The New Callings

Dark Phantom - Intermission

I was in a dream where I had been with new people. I couldn't remember what they looked like, but it was a group. I was fighting against them, suddenly, and I couldn't control it.
They had to fight back, I was seeing tears fall, and eventually I jolted awake.
AJ slowly got up and yawned a bit from my jolt. I had forgotten we went on the same bed for the night. "What time is it..?"
I looked outside. It was still moonlight up in the sky, so I shrugged. "Dunno. I just...woke up."
"Do you think you can go back to sleep?"
I shook my head. "I'm gonna go outside and clear my head a bit, if that's alright."
He nodded and laid back down. I got up and put on my usual attire, grabbed my bow, and walked outside.

I went to the Elven Retreat, everyone was asleep and no one was outside, except one: Melody.
"I assume you got my message?" She asked.
"What message?"
"The dream."
"That nightmare was from you?"
She nodded before pacing for a bit. "You know, it's a vision." She sighed and shook her head. "You know there's another continent, another land, that will have the same problem, similar to the Dark Lord?"
"Yeah. I know it'll eventually happen. With this vast world, there's clearly much that we're missing." I sighed.
"You realize the risk you take if you go there coincidentally at the given time?"
I nodded.
She chuckled a bit and nodded. "I see. You're ready, then?"
"When haven't I been?"
"Fighting me."
I chuckled a bit. "The second time, yeah."
"But," she took a sip of her cup, "it's uh...it's whatever, at this point. There will be a day, a night, where it becomes known of a new kind of Dark Lord, like what I was. A new Dark Curse."
"There's probably been many more, if you think about it."
"Possibly. This world is vast, after all, it's for sure not the first, it certainly isn't going to be the last."
"I wonder when it'll stop...probably never, right?"
She thought for a moment before nodding. "Likely never. People of this world need to know how important their face is, basically their whole identity. And there will never be a time that, somewhere, someone will take off their identity, and the Phantom moves on to the next land, searching for power it will never gain, yet taking the identity of the Curse."
"There's one exception."
"Yes...New Lumos. The epicenter." She chuckled. "You know, I never knew that place existed until the Dark Phantom showed me, in which I tested my limits on what I could control."
"I assume some monsters were there already?"
"Surprisingly, no. They get eradicated when the Phantom moves."
"I see...we wait for the Phantom to move, and then the next continent has to deal with their shit..."
"Pretty much," she laughed a bit. "It's hell."
I sighed a bit. "So, is that all you called me for?"
"Yeah. You can go back and sleep."
"Weird way to call someone."
She chuckled a bit before I started walking off. She spoke up right before I left her voice range. "By the way, expect me to sign up once you put up applications for the team."
I nodded before I continued walking back.

When I got back to the inn, I saw two princesses in the moonlight, dancing with each other with calm music playing from a radio. When I got closer, the moonlight showed them clearer: Holly and Jianne.
The cat made her choice on becoming a queen.