Book 3 | Agent 34 and the Storm of Darkness

Chapter 29 | Return or Turn Forwards

"So...is Braunick still alive?" Sercon asked with a deep frown on his face.

"Very likely, but we can't say for sure until we see actual evidence of him being alive. Agent X could've been bluffing and saying he was alive. Braunick could've very well died in that battle," Arenia said slowly.

She pulled out the orange gem out of her bag and tossed it to Sercon. "Here. Agent X gave me that to try to bribe me to join their side," 

Sercon didn't catch the gem and dropped it into the sand. He picked it up quickly and brushed the grains of sand off it, looking at his reflection staring at him on the side of the orange gem.

"You can have it," Arenia said. "We have another one anyways,"

She glanced over at Agent 34 who held the green gem in his right hand, looking down on it depressingly. That was the gem that Ismara used to have before she disappeared that awful, awful day.

Arenia walked over to him and plopped herself down beside him, ignoring Sercon who kept on asking more questions about how they managed to defeat Agent X. "What's up?" She asked Agent 34, scooting a little closer to him.

Agent 34 only sighed heavily.

"That was Ismara's gem, right?" She asked.

He nodded.

"You know, you should give it to Fáolar," Arenia said. "It was his daughter's gem. He'd deserve to have it,"

Agent 34's head piped up and he nodded, pulling the green gem into his pocket.

The sun was soon blocked out of Arenia and Agent 34's vision as Sercon's giant shadow covered it. He stood in front of them with his arms crossed and an irritated look on his face. "We need to talk."

Arenia nodded, standing up. Agent 34 sighed and pushed himself off the ground as well, following Sercon towards the horses.

"We need to know what to do now," Sercon said. "So, do we continue onwards or do we retreat back to the Zena? If Braunick is still alive, it'd be safe to return to the Zena. If not, we are wasting time,"

A hand was placed on Agent 34's shoulder, causing him to jump. When he looked behind him he saw it was the human Marque, who pushed past him to go to his horse, Ralin. Marque hadn't talked to either him or Arenia all morning. He had just been over with his things, minding his own business.

Something told Agent 34 that something was up with him.

"Ahem?" Sercon said to Agent 34, snapping his fingers. "We need to move,"

"Go onwards," Agent 34 said quickly.

"Why?" Sercon asked, placing to fingers on his chin.

"We can't just stop here," Agent 34 said. "We can't give up. So what if Braunick is alive? We beat him before, we can do it again."

Sercon sighed, rubbing his brow. "You say that like it was a breeze. We had been fighting Braunick long before you came along, Agent 34. Not sure when Marque came to the Zena, but I know me and Arenia both have been here a while. We were in the same squadrant for training which we graduated from around five years ago. And we were training after a couple years since Braunick took the throne."

"Anyways," Arenia grunted. "Agent 34's right. We can't just give up. We're halfway done with our mission. Defeating Agent X was just a perk during this and Braunick's presence is just another hurdle on our way to the goal. If we see him, we fight him and bam, over with."

"You guys really don't understand," Sercon said. "Braunick could be waiting for us at Durmist. If Agent X knew we were at Sehope, Braunick for sure knows about Durmist."

"You guys are," Marque grunted, getting onto Ralin. "...forgetting someone. That rat, Vrängr,"

Arenia's heart sunk. "H-He can't be alive too, can h-he?" She began stuttering, at a loss of words. When Vrängr has portrayed himself as a part of the Zena, Arenia developed a strong feeling towards him, and when he betrayed them she felt herself crumble in the matter of a second and was then forced to fight him and she thought she had killed him, too. She had bottled up all of her emotions that moment so no one would see her crying and waited until after the Battle of Urania to let out all of the sadness and became depressed until they went on this mission.

"Vrängr could very well be alive," Sercon said. "It's just a matter of if he is or not. If he is, nothing to worry about. Him and Scar both should be dead. Paöminar, who knows. The beast probably fled,"

Arenia had forgotten all about Scar and Paöminar. Scar was a giant red dragon that Braunick had somehow gotten onto his side before the Battle of Urania and the Destigems had to get a second dragon just to hold it off. Paöminar was Braunick's original dragon, one who hid in a dragon city and owned a candy shop where he made chocolate and other treats for dragons out of the flesh and bones of humans, elves, and dwarves. Creepy dragon, but not as strong as he may seem. Wímad had managed to beat him many times.

"Marque," Sercon said. "What do you think we should do?"

Marque didn't even look at them, only looked down at his saddle. "Let's go onwards,"

"Fine," Sercon said, climbing onto his ride. "We are continuing are ride to Durmist,"