Haerasong, Lost Era

“A throne?”

“Yes.”

“What, you believe yourself a king? Perhaps as a symbol of your power?”

“You would be one to talk, my friend. If I believe myself a king, what does that make of you? You, who claim the title you do.”

A woman, age unknowable, crossed her arms, a slight smile spreading across her face.

“Come now, what is so wrong with it? Is it not fitting for myself?”

A man with hair the shining silver gleam of the midnight moon tapped a finger against his thigh, considering whether it was worth offending the woman or not.

“You call yourself Above All. Does that not speak of haughty arrogance?” The man finally settled on being straightforward, the likelihood his friend would take offense minimal.

“Hah. Is it arrogance if it speaks of only the truth? One day, you will understand when I find the question to my answer, long before you are ever likely to.”

The man looked to the side, gazing with longing toward a single large block of marble, before turning back to the woman.

“If that is what you believe, let us make this a friendly competition and see who will come out on top.”

“You truly believe in your Hallowed Throne so strongly that you would bet against me of all people?”

The man looked once more at the marble block before nodding.

“Yes. The question of my answer I will form with my own two hands. It is you I am worried for. Do you truly believe you have a chance to gaze into time itself?”

The woman stuck her hand out, her raised thumb an answer in itself.

“Fine.” The man sighed, repeating the motion and pressing his thumb against hers.

“Alfosi.” The pair exclaimed before the man opened his mouth to speak out.

“I, the Sage Of Heavenly Wisdom, declare by thy divine right to our sacred contest to seek only victory.”

The woman nodded, a sly grin forming even before she spoke.

“And I, the Sage Above All, declare by thy divine right to our sacred contest to seek only victory.”

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“Gatecrasher, lift!” I yelled as loud as I could, sprinting forward with inhuman agility.

A large man, and by large, I mean giant, dropped to one knee, raising a stupidly large tower shield over his head like a ramp.

Which was precisely what it was. I sprinted up the shield with one final burst of speed, leaping from it into the air, my sword raised overhead with the sun to my back.

Got you!

Directly beneath me, a lion the size of a moose roared as one of my allies shot a ball of fire in its face. I didn’t bother to get excited. The magical beast had already shrugged off dozens of those; they did nothing more than irritate it. Sun shining on its luscious mane, I saw the rainbow-like glimmer of its fur, everything moving slowly to me.

It roared, having had enough of the annoying fireballs. Charging forward, it swatted aside the irritating source of magic.

It just so happened that the source was a girl several years older than I, who crashed into the rocky shoulder of the mountain trail we were battling it upon.

Alice!

I let loose with my own war cry, catching the Peak Lion’s attention as it looked up, only one good eye after its other had been pin-cushioned by an arrow. It recoiled at the sight of me with the sun to my back, but it was too slow as I landed upon it. My blade bit into its neck, the magical beast thrashing in surprise as my sword cut through its steely hide.

“Aulous!” I hissed between clenched teeth, the edge of my blade swiftly coated in an oscillating layer of water. The edge of my sword, blurring like a saw, lacerated through the layers of thickly coiled muscles within its neck until, at last, it finally lost the strength to fight, collapsing.

Over. The battle was finally over.

Pulling my sword free, a sickle-like blade, I looked to the right over my shoulder, sighing in relief. Alice was standing up from where she had crashed against the wall of rock, cradling an arm that, even from here, I could tell was broken, but at the very least, she was okay. Turning around, I examined the rest of our crew. Gatecrasher was bleeding from where the beast had bitten chunks out of him, but a man with his vitality would be alright. Further back, a man in his thirties was jogging towards us, holding a bow of silver willow, beaming from ear to ear. Past the carcass of the Peak Lion, a second woman was lying on the ground, unconscious after hitting her head on a rock when the creature had jumped on her, but at least she was breathing.

We had won.

Barely it felt.

“Nice hit Zero.”

I looked back at the man with the bow, Keion. With one hand, he gave me a thumbs up and pulled out a vial of crystal blue liquid from a pouch belted to his side.

“Thanks, but I wouldn’t have been able to pull it off without Gatecrasher.” I smiled, exhausted. “Also, how many times do I have to say it? Stop calling me Zero.”

“Ahh, but Zero sounds so mysterious.” Keion had reached our unconscious ally, pouring the vial’s contents down her throat, who seconds later began to cough, eyes fluttering. “And don’t forget who shot out its other eye.”

“Yeah, but I’m not mysterious.” I answered, ignoring his self-inflating comment before laughing awkwardly. Under normal circumstances, I might have liked the nickname. Except, part of the reason behind the alias was a thinly veiled, if clever, jab at me.

Making it preferable to just use my real name.

“Whatever you say.” Keion shrugged before making a tsk sound as if forcing himself. “Rook.”

“Better.” I smiled more naturally as I looked down at the groggy woman slowly pushing herself up. “How was the nap, Lara?”

“Don’t be an ass, Rook.” Lara coughed again before stretching her arms as she stood up, eyeing the dead Peak Lion nearby. “Nice to see you guys didn’t need me for that.”

“You made a great distraction.” Keion chimed in, now offering some of the healing draught to Gatecrasher.

“Well, I’m so glad I could be of assistance.” Lara’s voice dripped with sarcasm before she turned to look at Alice. “You good ‘Lis?”

“Doing great.” Alice grimaced; her lie fooled no one.

“Well, we know who won’t be helping lug this bad boy back.” Keion looked at Gatecrasher empathetically. “Sorry big guy.”

“Hmm.” The large man grunted.

“No, we weren’t planning to make you do all the heavy lifting from the beginning.”

“Hmm.”

“Okay, well, I wasn’t.” Keion responded as if Gatecrasher had spoken a complete sentence, not a single sound.

“Hmph.”

“Okay, well, maybe I was.” Keion smiled before looking at me. “Rook, you think you can help Gatecrasher with transporting it?”

I looked up at Gatecrasher, giving him a sympathetic smile as the mana circulating through my body began to stitch up the smallest of my scratches. “I’m not sure how much help I’ll be.”

“Great!” Keion waved us all toward him, his roguish smile never leaving his face. “Well, team, we did it. A rogue Peak Lion that came all the way from the Helena mountains of all places, but we managed it. I’d say we deserve us a nice fat reward for that.”

I saw smiles flickering upon my compatriots’ faces.

“So, when we get back to Dunehold, whose treating?”

The smiles quickly turned sour, and several minutes later, as we began the long process of returning home, I couldn’t help but smile at the swollen face of our team captain as he muttered to himself.

“No one can take a joke.”

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Dunehold, One Month Later

“There we were, atop the tallest mountain, facing down not just a Peak Lion, the majestic guardian beasts of the most daunting of mountains, but a rare and dangerous variant found only within the Helena mountains themselves, a Prisma Lion! When the sun shone on it just right, it would reflect the colors of the rainbow, but do not be fooled! For you see, this magical beast was like a storm that a rainbow would follow after, fast, powerful, with a roar that could….”

“You think we should stop him?” I turned to look at Gatecrasher, who merely grunted with a shrug of his massive shoulders.

“If you say so.” I continued watching Keion from across the tavern, embellishing the story. It was dangerous, but it assuredly did not summon thunder with each roar, nor were we upon the tallest peak of the Helena mountains.

Hell, we hadn’t even been at the Helena mountains. We had been sent to deal with it in the first place because the Prisma Lion, for some reason, had left the solitude of the Helena mountains, stalking past the encircling mountain ridges where it had been spotted outside villages in the area. It had been the first time since I had initially come to the central region that I had been that close to the infamous mountains, and seeing the Helena mountains, even from as far away as they had been, had brought back memories.

Has it really been over three years since then?

My first commission I’d ever been part of, and it had ended up being the most dangerous by far. An errant mage channeling powers beyond normal realms, siphoning them from a long-dead True Dragon. I’d made it out by the skin of my teeth, and ever since, I’d been a full-time adventure.

“-and when things were looking bleak, the Prisma Lion, a walking natural disaster, was blinded as I used the last of my strength to fire one last arrow straight into its eye! Enraged, it was distracted and unaware. Then like a descending archangel of vengeance, who would appear but none other than Zero himself!”

The crowd around Keion was enraptured by his story, drinking it in.

“Like a Valkyrie of War, he struck it down in a single blow, his sword a flowing reaper of souls!”

Does he really have to go that far? And aren’t valkyries women?

“What’s Zero like?” A little boy jumped up, eyes wide in excitement as he listened to Keion.

“Well, why don’t you ask him yourself? He is right over there after all?”

Damnit Keion.

As one, the crowd turned toward where Keion was pointing dramatically.

Directly at me.

I thought the point was to not stir up any commotion?

“Zero, the noble rising star of an adventurer-” Keion was still announcing it like a story, but I could see the mischievous look in his eye that told me he was doing it just to get under my skin. “Rising to the upper echelon of Silver grade in a mere two years! Not just a swordsman, not just a mage, but a magic knight who carves through his enemies using the power of his magic and sword! Zero, why don’t you come on over and introduce yourself to these lovely people.” Keion was beaming at me as he gestured me over.

Gods damn you, Keion.

I put on a fake smile, putting down my mug of ale as I made my way toward Keion and the crowd, their eyes dancing about like a character from a storybook had jumped out of the pages right before their very eyes.

“H-hi.” I waved awkwardly as I stood next to Keion, still shooting me a winning smile.

“Are you really Zero?” The same kid from before jumped up again, his eyes bulging so wide from the excitement that you would think he was on the verge of a heart attack.

“Err- well, yes.” I nodded. “But I don’t usually like to go by that-”

“Is it true?” This time it was a young woman who spoke up, interrupting me. “They say don’t use ordinary magic.”

“Well, sort of.” I admitted, trying to figure out a way to remove myself from the awkward situation.

“How old are you anyway?” A man who looked old enough to be my father with broad wide shoulders tapped a finger against his bicep, his arms crossed. “You look no older than twenty.”

“Eight-nineteen.” I corrected. My birthday had come and gone during our commission to deal with the prismatic Peak Lion.

“Nineteen.” The man whistled before laughing. “You couldn’t have been much older than sixteen when you started.”

“Something like that.” I answered. I’d been fifteen when I’d been whisked away from home, spending the next several months with an enigmatic mentor, a magical beast, being chased up a mystical Sage mountain, before embarking on my first adventurer as a probationary member of a party that had taken me in. By the time I’d finally gotten my official adventuring band and set out on a commission as a true adventurer, I’d been shy of turning sixteen.

Huh. Still can’t believe it’s been over three years since I left home. Where did the time go?

The voices of the crowd were beginning to blend, and lost in my own thought, I stood there sticking out like a sore thumb until, at last, I heard a voice that I was for once glad to hear.

“Alright, enough questions. Yes, Mr. Zero here, as with the rest of us on that commission, just got back today. I’m sure he is looking to finally relax after four months on a single commission.”

“Alice.” I sighed, turning around to see the woman standing with her hands on her hips. My smile quickly faded as I noticed the annoyance written across her face.

That’s not good.

Marching up to me, she grabbed me by the wrist, dragging me away as I shot an apologetic smile toward the crowd, even if I was thankful for the out.

“What about my tab?” I whispered out the corner of my mouth as I was dragged off.

“Well, since Keion seems more than happy to throw your name around like that, I’m sure he will be giddy at the chance to return the favor and pick it up for you.”

I smiled warmly as I thought about the reaction Keion would have upon realizing it would be on him to front the bill as I exited the tavern with Alice. It was nighttime outside, the moon shining high overhead, but even with the fervor of the day passed, the city was still bustling with nighttime activity.

Leave it to a region capital to never sleep.

“So, what’s the problem?” I asked after she finally released me. She turned to look me in the eye as we stood off the side of the wide sandstone lane, watching as folks of the night would walk on by, even the occasional wagon dragged along by the creatures that, at first glance, looked like bulls.

Until one noticed their distinct features, that is. Finely interlaced scales imitating the look of cowhide, talons like a bird of prey that seemed to grip and release the ground with each step. I could still remember the first time I’d encountered one of the work beasts within the city, drawing my sword and nearly killing the thing before I had been promptly informed they were a domesticated monster.

Can’t blame me for thinking they were dangerous. Just look at the thing.

I shook my head, only just noticing words I had been blanking out.

“-the meaning of this?”

“Err- what now?” I inwardly cringed, knowing Alice wouldn’t appreciate repeating herself.

“Were you even listening?” She folded her arms across her chest, gaze stern.

“Um, let’s say I got distracted for argument’s sake.”

“Everyone on this team is an idiot, I swear.” She sighed before pulling something from her pocket. “This.”

I squinted my eyes, examining the paper she held up before me.

“What is it?”

“Why don’t you try giving it a read first before asking?”

“Oh, right.” I felt my cheeks flush before I started to quickly skim through the words on the page, my eyes gradually narrowing.

“I swear, it’s not what it looks.” I finally raised my hands up in surrender.

“Oh? Because it sure looks like someone is letting a little bit of fame get to their head. An exhibition match? Really?”

“I swear, I didn’t know anything about this.”

“Then why, and please explain this carefully for me. Why does it go out of its way to list you by name?”

Now that’s a good question.

“Not just that!” Alice wasn’t done, her arms flapping up in agitation. “I think I could even understand an exhibition match, though you rarely see silvers drawing much of a crowd. But an exhibition match against the rank one high-gold adventurer? Care to explain that?”

My eyebrows scrunched up in surprise, apparently missing that part when I skimmed the poster. I gave it a second look-over, hoping she was mistaken.

Never mind. It’s literally right there at the top. How’d I even miss that?

Duel of the year, as rising star Zero the flowing blade faces off against Iris Steel Haze!

“What got into your head, Rook? Were we holding you back that much that you needed to go off and start setting things like this up behind our backs? How long have you been hiding this anyway? Considering we’ve been off on a commission the last four months!”

“I swear.” I continued holding my hands up as I tried to appease her. “I had no part of this. And no, you guys aren’t holding me back!”

It’d been a little over a year that I’d teamed up with the Desert Hawks, the adventuring party of Keion, Alice, her sister Lara, and Gatecrasher, the only name he’d ever given us to call him by. They were good people if Keion was a bit on the boastful side. A solidly silver-ranked party, we had been undertaking predominately silver level commissions, but as of late, we’d even been moving on to low gold level requests.

The results had been…. Mixed, to say the least.

When I’d first joined them, they had taken me under their wing, showing me the ropes of what being silver was like, the first significant rank milestone of any adventurer. But, as with other parties I’d worked with, it became more apparent that they would likely remain where they were, never climbing any higher.

It wasn’t that I was cocky or believed I was superior to them.

But…

But I wouldn’t be a silver-grade adventurer for much longer as things currently stood. I rubbed at my right arm, the secret for my comparatively rapid growth hidden beneath the divinical cloth wrap that nowadays I rarely dispersed.

After all, the markings beneath were far too easy to notice, and I was unwilling to deal with the hassle of the questions they raised

“So, we aren’t holding you back, but you’re the one who has subtly pushed Keion to keep accepting more dangerous commissions. And now this.” For good effect, she gave the small poster a quick ruffle.

“I swear, Alice, it’s not what it seems. I’ve… I’ve been set up! It has to be!”

“Mhmm.” Her eyes flicked up and down as she examined me before shaking her head with an exhausted sigh. “Fine. If you want to be that way, so be it.”

I exhaled, thankful she finally saw reason.

“I think it’s best you find a new group. You’re used to party hopping, so it shouldn’t be anything new for you. Zero must spread his wings. After all, can’t have you spending your time with us eternally silvers.”

Wait.

What?

“Wait, Alice!” I reached out to her as she turned her back to me, but I was immediately met by a stone spike bursting forward in front of me, blocking my path.

“Don’t.” Alice angrily exclaimed, the spike receding seconds later. “I’ll let the rest know you decided to go on your own.”

Choosing not to push it, I watched in dejected silence as she walked away, disappearing around a corner as she made her way back to the tavern we had just come from.

Well… shit.

I leaned against a nearby building, staring up at the night sky.

Well, I sort of figured something like this might happen again.

First had been the Sashes, a group of coppers who had invited me on my first commission as an adventurer. I’d left them behind shortly, taking on as many solo commissions on the side to advance from copper as quickly as possible. Combined with the aptitude I’d shown before, I had been fast-tracked out of copper, making it to bronze within four months of becoming an adventurer.

After that, I soon joined a new group, the Steppens. We’d been just outside the small city of Lartis when an emergency call had been issued to fend off a berserk Anticore that had emerged from its den after being roused by two Iron parties looking to purposefully wake the thing in hopes of using it as a chance to garner some renown. Little did they realize the bear they were poking, or rather, the anticore, was a Bull Anticore, and after it wiped them out, it had gone on a rampage, killing three more parties worth of bronze and iron adventurers.

We’d engaged the monster, mainly to buy time for a Steel rank to show up and stop the destructive warpath of the beast, but when none showed, it had been do-or-die.

And I’d refused to die to an oversized bug.

Two of the three Steppens were left without legs in the aftermath, with the third paralyzed from the waist down. Only I’d been able to fend it off before finally killing it.

As a result of settling the emergency solo for all intents, I’d been promoted straight to steel after only a year of being an adventurer. I’d gone from party to party for some time after, earning notoriety both good and…. Not so good. Party hoppers weren’t uncommon but combined with my rather explosive rise from copper to steel in a single year, I’d begun to hear less than savory rumors surrounding me.

Around that same time, the adventurer guild implemented a new system, individual adventurer rankings. Within the adventurer grades, up to gold, they were further split between three intermittent levels, low, mid, and high, alongside the individual ranks. One could climb the ranks within their Grade by successfully completing commissions and even winning officially sanctioned duels against other adventurers, a way of measuring adventurers up against one another.

At the time, I’d thought it was a blessing in disguise. My rank within the steel grade climbed explosively, and with it, I began to earn my infamous moniker.

Zero.

It was clever if somewhat insulative, nickname. Originating partly from the fact that I never used outward magic in my duels.

Not that they would care if I explained it’s because I can barely use any outwardly showy magic in the first place.

The second part came from more…. Malicious reasons. After jumping parties as often as I had, eventually, it got to the point that I was welcomed by precisely zero of the steel grade parties. I had become a pariah. My climb toward the end of my stay within the steel grade came entirely from winning duels against other steels who felt it their duty to put me in my place.

It wasn’t until I’d reached high-steel, rank four, that I’d finally been invited to join a party again, none other than the Desert Hawks. At the time, they were a low-silver grade party, and of all the parties I’d worked with, they had kept me around for the longest of any party to date.

But now, even they had kicked me out.

Damnit.

I softly thumped my head against the smooth sandstone of the building I was leaning against.

Rook, commonly known as Zero, Grade: high-silver, rank fifteen.

Alice Venteri, Grade: mid-silver, rank three hundred fifty-four.

Lara Venteri, Grade: low-silver, rank four hundred eighty-nine.

Gatecrasher, Grade: mid-silver, rank on hundred and sixty-four.

Keion Albaross, Grade: low-silver, rank forty-two.

It had become glaringly evident as my rank continued to climb, and theirs plateaued that even though we were a team, I was leaving them behind.

Damnit. So now what?

I hadn’t wanted to leave them behind; that was the truth. It was also true that I had been subtly pushing Keion, the de jure team leader even if the de facto leader was Alice, to accept more and more dangerous commissions.

It wasn’t that I was after renown and influence, adventuring for fame. I had hoped that perhaps if they continued taking more and more difficult commissions alongside me, it would spur them on, that they could grow alongside me so that I wouldn’t have to leave them behind one day.

This inevitably backfired and, as a result, was ironically part of why I was leaving them behind now.

“This sucks.” I sighed.

But I couldn’t deny it any longer. The last commission had been more than proof enough. Slaying the Peak Lion had very nearly gotten them all killed. A prismatic Peak Lion, it was all but immune to whatever wild magic Alice had flung at it. Its fur was like chords of twined steel, so tough that Gatecrasher had been unable to hurt it with his hammer, forced to instead focus entirely on utilizing his shield. Even Lara’s sound magic, a Kin magic passed down through their family that Alice had failed to inherit, only minorly annoyed the beast enough that it proceeded to KO her within seconds of us engaging it.

As much as Keion liked to boast and inflate his own ego, it really had come down to him and me against the beast, with the rest acting as decoys, his arrows capable of hitting its softer spots with pinpoint accuracy.

Aside from the circumstances of Keion and his arrows being effective against the vulnerable points of the Prisma Lion, only I’d been capable of hurting it head-on. It had been a sobering wake-up call that they had reached the end of the line, that if I continued to drag them out onto escalating commissions, they would fail to return sooner or later.

I don’t think I could forgive myself if I was the cause of their deaths.

I sighed an even heavier sigh, still softly thumping my head against the wall. As much as I liked to believe that this scenario could have been avoided, that the poster Alice had shown me had been the straw that broke the camel’s back, I’d known in my heart for some time now that this was bound to happen.

Which reminds me.

Pushing away from the building, I bent down to pick up the small poster Alice had let flutter to the ground when she had marched away, reading it over slowly, ensuring I didn’t miss a single detail.

Iris Steel Haze. If she is part of this, it can’t be a scam, right?

High-gold, rank one. By most regards, she was the pinnacle of adventurers. The only ones past her were the sparse few handfuls of nizeium rank adventurers, no more than forty of them currently active from last I’d heard. Amongst the nizeium Grade, no official designation or rankings were made, no justifiable point to it with how few and sparsely active they often were. Promotions below gold were reasonably straightforward in most circumstances. Climb to the higher ranks where you would either be offered a recommendation for promotion or could request one. If requested for a promotion, the guild would assess the capability and record of the person in question before deciding.

To reach beyond gold was a different beast entirely. First, one had to have a high standing amongst gold-level adventurers, but it wasn’t just enough to have a high rank. One had to also have a portfolio of successfully completed Heroic Quests. Even ordinary quests were uncommon, handed out to specific individuals rather than freely chosen like commissions. Heroic quests came once or twice a year, threats or dangers that could threaten large swathes of the country if left alone.

Beyond even nizeium, the true pinnacle of adventures, ornnax, could only be achieved by completing a Legendary Quest. These once-a-decade events could potentially even endanger the stability of the entire continent. From what I could remember, there were only seven currently active ornnax adventurers, who only ever appeared to take Heroic or Legendary quests when needed.

As a result, with ornnax and, by extension, nizeium adventurers being predominantly reactive groups that were rarely seen, Iris, high-gold rank one, was a beacon, a champion to adventurers around the country, an icon for what the very top looked like. It wasn’t just her; her party, the Sunju, was ranked second amongst gold parties, only losing out to the larger and longer-established high-gold rank one party, Shangsattva.

So how had I, a silver who wasn’t even rank one at that, been set up for an exhibition match against her?

Something’s fishy, that’s for sure.

Whatever it was, there was only one way to find out. I slapped the poster against the nearby wall before walking away, heading toward my lodging at one of the more congenial Adventure Rests in the city.

Two days. In two days, I would participate in the exhibition match set up without my knowledge and get to the bottom of the sudden surprise.

Anyways, it isn’t as if I have anything better to do. I mused to myself as I walked away. Not like I have a party to report to anymore.