‘Are my sword pieces packed?’

I squirmed restlessly in my seat as a few knights packed the rear compartment with luggage. I had hugged Roxanne goodbye, and she had proceeded to pick me up off the ground and squeeze me like she was trying to get at my jelly filling. I climbed aboard the carriage as Clem did some last checks before we departed.

‘Calm down, Vi. I’m not going to pull a switch on you and steal your weapon parts.’

‘Sure, sure. I know you’re jealous of how cool my weapon is going to be.’

‘More like terrified that a small girl like you is going to be wielding something so dangerous.’

‘Huh? Did you same something!?’

‘No, nothing at all! Just musing about how pretty it will be.’

‘Darn straight! It will be the best weapon the school has ever seen!’

Before long, we were off and down the road that eventually leads back to the school. I could hardly contain my excitement as we quickly traveled. I bounced in my seat and kept popping my head out the window, hoping to see the school break through the tree line. Clem held the bridge of her nose as I darted about.

‘You’re going to make me sick, bouncing around like that. Sit down and take a rest. We are not even halfway there yet.’

I pouted and slumped in my chair.

‘Sorry. I’m just a little excited to get home.’

‘That is an understatement. So, what is it like, living at the school with a bunch of people from other worlds?’

‘Oh! It’s pretty neat, actually! I love to hear about the different worlds that each of the girls come from. Some have no magic or monsters, while others are so advanced in technology that they can fly through the sky with machines. For some reason, I get a deep sense of peace when they talk about it, like I’ve been there before too.’

‘Wow. But with all of those people from different worlds, don’t you have culture clashes between the students? We have enough problems with people from other countries. I can’t imagine what it’s like for people from other worlds.’

‘Sometimes, but Mom always takes care of things. The school is pretty strict when you first get there. If any problematic memories come up, Mom just wipes them from the students. After a bit of fine-tuning, everyone gets along pretty well.’

‘That doesn’t seem kind of messed up to you? Altering people’s memories?’

‘I guess I haven’t really thought about it. I did catch her wiping my memories once when I found out my Christmas gift a week in advance and got pretty mad at her. I developed a bit of a resistance to her ability after that, so since it can’t affect me, I haven’t really cared anymore.’

‘Christmas? What is that?’

My eyes lit up and my face beamed as I opened my mouth to tell her all about the fat jolly fairy that brings hot chocolate and gifts down the chimney in so many other worlds, when the carriage suddenly crashed on its side and hurled against the wall. I focused my Mana into my defenses and held onto Clem as the cart tumbled and shattered into a mess of pieces.

‘Mmmm…What was that? Are you ok, Vi?’

I looked up to see a light stream of blood coming from Clem’s head. The carriage was in pieces all around us. My defenses had mostly held firm, although my shoulder was a bit bruised.

‘I’m fine, it seems like we hit something.’

‘More like something hit us.’

‘What can keep up with a hippasaur?’

I looked around to hear a scream as a guard was dragged off into the woods. All I saw was the rustling of trees that had no business being rustled, and the last pieces of a very big tail slithering into the brush. I felt a pang of fear as I activated my Mana sight and it lit up like a giant green beacon one hundred feet from us.

‘Clem, we have to find a place to hide, right now!’

‘What is it, Vi? What did you see?’

‘I don’t know, but it’s big.’

I looked around as my Fairybond training began to kick in. I stifled the panic and took in my surroundings. The forest was dense on the left side of the road, where the monster was, but there was a slight bank and then a sharp downhill on the right. Looking through the trees, there might even be a cliff not too far down.

The area was in disarray. Of the two guards sent with us, all that remained was an arm clutching a sword. I walked over and freed it from its cold grasp as I held back a gag. Clem was holding her forehead as she looked around.

‘That hippasaur is tangled in the carriage wreckage. We can ride it out of here!’

Sure enough, one of the hippasaurs was wrapped by its bridle in a mass of splintered wood. Its partner was nowhere to be found, probably running off into the distance in fear. I started to make my way for the animal when a crashing noise came from the forest.

Before I could blink, the beast of burden had been freed from its binding and lifted into the air. It struggled against its aggressor and even snapped its teeth in defense, but to no avail. The creature that held it was massive.

Its body was covered with muddy-brown spiked scales that gleamed with a silver sheen. It had to be at least fifty feet long and as wide as the carriage. It stood almost fifteen feet in the air as held the hippasaur up and bit into its neck. It had long muscular arms tipped with three long claws which pierced into the beast-of-burden as it bit. A wide hood extended off the back of its body extending out to an impressive fifteen feet span. Green glowing patterns pulsed in the form of a demon eye on its back. Its face looked like a typical snake’s, except it had no eyes. Instead, it had two eyes embedded in each side of its hood.

‘A Nagaconda! Why?!’

The Revenant turned as it dropped the paralyzed and bleeding hippasaur. It let out a bone-chilling hiss that vibrated the air violently as it eyed Clem from across the road.

‘Run Clem!’

She ran for the hill to the right as the monster made a break for her. Clem ran as fast as she could down the hill and through the brush as the beast struggled and tore through the trees behind her. Wood splintered and cracked as it clawed at the branches to move forward.

Clem broke through the trees and stopped just in time to not fall off an imposing cliff. She turned in terror as she was trapped between a staggering precipice and the charging Revenant. It slowed as it closed in on her, moving its tail to create an arc so there was nowhere for her to run.

‘Hey! Giant Danger Noodle! Over here!’

The snake turned as I held out a green teardrop-shaped crystal. It looked between its trapped pry and the energy source that had clearly drawn it here. It opened its mouth and sprayed a thick green goo out that covered Clem.

‘Ah!’

She fell to the ground, paralyzed by the Nagaconda’s venom. It turned to face me, confident in its ability to return and claim its prize at a later time.

‘See if you can keep up!’

As I had so many times before in the grove, I charged my Mana and jumped from tree to tree. The serpent struggled to keep up, annoyed by its size, causing it to struggle to get through the trees around it. It struck out at me and even sprayed paralytic slime in my direction, but I had too much control over my movement.

All I had to do was draw the creature away. If I could get far from Clem, she would be safe. I could find a way to lose it and make my way back. I might even be able to keep the crystal heart. I just had to buy time for the paralysis to wear off and we could be on our way. Suddenly, an echoey voice rang inside my head.

‘No, Magus! The venom does not wear off until the heart of the creature is destroyed! You must leave her and run! She is doomed!’

‘Iggy?! How? I’ve only ever heard you in my dreams!’

I pounced onto another tree and the snake bit into the branch I was standing on. It shattered into twigs and fell to the ground.

‘You are in danger, Magus! You are too weak to fight a Revenant right now! Your body can’t take it! Just run home! Live to fight another day!’

‘And just leave Clem? No way!’

‘Please! There is not much time left! You are more important than a simple human! If you die, so does this world!’

‘If this world is reliant upon me abandoning my friends to save my own life, maybe it’s not worth living in any way.’

‘Magus please lis….’

I silenced the voice in my head and concentrated on the objective in front of me. I now had to kill a very angry snake monster, or at least break its heart. I had no backup, no magical gear, and one guard’s sword.

I suddenly found myself falling as I broke through to a clearing. I hit the ground and tumbled and began to run through the field. I heard the serpent crash through behind me but didn’t dare to look back as I dashed.

Crap crap crap crap. This was bad. I needed to find something fast, and all I had was this field and a couple of rocks. Wait, ruins? The leftover remnants of a castle poked through the weeds and bushes. It sat upright against the cliff face that was to my right. This was good. I could work with this.

I dashed through the entryway of the castle gate and slammed the sword into the mechanism that lowered the portcullis. To my utter luck, it came crashing down just as the monster slammed into it. The heavy iron gate buckled from the impact, but it held. It wouldn’t for long though.

I took in my surroundings. It looked as though some ancient battle had taken place within these walls. Skeletons were scattered around in rusted armor. Pieces of weapons lay strewn across the ground. And the spears. There were iron spears everywhere. They were sticking out of the ground like rusted spikes. They almost looked like natural growths with how they stood up in clusters all around.

I heard a second smash as the Revenant shouldered into the gate once again. Pieces of stone from around the gate cracked and some pieces fell to the earth. I looked down at the crystal in my hands and sighed. It was now or never. Time to put my training to the test. I was oddly calm, as if this wasn’t my first fight. A massive monster was literally clawing at the gates to get me, but my heartbeat beat on like a steady drum. I placed the crystal in the center of the courtyard and made my way up to the castle wall.

The snake tore open the metal gate, sending the entire entry crumbling, and rushed to the center of the courtyard. It scooped up the crystal and coiled up in the center as it looked around. I stood at the top of the wall holding two rusted spears coated in Mana.

‘Now, let’s get this over with so I can return to my friend.’