Awakened

New bonds

"So, you lived in a cave all your life?" Apollyon turned his head to Rhea. Apollyon was currently driving their carriage while Koa sat next to him, Rhea was sitting in the back of the carriage with Violet in her lap, brushing her hair gently. "Must've been tough." Apollyon continued. The giant girl tilted her head, looking over to Apollyon. "It wasn't that bad, I survived by eating plants as well as animals. Though I made sure to only take what was needed, you can't be too greedy when the Earth offers you a gift." Rhea chuckled.


"That's an honorable way of thinking, not taking what you don't need." Koa pointed out, holding his new sword in between his legs. He wasn't too fond of it but it would do until he was able to get a new one. Rhea nodded, she then looked at the two men with a curious look on her expression. "So do you two have any goals? You both seem to work well with each other?" She asked curiously.


Apollyon tilted his head but had his head forward again. "We're looking for Violet's family, as well as trying to collect funds to survive as adventurers. We're not doing too bad but recently we've hit a bit of a snag." He murmured. Rhea looked confused but spoke anyway, "Confused?" She asked. Koa turned his face towards Rhea once more. "The Eternal Church, they've put a wanted notice up for Apollyon and his comrades. We don't understand why but we've been made traitors to the realm, we've now got to be careful where we go." He explained.


Rhea frowned, watching the two men before looking back to Violet who was happily kicking her feet up while sitting on Rhea's lap. "That sounds tough." She murmured before looking out of the carriage, looking up to the sky in content, "Are we going to be okay?" Rhea asked as her gaze returned to the two men. "We'll be alright, we just need to be careful," Apollyon explained, shrugging lightly.


"We should also discuss our next course of action, we still require more money." Koa pointed out, turning his attention to Apollyon who let out a slight groan in response to that. After having that battle with the minotaur, the last thing he wanted was to go on some big quest, he wanted to rest for a bit. "I'm still sore after fighting that big bull man. Shouldn't we find a spot to rest for a bit?" Apollyon asked, looking to Koa and then looking back to the road.


"It would be wise to keep our focus on adventuring, we're currently living out of the back of a wagon and that isn't going to do us much good if our party grows in size. We'll need to be able to set up a proper camp or at least find a proper settlement somewhere." The grey-haired samurai responded, looking to his feet and keeping his usual calm and collected persona on. Rhea's ears perked up at those words from Koa, "What? Like a big cave?" She smiled brightly.


Apollyon chuckled and shook his head. "Nah, not a cave, Rhea. More like... A big house! Somewhere where we can have our own space, rest our heads when we're not desperate for money, somewhere to keep all our things-" Apollyon listed off, to which he was interrupted by Koa. "While that would be great, we're probably far from being able to afford something like that. It's still good to dream big like that though." He explained.


During this conversation, Violet had been keeping quiet as usual, the wings on the side of her head just flapping gently in the breeze. However, when the mention of a big house had come up, her gaze landed on Apollyon while the adults spoke. "Y'know what would be cool? Having our own city." Apollyon spoke up, smirking and holding a hand up as he spoke. "You're kidding?" Koa tilted his head.


"I'm serious! Imagine having our own city, full of different species, a place where everyone can live happily without discrimination from anyone. Plus, no Eternal Church or Royals who boss you around." Apollyon shrugged. "I think something like that would be cool." He added on.

Rhea's eyes sparkled at that idea. "Giants too!?" She smiled to which Apollyon eagerly nodded."I love that idea! Let's get our own city!" Rhea's fist raised in the air encouragingly. When Violet saw this, she raised her tiny fists in the air too, which got a big smile from Rhea. Koa watched them all quietly before looking down, a small smile appearing on his lips.


"Yeah... It would be a good idea." He murmured.

-

Meanwhile, several miles out from the town, Ellis Laurier, a lady that Apollon had run into several days prior in the city of Mosvil, was wandering through the forest before coming across a group of Eternal Church members. She hid herself up behind a tree, narrowing her eyes at the members before listening in on them- She had noticed that they appeared to be having some sort of conversation.


"So, the High Priestess met with Hendricks? The leader of the Razors? Why would she ever pollute the air around her to meet with that brute?" One of the members asked, to which one of the other members answered. "Remember, Brother. Our alliance with the Razors is why we're able to keep our reputation so high with the public, if they knew about some of our actions then we'd lose face." The other member answered.


"I don't like it though, we're trying to create a world where everyone pure enough may get themselves ready to experience Eternity, why should we delve down to working with common thugs?" The member from before asked, to which he received a warning look from the other members. "Are you questioning the actions of our Holy High Priestess? She's got a plan for us, she knows what's best to reach our goals. Have you already forgotten what happens to those who question her?" The other member warned, to which the first member shook his head.


"Good, now, we must return to our duties." The other member responded before turning and walking away. Ellis glared at the Eternal Church members for a moment, then looked away and looked down to her shadow arm, clenching her shadow-like fist and gritting her teeth.

-

"IT HURTS! STOP IT! STOP IT! PLEASE STOP!"

-

Ellis gritted her teeth even further before releasing her fist, glaring forward, and beginning to walk away from the scene herself. "I promise... I'm gonna find that High Priestess in Akranes, then I'm going to drag her down to Hell myself." She growled. "She'll pay for what she and her bigoted cult have done."

-

"What's this town called?" Apollyon asked, looking over to Koa once the four adventurers had arrived in the town. "Lakehill, it's a decent town to stop and collect some supplies before having to go out on another adventure," Koa explained, glancing around the entire area before gesturing for a spot for them to park up their wagon. Once parked up, the four adventures disembarked.


"We should split up into teams of two, one team will go out to look for new quests to pick up on while the other team goes to collect supplies," Koa suggested, holstering his sword on his hip once more. "I suggest Rhea and I go to look for quests. Apollyon, you take Violet and go to get some supplies for us."


"Why can't I go look for quests?" Apollyon pouted, crossing his arms. "My judgment is better than yours." Koa explained simply, "Besides, your face will likely be all over the adventurers guild so there's a higher chance of you steering up trouble. Just go get us some food and supplies, that'll be easy to do." He added on. The purple-haired Apollyon tilted his head but sighed all the same, taking Violet's hand and heading off to go get some supplies.


"Let's go." Koa turned to Rhea who nodded along. The two of them walked through the town of Lakehill. Unlike the other towns they had been in so far, this one seemed to be a bit rougher, and less clean than places like Mosvil or Wale. Rhea seemed to notice how poorly the town looked first, she had an uncomfortable look on her face whenever she turned to Koa. "Do all towns look like this?" She asked with concern in her voice.


"No, not all of them. We're pretty far from the capital right now, it seems that in this country, the farther your town is from the capital, the less wealth you have." Koa explained to his companion, glancing around as the two approached the Adventurer's guild. Once inside, Rhea's expression became more nervous as she looked around and noticed a lot of the adventurers were glaring in their direction.


"Keep calm." Koa responded in a reassuring voice, "We'll be in and out." He explained before he began to walk up to the quest desk. However, before he was able to get close to the desk, a hand appeared in front of his chest and stopped him in his tracks. "Well, well, well, look who it is... Koa Aiken, it's been a while." The man who spoke explained with a grin.


Koa's gaze turned to the man, his hand gripping the hilt of his sword tightly once he recognized the man...


"Let's chat." Masa Caldor glared at Koa, keeping his hand over his chest.