The Obsidian Tale
~ Tree of Revision ~
We left off at Lydia facing against
Magnus. The rest of the group were a bit further away from the tree while Felix
and Professor Igor were beside the tree.
“Yes, it was me the entire time.
Haha!” Magnus punched the tree. The colors of the tree suddenly turned brown
and orange, from bottom to top. The leaves quickly withered away, all of them
falling to the ground like ashes.
Lydia was almost emotionless at this
point. She said to him slowly, “I… can’t believe you.” This time, her tears
suppressed and rage became abrupt. “You are an awful person. You need to be stopped immediately. I’ve never been
so frustrated!” She recklessly took out her flail and raised it into the air as
quickly as possible. Before, she could strike, Magnus floated further away from
her.
Rina was shocked. “Lydia, control
yourself!”
Forrest frowned. “D-Don’t let him
get the best of you.”
“Come on, Igor! You’re going to show
me what kind of technology you can make!” Magnus raised his arms into the air.
Professor Igor did not hesitate. “As
you wish, your majesty.”
Hazel was shocked. “What?! The
professor was never a bad man!”
Magnus pointed at her, “This is
where you do not understand. That young boy over there may have been revived by
the Obsidian, but it was I who helped revive Professor Igor. They are reborn
with respect to those who saved them. That double necklace, however… can skew
the favor to me.”
“What does he mean by that?” Leo
became worried.
“You’ll see. For now, I shall leave,
bahaha! Let us go, Igor!” The two of them vanished together. [End music]
The area was as quiet as it was when
they arrived in the first place.
Lydia sighed. “No… What are they
going to do?” She turned to Felix who looked confused, just as how she
remembered him to be. She suddenly gave a big smile. Tears fell down her eyes.
She was finally able to focus again. “FELIX!!!” [Music 18.1]
Due to the lack of energy within the
Tree of Revision, Lydia regained her ability to move normally. She pounced onto
Felix and gave him a big hug. He fell on his back, yelping in pain. We can’t
forget the fact that he was blushing red again.
“L-Lydia! I’m glad to see you too,
haha!”
Everyone began to follow along.
Their little reunion deserved a group hug.
“It’s you… It’s really you, Felix!”
She began pulling his cheeks.
“Yesmmm itfs reely mee!” He mumbled.
Forrest began poking Felix’s stomach
with his BB gun. “Ooooh he really is
real!!!”
“Ouch, that hurts!”
Hazel punched him on the head. “And
he can feel pain!”
Felix felt his head. “OW! Hazel, you
did that on purpose!”
“Yep, and I’m damn glad. You deserve
it for being so reckless!” She said angrily, but then she gave a sigh of
relief.
“Hazel, you’re the same as ever. Heh…”
Felix chuckled.
Rina had her arms crossed. “I’m
impressed, Suspenders. Where have you been all this time anyway?”
“O-Oh, about that!” Felix became
serious. “Listen, those past several weeks felt really long to me. The moment I
blinked after that light hit me, I entered a state of emptiness.” The group
began listening carefully. “It was like I was in between life and death at the
same time.”
“A state of limbo,” Viola said. “Who
knew such a thing could actually be true?”
“I guess you can say that. The
professor was the only man who was there. There was nothing but a white
background. Even the ground was transparent white. It was like I was watching
the professor float around for all these past weeks. He told me that the light
struck me just like it struck him several years back.”
Forrest was still poking Felix by
the stomach. “How did you get into this limby thingy?”
“Limbo,” Rina corrected him.
“Well,” Felix responded, “When a ray
of light comes at you in less than a split second, it should seriously
obliterate you into shreds. If it comes to you way faster than that, it would
glitch and throw you into a world between Rhadessia and a death space.”
Leo grinned. “It’s kind of like that
wishy washy stuff I learned from when I was a kid at school. They teach you
that if you travel several millions of miles out of Rhadessia and straight down
the universal road, you reach a point where you’re just time traveling through
space. Only this time, you didn’t time travel per se, but have been teleported
into a limbo state.”
Rina laughed. “Hah, man. You’ve been
stuck with that old man for more than four weeks?”
Hazel glared at her. “That old man
is almost as old as me.”
“As I was saying,” Rina continued
but she had nothing else to say. “Welp, I got nothing.”
Lydia grabbed both Felix’s hands.
“At any rate, you should take a rest. We need to get back to the Crescent
airship and we can talk more about things there. I don’t think here would be a
very pleasant place to talk…” The rest of the group agreed.
“You have an airship? You named it
‘Crescent’? Where is it??”
“At the Mer… uh… lab place thingy
nearby!” Forrest interrupted.
Warren patted Forrest’s head. “The
Merridian Laboratory southwest from here,” He said.
“Oh Suspenders, you seriously have a
lot of catching up to do,” Rina stated.
As the group laughed and walked off
together, Viola stayed behind to think carefully about the situation.
“Why would Magnus vanish with Igor
when he could have easily killed us all here? He is clearly planting a trap
against us somewhere, somehow,” she said to herself. [End music]
~ Merridian Laboratory – northeastern sector ~
Forrest headed to the airship first.
“Yay, it’s still here!”
Leo examined the ship carefully.
“That’s strange. If I were Magnus, I would screw with the airship while we were
on our way down.”
Hazel disagreed. “That would be a great
idea and all, but he definitely has something planned if he didn’t destroy this
airship. We were lucky this time, but we have to be careful when we start the
engine.”
Warren gasped. “The engine? I shall
check up on it right now!”
He crouched under one of the large
fans below and then he opened a square hatch right below the entire airship,
examining the main portion of the engine. Very close by, the rest of the group
began to stick around.
“So, Felix…” Lydia said. “What
happened to you again?”
“Ah, about that! It’s kind of a long
story.”
Hazel shrugged. “While the engine is
being checked, we might as well wait and listen to what you have to say.”
“Hm,” Viola made a slight chuckle.
“And it would be interesting to listen to a story coming from a guy who’s
supposed to be dead.”
Lydia gasped. “V-Viola, please!”
Felix laughed. “It’s alright.
Viola’s usually like that.” He took Viola’s words as a compliment and as a
welcome-back speech. “After that beam hit me in Celestia, I blinked just once
and everything turned white. There was nothing. There was no sound, but it was
so quiet that I could hear all the motions in my own body.”
Rina squinted her eyes. “That quiet?”
“Yeah! In a sheer silence like that,
you could slightly hear your blood rush, but that’s not the point. Professor
Igor was there too.”
Forrest shivered. “I-Igor?! That guy
who was next to you at the tree? He didn’t look very nice.”
“I know, but that’s because Magnus
must have been Igor’s responsibility on the revival.”
“And you were my responsibility for
your revival,” Lydia added.
“Exactly. The revival done by Magnus
must have tainted Igor’s heart and turned his actions uncontrollable.”
Forrest frowned. “So he’s just
another Bailey and Clyde…”
Hazel clenched her fists. “That is
far more dangerous than what we already had going for us.” [End music]
“Why’s that?” Rina asked. [Music 21.1]
Felix began to speak for Hazel,
“Professor Igor was once a well-known scientist from twenty years ago. When we
were both in that place of emptiness, he looked young, just around Warren’s
age.”
Leo chimed in to the conversation.
“From the books I’ve read, Igor died several years ago from old age.”
Felix shook his head. “That’s what
the books say. Even an old woman way back when I first visited the Town of Igor
said he died of natural old age. However, Igor told me he had vanished from a
ray of light, a weapon created by Professor Talbot. That weapon was a one-use
only, so it must be destroyed by now.”
Viola looked away in shame. “Back
then, the Gammel government created all sorts of weapons, and this ray of light
was the most dangerous of them all. Professor Talbot, still being in his greedy
money-hungry, continued to mass produce other kinds of weapons that were less
deadly. Overtime, he slowly realized some of his work was used towards the
death of others. Now, he regrets such things and wished for Igor to come back,
but that seemed impossible.”
“That’s true,” Felix said. “The
reason why Magnus probably wants Professor Igor back is because that man knows
how to build lots of technological things from a millennium years ago. The was
the only recent man of the past two decades who knew how to tamper with
technology from a millennium years ago.”
“You know about that too?” Lydia
questioned.
“I do, and Igor told me everything.
This Merridian Laboratory… It’s one of the most important marks in Rhadessia
today.”
Leo scratched his head in confusion.
“What strikes me most is that if you could revive two people with the same
amount of materials… then…?”
Hazel interrupted him, “That would
mean… incomplete bodies?”
Lydia gasped. “That can’t be true!
Felix is standing right here. He is not incomplete.”
Hazel shook her head. “Yes, you are
correct, but that’s only in physicality. What about mentally?”
“What do you mean? I feel fine,” Felix
shrugged.
Hazel glared at him but she said
nothing else.
Warren closed the engine space.
“There is not a single tweak at all.”
Hazel turned to the airship. “I had
a feeling. He is just waiting for us to start flying and he will probably launch
some kind of attack.”
“Then we will have to find a way to
counter all of that somehow,” Leo suggested.
“Hey! We should look around the
laboratory and see what we can find.” Felix began running off first, ignoring
all the piles of corpses nearby.
At that point, Hazel knew something
was suspicious. Felix should still be afraid of blood and skeletons.
As for Forrest, this was the first
few times he had seen pure skeletons just lying around. After all, he missed
the time there were two skeletons back at the Mago’Ria Fey. [End music]
Assigned Roles in the Crescent
~ Merridian Laboratory – central sector ~
Felix turned around. “This is just
like how the professor explained it to be!” He said excitedly.
Lydia giggled. “Ehem, since when did
you like stuff like this?”
“The professor taught me so much
while we were stuck in limbo. We don’t age, or get hungry, or become sleepy. I
used all that time to learn the history of Rhadessia and especially how to
fight.”
Lydia turned to a rotten corpse
nearby. “Doesn’t that scare you?” She pointed at it.
“Huh? Oh, I mean it’s gross.”
“But… you used to freak out so much
from a mere blood sight.”
“Really? Huh… I never really
noticed.” He gave a soft smile, staring at the corpse. “During the times I’ve
been around the professor, we fought several times. I was reluctant to fight
him even knowing we wouldn’t be able to die in that blank white state. Blood
appeared, every single moment we fought, but it went away quickly.”
“So you’re not afraid anymore.”
“Maybe not, but now I am stronger. I
am ready to face Magnus.”
Lydia smiled. She gave him a hug
from behind. “You really have changed… but for the better.”
Felix looked at the patterns on his
palms. “Thanks. I’m just worried about that necklace stuff that you were
talking about during our walk. It vanished the moment Igor and I grabbed onto
it, right? What if… something happens to me? What if I do something bad?”
Lydia skipped her way in front of
Felix. She grabbed onto his palms. “Don’t you worry about that. I know you,
Felix. Your heart is big enough to control it!”
“You think so?”
She began to blush. “Even when I
didn’t have all my shards, I was surprised at how much you wanted to help me.
Back in Bafuul, I found out you have been helping Rina search for me and all of
the shards even though we weren’t close friends at the time. You care for those
who are not relevant to you, Felix. I think that is something special and
should be kept to the heart. We’ve all struggled because we were at a loss
without you back in the Winstel continent.”
Felix was silent for a moment.
“Alright. Then I swear that from now on, I will try my best to protect the
group and stop Magnus from destroying the world!”
“Ahem!” Rina coughed as Lydia
quickly let go of Felix’s hands. She quickly punched him by surprise and Felix
fell to the ground. [End music]
“Aaaand that’s something I won’t get
used to,” Felix said, almost face flat against the ground.
“R-Rina! You scared me.” She quickly
grabbed Felix’s hand to help him up. “Sorry about that.”
Felix looked away. “Nothing
happened, Rina.”
“Something did happen when I wasn’t looking, huh?!” She glared at them. “And I
know exactly what’s happening.”
Lydia blushed even more. “It’s
nothing, really! We’re not-“
“You two plan to stop Magnus without
my help!”
Lydia and Felix gave a sigh of
relief together.
“You got us, heh,” Felix said.
Lydia nervously pointed at a pile of
junk nearby. “O-Oh would you look at that, something interesting is over there!
I’m going to look at it now bye!”
As she ran off, Felix was going to
do the same, but Rina stopped him.
“Hey.”
“Y-Yeah?”
“I know you two have some love
connection going on.”
“I-It’s not love! We just care for
each other, that’s all. There’s nothi-“
“Suspenders, if you two like each
other, then that’s cool with me.”
“What?”
“Throughout our journey, you’ve
shown that you really do care for her and I could tell you were growing a
liking to her once she got her personality back. You like her for her
personality. You’re not like those
guys… like Clyde. Man, that guy would just flirt with any girl despite their
personality.”
Felix chuckled. “Eheh… I mean…”
“But yeah, don’t get me wrong. I
still hate you.” She gave a smile as she walked away. “I should keep looking
around and do some more research around here. Hazel has gotten me into that
sort of stuff.”
Once Rina walked away, Felix turned
to Lydia. He was feeling happier. Even Rina gave her trusty consent towards him
which was most surprising – of all people.
The Word Game - Part 2
~ Merridian Laboratory – western sector ~
“~We’re going on a heroic adventure
– hey!~ We’re gonna kick some monster butt – yay!~ We-“ Forrest was interrupted
by Warren who almost fell onto a pile of rubble.
“Sir Winter, you must slow down!”
“Oh come on Warren, sing with me!” [End music]
“I-I do not sing.” [Music 14.2]
“Aww…” Forrest then stopped at the
edge of the laboratory. “There’s nothing interesting to look at but weird
things I’ve never seen before. I don’t care about this stuff.” He stood against
the mountainous walls.
Warren picked up an old, gray cape.
“You are more worried about your friend, Bailey, no?”
“He’s the friend I care about most.
It’s in my fortune, I just know it. I have to save him.” He frowned. “Every
time I see Magnus, there is no Bailey and there is no Clyde. What are they
doing without Magnus around? What plan does that guy have with two teenagers??”
Viola appeared by one of the closest
marketing buildings beside them. It was all beat up, but Viola managed to find
some interesting souvenirs for herself such as an old military flag from
several hundreds of years ago.
“Master Magnus chooses those whose
hearts are the weakest and easiest to persuade. Professor Igor is next in line.
Once you are stuck in limbo, I would assume your heart slowly disintegrates. We
are lucky to pull Felix out as soon as possible.”
The rest of the group finished their
sights around the Merridian Laboratory. They made their way to Forrest, Warren,
and Viola.
Viola continued, “What those
weakened hearts need is somebody strong enough who can pull them out of the
darkness.”
Forrest grabbed onto his cubed
bazooka. “Me… strong enough to pull Bailey out of the darkness…”
Felix knelt down in front of him,
looking up at his face. “You’ll be okay. Jess has a lot of faith in you,
doesn’t she?”
“I guess so…”
“Chin up! She is the leader in your
group of friends. She knows everything, don’t you agree?”
Forrest giggled. “She believes in
me… Hehe!”
Lydia clapped her hands. “That’s
right! I’m sure Bailey is out there somewhere, so just stick around, okay?”
“Okay!” Forrest jumped
uncontrollably. He accidentally tripped on a rock and the cubed bazooka’s
switch pressed against the floor. It inflated and Forrest tried to grab it,
accidentally pulling the trigger. The group covered their eyes before the
bazooka shot against the mountainous walls.
A cavern appeared right ahead. The
group became silent. [Music 35.1]
“Uh…” Leo, Rina, Lydia, and Felix
all said together.
Hazel checked the map. “Huh, who
would have thought that the Boris San Jovi was closer than we thought?”
“A Boris-what?” Forrest tried to
repeat after her.
“Boris San Jovi, a cavernous
labyrinth that connects the laboratory to the outskirts of the Terrain Valley
and…” She paused.
“And what?” Rina asked her.
“Lumious,” Hazel answered. “It was a
holy place for those who completed their pilgrimages around the world. It is
also a place that was once friendly to those of the Avians, Obsidians, and
regular humans alike. It’s rather empty by now due to the lack of Avians. Only
regular humans remained there – those who have traveled the world. A very
special friend of mine, along with Warren’s, used to cater a few events to
celebrate. But… she is no longer with us. Now that the Obsidians have also
fallen, Lumious’ energy has been slowly depleting and I would presume that
nobody would be there anymore.”
Forrest became excited. “Should we
check it out?”
Rina stomped her feet. “Are you
crazy? Hazel just mentioned there’s a labyrinth along the way. We would get
lost in there!”
“Lumious is also known for their
magical essence,” Hazel added.
“Alright, we’re going,” Rina said
quickly. “I think someone important to me could be there as well.”
Leo was shocked. “Wait a minute!” He
checked the map and the only Lennox territory that was left green were the Tree
of Revision and Lumious. Now that the Tree of Revision withered away, Lumious
would be the only place left that has life. “Lumious is bounded with magic,
right?”
Hazel nodded. “Yes, it still has
some magic left, but not any regular magic. It has… something special within
it.”
Rina became excited. She remembered
what Lady Pria spoke about a special magic the next time they meet. “I need to
go! I might be able to learn another kind of magic!”
Lydia tilted her head. “Don’t you
have all six elements?”
“Yeah, but I was told there is yet
one more! I need to go, and I’ll be a master magician. With the final seventh
magic, I’ll be strong enough to stop Magnus. At the same time, he could be
there trying to steal the magic just like from the Frolix Volcano.”
Warren checked the map. “It would
make sense that Master Magnus left the Crescent airship intact. He is waiting
for us to head over there as quickly as possible in order to use Lydia’s
Obsidian energy to react against Lumious.”
Viola crossed her legs against a
wooden crate. “It would seem going to Lumious would benefit both him and ourselves,
and it would be risky if we go.”
Felix headed for the entrance to the
Boris san Jovi. “Well whatever it takes, we’re going to take him down. He can’t
hide from us!” He took out his Crescent blade. “I’ve learned a lot from the
professor. It’s fate that I have met him, and I must use these techniques to
stop Magnus from destroying the world!” [End music]
As Felix was about to enter the
labyrinth, Hazel spoke up. “Stop right there,” she said. [Music 48.1]
“Huh?”
“You talked with Professor Igor,
yes?”
“Yeah, why?”
“He must have told you the reason
why Magnus has been trying to destroy the world.”
Felix paused. “Uh…”
Lydia became worried. “Felix…? Why
are you hiding that from us?”
Felix felt his forehead. “I don’t
know… some part within me just… forced me to hide it, but I don’t know why.”
Rina whispered to Leo, “It has
something to do with the doppelganger charms that were fringed together with
Professor Igor – also controlled by Magnus.”
“Felix,” Lydia said, “please tell us
the truth.”
Felix tried to speak. “I-I…”
“On with it,” Hazel began to raise
her voice. “No human being, not even Magnus, would be crazy enough to destroy
the whole world knowing that he would die in the process! He would gain nothing
out of it if he did so! He is not doing it for the sake of destroying the
world. He has a reason. Every dangerous man has a reason behind murder, so tell
us!”
“H-Hazel, don’t yell at him!” Lydia
tried to stop her. “Please!”
Felix fell to the ground. His eyes
widened as he began shaking. “I… have to tell you, I want to! I just…!”
“I am starting to figure it out
already,” Hazel shouted, “about why Magnus is doing all of this!”
“No…” Felix said slowly. “Stop it…
don’t say it!”
Hazel pointed at him, “Magnus is IMMORTAL, isn’t he?!”
The entire group paused in utter surprise.
“Magnus has also been an immortal
spirit like Waltzer, hoping to be revived from soul-to-soul. Once the world is
destroyed, he can create anew and Magnus will be the grand leader who can
recreate Rhadessia on his own will. He wants revenge for what has happened in
his past. IS THAT CORRECT, FELIX?”
Felix closed his eyes. “Y-YES! IT
IS!!” He covered his mouth, but deep within him, he did not want to hide it. Master
Magnus barely had enough power to control parts of Felix’s mind.
The rest of the group became
concerned, watching him as if he was some kind of ticking time bomb ready to
betray the group. [End music]
[Ending 4 music]
~~~
On the next episode of The Obsidian Tale, the group will learn more about what happened, and what is happening to Felix. Meanwhile, they decide to pay a visit to Lumious, an old holy village. As they split into two groups, Rina tries to lead and there seems to be a problem that they had not taken into account. On Felix's side, well... things definitely go wrong. Find out what it is on the next episode!
~~~
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