The Obsidian Tale
~ Village of Saradeli – central district ~
Sydney no longer had a potato sack
of an outfit. This time, she wore a yellow t-shirt engraved with a large, pink
heart in the center. For easier running, she chose beige shorts.
Spencer, on the other hand, chose a
blue shirt with a vest. He also liked the idea of having shorts on. Instead of
having broken glasses, he chose the nicest, shiniest, and round pair of glasses
he could find.
It took a few minutes until Felix’s
group arrived from the northern district.
“Damn, after only a few minutes of
this village and I’m sick of this place,” Rina commented. “There’s not much to
see.”
“That’s because half of the village
was destroyed,” Felix defended the village’s glory. “It’s much livelier when
people are actually… here to do stuff.”
Lydia giggled. “I believe you. I
remember it was different before, and in a good way too.”
“Deary!” Ekaja called.
Lydia squealed. “Mother!!!!”
“Oh my! You seem to have gotten your
personality back,” She chuckled.
“Almost all of it. I just need one
more shard.”
“You are already fine the way you
are.”
“You’re so kind, mother. Hehe.”
“Tonight, I will help Mrs. Wolfram
make the best dish for you and your friends!”
Lydia clapped her hands. “That
sounds very good!”
While they were bonding together, Felix
noticed that Forrest was running towards the central district with a concerned
look on his face. Forrest headed towards Leo, then he tugged onto his coat. [Music 11.2]
“Leo, Leo! We have to hurry!”
“What is it? Where did you go?”
“I saw Bailey earlier and he ran
off. We have to stop him before he goes back to the Gammel army people!”
Leo had the most confused look on
his face. “What is Bailey doing here?” Jess appeared from down the road to the
east and Leo asked again, “And where was Jess?”
Forrest stomped his foot. “You can
ask questions later. We need to stop him!”
The entire group banded together in a
near circle.
“Forrest, keep it down,” Hazel
commanded, “Which way did Bailey go?”
“Um… I think that way!” He pointed
past Felix.
Rina rolled her eyes. “That’s
stupid. I didn’t see that kid run by.”
“I think he took a shorter way! I
saw him run into the foresty end of the village!”
“Alright,” Felix said. “He could not
be far from here. Should we all go and check?”
“Ahem,” Jess interrupted him.
Felix remembered that he promised
Jess to look for Bailey himself instead of having Forrest go.
“Actually, why don’t I go on my own?
I’ll come back with Bailey.”
Forrest thought about his fortune as
well. “No way. I have to go too.”
Jess interrupted them, “Hold on.
Bailey seemed a bit faster than usual. That kid’s run was a little abnormal. It
is far too late to try and catch up.”
Warren thought about the situation
carefully. “Hm, it seems that if Bailey is now a part of the Gammel army and
headed north, the only direction would be towards Vector, northwest of here.
Vector is the home city known for the Gammel government. All the orders come
from there and they dispatch their soldiers.”
“Doesn’t Troiya already do that?”
Lydia wondered.
“Not quite. The Gammel government is
intelligent. They would use Troiya as a weaponry base. If they were to have all things relevant to Gammel in one
city, it would be an automatic checkmate if Vector were to be infiltrated.”
Hazel agreed with him. “That is clever. You see, if Vector was to be
taken over, only parts of the government would be in trouble. At that point,
members of Troiya would come over and stop the infiltrators from completely
destroying Vector’s sections.”
Forrest jumped uncontrollably. “Who
cares about that! Let’s go to that Vector place, hurry!”
“Hey!” Rina called as Forrest turned
around. She flickered his nose and he sneered away. “You need to keep it down.
We are all taking that kid into consideration, but right now, rushing into
Vector without a proper tactic would be a terrible idea.”
“Alright, we should have enough time
to plan out our next tactic. I understand that many of you need a rest, so you
may sleep at the inn tonight. Leo, care to help me plan out a tactic on what to
do next, especially at Vector?”
Leo shook his head. Rina raised her
hand as well, “I might help for the first part of your plan. I need to find
that last shard.”
Lydia agreed with her. “Me too. I
feel that we can use myself as a decoy to take the attention away towards the Gammel
government. If this is needed, then I must chime in with the plan.” [End music]
Jess lightly elbowed Felix. “I think
it would be important for Felix to help.” Felix knew she wanted to remind the
group about the children staying in the Village of Saradeli. She began to
whisper to Felix about what Bailey said: lieutenants have been asked to search
any northeastern areas from Bafuul.
Hazel nodded. “The children must get
some sleep. Don’t worry, we will handle the rest tonight. For now, just take a
break, have a great dinner, and we’ll be settled.”
The group began to disperse until
nightfall.
~ Village of Saradeli – western district – inn lobby ~
Lydia lit a candle on the side of
the large room by the front desk. She was amazed at how the inn was still able
to stand despite being charred a little on the outside. Most of the western
district had been intact. Oh yeah, we’ve been through every district besides
the western portion, haven’t we? Well, the western district was used more as a
place to relax and bond with friends and family alike. There were old cafes,
bars, and a bunch of inns but most have been run-down ever since Gammel’s
infiltration. Felix never really bothered to go here as he preferred to live in
the abandoned building at the eastern district.
Mrs. Wolfram lightly closed the door
from one of the bedrooms and she began a casual conversation with Ekaja as if
they were already best friends. [Music 14.2]
“The children are sound asleep,” She
whispered.
Hazel turned to Felix, “Good. Felix,
would you do the honors of starting this meeting?”
Felix gasped. “M-Me?!”
Rina kicked him by the foot. “Idiot.
All you have to start off with is mentioning those kids.”
Felix slightly chuckled. “Oh,
eheheh… Well, first of all, having the children come with us from here on would
be unsafe and a terrible influence for them. I think it’s best to keep them
here as I promised Forrest that he could only come along until I find him the
right place to live in. It seems this village works well.”
Mrs. Wolfram agreed with him. “I
would happily take them in as my own. I would feel much younger again. Do you
think this is okay, Ekaja?”
“I will treat them as my own nieces
and nephews,” Ekaja chuckled.
Mrs. D’Alonzo had her arm around her
husband’s neck. “I would love to have them work for me too. We need more manual
labor!”
Warren stuttered. “Er- Wait, that’s
not what Sir Felix had been intending!”
Mrs. Wolfram laughed. “I think it
would be a wonderful idea. From what I saw, they enjoyed helping. Don’t worry,
we won’t force them to work. If they want to, I will make a nice incentive such
as a higher quality meal and so on.”
Lydia frowned. “That’s kind of like
having a job. Maybe they should focus more on elementary and intermediate
education.”
Mrs. D’Alonzo snapped his fingers.
“I knew we should have made a library first! At any rate, we have some books
left over around the village. We can gather them together now.”
Felix sighed in relief. “That’s good
to hear. At least now they get to grow up like normal children.”
“Oh?” Hazel questioned him, “You’re
not an adult yet and you also need to grow like a normal child.”
Rina laughed. “You’re only like
what, sixteen? Hah!”
“I’m also talking to you,” Hazel
added. “You, Lydia, and Felix have yet to become adults.”
Felix grinned. “We have a good
reason to go!”
“Only Lydia should be able to come
with us anyway,” Hazel teased.
Lydia panicked. “N-No! I request
that Felix and Rina come with us!”
“Already princess-like,” Leo joked.
“Interesting change of pace here.” Lydia blushed without saying another word.
Warren changed the subject, “Shall
we get to the actual plan?”
Hazel took out another piece of
paper. “Great idea. Now, we are to head towards Vector. In order to do that, we
must walk through the Mago’Ria Fey again, and then return to the crosswalk from
the Opel Plains. Instead, we will go to the new path further west into the
Checkpoint.”
“What’s the checkpoint for?” Lydia
asked.
“The Checkpoint is more of a
borderland. Only certified members of Vector who have traveled all around the
world may enter through the checkpoint. This is to protect Vector from any
outsiders.”
Rina scoffed at the idea. “That’s a
bit too much protection if you asked me.”
“Wait,” Leo spoke, “Why aren’t there
any borders south of Vector?”
Warren answered him, “South of
Vector is Loomin. The Aria River only goes downhill towards Troiya. If any
consolation, there are light fences in between Loomin and Vector. Only a few
number of soldiers are dispatched there. It’s harder to infiltrate Vector from
the south than from the east.” [End music]
The teenagers began to whine about
the inconvenience for them. [Music 3.2]
Warren continued, “At the
Checkpoint, I will ask a certain woman to let us through.”
“A woman?” Rina asked.
“She used to be my training partner
while I was still lieutenant. I’m sure she would understand if I were to
explain the conspiracy of the Gammel government.”
“What’s her name?” Lydia wondered.
“Her name is Felisse. She may be a
little hardheaded but she means well.”
Hazel began jotting down the
information. “Okay, we will have Warren help us there. That should easily get
us to Vector. Now, we have to take note of any possible lieutenants there.”
Felix raised his hand. “Jess told me
that the Gammel lieutenants are currently searching the northeastern portions
from Bafuul. She got this information from Bailey.”
Lydia was shocked. “What?! The
Grandine Hillage would be in danger!”
Hazel laughed. “Nope! I took care of
that already!”
“What,” The three teenagers said at
the same time.
“You think I wouldn’t take that into
account? If the lieutenants were to search via their own airship, they could
easily spot our crashed airship at the Opel Plains. I told the old lady at the
inn to say that we headed south past the stream of the Grandine Hillage. It
leads to the Lake City Prima, but the civilians at the city would be confused
as to why the Gammel army would go there. With that, we have bought some time
for us to head into Vector.”
Warren pointed at the northwestern
portion of the continent, “But as we know, the military is clever. They will
place some of the lieutenants northwest into Vector and east into the Lake City
Prima. We should expect about half the amount of lieutenants that we could
count in Bafuul.”
Leo began counting with his fingers,
“One of them is Bailey, and we should not forget about Floir and Clyde.”
“There is also a woman… her name is
Viola,” Lydia added.
Rina was astonished. “Wait, that
name! It sounds familiar.”
“Viola is a star pupil of Floir’s
soldiers and she may be next in line as a master lieutenant,” Warren added. “We
should not take her lightly.”
“Does that stupid scientist, Talbot,
count as one?”
“We might as well if he’s needed to
do research on the last shard,” Leo answered her. “So, Professor Talbot will
definitely be there. At the same time, Bailey will be there for sure. With so
many lieutenants and star marks on the map, we could expect that at least one of
them will be in Prima while a few more would be going towards Vector.”
“Clyde,” Felix concluded. “He is
definitely going past Vector.”
Hazel shook her head. “Then that
finishes everything. We can assume that at least three of the five leaders are
in Vector while Floir and Viola have gone to the Grandine Hillage.”
Felix grinned. “I sure hope that
village will be alright with that lieutenant, Floir.” [End music]
Lydia headed for her own bedroom.
“It should be fine. Viola has a kind heart, I think.” She opened the door,
“Maybe now we can get a rest until the next morning.”
Hazel agreed with her. “Yes. We
shall leave abruptly in the morning and it is best to not say our goodbyes to
the children. They may not handle it well.”
The group began to split apart and
Rina asked Lydia in a hysterical manner, “You think Viola has a kind heart?!”
Hazel the Fighter
The Ugly Song
From behind the door in the
children’s bedroom, Forrest overheard the entire conversation. Sydney and
Spencer were sound asleep, but Jess sat upward on her bed.
“Forrest, why are you awake?” [Music 8.3]
Forrest turned around with a smile
on his face. “I couldn’t sleep, so I decided to listen in! Hehe.”
Jess sighed. “I think you should get
some rest.”
“But what about Bailey? And what
about my fortune?”
Jess placed her legs off the bed.
“Felix has it taken care of. Bailey will be alright. You cannot change your
fortune, and it also states that when your loved
one may fall. That doesn’t mean you have to be there in order to pass on
the fortune.”
Forrest became quiet. He turned his
back against the door as he slid to the ground. “Aw…” He only said.
“Now, will you get some sleep?”
“Fine. I guess… it’s goodbye to them
all,” He began to cry. “It was really fun.”
Jess glanced over at his expression
one more time before she went to bed. He seemed less expressive than she had
expected, knowing Forrest would make a big deal out of everything and everyone
he knew. She was right, after all. It was
strange to see Forrest act empathetic to his friends’ dismissal. It was as if
he was faking his sadness.
Still, Jess headed to the other side
of the room to sit down next to him and give him a hug. “It will be alright. We
will see them again…”
~ Village of Saradeli – western district – outside the inn ~
It was barely five-thirty in the
morning and the teenagers and adults have made their way to the exit from the
inn. Felix was the last of the six members to exit, and he made a stop to speak
with his mother one more time.
“Hey mom, I’m sorry I have to leave
again.”
“It’s alright, sweetie. Normally, I
would be protective over you and tell you that this journey is too dangerous to
handle, but you are almost an adult, and I can trust that you will make it out
safely again. If you could handle the previous journey, you can handle the
next.”
Rina scowled at him. “Egh, can’t you
just leave him here like a concerned adult?”
Mrs. Wolfram chuckled. “I really
want to, but I know I wouldn’t be able to stop him either way. He still has to
meet his best friend and his own father, and I cannot take that pride and honor
away from him. He must live freely as long as he believes it will be best for
him.”
Felix gave a sincere smile. He
wanted to thank her over and over again, but now was not the time as the group
was in a hurry to head to Vector and find the final shard, along with Clyde and
now Bailey.
Lydia hugged her mother too. “I’m
going to come back, I promise.”
“Will you really be okay?” [End music]
“Oh mom, come on!” She laughed.
“Look at me. I lost my personality, but I managed to come back with most of it
returned to me. I can push for a little more.”
“Ohoho… I promise that by the time
you come back to visit, this village will be as good as new!” [Music 1.4]
“I’m really looking forward to it!”
Mr. D’Alonzo raised his burly arms
as he yelled out loud, “We will make the village the best as can be!!! You will
come back to a lively VILLAGE!!!!”
Mrs. D’Alonzo slapped his face.
“Shut your mouth, you’ll wake up the children!”
Before leaving, Leo asked the
D’Alonzo parents, “By the way, I couldn’t help but notice the large… erm… wall
south of here.”
Mrs. D’Alonzo turned to the wall
that was almost two times as large as a typical tree. You could barely see
sunlight from the other side.
“Oh that? Well, there had been this
ferocious bear in the cavern towards Kyrie and we just wanted to prevent it
from striking this village.”
Both Rina and Felix gave a disturbed
gasp as they took a step back in surprise.
Felix yelped. “How’d you make a wall
that fast?! That’s physically impossible!”
“Forget that,” Rina interrupted him,
“aren’t you more surprised that the bear is going wild?”
Hazel slowly turned her head to
them. “…Do you two have anything to do with this bear?”
Rina shrugged. “It’s all Suspender’s
fault, not me. Sheesh.”
“What?!” Felix shrieked. The group
began to laugh, not taking the bear seriously. Besides, they were protected by
a wall anyway. However, how is Kyrie doing at this rate? Do they also have a
wall?
The group said their last farewells
again and as Felix was walking away, he turned back one more time, “Jess,
Spencer, Sydney, and Forrest, I guess this is goodbye…”
Lydia clamped her hands together to
pray. “I feel so bad to just leave without saying bye. Will we see them soon?”
Felix shook his head. “After all of
this Gammel stuff is over and you get your last shard, then I can come back and
live with them for good. This is just temporary.”
“…What will we do after all of this
is over, Rina?” Lydia asked her, but Rina had nothing much to say. The group
tried to ignore such depressing thoughts as they went ahead and continued on
with their last journey. “I guess it’s goodbye again, Village of Saradeli. And
to Forrest most of all, we have lost a member the group as it is now down to
six…” [End music]
~ Mago’Ria Fey – south side ~
Felix finally spoke. “It sure is
quiet now, isn’t it?”
Rina had her fire powers lit in
between her palms, hoping it was bright enough to fill the cavern. Warren was
at the end of the group in case someone were to attack from behind. Heading
closer to the mid-point, the group heard rustling noises.
“Is it you again, Forrest?” Rina
suddenly stopped. She had forgotten that Forrest was no longer in the group. “Oh…
Never mind…”
“Mmph…” Lydia almost pouted, wishing
she didn’t have to think about him this soon.
In front of them, the ground began
lighting up in blue aura. Leo was the second person in line as he opened his
arms out to protect them.
“Watch out. That’s where the noise
is coming from.” [Music 31.1]
“Th-That can’t be anything serious,
right? I mean, we went through the first time without trouble.” A sweat drop
came marking down Felix’s face.
Two skeletons appeared from below,
but they were animated! They began moving on their own with soldier helmets and
falchion swords. Lydia’s eyes opened widely by disgust.
“What is this crap?!” Rina
commented.
Hazel took out her bow. “These…
these are leftover corpses that died from consuming too much Obsidian energy!”
Felix gasped. “What?! I thought they
turned into beasts!”
Hazel nodded. “They do, but the ones
who can’t even handle the slightest bit don’t even go into the beastly stage.
They die immediately. Those who can handle it will consume the energy and in
time, will turn into monsters.”
Felix thought about Clyde and
Bailey. “We all think Clyde took some Obsidian energy and he’s still alive.
Bailey did too and that kid is still alive.”
“Bailey consumed Obsidian energy?!”
Lydia panicked.
“Yeah. Jess told me. It’s kind of a
long story but right now is not the time!”
Hazel shot at one of the two
skeletons and the bones shattered all over the ground. Their bones began
clumping together again.
“Tch,” She growled. “My arrows don’t
seem to work on them.”
Rina threw a fireball at both of the
skeletons and they began turning into ashes.
“Easy peasy, but that was gross,”
she said as she patted her palms together.
“Still, why did they come out now?”
Felix said with concern. “Why didn’t they show up before?”
Hazel thought about it carefully.
She began to put the pieces together. “This must be it. Bailey could not have
come into the village through this cavern. That child previously came from the
outskirts of Kyrie through some kind of hole that the bear could not go through.
Then, Bailey left through the Fey. The unsealed Obsidian energy that Bailey
contained must have activated corpses from down below.”
“You mean… failed projects were
thrown into this cavern to rot and die?!” Felix clenched his fists.
“Yes. Where else than to throw it in
a place that was already sealing off blue poison? You see, these skeletons do
not appear when Lydia is around. This is due to the fact that Lydia’s energy is
sealed and organic. It had not been tampered with by chemicals.”
Warren nodded. “That would make
sense. This is why Lydia is completely fine and alive with Obsidian energy, but
humans turn into beasts when reacted with the wrong chemicals.” [End music]
Felix closed his eyes. “So it really
is true… Bailey consumed Obsidian energy.”
Rina continued to move further.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, let’s just keep going or else things get worse. We would be
lucky if this was the only dead space for old skeletons.”
As the group continued on further,
Leo and Hazel stayed at the end of the group.
Leo asked her, “Hey, if this keeps
going and people die from Obsidian energy while more mutated people are
created, doesn’t this create an exponential growth in reanimated dead?”
“Of course, it would appear to be
true. That is why we must stop the Gammel government from producing more
extracted Obsidian energy. Maybe then, we can find a scientist smart enough to
find a cure. At the same time, we need more fire power to deplete the amount of
animated skeletons.”
“Do you think we can persuade
Professor Talbot to reverse everything?”
Hazel watched as the group moved on
further. “We can at least give it a try. Things will get really ugly from here
on, so we have to watch out for the young ones.”
Leo agreed with her as they
continued onward towards the Checkpoint near Vector. Leo was behind Hazel,
thinking about the Gammel government. There is something about this ‘Master
Magnus’ that sounded really familiar, but he couldn’t seem to put the pieces
together.
[Ending 3 music]
~~~
On the next episode of The Obsidian Tale, we will visit the Checkpoint before Vector! At the Checkpoint, there seems to be someone significant to Warren's character development. Sure, they do get through and towards Vector, but they lose someone along the way...?! What?! To make things even worse, a new Gammel character will make his appearance! Until next time!
~~~
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