“How could she … why did she … why does she need to hurt me?” Cutting apart the leaves in front furiously, I stomped onto a small crystalline plant until I felt a hand on my shoulders. But that contact didn’t soothe me.
It irked me. It made me even more angry. Turning around with my treasure in my hands, I glared at Sofie who backed away stunned.
“Hey … I just want to help.” I didn’t need her help. I was strong enough to face any challenge on my own. I was strong enough to protect my beloved girls. I just had to cut down every threat with this sword.
“Leave me alone.” I growled unhappily, turned around and cut a whole tree apart, just to underline my point. My blood was boiling, I wanted to see blood so badly, and yet no demon showed itself.
“Are you angry she didn’t sleep with you? Maybe you aren’t as important for her … or maybe she doesn’t see you as a man.” Gregory always found the right words to make me even more furious though.
“What did you say?” I growled once more, turned around to look at him through the barrier created right in between us.
“Shut the fuck up Gregory. You aren’t making this better in any way.” Ellie admitted, positioning herself in the middle.
“What? I just wanted to say that maybe Schwarz didn’t have to offer anything of value.” Gregory said loudly, making my hand around the sword tighten.
“Gregory, it’s en-“ Ellie said, but stopped wide eyes as I thrusted over her shoulder, right through the barrier and scratched Gregory’s cheek in one go.
“She would never sleep with anyone for a favour! Understood! She is the queen! She is my saint!” I shouted out, more than ready to cut both of them down if there wasn’t this little voice in the back of my head telling me not to.
“… Schwarz. You need to calm down.” Ellie stated, carefully touching the blade to push it away from her.
“I am calm!” I said, carefully seethed my sword before glaring over her shoulder towards Gregory.
“Okay … but Lucy admitted to … this indecent behaviour herself.” Ellie stated carefully, watching my every reaction. But I merely turned my back towards them and walked on.
“She did it to save the world. Lucy is giving her best … sometimes it’s not enough, but she is trying her hardest.” Sofie defended Lucy right away, but didn’t question the very fact itself.
“Maybe she was threatened into it?” I proposed, pulling some leaves to the side angrily and slashing at a weirdly looking frog which exploded in a mist of white air.
“Schwarz … I believe it is time for us to reevaluate our relationship with her. There are some … inconsistencies.” Ellie stated slowly. “For example that sword you have. She never really told us how the mage found it, nor how it got into her hands.”
“Do you want to take it away from me?” I asked, looking over my shoulder angrily. That sword was the best weapon I could even imagine. I understood Ellie’s envy, but I would never allow her to have it.
“No, I’m not. I’m just saying that some of her actions do not make much sense. For example, she told us she knew that mage for a longer time, but she didn’t seem too bothered by his death. And then the train thing … and now this. The more I interact with her, the less I seem to know her.” Ellie admitted, with me listening to it half heartedly. Lucy was amazing. Nothing would change that. And if she was hiding anything from us, then what?
“See, that’s what I was talking about the whole time! She is just after the throne!” Gregory threw in, clearly not bothering that we all looked at him with disdain.
“She’s my friend and I will not talk about her badly behind her back. And besides, she knows the goddess of life. There is no reason to assume any ill intention in her actions.” Sofie said. Finally someone was actually defending Lucy here, otherwise I surely wouldn’t know if I would work with them together. Whenever I slept, I had this feeling they would try to take the sword away from me after all and their gazes … they were directed at my weapon from time to time.
“I wouldn’t go that far either, but she definitely has secrets from us which isn’t the best way to get our trust.” Ellie said, which was honestly laughable considering how much we hid from Lucy.
“Do you even listen to yourself, Ellie? She has done everything she could to help. She has gotten out of her way to search for us as we went after that dragon. She has always been there for us.” Sofie shouted out, clearly not very happy with Ellie’s conclusion.
“And she also has thrown Louis out of our group. Did you know he nearly took his own life because of her decision?” Ellie pushed back right away, which seemed to stun Sofie somewhat.
“I … no I didn’t know that. But I’m sure she did everything to make sure it doesn’t happen again.” Sofie said, looking towards the branch she just stepped onto with her leather boots.
“Still, it’s hard to forgive her that. Listen … all of you. I don’t want to talk badly about her either. I just want to remind everyone that we are the strongest fighters on this planet along with Miss Dove of course. I want to make sure you are aware that nearly everyone would be tempted to influence us to reach their goals, including her.” Ellie stated, looking ahead as I pulled the last leaves out of our way and revealed the ruins of a small village.
“She would never do that.” I stated, already stepping out of the forest onto a stone containing runes to form a magical circle with many others around.
“She slept with the king to get an army. She would do everything to gain power, trust me.” Gregory stated, which nearly made me burst out in anger. But we were inside enemy territory and my sword hand itched to swing around wildly, so I kept my mouth shut.
“She isn’t like you, Gregory.” Sofie said, staring at the ruins with sadness in her eyes. And I couldn’t agree more with her. Lucy wasn’t like those power hungry people. She was a person I needed to protect, to cherish until she loved me. Because she was mine.
“Let’s continue later … we have stuff to do.” Ellie said level headed and strode to my side. Together, we overstepped the boundary which protected the village from a few demons in the past.
The wind carried the creaking of the wooden remains over to us, sending apocalyptic vibes our way.
“Let’s get this over with.” But there was an even more chilling building in this city. The small church of the village had a weird black obelisk sticking through its roof. Never in my life had I seen such a black before. It seemed to swallow every bit of light hitting it and even from afar, the obelisks surface seemed strangely smooth.
Gripping my sword in the seethe tightly, I walked over to the church, only to find something very interesting around it. Usually the townspeople buried their relatives around the church, but this place was weird … not in the sense that the townspeople did some strange rituals, but rather because the recent developments was striking. Around seventy percent of the graves were dug open and only revealed a shallowly buried empty coffin.
“They … were dug out?” Ellie asked, kneeling beside on of these graves.
“For what reason?” Sofie asked, pushing against the small mound of earth with her feet.
“I don’t know … but it must have happened relatively recent. Maybe they are turning them into undead?” Ellie asked, but I couldn’t care less. If they wanted to throw undead at us, I was more than willing to greet them with my blade.
“Maybe, maybe not. Let’s check out the teleportation crystal.” Gregory said, already strolling inside the church with the broken roof.
“The what?” Ellie asked, hurrying behind him as he wasn’t exactly known for being a good close combatant. Luckily there were no enemies inside and everything looked to be abandoned except for the hovering obelisk.
“The teleportation crystal. You know … fast travel and stuff?” Gregory said, already stepping towards it and inspecting it from close up.
“You are aware that a teleportation network would be quite expensive to run? I mean … I can barely teleport several people at once and my mana pool is massive.” Sofie said, clearly not on the same page as Gregory.
“Not everything you see comes from a game.” Ellie pointed out rightfully so.
“You sure? This does look like one.” Gregory explained, leaned forwards and placed his hand onto the black surface.
“I don’t think this is a good idea.” Ellie said, but Gregory paid it no heed. He apparently pushed its mana inside, activating whatever this thing was. At first, the place he touched turned into some kind of liquid and Gregory screamed out loudly. Black tar was running down his arm slowly while he attempted to pull his arm out.
“What is this?” He shouted out scared. “Fireball!” Luckily for him, the good old fireball did the trick as the black liquid around him flew in every direction and his hand got free. Scrambling to get away from that obelisk, he scurried backwards until he was back with us.
“That’s not … a teleportation crystal.” He finally admitted, clearing his hands at the ground. A few seconds after this, a deep humming resounded from the obelisk and it emitted more and more of this black liquid. Unable to do much against it, we stepped backwards, until the obelisk somehow shot into the air and emitted even more of this liquid like a waterfall. It splashed all around us as we ran out of the church, our heads only protected by the barrier above us.
And then, we ran. There was very little we could do against that obelisk at that time and all we tried while retreating did exactly nothing as it was completely covered in that liquid.
As we were stepping out of the village once more, a change started happening in front of our eyes. Weird, pitch black humans with white completely white eyes grew out of this liquid, directly wading towards us.
“It’s a spawner!” No shit Sherlock. No body could have imagined that.
“Let’s just hope these things aren’t made out of liquid.” I said, made a brave step forwards and beheaded on of these things. Luckily, it’s body was made out of solid matter. Unluckily though, the head falling into shallow liquid immediately returned back to its original state.
While we were basically staring at that thing, a few horns resounded further northwest. They were already a few kilometres away from us, but certainly not far enough for us to overhear them.
“What do they mean?” Gregory asked, still backing off slowly.
“An attack … everywhere.” Ellie said, while I already turned around and rushed back through the bushes. Lucy was in danger … and I was way too far away to protect her.
“How could she … why did she … why does she need to hurt me?” Cutting apart the leaves in front furiously, I stomped onto a small crystalline plant until I felt a hand on my shoulders. But that contact didn’t soothe me.
It irked me. It made me even more angry. Turning around with my treasure in my hands, I glared at Sofie who backed away stunned.
“Hey … I just want to help.” I didn’t need her help. I was strong enough to face any challenge on my own. I was strong enough to protect my beloved girls. I just had to cut down every threat with this sword.
“Leave me alone.” I growled unhappily, turned around and cut a whole tree apart, just to underline my point. My blood was boiling, I wanted to see blood so badly, and yet no demon showed itself.
“Are you angry she didn’t sleep with you? Maybe you aren’t as important for her … or maybe she doesn’t see you as a man.” Gregory always found the right words to make me even more furious though.
“What did you say?” I growled once more, turned around to look at him through the barrier created right in between us.
“Shut the fuck up Gregory. You aren’t making this better in any way.” Ellie admitted, positioning herself in the middle.
“What? I just wanted to say that maybe Schwarz didn’t have to offer anything of value.” Gregory said loudly, making my hand around the sword tighten.
“Gregory, it’s en-“ Ellie said, but stopped wide eyes as I thrusted over her shoulder, right through the barrier and scratched Gregory’s cheek in one go.
“She would never sleep with anyone for a favour! Understood! She is the queen! She is my saint!” I shouted out, more than ready to cut both of them down if there wasn’t this little voice in the back of my head telling me not to.
“… Schwarz. You need to calm down.” Ellie stated, carefully touching the blade to push it away from her.
“I am calm!” I said, carefully seethed my sword before glaring over her shoulder towards Gregory.
“Okay … but Lucy admitted to … this indecent behaviour herself.” Ellie stated carefully, watching my every reaction. But I merely turned my back towards them and walked on.
“She did it to save the world. Lucy is giving her best … sometimes it’s not enough, but she is trying her hardest.” Sofie defended Lucy right away, but didn’t question the very fact itself.
“Maybe she was threatened into it?” I proposed, pulling some leaves to the side angrily and slashing at a weirdly looking frog which exploded in a mist of white air.
“Schwarz … I believe it is time for us to reevaluate our relationship with her. There are some … inconsistencies.” Ellie stated slowly. “For example that sword you have. She never really told us how the mage found it, nor how it got into her hands.”
“Do you want to take it away from me?” I asked, looking over my shoulder angrily. That sword was the best weapon I could even imagine. I understood Ellie’s envy, but I would never allow her to have it.
“No, I’m not. I’m just saying that some of her actions do not make much sense. For example, she told us she knew that mage for a longer time, but she didn’t seem too bothered by his death. And then the train thing … and now this. The more I interact with her, the less I seem to know her.” Ellie admitted, with me listening to it half heartedly. Lucy was amazing. Nothing would change that. And if she was hiding anything from us, then what?
“See, that’s what I was talking about the whole time! She is just after the throne!” Gregory threw in, clearly not bothering that we all looked at him with disdain.
“She’s my friend and I will not talk about her badly behind her back. And besides, she knows the goddess of life. There is no reason to assume any ill intention in her actions.” Sofie said. Finally someone was actually defending Lucy here, otherwise I surely wouldn’t know if I would work with them together. Whenever I slept, I had this feeling they would try to take the sword away from me after all and their gazes … they were directed at my weapon from time to time.
“I wouldn’t go that far either, but she definitely has secrets from us which isn’t the best way to get our trust.” Ellie said, which was honestly laughable considering how much we hid from Lucy.
“Do you even listen to yourself, Ellie? She has done everything she could to help. She has gotten out of her way to search for us as we went after that dragon. She has always been there for us.” Sofie shouted out, clearly not very happy with Ellie’s conclusion.
“And she also has thrown Louis out of our group. Did you know he nearly took his own life because of her decision?” Ellie pushed back right away, which seemed to stun Sofie somewhat.
“I … no I didn’t know that. But I’m sure she did everything to make sure it doesn’t happen again.” Sofie said, looking towards the branch she just stepped onto with her leather boots.
“Still, it’s hard to forgive her that. Listen … all of you. I don’t want to talk badly about her either. I just want to remind everyone that we are the strongest fighters on this planet along with Miss Dove of course. I want to make sure you are aware that nearly everyone would be tempted to influence us to reach their goals, including her.” Ellie stated, looking ahead as I pulled the last leaves out of our way and revealed the ruins of a small village.
“She would never do that.” I stated, already stepping out of the forest onto a stone containing runes to form a magical circle with many others around.
“She slept with the king to get an army. She would do everything to gain power, trust me.” Gregory stated, which nearly made me burst out in anger. But we were inside enemy territory and my sword hand itched to swing around wildly, so I kept my mouth shut.
“She isn’t like you, Gregory.” Sofie said, staring at the ruins with sadness in her eyes. And I couldn’t agree more with her. Lucy wasn’t like those power hungry people. She was a person I needed to protect, to cherish until she loved me. Because she was mine.
“Let’s continue later … we have stuff to do.” Ellie said level headed and strode to my side. Together, we overstepped the boundary which protected the village from a few demons in the past.
The wind carried the creaking of the wooden remains over to us, sending apocalyptic vibes our way.
“Let’s get this over with.” But there was an even more chilling building in this city. The small church of the village had a weird black obelisk sticking through its roof. Never in my life had I seen such a black before. It seemed to swallow every bit of light hitting it and even from afar, the obelisks surface seemed strangely smooth.
Gripping my sword in the seethe tightly, I walked over to the church, only to find something very interesting around it. Usually the townspeople buried their relatives around the church, but this place was weird … not in the sense that the townspeople did some strange rituals, but rather because the recent developments was striking. Around seventy percent of the graves were dug open and only revealed a shallowly buried empty coffin.
“They … were dug out?” Ellie asked, kneeling beside on of these graves.
“For what reason?” Sofie asked, pushing against the small mound of earth with her feet.
“I don’t know … but it must have happened relatively recent. Maybe they are turning them into undead?” Ellie asked, but I couldn’t care less. If they wanted to throw undead at us, I was more than willing to greet them with my blade.
“Maybe, maybe not. Let’s check out the teleportation crystal.” Gregory said, already strolling inside the church with the broken roof.
“The what?” Ellie asked, hurrying behind him as he wasn’t exactly known for being a good close combatant. Luckily there were no enemies inside and everything looked to be abandoned except for the hovering obelisk.
“The teleportation crystal. You know … fast travel and stuff?” Gregory said, already stepping towards it and inspecting it from close up.
“You are aware that a teleportation network would be quite expensive to run? I mean … I can barely teleport several people at once and my mana pool is massive.” Sofie said, clearly not on the same page as Gregory.
“Not everything you see comes from a game.” Ellie pointed out rightfully so.
“You sure? This does look like one.” Gregory explained, leaned forwards and placed his hand onto the black surface.
“I don’t think this is a good idea.” Ellie said, but Gregory paid it no heed. He apparently pushed its mana inside, activating whatever this thing was. At first, the place he touched turned into some kind of liquid and Gregory screamed out loudly. Black tar was running down his arm slowly while he attempted to pull his arm out.
“What is this?” He shouted out scared. “Fireball!” Luckily for him, the good old fireball did the trick as the black liquid around him flew in every direction and his hand got free. Scrambling to get away from that obelisk, he scurried backwards until he was back with us.
“That’s not … a teleportation crystal.” He finally admitted, clearing his hands at the ground. A few seconds after this, a deep humming resounded from the obelisk and it emitted more and more of this black liquid. Unable to do much against it, we stepped backwards, until the obelisk somehow shot into the air and emitted even more of this liquid like a waterfall. It splashed all around us as we ran out of the church, our heads only protected by the barrier above us.
And then, we ran. There was very little we could do against that obelisk at that time and all we tried while retreating did exactly nothing as it was completely covered in that liquid.
As we were stepping out of the village once more, a change started happening in front of our eyes. Weird, pitch black humans with white completely white eyes grew out of this liquid, directly wading towards us.
“It’s a spawner!” No shit Sherlock. No body could have imagined that.
“Let’s just hope these things aren’t made out of liquid.” I said, made a brave step forwards and beheaded on of these things. Luckily, it’s body was made out of solid matter. Unluckily though, the head falling into shallow liquid immediately returned back to its original state.
While we were basically staring at that thing, a few horns resounded further northwest. They were already a few kilometres away from us, but certainly not far enough for us to overhear them.
“What do they mean?” Gregory asked, still backing off slowly.
“An attack … everywhere.” Ellie said, while I already turned around and rushed back through the bushes. Lucy was in danger … and I was way too far away to protect her.
