was still exhausted by the usage of magic, but couldn’t stop now. He
had to live on in order to find Lisa! Seiken dodged another attack, but before
the sword hit the ground, the Lord changed the course of the sword, swinging
it towards Seiken. He stopped and saw the sword slide through the air and hit
him, tearing his body in half, 1 cm into the front of his body. Seiken felled down
on his knees and sat back. He could feel he started to get colder and the blood
flow out of him. Everything started to get blurry as he tried to focus on the Lord
in order to dodge its next attack, but Kraptipass didn’t move. Seiken felled
backwards and lied in the sand, looking up in the roof, at the hole he had felled
down through. He could still feel how the blood streamed out of his cut, even
eventually get into his eyes, making his vision red. He closed his eyes and felt
everything darkened.”I will die here… I’m sorry… Lisa…”
Seiken became unconscious for about five seconds before he could feel a
strong light coming in from the front of him. He slowly opened his eyes and
saw the Angel he had seen before. She was flying with her wings, hovering
just above him. She was still crying, however, didn’t had her harp. She
reached out a hand to Seiken.”Thou lost soul, shall not find damnation.” could
Seiken hear inside his head as he weakly reached for her hand with his. As
their hands met, she disappeared with a flash of light. Seiken stood up as he
felt pain no more. He looked down his body, seeing the cut was gone. He
closed his hands and pulled them together, surging energy as he could feel a
source of unlimited energy streamed in through his gem. He started to hover
and faintly glow in a black aura. His hands got enlighten with fire and his eyes
started burning with green fire. Yellow orbs appeared around him, slowly
circulating up and down as he started to shake. The area around him started


to shake as well due the enormous power that was about to be released.
Seiken could feel a strong pain come from all this new and strong power and
therefore screamed out. The Troll, the crowd and even Kraptipass started to
shake in fear due the mighty roar and was therefore paralyzed. Seiken then
released his energy towards Kraptipass by reaching his arms out towards him.
An enormous force of Energy and power surged through the air in black,
green, yellow and red colors, forming as a dragon before it hit Kraptipass that
were consumed in an instant of the force. When it hit the Lord, the force
scattered, and surged in all directions, gathering at the entrance of the hole in
the roof. It surged there for a few seconds before white fire-meteors started to
rain down at the Arena and the crowd.
While all this happened, Seiken kept his position, hovering in the air, but had
stopped the screaming. Seiken could feel the energy still flow out of him, but
as it faded away he felled back onto the sand unconscious. None of the
meteors hit him as he was still affected by the yellow orbs around him, a Spell
shield. The crowd, the king and Kraptipass was all slaughtered by this force,
the corpses lied everywhere, blood dripping from the roof, the tribune was
covered in monster-blood as well.
Seiken had felt this soft feeling before. He rolled over and could still feel the
soft feeling, however, it was slightly colder. He opened his eyes slowly,
noticing a white curtain. He knew where he was now and sat up in the bed, but
then groaned in pain. He looked down at his chest, noticing bandage over his
bruises on the chest. He rested against the wall while letting the wind breeze
through his hair as the top of the head just got over the edge to the window.
Iriya sat on a chair next to his bed. She was smiling. “You surely aren’t lucky,
are you?” She giggled and crossed her legs. Seiken hadn’t really noticed
before, but Iriya was a quite beautiful woman. A slim and curvy body yet gives
an expression of and mature woman. She had to be about the same age as
Seiken.
“We found you in the ruins of the theater. You’re lucky to have survived that
attack of the crazy wizard.” She placed her hand on his hand, smiling softly at
him while leaning slightly forwards, revealing her cleavage even more. She
had quite big breasts, yet they seemed all firm. “M-mad wizard? Was the


theater attacked by a wizard?” She nodded. Seiken wasn’t sure what to
believe and told her what he could remember. She made bigger and bigger
eyes as he told her how the show was, how he ended up in the gladiator ring,
how the others was killed and how he managed to survive. “I-I’m not sure what
to say… You really did all this? The keepers of the town could clearly see
there were strong elements of magic involved in the incident, but that you did
it… I can’t just believe it. And Kraptipass at a place like that?” She spaced out
and slowly shakes her head. Seiken had been sleeping for three days, so he
decided to sleep some more in order to fully recover from the incident. Iriya
came to herself and smiled at Seiken when she saw he was sleeping again,
but now with ease. The maid came in with new cloths for Seiken and put them
on the chair Iriya just recently sat.
When Seiken woke up the next morning, he was very hungry. He asked the
maid nicely if he could have some breakfast. The maid smiled widely and
made him a huge breakfast for him. Seiken ate till he got full and decided to
relax on a coach in the living room. When he entered the room he was met by
lots of animal heads that was on wooden plates along the wall. There was also
a big bear fur in the front of the fireplace. Seiken thought there had to be a
great hunter who had hunted down all these animals. He could hear someone
sobbing and looked around. There, just left for the fireplace sat Iriya in a big
chair and cried. When she noticed Seiken’s presence, she tried to stop crying
and hide any trace of her sadness by smiling, but with no luck. “What’s the
matter?” Said Seiken and sat down on a chair just next to her. Iriya couldn’t
hold her tears back and started to cry even louder than before while whining
lots of things that Seiken couldn’t understand a word of. “Hey, calm down and
take it slow from the beginning. What have happened?” Seiken sat even
closer, took her hand and looked into her eyes, trying to give her the feeling of
that Seiken was there to help her. “M-my father is dead. Assassins killed him
last night. I don’t know where he lives, but the Assassins were after his money
and valuables. Only his maid was fast enough to send me a pigeon with a
letter before she was murdered.” Seiken sat shocked back in the chair. He
didn’t know what to say, but try to soothe her in any way he could.
The hours passed and Iriya pulled herself together and turned her sorrow into
hate. She told Seiken about herself. She was the Ranger General of the Moon
Elves that had their stronghold in the forest just south of the city. “So, you’re


the slayer of these animals?” asked Seiken curiously and impressed before
Iriya nodded and pointed at the picture beside the entrance that was to be
seen due the open door to the living room. “That’s me before I was
abandoned.” She giggled a bit and continued. “What elf would let a Human be
their general…?” Iriya was born and raised by the Moon Elves and showed
great marksmanship skills with bow, therefore became their Ranger General.
“The Elves are poor, but their money is worth lots for humans, that’s why they
are hiding in the Forest, trying to escape from greedy peoples. Since its worth
so much, I could afford everything I have here.” Iriya stood up from her chair
and wiped the last tears from her face and took down a bow that hung above
the fireplace. “I’m going to take my revenge for my father. I shall track down
this Assassin Guild and put an end on it.” She didn’t seem to be the person
that would change their mind if they decide to do something. “Join me, and
maybe we’ll find them.” Seiken said as he was planning to leave the mansion
very soon in order to keep looking for Lisa. Iriya smiled softly and thanked him
for the kind offer, but she weren’t too sure if she should go with Seiken as he
always seem to get into trouble from her point of view. But at the other hand,
she thought he was quite kind and would like to take care of him in a way, so
she decided to join him because of three reasons. He was cute and kind. She
would feel lonely if she went alone. And last, but not least, she was heading
the same way that he was planning to go. To Shana.
Later that night, they had prepared themselves. Iriya had her old Ranger
General Uniform on and Seiken had received some gifts from Iriya, Hardened
Leather shoes, Hardened Leather gloves, Bandana, Loose blue linen pants
and a loose white linen shirt. He also had a Leather belt to keep the pants up.
He didn’t wear anything heavy as his agile reflexes are something he would
need later on according to Iriya. The Ranger General Uniform was made of;
Soft cloth-shoes, a small pair of tights that could remind more of a string, arm
braces, a small, yet covering top and a hooded cloak. Seiken had found forth
his sword again, sharpened it and Iriya had her quiver on her back filled with
arrows along with the bow in her right hand.
As they set out of the mansion, Iriya stopped in the entrance and gazed back
in. The butler, all the knights and the maid stood there, waving at her. She
could feel tears slide down her cheeks. The moonlight shone upon her face,
making the tears look like silver crystals. She turned around against Seiken


and walked together with him to the gate that stood wide open for them. They
were heading towards the woods where the Moon Elves live.
The nightlife in Ontiry was peaceful, but because of the incident with the
theatre, town keepers was everywhere on patrol. Nobody noticed the lightly
dressed woman in a dark-blue cape or the young man beside her in casual
clothes as Seiken and Iriya ventured through the streets.
When they reached the other edge of the exit of the city, Iriya took another
look behind her, looking at the city she lived so close to yet knew so little
about. Right in front of them was a huge iron gate that was open. They went
through it and into the dark woods which was a lot darker because of the night.
The reason they ventured into the forest during nighttime was that if the moon
shone upon their path, it would lead them to the village of Moon Elves. The
forest reminded him of the one by his village, but this one seemed calmer and
a lot brighter in a way.
After walking along the path that seemed like silver because of the moonlight,
they came to a little lake. Just next to them was an old mossy log with a
female elf sitting on it. Iriya spoke to the elf with an unknown language for
Seiken, but it sounded like she was singing. The elf smiled widely and stood
up, peering at Seiken like she’d never seen a human before. “Who’s this?”
Asked the elf and circled around Seiken by her curiousness. Iriya smiled and
explained who Seiken was and what they were up to. The elf sniffed him and
licked her lips slowly just before she shouted something loudly. Her words
chimed through the woods and along the lake, making small waves of sound
in the water. A boat was to be seen far away. It was slowly cruising towards
them while the elf was waving eagerly at the boat. By the time the boat
arrived, Iriya had explained Seiken that she knows the language of the elves
and that if he didn’t understood what they said to him, he could just ask her. In
the boat were two male elves, armored in plate, shield and a sword. They
greeted Seiken in a regular way but made a salute to Iriya. Even though Iriya
was forced to give up her rank, some elves remained loyal as if she was their
commander. Seiken and Iriya sat down in the boat which started to sail slowly
away at once the female elf stepped into it.



After been cruising for a while through
the lake that was lit up by the
moonshine and through mist, they finally
arrived at a dock. Just behind the dock
lied a big gate made of wood but with
lots of runes and magic symbols
engraved along the doors. Seiken had
agreed back in the mansion to not tell
anyone where this place was. Seiken
gasped in amazedness by the sight of
the gates that he knew led into the
Moon Elfish Empire. The gates slowly
opened when the female elf touched a
red rune on the middle. It immediately
turned blue by the touch and made a
strange glowing sound. Seiken widened
his eyes when he saw what’s beyond
the gate. A huge stair leading up to their
leader, lots of houses built in the trees,
massive stonewall surrounding the
village like a fortress, guards patrolling around and lots of rivers and fountains
where quite many girls sat. There were even a few nagas as well with water
nymphs bathing in the fountains and rivers. As the gates were fully opened,
they slammed against the wall while Seiken waved slightly at everyone while
Iriya smiled and patted his shoulder.” Ex-Ranger General Iriya is here!!”
Shouted an elf in golden-edged plate which had taken a few steps away from
a crowd of soldiers that had come down the stairs. As the last words escaped
her soft purple lips, a horn was to be heard throughout the village and lots of
archers appeared on the top of the stone wall. Iriya smiled and told Seiken to
take cover. Seiken did as she said and took a few steps to the side, looking at
Iriya from a few meter away.
“Fire!” shouted a man on the top of the stairs, and just as he hit the start of the
word, all of the archers aimed and shot fifteen arrows at Iriya as fast and
accurate as they could. Each of the archers had a tiny apple nailed to their


uniform on the shoulder, just next to the head. Iriya smiled and started to
dodge every single arrow that the about thirty archers was shooting at her.
While she was dodging, she retaliated, shooting back in an enormous speed,
hitting every single apple on each of the archers shoulder. Iriya breathed
slightly faster when she was done, yet kept her cool.”Was that all?” said she
with a cocky attitude and smiled at the crowd that had gather to see what’s
going on. The crowd cheered loudly for her, applauding her performance.
Seiken stood there, gasping at her. He had never seen anyone move that fast
and/or counter back in such a speed she did. “Amazing!” said Seiken and
came to her. She grinned at him. “Oh, that was nothing.” She winked at him
and turned against the crowd again which had moved to the sides, allowing
the man on the top of the stairs reach to Iriya. The man was the leader of the
elves and welcome Seiken and Iriya to their village. “Long time no see, Iriya! It
has been so long since I last saw you.” The man introduced himself as Lazard
and guided them towards his royal chamber. They ascended the stairs and as
they got on the top of the stairs, they entered a plateau with stone pillars in
each corner of the square-formed pyramid. On the floor was there a big
carving of a crescent moon, and just inside the crescent moon was a little
stair, leading down into the plateau. “You must be tired, it is quite late, and I
presume you aren’t used to be this late up, mister human? Seiken had
introduced himself, but Lazard seemed to like “mister human” best. Seiken
nodded and so did Iriya before he showed them the way down the stairs and
into a great hall which could remind of a crypt, but of a rather wealthy look.
There was a carpet on the floor, leading to a throne, torches along the wall,
and curtains along the walls where there were no torches and lots of pillows all
over the place. “Feel like home, we’ll talk more tomorrow. I’m so happy you’re
visiting us, Iriya!” said the man and opened a door behind the throne and went
in. Iriya headed through some curtains hanging down from the roof and found
a little room where she could rest. She took off her clothes and sat down in a
little pond inside the room where a few water nymphs already sat, but they
didn’t seem to notice Iriya. “I’ll be sleeping here tonight! Go ahead, take the
other room” yelled Iriya before she chased the nymphs out. The nymphs got
all grumpy and murmured something while they covered their bodies in some
towels and went outside of the crypt. Seiken slid the curtains to the side and
entered his room. It was fairly big with a big soft bed with lots of pillow, a pond
just alike Iriya’s with nymphs. On the wall just next to his bed was a carving in
the wall. He tried to figure out what it said, but with no luck. One of the nymphs


saw this and giggled before she took a towel and came to Seiken, peering
over his shoulder. “Oh? You don’t understand our writings?” Seiken was
startled by the sudden voice against his ear and lightly shake his head. “Silly
human… I will read for you.”


“Nymphs. Magical creatures that needs to be covered with water every hour. If
this is not done, the Nymph’s body will get instantly dry and die. A Nymph’s
body was made to attract males since all Nymphs are females, so Nymphs
looks almost like Moon Elves, but much alike a sea-serpent as well. Once a
Nymph had seduced a male, they woul-“Seiken interrupted the Nymph as she
were speaking.”Why are you telling me all this? It is not like I am interested in
knowing anything about you… Sorry, I am just tired and want to sleep. I’ve had
a long day.” The Nymph was first scared but then calmed down as Seiken
calmed. “I see…” said she before she slid down into the pond where her
friends sat.
Seiken peered at the drawing of a Nymph on the wall and then on the Nymphs
in the pond. The Nymphs in the pond was a lot prettier than the one on the
carving, even though it was a good carving. The Nymphs had started a
conversation in their own language and washed each other’s bodies. They had
slightly bigger breasts than the Moon Elves, bigger butt and slimmer body
according to Seiken’s analyze. He sat down in the bed and started to change
into a little loincloth that was lying on the bed, obviously hinting to be used
during nights. One of the Nymphs saw that Seiken slid down under the sheet
and looked at her friends. “Shhh! The human has gone to sleep.” Seiken felled
asleep at once he had closed his eyes. The Nymph that read the carvings for
Seiken looked at him and smiled before she suggested for the others to let him
be for the night. The others nodded and disappeared. Nymphs could teleport
through the ponds in the village as much they’d like to. Later that night, the
Nymph that had read for Seiken, appeared alone in the pond in his room.
Nymphs were naked and disliked to wear any clothes, but covered their
breasts and crotch each time they felt too shy to reveal themselves for people
or other creatures. She smiled even more when she saw Seiken’s sheet had
almost felled down on the floor and slid it over him before the string of her
necklace fell apart and landed on the sheet. “Sarah” was engraved on the
shiny stone that was attached to the necklace. “Yes, that’s my name” nodded
Sarah silently to herself before she slid down under the sheet just next to


Seiken. But she

weren’t in the bed to sleep. She leant closer and closer his
face with hers, sniffing him softly before giggling softly into his ear. Everything
was silent that night, only the sound of Seiken’s heavy breath and the babbling
brook that streamed down into the pond was to be heard.
She lied completely still, just sniffing the smell of Seiken for a few hours. She
had taken an elixir before she came that would keep her from drying for a day.
She licked Seiken’s cheek once and almost squirmed of joy. She licked again
and again, feeling warm inside of her. Seiken turned in his sleep, facing her.
Sarah blushed and took off the sheet as she became to get quite hot. She
crawled over and looked down at Seiken whilst letting her nipples slowly rub
against his arm. Seiken woke up and attempted to rub the sleepiness out of
his eyes. When he turned around, he saw the Nymph just above him and
made big eyes. “Shhh. I’m sorry for troubling you earlier. Allow me to make it
up to you… To make you relax.” She blushed even more now, sliding her
crotch up and down his leg whilst Seiken was more or less paralyzed by the
shock of finding a naked girl in his bed, but felt somehow a comfortable feeling
in his body. Sarah kept rubbing herself against his leg and slightly moaned
due the pleasure she received. She leant forwards and let her nipples touch
his chest. He could feel they was hard, and wondered what she had in mind.
He looked into her eyes, and she looked back into his with a teasing and lusty
attitude. She leant her head forwards to kiss Seiken when she suddenly
moaned loudly into his face. Seiken had attempted to get her away but missed
with his hand and shoved two fingers into her crotch instead. “Oh, you mean
boy!” giggled the Nymph and licked her lips slowly before she started to ride
his fingers. Sarah moaned more and more before she looked at Seiken while
she drooled of the pleasure. Suddenly the drool turned into blood. Seiken got
out of the paralyze and leant his head backwards, seeing an arrow going
through her head. The Nymph felled dead over him and he pushed her over,
letting her fall onto the floor. Iriya stood at the entrance of his room with her
bow. “I heard some noises so I came to check it out. It seems I came just in
time.” Said Iriya and looked at the Nymph. “Just in time?” asked Seiken and
looked at Sarah as well. “She was going to kill you.” Seiken noticed something
on the floor beside her. A little dagger was impaled through her hand,
obviously impaled when she felled. Seiken felt his breath fastened as he
realized what just had happened. Iriya smiled at Seiken when she saw what
he was wearing and that there was life under the loincloth. “Did you two have


a good time?” Giggled Iriya before she sat down on the edge of his bed,
leaning a bit forward, allowing Seiken to look down her cleavage. “W-wah?!
No, no, you got this wrong” Said Seiken with a rather shaky voice. Iriya
grinned and told him that if he felt lonely during the night, he could always
come over at her room as she was feeling lonely herself. Seiken shakes his
head before hiding under the sheet. Iriya smiled a bit sadly, but then placed a
kiss on his cheek, wishing him a good night. Sarah’s corpse had converted
into water, just the arrow and the dagger was left on the floor amongst some
watery blood.
The next morning woke Seiken up early. He had attached leather pieces
around on his clothing, hoping he will become a bit more agile. The light that
shone into the room through a hole in the roof made the brown leather that
was attached to his legs and arms shine up. Seiken went to wake up Iriya but
as he stepped into her room he could see she was not there. Seiken
wondered where she would’ve been and decided to look for her outside as it
weren’t any trace of anyone been spending the night there at all.
Iriya was already at the bottom of the stairs, looking up towards Seiken. When
he got down, Lazard appeared and greeted them. He seemed rather sleepy as
he usually was sleeping around that hour on the day, but was awake now to
guide Seiken and Iriya.
Lazard showed them the path to the vault of the town and where Iriya had her
account. They stopped in front of a huge door made of iron. It was at least as
big as a house according to Seiken. Lazard clapped his hands and the door
slowly slid wide open allowing entrance to Iriya’s vault. As they came inside
they saw a small pouch on a stone-table. Seiken laughed a bit while
wondering if that’s all the money Iriya had. Iriya smiled and told him that’s
more than enough money for just the two of them. She opened the pouch and
turned it upside down, letting fifteen golden coins fall out onto the stony table.
Iriya took five of them and went outside. “That’s it?” Said Seiken and
wondered if they’d be alright with just five coins. Iriya nodded and headed to a
little hut just next to the vault. A little elf was sleeping on a chair just behind the
counter. Iriya whistled loudly and the little elf made a jump in his chair, coming
to the counter, wondering what Iriya wanted. She put the five coins on the


counter while Seiken and Lazard had started a small conservation about the
Moon Elves and their culture.
The little elf made big eyes and wondered if they really needed that much
money, but Iriya nodded and told him that it would be a long journey they had
in front of them. Rolled his eyes and went into the little hut through an
archway. Lots of noise was to be heard just seconds after the elf had gotten
out of sight. It was like if someone was carpeting, throwing things around and
smashing them by judging the sounds that was to be heard. After a little while
the little elf came back with a medallion in his hand. On the medallion was a
number engraved “50”. Iriya smiled and showed the medallion to Seiken.
Seiken made huge eyes when he saw that medallion. Medallions were used to
symbolize big money amongst human and that medallion was worth 50 million
Mezeta. Seiken now remembered that Iriya had told him that Elfish money was
worth a lot amongst humans, so there was no wonder she had gotten that
much money from just five Gold Cruxioues.
They went to the bottom of the stairs after had collected their money. The
three of them sat down and talked about where their destination should be.
Lazard had a big role here as he was the village leader and elder since knew a
lot about the world outside. Iriya knew that his father had a friend in the holy
city Wendel that lied on the other side of the forest. Iriya thought that maybe
her father’s friend, the archbishop could tell them about where her father was
or what kind of unsettled deeds he had with the assassins. Lazard thought of
that as a good idea as the Archbishop was known for his wisdom amongst
wealthy persons.
Lazard showed Seiken and Iriya a hidden entrance just in the side of the stairs
that led deeply down into the altar. After had been walking for a while, they
came to a large room. It was dark as darkness itself and they couldn’t even
see the hand in front of them. Lazard’s eyes faintly glowed with a blue glow as
he had casted a spell on himself, allowing him to see through darkness. Soon
there were other eyes to be seen through the darkness just after Lazard had
made a whistle. The huge room started to lighten up and it turned out to be an
underground lake beneath the altar. The lake was shallow enough to allow
elves to stand on the ground even at the deepest part of it. There was five
Moon Elves standing in a wide circle in the water. “Enter the circle.” Said


Lazard to Seiken and Iriya while smiling. Iriya and Seiken did as he said and
stepped into the lake that surprisingly only reach them to the waist. They stood
there and peered around while wondering if they were supposed to do
anything. Runes started to randomly appear around on the lake before fading
away rapidly. The runes centered more and more Seiken and Iriya as they
wondered about what would happen. As the runes gathered in the middle of
the circle, a huge pentagram was formed around them and they were in the
middle. Iriya was startled by the big red pentagram around them and got
panic.
“Die, inferior beings” Said Lazard while smiling coldly as he had managed to
lure them into his trap. Seiken and Iriya attempted to run away from the
pentagram but with no luck. They had been paralyzed by both fear and the
enchanting spell the Moon elves had
been casting on them and the
pentagram. The pentagram started to
glow redder and slightly more in a
bloody way as the seconds flew by.
The Moon elves started to chant in
their elfish language. One of them
was shaking violently and suddenly
exploded into lots of flesh, blood and
bones. The same happened with one
of the other Moon elves as well.
When the three last ones saw this
they became scared and focused
even harder on their spell in order not to end up with their sisters. Fourteen
seconds passed since the last elf exploded before the pentagram slowly
started to turn. Lazard had already left the place so the elves had to execute
Iriya and Seiken by themselves as they had been supervised to do. The
pentagram circulated faster and faster while the blood of the two elves
gathered in the middle where Iriya and Seiken stood. Seiken could feel how
the flesh was sticking to his belly and a bone rubbing itself to his back. He was
rather disgusted by the feeling. The ground started to shake and the
pentagram glowed now strongly in a crimson red color as a large humming


was to be heard from the elves.
The light became too bright to see so Seiken and Iriya had to close their eyes.
They could feel lots of feelings they hadn’t felt before and at the same time,
every feeling they knew of at the same time.
All that they could do was to scream out in pain and pleasure while being
uncertain about what will await them when they opened their eyes.
Seiken had felt something like this before. It was soft and comfortable but this
time it was partly hard and cold while there was a hint of warmth covering his
face. He slowly opened his eyes and covered his eyes with a hand due the
bright light. He was lying on his back and looking up into a clear blue sky. His
back and legs was cold and as he peered around himself, he found himself in
some town square. He attempted to stand up but groaned in pain due the stiff
back he had gotten of lying on the hard ground and felled onto his knees. He
could feel a hand on his shoulder while trying to regain his sharp vision from
the blurry environments he could see. Iriya stood behind him. Seiken had been
lying partly on her chest with his head and on the ground with the rest of his
body. “It seems we’re in Wendel…” Said Iriya carefully and helped Seiken up.
Peoples had gathered and some children pointed at them as they were
covered in blood, flesh and bones from the elves. The adults shushed the
children and covered their eyes with their hands in order to save them from
seeing such things.
“So… Lazard tried to kill us… But instead killed two of his disciples and sent
us to the place we were heading? It doesn’t make sense to me… Maybe he
was going to send his disciples to Wendel after been killing us and put the
teleport-spell to two persons limit, but accidently killed his disciplines instead.”
Said Seiken, trying to figure out what’s going on.
Wendel was a big city nearby the ocean so there was built a huge harbor
where ships set sail to fish, trade etc. Most of the peoples in the city were
wealthy but as every other city, they had refugees and criminals. The


cathedral of the city was located on a little hill in the middle of the town so it
was not hard to find. The cathedral seemed rather to be the wealthiest building
in the town due its high quality of stones it was built with and with the pretty
windows that had signs instead of pictures engraved in them.
It didn’t take long before Seiken and Iriya was surrounded by guards. Since
the Archbishop lived in the cathedral, he could easily see what’s going on by
just taking a look from his clock tower. Seiken and Iriya were rather bloody and
when they were in the middle of a big square, it was not really hard for the
archbishop to spot. The guards had all red uniforms, a red cape and a black
hood. Seiken could see that each of them had a sword with runes engraved
along the edge of the blade. They all had an R and a G written on their cloak
which stood for” Red Guardian”. These were the Archbishop’s elite guards in
the city and were highly trained.
“Filthy demons! What business do you have in the city of light?!” Shouted one
of the guards and did apparently think that Seiken and Iriya was demons from
the underworld as there was blood, flesh and bones covering them. “We’re not
demons! We’re sent by the moon elves in the for-“ “Silence!” Seiken was
interrupted by a guard. The guards had started to move in to Seiken and Iriya
in a circle and as they got close enough they jumped over them, binding their
hands together as well with their feet before they dragged them along the
street to the cathedral.
The guards showed no mercy but dragging Iriya and Seiken up the stairs
making their heads knock into the stairs as the guards descended them. The
stairs was sadly enough for Iriya and Seiken, the longest you could find in
Wendel.
As they had been dragged into the cathedral and over a huge circle in the
middle of the building leaving a long trail of blood after them, they came to a
man. He was the archbishop and was dressed in a robe with runes sewn all
over it. He had a long scepter with a huge gem on the top. On the head he had
a big pointy hat, looking like a wizard where he stood, but Seiken thought
there was something that seemed Holy with him. The guards kneeled on the
sides of the path leading to him as he stepped forwards to Seiken and Iriya
that was squirming on the floor, trying to get loose from the ties. They had


pieces of cloth shoved in their mouths so they couldn’t speak. The archbishop
looked down at them with pity. “Oh, lord, what demonic creatures have you
brought me today?” Iriya’s ears wiggled slightly as she heard him speak. She
was hearing his voice as he was speaking demonic. The archbishop ordered
the guards to center them in the circle and chase away the crowd of citizens
that had gathered at the doors of the cathedral to see what that was going as
they had found the trail of blood. After the crowd had been chased away, the
doors had been closed, nuns had gathered along a veranda on the second
floor that led all around the room, the Archbishop descended his altar and
raised the Scepter into the air. “Oh God, O`mighy one, please, bring forth your
judgment upon these creatures from the underworld.” “Bloody sails of the
damned temple, is there none that will listen to explanations?!” thought Seiken
for himself and closed his eyes, hoping that God would have mercy on him if
there was such a thing as “God”. After lying completely still after 5 minutes and
having nothing to happen, the Archbishop took his scepter back down and
peered on his prisoners. The archbishop nodded and the nuns began to sing.
The song itself seemed holy and it sounded like small angels was singing, but
Iriya took careful notice of the text. “Lordly Lord, go hand in hand with Lucifer
Lufarios from hell, together thou shall find your power in the blood of sacrificed
lives.” It was not a holy song for Iriya’s ears as well, neither for Seiken even
though he almost felled asleep due loosing so much blood.
The circle Iriya and Seiken was lying on was a big star with a crescent moon in
the middle. There was a crescent moon as well carved in the middle but along
with lots of other signs and runes, circles and squares, making it hard to find a
decent picture in the circle. The nuns stopped singing after a little while, but as
the last word escaped their lips, the small stars on the circle started to glow
faintly yellow. The guards were ordered to cut them loose by the archbishop,
but at the second their feet and hands were freed, Seiken and Iriya hit the
guard undoing their ties and made them hit the floor. “Good, add more blood
to the ritual!” Said the archbishop and did and applaud when the two guards
lied unconscious on the floor. There were still seven guards surrounding them.
Seiken and Iriya had been unarmored at the town square, so they had no
weapons but their hands to use as defense since Seiken was too hurt so he
couldn’t focus enough to make even an easy spell. “Lazard, my apprentice,
you have brought me a very good sacrifice this time.” Said the Archbishop and
started to laugh loudly so his laugh chimed to the cold walls and made the


candles along the wall that light up the cathedral, dance. “You have brought
me such a fine host as well.” Grinned the archbishop as he peered at Iriya
where she stood in her little clothing. He raised the scepter into the air again,
but this time a red ray shoot out of it and right into Iriya’s head. Iriya stood just
next to Seiken, shaking like mad as it seemed something was forcing into her.
“Live… Live… Medina... Medina, LIVE!!!!” Shouted the Archbishop while
waving his free hand in the air. Iriya’s skin turned orange-red, black winds
grew out of her back and a long, black and spiky tail also grew out of her. Her
nails got slightly longer and two big horns stood grew out of her head. The ray
from the scepter faded as the transformation was done and the Archbishop
had lowered it. “Medina… Is that you?” Said the Archbishop with a curious,
scared and desperate voice. Iriya reacted and nodded calmly. “It has been a
while… Tychoo.” Tychoo (Archbishop) was happy that his spell had
succeeded as none of his earlier body-hosts had managed to survive the
enormous force of the spell. Seiken stared at Iriya with wide eyes, hoping it all
was a dream and that she had not gotten possessed. “Medina… Let’s show
this world our combined power!” Iriya went to the altar and sat down, licking
her finger softly and teasingly while looking at Seiken. “Are we going to start
with this one then? He looks yummy” Said Iriya and bite her lower lip. Tychoo
nodded and Iriya walked slowly down the stairs from the altar and came to
Seiken, circulating around him while eyeing him up and down. Seiken followed
her movements with his eyes and made sure she didn’t impaled him with her
nails or something by turning around, making sure he didn’t let his guard
down. The runes on the floor had stopped glowing, but had instead started
circulating slowly. Only the star was glowing faintly blue and made a faint
glowing sound. “Iriya… It’s me, Seiken… “Said Seiken weakly, still getting
weaker and weaker by the blood loss that streamed out of a hole in his head
and bruises on his back that he got while being dragged along the street. Iriya
didn’t seem to react at all, just grinning and looking at him in a naughty way.
She stood right in front of him now, looking deeply into his eyes.
Seiken could feel his right hand getting warm. First like a warm breeze but
now as if someone had put his hand in a bucket of hot water. He looked down
at it, seeing the little green fire that was dancing inside of it. The flame was


slowly growing bigger. As the flame got so big that only flames was to be
seen, he could see a black string inside of the gem that was dancing with the
flame. Iriya saw this and took his hand and peered into the gem “Ohh, what a
pretty thing you have there, handsome.” At the moment she took his hand, the
flame vanished and the string turned white. Meanwhile Iriya and Seiken
peered into the circles on the floor started to turn even faster, the sound got
louder as the runes glowed stronger. Seiken could feel something above him.
As if someone or something was just above him. He didn’t dare to look up as
he’d let his guard down and Iriya could strike with her nails into his neck or
something that he couldn’t be cautious of. He hid his hand behind his back
and took a step backwards away from Iriya, not wanting to show his gem to
her as he had no idea what she could do under the possession of Medina,
obvious someone dear to Tychoo. “Hey, let me see that! Meanie!” Said Iriya
and got an evil look in her eyes. She took a step forward and stood now where
Seiken just recently stood. Seiken threw a quick look above her and made big
eyes when he saw what’s above her.



The angel from the gladiator ring, or at
least one alike it was just above Iriya.
“Please, Purify Iriya from this demon!”
Seiken shouted to the angel which
seemed rather disgusted by the
cathedral. “What business does Gods
messenger have in my cathedral!?”
shouted Tychoo that was unpleased by
this holy being in his cathedral. The
Angel didn’t seem to pay attention to
Tychoo but waved with her hands a few
times before a ray of light from above
shoot down through the roof of the
cathedral, onto the Angel and Iriya and
went further down into the dungeons of the cathedral where Tychoo had
Imprisoned his experiments for spells over many years. Iriya was still standing
on the same place as if the floor beneath her hadn’t disappeared. She was
shaking and screaming as the light hit her and a wheezing sound was heard
from her body while black smoke gazed itself out of her eyes. Iriya crumbled


into a pile of ash down into the darkness. The angel had begun to cry while
she was slowly fading away. The runes on the floor had stopped turning and
glowing but the biggest star. It stood completely still but was blinking strongly
red in a slow pace.
“Now you’ve done it…” Tychoo said and peered towards Seiken which stood
there rather startled, not sure if he was to laugh or cry. Had he just killed Iriya
or was this all an illusion or maybe nightmare? Seiken shook his head lightly
and peered down in the dark abyss of the hole. Tychoo ran towards the door
of the cathedral while Seiken were still being a bit paralyzed of the event.
“Guards!” Tychoo shouted and waved with his arms. It didn’t take long before
the cathedral was crowded with guards which only were waiting orders from
Tychoo. “This infidel killed my sweetheart! And now, he shall taste the same
fate! Off to the abyss with him!” He ordered his guards from the altar. The
guards surrounded Seiken and two stepped forward to grab his arms and then
another two came forth to take his feet. Seiken were still in a such state of
paralyze that he didn’t had the strength to fight or struggle back. The guards
were counting while swinging his body in their arms before they all four
chanted a unholy hymn in just two seconds as Seiken’s body left their grip and
were sent flying down into the abyss. His body was not to be seen the second
he had passed four meters down into the hole. Seiken had finally regained
consciousness and could feel how the stench of dead, poison and dirt were
filling his body as he breathed the air on his way down. He didn’t know how far
it was to the bottom, if he would have a soft land, or if he would ever land at
all. The further down he got, the quieter the sounds of tortured slaves,
imprisoned creatures and demons was to be heard. The only sound that
echoed through his ears was the sound of guiltiness and despair which also
thrived through his heart.

Several hours later when he regained consciousness he peered around. He
could see two fireballs on the wall, just a bit upwards in the hole which were
glowing like fireflies in the midsummer. Feeling his hands slightly hurt, he
figured out that he must have cast the spell when he was unconscious as he
couldn’t imagine that there was anyone else down there to cast it. It was first
now that Seiken had realized how his situation was. He was trapped in a giant
spider web. Surprised as he was over finding himself in a spider web so
quickly in a such recently-made hole, he wriggled around in the cocoon that he
were wrapped in. Only his hands were free and with them he tried to tear apart


the web. He calmed down and just lied there in the faintly swaying net, seeing
it was not of any use to wriggle around like that. He widened his eyes as the
web suddenly descended about one meter, coming to think of that if you move
in a spider web, you would lure the spider forth. He started wriggling wildly
again, attempting to get away the best he could, but with still no use.



A loud hiss roamed the hole as soon the fire died. The spider had kept
distance to its web because of the fire and was now skittering towards Seiken
quickly. In a defensive maneuver, the spider spat its deadly venom all along
the wall. The venom was so highly concentrated that a strong green glow was
lighting up the web, Seiken and the red giant spider. The spider stood just
above Seiken and narrowed its eye hungrily down at him. Its fangs slowly
opened just to fit his body size. The spider hissed one more time loudly,
exposing its mouth to Seiken which were almost totally paralyzed in fright of
the arachnid. Its mouth drooled of spit with a hint of venom as it attempted to
bite him several times. Seiken managed just barely to roll away each time it
went for him and came closer and closer to the edge. He peered towards
where he just laid, seeing the spider standing there. The spider hissed loudly
again, peering down at the sword which lay between its legs. Seiken made big
eyes to see the sword were just laying there, ready for him to reclaim. The
spider was about to go after the sword with its fangs when Seiken rolled
quickly over and rhythmically arched towards the web, hopping up in the air of
the movement. He flew a few meters before landing perfectly on the spider’s
head, dazzling it for a few seconds which were enough for him to pick up his
sword in the right hand and embrace himself to the web with his left. He
quickly grinded his body against the edge of the sword, being finally able to cut
through and get out the second the spider regained its consciousness, being
very furious.

Seiken moved carefully around on the web so he didn’t fall down between the
gaps with his sword raised. The spider stood still and just hissed at him,
following his every movement with its eyes. It suddenly flicked its fangs and a
large spray of venom ejaculated towards Seiken like a geyser. He made big
eyes as such an attack came towards him and jumped to the side, landing on
the remains of his cocoon, peering quickly back to see the spot the shot hit.
The green sticky liquid had slowly melted its way into the wall about fifty
centimeters while giving out a strong green glow.

Seiken quickly turned his head again, seeing the spider slightly tired of using a
such large amount of poison which clearly would’ve end Seiken’s life if it had
hit. He moved quickly, yet carefully towards the spider, swinging his sword as
hard as he could against its legs. The spider let out a sharp roar in pain and
agony of the legs it lost in the blow. Seiken kept on hitting the remaining legs
as hard as he could, whilst feeling his body rushing with adrenaline and magic.
He was slowly driven into a blood thirst as his barbaric blows cut deeper and
deeper into the body of the spider. The spider was flinched in the attack and
could do nothing but roar loudly so the long tunnel they were in roamed with
rippling sound waves.
Seiken quickly went for a blow towards its head, impaling his eye with the tip
of his sword. The spider did nothing but stand completely still, looking at
Seiken with its other eye. A silent shriek came briefly out its fangs before it
curled somewhat into a ball on its back. The spider was dead and all that
remained was the cut carcass. Panting of exhaustion, Seiken peered around
to see if there had been any threats that had been lured forth by the sounds.
He saw nothing but the glowing acid on the walls that slowly slid downwards
the wall, radiating strongly. Uncertain about where he was supposed to go
from there, he took a deep breath then sighed, wiping his sword for spider-goo
before he put it back into his scaffold. The room was dead silent. Only the
sound of Seiken’s heavy breath that had somewhat calmed down by now was
heard. He swallowed hard as he peered down in the abyss. Biting his lower lip,
he took a deep breath and leaped from the web and down in the tunnel. It was
only a matter of minutes before he would do a cannonball in the water that
reflected the green light of the acid into his eyes. With a great splash he dove
into the depths of the water. He tried to look around in the water in hope for a
tunnel of some sort to swim through in order to get out of there, but it was all in
vain. After a little while he got struggle with breathing due the high pressure as
he was deep down in the earth and because of the water. He had no other
hope but surface. With great speed towards the surface he breathed relieved
out as he got up to breathe air. The air was all musky and was far from fresh,
but it felt like heaven to Seiken. He peered around, trying to see anything that
he could maybe climb up on. Maybe an altered rock or some sort of chain, but
couldn’t see anything. The light of the Spider’s acid was about to fade
completely away when he heard flowing water. Turning around he could see a
pipe sticking out from the wall and water flowing out of it. Luckily for Seiken the

pipe was just large enough for him to crawl through. He grabbed the edge of
the pipe and with what little strength he had left, he pulled himself up into it.
With heavy breaths he laid there for several minutes to regain his strength.
Lost, desperate and scared he asked himself several times what he had done
and what he should do. Iriya was dead and he was trapped deep down under
an unholy church.

Hope had started to fade as he laid there, exhausted. His eyelids felt heavy
and he couldn’t help but let them fall over his eyes and send him into a deep
sleep.

Several hours later he woke up by a strange sound coming from the pipe. He
woke up suddenly and peered into the pipe. It sounded like another spider, but
this sound was a bit different. He dared himself to crawl further into the pipe in
order to find its source when he suddenly fell out into a large room. Luckily for
him he didn’t land in water, but in something soft. He crawled out a large pile
of hay and found himself in something that looked like a prison. There were
several cells around along the wall that was empty, but housed skeletons
along the wall in chains. In the middle of the room, outside the cells were
several tables with knives impaled in the wood. At first sight he thought it was
just regular tables, but after closer inspection he could easily see that it was
tables used for torture. Old bloodstains were all over the surface and there
was even a bucket next to each table with different kinds of bones in. Some
jawbones, some ribs and so on. Feeling a small hint of the smell of dead
roaming the room, Seiken felt uneasy and quickly tried to find a way out of
there. Torches were lit along the wall; obviously someone had recently been
there. The room flickered gently in light when Seiken made his way across the
room. Each step echoed the walls and he left small footprints of water behind
him. He found a wooden door that he attempted to open. It was locked, but
very brittle. He took a step back and gave the door a good kick in its center,
making it fly off its hunches and into the darkness of the next room. With light
steps he went into the room and peered around. The first thing that hit him
was the intense smell of death that stood against him as a wall when he
entered the room. It was pitch black and impossible to see anything in there.
He sighed softly and stood still for a moment. His eyes suddenly widened as
he could hear something breather. Looking around wildly, he couldn’t find
where the breathing came from. But it was then he saw it. Two red dots a little
away in the middle of the room where the breathing came from. In a slight


panic, he got an idea and went back into the room he came from and took a
torch from the wall. With a light grip he threw the torch into the room, letting it
land in front of the dots. The faint light from the torch lit up the creature in front
of him, revealing a man. The man sat in a dark-red robe on his knees. His
sleeves were tied to chains which were chained to the walls whilst his hands
were in handcuffs inside the robe. Seiken could see them because the robe
was opened. The gentle and rather pretty hands of the hand hold each other
and seemed tender against the black vest he had on the inside with some
brown carvings in the leather. The man looked at Seiken with blood-red eyes
and his mouth was covered in some sort of red liquid. Seiken was a bit
frightened by this look, finding a man that had his mouth covered in something
that seemed like blood being chained down in the depths under the church.



“I have awaited your arrival.” Said the man, licking his lips for the red liquid,
revealing two small fangs in his mouth as his tongue eagerly licked the liquid
up. “A-awaited me?” Seiken said nervously, taking a step backwards, almost
stumbling. The torch burnt out and everything was dark as coal again. Seiken
went out to the other room to get a new torch which he threw towards the man.
When he was lit up once more, the man was now standing and his sleeves
had been unchained. He still glared at Seiken which looked back. “Who are
you?” Seiken decided to ask, wanting to get to the bottom of this. The man
smiled coldly and tugged lightly on his handcuffs. “Shouldn’t I be the one
asking you that? You’re the one coming in here – a place nobody should be.”
“I… I’m Seiken. I was trapped by the High Priest here.” He said boldly. “I
see…” Replied the man which tugged some more on his handcuffs. The torch
burnt out again and Seiken decided to throw in a new one so he went out of
the room to get one. When he came back, he could see the red eyes in the
darkness at first but saw them after a few seconds – this time far away. Seiken
took a few steps forward to the place the man stood before. He could tell
because of the two torches on the ground. Seiken threw the torch as far as he
could towards the man and lit up the room. He wasn’t revealed this time;
Seiken did instead reveal the bottom of some steps. The man clapped his
hands a couple of times and the whole room was lit up. Torches along the
walls all coated in red liquid was burning in a strong red flare.


“I am the blood prince.”
He sat on a throne not far from Seiken with one leg over the other. He seemed
rather relaxed there he sat, smiling at Seiken. “The blood prince?” Seiken said
before swallowing hard. He hadn’t really heard much about the blood prince,
but he was told that if he ever came across one, he should turn around and
run as far and as fast his legs could carry him. He nodded and a sly grin
conquered his face as he licked his lips in anticipation. “What are you doing
here?” Seiken had taken a step backwards as his eyes peered around before
fastening themselves upon the prince in front of him. He didn’t know what such
a prince was capable of, but he knew they were expert in blood-magic.
“Tychoo trapped me here many years ago. I’ve survived on feasting upon his
failed experiments and guards that got lost in this labyrinth of a dungeon. I
have awaited your arrival, to set me free so I can roam the world above once
more.” Seiken swallowed hard again and almost tripped over in the torches.
“Will you harm me if I did?” He asked carefully. A snicker echoed the room like
the smell of death that clanged to the prince. “…Perhaps I won’t? You’ll have
to find out. Before you do anything; know that I am the only one that knows
how to get out of this room of us two.” Seiken had looked around in the half-
darkened room before and he must admit that he hadn’t seen any doors that
lead out of the room. All he could see on the walls was the torches and partly
some runes behind the throne he sat on.



The prince’s golden hair went from his head and partly covered his face on the
sides as his red glowing eyes looked at Seiken with a smirk. “Very well… I will
trust you.” Seiken said after a moment in his thoughts. With slow steps, Seiken
went towards him and look at his face. He looked right back at Seiken. “So,
how can I get you out of here?” The prince stood up and went behind the
throne. Seiken quickly followed and they were both standing before the runes
on the wall. “Tychoo put a spell on this wall when I was imprisoned here. He
took some of my blood and was able to customize the spell to repel any action
from me. However, you should be able to dispel it. If you focus your magic and
put your hands on the runes, the door should open.” Seiken looked at his right
hand, eyeing it for a moment before looking into the gem. It was glowing faintly
yellow at the range, but lightened up when he approached the runes with it.
The moment his hand touched the surface of the wall, the runes gathered


under his hand and a large white circle appeared on the wall. It started to
rotate and a loud wheezing sound came from it. He suddenly felt an intense
pain in the gem and was about to quickly withdraw, but the prince placed his
hand upon Seiken’s, holding it sturdy against the wall. Whilst groaning in
agony, he was surprised by the sensation of the prince’s hand upon his. He
felt a tremendous force of power within the hand at the same time all kinds of
feelings rushed through him. “Hold still, this will only take a moment.” The
prince exclaimed and peered at the wall as the circle turned red before
exploding. The explosion left a large hole in the wall with its edge glowing in
some red liquid. It was dripping from the edge and Seiken could now clearly
see it was blood. Understanding that he was a blood prince, he had guessed
the prince kept the torches lit with blood. “Let’s dash!” The prince said and
sprint upwards the stairs that was revealed by the circle. Seiken didn’t have
much choice but follow.



After a while of sprinting after the prince, Seiken felt weak and exhausted of
running up the stairs. He lost the sight of the prince and he could feel the bitter
taste of betrayal flood his head as he was left there all alone. He took some
minutes to get his breath back and ascended slowly the stairs step by step.
After a moment of walking, he saw the same two pair of red glowing dots he
saw earlier. The prince sat on top of the stairs and peered down at him. “Not
quite the sprinter, are you? If you wish to survive in this world, you better have
your legs with you, kid. That is, if the world have remained the same as when I
was put down here.” Seiken just looked at him and rolled his eyes lightly as he
pushed forward to pass him. The prince got up and they were standing in a
large room with two doors. The doors were huge, wooden and decorated in
carvings and paintings. One had a silvery moon, much like the one in the
Midnight show in Ontiry and the other one was illustrating a naked woman
bathing. The only thing keeping the room lit was one huge brazier in the
middle of the room with about a meter in radius. Seiken had a freezing feeling
over him since the moment he had leaped from the spider’s net and went
towards the flickering flame to warm himself. The blood prince was examining
the inscriptions in the doors and whispered to himself. He stroke his hand over
the curves of the carvings in the process whilst Seiken felt a cold shiver down
his spine as he was getting warm again. “So, which will it be? Rescue your
lady-friend or get out of here?” The prince finally said after going over both of


the doors. “H-how did you know?” Seiken hadn’t told him anything about Iriya
and was rather surprised over the fact that he knew about her. “I sense a
female presence nearby, and as her soul writhe “Seiken”, which I believe is
your name; I figured out that it’d probably be you.” Seiken was silenced and
just blinked a few times.”W-we can rescue her?” He said with a calm voice
with a hint of excitement. The prince nodded and took a step backwards
before holding up his hand in front of the door with the woman. One large red
glyph appeared on the door before it exploded. Blood scattered everywhere
and the passage was open for them. Seiken had gotten his arms messy with
blood as he used his arms to shield his face from the explosion. Lightly
disgusted he shook his arms and walked into the gateway with the prince.
After walking for a moment in the darkness, they came to another large room.
The prince quickly went up against the wall behind a pillar whilst Seiken
figured out that it’d be smart to do the same thing, but on the opposite side of
the entrance. The smell of mud and dirt lingered in the room whilst the stench
of the dead was nowhere to escape. Pillars were all along the walls in this
rather large room and in the middle was a little altar. On the sides of the altar
was small pots that could be inserted into a slide in the base structure of the
altar, allowing the sacrifice’s blood to flow into them. On the altar was another
pot, but this one wasn’t brown and made out of clay like the others, no, this
one was white with blue engravings and golden around the edge. A loud
hissing roamed the roam as a shady figurine appeared behind the altar. “Now,
with my invisibility dispelled, I can finally focus on feasting upon this soul.” The
creature said. The prince tilted his head slightly around the pillar to see what
kind of thing this was whilst Seiken moved and leaned against the pillar
instead. He could hear that the voice was demonic, but could at the same time
tell it was a female demon. The prince returned to his previous position again
and looked at Seiken, giving him a little nod before Seiken peered forth for
himself, seeing that this demon looked like a succubus. She had a slim
delicate female body, but with two large horns coming out of her head. Her
nails were long and slightly bended unlike the spikes that came out of her legs
which was black. She moved around slightly, making a clacking sound so
Seiken figured out she had hooves as well. With soft red lips, she was reading
loud for herself with her blue shining eyes. The only thing she wore was a
ragged cloth around her waist and a black top engraved in demonic runes.
Whilst using her long black and spiky tail to turn the pages, she let her large
black wings which toned into dark-red on the tip flap silently now and then.


Unaware of the two presences that had intruded into her sanctuary she kept
reading and soon magic appeared as she was doing some sort of ritual. The
prince peeked forth once more, but as he moved to look, his cape brushed
against the pillar and made a little scraping sound as one metal badge that
held his cape up grinded against the rock. The succubus slammed the book
together and with her glowing blue eyes, peered around in the room whilst her
tail descended to the floor. She breathed quickly a few times as if very angry
before walking towards the gateway Seiken and the blood prince had entered
with quick steps. Each step echoed the room with a clacking sound. Seiken
and the prince held their breath as they got ready to move around the pillar the
other way the succubus was coming. The succubus passed the pillars and
peered quickly to her left and right, breathing hard and quickly through her
nose. Her tail swayed from side to side as if ready to whip. “Oh…? Probably
some rats. Ratsy, ratsy, ratsy!” She said whilst jump-walking back towards the
altar in a much happier voice. Seiken and the prince had managed to move
just in time and stood now behind the pillar. With curious eyes they both
peered forth and eyed the Succubus in her ritual which now had turned her
back against them.

After a little while with mumbling and some demonic words, she finally took up
the black book again and started reading. The moment she resumed the
reading, the pot on the altar was surrounded by red glowing orbs and sparkles.
“She’s doing blood magic” the prince said, thinking it’s now safe to talk as the
spell she were doing caused a lot of noise. The demon kept her spell going
and soon the pot ascended into the air as it radiated a red aura around its
surface. Gray dust came up out of the pot and ascended towards the roof.
Coming halfway, its form shifted and took shape of the woman by making the
circumscription that way. Just seconds after the shaping, a white faint light
filled the figurine. The prince kept his cool and watched the show whilst Seiken
widened eyes. It was Iriya! “Little tasty human soul will soon be in the depths
of my bowl.” The succubus said and let her demonic slender tongue caress
her lips. Her tail swayed seductively before Seiken whilst she grinned. The
prince pondered why a succubus would have the soul of a woman as they are
known to only go after males. The figurine of Iriya seemed to be crying
because of some silvery liquid flowing from the eyes. Though, upon seeing
Seiken, her eyes widened. The succubus saw Iriya’s reaction and turned her
head quickly, seeing Seiken and the blood prince. She narrowed her eyes
whilst her blue glowing eyes turned into raging red ones, whipping hard with


polls_succubus_2927_14532_answer_10_xlarge.jpeg
her tail. “Now, now, what do we have here? Guests for dinner?” She said in an
angry voice turning around. She bit her left hand’s pointing finger teasingly as
her tail stroke over her belly.



Seiken and the prince knew they had been
caught and stepped forward. “What do you
intend to do to her?” Seiken asked whilst
looking up at Iriya then down at the
succubus again. “I have no reason to tell
you, have I? Or perhaps, shall we make a
little deal? You let me finish what I’m doing
here and I will let you live~”. The succubus’
eyes turned blue once more, but her evil grin
was kept in place. Seiken and the blood
prince looked at each other and then back at
the succubus. They didn’t answer, but the
demon assumed they agreed to her deal
since they did nothing. “You look delicious, honey.” She said whilst looking up
at Iriya, licking her lips. Iriya had a shocked expression on her face as Seiken
stood there and did nothing. He knew he couldn’t just stand idle by and watch
Iriya be devoured by this succubus. Seiken placed a hand on the succubus
back, just between her black wings and placed his other hand over than one
again, touching his gem. The gem glowed strongly in a purple color and
demon moaned. “Ah! W-what are you doing??” The demon hissed and looked
over her shoulder at Seiken with red glaring eyes. She whipped his hand off
her with her tail and he took a few steps backwards, holding his hand firmly in
the other. The blood prince looks at the succubus’ back and notices a black
bruise. “Is this… a curse?” The prince looked back at Seiken. All of a sudden
the demon seemed to be in pain as she was reaching for the bruise whilst
groaning in pain and agony. Suddenly the bruise lit up with searing light and
the demon roared loudly in a painful way. She twitched and groaned as she
shivered before falling to the ground. A hole was now where the bruise just
was. A black thin liquid ran out of the hole and formed a black little pit beneath.
Iriya’s shape faded slowly away, but got in some way sucked into the hole of
the succubus’ back. “You haven’t…” The prince said, interrupted by the
demon’s groaning. She stood up and shook her head lightly for a moment.


She seemed disoriented as she felt out of her own body by the sight of how
she was moving around the altar. She finally stopped and looked at Seiken.
“Seiken!” She said and hugged him dearly to him. “Uh..?” Seiken said,
uncertain about this all. “It’s me! Iriya!” The blood prince gasped lightly whilst
Seiken just looked shocked at the succubus. “I see… You opened a hole in
the succubus and the magic that controlled her was driven out. Then the soul
of Iriya that probably was the light that we just saw could inhabit her body. I’d
guess that ash is her… body?” The prince said, eyeing her up and down. Iriya
started to sob lightly for a moment before she wiped the tears from her soft
cheeks. “I’m sorry all this happened to you…” Seiken finally said to her,
knowing that her life would be different from now on, trapped in a demon’s
body. “I know how to get your body back… But we will need to bring the ashes
with us.” The prince said after examining her body. “Really?!” Iriya said in a
rather happy voice given the situation. Both Seiken and Iriya smiled happily
and did their best to gather all her ashes in the pot again from the altar before
exiting the room through the way they came.



When they came into the room with the giant brazier in, the other door that
once was locked, smashed open. Pieces of wood laid shattered everywhere
and the torches in the hallway beyond were lit. Seiken whom hold the ashes of
Iriya in the urn held it tightly to his chest as they proceeded down the hallway.
Iriya wasn’t used to walk with the legs of a succubus just yet and took each
step carefully. One would think she had been drinking for quite a while the way
she seemed unbalanced. The blood prince walked next to Seiken and had
now and then thrown a peek at Iriya. He hadn’t really had a close look at a
succubus before, but now that the time was present, he could do so. His
tongue flickered over his lips now and then whilst they were walking. Seiken
with his soft boots made no sound alone, but the hooves of Iriya made a
clacking sound that echoed the walls, alerting any beings in the distance of
their presence. The prince’s boots were soft as Seiken’s, but he was leaving a
faint red footprint that would disappear in the matter of seconds after each
step.

They finally arrived in the next room. The stench of death had now left them,
but the noxious smell of iron lingered in the air now. The room they came to
was more or less a cavern as stalagmites hang from the roof, spikes directly
under, some of them forming pillars. The floor was mainly of mud and stone,


but several skeletons of humans was lying around. They ventured deeper into
the caverns and came to a lake. It was no ordinary lake, but a lake of blood.
“Ah yes, soon there.” The prince said calmly to himself and scouted out over
the lake. It was all pitch black in the distance, but the cavern seemed to widen
out. “Allow me to light the way for you…” The prince said with a glee, standing
forth before the lake of blood. He rose his hands to the air and with holding
them straight out, formed a large red circle just by his hands. It sounded as if
he was chanting some sort of spell there he stood. His cape flickered by magic
forces like curtains would do in an open window. After a minute of mumbling,
he closed his hands. The moment the fists were made, blood splashed out of
the hand as if he was squeezing two hearts. That very instant, the lake burst
into flames. It was if the blood was made of oil, though, Seiken or Iriya couldn’t
feel any heat radiating from it. They looked surprised at each other then back
at the prince. They knew they were standing behind a very powerful mage.
“W-what would this help us?” Iriya dared to say whilst stroking one of her long
nails, not used to be in the body of a demon. “You’ll see…” The prince calmly
replied. Seiken couldn’t see it, but he knew the prince was smiling. He could
feel how he had taken pleasure in igniting blood and put it all to flames. Due
the light from the flames, they were able to see much further. Though, the
distance didn’t reveal anything but a sea of flames.

A large black ring formed not far from them in the sea of flames. Seiken
thought he could see something far away, and surely something had
ascended from the lake. In the ring with no fire, a wooden board had surfaced.
The wood was black as coal, almost as if it was used before and had gotten
burnt by the fire. The board slowly cruised towards them whilst Seiken and
Iriya stood there, even more confused than before. The wooden board
seemed odd as it were coursing with dark red magic. Seiken could sense a
strong magically presence radiating from the board and even was sure he
could see the board attach more and more parts which had surfaced as well to
itself. By the time it had reached them, Seiken could now clearly see that he
was right in his exclamations about seeing things attach itself to the board.
The board had now three small miniature pillars standing up from the board. It
could remind him of stumps that he had seen in the forest; however, these
were black and much more shaped like seats. The prince stepped forth and
stood on the black wooden board which didn’t seem to be affected by the
prince in any way. “Well, are you going to stay behind?” The prince said whilst
peering at the two at the shore. Seiken gulped and went on whilst Iriya sighed


softly before being helped aboard by taking Seiken’s hand which he held out
for her. All three sat down on the stumps and the board slowly took off by
coursing out into the sea of flames. Seiken reached out to try touching the
flames in order to see if it was for real, but the prince quickly grabbed his wrist.
“If you keep your life dear, you better keep your hands off!” The prince had a
serious look in his face. Seiken swallowed hardly before peering into the
flaming abyss. “Flickers like a butterfly, shines like the sun, warms like snow
and steals life like a black widow” The prince said, looking at Seiken. “So… It
behaves like normal fire, but doesn’t radiate off warmth in order to lure others
to explore its attributes by touching it; Then killing them with only a touch?”
Seiken looked at the hand he attempted to touch the flames with. It was his left
hand. Iriya looked at Seiken and grunted as she shuffled lightly on the stump
she was sitting on. She had sat down on the tail and it hang down the front of
the stump between her legs, swaying to left and right now and then. “Who are
you? Where are you taking us?” Seiken said whilst looking around them,
coursing through the lake of fire. “…I am… Verdan. I’m a mage of Shana. A
long time ago, I attended to the magic academy there. Only the most powerful
sorceress and wizards are allowed to study magic there. One day, however,
there was an assassination attempt on the headmaster there. Of course, the
headmaster overpowered the assassin and brought him to his knees. Whilst
the assassin’s comrades had decided to flee, the confronted assassin
managed to flee as well, but this one had a special order. “If you fail to bring
me the head of the headmaster, take an apprentice. We will learn all his
weaknesses and strengths through him.” The order sounded which he
successfully carried out. I was sleeping at the time and was an easy prey.
They brought me here, to their lair and did all kind of experiments to me. Over
the years, I became quite fond of the darkness as it was always calm, soothing
and hiding things in the dark. So, in order to keep somewhat sane” He stopped
for a moment, grinning to himself before continuing. “I experimented with
myself. I found small sharp rocks which I used to cut up my arms with to make
the blood flow. I developed blood magic in my veins. I want nothing more than
to destroy Tychoo and get my freedom back.” The prince said with a grave
voice. “I see. Our goals are the same in that case. I want to avenge Iriya here
by destroying Tychoo. We were originally headed for Shana in search of
someone. You can surely come with us if you’d like?” Seiken said whilst he felt
an exciting feeling fill his body. Shana was one of the greatest cities in the


world and anyone that had visited once was considered a noble due the strict
rules. “I’ll consider it.” Verdan said calmly, eyeing Iriya.

The board floated further and further into the sea of flames and there were
periods when there was only flames to be seen around them. Iriya looked sad
there she sat, peering down at her body. One could obvious see that she was
unpleasant by being a succubus. Her tail had stopped moving as well, only
hanging down. Some bats would now and then fly from the ceiling and into the
fire. Seiken had figured out that they was attracted by the scent of blood so
much that they would dive into the lake spite the flames. It didn’t caught fire or
anything, it just stopped moving the moment a flame touched it and fell into the
blood, sinking deep into the abyss.

It was late at night by what Seiken could figure about his fatigue and he was
very hungry. Uncertain about how much more it would be before they would
reach any land, he looked at Iriya and decided to chat with her for a while,
trying to forget the hunger. “So… What’s it like to be a succubus?” He said as
an opening. “I hate it!” Iriya whimpered. “I feel silly walking around with a
pointy tail, spikes everywhere, and in this revealing outfit! I can’t sit properly, I
got a strange lust to bite you both and these wings feels so out of place!” She
settled down and sobbed for just a moment before she peered up at Seiken,
grabbing his shoulder. “Do you think I will ever be able to return to normal?”
She whispered, tugging lightly onto his arm. He looked over at Verdan and
then back at Iriya. “Sure! We’ll find a way.” His mouth smiled to her, but in his
uncertainness, one could see his eyes were about to cry. He stared down into
the little pot he had placed between his feet to keep steady. “Yes, don’t worry.
When we get to the surface, I’ll reincarnate you.” Verdan added and sent Iriya
a smile. She brightened up like a sun and smiled widely. Her tail had slid back
up between her legs and went quickly from side to side behind her back, much
like a happy dog would do.

Seiken chatted a bit with Verdan, but the hunger caught up with him. He
covered his stomach with his hands and groaned lightly. “Hungry?” The prince
asked whilst scouting over the lake. Seiken couldn’t do anything but to confirm
it. “Don’t worry, we’re soon there. We’re heading to the dungeon where I was
first held a couple of months before being brought to the deeper ones. I had
managed to slaughter many different creatures in order to survive the harsh
servings. I had managed to seal the food away and cast a spell over it so it
wouldn’t be edible for anyone who tries stealing it.” Seiken was glad to hear


this and looked forward for that moment. “By the way… Why didn’t you just
break out when you were put here?” Seiken curiously asked, not seeing the
logic of how a decent wizard would be able to get captured and held for that
long. “Ever hear of nullspell?” The prince asked while stroking his wrists with
his fingertips, gazing onto the black board. “It’s a magic circle they put around
your wrists to keep your hands away from each other. In order to perform
magic properly, one need to let the hands meet at least once through the
casting in order to cast a proper spell.” Seiken, whom had brightened up with a
smile as he was able to learn that fact was intrigued to learn more from
Verdan.

The moment he was going to ask about more, the board hit something. It was
with such a force that Iriya and Seiken felled over against the prince whom
steadied them both by placing a hand on their chest. Seiken felt relieved as he
was dead scared about falling into the lake. Iriya, however, was first glad he
had stopped her, but then slapped him hardly in the face as he had touched
her breasts. The prince didn’t say anything to the slapping and simply
removed his hands. Seiken thanked him and Iriya sobbed lightly again, being
strongly uncomfortable being a succubus. They had hit land on the other side
of the lake. They stepped off the board and on the ground. The ground was
made of rough sand and made a crunchy sound when they walked around.
Iriya whimpered of each step as she felt how sand crawled up her hooves and
in the split. Judging by the expression on her face, it was quite unpleasant.
Luckily for her, there were only a few meters of sand and then there were a set
of stairs made of stone that lead upwards. Seiken made sure to bring the urn
with him.

After a while of walking, they came out on a terrace. From the terrace they
could see something looking like a labyrinth. “That’s the prison” Verdan said,
looking down at different cells made out of iron bars in different corners of
what looking like the labyrinth. “The complex is made this way to drain the
power out of prisoners if they would escape. The magic circle put on their
arms drain their life force from each step without their cell. A labyrinth would
surely kill them before they managed to escape.” The prince explained,
pointing towards one of the corners. “There’s my cell”. His cell lay in the
darkest corner of the large room they stood in. They descended a stair on the
left side on the balcony, entering the labyrinth. At the entrance they saw
several hooks along the wall with thin tin-circles hanging from them. Obviously


these were the magical rings which were enchanted and placed on the
prisoners. Iriya touched one of them. It swayed lightly in the rough air,
sparkling slightly with magic the moment she touched it. Small red stars
landed on the stony floor.

Seiken felt a bit uneasy while looking into the labyrinth. He thought of the most
likely innocent captives whom had struggled to get home to their family but bit
the dust due the magical circles. On the floor, small faint traces of those circles
laid. Iriya felt uneasy as well. She had grown quite nervous and bitten off a nail
after a moment of chewing. Her tail hang with only a slight movement as she
stood with her feet closer to each other only to yelp and spread them again.
She bit her lower lip and peered down, eyeing the spikes spurting out of her
feet which had impaled into her feet. “Let’s go…” She said, tugging in Seiken’s
shoulder. Verdan peered at them and nodded, leading the way. They got lost
the very moment they entered the labyrinth.

After an hour of walking into blind passages, circles, decayed corpses and
cells, Iriya sat down. “I can’t take this anymore! I’m so hungry…” She whined,
and sighed deeply. Seiken agreed and sat down with her. Verdan looked down
at them and shook his head. They were clearly more fatigued than him. Iriya
wrinkled her nose a bit, blinked and pointed towards the wall in front of her.
“That way.” She said, feeling her instincts tells her to go that way. Verdan,
whom knew what a demon like the succubus were capable of smiled and
reached a hand for both of them. “That way it is then.” They took passages
going towards the direction Iriya pointed and surely enough; they got to a large
cell with the bars gone. A large pool of something which looked like melted
iron lay on the floor. “How did you manage to melt the iron with your magic
sealed?” Seiken asked, stepping on the pool which was hard again. “I’ll say
later…” Verdan said whilst walking ahead. Iriya went with him whilst Seiken
just stood there on the plate of iron, pondering what mysteries that laid hidden
within this man. “Seikeeeeen! Come on, the food is here!” He could hear
Iriya’s voice echoed from the large cell. It was a partly reinforced with bricks
along the walls but in one of the corner was a hole, leading into a cave. That’s
where the sound came from. Seiken peered carefully into the cave, hoping not
to see another spider again before walking inside. He found Iriya and Verdan
eating from a large pile of roasted meat. “Help yourself; there will be no
second servings!” Iriya said happily, her tail waggling like an eager dog whilst
chewing hungrily on a mutton chop. The smell of grilled meat hit Seiken like a


wave and he was filled with a happy glee of finally being able to eat. Verdan
had roasted the pile with his magic, making a large feast. A little underground
river ran just behind the pile, providing them with drink. That night, they
feasted upon monsters which Verdan had slain through the years and
magically preserved to the highest quality. Not everything tasted good, but lot
of it did. They didn’t speak with each other during the whole feast. All that was
in their mind was to eat. Verdan wasn’t so eager about eating, but smiled at
them both, being happy he was able to help them.

After they had eaten, they felt sleepy. Verdan guided them back into the cell of
his where a large pile of hay laid. He pushed it over and made it like a large
bed. Iriya laid down on the far left, Seiken in the middle and Verdan on the far
right. They pulled some hay over themselves as a sheet and sighed as they
were finally able to rest. “Night guys… “Seiken said calmly. “Night, you two”
Iriya sighed while closing her eyes. “Sleep tight, but be on guard” Verdan
warned, pulling his cape over himself instead of the hay, using it as a sheet.

The night was long and the three of them slept tightly. Seiken woke up at one
point of something biting his foot. Sheepishly he opened his eyes and peered
down, shaking his foot a bit to shake it off, but with no luck. It just hurt more.
He sat up and peered at his foot. It was Iriya’s spikes on her foot which had
been sticking into Seiken’s. Smiling lightly, he pushed her leg away and lay
down again. Soon after, her arm came over his chest. Attempting to ignore it,
he rolled over on his side, facing away from her. He could hear Iriya shuffle
herself closer to him, pressing her body to his back. “Are you awake?” She
whispered in his ear. Seiken nodded and turned his head to gaze upon her
demonic face. He could clearly see that Iriya was worried. “What’s the
matter?” He whispered, not wanting to wake up Verdan after all he had done
for them. “Is it ok if I stay like this for just a moment? It would help me relax.”
He felt her body laying all tightly up against his back now. Her legs were pulled
lightly backwards as she didn’t want to hurt him with them. “Sure…” He replied
and turned his head again. The day had made hi mweary and it was a matter
of seconds before his eyelids closed and he felled into a deep slumber. Deep
in his sleep, he could still feel the warm breath of Iriya brushing against his
neck like a summer breeze would and her soft body clenching against his.




Seiken was awakened by Verdan’s voice. “Oy, wakey wakey, sleepyhead.” He
grinned at him and looked over at Iriya. She lay on her back, legs and arms
spread out whilst snoring loudly. Seiken couldn’t help but laugh. He had
always thought of Iriya as a mature woman whom always showed her best
side no matter the situation, but seeing Iriya like this broke down his mental
illusion of her. Iriya stopped snoring and opened her eyes slightly before
blinking and then opening them fully. She sat up completely confused where
Verdan stood there and smiled at her while Seiken was laughing. “What?!”
She asked loudly, peering at them both. She then peered down at her body,
checking if she had anything strange on her or if she was missing her clothes,
but they were on and nothing icky or strange was on her. “Slept well?” Verdan
said and leaned towards them both with a hand, helping them both up. Seiken
brushed some hay off his back and chest whilst Iriya used her tail to brush her
body with. She had gotten quite skilled in using her tail to all sorts of things as
far Seiken could see. “I did…” She said, still a bit suspicious of them both
seeming to have a good time on her account. “Good, good. We should be able
to reach the surface today. As I undid the spell yesterday, the food has gone
bad in the damp dungeon air surrounding the pile, so we will have to continue
without any breakfast. “Verdan replied. Seiken picked up the Urn he had
placed in a corner of the cell the night before, away from them to not kick it
over in his sleep. They started go back through the labyrinth and oddly
enough, they got out without any problems at all. It was if they were destined
to make it through any riddles easy this day. They came to the other side of
the large room. A statue of an old woman stood there. The woman was
pouring water into a cleft. Seiken figured out that there must have been an
underground river flowing through it and whoever made the statue made it out
of the stone which it flowed through. Verdan knitted his fist tightly and hit the
woman’s pot. It was shattered in an instant and the water stopped flowing. The
statue crumbled into a pile of dust and a little wooden door was revealed
behind it. It was so small that they would have to crawl on their knees in order
to get in. Verdan bowed and held his hand out towards the door. “Ladies first.”
He humbly said, waiting for Iriya to take him up on the offer. She sent him a
smile of approval and got onto her knees in the pile of dust. She fiddled with
the tiny handle for just a moment before she was able to pull it open. All she
could see was a long tunnel with nothing but darkness in sight. While she
crawled inside, Verdan looked at Seiken. “Did you feel it?” He asked. Seiken
nodded and looked down at the dusty floor from the statue. “Yes… it wasn’t


strong, but I am sure I sensed magic.” Verdan nodded. “It was a gargoyle.
Ancient stone creatures who have gone into slumber here in the darkness. I
am surprised it didn’t wake up from your magic presence as it’s the only thing
they react to.” Seiken didn’t reply but spaced out while looking into the hole.



“Are you guys coming?” Iriya yelled from the hole. Seiken and Verdan got both
on their knees and started crawling. Seiken went in first and Verdan after him.
He made sure he locked the door properly, something which made the tunnel
totally dark. Iriya’s tail waved from side to side of each crawl she made,
whipping Seiken in the face. At one point, he couldn’t take being whipped in
the face anymore and grabbed her tail. The moment his hand wrapped along
the base of the tail, Iriya yelped and attempted to rise up on her knees but
staggered her head in the roof. “W-what?!” She said in a shivering voice. “Your
tail is whipping me in the face… Mind keeping it still?” Seiken sighed and let
go of her tail. Iriya had been in a happy mood since they got up, but now she
seemed a bit calmed and slightly saddened. Her tail wasn’t waggling just as
much anymore, something which clearly seemed to affect her mood.

Verdan just grinned and kept crawling after them. Through the mud and the
muck, they oddly enough didn’t encounter any bugs or spiders, despite this
being the perfect place for such creatures to lurk. It was as if the hole was
recently dug. After been crawling for several minutes, they finally got to an
opening. As it still was pitch black in the tunnel, they didn’t see the end and
Iriya did therefore fall out of the hole and down into the room they came to. It
was about one meter from the hole to the floor so she wasn’t injured but lightly
stunned. Seiken stopped when he heard her yelp from the fall and peered
down at the ground. All he could see was Iriya’s eyes which slightly glowed in
the darkness. “Move aside a bit” Seiken said before slipping from the tunnel
himself. When Verdan crawled forth, he slid down on his rear and stood up.
He brushed his cloak which was no longer red but brown, all stained from the
earth in the tunnel. He wiggled his nose slightly as he was sniffing the air
around him. “There’s magic in the air…” He said after just a moment and
shortly the room was filled with red light. The prince casted small red bolts at
the wall which after only a few seconds combusted into flames, leaving fires
along the wall. By using his blood magic, he had left his blood on the walls and
ignited it. As the room was lighted up, they found themselves in a small room
but without a ceiling. Seiken could at least not see any ceiling due the

darkness. He peered around and noticed that it was a rather nice room. Walls
made out of small bricks, a little throne with a red pillow on the seat and an
altar with four shackles surrounding it. On the altar a large bloodstain laid as
an ocean while the shackles hang from four pillars standing by each corner of
the altar. The altar looked like a large anvil and there was one large hammer
leaned against it all covered in blood at the handle from the altar.

“I guess… This is the place”? Iriya said, swallowing hard and looked at all the
blood at the altar. Verdan nodded and told her to lie down. Seiken looked at
Iriya as she lay down and spread her arms and legs out while Verdan placed
the shackles on her legs and arms. “This will take a while. Please be patient.”
Verdan informed and looked at Iriya. He sighed deeply before reaching for the
urn with her ashes that Seiken had carried with him. Seiken handed him the
urn and placed his hand in Iriya’s. “I hope this goes without pain.” He
whispered to her. She smiled up at him and whispered back “I’ll endure it…”.
“Okay, here I go!” Verdan said and opened the urn. He poured the ashes over
her body, but the moment the ash touched her skin, a wheezing sound wept
forth like molten coal being extinguished by water. Smoke appeared and Iriya
started to scream. Burn-marks appeared all over her body where the ash had
touched her. She immediately twisted and wriggled around on the altar,
tugging hardly on the shackles whilst her voice slowly turned into a demonic
voice, growling louder and louder. Her writhing and groaning roamed well in
the room because of the impact wall, making it slightly shake due the sonic
waves. “Shh! Try to keep still and not scream!” Verdan shouted in a low voice,
almost whispering. Seiken looked horrified at Iriya who lay there, seeming to
be burning alive as she gave reactions like one that had caught fire. Verdan
closed in eyes and stood in front of her. He reached out his arm and held it
above her body. He then started chanting in an unknown language, one that
Seiken never had heard before. A large red rune appeared at his palm and
one large and darker one appeared around the altar. They glowed strongly
and slowly circulated. Verdan kept going on with his chanting and Iriya
eventually stopped her screaming. Seiken could see how the ashes had
disappeared into her skin and left large red runes across her body. Slowly the
runes slightly turned redder; obviously the spell would be completed when all
the runes were glowing red.

Seiken was feeling uneasy. Not only because of the ritual that Verdan
performed on Iriya, but he felt like he was being watched. He scouted the


room, going over the floor, checking behind every pillar and even lifting up the
red pillow. Verdan felt that Seiken was at unease but had to focus on Iriya
which lay lifeless before hi. She had her eyes and mouth open whilst her tail
laid downwards between her legs, the tip hanging lightly over the edge.

As Seiken was walking, he saw one big pool of goo on the floor near the
throne. Scratching his head, he went towards the good and poked it with his
sword. His gem faintly glowed yellow from each poke and he stopped to look
at it. The string wasn’t in sight, but a little hint of yellow roamed within when he
wasn’t poking it. He poked it again just to see the gem flash faintly yellow
again. What grinded Seiken’s mind is that he hadn’t seen that goo lay there
before and was therefore a bit concerned that they was not alone. He kicked it
lightly, but the moment his foot connected with the goo, it got stuck. He
struggled for a moment to get his foot away, only to leave the boots in the goo
in order to get out of it. Shortly after, he saw the goo expanded as a large
droplet of goo came falling down from the ceiling. When Seiken looked up
again, he could see one huge eye looking down at him.

That very moment Seiken’s two tiny eyes compared to the huge one, looked
upon the huge one in the ceiling, he froze completely paralyzed. The eye
blinked once, keeping its gaze at Seiken. The eye didn’t look like any human
eye, but looked more or less like a cat’s eye. However, a lot more corrupted
and more demonic. “V-Verdan…? There’s… an eye in the roof…” Seiken
managed to press forth from his lips. Verdan didn’t seem to react and kept his
chanting going. Eight blood orbs had appeared around Verdan and were
slowly circulating. Seiken had to protect them all during this ritual and decided
to wait until the creature made its move. The eye looked towards Verdan and
Iriya. It blinked a couple of more times before a loud trembling roar shook the
room. Shortly after the roar, thousands of small eyes opened around the large
one. They were looking in random directions but were quickly directed at
Seiken whom swallowed hard at the view. One of the eyes dropped to the
throne and landed on the little red pillow. The eyelids hid the eye and it
seemed to be trembling. Suddenly the pillow was covered in the same kind of
goo which laid on the floor now far away from it. On top of the eye, a long little
tendril came forth and out of the tendril strut a thin long spike. Seiken could
easily see it was poisonous because of the little green droplet dropping from
its tip. The eye opened again and slid off the throne moving towards him in the
pool of goo. It trusted with the needle towards Seiken as it moved forward.


fireball.jpg
Without any hesitation, Seiken raised his sword and sliced the eye in half. It
felled dead over and gushed out a light blue liquid on the floor which
disappeared through the bricks.

The large eye in the ceiling seemed to be displeased of this and closed its
eyelid for a couple of seconds before opening again, scattering goo all over
the room. Another roar was let through the room, bringing Seiken to his knees
to not fall over due the shaking. Now, a lot of eyes were dropping and evolving
like the one before them did. They all went towards Seiken whom got quite
stressed. He waved his sword around just behind Verdan’s back and hit them
as they came closer. The minutes passed and the pile of dead monsters
increased quickly. The more Seiken slaughtered, the more monsters appeared
and they became more with the time, almost if the large eye in the ceiling
learned Seiken’s fighting style. The eye was watching him closely there he
stood, swinging his sword in order to protect the ritual from being interrupted.
Obviously the ritual had disturbed the monster and it was not pleased with it.
“There’s no end to them!” Seiken shouted after delivering a killing blow to the
closest eye. He was breathing heavily and could hardly stand. He saw another
one come closing in onto Verdan but Seiken reacted before he managed to
jump the prince. Seiken threw his sword towards the eye and impaled it
directly in the iris before sighing deeply. He looked around and saw all the
hundreds of eyes approaching him, thrusting the poisoned spike in his
direction as they walked. He knitted his fists and felt his gem glow brightly
yellow. Inside he could see the little string slightly sway in a red faint spark.
Seiken focused energy and managed to conjure fireballs in his hands.
However, these fireballs were unlike the others he had earlier conjured. This
ball had a magmatic core and was glowing brighter and warmer like any fire he
had been experiencing. Surging his power through the fireball for another
moment, he looked at the approaching eyes and hurled it towards them. It hit
the eye in the center of a cluster and at impact, the ball exploded into crude
pieces which hit the surrounding eyes, combusting at impact. The eyes were
killed in an instant. Seiken looked upon his hands, amazed of this power but
couldn’t rest right now. His physical limit had been reached, but his magical
power was higher than ever.



He conjured and surged before
throwing another fireball, and then


another one. He kept on slaughtering the eyes till Verdan started shouting.
“Bloody demons of the abyssal depth, this soul have death swept. Raining
down acid from above, create waters immune to this dove. Darkness abides
my calls, my prayers which go through walls. Blossom like a fiery rose, life and
death, I will compose.” Verdan silenced and kept mumbling. Only now and
then he shouted out another chanting before returning to mumbling in
demonic. Seiken started to reach his magical limit as well and felt out of place.
“V-Verdan… I am not sure… How much longer I can stand this…” Seiken
could hardly say as he slowly swept towards unconsciousness. His eyes had
become cloudy with a white filter and he was swaying like a drunken man.
Verdan stopped the changing and the succubus’ corpse had crumbled into a
large pile of ash. Verdan looked at Seiken and then up at the eye which had
become red. He smiled and placed his arms around Seiken, embracing him as
he placed him against the altar, telling him to rest. Verdan went towards the
little throne at the far end of the wall and peered up. A large blob of slime
slowly slid down the stony walls and eventually reached the backrest of the
chair. With a evil grin, Verdan touched the slime which immediately turned red
and exploded. Blood scattered everywhere but Verdan appeared even more
exhilarated now he was covered in his element. He gazed back up at the eye
which had locked its sight at him. Verdan blinked at the eye once, almost
winking at it before the eye started to tremble. A long thin stream of blood
poured from its iris and formed a little pool on the floor. The eye had small
infected blobs appear all over its surface before it closed itself and felled
down, landing in the pool of blood. Blood splattered all over the room again
before a large howl was heard. It shook the very walls of the room. Seiken
whom was unconscious tried to open his eyes, only to see Verdan in front of
him, looking up into the ceiling. He seemed crazed and was laughing. He held
out his arms and strutted his fingers up from his hands like forks there he
stood, enjoying the fog of blood in the air that came from above, much like a
mad thief would do if he had gotten many thousands of gold coins. Still without
strength, he collapsed.

“Bring it on… Show me your true face!” Verdan taunted, still looking up in the
ceiling. Not long after, a monstrous appearance leaped down from the roof. It
could remind one of a very large bear, however, where it head should be was
one gigantic eye socket, but with no eye. Along its shoulders were many
thousands of small eye sockets which also were empty. The monster’s claws
fangs was as big as Verdan and he was roaring ferociously. It stood up on its


back legs and started swaying its arms around, cutting down the few pillars in
the room with its claws. The room shook of each pillar being taken down and
Verdan spread his legs to support him from falling. Verdan’s tongue slid gently
over his bloodied lips and his eyes were lit up in an even stronger red glow
than usual. Four small red orbs of blood appeared around his head and floated
slowly towards the monster. The monster whom could no longer see couldn’t
avoid these and due the intense stench of blood, not being able to tell anything
coming closer. The four orbs parted into two groups of two, going into its ears,
making shrieking noise on their way in towards its brain. Verdan stood still,
focusing his magic as the monster roared and clawed recklessly around,
scratching the walls up. The room shook more and more and large chunks of
stone eventually dropped down and almost hit Iriya. Verdan saw this and bit
his lower lip in frustration. Nothing is to interrupt him from getting a good battle
after all these years in prison. Verdan sighed and thought of doing a quick
work of it, but due the quick increase of number of stones dropping from the
ceiling, he had no choice but to wrap this up. He grabbed Seiken’s arm and
placed his arm around Iriya’s pile of ash. The moment he placed his arm
around her and pulling her to him, her body came forth from the ash. It was
like her real body was hidden beneath of ash all the time the way she was
pulled forth. Her body was black from the ash and she showed no signs of life.

With Iriya under one arm and Seiken dragged along his left arm, Verdan ran
towards one of the walls which had collapsed, making a little hole. He jumped
out and landed in a pile with Seiken and Iriya against the wall in a hallway
while the rumbling and shrieking from the other room waved against them.
Finally, a large rock appeared above the monster which knocked it and the
room down. It all ended with one large noise of falling rocks and the monster’s
scream of agony. Verdan looked up and at the little collapsed wall he jumped
through and into a large pile of rubble. There was so much rubble that one
couldn’t get into the room again. He sighed and suddenly widened his eyes for
just one second. At that very instant a splattering sound was heard and the
monster’s groan seeped from the rubble. Seiken regained his consciousness
and looked at the hole. He saw nothing but a large pile of rubble, gravel and
lots of blood streaming from the pile. At first he was confused where he was
and what had happened. Then he noticed Iriya and leaned her against the
wall. “Iriya! Hey, Iriya?!” He shouted. He was glad her original body had
returned despite the ash covering her. “She’s still not there yet. We need to
wash off the ash before she will wake up.” Verdan said and stood up whilst


brushing his uniform and cloak from dust and dirt. He went towards the pile of
rubble and peered around the corner in the lower left part of the hole, smirking
to himself. He saw the tip of Seiken’s sword and grabbed it with two fingers.
“You’ll need this” Verdan said and threw the sword over to Seiken after only
barely sliding it out of the rubble.

Verdan looked at Iriya and then up at Seiken. Seiken looked at Iriya and then
up at Verdan. “So… How do we wash her?” Seiken asked just to realize how
stupid the question sounded when Verdan started to grin. “We’ll have to find
an underground lake or something. Perhaps another underground river.”
Verdan said while taking his cloak off. His large red cloak was quite long and
made of sturdy fabric. He lay in on the ground and rolled Iriya over onto it. He
grabbed the left upper corner of the cloak and told Seiken to grab the other
one on the upper side. Seiken did so and down the hallway they dragged Iriya
on Verdan’s blood-red cape in search for water.



After a while of walking, Verdan and Seiken became weary of dragging Iriya
around despite her light weight. They sat down on each side of the hallway
and breathed heavily. All exhausted, Seiken placed his head against the wall
and thought to himself that he’d rest for only a moment. Verdan had raised his
left leg and rested his left arm on his knee. His hair hand down over his face
as he peered into the ground, breathing. Seiken could smell the scent of blood
radiating from him, something which made Seiken feel lightly sick. It was then
Seiken heard something. By resting his head against the wall, he had placed
his soft ear against the cold dungeon-wall. He heard water on the other side!
“Verdan! There’s water on the other side of this wall here!” Seiken got up and
was really fired up now. He took a deep breath and moved Iriya out of the way
from the middle of the hallway before facing the wall he had been listening to.
“Go ahead… I got no magical power left at the moment.” Seiken gave him a
nod before drawing his sword. He held the swod lightly in his right hand while
covering the palm with his left hand, hiding the gem. He felt energy flow from it
and a strong purple light flashed twice from his hand. Between the flashes that
only left one second gap, he had looked at his sword. During that one second,
his sword was engulfed in purple fire and shaking violently just to return to its
normal state after the flash. Another two flashes appeared and Seiken decided
to make a go for it. During this second gap Seiken stroked his sword hard
against the gray bricks in the wall. The whole hallway started shaking and


Seiken felled backwards as the wall busted open with a large hole. The stones
from the wall flew into the hole which revealed a waterfall after the dust had
settled down. Seiken got up on his knees before being able to pull himself up.
He was shaking due the enormous use of energy and was about to fall before
Verdan got up and supported him. They both stood there and peered down.
Far below was a large lake. Just next to the hole flowed a waterfall and one
thin rope hang from the roof. Seiken peered up to see where the rope came
from and could see far up a little light. “I think the light up there is from the
sun… That means if we can climb this rope, we can get up!” Seiken eagerly
said and reached his hand out to tug on the rope, seeing if it was sturdy. The
brown rope swayed lightly after his tugging and he had become certain of the
rope as it felt tied. Only seconds after Seiken had tugged the rope, it slowly
ascended. Seiken peered down into the lake far below and blinked a few times
in confusion, pondering if the rope was alive or something before he then saw
a little bucket coming up from the water. Obviously this was a well in the city
above and they had managed to blast their way into its channel. “I think we
can climb this… Though, it will take a while.” Seiken looked at Verdan whom
smiled at him. “Quite the clever boy, aren’t you. However, I think we should
wait until nightfall when everyone is asleep or at least not using the well.”
Seiken agreed to this and they sat down and rested. Seiken did now and then
peer up the hole to see if the light had faded in order to determine whenever it
was day or night. The hours passed while Seiken and Verdan sat on each side
of the hallway, talking with each other. They had folded the cloak over Iriya to
cover her up. Seiken told him everything that had happened in Ontiry, Lisa and
his hometown. Verdan didn’t seem to be surprise when he learnt about
Kraptipass. “So… Then it’s true.” He said and looked at Seiken’s sword.
Seiken was all confused about his reply and leaned in slightly. “What… What
do you mean?” He narrowed his eyes towards him, blinking a couple of times
before throwing a look at Iriya while drawing his sword, placing it across his
lap. “That’s not just any sword.” He said after thinking for a moment. Seiken
looked down upon it and had to admit that he hadn’t really paid any attention
to it its design. Its blade was long and thin, light as a feather but sharp as a
razor. The handle was made of some sort of rope spun around, making the
grip. The hand-guard was in a silver crescent moon with its tips bent over to
guard the hand. He held it up before him with his right hand and saw his
purple glow faintly pink. He looked over at Verdan whom eyed the sword up
and down. “Heh, to think I’d sit here deep under the ground in this filth with the


chosen one…” He said before snickering to himself. He threw a look at Iriya
and then back at Seiken. He sat there with the same confused look as before,
but his attention was drawn to his sword. “Special sword? Chosen one?”
Seiken couldn’t add things up. Verdan explained that long ago there was a
blacksmith said to have the skill to produce an entire army weapons and armor
over the night. He was often requested by kings in every corner of the world
and became eventually became revered amongst them. However, one night a
thief got into his house and stole a sword. The next morning he shipped the
products to the king whom had placed an order. The king saw that one of his
soldiers were missing a sword and issued the blacksmith with it. Furious by
this mistake the blacksmith put down his hammer and swore to never produce
anything again. The years passed and the blacksmith had kept his vow.
However, as the ages flew, a great evil had ascended upon the land and
threaten a kingdom not too far away from here. The blacksmith was begged by
the king of the kingdom to provide his army armor and weapons to fight off the
evilness. However, the blacksmith refused. After many attempts to convince
the blacksmith, he finally gave in to his begging, under one condition. He was
going to make the king weapon, but only one sword. The sword was to be
used by the king alone. The blacksmith worked day and night for many weeks
on this sword before it finally was done. It is said that the sword was so
powerful that it was constantly shaking with tremendous power. Despite how
foolishly the idea of a king fighting the evil alone sounded, he agreed to do as
the blacksmith told him and faced the evilness. A battle lasting for two days
was fought before the king finally was finally victorious. When the king
returned to his kingdom, it had been razed by the evilness’ minions. All
shattered and in grief of his loss, he were driven into madness and killed
himself at his desecrated throne. The kingdom is no more and the sword is
said to be lost.” Verdan paused for a long moment, catching his breath and
softening his lips with his tongue. “What you have there is the one sword that
was stolen from the blacksmith.” Seiken tilted his head lightly to the left and
looked at Verdan before gazing upon the sword again. “This one?” Seiken
placed it in his lap again and brushed two fingertips of his left hand over the
blade, stroking it gently. Verdan nodded. “Yes. That sword is said to be the
key to finding the other sword which you must use to destroy the new threat
over this land. “ Verdan sounded serious and Seiken became nervous. “S-
so… Why exactly me?” Seiken studded for a moment. Verdan pointed at his
gem. “Because of that. That very day the king died, the world, wind, trees,


lakes and animals whispered of a hero whom would put the evil in its place by
bringing peace to the world. Certainly sounds like a fairytale, but this is for
real. It was said that the hero would have a gem which would display his
power. “ Verdan closed his eyes and sighed for a moment. Obviously feeling a
bit tired after the long day. Seiken peered into his gems and then back at the
sword. When thinking of it, he had to admit that the gem always brightened
somewhat up when he drew his sword. “That’s… A lot to think of.” Was the
only thing Seiken came up with to say. He sheeted his sword again and then
looked at Verdan. “What is this evil then? And where is the sword?” Verdan
shook his head, obviously not knowing anything else than he had told Seiken.

Verdan got up and sat down next to Iriya. He placed his hand on her forehead,
stroking her softly and smiled. Verdan felt how her skin had returned human
and that a shower was all she needed. Seiken got up as well and looked up
the hole. There was no sign of light at all. “It’s night…” Seiken said softly and
looked over at Verdan and Iriya. “So, what’s your plan?” Verdan asked and
came over before looking down into the lake. Seiken reached out and grabbed
the rope he tugged on it again a few times to make sure it still was sturdy.
“We’ll climb up the rope and raise the rope to pour the water over Iriya when
we get on top.” Seiken explained and jumped over, grabbing the rope. “Alright,
I’ll let you follow with Iriya.” Verdan nodded and went back to her, uncovering
her body and rolled her off the cloak. He reattached it to his uniform and lifted
her up under his arms. Seiken had already started crawling up the rope and
were waiting for Verdan to see if he could manage Iriya and himself at the
same time. Verdan shortly after jumped forth and grabbing the rope as well,
climbing after Seiken. Seiken speeded up in hope to get on top and off before
the rope would tear as he felt it become quite tight.

“How are you holding up?” Seiken asked after a while of climbing. “I’m hangin’”
Verdan replied and had to wait a couple of times to fasten his grip around
Iriya’s body. The minutes passed and eventually he was far over halfway to
the top. Verdan had to stop at the halfway as he was about to drop Iriya. “I’ll
need a moment!” Verdan shouted in a low voice, trying not to alarm the
villagers if there were any nearby the surface. Seiken looked down and looked
at how he fumbled with her body. He focused and threw small sparkles along
the walls which glowed brightly so Verdan could easier see what he was
doing. “Oh, she’s going to destroy me when she returns to normal…” Verdan
said to himself and breathed heavily as he finally managed to pull his arm


WELL.jpg
around her to place it just beneath her chest to push it up. He closed his eyes
for a moment and his hand gained a faint red glow. When he opened his eyes
again, his eyes were no longer red but was glowing in a strong glowing green
color. He moved much faster now and caught up with Seiken quickly.

They finally reached the surface in the end. Seiken threw himself on his back
before even checking for guards or villagers. So did Verdan with Iriya. His
eyes glowed faintly red now and his hands had returned to normal color.





In exhaustion, they breathed
heavily for several minutes
before either of them pulled
themselves together and got
up on their feet again. They
looked around and luckily
nobody was there. The city
was all quiet, almost if it had
been evacuated. Only a few
crows were on top of the
buildings, pecking the woodwork as Seiken and Verdan scouted around for a
moment. They had gotten to a town square very much alike the one Seiken
and Iriya had been teleported to but this one laid more in the center of the
town. On the hill, Seiken could see the church and how its mighty gates were
locked. “Okey, let’s do this.” Seiken said and Verdan nodded. They leaned
over the well and started pulling up the rope. After a while, they got the heavy
bucket over the edge. Luckily for them they was two as one person wouldn’t
had been able to pull so much water alone without being afflicted by magic
effects. They kept the bucket at the edge of the well before slowly pouring it
over Iriya who lay just under it. The cold water hit her body and washed away
the black ash. Her pure beautiful naked body came to sight as the water made
a puddle under her. The very moment the last spot of ash was washed off, she
regained her breath. Having her eyes still closed, she breathed heavily, almost
as if she had just sprinted for her life. “A-aaaahhh….” She moaned and got up
on her knees. She were shivering of the cold water and by a night breeze that
soothingly swept by. Her golden hair was all sticky and clenched to her back.


Verdan kneeled next to her and wrapped his warm cloak around her. He had
made sure to brush off the ash before climbing the rope and luckily for him
was the cloak resistant to any kind of absorption. Iriya opened her blue crystal
clear eyes which sparkled gently in the night sky and peered around herself.
“It… Felt like a nightmare… An eternal nightmare…” She said and blinked a
few times before slowly getting up on her feet. Seiken and Verdan quickly
came close in to support her in case she was about to fall, but she didn’t. She
stood there, holding the blood-red cape around herself while looking up into
the sky. She then looked around herself, seeing Verdan and Seiken. She
almost yelped of happiness and threw herself around their necks, hugging
them closely in to her. Seiken and Verdan looked at each other over her
shoulders and just grinned before folding their arms around her body, hugging
her closely as well. “Thank you…” She whispered softly into their ears. She
had obviously realized that they went through heck and hell in order to return
her to her original body by the looks of what shape Verdan and Seiken was in.
Seiken had his clothes ragged from the combat against the eyes and Verdan
was covered in bloodstains and mud.

---

“Let’s get out of here.” Said Verdan and was clearly the best idea of the day.
Something grinded Seiken’s mind, though. He couldn’t figure out where the
villagers had gone. They made their way towards the exit of the town, and
along the way they stopped and peered into windows. Nobody was inside.
After walking for a moment, they got to a huge gate. Giving it a good tug, it
didn’t budge even an inch. Seiken attempted a fireball followed with a blood-
bolt from Verdan, but without luck. They followed the stone-walls surrounding
the city for several hours, trying to get out but only then realized that they was
trapped inside. By becoming hungry and weary after walking and casting
magic on the wall, hoping it would break, they had to stop for now and find
shelter to rest for the rest of the night.

Seiken hadn’t really been near the ocean before and did because of that drag
Iriya and Verdan with him to the harbor. The harbor was made of stone and
had several buildings made of hardened clay standing along the edge to the
sea. They were of high quality and seemed to be kept tidy. Some of the
buildings were small and others were large. They peeked into the largest one,
only to see a lot of barrels with fish. In the far end of the room was a large door
which was opened and a boat were standing on a ramp, ready to unload the
fish it had aboard. Oddly enough, there were no people at the harbor either.


They walked around for quite a while before they found a little house they
found to their liking. It had only one large room, two beds, one table, one
hearth for cooking and a large red carpet on the floor under the table. Iriya
threw herself immediately onto one of the beds and got under the covers.
Verdan went to the hearth and checked if they could make anything to eat with
the equipment. Seiken peered out the window, pondering why this town had
turned into a ghost town all of a sudden and where the villagers had gone.
Iriya wrapped the sheet around her tightly and shivered. Verdan’s cloak was
warm, but not warms enough to be wandering around in the late summer all
wet. “Seiken, if you go fetch some fish from the place we were, I’ll be able to
cook us dinner.” Verdan said and examined the shelves for spices and
anything else he could add to cooking. Seiken grabbed a fletched basked
which stood outside the door and went towards the large building. Poor Iriya
was sleepy and sat in the corner of the bed with drowsy eyes, about to fell
asleep any second. Verdan sat down next to her and smiled while reaching for
his cape which she had taken off and were laying in a little pile on the other
side of the bed. “Feeling alright? No side-effects or pain?” He asked
concerned while running a hand over her forehead, checking for fever. Iriya
shook her head and smiled sheepishly at him. “Good.” Verdan stood up and
hung the cloak up on a little rack outside in the evening sun. The light from the
orange fireball in the sky beamed into the little house, waking Iriya lightly up as
she felt slightly more awake.

Seiken were gone for a good hour before he came back. He had gotten
somewhat lost in the streets of the harbor. Fishing nets, barrels, crates, dead
ends and ships on racks that were polished got in his way. He placed the
basket with fish next to the heath and told Verdan that they were in his hands
now and hoped they would be able to dine very soon as he had gotten quite
hungry since they last feasted on the animals back in the cave.

“I’ll go around town and look for some clothes for you, Iriya. We can’t have you
running around naked all the time.” Seiken teased and went out the door. Iriya
managed to show her tongue back to him before he disappeared around the
corner. She were left alone in the bed with a little grin across her face before
looking at Verdan finding forth a little dagger to make filets out of the fish.
Outside the seagulls had gathered and were sitting along roofs, racks and
boats. They had all been attracted by the smell of cooking fish and wanted a
piece. Verdan pulled some ragged curtains before the window where he


cooked the food to hide it from the gulls. In between his cooking, Verdan had
peered outside the door now and then. He was looking for Seiken and if there
were any signs of the villagers anywhere. He had also been looking at the
closest ships and examined them at range.

The food was just about ready before Seiken came in the door again. He
carried a pile of clothes in his hands and placed it on the other bed. Tops,
pants, underwear, cloaks, stockings, corsets, hoods and gloves lay in the pile.
He wasn’t sure what she’d like to wear, so he had gone from house to house,
opening other people’s wardrobes and caught what he could find. He undid a
little hook he had on his back and pulled forth several robes as well. “Here…”
He panted and looked at Iriya, with a smile. “You should be able to find
something you like in here.” Seiken sat exhausted on the bed next to Iriya and
watched how she threw herself over the pile and started searching for
something she would like to wear. Verdan handed Seiken a bowl of fish soup
and sat down next to him. They both enjoyed a good portion of Verdan’s fish
soup each while grinning now and then at Iriya whom yelled “There!” each
time she found something she liked. After they both had eaten and couldn’t
take another bit, they leaned against the wall and patted their bellies. “Ohhh…
I’m so full. Curse you and your delicious cooking, Verdan.” Seiken teased and
smiled sheepishly for himself, satisfied in the state he was in. He could sweep
right into a soothing sleep right there and then. Iriya, whom had been throwing
clothes around sat on the other bed, eyeing the new clothes she had chosen
and were having some fish soup as well. The very moment she finished she
chased them both outside so she could change. They’ve had the chance to
look at her naked body before when she was unconscious, but not on her
watch. Verdan and Seiken sat by the end of the pier with their feet hanging out
from the edge. They both gazed out over the ocean and sighed softly. “All
this… Started at my birthday.” Seiken said to himself and gazed far away into
the endless horizon. Verdan looked over the horizon as well, but were
seeming to be searching for something. “Yeah… I’m just trying to figure out
what we should do next. Surely we should find out what happened to the
villagers here. Only Tychoo were the one to blame for everything bad going on
around here. The villagers, however, are innocent. I am sure of it!” Verdan
said followed with a sigh. “Say… Tell me where you were from again.” Seiken
said and looked upon Verdan. He was well-dressed in a red uniform with red
engravings and borders. One could mistake him for a prince. “You were a
mage of Shana, right? “ Seiken continued and looked him in the eyes. The


red, almost demonic eyes peered right back at him. “Yes… I was. In fact, I’m
the prince of Shana.” Verdan stopped only to let Seiken react. At first he didn’t
seem like he believed Verdan, but then his jaw dropped and Seiken gazed
closely upon him only to discover two royal seals which fastened his cloak to
his uniform. “I wasn’t a good mage to start out with. However, to become a
good mage, my father, the king ordered me to attend to the magic academy
there. Over the years I grew slightly better, however, nowhere near as good as
my fellow classmates. I don’t know if my father knows if I am gone or not. I’ve
heard nothing about him trying to rescue me, and by judging by the
relationship we had when he found out I failed one of the exams, I am not
sure whenever he thinks of me as his son anymore.” Verdan silenced and
peered into the dark abyss of the water beneath him. It had gotten dark while
they were speaking and the gulls had withdrawn for the night. The only sound
around was the soothing sound of waves hitting the pier gently before the
waves softly flattened out into the cold water. “Let’s check back on Iriya. Can’t
take her THIS long to get dressed, can it?” Verdan said before Seiken even
managed to reply.

On the way back along the pier, Seiken walked a bit behind Verdan. Not
knowing he was with a prince all this time and then getting dumped into his lap
that he had been chosen to save the world from annihilation wasn’t really
something that happened on a daily basis for him. When they reached the
house, Iriya was inside. She lay under the covers of the bed in the left corner
of the house, fast asleep. Seiken rolled his eyes lightly and dragged the sheet
a bit more over her as she had half-way kicked it off in her sleep. She wore her
new outfit, but it was hard to see what she was wearing due the covers.
Verdan yawned and Seiken realized it was smartest to go to bed. “So…
Where will you be sleeping? The other bed, or in the pile of clothes by the
door?” Seiken asked and pointed at the pile of clothes. Iriya had obviously
tidied the room up after “decorating” it with clothes by throwing them around
everywhere while finding something to wear. “She’s your girl, isn’t she?”
Verdan snickered and went outside. Seiken was about to answer but was
interrupted by Verdan whom stopped just outside and turned to Seiken. “Take
care of her.” He then disappeared into the night. Seiken stood there, full of
questions but no answers. Verdan promised to stay with Seiken if he secured
his freedom. He even had pondered what to do about the village but now left
as if he had a place he urgently needed to go. Seiken peered back at Iriya.
She was still fast asleep, breathing softly. He couldn’t help but smile at her


before sliding under the covers of the other bed, throwing a look at her one
last time before he felt his mind slip and were driven into a deep slumber.
Seiken did like Iriya, but only as a friend. Lisa was the one he kept thinking
about while being with her and was sure about nothing would change that.



Seiken woke up next morning by the sun shining through the curtains that
hand lightly swaying in front of the window. Iriya were still fast asleep as
Seiken sat up on the edge and shook his head lightly to shake his sleepiness
off. After a quick look around from where he sat, he saw no traces of Verdan.
“I guess he left then…” Seiken sighed to himself and found forth his sword,
eyeing it. “Guess I should behave like “the chosen one” then, eh?” He said
thought before giggling. “Yeah right.” He had no plans in behaving like anyone
else than himself. Seiken went out to the docks and found a fishing rod. He
found a pillar that supported the docks to sit on while throwing the line into the
ocean. It was a nice sunny morning and the birds had already been chirping
for quite a while on the rooftops. Gulls were roaming the area and gathered
somewhat more around Seiken as they saw him fish. After getting two large
fishes, which took a little while, Seiken went back to the house. Iriya had
gotten up and were now wearing her new clothes. She had long brown leather
boots which reached up to her knees, brown clothed pants and one tight tunic
made of hard leather. She wore nothing on her arms but had found some
gloves of leather on her hands. Seiken couldn’t recall finding such clothes to
her, but he was quite tired and was more or less just dragging what he could
find with himself back to the house. “Good morning.” She said gently and
kicked lightly back and forth in the air with her legs hanging out of the edge of
the bed. Seiken greeted her good morning as well and placed the fishes at the
cooking place. “Breakfast will be in a little while… So if you’d like – Have a
walk outside.” He said, thinking she might be able to either make or find a new
bow. She thought that was a good idea as well and went out. She covered her
eyes with the shade of her hand as the bright light from the sun blinded her.
Going like that, she headed towards the town square they had gotten up from
the well while Seiken sliced and were about to fry the fish.

After a half hour, Seiken were done with the breakfast but Iriya had yet not
returned. He peered outside, looking for her from the window, but couldn’t see
her. He went outside and found a little wooden bench with seats for two which
he shoved back to the house, placing it under the window where the “kitchen”


were. Seiken sat down with a bowl of fish soup. After only one bite, he could
easily taste that his cooking were nowhere as good as Verdan, but he was
hungry and did enjoy himself with what he had in the sunshine. Iriya came
back after a little while with a bow in her hand. It seemed quite frail and
shabby. “This was the best I could make… Really, there seem to be no
weapon in this city at all.” She said and sat down next to Seiken while letting
out a deep sigh that could be heard from far away. She had been walking for
quite a while and was quite exhausted. Seiken handed her the bowl of fish and
she thanked him. “Help yourself, I’ve eaten enough.” He said and went inside
before returning with his sword. “Verdan disappeared last night without saying
anything. He said he would stay by my side till the end of our journey.” He
looked at Iriya and smiled briefly before narrowing his eyes towards the
horizon. “I see…” Iriya said and gazed into the empty bowl. “What is our plan
now then? Where is Shana from here?” She fiddled with her fingers for a
moment before looking up at Seiken. “I intend to find out what has happened
to the village before we do anything else.” Seiken looked around, still not
seeing anyone. Since last night, Seiken had been feeling uneasy and were
sweating lightly. It was almost as if he had a fever, but this one felt different.
He had ripped some rags apart and made a bandana which he tied around his
forehead, wanting to keep the sweat droplets forming on his head from
reaching his eyes. His hair had also grown very much since he last got it cut
and it felt very good to keep it up a bit, thanks to the bandana.



Seiken and Iriya gathered their things and got ready to leave. Iriya found a
satchel and put some useful items she found around the town the day before,
such as: Thread, some bread, two unused bowls, a blouse and red dye. “You
never know when we will get use for this. And this was the most useful things I
could find.” Iriya said to Seiken while making sure her quiver was properly
strapped to her back. Seiken had found some fishing thread he put in Iriya’s
satchel as well. After rounding up all they had in the little house, they were
ready to leave.

As they reached the upper part of town, at the place they first appeared after
being teleported by Lazard, they just realized that something horrible had
happened. They hadn’t seen anything to the villagers still, but from the large
square went several trails of blood on the ground, all leading towards the
cathedral. “Iriya, I want you to go and make an opening in the wall surrounding


the village… I will be taking care of things here.” Seikend didn’t dare to bring
Iriya close to Tychoo again and did therefore tell her to head for the western
part of town so he knew where to find her after he was done. Without
hesitation she did as told and walked away while peering over her shoulder
now and then, wondering if Seiken would be alright by himself.

Seiken ascended the stairs made of stone up towards the cathedral. The
blood was still fresh and made it dangerous to thread as he might slip and fall.
The doors of the cathedral were wide open and the old yet holy scent was still
inside. It almost reminded Seiken about the smell of going outside after the
rain had made the ground soft, only to slowly dry up over time. His eyes
narrowed quickly over the place as he drew his sword. The gem on his hand
wasn’t glowing at all, but the string had appeared. The tiny golden string
formed just like a cat’s eye again and peered around inside the room with him.
A foul scent slowly seeped through the air as the wind gusted inside and made
a U-turn. It dragged the scent of the cathedral outside and blew one of the
doors near the entrance open. On the inside of that door which blew open,
bloody clawing marks was all over the surface. “A-a bear…?” Seiken thought
to himself and took a few steps closer to examine the marks. He had never
seen such clawing marks before, not even after a bear after closer
examination. Seiken bit down on his lower lip carefully as he peered inside. It
was a small hallway that was slightly angling downwards. Seiken thought this
would be leading to the wine cellar where they held the church’s wine.



With careful threads that didn’t echo through the halls, he slowly descended
the stair. He could hear something faint far away as the scent became fouler
as he approached the sound. It was now clear to him that it was the sound of
peoples being hurt. Screams of women, men and children came howling
behind a fragile door that was faintly seen only meters away from Seiken.
Along the way down to the door, the scent and marks of blood had only
increased in smell and size. Seiken took a tight grip around the handle of the
sword as he took a deep breath. With a hard and quick kick, he smashed the
door into pieces that flew into the next room. He took a few steps to stand in
the opening only to widen his eyes in surprise of what that was ahead of him.

An abomination at the size of a house was feasting upon a pile of flesh. The
monster had several heads, arms and legs. Seiken quickly realized where the


villagers had gone now. The top of the heads upon the smelly and decaying
body was the head of Tychoo. Obviously he had been driven into even deeper
madness and had captured the entire village to make them suffer in order to
compensate with his own suffering. Seiken wrinkled his nose ever so slightly
as his eyes trailed over the fat smelly giant which was feasting upon a pile of
corpses. Flesh, bone and indigestions – They was all swallowed alike. Along
with the noxious feeling that crept upwards Seiken’s stomach came the feeling
of righteousness. He knew of no way to get the villagers back, but he knew he
could not let such a monster loose in the world. With a good grip on his sword,
he slowly descended the stairs and into to the room. The abomination turned
around while munching a torso. Its many heads looked at Seiken curiously
inspecting him for a moment. It was then Tychoo’s head screamed and the
monster began to charge.



In the meanwhile, Iriya had found an abandoned blacksmith. The house lay
just next to the western wall and was still warm from the searing forge which
was kept lit until recently. Iriya scouted the area for any sign of villagers
without luck. Inside the blacksmith, she found a little trapdoor that had its
handles tied together with a very frail rope. She only needed to tug hard on it
twice to tear it off the handles and open the trapdoor. A small and unstable
stair made of wood lead down into the dark abyss of the basement. She could
feel the scent of mud quickly surround her, but it wasn’t just the smell of mud
that kept her attention from worrying about the fragile stair. It was the smell of
gunpowder

It was the smell of
gunpowder. She looked around, wanting to find a torch of some sort before
finding an old table with a rag laying on it. She went over to the table and
dropped to her knees before taking a firm grip around one of the table’s legs
and tearing it off with all her might. It cracked off the table that immediately fell
over to its legless side. She took the rag and twisted it around the wooden
table leg and threw another look around, finding a lantern. She picked it up
and removed the little cork that kept the fuel in its container. With a little shake,
she managed to pour all the oil over the rag before opening the iron door to
the forge. The flames engulfed the rag only by nearing it close to the forge.
With the rag burning quickly, she knew that she had to do her business
quickly. She sprinted towards the open trapdoor and down the stairs. Holding
her torch lightly out into the dark room, several boxes and barrels marked TNT
was revealed. “What in the holy mother’s… “ she said to herself, wondering


why anyone would store explosives under a blacksmith. She got an idea and
grabbed a smaller barrel and placed her foot on the first step of the stairs. Due
to her increased weight thanks to the barrel of gunpowder, the stairs
collapsed, leaving her looking up at the open trapdoor that shone light down
into the room only to illuminate her and cover everything else in darkness
around her. She sighed softly while stroking over her forehead with her left
hand. She threw a look again around in the room, but without any use. The
torch had burnt out and Iriya had thrown it up into the blacksmith to avoid any
accidents. She took a few steps into the darkness and felt around for a crate. It
was heavy with lots of gunpowder but she still managed to push it towards the
opening. She threw the barrel of gunpowder as well up into the blacksmith,
hoping it wouldn’t land near the torch or any fire before she climbed the crate
and got up into the blacksmith again. The barrel had landed perfectly just next
to the torch. She rushed to the barrel and picked it up, not wanting it to
explode. The floor of the basement was all covered in the black smelly
gunpowder, something that gave her an idea. She went outside and found a
little shack. By not really thinking about opening the shack to see what it
contained, she tear off one of the planks that had been recklessly hammered
onto the shack. She went back inside and laid the plank on the floor before
opening the barrel and pouring a thin long line of gunpowder along it. She then
slid it slowly into the basement with the top still poking up into the blacksmith.
She trailed a track of gunpowder from there and outside the blacksmith before
stopping two houses away. She rubbed her hands together as the barrel was
empty while grinning. She felt very clever of thinking of such a plan while
imagining that Seiken probably would have set off magical time bomb or
something that would go off way too early. She went back into the blacksmith
only to find some rusted tong which she used to pick up a searing piece of
coal which she went outside with and to the end of the trail of gunpowder. Iriya
took a deep breath before taking a little pause. She stood there, listening
closely to the sounds around her. The birds were singing, the soothing sound
of a summer breeze sweeping over her face and the faint sound of the sea
was all to be heard. She was a bit worried about Seiken and if he would be
alright by himself, but she knew he was powerful.

Iriya took another deep breath before biting her lower lip carefully. She slowly
closed the tongs closer to the end of the trail which was neatly ended as a little
dune of powder. She dropped the coal and the instant she saw it all light up
and wheeze its way along the trail, she turned around and started to sprint. By


panicking a bit by the loud and aggressive sound, she realized that only two
houses wasn’t near enough to shelter her from the impact with thoughts of the
amount of T.N.T there was in the basement of the blacksmith. She managed
to slide down a little slope and cover at the bottom of it. She pushed her
fingers into her ear and waited for the impact. “One… Two… Thr-“ She wasn’t
able to finish before her counting was interrupted and a yelp pushed forth from
her lips. From afar one could see the blacksmith blow into the air before the
somewhat intact house would explode and spread its pieces all over the town.
A lot of birds flew away from the nearby trees and the shockwave created by
the explosion made a wave of dust gust through the town. The basement was
left in a huge crater and the wall was smashed wide open.

Iriya remained like this for a few minutes before finally removing her fingers
and sighing softly. The birds had only started to sing again after the explosion
and the dust had just begun to land. She peered just over the slope to see the
result of her little plan. She was left with a big grin and a naughty look in her
eyes. She ran to the crater and could barely contain herself from screaming
due the adrenaline rush she got. She wanted to do it again and this time much
bigger! She was sadly unable to as she used all of the T.N.T. Iriya looked
towards the wall and saw it had been blown open, just as she had planned.
With a final look around to admire her successful explosion, she carefully
jumped from rock to rock over towards the wall. The explosion had made the
ground very crude and fragile, so she decided to step on solid objects in order
not to cause a cave-in. She got on the other side and went a bit back up in the
forest that lied beyond. She kept going till she reached a hill which had the
view of almost the entire town but the harbor. She narrowed her eyes over the
town, scouting for Seiken but without any luck. He told her to wait for him and
that was exactly what she had planned to do. She sat down under an apple
tree which also stood on the hill and sighed once more softly. The rush from
the explosion had just started to fade and she felt a bit sleepy. Before she
could go to sleep, she decided to make sure Seiken would find her as she
wasn’t at the location they agreed to. She broke some branches off the apple
tree and used a nearby sharp rock to carve branches into small darts as well
as she could before taking her bow. Being a woman of marksmanship, she
shot each branch into each tree on the way upwards from the wall to her
location by standing on the top of the hill. The branches hit the hard bark of the
trees one by one and left them standing solid in the direction towards her. She
smirked for a brief moment before sighing softly out as she felled against the


tree. She peered up into the air and smiled dreamingly to herself as she drove
off into dreamland. The sun was on its way down over the horizon which left
the scenery in a golden theme. The breeze brushing over her golden hair
calmed her as she parted her soft lips a bit in her sleep, breathing heavily but
slowly.

When Iriya woke up, it was morning again. Her throat was a bit hoarse due the
raw air that comes at night. She threw another look over the town but was only
able to see roofs of the buildings due the morning mist. She became a bit
worried now that Seiken hadn’t come to find her. She rubbed the sleepiness
out of her eyes and stood up, brushing her bum for dirt and stretched for a little
bit. She shivered lightly there she stood, feeling Goosebumps raise on her
arms. She took a step in the direction of the town. She held her left hand up to
her chest and just gazed down the hill and into the forest that the mist had
engulfed. She bit her lower lip carefully while sighing. Should she go and look
for him, or should she stay by his words? Iriya closed her eyes and shook her
head for a moment before sitting down. She pushed her legs up to her head
and leaned onto her knees. She sighed again and looked around before
closing her eyes and resting onto her arms. She thought she’d try to sleep
some more, but since she wasn’t really feeling so sleepy and the chilly air
around her caressed her skin, it was hard to do so. Instead, she sat quietly
and got lost into her own thoughts.

Far away, a little flute was heard. Iriya looked up and around while blinking
confused. Was it all her imagination or did she really hear a whistle? Thinking
it all must have been in her head, she returned to her previous position. The
flute was heard again and this time Iriya was sure she heard it. She stood up
and looked around. She heard the flute once more, but it wasn’t coming from
the direction the town was. In the opposite direction, the flute was sounded
once more and some bushes were moving. Iriya took a step backwards and
quickly broke off another branch off the tree, forming another “arrow” as
quickly as she could before placing it on her bow. Aiming towards the bush,
she waited in anticipation of what that might appear. A girl came forth from the
bushes. She had a rather dark skin, almost looking like someone sunbathing
too much. Wearing a cotton-white west and matching pants with brown boots,
she looked around. She had dark-red hair that was combed backwards and
held there by a bandana. Her lips were bright pink and red eyes, almost
reminding Iriya of a demon’s. Her rather muscular body filled the clothing out


good, but thankfully for her rather small bust, didn’t tear the clothing apart.
Iriya lowered her bow as the woman came closer. She hadn’t seen Iriya just
yet but was heading in a straight direction of her. The woman raised a little
flute made out of oak to her lips and blew. The same tune roamed the area
like it faintly did before. Just after lowering her flute again, she noticed Iriya.
She jumped backwards quickly and got down low. She saw Iriya was armed
as she narrowed her eyes over her. She used only a few seconds to look at
Iriya before raising her whistle again and blowing loudly two times. The sound
echoed over the area before something far away was heard. It was the sound
of stomping coming closer and closer in a rapid speed. Iriya feared a
stampede of animals coming judging by the sound and kneeled down, ready to
evade anything coming at her. Out of the bushes jumped a large man. He had
also the same toned skin as the woman but clothing made out of pelts and
hides. He had only a pair of pants and a large scar across his belly. On his
back he had a large staff of some sort which was much like a small pillar. On
the top of the staff there was several spikes nailed to it and even some traces
of flesh and blood. He reached for his staff and held it up in both hands after
landing before the woman. He roared fiercely and seemed like he was going to
charge Iriya. Iriya, whom was frightened by the large man took a few more
steps back and decided to throw her bow away, not wanting to get into trouble
with these guys.

“You!” The large man said and pointed at Iriya with his staff. “M-me?!” Iriya
yelped and quickly blinked curiously a few times. The woman got up on her
feet again and came to the man’s side. “What business do you have in our
forest?!” He yelled again. He seemed rather angry with Iriya for trespassing on
his territory. “I-I… am waiting for someone!” Iriya said shuddering. “And you
expect us to believe that?! You’re here for our animals, you hunter!” He had
seen her bow and presumed she was here to take hides, teeth and such from
the animals to sell for a profit. He roared once more and started to charge. The
woman stood still while smirking to herself. “Poor girl… Kinda’ cute, but we
show no mercy…” She said to herself. Iriya reached for her bow again, but it
was too late. Due the tremendous speed the man charged her in, she wasn’t
able to grab it. He stood right in front of her and raised his staff to deliver a
blow with such force, she was sure she’d die. Just as the staff was to hit her,
the man was caught by an enormous magic fire-dragon that came up the hill.
The roaring dragon took the man in its mouth and flew off into the sky. The
woman who stood there gasping reached for him with her hand in vain.


2-Forest.jpg
“Varlek!” she cried as she watched the magic dragon fly high up before
exploding in a tremendous black flame. With fear struck in her eyes she ran
towards the edge of the hill to watch him fall into the forest below. She ran as
fast as she could to find him. Iriya stood completely shocked and still gasping.
What did just happen? She looked in the direction where the dragon came
from. Seiken came walking up the hill, almost completely unrecognizable. He
was drenched in blood and had some pieces of flesh and bones around on his
body. Though, none of it seemed to be his. His eyes glowed in red coursing
light as he breathed heavily. Iriya wasn’t sure if she should be happy or
terrified to see Seiken but she was glad he was there. Seiken stopped just
next to Iriya and looked down at the woman whom just disappeared into the
forest to look for the man. The stench of death oozed from Seiken as he kept
his gaze towards the forest.

“S-Seiken…?” Iriya carefully said, reaching out a hand to touch his shoulder.
The moment her hand touched his body, he looked at it before looking up at
Iriya. He blinked a few times and the red pulsing light disappeared before his
normal brown eyes appeared. He was exhausted and breathed as if he had
run many miles. “T-take me to that man…” Seiken said and leaned against
Iriya whom was disgusted of the smell and the thought of the blood getting on
her. She helped Seiken walk down the hill and towards the little opening in the
forest that the woman had disappeared into.



After walking for only a moment in the forest, they found the woman and the
man. He lay unconscious in her arms as she held him close to her and cried.
“S-stay away from me!!” She screamed at Seiken as they came closer. The
man groaned softly in pain as he was starting to wake up. “Erika…” The man
groaned and reached for the woman’s face and stroked over her cheek softly.
He had barely managed to open his eyes before blinking a few times and
opened them normally. He grunted a bit as he tried to get up but felled over
onto his knees. “Don’t push yourself, Varlek!” She said and went to support
him in getting up. Seiken had
by now figured out that Erika
was the name of the woman
and Varlek was the big man.
Varlek shook his head for a
little moment and got on his


feet with the help of Erika. “Man… Been a long time since I last took a hit like
that! ” He looked over at Seiken whom stood there a bit on guard. “S-Seiken
acted only to defend me!” Iriya said in Seiken’s defense. “Heh, I believe we
owe you an apology, little girl. If you’re here with such wizards, then you must
be no hunter.” He got up on his feet for real now, not needing any help from
Erika. Erika did however seem a bit worried about Varlek and was afraid he
might push it too far. “Are you sure…?” She said only to be stopped by Varlek.
“Quite the blast you gave there, man. And damn, how that hurt! I’d rather
wrestle four grizzly bears and raccoon with rabies than take another one of
those blows!” He arched his shoulder a bit as if he tried to get it back into the
correct position. Seiken didn’t reply to his words but was still a bit on guard
even though he was exhausted after that spell. While not thinking of anything
to respond with, he had never considered himself a wizard as Varlek calls him.
“So, folks… Gonna tell me what ya are doing here? And what’s up with the
bloody guy?” Varlek said and pointed at Seiken. “W-well, this here is Seiken
and I’m Iriya. We’re travelling through here…” Iriya said before looking at
Seiken, confused what he had been doing by the way he looked.

“Travelers?! Hah, well that explains everything, I guess! People can get the
wrong idea when you go around carrying bows, ya know!” He was referring to
when he first saw her and how she was trying to fire at him. “I’m Ex-ranger
general Iriya of the Moon elf tribe. Carrying a bow would only be natural for
me.” Iriya said and looked at Erika. She didn’t really seem to approve of
Seiken and Iriya with the way she was looking in a different direction. “I am no
wizard, but you could perhaps call me a battle-mage.” Seiken finally said and
looked at Varlek. What Seiken didn’t know was that in Shana, battle-mages
are one of the highest ranked guards for the king. “Y-you are a battle-mage!?”
Varlek and Erika said at the same time. They both seemed to become a bit
nervous but at the same time rather friendly. Erika smiled a bit shyly and
Varlek scratched the back of his head while grinning for a moment. “W-well
that changes everything. I’m Varlek Duskshroud. This is Erika Duskshroud, my
younger sister.” Varlek folded his hands and bowed before them both. Iriya,
whom knew what status a battle-mage’s status had, covered her face with the
palm of her hand before taking a deep sigh. Seiken was a bit surprised of the
sudden friendliness of the two but smiled and bowed himself. “So, why are you
covered in blood like a barbarian? Been in recent battle?” Varlek eyed Seiken
up and down, seeing how he was covered in gore.


“O-oh… About that.” Seiken said and turned to Iriya. “The villagers are all
dead. Tychoo felled into deep sadness after losing his beloved Medina. He
then wanted to reanimate her body and soul by using the villagers. The result
was horrible… Obviously something had gone terribly wrong as the whole
abomination was attached to his body. As the swollen large monster he was, I
had no choice but to end its life. I can still hear the writhing of the heads and
arms sticking out of its shoulders and legs, begging me to kill them.” Seiken
shivered a bit and brushed pieces of flesh from his body. Iriya had slid down
onto her knees and held for her mouth as she was struggling to not vomit.
“Ugh, what are you two on about?” Seiken sighed and told Varlek and Erika
their story. About how Seiken was found by Iriya, about the Midnight show,
about Lazard’s trap and what that had happened in Wendel.

“Quite the story you got there, boy. Did the king of Shana send you out on a
mission to find this Lisa?” Varlek said and stroked his chin. He didn’t seem to
have an aftereffect of the dragon’s blow earlier. Seiken was a bit concerned as
a blow like that would have devastated every single bone in a normal man’s
body. “No, she’s someone very dear to me, and… We got separated. We’re
currently heading to Shana in order to find some answers.” Varlek seemed a
bit puzzled but then chuckled heartily. “Well, in any case, we need to clean
you! You smell almost like a dead deer in the glowing hot sun.” Seiken nodded
and looked at Iriya. She had gotten up on her feet again and seemed a bit
better now as she had taken a few steps away from him to get away from the
smell. Erika stood next to her and looked at Seiken as well. “This way, I know
about a waterfall.” Varlek said and pointed in the direction downwards a little
path.

As they were walking, Erika explained to Seiken and Iriya that she and Varlek
was abandoned in the forest as babies by their parents. “Mother nature had
other plans for us though, and sent us a kind bear. The bear took us to its den
where we grew up for several years before we were found by a village not too
far from here. We learned how to speak, behave and such. However, one
night bandits raided the village and slaughtered everyone. Luckily Varlek ran
with me into the woods where we have lived since.” Erika seemed a bit sad
and was looking into the ground as they were walking. Seiken had been
looking around as they were walking down the path. This forest was indeed a
lot prettier than the one he was in with Lisa. The Forest floor was soft and
mossy like the other, but the moss was greener in this one, a lot more pleasing


to the eye. Far away into the left side of the path they were on, Seiken could
see sunrays shine through the trees that danced lightly in the wind. He smiled
for a brief moment as this was a moment of serenity. They could hear birds
chirp in the treetops and even a cuckoo far away. Seiken thought to himself
that the summer was indeed the nicest season of the year as a warm soothing
wind caressed his bloody face only to feel the red liquid coagulate even more,
making it slightly harder to make face expressions. Iriya kept her lower lip
lightly bitten by her teeth as she peered into the ground. She was worried
about Seiken and what that had happened to him since he looked the way he
did. She lifted her gaze just once to look at him but then looked quickly away
again, feeling her stomach writhe only by the sight of him. She could hear
some noise coming from the direction they were headed. As they came closer,
she could clearly hear that it was the sound of the waterfall she heard. The
path widened and turned into a little meadow of small white flowers that too
were gently dancing in the wind. “Here we are.” Varlek said and looked at
Seiken. Seiken looked up on the waterfall that wasn’t taller than a house. The
waterfall went down into a large pond that had a small brook running further
down the path. “I and Erika will be heading down the path we came a bit, so
you can have a bit… Privacy.” Varlek said and placed his hand on Erika’s
shoulder before walking a bit upwards the path they came from. “I-I’ll help
wash you if you’d like…” Iriya said with a large blush over her face. Seeing
how filthy Seiken was, she figured that he need a bit help to get cleaned, also
with the clothes. Seiken didn’t reply at first but then smiled and nodded. “If
you’d like.” He said and sat down on the edge of the pond with his feet in the
water. He felt how the cold water immediately penetrated the fabric of his boot
and cool his foot only to leave him with a little pleasant feeling of being
soothed that resulted in a soft sigh. The blood from the boot seeped from the
fabric and left the little area around his foot all darkened. Iriya stood a bit back
and was unsure about how she should approach Seiken. He had been
behaving a bit different since they last were alone together and she had grown
a bit afraid of him. She held her left hand on her chest as she looked at him
while he took his boots off. He placed them just next to him on the green grass
that was soon covered a small pool of watery blood. Seiken threw a look over
his shoulder and looked at Iriya. Their eyes met and as they looked at each
other, a little gust came in between them. “W-wha.. H-how would you like me
to help you out?” Iriya said a bit unsure if this was a good idea after all. The
last thing she would want is to see Seiken angry. The moment back at the tree


when he looked at her with red glowing eyes had made such an impact on her
that she had become rather submissive in his presence. “Well, I’ll be jumping
into the pond and in the meanwhile, you could take care of my clothes?”
Seiken suggested, acting all normal before trying to smile a bit, but it had
become impossible due the hardened blood on his face. “Sure.” Iriya said
without any hesitation and turned around to wait for him to get undressed and
get into the water. Seiken stood up and gazed over the pond. It was shallow at
the edges, but apparently became drastically deeper towards the middle and
where the waterfall came down. He took his clothes off and placed them in a
pile over his boots before jumping into the cold water. When Iriya heard the
splash of Seiken jumping in, she turned around again, only to hear him yelp a
bit due the sudden coldness of the water all over him. She went over to the
pile of clothes and took his pants and dipped them in the water. The crystal
clear water became immediately muddy and impossible to see through.
Seiken dove deeply into the pond and started stroking over his body to get the
blood off. Both of them kept going on like this for a while until Seiken’s clothes
was all clean and had been laid on the grass to dry in the sun. Varlek and
Erika came back when Iriya was placing his boots on the grass again after
washing them. “So, all clean now, Seiken?” Varlek said and grinned as he
stood on the edge of the pond and looked at Seiken in the middle of the pool.
“Yeah, just need to wait for my clothes to dry” He said and sighed softly. The
past days had been tiring on Seiken and it was good to finally see some new
friendly faces and relax a bit for a change. “So, you two were heading for
Shana you said? If you’d like, we could take you there. It’s not like I and Erika
have anything special to do these days as we live in the woods, but you two
seem like a nice couple. So if you wouldn’t mind our help, we’ll be leaving
once your clothes are dry, alright?” Seiken spaced out for a moment. Was he
and Iriya a couple? Seiken hadn’t given Iriya much thought lately since he and
Verdan revived her from the succubus. “Y-yeah, that would be much
appreciated” Seiken said and got up behind some bushes just next to the
waterfall. While hiding from the girls, he took a moment to let the sun shine on
him as he shook his body in order to dry quickly. Varlek came over with his
clothes which Seiken put on.



“Now, you have two choices.” Varlek said before stopping for a moment. He
detached the staff on his back and slammed it into the ground and leaned


against it. “It’s the short and dangerous route, or it’s the long and safe route.”
Varlek and Erika were well known in the forest and knew what kind of things
that one could meet. Despite the fact that this was a much prettier forest than
the one Seiken lost Lisa in, this one was just as dangerous if one wasn’t
careful. “How long is the long route?” Seiken asked before looking at Iriya. She
seemed a lot happier now that he had gotten rid of all that blood and was a lot
more pleasing to the eye. She stood next to him and looked at Varlek. “It will
take us a month to get to Shana. I don’t think you’ll want to walk for that long,
so I’d advice the short and dangerous one.” Varlek informed them before
looking at Erika. Erika whom hadn’t said anything for a while looked at Seiken.
She seemed to be completely lost in thought as she eyed him up and down,
admiring him. She parted her pink lips slowly as she was lost into his brown
dark eyes. Seiken whom had been looking at Varlek looked now at Erika. She
blushed gently with a bright pink flush over her cheeks as their eyes met and
blinked a few times. “Wah- huh? Did you say something, Varlek?” She quickly
managed to say when she noticed them all looking at her. Varlek tilted his
head a bit to the left and gazed upon Erika questioningly. “We are going to
take the short and dangerous way to Shana. Tell them about the route as you
was the one discovering it, remember?” Erika nodded again before looking at
Seiken again for a brief moment. Iriya saw how Erika was looking at Seiken
but didn’t say anything. She did instead knit her fist lightly, feeling a little hint of
jealousy inside. It was nothing going on between her and Seiken, but she
didn’t like Erika or Varlek too much.

“The shortest way to Shana is if we take the ferry.” Erika said and licked her
lips a bit. “The ferry?” Seiken said a bit surprised. Erika nodded and continued.
“There is a long river not far from here that goes into a lake just outside
Shana. The ferry can take us there in only a matter of few days. However…”
Erika stopped and looked up at Varlek. He had a grave look in his face and
looked over at Seiken and Iriya. “The ferry that goes along that river is known
as the ferry of souls. It’s a cursed ferry that only appears at its docks every
midnight for ten minutes before it departs to its destination. According to the
legends we’ve heard from adventurers, there is a treasure on that ferry far
greater than a mountain of gold. “ Varlek said. “But… Why is this so
dangerous?” Seiken curiously asked. He could feel Iriya grab his arm carefully
as they both listened to Varlek. Iriya had calmed a bit down and felt more at
ease when Seiken was clean again.

---

. He didn’t seem so fierce or aggressive as


he did when he was covered in blood, something that made her being able to
trust him a bit more again.

A large cloud covered the sun and the whole area became a bit dark as a cold
wind blew by before Varlek continued. “They say that whoever goes on the
ferry never returns. The ferry have, however, been seen in the lake just
outside Shana, hence why we know it goes back and forth there, but… Erika is
the only one who have seen it, and only for a brief moment. Every full moon,
we can hear the sounds of the spirits aboard the ferry, wanting to get off the
boat writhing and screaming. And if you listen even more carefully, you can
hear sounds of a banquette taking place where everyone is having a good
time before this hacking sound appears. Said to be the sound of the ghosts
and whatnot hacking the bodies of those boarding the ferry.”. Seiken could feel
how Iriya grabbed his arm a bit harder, obviously a bit scared of this story.
“Wouldn’t that be suicide?” Seiken asked, looking over at Erika. “Y-you’re a
battle-mage, are you not? We should be fine.” Erika said while looking at
Seiken while smiling a little. “Besides, if you are able to cast more of those
dragons, then it should be a picnic.”. Seiken looked down at the gem in his
hand. It was all dark and no light was to be seen. “I’m not sure. The reason I
was able to attack Varlek with that spell was because I saw him charge Iriya,
something that must have triggered something in this as I felt it supply glow
and give me such strength that it felt like my mind was about to explode.”
Seiken explained and held forth his hand to them both to see. “O-ohw… Well
then I am not certain.” Erika said and looked up at Varlek. “Bah! Don’t worry,
we’ll manage!” He said cockily before chuckling. Erika peered curiously over at
Seiken’s hand. “May I have a closer look?” She asked before taking his hand
in hers without waiting for any answer. He squirmed slightly as she felt his
hand touch hers. Biting her lower lip, she leaned even further forwards and
peered deeply into the dark purple color of the gem. Only for a second, she
thought she could see something golden deep inside. She blinked a few times,
trying to see what it was, but it was all gone. She shrugged and thought it must
have been her imagination that had been playing tricks with her. “That’s an
odd thing… How did you get it in your hand?” She asked, letting go of it and
looked at Seiken. “I was born with. I have no idea why, though.” He replied
and shrugged at her. Erika looked over at Iriya which was looking straight back
at her. She did obviously not approve of her touching Seiken. “So, what will it
be?” Varlek asked and leaned a bit more onto his staff. Seiken looked at Iriya
for a moment. Iriya looked back up at Seiken, peering deeply into his eyes


before smiling a little. “We will be able to do this, won’t we?” Seiken nodded
and the four of them started following the little brook going from the waterfall to
find the river which the ferry was in.

As they was walking down the brook, the sun slowly started to slide down
behind some mountain tops, leaving the scenery golden once more. It wasn’t
long before it became uncomfortable to travel down the brook as the sun hit
them directly in the eye from its position. They hadn’t eaten for a while either,
so they decided to camp for a moment. They found a little opening in the forest
only a few meters from the brook where they sat down and breathed
exhausted. They had been walking for quite some hours and it was Varlek’s
stomach that sounded like a hungry dragon that made Erika suggest that they
camped. While she and Varlek were out hunting for dinner, Iriya and Seiken
made the campfire. Iriya ran around and found dry branches on the ground
and even a dead tree that she took twigs of. Seiken sat by the little round
circle of rocks he had made and went over the magic spell for fire over and
over again in his head. He did not wish to mess up and set the place on fire in
front of Varlek and Erika. Only after a half hour of hunting, Varlek and Erika
came back with one deer that they held in two limbs between each other. “This
fella should last us for a day!” Varlek proudly said of their catch. It was only
natural for Varlek and Erika to be adept in hunting when living with the animals
the way they have been. Seiken was sure that Iriya would be grossed out
when they were to cut the deer up, but surprisingly enough, she offered them
to be the one doing it. “I went hunting a lot with my fa-“ Iriya stopped for a
moment. She looked sad into the ground for a brief moment before shaking
her head lightly and looking up again.”I went hunting many times with my
father, and I was always in charge of cutting the catch up no matter how much
I hated it. I’ve grown used to it now, so I would be more than happy to do it.”
She said. Varlek and Erika, whom also had done it many times, perhaps
thousand times more than Iriya, shrugged and let her do it. Iriya found a large
flat rock nearby and laid the deer on it before starting. Seiken closed his eyes
for a little moment before he attempted to lighten the pile of branches with fire.
He reached out his hand, pointed at the pile with all his fingers before thin rays
of red magic shot out of his fingertips. The rays gathered in his palm before
shooting a larger beam onto the pile, fully engulfing it with fire. Varlek and
Erika who hadn’t seen one perform magic before, only spells was amazed by
this and gave Seiken an eager applause. “Woah, that was nice!” Varlek said
and squatted down next to Seiken. “Think ya can teach me?” Seiken was


unsure whenever he could teach someone magic as he never fully understood
its concept himself. “I don’t think I can. It’s very hard, and I wouldn’t know
where to start with you. If you plan on going with us inside the city of Shana as
well, I’m sure you can find someone to teach you.” Seiken replied as he
warmed his hands on the fire. Erika was admiring Seiken again and stood
leaned against a tree in the back, just watching him. Iriya threw a look over her
shoulder now and then to see what the boys was doing while parting the
animal into suitable slices for them. Erika went over to Iriya to see how it went.
She was doing fine, but she had split the parts evenly. “I think you should split
some more up for Varlek. When it comes to food, he can eat a horse on long
days. Literally!” Erika grinned and patted Iriya on her shoulder. “O-oh? Sure,
I’ll let him have some of me. I’m not that hungry really.” Iriya said a bit
surprised, not noticing Erika’s presence at all. “So… Could you perhaps tell
me a bit about this… Lisa?” Erika asked after a little moment of silence. She
was interested in hearing what Seiken and Lisa had between them as he had
said it was someone dear to him. “Is she like his sister, or…?” Iriya grinned a
bit now and shook her head. “Didn’t he tell you? She was his childhood friend.
A bond like that can very much is like a sister’s, but I believe it can be a bit
different. I don’t know, don’t have any sisters myself.” Iriya replied while
penetrating the pieces of meat on long thin sticks she had gotten while
gathering firewood. “I believe Seiken have a little crush on her, to be honest.
And I wouldn’t be too glad if one I had a crush on had been separated for me
either.” Iriya bit her lip a bit while keeping her work up, thinking back at the
time when Seiken went into the cathedral and she was to find a way out of
Wendel. “I see. Well, I hope we two will get a long well! It’s going to be quite
the adventure.” Erika said and patted Iriya roughly on her shoulder twice,
making her almost lose her balance as she was squatting down. “Y-yeah…”
Was all she could say. When Iriya was done with the meat, she came over
with the spears with meat she had prepared for them. It was four spears to
Iriya, eight spears for Seiken and Erika and sixteen for Varlek. She figured that
she would split the meat in the manner of body mass. “Whoo, this is going to
be good!” Varlek said all excited, rubbing his hands together. He was clearly
hungry the way it sounded he was housing a dragon in his stomach. They set
the spears up over the fire which Iriya supplied with wood now and then while
talking. It didn’t last long before the smell of the cooked meat surrounded them
and made Varlek almost crazy. He looked over at the spears and circulated
them to see if any of them was soon done. “Relax, Varlek, you’ll get food in


time.” Erika said and grinned of her brother’s eagerness. Seiken leaned
against the base of a tree in the little opening they had camped and smiled a
bit sheepishly at them all. He was somewhat tired and decided to try rest up as
much as possible before they got to the ferry. Erika stood up and looked
around for a moment before she saw a special tree. The tree was small but
with large leaves. She picked four leaves off the tree that constantly withered
and crumbled into a thick liquid the moment the leaves left its branches. Erika
frowned a bit when seeing how the tree responded to only have a few leaves
removed. “You seem startled…” Iriya said and squatted down next to Erika
who poked the remains of the plant with a stick. “These large leaves are the
life-support of the plant. As it has next to no roots, it develops great leaves to
take in as much sunlight as possible. Some even says it’s enchanted!” Iriya
explained to Erika whom frowned upon seeing how her stick had dissolved in
the remains of the tree. “I see…” Erika said and stood up, heading towards the
little brook to fill the leaves. They would serve as good cups. Iriya was a bit
surprised as those trees weren’t really rare in forests, and since Erika had
spent most her life in the wilds, she couldn’t understand how she had missed
it. Erika went back to the fire and shortly after, Iriya came there too. They all
was handed their leaf filled with water while Iriya informed them about how
many spears each could take. Varlek had snapped half of the portion of his
spears in only the moment a lightning took to strike the earth from the
heavens. To be a big muscular brute, he surely got the speed! Iriya and
Seiken looked at each other in surprise and then back at Varlek whom ate as if
he hadn’t eaten in several months. “Relax a bit now, or you’ll get it in your
throat.” Erika said and grinned a bit while she reached for a spear of her own.
Varlek didn’t seem to hear her as he kept on devouring spear after spear.

The four of them drank well and ate till they almost couldn’t move. It was
important that they were all well rested since there was no telling when they
could do this again. The night was quickly upon them. The good company,
water and food surely didn’t make the time go slower either. Despite the long
time it had been since Iriya was out in the woods at night, she quickly grew
accustomed to it. Erika sat next to Seiken under a tree which was a few
meters away from the fire. Varlek was sleeping, and it was fascinating Seiken.
He stood up straight and leaned onto his staff. “isn’t… Isn’t he going to fall
over?” Seiken questioned Erika while frowning a bit. “Don’t worry, he always
sleep like that. On-guard.” She grinned. Seiken tilted his head slightly to the
left before looking around for a little moment. The sounds of the night had


stopped and it was surprisingly quiet. They had heard the sounds of an owl,
several animals and cicadas until just recently. Seiken slowly rose on his
position and scouted around. A thin seeping mist came like a wave through
the forest. The mist quickly thickened and the air became immediately colder.
“Varlek!” Erika shouted before Varlek woke up violently. Seiken hadn’t heard
anyone wake up that violently like Varlek did. The way he woke up sounded
like he was being the target of an exorcism. When he finally calmed down, he
noticed the mist. “So it’s time…” He said and grabbed the staff in his hand
before attaching it to his back in a little strap he carried. “Time…?” Iriya said
and took a step closer Varlek. “The mist will show us the way. Though, we
need to move quickly! From the moment the mist appears in these parts of the
forest, it is only a few moments before the ferry departs. “ Erika said before
quickly fetching the little satchel he had kept attached to her belt. Seiken had
detached the scabbard with his sword earlier that evening, but had put it back
on now. His gem glowed in a faint yellow light as he could see the mist sweep
gently over it. Iriya had picked her bow up from a nearby tree it was resting
against and took her quiver on her back. The four of them was ready to move.
With a dash, they started sprinting forward and down the path the mist came
seeping in. It wasn’t long before the trees cleared up and they could see the
river. They couldn’t see the boat straight away, but when they got closer to the
edge of the river, it appeared just before their eyes, almost like a ghost. “So…
This is it, huh?” Seiken said and swallowed hard. Erika who was the only one
that had seen the ferry before nodded at Seiken. Varlek snorted and grunted.
“How do we get on?” Iriya said, not seeing anywhere they could board the
ferry from that side. The ferry was a ghastly looking ship that was very long.
They stood on the beginning of the river, and by looking down the river; they
couldn’t see the end of it due the mist. The ship itself wasn’t that wide. The
four of them stood beside each other in front of it and they saw four more of
them could easily be placed next to either of their ends and still not be at the
same length of the ferry. With several cracked windows and a gloomy light
being cast over it due the strange mist, the boat floated silently in the dark
waters that Seiken couldn’t see the bottom of. The lights on the both sides of a
door on the deck they was looking at, glowed with a faint blue light that made
the ship look even ghastlier. “We don’t have time to look for a way on the ship.
Use your agility!” Varlet shouted and took a few steps backwards before
charging and leaping onto the deck. His feet slammed the frail wood with such
force that the ferry rocked gently in the waters. The sound of his weight hitting


dark-river.jpg
the deck rushed through the boat and the sound of a glass breaking from
behind the door was heard. Iriya, Erika and Seiken followed by doing a little
leap themselves, but not making nearby as much ruckus as Varlek. “Ok… We
made it. All we need to do is survive till we reach the lake near Shana. “Varlek
said before pushing the door open with the non-spiked end of his staff.



The old door made
a cracking noise as
it slid open. The
round window that
was in head-height
was all cracked
and as it went
against the wall on
the inside,
shattered pieces of
glass over the
floor. Varlek went
first ahead, holding
his staff up to his chest. Seiken followed shortly after with his sword in his
hand. Erika and Iriya stood back, wanting the guys to check if it was safe to
enter. “Come on, girls…” Varlek said cockily and looked around inside. The
inside of the ferry looked like a pretty wagon, but with benches on both sides
along the wall, much like a church. In the middle along the midway, a long red
carped laid on the floor. The walls was covered with paintings and unlit lights.
The paintings was pretty, much alike those that hang in Iriya’s mansion.
However, these paintings seemed more eerie. Two of the paintings illustrated
two men being decapitated by naked women while another one was illustrating a man eating his own guts that hang out of his open belly with a knife and fork. Erika had finally moved inside now, only to raise her fists. She was adept in martial arts and knew how to deliver a fatal kick with her feet or a concussion blow with her fists. Iriya stood still outside, looking in at the others as they was looking around inside. She almost tripped over as the boat suddenly moved a bit. The sound of iron hitting wood was heard and the boat freely floated down the river. The moment the boat started moving, the forest turned into darkness. It reminded Iriya much about the night sky as the only thing she could see was the pitch black darkness and small sparkling spots around her. She thought it was pretty at first, but then she thought she could see something appearing around the small sparkling spots. White masks appeared out of nowhere. They seemed emotionless but slowly moved towards her. They had appeared all around her, perhaps over a hundred of them. With a wheezing sound they gasped and groaned at her, sounding like tortured souls. “G-guys!” She said, totally crept out of it all before running inside to the others. They turned around and looked at Iriya. “What’s wrong, Iriya? It seems like you’ve seen a ghost.” Seiken jested and grinned while patting her on her shoulder a few times. Iriya turned around and pointed outside only to gasp for a moment and slowly lower her hand again. The masks had disappeared. “I swear, it was white masks chasing me…” She said, only to lower her voice towards the end of her sentence, realizing how silly it all sounded. “Masks?” Varlek said and poked his head outside the door, looking around. Varlek didn’t know what a mask was and therefore couldn’t tell whenever he saw any or not. The masks did, however, not appear when he looked outside, leaving him to think that Iriya must have seen an illusion of some sort. “Don’t worry about it, we need to stick together. If we do that, we’ll be fine.” Varlek said calmly. Seiken found a lever on the far end of the wagon, just next to a red door made out of some sort of red fabric. It could remind one of pillows being sewn into the door the way the fabric bulged out. There was a window in the door too, all round and gloomy.

It was impossible to see through, no matter how hard Seiken tried. He gave the others a little look and they looked back in approval to his. They took a few steps towards Seiken before he pushed the lever down with a light grip. The moment the lever went all the way down, the sound of a screaming man roamed the room and a little cabinet slid open. Inside was four
swords nailed to the wall, a quiver of arrows, a bow and a pair of gloves with
knuckles made of steel. The steel blinded Erika with the blue eerie light that
suddenly shone through the door next to the lever as she approached them.
“Would it be… Alright to take them?” Erika said and looked at Varlek and then
Seiken. Iriya was already eager to get the bow and arrows as the ones she
had were rather flimsy and too fragile for any usage at all. “Do whatever you want to do, but make sure everyone knows it and that you’re very careful. We are going to be here for an unknown period of time, so let’s not all go die at the
first day, shall we?” Seiken said and gave them both a little nod of approval to
take the weapons. Iriya reached forth to take the quiver carefully while looking
around to see if there was some sort of trap set up that would for instance
drop a gate of blades down on her hands as soon she touched the quiver.
Erika smiled a bit as Iriya was able to get the quiver without anything
happening. As she was strapping her quiver on her back and fetching bow,
Erika reached forth to the gloves. They were light to the touch, but felt very
sturdy. Varlek looked at the swords and frowned a bit as he wasn’t really fond
of using blades in combat and sat down on one of the benches. Erika gasped
a bit in delight as the gloves fitted her hands perfectly while watching Varlek
sitting down. Her pleased gasp turned into a frightened one as the moment
Varlek’s bum touched the bench; he disappeared into a little cloud of smoke.
“Varlek!” Erika said and reached for him with her hand. She lowered her hand
slowly and bit her lower lip. “We need to find him.” Seiken said and looked at
the door leading further in the ferry. Erika and Iriya nodded. Erika had only
heard about the dreadful things that went on in this place at night and didn’t
dare the thought of what that might happen to her brother. Even though he
knew how to defend himself, there was no telling what he could do to specters.
Seiken opened the door roughly with his right hand, seeing his gem glowing
faintly purple. “What is this thing on about…? It changes color like the
rainbow.” He said as he looked into the gem for a moment. The girls went
ahead of him and into the next room where they found a banister to lean onto.
Seiken looked up and into the other room where the girls were. The room was
all lighted up by lights and almost blinded him as his eyes had gotten used to
the darkness. As he took a few steps into the next room, his eyes widened.
The room widened out several meters and as he looked over the banister, he
and the girls was looking down into a large banquette hall. “H-how is this
physically possible?!” Seiken gasped and looked around. The ship didn’t seem
this big on the outside and the river was far from that wide to being able to
hold this ship. “Look!” Iriya said and pointed at one of the tables. Varlek was
sitting in the middle of the table and was enjoying a large meal. There were
several tables covered in white tablecloths and chairs all around them. The
tables had the most delicious food standing on them, and on the chairs sat
ghosts eating and enjoying the food. The ghosts seemed all to be wealthy men
and women, and if Seiken hadn’t known better, he’d believe this was all a big
rich man’s party. Men in tuxedos, women in pretty dresses with jewelry
hanging around their necks and butlers roamed the place. They were all
transparent, but they didn’t seem to know that they was dead. The table Varlek
was sitting at was the largest. It was a long one with him in the middle. The
ghosts around that table behaved as if Varlek was one of them and he did the
same. “W-what is this place? What’s going on!?” Iriya said and looked at Erika
and Seiken. “Shh! Looks like something is about to start” Seiken said and
pushed Iriya a bit back when she tried to go down to the lower floor where the
ghosts was. Few seconds after Seiken spoke to Iriya, the hacking sound
appeared. The ghosts that were enjoying themselves suddenly stopped and
looked around as if they heard the sound too. Varlek didn’t stop but continued
to eat from the delicious meal he was served. The lights along the wall slowly
dimmed and the bright and clear room soon became gloomy and a bit murky.
One of the women had placed her head on the table and the man next to her
had come out of the kitchen earlier with a butcher’s knife. He raised it up and
chopped the head off the woman. Erika and Iriya covered their mouths as they
gasped while Seiken frowned and made a face. Only a moment later, the other
ghosts started doing the same. “Holy… This is one big massacre!” The men
and women went around with knifes and axes, cutting each other up. The
transparent blood was being shattered everywhere. “Varlek!” Erika said and
jumped down over the banister and landed amongst the ghosts. Iriya and
Seiken ran towards the stairs, but as they were to descend it, a blue barrier
blocked the path. All they could do was watch. Erika ran towards Varlek whom
was still eating and almost seeming to enjoy it all. However, on the halfway to
him, she was stopped by a decapitated woman whom tried to slice her open
with a knife. Erika held her hands out in both sides and took a deep breath and
closed her eyes before opening them slowly, giving the woman a sinister look.
She squatted lightly down before jumping into the air, spinning around and
landing on the woman whose torso was twisted so hard that it broke open and
got separated from the legs of the woman. “Eh…” Iriya said, finding the whole
thing grotesque. “I might have put too much power into that twist.” Erika said
and punched a man coming towards her with a knife. “Erika! Look!” Iriya said
and pointed towards Varlek. He had laid his head on the table as well. One of
the nearby men came towards him with the butchers axe and had it up in the
air. “Seiken, do something!” Iriya shouted and looked at him. Seiken had
placed his hand on the barrier and was breathing heavily. “I’ll… Try
overloading it.” He said and tried to focus energy in his hand. Erika seemed
almost to be dancing there she was, kicking and punching everyone that
approached her while slowly making her way towards the woman that was heading towards Varlek.

“It’s… It’s draining me!” Seiken suddenly shouted, trying to take his hand off
the barrier. One could clearly see a purple aura flow from Seiken’s hand and
disappear into the barrier. Iriya saw this and threw herself onto Seiken, hoping
that the force of her weight would be enough to separate him from the barrier.
Luckily, it was enough. Seiken landed on his back and smashed his right hand
in the floor. A little cracking sound was heard on the impact. Iriya fell over him
and landed against his chest. They both looked into each other’s eyes and
blushed for only a moment before Iriya got up and shuddered. “W-we should
probably find some other way to help Erika… “Iriya said with a little smile and
a bright blush across her face. Seiken nodded and got up. He looked at his
gem from which he could feel an intensive pain coursing through his body. The
gem had a crack on it and the string had appeared inside it. Dark-Purple
smoke oozed from the crack and Seiken felt uneasy of the pain and a strange
feeling that came rushing through his body. “Are you alright?” Iriya asked and
supported Seiken a bit, seeing that he was troubled. “It feels… Like my body is
burning up.” He had a hard time speaking. He felt how droplets of sweat pour
down from his forehead and how his vision became blurry. He looked at the
barrier and held up his hand once more. And once again, the barrier tried to
drain his powers. However, the moment the dark-purple aura connected with
the barrier, it was shattered and a tremendous beam shot out of his hand.
Seiken almost tripped backwards from the enormous power and used his
other hand to support the overloading one. “Aim for the ghost!” Iriya said and
pointed down at the one that was heading towards Varlek. The intense beam
of dark-purple light was slowly but surely directed towards the ghost,
destroying everything in its path. Oddly enough, the ship wasn’t damaged at
all. Erika breathed heavily as she stood in one of the corners, finally being able
to rest a bit when Seiken backed her up. She wiped her forehead for sweat
and sighed deeply while looking over at Varlek. He was still lying with his head
there, waiting for the ghosts to come. As the last ghost was consumed by
Seiken’s tremendous force, the lights in the room were lit again. Seiken’s
magic just faded and it made him fall onto his knees. He was all exhausted
and his body was hurting all over. “Seiken!” Iriya said and supported Seiken
up, letting him lean onto her. “Here, let me take you downstairs” She helped
him down the stairs that had a red carped going from the top and to the
bottom. Along the walls was another series of eerie pictures which made Iriya
shiver for a moment. She helped Seiken onto a chair where he sat and
breathed heavily as she ran towards Varlek where Erika already stood.
“Varlek! Varlek! Snap out of it!” She shook roughly by grabbing his shoulders,
but he was still leaning over, head on the table. The food on the table had
disappeared to Seiken’s big disappointment. He surely could use a bite right
about now as damaged he was. “Iriya…” He tried to say and reach for her with
his hand. But he fell asleep instead due the exhaustion.

While Seiken was asleep on the table, the lights suddenly went out again.
When Iriya saw Seiken had collapsed, she ran to him and bit her lower lip,
felling worried for him. “Seiken…” She said quietly and watched him sleep.
“Oy, we need to gather them! In case we are getting company, it would be
best to have only one place to protect!” Erika shouted from Varlek’s table. Iriya
and Erika helped Varlek to the table where Seiken lied to position them both in
the middle, preparing for what might happen next. The room had a pair of
stairs on the other side of the room where they came from, leading up to
another door. Along the sides of the room were four doors on each side. All of
them suddenly flew open and new ghosts came in. However this time, some of
them were equipped with swords, maces, knives and forks. Some of the
ghosts was less transparent than the others and almost seemed alive.


Iriya took her bow and prepared herself. “Ready for round two?” She asked Erika whom held her fists before her, ready to take on her own side. “Let’s do this.” Erika charged towards her side, kicking and punching everything that came in range. Her moves sent the ghosts flying into each other and even impaling some on others weapons. Erika charged towards her side, kicking and
punching everything that came in range. Her moves sent the ghosts flying into
each other and even impaling some of them on others weapons. Iriya hadn’t
started to attack yet, but was just watching the ghosts that moved towards her,
almost like zombies. They were slow and seemed to have problems moving.
Iriya looked at the floor where the dead ghosts laid. It didn’t take long before
those too started moving, slowly standing up and shaking violently for a
second before moving towards Iriya. She took her bow and put an arrow on it.
After allowing her lungs to take in a deep breath, she rapidly started retaliating.
As she was breathing out after the inhale, she fired arrow after arrow into the
ghosts’ heads, which pushed them backwards. When her breath was all out,
she started breathing normally again, however, on each inhale, she took a
quick moment to put some more force into the current arrow, something that
made the thin and shard projectile shatter the skull it hit and pierce through up
till two others afterwards. Erika was a bit curious about Iriya’s fighting style and
had kept looking over her shoulders now and then, checking her out. She
grinned as she saw how fast her hands moved and how accurate her shots
were. It was almost if they were homing towards their targets.

The battle went on and the stream of ghosts seemed limitless. Iriya was
almost out of arrows and Erika was on the verge of collapsing. Her breath
sounded almost like a male’s the way she breathed, all exhausted. The ghosts
groaned and moaned at them, walking slowly closer. “What shall we do?!”
Erika said and looked at Iriya. “Quickly, grab Varlek! I’ll take Seiken!” Iriya
commanded and grabbed Seiken by the neck of his shirt. Erika grabbed
Varlek’s staff and pulled him along with her. No matter what, he never let go of
that staff. They ran upwards the stairs on the other side and looked down into
the dining room. The stairs felt quite fragile as they dragged the boys up and
leaned them against the wall. “If I only had some of those explosives…” Iriya
said to herself and thought to herself that she could take advantage of the
shambling stairs. Erika went to the left stairs and sat down on the top. She
roared, almost howled loudly and pressed down with her legs, managing to
tear the stairs apart with one quick and powerful kick with her legs. The debris
of the shattered stair fell down and made the way inaccessible to the ghosts.
Iriya had on her side used the last arrows she had to take down the ghosts
that ascended the stairs until Erika could come over and crush the stairs as
she did with the first. She sat down again, and as a woman with two knives
and a bloody apron, she kicked forth and tore the stairs beneath her feet. She
looked up at Iriya whom looked down at her. They could both breathe out
relaxed now before throwing a little look at the boys. Seiken had fainted due
large reduction of magic over short time and Varlek seemed to have snapped
out of the trance and was now asleep. “We should look for a place to stay a
few hours. “ Erika said as she breathed heavily. Iriya nodded. With neither of
them having anything to fight with, they both agreed to that the idea of finding
shelter for the night was appealing.

Several hours later, Seiken finally woke up. He sat up and looked around a bit
sheepishly. He sat in a bed in a little room. On the other side of the room was
another bed and Iriya was sleeping in it. Between them, on the far side of the
wall was a door leading out to a hallway. The ghostly light coming from a little
round window illuminated the room in a ghastly way that sent him a shiver
rushing down his spine. He tried to lay down for a bit but was interrupted by an
intense pain in his chest. He supported himself on his right hand against his
pillow. With big eyes, he looked over the gem. It was all fixed and no sign of
the crack earlier was to be seen. All confused he shifted hands to support
himself with so he could have a closer look. “Did… the string do this?” Seiken
said to himself and gazed into the dark purple abyss of the gem. Trying to lie
down again, he was interrupted by another groan of pain. “Nhh….” Iriya rolled
over and looked at Seiken. She had been sleeping till then but woke up by the
noises Seiken made. “Wha… what happened?” He asked curiously, looking at
her. She sighed and was obviously happy he was alright. “I think you
overloaded your magic. You collapsed when the barrier drained your power”
Iriya sat up in her bed but covered herself up with her sheet. “Varlek was fast
asleep after the battle with the ghosts, so I and Erika dragged you here to two
cabins where we’re going to take cover for a while. Seiken smiled bit,
appreciating that Iriya took care of him. “So… They-“ Seiken was interrupted.
“They’re at the other side of your wall in a cabin just like this.” Iriya smiled.
Seiken smiled back at her for a moment and sighed before it started to hurt in
his chest again. He groaned and rushed his hands to his chest, making him
fall onto the pillow with his head, groaning even louder. “It hurts a lot, doesn’t
it.” Iriya said calmly, looking at him. She had removed his shirt so she could
more easily see if there were any wounds she could mend. Seiken nodded
and sighed a bit. “It hurts all over my body…” He stared into the wooden roof
that had a little crack in it, granting him no vision of the room as there were no lights lit there. “ I think you should try to get some more rest.” Iriya said while biting down onto her lower lip for a moment. Seiken sighed a bit, not enjoying the fact he was useless last fight. “I guess… You’re right.” He sighed once more, but this time deeply. Perhaps so deeply that Varlek and Erika could hear him in the other room if they was listening. Seiken closed his eyes and tried carefully to roll over onto his side, facing Iriya. “Thank you…” Seiken whispered, which made Iriya smile a bit. She got out of her bed and stood up on the fl

Any yay's, or... nays? Or did anyone even bother to finish it?

Throwing in a small update.