Saga: Journey to the Sunrise
Arc 1: Retro Anomaly
Chapter 12 → Coat
As Lanmyth, Gunbo, and Hein were sleeping near the pond, Scyures was roaming around. He then saw Pins and Tuna running toward his direction.
The two natteflusks from yesterday? Why are they here?
"Mr.! (Pant) Mr.!" Pina stopped in front of Scyures. Just a moment later, Tuna also arrived—with a deep blue-colored cloth.
"This... is for you." Tuna gave him the cloth. He opened it up—
It was a long coat.
Deep blue with stars, constellations in it.
"Thanks, but why me?" Scyures asked as he removed his dress and wore the coat over it.
He thought, How did they even make a modern-style coat in this age?
"Because you are our hero!"
Hero? Hero... hero...
He'd heard those words somewhere before.
When he was a child.
"Ah! Thank you, both of you! I'll make sure to defeat that Anomaly!"
He clenched his fist, giving a final-fight confidence.
When he was a child, he wasn't an unconventional or special person. He had friends, but he never was satisfied with anything. His interests were different, so he left his group. For some weeks, he was alone. But then one day, on his way home, he saw a poster—
A man with a long grey coat.
A large wide sword with a cut in its center, splitting the main blade piece in half.
A boy around his age stood behind him and rested his hand on Scyures's shoulder.
"Hey, isn't he cool?"
Scyures nodded.
"You know, I really wanted a friend whom I could talk about him. Wanna come over?" He smiled with a broken tooth towards Scyures.
"Erm... I'm going home, can I... next time?" Scyures raised his hand with a shopping bag filled with some vegetables and eggs.
"Ok then! Tomorrow here! Let's meet again!" He slapped Scyures's back in excitement and then ran on his way.
Next day, Scyures was waiting for him in front of the same poster in a faint red hoodie and shorts.
The boy came and then led the way to his home while talking about this hero.
"You know I watch his episodes every day, never missed a movie and even bought a game."
"Game?"
"Yes! SWORD MACHINA-DELUXUE: THE BLADE OF ..V.."
He said something Scyures couldn't hear properly but didn't interrupt.
"What's your name?" Scyures asked.
"Oh his name? It's not revealed yet but his hero name is 'BEHEMOTH QUASAR.' Cool, right? Right!!" He was happy just by talking about it, and it made Scyures smile too.
Scyures wanted to ask his name but didn't. And the other boy also never asked; instead, he used to call Scyures, hero.
....
"Oii Mister..." Scyures was daydreaming, Pina and Tuna were calling him out then.
BAM!
A hit on his neck as he rubbed it while looking back in pain.
"Zarita?" he spoke while wearing the coat.
"What is it?" Zarita spoke.
"What is it? What do you mean? You came here!" Scyures shoved his hand in his pocket while the other one adjusted the collar.
"Uh? I thought you had something to say?" Zarita crossed her arms.
"??... Is it about showing gratitude because last night you saved us?" Scyures looked with his keen eyes.
"Well you could also do that but not that."
Just then a word flashed in the mind of Scyures, told by Lanmyth.
[Scyures:- Hey, you said about the roles, what exactly you meant?]
[Lanmyth:- You're probably thinking of the outworker and homeworker roles, right? But my meaning of "roles" is different.]
Scyures walked closer to Zarita as her eyes gave a side look, hands crossed and an angry pout.
[Lan:- This is about "The Protectors" and the "Liberators". These both have their own weights, but if I had to say... women had it harder because they were given the role of Liberator.
Scyures:- Explain?
Lan:- Men from birth are born in the shackles of being a pillar, and it takes them to two paths. One, where they are corrupt and show dominance over women, torturing them as hell. Second is the family part—where he constantly worries that he isn't enough to provide, and he has to keep working to prove his worth. He gives himself a value in terms of how much he can provide.]
Scyures: - So, that means men have it really hard, I can't relate that much but what about women?
Lan: - You can't relate because you and I were born in the era of chaos, not harmony. Women had it harder because they were born as liberators; they had two goals—to liberate themselves and to liberate their own man from the expectations of society. And that's why they had it hard. The men who went to the evil side became the society and chains. And just like how hard it is to get a person to open up who built walls around himself, men are also inside the wall, and in the process the walls were thicker than the chains of women.
Women are the strongest warriors of gods, but they are also humans. So, the moment they claimed their freedom, they had the fear of missing out. So, the men who were in the walls never got out. And those who were evil used the debris of their walls to torture the rest, be it either gender.
Scyures stood in front of Zarita, a breeze with a beautiful aura passed by as he raised his hand.
[Lan: - So, then men chose to liberate themselves and women began building walls around themselves to protect themselves. Hence, the era of chaos began. And we are the remnant of it. So, if you expect a woman to be kind with you, you have to reassure them that you aren't an animal but a human.]
He rested his hand on her head, and smiled while his eyes closed with little visible tears so faint as if they didn't exist. The aura of the breeze made this moment a wonder Zarita never thought.
She saw her little brother in him, and he saw someone beyond those walls.
RUMBLE!!
A wall of ice generated behind Scyures as numerous spears stuck in it.
"Bandits are here!!" Zarita yelled as she covered Tuna and Pina in a shield of ice and rushed towards them.
"Wait! I'm coming too!" Scyures cried out.
"No! The sun is about to set, you have to deal with the anomaly, go!" At these words, Zarita disappeared into the forest.
Scyures broke the ice barrier and carried the children to the village. Slowly every folk was hiding in their shelters.
Erika and Gunbo were there to protect the main hub of the village. Neither Myale nor Lanmyth was there.
He handed the kids to Erika and went deep into the forest trying to find the anomaly.
...
Myale was standing alone, her eyes closed as if she had given up. Slowly the biggest crowd of bandits was closing their distance; Myale was surrounded by them.
With leather scarfs and weapons: maces, swords, spiked spears, scythes.
The sun was about to set, the places around the whole forest started to reveal minor sparks, hinting at the arrival of the anomaly.
The bandits charged towards her, all of them together. But then.
SLICE!!
All of their heads and limbs fell to the ground. The weapons were diced thoroughly.
[Exclusive skill "WEB OF QI" is in activation!!]
The whole place was covered with her Qi strings, like insects trapped in a web. The bandits walked right into one of the finest Assassin's traps.
...
Zarita watched a barge of bandits closing in, running with maces, spears, bows, and arrows. She smirked.
"Finally, I have a chance to use this technique."
As they got closer, their feet started to freeze.
Chills ran down their spines, their jaws violently shaking as they saw her.
A dark aura grew in her, her skin turning into scales of blue-green light. A tattoo appeared over her eyes, her hands turning into sharp claws as her hair flowed high.
"I don't have any undead soldiers now..." she spoke. The bandits started to muster up their courage.
"But I don't mind using ice instead of strange souls." Her claw nails grew sharper with a coating of ice as, slowly, ice began to grow around her, forming soldiers. The undead army of the frozen abyss.
From samurai-armored humanoid oxen to viper snakes with scorpion tails.
They stood with a chilling aura. The scared bandits started to retreat.
"You can't go back from death!" she yelled as her army commenced and started slaughtering them.
Blood scattered throughout the place, the necks of bandits frozen to the degree where their cries couldn't crawl out of their mouths.
...
Myale ran toward a place where thunderbolts were accumulating from the sky as she received a message.
[SYSTEM
PROGRESSING FROM HERE MIGHT RESULT IN SYSTEM FAILURE.
BE CAUTIOUS!!!]
She moved through the trees as her system failed, but her meditation kept working.
She gathered all her strings to that one spot, concentrating them. She created a tornado of strings resisting the storm.
She gave all her power to prevent the anomaly from appearing, but then—
KRRR!
A large bolt of lightning fell from the sky, and the anomaly appeared.