A Journey Of Beginnings

War of the Corrupt

Thunderous steps are heard coming towards the mountain. The sun had hidden away in the safety of the gloomy clouds, the world fell into silence, as if the disc that played the music of the world had just been replaced with the music of sorrow. There was an abrupt silence, the clock of time seemed to stop, it was time for the world's judgment, within a second, heaps of corrupted soldiers sprang forth from the corrupted lands. The siege has officially begun. All around, the sounds of swords clashing, arrows flying across the sky, catapults firing, the shouts of determined Arcana's, and the screeches of the corrupted soldiers as they are eliminated.

Whilst the chaos ensues on the battlefield, a butterfly catches Xilsatra's attention, the butterfly and its friends flap their wings around their tent. The appearance of butterflies was odd to Xilsatra, since she had just learned from the caretakers that animals of all shapes and sizes, predator or not, do not dare step foot in a battle between Arcana's. Her anxiousness completely disintegrated when she gazed upon the kaleidoscope, all that was on her mind disappeared like a cloud of smoke into the wind. A voice exploded and snapped her out of her trance, not even a second later and everyone was hustling and bustling to get the main part of the mission ready. Xilsatra stands between Aereth and Naelen, and a few moments later, they fire through the siege of corrupted soldiers with the help of soldiers and successfully enter the corrupted areas.

The trio began to take down the corrupted soldiers guarding the first flower, as more and more came, Aereth and Naelen defended Xilsatra with all their strength. Xilsatra took a deep breath, then pierced the flower's core, she pushed on the hilt of her sword to get it through the core, once it was through, the flower exploded and blew Xilsatra away. She lands on the ground next to the two men, the soldiers burst into flower petals and the once cursed flower turns into a lush flower. They moved on to the next and did the same thing, finally, they're on the last one, the strongest out of the three. corrupted soldiers lined the front, the two men skillfully carved a path for Xilsatra, she drove her sword into the core, but it barely pierced it.

She screams out as she tries to push in it further. Time stopped. Everything around her froze as she focused on her sword, the battle around her seemed nonexistent, the shouting of the soldiers were drowned by her focus. Not a moment's notice later, she was in a sea of burning flames, her body was burning, but there were no scars. The warm sensation was felt all throughout her body and mind, where was she? Why does she feel the burning sensation of the flames but does not attain scars? How did she get to the sea of flames? She was struggling to breathe, a voice echoes beyond the sea of flames that catches her attention. Xilsatra extended her arm to grab the owner of the voice, when she successfully got a grip on them, breathing became easier, she was able to open her eyes in the real world.

"Calm down!" Naelen softly assures. "You're okay now, just breathe, I'm right here."

Xilsatra takes deep breaths and holds onto Naelen tighter, "What...What happened? What became of the sea of flames...?"

"It's okay now, you just passed out when the flower exploded." Aereth informed her. "And as of this 'sea of flames' you keep mentioning, there was never one to begin with."

Xilsatra calms down and organizes her thoughts, Naelen carries her up and speaks. "We can talk about it later once you've gotten enough rest, I ask of everyone not to disturb her in the meanwhile. That being said, I will start preparations on the journey back to the Meadow, now please excuse me."

Everyone did as Naelen told them and began getting busy with packing. Fortunately, during the time Xilsatra was unconscious, Naelen and Aereth's runes were able to fuse with them again, and they went back to their busy lives. Xilsatra received no work of any sorts, anytime she would offer to help someone, they would go. "There's no need, please focus on your recovery for now." So to pass the time, she would accompany the small kids and elders. As she predicted, everyone was nicer to her than they were before, instead of receiving frowns from almost everyone, she instead received smiles. It unsettled her greatly, she decided to ignore it and continue on recovering, by doing absolutely nothing. Eventually, Naelen allowed her to help around the Meadow since there were still a lot of things needed to be done and they needed all the help they could get.