Fight against fantasy - IC

[S121]

Skógur Town - Sidna's House

"I don't think we ever introduced each other. Nice to meet you, I'm Sidna. What's your name?", Sidna asked.

Azeruk looked up from the floor and towards Sidna to speak.

My name is Azeruk... Ah, just for the sake of not having it mispronounced, it's said as Az-er-uhk. Some people tend to say it as Az-er-ook, like in the word 'loop', but that's wrong. Nice to meet you as well.", Azeruk said to Sidna in a slightly more positive tone.


Azeruk followed Sidna to the arena, where she left the bow Azeruk had made. This caused Azeruk to raise a brow and worry for the weapon. Was she prone to forgetting things? Even if she was, Azeruk would be sure to remind her next time. Soon, they reached the edge of town, where the buildings ended and the forest began.

"Lead the way. We better be careful tough it may be that they are already waiting.", Sidna said to Azeruk as he stared off into the forest.

Azeruk was trying to remember the bandits' movement patterns. It wouldn't be overly dangerous if they ran into a group of them, but it would eliminate whatever stealth they were hoping to maintain. After a brief pause, Azeruk decided to use the safest method of travel.

"Sure, but I'm going to use the safe method. Bandits regularly invade my house ans around the forest at night, so light travel would be the safest option. Just grab my hand and we'll be there in an instant.", Azeruk said to Sidna as he outstretched his hand towards her.

[Katrix]

Enalausir Forest - Azeruk's house 4:15 PM

When Sidna touched Azeruk's hand she flew at a speed she had never even tought off before. Before she realized it they had arrived. Although she felt a little dizzy from the trip she quickly began finding things that could be useful for their journey. (Where should we go tough. I suppose the best thing to do is looking for others that also have these weird memories. The best place to look would be one of the other big towns. Let's see we have Ulfur, but there is many beasts lurking around there. Then there is Throngur, but that is kind of in the middle of nowhere. Hoen is out of the picture as I dont like the ocean too much. That leaves Sjavar and Myrkur. Of them Myrkur is the closest one. I suppose that's where we are headed then.)

When they were almost done packing a young women knocked on the door. "Sidna and Azeruk I assume. Let me introduce myself. I am Galdura. Captain in SYSTEM and the oldest time mage there is. Trough the capture of you two I will be promoted even higher and get even closer to finding out what happened 10 years ago. Now if you two would please not resist and this can be done peacefully."

[wonderweiss]

Reginald fired a flame vortex. Night Lurker dodged it and fired icicles at Reginald. Though Reginald was fask, an icicle struck his arm. The flames melted the icicle, but the wound still stung, open. He used the fires to sear the wound closed, cursing under his breath.

"Gah... yer gonna pay for that-"

"With what? With someone's life? That man before you. He may not have been a good person, but he didn't deserve to die."

"Shut it! I did what you couldn't do in months! Now look at it this way. He ain't gonna be causing more damage any longer."

Night Lurker rushed at Reginald at incredible speed. Reginald then fired many fire balls in retaliation. The Night Lurker was burned in many places. But he pressed on, however. Night Lurker placed a strong punch on Reginald's chin, sending him in the air. Then, Night Lurker jumped into the air and kicked Reginald in midair, sending him far. The Night Lurker landed on his legs and one hand.

"That's enough. Stop this. Turn yourself in."

"... hehe... You think this is over... YOU JUST FUCKING DIE!!!"

Then, in a flash, Reginald grabbed his musket and fired his final round. It was too fast. Night Lurker wouldn't have made it alive...

However, Night Lurker performed a powerful ice magic. He chilled the atmosphere enough to slightly whiten the air. The bullet was fast, but the air slowed down. Night Lurker quickly dodged it. Reginald saw this all. He dropped the musket.

"You... you're not human... THIS AIN'T THE END!!!"

Reginald tried to run, but his feet were frozen to the ground. He struggled but it was no use. Night Lurker walked up to Reginald.

"That's enough... it's over."

Reginald calmed down. He accepted his fate.

"... damn..."

Then, it was going to rain. But the atmosphere had chilled it to a snow. Everyone exited the house, looking in marvel. This was the first time that Myrkur has seen snow due to how far south it is. They all looked at the Night Lurker. They all looked at him in a mixture of fear and wonder. Even the shadow lurkers came out to look at this.

Soon, the knights came around.

"I see you have apprehended this man."

"Yes. This man here is Reginald Bonaparte. The rogue knight."

"Is that so. Thank you. Honestly... you are a strange one. Why don't you join the force? We need people like you. You are already doing the job. Heck, better than most others."

"I'm alright... after all, I'm not worthy."

"What do you mean?"

Then, everyone looked at Cunnings' body. Even through the mask, everyone knew that behind the comedy mask was a face that could not forgive himself for letting this man die."

"... you just get some rest. We'll handle it from here."

"... alright. Thank you."

Night Lurker vanished into the night. The snow would be there for the rest of the day and night. Night Lurker hid in an alley and changed out. After that, he headed home. This may haunt him. He never let anybody die. Especially not in front of him.

[S121]

Enalausir Forest - Azeruk's House

As soon as Azeruk heard the voice and the words SYSTEM and time mage, his heart sank and his mood dropped. Just when everything seemed to go so well, something had to come along and ruin everything. That's how it always was with Azeruk. Things could never be easy for him. Azeruk turned over to Sidna and mouthed three words at her about his thoughts of the SYSTEM Agent at his door.

<B*tch will die...>

Thanks to the door, Azeruk had the element of surprise. He could land a killing blow before the agent could even react. Of course, that meant that he would have to ram straight through the heavy door. At best, he would be covered in splinters and bruises, but it was the only way to quickly end the fight before it would even begin. It was going to hurt, but Azeruk saw little choice.

In a single, inperceivable instant, Azeruk unfolded both of his combat knives, turned around, and blasted straight through his front door, sending shards of metal and wood flying in every direction like a bomb. As the door exploded at the agent, Azeruk stabbed towards her neck at the speed of light.

[Katrix]

Enalausir Forest - Azeruk's House

When Azeruk rammed trough the door he didn't hit Galdura, but instead a older man also working with SYSTEM. When he got stabbed he instantly dies. At the same time Galdura looked at what had happened a little bit further away. When Azeruk looked towards Galdura time froze. He could still think just fine, he just couldn't move his body. "Thank you. Now I don't have to make the place a mess or erase the memories he would gain if he saw any of this. So, I assume You're also looking for the answer to what happened 10 years ago. I'll inform you of the basic if you don't know. I, a time mage can change and look back in time. I can't however go further than 10 years. It's not something random, I know that. Something happened that year. Something life changing. I will now instruct you on where to go next. "

She then grabbed his head. At the same time images began flowing into his head. Out off Endalausir Forest, past Máttur, into Blomlegt Forest and arriving at a like filled with light, Lake Ljost. When Azeruk came back to his old self again Galdura had disappeared and the spell ended.

[S121]

Enalausir Forest - Azeruk's House

Azeruk shook his head and blinked as he came back to reality. In that split second, Azeruk made a quick sweep with his gaze, but couldn't find the time mage.

"Why do the higher-ups always run?", Azeruk remarked as he thought about the bandits.

It was common for the higher ranking bandits to send the weaker ones to do their bidding, even if they could easily do the job themselves. Perhaps it was because they were afraid of failure and death. Perhaps that was why they held such a high rank. Azeruk then turned his attention to what the woman had shown him. The woman had shown him Lake Ljost and instructed him to go there. Why would she help him? Was it a trap? Based on her words, it seemed as if she was trying to help them figure out what had happened ten years ago, but she was a member of SYSTEM. How could Azeruk trust her? It was truly a confusing predicament.

Azeruk turned around and entered his house, to prepare for the journey.

[Katrix]

Enalausir Forest - Azeruk's House

At one moment she was packing for their journey, the next the door was broken down, Azeruk was outside together with a stabbed commander from SYSTEM. At first Sidna had no idea about what had happened. It all happened to quick. Had Azeruk used his speed again to stab someone lurking behind the door. "What happened here? was there spies lurking behind the door trying to ambush us?". She walked out to try to identify what had happened. At the looks of it Azeruk had smashed trough the door to stab someone. She was sure of that. There was several things that didn't add up tough. While the blood on the spy looked like it was completely fresh from a few seconds ago while the blood on Azeruk looked like it had been there for a few minutes.

"Why do the higher-ups always run?". "What do you mean? Didn't you get him" Sidna said while pointing at the man. Then she began to realize that there was even more inconsistencies. Not one, but two pairs of footsteps and several other inconsistencies too. She remembered that her brother being a time mage had often played tricks on her just like this. It always felt like things went too fast. He also normally left a few inconsistencies so she could notice faster. "DID YOU FIGHT WITH A TIME MAGE?!". After calming down some she tried to find out what had happened. "Tell me just what happened. Everything. From what the time mage looked like to what he or she said."

[S121]

Enalausir Forest - Azeruk's House

Azeruk was a little surprised by Sidna's reaction. In his mind, fighting stronger opponents was a natural occurrence, one that he had always come across. Sure, he would be outmatched, but in the end, he always found a way to win. Azeruk walked over to a chair near the window and sat down tell Sidna what had happened.

"Okay. What happened was that I used my light magic to travel through the door in order to quickly kill the SYSTEM agents. In truth, I thought there was only one, but there were actually two. I was aiming for the time mage, but the man was in the way. After I killed him, she froze time and began talking to me. She said that she was glad that she didn't have to erase the old man's memories of what she was about to do, now that he was dead. She talked about how she can't rewind time past ten years ago, and that she was looking for answers. She said that she would instruct me on where to go next, then touched my head and began transmitting images through my mind. The image I saw was the image of Lake Ljost. Once I snapped back to reality, she was gone. Apparently, her name is Galdura. Does that name ring any bells?", Azeruk asked as he began pulling splinters from the door out of his skin.

The pain from removing the splinters wasn't too bad. In fact, Azeruk's injuries looked worse than they really were. It was a painful experience, but he would be fine.

[wonderweiss]

Frank had arrived at his house. He was tired with obvious burn marks and wounds. He opened the door and headed to the bedroom. He knew he had to come up with an excuse tomorrow since he still works at the bar.

Suddenly, he noticed two shadows on his private island. He couldn't see them well, but he knew that they were SYSTEM based on the suits.

He walked out of his porch and began freezing parts of the lake. Though it was much harder now since he recently fought. When he finally reached the island, he stood behind one of them. He began accidentally emitting a cold atmosphere. But it didn't matter to him. He just wanted some peace. He's seen enough violence.

"You two. You are from SYSTEM, am I correct? I've already told you all that I don't remember anything. I hate to be rude, but can I ask you to leave? Unless you are just here to see the lake."

[Katrix]

Enalausir Forest - Azeruk's House

Sidna listened carefully to what Azeruk told her, noting the differences she noticed. "So her name is Galdura. No, never heard of her. Let me correct your story a little bit tough. As I see it the first thing she did was to freeze time around the house. For some reason she must have left you unfrozen. Secondly, how in the world does she manipulate memories. It's not supposed to be a part of time magic and not only once, but twice she talked about it. Thirdly, how old was she. Most time mages isn't even 10 years old. I doubt that SYSTEM hires girls that young."

Sidna then began packing again. "As for where we should go. I guess we just have to go to Myrkur and Lake Ljost."

Lake Ljost

When Wen Xuan began attacking her she got a little bit scared. "Hey don't point that thing at me. We're friends right? Work together on missions and that kind of stuff. I do must say that I'm suprised to find you out here. Did they send too over here too? As for my original question. Why are you sleeping on the ground."

At the same time a different person came asking the to leave. "Just a friend reunion over here. Nothing special with us. You however might be a little bit more special. You are Frank Gordon right? You have three days to get ready to travel to Mattur."

[wonderweiss]

Frank was alarmed.

"M-Mattur? But... what for?"

He didn't want to leave the lake. However, if she wants him there to assist in keeping the peace there, he was willing to go. However, something caught on to him.


"... Say... how do you even know my name?"

Myrkur is a small town, but because no one would want to live there. If they lived there, they wouldn't have left. If they did, his name couldn't have spread that wide just because of a few people. As a matter of fact, there was nothing special about. He was just one of two bartenders in Myrkur.

[bookdragon2000]

Ljost lake

Wen Xuan calmed down slightly when he realised that she was not here for him. He glanced at the man who asked them to leave and was startled to realise that it was that bartender from earlier. His name was frank? Frank seemed to be emitting a cold aura. Wen xuan suppressed a shiver, he hated the cold, this frank must be an ice user.

Wen xuan considered the situation, neither of them seemed to recognise him, meaning that madge was probably just off flying by herself. She would find him later.

"I know nothing about this mission here concerning frank. I`m just on my way east." He was about to get going again when he heard madge`s call, he looked in the direction where it had come from, which happened to be over the lake. This reminded him of why he stayed there in the first place. "But first, i am waiting for a friend. Meanwhile, could either of you tell me about this light in the lake?"

While waiting for them to respond, he started setting up his bow as fast as he could. He`d rather be prepared rather than caught by surprise again.

[S121]

Enalausir Forest - Azeruk's House

Once Azeruk cleaned himself up, he began to pack as well. Azeruk walked into his room and grabbed a large leather bag. As soon as he grabbed the bag, Azeruk darted off to the kitchen and began to pack various nonperishable foods. Azeruk packed enough crackers, jerky, bread, apples, dried fruits, potatoes, nuts, seeds, and grains to last Sidna and himself around three weeks. Once Azeruk finished packing the food, he then walked towards one of the cupboards and pulled out two large jugs. There was no telling how long they would go before they found water, so it was important to be prepared. Azeruk walked over to the crude sink, filled up the jugs, sealed them, and put them in the bag.

Once the essentials were secured, Azeruk then focused on grabbing weapons and various objects that would help them in their journey. The first thing Azeruk did was that he walked into his room and opened his closet. Inside was a leather utility harness with many pouches and loops on it. It was originally designed for storing tools and other various work related items, but Azeruk modified it to carry larger, heavier items, like swords, bombs, spikes, materials, medicine, and other kinds of equipment. Azeruk took the utility harness and put it on. After tightening the harnes so that it fit snugly onto his torso, Azeruk then walked over to his nightstand and opened it. The inside was filled with forty throwing spikes, a pair of throwing spike wrist holders, handheld explosives, a toolkit, and heat resistant gloves. Azeruk put on the spike holders and emptied the entire nightstand onto his utility harness, putting each item where it belonged. Once that was done, Azeruk walked over to his desk, took a book full of blueprints, and stuffed it into the bag.

(That's about it. Now we leave.), Azeruk thought as he headed for the exit from his room.

Azeruk suddenly stopped, then looked over to the knight's crossbow. Should he take it? He had been trying to duplicate the metal spikes it fired, but was having a hard time trying to duplicate them. Of course, Azeruk remembered how much it helped him when he fought the bandits, so he knew how powerful a weapon it was. In the end, Azeruk decided to take he "crossbow" with him. Perhaps Sidna would know what it was really called.

"Okay, I'm ready to go.", Azeruk said to Sidna as he walked into the room she was in while he held the SYSTEM knight's "crossbow" at his side.

[wonderweiss]

Frank looked to the middle of the lake. The light emitting from it was always beautiful this time around.

"... That... that is the light of Ljost, the only light that the gods have blessed Myrkur with. The light is but a mystery, even to the elders. But that light is the little light that Myrkur has. I live by this lake for several reasons. One main one being that the light here in this lake... I want to brighten Myrkur myself. The light is all that Myrkur has, and I want to make Myrukur a safer place. But if that light were ever to go out... Not only would I be devastated, but something terrible will happen. It was in a prophecy. I don't know where it is, but another reason I live here is so that I can protect the lake from evil, corrupted souls who wish to take out the light. The lake might not need a guardian or may already have a deity to do so, but I will be here to help, no matter what. So I'm sorry, SYSTEM operative, but unless you come up with a good reason to come with you to Mattur, I will not go."

[Katrix]

Enalausir Forest - Azeruk's House

After some time Azeruk told her that he was ready to go. Now it was only about where they would go. "I suppose we just have to follow th advice we have been given. Hey could I ask a favor of you. Being a light mage and all. Do you think that you could accelerate our journey so that we don't have to sleep outside at least for now. You don't have to stress it, just keep it like that we reach the town sometime late."

Lake Ljost

Sofa just waited a little longer until thing got a little bit calmer. When asked about the lake she let Frank answer first and then she added on to what she knew as a SYSTEM member. "It's said that there is a orb deep within the lake. One that hold memories. If you ever loose a memory that's probably where it went. That's also what's keeping it shining. I'm sure you've heard the phrase "Memory is power" right? That is kind of true. Whenever we use magic we need a source from where we get out mana from. That source is normally memories and while all humans have them, normal memories are normally deemed to weak to be used. That's why there are bigger sources gidden around the world. This is one of them."

Sofa then got a little bit more serious. "As for the reason that you are called in, we have discovered that you have something that does not belong to you. You might not have picked them up on purpose, but none the less we have to remove them. Don't worry about the orb. Carrying such a object around with you would exhaust everyone."

She then turned to Wen Xuan. ""Now when did SYSTEM begin sending people on missions that far east? Just tell me that you won't get hurt. I'll be going now". And then she left.