The Obsidian Tale
Episode 15
[Opening 2 music]
[Opening 2 music]
~ Ouli Brye (bottom half) – Western district – Orphanage ~
Even in this protected city, Rina
and Felix still conflict with each other due to mistrust. At this very moment,
Rina believes Lydia did not made it through the abyss, but an orphaned boy
named Remy says otherwise.
Hazel had her left hand on her hips.
She slouched comfortably. “Remy, please do not spout things that you are not
involved in, especially to our guests.”
“How did you know her name before?”
Felix scratched his head in confusion. There was no way he could have known! [Music 14.2]
“A voice told me last night when I
was trying to sleep. She said… if only she could have someone who is alive, to
resummon some kind of energy…”
Rina raised an eyebrow. “Huh. A dead person talked to you?”
Remy sat upwards. He tried to reason
with them. “I don’t know! I think so.”
“If what you say is real, then why
did she come to you instead of anybody else?” Hazel questioned him.
“I don’t know about that either. She
just… spoke. She said she needs someone strong to help protect the Obsidian
named Lydia. The woman said she had to travel south. And then… the voice
disappeared.”
Rina gave herself a huge sigh. “So
Lydia really is alive after all. Look, kid, I don’t want to believe you, but
it’s also kind of creepy that you knew her name and her origin before anyone
said anything about her. So you don’t know which way south exactly?”
“Nope.”
“Well, the only way south is through
the Terrain Valley and then it splits into two places: a road to Vaticul Canyon
and Yucan Tempa, or a path leading to Boris San Jovi. The latter option is
quite dangerous and currently blocked off by an abyssal matter just a day ago.”
Felix felt guilty. “Eheh… I didn’t
know it went that far.”
“The abyss only stretched throughout
the basin near this city. The water affected by it clashed into the Boris San
Jovi Mountains like a tsunami. You are better off waiting for another time for
that.”
Rina stepped out the doorway, “Then
I’m going the other route to Yucan Tempa, assuming that’s a city?”
“It’s a checkpoint that breaks
between desert and grassland. Nothing major. Lots of people visit during their
travels for a quick coffee at the station there. They have this interesting
monorail that looks more like a chairlift to me and you can use it to ride up
to Troiya, a neighboring town that is more for Gammel import storages,” Hazel
explained.
“Wow, you sure know a lot,” Felix
reiterated.
“Like I said, I’ve been through a
few quests here and there. Heh.”
Rina smiled. “Then it’s settled. I’m
making my way south to find more shards and of course Lydia!”
“Really?!” Felix said in excitement.
“What are you excited about?”
Felix looked away, blushing. “Oh,
well um, I’m just glad that you’re back on your feet again. You are still
holding onto that hope.”
Rina rolled her eyes. “All I needed
was a quick reassurance that Lydia is okay, idiot. Now, are you coming or not?”
“What? You’re not going to tell me
to go away?”
“Eh. You’re always persistent about
following me. I might as well give up trying to push you away. Remember though,
if you get in my way, I’m not going to show any sympathy.”
Felix chuckled. “Hehe, I can live
with that.”
“Thanks old lady for helping me.”
“O-Old lady?! Alright, that is it. I
am going to tell my maid to support these children because I see that someone
here needs to learn their manners around those older than you.”
Rina glared at her. “What… Don’t
tell me you’re coming along too?”
“I’m learning to empower myself in
healing abilities. Also, I can fight with a bow. You might need a long-ranged
attacker along with a healer, no?”
“A healer?” Rina reconsidered.
“Lydia was thinking about learning more on healing techniques. Too bad she
can’t improve at this point without her full memory and actions. But fine, I
guess you can come along. At least you won’t get in the way as much as
Suspenders here.”
Felix shrugged off the insult
especially now that he was happy to see Rina motivated on finding more shards. [End music]
“Alright. Let’s head south towards
the Terrain Valley. That place is quite dangerous, hilly, and there are wild
animals everywhere. If you have to kill some to get through the area, do so.”
“What?! Y-You didn’t tell me that
part!” Felix panicked.
Rina yawned. “You’ve already seen
mountain lions and even the king himself die. Better get used to it because
this is going to be a long journey if you’re following along.”
“I know…”
As the two teenagers left the room,
Hazel thought to herself while stuffing a large, brown rope into her bag,
“Haha... Felix told me about a man named Leo who stabbed King Nader himself. I
am interested in meeting this person and how he managed to create a sneaky
tactic in doing so.”
~ Ouli Brye (bottom half) – Southern district – road to
Terrain Valley ~
“Oh no you don’t!” A crazy female
voice was heard from above.
Felix faced upward, followed by a
sudden burst of yelping. “GEEEH!” He jumped away and watched the girl drop down
with an axe from above a cliff. “Your lack of judgment for attacking me is just
as bad as Lydia’s!” He shouted in a panic.
“Lydia, Lydia, LYDIA. That’s all you
ever think about, isn’t it?!” The girl turned out to be Garnett!
“Wait what? I don’t mention her that
much.”
Garnett readied her axe again. “Bah,
oh don’t lie to me. I know you like her.”
Felix sighed. “Seriously, I don’t. I
just want to help her regain her personality. Why are you following us?”
“I’m not. Daddy didn’t want anything
to do with the Lennox army. It’s a shame that our last mission turned out to be
a disaster.”
Rina clenched her teeth. “Ergh,
you’re that bastard from the train, then!”
“Well, duh. What are you, blind?”
“You tried to kill me too!”
“Kill? HEHEEHEE, I don’t kill. I
obliterate!” She threw her axe and Felix had to jump away as he was not ready
to take out his crescent blade. Rina’s knives and Hazel’s arrows were not
strong enough to deflect an axe.
Hazel took out her bow and arrows
this time. “Garnett, the daughter with no last name.”
“Huh?” Felix turned to her. “How do
you know her?”
“I lived in Ouli Brye for years. I
should know who follows the royalty family of North Ouli Brye.”
Garnett’s axe returned to her hand
like a boomerang. “I really don’t like betrayers either. I had no idea King
Nader was a part of the Gammel army. I was heading south through the Terrain
Valley so that I could get to the Yucan Tempa. Turns out you’re in my way too.”
“Why do you want to go there? And
what happened to your dad? Why couldn’t you just take his last name too?” Felix
became utterly confused at her actions and reasons.
Garnett stabbed her axe into the
ground in frustration. “One question at a time, mister! I don’t need to have a
last name to identify who I am. And I wanted to head to Troiya which is the easiest
way to reach Gammel lands at this point in time, but my father refused to be a
part of the head royalty. I asked Ace if we could counterattack the Gammel army
in some way, but that rat was too damn focused on recovering North Ouli Brye.”
Rina laughed. “Hah! And you think
you could just solve this problem alone?” [Music 10.2]
“Alone?” Garnett repeated. “Who said
I’m going to do this alone?” She pulled her axe from the dirt. “I will cut you
all and keep you partially alive, and then use you as bait to lure in the Gammel
army!”
Hazel whispered to them, “She’s
crazier than I imagined!”
Felix began by running towards her.
“She’s even worse than Lionel!”
At the same time, Hazel had to wait
a few seconds to avoid accidentally striking Felix with an arrow. Rina, on the
other hand, didn’t care. She casted a fireball and then she threw a knife
anyway.
Felix had to move slightly away from
Rina’s position and Garnett threw her axe towards him.
“Rina, we need to pin her down, not
burn her!” Felix used his crescent blade to block the axe attack which bounced
back to Garnett’s grip.
The fireball missed Garnett after
she jumped back a few steps. “Tch,” Rina said in frustration. “Why don’t we
just kill her now?”
“She’s not our main enemy!” Felix
added.
“Of course you’re my enemy! I hate
you for betraying me, I hate that loudmouthed girl, and I hate the Obsidian!”
She suddenly pointed at Hazel, “I don’t even know who that irrelevant old hag
is.”
“W-Who are you calling an old hag?!”
Hazel grabbed an arrow as she saw Felix turn to her. Hazel sighed, knowing he
didn’t want to kill Garnett. Instead, Hazel shot an arrow only to graze Garnett
on the hips.
Garnett crouched down, her axe
dropping to the floor.
Rina
smiled. “Time to die!”
Felix stood in front of Garnett.
“Stop! We can’t solve this problem by killing each other!” [End music]
“Get out of the way, Felix! This is
the perfect opportunity to stop her for good!”
“If you think about it, she’s trying
to stop the Gammel army even if it is
in her own, devilish ways. Right now, we need as much distraction to their army
as possible so that we can get those shards ourselves.”
Rina stopped. “She’s just going to
keep coming after us.”
Garnett said nothing.
Felix turned to Garnett. She had a carefree
expression.
“Then we’ll just have to keep
stopping her,” Felix said. “Let’s hurry and keep going.”
Hazel shrugged. “I’m not really up
for running away, but if you’re so sure on keeping her alive, then don’t come
crying to me when she’s back to kill you.” She headed towards the Terrain
Valley.
“I agree with the old lady. Felix,
you’re already slowing me down again.” She stomped away with Hazel.
“Wait, no one’s going to give me
credit for that awesome shot I made earlier?” Her sarcastic voice disappeared
in the distance.
As Felix was about to follow, he
turned to Garnett.
“What are you looking at, punk?” She said to him.
“N-Nothing.” He had a sweat mark run
down his forehead as he decided to leave her.
~ Terrain Valley – Northern Portion - Entrance ~
Felix was still focusing on the back
row, checking if Garnett was still deciding on following them.
“Hold it right there, you two.”
Hazel interrupted their walk.
Rina wiped her forehead as she
turned around. “We don’t have time to stand around.”
“I just wanted to warn you two of
the beast that lies in this valley.”
“B-Beast?! Um, you mean Rina?”
Rina quickly blasted a fireball at
him but he barely ducked below. “Make another joke on me again, and you’re
going to burn next time.”
“I was just trying to lighten the
mood!” [Music 11.2]
“Ahem!” Hazel raised her voice.
“Anyway, there is a beast called the Terraineous. That’s where this place got
its name. Rumors say it was some kind of failed research that was left in this
valley after the-…”
“What?”
“What’s wrong, old lady? Cat got yer
tongue?”
Hazel said slowly, “after the
Obsidian energy usage was a failure.”
Both Rina and Felix were shocked.
“What did you say? How long ago was
this?” Felix abruptly asked.
Hazel began to explain to them,
“Well, this place was named after the Terraineous several decades back. It was
in dedication to the very friendly boar, but that research seven years ago
tampered into its mind and now, all it can think about is destruction.” She
crouched down at a few brown plants nearby. “This valley… It wasn’t that bad
before those years.”
Felix walked forward, looking at all
of the withered plants around the entrance to the Terrain Valley. “That’s
terrible…”
“Hazel, I want you to tell me
something,” Rina commanded her, “How much do you know about the Gammel army?
Why aren’t you telling us who you are?”
Hazel took a deep breath as she went
on with her response, “Well… I used to go to many places in my travels back
when I was young.”
“Were you some kind of mercenary?”
Felix wondered.
“Haha! You could say that. My point
is, I’ve gone to so many places and done so much spying that I ended up
overhearing words from the Gammel government themselves. If you want me to tell
you what I know about their government, just ask.”
Rina immediately began asking a
question, “Okay then how about: what kind of research has that Talbot bastard
been doing?”
“So far, he extracted Obsidian
energy from their hometown by killing off a bunch of people first. He didn’t do
the killing, actually. The Gammel army did it for him. He was quite against it
and he was a marvelous man, but…”
Felix and Rina began paying
attention.
“He started becoming greedy with his
research once it was booming. He learned that the Obsidian energy can
manipulate minds that were mixed with humans and animals alike. Rumors say that
he hasn’t actually seen his research itself, but his boss has been telling him
positive reviews, so Professor Talbot is blindly making more research.”
“What if an Obsidian and a normal
human were to have a child? What would that child be like?” Rina snickered.
“You cannot gain the symptoms of
Obsidian energy-mixing through childbirth. The Obsidian traits are
automatically dominant, and the human traits become recessive. However, it is
extremely rare to have a mixed child of some sort regardless. They always
seclude themselves from humans not because of resentment, but because of purity
and fear that they would affect humans in a negative way.”
Felix began to think carefully about
the situation. “They are very considerate! So when these Obsidian traits are
forced onto someone who isn’t born as full Obsidian, then that’s when they
become crazy.”
“Yes. Obsidian energy holds a
significant power that no human or animal can percept. Because of this,
Professor Talbot’s failed research became a necessity to Gammel’s increasing
army. The army and Talbot’s boss does not
consider it as a failure, however.”
“I can’t believe this…” Felix
frowned.
“So the Gammel government is a conspiracy-come-true after all!”
Rina said angrily. “I’m going to show them a piece of my mind once I get back
to their territory!” [End music]
“But first, you’re going to have to
go through the Terrain Valley,” Hazel reminded her. “Shall we get going?”
Felix nodded. “Yeah. Thanks for
telling us about all of this, Hazel.”
“I figured you needed to know about
it before making hasty decisions against the government.” [Music 15.1]
Felix chuckled a little, knowing
that she was right. Finally, the three of them continued into the Terrain
Valley.
Fake Oasis
Desert Rabbit Abuse
~ Terrain Valley – Central Portion - Oasis ~
The group of three was reaching the
oasis center of the valley now. Several times before, they have already
encountered mirages of oases. Rina crawled her way to the sand this time.
“It has to be it. Real water!”
Hazel checked her bags. All nine of
her water bottles were drunk by the three of them and now they had to find
water as soon as possible.
Rina cupped a handful of fresh water
into her hands and then she splashed it all over her face.
Felix was glad that it was finally
real water, but Hazel stopped them.
“I wouldn’t spend too much time
around there if I were you.”
Rina turned around and rudely asked,
“Why the hell not?!”
“The oasis here makes the sand
slightly more fertile than the rest of them in the valley. That could make the
Terraineous easily hide underneath. It obviously attracts the beast due to the
sustenance here.”
Rina examined the area around her.
She was surrounded by a large basin of sand along with Hazel, Felix, and of
course some parts of the water. She noticed around them contained hills and
cliffs which obscured the other side of the roads.
Felix panicked. “Er… Yeah, maybe we
should get out of here quick.”
“Fine, whatever. I’ll believe you
just for our safety, but it sounds kind of stupid for a beast like that to be
hiding under sand especially if he needs to hunt.”
“Perhaps he already began his hunt.”
Hazel snapped her fingers. She indicated that the three of them were subjects
of the beast’s prey.
“Let’s hurry then!” Felix whined.
“Wait, just one water bottle.” She
uncomfortable grabbed an empty water bottle from her bag by reaching behind her
back instead of taking off her backpack. “This should do-“
“Rina! We shouldn’t waste more time.
I feel like we’re almost out of the valley anyway.”
“Do you want to risk dying in this
valley?”
“But Hazel is right. We’re still
risking our lives by standing here on soft sand.”
“Oh shut up and let me do this.”
Hazel tried to warn them. “Please,
don’t argue much longer! We must be on our way, so I suggest you should stop
your bickering. I am getting a little queasy from listening to you two complain
throughout your walk.”
“Did you hear her?” Felix said,
“Even she’s getting annoyed.”
“That’s because you keep nagging me!
UGH!” She turned around and then she readied her hands, “If you keep getting in
my way, I’m just going to have to push you aside already, Suspenders!”
Felix gasped. “What?! You should
know better!”
“You two need to stop, immediately!”
“Oh be quiet, old lady. I was just
bluffing, sheesh! But seriously, you need to stop annoying me. Now, where was
I?” [End music]
Felix clenched his teeth. “Why won’t
you ever listen to me? It’s important that we stay safe!”
“And it’s important that we stay
alive with hydration!”
Suddenly, the ground began to shake.
Each vibration got heavier by the second!
Felix tripped and Rina almost fell
into the water. She stabbed a knife into the ground to keep her stance, but the
sand only knocked her over. [Music 15.2]
Hazel took a step back. “Incoming!!”
She then aimed an arrow towards the growing Terraineous which burst out of the
ground with a loud roar.
Felix even had to cover his ears for
a second. “Rina, where are you?!”
Rina jumped away while casting a
fireball at it. With its large body, not even knives could affect the giant
beast. The Terraineous turned around with red, gleaming eyes.
“Rina!!!” Felix ran towards the
enemy with his crescent blade before it could swipe Rina away.
The beast quickly turned around as
it slapped Felix away with a small sweep to the stomach. Felix flew back about
ten feet.
Rina began to sweat. “Damn it. You
didn’t tell us it was this huge!” She
pointed at the fifteen-foot beast in front of her.
“We must retreat to the hill up
above!” Hazel commanded them while using her hands to heal Felix’s wounds.
Felix watched her hands - filled
with green aura. He then agreed to follow Hazel towards the hills but Rina
slightly hesitated.
“The hills? They look like cliffs to
me!”
“It’s better than just standing
around getting killed by a dangerous beast like this one,” Hazel said. The
group of three bounded together and ran in sync towards the nearest cliff.
Rina made a sharp stop in front of
them. “Wait, wait!”
Felix fell forward and his jaw hit
the edge of the hill. Right in front of his eyes… was an abyss!
Felix’s eyes opened wide. “Th-The
abyss from the Ouli Brye basin?!”
The Terraineous made another loud
roar which vibrated the cliff.
Rina began to shake. “Crap! If only…
If only I was a bit stronger, I could have used some kind of other elemental
magic against it!”
“Tch…” Hazel became speechless to
her own shame for bringing two teenagers into this mess.
Felix could barely sit up. He was hyperventilating. “No… no, no! We’re not going to die here, are we?!”
“No we’re not!”
“Look around us! We’re completely
trapped!” He argued.
“That’s because you kept whining
back then. You must have woken it up!”
“We could have survived if you just
gave up on that water!”
“If I did, then we would have died
from hydration anyway!! Don’t you ever think?!”
The beast raised both of his hands
towards the closest target: Felix. Rina took sight of the beast who was aiming
specifically towards him. She made a sudden gasp.
“FELIX!” Rina shouted.
Felix’s heart skipped a beat from
surprise. He became distracted now and all he could do was stand and watch.
Hazel elbowed Rina to the side and then
she quickly kicked Felix to the other end of her path. The two teenagers rolled
down the hill under the Terraineous, causing Hazel to be out in the open. Then,
the beast punched the cliff which sundered the entire hilltop. [End music]
Felix turned around with his eyes
completely wide open. Rina responded the exact same way.
The beast began to fall over the
cliff along with Hazel now. Hazel did not make any scream, but the beast was
still shrieking at her!
Felix tried to crawl over to them
but the cliff was cut too short. Nothing could be done from his angle.
“HAZEL!!!!!!!!!” He screamed from
the top of his lungs.
Eventually, there was no longer any
call from the beast… and never from Hazel either…
[Ending 2 music]
~~~
Next time on The Obsidian Tale, we will shift back to Lydia, Forrest, and Leo. It seems they have swept pretty far through the river going north of Ouli Brye and past a bunch of rocky archways north of the Silver Forest. Their next destination is what looks like some kind of carnival! Could it be the most fun place in the world? Find out on the next episode!
~~~
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