The Dark Path : The Start of Darkness, The Beginning of True Struggles

Chapter Eleven

- Chapter Eleven -

“I see. That’s the situation. Let ask you one final time: Are all of them elementals?”

“Yes, sir. I’m positive and certain that all of them are elementals.”

Aria had been talking with an angel who looked like he was in charge of the portal of Aramu Muru on the angel side. The fellow looked like a human but what made him different was that he had huge feathery wings that were folded behind his back. He seemed hesitant to believe the five of us.

“Are you sure about this, elemental? Don’t you want to rethink your decision? Once this goes through, you will not be able to go back,” the angel said looking at me.

“I’ve made my decision and will not decide otherwise.”

I was quite surprised with the fact that they could speak English rather fluently. Initially, I assumed that they would have their own tongue. I later learned that they did indeed have their own tongue but were well-versed with many languages in the human world. English, Chinese, Arabic, and Russian just to name a few. From what these angels told me, the language that they currently spoke had some shared history with some of the human languages. There were times that the angels spoke in their own tongue but I could still recognise a few words. The more educated angels knew more languages as they grew older.

“Okay then. Give a few minutes to contact the people in charge of this.”

As the angel began contacting someone else on a holographic device attached to his ear, I pushed back my seat and got up. Approaching a nearby transparent window, I took in the view that welcomed me. I was a sight that I could only imagine be seen in movies and dreams. Architecture that I had never before seen in the human world was there for me to see. The bright blue sky shined down on the buildings, reflecting the sunlight off the reflective surfaces. Humanoid figures flew about from building to building whom I assumed were more angels. Large airborne vehicles flew overhead, casting a dark shadow as they passed by. What were those large airborne vehicles? Advertisement-purposed vehicles? No, that can’t be it. Upon further observation, I noticed how well armed these large airborne vehicles looked. That’s it! These were military vehicles. Were they patrolling? Could be but then, why were there so many of them? Was there a war going on? Well, this isn’t my world and thus, shouldn’t really concern me at all.

The most eye-catching feature of the view that was before me was the snowfall. Even as the sun shined down, snow continued to fall, covering the buildings and hiding most of the beautiful architecture. Placing both of my hands to the glass, I could feel the cold from the outside meet my hands. On a wall near where I stood, was a clock with a digital thermometer. Negative 10 degrees Celsius. Wow, that is really cold. I didn’t bring anything warm to wear. Looks like I’ll need to be careful. If I stay out in the cold for too long, I might end up having a runny nose.

“Quite a sight, isn’t it?” Miles said as he stepped next to me, admiring the view just as I did.

“That’s an understatement. It feels like we’re characters in a science-fiction story.”

“If that’s the case, I wonder who the protagonist is. Must be me,” Miles said jokingly.

“I honestly doubt it. Anyway, we’re only here to sort my business. Once this is over, we could end up being sent back.”

“That’s a bummer to hear. This place was starting to grow on me.”

“Already? We’ve only been here for an hour and you’re becoming attached to this place? We haven’t even been outside yet?”

“I don’t know about outside though. Seems way too cold for my taste. Not a lot of people like the cold weather. Cold weather usually makes most people miserable. Runny noses, shovelling, slippery roads, increased thermostat usage and so on. It’d be fun to watch snow fall outside a window but when the weather is making it cold when you don’t want to, you’ll find yourself wishing it was warmer.”