Beyond the Virge

Chapter 5: Can't Escape

"Clover! Save me, please!" I hear a voice cry out. All I saw was darkness, but then I started to see a smoked figure. Two figures. I couldn't tell who it was but their voices felt familiar.

"You were always the weak one Clover," I hear a deeper voice say. A burst of purple appeared in front of me with a blade to my throat.

"Axel," I say. It took the shade of him, but it didn't look like him. His ears were pointy, his outfit was horned and heavily armored. Next to him, another figure steps next to him. It took the shape of Kyle with Ms. Kazumi with a knife pointed to her neck, then Axel had Yuki and the rest of the girls tied up with Hunter down on the ground. Jack laid dead as his chest was sliced open and his face smashed.

"You can't escape this side of you. I always knew you were weak and the ones you hold dear weakens you," the tone of his voice becomes deeper and more distorted.

"No, Axel, this isn't like you. You wouldn't kill people just for fun."

"C'mon, we all have our demons inside of us. Sometimes, it's best to let our demons out."

"You're wrong!" I say making a spear and throwing it at him, but the sound of the hit was from someone else. Yuki.

"Now look at what you've done! Your anger controls you boy!" The figure of Axel says as his form changes into a horned demon-like the demon I consumed back at the cavern. "Anger is what now controls you and only you can control anger."

"Who are you? And what do you want from me?"

"Your power. We'll make a deal. You give me power from your body, and I will give you my power from me," the demon puts his hands out.

I was deeply suspicious about taking this deal. From the demon, I ate, but I didn't take another second back. "Deal," I take his hand and shake it. The demon started to laugh.

"Good," as the demon disappeared, my stomach started to growl, then tighten. I felt like I wanted to puke my insides out. My body felt light. Like I was falling. I continued to moan and groan in pain until I awoke from my sleep.

Opening my eyes, I could see the ground coming closer and closer to me as the wind blew my face. I started to scream for help, but Rii was fast enough to catch me.

"Clover! Are you okay?" she asks with a scared impression.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine."

"What happened?"

"It was just a nightmare," I say scratching my head, then my stomach. "How long do we have until we reach the nearest castle?"

"We are just about here," Rii says, decreasing her altitude.

We soon reach a kingdom Southern to the one we were summoned in, Gargolas. To raise less suspicion of Rii, we decided to land a little farther from the gate entrance. Entering the gates, the soldiers seemed to be welcoming to see us enter the kingdom. There were plentiful numbers of markets, blacksmiths, people of all backgrounds, and demi-humans as well. It was full of weapons of modern and medieval technology.

"Here we are," Rii says, "Gargolas."

"This place seems nice," I say walking around. "We should probably find a place to stay for the night before we get going on something else."

"Agreed. I once roamed this place and many people liked our presence here as dragons. They would give up gifts of wealth and in return, we would sacrifice either our scales for their armor and meat for their military as it is nutritious."

"That's interesting."

"We didn't mind because the meat came from dragons that decided to sacrifice themselves for the good of this kingdom."

A few blocks down the road from the entrance, there was a little tavern with an Inn on the top of it. Walking in, there were people of all types and species of all types. Back in Irelia, there wasn't a single soul of demi-humans.

Walking to the counter of the Tavern I asked, "How much for a room?"

"4 silver a night."

"How much does 5 gold do?"

"I,-" the Tavern owner widened his eyes. "As long as you want. Your room is on the 3rd floor to the far back left."

"Thank you," we say, "Also, I'll get a sweet madame and a ribeye."

"Yes sir."

Rii and I walked into our room and got comfy. I drop my bag and check out the items I have: My cloak, Haywire, Ares, my submachine gun, and Athena, my sniper rifle. I strapped those around under my cloak and walked out the door to get something to eat. Walking downstairs our food was ready as we said.

"Thank you," we say as we start to eat.

After eating and leaving a tip, we walked out of the tavern hearing a few words about adventurer's quests. I felt interested and wanted more money.

"You wanna sign up for the guild quests? It's best if we build up what we have before we move on to harder enemies."

Rii shrugs her shoulders, "I don't see a problem, why not?"

We soon headed towards the guild house and waited in line. The line was longer than the cavern I almost died in. It took almost half of the day for us to sign in. The receptionist has ears like a dog and a tail like one. She was adorable, but the feeling of the ice-cold death of Rii took over me.

"Hello there, registration for two?"

"Yes ma'am," I say.

"Perfect, just poke your thumb and just put your thumbprint on the square here." I do as she says and I get registered as an adventurer, but the receptionist gets a shocked look.

"Is there something wrong?"

"Quite. Sir, are you a hero of Elderon?"

"No no no, I wouldn't call myself that anymore."

"You are! You're the hero that owns Haywire! I recognize that special weapon you have on your arm!"

"Well yes, but I don't want to talk about it," people started staring at me. "Just make me start all the way at the beginning."

"I wish I could, but with your status, the lowest I can do is gold."

"Fine, I'll take it." Rii had the same problem, but she started at silver.

"Happy hunting adventures!" she says as we leave the house. Walking to the quest board to look for our first quest.