The carriage rocks gently as it rolls along the polished stone road, its wheels humming over the smooth surface beneath it. Outside the window, endless fields stretch beneath the afternoon light, broken apart by distant tree lines, patches of wild growth, and massive stones rising from the earth.
Lysandra yawns with a heavy stretch as she lies atop the carriage cloth, bathing in the sun. "Goddammit, these damn clothes," she grumbles, yanking off the fiery red cape around her shoulders. The cloth nearly matches her hair, streaked with golden highlights and stretching almost to her legs when she stands. Kael had designed it with Eira specifically around her magic, using materials expensive enough that most common nobles couldn't possibly afford it.
"Why do I have to wear this stupid thing because of human customs? He just had to take away my commander outfit." She bunches the cape beneath her head without a second thought before slamming a hand against the carriage roof. "Oi, Kael! How much longer?"
The carriage itself is far larger than most, nearly twenty feet long, with a metallic frame and runes engraved along its sides. Thick rubber-like wheels roll smoothly across the polished road, powered by mana stones stored near the front instead of horses. More runes line the interior, handling everything from lighting and temperature to suspension.
Inside, six foldable beds sit against the walls alongside several seats and a polished wooden table, leaving more than enough room for the long trip. Near the front, beside the glowing control panel and the compartment feeding mana stones into the carriage, Kael sits up and heads back toward the table.
"So, what do you think?"
Wiping her mouth with her arm, Eira swallows hard and drops her legs from the table. "Ugh, you just want trouble, don't you? Kael, we're in the fucking one percent already." Standing, she tosses her sweetbread back into the basket and points at the world map spread across the table. "We're getting orders from countries across the world we can't even reach right now because it's so fucking expensive to travel that far."
She rubs her golden-brown eyes with irritation before looking back at him.
'I still can't believe he's this handsome now. I didn't think someone could have that many impurities. Holy crap... maybe I should train my mana.'
Shaking the stray thought away, she points at him again. "You have the audacity to let someone make changes to the cape I made, then ask me to break into the most secure herbal reserve in the fucking world, where they keep some of the most insanely secretive preservation technology."
Her expression tightens.
"Of course I'm gonna wanna go!"
She starts going through her things, grinding her teeth before abruptly turning around and flipping him off. "Still, fuck you. Goddammit, you're such a bad influence."
Eira turns toward Des and Ash, who continue eating while glancing between the two of them.
"Des, don't ever follow his example. Look what he's done to me."
"Come on, don't be like that. What's the point of being in the top one percent if we can't even have a little fun every now and then?" Kael walks past her and messes up Des's crimson hair, making her pout as she fixes it. "By the way, Ash."
Before the boy can react, Kael grabs him by the ear and drags him toward the back of the carriage. "Ow! Ow! Ow! H-Hey, boss, what's the big deal?" Ash finally manages to break free and nearly escapes, only for his face to meet the floor with a sharp slap. 'Dammit, Des. You damn snitch, telling him everything I do. I'll get you back for this!'
"Boss, I swear I didn't steal anything!" Ash blurts out while scrambling back up.
'I brought them here to enjoy the festival, but I can't have these kids staying around once the war starts. The moment they make their attack, the barriers will go up and all spatial travel will be blocked. Still, I want Ash to break in with us. It'll give him a little hands-on training.' With an exhale, Kael reaches into his bag and pulls out a pouch of coins, holding it toward him. "This is your payment for working for me. I want you to spend some money on your sister during the festival, okay?"
Ash takes the pouch with both hands, staring down at it for a moment before Kael turns back toward the table. A translucent screen suddenly flashes across his vision.
[Warning!]
[Warning!]
[Demonic fixation surrounding the calamity Desolara has reached a critical threshold.]
[Spatial fracture detected nearby.]
Kael's eyes immediately move toward Des.
A crack appears in the air outside the carriage, no larger than a doorway at first, before space splits wider and several distorted figures begin forcing their way through. One of them barely finishes emerging before its attention snaps toward Des.
A ball of black-red fire erupts from its mouth.
The carriage's defensive barrier flashes into existence just before impact, absorbing the blast for less than a second before shattering completely. The force behind it catches the side of the carriage and sends the entire twenty-foot frame spinning across the polished road in a violent one-eighty.
Ash flies face-first into the wall with a heavy smack while Des catches herself against Eira, using her shoulder for support. Eira doesn't move much beyond that. She remains perfectly still, one hand planted against the table as everything that had been sitting on it scatters across the floor.
Her eye twitches.
"Fuck." She bites down on her thumb, eyes darting over the overturned baskets, scattered tools, food, and everything else thrown across the carriage before finally settling on the damaged wall. "Shit, I should've bought insurance for this thing."
Outside, Lysandra exhales slowly as she pushes herself upright, rubbing the side of her head. The blast had thrown her clean off the carriage and several meters into the grass.
"Where the hell did those things come from?"
She hurries back toward the road, brushing dirt from her cape before carefully checking the fabric for damage. The moment Kael steps outside, he gives her a flat look.
"You're worried about the cape now?"
Lysandra ignores him as she points at the monsters. "Why are these here? They look like they belong to the wastelands."
Five creatures stand scattered across the grass, each one different enough to tell apart but clearly belonging to the same kind. Their bodies are roughly humanoid, though their proportions are wrong in subtle ways. Arms hang slightly too long, shoulders sit too high, and their legs bend with an extra joint near the ankle. Their skin ranges from ash gray to deep reddish-black, rough and cracked in places like stone left too close to a furnace.
Small horn-like growths protrude from their foreheads, shoulders, and spines, while faint orange-red light leaks through thin cracks around their chests and throats. One of the larger creatures has a wide mouth lined with blunt black teeth, smoke escaping between them with every breath. Another is thin enough that its ribs show beneath its skin, its hands ending in long hooked fingers. The smallest moves on all fours despite having a mostly humanoid frame, its head twitching sharply from side to side.
"Tsk, I'm not surprised a rift appeared, but these damn things are at least B-rank monsters." With a heavy exhale, Kael reaches into his pouch and pulls out his blade. 'Unfortunately, I can't end this quickly. I'm sure some of Aira's people are hidden somewhere, watching us.'
"Hey, Lysandra, can you deal with the fire? I'll—"
"No fucking way." She immediately shakes her head as a spear of pure flame materializes in her hand. "I am not touching that disgusting fire. Look at it!"
"What do you mean, look at it!? It's fire. Just deal with it!" Kael snaps as the creatures begin charging toward the carriage. "They're B-rank and running straight at us. Do you really want to deal with Eira's complaints if they damage the carriage again?"
He reaches over and grabs the flaming spear, his darker fire spreading across the weapon and briefly overwriting Lysandra's flames.
"Just fire!? Just fire!?" Lysandra clicks her tongue and yanks the spear back before twisting her body and hurling it toward the scrawny creature. The weapon tears through the field before erupting in a burst of flames, scorching the earth around it and sending fire spreading through the grass. "If I told you to pick up some gross, rotten, twisted apple covered in worms, would you do it? Because that's practically what you're telling me to do!"
"It's just fire! What the hell are you even talking about, Lysandra!?" Kael rolls his eyes, tightening his grip on his sword as the largest creature opens its mouth toward the carriage. "We don't have time for this. We need to get back to the Elven Kingdom as fast as possible."
He throws the blade before the creature can release its attack. The sword slams against the side of its head, knocking its aim away just as a torrent of demonic fire erupts from its mouth. Instead of striking the carriage, the blast tears across the edge of the nearby forest, flames immediately spreading through the trees.
"Humans, humans, you might start a forest fire at this rate."
A calm voice passes between them. The man casually spins a wooden staff in one hand before pointing its curved end toward the monsters. A small golden bell hangs from the tip by a thin cord, chiming softly as a ripple of mana spreads across the field. The five creatures immediately stagger; the space around their bodies suddenly becomes uneven.
His olive-green hair is only slightly darker than his eyes, and despite the staff in his hand, nothing about his clothing makes him look particularly important. He wears a loose, long-sleeved shirt with simple dark pants, his lean frame visible beneath the thin fabric. "I'm afraid all tickets for the grand festival have already been sold out."
He walks forward at an almost leisurely pace, continuously swinging the staff in loose circles before abruptly stopping. The mana around him takes on a pale green glow, and the grass beneath the monsters begins to shake. Vines and thick shrubs burst upward, twisting around their limbs before folding inward from every direction. Within seconds, all five creatures are compressed together inside a dense sphere of vegetation.
Demonic fire spills through the gaps as they struggle, setting parts of the vines ablaze, but the man merely watches with the same unsettlingly calm expression. "Farewell, strange creatures."
His eyes glow faintly.
A deep cracking sound comes from inside the sphere. Stone, branches, and bone seem to grind together for only a moment before the entire mass contracts sharply. When the burning vegetation finally collapses into dust, nothing remains of the five creatures.
'He's from the Hunter family.' Kael's eyes settle on the wooden staff. It is unmistakably a mage's weapon, yet the man's body is lean and firm enough that he clearly doesn't rely solely on magic.
"We're students from the Great Empire," Kael says, walking over and picking up his sword. "We've been taking classes in the capital and left for a short while due to personal matters."
Swinging his staff over one shoulder, the elf turns toward Kael and tilts his head. "That's right, I've heard about that. Still, it's a bit dangerous out here. Those monsters were nothing compared to what's lurking around." He exhales and casually digs at his ear with his pinky. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. The capital is still quite far from here."
His eyes move between Kael, Lysandra, and the carriage.
Lysandra exhales before walking straight past him and climbing back inside. 'Good thing I made Kael buy me movies. I wonder who'll die first, the maid or the butler?'
"Oh, I've got it." The elf reaches into his pouch and pulls out a strange stone cube lined with glowing blue veins. "I have a one-time instant gate formation connected to the capital."
He tosses the cube onto the road like a coin and begins muttering a string of incantations. Vines and flowers immediately crawl across the stone, weaving together into a large arch as the space within it twists inward. A fracture spreads across the center before stabilizing into a proper gate.
'I know he's from the main family, but the family head has twelve children...' Kael walks toward him and holds out a bag of gold coins. "My name is V. I know this probably doesn't cover the cost of that item, but please take it. If I may ask, why are you helping us humans?"
"V, huh?" He doesn't hesitate for even a second before snatching the bag with a grin. "Haha, don't worry about it. You're actually doing me a huge favor. I'm supposed to be there helping them, but I'd rather not spend my day around those high-and-mighty sons of bitches." He waves dismissively, far more interested in weighing the coins in his hand. "One of my siblings can set up a teleportation formation and get me there just before the festival starts."
He eventually snaps out of his money-counting daze and reaches back into his pouch. "V. I won't forget that name. I am Thaelis Sylvaren, the greatest hunter of these lands. Once you go through, just hand the angry-looking guard this note." He hurriedly scribbles across a sheet of paper before stopping and tapping the pen against his cheek. "Haha, he gets irritated pretty easily, so make sure you remind him you're a student."
Once the letter is sealed and handed over, Thaelis stretches and turns away. "See you around, V. Oh, and take care of Lúthien. The rumors about you two have already reached the edge of these lands."
The golden bell gives one final chime before Thaelis disappears from sight.
'Thaelis Sylvaren. Isn't he one of the troublemakers?' Kael glances toward the direction he vanished. 'That bell must be an artifact. No matter how many times he spins that staff, it only rings when he wants it to.'
Kael exhales and rubs the side of his head.
'What fucking rumors did Lúthien spread now...?'