April 6th

Year 2120

Southern Regional Limit

Kingdom of Fergahn, Gartaena

Merdilen, Alvoren, and Kayline had been trekking south for several hours after a long night’s sleep, until Merdilen looked once more at the map, and stopped them. The terrain looked the same as in the rest of Fergahn’s southern region—dull land devoid of grass, sprinkled all around with massive craters, toppled mountains, and shadow monsters. But here, there were big red flags buried in the dirt here and there, forming the outline of a long line.

“This is the Southern Regional Limit. This is where the kingdom of Fergahn ends and the Southern Wastes begin. Once we cross this line, there’s no coming back until we finish our quest,” Merdilen warned. “We’ll be too far away to return easily, and we’ll probably be encountering shadow monsters every day now, as there will be no kingdom guards to stop them from wandering around. Are both of you ready for this? If any of you wants to go home, feel free to do it. I won’t judge you.”

“Of course not,” Kayline said, thinking about how happy her family would be when they weren’t poor anymore. “We’re already risking it all coming with you. We’ll keep fighting to the very end.”

“The great Axerhos isn’t one to step down from a challenge, and never has been!” Alvoren declared, raising a fist.

“Thank you,” Merdilen said, grinning. “I mean it. I wouldn’t last a day out here alone.”

So, with that, they kept walking, into the unknown.

Kayline walked a short distance behind the other two, watching them. She wasn’t quite sure how she felt about them.

Alvoren, the self-styled ‘great hero Axerhos,’ had extremely high self-esteem, and he seemed to be confident he’d succeed no matter what he tried to do, something that also tended to spread to the rest of the party. Merdilen wasn’t that eccentric, but he was also quite confident in himself, and one tended to feel at ease around him.

Kayline had just properly met these two people, but still, the atmosphere wasn’t as awkward as she’d expected it to be. And Merdilen didn’t seem to hold any kind of grudge against her for their past conflicts, something that felt extremely relieving to her. The chill and relaxed aura of the two even made her temporarily forget the dire stakes they had, the horrible landscape they were traveling in, and the terrifying monsters they’d have to face.

Being an adventurer, Kayline had never had many friends, as most girls her age were either afraid of her or thought her to be too different as to hang out with her. While most girls her age were raising children and trying to become the perfect housewives, Kayline was hunting down and capturing kingdom-wide criminals and stopping—or trying to, at least—threats to civilization itself.

Therefore, these were the first people she could consider friends she had had in a long time. It felt good having someone to fight and travel along with.

“Hey, Merdilen,” Kayline asked him. “What’s it like being a Transmutator?”

Merdilen looked pensive for a few moments, and then replied, “Concerning powers, it’s cool. It feels good to be powerful, to be able to defend myself. Concerning reputation… not so much. Needless to say, all the hate I constantly receive is really exhausting.”

“If you had the choice to give up your power or not, would you do it?” she then asked

“...I don’t think so,” he answered after a while. “I mean, it would be cool to not be hated and all, but… there’s so much good I can do with these powers. I think… a small sacrifice like being hated is worth it if it means changing the world.”

That left Kayline thinking. He really is a hero, she concluded.

A few minutes of walking later, Merdilen tensed, looking to the side, only to find Alvoren and Kayline looking weirdly at him. He breathed out, trying to relax. Since they had left the Kingdom of Fergahn and entered the Southern Wastes, he had been constantly feeling the presence of shadow monsters all around him, everywhere. He could just know they were somewhere in the radius of several hours’ travel around him, not the distance, and that was freaking him out.

He had felt an especially strong presence just now, but as many times before, it seemed to just be a false alarm. But, the moment he let his guard down, a massive black beast emerged from behind a big rock to face them, bearing long claws and sharp fangs. A shadow monster.

All three of them jumped in surprise, taking several steps backward and preparing their weapons. Merdilen once more Transmutated his sword, Alvoren unsheathed his longsword and raised his shield, and Kayline unsheathed her two longswords, raising them in front of her.

“I’ll go for the eyes,” Kayline told them in a whisper. “You guys keep it entertained and then attack the inside of its mouth.”

She didn’t know if the others fully knew what she was planning, but they curtly nodded anyway.

The shadow monster charged them with a roar, and Alvoren ran forward to meet it with his shield. The shadow monster crashed against Alvoren’s shield, breaking it and throwing Alvoren backward. The shadow monster roared and prepared to attack Alvoren again, but Merdilen stood in the way, turning his sword into a massive steel shield. The steel shield also threatened to break with the shadow monster’s impact, but Merdilen counterTransmutated, mending the cracks in the shield immediately after being formed. The shadow monster attacked with its claw towards Merdilen, but now it was Alvoren’s turn to get in the way, blocking with his longsword while Merdilen Transmutated his shield back to full durability.

Meanwhile, Kayline ran over to behind the shadow monster and prepared to jump on top of it.

Let’s make my time spent with the Anti-Transmutation Strike Team worth something, she thought, and breathing in, jumped on top of the giant beast. She wasn’t able to get on top of it on one jump, though, and struggled to climb on top of it with her hands. The shadow monster moved furiously, trying to throw her away, but as it was still busy with Merdilen and Alvoren up front, it wasn’t able to attack her yet.

Kayline crawled on all fours towards the front of the shadow monster, and when she was directly on top of its eyes, she slashed horizontally with both of her longswords at once. As longswords had way bigger range than a small dagger and she already had some kind of clue about where the eyes should be, she cut them in her first try, making the shadow monster bellow in rage and pain.

It attacked blindly forward, and as Alvoren blocked the attack with his newly-mended shield, Merdilen prepared to deal the final blow. Using the remaining sand of his Transmutation glove, he extended his blade to the point that it looked more like a spear than a sword in order to reach inside the monster’s mouth, and ignited it, Transmutating it so that intense blue fire fully covered the edges of the sword-spear. He then thrust his weapon towards the blind shadow monster, piercing through its flesh and emerging from the top of the beast. The shadow monster gave one final roar before falling to the ground and dying.

“...Wow,” muttered Kayline, jumping off from the giant corpse. “I thought it’d be harder.”

“Yeah,” agreed Merdilen. “The last time I fought a shadow monster, I almost died, got lynched and arrested, and lost everything I had.”

“Oh. I had fought a shadow monster once before, with a very powerful ally, and it was way harder than it was now,” Alvoren added. “I guess teamwork makes the dream work.”

“It may also affect a little that we literally have a living legend by our side,” mentioned Kayline.

“Don’t mention it,” Merdilen said, shrugging off the compliment. “You did most of the job.

“Yeah,” confirmed Alvoren.

“Thanks,” she said, slightly grinning in pride.

Merdilen looked around, making sure there were no more shadow monsters around, and then said, “Most shadow monster presences I feel are from over here. There, to the west, I feel almost no shadow monsters. Maybe we should head that way.”

“Sure,” agreed Alvoren. “Let’s go.”

So they kept walking. They were in a valley now, surrounded mainly by two big mountains. One of them, the eastern one, was full of shadow monster presences, while the other one, the western one, had almost no shadow monsters at all. Therefore, they were headed for the latter now, trying to make as fast and easy progress as possible.

“To think shadow monsters were mere soldiers during the Transmutation War,” Kayline mentioned with a shudder. “I can’t even begin to imagine how much damage a whole army of them would do. No wonder the world of Gartaena was left like it is today.”

“Yeah,” agreed Alvoren. “Poor victims.”

“I have come to another decision,” Merdilen declared. “When I get Morkilen Farenthar’s power, I will annihilate every shadow monster in Gartaena, so the world can live at peace.”

“Are you insane?” asked Kayline, raising her eyebrows. “There must be thousands, if not tens of thousands, of shadow monsters in the whole world!”

“Well, I’m still young. And traveling around the world hunting shadow monsters sounds way more fun than farming,” Merdilen said with a grin.

“The great hero Axerhos will accompany you!” Alvoren declared. “That is a task worthy of his powerful name!”

“...You guys really are insane,” commented Kayline, dumbfounded. “But let’s focus on the task at hand for now. First things first, let’s get to that mountain.”

So, they kept walking, and after an hour, before actually getting to the mountain itself, they saw a group of about thirty men approaching them.

“Huh? A caravan?” Merdilen asked. But at that moment, all twenty men took out swords, axes, and a few even bows. “No—bandits!”

“I think they’ve seen us,” muttered Kayline.

“Stop right there!” one of them exclaimed, pointing a bow towards them. “Hands over your head! This is Crimson Ruby territory!”

“Damn it,” Alvoren said, gritting his teeth. “I think they are too many for even the great hero Axerhos and his loyal companions to fight. We don’t even have the element of surprise, and they have bows and arrows.”

Not finding anything else to do, and not wanting to try and escape from those deadly bows, they did as ordered, raising their hands over their heads and waiting for the group to arrive.

“State your business,” the man ordered when the group of bandits got closer.

“Uhh,” Merdilen stuttered, unsure of what to say.

“We’re just passing by,” Kayline tried to bluff.

“Sure, sure, because there are so many touristic places down south,” the man sarcastically said. “You’re spies, aren’t you?”

“Of course not!” Alvoren said, seemingly offended. “You wouldn’t have been able to catch the great hero Axerhos if we had known this was the Ruby’s territory.”

“Whatever. You’re coming with us,” the man said coldly.

They were outnumbered and outmatched. Even if they somehow managed to beat all thirty men, they had no way of knowing if more bandits would come after them. Therefore, they hesitantly let the group guide them. They stripped them of their weapons, but fortunately, the bandits didn’t tie them up, another witness of their confidence in numbers. The bandits took them up the western mountain, and after about ten minutes of silent walking, got to the entrance of a big cave with a flaming torch on each side. It seemed to be some kind of tunnel, and the bandits pushed all three of them inside. This bandit lair seemed to be comprised of cave tunnels instead of mountain platforms.

The bandits guided them along the tunnels for several minutes, the way twisting, turning, and dividing as they went on. Merdilen doubted they’d be able to find the way out by themselves if they tried to escape. They finally came to a stop at a big steel door, and one of the bandits knocked on it twice with his gloved knuckles.

“Come in,” a deep and grave voice called out.

The bandit who had knocked on the door then opened it, revealing a big office, its walls lined up with shelves and weapons and a big desk in the middle, behind which a big and bulky man sat with his feet upon it. He had his right arm sleeveless and bare, and a big ruby tattoo was visible on his right shoulder, marking him as a member of the Crimson Ruby criminal guild.

“Come to bring more candidates, do you?” the man asked.

Candidates? Merdilen wondered. He didn’t like the sound of that.

“Yes, boss,” the bandit from before answered. “They were armed, and considering they arrived out here safely, just the three of them, they must be good. This guy’s missing an arm, though, but we lose nothing by trying.”

“We lose nothing by trying. Yes, that’s right,” the bandit boss said, giving a big chuckle. “Hey, you three,” he then said, addressing Merdilen, Alvoren, and Kayline. “I have a deal for you. You see, there is a guy on the mountains parallel to this one who can tame shadow monsters, and he’s causing a hell of a lot of trouble for us.”

A man who can tame shadow monsters…? Merdilen wondered, nervous. How can that be?

“He wants to take over this subsection of the Ruby, and of course, I’m not letting him,” the bandit boss continued. “Capture him and bring him over to us and we grant you safe passage over these mountains. Easy peasy.”

“Why should we trust that you’ll fulfill your part of the deal?” Kayline protested.

“You don’t really have a choice, do you?” the bandit boss answered, letting out a booming laugh.

“Why don’t you send your own men to do it?” Merdilen then asked.

“He’s quite strong, you know,” he explained. “Many have tried and failed. I can’t risk any more of my own men. But, again, you guys don’t really have a choice.”

“...I guess we’re doing it, then,” Merdilen said. “In exchange for safe passage through those mountains.”

“Of course, of course!”

“If I were you I would be preparing the man’s cell right now!” Alvoren told the bandit boss with confidence.

“Just know one thing,” the bandit boss finally told them in a menacing tone. “If you don’t do it and instead try to escape, I will hunt you down until I have all three of your heads hanging from the entrance of the cave. That is a promise. You have one day.”

“...What a nice guy,” Alvoren muttered under his breath.

With that, another bandit led them out of the cave system and then pointed to a faraway ruin on the eastern mountain.

“The leader you need to exterminate lives on that ruined ex-military base,” the bandit told them. “Good luck. You’ll need it.”

Then, they started the trek down the mountain, and then towards the parallel one, ready to fight.

“He should be on that tower over there,” Alvoren said while they crouched behind a rock, looking at the ruined ex-military base.

“How do you know?” asked Kayline.

“That’s where I would be in his position.”

“Fair enough,” said Merdilen. “It’d make sense to be in the highest and most secure point of the fortress. He has the high ground. Besides, if we don’t find him there, we can just carefully and silently make our way down the fortress. We’re bound to find him eventually.”

“How are we meant to get to the tower, then?” Kayline asked. “The fortress must be swarming with shadow monsters.”

“Walking,” Merdilen said simply. Kayline looked towards him incredulously, raising her eyebrows, and then he added, “We have an enormous advantage over any other teams sent to capture this guy. I’m a Transmutator. I can just make a bridge from the nearest mountain so we walk over there. And I can block all entrances to the room so he doesn’t get reinforcements. Defeating one guy should be easy.”

“True,” Kayline agreed. “Unlike other teams, we don’t need to fight an entire fortress of shadow monsters to get to our target. We’ve got quite the shortcut.”

“We would be doing a service to humanity too,” Merdilen commented. “Defeating a man who can tame shadow monsters would prove to be extremely helpful.”

“The great hero Axerhos approves of the mission!” Alvoren declared.

“Okay,” Merdilen said, breathing in. “Let’s go.”

With that, they left their hiding place, and started walking in a crouch towards a certain peak, which was relatively close to the tower the shadow monster tamer should be on. When they got there, they took a closer and better look at the tower. It looked ancient, probably dating from the Transmutation War, but it was still in a relatively good state.

It was very tall, about half the height of the peak next to it, and it was of a gray stone color, its edges swollen by moss and time. The whole structure had once had windows, but now only the shattered frames remained, revealing big rooms and halls, all swarming with shadow monsters. Unfortunately, only the farther wall could be seen from the top of the tower, though.

Merdilen concentrated, pressing his right hand and legs against the mountain, and Transmutated a massive chunk of it into a giant block of compacted sand surrounding his arm. That was a good way of carrying big components for Transmutating, he had realized shortly before. He carried the block of compacted sand towards the edge of the mountain, and lowering it, started to slowly Transmutate the sand into a steady rock bridge. He started walking through it confidently, Transmutating the sand and creating the bridge as he crossed it.

Kayline and Alvoren seemed hesitant at first, but followed shortly after. After a small while, Merdilen finally got with his bridge to the tower’s tallest window frame, and after making sure his friends were behind him and ready to fight, jumped in.

It was a big hall, with one corner of it filled by a giant wooden desk filled with maps. A single man was sitting on a chair behind it, studying one of the maps, his hands hidden and his back towards Merdilen. Merdilen gestured toward him for his companions to see, then rushed him, Transmutating his sword as he ran. As soon as he got near the desk, he jumped upwards, raising his blade, ready to attack the seemingly unsuspecting man.

But the moment he slashed downwards, the man took out a long rapier from under the desk, raising it fast as lightning and fully parrying Merdilen’s strike.

“More assassins? The Ruby really is stubborn, huh,” the man said, getting up from his desk and grinning. “Although these assassins aren’t subtle at all. My shadow monsters alerted me when you were a mile away. Still, they should provide some fun.”

Merdilen studied him, squinting. The man was very thin, wore glasses, and had short hair. He was wearing a plain white shirt, and didn’t look like a fighter at all. Still, he had to be quite strong, considering how efficiently he had parried Merdilen’s supposedly ‘surprise’ attack.

“Deal with them, Brokoren,” the man then said, his evil grin widening even further.

From the shadows behind them, a massive shadow monster appeared, wearing full steel armor and roaring. Its armor had several spikes and tusks rising from it, making it a walking armory. Kayline didn’t want to know what would happen if that thing were to trample an innocent villager. It was bigger than any other shadow monster any of them had ever seen before, and it rose several times an average man’s height. It was truly a terrifying sight. It roared once more, raising its head and opening its jaw a terrifying amount.

“Alvoren, think you can deal with the man?” Merdilen called out.

“Of course I, the great hero Axerhos, can deal with him!” answered solemnly Alvoren, preparing his sword and shield. Kayline and Merdilen prepared to in turn fight the massive shadow monster apparently called Brokoren.

Kayline was extremely nervous, but forcing herself to remain calm, prepared herself for Brokoren’s charge. The enormous beast rushed them with incredible speed, and as it hit Merdilen, who had Transmutated a giant shield, Kayline ran to circle it. She got to its rear, but this one was too big for her to just jump upon. As it hit Merdilen, who kept on blocking with his massive shield, Kayline dropped one of her longswords, and using her remaining hand, grabbed onto one of the massive spikes eroding from Brokoren’s armor. As she did, Merdilen quickly ran over to each of the entrances, blocking them as to prevent reinforcements from arriving before facing Brokoren once more.

The shadow monster kept moving, twisting, and shaking, so it was hard to get a good grip on it, but Kayline pulled herself up anyway. She then raised a foot, placing it on another grip, and started to climb. She climbed, up and up through the moving mountain, extending her body as to keep herself as far away as possible from the monster’s spikes. After a small while, she got to the top, and started to quickly run forward between the spikes. When she got to where its eyes were, she raised her right sword, and prepared to slash down.

Maybe this Brokoren isn’t as tough as he seems, Kayline thought, filled with hope. She slashed down, and cut its eyes. But, it didn’t seem to want to retreat yet. In fact, it didn’t seem weaker at all.

Merdilen had Transmutated his shield into a sword-spear, prepared to kill Brokoren. Merdilen had expected for Brokoren to fall back so he could attack it, as it had happened with the last shadow monster they had fought.

But this one was different. It didn’t retreat. Instead, it attacked.

It opened its massive jaw, preparing to thrust it at Merdilen, and Merdilen didn’t have time to turn his sword-spear back into a shield. Brokoren took a bite at him, and he wasn’t able to do anything except being swallowed whole.

“Merdilen!” Kayline and Alvoren yelped simultaneously as Brokoren swallowed Merdilen, but there was nothing they could do.

Alvoren headed towards the man as Merdilen and Kayline prepared to fight Brokoren, the massive shadow monster. Alvoren was nervous for his friends, as Brokoren was truly terrifying, but he forced himself to look away from them and at his opponent. He had his own battle to fight.

The man was looking at him with a grin, looking at him with confidence as the two opponents circled each other. Although this man didn’t seem to be as strong as Alvoren, he was wielding a rapier, which meant he was clearly much faster. He would have to be very careful. The man thrust at Alvoren with his rapier, trying him. Alvoren swung his sword around, deflecting the blow, and raised his shield just as the man retracted his rapier and attacked once more. The shield parried the rapier perfectly, and the man retreated, still grinning.

“You’re good,” he said. “But, are you good enough?”

Is this some kind of game to him? Alvoren thought, frowning. He was quite nervous, but his enemy seemed to be as calm as the reader reading this story. It was unnerving.

The man thrust his blade at Alvoren once more, and Alvoren once more swung his sword in order to deflect the rapier, but this time, the man twisted his rapier around the sword and pushed to the left, trying to hit it away from Alvoren’s hand. Alvoren in turn hit the rapier with his shield, depriving it of its strength, and the man retreated once more.

“Nice,” he said. “You’ve clearly had good training. Okay, I’ve warmed up.”

“You’re getting better, Alvoren! You’re quite worthy of being Axerhos,” the boy said, grinning. Alvoren subconsciously remembered his old friend, the boy he had liked to play make-believe with so long ago, pretending to be the great hero Axerhos and his loyal companion, long before his life was filled with Transmutators, bandits, shadow monsters, and pain. The memory caused him a pang of nostalgia, but he forced himself to push the memory away, focusing instead on his present battle.

The man rushed him once more, starting a combo of several quick thrusts. Alvoren deflected all of them with his shield and sword, but one of them brushed his left shoulder, superficially cutting him. Alvoren slashed at the man towards his knees, but the man blocked the slash, and then Alvoren attacked once more, towards the head, but the man blocked once more. Their swords locked for a few seconds, letting out a high-pitched long screech. The man looked at him, grinning, and thrust at him once more, breaking the lock.

They kept both attacking and defending, feinting and blocking, neither being able to get past the other’s defenses enough as to deal a winning blow. Alvoren clearly had good defenses, as he was used to fighting with a shield, but even so, the man had still managed to superficially cut him several times. But Alvoren hadn’t even been able to touch the man once with his sword, even though the man was just defending with a rapier. His mastery of the weapon was unlike anything he had ever seen before. He would never be able to get past his rapier enough as to deal a real hit. But then Alvoren came up with an idea. He didn’t need to get past the rapier.

But in that very moment, he heard Merdilen yelp, and both combatants automatically looked toward him, just in time to see him get swallowed whole by the brutal Brokoren.

“Merdilen!” Alvoren called out, and his enemy started to chuckle, then laugh out loud.

“Damn you!” Alvoren exclaimed, attacking him once more.

The man blocked once more with his rapier, but this time, it was Alvoren’s turn to grin. The man had forced Alvoren to hit the rapier. But Alvoren had been aiming for the rapier. Alvoren put all his strength into the hit, simultaneously hitting the rapier’s handle with his shield’s edge. The man’s grip on the hilt weakened just momentarily, and Alvoren used that opportunity to finish his slash. He pushed the rapier with exploding force, and it flew away from his opponent’s hand, burying itself in the ground at the other side of the room and granting the victory to the great hero Axerhos.

Merdilen was too late in Transmutating his shield back, and the massive shadow monster thrust his jaw at him, grabbing him and swallowing him whole. Fortunately, he was swallowed whole, so the monster’s horrific teeth didn’t hurt him, but then the monster raised his head. Merdilen started to slide down its throat at an alarming speed, and quickly got to its stomach, completely wet and nauseated. It looked like a massive pool, full of weapons, armor, and steel things. Merdilen subconsciously supposed those were the only things that could survive the stomach’s acids.

As if on cue, he fully fell into the green acids, and it started to burn his body, tearing at his flesh. He screamed, starting to sink in the dark and foul-smelling acid. He had to do something, and quick. He stabbed at the shadow monster from inside, but his one sword wasn’t enough to deal any damage. His one blade wasn’t enough. Suddenly, as he looked at the rest of the swords and weapons floating inside the morbius stomach, an idea occurred to him. If this didn’t work, his body would completely corrode, and he would die long before his friends outside were able to kill Brokoren.

He extended his body as to touch every solid thing he could find, and ignoring the pain, concentrated, and Transmutated. He fused all of those things into one massive greatsword, which thrust naturally when appearing against the stomach’s side. The combined greatsword’s strength of all those Transmutated weapons and armor was too much for the shadow monster’s side and armor, and it ripped through its flesh and skin, a ray of light entering the stomach. Everything started to pour out of the beast, including Merdilen, and Brokoren started to tumble around, right before dropping dead because of the massive wound on its side.

“No, my glorious Brokoren!” its owner exclaimed as Kayline helped Merdilen up.

“You were never any match for the great hero Axerhos and his loyal companions!” Alvoren declared, raising his sword in an epic stance.