“Choot Choot! The all on board the hype train!” I said, Hannah’s hand unnecessarily on my shoulders to form some sort of column.
“Woo … hoo.” She mumbled a bit bored and let go of my shoulders at last. “Shouldn’t we going to get the others?” Hannah asked clearly tired from walking around for half an hour without any clear goal in sight.
“Aren’t we doing that already? Look! There are Sofie, Louis and Ellie. That’s basically a tenth of the work done!” I said happily and waved towards the trio who had already noticed us.
“A tenth?” She asked as Sofie activated her own light to make them more visible.
“Yeah … Schwarz got himself trapped in some weird plant nearby. That’s going to be a hassle to get him out.” I mumbled a bit angry at him but soon returned to waving towards the three until our comes of light merged.
“Hey … where is the mage?” Sofie asked right away. She must have been worried even for him … how cute.
“He … he didn’t make it. He saved me from certain death but … he sacrificed himself for me.” I explained while pressing out a few fake tears. Directly, I could feel Hannah’s consoling hand on my shoulder while Sofie took me in her arms which felt quite nice if I was honest.
“It’s okay … I think he died valorously protecting you?” Really? He proclaimed his near invincibly in one second and died in another with even his soul being blasted a hundred kilometre away. That was quite the hilarious death though …
“I know … which was why we have to be strong right now. We have to leave this dangerous place as soon as possible … I have found what we came here for.” I admitted and patted the katana at my hip which was more than enough to defeat the demon king. “But I also have other bad news … the portal that bought us here is no more, but luckily there is another way out. This place is apparently a hub for connecting all the worlds together which is why we will be able to use a vehicle to bring us back. We need to find a place to hop on board though.”
“Sounds like a spaceport.” Excuse me? What the fuck was that? I was already struggling with the concept of a train station, but what was a spaceport? Somewhere where you could hop onto space itself? Tilting my head in confusion, I looked at Louis who held his hand in front of his mouth and looked at Hannah and me with wide open eyes.
“What’s that?” I asked interested even though I could hear Hannah groaning quietly by my side.
“It’s like … a theory of mine for mass teleportation.” So a spaceport was for teleportation … that’s what I would have believed if I didn’t know for sure he was lying.
“Kay. Hannah had seen Schwarz over in that direction. Shall we?” I asked right away glossing over the awkward atmosphere right away.
“Sure.” Ellie said immediately and stomped off in the direction where I had pointed and looked at Louis a bit angrily. “How did you find that sword anyways?” She asked looking back to me and the sword on my hip.
“The mage found it in some ruins. Luckily there was no boss there, otherwise we would be in a lot of trouble.”
“I think this whole floor is full of boss monsters.” Sofie added while looking at us worried. I could theoretically assure her that we were safe for the time being though. Nobody except Schwarz who was stuck in a plant a kilometre away was close.
“There he is.” Hannah said, glancing in the distance to look at Schwarz lower half sticking out of a plant which seemed to have a firm grip on him otherwise.
“Hey! Are you alright?” Sofie shouted as we approached him quickly. As an answer though, he merely wriggled his legs in the air as he was upside down.
“We should burn that plant.” Louis proposed which I found hilarious. It was a perfect idea … in more than one way.
“No? Schwarz is still in there.” Sofie said indignantly while Hannah stepped in front of us and simply cut the plant apart like it was nothing.
A very slimy Schwarz slammed onto the ground shortly afterwards as nobody had the courage to help him at all. Whiteish mucus was all over his upper body and slowly seeped down into his pants as well which made Ellie and Louis laugh involuntary.
“Hey! This is the last floor and you are laughing about my misfortune?” He asked angrily while I could understood these two very well as I made sure to etch this memory into my brain as much as possible.
“I’m sorry. That was inappropriate. Do you mind if I … clean you a little?” Louis asked while holding his mouth to hide the smile on his lips.
“No. Do your thing.” Schwarz said, crossed his arms in front of his chest and was promptly drenched from head to toe in magical water. Everyone of us naturally turned their back towards him as he cleaned the cum … ehm, mucus off himself while cursing quietly. It took fifteen minutes for him to be satisfied with his appearance and he allowed us to turn around to find him cleaned and dried by Louis magic.
“Now I’m clean … but still useless. I lost my sword somewhere.” How … why was I even asking myself that. Shaking my head a little bit, I undid the belt of my seethe and threw my weapon over to him.
“Make sure you don’t lose that one.” I said sternly and walked past him nonchalantly. “Get going. The station is a hundred kilometres in that direction.” I pointed to the place I found as odd and never visited before. That surely had to be it.
“A hundred kilometres? I don’t have food nor watcher for that …” Schwarz admitted, turning around to show me his empty back. At least he still had his head on his shoulders … so there was that.
“Sofie? Can you help me with air gliders?” Hannah proposed a spell I definitely didn’t know, that was for sure. I had hoped we could fly easily, but that was apparently too mana intensive.
“I don’t know that spell … but I can give you part of my mana if that’s what you need.” Sofie answered slowly while thinking about Hannah’s proposal.
“That’s more than enough. You can think of this magic as if there is ice underneath your feet. It allows us to speed across even terrain without actually flying.” She said and made air cushions underneath her feet which levitated her up a little. And then, she started sliding slowly at first, but without any resistance of the ground whatsoever.
“That should work.” I said and was quite surprised as I was lifted up myself and started gliding down the hill slowly. “Try to move your feet!” She said and I realised directly what I had to do. It was like I had a fed mini wheels underneath my feet which allowed me to move a bit slower than my usual top speed effortlessly.
“That could work … I just hope we are fast enough for the festival tomorrow.” Ellie said, equally testing her newfound mobility out. She would have it the hardest as she wore the most amour but she was quickly supported by Schwarz who took her backpack.
And so, we made our way towards the mysterious train station in purgatory. Obviously, we didn’t manage to get there without issue though. Sofie fell three times and Ellie two times, but the horrendous victor of having the most broken bones was Louis with thirteen times falling over.
I had to applaud him for that. But luckily, Sofie’s healing abilities were stronger than ever before which was why we arrived at the train station a few hours later completely unharmed.
From the distance, it looked like a rectangular box in the middle of nowhere with a strange rectangle in front of it. Additionally, there were two one kilometre long metal bars in front of it, ending abruptly on each side.
“Is that a train station?” So they knew recognised it right away? Probably because of the two metal bars in front.
Without the magical support, we approached the building a bit cautiously until we quickly ran across the metal bars and hopped onto the platform.
“Hello?” Louis asked, knocking into a crystal clear window in the box out of a strange material I had never seen before.
“Customers?” Someone asked from the inside, stepping behind the glass window while yawning. “The entrance is to your left … please come in.”
I was honestly very surprised to see him there, especially because I failed to sense anything from him. As Schwarz opened the clear glass door though, I could finally feel the death in him as well. It seeped through his bones like it was natural, and yet he had a pulse and breathed slowly.
“Hi. We need to get to Solaris.” I explained, stepping in front of the very surprised group.
“All routes to Solaris are terminated right now due to technical difficulties. Please consult your travel agency about this.” There were regular routes to Solaris? Why did anyone want to go to that place?
“… who is using these routes usually?” Sofie asked nicely and expressed what I wanted to know as well.
“Mostly film crews. Seems to have quite the scenery … but I’m just a normal angel working here, so what do I know?” Film crews? What were those? Shaking my head to focus on the task, I leaned onto the counter and looked into his eyes.
“But we need to get there.” I explained a bit helpless and gave him my sweetest smile.
“No exceptions.” He said completely unimpressed.
“Alrighty. Where else can we go?” I asked and tilted my head with interest.
“There is a nearly unlimited number of destinations …” He admitted and pointed at a very thick book which was apparently just volume one of any possible destination.
“Hmm … guys, we need to talk this over.” I said and turned around on my heels to shoo the group outside. “Does anyone have any idea?”
“No. I don’t even know how we are supposed to pay him. I doubt he takes our money.” Louis admitted, looking into the distance rather absentmindedly and lost.
“Hmm. Oh, I forgot to tell him something.” I said, patted Hannah’s back so that she wouldn’t allow anyone else inside and entered the strange building once more. Walking across the pristine floor with a black and white pattern, I grabbed into my backpack and picked out the picture right away.
“So actually I am Askatesh’s friend.” I admitted and presented him the evidence right away. He did make wide eyes and then looked at me vastly differently.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know that. If I have offended you in any way, I beg your pardon.” He said and lowered his head considerably.
“It’s fine as long as you can get us to Solaris.” I said in a slightly less friendly tone than before.
“That … is sadly not possible.” He admitted, looking down onto his feet.
“Then bring me to wherever he is.” I said and pointed at Aska in the picture. He looked up, and then nodded several times before he touched the counter and activated some kind of magical Interface right away.
“He is … presumably at the universal studios. I am blocking a ticket for your group right away.” He said and touched the strange thing several times until he reached beneath the desk and gave me five pieces of paper. “It will arrive in ten minutes. Your seats are right at the front.”
“Thank you very much.” I smiled gently, took the documents from him and stored the picture back in my backpack. Strolling out of the rectangular building, I smiled happily and gave them the news once the door was closed.
“The way is clear to get back to Solaris!” I explained happily and gave each and and everyone their tickets with a bright smile on my face. None of them could read the language of the gods after all, so I wasn’t exactly worried that they would find out this train wasn’t headed for Solaris.
“Choot Choot! The all on board the hype train!” I said, Hannah’s hand unnecessarily on my shoulders to form some sort of column.
“Woo … hoo.” She mumbled a bit bored and let go of my shoulders at last. “Shouldn’t we going to get the others?” Hannah asked clearly tired from walking around for half an hour without any clear goal in sight.
“Aren’t we doing that already? Look! There are Sofie, Louis and Ellie. That’s basically a tenth of the work done!” I said happily and waved towards the trio who had already noticed us.
“A tenth?” She asked as Sofie activated her own light to make them more visible.
“Yeah … Schwarz got himself trapped in some weird plant nearby. That’s going to be a hassle to get him out.” I mumbled a bit angry at him but soon returned to waving towards the three until our comes of light merged.
“Hey … where is the mage?” Sofie asked right away. She must have been worried even for him … how cute.
“He … he didn’t make it. He saved me from certain death but … he sacrificed himself for me.” I explained while pressing out a few fake tears. Directly, I could feel Hannah’s consoling hand on my shoulder while Sofie took me in her arms which felt quite nice if I was honest.
“It’s okay … I think he died valorously protecting you?” Really? He proclaimed his near invincibly in one second and died in another with even his soul being blasted a hundred kilometre away. That was quite the hilarious death though …
“I know … which was why we have to be strong right now. We have to leave this dangerous place as soon as possible … I have found what we came here for.” I admitted and patted the katana at my hip which was more than enough to defeat the demon king. “But I also have other bad news … the portal that bought us here is no more, but luckily there is another way out. This place is apparently a hub for connecting all the worlds together which is why we will be able to use a vehicle to bring us back. We need to find a place to hop on board though.”
“Sounds like a spaceport.” Excuse me? What the fuck was that? I was already struggling with the concept of a train station, but what was a spaceport? Somewhere where you could hop onto space itself? Tilting my head in confusion, I looked at Louis who held his hand in front of his mouth and looked at Hannah and me with wide open eyes.
“What’s that?” I asked interested even though I could hear Hannah groaning quietly by my side.
“It’s like … a theory of mine for mass teleportation.” So a spaceport was for teleportation … that’s what I would have believed if I didn’t know for sure he was lying.
“Kay. Hannah had seen Schwarz over in that direction. Shall we?” I asked right away glossing over the awkward atmosphere right away.
“Sure.” Ellie said immediately and stomped off in the direction where I had pointed and looked at Louis a bit angrily. “How did you find that sword anyways?” She asked looking back to me and the sword on my hip.
“The mage found it in some ruins. Luckily there was no boss there, otherwise we would be in a lot of trouble.”
“I think this whole floor is full of boss monsters.” Sofie added while looking at us worried. I could theoretically assure her that we were safe for the time being though. Nobody except Schwarz who was stuck in a plant a kilometre away was close.
“There he is.” Hannah said, glancing in the distance to look at Schwarz lower half sticking out of a plant which seemed to have a firm grip on him otherwise.
“Hey! Are you alright?” Sofie shouted as we approached him quickly. As an answer though, he merely wriggled his legs in the air as he was upside down.
“We should burn that plant.” Louis proposed which I found hilarious. It was a perfect idea … in more than one way.
“No? Schwarz is still in there.” Sofie said indignantly while Hannah stepped in front of us and simply cut the plant apart like it was nothing.
A very slimy Schwarz slammed onto the ground shortly afterwards as nobody had the courage to help him at all. Whiteish mucus was all over his upper body and slowly seeped down into his pants as well which made Ellie and Louis laugh involuntary.
“Hey! This is the last floor and you are laughing about my misfortune?” He asked angrily while I could understood these two very well as I made sure to etch this memory into my brain as much as possible.
“I’m sorry. That was inappropriate. Do you mind if I … clean you a little?” Louis asked while holding his mouth to hide the smile on his lips.
“No. Do your thing.” Schwarz said, crossed his arms in front of his chest and was promptly drenched from head to toe in magical water. Everyone of us naturally turned their back towards him as he cleaned the cum … ehm, mucus off himself while cursing quietly. It took fifteen minutes for him to be satisfied with his appearance and he allowed us to turn around to find him cleaned and dried by Louis magic.
“Now I’m clean … but still useless. I lost my sword somewhere.” How … why was I even asking myself that. Shaking my head a little bit, I undid the belt of my seethe and threw my weapon over to him.
“Make sure you don’t lose that one.” I said sternly and walked past him nonchalantly. “Get going. The station is a hundred kilometres in that direction.” I pointed to the place I found as odd and never visited before. That surely had to be it.
“A hundred kilometres? I don’t have food nor watcher for that …” Schwarz admitted, turning around to show me his empty back. At least he still had his head on his shoulders … so there was that.
“Sofie? Can you help me with air gliders?” Hannah proposed a spell I definitely didn’t know, that was for sure. I had hoped we could fly easily, but that was apparently too mana intensive.
“I don’t know that spell … but I can give you part of my mana if that’s what you need.” Sofie answered slowly while thinking about Hannah’s proposal.
“That’s more than enough. You can think of this magic as if there is ice underneath your feet. It allows us to speed across even terrain without actually flying.” She said and made air cushions underneath her feet which levitated her up a little. And then, she started sliding slowly at first, but without any resistance of the ground whatsoever.
“That should work.” I said and was quite surprised as I was lifted up myself and started gliding down the hill slowly. “Try to move your feet!” She said and I realised directly what I had to do. It was like I had a fed mini wheels underneath my feet which allowed me to move a bit slower than my usual top speed effortlessly.
“That could work … I just hope we are fast enough for the festival tomorrow.” Ellie said, equally testing her newfound mobility out. She would have it the hardest as she wore the most amour but she was quickly supported by Schwarz who took her backpack.
And so, we made our way towards the mysterious train station in purgatory. Obviously, we didn’t manage to get there without issue though. Sofie fell three times and Ellie two times, but the horrendous victor of having the most broken bones was Louis with thirteen times falling over.
I had to applaud him for that. But luckily, Sofie’s healing abilities were stronger than ever before which was why we arrived at the train station a few hours later completely unharmed.
From the distance, it looked like a rectangular box in the middle of nowhere with a strange rectangle in front of it. Additionally, there were two one kilometre long metal bars in front of it, ending abruptly on each side.
“Is that a train station?” So they knew recognised it right away? Probably because of the two metal bars in front.
Without the magical support, we approached the building a bit cautiously until we quickly ran across the metal bars and hopped onto the platform.
“Hello?” Louis asked, knocking into a crystal clear window in the box out of a strange material I had never seen before.
“Customers?” Someone asked from the inside, stepping behind the glass window while yawning. “The entrance is to your left … please come in.”
I was honestly very surprised to see him there, especially because I failed to sense anything from him. As Schwarz opened the clear glass door though, I could finally feel the death in him as well. It seeped through his bones like it was natural, and yet he had a pulse and breathed slowly.
“Hi. We need to get to Solaris.” I explained, stepping in front of the very surprised group.
“All routes to Solaris are terminated right now due to technical difficulties. Please consult your travel agency about this.” There were regular routes to Solaris? Why did anyone want to go to that place?
“… who is using these routes usually?” Sofie asked nicely and expressed what I wanted to know as well.
“Mostly film crews. Seems to have quite the scenery … but I’m just a normal angel working here, so what do I know?” Film crews? What were those? Shaking my head to focus on the task, I leaned onto the counter and looked into his eyes.
“But we need to get there.” I explained a bit helpless and gave him my sweetest smile.
“No exceptions.” He said completely unimpressed.
“Alrighty. Where else can we go?” I asked and tilted my head with interest.
“There is a nearly unlimited number of destinations …” He admitted and pointed at a very thick book which was apparently just volume one of any possible destination.
“Hmm … guys, we need to talk this over.” I said and turned around on my heels to shoo the group outside. “Does anyone have any idea?”
“No. I don’t even know how we are supposed to pay him. I doubt he takes our money.” Louis admitted, looking into the distance rather absentmindedly and lost.
“Hmm. Oh, I forgot to tell him something.” I said, patted Hannah’s back so that she wouldn’t allow anyone else inside and entered the strange building once more. Walking across the pristine floor with a black and white pattern, I grabbed into my backpack and picked out the picture right away.
“So actually I am Askatesh’s friend.” I admitted and presented him the evidence right away. He did make wide eyes and then looked at me vastly differently.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know that. If I have offended you in any way, I beg your pardon.” He said and lowered his head considerably.
“It’s fine as long as you can get us to Solaris.” I said in a slightly less friendly tone than before.
“That … is sadly not possible.” He admitted, looking down onto his feet.
“Then bring me to wherever he is.” I said and pointed at Aska in the picture. He looked up, and then nodded several times before he touched the counter and activated some kind of magical Interface right away.
“He is … presumably at the universal studios. I am blocking a ticket for your group right away.” He said and touched the strange thing several times until he reached beneath the desk and gave me five pieces of paper. “It will arrive in ten minutes. Your seats are right at the front.”
“Thank you very much.” I smiled gently, took the documents from him and stored the picture back in my backpack. Strolling out of the rectangular building, I smiled happily and gave them the news once the door was closed.
“The way is clear to get back to Solaris!” I explained happily and gave each and and everyone their tickets with a bright smile on my face. None of them could read the language of the gods after all, so I wasn’t exactly worried that they would find out this train wasn’t headed for Solaris.
