Milrada was a fairly large and beautiful town. The ground paved neatly with cobblestone to ensure the smooth passage of carriages belonging to merchants from afar that pass through, wealthy nobles that come occasionally and the like. The housing district had humbly designed houses made out of fine wood and stones giving off a homely air of modesty. The comically dubbed "buzzing" district was littered with shops, stalls, inns, hotels and restaurants constantly vying for the attention of their customers either with over the top attractions or subtle yet eye-catching signs to lure them in.
It boasted a population of forty-seven thousand, most being born and raised there while others either migrating to the town for various reasons, such as to start afresh, or were situated there due to the occupations they have from many walks of life. Nevertheless, they were a somewhat rowdy people that breathed life into their environment.
Surrounding the town were sprawling metallic gates, each cardinal direction having a pair of watchtower and stations where knights routinely surveyed and monitored situations outside of the town in case of threats and anything akin to them.
With such security, it can only be imagined the agitation and worry that fuelled each guard as they witnessed a massive crater that dug several feet into the ground and spread hundreds of feet. Even moreso what the crater had formerly been only yesterday; a stronghold for an equally important security measure, the Dahlia Garden.
Knights went to and fro from the massive destructive sight alongside mages that aided in their investigation. Their blood roared in their ears and fear clung to their hearts.
This was the situation that Racarra smiled at.
With a concealment barrier that comfortably hugged her frame, she leaned against the outer gates, far from the entrance to better survey the activity of the knights and mages that scurried about.
She wore her high collared brown shirt, the top half having a light brown while from the chest down a darker shade, black pants and dark brown buckled high top boots. Additionally, she wore a chest plate and a pair of shoulder plates that bore the same colour as her bracers. Over all this was a grey hooded cloak, frayed at the ends.
At her side crouching while monitoring the guard's activity with a sharp look in his eyes was Myuriem. He too was cladded in the same concealment barrier.
His set of dark leather armour was strapped readily over a dark red leathery shirt. His bracers hugged comfortably at his forearms with a pair of rust coloured fingerless gloves underneath.
The mage nudged Myuriem, "We've seen the progress their making, like you asked. Not much if any has been made, so why are we still here? Shouldn't we be gone right now?"
Myuriem sighed, "From the look of things, you're right. I needed to know how far they've gotten in their investigation before leaving. It's not the first base I've destroyed and it wouldn't do me any good if they're able to identify the caster."
He stood up and looked to Racarra, "I still have something to do before leaving though."
"It better be worth it," Racarra said impatiently.
After a few moments of waiting, Myuriem hummed in satisfaction.
"Okay, let's go. You said that you have a way to get us quickly to our location, right?" Myuriem asked while stretching.
"Yeah, yeah I know. You don't have to remind me. Brace yourself, this spell is far from being perfect. I still need to work out a few kinks and errors before it works the way I-"
"Racarra." Myuriem interrupted with a sigh.
The woman coughed to herself, "Right, nevermind."
Racarra grabbed unto Myuriem's shoulder, mana pulsing beneath their feet.
In an instant, they disappeared from the gates of Milrada.
___________________________________
About ten kilometres away, they reappeared in a burst of mana on the outskirts of a dense forest. Both of their concealment barriers now discarded.
Myuriem stumbled forth in a light daze before shaking his head, "I'm going to need to get used to that, won't I?"
Racarra held her stomach with a queasy look, "I don't think you'll have to unless it's for emergencies. I did say that this spell is still experimental. Short range teleportation is one thing but one that takes you kilometers away is not something I'd say I don't have down pat."
Myuriem shivered, 'Experimental? What, would we have appeared in a wall instead?'
He ignored the disturbing thought and focused on the forest ahead of them. Racarra glared at the forest. Milrada had the light makings of one where an assortment of animals were but they were nothing like the jungle ahead of them.
It laid on the far end of the Elfas Kingdom's official borders. A wild jungle inhabited by not only wild beasts but monsters of different shapes and sizes. Yet not even those beings could cause this place to be emit such a feral energy that made hair to stand on end and emotions to boil with disgust.
Racarra clenched her teeth, a calm voice laced with anger coming out of her.
"What exactly are we doing here? There are much safer places to got through if we want to exit the Elfas Kingdom." She asked, "Coming to the location of an Abyssal Maw is just asking for trouble."
Fists clenched, he marched forward while speaking, "The Dahlia Garden is meant to aid the nation with facing the Shades that arise from these locations."
Racarra, though filled with frustration, followed Myuriem, "Let me guess. With the Dahlia Garden out of the way, the other half of your visits is eradicating the Shades here to ensure that the nation has time to bolster their defenses after wiping out the Dahlia."
She looked at Myuriem's back as he continued to walk through the jungle. The buzzing of insects and bugs rang in the air along with a distant sounds of other wildlife.
"Not only that but through destroying the base, you pretty much weakrn if not outright destroy whatever confidence the nation has in the Dahlia." Racarra finished.
At that Myuriem did not reply causing Racarra to frown.
No, this whole situation raised questions in her. It's one thing to stick around to fight whatever Shades came through but going directly to the source of it was a completely different level of danger all together. Shades are beings of darkness, made out of the pure and unfiltered maliciousness that the world has seemingly been born with since many millennia ago. But that's not all...
"You realise that Elder Banes are always at the site of the Maws, don't you? Beings of light that were corrupted by the Shades millennia ago?" Racarra asked indignantly.
Myuriem hopped from one abusurdly large tree root to another, "You sound like you have everything figured out. What exactly don't you get about the situation?"
'Why are you willing to do something this dangerous only to leave without a reward? Why do you want to fight a horde of Shades? Why do you want to fight an Elder Bane?'
These thoughts ran through Racarra's mind as she followed the young man yet only one that encompassed them all was spoken.
"Why do you do this?"
A simple question that rationally should not have an answer because no one would put themselves in this situation to even respond.
Out of the bushes around them, leapt twelve giant pig humanoids with small tusks jutting out of their jaws, each carrying different makeshift weapons; clubs, bats, spears and even a sword made out of sharpened stone and tree bark . They roared and snorted, slobber flung in the air, and rushed towards them in a frenzy.
Racarra clicked her tongue in irritation as mana gathered in her hands, "Couldn't come at a worse time, damn orcs."
Making a claw with her hand, she swiped the air. It materialised as three shining blades of mana and shot towards the five behind her.
Four of them leapt out of the way, the last being too slow to move and got diced into three bloody pieces. A dark shade of green liquid splashed through the air.
The two coming at either side of hers roared at their comrades demise and sped towards Racarra with reckless abandon with their weapons raised.
Racarra ducked beneath one's arm, it's spear plunged into it's comrade's face. Before it could react, Racarra sent a punch to its belly, sending it into the other and both were sent spiralling into the greenery.
The last tried to smash the young woman only for multiple earthy protrusions to shoot down from the air, skewering the monster.
Myuriem summoned forth his sword and sped towards the seven in front. Sending mana into his blade, a thin but sharp layer of wind covered it. As he sliced the air in front of him, multiple razor blades of wind travelled forth, trenching the ground before dicing three of the orcs. Three of the remaining halted while the fourth rushed on to Myuriem.
It brought down it's club only for Myuriem to block it with the flat of his blade. With inhuman strength, he pushed the orc backwards to it's companions causing it to crash into them. He leaped over them and swung, a large blade of wind colliding with them and ripping the beasts and the ground beneath them to pieces of gore and grassy debris.
Upon landing, he looked at Racarra.
Why do you do this?
It was a question he had asked himself years ago. Back then, he had an answer simple as it may have been.
Now, he has another answer. Simple all the same, despite the years that sped by him. An itch beneath his eyes remained a memory of who he once was and who he is now.
"Why do I do this?" Myuriem asked, "Because I'm just some guy trying to be something I haven't been for a long, long while."
With that, he turned and continued onwards, his senses leading him to the den of evil.
Racarra looked on to the man's back. Her blood rushed in her ears and her heart pounded like thunder in the sky on a stormy day.
A small smirk crept up her face as she followed suit, with a thought running though her mind.
'Ahh, I've found it. I've found a hero.'
A weight settled on her chest as she followed him. It made it hard to breathe as though her chest was denied the right to take in sustenance. Her spiral like pupils swirled with a hint of rapture.
She had finally found her hero.
The duo, after hours of travelling and facing monsters of different kinds, arrived at their destination.
It was the entrance to a cave, it's top jagged like the teeth of a beast. From the cave, a malevolent air came forth, like a sigh from the earth itself.
Both of their skins erupted with waves of goosebumps, chills running up and down their spines. Whereas the forest had some sort of sound, evidence that there was life however antagonistic they may be, the cave that served as the entrance to the Maw, not a sound was heard.
Only a certain sense of dread in it's place.
Myuriem took a deep breathe in and let it out as a drawn out sigh. His gaze drifted off to Racarra whom had an agitated expression marred on her face instead of either a smirk or a smile, smug or oddly soft in nature.
It had come off as strange why this woman would accompany him, a stranger she had not known for more than a few hours, into a chasm that harboured the primordial enemy of all that existed in Axizal since ancient times.
'No one has ever come with me this far.', Myuriem acknowledged within himself, 'They had all considered me mad for even suggesting it. The multitudes of Shades as well as the presence of an Elder caused them all to steer clear of the Maws.'
His heart, though dead set on plunging into the abyss, panged with guilt and worry.
'Should I ask her to leave? Thank her for giving me the comfort of coming this far with me and tell her everything is fine?' Myuriem thought to himself.
As he was about to speak, a gloved hand stopped in front of his face, motioning him to halt. The smell of mana freshly used caused him to wrinkle it with mild disgust.
"I can already tell what you're thinking, so let me stop you right there," Racarra said, hushing him, "Probably thinking that I shouldn't be here, that you didn't ask me to come and you feel bad about even inviting me to come with you, am I right?"
'I'm not that open, am I?'
Knocking her hand away, he forced himself to put up a smirk, "I was more horrified by how much your hands stink."
Racarra withdrew her hand as though it were dipped in scalding water and brought it to her nose. She grimaced and scowled at him, "Hilarious today, are we? It's not like you're any better or cleaner."
Mirth bubbled out of him in form of a light chuckle, "You don't see me denying it, do you?"
A moment of calmness washed over their nerves. While not exhausted to the extent of collapse, the weight of the situation crushed them, however determined they may have been then or now.
'I guess I'm not any better. Why do I feel so lax with this woman?' Myuriem thought.
Another warm breeze of wind blew from the cave followed by another pulse of malevolence. As though the creatures of the Maw couldn't bare the thought of being treated lightly by mere mortals in front of their own abode, it made its presence that more clearer to them.
They both faced the entrance in response. The weight of where they are settled upon them again. Yet, there was a calmness that came between them.
"You know that you don't have to come with me, right?" Myuriem asked as he gripped his sword tighter, the familiarity of the blade easing his nerves more.
"And you know that I'll still be going with you despite that, right?" Racarra replied with a grin on her face. A pulse of mana went to her gloves and from that appeared a five foot staff. A dark brown wood as it's body and topped with an amber gem.
Myuriem smiled. A warm sensation enveloped him from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet and deep to his heart.
"Alright then, your funeral. Try and keep up."
"Right back at you."
With that, the two ran into the cave, darkness enveloping the both of them.
As the rapid footsteps echoed through the halls of the pitch black chasm with courage, the den of evil responded to squash their hopes.
A cacophony of shrieks, screams and screeches answered drew nearer and nearer to them. The crashing sound of a horde of inhuman feet reached their ears.
"Racarra, light!!!" Myuriem called out as he readied his weapon, rushing towards the horde that was shrouded in darkness.
"On it!" With that, a chain of light appeared overhead, illuminating the chasm.
Before them was a crowd of twenty malformed monsters. Each was its own abomination, littered with eyes all over their bulging skins of black, horns all over their frames, mouths that bore crooked yet sharp fangs of silver. There was no uniformity in their appearances in the slightest, only these features were discernable.
The sudden appearance of light momentarily blinded the creatures, causing them to halt and shield their eyes with their individual appendages of tentacles, claws, hands and wings.
Myuriem leapt up and with the force of a lightning bolt, slammed into the middle of the horde, sending some into the air from the impact. Spinning in place and surging mana out of him, a cocoon of wind over him, slicing all the ones closest to him to pieces of flesh. With a sudden force of mana, the cocoon expanded ripping apart more of the abyssal foes.
The ten furthest from him turned their attention to Racarra and rushed her, releasing their malevolent auras to overwhelm her if only for a moment.
A wild grin etched itself on her face as she slammed the butt of her staff into the ground. The effect was instantaneous as the earth beneath them turned to mud, sinking their feet, hindering their movements.
The mud stretched around them like tentacles and sharpened into stony stalactites and rained down mercilessly on them.
She rushed past them to Myuriem whom nodded in appreciation and rushed forward.
More abhorrent creatures of the abyss surged from the depths to challenge the mortals before them.Some leapt, some crawled, some galloped and even flew.
Myuriem switched from a thin blade of wind to a roiling coating of water. His free hand concentrated his mana as a ball of water with rings circling it. As he poured more mana into it, he swung his sword with his right arm. Traveling to the foes was a powerful blade of water that tore the walls and soon the beasts.
They roared in indignation and surged on.
Myuriem threw the ball of water that had grown to be the size of his torso. As it traveled towards the enemy, it tore at the ground, growing larger as it crushed the debris within the watery sphere.
The Shades with wings and those lucky enough leapt over the sphere of destruction as it consumed it's other brethren and crushed them to dust. The rings that circled the sphere receded into it before violently detonating.
One of the aerial Shades was blown apart by the mana surrounding it. Another was suddenly crushed at it sides. The others looked towards the red haired perpetrator.
Racarra accumulated mana at both sides of her into glowing amber coloured wheels of continuous ignited mana. Waving her staff, they sailed forth with deadly precision, burning the air before ruthlessly setting the Shades ablaze. The beasts roar of agony brought a smile to Racarra's face.
Something zoomed past and crashed behind her. Upon looking behind, it was Myuriem whom had skidded back with his sword planted to stop his involuntary flight.
A deep bellow sounded, rocking her bones and rattling her teeth.
Mere meters before her was a gargantuan Shade with four appendages; a pair of human arms at the top, a pair of crab like claws beneath. Like the other Shades, this one had a loose form with eyes and horns irregularly scattered all over its body.
Myuriem zoomed past her, with a fire in his eyes, "Racarra!"
The woman nodded in odd sense of understanding. Twirling her staff, she aimed it at the beast, more precisely it's four arms. The next moment the mana around them gathered themselves around them and formed thick amber chains. They drug the beast down to it's knees.
Myuriem's body crackled with dark purple lightening as he rushed at speeds untraceable to the eye. He jumped towards the beast, all of the lightning flowing into his clenched fist before slamming it to the chest, a large beam of splintering power bursting out of its back.
The beast fell with a loud thump.
Myuriem landed roughly, looking back at Racarra with a look of shock mixed with gratitude.
"When you said you had an assortment of spells under your belt, you weren't kidding."
He said standing back up.
Racarra leaned on her staff with a cocky smile on her face, "Don't tell me you actually doubted my words. Besides, I haven't shown you anything yet."
More bellows, screeches and shrieks called out to challenge them from the depths.
Both of them looked on with an unwavering fire burning persistently in their hearts.
"Let's take care of the rest. We're almost there." Myuriem said as he rushed forth.
"Right!" Racarra replied as she sped on to his side and into the yawning darkness.