Surrounded by sand on all sides, I exhale as I half-heartedly pick up my things without forgetting to dispose of the ‘treat’ Yuriko handed me at the last second. What an idiotic woman, really. What the hell would I use that for? She could have given me some food or clothes that I can wear but no, she just had to give me her underwear! This warrants a severe punishment when I meet her again, I sigh to myself in self-ridicule. The sun shines its light upon the broad sea of sand while the heat sears everything in its path.

Just being in this extreme heat is exhausting enough but now I have actually pass through this heat to get to my destination. I started walking due South on an unwanted quest to destroy a slavery ring or something to that effect. An hour passed and then another and then another and somehow, I’m still surrounded by nothing but sand.

I drooped my shoulders and shouted, “How far is this place, anyway?!”

I decided to rest for a bit and settled myself nice and comfortable under some shade provided by the natural landmass around me. I closed my eyes and started meditating and of course, to regain my strength. I slowly slipped into unconsciousness.

Surrounded by a deep nothingness that seemed to stretch into infinity, a familiar voice breaks the silence like a zephyr into the night.

“…So you’ve returned, ‘Hero’..”

“So it seems, Warlock. It has been a while, hasn’t it.” I replied.

She scoffs and looks at my face, or whatever I have right now in this darkness, with a deep longing but the affection is no longer there.

“I missed you, Hero.”

“As did I but what is this about?” I wondered.

“Your powers are being affected by a natural reversal of causality which diverts it from your runes and redirects it into its source, mu or nothingness.”

What the fuck? I look at her in confusion. “What does that mean? What about my runes and my training?”

“While your current avatar possesses abilities that are slightly superior to that of a normal human being’s, your runes and some of the abilities I previously unlocked for you are being sucked into itself. In short, from nothing they return to nothing.”

“You seem to be losing your touch, Warlock.” I jokingly teased her, hoping to ease the tension.

“Oho this is no joke my dear.” She exhales and walks towards me. As she inches closer and closer, I feel her breath on my face, she lifts my chin and she directs her gaze into mine. “You are losing your powers and I cannot do anything about it right now. No more runic abilities, no more enhanced artes and no more superhuman feats.”

She pauses and steps away from me. “Hero, your abilities are being judged by Akasha to be too dangerous in this time and age. I…I personally don’t give a shit but I thought you should know.”

I listened and finally, I understood. “I’ll start with nothing. I did it once and I will do it again. You are a horrible friend though, Warlock.” My current avatar has already resigned himself to this fate and going back on our word just isn’t our style.

“I would have made a better lover than your Princess or her …” and the darkness was no more.

I wake with a start, sweat on my face and sand scattered all over my clothes. The sun has set and I can feel the harsh cold in the desert and I can feel my body infinitely weaker than I was a couple of hours ago.

“What was that dream?”

As soon as I started focusing on what had happened in the world between mind and matter, a sharp flash of light appears in my head and I can remember no more of my dream. I tried lifting my sword arm.

“Activate: Runes”

I feel a heavy vibration that is like an earthquake. The sand around me is shifting and I can hear the pitter patter of a noble steed. My surrounding is embraced by a sort of nothingness and while my sword isn’t reacting to my runes, there is still something unnatural happening around me.

As the sound of the steed approaches me closer and closer, I inhaled as I concentrated more and more energy into my runes. As I was about to reach my peak, I hear a voice coming from behind me.

“DON’T FANTASIZE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FUCKING DESERT, DIPSHIT!”

That’s when I realized four things: That the “pitter patter” that I heard was the sound of a caravan being chased by an Earthly Beast. That the earthquake was caused by THEIR commotion. That I can no longer call forth my runes and finally how much it hurts to be launched into the air by an unapologetic rider commandeering 4 horses.

Just my luck…..right…?

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Author's Notes

Hey everyone. How's it been? So anyway I'm going to start being a little bit more active again so, sorry for the delay and I apologize for the length of this chapter. I actually lost the succeeding 12 chapters or so and it's been difficult trying to retype them all from memory but I still know what's supposed to happen so it's all good. Thanks for reading my work and for any comments or questions, write 'em up and I'll do my best to reply.