Age of Dragons Online

Chapter 26: Those Left Behind

Start of Part 2

Chapter 26

Those Left Behind

"I have some firewood," Aledro said, dropping a pile of assorted sticks by their makeshift fire pit.

"Thanks," Hadon replied, and started organizing the wood into a pile in the pit he had just cleared out. "Lunalia, can you start the fire?"

Lunalia blinked and looked at Hadon; evidently, she had been lost in thought. "Huh?"

"The fire," Hadon repeated. "Can you start it?"

"Oh," Lunalia said, nodding slightly. "Okay." She took a deep breath, collecting herself, then said "Erif ronim." A small flame burst into existence, lighting the wood on fire and starting a small blaze. After doing this, Lunalia's eyes focused on some indeterminate point in the distance, and she fell silent once more.

Everyone gathered around the fire, sitting down in a circle around it. A short silence followed, before Hadon sighed and said with a slightly resigned air, "Lunalia, I know you're upset, but you need to move on sooner or later. I mean, I know I might sound harsh, but it's already been five months; I know I hadn't known him for as long as you, but I'm sure he wouldn't want us all to mope around if he died." Hadon spoke slowly with a tone that implied that this was not the first time this conversation had occurred.

"I'm not upset!" Lunalia snapped angrily, clenching her fist. "And Nadran isn't dead, he just got separated from us. I'm sure that any day now, he'll come back." She responded with the tone of a petulant child that was unwilling to accept change.

Hadon looked at Lunalia; although they didn't notice often, Lunalia was the youngest one in their group, being only about 13 years old. This whole ordeal had forced her to mature a lot faster than normal, and was hard on her. She had been in a bad mood ever since Nadran had fallen off of the cliff almost half a year ago. The ones that were hit the hardest were her and Aledro, as they had known him for the longest. Even though it had only been a few days, in this realm fraught with danger where death and despair were everywhere, it felt like they had known him for years. The others, while they were grateful to him and thought that he was a good person, had not known him for long enough to become emotionally attached to him.

"So, Aledro, did you get more information about the tournament?" Hadon asked, turning toward Aledro.

"Huh?" Aledro blinked a couple times and looked at Hadon. "Were you talking to me?"

"Yes, I was," Hadon replied, his tone slightly exasperated. "I was asking you whether you had any more information about the tournament."

"Oh, sorry, I was a little spaced out there," Aledro apologized, shaking his head as though to clear it. "Um, so, it will be taking place the day after tomorrow, while registration will last from 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM tomorrow. If we want to participate, we will need to get to Regia city soon."

"Alright, we'll leave for there in a couple hours," Hadon said. Since Lunalia and Aledro were distracted and burdened by the loss of Nadran, and Korath and Aria were unsuitable for the position, Hadon had become the unofficial leader of their group. After all, Aria was way too quiet and reserved to lead, and Korath was... well... nobody wanted that insane daredevil as their group leader.

Just as Hadon was about to say something more, a loud sound erupted from somewhere nearby, causing everyone to jump up and draw their weapons. After spending such a long time in the game, their reflexes had gotten very sharp, and they were able to react instantly to any potential threats. They looked around, trying to figure out what the cause of the disturbance was. The surrounding area seemed as before, and the direction the sound was continuously coming from didn't look any different.

Aledro suddenly let out a small gasp of surprise, and everyone else looked at him before following his gaze to see what he was staring at.

He was not looking at the forest around him, but above the trees, in the sky in the direction the sound was still coming from. A giant pillar of light was piercing the sky, energy whirling about crazily within. The column seemed to contain a myriad of colors within, at times forming strange patterns and symbols. Around the pillar were what appeared to be strange sets of runes circling around it at different heights, forming layers of rings that slowly spun around it, with every other ring rotating in the opposite direction. The top of the pillar was visible to them from this angle; it seemed to disappear into a strange black rift in the sky. It was as though the sky had been torn apart, leaving a black void in its place. The 'rift' was shaped almost like a giant eye, and while it was completely black, there seemed to be something intangible swirling around within it, giving it a very mysterious feeling.

Aledro looked closely at the light column, then slowly said, "Based off of the runes around it, it seems like it is some sort of magic effect. Lunalia, can you tell what it is?" he asked, turning to consult their party's mage.

Lunalia frowned, squinting at the pillar. She stood still for a moment, before reaching into the bag she had on her side and taking out a thick, leather-bound book. She opened it, and alternated between flipping through pages and squinting at the pillar of light and the surrounding runes. After a couple minutes of searching, she closed the book, and began to speak in a hesitating voice. "It seems to bear similarities to a teleportation array, but this is far more complicated than anything I've ever seen, and even this book does not contain anything of this complexity or scale. Furthermore, there seem to be some fundamental differences from the ones I've seen. It's hard to put into words, but... it is somehow more intricate and powerful. And I'm not just talking about more physical energy in it, it's... I'm not really sure how to explain it."

Everyone frowned in puzzlement. Lunalia had spent a large amount of time in the past months researching spells that she could utilize and, at this point, she had quite an extensive knowledge in the realm of magic. But even she was confused by the pillar of light before them. What could the purpose of this light beam be?

Hadon hesitated for a moment, before he spoke up, saying, "This beam of light actually isn't too far away from where we are right now. Let's go investigate the place where that pillar meets the ground. Whatever that thing is, I feel like it's probably important. As long as we're careful, there shouldn't be any problems with us going any closer."

The others nodded, and moved toward the pillar. Before they had even closed half the distance, however, the light abruptly faded out and disappeared without a trace, as though it were never there to begin with. The strange sound that had accompanied it vanished as well, blanketing the forest in an almost eerie silence. Even the birds and other animals had been shocked into silence by the strange event. After hesitating for a moment, Hadon continued onward, thinking there might be some traces left of the event at the source.

In a few minutes, they reached the area where they thought that the light had been. They looked around, but everything seemed normal, and they could not find anything strange about their surroundings. Suddenly, Lunalia made a small exclamation of surprise and pointed to the base of a tree. Everyone quickly turned to look.

Lying on the ground in front of the tree was a person, who appeared to be unconscious. He was wearing a black cloak, and... wait, doesn't he look familiar?

Everyone looked on in disbelief. "Wait, doesn't that look like... Nadran?" Hadon asked in surprise.

Everyone looked at each other for a moment, then back to the body, then back to each other again. Then, everyone rushed toward him, Lunalia and Aledro leading the charge. They stopped in front of him, and Lunalia moved him so that he was leaning against the tree, while looking closely at his face. Meanwhile, Aledro paced back and forth nervously, glancing at the body repeatedly, as though trying to confirm he wasn't dreaming.

"He... looks exactly like Nadran!" Lunalia exclaimed, double-checking as she spoke. "But... how? Didn't he..."

Everyone was shocked. They had all seen Nadran stabbed with their own two eyes, and he was even eaten by a dragon after falling off a cliff. How could he possibly be alive!?

At this moment, the unconscious person twitched, then let out a groan. Everyone's eyes locked onto him as they stared intently, trying to figure out if this was real or an illusion.

He was waking up!