Heo's point of view
My head rang and I fell over. Herika caught me.
"Long time no see."
"Our first fight together and we're killing someone, haha." I laughed but it felt wrong.
Herika glanced over at the deceased Āpala. "I wouldn't call that a person."
"She's closer to an ego weapon biologically I think."
"The queen will need to be informed of this." She helped me stand. "I'll be able to help with the explanation. I know her knight really well."
Turns out, Herika was taught by Jace before. The skill he tried to pass onto us and we were rejected from was given to Herika.
"Now that I ask him he really doesn't like you for some reason." Herika said, pulling off her cape and handing it to a shaking Stella, then sitting down on the train.
"Thank you, I am kinda cold from that. Hehe." Her laugh's back tires slid out from under itself, faltering similar to mine.
"What do you mean by him?"
"Well, bombshell, at least it was for me, there's another god. At least one with evidence behind him currently."
"What!? Other than Ocky and Toky and the Kalmic god?"
"Yeah, his name is Glitch. You've seen the things he grants, abilities that glitch reality, but even that isn't the insane part."
"What is?"
"They're unlimited, requiring no input of magic."
She had me intrigued, my faltering mood being replaced with curiosity.
"Why would you openly say this if it's this big of a secret?"
"Because I'm the current priestess, not a failed one or a follower, of which there are many." She pointed her finger up and closed her eyes explaining.
"Can I become one of these priests and get these awesome powers?" My leg tapped the train a few times.
"Priestess for you, and no, he hates you, like really hates you. I've asked why and he'll say something like you can't be given this power or trusted with it. Probably some divine vendetta against your family or something."
I can't think of anything wrong I've done besides killing Delusion a few minutes ago. Well… a haunting feeling fell upon me, knowing it would haunt me tonight. I raised my hands to my ears where Āpala's hair ornaments fit perfectly. Dried blood covered my earlobe.
Paukena would see her own dad's corpse because of me. I don't know how Herika convinced them but they believe we didn't do it. Paukena though… She was sad, no, right?
"M-m-my dad is dead? Well. t-t-thats j-just-" Tearful cries resounded on the other side of the phone.
The Queen, sad? No, she doesn't get sad. That's who she is, dummy.
Thinking back, we brought her there. She showed signs of being creepy and had attacked him before, but that endless amount of time in the top of the castle, trapped, hadn't changed her. The loved we met didn't change her. When her eyes were glowing, was she replacing her curse? The pressure in the room that day, it was the difference between tangible and magic, just that magic wasn't normal, it was glitch.
I sure hope that this is finally over. Delusion said one last thing, before she vanished.
"The event horizon sure did pass for all I've taken!"
That should be that then. I turned and smiled at Stella. Her face was pale and eyes shut hard. Unbelievably, I moved over and hugged her.
…
Herika had a nicer hotel room. She let us crash on the other bed. I had a terrible nightmare but in the morning, the sun hit our faces pleasantly, completely denying the horrors that happened the night before. We took showers, got dressed, and went down to the first floor for food. It was packed with people. People also stood around the door, guarding.
"Wow, everyone must really eat food at nine am." I said as we got into a line for food.
"Yeah…" Stella said nervously.
"Heo is your cousin like…" Herika looked Stella up and down. "Like shy?"
"I guess she is a little."
"No. It's…"
"What?"
"Heo, you had him die in your arms last night and you're just looking over that? You can eat?"
"Well… I don't know."
Herika glanced at me. "I didn't know him so it doesn't bother me. I've only heard terrible things that were caused by him."
"I don't know, I feel bad he's gone and that we accidentally had a part in it, but it happened really quickly and what Delusion said. I do think he was a good person though, and wished him and Kenna could be together forever. I guess they are now. Maybe I'm still processing it? That's how it works right?"
"Heo-"
"My sister isn't here. Please let me go find her. I'll bring her back." A woman begged.
Over at the sliding doors, clearly adventurers blocked the doors. The doors didn't move while they were there. They stayed shut. The guard's mouth was moving without affecting their faces. They didn't talk loud enough for us to hear them.
"PLEASE!"
"Why won't they let her leave?" I asked.
"Because ever since last night pools of water have been floating around. Once you see one you start to drown, and of course the disappearances skyrocketed." A man who was in line behind me said.
"What about her sister?"
"She's gone. It's a martial law not to leave any building and not to come into Festival from the outside."
"The fighting competition?" I ask sadly.
"Are you an adventure?" I nodded yes. "Well stay inside for sure. The water is targeting you especially if you're weak."
I wanted to say I wasn't, but I just filled my plate and sat down with Stella.
"Stella?"
"What?"
"We need to train and prepare for the competition."
"Heo, what about the disappearances still going on? Delusion wasn't behind them. We're helpless to stop whatever's going on."
"The posters for the guild said they'd offer to pay for trips the day before the competition meaning that it's going to just be people who are currently here. Big big shots aren't going to be coming. No president of Mila, no guard of Mila, no Rex, no elites will show up from other countries or outside of Festival. We have a high chance of winning even as new adventures."
"Just because the absolute strongest can't come, doesn't mean really strong people in Festival don't exist."
"Can you beat me, Heo?" Herika sat down next to me.
"Well. You have such a cheating power, maybe not."
"Cheating?!" Herika jumped forward but sat back down, her eyes shooting up in thought.
"We still need to inform Ezree of the rest of the crude King events."
"We're adventurers, we can leave." Herika said.
"Well all actors need to meet, no? Herika lets go introduce you to mine and Stella's new friend Ezree."
Guards checked we were adventures then let us go. Herika knew the city better than us, giving her the address, she dodged between buildings and slipped through the alleys, getting us to Ezree's house. We knocked and Ezree's fearful face opened the door and jumped into mine and Stella's arms.
"I thought you guys got taken!" Ezree bawled her eyes out.
"No, but we solved everything."
"Kinda." Herika said.
"You don't have to work today?" Stella pointed her bronze staff at her pajamas.
"No. The martial law requires me to stay inside, I worked a lot yesterday, more than usual because I heard about this."
"Aren't you an adventurer?"
"Oh, yeah. Sometimes I forget myself."
We came into her house and sat down.
"Your brother here today?"
"No."
We heard faint TV in the direction of where his room was. Ezree's face grew red and she blinked the conversation away. We explained what happened. Herika surprisingly just let it loose the existence of another god again.
"That's insane! Thankfully I wasn't there. Delusion could have easily killed me."
"Have you just not ever practiced magic even though you're a full dragon?"
"Mhh no I have. I have a phone, the required system registration and some other fun spells."
"No fighting magic?"
"Well, I am a dragon of blood."
Ezree took off her hat, her blonde hair fell out of her hat. She raised her hand, starting at her finger tips and down to the start of her hand, Ezrees hand turned a dark blood red. So did her hair, turning dark red and sprouting similarly colored horns. Then an orb of blood appeared.
"Wow, is it strong?"
"Like with anything else, if you use it right yeah." She put the orb away and put her hat back on, her two small pony tails peaking out of her hat again. "If you guys need to, you can stay here till the martial law is over?"
"Well, we are broke so we can't even afford a room."
Herika's and Ezree's jaws dropped. Stella hit me while hiding her face. Ezree moved around the furniture in her living room and ran to the back grabbing blankets and pillows. She sprinted about ten times over loading us. Someone thought it was funny and smacked Herika across the face with a pillow. Herika immediately assumed me, wrong, and so preceded a pillow fight.
While I was battling Herika's relentless two pillow technique with my twisted pillow technique, I saw Ezree jump onto Stella. Stella pulled up her pillow to block and Ezree fell onto the ground as if she hit a wall.
Herika made the mistake of swinging both pillows down at once. The window of her miss I snapped my pillow out and clocked her in the face with a burst of pillow filling. The entire pillow ripped and scattered across the room.
Ezree's anger raged as she hopped similarly onto me, like Stella, with her pillow. She began bashing the pillow into my face. I squirmed around underneath her. Stella dodged Herika and slammed her pillow into Ezree's head.
After we were more than exhausted from the pillow fighting we stacked them in the corner of the room, and picked up the destroyed pillows. We aren't going to sleep this early. The doorbell rang and we all cautiously walked to the door. Pearing through the peep hole, a standing pumpkin carried a trick-or-treat bag and wore a suit.
"How can we help you, Mr. Pumpkin?" I asked
"Hehehe, Estellés.."
"Yeah, Mr. Pumpkin?"
"Hehehe, here." The pumpkin reached into his suit pocket instead of his bag, pulling out a pumpkin that shouldn't have fit and then a few more. "Have fun, hehehe." The pumpkin giggled and hopped away, down the street.
Looking out the door pumpkins knocked on multiple houses and provided them with various things ranging from pumpkins to board games and snacks.
"Is it messed up to carve pumpkins now?" Stella asked.
"I've only been here for about a year." Herika grabbed onto a tall body pumpkin.
"No, it's tradition, but not in June." Ezree said.
"Whats stopping us?"
We started carving the pumpkins. Deliquately cutting the top off at an angle so it'll fit when we place it back on. We designed and cut out the faces on the pumpkins. Stella's and Ezree's looked better than mine and Herika's. Ezree decided to go all out and started decorating the house with bunting. Stella's foot got trapped around one and she tripped trying to place decorations on the wall. She hit her horns and put a little dent into Ezree's floor with the crown's points.
We placed a candle in each and set them on the doorsteps before returning inside for lunch. We ate and then relaxed watching TV as if we owned Ezree's house. Though it got to a point, one I was all so familiar with.
"Heo, let's fight." Herika started to smile.
"What? In the house?" I moved away on the couch. Herika was already jumping on top of me to throw me to the floor. I rolled on the floor, almost knocking over furniture. Herika launched at me once again but a burning hot shield appeared in front of her.
"You don't live here, you can't just start fighting."
"Come on." Herika said like a child.
"Just go in the back." Ezree suggested
We looked cautiously at the sky in Ezree's backyard. No bubbles of water. The sun hid behind a few clouds. The only clouds actually blocked the sun, the rest of the sky was perfectly clear. When we stepped out I thought I felt a rain drop or two.
"We're probably safe, don't worry." Ezree said.
"She's definitely the culprit saying things like that." Herika shook her head agreeing.
"Stop! Here, how about this." She took her hat off, her hair turning red. She moved her hands as if holding the backyard and blood sprouted and covered the backyard. "Safe enough?"
"Now she has trapped us completely." Herika said.
"STOP!" Ezree hopped out the back door and chased Herika around the small backyard.
"So you guys came back with more?" Ezree's brother Ezra stepped out of the house with a large blanket on again.
"Yeah, everything with the crude King and the nightmare is over."
"Would you mind telling me what happened?"
I considered Herika's god for a second. Then started to repeat the story back to him, until Ezree was tired of chasing Herika. Herika took a stance at the other end of the backyard to me. She didn't at all throughout school, guess she learned some new things.
"Whats allowed?"
"We never got to fight with magic before so…" A horn grew out of her head. I saw Ezra shirk back into the house more. "Anything as long as it won't kill."
Kill huh, I did that yesterday. Was Delusion practically a human? I never met an egosword but from what I've heard I'd consider them human. I shook my head and took the stance of the goblin slash.
"Ready? Three two one… GO!" Stella shouted.
I got to Herika quickly, she grabbed onto my swinging arm and tossed me over her. She stepped back from me and punched the air with a single punch before her entire body glitched and she was behind me throwing the followup punch she had always thrown in school. It hit my back and pushed me into the center of the backyard.
I grunted, stood up and took the goblin slash stance again. She waited on me but eventually got inpatient and charged me. I moved out of the stance, dodged one of her punches, and kneed her in the stomach. I pushed back and tried to kick her in her stomach again. I fell backwards not used to attacking like that. Herika used the opportunity to punch me into the floor.
"No rules even if you're on the ground! Haha!"
"You are too."
I pushed her down into the ground with gravity magic and slid out of the way of her fall.
"I liked that attack you used to get behind me."
Herika pushed her body slowly up from the gravity. I went and blasted only warm fire at her back, not even burning her clothes but keeping her down.
"Thanks, I got the idea from a boss's attack animation glitching and them getting behind me."
"Is that how it works, just glitched things?"
"I think so." She muttered and fell fully onto the ground.
"I guess I finally won a fight. WOOOHO!"
Herika's body spun under the pressure and she pulled me down to the ground with the same gravity magic. We both couldn't stand up from each other's magic even though I was supposed to have resistance to gravity magic as a gravity dragon.
We ended that fight and had a few more till it was dinner. Ezree seemed to enjoy watching us fight, and Stella was practicing the magic spinning technique Baydí taught us. It was as if we were all long time friends, when we didn't know Ezree too well, but we all had fun. The people dealing with the disappearances were more qualified than our group of idiots.
Ezra hid in the house at the sight of magic along with when we first met him, there had to be something with him and magic. Maybe he likes strictly physical fighting. Damn, we could have done that for him.
Ezree cooked us dinner and we sat down. Ezra sat at one end of the small kitten table by Ezree and Stella, while Herika sat next to Ezree and me with Stella to my right. She cooked a very appealing dinner for a four year old. It was candy and pies. When I popped a piece of chocolate into my mouth it tasted sweet and pleasant.
"No sugar in that one Heo." Ezree smiled.
"Huh, how?"
"Well, people who lived in Fayha their whole lives know how to make these. It's a special spell and everyone makes theirs unique, but the candy all here is very healthy."
That's… insane. I just got a free home cooked dinner with a person with cooking magic. It's outrageously costly in Mila, you just need to know how to cook where I'm from. At night, Ezree and Ezra retreated to their respective rooms leaving the rest of us in the living room. We let Stella get the big couch. Me and Herika rock-paper-scissors for the chair, of course I lost and was sleeping on the floor rolled up tightly in a blanket and surrounded by a mini pillow fort we made.
Today was like a break after all that's happened within the last weeks.