A point of view from the brewing
"Yeah, that's what we said. We think it still exists somewhere in Fayha." Lynix spoke.
The woman was a five eight full dragon. She recently discovered a way for herself to join our ranks properly as a full dragon, though she hadn't gone ahead and sped up her assimilation into a full dragon just yet. When she stood she had her dark purple cloak on. The hood with ears and eyes as the rune on her face embroidered on. Her purple and blue neon horns sprouted from her forehead and out the hood. Along with a pink bow for some reason.
"And you can for sure confirm this?" Niko spoke, piping up.
We had been searching for it for him for a bit but who would have guessed it would still be in the capital of Fayha. Niko's full dragon body had bricks from the midpoint of the arm and down to his fingers. A light yellow flame came from under his hood. Brick patterns were embroidered on the edges of his hood.
"Thats awesome. So our Kalmic plans can take a bit of a break I'd assume?" Castle spoke.
His voice was coming through a call. He had a dark red hood that had metal string around all the edges. The wavy pattern served more than one purpose for the artist. He had enhancements trailing along it.
"Sorry Lētō, I'm sure Castle won't slack off." Asheíl spoke quickly.
He was a tall man with six arms and a pair of invisible wings on his back. His hood was tightly tucked around his face before falling off his shoulders. Two giant horns came from his head out and up. His dreads falling over his eyes where rope fell from his hood.
"You're fine. Though I did my own research and it appears there's more than one person after the core." I spoke
"Really? Who?" Grey asked.
A dark black cloak fell over his body, sticking out like it didn't belong in this reality —because it didn't— as dust and wear didn't affect it. The same went for his suit and the cloth that came off his body in no real pattern. His two black horns came out the sides of his head and through his hood which was designed to let that happen.
"Well… Not a dragon or human, and not one who will be a problem. In fact let Mila deal with it for us."
It really thinks it's as smart as us. Definitely fooled the humans, but of course those following the one true god of the universe, Ryiam, would know of its plans. Well we did destroy the body in Kalmic so it makes sense we know more.
…
Heo Estellé's point of view
"No fucking way!"
My eyes widened. My finger slowly scrolls through the wall of text. I tossed my phone across the room in the inn. I clasped my hands in thought.
That place is a dream. I had found information around what I searched up. It was very little but from other people across the entire earth. Very few but it was posted to a dream thread. People had a dream that led into a place as odd as where I was.
But it doesn't confirm it was a dream besides one thing. There was a single person who reported going into a dream like that with floating black text and inside of abandoned buildings without dust or destruction. Collectively three people have ever said they've had a dream like that.
And someone else was there with me. I saw it on the tracks. It was definitely human but…
I fell asleep into the nightmare like I always did. When I woke I showered, rewrapped myself and headed down to talk to the old man. He was there, surprisingly awake this time.
"Sorry to bother you, but do you know why the train tracks are all messed up over there?" I pointed in the direction of the tree maze.
"You went?"
"Ah, y-yeah. I was following maríft sounds."
"You know…" a vein in his head popped. "Marífts are the national animal of Noxstave. Some here don't like that the quest was put up."
"Oh, I was starting to think it was weird but I'm just doing my job. I was only curious about the tracks."
"Twenty years ago when the new trains were created the original plans for Mila was to have it go throughout our little town. Instead they chose to go through two major port cities and go in another direction. However we were shutting down our trains and even did a celebration to get rid of the tracks."
The man sighed and placed his head on the table. He muttered something to himself. His arm came to the strange shape in his chest.
"So they were purposefully destroyed that way. What happened to the trains that used to run through here?"
"They weren't surrounded by a monster forest so cars could easily pass through them without issue. While people moved and forgot about us."
"But what about the talk about good dreams here? That should have kept people coming."
"That's not what we are known for." He looked up, veins softening in his face.
"What is?" I took a step back.
"Well, the challenge. If you were to beat it you'd get a reward. Or something like that. But no one challenges anymore so the myth dried up."
"Oh ok. Thank you then."
I left him walking out and back to my pile of marífts. So the town had a challenge that brought people in? How does that connect to the tracks or the dream place? I'll just have to look into the challenge.
I made food from the marífts that were there. Again, the pile had shrunk since the day before. The food sucked but I needed to eat and I wanted to find out about this place.
I first started to explore around the town which wasn't the residential district I had already explored. On the right side of town was another hill that led up to a black hole gods church. I was past due a visit there.
There was average Milian architecture. Same wood as the surrounding areas but matching the black hole gods theme that was Milian architecture for the most part.
In my exploration of the town I spun my magic the way Baydí taught me and Stella. The fire I again tried to use but it cost so much and I could barely force it out.
I continued to walk up the spiralling road on the hill. On my left was a small park. The trees were cleared and a nice playground sat. It was rusted and unsafe looking, but still fun to kids. The only kids I've seen were the ones who looked at me eating marífts.
Dipping into the park it was abandoned completely. Not a soul even looked to have passed through here recently. I took a seat on the swing, half of my legs touching the ground.
The park had a little opening for sunlight to come down, but barely. The light shown on the rusted swing set and etched into the steel was that phrase again, about ashes. I closed my eyes to try and take in the moment. I saw through my eyelid.
Leaning my head back as I swung slightly I saw that group of kids again. They looked disheveled, like they had been in a fight. I got off the swing and turned to them.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to take the playground from you. Haha."
I smiled at the group of kids, but they didn't return the gesture. Their eyes weren't even looking directly at me, they were looking at my horns, scowls lining their faces. There was a girl and two boys. They wore the same clothes as everyone else, but they didn't have the weird wrinkles in their clothes.
"I thought I saw five of you before. Where are your friends?"
"Why are you here in Marine?" The little girl spoke.
"Well one of the grown ups here asked me to clear out some nasty monsters for you."
"You know the monster is important to Noxstave?" The girl continued.
"Oh my… are you that dumb." A boy spoke.
"No, I'm aware the animals importance I'm simply doing my job here and-"
"And slaughtering and eating them?"
"Well… there isn't food here. Hey, can I ask you guys what you know of the challenge here?"
"Oh so you came with ulterior motives."
"No. I just learned about it."
"If you beat the challenge, you'll leave Marine with a wish."
"Really! What type of challenge is it?"
"You really are an idiot." The kids all turned and ran away into the forest.
I shrugged, looking up at the clearing I saw the top half of the church. Oh, so it's higher up the hill. I left the park and continued up the spiraling road towards the church. The exertion was growing with the climb up. Three hills on each side of the town acted like an enclosure.
Outside one of the houses was a man. A human man rather than full dragon. He saw me and waved over to me.
"Hello. What brings you all the way up here?"
The man had on a white tanktop and grey sweatpants. He had a rag around his neck. He had dark brown eyes with massive bags under them. Some oil was on his fingers. His car, right behind him in his garage. I told him I was here for the quest.
"Ah. I'm not very close to the other residents so I had no idea a quest went up like that."
"Are you Noxstavian too?"
"Me? Do I not look it?"
"Well I don't really know what they look like."
"Well I am. My family has lived here for years but the old people in my family wanted to be closer to their friends so I'm here by myself."
"I see. So you must know of the challenge right?"
"Ah. So you came here for that. Of course I know about it."
"What exactly is the challenge?"
"Well, challengers come and face the challenge. If they pass well, I think Flamé Hayfeilds is a great example. You'll leave here stronger than ever."
"The first ranked guard of Mila!?"
"Yeah. She came in here I think when I was fifteen, back in fourty-one-o-five. She had gotten out of high school and came here to Marine and challenged. Now, twenty-one years later, she's the strongest in the world."
"I had no idea she came to Marine. I thought this place was a place for dreams before."
"Oh yeah, I forgot the myth around dreams manifesting. I guess Flamé's did."
"What!"
"Ask some more people here and you might find out about some other myths here."
"So you guys are like a mini Kalmic?"
"Kinda!" He laughed.
I left the man, thanking him for the information. I continued to walk the winding road, getting closer to the top. The trees started to become under me as I went higher.
I made it up to the church at the end of the road. It was so high up that looking off the cliff I climbed I could see over the trees at the base of the city. I turned to where the shrine was. Off in the distance you couldn't see the shrine, but you could see the clearing where it and the water was. Along with the blurry line where the train went through.
You couldn't see any clearing for the town, but it was pretty mixed in with the trees when I was down there.
The church also looked average. A front door in the center of a tall building with two smaller buildings on each end. The walls were intricately carved out of the ulnarah tree wood. Stained black glass encircled red stained glass. Chimes hung around the structure, ringing lightly in the wind. At the top of the center building was a bell, similar to the bell artifact from the black hole gods.
The man and the kids were the only people I'd seen walking up here. I hadn't even seen marífts.
I took off the wooden boards blocking the entrance and headed in. It was dark. I undid my horns, being more aggressive to turn them into bright flames. Dust hung in the air, damping my view like a veil. It smelled like magic. The pillars were smooth but had small cut outs cambering charms along with small candle holders poking out. The floor was tiled with the ulnarah wood in a rectangular pattern getting smaller and smaller in. then black metal was on the outside of the tile. Each one of the tiles were connected at different angles with patterns filling in between the gaps. Rows of softer wooden chairs faced towards the podium which was knocked over. Chandeliers hung lifelessly from the tall ceiling.
The building was mostly unharmed. No graffiti or trash. I guess no one even knows of the town to come and trash it. Though, thrown about were gasoline cans. They weren't filled with gasoline though.
A dark red liquid sat still in the gasoline cans. Around the place was normal wood and wooden tools. They seemed to use it more as a storage rather than its church purposes now.
There wasn't much else here. The dust was pretty normal and the building looked abandoned properly. I turned, my horn's fire going out at the worst time.
"Ah, damnit!"
I lost a chunk of magic pushing out light into my hand. After enough force it felt like a damn broke as a giant flashbang erupted in the room. It barely blinded me due to my resistance so I saw the room light up. Hanging written into the wall high above the doorway wrote a message. Not the same phrase I had been seeing but something else. 'DONT DREAM, DONT CHALLENGE, NO QUEST'
"Gods, what the hell?"
I paused in the room as the light faded. Graffiti looked written desperately, in a place only people leaving would see, and if they lit up the church that high. A flashlight wouldn't normally reach the spot.
"I… I don't even know."
Don't dream? I've been having terrible dreams since I came here. Don't challenge? The challenge cannot be that bad? No quest though….
"Hello?" the man I was talking to outside opened the door.
"Oh, hello"
"You can't come in here."
"I'm sorry, I was just checking this place out since I was in town." I spewed off a few more excuses before the man stopped me.
"I'd say just don't do it again and I won't tell." He laughed and walked in.
He did a quick check of the room, noticing my footsteps in the dust. Then he walked back to usher me out the door. He clearly couldn't see the message when he glanced around, his eyes never even went up.
Once out he offered me food. I refused his offer. It was still early in the day but I was getting tired, something I had been noticing as I've been here. Though if I didn't see him again I wouldn't have noticed. The man looked human but his body wasn't physical at all, for whatever reason he hid the fact he was a full dragon.
I got back down to the park and it was around noon. Eating and walking up and down this took two hours. Yet I could take a nap.
Sitting down on the swings I looked up. The church was visible from the park. The hill it sat on was incredibly tall around the height of the trees. There was a ledge so there would be a wall if I walked towards the church from here.
My feet sway back. My head rocked lightly as I swung. I fell asleep sitting down on the swing.