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Chapter 91: The Past, Present, and Future 3 years seemed to pass by in the blink of an eye. By the last year, we had unearthed Jullian in a mound of sand in the desert near Magatia. Reika rarely had to help us, and Artemis seemed convinced that she was just following me just to make sure I was safe. When Artemis was powdering her Skelesaurus bones over her tea back in the Leafre mountains, I gladly refused it, knowing that I would grow taller just by drinking it. Several times, Artemis fell behind and I backtracked to find her getting delayed by red-faced men, with some even grabbing her arms. When she found the book of legends and declared that she was going to Ludibrium to fight Papulatus, I didn't object. "Jess, why don't you come to my house? You could stay there for a while." Artemis offered. She was wearing her usual revealing clothes, a black vest that pretty much only covered her upper torso and a really short pair of black shorts. Unfortunately, I had unknowingly eaten the same herbs that had changed her taste of clothing, and was wearing a blue vest and dark blue shorts. "No thanks. My sister will want to take me home to see my parents. They'll be surprised at how much I've grown." I chuckled, fully aware that Reika would be taking me almost a year into the future after this. "Pity, my old friends might like to see you." Artemis sighed, tossing her long black hair back. My hair had grown a lot longer during those 3 years I spent in the recent past, and now reached my hips. Of course, I had gone for haircuts. The outgrowing tuft in front covered half my face, but I was pretty much used to it. I wondered how Reika looked now, I hadn't seen her in a few months. I bid farewell to Artemis and Jullian as they boarded the ship to The raping stopped after a few seconds, and Reika got up. She wrung her arms. "I swear, if I get raped like that in the future, I'm going to ram the rapist right into the ground again and again, until he falls into the center of the Earth." She cursed. "Won't that be waaay overkill?" I asked timidly. "Let's get out of here before that happens again. Oh yeah, I'll faint right after we land back in the Sanctuary." Reika quickly grabbed my hand, and the air above us seemed to distort, sucking us in. We rematerialized in Artemis's Sanctuary, in the mana pool. My clothes faded out and disappeared, while Reika kept her battle set. She was resting on the pool's edge, snoring gently. The liquid mana seemed to be flowing into her body, causing her to radiate a blue glow. Her torso had become rather muscular now, like mine. I caressed Artemis's forehead gently as she moaned and turned over, falling into the mana pool in the process. I quickly dived under to try and pull her up, but it seemed that she could breathe in the liquid. "Why now? We still have to destroy the Demon Gate!" I groaned. At the sound of the last two words, a stream of bubbles issued from her mouth and she jerked awake, blinking. "Erm......" She stammered. "It's okay. Just change our appearances back to normal." I smiled at her. She sighed and closed her eyes. Her ponytails loosened up and her hair and irises turned black. It fell all the way to her feet. I felt my hair loosening up too, and it turned back to black, falling to my legs. The outcroft covering my right eye shot back into my cranium. "That's better." I shook my hair back. "Alexis, remember your old Kotetsu sword?" Artemis asked. "Oh crap. I completely forgot about it!" I shrieked. "It's over here. Guess where I found it." She said sternly. "Where?" I asked bluntly. "Dunno" She shrugged. I stared at her incredulously. The golden blade of the fused Kotetsu sword glittered in the starlight. "How did it get over there?" I gasped. "I summoned it just now while you weren't looking." She smiled, handing the sword to me. "Thanks." I sighed, giving it a test swing. The blade suddenly started glowing and a layer of golden flames enveloped it. "Whoa!" I jumped and dropped the sword. The blade stuck in the ground, creating a small explosion. "That's how strong you are now." Artemis smiled. I picked up the Kotetsu slowly, gripping it tighter this time. The golden flames burst out again. The sword was trembling from the sheer amount of power under it's control. "Calm down. When the sword's Awakened, the power it controls depends on the user's emotions. Fear and uncertainty decrease the sword's power, while anger increases it." She explained, placing a hand on my shoulder. I sighed, releasing my anger. The sword stopped trembling. "What were you angry about anyway?" She asked. "The demons." I replied. ...... I grabbed Alexis's hand and helped her out of the mana pool, splashing some over myself as she got out. After that, a bottle materialized in my hand and I bent down to scoop some of the liquid in. "That's all I can afford to take. We might need it." I said grimly, shaking the bottle. Before leaving, I dipped our weapons in the pool. When I took them out, they were simply blazing with power. Two orbs of the liquid mana had appeared on both ends of my bow. "Oh, almost forgot." I smiled, and the Archaeion appeared in my free hand. I clasped both bows together, and they melded. The frame was of Artemis's Goddess Bow, but the colours were that of the Archaeion, and the dragon head wasn't changed. It also changed into a longbow that was as tall as I was. The diamonds were concentrated around the handle. I dipped the combined bow in the mana again and prepared to set off. I grabbed Alexis's hand and stepped through the waterfall. We materialized right in front of the entrance to the Sanctuary, in front of the depression shaped like our bodies. "That was fast." Kyrios remarked, then noticed my body. "Don't tell me you got those after a few minutes of working out." He gasped. "3 years of working out to be exact." I chuckled, pointing at Alexis. She was naked and holding her hands over her hips and chest. The boys turned around, red-faced. "Oops, my bad." After I made sure Alexis was clothed, we made our way out of the Sanctuary's entrance. "By the way, the Gravity Passage's gravity stones can purify the body of anyone standing on them. The life energy from the crystals were purified." I pointed out. Everyone heaved a sigh of relief. The usual enlarged alligators were lurking around, but as I walked past, they shifted aside. I bent down to one and stroked it's head. It grunted and rolled over. "Sorry, but I'll have to leave for some time. I might not come back." I whispered. Tears seemed to be flowing out of the creature's eyes as I got up and left. "What...?" The trip to Kerning took less than an hour, considering the strength of the patrols. Of course, Alexis and me were taking care of most of them. Effortlessly. Either they took a shot to the head, or Alexis sneaked up to them, jumped up and sliced them in half down their spines. "Piece of cake." I wiped a blotch of Taurosword blood off my cheek. It left a red mark. "These things are pretty easy to handle when you know where to hit 'em." Alexis chuckled, sliding right between a Tauro's legs and aiming her sword upwards, releasing a burst of magic. It proved to be both a bad and a good move. Good because the Taurosword was sliced clean in half, and bad because a small piece of rubble Alexis had slid over scratched her vest off. She quickly put her vest back on, slightly red in the face. "Who cares? There's a big difference between a piece of clothing being cut off and a lot of demons to beat up." I sighed, flipping forwards onto my hands and pushing the ground hard. I flew several feet into the air and turned the right-side up. "Eat this, bastard!" I yelled, releasing an Puncture Bomb at point-blank range right into a steel golem's face. The Puncture Bomb was a new skill, unique only to this bow. The tip of the arrow would drill into the target, and the bomb would detonate a few seconds after penetration. The head suddenly dented outwards, and the golem fell to the ground, creating a mini-earthquake. I landed on the ground on both feet, bending my legs to minimize the shock. Still, the impact was sufficient to create a small crater, and a shockwave. I used the momentum from the jump to kick myself skywards again and straightened my legs, kicking a Tauro right in the groin. It doubled over and Alexis finished it off with a horizontal slash to the waist. Alexis caught me as I landed. "Hold on. Do you......" I asked Alexis. She nodded and flipped a piece of rubble aside. It was blocking the entrance to an underground room filled with a whole army of fighters huddled together. Magicians, Thieves, Archers, Warriors. At least one person of a single job was present. "And I thought we'd never get out of here." A Chief Bandit wiped sweat off his brow. The more impulsive ones immediately rushed out of the hidey-hole and into the city, searching for targets. "Not so fast." I held an arm out to stop the slower ones. "If you go out there, you'll die before you take even one of those things down. Let us handle it." I said calmly and turned my back on them, trusting them to heed my warning. Apparently, they weren't listening. Scores of attackers rushed out, leaving only a few smart guys around. All of the Magicians had stayed behind, along with a few Thieves. I nodded appreciatively and went to join the fight only to see something horrifying. A mud-like substance was emerging from the subway, engulfing anyone unfortunate enough to get in the way. Bloodcurdling screams were emerging from the swallowed people as the mud began taking the forms of those engulfed inside, supersizing them. When the newly-formed statues reached a height of about 10 stories, they solidified into human bodies. The bodies of those engulfed inside could be seen from outside, right where the heart would be. "Oh my god......" I gasped. The survivors rushed back into the hidey-hole and barricaded themselves in. The bow in my hand was vibrating violently, and so was Alexis's sword. "Bastards...... If we blow these things up, we'll kill innocent people..." I gritted my teeth. One of the victims swung a fist at me and I jumped backwards, aiming my bow at the thing's head. I found my hand shaking. I couldn't shoot! "Those demons sure are cheap, resorting to something like this..." Alexis brought her sword up to parry a fist. The energy from the sword cumulated at the point of impact, generating a shield of golden flames. The thing reared back as the flames shot up it's body, engulfing it entirely. The victim inside screamed. "I didn't mean to..." Alexis gasped. The golden flames started to fade away. "Alexis, stay calm." I said, aiming another arrow at another one of those things. "If we destroy the Demon Gate, it should be enough to stop this. The demons can't live without a supply of energy to fuel them. Namely, the Gate." I sighed, rolling aside. "Where are the others anyway?" Alexis looked around. "Oh no." I gasped, pointing at another monster. It was shaped like Ares. Another nearby one looked like Kyrios. "They got......" I was stunned. "All the more reason to blow that Gate up faster." Alexis darted aside to dodge a giant foot. "We won't be able to get there with those things in the way." I groaned, blocking a punch. It threw me back into a building, causing a few rips to open up in my clothes. "Those things...... These clothes were enchanted to be unbreakable...... They're not bothered by magic at all!" I gasped. "Think we can make a run for it?" Alexis asked. I nodded, breaking off towards the subway entrance. Alexis followed behind. Both of us were running at our fastest pace as missed punches and kicks smashed into the ground behind us. The subway entrance was barred by a metal grille, slightly open at the bottom. "We won't fit through that!" Alexis gasped. "Oh yes we will!" I shrieked, leaning backwards. Luckily, the ground here was rather smooth, and I slid through the gap on my back, ripping the front of my shirt on the sharp tips of the bars in the process. Alexis reluctantly followed, narrowly making it. "Owww..." I moaned, trying to get up. Something had gotten stuck in my back while I was sliding in, and by the feeling, it was some kind of crystal. Blood was spilling out of the relatively miniscule wound. I finally got up and pulled the thing out. It was a shard from some kind of black crystal, but it was radiating some kind of powerful energy. "Kerning's barrier crystal..." I mumbled, then felt a striking pain in my back. Abnormal veins were popping up all over my body, with the most concentrated area around the injury from the barrier crystal. "Argh......" I fell over. "Artemis!" Alexis ran towards me. "I'm.. fine..." I lifted myself up. The barrier crystals were forged by extremely powerful Magicians who only lived before the towns were founded. As a result, they contained extremely powerful magic. If even a shard managed to get into a human body, it could pose disastrous results. The intense magic concentration could kill a person in a little under 24 hours, and also render the victim immobile during that time. I vomited blood on the ground as the veins reached my chest and continued on. "Oh no you don't!" I shouted, slamming my fist into the ground. The excess magic shot down my arm and into the ground, creating an explosion that was contained by a magical barrier I had formed around the impact point. The veins gradually vanished. "What was that about?" Alexis asked. "You don't wanna know." I replied, grabbing her hand and pulling her deeper into the subway. |
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