บท 15: Bonds
Fayden's POV:
I blinked in surprise, "Yeah…"
I trailed off, noticing his features which looked suspiciously like…
'I'm sorry Eleanor, I'm so sorry.'
'I love you all.'
"Fayden?"
[Hey! Snap out of it!]
I shook my head clear, I can't have an attack now.
"Are you by any chance related to Eleanor Delaney?" I blurted out.
Now, why did I have to ask that?
Arthur nodded, "She was my aunt."
Aunt? Alice's son?
I let out a deep breath, I'll have to ask him later. For now…
"How did you fall down here?"
"One of the queen snarlers self-destructed and tore a hole in the dungeon, I was unable to get out in time." he explained, materializing a piece of the snarler from his dimension ring.
[A mutated one.]
Yeah…
"A queen snarler on the top floor?"
He nodded, "Yes, they broke in while we were fighting the minion snarlers. Professor Glory managed to kill one of them, but then the second one consumed the dead queen and… evolved into something more grotesque. I succeeded to wound it with my sword, and then this tumor-like blobs started growing on its body right before it exploded, breaking the floor and sending me down here."
"I see…" I muttered as I began pondering on what he said.
It evolved by consuming its brethren, that's new. So is the self-destruction feature.
[They're growing more dangerous by the day.]
I'll need to have a talk with Jaron about this, he's the more analytical one out of us.
"Lance Alea, it would be best if you return to Elenoir with your battalion. I'll take him to the surface." I ordered.
She opened her mouth to protest, but then seemed to remember who she was talking to and nodded, "I'll leave him in your care then."
"So," I began once Alea left, "How did you recognize me?"
"One of your former teammates, Ash Bourne, told me what you look like." He answered.
"He did?" Why? "Are they looking for me or something?"
He nodded, "Yeah, they have been looking for you and Vonde Bourne for months."
"They? Jaron's in it too?" I said as I began walking.
"He's actually the first one I had contact with." Arthur walked alongside me.
"Huh, that so?" I spoke out loud as I turned back, placing an arm over his shoulder, "Try not to fall off will ya?"
"Huh?"
And then we dropped into the realm of shadows.
________________________
"You could have warned me." Arthur said weakly, holding his stomach.
I shrugged, "I did warn you."
"Yeah, like a millisecond before." he retorted.
My lips curled upwards in a smirk, "That's the point. Gets em every time."
"Darn sadist…" he grumbled.
"Thank you."
"That wasn't a compliment."
I smirked, "I know."
He gave me a look, "You're weird."
[Tell us something we don't know.]
"Eh, that's subjective."
He shook his head in exasperation, taking in his surroundings.
"The adventurer's guild?" he asked.
"I have a limit to how far I can go. This is the easiest path to Xyrus."
"I see. You should probably stay here, Jaron's been looking for you." he suggested.
"Now?"
He nodded, "Yeah, he has been scouring the glades for the past few months."
Hmm…
Well, the easiest way would be to.
I flared my mana momentarily, alerting everyone nearby as they were frozen by the pressure.
People came out of the guild to see what caused it, and there I found a familiar face.
"Sup Kaspian, I'm just signaling Jaron to come back here, don't mind me." he simply nodded at me.
It didn't take long before a red and gold feathered bird flew to us, and in a blaze of glory, it turned to my kuudere brother.
"Hey-"
I was rudely interrupted by a punch to the face.
"Ow." I deadpanned, fixing my dislocated jaw, "First of all, that was rude, and secondly, fuck you too."
"That's for running away for twelve years." he nonchalantly admitted.
I deadpanned at him, before sighing, "Fine, I guess I kinda deserved that then."
He nodded, shifting his attention to Arthur, "What happened to you?"
Arthur then proceeded to repeat what happened to Jaron.
"This is troubling…" Jaron muttered, his hand rubbing his chin.
"Yeah, tell me about it." I chimed in.
"We need to let the others know of this." he suggested after a while.
I nodded in affirmation, "But first, let's get the kid healed first."
"I can heal him right now." Jaron stated, raising his arm which was coated in a thin aura of green and purple.
"..." I stared, annoyance building up in my body. "What are you waiting for then!" I barked.
He shrugged, "No one asked," and proceeded to place it on Arthur's shoulder, covering it in the same aura. Arthur visibly relaxed, his wounds closing up at a rapid pace.
After Jaron finished healing Arthur, I turned to him, "You should return to your family kid, they're probably worried sick."
Arthur nodded but halted during the gesture almost as if remembering something. "Sylvie," he breathed out.
"Who?" I asked, my head tilted towards the side.
"His bond. Where is she?" Jaron explained, turning to Arthur near the end.
"She's hunting near Widow's Crypt." Arthur answered with worry etched on his face.
I narrowed my eyes and thought, "Arthur, can you return home by yourself?"
He blinked in surprise, "Yeah?"
"Then go, we'll bring her back. Sylvie was it?" I asked rhetorically, facing the direction of the dungeon.
"If I may," Kaspian began, "I can send a group of adventurers to escort Mr. Leywin home and to help you two find his bond."
… I honestly forgot he existed.
[Same.]
"That won't be necessary Kaspian." Jaron answered, denying his proposal, "Arthur is stronger than most adventurers here, and Sylvie might attack an unfamiliar face."
I nodded, silently agreeing.
Wait, I'm an unfamiliar face so will she attack me too? It doesn't matter, I can take her on unless she's an Asura in hiding.
[Don't jinx yourself.]
…
Fuck.
Wait, we never learned her looks.
"What does she look like?" I voiced my thoughts.
"She's…" Arthur hesitated, making me raise an eyebrow.
Jaron cast a sound barrier around us, "She's a black dragon with horns of the same color and topaz eyes."
"A dragon?" I said skeptically.
[There are literal gods here, dragons existing isn't that surprising.]
I sighed, "Sure, why not?"
"Let's start searching for her." Jaron dispelled the barrier, transforming into his bird, or rather phoenix form.
I smirked in reply, two can play that game.
My body began transforming, turning pitch black for just a moment before taking the shape of a dire wolf. To an outsider, it would seem like I melted into this form.
And as Jaron flew high up in the sky, I scoured the earth jumping into and out of shadows ever so often.
________________________
We look near the Crypt first, noticing nothing out of the ordinary.
Did she stray away somewhere?
My unasked question was soon answered by an earthshaking roar that echoed through the forest, coming from the dungeon.
I glanced up at Jaron, who began flying faster. Jumping in a nearby shadow, I Void Step to the bottom of the Dungeon.
It didn't take me long to come across the dragon, but it wasn't necessarily a warm welcome.
[She probably thinks you're only a mana beast.] He said as I dodged her claws from ripping my chest to ribbons by a hair's breadth.
"Woah Woah Woah!" I exclaimed, reverting back to my human form raising my arms placatingly, "I'm an ally!"
Her eyes widened in surprise, "How did you do that?"
I shrugged, "Perks of being what I am."
She narrowed her eyes, "Then what are you?"
"Irrelevant," she doesn't need to know, "thing is, your bond is worried about you."
"Papa? Where is he?!" she growled, perhaps thinking I had something to do with his fall.
"I took him back to Xyrus so you don't need to worry." I tried to reassure her, "We're here to take you to him."
"We?"
I nodded, jerking my head towards Jaron, "Yeah, me and him."
She whipped her head backward, making eye contact with Jaron.
"He's telling the truth Sylvie, you can trust us."
Sylvie relaxed, trusting Jaron, and began transforming.
"You can transform too huh?" I said as she shrunk to the form of a fox.
Jaron nodded, "We should return."
"Yeah," I said as I walked over to Sylvie, kneeling down, "grab on."
She gave me a puzzled expression, making me elaborate further, "I can teleport us to the adventurer's guild."
She nodded and climbed up to my shoulder as I got up from kneeling.
"I'll see you there Jaron."
And Void Stepped once more.
________________________
Arthur was standing exactly where he was before we left.
"Why are you still here?" I asked once I saw him, as Sylvie jumped down from my shoulder and trotted towards him.
"I was not going to leave without Sylvie." Arthur replied, picking Sylvie up as they began conversing with each other.
[He seems to care for her a lot.]
Yeah, won't be surprised if he raised her from a hatchling.
Jaron flew in soon after, not looking the least bit surprised that Arthur's still here.
So he expected this huh.
"Ash is somewhere in Xyrus, we need to find him quickly." Jaron went straight to the point.
I nodded at him, "Yeah, and let's see if we can find Vonde on the way."
"I wouldn't be that hopeful." he quipped, beckoning Arthur to follow him to the portal.
"Hopeful huh? After that day, I've been anything but hopeful." I muttered, before following behind them.
Man is this gonna reopen some old wounds.
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