No matter how hard they tried, the wanderers found themselves defeated at every turn. The ravine loomed before them, its jagged edges daring anyone to cross.
They attempted to trek across the mountain, yet poisonous flowers blocked their way beside each stream. Was there any route that could escape the unforgiving ravine? Every path they chose, somehow, still led them back to its edge.
With no other options, Asahi and Aletha retraced their steps. They carefully followed their previous path as the unstable terrain shifted beneath their feet. The changing ground forced them to adapt their movements.
Wiping sweat from her forehead, Aletha complained. Her frustration showed in her voice as she glanced back at the ravine.
"There's no way to cross it!"
Struck by this discovery, Asahi scratched his head and analyzed his surroundings. Mountains rose in the distance. Fields of lush grass rolled before him. Marshes dotted almost every area. Still, the entire view glowed in a beautiful light green, brighter than the foliage in Pladtioa. To Asahi, it felt as if he had stepped into another world.
Asahi paused mid-step, distracted by the landscape. Realizing he was losing focus, he shook his head vigorously and whispered to himself to regain composure.
"No, stop staring." He mumbled. "Stay focused."
A few minutes later, his boots crossed a line of glittering blue flowers. Bored by the repetitive scenery, Aletha stayed close to her brother, wary of wandering off again; she knew anything could happen at any moment. Uneasy about Telos's merge and not fully understanding its implications, she wondered about the unpredictable results—Telos, a once formidable being capable of defending from The Princess, was now part of Asahi, granting him unique abilities but complicating their journey.
Although she had grown accustomed to the surroundings, the roaming wildlife added to her weariness.
Before Aletha could ask Asahi about these concerns, something sparked in his eyes—she hadn't seen that look recently, a look as if all his plans had suddenly vanished.
"So, now what?"
Asahi sighed deeply. After the tornado and the encounter with Telos, he was completely at a loss about what to do next. He answered in a cold, distant tone.
"I'm not sure," he replied, staring blankly at the horizon. "But if I were to guess, maybe we should find the others."
A warm gust of wind followed his response. Hearing the word "others" triggered a brief, blurry flashback of the tornado in Aletha's mind. The moment was incoherent and chaotic. All she could recall were frightened voices and the wind.
Suddenly, Aletha's legs gave out and she collapsed to her knees, her body shaking. Asahi's eyes widened. He rushed over, knelt beside her, and, his voice trembling with panic, asked, "Are you okay?"
Words failed to convey the pain Asahi felt. Aletha's lips pressed shut in pain, her eyes wet, and warmth flooding her body. At that moment, all she could express was that…
"It hurts."
Checking her arms and face, Asahi saw nothing wrong. Fighting the urge to panic, he sat close beside her and waited quietly for the pain to fade as she groaned.
Even in pain, Aletha tried to keep a grin, though a sharp burning sensation grew inside her. It didn't feel like a needle—more like splinters expanding outward. Green light leaked from her skin, oozing like slime. But before it could emerge, both pain and the strange event stopped.
Silence followed, keeping their surroundings still. Thinking Aletha was still in pain, Asahi leaned over with a worried face and asked.
"Do you need... help?" he asked, steadying his breath. "We can stop all of this and try to find someone to heal you, if you need to."
As a crimson bird flew overhead, Aletha steadied herself, rose from the ground, exhaled slowly, and brushed dirt from her shoulders. Her voice recovered as she said, "I'm fine. I just felt something weird in me, that's all."
Relieved, Asahi stepped onto a twig and lowered his shoulders. He misunderstood Aletha's pain as a flinch, though in reality, it was something more mysterious.
Watching Aletha yawn and stretch, Asahi crossed his arms, glared, and muttered.
"Don't you ever act like that again," he said tightly. "You had me worried."
But, as before, Aletha treated the strange occurrence as if it were a natural phenomenon. She replied to Asahi with a passive shrug.
"Ha, it's nothing," she said, grinning with pride. "Just some sort of twitch, that's all."
As silence grew between them, Aletha changed the topic. Remembering Asahi's earlier words, she wondered aloud about Telos.
"Say, didn't you say you have Telos' soul inside your body? Why not speak to him while we are waiting?"
"...Waiting for what?" Asahi shot back, scanning their surroundings.
She shrugged her shoulders and lifted her chin to the clouds.
"I don't know... I suppose it's a blessing when a stranger appears and helps us. I'm sure someone's around here somewhere."
Asahi nodded, sat on the ground, and pulled out a brown book and a pen. He leaned against the grass as Aletha slumped down beside him, watching the sky. Asahi pressed his pen to the book and wrote.
[From what I can gather, it appears this nation is more extensive than I initially thought. There is so much out there. We got swept into a tornado, and not only that... There were so many different people in the ceremony. I honestly wonder where all of them went. I hope they didn't die.]
* * *
"Hey!" A voice sounded out from a distance.
Moments later, a figure stepped out from the untamed wilds. The Wanderers hadn't expected to encounter anyone so soon in this silent, unruly land. Even Telos was left speechless.
(That soon?) Telos muttered with a low-sounding sigh.
Asahi shook his head.
"Quiet, Telos."
(Well… I was looking forward to guiding you, but if that person there could help you… then I have no business to speak of.)
As the voice echoed in his head, Asahi shrugged and dropped his notebook. He turned toward the approaching footsteps and saw the figure in the distance. Sunlight revealed a girl with long, light-brown hair. She wore stockings and a half-skirt and was sprinting down the hills.
"Huh?" he said, raising an eyebrow. Slowly approaching the girl, Asahi called out to the voice from earlier in a welcoming tone.
"Yeah? Who are you?!"
Frozen in place on the hillside, the girl gasped in surprise. Asahi scratched his head, glanced at Aletha, and began walking up the hill toward her. The girl, seeing the white-haired boy approach from below, realized something and quietly muttered to herself.
(Oh my goodness, they CAN speak my language!)
Then, with excitement bursting in her heart, she raced down the last couple of steps before jumping over and introducing herself.
"I'm Chloe!" she called with a smile. "I heard you two needed help. I was looking for help too! But I can't speak their language. Do you know where everyone is?!"
"No..." Aletha replied, narrowing her eyes. "That's why we are wandering here." The tone of Aletha's reply to Chloe seemed suspicious, as if she immediately disliked her.
Asahi appreciated Chloe's welcome, but his face grew pale and his body stiffened. He saw a menacing figure behind her. Before Chloe and Aletha noticed, Asahi grabbed the luminance on his hip, unsheathed a dark blade, and shouted.
"Behind you!"
Slowly turning backward, her brown eyes shrank with fear. She stumbled as she heard a shock and a tumble in the corner of her ear. With a strong stomp, Chloe jumped up and screamed.
"AH!"
Despite her wariness, Aletha swiftly unsheathed her blade and raised it defensively, but was abruptly struck by a sudden shockwave. The force hurled her down the hill while Asahi stared, shocked and unable to move.minute..." He said, hearing Chloe's screams above him. "I'm..."
With his feet rooted on the ground, he reeled back in sudden realization, noticing that he was too far away to interfere.
"Huh?" Asahi mumbled as he lowered his blade. "How did I get here?"
A four-legged creature made of steel, gears, and nails attacked Chloe. It knocked her down the hill.
Aletha heard Chloe's scream, quickly turned, and spotted Chloe downhill; she then sprinted down the slope to help her. The metallic creature rolled after both of them down the mountain. "Who are you?!" Aletha yelled as she ran.
Without reaction, the metallic creature opened its sharp jaw and sprang at Aletha, fighting the sword quickly pointed at it.
Aletha kicked out at the creature, vaulted backward to distance herself, and scrambled away while shouting for help. Asahi, seeing the creature threaten Chloe, gritted his teeth, clenched his blade, and quickly attacked the four-legged mechanism.
Its body was made of black steel, and its eyes shone a bright white. Cyan and magenta wires ran through it. Each leg scraped against Asahi's blade before it finally launched itself into the air and wrapped its tail around Chloe.
Aletha's eyes widened.
"What is that?!"
Asahi darted to the monster, jumping in the air and yelling.
"I don't know! Just HELP me out, will you?!"
Aletha nodded and lunged at the creature. Both siblings clenched their blades, dodging the swift strikes it unleashed with its tail.
As they jumped and avoided attack, they felt their bodies ache and their arms worsen. Their stamina depleted quickly. The mechanism screeched, its nails scraping on the dirt.
"SCREE!"
Taking advantage of this, the metallic creature grew five more legs and crawled toward them like a spider, screeching and injuring the wanderers.
Swiftly, Telos' voice shouted at Asahi.
(TURN ON YOUR TENTH EYE!)
Just before the creature could grapple with Asahi, he forced his eyelids shut and pried them back open, revealing the interface of the "Tenth Eye" in his vision.
A stream of colors bounced back, showing a relatively low green health circle, followed by a red bar that flickered on and off.
(Your stamina is low. Stop fighting and run!)
Asahi, overwhelmed by this, accidentally caught himself on a group of vines, feeling his body fall backward toward the opening ravine below.
His heart leaped to his throat, feeling the coldness of the gorge below him touch his back.
"Help!"
The monster's steel legs towered above Asahi, its jaws stretching wide as blinding white light gathered between razor teeth. Gears spun, scattering sparks, while its tail whipped through the grass. Behind him, hurried footsteps approached.
"Don't worry, I GOT YOU!"
Asahi's hands slipped off the fragile edge, feeling his weight pressure down quickly through the strands of vines dangling in between the gaping ravine. Falling several meters, the daylight grew distant from him.
His feet pierced through the exceeding depths, weight pushing down on him as his vision darkened gradually. Aletha's scream sounded out at a loud volume.
"ASAHI!"
Aletha clenched her fists and gritted her teeth, swinging at the creature rapidly, with each spark following the pace of her heart.
"I'll KILL YOU!"
Asahi helplessly reached his hands upwards, thinking it was the end. Telos himself couldn't believe it, shouting in disbelief.
(What are you doing!?)
But just as the specks of rays vanished, a tight grip wrapped around his wrists.
(CLING)
Suddenly, several ropes hastily flew down, grappling Asahi's legs and arms, aggressively enfolding him all over, stopping his fall. Asahi caught his breath and felt himself ascend several meters upwards, away from the dark ravine.
"W...What?!"
(SNAP)
The cords snapped, thinning and stressing together; Asahi's weight pressed and slowly went back down, but suddenly more ropes flew downward at an unimaginable speed, wrapping and holding Asahi in place.
A young-sounding voice hollered out from above.
"D...Don't worry... I got you! DON'T MOVE!"
Asahi shouted, sweating nervously, thinking that he was about to die.
"O-Okay!"
Quickly, the ropes hurled Asahi several meters upward like tossing a ball, propelling him back to the surface, away from the ravine, and flying in the air.
"YES, got him!"
His eyes darted down and saw a boy wearing a heavy turquoise coat, a bowtie, and long vintage-colored hair, unleashing a swarm of ropes magically from his hand, all stopping and cushioning Asahi's fall.
Aletha's leg forced and shoved itself through the creature, but her arm was caught by its legs. Cuts covered all over the skin, releasing an intrusive pain straight at the bottom. She gritted her teeth and screamed.
"GET AWAY FROM ME!"
She couldn't move, her body paralyzed from the several legs placed on the creature.
"Please... I can't..."
The creature recklessly pried its steel jaw, sparked a white luminance inside its mouth, and shrouded Aletha's face in a gradually increasing burning white glow. She squeezed her eyes shut, breathing heavily and feeling her life essence empty from her. Her arms lowered down.
"can't move..."
Asahi's eyes flared in rage, sprinting straight after his sister, but he was caught by the ropes wrapped around him. He reached his arm to her and yelled while the mysterious boy and Chloe cowered behind.
"Aletha!"
(Ting)
Luminescent green lines glowed inside her skin, surging from her feet, arms, legs, and head. Aletha's eyes sparkled with a green luminance, wincing as she formed a solid wooden surface to shield her body. Telos briefly pondered the origins of this newfound ability, his voice echoing within Asahi's mind. (It could be an ancient power, lying dormant until now. The Sealed Beatific holds responsibility for her actions.)
(In Linuxinia, the Sealed Beatific is known as a force of profound mystical significance. It awakens a reservoir of energy within a person, capable of metamorphosing their abilities with Joy. Soil canisters don't compare to this power.) He mused, filling Asahi with both awe and a sense of foreboding. (The Sealed Beatific can swallow anyone whole with the magic of... how would I say this... happiness?)
The mechanism growled in irritation and forced his jaw further, attempting to radiate the lethal light and slaughter Aletha.
But as the creature struggled--
"Stop playing around with them!" A barrage of crimson lasers unleashed and pierced through it, exploding and shredding the metal skin of the creature's body.
Instantly, everyone darted their eyes to an approaching girl, who cartwheeled her way to the creature and snapped her fingers, giggling while unleashing lasers out of her hands.