Capítulo 54: 54
Just as the moon was about to crack, its brightness suddenly intensified. It reminded Arthur of someone's last hurray before they faded into oblivion.
Arthur raised his arm to shield his eyes from the glare of the glow. Before the brightness swallowed everything, Arthur glanced to the side and noticed Lady Myra was doing the same thing.
Enveloped in the light, Arthur heard the sound of something popping consecutively, it sounded like an egg cracking.
Eventually, the light faded away and Arthur slowly opened his eyes.
The moon was no longer a globe before their eyes, instead it had cracked into pieces. The pieces of varying size littered the ground.
After the moon was shattered, the place was even darker than before. Arthur looked around and it felt like the darkness was closing in. If they stayed there long enough, perhaps they might end up being swallowed by the encroaching darkness.
Floating in the middle of the broken moon was a seal that was dark as night. If not for the faded light that pooled around it, due to the broken moon pieces, Arthur doubted they would be able to see it.
In contrast, Arthur believed he would be able to sense it. The magical aura that radiated from this thing could not be missed. According to their analysis, this should be the seal that would bring them back to the real world. After all, this particular painting was the last of the series, there was nothing else after this.
Instead of heading towards the seal directly, Arthur stepped towards one of the moon pieces that laid on the ground. The young man picked one up and held it in his hand. The piece was yellowish-white in color and it was glowing softly. It looked pretty and had almost no weight at all. The piece that Arthur held was almost the size of the young man's palm but it felt like he was holding air.
Arthur was intrigued by this object. After all, how often does one get the chance to hold a piece of the moon in their grasp?
After studying it for a while, Arthur pocketed the piece and walked towards Lady Myra.
Lady Myra appeared like she had not gotten over the series of events that had just happened. She stood there with a blank expression on her face like she was still processing the information.
When she sensed Arthur coming close to her, the lady immediately collected herself. Arthur asked, "Lady Myra, are you alright?" Arthur was concerned that perhaps she was blinded by the light earlier or something.
Lady Myra smiled and said, "I'm fine, I was just shocked by the things that happened. Who would have thought the moon will really fall from the sky and shatter into smithereens. This world sure is a magical place."
"Indeed, it is," Arthur concurred. He was going to suggest that they could rest and take a look around before leaving the place but as his gaze looked over Lady Myra's shoulders, the young man's brows creased with a frown. After a while, he added hastily, "However, this is also a dangerous place, I believe we should leave this place as soon as possible."
Lady Myra was confused by the panic in Arthur's voice but when she looked at their surrounding, she understood why. The darkness that edged the ring of light that they were standing in seemed to have come alive and it was slowly crawling towards them.
Lady Myra turned to Arthur and said, "You're right. Let's go."
Arthur held Lady Myra's hand as the two of them walked towards the dark seal. They both reached out at the same time towards the seal.
...
The next thing they knew they were standing in the sun-filled studio. Everything looked so familiar and yet unfamiliar.
They were still holding each other's hands and their other hands were both placed on the 'Moon' painting that was sitting on the easel.
Both Arthur and Lady Myra moved their hands away and released their grasp from each other at the same time. This whole experience felt rather surreal. Also, Arthur remembered when he left, it was the painting, 'The Cherry Blossom Tree' that sat on the easel but now the other two paintings were stacked on top of each other, sitting on the easel.
Arthur leaned in closer to inspect 'The Cherry Blossom Tree'. The seal that he saw earlier could not be seen anymore, all he could see were the cherry blossoms that filled up the sky. To make sure, he moved his finger around the area where he believed the seal was and nothing happened. He repeated the same process with 'The Moon' and 'Snow'.
The paintings looked the same but it appeared like they had lost their magic. Perhaps it was because the painter had already left the painting.
Even though Arthur was sure that the paintings were completely safe now, Lady Myra said she would keep them in her personal collection and not put them on display just in case something like what happened to them occurred someone else.
Arthur thought that was such a waste of good art but that was Lady Myra's prerogative to make so he did not say anything.
Now that they had successfully found their way back to the real world, Lady Myra thanked Arthur again for coming to her rescue. She said that she will also drop by at the adventurer's guild when she had everything settled to thank Lady Morgan personally.
In any case, that was of little concern to Arthur. Lady Myra's relationship with Lady Morgan did not interest him, he was only concerned about the fact that he had successfully completed the quest that was given to him. It was time to return to the adventurer's guild to get the reward.
Just as Arthur was about to leave, Lady Myra called after him, "Arthur, wait a minute. I have something to give you."
Arthur turned back to see what it was.
Status de energia semanal
-- Ranking de
Poder 
-- Pedra de
Poder