The Obsidian Tale
Episode 45
~ Frolix Volcano – volcanic road ~
“If nobody wants to support me, then
I will do this by myself.” She turned forward again, looking at a little cavern
within the volcano. “Lady Pria must be down there, and she will have to help me
before that Magnus guy strikes!” She jumped down first.
Meanwhile, midway through, Lydia
pointed at Rina who had just disappeared into the volcano. “She just went
inside!”
The ground was shaking again.
Forrest almost tripped but Warren had to help him stand.
Hazel clenched her fists. “That
young woman is stubborn! We have to hurry.”
~ Frolix Volcano – northern zone ~
Rina gave her a bow. “Lady Pria,
please teach me the enhanced magic ability of fire.”
“At this point, Rina, you must use
all your elements to your advantage to follow me to the bottom. Without your
wings, you must find an alternate way to go through obstacles. The lowest zone
is where the fire element was first created. Its reactions are the strongest at
the bottom.”
Rina took sight of several lava
shoots bursting from almost every end in a simultaneous manner. She examined
the lower zones and it looked as if she had barely enough pathways to reach the
bottom without being burnt to death.
Still, Rina agreed. “If it means
being one of the strongest magicians out there, I am up for it!”
“As you wish. I will meet you at the
bottom of the volcano, future veteran of magic.” She vanished.
Rina used her wind element to
slightly fly herself past one of the lava shoots off to the side. The wind was
quickly being suppressed by the heat, so she was forced to drop down onto a
lonely pillar completely surrounded by lava which was being pushed upward like
a water fountain.
“If I was the same Rina as I was
when I first set out with Lydia, there would be no way for me to get through
this.” Rina used her water element to surround the lava in its own veil,
followed by an ice element that turned all of the lava into ice with the help
of water. Of course, the ice wouldn’t last too long within a volcano, so she
would have to act quickly if she were to ever use ice magic in here again.
She then used her earth element to
tweak the pillar below into a pathway that broke through the ice. “Piece of
cake!” [End music]
~ Frolix Volcano – volcanic road ~
Further at the top point of the
volcano, Lydia became nervous from the sight of lava. The ground shook yet
again. “This is not safe at all. Is Rina really down there?” [Music 45.2]
Hazel gritted her teeth. “She must
have gone down on her own even knowing the dangers. Magnus must be aiming for
the bottom portion of the volcano. That’s where fire element is the strongest.”
Element of Clothing
“Look out!” Leo shouted as Magnus
teleported behind Lydia. Magnus pushed her down and she barely grabbed onto a
ledge right above a pool of lava within the volcano.
“Yes, yes! Keep direct contact with
the flames, Obsidian! Show us what the fire element is truly made of!”
“AHH! Help!” Lydia had four fingers
holding onto the ledge.
Leo tried to run towards the ledge
but Magnus opened his palm and then used an invisible barrier to push Leo back
against the road.
Magnus was facing Forrest, Leo,
Hazel, Warren, and Viola with a smirk on his face. “With five of the six
elements, no one can stop me! I have magic catalyzed together with Obsidian
energy that I have received four weeks ago in Celestia. I’m unstoppable!”
Hazel tried to argue with him. “Do
you not see what you are doing?! Obsidian energy and magic would be one of the
worst combinations for Rhadessia’s peace! It may cause mutations not only to
humans, but to nature itself.”
“Thus,” Warren added, “the entire
world would be mutated and everyone will slowly rot away.”
“And give Bailey back!!” Forrest
commanded.
“Oh? Bailey? What about poor little
ol’ Clyde? One of you was so concerned about his safety, but now there is no
mention of him anymore. He is clearly aware that you have all stopped caring
about him.”
“We do care!” Forrest argued.
“Well, Felix does,” Viola joked.
“Shhh!” Forrest whispered to her.
Leo stood up, slightly injured by
the barrier. “What do you want? Why did you ask Bailey to kill me?”
“Is anyone even paying attention to
me?!” Lydia called from within the volcano ledges.
Magnus ignored her. Instead, he went
on with Leo’s question, “Do you really want to know at a time like this?” No
one replied. “It will be your responsibility whether you can handle it or not,
heh.” He opened his arms. “Leonardo Van Roy, quite some time ago, you wondered
why I knew your whole name. I didn’t even have to do my research. You are a
part of the royal family of Ouli Brye.”
“So what?! Who cares about that at this
point? They all… they were all deceased thanks to your idiotic, risky Gammel
plans! One by one, you… you indirectly killed them! Why do you even bother to
talk about me being in the royal family?!”
“As was I.”
The entire group made a gasp. Leo,
most of all, froze.
“I would make a gasp, but I’m still
down here!” Lydia screamed but nobody was paying attention still. They were
still in shock by the news.
“Do you know why I emerged during
the times of the Obsidian genocide? I created such genocide so I could steal
all of energy for myself. Bahah!”
Forrest frowned. “But Bailey said
you appeared after the geno… gen-
whatever that word is!”
“Hahaha! That kid believes
everything I say. I knew that child would be a good target to control since the
first day I saw that poor kid at the Lake City Prima.”
Forrest suddenly had a flashback of
the time when he first spotted Bailey at the Lake City Prima.
Forrest
wiped his face. “Right now is not the time to think about it though! Hehe. See?
Everyone is so happy, so we should be too!” He noticed one person in particular
– another child standing in front of a tall man in a cloak.
“Exactly,” Magnus smiled. “I am just
an empty vessel, a lone soul taking one corpse after another! After giving
Bailey’s first job, the tall body I had back then had been malfunctioning, and
I had to shift into Argus, a young
boy who had died seven years ago from hunger and then preserved in a
laboratory. I thought maybe I could do the same to Bailey eventually.”
Warren was mortified by all of this.
“You mean to say you are only a soul, taking one body after another?!”
“You got that correct!”
“Why are you trying to destroy the
world?! It shouldn’t make sense to anyone
to recklessly damage the entire Rhadessian world this way!” Hazel yelled at
him.
“You don’t even know the full story!
I haven’t told half of it – in regards to Leonardo here.” [End music]
“Explain yourself!” Leo ordered. [Music 42.1]
“I am your step-uncle. Your father
and I met seven years ago when I took the vessel of the same tall male body that
recruited Bailey. We became utterly close, and I knew he was one of the leaders
of the Lennox army. I had to destroy the army, and the best way was to befriend
him and end his life when time permitted. In order to hide my identity, I hired
King Nader as the assassin to poison each royal member, slowly. I had
difficulty trying to catch you in
particular because you always preferred to eat out at bars! Using fake ID’s and
all? Hehe… well, I knew King Nader was going to screw up anyway. Nobody else
would live up to the Lennox history, not even the new leader, Ace. Now that the
Lennox army is considered broken, the next targeted army is Winstel!”
“You are trying to monopolize the
armies!” Hazel yelled. “You’re trying to destroy all armies to make Gammel look
the best. Why would you do such a thing when all was going well the first
thirteen years before the genocide?!”
“That is none of your business. As
for now, time is running out. I must snag some fire energy at the bottom of the
volcano!” He teleported past Lydia and disappeared.
Warren and Viola both helped Lydia
back up. Leo was still in awe. He couldn’t move. He felt utterly ashamed to
have Magnus considered as a step-uncle. Forrest also didn’t move. He was
frightened by the idea of Bailey dying and the child’s body being manipulated
by Magnus himself.
Into the Lava Pits You Go
~ Frolix Volcano – southern zone ~
Rina finally arrived at the bottom
portion within the volcano with barely any movements to spare. She had almost
fully exhausted herself, only leaving room to learn the new fire element. Her
clothes were heavily scathed by the lava streams and she could not afford to
keep going. Lucky for her, she finally made it.
“I see you have succeeded while
utilizing almost all of your magic to your will.”
Rina was exhausted, but she did not
faint. It felt like only yesterday that she was in the city of Kyrie, casting
basic fire magic and then getting tired from a few fireballs. Now, she was able
to endure using several elements in one long duration.
“Please show me the true essence of
fire!”
“Yes. I feel it is important to show
you now that you have mastered every element. This time, you no longer have to
stick with just fireballs. I will teach you how to emit fire beams, and enhance
your fireballs to fly towards your targets.” The ground shook. “With haste, we
must do this quick.” [End music]
~ Frolix Volcano – central zone ~
The rest of the group hurried down
towards the bottom of the volcano, sometimes spotting Magnus before he vanished
repeatedly. Forrest was getting exhausted, slowly making his way towards the
back of the group.
Warren stopped for him and ordered
for the rest of the group to keep going. “Are you alright?”
Forrest coughed, barely able to walk
from all of the heat. “It’s too… hot… down here.”
“Do not overwork yourself. We must
take you back up.” [Music 14.1]
“No. I want to keep going. I don’t
want to be a burden anymore!”
“What? Sir Winter, you are not a
burden as you claim! Why must you further punish yourself in such a manner?”
“Because, I’m the one who dragged
myself to the group after they were worried about my safety. Mr. Felix - he
wanted to leave me at the village because I would either get in the way or I
was too young for everything. I wanted to show them I’m not like that at all.”
Forrest sighed. Warren stayed quiet. “I… want to ask you something.”
“And what may that be?”
Forrest coughed again. “Why did you…
sacrifice yourself to the volcano?? I want to know the truth, but I didn’t want
to ask earlier because you looked so happy.”
Warren looked away in embarrassment
and shame. “I thought those I loved had all fallen before my eyes.”
“What?”
“I felt there was nothing else to
live for. I was alone for the longest four weeks of my life, not knowing what
to do. I had to live on my own in Wiserheim somehow. Some looked at me
strangely, so I had to settle with an abandoned home to the east of the city.
One day after those four weeks, I overheard civilians claim that the volcano
was finally acting up after seven years, but they needed a sacrifice to the
peace offering. I thought, ‘why don’t I do one last good before I die?’…”
Forrest frowned. “You wouldn’t be
serving them any good at all! What do they know?” Warren became quiet. Forrest
went on, “I thought… you wanted to sacrifice yourself because you weren’t happy
enough for what we’ve done for you. I thought our heroic journey together was
not good enough, and that showing you what a childhood is like back in Celestia
was something you hated. I thought that for a while.”
“No, no, Sir Winter! That was not it
at all. I dearly enjoyed that. I was finally able to understand what a
childhood was like, which was one of the reasons why I wanted to help Wiserheim
in the sacrifice. I realized that after experiencing a childhood, that’s all I
ever needed before being sent off to the world above us.”
Forrest shook his head. “Just
because you learned what a childhood is like, doesn’t mean that heroic journey
is over. Your story is not over, mister! We still need to stop that Magnus
meanie, then your story will be
finished! Uh, but this time don’t sacrifice yourself the moment you can finally
become a hero.”
Warren laughed. “Hah! I will try my
very best to protect you and the rest of the group. That way, no one will ever
have to live alone again.”
Forrest jumped. “That’s good thinking!”
He fell to the ground. “I can’t walk much still…” [End music]
Warren grabbed Forrest’s back collar
and then threw the child behind his back. “Let’s go. We are going to play
‘don’t touch the lava’ and catch up with the rest of the group.”
While Warren jumped his way around
the lava shoots, Forrest chuckled. “Woohoo! This is a fun game!!”
~ Frolix Volcano – southern zone ~
After several minutes, Rina was
quickly getting the hang of enhanced fire magic. She was focusing her trailing
fireballs towards Lady Pria who scurried around the room with her wings. As the
entire volcano shook again, Lady Pria made a gasp.
“A dangerous force is coming this
way!”
“What are you talking about?”
“Make your way out of the volcano
and hope he doesn’t see you!”
“Ugh! Easy for you to say! And who?”
Without further questions, Lady Pria vanished.
“Find
me once more for the final magic ability, my star pupil. It is where my home
resides.” Her voice trailed off. [Music 17.3]
Rina clenched her fists. “There’s
one more magic?! What could it be this ti-“ The ground shook and Rina fell
over. As she looked forward, she could see Magnus making his way to the bottom
of the volcano.
“Yes, here it is – fire essence!”
Rina tried to stand up despite how
hot it was at the pit of the volcano. “What do you think you’re doing here?”
Magnus turned around with a purple
glow on his face. “Oh? I sensed strong magic power down here and it just
disappeared. Was someone else down here?”
“It was just me,” Rina lied. “I’m
the one you want.”
“Oh? Where did that power disappear
to?”
“I… altered it? That’s not the point
here. You’re the man that is about to destroy the entire world! Well guess
what? I got a lot of magic to strike you down this time.” She tried to cast an
explosion that was supposed to shoot out of her palms, but her palms only made
a burping sound and nothing came out besides smoke. “H-Huh?! Did I use too much
magic from the previous battle?” She thought to herself.
Magnus was floating in mid-air,
yawning. “What was that?” He suddenly slithered off to the side and an arrow
flew past his original spot.
“Oh great, the rest of the crew
finally arrived. Very well.” He let out both arms to the side and then he gave
a loud yell, causing a large amount of lava rocks to shoot up at the same time.
Warren placed Forrest onto the
ground and then he ran towards the front of the group as quickly as possible.
He used his large hammer to smack away any rocks that came close to them.
Lydia went ahead and past Warren in
order to reach Rina despite all of the falling rocks. One burnt her arm a
little, but she didn’’t focus on the pain if her main goal was to save Rina.
“I’m coming for you, Rina!!!!”
Magnus controlled most of the lava
rocks, aiming them towards Lydia this time. Hazel shot another arrow close to
Magnus’ hands, cancelling his control. Leo and Viola hurried towards Magnus to
strike him up close, hoping that he would still be distracted by then.
“Argh, this is all a waste of my
time!” Magnus shouted. Lava began hurling all over the place as he flew to the
top of the volcano in an instant. “Now that I finally have the last essence,
fire, I can unleash the strongest elemental mastery that will rupture the
entire world! If you really want to chase after me, let’s see if you can find
out where the sacred tree is. I will
write the next era!” [End music]
As Magnus vanished out of the
volcano, Lydia finally got a hold of Rina. Warren carried Forrest while Leo and
Viola helped Lydia carry Rina. Hazel guided them out of the volcano as quickly
as possible.
~ Frolix Volcano – volcanic road ~
[Music 14.2] “W-We finally made it out. It’s so
much colder out here!” Forrest shouted. He was feeling more mobile now, but
before he knew it, the volcano erupted and he was forcefully rolling down the
volcanic road. The rest of the group followed along as if they were chasing
after a tumble weed.
At the bottom of the volcano, King
Redlin was sitting above a moving truck, ordering soldiers around to surround
the volcano and keep it from flowing towards the city.
“There you all are! I have already
dispatched our Winstel army all over the continent in order to search for
Magnus,” Gunther said. “The Gammel army already returned to their own continent
to expand their units across the island. They will contact the Lennox army
shortly for support.”
Warren shook his head in relief.
“Good. The only unoccupied islands remaining are the southeastern island next
to Lennox and the southwest continent of Rhadessia where Shiu Jo resides.”
“What’s a Shiu Jo??” Forrest asked.
“Shiu Jo…” Hazel pondered for a
moment. “It is the most radical isolated town in the world besides Taujiko. We
don’t have any business in going there, nor do I believe Magnus would hide
there either. Gunther, we have more important matters to worry about.”
“Alright. You don’t need to tell me
twice. We will return to the kingdom and speak about our next tactic!” [End music]
~ Wiserheim – Redlin’s kingdom – throne room ~
Lydia was the first to look at him.
“Your honor, we have a very important situation to take care of due to the
escape of the Frolix Volcano!”
“Yes, what may that be?”
Hazel stood up. “Master Magnus
stated that he will be heading for a sacred tree. I would like your opinion on
this, as I have a mere idea of what this could mean.”
Two soldiers carried a large banner
of the Rhadessian map. Gunther pulled out a long, wooden stick from behind his
cape.
“Geh?! Wh-Where did he pull that
from?!” Forrest said with an ill look on his face. [Music 45.3]
“The sacred tree can only mean one
thing!” Gunther pointed at the eastern portion of the map. “People say this
tree has been born over a millennium years ago, and it remains green and mighty
due to one of the most well-known myths.”
Warren was next to stand. “That was
where Waltzer grew up as a human being. Over a thousand years ago, the world
was at its peak in technology.”
“A thousand years ago? Peak in technology?” Rina rudely interrupted.
Lydia became interested as well.
“That’s news to me. Even I don’t know about this. I thought our era was at its peak and will
continue to grow.”
“Absolutely incorrect,” Gunther
said. “About over a thousand years ago, technology was able to create objects
far more advanced than ‘screens’ that we have in the coliseum. They called
these ‘television’. There were also strange devices called ‘cellphones’. Such
cellphones were used to instantly contact one another from anywhere across the world almost at the speed of light. Weeeell,
the signals only lasted long enough around the southeastern continents. This is
why you don’t sense the signals anywhere else.”
Forrest stood on his feet as he
began jumping. “You mean I can contact Jess and Spencer and Sydney and Bailey
and stuff?!”
“That is only if they have a
cellphone. In this case, nobody does,” Gunther claimed. “Not one single person
in the world should know about this, except for myself and those who listen to
me.”
“Why?” Leo asked.
Gunther Redlin took out a paperback
book. “This is the last remaining legible book that explains the true history
from a millennium years ago!”
The rest of the group gasped, well,
except for Viola. She kept her cool as usual.
Robotic Cats
Hazel took a step forward. “Wait a
minute. Why have you kept this a secret? The world of Rhadessia must know what
we have evolved through!”
“I must not!” the king shouted,
echoing the room. The group became quiet. “The end of the book states the true
reason why all books have withered away. This historic novel tells the tale of
why the rest of the books had been burnt in the remains of the Merridian
Laboratory within the Lennox territory.”
Rina squinted her eyes as she
pointed at Gunther’s book. “That’s all bullcrap. If you think about it… if all
books were to be burnt down to hide its history, then why hasn’t that book been burnt? How was it able to
explain the history of burnt books when it needed to go through the publication
process?”
“You see… this book is the only copy in the world… written by the
one and only true eradicator of Rhadessia, Waltzer himself.” [End music]
[Ending 4 music]
~~~
On the next episode of The Obsidian Tale, we will finally leave the land covered in snow! And for what reason? Lydia and her friends need to make haste towards the eastern continent via airship. Thus, their next destination is the Amitt Archways, a leveled ground filled with peace. Finally, they'll be able to get a hold of an actual airship. Until next time, readers!
~~~
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