The Obsidian Tale
~ Mago’Ria Fey – tower’s 38th floor ~
Jess sat in front of Bailey. “It is
nice that you let me see what your room is like. Although, it is quite empty.”
Bailey blushed. “I-I know. The tower
barely appeared today, so there is still a lot of time to decorate it. I just
had enough chairs for you and me so far.”
Jess giggled. “Aw, that is very
sincere of you! Why did you let me into the tower so easily?” she said,
remembering the fact that Bailey was able to float with chemical Obsidian
energy. The child had helped Jess up the tower off to the side, not realizing
that it was terrible to inhale the energy.
Bailey only giggled in response to
Jess’ question. Bailey’s arms raised. “We have time before Magnus starts the
ceremony! Patty-cake?” Jess agreed to play. Before they began, Bailey stopped.
“Jess… you’re the only friend I’ve ever really liked to have around. I just
have a hard time trusting people because they took my parents away at a young
age. The rest of them never bothered to help me live to this day until Magnus
appeared at the Lake City Prima.”
“Hm? What’s this all of the sudden?”
“It’s just… you’re not going to hurt
Magnus, are you? He’s only doing this to protect me and the world.”
Oddly enough, Jess was already
inhaling chemical Obsidian energy and she knew it. Jess knew that Bailey’s mind
was being obscured by the truth, even after seeing how many monsters were
released to attack the world. Jess tried to use Bailey to have easier access
for fighting against Magnus, but her heart sank after hearing how Bailey
trusted only Jess of all people.
Jess tried to give a smile.
“Bailey…” She began to hug her friend. “Nothing will ever stop the friendship that
you and I have. I love you so much.”
Bailey began to cry. “I love you
too, Jess. You are my best friend.”
As they were hugging, Jess was
staring at the door to the 39th floor. She had the most disappointed
look on her face compared to any other time we had seen before… [End music]
~ Mago’Ria Fey – tower’s 22nd floor ~
[Music 51.3] Forrest was at the end of the group
this time. Despite his young and ecstatic nature, he could not press on for
such a long duration. The others were almost as tired, but they didn’t have to
take that many steps like he did since they were much taller.
On the 22nd floor, the
door up ahead was tattered. Off to the sides were four large orbs, two on each
end.
Lydia examined the orbs carefully.
“What are these?”
Hazel grabbed Lydia. “Step back! They
are embryos!”
“E-Ew! Really?!” Lydia yelped. “Why
are they in orbs?!”
“These orbs are direct summons of
mutated beasts. It seems whoever passed through here must have rushed towards
the top without destroying these.”
Leo and Rina ran up the staircase
after Rina stabbed the ground with an aura knife. “We’ll go check up ahead,”
she suggested.
The other six stayed behind, almost
ready to destroy the orbs when each of them created several numbers of
parasitical spiders.
“Wh-Why do they have to be so ugly?!”
Forrest shouted. A generic spider had sixteen legs and probably twelve to
sixteen eyes. It was like twins being bound together into one body.
With Viola, Forrest, Felix, and
Hazel being busy defeating the enemies, Lydia and Warren went for the orbs as
if they were playing whack-a-mole.
Up above the staircase, Leo could
see Lieutenant Floir fighting against a large mutated beast. It had the body of
a chimera, but the heads of human beings put together with elongated necks.
They made screeching howls like loud, angry zombies ready to bite onto the
lieutenant.
Rina shook her head. “The monsters
here just get uglier and uglier.” Before Rina was able to help, the human
chimera scratched Floir’s armor, sending her flying past Rina and Leo, breaking
the rails of the staircase and falling down to the previous floor where the
others were.
“Damn! Floir fell to the floor!”
Leo shouted.
“Really? Now’s the time for that?” Rina rolled her eyes.
Viola turned around, seeing as her
own leader had fallen from the height above. “Lieutenant!!”
Besides Lydia, the rest of the group
never really saw her react more than how she just reacted. Ignoring the last
few monsters, Viola recklessly ran towards her for comfort.
“Lieutenant, are you alright?” Viola
asked. One of the spiders was about to claw her but Viola stabbed it without
even turning around.
The orbs and monsters were
eventually destroyed. The group circled together around Floir while Rina and
Leo watched from the rails above.
“Uh…” Leo said slowly, not forgetting
about the enraged human chimera.
“Leo, come on! We can easily take on
that monster.”
Down below, Viola held onto Floir’s
shaking hand. “You’re okay now. You are protected by the aura!” [Music 23.1]
“I tried… Viola. I really tried. I
raised you for several years in the wrong direction, and I’ve tried to make up
for my sins by fighting on your side. I just wasn’t strong enough for a simple
beast…”
Floir turned to Forrest. “Your
friends are at the top of the tower. I wanted to save them and see the look on
their faces after realizing that I
was the one to save them. I wanted to show them that I am not the same
lieutenant who kidnapped them from the beginning. But… they’re too far ahead
now.”
Forrest stomped his foot. “Shut up,
lady! You were a hero from the very beginning!”
Floir gasped. “What?”
“Jess taught me something really
important,” Forrest said, remembering the quote of his yellow cape.
“Yellow
stabilizes between the heart of what is right and what is wrong. However, what
seems ‘wrong’, can be the right thing to do. When your most loved one may fall,
like a crackle in the ground, you will learn to pick yourself up no matter
what.”
Forrest sighed. “What seems ‘wrong’
can be the right thing to do. I think I know what it means now. Kidnapping my
friends seemed wrong to many of us, but it ‘can’ be the right thing to do in your opinion. You did it because you
felt it was right. Minds can be led to the wrong direction, but everyone’s
heart does it for the right thing.”
Floir had tears running down her
eyes. “But I… threatened to kill them, do you not remember that?!”
“I do remember. I could kinda tell
you were just bluffing. You wanted me to join you by threatening to kill my
friends. You weren’t really gonna do it, were you?”
Floir became silent. She didn’t want
to admit that she had a soft spot for all the children.
“You were only doing what’s right in
your opinion. At least in the end, you’re one of us!”
“Please,” Floir said kindly, “please
make it in time to save your friends! I may not have been able to defeat a
monster such as the chimera, but you all can - together.”
Leo was thrown against the staircase
as well. His hand grabbed onto the rail before he could fall. Easily, Rina
burst him back up with a gust of wind. Their teamwork was impeccable, but two
people were not enough for a human chimera who wanted to eat live flesh.
Forrest nodded. “Okay, try to make
it back down with this knife thing and we’ll go up and stop Magnus!”
Viola felt Floir’s forehead. “I will
go with you-“
“No, go with your friends. They need
you more than I do,” Floir said with a slight laughter.
Viola squinted her eyes. “How can
you be so calm at a time like this?!”
“That’s something you’ve taught me
all along,” Floir said.
Viola was blushing this time. “Oh…”
My Precious Love
The chimera jumped out of the room,
breaking the door’s archway even more. One of the human faces headbutt Rina,
tossing her in midair right above them. She regained her balance by pushing
herself back up with her wind aura. As follows, she rocketed herself against
one of the heads.
“This is where you screwed up!” Rina
blasted the head with a fireball that directly popped out of her palms and one
of the five heads exploded. The rest of the body dropped down and it tried to
chip away the rest of the group.
The group of seven, with Leo barely
making his way down the staircase traditionally, were ready to thrash the beast
together.
~ Mago’Ria Fey – tower’s 39th floor ~
[Music 39.1] Jess and Bailey were one floor away
from the last floor of the tower. They had just left Bailey’s room and now they
were in a large area filled with pods and wires bursting steam out of every
inch. The entire room was colored in dark red to indicate its heatwave
throughout the distance.
“…What are these?” Jess asked in
amazement.
“These were one of the strongest
human beings in the Gammel military. They are being catalyzed with Obsidian
energy.”
“What kind of Obsidian energy?”
“Aren’t all kinds of Obsidian energy
good?”
“Well…” Jess said slowly. She looked
up ahead and noticed that the door was slightly creaked open. The door was
extremely thick in stone, so if it were closed, you could barely hear what
happens outside of the room. “(Someone is up ahead. It has to be Magnus).”
“Come on, I gotta show you what is
on the floor up ahead! It’s great!” Bailey giggled.
Jess was utterly concerned, but it
was better not to fight back yet.
~ Mago’Ria Fey – tower’s 31st floor ~
Heading onto the 31st
floor, Forrest came to a complete stop.
“You have no idea how tired I am!
We’ve been at it for like over two hours without resting…” he complained.
Warren knelt down. “Would you like a
ride on the back?”
“But you’d be slowed down.”
Lydia hurried to the top of the
staircase. “We need to reach the top quickly and save your friend.”
“I know… I just feel very numb right
now. I want to keep pushing forward but I can’t!”
Lydia shook her head. “Alright, then
I’ll go up, Forrest. We’re not going to let your friend die on us!”
“I’m going with you too!” Felix
said. “I want to know if Clyde is up there!” [End music]
The moment they took another step,
the walls exploded and the two of them shrieked together, rolling back down the
staircase.
Rina gasped. “What happened?!” [Music 10.2]
Garnett jumped away from the walls,
fighting a monster that was two times larger than the human chimera. This time,
its body was exactly like a lion but much larger. There was a large head that
was molded together as if you were to leave a slab of clay unfinished within a
kiln. It had about twenty hair strands of human faces, just like medusa.
“Whoa. Your hair!” Leo commented as
he saw Garnett’s hair cut straight across her neck.
“Oh, you people again,” she said in
disgust. “Get out of my way. This beast is mine.”
The large beast jumped down and it
crackled against the floor. Hazel ordered everyone to rush to the sides of the
room before the ground broke again. It wasn’t much of a hassle to move anyway.
The debris pushed them back. The ugly monster began to roar and it caused even
Garnett to fall.
“Your heart is weak,” a voice
called. It echoed from above.
“What? Who the hell’s there?!”
Garnett shouted.
“You are but a mere replica of the
Obsidian, a mistake to this world.”
Garnett’s eyes widened. Her body
froze. “The hell does that mean?”
The beast jumped again and the
ground began to fall apart. Garnett spotted Lydia, and then she ran towards
Lydia with her axe, as large as it can be at this point.
“Even at a time like this, she
relentlessly chases after Lydia?!” Leo panicked.
“A replica of the Obsidian?!”
Garnett’s body began to electrify.
Lydia used her flail to deflect the
axe, but she missed and the flail’s chains spun around the axe’s handle. The
axe struck parts of the ground that was still intact while a few of the group
members fell under the hole that the beast had created. Rina quickly tried to
cast a gust of wind to push them back up.
On the other side of the beast was
Lydia and Garnett. Garnett, still locking Lydia’s flail onto her axe, swung her
axe back, causing Lydia to be thrown against the wall. She slid down below the broken
floor and into the previous room. [End music]
“Lydia!!” Rina was about to cast her
magic again and Lydia stopped her. [Music 17.3]
“No. This is my battle. I have to
stop Garnett. I have to make her understand that this has nothing to do with
being a replica. She can still choose to live however she wants to live!”
Rina debated whether she should
listen to her or not. After all, listening to her would mean leaving Lydia
behind. If the tower were to be destroyed from top to bottom, Lydia and Garnett
could be in trouble, along with the other three lieutenants if they didn’t
bother to escape.
“Fine…! But you better make it out
safely!”
Garnett picked up her axe again,
watching as the beast fell back several floors below. “Heh. What nonsense are
you speaking about this time? I am my own person, and I choose to destroy both
you and Magnus!”
Lydia shook her head. “We are on the
same side, Garnett! We don’t need to fight for this.”
“We’ll see about that! Just looking
at you makes me SICK!!!!” She ran towards Lydia, and Rina closed her eyes. She
looked up ahead and followed the northern pathway to the next room with the
rest of the group.
Before Felix entered the next floor,
he turned around and saw Lydia and Garnett fighting each other. Well, Lydia
mostly guarded while Garnett was being a relentless assault.
“Lydia… I can’t just leave her in
danger like that!”
Hazel grabbed onto his suspenders.
“We have to go, Felix. Trust in Lydia!”
Felix slapped her hand away. “Stop
it!” His eyes vibrated in red for a second, but it vanished immediately.
Hazel gasped. She became speechless.
“Sorry… I don’t know what got into
me. I’ll trust her,” he said with a smile. “Let’s go!”
As he ran up ahead, Hazel glared at
him with a concerned and bothered expression on her face. [End music]
There goes the Kaboom!
~ Mago’Ria Fey – tower’s 38th floor ~
Rina entered the 38th
floor first. There was utter silence, and the room was awkwardly white compared
to the previous floors which were the darkest blue, filled with mutated
monsters and blood.
She took a few steps at one moment
after another, thinking each step would fall into a trap.
“It is a bit too easy here,” she stated.
Warren placed Forrest back onto the
ground, and the young boy headed for the windows to check how high they were.
“Eh?!” Forrest yelped. He pointed at
the ground. “The people down there aren’t even ants anymore. You can’t see them
through this fog!” He then looked up. “And I think we’re close to the end!”
Felix followed along as he looked
upward through the window. “Probably about two more floors, right? How far up
are we?”
Leo shrugged. “Beats me. We’ve been
up here for a while.”
Rina examined the chairs around her.
“I really hope Lydia is okay…”
Hazel headed for the door to the
next floor. “The two chairs here seem suspicious as if it were the only things
in this room besides the red carpet and the lamps. The next floor could be a
trap.”
Viola passed Hazel by the doorway. “Allow
me to open the door. I must find out what Magnus is after. I will help stop him
no matter what, after seeing how much he has done to the Gammel military!” She
thought about Lieutenant Floir, frightened that that could be the last time
they see each other.
Leo stood next to her. “And I can’t
bear the idea that he considers himself as some kind of step-uncle. We are not
of blood.”
Viola grabbed the door handle as she
began to pull. “Here goes nothing…”
~ Mago’Ria Fey – tower’s 39th and 40th floor ~
[Music 39.2] The 39th and 40th
floor were neither directly below nor above each other. There were only about
seven steps in between, so the pathway up was rather short, but destructive. As
you have heard before, the 39th floor was filled with pods beaming
the room in dark red. These pods were filled with the strongest monsters. Even
if their bodies were almost the size of regular humans, their speed could be
immensely fast, much worse than the human chimera and the medusa face filled
with human heads for hair.
With enough energy again, Forrest
ran up to one of the pods, poking it. “This room is easy too, but it’s just so
hot in here.”
Hazel stood in front of another lone
pod to the right. “What is it within these capsules that makes them reserved
for the highest floors of the tower?” As she peered into the capsule’s window,
she made an awkward yelp while falling to the ground.
“Miss Hazel, are you alright?!”
Warren tried to help her up. Leo did the same for her.
Felix stood in the center of the
room between the pods. “I sense… terrible energy coming from these things.”
“That’s right,” Rina said. “Don’t
you have the same feelings deep inside yourself that are similar to Professor
Igor’s heart? Those necklaces still bound you two together.”
“If he can sense it, then I can
too-“
One of the pods in the corner
abruptly opened and a humanoid appeared with the top of his head shaped like an
empty tree trunk. On his back were several embryonic wires that were pulled
away as he continued walking.
Forrest’s heart froze as he dropped
to the floor. “What… is that…?!”
Felix shouted. “There are also
people up ahead!”
When
your most loved one may fall…
“I have to skip these monsters!
Bailey is up there and he’s going to die!!” Forrest, without further thought,
ran up the next few steps, ignoring the monsters that were facing him. The rest
of the group became frustrated at his lack of control but they had to protect
him along the way.
On the 40th floor, Jess
examined the room but nothing seemed to happen.
“Why is there nobody here?” She
turned around, facing both Bailey and the door.
Bailey grinned. “That’s weird…
Master Magnus said he would be here already, but…”
The door slammed open and Forrest
appeared. Jess gasped.
“Forrest?“
Suddenly, Bailey’s heart burned and
the child’s eyes flushed in flames. The young child’s sword quickly appeared. [End music]
Forrest gasped. “WAIT!!!”
Jess was surprised as well. “B-Bailey,
what are y-“
The sword pierced right through Jess’s stomach with haste. Bailey stopped as the sword was stuck within her. Jess had a
moment of pause, and she could not say any more. With one last moment, Bailey
released the sword and Jess fell to the ground.
Forrest was yelping in disbelief this time.
“NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! JESS!!!”
Bailey took a step back, finally coming back to his or
her senses. Still, the child was shocked and could not move. There was more
fear than sadness and empathy.
The rest of the group on the previous floor could catch a
glimpse of what was happening, but their rage risen and their performance
highly increased against these beasts. [Music 52.2]
Forrest grabbed onto Jess’s body. “Jess… what’s
happening? You’re not going to die, are you? The fortune said…”
When
your most loved one may fall…
Forrest stopped his sentence after realizing what the
fortune really meant. “It was you all along, wasn’t it?”
Jess said nothing. All she could do was stay strong and
smile for him.
“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?! Why, Jess?! Why?!?!”
“You needed to figure it out on your own. The moment I
reveal the truth of the fortune, it becomes tampered and the situation would worsen.”
Her voice was soft and kind. “Just like a birthday wish… If you were to tell
somebody what you wished for, it will never come true…”
“All this time, I neglected you, thinking Bailey was the
one who needed to be protected, but in truth, I was blinded. I…!”
Jess coughed, turning to Bailey. “I do not blame you at
all, Bailey.”
“What? Why not?! What have I done…?!” Bailey screeched as
tears ran down the child’s eyes.
“You have done nothing wrong. It was not your own
actions.”
“But I… They were my own hands that slain the greatest
friend I could have. We have to help you to a doctor!”
“I believe it is far too late for that, seeing as we are
high up here.” She began to cough. Forrest was traumatized, mostly because he
had never seen Jess in pain before. She untied her red cape as she gave it to
Bailey. “Red symbolizes a hero reborn
from the darkness and into the light.” Bailey gripped tightly onto the red
cape, holding it dear. Jess turned back to Forrest, “Forrest, please take care
of her. Promise me you will not hate
her for what she was forced to do.”
Forrest shook her. “No…! You can’t die, Jess! I’ve always
looked up to you. You were like a leader to me – an older sister even! I put more worry into Bailey's life thinking you were strong enough to take care of yourself. You
can’t just…!”
Jess grabbed his hand. “Forrest, remember the rest
of your fortune? Repeat after me…”
The both of them began to speak together. “Yellow
stabilizes between the heart of what is right and what is wrong... However,
what seems ‘wrong’, can be the right thing to do. When your most loved one may
fall… like a crackle in the ground, you will learn to pick yourself up no
matter wh-“
Jess’ own voice withered away before she could finish the
last word.
There was silence as the door was closing from behind.
“Jess…?”
“Jess, please wake up!” Bailey added. She closed her
eyes, feeling enraged as Magnus’ laughter erupted from up ahead.
The door shut tight from Bailey’s complete anger.
“Hah! What do you think you’re doing, Bailey? You are
under my control, aren’t you?”
Bailey disagreed. She stomped her foot. Her sword was in
her hand, almost aiming it towards Forrest. “You… can’t… control me!”
“What?!”
“I realize it now. When the heart is strong enough to
control oneself, I will decide my own actions. How dare you kill the one person whom I truly loved?!” She began
screaming the same screams as the chimera. The walls began to crack.
“You’re using too much Obsidian energy! You’re going to
die at this rate. It’s best that you stop, bahah!”
“I don’t care anymore. Whatever it takes to destroy this
tower and you! YOU LIED TO
ME!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Her voice trailed on for several seconds. Everyone in the
top two rooms’ actions flashed before their eyes. Everything turned white as
the tower was collapsing, starting from the top…
Jess, I will always
love you. [End music]
[Ending 4 music]
~~~
Volume 4 has now ended. As The Obsidian Tale finally reaches its last volume, the story has and will become much darker. Margus has been free and he will continue to ravage the world. Not only have monsters been released, but several areas around Rhadessia have been exploited with Obsidian chemical energy. That means anybody can turn into monsters! We will see what happens starting on the next episode!
~~~
![[Click here for a larger image resolution]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGUkWGhBNlVq8QTILaHwTGstkFTcZUa_Z8fzhd75tRaJ7GH1JraNq1VITOYEAgkffPclEftF79JLzYp0Xdfl1UYhNtyBp44TesOcKNk9CaVaFFVyiu2gntcyMABOdqSFgFBBS4Qa6kC9Ch/s1600/opening+4.png){kind=link}
0 comments:
Post a Comment