NEVRASBloody Hell! We spent six months on that mountain, I told her all about my family. How I was born near the town of Phoenix, as crown prince of Phoenix Castle, and about my parents being King Charis and Queen Victoria (or as everyone called her, Vicky) Phoenix. How I was trained by the legendary swordsman Kurasawa, and learned all of my techniques from him, even though some of them I still have yet to use. How I learned strategy and tactics from the werewolf Blackfang, a dedicated soldier who had run into a nasty bit of luck, being attacked by valdrserkers, the ''wolf-shirts''. How could that little... heartless misbegotten bit of tainted pond scum just forget everything like that, like our time didn''t even matter? God''s blood! Okay, maybe I didn''t mean some of that... sorry, God, don''t strike me down! But I''m still pissed at her.

    I told her more about life in Phoenix and my past than I had to any living soul. And yet... here she was, completely treating what I said as if it weren''t worth remembering. And earlier, when I was trying to talk to her, she refused to open up. Was it all a lie? Maybe I was wrong to open up to her, I thought as I walked around the streets of Ghobli, such as they were. “Hey.” I didn''t notice anyone talking to me, until this time they poked my back and repeated, “Hey.” I turned around, and was startled by the face of Ambrosia an inch from mine, and fell backward. Geez, didn''t she know about personal space?

    After picking me up from the ground, Ambrosia asked, “Hey, Nevras, are you okay? You''ve been quiet most of today, and started glaring at me for some reason. Especially right then, where you seemed to be muttering curses aloud.” So I told her, “There''s nothing wrong, I''m fine.” Ambrosia stared hard at me, and asked, “Are you sure?” But I couldn''t tell her why I was upset. She looked at me, and then walked off. I had to say something, so I just blurted out, “You didn''t even bother to remember that my parents were the king and queen of Phoenix! All our time together, and you just treated it like it didn''t matter!” Ambrosia''s confused face told the whole story. Ambrosia asked, “I''m sorry, I don''t remember you telling me this at all. When did this happen?” I had an idea. I asked, “Hey, Ambrosia, how long have we been together?” I was frustrated, but somehow less angry, after she told me, “About three days, I think.” I calmly asked her, “Tell me everything that happened in those three days, as you remember it.” Ambrosia explained, “We met in the Opening town, went to Shoten, then climbed up Tsukuyomi Mountain where we fought that awful cat, then we walked down, and we fought those goblins. Then we got to town, and I was a dumbass and got us all killed, and God respawned us. Then we took a boat ride on that fake-looking ship, and wound up in this town. Why?”

    I told her the truth, “Ambrosia, we were on that mountain six months.” This time, it was her turn to jump back in surprise. She gasped, “Six months?!?” I responded, “It looks like somehow you forgot the entire time of your training. No wonder I was worried you forgot what I said, not that I blame you now. I guess I can''t fault you for what got wiped from your mind,” I noted that she also seemed to be upset about something else. I put my hand over her shoulder, “Hey, are you okay?” Her head bowed, and she took a long sigh, “...I''m sorry. It''s like you said. Why me? Why did I spend time on the streets, while other people prospered? Why did I have to fight rats and bugs for scraps while some people ruled? Mostly though, I''m jealous. I''m jealous of you... You got a normal life.”

    It was my turn to sigh, “I''ve not been able to tell anyone this. Even my parents don''t know. How would it look if the crown prince was...” Ambrosia patiently waited, until at last I spoke, “I was born with a sort of genetic issue. One of my fellow soldiers named Komogu had it, but it was far more pronounced with him. I have small junk, small body, and I can''t really form large muscles or facial hair. I''ll probably never be bald either, but I should be able to have children. He, on the other hand, had breasts and hips, and I believed he might actually be female. Until in the military they had people bathe together... As a child, kids dressed me up like a girl to make fun of me, only... as time went by, I started to like it. I had my royal uniforms and such for anyone to see, but I also began to collect a secret stash of other clothing, makeup, and even accessories.” I told her all of this, looking away in embarrassment. She was bound to hate me for being a freak. For toying with her feelings, and getting her hopes up that I was a regular guy. Someone like me couldn''t be loved after all. I looked up at her tearful eyes. Of course! She was crying because she would tell me it would never work out. Only Koren had accepted this part of me, and our relationship had been a train wreck. I braced for those words of rejection. Instead, out came both arms of hers, and they encircled my shoulders to my waist, as I felt the weight of her breasts on me. She cried, “You poor thing! I could never hate you for something like that! Let''s go shopping.” We went back to our rooms to find our bags and our coin-purses, but Elias and Aqorm were nowhere to be found. I wonder what happened to them? Ambrosia started stripping off my clothes. “Wait... what are you...?!?” She smirked as she continued, “If we are going out shopping, then I want you to look the part. After all, we might buy clothes for you too. If you like that. Also, I kinda want to see what Aqorm saw.” And so she did.

    AMBROSIA

    God, he looked hot. But I couldn''t possibly doing anything with him, as he was in his unclothed state. We had just met (as far as I was concerned, those six months didn''t exist), and I was saving myself for marriage, and ummm, somehow as much as I wanted to, I couldn''t help but feel I shouldn''t. It just wasn''t my nature to act on such feelings. Nope, nope, I was just taking him on a shopping date, and that''s that.

    We walked outside the door and wandered around food sellers, offering everything from pork on a stick with what smelled like a peanut sauce, to candied apples on a stick, to fried noodles. I refused to let him eat anything. “We mustn''t ruin your pretty dress, Nevrasia~” I said, choosing the closest approximation of a feminine form of his name. He looked at me in shock, yet walked on silence.

    We saw some creepy dude in a thick hood, mixing potions over a cauldron. He cackled as he pulled out some jewelry from the boiling liquid. Looking up, he told us as he spread out his inventory, “I am an alchemist. My practice may be dark, but the items that I make are superb!” I saw a solar alarm clock, a death ray, a small clockwork gerbil, a potentiality crystal, and several bits of jewelry made from strange processes. I couldn''t afford any of this stuff, even after having sold all of the animal parts from our trip up and down the mountains. Nevras looked over the goods, and saw the anklet. He didn''t want to draw attention to himself, so he adopted a cutesy feminine voice, “May I ask about that anklet you just made?” The alchemist explained, “This is a Gorgon Anklet. Certain processes, including creature effects like a medusa''s glare can cause the organic materials in the body to calcify and undergo mineral replacement, what you might call petrification. The proper word is petrifaction. There are some cures to this, such as the extract of the mandrake which causes the body to metabolize these mineral compounds and form antibodies, breaking them down into essential minerals for nutrition and regrowing organic tissue. Or there''s priestly cures, which... well, I''m an alchemist. I don''t actually know how that magic works. This anklet reads the genetic code of the subject, halts any cellular breakdown, then proceeds with replacement of organic material on the genetic level using a spring-loaded syringe. Wearing this, you shall never worry if a medusa glances your way! And it''s yours today! Only 599.99 Gold!” We only had about 9000 Gold between the four of us, and Elias had taken some of our money. I wanted to buy a special present for Nevras after this. I tried my best sex appeal, which apparently boiled down to puppy dog eyes... but it was not to be. He refused to budge on the price. Then Nevras leaned towards the hooded man, wrapping one arm around his waist and using index finger of the other hand to massage his chest, “Please~~~ Won''t you lower the price? Just for me~?” The hooded man told Nevras, “Well, I happen to have overstock on these anklets. It''s not like anyone buys something tremendously useful in battle, or anything. I''ll give you five Poison Armlets, five Gorgon Anklets, and three Echo Rings for that price. Come by later tonight and we''ll settle... the second part of your price.” Nevras continued with the super cutesy voice, “Oh thank you Mister! I''ll be sure to drop by~~!” As we left, I asked Nevras, “Are you, by any chance, into guys?” Nevras shook his head, “I saw my sisters using charm to get what they wanted from foreign diplomats at a much higher rank. I asked them to teach me how to act like this.” His cute facial expressions turned to that of disgust, “Mark my words, if we can avoid meeting him, we will. I do not want... what he''s offering. Let''s maybe do some clothes shopping and then head back to the inn and get changed.” We headed past rows of stands again. There were people boiling water for baozi buns nearby.

    “Oh all right!” I said, “but only if you order in that high voice you''ve been using.” I found it incredibly sexy for what was really a boy to be talking like a girl. He did, and we managed to get two buns. The first had sesame seeds on top. We tore it in half, and the inside was a deep reddish-brownish paste that smelled vaguely of beans, only it was sweet. It was... sorta good, but not really my thing. The second was topped with pieces of green onions, and once broken, it revealed a mix of pulled pork with some nice onions in a tangy savory sauce. This, on the other hand, I couldn''t get enough of. But the rest of the 9000 was held by the others, and I had spent 600G of the 4000 I held. The buns I would have to hand over another 300G just now. Nevras stopped me, “Wait,” and he showed something I couldn''t see to the merchant. She was a woman with a long apron and long brown hair in a tight bun, who had obviously taste-tested plenty of her own bao. She kneeled to him, “Prince Nevras! I... didn''t recognize you.” He said, “Will this do? We will have five more of the pork-onion buns... and one more of the sweet bean buns.” We walked on as we ate, although I must admit, I kinda... ate four of the five pork buns. We found a dress merchant, eventually. “I''m selling dresses imbued with runes! Look here, this blue Lilac Dress repels ice, and this one, this Peach Dress does the same to fire,” the merchant said. She was a spunky looking girl with short curly hair. The back of her head was more than slightly tangled, and she kept running her fingers through and getting it stuck. I asked, “How much for each of them?” The merchant said, “Ow- that will be- grrr, 1400 Gold, but let''s price it to sell, so... 1100 Gold.” I thought about getting Nevras a present, but I would need a distraction... “Hey Nevras, why don''t you change there? I''ll go after you.” I pointed to the makeshift changing room to north, constructed a couple of plastic poles, cloth dividers, and a door with a simple padlock. I saw his clothes sliding off, and as much as I wanted to stay and watch, I had to rush if I wanted to get him his gift. I rushed to the other side of the town, ignoring most of the stalls along the path, until finally I caught sight of a weapon and armor shop. “Excuse me,” I said, “but I''d like a shield. Something for... under 1200 Gold, I guess.” He got me a Durasteel Tower Shield with my remaining money, leaving me with just 10 Gold. “Shunpo Step!” I heard Nevras call out, as he somehow skipped the distance from point A to point B, and appeared just ahead of me. “Wow, teach me to do that sometime!” I said. But Nevras explained, “I can''t, I can only do it once.” So I asked, “You mean once per short rest, or once per day?”

    Hours passed, and we had headed back to our hotel, managing to miss the perverted alchemist from earlier. I had changed Nevras out of his clothes, and packed our other stuff. He had especially been impressed with his new shield. After taking that arrow hit, he had been pretty messed up. Having removed all traces of our outing, so as to avoid Elias or Aqorm mocking him (I''m not sure they would, but Nevras needed to feel comfortable), we waited outside for them to come back. I looked out at the moon, “Wow! It sure got dark quickly! Thank you, Nevras, I had a nice time. Let''s see if we can find the others.”

    ELIAS

    After Aqorm and I talked about... whatever topics we wanted to off-screen, and had a generally romantic evening, we returned to see Ambrosia and Nevras in their beds. The large number of paper and bio-plastic (a substance developed in response to waste in the ocean, it was woven from kelp and was edible) bags in the room let me know roughly how long the two had spent buying commercial goods. As there were only three beds, Aqorm initially said that she would stand guard because elves didn''t really need sleep; however, once she was convinced that I was fast asleep, she instead crawled into my bed, and started cuddling.

    I woke up to her standing guard as before, and pretending as if nothing had ever happened, so I decided not to confront her. Instead, the other two got dressed, and we left town in a hurry. For some reason, both of them decided to wear cloaks and lower their gaze while the urged us out of town. From these observations, I formed a hypothesis that they perhaps did something incredibly sketchy last night. My only hope was that these wronged parties did not call the guard. The guard only had jurisdiction inside their town, but if they were called and failed to find the suspect, they tended to employ bounty hunters. Or ninja assassins. Or both. Unlike ages before, justice wasn''t taken into consideration, but instead those sent were supposed to collect what the original client wanted. If they did something wrong, we might be running for our lives until whatever it was became settled.

    Permit me to explain. All citizens in this world under the jurisdiction of the Council carry basic identification and/or a passport. Both will suffice, as identification is sufficient to function as a passport, and carved with runes on the back. This detail was largely left out because listing this every time we enter a town entrance would get repetitive, but each town that is part of the Council has a border guard. Usually, they simply check a person''s passport, write their name, last residence, and get a thumbprint. While they can stay as long as they wish, if the town guard catches them doing something wrong, they get immediately deported to face justice from their own town. But more often what happens is people commit a crime, and skip town before they are caught. In this case, someone either hires ninjas or the bounty offices are notified. These people hunt down criminals and in some cases dangerous creatures. In the case of ninjas, I have heard they actually use those fingerprints to track the person, connecting their prints to their physical location. This is but one of the reasons ninjas are so feared as assassins.

    We arrived in Zuran before nightfall or even the afternoon, despite it being several miles away. The town seemed pleasant enough, but it was (at least on the surface) extremely generic. There was a weapon shop, an inn and pub, and a clinic. Generic, at least, until one noticed that over half of the citizens were non-human and some seemed to be a breed of extraterrestrials with green skin and big eyes. Until one found out that the weapons shop dealt in cursed weapons. Until one noticed that the houses were built in German half-timber style for some reason, yet using teak instead of the typical spruce, and using military-grade aluminum roofing. Even so, the town was reasonably quiet, and we had learned to shrug off oddity in our travels. Ambrosia bought a fold-up bed for our tent from a black man in town. It''s funny, all the time spent protesting for equal rights, forming special interest groups, trying to get support from the government, and you know what actually created equality? It was when people stopped making a big deal about race or discrimination, and just worked hard. Black, white, or even green, it honestly didn''t matter anymore. Although, those grey aliens were scum!

    AMBROSIA

    We entered the mayor''s house as per the advice of the waitress/chef. The hut was the same strange yurt-like structure that had been mass-produced in my town of Opening, except that this one was made from metal rather than clay. I finally got to see the inside of such a building. It was completely circular, with shelves and pictures obviously having been tried to be hung (make that “hanged” because what was done here obviously resulted in the death of the object) only to be thwarted by the fact that there were actual round walls. The walls instead were lined here and there with furs, to insulate and cover the fact that this was actually a metal house. A table was placed to the edge of the wall to catch most anything that fell. In the center of the room was an incredibly large man. He was about 8'''' tall and nearly 300 lb, though it was all muscle. “The mayor is HUGE!” I said, edging for the door. “Run!!!” Nevras grabbed my hand before I could be too rude, though, and turned be around, urging me to talk to this guy anyway. “Ummm... We need to speak to you about something....” His voice boomed, “What can I help you folks with?”

    I would hate to get this guy angry at me. I cringed, “He''s so big, it''s just intimidating.” Nevras nodded, “I know.” Aqorm asked, “Did they pick the largest guy in town to lead?” At this point, Elias had enough of our comments. He fumed, “Aqorm and Ambrosia, you''re being rude! Show some manners! And some respect, this is the mayor after all.” Elias addressed him calmly, “We would like to ask you about the key to the shrine.” The man exploded, “YOU DARE?!?” But, it turned out to be a prank because then he said, “Just kidding, sure I''d lend it to you... Only...” My face lit up, “Oh thank you so much! You don''t know what this means to us!” Nevras shushed me with a finger, “Let him finish.” The mayor coughed, “As I was saying, I''d be glad to lend it to you. The trouble is, I...” Aqorm cut him off, “You don''t have it anymore, do you? I can usually tell when someone''s been robbed. Did you happen to see where they went?” The mayor scowled, “They headed to the forest, over to the east. But you shouldn''t go after them. That forest is haunted.” Aqorm scoffed, “Bah. I don''t believe in superstition. I only believe in myself.” He explained, “No really, It only appears at nightfall.”

    Indeed, when we left town, we saw no forests there. But like clockwork, at slightly past dusk, the area began to waver, and suddenly a forest was there when before there was nothing. Elias commented, “A manifestation from the Realm of Void... is it on both sides?” I had no idea what he was talking about. Slowly, we entered the forest, wary that the forest might disappear with us in it. As we entered we saw an elf with dark brown hair, a blue bandanna wrapped around his neck, and green tunic. He looked kinda badass. He warned, “This forest is a twisted mess. People have been known to get lost in here for years.” Bah. He was obviously just exaggerating.

    AQORM

    The forest grew in thick clumps, with trees and brambles forming an actual wall against going off the path, the grove opening only in small spaces to the north, south, east, and west. It was if it was allowed to grow freely, yet planned at the same time. Ambrosia walked blindly through the forest, fighting snakes and spiders and centipedes along the way. Whatever powers she had gotten along the way, a sense of direction was not one of them. She headed straight then straight then straight for roughly three hours... umm straight, even though the landscape was clearly swapping back and forth. I decided to test out a theory. I whispered, “Hey, Elias. Stay here with me. Let those two go ahead.” Elias responded back in low tones, “This is too great a risk. We could be left behind forever if this is dimensional or time-space distortion.” I whispered back, “Then, let''s test it, leave a mark on the ground. If it''s a time-space or dimensional distortion, it won''t show up again.” Elias made a mark on the ground, and as we followed Ambrosia, we noticed it a second time. Elias told Ambrosia and Nevras, “You guys go ahead, we need to check on something.” As they walked ahead, after a few minutes, we appeared ahead of them. Ambrosia gasped, “Have we been going around in circles?” I explained, “Not quite. It''s... how do I put this … ummm, looped space. When we walk through this forest, we get warped to different areas because the physical area is skewed. Elias, would you do the honors?” Elias made a simple mark “1” for this area on a rock, then “2”, and so on. Sometimes, it skipped all the way back to the start, sometimes we managed to find a new area, and sometimes we went backwards. Each area had minor differences in the flora and fauna, in the other landscape such as rocks, stumps, or fallen trees. The path ahead was fairly simple, but because there were four openings, the walk became annoyingly long, until I noticed something.

    While in the earlier regions of the forest, we faced any old direction, but now whenever we were warped to an area, our bodies initially faced the direction of the next path, so if I found I was facing left, we should go left. For some reason, the forest seemed to have a fixed perspective, it would not rotate as I turned. This was very unnerving, but as I became used to it, it made maneuvering through the forest simple. The path headed south, and I followed, somehow ending up in the north end of the forest, in a section I had never seen before.

    At the end of the forest, stood a woman cheering us on. “You''re almost at the end of the forest, keep going.” I felt pleased by her praise, until I moved around her and noticed that her eyes had the cloudy appearance of one who was blind. As we walked on, I felt sad for her, so I cooked up some snake meat from before and gave it to her, and ate some of it ourselves. There was still enough for another meal for us, but I knew what it was like being low on resources. At the very edge of this final grove, a thin white mist covered the top of the trees.

    The forest gave way to a frozen region. It wasn''t a mountain so much as a low plateau scooped out to the side to form a mouth, yet the ice was so slick, even with my special ability to roll with things, all I could do was minimize damage as I crashed into random trees, and was still sliding all over the place. The top of the plateau looked easier to walk upon, but it was blocked by rocks. It was steadily becoming colder by the minute...

    GOD

    I, the God of Heaven and Earth, who makes all things, made this plateau which was much colder than the land around it, which requires fur coats in an area where most people do not expect. Why? Because human beings need to be tested? Because of a larger plan? No, because woolly mammoths needed to make a comeback. The mouth had high rock walls and boulders to give them plenty of protection from hunters who might somehow wander through the forest while it happened to be visible and make it through the endless maze of spatial warps, and manage to avoid skidding enough to make it anywhere near. My cute lil’ mammoths needed a secure place to grow up and nurse their young. So much for that idea.

    A group of bounty hunters had just stolen some key and had the raw determination to boost themselves up the wall. The man was tall with deep brownish-black hair, a blue breastplate and gray pants, and a long curved sword. The other one was a dwarf, dressed in brown work clothes, with a green Phrygian cap. Like all dwarves, his body was built like a barrel, and he moved slowly, for dwarves cannot run. He moved without sliding at all on the icy ground, and functioned as an anchor for his ally. Once the reached a point where neither could proceed, the dwarf grabbed the man and swung about, tossing him onto the ledge above. The man, meanwhile, tossed a rope around the dwarf, using the momentum to pull him up. A human, having lesser mass, might have been torn in two through the force of motion, but with the dwarf''s firm body he was simply pulled up. And then those two slaughtered my poor babies!

    This is why, when Ambrosia and the others came, I had to do something, if only to protect my creation. “讓那裡有梯子,”I said. And there was a ladder, right behind the boulders. I asked Thor for help. All early religions had “gods” that they worshiped but the truth was, all those who humans venerate are simply immortals.

    Immortals are humans, demons, angels, or otherwise have cultivated affinity or favored connections. I''m oversimplifying, but basically, if someone becomes strongly connected with a certain concept, they can sometimes achieve immortality, and their power tends to revolve around this concept. This is called their Divine Domain, and immortals have senses relating to these. For example, an immortal of drink like Dionysus immediately knows when someone needs a drink or is having one. And there''s two types of immortals, free immortals who independently achieved immortality through their own effort, and those who serve me and govern the natural phenomena.

    I could not directly intervene in this event, or risk a deus ex machina. Deus ex machina (literally, “god from the machine”) was a specific event, if I were to break my commandments, and act openly without restraint, it would risk robbing humans of free will, or possibly cause reality as we know it to crumble. It didn''t matter that humans knew of my existence, in fact, it was all the more important. To put it bluntly, my direct interference could cause things to become artificial. I could come to humans in visions, I could act when nobody was watching (this is how new species were “suddenly” found in remote regions), I could perform miracles but only under very specific conditions, I could send prophets and heroes, and I could answer prayers. But if I did too much, it would cause a mess. Therefore, many of my prayers and miracles were usually subcontracted using angels, immortals, or the Reapers. Any more than this would breed dependence.

    “Thor,” I said, “will you aid these humans? They need a hammer. Not just any hammer either...” Thor shook his head, “I will not give them Mj?lnir. Not after last time.” I nodded. I could see his point. Mj?lnir was a powerful hammer, with the power to break stones and cause thunder and lightning. But it could also cause Ragnarok, the Norse apocalypse. We had enough of those for the time being. That wasn''t even what he was talking about though. He meant the War of the Seven Fish... no, it''s better not to talk about that! “Sindri and Brokkr!” I called, “make us a hammer. One worthy of humans but with the power to put even gods in their place. But remember, you must make it immediately.” Sindri and Brokkr shook their heads, “We can indeed make such a hammer, but it will not be our best work. At the amount of time that you give us, it will last barely a moment of yours. One mortal hour.” The dwarven immortals set to work. I saw them construct together a hammer out of pure will, temper it in fire, and pound it into shape, all within the blink of an eye. These were my experts of the forge, after all. Then they went away, leaving behind only the hammer. Thor picked up the hammer. Unlike his own, this hammer was more like a sledgehammer. His tremendous muscles rippled, and then he launched the hammer in the air, falling like a meteor into a block of ice below. S~ea??h the N?velFire.nёt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    NEVRAS

    “Look out!” I said, pushing the others out of the way. I slid backwards on the ice, while the others skidded straight into a rock wall. I had saved them from a hammer possibly falling somewhat close to them. I could see the gratitude in their eyes. “Thanks a lot, Nevras,” Aqorm called out to me. We slowly crawled to the hammer and read the inscription. ?Whosoever holds this hammer, , possess the I blinked, then looked at her, “I guess it''s for you, then,” and tossed it to her. She obviously wasn''t going to catch it, but it stopped in midair before it smashed her in the face, glowed slightly, then lost its light and clattered to the ground. She picked it up, grunted and groaned. I had no idea what the inscription was talking about. The hammer eventually noticed that she wasn''t all that strong, and adjusted its size and weight. “Hey guys, watch this,” said Ambrosia, uttering the most common famous last words ever. Thankfully, nobody and nothing was harmed, except for some poor innocent boulders and rock formations. As the path cleared, we noticed there was a ladder behind one of the boulders. Had this been here the whole time?

    At the top, our look of triumph turned to horror. There were so many mammoths dead... This was a terrible waste. Whoever hurt these animals would rue the day. Thankfully, it appeared whoever killed them was merely heading in a straight line and only attacked those who got in their way or who charged, not hunting or salvaging their meat or fur. Yet you could tell exactly where the walking path was by the corpses that lay in their path. I knelt to the ground and studied the bodies. I see wounds from a sword and an axe, spaced on either side from each other, and there are a pair of footprints of different sizes. These were two different people, I thought. I looked at the remaining mammoths, standing off to the fringes, cringing in fear while grinding their teeth on the tough mountain grasses. These footprints suddenly scattered. I had no time to consider the reason for this before I understood, for up ahead was the largest wolf I had ever seen.

    AMBROSIA

    Growing up, I had heard old legends. A giant wolf named Fenrir, who threatened the Earth during final days and stuff that were to come... some time. This was part of one possible scenario of the end of the world, but a bunch of different ones had already happened, so I guessed this was a different one. This didn''t look much like him, but neither was this Mjol - Myol - ummm... Thor''s hammer. Keeping my knife and fishing pole sheathed, so to speak, I swung this hammer awkwardly around. It appeared that the hammer''s power besides brute strength was simply punching a protective hole in all matter, giving us a bubble of protection from his scratches, bites, his roar which threatened to deafen us, his Steel Sand ability which kicked up deadly sharp sand from the minerals extracted out of the earth below us, and his cold wind aura. Elias decided to reserve his magic, preparing prayers ahead of time for if he needed to use them. He was able to cast prayers in rapid succession, but it needed advance preparation. Aqorm used her geomancy to pin the wolf in place with pillars of ice, although the strength of the wolf was so great that even these were showing cracks after only a few moments of struggle. Aqorm was remarkably brave taking on a semi-legendary wolf using newly bought blades made from elven (a silvery metal known for its effectiveness against the supernatural), behind a barrier, and having pinned the wolf. Okay, to be fair, all of us were scared out of our minds. We couldn''t exactly tell how strong the wolf was because the barrier was still up, but I noticed the words on the hammer were starting to erase at both ends. It now read, ?olds this hammer, if she be worthy, shall possess the power of Ambr.?

    Nevras used some new techniques that he apparently had worked on during the six months I remember absolutely nothing of. There was the Pierce technique, which consisted of a charge attack ending in a crouch resulting in an armor piercing attack that caused the target to bleed profusely. This was damaging enough, but then he had also learned the Wave Thrust, a technique that generated a shockwave along the ground in a circle around him. Yet unlike the Jump Thrust, this could not affect anything which did not touch the ground. Of the two, it looked like he spent more time on it. Somehow he had fine-tuned this effect to send out energy only where he wished it, managing to not cut us all into ribbons. To be clear, this wasn''t an earthquake, but a pulse of some sort of energy which traveled along the ground. Because of this, it was able to pass harmlessly through us, and avoid shattering the ground it passed along, yet when he gripped harder on the sword, the vibration moved faster, causing the vibrations to burst blood vessels where the wolf stood. A bunch of wounds suddenly formed on its legs and its underside. The wolf was still standing because of its endurance, but getting badly beat up.

    I decided to help out, whacking it in the head and body, and managing to just barely dodge its attacks, forgetting for a moment about the barrier. With each hit, its massive body became a touch more wounded, yet the hammer''s lettering faded a bit more. It now read, ?if she be worthy, shall possess? and even as I spoke was fading. I continued to whack at it, Aqorm kept stabbing, and Nevras kept using techniques, while Elias stood back and conserved his prayers. Slacker. The hammer now read ?BE Worthy? and would no longer fade by letter, but it was beginning to become immaterial. The barrier faded, and the the attacks were suddenly felt at full force. The cold aura would have been enough to freeze most of us solid, if not for Elias suddenly quick-casting Protection From Elements from preparation. The claws caused deep wounds to our previously undamaged group, and his teeth threatened to bite us in half if we did not move out of the way. The Steel Sand was like getting hit by broken glass, and his roar caused our ears to bleed. Elias quick-cast Recover, a prayer he had just learned and followed it up with a third quick-cast, adding Fast Healing to Nevras. That was probably his limit for now. We were all heavily wounded but patched up enough to continue. I knew though the we had only a few minutes before my hammer disappeared, and not much time for Elias to keep healing us with any effectiveness either.

    I had to get on top of the wolf, and attack it from there. I looked at Nevras. He was busy fighting the wolf, and truth be told, not much stronger than me. It was all technique, so he wasn''t the person to ask to boost me up. Elias was busy healing. “Aqorm! Would you do me a favor?” She cringed as I whispered my plan.

    AQORM

    It is a literary tradition that plans mentioned in advance tend to fail, but thankfully all of these happened in rapid succession so I will describe it now. I jumped in the air, and did a front-flip followed by kicking Ambrosia hard to propel her forward, then landed on my feet, something which I''m told is quite impossible for humans to do since they cannot fine-tune their motion in midair. Ambrosia, on the other hand, did not land quite as smoothly. She slammed into the wolf''s body, barely managing to grasp on to the top of the wolf. She began to slide down, but quickly hooked it with her fishing pole, wrapping it around the neck. She was now right near its mouth, so she swung hard to wrap more tightly and not be chomped, and managed to boost herself up again. Grabbing its massive shoulders, she held on tightly as it squirmed. The good news is that Elias got a break in healing everyone. The not-so-good news was now Ambrosia had a wild ride.

    The wolf turned and bucked, tried to raise and lower its shoulder, rushed forward, and anything else it could think of. Ambrosia anticipated the wolf''s motion somehow. She was tossed, she was knocked about, nevertheless she persisted. The wolf even tried to freeze her, yet her Lilac Dress protected her from the ice even when it was too close for her Protection From Elements aura to work. Ambrosia pulled out her hammer to bash its head in, only to have it turn into motes of light in her hand. She quickly grabbed her knife instead, and stabbed the crap out of it. Nevras was using Pierce attacks to wear it down, but despite the serious damage he was dealing, it wasn''t even paying attention. I used the opportunity to climb it, then joined her. The wolf finally collapsed. Nearby was a save circle, so we used this, and set up a tent. I kinda... salvaged a lot of these mammoth bodies for meat and fur. The bones were also valuable, but we had to let some of this stuff go. There was simply too much. I sat by the fire with Elias, and talked all night. Right now, things were not exactly romantic, but he was good to me and I enjoyed talking to him, sitting around a fire surrounded by bones and angry mammoths.

    The next morning, we headed out, searching for the thief of the keys and the source of the massive elephant slaughter. We didn''t have to go far before we saw them. They leaped out of the trees in an ambush. Luckily, we had plenty of rest, and they had been sitting all night in a tree. They were weaker right now, and off their game, and this is why they were much weaker than they would later be, and not because it is still early in the story. It was a human male with long black hair with bangs neatly parted to the side holding a sword, and an older dwarf wielding an axe. Their weapons looked homemade though. The dwarf''s axe had a front end like a typical woodsman''s axe but the other end was more like a pickaxe for mining, it was build sturdy and from one piece of solid metal which did not appear to be steel; the man''s sword was more like a naginata but for its relatively blunt tip, it was a broad sword with an extra long handle yet which wasn''t long enough to be a reach weapon. “You took our prey! We were going to have that for dinner!” said a tall man with dark hair. The dwarf commanded, “Give it back!” I blurted out, “That wolf? The one that nearly killed all of us? We don''t even want it, it just attacked us! We were out here looking for a key!” The dwarf and man looked at each other, then the man spoke, “Phim, didn''t we steal that key to draw out the Oracle?” Phim said, “That''s right, Sera, it was all part of my master plan. We were going to lead the Oracle out to this secluded forest to kill her, then use the key to raid the Aiken temple, and then after that find the young woman that scammed our client out of thousands of Gold in alchemic jewelry. He said he isn''t so much concerned with the money as he is with finding her again.” Nevras blushed slightly, but said nothing. The one known as Phim continued, “I bet the mayor sent you, didn''t he?” making it obvious that they had no clue who we were. “So you thought you''d stop us from raiding the temple, huh?” Sera shook his head, “They seem kind of inexperienced for the mayor''s posse, right? Well, they''re no good to him dead.”

    These two were skilled opponents. They had similar abilities to Nevras, so after getting a bad wound from Sera''s Speed Slash and Phim using Pierce on Ambrosia, Elias warned us to sit this one out. We weren''t warriors after all. Nevras told them, “Fight me instead! If I lose, you can hurt us as much as you want. If I win, you give us the key.” After a quick nod from them, Elias moved us to the outskirts of the area, moving our bodies with a makeshift stretcher. He wouldn''t be able to help in the battle, but since we had both managed to get serious wounds in a matter of seconds, perhaps it was better to sit this one out. After setting up several paper amulets, Elias set of a ritual of Greater Protection. We would not be able to move from this spot if we wanted protection, but the barrier would all prevent all stray attacks from hitting. Despite warnings, I sat up in the stretcher to watch while Elias healed my wounds. Thankfully, unlike the earlier arrows, there was no shrapnel to heal. Unfortunately, we were bleeding out openly, and Elias was healing two of us.

    Nevras drew his sword and carefully watched the two of them for any opening. Sera called his attack, “Standing Jump Thrust!” and swung. It had all of the power of a regular Jump Thrust, with gale force slicing wind and shockwave enough to rip a tree from its root, but he apparently could use it from a stationary position. Nevras stared at the attack, and dived to the ground. The Jump Thrust was normally angled in such a way that it couldn''t be ducked, yet this appeared to be an upward wave of wind force. The attack continued on until it hit the barrier. Sera scoffed, “Coward.” Nevras responded, “I didn''t know it was possible to do that. Standing Jump Thrust!” Sera responded with a Standing Jump Thrust of his own, and it seemed as though they were evenly matched. But although Nevras seemed to be faster at using techniques, enough so that he could counter the moves of the other, the truth was that his arm strength wasn''t nearly as strong. The two attacks did cancel, yet Sera''s attack nearly drove Nevras''s back to him before finally it dissipated. While Nevras was occupied with Sera, Phim decided to attack, “Wave Thrust!”

    As I watched from my stretcher, I enjoyed Elias placing his soft hands on my chest. By this point, he had finished healing Ambrosia, but he anticipated that she might try to jump back into the fray while he was actively healing me, so he sat on her stomach and pushed her down whenever she tried to sit up. She groaned with annoyance. With his other hand he poured a large amount of energy into closing my wounds. I had been injured by an axe, so I had a long open gash that extended from my abdomen to just missing my lungs. Had Elias not become stronger over the last few months, I would be dead between blood loss, internal bleeding, and leakage from internal organs. Elias had used a continuing prayer called Delay to free up his hands while he worked on both of us at once. As a result, I barely even noticed as he rubbed my stomach, moving upward until he... “Hey, don''t get fresh! I wasn''t wounded up there. No matter how perky they may be.” He continued his healing but remembered to behave. Honestly, just because he looks nerdy, a girl can''t even let her guard down anymore.

    I used to think battle was a matter of strength, speed, and timing. As I watched them, it was all of that, but I was struck by how much it resembled a simple game of rock-paper-scissors. A rock-paper-scissors game of doom... Phim had used Wave Thrust, as I mentioned, before I started getting felt up by my healer... creating a wave of energy in a current along the earth. Fortunately for Nevras, he decided to use Jump Thrust to rise above the attack, cutting both Sera and Phim with a sharp wind. As he landed, Phim tried to use the Pierce technique while Sera tried to prepare the Vacuum Slice. It was so named not only because it created a sound like a vacuum cleaner (yes, seriously), but also because it was a technique which temporarily created something like the Void, allowing the user to sever nearly anything. Nevras saw the Pierce attack coming, and dodged to the right, just as both of them tried to attack, and finished by using a Speed Slash from the side. As a result, Phim got knocked into path of Sera''s attack. The Vacuum Slice ripped through the upper part of the axe handle, and the sudden change of speed caused the two of them to collapse in a heap. They were injured, but their armor was tough enough that they were left with mainly bruises.

    Sera pretended continuing the fight was beneath them. Sera said, “We''ll spare you for now. I mean, it''s not our problem they got suckered into fighting.” Phim wasn''t quite the actor his friend was, so he scowled and said, “Keep your stinking key, you government dogs!” We had yet to inform them that, in fact, Ambrosia had been the person they were trying to assassinate, and seeing as how it was probably dangerous to tell them this, it was probably for the best that they didn''t know. Sera walked at a swift pace, while Phim was still nearby several minutes later. We picked up the key.

    After a long and twisty return trip through the forest, we made it back the town of Zuran. The mayor directed us to the Aiken temple outside of town. Our walk there was filled with encounters with the flying Ghobli hare. Flying Ghobli hares are no picnic, by the way. They fly around randomly, dive bombing anything they see as a threat, and then run for the hills. We were only hunting them for food, and they proved to be a nuisance. We walked for roughly half an hour of tall grass, sand, and rocks. The area that we walked through was a coastal grassland with coarse grasses that kept the beachfront from wearing away. This was an area that was a chore to pass even one mile without good shoes. Ambrosia had clothes given to her apparently by God. But all the same, I wondered whether her clothes might be First Material, because it seemed like they were just incredibly durable. The rest of us between the snow, rain, sand, and everything else on our journey were beginning to get muddy and torn clothes. Out of curiosity, I decided to test my suspicion. If it really was First Material I would not only be so jealous, but I would know right away if it tried to clean and restore itself. Pressing my hands to the ground, I let the current of land mana flow through my body, becoming a conduit to project the power sleeping in the terrain. Since about a day had passed, I could use my geomancy again, and I could think of no more appropriate way to use it. This time, it created a mudslide that caught Nevras and Ambrosia in his path, bowling them over and coating them in mud. I noticed that the outfit did appear to have a few runes light up in response to what I did, but it wasn''t First Material.

    Unlike the clothing of the old days, there was no need to size, nor was there any particular need to magically enhance clothing to stretch. You see, fabrics naturally stretch, even tight cotton, because of something called Original Intent. Elias is explaining it to me, because I asked. Original Intent is so named because it describes matter as it is originally intended to be. Like, water turns to ice, rocks are hard, certain fabrics are warm. This is also true of living matter, which is why it is easy to shapeshift into animals but shapeshifting into other people typically doesn''t work. I''m told elves as part of their Original Intent do not gain weight, which could explain why I always feel hungry, and why I''ve never seen fat elves. As a result of the New Earth being slightly better than the old, clothing tends to stretch with the person.

    That''s right. No matter how little exercise Ambrosia did, how much she ate or slept, she could never outgrow her clothes. Along with prayer and thaumaturgy, this was one of the perks of the New Earth. Of course, this didn''t stop people from being very insecure about their body weight, since they could still get heavier. I''m so glad I''m an elf.

    As runes worked better with things with an Original Intent that had affinity for the runes (that is, it was easier to cast Durability on things that were already sturdy or Endure Weather on fur), the idea of enchanting a normal dress with all these runes... why I could make a fortune if I sold her dress. Not that I''d want to, of course.

    She still needed to brush off the dirt, but the mud wasn''t staining it. Ambrosia was less than pleased, “Seriously? Nine Realms, Aqorm!” And so it was that rather than arrive at our destination earlier, we spent the next half-hour with her on my back trying to give me a sleeper hold, and me wriggling around while she screamed and cursed me forever.

    After apologizing profusely, we arrived at the Aiken temple covered in grime. The temple was built less like a place of worship, and more like a stronghold. There were high walls in on all sides of the grounds, made with some sort of tough ceramic composite that seemed to ward off not only heat and cold, but when I asked Elias to try to write a rune on it, we quickly found that the material did not allow runes, since it was too coarse a surface for writing to stick, and too sturdy for carving. Was this orichalcum? Inside the walls, I could see four guard-towers, and one pagoda-like structure in the center. I imagine this place would stand up well to a number of military campaigns, including attempting to climb the wall or blast it with magic, and the gate was well planned against a standing army. The gate was a sort of reinforced metal that had a larger door, with a smaller door nested inside it. The outer door could only be opened from the inside and looked heavy enough that at least a hundred people were needed to open it. The inner door was only small enough for a single person to pass, unless we were talking about an army of halflings, and contrary to how most doors worked, the key did not open the door. Instead, this key appeared to ring a bell somewhere inside the wall, as I heard people rushing toward the gate. A woman''s voice called out in a no-nonsense manner, “State your business for this visit. How is it you came by this key?” Ambrosia answered, “The mayor got it for us.” The woman''s voice responded, “You lie. This key came to you by way of that accursed forest to the south. How dare you try to deceive us?” She was remarkably well informed. Elias spoke, “We were not attempting to lie, but simply telling the truth as it was expedient to do so. We seek entrance to this temple, for we bring the Oracle.” After a moment, she said, “That is correct.” The door unlatched, allowing us to pass. Elias inquired, “You are a Seer? Or a Truthteller?” Truthtellers can discover truth or falsehood in others but cannot tell lies, and Seers can see the past and future but cannot see with their own eyes. Now that we saw the woman, she appeared surprisingly young for her age. She was a half-elf with short black hair with a jeweled headdress and long flowing robes of blue with golden trim. The sleeves of her robe had tassels, and her eyes were a dull silver. She blushed, “Oh, me? I''m both. You will meet me near the top of the temple.” Bah, any idiot could predict that. We walked around the temple grounds. The area had a farm, complete with goats and sheep, along with some crops in a rather large greenhouse.

    In another area, women and men were training in martial arts. At least, I thought it was martial arts. They were waving their hands in some kinda pattern. Though I don''t normally see people''s hands glow as they do martial arts.