Book 4 | Agent 34 and the Last Gem

Chapter 26 | The Ar'gual Village

The Ar'gual took a sip of his freshly brewed coffee and leaned out the window to take a look outside. He wasn't surprised to see the giant cloud still hovering over Renya. That very cloud had caused all of his civilization to flee and leave him for dead. The Ar'gual thought the storm would leave after a month or two and everything would be fine. Plus, he wasn't in any condition to travel the seas with his leg. However, despite his predictions of it leaving, it didn't look like it was going to anytime soon.

The Ar'gual scanned the sky with his eyes slowly, taking in the delicate art of the cloud above Renya. Even though it was evil and turned anyone who touched its raindrops evil, it truly was breathtaking in a way. It had managed to expand across Renya in the matter of a month and a half or so and destroy nearly everything in its path. And to that very Ar'gual, that was a form of beauty.

When he did his daily scanning of the sky, he saw something different flying under the cloud this time. A figure was flying in the air and coming in the general direction of where the Ar'gual was, the abandoned Ar'gual civilization.

The Ar'gual darted back inside, closing the window's shutters quickly and backing away from it immediately. He ran back to this bedroom and grabbed his bow and slung it behind his back, putting a small quiver on his belt. He grabbed a dagger and slipped it onto his belt as well and grabbed his sword off the wall.

To top it all off, the Ar'gual grabbed the cloak in his closet and tied it around his neck, concealing his identity in the darkness of the hood.

The man slowly crept towards the door, cautious of what could be lurking in the abandoned streets outside. His arm reached out towards the doorknob, fingers wrapping around it and twisting it slowly. With a pull, he opened the door with a little bit of a tug and looked outside.

The abandoned village was dark and creepy as usual, as was every other place in Renya at this point due to the Storm of Dark Energy. It held an eery vibe, but the Ar'gual was used to that by now. He stepped foot outside, suspicions raised and his weapons raised even higher. It seemed impossible for one person to be this tense at one point, but the Ar'gual had proved it wrong.

The man darted from the revealing and abandoned street to behind a building that was less revealing and even more abandoned. He pressed his back against the wall and slid across it. When he reached the end of the building he leaned over and looked up, trying to spot the being in the air above him.

The Ar'gual fell to the ground from an impact of a large crash. He picked himself back up, making sure not to hurt his damaged leg any more than it already was, and pushed his body back up against the wall. He looked around for the source but found nothing nearby.

Another crash sounded, this time a little closer. The crashes seemed to continue at random intervals and at different strengths each time.

Eventually, he spotted the flying being. It was a human with a white outline around her body. She looked strange to the Ar'gual, like her skin was gray. He assumed that it must've been the odd lighting due to the storm's cover over the sun.

The girl seemed to have large amounts of power. She raised her arms above her head and a black ball of energy formed. The woman threw the ball of energy down on the closest building she could find and another loud crash sounded. The ancient architecture of the Ar'gual's work collapsed upon itself and the human laughed insanely to herself after the dust had settled.

The Ar'gual looked behind the powerful being and saw what the original crashes were from. Many other buildings were destroyed by this new opponent's power. She seemed to either be doing it out of pure fun or knew of the Ar'guals whereabouts and had been sent by someone to fetch or kill him.

The Ar'gual didn't want to go back inside of his home but didn't want her to come and destroy it. He had been instructed by Fáolar to help guide the Destigems to find the last gem and was waiting for them to arrive. The Ar'gual was beginning to lose hope, as it had been two weeks since Fáolar told him to wait on them.

The Ar'gual thought for a minute and somehow came to the conclusion that this woman was looking for him and solely him. He assumed it was either an opponent or the Destigems. The Ar'gual had never heard of what a Destigems was before his friend had told him and he still didn't exactly know what it was.

The Ar'gual grabbed a rusty trash bin and pulled it towards him. He placed it against a short building and stood on top of it, his fingers grabbing ahold of the ledge and his arms pulling him up.

"Hey!" The Ar'gual called to the woman. She stopped attacking the village and looked at him, cocking her head. "I'm the Ar'gual With The Crippled Leg!" He waved his broken leg around towards her. "You're looking for the last gem, right?"

"Last gem?" The woman yelled back, beginning to fly in his direction. As she flew, she conjured up more balls of black energy, one in each of her hands. The Ar'gual realized his assumptions were wrong at this point. This wasn't a Destigem.