Sitting atop Arcus, Erias was trying to expand his senses, trying to perceive any Undead nearby. Even after they landed on a vast and massive pillar, he couldn't feel anything. He fought many of them and was proficient in sniffing them out, but… here? Nothing.
"Are you sure we are in the right place?"
"Yep!" Arcus nodded, transforming back into a human body, "This way!"
He led him to an opening covered by lush and tall grass, leading into a spiral staircase. They took only a short time to walk down multiple levels and come across a vast chamber inside the pillar. The duo was standing on a walkway, fastened to the wall and leaning against the golden railing; Erias couldn't believe what he was seeing, housed inside a hidden chamber. Below them, in different, meditative positions, thousands of perfectly preserved bodies were sitting there, unmoving.
“These are… not undead…” Erias murmured as they did not feel like them. There was no feeling of dread or his soul being shaken by their unnatural existence.
"I know that their hair is not white, but look… they are clearly dead and without life! They could be easily prepared bodies! There are no souls in any of them!"
"Let's go down… I want to check them out!" Erias exclaimed, going down hurriedly, and a moment later, the two were walking around the meditating bodies. There were young and old, male and female, all wearing a golden robe with a differently colored trim at its seams. "This has to be a differentiation between ranks." He pointed at the blue decoration on one and the green on another.
"Most of them have the silver one."
"There!" He pointed at a white-haired and bearded figure of a man. He was a thing, yet his unmoving body still exuded power from within, having ruby-like decorations on his robes. "That one seems rare!" He was just about to touch it when a calm, kind female voice interjected.
"Please don't disturb them."
At once, the duo spun around, looking for the voice, and they saw an ethereal wolf appear between the bodies.
"Who are you?" Erias asked, ready to fight and looking at the many bodies, expecting them to start waking up.
"I am…" The wolf stopped, thinking, tilting her head to the sides, going back and forth. "I no longer have a name. It is useless anyway. Call me however you want."
"She is weird…" Arcus whispered, but a dragon's voice was way too strong for something like that.
"If you want to rob them, do it on the surface. Take things from the buildings. The bodies are not for you to pillage. If you try, I will have to kill you." She continued, her voice devoid of any real emotion, stating it simply and cleanly.
"Oh really?!" Arcus scoffed, puffing himself up, walking forward as his body was covered in black scales.
"Arcus, wait-!"
"Typical." The wolf replied, and dark smoke billowed out of her transparent body, washing everything over.
The next moment, Erias and Arcus, found themselves falling from the sky towards the endless, giant river. Clearly, they were teleported out from the chamber and expected to crash into the water, which would be deadly from this height. To an average human, that is.
"Hmph!" Arcus shuddered, changing form at once while Erias landed on his back; the dragon was about to fly back up when the river's surface rippled, and a giant koi fish jumped out, smashing against Arcus with his massive tailfin, smacking him into the side of a nearby rock pillar, making it crack and tremble. "Ugh!" Even the dragon felt pain this time, not to mention Erias, who dodged at the last moment, sliding down to the end of Arcus's tail to not get squashed by him and the rocks.
"Deal with them, Swimmy." The wolf expressed, appearing not that far away, standing on nothing.
"Call me Lord of the River as everyone else did!" The fish retorted angrily as its body resurfaced once again. It was white with black spots around it… no… it was black with white spots…. No… Nobody could tell how it was really, but one thing was sure. His strength was no joke.
"Let me deal with the fish!" Arcus shouted, and Erias only nodded, kicking off and flying upwards.
They called themselves brothers. Not just because they were so close but because Arcus shared his own blood essence with Erias. That was something that wasn't done between humans and dragons for eons. While soaring through the air, Erias felt his mana being reinforced by Arcus's power as shadowy, black wings appeared behind him, helping him fly without any effort.
In the meanwhile, Arcus breathed out vast swaths of fire, but the giant koi fish simply submerged itself into the water, escaping. The moment he did it, Arcus lost the fluctuations of its mana and couldn't tell where he was hiding.
"Hmph!" The young dragon snorted, taking a deep breath, and he started coating the river with his flames, holding back nothing.
"Damned lizard!" Swimmy shouted, arising amongst the flames, and to Arcus's surprise, all his fire was stripped from his control, turned into nothing but water, merging into the river itself.
"What?!" Arcus gasped as it was the first time his control was overturned and with such ease. "You are weird.." He tried a different method, flapping his wings, and sharp wind blades crisscrossed through the air.
"Hmph!" Swimmy jumped, turning into a scrawny, tall man with scales covering his skin as he slapped the spells away, turning them into earth. Half-moon-looking swaths of dirt fell into the river the moment it happened, and he was standing in the air, simply waiting for Arcus's next move. "That is all, Lizzy?"
"Grrr!" The dragon growled, already hating the weird man, but no matter what type of spells he threw at him, Swimmy simply turned them into their opposite element, dispelling them quickly.
While Arcus was fighting with his opponent, Erias was trying to capture the ethereal form of the spirit before him. Both of them were using darkness-based spells, clashing in mid-air. To Erias's surprise, the wolf was able to teleport and attack back from varying angles, pushing him into a defensive stance remarkably quickly.
"You are good…" Erias whispered, but the wolf's simple answer made him twitch his mouth.
"You are mediocre."
"It is time to ramp it up then!"
Erias didn't hesitate. He never did when it came to fighting. He always found that he could advance the quickest in battle, and only under pressure could he live up to his full potential. Yet… he hated to be put into situations like those. He wanted nothing to do with them. Being talented was a curse for him, and he hated that others expected something from him everywhere he went. Just because he was a bit faster in learning… Only the dragons looked at him as normal… as an equal. None of them treated him weirdly if he showed a little bit of his talent.
When he was young, he was bullied in the orphanage. When he was finally sent to school to learn, he was bullied because he always knew the correct answers. It wasn't his fault; the subjects were… easy to understand. All that the teachers said was simple; he just… remembered them. But for the other kids? He was a weirdo. This did not change, not even after getting into a school for magic. It was the same, only the bullying became much worse. So he gave up. He wanted nothing to do with talent nor with the so-called responsibility. He wanted to play. He wanted to have fun. He wanted friends. Then it happened; A bullying went too far, and he landed in a river, unconscious, washing up in a hidden village of dragons.
His life was forever changed that day. He spent a year there and created a bond with Arcus that became so strong they truly felt they were brothers. Everyone was surprised he was alive after returning to the magic academy, but they let him graduate. It was like giving him the freedom he always wanted and touring the continent, vowing he would not take anything seriously… ever again. Yet… fate ordained that he had to. He couldn't ignore the clues, the facts that the Undead was involved in such elaborate plans, kidnappings, and distractions that had to be a sign of something significant coming. He had to warn everybody… and if this wolf stood in his way in doing so, then he had to use his newly learned powers to get rid of her! With a shout, light, and darkness merged around his hand, forming a bow with eight arrows, letting them loose at once.
"Ah…!" The wolf's voice chimed with feelings for the first time seeing the eight, no… sixteen arrows heading for her. The glowing projectiles were, in fact, two as they all had a shadow under them, an almost invisible pair connected to them by the link between light and darkness. "Stop!"
The wolf's shout was so loud it echoed throughout the sub-realm. The moment she spoke, everything obeyed. Not just Erias's arrows but the waves below, the flying Arcus, and the smirking Swimmy, everything came to a halt. No wind blew, and the splashing of waves stood frozen in mid-air, the same as the light coming from the artificial sun. Only the wolf could move. Erias's mind was still functioning, the same as Arcus's. The two, being connected, could continue communicating, and Arcus's voice was now panicky.
"Brother, this is not good… this is time magic! This is lost magic! This should not even exist! This is not part of the eight elements! This is from the outside! She is not part of our Relam!"
"Correct." The wolf said, her voice echoing in both of their heads. "And don't worry, I can only do this in here as I am the guardian of the Realm of the Golden Order, the home of the Golden Claw Sect. Not that I would want to go out and interact with you, humans… or beasts. You are simply too barbaric. Destructive. Hopeless."
"Then why are we still alive?" Erias asked, trying to remain calm and find a way to escape the weird spell. He was already used to the sub-realm's bizarre effect on the soul… so he was trying to utilize it and devise a way to use his soul to start moving again.
"Because…" The wolf looked at him then she tilted her head with surprise. "You are starting to utilize your soul? How? You clearly did not learn about it yet…"
"I had a hunch." Erais groaned, feeling naked as if she could read his thoughts. "I am already used to the feeling prevalent here and how it affects the soul! Not to mention the Undead and their hold over it!"
"The Undead?" She asked, her voice becoming cold. "I see. You thought the bodies down there were properties of the Soulbound Sect. Ah…” She sighed as if realizing a mistake and a simple miscommunication. "This will be enough, Swimmy." With a wave of her tail, all four were teleported once again, appearing atop a rock pillar as everything was moving once more.
"Hmph…" Arcus turned into a human, cracking his shoulders, looking agitated but remaining standing next to his brother.
"Ahhh… that felt good; you are good!" Swimmy chuckled, also cracking his neck with pleasure. "I needed that!"
"Yeah…" Arcus mumbled, rubbing his nose, feeling a bit weirded out that he had to agree with his opponent.
"Who are you?" Erias asked again, looking at the two, feeling there had to be a long explanation behind this all, or he would start breaking down mentally.
"That… that is a long story." The wolf said placidly.
"We have time, don't we?" Erais replied, sitting down, crossing his arms, and Arcus followed suit immediately. "Please, enlighten us!"
"And if I don't want to?"
"Then we won't move!" They said in unison, "Hmph! We will throw a tantrum! You'll see!" The two harrumphed like a kid, a trait that thousands of years later showed itself in Lia too.
"Then…" The wolf sat down, shaking her head. "I will tell you the abridged version."
Sitting atop Arcus, Erias was trying to expand his senses, trying to perceive any Undead nearby. Even after they landed on a vast and massive pillar, he couldn't feel anything. He fought many of them and was proficient in sniffing them out, but… here? Nothing.
"Are you sure we are in the right place?"
"Yep!" Arcus nodded, transforming back into a human body, "This way!"
He led him to an opening covered by lush and tall grass, leading into a spiral staircase. They took only a short time to walk down multiple levels and come across a vast chamber inside the pillar. The duo was standing on a walkway, fastened to the wall and leaning against the golden railing; Erias couldn't believe what he was seeing, housed inside a hidden chamber. Below them, in different, meditative positions, thousands of perfectly preserved bodies were sitting there, unmoving.
“These are… not undead…” Erias murmured as they did not feel like them. There was no feeling of dread or his soul being shaken by their unnatural existence.
"I know that their hair is not white, but look… they are clearly dead and without life! They could be easily prepared bodies! There are no souls in any of them!"
"Let's go down… I want to check them out!" Erias exclaimed, going down hurriedly, and a moment later, the two were walking around the meditating bodies. There were young and old, male and female, all wearing a golden robe with a differently colored trim at its seams. "This has to be a differentiation between ranks." He pointed at the blue decoration on one and the green on another.
"Most of them have the silver one."
"There!" He pointed at a white-haired and bearded figure of a man. He was a thing, yet his unmoving body still exuded power from within, having ruby-like decorations on his robes. "That one seems rare!" He was just about to touch it when a calm, kind female voice interjected.
"Please don't disturb them."
At once, the duo spun around, looking for the voice, and they saw an ethereal wolf appear between the bodies.
"Who are you?" Erias asked, ready to fight and looking at the many bodies, expecting them to start waking up.
"I am…" The wolf stopped, thinking, tilting her head to the sides, going back and forth. "I no longer have a name. It is useless anyway. Call me however you want."
"She is weird…" Arcus whispered, but a dragon's voice was way too strong for something like that.
"If you want to rob them, do it on the surface. Take things from the buildings. The bodies are not for you to pillage. If you try, I will have to kill you." She continued, her voice devoid of any real emotion, stating it simply and cleanly.
"Oh really?!" Arcus scoffed, puffing himself up, walking forward as his body was covered in black scales.
"Arcus, wait-!"
"Typical." The wolf replied, and dark smoke billowed out of her transparent body, washing everything over.
The next moment, Erias and Arcus, found themselves falling from the sky towards the endless, giant river. Clearly, they were teleported out from the chamber and expected to crash into the water, which would be deadly from this height. To an average human, that is.
"Hmph!" Arcus shuddered, changing form at once while Erias landed on his back; the dragon was about to fly back up when the river's surface rippled, and a giant koi fish jumped out, smashing against Arcus with his massive tailfin, smacking him into the side of a nearby rock pillar, making it crack and tremble. "Ugh!" Even the dragon felt pain this time, not to mention Erias, who dodged at the last moment, sliding down to the end of Arcus's tail to not get squashed by him and the rocks.
"Deal with them, Swimmy." The wolf expressed, appearing not that far away, standing on nothing.
"Call me Lord of the River as everyone else did!" The fish retorted angrily as its body resurfaced once again. It was white with black spots around it… no… it was black with white spots…. No… Nobody could tell how it was really, but one thing was sure. His strength was no joke.
"Let me deal with the fish!" Arcus shouted, and Erias only nodded, kicking off and flying upwards.
They called themselves brothers. Not just because they were so close but because Arcus shared his own blood essence with Erias. That was something that wasn't done between humans and dragons for eons. While soaring through the air, Erias felt his mana being reinforced by Arcus's power as shadowy, black wings appeared behind him, helping him fly without any effort.
In the meanwhile, Arcus breathed out vast swaths of fire, but the giant koi fish simply submerged itself into the water, escaping. The moment he did it, Arcus lost the fluctuations of its mana and couldn't tell where he was hiding.
"Hmph!" The young dragon snorted, taking a deep breath, and he started coating the river with his flames, holding back nothing.
"Damned lizard!" Swimmy shouted, arising amongst the flames, and to Arcus's surprise, all his fire was stripped from his control, turned into nothing but water, merging into the river itself.
"What?!" Arcus gasped as it was the first time his control was overturned and with such ease. "You are weird.." He tried a different method, flapping his wings, and sharp wind blades crisscrossed through the air.
"Hmph!" Swimmy jumped, turning into a scrawny, tall man with scales covering his skin as he slapped the spells away, turning them into earth. Half-moon-looking swaths of dirt fell into the river the moment it happened, and he was standing in the air, simply waiting for Arcus's next move. "That is all, Lizzy?"
"Grrr!" The dragon growled, already hating the weird man, but no matter what type of spells he threw at him, Swimmy simply turned them into their opposite element, dispelling them quickly.
While Arcus was fighting with his opponent, Erias was trying to capture the ethereal form of the spirit before him. Both of them were using darkness-based spells, clashing in mid-air. To Erias's surprise, the wolf was able to teleport and attack back from varying angles, pushing him into a defensive stance remarkably quickly.
"You are good…" Erias whispered, but the wolf's simple answer made him twitch his mouth.
"You are mediocre."
"It is time to ramp it up then!"
Erias didn't hesitate. He never did when it came to fighting. He always found that he could advance the quickest in battle, and only under pressure could he live up to his full potential. Yet… he hated to be put into situations like those. He wanted nothing to do with them. Being talented was a curse for him, and he hated that others expected something from him everywhere he went. Just because he was a bit faster in learning… Only the dragons looked at him as normal… as an equal. None of them treated him weirdly if he showed a little bit of his talent.
When he was young, he was bullied in the orphanage. When he was finally sent to school to learn, he was bullied because he always knew the correct answers. It wasn't his fault; the subjects were… easy to understand. All that the teachers said was simple; he just… remembered them. But for the other kids? He was a weirdo. This did not change, not even after getting into a school for magic. It was the same, only the bullying became much worse. So he gave up. He wanted nothing to do with talent nor with the so-called responsibility. He wanted to play. He wanted to have fun. He wanted friends. Then it happened; A bullying went too far, and he landed in a river, unconscious, washing up in a hidden village of dragons.
His life was forever changed that day. He spent a year there and created a bond with Arcus that became so strong they truly felt they were brothers. Everyone was surprised he was alive after returning to the magic academy, but they let him graduate. It was like giving him the freedom he always wanted and touring the continent, vowing he would not take anything seriously… ever again. Yet… fate ordained that he had to. He couldn't ignore the clues, the facts that the Undead was involved in such elaborate plans, kidnappings, and distractions that had to be a sign of something significant coming. He had to warn everybody… and if this wolf stood in his way in doing so, then he had to use his newly learned powers to get rid of her! With a shout, light, and darkness merged around his hand, forming a bow with eight arrows, letting them loose at once.
"Ah…!" The wolf's voice chimed with feelings for the first time seeing the eight, no… sixteen arrows heading for her. The glowing projectiles were, in fact, two as they all had a shadow under them, an almost invisible pair connected to them by the link between light and darkness. "Stop!"
The wolf's shout was so loud it echoed throughout the sub-realm. The moment she spoke, everything obeyed. Not just Erias's arrows but the waves below, the flying Arcus, and the smirking Swimmy, everything came to a halt. No wind blew, and the splashing of waves stood frozen in mid-air, the same as the light coming from the artificial sun. Only the wolf could move. Erias's mind was still functioning, the same as Arcus's. The two, being connected, could continue communicating, and Arcus's voice was now panicky.
"Brother, this is not good… this is time magic! This is lost magic! This should not even exist! This is not part of the eight elements! This is from the outside! She is not part of our Relam!"
"Correct." The wolf said, her voice echoing in both of their heads. "And don't worry, I can only do this in here as I am the guardian of the Realm of the Golden Order, the home of the Golden Claw Sect. Not that I would want to go out and interact with you, humans… or beasts. You are simply too barbaric. Destructive. Hopeless."
"Then why are we still alive?" Erias asked, trying to remain calm and find a way to escape the weird spell. He was already used to the sub-realm's bizarre effect on the soul… so he was trying to utilize it and devise a way to use his soul to start moving again.
"Because…" The wolf looked at him then she tilted her head with surprise. "You are starting to utilize your soul? How? You clearly did not learn about it yet…"
"I had a hunch." Erais groaned, feeling naked as if she could read his thoughts. "I am already used to the feeling prevalent here and how it affects the soul! Not to mention the Undead and their hold over it!"
"The Undead?" She asked, her voice becoming cold. "I see. You thought the bodies down there were properties of the Soulbound Sect. Ah…” She sighed as if realizing a mistake and a simple miscommunication. "This will be enough, Swimmy." With a wave of her tail, all four were teleported once again, appearing atop a rock pillar as everything was moving once more.
"Hmph…" Arcus turned into a human, cracking his shoulders, looking agitated but remaining standing next to his brother.
"Ahhh… that felt good; you are good!" Swimmy chuckled, also cracking his neck with pleasure. "I needed that!"
"Yeah…" Arcus mumbled, rubbing his nose, feeling a bit weirded out that he had to agree with his opponent.
"Who are you?" Erias asked again, looking at the two, feeling there had to be a long explanation behind this all, or he would start breaking down mentally.
"That… that is a long story." The wolf said placidly.
"We have time, don't we?" Erais replied, sitting down, crossing his arms, and Arcus followed suit immediately. "Please, enlighten us!"
"And if I don't want to?"
"Then we won't move!" They said in unison, "Hmph! We will throw a tantrum! You'll see!" The two harrumphed like a kid, a trait that thousands of years later showed itself in Lia too.
"Then…" The wolf sat down, shaking her head. "I will tell you the abridged version."
