A lavish room
Tattered
A high-quality desk
Rotated 90 degrees, destroyed
An old man in noble-like clothing
A husk without its life
Beside, a robed one covered in the same shade as the earth with blood splattered over it
A little boy, crying
The robed one approached the little crying boy
It spoke
“Do you want revenge?”
The crying little boy is an angry little boy
The angry little boy nods
“I won’t let you.”
SLASH
The dreamer woke up. Dream forgotten.
A white ceiling.
That was the first thing Alicia sees when she came to.
She was in a hospital bed. A white blanket was covering her body. She was still wearing the same clothing. There was still a bit of a headache, but she could bear with it.
She looked to her right to see Owen and Alice sitting on a chair beside her bed with their heads downcast. Russel was there too, resting his back on the wall.
As Alicia raised her upper body, Owen noticed it.
“Alicia! Are you alright?” Owen exclaimed as he stood up from his chair.
“Yes, I am fine,” Alicia said “I have a slight headache though…”
“Thank goodness…” Owen sighed in relief. “Also, sorry.”
Alicia raised her eyebrows. “Why are you apologizing?” she asked.
“We completely forgot the most important thing about loyal maneg,” Russel answered her.
“Yes,” Alice added as she stood up. “Forgive us.”
“I’m sorry too, Alicia! I freakin’ forgot about it and I’m supposed to be your loyal maneg!” Even Voice apologized to her.
“Alright, I understand,” Alicia assured. “So, what was it that you forgot to tell me?”
“You remember how your loyal maneg is your actual soul before becoming a Court Wizard, correct?” Alice reminded to which Alicia nodded. “When loyal maneg ‘breaks,’ it will reflect on your physical body as it is your actual soul. Generally what constitutes as ‘breaking’ is when the loyal maneg was forced into a state not intended by the Order given by an external interaction.
“What happened when you ordered [Barrier] between Hanz and Blaze is that the Order was supposed to block attacks without breaking. When it was shattered, the loyal maneg was ‘broke’ and thus was reflected to you. Another example is that a [Fireball] is supposed to ‘safely’ hit a target and scatter due to the impact; but if it was deflected by a blade and the ball was cut, it will hurt you.
“That is why a Maneg Soul compresses your soul to provide room for disloyal maneg which is much safer to use.”
“I see.” Alicia nodded in understanding. “But then what should I do? I only have loyal maneg.”
“You could obtain a Cherished Armament,” the Ice Guardian suggested. “Despite being of loyal maneg and is not supposed to be destroyed, you do not suffer physical damage should it break. What was broken was the base item of the Cherished Armament, which can be repaired over time, not the loyal maneg.
“But do you have anything that holds something special to you? It is the requirement for it.”
Looking through her mind, Alicia tried to recall such an item. However, there was no such thing. “…No, I have nothing of the sort,” she regrettably answered.
“I see,” Alice turned to the others. “Do you two have any ideas?”
“We could get her a Catalyst,” Russel suggested. Before Alicia could ask what it is, he already answered it, “it’s a tool that can store disloyal maneg and use one or two Orders, but it’ll take a while to build and you need a solution now.”
Finally, Owen spoke, “…I think the only way is well, using more loyal maneg.” He pointed at the pixie. “I mean, Voice is using thirty percent, so she’s got it already.”
“What?” Alice quirked. “…That would be the only solution we have.”
“Yeah, that could work,” Russel added.
“Um, what does that mean?” Alicia softly asked, being thrown out of the loop.
“To put it simply,” Alice explained. “Loyal maneg of each Court Wizards have their own ‘toughness’ to resist damage. But every loyal maneg will generally be more tolerant to damage if more concentration is used.”
“So when Voice used thirty percent of my loyal maneg, that was to minimize the chances of her getting hurt?” Alicia deduced.
“Yes,” Alice nodded. “But on the other hand, when she does, the damage you will receive will be as proportionate.” She then turned to Owen. “So be sure to be careful when handling her,” she warned. “Relay this to the others too.”
“…Right,” Owen said, fully knowing what his Element’s Guardian implied.
“Anyway, with that in mind,” Alice continued. “We need to establish new rules.”
And so, they concluded with these:
1. Voice, being the representation of Alicia’s loyal maneg, will coordinate with her to use the appropriate amount of loyal maneg so that it wouldn’t break; but also not too much that when it does, the repercussions would not be too much.
2. Generally, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Alicia losing consciousness was because it was the first time that her loyal maneg breaks, she shouldn’t experience that next time. But then again, it’s not a good idea to try getting used to breaking loyal maneg. So trying that is not allowed.
3. Depending on the situation, Voice can refuse Alicia’s Orders if she deems it too dangerous to use loyal maneg.
Incidentally, while they were discussing about all of this, Alicia heard the sounds of women yelling at someone. Alicia finally decided to ask Alice about it.
To which Alice answered, “It is Rose, Jill, Crea, and Luna yelling at Hanz and Blaze. Crea is Hanz’s partner and Luna is Blaze’s sister. We should introduce them to you.”
Just outside the infirmary, four women were ganging up on two men kneeling in a Japanese ‘seiza’ against the wall. The four women were yelling at the two poor males.
The two boys were Hanz and Blaze. Hanz looked the same with his red army uniform, but Blaze did not have the horns, reptile limbs he had previously. Blaze looked like a normal 6-year-old now.
These four women were: Jill, Rose, Luna, and Crea.
Rose was standing thanks to loyal maneg supporting her damaged leg which she refused to be healed.
Luna was a little girl, 110 cm tall, who looked six with a bright blue hair in a bob haircut and light blue eyes. She wore a blue one-piece dress and white slippers.
Crea was a woman 151 cm tall. She had a dark blue hair in a bob haircut similar to Luna. She has dark blue eyes like the sea. She was wearing a brown dress, something a villager would wear, not a soldier uniform like Hanz.
“You sir!” Crea scolded. “Stop ordering explosions every day! You are disturbing people!”
“Brother!” Luna exclaimed. “Stop picking fights with Hanz over childish things! You too, Hanz!”
While the girls were yelling at the two poor boys nonstop, there was Aqua, James, Richard, Will, and another Court Wizard Alicia did not know watching the girls verbally abusing their victims, their expression indicated that they have given up on the situation.
They noticed Alicia and company coming out of the infirmary. The unfamiliar Court Wizard greeted her in a light tone first.
The person was 190 cm tall with golden hair reaching the waist and bright blue eyes. The person was wearing an article of decorated priest-like clothing.
“Greetings, Alicia,” the person said. “Are you alright?”
“Yes I am, thank you,” Alicia replied. “You are?”
“My name is Gabriel. I am the Guardian of the Mother Soul of Life. Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you. My name is Alicia. You are a man, correct?”
“Yes, I am a man.” Raising his eyebrows, Gabriel answered. “How do you know?”
“I heard that you are a pope in your world and I remember it to be a male title.”
“Wow, never knew that there’s someone who would notice Master Gabriel a guy right away,” Russel interjected. “Even when he’s called pope, people still think he’s a woman.”
“I see. You are quite observant.” Ignoring Russel’s remark, Gabriel praised her. “Anyway, I apologize for Blaze’s actions. He will reflect upon it as you can see.”
“I-I can see that,” Alicia said wryly, looking at the poor boy. “So, who exactly… is Blaze?”
“Blaze… and Luna too are called dragon-morph,” Gabriel explained. “They can turn into dragons, a fire dragon, and an ice dragon respectively. However, the form you have seen is called a half-dragon form. They are still too young to morph into a full dragon.”
“I assume the morph comes from the fact they have human forms?”
“Yes, that is correct. In my world, they are simply called dragons. However, here in the Otherworldly Court, we named them with consideration of the human form,” Gabriel explained. He continued, “they are under my care as they are from my world, and also because I was requested to do it.”
As Gabriel finished, the others finally noticed Alicia’s recovery.
“”Alicia! Are you okay?”” Rose and Jill shouted after noticing Alicia.
“Yes, I am fine,” Alicia replied.
“Thank goodness…” Rose sighed in relief.
Then, Luna spoke, “Hello Alicia, my name is Luna. I apologize for my brother’s action. Brother! Say sorry to her!”
“S-Sorry…” Luna’s brother, Blaze, apologized.
“It is alright,” Alicia said. “I forgive you.”
Then the girl in the villager’s clothing approached Alicia.
“My name is Crea Snows,” she said. “And I also apologize on the behalf of my partner. Hanz,” the girl said and glared at the red soldier, beckoning him to say sorry.
“S-Sorry…” Hanz meekly apologized.
“I understand,” Alicia replied, “but picking a fight with a child is still unreasonable. Even if it is a kid who might actually be older, he is still mentally a child. Is that clear?”
“Y-Yes ma’am,” Hanz replied in a military-like fashion.
However, Alicia did not know that dragon-morphs like Blaze and Luna of their world lived around a thousand or more of years. They grow and mature accordingly to the stretch of a thousand-year. Blaze and Luna who look six are actually in their sixties in human years.
“Now that all of this is clear,” Rose said.”Ladies, shall we have a tea party to celebrate Alicia’s recovery?”
“””Sure!”””
The rest of the women agreed and so they went.
“Damn,” Russel commented. “How did the girls suddenly from yelling at you two to having a tea party?”
“Don’t question it,” Owen answered. “We’ll never understand.”
“True,” James added.
“Hey, Owen,” Will whispered.
“Yeah?” Owen whispered back, knowing his partner wanted it to be between them.
“How are we going to say to Ronald about this?”
“About what?” Owen asked confusingly and realized. “Ooh… Right.”
“It won’t be just you, he’ll definitely show up in front of my house in a helicopter to kill me if he finds out that his only daughter got injured.”
“It should be fine as long as he doesn’t know.”
“Right, let’s hope so.”
Kaomagi Earth
Year 2018
BATABATABATABATABATABATA
“What the hell?” Will cursed as he opened the door, hearing a loud sound coming from outside in the middle of the night.
“What’s with the noise, Will?” Will’s father asked. However, he found his son to have stayed on his spot without moving at all. “…Son?”
Unbeknownst to him, Will was having his life flashing before his eyes with what he saw.
It was a helicopter, with the logo of Bell Conglomerate painted on its frame, flying just a meter above the grass. The door was opened, revealing a man as old as his father with crimson red hair and a red suit. His blue eyes, while not as bright as his wife, stared at the black-haired teen with furious intent.
William Trust, the Guardian to the Mother Soul of Air, could only say one thing,
“F*ck.”
Later, Hanz and Blaze were also met by the same inevitable fate despite being worlds away.
Name: Owen Ruze Age: 15 Sex: Male Species: Human World: Kaomagi Earth Element: Ice Element Color: Light blue Cherished Armament: - Rank: Duke
Name: William Trust Age: 16 Sex: Male Species: Human World: Kaomagi Earth Element: Air Element Color: Colorless Cherished Armament: - Rank: Duke/Guardian
Name: First Greater Water Spirit Aquarius of Spiri Raia Age: 928 Sex: Mentally female (technically genderless) Species: Body-less Soul (Greater Water Spirit) World: Spiri Raia Element: Fire Element Color: Red Cherished Armament: - Rank: Duchess/Guardian
Name: Ronald Bell Age: 42 Sex: Male Species: Human World: Kaomagi Earth Element: Fire Element Color: Red Cherished Armament: ??? Rank: Grand Wizard
Azhure: So, what do you all think of this chapter? Is it good? Are there any problems with it? Any reviews or feedback is appreciated as long as they’re not plain insults meant to blow off your stress.
Voice: Don’t do that to people! Not even on the internet!
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