-Tsumi’Din-

[The city the Tsumi Clan resides in.

It is positioned in the center of

the Realm Rift.]

That night, I had a dream that was… hard to describe. It was in a place I had never seen before, a small village in the middle of a forest. It started in a cold, stone building, with metal bars instead of glass in the windows. Suddenly there was a bang on the door. My memory has a gap here, the next thing I remember was being pulled by the wrist by a man in a dark cloak, with the hood covering his head so I couldn’t discern any of his features. I could tell we were inside the forest, and looking behind me I saw a few of the buildings were on fire, and there were other people running, several of them dragging other kids around my age with them as well. I could tell people were shouting but I couldn’t make out anything that was being said.

And that’s all I could remember, as I woke up moments after in something of a cold sweat. I figured the sun was only just starting to rise as my room was still very dim. I could hear Oroske moving around the house, and could smell breakfast being cooked. I briefly tried going back to sleep but couldn’t manage to fall asleep again.

I got up and dressed in the dark and went downstairs, greeting Oroske with a “Mornin’” and a yawn as I walked into the kitchen.

“You’re up early,” he said from the stove, waving his hand without turning to look at me, “sleep okay?”

“Yeah, for the most part,” I sleepily responded, “had a really weird dream that woke me up and couldn’t get back to sleep.”

“I see, what was the dream about?”

“I’m not really sure… I was in a dark building with bars on the windows, then I got pulled out and dragged through the surrounding forest as the village was on fire. And I woke up shortly after that.”

“I see,” he said, seemingly pondering it for a minute as he brought the pan of scrambled eggs to the table, “When we meet up with them later, you should talk to Nadred about it, as annoying as his tangents can be, he is very knowledgeable about these kinds of things.”

Before sitting down, he went back and grabbed a plate that had some bacon and sausage. Once we were both sat down we began eating. “So, you excited to see the outside world?” Oroske asked me through a mouthful of food.

I nodded and swallowed my food before answering, “I am! I’m super curious to see the rift and stuff that Nadred pointed out on that map.”

“Good, good,” he said taking another bite of his food, “Do you want to train while we wait for them or just relax?”

I took a moment to consider it, we’d been training so much lately and I was quite sore. With that in mind I declared I’d prefer to relax. He agreed yet again with a mouthful of food.

After we finished eating he had me help clean up the dishes, after which we just sat back down at the table. We sat in silence while waiting, Oroske pulled out a book, and I practiced an exercise Nadred taught me the previous night, flickering between different elements in small bursts. Apparently it helps your casting speed, and it also helps you get comfortable with the various elements. I kinda zoned out, watching the different elements flash sequentially in the palm of my hand.

Not long after, I was brought out of my trance by a loud knocking on the front door. Oroske made a gesture that indicated he wanted me to answer it. I got up and opened the door, receiving a warm greeting from Nadred and Jarou. “Good morning guys,” I said as I showed them inside. Oroske greeted them as they stepped into the kitchen and dining area.

“Glad to see you ate already,” Nadred said, “We probably want to get out there before the morning rush.” Oroske agreed, grabbing his bookmark and closing the book. “Well Nadred, Demon or Human?” He asked.

“Hmm,” he thought for a moment, “Probably Human, there’s a better chance of finding Sigils nearby.”

“Alright,” Oroske checked his watch, “Everyone good to leave?”

I checked myself, thinking if there was anything I’d need to bring. I stated my readiness, and we left.

The route started out the same as when we went to meet Danfis, but changed at the first turn. Instead of turning right and going towards the plaza, we turned left and went towards what looked like it opened up into forest eventually.

Where the walk to the plaza took probably fifteen to twenty minutes, the walk to our destination took nearly forty-five minutes.

The path was littered with the same variety of building styles and even purposes. Many of the buildings were combinations between homes and stores, and there was a large variety of goods being sold.

Eventually the path opened up into a small plaza. There were several carriages of various sizes. “Those are Aeth’Mobiles,” Nadred explained after I asked, “They’re special carriages that instead of being pulled by beasts, they’re powered by magic. They’re pretty new, they only really started being widely available about six or seven years ago.” When I asked how they worked, all I got was “It’s… really complicated. I honestly don’t even know the specifics. I just know it uses very complex advanced magic.” He told me if I want to, we can go look into the specifics later.

“The reason they’re here,” Jarou picked up on the explanation, “Is to give us rides to and from our Hunt destinations.”

“Exactly,” Oroske affirmed, “The Tsumi Clan has special contracts with a few different companies and groups to chauffeur us wherever we need to go. Today however, we’ll be making our outing on foot. Reason one; it’s a good experience to experience the world on foot. And reason two; we’re not going to any specific city, so there’s no need to hitch a ride.”

As Oroske finished his explanation, we could see beyond the surrounding buildings, and the Rift and the world beyond really started coming into sight.

We walked mostly in silence as we approached the railing that bordered the plaza and Rift. My curiosity overtook my fear, and I walked up to the railing and looked down into the abyss. The railing was on the edge of a sheer cliff that went so far down you couldn’t even see the bottom. The other side of the Rift had a similar cliff, but was still pretty far from where we stood.

I looked around the sights of the Human Realm, everything I could see from where I stood anyway. Most of what I could see was just forest. Almost dead ahead of the large, stone bridge that bridged the gap, I could see what looked like a castle way off in the distance, positioned high on a mountain. To the left, I could see the tips of towers poking above the trees in the distance.

Nadred seemed to sense my interest in these two, because he told me about what they were, while pointing to them “That castle you can kind of see straight ahead, is the old Royal Palace. Ever since the Last King died, it’s mostly out of use, though every now and then it gets used for meetings and parties.

“And over there, those towers you can probably see a little bit of, is the School of Towers Academy. It’s the most prestigious and advanced magic school and research center in Spire,” He explained, letting out a heavy sigh before continuing, “Sadly, they are very strict about admission, and as of right now, Half-Demons are not allowed to attend.” He seemed very depressed about that fact, which Oroske explained as “that nerd just wants access to all the research stuff they’ve done there.”

After the Nadred the Tour Guide finished his explanation, we began the trek across the bridge. Nadred said the bridge is only about a mile long, and it only took about fifteen minutes to walk to the other side. From there, we headed straight into the woods.

A few minutes of walking between the trees, we came to a clearing. “Alright, Oroske,” Nadred started, “You’re Kuro’s mentor, think he can stand up to a Sigil?”

Oroske nodded almost immediately, “Oh yeah, unless we run into a really strong one he should be just fine. If I need to I’ll intervene.”

Nadred simply nodded and motioned for us to proceed.

As we progressed deeper into the forest they struck up conversation, explaining what the ‘Sigils’ are. Yet another one of Nadred’s long lectures, he began, “Sigils are a special type of monster. The name is short for ‘Sigil of the Soulless.’ As the name might suggest, they are creatures that lack souls. They tend to be mindless and very violent, and as such they’re a pretty big threat to commonfolk. The name ‘Sigil of the Soulless’ refers to a small emblem that appears on their body.” He turned to me and handed me a small sheet of paper with a design on it. It had the Emblem of Balance in the middle, with what looked like the top and bottom of an eye at the ends of the lines.

“As with many things of this nature, the reason the emblem shows up is unknown, but there are lots of theories. The one thing we have confirmed is their source. Have you heard of the Eight Calamities?”

I shook my head, didn’t even ring a bell.

“I see, well the short version is there are these eight beings side to rival the Guardians in power that will cause the end of the world, according to the Guardian Naen’s prophecies anyway. I’ll have to tell you the full version later, maybe on the way back. Anyway, supposedly one of the signs they are starting to awaken is the appearance of Sigils spawning from them. One of their dens is pretty close, which we’re heading towards right now, and is one of three we’ve discovered. When the Sigils started appearing, researchers were able to confirm they came out of the cave that leads into the den. I haven’t actually see-”

“I sense Aether disturbance,” Oroske suddenly said, “there’s one close by.”

“How can you tell?” I asked.

“I’ll tell you later, for now, draw your weapon and get ready for your first real fight.”

I did as he said, pulling a sword out of my Demon Sheath like it was second nature. The other members of the party backed away, leaning up against trees like they were going to enjoy watching the events unfold. Suddenly a large gray and white creature stalked out of the trees. It was quite large, twice the size of Oroske I’d say, but very lanky, and walked on all four legs. It was kind of like a huge bear but very skinny. On the beast’s forehead was the emblem Nadred had shown me. Really, it was kinda horrifying to look at.

It seemed like it saw me as it changed direction directly towards me. The Sigil let out a loud shriek and began charging toward me. I braced myself for combat, and let my instincts take over.

The Sigil knocked down a tree that practically flew towards me. Had I not dodged it would’ve definitely crushed me. But luckily, I quickly dashed out of the way and towards the creature that was still a couple dozen feet in front of me. As I got closer I remembered back to my magic training the day before, and applied the idea of sen’tur’fer to my feet in addition to my blade, and jumped up, with increased height thanks to the wind. As I lifted my arms to swing downward and unleash my first attack, I was suddenly slammed into by something from my right.

As I fell I managed to angle my body in such a way I didn’t slam into the ground on my side. Instead I basically landed on my feet and hands. Unfortunately I wasn’t properly braced for it and after sliding half a foot I slipped and ended up on my face anyway.

I quickly turned around to see what hit me and I saw a large chunk of earth that had been ripped from the ground, which I guess had been the result of magic. No one told me they could use magic! I thought, as I prepared my next assault. Now that I was aware of the beast’s magical prowess, I felt much more prepared.

I applied sen’tur’fer to my feet once again, but also used jarou’tur’fer on my clothes, thinking it would help soften the blow but also possibly blast back. After those preparations I charged again. Before jumping however, I instead slashed horizontally towards the Sigil’s legs. The wind blades released from sen’tur’fer cut pretty deep into the front legs, causing the Sigil to falter. After seeing it fall a little I jumped up, re-applying the enchantment to my sword.

Sure enough, when I prepared to slash, the Sigil looked up at me and another chunk of earth came crashing into me. The jarou’tur’fer I had applied previously softened the blow so it didn’t hurt nearly as much, and also shattered the chunk with a loud bang. I still got knocked off course slightly though.

In that moment I remembered the incident with my first attempt to use sen’tur’fer and how it knocked the sword out of my hands, and decided to try and use a similar level of power to redirect myself. I struggled to get my bearings mid air and slightly sideways, but I found the right direction I wanted to swing, to the right but also slightly behind my previous course, and towards the ground. That would counteract the misdirect from the earth slam, give me a bit of extra height, and slightly more forward momentum, was my mentality with it.

For the most part, I was right. However, my grip on my sword faltered and I lost it. Flying through the air without a weapon, I was right in front of the Sigil, kind of doing a very slow backflip. My instincts kicked in and I summoned another weapon out of my Demon Sheath. It was a scythe, something I wasn’t super familiar with fighting with since Oroske wanted to wait until I earned my navy cloak again. Luckily, it seemed like my muscle memory and instinct worked together, and I was able to flip myself in such a way I could land a strike perfectly in the center of the emblem. The blade of the scythe cut all the way through the skull, the point poking through underneath its jaw.

I hung onto the handle of the scythe, as the body remained rigid and standing for a few moments. Just when I was thinking it wasn’t going to fall, the Sigil’s body suddenly collapsed, with me falling along with it. We crashed into the floor of the forest. Luckily I just landed on the dirt so it wasn’t too hard of a fall.

Oroske was the first to come into view, clapping with a proud smile on his face. Nadred and Jarou followed soon after. “Congratulations Kuro!” Oroske exclaimed as he helped me up out of the dirt, “What did you think of your first Sigil kill?”

“That was… fun? In a weird way,” I said, I was sure there was a better way to explain how I felt, but as the adrenaline was wearing off I was becoming more aware of the pain. And it must have shown cause Nadred came over to support me a little.

“I understand what you mean,” Jarou said, a silly smile on his face, “It’s exciting to fight with your life, but also scary.”

“Exactly, you did great, Kuro,” Nadred affirmed.

“Well, shall we head back to that clearing from earlier to get some proper teaching in?” Oroske asked, patting the side of my clothes to knock off some of the dirt, which caused me to wince in pain a little, eliciting a small chuckle out of him.

“Yeah, there’s a lot you need to know that’s best taught out here,” Nadred agreed, “After that, you’ll be pretty much ready for your test! May just need a bit more combat training.”

Jarou went and picked up my sword, and pulled the scythe out of the Sigils head and returned them to me. I quickly put them back in my Demon Sheath, and we departed, Oroske walking next to me to make sure I didn’t stumble and fall.

“Do we need to do anything about the body?” I asked, turning around to look at it once more. “Nope,” Oroske said plainly, as I saw the body crumbling to ash and blowing away in the wind.