The Obsidian Tale
Episode 41
[Opening 4 music]
[Opening 4 music]
~ Zweiland Mountains – eastern entrance ~
Lydia was rubbing her forearms,
slowly as she stepped into the cavern which was a lot warmer than the outside.
“Thank goodness the caverns are not as creepy as I thought,” she commented.
Leo agreed. “It looks somewhat
sanitary as well.”
Forrest was still stomping ever
since he had left the tipi in Phardia. He finally got to enjoy snow. Four weeks
ago was his first instance with snow, but he was the unlucky child to become a
servant for the next several weeks.
“Boom boom!” Forrest yelled,
throwing snow into his bazooka. “Cool!! I can have two sources of power for my
bazooka. Kaboom!” Forrest pulled the trigger towards Leo’s face and snow spewed
out.
Leo fell onto the floor with a large
stack of snow smothered onto his face. Lydia laughed while Viola gave a soft
chuckle.
“Watch where you’re shooting that
thing!” Leo mumbled.
Forrest panicked. “Oops!” He became
serious. “This is going to be a long walk past the mountains, huh?”
“What? Oh- yeah…” Lydia said,
remembering the view from outside. “Getting to the other side might be a
hassle, but it’s worth the walk if we’re going to that volcano.”
Forrest began to whine. “Why are we
going there anyway?? We need to find Bailey and stop Magnus.”
“We have no other way around this,”
Viola claimed. “The shore south of Phardia has been closed off due to the
abyssal opening in between Phardia and the City of Celestia. Phardia never had
boats to begin with. The only way out of that town is here in the mountains. We
are actually fighting several birds with one stone – getting our way out of
here, checking the volcano, finding our friends, and along with Magnus and his
comrades.”
Lydia nodded. “Heading over there is
much better than any other option we have at this point. If only Magnus did not
appear at Celestia…”
Viola had a slightly concerned look
on her face. “But what of the rest of the Gammel army?” [End music]
“Oh well!~ They probably
disintegrated!” A teenage girl’s voice was heard from up ahead.
Lydia turned around. “Garnett?!” [Music 10.2]
Garnett was slightly twitching and a
slight mount of electricity was still emitting from her. Her axe was yet again
even larger than before – way back from Bafuul.
“You’re that woman from Bafuul.”
Viola remembered. “You appeared all over the cameras.”
“Oh? I see you have a lieutenant in
your group. Hey, where are your other damned friends?”
Lydia paused. “They…”
“No matter. I’m going to kill you
all here and now!”
Leo scratched his head. “Here we go
again. Her goal never really made sense to me.”
“She has a goal??” Forrest asked.
“Be quiet! I came down to Phardia to
search for her!” Garnett pointed at
Lydia. “I don’t like her!”
Lydia gritted her teeth. “Again? Why
do you hate me so much?”
“And more importantly, how did you
get onto this continent?” Leo questioned.
“I escaped Bafuul and sensed the
Obsidian slowly making her way to the City of Celestia. What else?” She raised
her axe. “I’m tired of talking.”
Lydia became confused. “How can you
figure out where I am by just guessing that I came all the way out here?!”
“I saw a few familiar lieutenants to
the west of here. They didn’t stand a chance. Well, except for that Lionel
guy.”
“Interesting,” Viola said.
“Lieutenant Lionel is their newest member before me. It’s surprising that he
was able to stand a chance.”
Lydia had her flail ready. “If only
Hazel were here, she could easily pin her down with an arrow.”
“Heh! Here I go!!” She ran towards
them with her giant axe.
Viola ran in front of the group and
deflected the first attack that Garnett gave. Forrest took out his bazooka but
it shot out snow instead of flames. It didn’t hurt her at all. When Viola and
Lydia took a few steps back, Garnett decided to attack Leo. Leo could barely
dodge her moves. She was surprisingly fast, even faster than ever before.
Electricity began sparkling further from her body, striking Leo by his arms.
Forrest smiled. “I did it! I
switched it successfully- WAH!” He accidentally pressed the trigger and it
barely missed Garnett. She knelt down in anger.
Viola barely slashed Garnett by the
stomach.
“Agh!” She screamed. “Ergh…!” [End music]
Viola said to the group, “We must go
up ahead. I’m afraid she may not be able to walk again.”
Lydia took a glimpse at Viola’s
lance. There was no sign of blood??
Ignoring this, Lydia and the group
had bigger things to focus on, such as running away from Garnett who randomly
got in their way of their journey.
~ Zweiland Mountains – first summit ~
They finally reached the top where
there were no other mountains standing even higher from where they were.
Forrest slowly reached the edges of the summit. He couldn’t see Phardia from
their angle. On the other side, there was a path leading back down to ground
level, and then back up at a second batch of mountains. Still, they couldn’t
see anything past that, except maybe a shattered land of ice, particularly an
old ravine off to the left. [Music 18.1]
Forrest grinned. “That’s gonna take
days to reach! And… I’m hungry…”
Leo examined the place around him.
“It would be difficult to go hunting here. Warren was best at that.”
Lydia began shivering. “If Rina had
her fire magic… We could easily set up a campfire.”
Forrest took out his bazooka. “I-I
could try, but I don’t know if shooting out flames is safe for a little
campfire.” The three of them began feeling a little down after realizing how
useful it would have been to have the rest of the group with them.
“Aw, are we all feeling down again?”
Viola asked. “It’s too bad Felix is not here to talk and make us feel better.”
Forrest began to cry and Lydia
whispered to her, “Viola! You’re not helping here!”
Leo tried to plan out what they
should do for their campfire. Viola volunteered to go hunting while Leo would
carry the logs from nearby trees – if there were any. Forrest could figure out
how to easily set a small fire while Lydia prepared any ingredients they could
find from shrubs.
It took two times longer than usual
when compared to their entire group from before, but it was still something.
Viola returned with only a small, roasted pig. Leo could barely find any trees
and Lydia grabbed a few shriveled vegetables and fruits from dead roots.
Forrest made the fire, but his hands were left with minor cuts in the process.
The Best Kind of Warmth
The group said nothing as they were
cooking the pork meat. Halfway through their quiet meal, Viola spoke. “I have
something to tell you all about Garnett.”
“Garnett? You know something about
her?” Lydia wondered.
“Yes. It may sound impossible and
unbelievable, however.”
“Well, at this point, it doesn’t
matter.” Leo shrugged. “We’re way up in a cavern near the summit with nothing
left to spare besides interesting stories.”
Forrest was almost falling asleep.
Viola began to explain what she wanted to say, “Garnett is not human.”
Forrest suddenly sat up. “Whoa! I
want to hear this!”
Lydia squinted her eyes. “That
doesn’t sound right at all…” [End music]
“She’s… a clone.” All three of her
friends gasped. “Lydia’s clone.” [Music 34.1]
“WHAT?!” Lydia stood up. “H-How? But
I’m right here. How is she a clone?!”
Leo could barely remember what
Professor Talbot said back at Troiya.
Forrest
jumped. “That must be Lydia!”
Professor
Talbot agreed. “Exactly. The only evidence we had of her survival from the
genocide was one little strand of hair that was not burnt during the fire in
their hometown. We tried to duplicate the energy too. We have created a similar
body almost exactly to Lydia, but when she woke up, she broke through the
ceiling like a crazy killing robot machine.”
“What
happened to her??” Forrest became interested.
“She
was never heard from again. Nobody reported her random appearance and her
energy could not be detected because her life form was not from the original
source – Lydia.”
In
discomfort, Rina asked, “So hold on, are you telling us there is another Lydia
out there?”
“There
was, but she must have rot away by now after seven years.”
Forrest said out loud, “You mean to
tell me that the Garnett girl is a clone and she didn’t rot away after all?!”
Leo stopped them. “Wait a minute.
How does a clone’s body function for seven years?”
“Easy,” Viola answered. “She exists as
an alternate version of Lydia. Professor Talbot explained to me that he began
suspecting Garnett was the clone after being told by Lieutenant Floir about how
much Garnett hated Lydia. He found a strand of hair left at Bafuul and compared
it to Lydia’s genes and they were exactly the same.”
Forrest stared at Lydia. “I mean… I
guess it makes sense if you take out the little bun from Lydia’s hair.”
Leo became confused. “I don’t
understand. The two of them are just so… different. Their eyes are as well.”
Viola nodded. “You are correct. Her
eyes were shaped throughout the years as a demented child.”
Forrest turned away. “Kind of like
Bailey…”
“There is a small tweak in her brain
that has malfunctioned and now she is emitting electricity. This is why no
matter how much you try to persuade her, she will still go after Lydia.”
Lydia frowned. “That’s so sad… You
mean there is no real heart in her? She doesn’t get to choose her own destiny?”
“Is this why she never really answers the question ‘why do you hate me
so much?’?” Leo asked.
“Even all that knowledge is beyond
me,” Viola said. “I am only echoing out what Professor Talbot told me. His
records state that a man named Moilin had adopted her and all she wanted to do
was fight and win. The only way to stop her… is to somehow find a switch in her
and shut her down.”
Lydia disagreed. “No, wait. She is a
clone, not some kind of robot, right? She has
a heart. She can be changed – she can choose her own destiny.”
“No way!” Forrest said. “Isn’t she
just a failed test subject??”
“How can you say that?” [End music]
“Ahem,” Viola interrupted. “We
shouldn’t think about that right now. All I know is that if we don’t hurry
onward, she’s going to eventually pick herself up and catch on with where we
are.” [Music 41.1]
Lydia became worried. “Does this
still mean I have to run away from someone?”
Leo became confident. “We will be
there by your side to fight back with you. Even so, ‘running away’ is different
this time. We are not running away from a band of people who are out to take
your energy. You are simply running away from one person who has no better
reason than to kill. She can be stopped, and until then, we will be there for
you,” he said soothingly.
Lydia gave a sigh of relief. “Thank
you so much, Leo. I don’t know what I would do without my friends.” She began
to giggle. With barely any food to spare, they began to finish their meal and
rest up before the next morning.
~ Zweiland Mountains – central ice field ~
Compared to the previous mountains,
the trees here didn’t have that many leaves. There was no life down in this
central valley.
The moment Forrest stepped on the
‘rink’, he had already slipped and fallen on his behind. “This isn’t that
great,” Forrest said in disappointment.
Lydia sneezed before standing on the
ice. She sniffled and said with a funny nasal voice, “Erhm…”
“Should we take another break?”
Viola asked.
Lydia shook her head. “No. I am
fine.” She coughed. “It’s getting warmer, right? I should be okay.”
“That’s because we are back on
ground level and we could be relatively closer to the volcano,” Leo corrected
her. “That doesn’t mean we should push onward while you’re exhausted.”
Lydia grinned. “But I don’t want to
hold all of us back. That’s not what a leader should be!”
Leo tapped her on the shoulder.
“Parts of being a leader is knowing when to stop, Lydia.”
“But I…” Lydia said in confusion.
“Don’t worry. We can wait,” Viola
added. “We only have who knows how long until Master Magnus destroys the whole
world.”
“Gee, thanks,” Lydia said
sarcastically. “No pressure there. But, let’s go a little bit more and then we
can rest. I just want to get this ice field area over with since it’s so… sad
to look at.”
Forrest agreed. “Yeah. It’s really
bringing my mood down.”
Several minutes later, the group
managed to reach the other side of the icy field. Lydia almost tripped at the
end of the field. She claimed that she would be okay, and she acted a little
better than before. With a smile, the group felt that it was safer to continue
onward. [End music]
~ Zweiland Mountains – western central mountains ~
Leo sighed. “I’m getting a little
exhausted, how about you three…?”
“Me too. I’m beat…” Forrest said
slowly.
Viola began to cough. “The Zweiland
Mountains are the hugest mountains in
the world. We should not… push… ourselves.” She knelt down in exhaustion as
well.
Leo panicked. “The cold weather must
be getting to all of us. We have been out here for over a day with barely
anything to eat.”
“Aren’t we almost there though?”
“Just a little over halfway.
Actually, civilization is not even close to halfway, but the volcano is.”
Suddenly, the three older group
members heard a loud thud. Forrest had completely fainted! Leo and Viola barely
made their way to reach Forrest, but Lydia was barely able to stand as well.
“I can’t… move,” Lydia said quietly.
Leo and Viola barely had their own
energy to spare, and it would be difficult to carry the two younger members of
the group. They were forced to stay and keep them safe, but even they were
getting exhausted from the extremely cold weather.
As they all fell asleep, a shadowy
figure stood in front of them.
Within two hours, Lydia was able to
wake up. She gave a cough here and there, and her body felt sore from all the
walking. She examined the area and there was another campfire, but this time it
was better. There was the same shadowy figure who mixed herbs together.
“Wh-Who are you?!”
“Shh…” The voice whispered. The
strange person was wearing a large, beige coat that was old and beat up,
especially the hood.
The person turned around and Lydia
began to smile. “No way!!”
“I said ‘sh’!!!”
Lydia didn’t care. She ran up to the
person and hugged her immediately. “Hazel, it’s you! It’s really you!”
Leo and Viola began to wake up from
Lydia’s yelling.
“What the?” Leo said in
astonishment. “Hazel?!”
“Oh my…” Viola said.
Hazel sighed. “Fine, you got me.
It’s nice to see you all alive and dandy again! Well, partially. I found you
all half-dead here in the mountains.”
Lydia coughed again. “Oh, about
that…”
“No worries. I have prepared some
herbs from Wiserheim before heading into the mountains. I had a feeling I would
need to use this for myself if I were to travel all the way to the other side
to look for anybody I knew.” [End music]
Lydia quickly spoke, “Did you see
Rina?! Warren?!” [Music 20.3]
“No… The last time I saw, we were
all swept onto the same end and I ended up nearby the Egel Ravine.”
“By that logic, those two could be
near the ravine, right?” Leo asked.
“I suppose so. I searched for four
weeks but I could not find them, so I decided it was better to search in
Phardia. I was... afraid to check the capital of Wiserheim. Also, as soon as I
got up here, I began to hear a riot coming out of Wiserheim.”
Leo wanted to question why she was
so hesitant to enter the capital, but he didn’t want to ask her yet.
Lydia checked the map. “You, alone
through the mountains just to look for friends?” She began to hold onto Hazel’s
arm. “You are truly a great friend, Hazel!! I’m so glad you’re back.”
“What were you all doing anyway?”
Lydia gasped. “Oh! Uh… well…” She
decided to explain the whole story since they separated in the City of
Celestia.
“I see. So Garnett turned out to be
a clone of you.”
Forrest jumped. “You care about that
even after learning that I had to be a maid with a maid outfit for four weeks
until everyone helped me out?!”
“Sure. I kind of wanted to see that
too.”
Forrest cried. “What a meanie!”
“We should rest a little bit until
we head on further into the mountains. I guess it’s backtracking for me. Lucky
for you, I know the quickest way back since I’ve been here twenty years ago,
and just a few minutes ago from the western side of the continent. You all went
cold after being over-exhausted, so it’s best to rest and avoid pushing
yourselves any further. Your own health comes before anything, even for a man who is trying to ruin the entire world of
Rhadessia.”
“Aye…” Forrest followed.
Lydia involuntarily agreed as well.
“I guess you’re right…”
Leo chuckled in the corner.
“What are you laughing at?” Hazel
glared into his eyes.
“N-Nothing! I just thought it was
funny that you appeared and set us all back to normal.”
“Oh? Heh.” She turned away. “It does
feel great to see you all again though. It felt like forever since I last saw
any of you.”
Lydia lied down by the campfire. She
began thinking to herself, “Rina and Warren should be somewhere on the other
side. If Hazel made it with them, then they must be alive! And Felix… What
about you?” [End music]
Adapting to Wildlife
~ Zweiland Mountains – second summit ~
“Wow! We’re so high up! It’s even
higher than the mountains from before.”
Lydia felt her cheeks. “Ah~ It’s so
warm up here too.”
“Yes,” Hazel explained, “it is
usually hotter when the volcano is active.” She examined the volcano again
compared to when she saw it the day before, “Strange. You can see a little bit
of steam coming out of it. If what you say about Obsidian energy being close to
the volcano is true, then it will definitely erupt if we get close. The city
folk will be happy.”
“What was it like on this continent
twenty years ago?” Viola asked.
“Well, from what I remember, Phardia
and Wiserheim were almost at the same level. However, because Wiserheim was
closer to the volcano, civilization began to skew towards the western
continent.”
“And eventually they began to forget
about the eastern town of Phardia,” Leo concluded.
Lydia sighed. “That’s so horrible… And
to think the Winstel army would be strong enough to support even Phardia.”
“The Winstel army is strong, but their government
prioritizes protection of the armed forces and civilians who co-exist with
them, rather than any outer boundaries like the edge of Phardia.”
“Geesh,” Leo commented. “Who is
currently leading the Winstel government? That sounds like a pretty selfish
thing to do.”
“My old friend.”
“I take everything I said back.”
“No worries, actually. He was
usually the serious kind of guy. Gunther was his name.”
“Ah!” Leo remembered. “You mentioned
back in the Grandine Hillage that he was one of the six group members that you
traveled with twenty years ago. It’d be interesting to see what he’s like
today.”
“Indeed. I haven’t gotten to talk to
him yet as I have only seen fliers of him throughout the city. I had to hide
because well… our relation to each other was rather jumpy throughout our
previous journey.”
Forrest pointed at the bottom of the
volcano. “Forget that. Look at what’s at the bottom of the volcano, hehe!” The
group peered up from behind. “Those look like little ants. What is that?”
Hazel gasped. “Wait a minute. Those
are people!”
“Oh goody,” Viola joked.
Lydia tried to look closely at the
front. “What are they doing near the volcano if it’s inactive?”
Forrest wiped his goggles as he used
it to examine closer. “Hm… giant chair, giant man- Wait, I think I know who it
is!!”
“Could it be…?!” Hazel yelled. [End music]
Lydia took a step back. “No way.
What would they accomplish… if they were to sacrifice Warren and throw him into
the volcano?!”
[Ending 4 music]
~~~
On the next episode of The Obsidian Tale, there will be a large dispute dealing with the king of Wiserheim along with Warren, one of the main characters who separated from the group a few episodes ago. But what is he doing chained up and heading towards the volcano?! Lydia will go through ultimate measures to make sure nothing terrible happens. Let's see her plans next!
~~~
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