Ryoiki: Return to The Beyond (6)

CHAPTER 12: Mission Start!

Orix found his bearings in the water...but not for long.

Several symbols began to glow around him, all of which being the different signs for the divisions of the Hunt.

Orix adjusted his cloak, showing the patch sown into his shirt of the 'leader' sign of the hunt, a wolf's head.

All the other glows vanished, and the sign of the 'leader' began to glow harder...and eventually, Orix felt himself pulled towards the light...

Aa it consumed him, Orix felt air enter his lungs.

He shot up.

He found himself stomach down in a puddle of water, his head and arms resting on a stone platform.

Orix quietly got up...and look around.

The first thing he noticed, was the large stone archway in front of him...

Beyond the archway, Orix saw giant tree's towering up into the sky, and a thick fog covering everything else...

Orix turned around...

And saw a sight he hadn't seen in many years, which shook him to his soul.

An island, with deep green and grey grass, a large gated of garden littered with graves...

And a large wooden cabin at the highest point of the small island...

...The Workshop Cabin. The head of operations of the Hunt.

Orix silently reached for the pistol at his hip, finding his entire body dry...

Orix pulled the pistol out, turned the safety off...and began to quietly walk up the steps to the workshop.

Orix had woken up at his childhood home...what was the meaning of this.

Orix made it to the door...and silently pushed it open. Letting himself inside...

The inside of the cabin was littered with muskets, flintlock pistols, and tons of mechanical hunter weapons. All with special abilities.

Orix also saw many tools littered about, and a ramp down to the home below in the far-right corner of the room...

And, sitting in a wooden wheelchair, looking over a desk covered in drawings...was a white-haired man.

"...Father?" Orix asked, carefully aiming the pistol with both hands.

"About time you showed up." An old voice said, the man in the wheelchair turning around and facing Orix.

Flenigan, the Angel of Workshopping...Orix's father.

His piercing orange eyes met Orix's singular green one, and a smile formed on Flenigan's bearded face.

"Hello my son!!! It is good to see you back!!!" He said, rolling closer to Orix.

"I thought you had died...when I heard about Oanki trying to destroy The Den..." Orix mumbled, holstering his pistol.

"Pfff! You think some Void Demon could take me out? You're a fool my boy. A fool."

"Still doesn't explain...this." Orix said, spreading his arms and doing a small spin in place, looking around the cabin.

"Well, when Germound was being built...I was, of course, apart of the plans." Flenigan began.

"Thank the flame for Will and Arianna. Those two helped make this place..."

Orix thought for a second, then remembered the names.