CHAPTER 214- TEA BREAK!

[Keeno POV]

It’s been nearly a month since we left Lokir on the bridge.  Seeing any land behind us was no longer possible, and the same was in front of us.  If you really strained your eyes, you may be able to make out a vague shape, but I wasn’t completely sure.

{What you are probably seeing is Thorrum, a volcanic island where one of the worst, most destructive battles took place.  If I were you, Keeno, I would avoid talking about it with Fia or Mostima.  It probably has a lot of bad memories, though it will be unavoidable at one point, seeing as a Dead Zone is there.}

‘Mm.’

On Freya’s side, she actually started to recover a bit without my help now.  It started once we lost sight of land completely.  We still didn’t know what was happening, but I was starting to for conjectures, but nothing concrete enough to say for sure.  As for the night ‘attacks,’ they continued even now.  They had become more targeted towards people with more feathers collected, though most still refused to say what was going on.  A few let slip once given an ultimatum by their companions, so most people around us were getting an idea of what was going on and either stopped caring because it wasn’t anything actually serious, or, for a few people, getting dragged into carts or wagons and basically tied down like in that one myth I can’t remember the name of, but remember the premise of, even if it wasn’t my particular field of study.  Another few simply disappeared completely, assumedly to live their lives with their new companions.

Today was looking like yet another monotonous walk forward.  Since Freya was recovering, she and Pram were getting back to their usual back and forth, though Pram had also been trying to bring me and Mostima into it as well, I think to help bring Freya’s spirits up, which was helping, though today seemed to be a day where she and Freya were in their own little world.  Mostima on the other hand had been practicing her Runecraft as we went.  She’d almost become as good at writing them as I had, though she still needed to work on her speed and memorization of their meanings.  Once it reached midday, we stopped to have a meal at one of the checkpoint inns along the bridge.  Well, that was the plan at least, but the second we stepped toward the building, a weird feeling of pressure descended on all of us.  The world around us went greyscale for a second before returning to normal, though now there was a very glaring absence of people.  It was just us, and an empty bridge.

{Keeno!?}

“Ama, what was that!?”

{Some kind of spatial shift.}

Mostima summoned her staves and looked around.

“Are we under attack?”

{No.  It wasn’t an attack spell, but more like a teleportation one similar to the Guild Gates.  But there shouldn’t be a mortal alive that can do something like this.}

“That’s because it wasn’t a mortal that did this, Sun Fox.”

That mysterious voice seemed to come from everywhere all at once.  The bridge shook and I thought a few stones from it came free and fell into the ocean below, though the sound of stone hitting water was drowned out by the deep, resonating voice.  We, not knowing what was happening, put our backs to one another as we readied our weapons and magic, keeping Pram in the center of us to protect her.

“Hehehe.  Worry not, little ones, I mean you no harm.  In fact, this is an invitation, but first, introductions are in order.”

This time, we could hear it.  From far down below we heard the ocean moving strangely.  We stepped toward the edge of the bridge and looked down below.  A massive shadow under the water began moving.  The shadow stretched as far as we could see, though it was wider right under the bridge than anywhere else.  Several minutes passed as the shadow continued to grow until the top of something breached the surface.  Black scales that shimmered in the sunlight due to the water as well as just being naturally glistening.

“*Gasp!!!*”

“Keeno?  What’s going on?”

The panic in Pram’s voice was evident as the head of the massive beast finally fully emerged from the water.  It’s golden, slit pupil eyes seeming to gaze far into the distance and a massive, forked tongue slithered in and out tasting the air.

“Put your weapons away, we won’t be able to do anything to him.”

“Are you sure Keeno?” Freya said as she gripped her swords tighter. “Even you can’t do anything?”

“Gods can’t die, Freya.”

“Indeed, tiny wolf.  Though I do think that this little Rune Fox would be able to do something if she were to sacrifice her soul to do so.”

“I’m not doing that.  I don’t really trust Seidr Runes for several reasons.  And I already killed Thor.”

“Hmm. Ah. I see the old fool didn’t erase every hub in that world before his end.  Though quite belated, I apologize for the mismanagement of our tools in your old world, little Rune Fox.  I’ll have to poke my head into Valhalla and give the old fool a talking to.”

“As sensational as this meeting is, I’d like it if you don’t peer into my past.”

“Apologies, little Rune Fox. It’s, as the mortals say, a side effect from Ragnarok. Ever since that bastard hit me back in time, I’ve seen the last of everything I look at. It’s why I spend so much time asleep. But enough of this, allow me to make myself more presentable and we can have some tea.”

In a flash a tall man appeared in front of us. Golden eyes, hair and skin the same ebony black as the serpent and a snake scale pattern suit. Above us the shadow of the serpent was still present, though its eyes were vacant.

“This avatar should do well for the moment. Ah, where are my manners. Tiny friends of the Rune Fox, my name is Jormangandr, I have too many titles to recount, so my most notable one shall be World Serpent. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

Jormangandr bowed deeply in greeting before turning and stalking into the inn, walking in a way similar to a slithering snake.

“There are a lot of things we need to talk about, Keeno, but I feel it’s best left for later. I don’t think we want to be rude to this…person?”

Freya’s concern was understandable so we followed behind Jormangandr for tea.

Chaos Realm:

Luna: I’m going to get Ophidia. I wanna see them fight!

I’ll make the popcorn.

Luna: Yes!

Order: Shouldn’t you be stopping her?

Don’t tell me you aren’t curious who’d win?  The old, more experienced world serpent, or the younger, more broken one?

Order: …How much are we betting on Ophidia?

As much as we want.