บท 17: Calm Before the Storm (I)
Fayden did not return that night, leaving his old comrades to themselves. Arthur decided to visit Elenoir, to check up on Tessia Eralith. Jaron wanted to accompany him, but Ash interrupted, telling him to look for 'the furry' while he goes with Arthur.
Jaron hesitated for a bit but relented. He had faith in Ash. Arthur soon left the house, with Ash accompanying him, and Jaron decided to wait until the morning to begin his search. He had no chance of finding Fayden dead in the night.
Neither Arthur nor his escort was aware of what would be waiting for them at the gate.
"It's been so long since I last used teleportation gates." On the way towards Elenoir, spoke up Ash.
"Have you really been in the ice-castle for twelve years?" Perplexed Arthur asked Ash.
"Yes." Ash answered briefly.
"Wouldn't want to be in your place." Arthur mumbled quietly.
"Nobody would ever want to be in my place, even I'm impressed by myself to be still alive. Many would kill themselves." said Ash, there were no emotions detected from his speech.
Even Arthur was puzzled by this, for he already admired Ash for his willingness to go on for the sake of his family. The same could be said about others. Jaron, Fayden, and Vonde, who he still hasn't met officially.
All of them were kind of relatable to Arthur.
"This should be the place." Arthur announced upon seeing the teleportation gate to Elenoir.
As soon as they approached the teleportation gate, the elven guard confronted them. Ash wanted to speak up, but was abruptly stopped by Arthur.
"State your reason for passage and provide proof of verification." The rugged guard demanded as his left hand eased off his sword.
The man made Ash narrow his eyes at him. The guard was definitely displaying some hostility toward them. That would have been enough for Ash to neutralize the man, but Arthur took out something from his pocket.
It was the insignia of the elven royalty.
"Hmm, sir, I requested the actual... th-this is the... right this way. Please accept my apologies for being so rude. I didn't realize you were so connected to the royal family." The gruff expression evaporated as the guard bowed and swiftly returned to the gate to activate it.
The man babled something about teleporting a little bit far away from Elenoir, but it didn't matter for the duo anyway. Ash and Arthur stepped through the teleportation gate, waiting to appear in the elven capital right away, yet…
Ash felt a disturbance as if the mana around him was dragging them away.
"Arthur." called out Ash and he tightly grabbed Arthur's shoulder.
The teleportation had some issues, as opposed to short and quick transportation, this took much longer. As a white-core mage, Ash could better feel what was going on around them.
As if standing on an invisible platform that moved fast-forward towards some destination, while colorful particles of mana grabbed them and dragged forward.
"Kuu…" Sylvie trembled on Arthur's head.
"Arthur, stay behind me." With a quick movement, Ash appeared in front of Arthur and assumed a guarding stance.
"What is going on?" Arthur asked, lighting a small fire on his palm to brighten the atmosphere.
"Whoever did this… he is insanely strong." Ash muttered, loud enough for Arthur to hear.
Despite the whole predicament, both of them maintained rather calm expressions. However, Arthur soon experienced the biggest pressure he ever felt, even those of a Legendary Party member weren't comparable.
Arthur's body refused to move, as if it was not listening to its owner. He felt like a child. Sylvie, for the first time in her life, actually feared something, excluding bathing…
Ash sensed it as well, an aura of something greater, stronger, and superior to him in every way. He couldn't put Arthur in risk because Jaron trusted him in his care.
"Whoever it is, show yourself." Ash almost roared out, demanding for the individual to come forward. Ash was certain that someone had to be behind this scenery.
Then, seemingly out of nowhere, a pair of rinnegan knockoffs surfaced. As the idea dawned on Arthur's mind, he further enlarged his eyes. He remembered seeing a cat before.
Soon, in their ears, a strong and commanding voice broke out.
"At last. We now have a bit of privacy to peacefully converse."
_________________________
Ash was immediately alarmed, the wall of ice that appeared between them was proof of this.
The wall shattered like glass, leaving the white core mage a little startled. That was supposed to be nigh unbreakable, yet this man-no monster, would be a better term, annihilated it like it was nothing.
"You need not be alarmed, I have come with peace." The voice came from…a cat?
This was no ordinary cat, however. Its eyes were enough proof of that, they were like stars in the night sky.
"Haa…" As if to mock them, it sighed.
"..." Ash had no words for it. He just remained in his guarding pose.
It shook its head at the duo after a while. Arthur jerked his attention away from the cat and looked about, as though looking for something.
He opened his mouth to speak but before he could do so, the cat began glowing with a golden light.
The golden-white light began to change its shape and enlarge, changing from the form of a cat to that of a human.
And the light that shrouded the figure, shattered into pieces, revealing a man who Arthur couldn't recognize. A bed of short platinum blonde hair sat on his sculpted face. His eyes, they remained the same though.
Ash felt a slight tinge of familiarity with the man's physical appearance. 'Leonardo DiCaprio?' He thought.
"I felt this form would be more appropriate for our conversation," He stated.
"Can I get an autograph?" Ash blurted out, bringing out a framed piece of paper and a marker from…somewhere.
The blond-haired man gave him a strange look, "I'm afraid I do not know what an autograph is."
"Your signature, containing your name." As if this was common knowledge, Ash responded.
The man blinked, this was beyond his wildest expectations. He sighed, holding his hand out.
Ash handed him the items almost immediately, he was uncharacteristically excited.
A few seconds later, the man handed back the pen and the paper to Ash, who swore he would keep it safe.
The man shook his head, "Greetings, I go by Windsom."
Arthur dusted his clothes, glancing at Ash in amusement, "Before we continue, I'd like to confirm a few things."
"..." Wisdom tilted his head, taken aback by Arthur's sharp tone.
"Since you lured me here for a reason and with Tessia as bait, is it safe to assume that she's alright?" He asked, fishing out a glittering marble ball from his dimension ring.
After a slight pause, Wisdom nodded, "Yes, your little elf princess is fine. I had already taken the precautionary measures before you made your way here. She should be recuperating to a certain extent with her grandfather back at the elf kingdom."
Now he turned his attention to the marble ball, "That, on the other hand, is for you to keep."
"What is that?" Ash asked, intrigued by the item.
"That," Wisdom decided to answer him for Arthur, "is an elixir pearl. Very hard to acquire, especially one of that quality. Yet," Here he faced Arthur, "it went to waste on your little lover. In fact, it was too strong for her, which was why I had to waste another precious elixir to keep her body from… well, exploding."
"Excuse me? Explode?" Arthur exclaimed incredulously.
Wisdom walked a few steps forward, "Well, I suppose without it, she would've been dead by now so it wasn't a complete waste. Still, don't give that one away and take the time to absorb the elixir pearl with your bond. It'll help with your training quite a bit."
Arthur shook his head, "Shouldn't it be common courtesy to tell me exactly what is going on? Who or what exactly are you? Why did you bring me here?"
With a straight face, Windsom answered, "Patience really isn't a strong suit of yours, now is it? Very well, if I were to introduce myself in a way that would be easy for you to comprehend it'd sound a little something like this; I come from the land of Asuras and am what you lesser races call 'a deity'."
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Fayden had cooled down since the incident with Ash, sitting in the shade of a relatively big tree, he sighed. Glancing up he could see the countless stars that dotted the sky.
In his past life, he had always wanted to see the milky way. But the severe light pollution of Earth made it hard to see even one star, let alone millions. In this life, however, he had been staying in the beast glades for years. He could clearly see the stars. But he no longer held the same fascination for them as he did before.
He closed his eyes, reminiscing about the past. The dungeons he cleared with his party flashed before his eyes, and the memory of Eleanor brought a smile to his face.
That smile didn't last for long.
"I knew you'd find me." He spoke, his eyes closed still.
He sighed once more, getting up from his position, might as well get this over with.
"What you said back there was uncalled for." Jaron stated, tone deadpan as always.
Fayden refrained from rolling his eyes, 'no shit Sherlock'. "I know."
"Do you?" Jaron questioned a hint of anger in his tone.
"Now that I've calmed down, yes, yes I do." He shot back with as much intensity.
"Enough with the sass, Fayden. You need to be serious about this." Jaron barely, just barely kept himself from snapping.
"I am serious…sometimes," Fayden muttered the last part to himself.
"You call that, serious? Don't you think that was the least bit insensitive? His brother is all he has left, and you decide to threaten him?"
"What am I supposed to do then? Just stand silently and let him attack, possibly kill me?" Fayden furrowed his eyebrows, annoyance seeping into his voice.
Jaron shook his head, "What happened to the kid on the battlefield that jumped on a grenade to save his squad?"
Fayden froze, did he seriously bring that up?
He scoffed, "That kid, died thirty-two years ago. I am not who I used to be. Time changes people, you should know that."
Jaron closes his eyes for a moment and lets out a soft breath. "Time doesn't change people. People just use that as an excuse. If it really did change people I would like for it to take that damn snarky sarcastic nature of yours with it."
Fayden had a faint smile across his face as he held back a laugh.
"I don't think you really mean that." He said while watching Jaron's reaction from the corner of his eye. Catching a rare and small smile from Jaron.
"You're quite right, I don't mean it. But I want to."
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"So, let me get straight. The internal conflict between the Asuras, for some reason which wasn't explained, lead the Vritra deserting and founding a second continent. There are a lot of loopholes in your speech Mr. Wisdom, but what you said is actually true to a certain extent. I vouch for it. The mutated beasts aren't something anyone on this continent would produce." Ash found many things suspicious about Windsom, as he would never trust anybody he just met.
Why is there so much internal strife? Why was a princess from a powerful clan embroiled in a feud?
However, he refrained from asking those questions. Angering this person would be fatal, but if all four of them were together, maybe...
Wisdom on the other hand narrowed his eyes. "Precisely… you are right." The blond-haired person also found Ash suspicious, he actually had white-core despite being a human. There were no traces of the artifact even being used on him, so it would be accurate to assume that he achieved it by himself.
"Should I classify this as an alliance? Or you guys are just forcing us? If this is a negotiation, I should be able to refuse." Ash's words made Windsom visibly flinch, but soon after, he regained his composure..
"And that would be the downfall for your race." The blond-haired responded.
"We would be the ones to fight anyway, so what's the point? At least thanks for the warning, I guess. Unfortunately, even then, we knew of this coming sooner or later."
'We?' Wisdom stressed the word 'We,' as he was confident that the lessers would be unaware of the impending fight.
"However, I'm ready to shake hands if this is an alliance beneficial for both sides in some way."
"Lessers such as yourself, do have a way with words. It's very bold of you to assume that you have an influence in this conversation…" Wisdom smirked.
"Do I not?" Ash placed his hand over Arthur's head and caressed his auburn hair, while still maintaining eye contact with Windsom.
"Arthur… is really important to me. Have deities sunk so low as to take families forcibly?"
Windsom hummed, the boy played on the long-living being like himself. He had talents for negotiations that's for sure. So, he just sighed and answered. "Yes, it shall be beneficial for both sides. I do believe you wouldn't want your race becoming experimental subjects."
"It's not that I don't want nor do I want, I simply don't care. As long as people dear to me remain safe…"
"Then, you've got yourself an option.
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