A small bungalow appeared before us. It was looking a bit old. The paint was already dull and dirty. There was a sweet aroma permeating from the house as we got closer. We all stopped at the entrance and let Eira enter. Everyone was silent. No one was in the mood to talk. Eira came out after a few minutes and invited us in. She then disappeared into the door on the right side of us.
The living room was well lit, mostly due to the sunlight that was coming from the open window on the left side of the entrance. There was a fireplace filled with ashes opposite the entrance. There were three sofas in the living room. There were two doors on the right side of the entrance. One of the doors was where the sweet aroma was coming from, which was the kitchen, where Eira disappeared to. The other door was probably where the rooms were. There was an old lady waiting for us in the living room. She wore a long blue kirtle with a black scarf covering her grey hair.
"Welcome to our humble abode. I hope you nobles don't mind that this place is not so furnished and spacious," the old woman said humbly. She sat down and looked at us while pointing at the sofa. "You can all sit down. Eira has briefed me about what's going on. You are curious about who she truly is. I think you have an inkling already; you just want to confirm. I can tell you this, I have the answer to lots of your questions, but are you sure this is the right time to know the answer?"
At that moment, Eira came in with a tray filled with seven cups of tea and coffee. Valek sat down and took a cup of coffee and drank a mouthful. He then looked at us. "Don't insult the hospitality of an old lady. Take a cup and drink."
Everyone was reluctant to drink before Kairi took a cup and finished it in a gulp.
He made a disgusted face, then complained, "It is too hot and bitter. Who the hell enjoys this?"
"That is called coffee. Lots of people enjoy it. You could add some milk and sugar to it, but some people prefer it bland. You could try the tea, or Eira could make another coffee with milk and sugar," the old lady replied to him.
"No, I'm good. The others haven't taken theirs," Kairi said.
"You are really considerate, but no matter. We could always make another, so try the tea," she then signalled to Eira.
"Really? Don't mind if I try." Kairi carried the cup of tea and drank while Eira moved to the kitchen. This time, Kairi made a delighted face. He then looked at the old lady. "This is really good."
"I'm glad you like it," she smiled.
Kairi then looked towards me. "You should try this."
'Is it really alright for me to drink this? What if it's poisoned? But Kairi drank it and he's still alright. It might not be a poison that takes effect immediately. Valek implied it's okay to drink, but I can't trust him. He's a Saint; poisons might not affect him. But I don't think he'll want us dead right now. After all, his mission was to capture us, not kill us. And the old lady seemed nice. Moreover, Eira was the one who made it. Shit, this is too straining over a cup of tea. I'll just try it.' I tried analysing the situation.
While I was lost in thought, everyone except Seraphina had already taken a cup and had a sip. I moved and took the last cup.
"Are you going to accept the one Eira is bringing?" I asked Seraphina as I moved towards her. No reply came from her.
"Thought as much. She is still pissed."
The kitchen door opened and Eira came in with a new cup. She looked around and offered it to the princess.
"One sip won't hurt. It'll help you relax," Eira tried convincing Seraphina.
Seraphina looked at her coldly before accepting the cup. She took a sip and made a face of relief.
"Thank you. It's really good," she said with a genuine expression.
'Is this really the girl who promised to kill someone a few minutes ago?' I thought to myself.
"Now that everyone is relaxed, shall we have a conversation?" the old lady said, then took a sip from her cup and continued. "How much did you tell them?" she asked Valek.
Valek dropped his empty cup and replied, "Not enough. I just told them what makes them special and why no one would come for them."
"I see. So you didn't tell them how they are all connected?"
"What makes you think I know anything about that information? I was hoping to hear that from you."
"I know you do, but I'll tell them." She then looked towards us. "What do you guys know about the Hexa Embers?"
"Ahhhh!" I exclaimed softly, realising it. Every one of us understood our connection instantly, except Kairi.
"What? Who are the Hexa Embers?" Kairi asked.
"Around two decades ago, a rumour spread around the realm about how our realm would be obliterated. It caused panic amongst the people, and the emperor at that time created the Hexa Embers, consisting of six demigods, led by his eldest son, to give the people hope and relief. Each of the demigods died a pitiful death. Each one of us here has a connection to a demigod. You must be the same too. Since no one really knows your background, you should have a connection to the nameless demigod," Chara was the one who explained to him.
"Who's the nameless demigod?" Kairi asked again.
"That's the thing. No one knows anything about him. He only appeared once when the emperor introduced everyone. But no one knows his name or his background; only the Embers and the emperor knew. His appearance isn't even known because he was wearing a mask. So no one alive knows anything about him..." Chara then looked towards the old lady. "...except you."
The old lady didn't say anything. She just took a sip of her tea.
"Even if we are all connected to the Hexa Embers, what do you want from us? Are we the new Hexa Embers? How did he know about Kairi?" I asked Valek directly.
"You don't seem to understand completely," it was the old lady who replied. She took a sip, then continued. "Your father, Callum Magnus, the emperor's brother; also Prince Kofi's father, Malcolm Keith; Seraphina's father, Erik Crimson; Chara's brother, Theron Skia; the only female in the group, Anna Lesnik; and the nameless demigod who might be connected to you," she said while looking at Kairi. "They all fought the disaster that was going to obliterate us. People thought they sacrificed their lives; that's why none of them died a good death. That's not all true, because they never defeated the disaster... they only delayed it." She looked at Chara and said, "You are wrong, child. I'm not the only one alive who knows about the nameless demigod. This disaster is bigger than you think. It's something that could destroy the three realms. We are only a drop of water in an ocean."
"This is a lot to wrap my head around. I have some questions," Kairi said.
"I also have some questions," I said too.
"I will answer the ones I can," the old lady replied.
"We have three realms? Also, how did the Hexa Embers die? What exactly is the disaster?" The last question Kairi asked was a question everyone was curious about.
"Yes, we have the realm of the past, which is this realm, the realm of the present, and the realm of the future. I don't know why it's named that, but I'm sure some people might be able to answer you. As for how the Hexa Embers died, Callum died while killing his whole family. Sure, he was strong, but a prominent clan is not weak either. People say he sacrificed his love for his family to save the realm. Malcolm was killed by an opposing faction of the realm. People say he sacrificed his throne to save the realm. Erik was killed by the Crimson family for allegedly giving out classified information about them to another family. People say he sacrificed his loyalty to his family to save the realm. Theron's body was never found. There are ways to know if someone is dead without finding their body. People say he sacrificed his body to save the realm. Anna was burnt to death by her little brother, whom they both loved very much. People say she sacrificed her bond with her little brother to save the realm. I don't know what happened to the demigod, but people say he was the one that killed all of them. But that's wrong, because he's dead too. He sacrificed himself to seal the disaster. The disaster the Hexa Embers fought was a person, but they only managed to seal her. They couldn't kill her. She's a disaster and yet not the disaster. She's just the herald of the disaster."
Kofi, who had been silent for a long time, asked a question. "So the disaster is yet to happen, and we are the key to starting the disaster?"
"You could say so. There's only so much I can know due to my rank. Knowledge pertaining to the disaster is dangerous. What I told you here can be dangerous, so be careful who you tell. Don't even tell anyone," the old lady warned.
"The day my father destroyed our family, prior to that he said he had a mission which was connected to the disaster. When he came at night, he was beaten. He was injured everywhere, grotesque injuries on his body, and he was not himself. He was like a bloodthirsty monster who had been deprived of food for months. What exactly happened that day?" I asked, reminiscing about the dreadful night.
"I don't know what happened because I never went on the expedition to fight the disaster. All I know is that they all died that day. What I know about them is what they told me, what I can know at my level. Knowing more will kill me." She sighed while staring at the cup in her hand, lost. "That day, I felt so useless that I couldn't help my friends. I begged them to take me along, but they restrained me before they left. That night was the most dreadful night of my life. I never loathed myself so much as I did that day." Then she shifted her gaze to us. "Each of you is the same, right? That was each of your most traumatic day," the old lady said in a melancholic tone.
'She is not wrong. I wouldn't wish that night on anyone. I wouldn't want to relive it either. Thinking about it makes me sad.' A teardrop rolled down my cheek as I thought about that night. I quickly wiped it off.
"What about Eira? Who's she connected to?" Seraphina was the one who asked this.
"Eira is very much like you guys. I'll leave it to you to find out who she is. You'll find out soon enough," the old lady replied vaguely.
'Is this some kind of test for us? We barely know about Eira and her only connection, which is you,' I thought, wondering how hard this would be to guess.
"We still don't know why we are connected to all of this. Sure, we are all connected to the Hexa Embers, but what exactly do they want from us?" Kofi said.
"I am guessing wherever he's taking you will give you an idea," the old lady replied.
"We don't know if we'll make it out alive. We don't even know where we are going," I said angrily while looking at Valek.
"Oh, don't worry. The shadow of death doesn't loom around you. This doesn't mean you should take things easy. You must take everything seriously with full force," the old lady assured us.
At that moment, a loud whistling sound came from the kitchen. The old lady then stood up and said, "That's the end of our meeting. I wish you all a safe journey." She then walked towards Eira and gave her a kiss.
"That's it? You are going to end it here?" I asked, surprised.
"When you are back from the journey, come back. We'll share and assimilate the information you get. The information I have now is dangerous for you guys."
"Thank you for the tea. We enjoyed the lesson. We'll be on our way," Valek, who had been observing, stood up and addressed the old lady politely.
'Is he scared of her or what? He's oddly respectful towards her.'
"Wait, I have a question." Chara stopped the old lady in her tracks. "Anna's brother—where is he? Or is it Eira who changed gender?"
The old woman laughed for a while. "Sorry, that assumption sounds funny. It's not impossible, but funny." She then composed herself and replied to Chara, "No, it's not Eira. I don't know where he is. After he killed his sister, he disappeared with his other sister. I tried searching for him, but because I never met him, it was hard to look for him. I think he is also like you guys. If you find him, maybe he'll know about it."
"What is his name?" Chara asked.
"Oh, his name... his name is—"
Whistle.
A deafening whistle sounded around the house, making us deaf for a moment.
"Oh, I need to attend to that. Good luck on your journey," the old lady said and moved hurriedly to the kitchen, leaving us alone in silence.
Chara was the one who broke the silence and asked, "Did any of you hear the name?"
We all shook our heads.
We all moved outside. As we were going, I noticed Eira behind me. She wasn't in her shy demeanour; instead, her face showed that of someone calculative. She was the closest to the old lady when she mentioned the name.
Then I realised something. 'She definitely knows the name! Now how do I get her to tell me?'
We all moved to the carriage. The carriage was deathly silent until Valek broke the silence. "I would like you guys to meet someone, but we are behind schedule, so maybe later. But I hope you have all seen the importance of this. I might be the bad person here, but not without purpose. Survive and find out what it's all about. I would also advise you not to survive, because if you do..." his voice grew cold, "things would be more dangerous than they already are."
"Then we have to grow stronger to go against it and you, which we will," I declared.
"That is good then. I will give you another piece of advice: only those who have been bent by the world can really bend the world. No one who becomes strong is completely sane," he said.
"If they are bent by the world, doesn't that make them weak? A strong person wouldn't be bent," I rebutted his words.
"There's no such strong person alive then. Because if the world can't bend you, it'll kill you. I am not saying you should willingly bend to the world, but if you want to control something, you have to understand how it works."
"You can understand it perfectly without being controlled by it. Are you saying if you want to cut someone with a sword, you have to cut yourself first?"
"Your analogy is wrong but also correct. You could have phrased it like this: if you want to cut someone, you have to experience being cut by someone. And yes, because if you cut someone without being cut before, you won't understand what the person feels. It'll be like tasteless food. But if you have been cut, you'll understand it better; it won't be tasteless anymore."
I kept quiet after Valek said that because I didn't want to drag it out for long.
After some time, the carriage stopped.
"We are here now," Valek announced.
We got down and moved towards a gate. There was a wall that surrounded the city, so we couldn't tell what it was like. There were no guards at the gate.
"Alright, you guys go in now. We'll meet later," Valek gestured.
"You are not coming with us?" Kairi asked.
"Of course not." Then he pointed to Mira. "But she is. Now you guys have fun."
We all entered the gates. Behind the gates was a portal.
"What is this?" Kairi asked.
No one said anything for a while, then Seraphina replied, "It is a gate to the Otherworld. This city has been consumed by the Otherworld."
Before he could ask another question, Chara said, "The Otherworld is the world of the demons. The Otherworld is trying to consume Earth."
"This world is really complicated," Kairi lamented.
"This is most likely Nightveil. It was already a monster-infested city. They tried evacuating everyone in this city before it was swallowed by the Otherworld," Seraphina said.
"So we are facing monsters and demons. That's really great," Kofi said sarcastically.
We all entered the portal. I looked back to see a purple-haired monster smiling and waving at us. 'I will remove that grin from his face.'
After we all got through the portal, it disappeared. Everyone understood what it meant. 'There is no way out,' I thought to myself.
The atmosphere in this city was weird. There was no light. Everywhere was dark. We could barely see each other.
'I guess that's why it's called Nightveil.'
And for some reason, I felt slightly stronger in here, even though the ether energy here was not as abundant as on Earth.
"Does anyone feel stronger? Or is it because of the talisman we were given at the academy?" Kairi asked.
"I didn't receive any talisman, so it's not that. Maybe we have a connection to this place that we didn't know of," Chara replied.
"Where are we supposed to go anyway?" I asked.
"Let's walk in and find something," Seraphina suggested.
"And find what exactly?" I asked.
"We will know when we see it," Seraphina replied.
Then Eira summoned a lamp. We all moved forward in the darkness, looking for anything.
Suddenly, Kofi stopped and said, "I think I found something. I'm stepping on something."
We all stopped to check what it was. Eira moved her lamp towards it. What we saw planted a great seed of fear in us. On the ground were arms and legs that were torn out of people's bodies. Blood was dripping out of where they were torn from, showing that they were freshly torn off. They were arranged in a way that spelled "welcome." This eerie scene left a great fear in us. Someone or something dangerous was here.
"I think we should all run now. We can't... we can't stay here. We need to move now!" Chara whispered.
As we were about to move away from the limbs, a loud growl sounded behind us. Eira moved her lamp towards the sound. Out there was a pack of monsters moving towards us, around a hundred monsters growling like they had been starving for months. 'Which I guess they have.'
"We can't beat that. We should leave now!" Chara suggested.
Mira then moved forward and summoned her sword. "Yes, we can. There are only about five D-ranks among them; the rest are E-ranks. They shouldn't be too much for you guys. I'll stall the D-ranks. You kill as many E-ranks as you can and join me. This is just a welcome; the real danger is yet to come."
After hearing Mira's words, everyone summoned their respective weapons—everyone except Kofi. I summoned my spear and armour. Kairi summoned his last katana and armour. Seraphina summoned her staff with the crystal ball in the centre of the crescent-shaped head. Eira summoned a sword, and Chara summoned two daggers. Everyone got battle-ready. Eira tied her long hair, Chara removed her gloves, and Seraphina tested her staff. Kairi and I had nothing to prepare for; we were already ready.
"Are you fighting barehanded?" I asked Kofi.
"I'm not fighting at all. I'll let you guys do your thing. I'll watch from the sidelines," he replied with a smile on his face.
"Huh? You know we are not your servants? No one is going to protect you," I told him.
"You might not be my servant, but you'll protect me," he said with that annoying smug look on his face.
"We don't have time for this. They are incoming," Kairi said.
Immediately after he said that, a monster lunged in our direction. We all dispersed from our prior location. The monster was about to move, but it was burned and struck by a lightning bolt at the same time, dying instantly. The attack came from Seraphina and Kairi. Then the rest of the monsters rushed towards us, and our battle began.
The monsters were a colony. They had bear-like faces with four sharp fangs. They were almost two meters tall. They had some kind of carapace on their chests, which you could tell at one glance was very sturdy. They could move like normal bears, only they were far faster and stronger. But we weren't weak either.
As one of them moved towards me to bite my head off, I slightly jumped to the right to evade it and brought my spear down to sever its head, but I couldn't cut it off. I only managed to cut it halfway, but it died regardless. I felt that my ether was being sucked in by the spear. I instantly understood that the passive enchantment of the spear was activated.
As I was trying to inspect the spear, another monster was already jumping towards me. I simply thrust my spear towards its chest while looking down at the one I had just slain, but the spear didn't do much damage. The wound was shallow. I instantly jumped away as my spear sucked in more ether.
'As expected, it's hard.'
I changed the way I was holding the spear and threw it with all my strength towards the monster. This time, the spear did good damage. Before the monster could examine what was wrong with it, I was already at it. I removed my spear and sliced its neck. It died instantly. Another monster died beside me.
I quickly took sight of the battlefield. I could smell blood and burning flesh. One side of the battlefield was covered in flames. I could see lightning on another side of the battlefield. Mira was holding two D-ranks on her own.
'She's probably an Exalter.'
I couldn't find Chara or Eira, but I knew they were still alive. Kofi was also nowhere to be found.
As I was taking in the sight of the battlefield, three monsters came towards me. I instantly jumped towards the one in the middle and stabbed its head, then twisted my body towards the one on the right, slicing its eye with my spear. The one on the left then hit me away with its hand. I recovered instantly and moved towards the one whose eye I sliced and cut its head off to finish it. But I received an injury when it attacked, even though I was wearing armour.
The one who hit me before came running towards me again on all fours, trying to bite my head off. I killed the one I had just slain by throwing it towards it, then instantly finished off the one I stabbed in the head before. I then moved to the one that attacked me. As I was about to kill it, a monster came jumping at me. I jumped away instantly.
This monster was unlike the rest. It was twice as big and had much more fur around its neck. One glance told me it was one of the D-rank monsters.
"You know, I was getting tired of fighting these weak ones," I said while looking at the monster angrily. The monster just growled at me.
"I guess you can't understand my words. I'll just have to stab it into you," I said while taking my stance.
'Why does that sound weird? I just wanted to sound cool.'
Then we both lunged at each other.