Naito threw off his oversized king outfit the second he returned to his room. It felt good to change back into his regular pair of black sweatpants and white shirt with holes from being chewed on at the collar. Alsen changed back into a pair of blue jeans shorts with a short sleeved, yellow shirt. While they waited for Cosena to come out of the bathroom, Naito scanned the room. Although most of his memories here were ones he'd rather forget, he still needed something to remind him of home. He grabbed his skateboard and slung it over his shoulder. It was perfect. After all, it was the first birthday present he ever received. Once Cosena came out of the bathroom, dressed in a pair of jeans and a flannel shirt, the siblings left their room.
They walked down what felt like thirty floors before going down the spiral staircase to the Entrance Hall. Being down on the first floor made Naito wonder just how tall this castle really was. He looked up, but the ceiling was so high he couldn't make it out even when he squinted his eyes. Alile and Casele stood at the bottom of the staircase, both with duffel bags draped over their shoulders. They both bowed.
"Are we all ready to go?" Alile asked.
"I suppose Zento isn't back yet, then?" Cosena asked. Casele blotted at her damp cheeks at the mention of Zento.
"Zento is fine. I assure you he will be back tomorrow." Alile said confidently.
"How can you be so sure?" Naito asked. He couldn't imagine anyone being 'fine' after being carried away by Pumpkin.
"I'm psychic." Alile replied simply. According to the book "The History of Magic and our World", Aeromancers had excellent intuition to the point of some of them even having psychic abilities. It was a trait that only one out of every one hundred Aeromancers were blessed with, yet Alile said it like it was an everyday thing.
"Psychic?" Alsen gushed, "You mean, like, you can see the future? That's amazing! Can you tell me my future?"
"My apologies, lady Alsen, but I prefer not to use my power, nor talk about it, if possible." Alile said grimly, averting her gaze to the side, showing the slightest sign of emotion for the first time.
"Oh, s-sorry..."
"Shall we go now, then?" Alile was quick to change the topic away from her power. Naito nodded, so the five of them walked over to the magnificent door in front of them, where two magicians stood guard. Dressed in brown robes with the Gaiamancer insignia on the chest, the male of the two sentinels had his arms crossed and his eyes shut, snoring softly. Unlike her fellow guard, the female sentinel was wide awake, dressed in red robes with the Pyromancer insignia on the chest. She gasped at the sight of the group approaching them and elbowed her partner in the ribs. He awoke with a groan, rubbing his ribs where she struck him.
"Sleeping on the job again, Stan?" Alile asked, the lack of any emotion to her question surprisingly making it feel like a threat towards the sentinel.
Stan grunted groggily, rubbing his baggy eyes. "I was just resting my eyes..."
The female sentinel elbowed him in the rib again, then bowed before Naito. "I apologize for this man's lack of devotion, my lord!"
"M-my lord...? Oh shit..." Stan whispered under his breath, blinking at Naito, apparently just now noticing his presence. He followed his partner's lead, bowing as well. Naito could see a bead of sweat dripping down his forehead. Did he think Naito was going to punish him?
"If you're tired you can go take a nap. Tell someone else that your king told them to cover for you."
Stan stood back up to his full height quickly, but the Pyromancer magician was quick to interject. "B-But my lord, his shift doesn't end until three more hours!"
"It ends when the king says so." Naito surprised his own self with how much confidence he was taking in his role as king already.
"The king's word is absolute." Stan smirked at his partner and bowed to Naito one more time before running off, leaving the girl balling her fists and gritting her teeth in apparent anger and envy.
"Did you want a break too?" Naito asked with genuine concern. He didn't want his servants standing in one spot like that for hours.
She shook her head. "No, thank you my lord, but I'm fine..."
"Then open the gate already, Selena. We don't have all day." Alile said with crossed arms, tapping her foot impatiently. Selena muttered something under her breath as she strutted over to the lever. She grunted as she hauled at it with all her might for a brief moment before getting it to budge. The door creaked as it slowly spread open, letting in a gust of fresh, warm air.
As they walked out the castle, Naito stared up in awe at all the wondrous outside sights he had only seen in books before. It seemed that the castle was in a forest. The ancient trees stood like skyscrapers reaching up to the heavens, their leaves and branches blocking out the sunlight. Squirrels scurried about in search of food, while birds chirped, flying freely. Naito couldn't help but stretching his arms out to his sides. He felt just like the birds, finally spreading out his wings and taking flight. He heard the gate shut behind them and briskly spun around, but there was no castle in sight. "Where did the castle go?" he asked.
"Uhm, it's invisible, my lord." Casele spoke for the first time since the feast, "It's protected by many enchantments. You can't see it without speaking the password." she sounded confused by Naito's ignorance.
"Right...I knew that." Naito scratched his cheek in embarrassment at his stupid question. The gentle wind murmured, rustling the leaves on the ground. Alsen nearly jumped out of her skin, clinging to Naito's arm.
"T-There's not any...dangerous creatures here, right?" she asked.
"Creatures? Let's see...there's some wolves, bears, rabbits, deer, snakes, moose...oh, did you mean magical creatures? If you're lucky, you might spot a wolpertinger, a unicorn, a hippogriff, or maybe even a black shuck." Alile listed them off on her fingers and Alsen shuddered. Naito didn't think Alile was exactly being helpful.
"Do not fear, lady Alsen, we are here to keep you safe." Casele said reassuringly.
"By the way, I've been meaning to ask, what's in those duffel bags?" Cosena asked, pointing to the bags on Casele and Alile's shoulders.
"Supplies. We have a long journey ahead of us." Alile replied, "We shall head out to town now, then tomorrow, when Zento is back, we head to Tirdipsowl."
"We're walking all the way to town?" Alsen asked, clinging onto Naito even tighter.
"It's not far, do not worry. It's just straight ahead from here." Casele said. As they walked through the glade Alile explained to them that this was Fisdworetza, the forest where their fathers and Freylar hid during the war, then built the empire together. Alsen eventually seemed to lose her fear and walked over to Casele, giving her a compliment on her hair, which led to the two of them talking about silly, girly things. Naito rolled his eyes when he heard Alsen mention that she does Naito's hair for him because he's too 'little' to do it himself. Cosena took an interest in inquiring Alile about Aeromancers, which left Naito feeling quite bored. But he had just the idea.
"Animal Spirit – Wolf." he chanted, lagging behind the girls. "Think you can beat me to town, Shadow?" Naito asked, setting his skateboard down.
"Are you challenging me to a race? It's on!" Shadow's tongue hung out in excitement. Naito counted to three, then he and Shadow zoomed right past the girls.
"Naito, get back here! You need to stay with the group!" Cosena shouted after him.
"We're just going in a straight path aren't we? I won't get lost!" Naito laughed.
"M-my lord, I strongly advise that we stick together!" Casele exclaimed.
"Catch me if you can then!" Naito knew he was being childish, but it was just too much fun. Once he and Shadow were so far ahead of the girls that they couldn't see or hear them anymore, Naito rested against the bark of a tree, clutching his chest in laughter.
"Hey, why'd you stop? I thought we were racing?" Shadow complained, running back to Naito.
"Let's give them a chance to catch up a bit." Naito sat under the tree with Shadow resting in his lap.
"Naito, I've been thinking more on what your dreams could mean." Shadow said with a yawn.
"Oh yeah?"
"You're going to get your blizargwin form back soon, right? Maybe since the time is coming closer, you're starting to get your memories from your past lives back."
"That's what Nircogard's doing for me, is it?" Naito chuckled, "I think I already have enough memories I'd rather forget." They waited a while longer for the girls, but still heard no signs of them. Naito stood and started pacing nervously. What if they got lost? Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. It sure wasn't funny any more. Shadow howled to signal their location, but ten more minutes passed and still no one came. "Let's go back." Naito suggested, hopping back on his skateboard. He and Shadow began walking back the way they came, but as they did, Naito thought he could hear someone's voice. He came to a halt and listened more carefully, hoping it was his sisters or one of the soldiers. But it didn't sound like either of them. It was a faint, distant female voice. From what Naito could hear, it sounded like she was singing.
"Do you hear that, Shadow?"
"Hear what?"
"That voice, over there..." Naito pointed to the direction it was coming from. The voice felt as if it was drawing him towards it, his feet naturally straying from the glade and through the thicket. The further Naito went, the more clearly he could hear the voice. He felt a strange, warm resonance within him that felt somewhat familiar, making him even more curious. After several minutes he found the source of the voice. Ahead of him was a girl, sitting on a boulder by the river, tossing pebbles into it, singing while watching them go down the waterfall.
"No more empty paths to take,
Left with just these shadows,
I won't be forced to crawl,
Vengeance on blood betrayed,
Out of control, anything goes,
And I'll be the cause of your fall,
Hell rides on my shoulders tonight,
I'll trudge through your winter storms,
Down the path of a red moon paradise"
Although her lyrics were eerie and cryptic, she had a beautiful, captivating singing voice. Wait, where did she go? She was just right there, wasn't she? There was a light tap on his shoulder. Naito's heart skipped a beat. He spun around and was face-to-face with the girl. She was just about two inches shorter than him, with straight black hair, wearing a short, sleeveless black dress and black leggings underneath. Her eyes were heterochromatic: one a deep shade of scarlet, the other a soothing cyan. She held her purse in front of her, smiling innocently.
"I take it you liked my song." it was more of a statement than a question.
"H-How did you...?" Naito blinked his confusion.
"Singing? It's not hard, really. Would you like some lessons?"
"No, not that! Didn't you just teleport behind me? How did you do that?!"
"Oh, you mean this?" she teleported behind him again, swiping his skateboard from under his feet, causing him to fall on his butt.
"Hey, that's mine! Give it back!"
"You wouldn't mind me taking it for a spin, would you?" she did not wait for his permission before hopping on it and riding circles around him. Shadow barked and chased after her, but she reacted instantly by digging into her purse and, unless Naito's eyes were deceiving him, she pulled out a wand. "Animal Spirit – Condor." she chanted, summoning the spirit of a condor. The condor spirit swooped down from the air, picking Shadow up with it's talons. It circled around the trees with him before flying up higher and dropping him. Naito caught him before he could hit the ground.
"Magic...are you a wizard? A magician?" Naito staggered back in bewilderment. The girl in black ignored Naito's question, continuing to ride around him.
"This is a nice board you've got. You wouldn't mind if I keep it, would you?"
"No you can't keep it, it's MINE!" Naito shouted, getting back to his feet.
"But I like it~"
Frustrated, Naito pulled out his wand and pointed it at her, but before he could even cast a spell, the girl in black teleported a good few feet behind him. She chanted "Ethyfescir!", and he briskly spun around to see her wand transforming into a scythe nearly twice her own height, imprinted with a ghastly pattern of skulls. Naito had no idea what was going on, but if this girl had a transformed wand, he thought he would need to transform his as well.
"Cieseroe!" he chanted, transforming his wand into a rifle that strongly resembled a rose. It's stock was a light shade of mossy green, while the barrel and muzzle were a dark scarlet. He pulled the trigger several times, shooting a barrage of ice missiles at her. She swung her scythe in a wide arc, creating a wall of brilliant purple flames in front of her, melting the ice missiles before they could hit her. She laughed mockingly at Naito's puzzled and frustrated expression, leaning against a tree with her scythe raised above her head. Dressed in black with the skull-scythe, all she needed was a hood and Naito could have mistaken her for the grim reaper itself.
"Oh my, did you intend to hurt me with that toy gun?" she giggled. Naito was ready to pull the trigger again, but a loud ringing suddenly blared from his pocket. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out his cell phone and saw that Cosena was calling him. Wow, he was stupid. Why didn't he think to call her?
"Cosena!" he said, answering it.
"NAITO!!!" she shouted furiously, "Where the hell are you? We've been lo-" Naito felt his nose crunch under the impact of the girl's foot. He fell to his knees and dropped his phone, clutching onto his blood-smeared nose. The condor spirit swooped down from the sky and grabbed Naito's phone, giving it to the girl in black.
"Not very smart to attack someone then take your eyes off of her, is it?" the girl in black licked her lips teasingly, hanging Naito's phone up. "Don't worry about those two, you have me to play with now."
"How do you know my name? Who are you?!" Naito demanded, pointing Cieseroe at her head.
"Who cares? Certainly not you, nor anyone else." she said cryptically, sticking his phone into her purse.
"Thief!" Shadow barked, pouncing at her, but she simply teleported out of the way then stomped on his head. Shadow whimpered in pain.
"Don't you dare hurt Shadow!" Naito shouted, shooting a second barrage of ice missiles at her. Once again she protected herself with a wall of flames.
"Why not? It's fun. Oh my, have I made you upset?" she cocked her head to the side, pressing her finger to her lipss.
"Yes! Yes you have!"
"If it bothers you so much, I'll just hurt you some more instead." She teleported behind Naito, kneeing him in the back. He fell to his knees, wincing in pain. The condor spirit flew after Shadow again, but Shadow leaped, tackling it in midair and biting down into it's neck. The condor's body evaporated into nothing more than gray mist, floating away.
"Shadow, you..." Naito knew what happened to an Animal Spirit upon being killed once more, but that was his first time seeing it with his own eyes.
"Tch, useless spirit." the girl in black pinched her nose and waved the mist out of her face as if in disgust.
"I'll protect you no matter what, Naito." Shadow snarled at the girl in black. "Give my friend his stuff back, now!"
"Silence, stupid mutt! Why don't you go back to being dead too while I play with the king?" she kicked Naito in the chin and he fell to the ground, feeling blood swell up in his mouth. She rose her foot to strike him again, but Shadow's fangs bit right into her leg. "AH!!!" she hissed in pain, "Stupid mutt, now you've gone and made me mad!" she thrust her palm down at Shadow. Her palm began to glow with a radiant purple aura. Naito quickly transformed Cieseroe back to it's wand form and unsummoned Shadow, right before a huge burst of flames shot out of the girl's palm, scorching the grass where Shadow had just stood. The girl in black transformed Ethyfescir back to it's wand form. Pointing her wand up towards the sky, she chanted, "Krifarde!" Her wand began to glow with an even brighter purple aura. Slowly, the light from her wand formed in the sky, shining down on them. It didn't take a genius to figure out she was charging up her most powerful spell. Naito spit out a mouthful of blood before cloaking his fists in jagged ice and charged, swinging them at her face. She didn't even need to move from her spot to kick Naito in the gut, knocking him right back down. Naito thrust his palm forward, causing sharp, spiky icicles to shoot up from the ground where the girl in black stood. She was left with no choice but to give up on charging her attack and teleport out of the way. She pointed her wand down and whispered something under her breath, and the purple light shot down. Naito jumped back and put his arms above his head instinctively, but the light didn't shoot down at him. It shot down at her. Rather than scorching her on the spot like Naito imagined it would do to him, she seemed to absorb it, and it protruded from her back, forming the shape of a pair of malevolent wings. Once her wings were finished forming, she spread her arms out to the side, levitating above the ground.
"What are you, a demon?!" Naito asked, his hands trembling.
"Naito!!! Naito, are you there?!" it was Alsen's voice. Naito could hear her footsteps, along with the others, getting closer with each second. The girl in black's spell must have gave their location away.
"Alsen, Cosena, I'm over h-" he said, but the girl in black swooped down at him, kicking him in the chest, followed up by a kick to the jaw and an agonizingly painful stomp to his temple. Naito cried out in pain.
"Lucky you, it seems the rescue team is here." she landed and her wings evaporated. She pulled a vial out of her pocket, filled to the brim with a black liquid. "Be a good boy and drink this for me, will you?" she sat on his back and yanked his head up with a fistful of his hair, shoving the vial into his mouth. He tried to resist, but she was still able to get some of the bitter liquid down his throat. Within seconds he was thrashing around on the ground, pulling at his hair and howling like a tortured mutt. "I wish we could play some more, but I don't like being outnumbered. Sweet dreams, my little king." she kissed his forehead, then rode away on his skateboard, finishing her song.
"We'll meet by the river at twilight,
Down the raging waterfall,
Throw your stones,
I'll drop a mountain,
Who will be the one,
To lose it all?"
Hell rides on my shoulders tonight,
I'll trudge through your winter storms,
Down the path of a red moon paradise"
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