Relic-Verse: Champions of Hope

Chapter 31

-- Part 1 --

Samuel groaned as he felt a dull pain in the back of his head as he was shaken awake, quickly opening his eyes to be met with the sight of Faron. The detective sighed in relief and pulled the boy into a hug, allowing him to get a better look at the scene. Nearby, resting against the side of a wall, sat Avery and Arica, both of them having a dull and tired expression on their faces. A Plityn with white vines dressed in a SWAN officer uniform was questioning them on what had happened, but was receiving short and snappy one word responses or silence from the two of them.

Faron helped Samuel to his feet, and walked him over to his friends before leaving with the officer to give a report. Arica looked up at Samuel, glaring slightly at him before she sighed, "That was one of the stupidest things you could have done." Her voice was monotone and stern.

Samuel crossed his arms and returned the glare, "It was either that or let Avery die."

"I would have been fine, you're the idiot who threw yourself at him." The girl flared her wings, smoke rolling off of their tips as she growled. "You could have gotten yourself killed!"

"You would have gotten killed if I hadn't!"

"That doesn't change anything! You almost let yourself get killed!"

Arica stood up and got between the two people, glaring at both of them, "This isn't how the night was supposed to play out. We were just meant to go to the movies. Sam, thank you for saving my sister, but you could have died as well. It was stupid. You could have thrown him off of her and leapt back, but instead you just tackled him and left in that stupid glow..." Her voice grew shaky and she glared at him. "We thought we lost you."

Samuel raised his arms in surrender and sighed, "Look, I'm sorry, but I wasn't about to let him kill her. And besides, I wasn't gone that long-"

"You were gone for half an hour, dipshit." Avery stood up and flared her wings, causing Arica to direct her glare towards the winged girl.

"I was gone for like, ten minutes!"

Arica got Avery to settle down before crossing her arms and returning to looking at Samuel. "Thirty two minutes. You were gone with no signs of returning for over half an hour. What even happened?"

Samuel paused for a second, his mind grasping at thoughts before he sat on the ground and stared at his legs. "There was a hallway. Destiny said something about it being the Hall of the Void, and some creature named Scorpio. Then a pile of shapeshifting rocks showed up, grabbed me, said I was a Champion of Hope, and threw me through a tunnel and I woke up here..."

Avery rolled her eyes and sat back down, followed shortly after by Arica, "That sounds like bullshit. What happened to Destiny?"

Samuel looked up at the winged girl and shook his head, "He left before I could grab him, claiming I was letting our world die."

The girl scoffed and looked away before Arica cleared her throat, grabbing both of their attentions. "Last night I saw a purple glow around Avery."

The aforementioned girl faltered, worry plastered across her face. "What do you see now?"

"You're back to being blue." The winged girl sighed in relief before Arica continued, "But it makes me wonder, why did you have that aura at all?"

Samuel frowned as he thought, "Destiny said Avery killed a world... Maybe it's related?"

"It sure is!" The students jumped in surprise and turned to find a small creature floating towards them. The creature looked to be composed of gas with three glowing yellow orbs floating around within it, all wrapped up in a brown cloak. "Avery was responsible for melting away Vilova. I saw it myself!"