Old Legends

A few days had passed since the four vagrants were confronted by the hero group. During those few days, there were no events that held interest to be recalled. They did find a few mineral deposits consisting of various gemstones, but those turned into snacks for Igno. There was also a moment where they accidentally blew up the world’s moon, but luckily Menor had fixed it so it wasn’t such a big event.

Approaching a new town, Desyra was showing her companions some new incenses she developed. The aroma that was produced from the leaves had the effect of putting people into a half-conscious and delusional state. Just smelling the sent would instantly affect a person’s mind and would throw them to dreamland without a second to delay. Unfortunately, the incense had a bad side effect of causing people to speak in a backward manner. The incense could even affect people who were born and raised on toxins. The leaves that were used in the incense were selectively bred by Desyra.

“It doesn’t smell too bad,” Igno spoke, while eating a fried, skewered, giant serpent.

“Well, it’s because we had to find a way to deal with Cixot and his bloodlust for poison,” Sors spoke with a frown.

“Don’t remind me of him,” Desyra complained, “He takes fighting fire with fire as his moral code.”

“Haha…” Igno laughed for a bit remembering how many of his feasts were spoiled by such a man.

“Put that out, the town is almost in the range- oh… the wind,” Menor spoke.

As if the world held a grudge, the wind suddenly altered its direction and blew the aroma towards the town. Because of the uncalled for event, the four disasters were tempted to turn around and find another path to go. But, from the town, they detected an ounce of divine presence. If they left then there was a chance that their existence could be discovered by the upper echelons of existences, mainly by the ones in the realm of the divinity. If they were discovered by those people than there they would encounter endless problems during their trip.

“Ok, the town guards are asleep,” Igno checked, the four of them had agreed to locate the source of divinity while thinking up with a way to deal with it. They desired to stay unseen, so they plan to sneakily enter the town, in case there were some people who were still awake. Once they reach the source of the divine presence they would quickly come up with a plan to deal with the matter. Each of them was lazy as they did not desire to arrange a solution beforehand.

“We had a few mins before they become half-conscious,” Desyra guessed, “Around ten mins, till then.”

“Ok, got the cardboard boxes and tranquilizers,” Sors called out.

Ignoring Sors’ unneeded remark, they began their mission. Running from one building to another they hid in the shadows. Even though they could walk right in and deal with the problem upfront, the four decided it was best to take their time reaching the goal, as it would be more fun.

“Oh?” Igno raised his eyebrows while entering the tent which contained the presence. Being the first one to arrive meant that Igno’s companions were taking their leisurely time. Due to Igno’s specialty, wandering around while staying unnoticed was as simple as breathing. In fact, the skill level of every one of the four could allow them to enter and exit any high-security area without tripping a single alarm.

In front of Igno was a giant rock housed in a temporary leather tent. Protruding from the rock was an elegant sword created by the finest of second-rate blacksmiths, in Igno’s perspective. To complete the picture, there were even sleek, elegant, marble steps leading to the sword. Ignoring the sword Igno went and inspected the rock while muttering words of insult at the name Excalibur. The usual situation with a sword in a stone was that both of the objects were supposedly unbreakable, in some cases not.

The rock Igno was interested in was the source of the divine presence Igno detected earlier. On closer inspection, there was an invisible but fragile seal containing the divine presence. It seemed that the sword was the catalyst the held the seal together. With few details, Igno concluded that there was either a sentient soul in the stone. There was also the near perfect possibility that the soul would become free once the sword was removed. As there was not a slight hint of malice in the divine presence, it seemed the soul was willingly sealed.

“If that thing is named Excalibur I’m going to melt that thing into scrap,” Menor spoke, entering the tent.

“Agreed,” Sors nodded, “Such an overused name,”

“That could be applied to any name though,” Desyra muttered.

“You guys sure took your time,” said Igno.

“Not our fault that a random dimensional fissure suddenly appeared, and hordes of reptilians running from a fat female came out,” Menor replied.

“I don’t speak bullshit, so can you stop talking bullshit?” asked Igno.

Shooing away the previous nonsense they turned their attention to the rock. Each of them held a complicated expression. There was a fifty-fifty chance that the soul in the stone was awake. They were unable to check whether or not the divine presence was awake, due to the self-imposed rule they had. Detecting the divine presence was due to their sharpened instincts, so they haven’t broken the self-imposed rule just yet.

“You know, now I think about it why hasn’t the pitiful Gary Stu drawn this sword yet?” Desyra asked.

“Gary Stu? Which one- Ah, him? He probably could, in fact, he should be able to,” Menor replied, “It’s likely that the sword sent him on a trial or something. You should already know how it works.”

“Let’s rig it,” Sors suggested, “If the soul is awake it’ll stop the lackluster hero. If not that guy should be able to survive, I think.”

As they had time, it wouldn’t hurt to do such a thing. The only problem was deciding what type of trap to set. Rigging the seal was a very simple thing, as they only needed to set a bit of magic energy into the rock or sword. While they debated a person entered.

“!gniod uoy era tahw dna syug uoy era ohW” spoke someone behind them.

“Ah, we took too long,” Igno muttered.

“?drows s’oreh yradnegel eht ,rubilacxE gniward yrt ot ereh uoy erA”

“Did he say Excalibur? I’m pretty sure he said Excalibur!” Menor questioned.

“Whoa! Hold your horses, I know you dislike the name but calm down,” said Desyra.

“Would you be calm after being sent off on a quest to find such a sword, but it turned out every other damned sword held the exact same name? Not only that the true sword was being held by the one I’m supposed to kill with that damn sword!” Menor retorted.

“.yrt ot truh t’ndluow tI .drows the gnillup yrt ot snioc wef a yap tsuJ”

“Let’s just rig it to explode and be on our way,” Sors sighed.

“No, rigging to explode would cause potential corpses,” Igno denied, “Making us becoming wanted. We should rig it with something annoying.”

“Can’t we rig it to have the sword turn into molten metal?” Menor suggested.

“.drows eht llup ot gniog ton era uoy fi evael esaelp uoy nac tub ezigolopa I ?srengierof rouf uoy erA”

“Let’s just rig it with the mild inconvenience curse,” Igno answered.

Jumping back in fright, Desyra spoke, “Evil!”

Agreeing to put a curse for mild inconveniences onto the sword, Igno walked up to the stairs. Pretending to pull the sword Igno began to place the curse. While putting on an act of frailty, Igno accidentally lifted the sword… with the entirety of the rock. Seeing the entire rock being lifted Igno’s companions could only facepalm. Igno, on the other hand, froze on the spot. With complicated smiles, no one expected the rock would be so light. As Igno held the sword’s hilt, the stone slowly but surely slid off the sword.

Seeing the scene in front of her, Desyra asked, “Physics? Hello?”

“I… I don’t know,” Sors replied, “The magic seal should hold a material influence similar to atomic bonds, supergluing the sword to the rock. It isn’t even logical that someone would make a sword with minimal friction too. The only thing I could think of is that the magic seal doesn’t anticipate for the entire rock being lifted.”

“Igno you better put that sword back in,” Menor suggested, while knocking out the foreign-language-speaking person, “The soul is stirring.”

Hearing Menor’s warning Igno quickly placed the sword back into the rock and repaired the seal. Igno had also finished placing the curse of mild inconveniences. Leaping off the marble stairs Igno threw an anesthesia smoke bomb and ran. Behind Igno the rest of them ran directly out of the town. Because the sword was removed from the stone the soul filled with divinity began to move, indicating its freedom. Not wanting to stand around and meet whatever was sealed, they ran away. The anesthesia smoke bomb Igno threw had the ability to wipe someone’s memories for the past few mins and a few more minutes after.

“Did you use the high level one?” Menor asked.

“Nope, used all of those up when I freed some captives from one of those dimensional jail things,” Igno replied.

“Great…” Menor rolled his eyes.

Knowing that the anesthesia bombs would stop nothing, they would have to confront the divine presence. Exiting through the front gate the four meddlers headed into the nearby fields of tall grass. Quickly selecting the rendezvous point they split off into four directions. Because the grass towered over their heads, they could only use the sun to calculate their position.

Soon after each of them felt the divine presence flying out of the village and towards them. The reason why they had split up was to prevent all four of them from being discovered, ignoring Igno who could never be found. Each one of them held more than enough power to deal with the oncoming presence. However, there were a few things that they had to take into consideration. They could not kill the threat because it would alert other beings of similar level, and if they hid then the divine existence would send out an alert to be cautious. The best case scenario was for Menor to be the one followed.

After aimlessly flying above the grass fields the divine entity descended and landed. Due to the speed that the divine presence flew, gusts of wind blew the grass away. The divine presence held the shape of a female humanoid with fluttering white wings, long golden hair, and a simple yet elegant snow white dress. Not only did the immense divine power emanate from her, a thick ray of sunlight showered upon her from above. The glorious light indicated that she held power from the divine realm of the world. She had landed in front of…

“REALLY!? Guys!?” Menor yelled, “This isn’t even the rendezvous point!”

“Don’t blame me!” Desyra retorted, “I ran in a straight line!”

“A straight line on deformed planes!” Igno called out, “There should have been no possible way for this to happen!”

“I call bullshit!” Sors countered, “At least one of you should know how to run straight!”

“I’m telling you this has nothing to do with me!” said Desyra, “You guys are the ones who were turned around!”

“Ha! I bet you were planning to ambush one of us because we were alone!” Menor retorted.

“I did not!” said Desyra, “Igno is here as well, you clops!”

“What does my presence even prove!” said Igno, “It’s your guy’s fault all of us got found!”

“At least I did not pull the sword out!” said Sors.

Falling into an intense argument the four meddlers grouped up to directly yell at each other’s faces. They had completely ignored the divine presence they had accidentally released. Seeing the four being caught up in their argument the divine lady was left speechless. It was the first time she was completely neglected when she released her divine energy. She had initially awoken from her place of rest to investigate the people who altered the seal on the sword. In the first place, her senses were restrained while sealed. As she did not know who held the power to alter the seals, she left to investigate.

Taking a second to think, the woman asked, “Um… excuse me-“

“The adults are talking!” the four meddlers yelled in agitation.

Being scolded the woman scurried a few steps away. She did not know how to react to the current situation. Never having experienced the feeling of neglection ever since she ascended, she was stumped. With fluttering wings, she pondered on how to deal with the problem. The only thing that she could think of was to use a bit of force, but her instincts were warning her not to. Pondering the satiation she decided to contact her superiors in the world’s upper planes. But before she could send a signal out, she received glares filled with bloodlust, warning her not to even attempt it.

Having shivers running down her spine, the winged woman carefully approached the four meddlers. When she got into an earshot’s range she was able to make out the contents of the bantering. Listening in on the conversation, it was as if she was being freed from all worldly desires and was reaching enlightenment. Concepts, knowledge, ideas, and truths were carelessly thrown around. They held information that defied all the things she knew and did not know. With such knowledge she could recreate the world into a true utopia, is what she believed.

Yelling, Menor spoke, “You traserfs think you’re so great! Why don’t you go and change the world while you’re at it!? Oh wait- they become breeding grounds for Aersdes!”

“I take offense to that! Aersdes are useful for fodder and are full of energy! Use something that doesn’t have a use- Wait! THERE ARE NONE! YOU’RE LESS THAN EVERYTHING! EVEN LESS THAN OYHTRS!” Igno retorted.

“Please, oyhtrs are useless. The only good thing about them is that their hive-mind colonies that produce radiation.” Sors corrected.

“Who the hell uses radiation anymore!?” Desyra spoke, “That is useless energy with literally no efficiency; just go develop a dyson sphere if you want energy!”

“Ha! And get blown up by a supernova- good one!” Menor retorted.

“It’s called suppression look it up, you dumb loke! It takes less energy to contain than change!” Desyra countered.

“Less energy?” Menor questioned, “That’s awe-inspiring coming from the mouth of a literal walking waste of matter!”

“Truer than not, there is no need for such unneeded cloth,” Sors agreed.

Desyra said, “Ha? You think I want to keep this on-“

“To be honest, they’re right. It just shows how inefficient you are in creating a body on the physical plane.” Igno interrupted with a shrug.

“NONE OF YOU, none of you know the pain it is to attempt perfectly suppress my nature and the influence of my presence! Watch what happens to that ascended hero!” Desyra retorted walking to the women clad in a divine aura.

Seeing that someone was approaching her, the ascended hero attempted to take a stance. Due to the intoxicated of reaching enlightenment, her actions were sluggish. Desyra walking in a bold manner quickly lifted the vial, that covered her face, for a brief moment. The instance that ascended hero saw Desyra’s face, her entire body had overcome with pure unadulterated pleasure. Having reached nirvana due to eavesdropping, the ascended hero was struck down to the mortal plane the moment she saw her indescribable beauty. Casting aside her divinity the ascended hero returned a mortal body in hot pursuit of her newfound desire for Desyra.

Kicking the once ascended hero aside, Desyra shouted, “YOU SEE THIS! THIS IS SOMETHING THAT NONE OF YOU HAD TO DEAL WITH- and they left… shateal.”

The moment Desyra was caught in the flow of her emotions; her companions had fled the scene. She could only mutter in disbelief. They had used the same trick over and over again but she could only rarely avoid it. Using her emotional impulse they made Desyra take the responsibility for being the scapegoat. Not only that, Desyra had caused the once ascended hero to fall back to the mortal realm, not with magic, not with seduction, only physical appearance. Desyra did not truly know if they had planned it from the start but it would not be wrong to guess that they did.

“Lady, I am old hero Astra,” the once ascended hero curtsied, “I had once bounded my soul to the sword Excalibur-“

WHOOSH! THUNK!

“-to help lead…”

The moment Astra had spoken the name Excalibur, a violet demonic spear landed next to her. Recognizing the spear Desyra tackled Astra away from it. The demonic spear was a weapon modeled after the concept of gluttony. If anything or anyone was in close proximity to the spear they would instantly be devoured. After moving a decent distance away from the spear Desyra looked back. The location Astra was standing had disappeared, leaving only a giant hole. With the hole being at least a mile deep the spear itself was eating its way to the netherworld.

“That damn setiodr,” Desyra muttered, “He even threw Viutar at us.”

With an expression full of delight, Astra replied, “Thank you! In return for saving my life, I will fulfill any request you have, no matter how difficult or unsightly it is.”

“No need. Could you please continue your introduction? I need to make sure that a new volcano wouldn't erupt.”

“Ok. I am the old hero Astra. I had once bounded my soul to the sword-“

“Don’t say that name.” Desyra interrupted while covering Astra’s mouth. Far off on the horizon, Menor held an azure blade in his hands ready to throw at a moment’s notice.

Nodding her head, Astra continued, “I had once bound my soul to a special sword to help lead my successor to victory. My successor had already appeared and is on a journey to show their worth. Once they returned to where E- the special sword sleeps I will impart my knowledge to them. Once I do so I would move on to the world above. As I had already completed my quest long ago I had ascended into the realm of the gods, yet stayed to pass on my abilities. Although I should pass on, for my new found eternal desire I had casted aside my immortal being to follow you to the ends of the world.”

“No.” Desyra flatly rejected. She knew what Menor said about his offspring killing off her servants was true. Be it on the side of justice or madness Menor’s offspring were just too strong. Each one of them was groomed by Menor himself and his perfect memory. Desyra had already made a mistake with taking July as a servant, but she was a special circumstance. If Desyra took in Astra it would mean nothing but countless cruel deaths for the former hero. Also, she would be a walking beacon to the residence of the divine domain.

“But… but I had casted aside my immortal body just for you?” Astra begged, “I still hold my strength and due to eternal youth I am always in my prime. I can be your sword and shield. I am willing to give my entire life, soul, and heart. Why… Why do you reject me…? Is it- is it because of those three?”

“What? NO! In reality, I would love to kill them, but I can’t… I have a large debt to one of them that I could never pay back…” Desyra admitted with a solemn expression.

Seeing the one she deeply desires show emotions of sadness, Astra quietly swore to kill those three no matter what. Oh, how she had not known how horrible and impossible the idea was. Never would she think the chance of success would be non-existent, and how everything she knew or known did not compare up to Desyra’s companions.

Desyra, who was not in the mood to continue, quickly asked Astra about the legends revolving around eating. To her luck, there was not a single tale involving gluttony. Leading her to think that the thing she was looking for was a forgotten or dark secret. There was also the chance that young existences saw the thing as worthless. Splitting her attention between Viutar and Astra, she rubbed her temples in annoyance.

Pondering for a few minutes, Desyra spoke, “You should go back and finish your duty with your successor, even if he is foolish. If you become missing a lot of things would stir.”

“That has already been done,” Astra spoke, “With the assistance of the kind person named Menor I was able to leave a lingering memory to pass on my knowledge.”

“What? When?” Desyra asked.

“You don’t remember? The kind Manor had just returned to retrieve the violet spear.”

Hearing such a reason, Desyra hurriedly checked the hole. Peering into the deep tunnel she saw it had truly disappeared. Leaving a few words to cuss she walked back to Astra. Originally she wanted to find a way to take the spear, obtaining a weapon from Menor’s arsenal would allow her to get revenge on him There was no harm in causing a small-world-disaster scenario and pushing the blame onto him.

“I really hate it when he does that,” Desyra muttered, “Come here, Astra.”

Being called over Astra happily complied, the moment she entered an arms-length from Desyra she felt her soul being ripped apart. Falling to the ground Astra held her head, succumbing to the unbearable pain she began to lose her sanity. The only thing that kept her from falling into insanity was her desire to be with Desyra. After what seemed like hours the pain Astra felt vanished.

“Done, there shouldn’t be an ounce of divine energy in you anymore,” said Desyra.

Checking her body Astra saw that Desyra’s words were true. She had lost her divine power and any abilities related to that power. When she checked the engraving of the hero on her stomach, the once irremovable mark had vanished. Trembling in both fear and delight Astra lunged towards Desyra, but because Desyra unconsciously moved away she fell face flat on the floor.

Whining, Astra shouted at Desyra, but she could not stay mad at her desired for so long. Ignoring the complaints Desyra told Astra to follow her, to the rendezvous point. The only reason why Desyra was taking Astra with her was the need of a scapegoat for whatever events that would arise.