It was a rainy night, as lightning flashed outside and thunder boomed within a dark, enclosed room, only the figures of Rufus and another one of his mysterious benefactor’s forms was illuminated by a dancing light.
“Mysterious benefactor, with all due respect, this junior would like to confirm… you want one of these flags placed in the airspace of the de Leon province?” Rufus grasped a piece of paper, his hands shook nervously and beads of sweat trickled down from his face.
“Yes, make it happen. You may cut corners in some of the flags in the formation I have given you, but the one in the air must absolutely be in place.” Louis spoke in a serious tone, his voice far deeper and more threatening.
It reminded Rufus of their first meeting in that dark alleyway.
He smiled wryly.
“Your requests have been getting far more frequent and difficult, Mysterious Benefactor.”
Louis gave Rufus a stern glance, widening his eyes a little.
“I merely now have the opportunity to reap what I have sown, did you really think after all I have done for you, my requests would merely amount to fetching some information and goods? There is a time for a velvet glove and a time for an iron fist.”
Rufus lowered his head.
Louis nodded, and turned around.
“Good.” He spoke,his voice much calmer than before.
Louis slowly walked towards the door, his every footstep echoed and weighed on Rufus, he gulped, he mustered up his courage, and asked:
“This junior dare asks, what has happened to require this amount of preparation?”
“I suppose you deserve to know at least the basics, a horde of young dragons will be attacking.” Louis spoke, not changing his pace at all; he entered the Skylift without elaborating any further.
Rufus cupped his fists and nodded at thin air, he sat down and held his head between his two hands. He could not make another thought, for the implications of a horde of young dragons cooperating with each other was too much for him.
“The church may have lost influence over the years, but god, please protect us.” He wished.
--
The following Monday proceeded as normal, but the nature of it compared to the impending doom created a very different atmosphere, at least for the members of the Secret Society of Reincarnated Souls.
‘Is it just me or the atmosphere around here feels a little off?’ Frank thought.
Well, most of the members of the Secret Society of Reincarnated Souls.
It was only a gut instinct from Frank, but he had been an adventurer for a long time, and had learned to trust his gut instinct.
“Is there anything you guys know that I should probably also know?” Frank asked as he placed his arms on the table.
“Only Llamiryl can answer your question.” Elizabeth spoke.
The rest remained silent, with only their usual expressions plastered on their faces.
Frank gave Llamiryl a sharp glare, before letting out a deep sigh.
“Welp, nothing good’s gonna come out of this, so I’ll spare you all the drama.”
Cale snapped his fingers.
“Welp, as you know the clubs and the member list became known through the academy, there have been surprisingly few rumors circulating despite our… variety of members. But, I did receive a letter from someone, addressed to the club as a whole!”
He picked up an envelope and slammed it down on the table.
“Just summarize it to us like a normal person…” Elizabeth shook her head.
“Fine, I already read it in my free time anyways.” Cale muttered under his breath.
“Alright, so we got this letter from someone called Anon-san, obviously that’s not that person’s real name. Apparently they want us to go somewhere so we can move the plot along…” He continued.
“Anon-san? What an odd name…” Louis commented.
“I think the –san part here is what Cale calls a honorific.” Llamiryl informed.
“I see…” Louis nodded.
“Quiiiiiin.” Elizabeth cried out.
Cale coughed.
“Alright, what I mean is the person sent the letter anonymously, so I’ll just call whoever this is Anon for the sake of convenience. So this Anon tells about the urban legend of the “Star that fell above the Willow tree”. Is anyone familiar with that?”
Everyone in the room shook their head,
“If no one knows, ain’t it just all complete hogwash?” Frank frowned and shifted his position to a more comfortable one.
Cale threw his hands up in the air and laughed.
“Who cares if its hogwash? Most urban legends are anyways, this one is probably less popular than the others. In any case, let’s just investigate this and get our club activity over with, who knows, maybe we’ll find something interesting.”
“Now, tell us about this ‘urban legend’.” Louis requested.
“Right, so in short, there was this kid who decided to confess to the one he had a crush on in front of the big willow tree in the main quadrangle. Apparently, there’s a belief that if you want to confess to someone with great academic knowledge, you do so in front of the willow tree. I think it’s hella weird to confess to a girl in front a tree seeded by some wrinkly old dude, but eh, whatever.” Cale paused for a second and realized he had trailed off the main topic.
He continued.
“However, before he had the chance to profess his love for the young lady, a star had fallen from the sky. The two made their wishes in front of each other, and due to the mesmerizing beauty of the situation, the boy had failed to remember what he had set out to do. The next morning, tragedy struck and the two were found missing and assumed to be dead. Their souls are said to rest under the tree, forever oblivious of each other.”
“Sounds like a shitty romance story.” Frank spoke.
“You think so? I think the way they died at the end was quite amusing.” Llamiryl chuckled.
“How does this relate to Anon’s letter?” Louis inquired.
“Right, I was just getting to that, when he and his friends were having a picnic near the tree, they felt an ominous air wash over them. Apparently he thinks it’s the ghost of the boy who haunted the place because of lingering regrets.” Cale answered.
“Odd, the story states that the souls of the two rest In peace, but he claims that the spirit of the man still haunts the place.” Louis rubbed his chin.
“Yeah I don’t know either; I’ll deal with making up a report so we can tell our overseer we did something. I guess three people can go there an investigate while another one can help me.” Cale stated.
Llamiryl shook her head.
“I’m not interested at all, so I’ll stay here.”
“Quite the contrary in my case, who knows if this leads to a hidden legacy under the tree.” Louis spoke.
Llamiryl rolled her eyes.
“Really, Dai?”
“Haha, as odd and unlikely it is, the possibility that the two kids in the tale buried some sort of profound treasure that night. The most ancient of inheritances have been discovered through the tallest tales, after all.” Louis chuckled.
“Suit yourself.” Llamiryl spoke dryly.
Frank shrugged.
“Well, it can’t be helped.”
Elizabeth merely nodded.
The three walked out of the room, shutting the door behind them. Wordlessly, they walked toward the main quadrangle at a brisk pace.
There weren’t a lot of people out and about; it was mostly other people who decided to do their club activities and those that had some group assignments.
They reached the big Willow tree, the leaves it held swayed in the wind as it aggressively towered over the rest of the fauna and humans. The way it was old and wrinkled was much similar to Principal Willow, the one who had it planted and taken care of in his name.
“So, ugh, how do we investigate an urban legend that supposedly happened in this place?” Frank asked.
“I’ll take care of that” Louis spoke.
He activated a flag, recalling his memory of an assistant of his who was once orphaned, the assistant’s job when he was young was raiding the tombs and legacies of many deceased cultivators. While Louis did not approve of desecrating the resting place of the dead, he was confident in the skill of his assistant and even set out to retrieve a forgotten inheritance with him.
While he was not exactly tomb raiding, this was close enough.
Using his qi, he attempted to feel the winds of memories long past, and the whispers of the dead beneath the earth, he looked to the sky above the canopy and reached for a fallen star.
There was nothing.
“Elizabeth, can you use your soul weapon to see if you can hear anything?” Louis asked.
“I can but, I haven’t used it in public, it would be bad if someone were to see.” Elizabeth responded.
“It’s fine, rest assured no one will notice, it’s just for a moment.” Louis spoke with a gentle smile.
“if you say so.” Elizabeth looked around, and it appeared that no one was fixated on them, she used her soul weapon and closed her eyes, listening in.
After a moment, she dematerialized it.
“Nothing out of the usual, sadly.” She spoke.
Louis sighed, and deactivated his flag.
“Well, I suppose this is only one legend out of many, and not all of them turn out to bear fruit.”
“You mean to say this was a grand waste of time.” Frank spoke.
“Hmm, maybe for you, but I’ve come to comprehend this world a bit more after this outing. By feeling the earth, listening to the wind and upon gazing at the stars, I have come to understand what this Willow tree means to this world.” Louis explained.
Frank let out a tired breath; he sat on the rough wooden bark of the tree and relaxed his body.
“I wish I had the same magical xianxia wizard comprehension as you, would make life a lot easier.”
“Has there been anything troubling your mind lately?” Louis asked.
“Really? You’re offering therapy?” Frank gazed at Louis in astonishment.
“Of course, you’re a point of interest for me after all.” He answered.
Frank frowned.
“You and Llamiryl are the same, treating other people as objects…”
“Is that necessarily a bad thing? If a jade collector finds a piece of jade that shines brighter than the others, he would naturally want to pick it up.” Louis sat beside Frank, and asked a question as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Frank lowered his head, holding his hands together.
“I don’t appreciate being treated like an object.”
“Some cultivators treat their ‘treasures’ better than ‘people’. To me, there is very little difference as long as they are useful or not.” Louis stated matter-of-factly.
‘So you mean to say you’d be fine if someone treated you like an object?!’ Is what Frank wanted to retort, but he was afraid he would be hit by some sort of tribulation.
All he could do was grit his teeth, unable to respond.
“Just know your place, I feel that Llamiryl is not the type to treat her items without care. Besides.” Louis stood up and smiled.
His hair slightly wavered in the wind, and the gold in his eyes seemed to shine brilliantly in the coming night. If someone were to juxtapose this with his demeanor in his past life, one would not find much of a difference.
“I will also be collecting your debt that is due, someday.”
Frank’s expression turned dark, slowly he stood up and turned to Elizabeth
“Are you done staring absentmindedly? “ He asked.
Elizabeth shook her head.
“No, I was listening; I’ve always been a good listener. Before you go rushing off, we haven’t drawn a conclusion yet.”
Louis interrupted.
“No, I already know what the boy would have wished that day.”
“Oh? And what is that?” Elizabeth asked.
“I wish we could be together, forever.” Louis stated, mimicking an unfamiliar voice.
“Oh, how tragic.” Elizabeth responded in a monotone voice.
“Welp, let’s go back, we have something to tell Cale now.” Frank quickly recovered and sprinted ahead.
Louis gazed at the sky.
‘It’s approaching, I have to go soon.’
--
A certain adult dragon was asleep within an oak forest at the elven countryside, although most of the forest was now a wasteland that recently produced tales to terrorize the feeble minds of children for decades to come.
A voice called out in his head.
“Dave.” It boomed.
“Dave…”
“Daaaave, Daaaaaaaave.”
Dave groggily woke up, grumbling lightly as to not shake the ground too much.
“Has it been a century already? Oh, is it you, Lord Worcestershire?” He asked the voice through their innate connection.
Dragons had no spoken language, for they could directly place their intents on the minds of others. Their roar was mostly for offense and intimidation.
“You are correct; the time for another crusade has begun. You are no longer a part of our nest, but as your father, I invite you to join your brothers and sisters once more.”
Dragons functioned on a hierarchy of age and power, the lord of a nest would be its father.
“I refuse; I am your son no longer.” Dave responded with not a hint of hesitation.
“Very well, you know the price to pay for this refusal.” Worcestershire informed.
“After the crusade, you shall finish a job that should have been done long ago. Take my life, if you survive.” Dave snorted.
“To think that I once wanted to protect you, your trust in those mortals is certainly high.” Worcestershire scoffed.
“I doubt they are mere mortals, considering what they are capable of. Tell me Lord Worcestershire, surely you do not risk your life for a mere grudge?” Dave inquired.
“You are correct on that, they may have damaged my this sacred vessel and killed several of my sons and daughters, but if it was merely that, I would let the grudge go provided we meet no further.” Worcestershire affirmed.
“Then what is your reason to fight?”
“Dave, we dragons are take our shape in the form of the creator, our god. Unlike the humans, orcs, elves and dwarves, we are the will of the world. We are an extension of him, and so we must uphold the four ideals. We must live, we must know, we must judge, and we must change.” Worcestershire proudly proclaimed.
“But are you sure you wish to attack the human ruler like this?” Dave asked.
Dave felt from Worcestershire a sense of amusement and thrill.
“Dave, Justice is blind, and oftentimes ignorant. Sometimes Justice cannot truly deliver what is just, whether I receive divine punishment or not, that is up to fate.”
“I see, I have not seen the shape of our deity, but if that is your reason, I can understand. Whatever happens, I suppose this is goodbye.” Dave yawned and returned to his slumber.
Deep within the core abyss, a beast that represented divinity stretched it wings at last, calling out to every last member of its nest.
“I have lived, and now is the time to know and to judge, then… perhaps we shall see change.”
He sent out his intent, to storm the capital, and to find out more about those who tore open an entrance to his abode and encroached upon his territory.
He roared, and the earth shook all the way from the abyss to the heart of Invicta.
I have a feeling that Anon is the author
Idk man, seems pretty unlikely.
@Anon_Y_Mousse = Anonymous
It's in you're name
@Zaipher Le gasp! How could you have ever found out, that's impossible!
@Anon_Y_Mousse That just cemented my doubts