"Finally… I can go all out," Summeria breathed, stretching her arms as the evening wind brushed her skin. She wore black shorts and a cream sleeveless cropped top—simple, but battle-worn. Her black hair was tied into a high ponytail that danced with every motion, swaying like a whip of shadow against the fading sunlight. Her figure was small but hardened—muscles taut, scars glinting faintly like medals earned through blood and survival.
Behind her, the Black Knight emerged from the dust, each step heavy enough to crack the stone beneath his boots. His crimson eyes blazed through his helm as he raised his massive blade.
Then, without warning he charged.
Summeria turned her head slightly, her lips curling into a grin. "About time."
Clang!
The world erupted in sparks. Metal shrieked against metal as their blades collided, the air trembling from the force. Summeria twisted her sword, deflecting the blow upward, and drove her left fist into the empty air.
BOOM!
The shockwave blasted outward like a cannon of wind. The knight's chestplate shattered, sending fragments spinning into the night. His dark skin burned under the force as he flew upwards.
Summeria's eyes glowed molten gold. She leapt into the air, her sword igniting into blazing crimson. Time seemed to slow.
She whispered almost reverently
"Hiwa ng araw"
(T/N: Tagalog: "Hiwa" means "slash or slice" / "ng araw" means "of the sun"
Her sword came down like sunlight breaking the clouds, The impact split the air with a thunderous roar. The Black Knight's body was thrown into the earth, carving a crater deep into the cracked battlefield.
BOOM!
Dust and light burst outward. From miles away, the townsfolk of Nebo looked up from their campfires as the sound rolled through the night. Guards rushed and surrounded the camp in a defensive perimeter to defend their citizens and their Lord.
When the dust cleared, Summeria landed softly, her blade still glowing faintly red. She exhaled, steam rising from her skin.
The black knights armor smoked, and nothing was left except the armor.
She flipped her hair, raised her hand then an red-orange hued magic circle appeared above the armor then disappeared with it.
"Finally, I can have something to study these demons" she thought to herself
"Oh" she said, "I wonder if Cerrebrus would welcome them. Better get home quickly before things get messy."
She raised her hand, but then she turned around quickly and raised her sword.
"I swear, I sensed something"
She straightened herself up, raised hand, extended both her index and middle finger and poke herself on the forehead, then she vanished.
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tania and Kael were teleported into an unknown land by Summeria, however something big and powerful was chasing behind them and they ran as fast as they could inside a maze-like stone structure. Running from something they fear that it could be the end of their lives.
"WHAT IS THAT THING TANIA!?" Kael shouted. "The moment you woke me up…."
"If you hadn't screamed like a little girl and conjured Bolang Kalayo (fireball) towards its face, and laughed like a mad man, we wouldn't be running for our lives!! You idiot!!" Tania cut off Kael before he could finish his sentence.
One minute earlier
Tania opened her eyes and was in front of a little hut surrounded by tall walls; tall for the eyes to comprehend.
"Where are we" she mumbled
Then a stinky air swept through her, she clutched onto her nose,
"What was that…" she turned and was frozen still, with eyes widened in horror. Without any hesitation she moved both her hands onto Kael and shook him violently to wake him up. While her eyes still locked on to the mysterious being that scared her.
"K…K…Kael….W…Wa..Wake… UP"
Kael groan and sat upright, but still swaying left and right because of Tania's pushing and pulling him
"H…Hey..Hey cut that…oowa… OUT!"
Kael grabbed onto Tania's hands.
"What is wrong with you shaking me violently like that?!"
"B…B…Be…HI…HIND.. Y…OU"
"Huh?!"
Kael turned his head and was turned to stone due to fear as he saw a giant three headed Rottweiler.
"A THREE HEADED BI…"
Tania covered his mouth and nose, suffocating him to prevent him from making a sound. But the ears of the beast twitched, making Kael pissed his trousers. Tania's face was lit by something orange, and her eyes widened as she looked up. Kael conjured a massive fireball.
"Mffblang, mfffoy" (T/N: Bolang Apoy / fireball)
Kael moved his head toward the beast like throwing something using his forehead. The fireball followed his head gesture and lunged towards the beast.
"KAEL! YOU BI…" Tania shouted, while Kael was laughing under the hands of Tania
BOOM!
Present Time
Smoke filled the corridor, the sound of their frantic footsteps echoing off the stone walls. Tania coughed, waving the dust away as Kael stumbled beside her, laughing nervously.
"Hah… hah… did you see that? I torched that mutt!" he boasted, grinning like a maniac.
"You angered that mutt!" Tania snapped, grabbing his collar and pulling him close. "Do you even realize what we're dealing with? That wasn't a dog, Kael, that was Cerrebrus!"
Kael blinked, sweat dripping down his temple. "…You mean the Cerrebrus? Like the demon guardian of the underworld, eater of souls, breaker of idiots?"
"Yes! And congratulations you're one of those idiots!"
A deep growl thundered behind them. The entire wall quaked, and bits of debris rained from the ceiling. A shadow stretched across the passage, massive and monstrous.
Tania's eyes widened. "Run."
Kael didn't argue.
They dashed through the twisting maze, boots pounding against cracked stone, each turn only leading to more endless corridors. Behind them, the ground rumbled with every step the creature took, its claws scraping the floor like blades.
Tania glanced at the carvings shifting along the stone. Ancient runes glowed briefly before rearranging themselves. "An ancient spell…" she muttered.
"So…" Kael said while running "we're stuck inside of an unknown maze?"
A massive claw slashed through the wall beside them, tearing it open like paper. Dust exploded, sending both of them tumbling forward. Kael hit the ground hard and rolled over onto the side of the wall.
"Kael!"
Kael slowly stood up
Thud…Swoosh..
Kael slowly glanced up and came face to face with the three headed Cerrebrus. Eyes red, ready to devour him whole
Tania stopped, and turned "KAEL!"
Kael moved his right hand on to his left side and was about to unsheathed his sword, but it wasn't there, behind Cerrebrus He saw his sheathed sword on the ground.
"I think this is it for my adventure" He turned to Tania, and smiled
Cerrebrus raised its right paw with sharp claws, ready to slice Kael into three parts. Swerved it paw
"Sorry Ate Tan, hehehe" Kael smiled
"THATS ENOUGH CERREBRUS!"
Cerrebrus stopped its paw five feet away from Kael, its paw trembled from the mysterious voice. Tania's Vines reached to the left paw of Cerrebrus and pulled for it to stumble forward.
Kael's body then was wrapped in vines and was pulled away from the stumbling Cerrebrus.
"Are you alright Kael!?" Tania scrambled through the vines to check onto his brother.
"I'm fine, thank you for saving me. But do you hear that voice?"
"Yes… It's probably Summeria"
"Summeria?" Kael frowned
"She's a friend of…"
"CERREBRUS YOU STUPID LITTLE DOG!!" Summeria shouted cutting of Tania
Tania and Kael saw someone leaping through the moonlight and slammed onto the back of Cerrebrus. Both of them can hear Cerrebrus' spine cracked in half.
"Ooooo, thats painful" both said in unison
Summeria landed onto the ground, raised up her right hand
"HAVE YOU NOT A SHAMED OF OUR GUESTS?! SIT DOWN PROPERLY OR ELSE IT WOULD BE A BELT OF BONES THIS TIME!"
The great Cerrebrus, the three headed beast of the underworld was tamed by a mere human which both Kael and Tania were stunned. Summeria turned her head and saw both their mouths wide open shocked to see she tamed a mythical beast.
"Close up your mouths you two or flies would enter and lay maggots unto your tongues."
Both of them straightened themselves up, Summeria tossed Diamante and Kael caught it,
"I think this belong to you"
Summeria nodded and smiled
"Go to the hut. I'll follow once I finish disciplining my pet here."
Kael ran towards Summeria "H…H…How did you tame a mythical beast?"
"HAHAHA, Just punch them in the face you can tame one in that way."
"COOL!!!"
Tania grabbed onto his shoulders and pulled him, "Kael, she is a beast tamer. A very high ranking one probably Titanium ranked."
"Beast Tamer? I never heard of such a class from Howard's lesson…"
"Because you weren't paying much attention during lectures and are only motivated during physical training!"
Tania sighed
"Come on Kael, we've got to go to the hut."
Both Kael and Tania walked towards the rugged path to the Hut they both teleported from. Behind them they could hear Summeria's voice shouting and Cerrebrus wailing in pain.
"Poor mutt… being butchered to death by that woman." Kael said while walking,
"By the way, who is that old lady that saved me from that mutt?"
"What? You saw her as an old lady?"
"Yeah… Why'd you ask?"
Tania spanked his head
"Owww, what is that for?"
"You better take that back Kael, she saved us from the assailant earlier and now this three headed beast that wanted us for dinner."
"Ahh!! I forgot, that Black knight! Did she…"
"if weren't for her you could've been sliced in half by that demon"
They both entered the small hut, but as they entered, it had huge hallway with marble columns towering over their heads, mechanical servants cleaning every bit of dust and from the marble column, the hallway floor was covered with red carpet, prepared to for a very important person, the walls were gold, where moving paintings of Summeria's exploits and adventures. Above them a marble ceiling, mixed with emerald green, and every few meters a grand chandelier
Kael's jaw didn't just drop this time; it practically hit the plush velvet of the red carpet. The transition from a "rugged hut" to a literal palace of gold and marble was enough to give him whiplash.
"I thought... I thought we were going into a shack," Kael stammered, his hand instinctively reaching out to poke a mechanical servant as it whirred past with a silver duster. The automaton let out a polite, rhythmic click and sidestepped him with practiced grace. "Tania, are we dead? Did the dog eat us and this is the afterlife?"
"Stop being dramatic," Tania said, though her own voice lacked its usual bite. She was too busy staring at a massive painting on the wall. In it, a younger Summeria—though she looked exactly the same as she does now—was wrestling a sea serpent the size of a mountain range. The paint shifted, the waves crashing against the frame, and the golden eyes of the woman in the portrait seemed to follow them. "This isn't just a house. This is a pocket dimension. Only a High-Tier Sage or a Titanium-Ranked Tamer could anchor this much mana to a physical doorway."
"Titanium-Ranked..." Kael whispered the words like a prayer. He looked at his own sword, Diamante, then back at the golden walls. "And I called her an 'old lady.' I'm going to die, aren't I?"
"Most likely," a voice echoed from behind them.
They both jumped. Summeria was standing at the entrance, though she hadn't walked through the door. She simply was there. She had tucked a small, glowing crystal—the remains of the Black Knight's armor—into a pouch at her belt. Her ponytail was slightly frayed, and there was a single smudge of soot on her cheek, but otherwise, she looked like she'd just come back from a light stroll rather than a brawl with a mythological guardian.
"Cerrebrus is sulking in the corner of the maze," she said, wiping her hands on a cloth. "He's got a bruised ego and a cracked rib, but he'll live. He's just sensitive about his middle head. You hit that one directly, kid."
Kael gulped. "I... I didn't mean to—"
"Oh, don't apologize! It's the first excitement he's had in decades," Summeria laughed, the sound bright and dangerously sharp. She walked past them, her boots clicking rhythmically on the marble. "Follow me. The foyer is for show. The kitchen is where the real magic happens, and I'm starving."
As they followed her deeper into the impossible structure, the grand hallway opened into a circular room that felt much more lived-in. Books were stacked in precarious towers, floating globes of light illuminated maps of lands Kael didn't recognize, and the air smelled of dried herbs and ozone.
Summeria hopped onto a high stool at a central wooden table that looked centuries old. With a snap of her fingers, three steaming mugs of chocolate appeared.
"Drink," she commanded. "It has crushed the Phoenix Root in it. It'll stop your nerves from frying after that teleportation jump."
Tania took a sip and felt a sudden, grounding warmth spread to her fingertips. "Thank you, Summeria. For everything. But... Why are we here? And who was that knight?"
Summeria's expression shifted. The playful wit didn't vanish, but it was layered over something colder. She tapped the crystal on her belt.
"That 'knight' wasn't a man. It was a Hollow—a shell animated by a very old, very localized type of Tagalog sorcery mixed with abyssal energy. Someone is digging up graves that should have stayed buried." She looked at Kael, then Tania. "And they weren't after the town of Nebo. They were after the two of you."
Kael nearly choked on his chocolate. "Us?!
"The world is getting loud again," Summeria sighed, leaning back. "The 'Hiwa ng Araw' I used earlier... It's a technique meant for mordrens, not tin cans in black armor. The fact that I had to use it means someone has the power to reinforce it."
She stood up and walked toward a massive window that shouldn't have existed. Outside, instead of the maze or the hut, they saw a swirling nebula of stars and purple clouds.
"You can't go back to the real world," she said softly. "Not until I see both of you fit for combat."
"So... we're prisoners?" Kael asked, his grip tightening on his mug.
Summeria turned, a mischievous glint returning to her eyes. "Prisoners? No. You're guests! And since you're staying under my roof, you're going to help me with the chores."
"Chores?" Tania asked warily
"Well," Summeria grinned, pointing toward a heavy iron door at the back of the room. "The Hydra in the basement needs its teeth brushed, and the mechanical servants are too polite to do it. Who wants to go first?"