Elira Phasol: The Ends Forest

Daggers pointed at you from several dimensional cracks was not the sort of welcome Elira had expected when she ascended the cliff.

When Gerund told them that there was a possibility of the traveler from being a completely new world, she had expected a new race and unfamiliar features.

However, what greeted her at the top was just a man, with basic human features and was all sorts of black: tailored short black hair, pristine onyx eyes on his well-structured face, a deep black coat covering his entire body that looked so unnatural as it barely reflects any light. The only thing that was not black was the pale skin on his face that gave sharp contrast on his black motif.

Their journey towards the cliff had been eventful at its first half. After Serath obliterated the Snake-charmer flower, he proceeded to do the same to every other creature they encountered. Giant furry rodents, sharp-fanged carnivores, weird man-eater plants; all turned into paste under Serath’s two-handed war hammer.

It seemed that all the barrier he needed was something to prevent the blood and guts from touching his ever clean robe.

William had told her that The Barrier Master was a bonafide Guardian like her Gigi. She didn't know if it was accurate so she asked Serath to see if their information was correct.

“I am indeed a 5 star rank 2 mercenary as I have been quite active on doing difficult missions and the requests for my defensive formations were well sought by major cities and that helped me fulfill the requirements.” Serath politely answered her question as his Lochley Rank was no secret.

Gerund had something to say about the rankings though.

“Bah, rankings schmankings. It’s more of a gauge of experience than a real power ranking. There are strong Adepts that could kill Imperators like a cattle on a chopping block, like me! Hahahaha!”

Serath nodded in agreement with the opinion of the older man, “What Mr Gerund said is true. Although I’m on the 2nd highest rank, I am still unable to contend with some of my guildmates who have lower rankings. Yomire, for example, is probably as strong as me despite being an Imperator but she’s too busy reading books all day to complete missions.”

‘Yomire, The Storyteller. William said that her enchantments are top class but she only accepts requests if you could pay her with a very rare book and she doesn’t accept any other payment.’

“Pft, yeah right. The only reason Yomire could kick your ass is that I’d help her if you two ever get in a fight.” Theresa suddenly popped out of nowhere and mocked Serath who just smiled at the woman.

Gerund piped up at Theresa’s sudden appearance, “Ah, Theresa. Now here’s a fine example of a person too strong for her rank. Not even the two most powerful mercenary in Lochley, favoured by gods, would want to get on her bad side.”

Elira wanted to hear more but Theresa refused to clarify.

"I found our traveler camping on the cliff; he seemed to have detected your energy outbursts and decided to observe.”

She turned around after giving her piece and went to the direction of the cliff.

Theresa had scouted ahead of them to find the traveler but Elira didn’t notice when the woman left their party. The last time she remembered seeing the golden robed woman was before they entered the forest.

They made it to the base of the cliff without encountering any creatures and the demon silently wondered if it’s because they got too afraid of Serath or if Theresa had a hand in it. She’s partial on the latter being the truth though.

The cliff was tall and she dreaded the climb but Gerund constructed stairs on the side of it using ground elemental energy which seemed to be his expertise. They happily chatted when climbing up and only went back to silence when they were about to reach the top.

Elira watched as Serath reach the end of the stairs with Gerund excitedly following behind. It was finally her turn and curious eyes which rapidly turned to a sharp glare of hatred greeted her, followed by the cracking of air around the traveler, spinning daggers peeking out of them.

She sneered reflexively at the man and was about to whip her tail to the ground as a sign of aggression when Theresa’s voice resounded in her mind.

‘Do not agitate him further, don’t worry he won’t attack you’

Elira just rolled her eyes at the still-glaring man and said offhandedly, “Of course, the traveler would be a demon hating man. What did I expect?”.

The man started speaking in an unfamiliar tongue and she could feel the warning in his tone. Serath seemed unperturbed and just calmly replied with the same language.

“Ost! He is from Ost!” Gerund seemed more excited than ever and was beaming beside her.

She raised her eyebrows and asked, “Where is that? I thought he would be from an undocumented world?”

“There had been only 1 recorded person from Ost and it was a very long time ago. She was the one who brought the concept of possibility in using energies to affect the weave of time and space! She managed to help the people of this world develop the very first-dimensional skill and her inheritances are the most powerful time and space artifacts currently in this world!” Gerund was babbling now and the traveler seemed oblivious to the ruckus he was making.

The traveler had removed his floating weapons and was warily closing the distance on them, focused only on his conversation with Serath.

Elira wondered how they managed to quickly calm the man when she noticed the blindfolded woman silently standing, facing the two conversing figures.

'Theresa is affecting the mind of the traveler!'

The sudden realization made her gasp in shock.

Gerund thought that the reaction was for him and continued on his rambling. “He could bring about new revolutions on this world! Can you see his cloak? The thing seems to be made entirely from a thread of space -- that’s insane! He is also likely to be a part of nobility while the last Ost traveler was just a commoner…”

Elira just mechanically nodded at the barrage of information Gerund was happily providing but her thoughts were analyzing Theresa's abilities.

‘She might not be controlling his mind… It seems she’s planting thoughts or suggestion and diverting the traveler’s mind from our conversation at the same time.’

Judging from Theresa’s previous report outside the forest, she could also see the memories of the creatures living in it. Elira had a difficult time remembering the information despite being confident about her own good memory. This proved her theory that everything Theresa says or do would be forgotten if not actively remembered.

Telepath skills are pretty common but they could only send messages to other people’s mind and receive thoughts that are specifically directed at them. They should not be able to subtly affect the mind of other people as their voice are very distinct and the receiver would clearly know that the thought was from a telepath.

A sudden explosion of papers brought Elira out of her reverie and she watched in amazement at the event unfolding in front of her. Everyone seemed to be entranced as the pages danced around the traveler; they formed twirling formations that slowly disintegrated to lights that disappeared into the man at the center.

“Thank you.”

Words of gratitude were the first thing Elira understood from the man. He had a quiet and gentle voice but he had the same accent as Serath, probably because the knowledge of the language came from him. He sounded and looked young so she guessed that he is in the same age bracket as her.

Serath’s subtle glance at Theresa was not lost to her when Azrael presented the ring; The Barrier Master was asking her if she implanted a thought of gratitude to the man and her shaking head seemed to placate Serath before he graciously accepted the ring with a jibe.

Elira learned of Azrael’s name after Serath introduced him to their resident Wesh Enthusiast and she was surprised at the other things she learned from the aggressive interrogation of the old man.

‘Seems nobles have their fair share of problems. Thankfully my family didn’t dip their fingers into clan politics.’

Azrael was looking quite uncomfortable at the continued barrage of questions so she decided to offer goodwill to him -- by insulting his cooking.

A look of surprise surfaced to his face before rushing back to the cauldron and kneeled in front of it; genuinely sad at the now-ruined lunch. Gerund actually ran after the man and tried to taste the burned meal but Azrael was having none of it as he tried to pull the man away from the cauldron.

Gerund grabbed one of the handles and gripped it so hard his veins started to show, “A meal from Ost! I’m going to taste it even if it’s just ashes!”

Azrael was grabbing the other end with a flushed face and screamed at the other man, “Are you insane? Are all people from this world insane? Actually, don’t answer that I don’t want to know… Burning Beaks! Stop! I’ll cook you another one!”

The tug of war for the cauldron stopped when it disappeared under Azrael’s unnaturally black cloak. Another one appeared a few moments later and the man started dropping all sorts of ingredients at it.

He seemed to be pulling things out of nowhere and he even pulled several balls of waters enclosed in some sort of transparent bubble. Gerund tried grabbing one before it could be added in the meal so Azrael threw a ball of water at him.

The projectile hit Gerund straight in the face but he didn’t look affronted and just tried to lick the waters on his face. Azrael was dumbfounded at the shameless behaviour man and his body started to shake trying to stop his laughter.

Serath didn't have the same inhibitions and laughed openly at Gerund. After his laughter subsided, he went closer to the cauldron to inspect its contents and asked the newcomer about his plans on it.

“You are not under any obligation to cook for us Mr Azrael, though I’m quite curious to what you are making.”

“Uh.. sou..tew?” Azrael’s face turned a shade of red at his unsure answer.

Serath’s brow’s furrowed as he tilted his head in confusion at his reply, “Soutew? Hmm.. it is possible that the word was not properly translated and that there is no word in Lochley’s language for your meal.”

Elira shook her head in exasperation at Azrael's enthusiastic nodding. She decided to test the waters and slowly made her way near the two.

Azrael tensed but surprised her with an apologetic smile as he offered genuine regret on his previous action.

“Sorry about earlier. I kinda freaked out like a startled bird back there. I kinda forgot that I’m in a new world and I shouldn’t let my previous prejudices affect me. I’m Azrael by the way.” He had bashful smile on his face as he made his apologies.

“No worries, I’m used to those kinds of reaction. I’m Elira.” She offered her hand for a handshake but Azrael just stared at it.

“Unfortunately, our traditions were not transferred with the language. Elira, if you please.” Serath offered his hand at her and she flushed red at the notion of a handshake with a prince.

Azrael curiously watched their exchange and finally took the hand after she offered it to him again. He was so stiff at doing the gesture that a light laugh subconsciously escaped from her lips that made his blood rush to his cheeks.

The man was quite beautiful and she found his shyness endearing. She silently grieved for all womankind at the loss of a good fish in the sea to other predators and several plans formed in her mind on how to keep William away from the Azrael.

“The introductions are nice and all but can I get my turn now?”

Theresa interrupted them with arms crossed over her chest, one hip tilted, and a raised eyebrow above her blindfolded eyes. She offered a hand to Azrael which he hesitantly took.

Her introduction was straight to the point and so was her demands.

“Call me Theresa. It’s nice to meet you, did you bring books?”

The recipient of the introduction-slash-demand had a look of confusion as he answered. “Uh.. yes?”

“Good, then are you willing to part with them for Lochley Currency? Don’t worry, I promise I won’t cheat you.”

A predatory smile decorated her lips that contrasted her earlier statement.

Elira wondered why Theresa would want books but chided herself for not doing the same once she realized that they were for Yomire.

Serath tried to stop her aggressive behaviour but she cut him off before he could complete his sentence. “Theresa, I don’t think it’s --”

“Shut up Serath. You know very well I only accepted this mission for the chance of acquiring books.” An expressionless face turned to him as she justified her rude behaviour.

Elira was amazed at Theresa’s harsh rebuke, ‘Did she just told a prince to shut up? I think she’s growing on me.’

He just sighed and tried to compromise, “Then at least let me conduct the inquiry, Mr Azrael is already slowly moving away from your antics.”

“Fine. Just make sure they’re good ones.”

She moved over to Gerund who was quietly eating in front of the cauldron wearing a scrunched face.

Serath made amends to startled man. “Mr. Azrael, please forgive our companion as she tends to get aggressive whenever Yomire is involved. We would indeed be grateful if you could trade or lend some books to us.”

Gerund hurriedly came over to them as Azrael started taking out the books. History books, lores, children stories, cooking books, and other miscellaneous books appeared that made Elira wonder if Azrael had a library inside his cloak. They decided to do the deal back in the city in which Theresa grudgingly agreed because of the sheer number of volumes.

Elira had a question for them though, "Those are a lot of books, but can Yomire read them?"

"Of course my Yomire can read them."

Theresa scoffed at her but Serath gave a more detailed answer.

"Yomire would probably be the only person in this world who is as adept as those with my bloodline regarding languages. Her thirst for books and stories require her to be knowledgeable in this field."

Gerund also piped up an answer, "She possesses most of the first Ost traveller's books. Though it isn't as much as what our friend here offers."

The deal continued and resulted with Azrael acquiring the floor below of where Serath was staying as part of the payment for the books.

During the flurry of conversation, Elira also got the job of touring the newcomer to The Bloodied Borough and helping him register at the Merc Hall. She couldn’t feel much distinct energy on Azrael but his previous actions told her that he’s quite confident in his combat skills.

Gerund asked Azrael on the location of the Wesh Root and made a stair towards it on the other side of the cliff. They all followed him but she was dismayed on how ordinary the thing looked.

It was just a rock now and Gerund explained that the Root's energy had been depleted and it will no longer work. They noticed the dried blood scattered on the smooth floors and its previous occupant just stated ‘accident’.

Everyone else raised their eyebrows at that but didn’t inquire any further.

Elira watched Azrael's solemn expression as he turned one last look at the remains of the open fire and boundless sea on the horizon. It was already dark when they made their way back to the carriage with Azrael muttering about creepy faced trees and the lack of encounter with the forest's inhabitants.

“By the way, what’s up with the clouds? Is that the reason why I didn’t see any birds in the forest?” Azrael asked as they reached the edge of the forest.

Theresa was the one who answered his inquiry, “Yes. A Dragon made the clouds of End’s Forest as its home. She's pretty territorial in her airspace and kills all flying creatures that come to the cloud's vicinity.”

“Broken Eggs! There’s a Dragon in there?!”

Elira didn’t know what the connection of broken eggs with a Dragon but Azrael looked extremely surprised.

Theresa suddenly laughed aloud as if she just remembered something really funny.

“Yes. So tell me, Azrael… How does it feel to be rescued by a prince from a Dragon’s Lair?”

End of Chapter 7

Lochley's Mercenary Standard:

Neophyte - 1 star, ranks 1-5

Journeyman - 2 star, ranks 1-5

Elira rank 1, William rank 1

Adept - 3 star, ranks 1-5

Gerund (The Wesh Enthusiast) rank 5

Imperator - 4 star, ranks 1-5

Yomire (The Storyteller) rank 3

Saint - 5 star rank S

Guardian - 5 star rank SS

Serath (The Barrier Master) Elira's Grandmother

Divine - 5 star rank SSS

Unknown Rankings (mentioned characters)

Theresa, Azrael, Vienna, Balrow, Jasmine (The Bloodied Queen), Mary (The Innovator)

Named Groups: Fallen, Thirteens, Traders

Named Races: Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Demons, Drakes, Avians

Named Sentient Species: Orleys, Dragons