"M-Myth." Gorgon hissed. "Stop it. We could get in trouble."
"I have to know." Myth said in a simple tone. "I need to see it with my own eyes."
"What?" Gorgon frowned. "Are you saying you don't trust the Dragonslayer?"
Myth ignored her remark and quietly walked through the stone chambers of the catacombs. He was deep beneath the castle now. The other captains had all presumably headed to their bases, but he had something he wanted to confirm first. Gorgon followed him hesitantly, and she flinched as she studied the dusty walls.
Myth raised a lantern and made his way to the back of the stone hallway, where an old wooden door resided. He nudged it aside, and dust filled the air, causing Gorgon to break out into a coughing fit.
"No one has been down here in quite some time." Myth muttered.
"Of course they haven't," Gorgon growled and slapped the dust away. "No one would be dumb enough to disturb the remains of one of Haru's children."
"Then how did Evelyn know he was still here?" Myth stepped past the doorway and into the room. It was even more dusty, with cobwebs coating the walls and the floor, and rodents ran around freely. Without a doubt, a person hadn't stepped foot in this place in hundreds of years.
The walls were made to look like large murals. The stone was covered in moss, so most of the pictures were no longer visible, but the ones that remained depicted scenes like Haru fighting the dragons or the Pilgrim standing before a massive crowd, preaching about the Cores. In the center of the room resided an iron sarcophagus. It was bolted to the ground, and a thick layer of metal was placed over it, hiding the body inside.
It was the thing in the back that fully got his attention, though.
Unlike the coffin, which was in the center, all the way in the back, a stone pillar resided. It came all the way up to his stomach, and a glass box rested on the top of it. The box was big enough to contain a large ball, or in this case, a human head.
Myth made his way over to the box and knelt before it. He reached out with a shaking hand and rubbed years of grime away. He managed to make a spot clean enough to peer into the box and see the head that resided within.
Adamaska looked a lot like Nier Sini. It made sense; they were brothers after all. Adamaska had the same cheekbones, the same nose, and the same divine beauty about him. Whereas Nier had a mustache and long hair, Adamaska had gone for a full beard and short, cropped hair. Despite the severed head being hundreds of years old, it didn't look decayed at all. In fact, it hardly looked like a severed head.
The face hadn't lost all color from lack of blood, and it remained untouched from dirt or rot, being perfectly pristine. If you were to just see the head and nothing else, you'd assume it was a man sleeping. Only when your eyes glanced at his neck and saw that it had been severed, or the jagged spikes of metal that poked out, would one realize the horrifying truth that this was one of Haru's dead children.
"Satisfied now?" Gorgon demanded, though her tone had lost its biting remark, and she kept biting her lip as she glanced at the head of Adamaska.
Myth finally pulled away and shook his head. "Not yet." He turned to the sarcophagus.
"Myth, no!"
Myth once again ignored her, and he placed his hands on the lid and began to move it.
"Dude! You're going to get us executed!"
"Only if we get caught, and if you keep screeching like a banshee, they're bound to hear us." Myth grunted and, with another strain, fully opened the coffin. His eyes widened at what he saw inside. "What?"
"Were you expecting something different?" Gorgon sighed.
Within the sarcophagus were the remains of Adamaska. They appeared the same as King Nier's body, being forged out of a black metal, only Adamaska's were clearly damaged. One of the limbs had been sawed off, and that arm resided next to him, no longer connected. Jagged cracks ran all along the metal, and chunks were missing. Dried oil coated it, hardened into an ugly mud-like texture, and worst of all, there was a fist-sized hole where his heart should have been. Wires were spilling out, and gears no longer rotated or operated.
"I don't understand."
"It is as Evelyn said." Gorgon shrugged.
"That is what I don't understand." Myth sighed and slowly placed the lid back where it belonged, covering the remains up. He knew in his heart these were Adamaska's remains and not a forgery due to the mana that softly flowed from the metal. No one could fake that. "Evelyn was telling the truth?"
"You trust her so little?"
"Yes." Myth rubbed his chin. "A Lunar who showed up one day. One blessed by the moon with powers not seen since the days of the Holy Saint. Someone who knows as much about dragons as the king himself and has managed to worm her way into being his right-hand. Something about her just makes me dislike her. Maybe it is just my instincts, but even when she was a captain, I always had my eye on her. I guess this time I was wrong, though. It seems Adamaska's remains haven't been untouched."
"That also means what Laerton and Father claimed about the enemy they fought was likely untrue." Gorgon pointed out. "He didn't have a metal body like the King's and isn't actually using Adamaska's remains."
"Yeah. Maybe Evelyn was right, and it was just an illusion." Myth frowned and felt an ugly knot form in his gut. "Or…"
"Or?" Gorgon raised her eyebrow.
"Maybe it wasn't Adamska's remains that Laerton saw. Maybe it was someone else's."
"What-" Gorgon's eyes widened in shock as it suddenly clicked. "You truly have gone mad." She clenched her teeth and glared at the other captain. "Are you actually trying to say that someone is running around with the body of Haru? That's impossible. We don't know if Haru is dead."
"If she were, her remains would be on the moon." Myth stated.
"Exactly! No one can get to the moon!"
"And who says that? Because it hasn't happened before?" Myth raised an eyebrow. "What if someone has? What if such a soul was able to discover the remains of Haru and take them for himself?" Myth rubbed the back of his neck, feeling chills break out across his flesh. "Adam Hawker… We need to kill that man as soon as we can. Let us find out everything we can about him. I want no stone unturned."
Who was Adam Hawker?
***
Olivia's eyes gently opened as she left the World of Paths behind. She felt her body settle into the carpeted floor, and she blinked as she stared at the hand that was in front of her face.
"You good?" Bruno asked.
"Yeah." Olivia took the hand and stood up on wobbling feet. She reached up and rubbed her chin. "Did you have to hit me so hard?"
Bruno laughed slightly. "Sorry."
After the battle in Daisy Town, several days had passed. Olivia found herself stuck at the Shining Sentinels guild base due to reports and statements needing to be made. The base itself also had some of the finest healers in the world who were working around the clock on everyone who had been injured.
Normally, Captain Laerton would have likely taken them all back to the Phoenix Flight guild base, but Davi was still injured and hadn't woken up since he blacked out in the final battle. Laerton held her tongue and kept her pride in check, knowing that Father's guild would be Davi's best bet if they ever wanted him to wake up again.
During her time at the base, Olivia had spent as much time as she could with Bruno when she wasn't by Davi's side. Often, this led to her and Bruno finding a training room somewhere inside of the massive palace that operated as the main base for his guild.
She'd like to say she put up a good fight, but Bruno beat her every time they came to blows, using a mix of hand-to-hand and knives made of ice to beat her while she tried to hit him once with a knife forged out of her own blood.
"You're getting faster." Bruno patted her shoulder and grinned. "Just a bit more training and I think you'll land a blow or two on me."
"Don't mock me."
"I'm not," Bruno said defensively.
Olivia just rolled her eyes before snorting. It had been during this latest sparring match that he had hit her a little too hard and caused her to fall unconscious. That was when she jumped into Maya and did a bit of training before her body woke back up. The words Maya said to her were still ringing through her ears.
The tricky thing about Maya was that she never knew what she should and shouldn't trust. On some levels, Maya did seem to want what was best for Davi and was helping to keep her alive, but on the other hand, Maya lied a lot, and she often caught the box saying things that were simply half-truths or straight-up lies.
"Hey, Bruno?" She said slowly.
"Yeah?" Bruno raised an eyebrow at her. "What do you need?"
Olivia steadied herself and collected her thoughts. She felt a bit of fear rise in her, but she squashed it down. After a few moments, she spoke. "Have you ever heard of something called the Rite of R-"
Her blood ran cold. It felt like ice filled her veins, and all color seemed to fade before her eyes. She felt something in her stomach. A hand, which wormed its way through her body and grasped onto her beating heart, which paused for a moment. It began to squeeze, and pain flooded her nerves as she felt her heart nearly pop.
ꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖꀷꊿ ꃔꊿꋖ
'What did I say…'
A black box formed before her eyes, and Maya's text came out, shaking and twisting.
'Don't. Say. It.'
It stopped at the last second, and the feeling subsided, but her legs gave out, and she vomited on the mat-covered floor of the training room, losing all the contents of her stomach.
"Olivia!" Bruno's eyes widened in a panic, and he dropped down next to her, helping support her. He rubbed her back as she let out several dry coughs, tears streaming down her face. "Are you okay-"
Bruno paused when he heard her laughing. A smile formed on Olivia's face, and she wiped her mouth clean. "I knew it. I wasn't crazy. That was her, or maybe something else? Oh well. At least I confirmed I can't talk about it. Perhaps texting will work? I doubt it, but it could be worth a try."
"Olivia?" Bruno asked again, giving her an odd look. "What are you mumbling about?"
Olivia stood up again and stepped over her pile of filth. "Nothing. Let's go check on Davi, and also find someone to clean this mess up!"
Later, after one quick trip to the janitor's, who was not happy about doing his job, both she and Bruno were walking down the halls. The castle on the sky island was massive. Nearly as big as the king's own, and it had hundreds of floors, hallways, and rooms. Most of the guild were scattered throughout the island, with the best members being allowed in the castle.
As for why she and the rest of Phoenix Flight were allowed to stay, that was because the castle was so durable that it kept withstanding strings of bad luck. Pipes didn't explode, lights didn't go out, and everything ran smoothly. The moment they left the castle, however, was another story, and Ken nearly caused the entire island to fall out of the sky when she stayed out of the castle for a long period of time, so while Phoenix Flight was here, they were now stuck within the walls of the base.
Luckily, this also meant most of the guildmates of the Shining Sentinels avoided the castle since they didn't want to be caught dead near a Phoenix Flight member.
The two of them were about to make their way to the medical ward but stopped when they saw two Squires ahead. Olivia already sighed when she saw them. "Great. Those two again."
"Ms. Lot." One of the Squires was named Nebula. She was a young woman with jet-black hair and stunningly red eyes. A sword was at her side, and she wore a buttoned-up black coat and had a hood up. Her face was blank and expressionless, and her eyes were dull like Davi's. "Can we spar-"
"No!" Olivia cut the woman off. "Please stop asking." She sighed.
"Hey!" The second Squire was named Newton. She was slightly shorter than Nebula and had skin that was on the darker side. Her hair was a wild red, and freckles dotted her face. She wore a black tank top and an open jacket, and her hands were wrapped tightly in bandages. Her fist was clenched tightly, and she had a feisty look in her eyes, which were filled with a bright purple color. "Don't just diss my sister like that! Why won't you spar with her!"
Nebula and Newton were the younger siblings of Lonian. Lonian was quite famous. She was born with an extremely rare type of magic, and she had also been birthed on the anniversary of Haru the Light Forged's creation. Even before she was a teenager, many people regarded Lonian as a good omen for the kingdom, as she was the only being currently known to have Time Magic.
As luck would have it, she really did seem to bring good fortune, as her two younger sisters would also be born during the anniversary of historical events, and they were blessed with rare magic types as well, such as Spatial and Gravity. Those two weren't as rare as Time magic, but fewer than ten people in the world were known about who had those types, with Time magic being exclusively used by Lonian.
The last person to wield time magic had actually been the Dragon Emperor, Sigurd. Time magic was so rare that Sigurd's two sons weren't blessed with it.
Basically, these girls were already super famous and well known, and they also happened to be part of the Helios family and were actually cousins to Tori and nieces to Father. This had allowed them to skip the test altogether, and all three had been promoted to Arcane Knights and were the current strongest Squires.
Also, for some reason, Nebula really wanted to fight her!
Nebula's dull gaze remained on Olivia. "I would like one match, please."
"No." Olivia shook her head.
"You train with Bruno, though."
"Bruno is my friend."
"Oh. Can we be friends-"
"No. I'm not going to be your friend just so we can fight."
"Dang."
"Why won't you entertain my sister?" Newton frowned. "She's being nice and asking you. A lot of people would kill to get a chance to spar with my sister. You think you're too good for her or something?"
"It isn't that." Olivia shook her head.
"Then what is it?"
"I just don't want to. I have other things to do than get my ass beaten."
Newton growled at her response, and she looked like she was about to act, but Bruno stepped forward. "Please, Ms. Helios, can we do this another time? Olivia is pretty banged up, so even if she did spar with Ms. Nebula, she wouldn't put up much of a fight! We don't want to waste talents as good as you two!"
Newton gritted her teeth and grunted. "Whatever. You two commoners aren't even worth looking at." She grabbed her sister's arm and began to drag her away. "Come along, Nebula. Let's go see what sister is up to."
Olivia watched them walk away, her eyes meeting Nebula's since the raven-haired beauty kept glancing back at her. When they eventually vanished out of sight, her shoulders sagged slightly, and she snorted. "You called them Ms. Helios and Ms. Nebula?"
Bruno's ears turned a little red, and he laughed. "I found it's best to respect a lot of these noble folks. They throw hissy fits otherwise, and unlike them, I don't have the money or the time to throw around."
"Fair enough." They began to walk down the hallway once more. "I just wish that Nebula girl would leave me alone."
"She seems to really like you." Bruno nodded. "Wonder why she wants to spar with you so badly?"
"I got mad rizz when it comes to attracting rich girls; it's why Ken hangs around me so much, and also why I was able to be friends with Irene so easily," Olivia said casually. "Noble chicks dig me."
"You're shameless…"
"And you got no game."
When they did reach the medical ward, the two of them were met with the sight of dozens of overworked healers.
The medical ward was a large open room, and normally it could fit dozens of people just fine, but even it was struggling to hold all the people of Daisy. Daisy had been a rather large town, and even with most of their citizens lost, they still had hundreds of people that needed to be treated, some of whom were mutants whom the healers had no idea how to handle…
Most of the wounds the dolls had caused had been layered with curses. Not all, but a large majority, which made fully healing the injuries next to impossible, so the healers had to stitch everything up by hand and work with what they had.
Several beds were placed on the walls with curtains drawn around them, and one corner of the room had been dedicated to shoving all the mutants into a single spot, leaving them and their families unattended to. The air smelled of blood, and by all accounts, it would be a lot better to take some of these people to a hospital, but the guild was stubborn and wanted to heal the people themselves so they could claim they "fixed" Daisy Town.
This was something Olivia wasn't happy with, but at the very least, she was glad the healers were all actually skilled, having some of the best healing spells in all the lands. Hopefully, they'd pull themselves together and help the ones in need.
At the corner of the room was Davi's bed. He rested, dressed in a white gown that covered his upper body, and a blanket was pulled over him. Ken and Sieg were next to him, Ken constantly casting healing spell after healing spell, while Sieg kept his eyes focused on Davi's face, waiting for any hint of him waking up. The three of them were taking turns being with him, always swapping out so the other could get to move around a bit, but they made sure to stay in shifts of two.
Olivia walked a bit closer, and Sieg took notice. "Back so soon?" He grunted and yawned, slowly standing up.
"Yeah. Go get some rest. I'll stay for a bit."
"Sure, sure." Sieg rubbed his tired eyes. "I'll be back in an hour or two."
She took his place when he left and reached out to hold one of Davi's limbs. Physically, he was mostly fine. He had gotten banged up and pushed his body hard, but most of that damage had healed. Some of his more serious wounds had been caused by a curse, but they also didn't seem that bad and had been sealed shut with stitches. He should be awake, but he wasn't.
Davi just remained motionless.
"Anything?" Olivia asked, though she had no hope in her voice.
Ken shook her head. "The healers still don't know why he won't wake up. They've tried a lot of potions and spells, but so far, nothing. They're planning to get a memory mage or someone else with mental magic to come down and check on him to see if something is wrong with his head, but with all that happened with Daisy, they're tied up."
Bruno stood behind Olivia and gritted his teeth. "I hope he wakes up. He's one of my bros. I wish I knew what happened."
"So does the Captain." Olivia sighed once again. She sighed a lot lately. Everyone wanted to know what happened to Davi. He and Ken vanished into his vault, and then he stumbled out with him in a coma. Ken had explained the fight with Adam as best as she could, but only Davi would truly be able to say what happened and might even be able to shed more details on that Adam man.
All of this was just one more excuse for why she would personally kill the organization that took Rosco away from her. She would make them pay for hurting Davi.
"I hope he wakes up soon," Ken muttered.
"Yeah." Olivia gave a nod. "I hope so too."
"What do you think he is dreaming about?'
"I don't know." Olivia brushed her fingers through his hair. "I hope it's a good one."
***
Davi walked slowly. He felt the ice crunch beneath his boots, and his shadowy armor felt heavier than it ever had before. He ignored the burning buildings and the people who screamed around him as they were frozen or sat ablaze.
His gaze was fully focused on the scaled beast before him. Chrysanthemum burned around him, and somewhere in the village, a younger version of him would be carrying Sieg, but none of that mattered to the him of today.
Davi lifted his sword and pointed it at the dragon. It glared down at him. They charged at each other at the same time.
He died…
He always died.
Death meant nothing in this place, however, and Davi would feel the cold bite his skin as his boots crunched on the ice, and his town was set on fire all over again, the dream and his battle with the dragon repeating itself.
Again and again and again.
A never-ending nightmare of his greatest failure.
He was not having a good dream.