Chapter 30: First Mission
The world map of Mitherr-ge is identical in all planes. Although the name of the place might change in each plane, the location of major landscapes like continents, the ocean, mountains and even some forests and lakes are the same except for the Prime-Dimensional Gate.
While the Prime-Dimensional Gate of the Primal Plane was on the moon, it might be connected to the landscape similar to Frerland in the Abyssal Plane. Or it might have opened a gate to the middle of the ocean in Eternal Plane, like it was before it changed to The Void Plane recently.
Apart from those major landscapes, it was inevitable that the other parts of the places change with the passage of time.
Nothing is forever.
That was a universal law one must remember unconditionally.
That was also one of the reasons long living creatures find it hard to keep up with the passage of time. The kingdom they visited a century ago might have fallen in a century. The small forest they visited a few decades ago might have been burnt down in a forest fire and had been turned into a wasteland when they visited again.
Thus, dragons, the longest living creature on the Primal Plane and the only race responsible for guarding the Planet, came up with the easiest but most troublesome and a bit untrustworthy method; Update the map every five decades.
Five decades.
Fifty years.
It was enough for a human to be born and give birth to another two generations of humans.
It was enough for roughly 201,600 generations of Dew-flies to be born and die.
'No, how the hell am I supposed to trust a map like this!?' Kyriaki wailed inside as she glared at the world map of the Primal Plane.
Dragons might be wise, yes, but they are also infamous for being lazy.
When those two functions meet one another, a creature with traits similar to a typical introvert was born. In conclusion, every dragon was an introvert deep down in their hearts.
"Why are you glaring at the map?"
"Because I haven't seen anything unreliable like this in my entire life!" Kyriaki hissed the moment Euclid questioned her behavior.
Euclid raised both of his hands in the air, displaying mock surrender to her as if he was silently telling he didn't want to fight. The Rubik's cube on his hand never stopped moving. His fingers worked hard even as he was talking and playing.
"We're both attending Geography class as a minor subject, I don't think we need any guidance through a fifty year-old map."
"..." Kyriaki silently glared at the holographic map without saying anything.
Her eyes landed on the Continent of Lifianest.
This massive landscape to the east covers the Australian continent, Indonesia, Philippines and all the way up to Japan like a one big chunk of land in the shape of New Zealand's South Island if compared to the map of Earth.
Recognized as the world's second biggest continent, it also holds the world's second biggest Forest; "Seeker's Forest", the birthplace of Twins and the place where Elysium's lair had been built.
Home to most beastfolks, halflings and Titans, the season of Spring in this continent is said to be the most beautiful and the longest in the world.
House Sophocles—A Makros-Dragon clan famous for their meticulous Wind manipulation— together with the branch house Asterios that manipulate Lightning and Hermes that manipulate the element of metal act as the guardians of this land.
Kyriaki's calculating eyes followed the lines of Lifianest and landed on a lonely island at the tip of north Lifianest.
Isaz Island, in terms of ancient dragon data before the God's war.
The Kingdom of Izaz after the God's war, is the home to secretive Titans.
That was Kyriaki's mission destination.
It was a lonely island, forever trapped in an endless winter due to Titans' strange preference. The only country that looked similar to this Island in shape was Peru from the Earth.
But in comparison to Lifianest, it looked like a broken fingernail on the far north. Small, odd shaped and secluded. Although the island was much larger than Peru in reality due to Mitherr-ge being 12 times larger than the Earth, it still didn't look very resourceful.
Frankly, that wasn't what Kyriaki was so focused on. She didn't care about the size of the island nor the history of it.
'Something like this never happened in the original timeline.'
This is what stole her attention.
There was no mission from Titans in the original timeline, where Kyrios went on missions for five years.
Everything in the new timeline was slowly changing, Kyriaki no longer had the privilege of accurate future sight.
However it didn't discourage her one bit.
This is what she wanted after all.
A twisted timeline… so twisted it could never follow the inertia they call "fate". The true mission she was executing even at this moment needed the final confirmation of a twisted timeline.
"I can't believe we became teammates. I'm honored to be with you, Ria!" Euclid smiled brightly while taking short jump-walks, unaware of the strom raging inside Kyriaki's brain.
'As if. Your eyes are as dark as a frozen lake. They say eyes are a window to the soul, I guess it's true.' Kyriaki smiled politely, snapping back to reality and swallowing her inner thoughts so as not to voice them.
It was an unwelcome coincidence that she and Euclid were on the same team in her very first EESOP mission. In the original timeline, he went to Songe Forest—a fairy forest located in Tethys island at the apex of Cwellan Triangle—with Kyrios to help the King of Fairies in eliminating a nest of Kraken eggs.
'Hmm…maybe it's not even a coincidence.' Kyriaki, remembering the information she got from Selena, frowned inwardly.
Her attention now is completely on Euclid.
The information suggested that two people trampled the team charts at the last minute. The two people that reported were extremely suspicious and related to Euclid very closely.
There might be a chance that it was a mere prank, that was why both Elysium who practically knew everything happening inside this city, and Kyriaki who had technically blackmailed the AI Selena to give her more authority, didn't voice their complaints.
"I wonder when the rest of our teammates will come." Kyriaki sighed, crossing her arms.
Just then, Kyriaki detected a female elf entering her 10 meters range of passive detection skill.
She's felt this presence somewhere before.
Just as Kyriaki was about to brainstorm to find the answer, she detected two new presence of male elves. Although Kyriaki can't see everything around a 10 meter radius, she could roughly make an imaginary picture of her detection range like Bats do. That's why she was able to know how the male elves pushed the female one away before entering the reception room where she was waiting.
Kyriaki and Euclid both glanced at each other at the same time, understanding what was happening right away.
"Ah!" The first one to enter, a tall and handsome dark elf with wheat brown hair and eyes together with a darker skin tone compared to all Dark High Elves, let out a small exclamation the moment he spotted Kyriaki sitting on a sofa like an arrogant noble brat.
"Ugh!" The second dark elf, with his dirty blonde hair and sapphire blue eyes, went straight and bumped into the first elf's back.
"Ow! My Lord!"
"What the fxxx Adam! Move away before I-Ah!" The moment his eyes met with a pair of terrifying beautiful golden eyes, he stopped talking. His jaw opened and closed like a broken robot.
"We-we bow before the pride of d-dragons, Her Highness the Crown Princess Kyriaki." They both knelt down in an instant like two trees fallen by a clean sword slash.
Kyriaki silently stared at them without saying anything. Her eyes held the same coldness as Euclid's, her demeanor held the same haughtiness as Endymion and her aura held the same authority as Elysium as she tilted her head.
[Ding!]
[Status window
Name: Adam Chazan
Race: Elf(Dark)
Age: 187 years
Core Rank: F-
Job: Beginner Spirit mage(Low), Beginner Archer(Low), Beginner Martial Artist(Low)
Title:
Attribute: Wind, Earth
Contracted Summon: Lower spirit of wind; Jin
Strength: F-
Defence: F-
Agility: F+
Sense: F
Vitality: F-
Mana: A-
Intelligent: C
Charm: A+
Skills:
Unique: Spiritualist
Passive: Nature Link
Active: Agility Amplifier
Warrior imprint: Basic Archery (G+), Basic spear art (G+), Basic Wrestling (G+), Twelve Arrows of the Wind Deity(A+)
Mage imprint: Basic Magic (1st Circle), Basic mana missile (1st circle), Low spirit contract(1st Circle), wind bullet(1st Circle), wind connection (1st Circle), Wind speed (2nd Circle)]
[Status window
Name: Ethan Joshua Benowitz
Race: Elf(Dark) Sub-race:High Elf
Age: 297 years
Core Rank: F-
Job: Beginner Spirit mage(Low), Beginner Warrior(Low), Beginner Martial Artist(Low)
Title:
Attribute: Earth, Fire, Magma
Contracted Summon: Lower spirit of Fire; Casia, Lower spirit of Earth; Iasa.
Strength: F+
Defence: F
Agility: F-
Sense: F-
Vitality: F-
Mana: A+
Intelligent: C+
Charm: A+
Skills:
Unique: One with the nature, Spiritualist
Passive: Charm immunity, Poison Immunity, Animal communication, Strength of the Forest
Active: Spirit attraction, Forest Territory
Warrior imprint: Basic Battle Axe Art (G+), Basic Rapier art (G+), Benowitz Boxing (B+), Seven Flames of the Burning Sun(A+), Axe God's Treasure (DG)
Mage imprint: Basic Magic (1st Circle), Basic mana missile (1st circle), Low spirit contract(1st Circle), Fire ball(1st Circle), Fire breath(1st Circle), Stone Bullets (1st Circle), Fire Arrow (2nd Circle), Fire finger (2nd Circle), Stone Scales (2nd Circle), Stone Spear (2nd Circle)]
Even after reading their status windows, Kyriaki refrain from uttering a word.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
Then a cheerful door knocking echoed through the reception room.
Creek.
The door opened slowly, and a grey head peeked through the crack with an adorable expression.
"Oh?" She then tilted her head, noticing the two people who harassed her a few seconds ago crawling on the floor.
Then she lifted her grey eyes slowly, locking eyes with Euclid and then, finally Kyriaki.
"Gasp! I-I greet Her Highness the Crown Princess!" As if she understood why those two were on the ground, She also knelt down.
It was clearly visible that she misunderstood something. But neither Euclid nor Kyriaki was kind enough to explain it to her.
[Status window
Name: Levana Ruth Kesem
Race: Elf(Dark) Sub-race:High Elf
Age: 300 years
Core Rank: F-
Job: Beginner Spirit mage(Low), Beginner Assassin(Low), Beginner Martial Artist(Low), Beginner Alchemists
Title:
Attribute: Lightning, Darkness, Space
Contracted Summon: Lower spirit of Darkness; Noir
Strength: F-
Defence: F-
Agility: F+
Sense: F
Vitality: F-
Mana: A+
Intelligent: C+
Charm: A+
Skills:
Unique: One with the nature, Spiritualist
Passive: Charm immunity, Poison Immunity, Animal communication, Strength of the Forest
Active: Spirit attraction, Forest Territory
Warrior imprint: Basic Dagger art (G+), Basic spear art (G+), Basic Archery (G+), Claws of the Shadow Wolf(A+), Mathra Kickboxing (A-), Secret Arts of Kesem (A)
Mage imprint: Basic Magic (1st Circle), Basic mana missile (1st circle), Low spirit contract(1st Circle), Night vision (1st Circle), One second of Darkness (1st Circle), Shadow Bind (1st Circle), Darkness Stealth (2nd Circle)]
One second…
Two seconds…
Three seconds…
Ten whole seconds felt like ten hours passed very slowly.
Kyriaki elegantly got up from her seat, ignoring everyone else as she gracefully walked towards the elf girl like a haughty cat.
She stood right before the elf girl, and then did something her teammates didn't expect her to do.
"It's nice to meet you, Miss Levana. I hope you won't kneel in front of a fellow classmate like this from now on." Kyriaki perfectly performed her royal bow with a polite and gentle smile, extending her hands to Levana.
"Huh? Yes? What?"
"We are fellow classmates, and we are in the same team. We should use our names instead of titles, don't you agree?"
"Huh? Ah? Yes?" Levana took her hand and stood up, still in a daze.
"Titles are too long, too complicated, too time consuming. In a mission with so many uncertainties, every second is important." Kyriaki personally brushed dust off of Levana's uniform before turning to look at the others.
"But letting you use my name doesn't mean I am your friend. If I deem any of you useless in this mission, I won't hesitate to abandon you." She smiled so brightly that it felt like the words that came out with the smile were just hallucinations.
"Alright, I believe I conveyed my feelings well. Then let's go, our spaceship is taking off in ten minutes."
As everyone stared at her with a stunned look, Kyriaki turned around and walked past Levana. She didn't bother to look back as she left the reception room.
Fear.
Doubt.
Simple curiosity.
The emotions she sensed from her teammates were the kind of emotions she always found exhausting.
It was like when you walked in a water stream towards upstream with water almost up to your shoulders for a long time; Even if the water stream was too calm, you'd get tired from the continuous pressure of the water that presses down on your heart and body.
And even if the water stream was so strong that it threatened to take your breath away, there is no choice but to continuously face it, you can't run away because the water had wet your clothes too heavily. There's no one to ask for help, no one would, as they too were busy fighting their own tiring water streams.
The riffles filled with sharp rocky surfaces that threaten to bleed you dry, the pools with deep and calm water waiting for you to fall, the run with strongly flowing currents that determine to push you to your limits, the eddies with swirling and reverse current trying to drag you down…You have to face it all alone.
And it was all exhausting, just like emotions.
Yet Kyriaki felt too greedy to let go of it, as she lived long without them, she knew how dull it can be without those emotions.
Nonetheless, being greedy was never a good thing. The prime example is the emotions she recognizes from others when they see her, just like now.
∆ ∆ ∆
"The difference between a High Elf and an Ordinary Elf can only be seen by dragons except for Elves themselves. Dragons due to their System authority; Insight. Elves due to their bloodline senses. In the eyes of an Ordinary Elf, a High Elf appears with a soul mark only manifest inside their eyes, making it look like they are glowing continuously without dimming."
—From the book