Dawn- An Age Of Darkness

We were led to a guest room, for the time being, to confirm our equipment. This almost felt like the prep time given to players before eventual boss fights. I really hoped that wasn't the case. 

I started checking my ring. "Say, do any of you actually have a plan?"

"NO."

"Yes."

The response was mixed and there was only one yes and it came from Alisa. Ve and the dark knight guy were kind of winging this. While Alisa was the only one who seemed to have any sort of plan.

I actually didn't know why the dark knight guy was here in this room, well maybe I did kind of know, but it almost felt like he was upto something. I actually didn't know his name yet.

"That would be?"

Alisa grinned. "So, assume you're the leader of an army." No assumption necessary, I already was. "And you have a friend who's almost as powerful as you but is constantly growing and you haven't seen him in a few months. Next, he brings in three demigods with him to fight your army and one of the demigods can literally turn into a dragon and cause massacre, one can freeze the entire army and the other can supposedly kill everyone without an issue. If your friend comes over to you and tells you to retreat- not surrender- just retreat, what will you do?" Her tone was velvety and she knew exactly where this was going. 

"That's not a bad plan." Actually, that might have been ingenious. But wait, we were lacking one. "What about the third demi?" Surely she wasn't referring to this dark knight guy?

"That's where your healing powers come in." Her grin intensified. "After meeting Anverosa your mana pool has increased significantly. Why don't you try to open a large enough portal to your ring so we can enter?"

I could see where this was going and I did not like it.

But I didn't have a choice either. 

Opening a portal to my ring was fairly easy as long as the portal was small enough. But the moment it got past a certain threshold, things started to get a bit whacky. And after one point, no matter how much I tried, it was impossible to enlarge it. That one point being, a portal big enough to fit the current Biteria. Speaking of Biteria, she was actually resting on the bed for once and not clinging to me. 

So, I focused. A window opened, but it was barely enough for Alisa to go in, not for me or Ve. Actually, this was a lot bigger than I thought. Probably the biggest I'd open so far.

I didn't want the other guy to go in and he probably knew that. 

Actually, the guy was fairly quiet and understanding of things. He also didn't freak out. I guess he was older than he looked. He still looked old though- probably 40 or so.

Did dwarves live long lives or something?

"Try focusing a little more, would you? You can probably do better." Alisa's mocking tone wasn't helping.

I listened and did try. But it was exponentially harder to open a bigger window.

It almost felt like all my strength was being drained. 

'Flow….' I remembered Anverosa's words and tried to focus a bit more. 

It was working… but the pace was slow and boy was I being drained quickly. I didn't give up. 

I just kept on pouring more and more, and it kept on slowly getting bigger. But in the end, after trying for like a minute or two, it was big enough for me and Ve to slouch our way in, barely. 

Well, that was a lot harder than I thought. And I was pretty much spent too. 

***

Once we were in, the entrance didn't vanish, but it shrank down. 

My sweats and heavy breathing eased up as I didn't consciously have to keep the thing open like before. I was still being drained just at a much slower pace. 

The knight guy stayed behind while the three of us entered. 

Now that I was finally in here, this place really looked infinite. But I knew it wasn't.

The whole space was black. Certain things did keep the place lit though. Those being the mystic blade and spear.  Even Lianne's knife.

There were a lot of things in here. But the one we were here for, or rather the person we were here for was still frozen. 

And strangely, that frozen chunk glowed faintly too. 

But then came the question, why her? And even if we could free her, why'd she help us? I was already indebted to Boriosa and I was just keeping a promise to him, so asking more from his friend, was kind of unfair. 

"Place your hand on it, imbue your body and the ice and try to use the healing powers rather than trying to harm." Alisa wasn't bothered by it though. And since she was there in that forest, she probably knew about the whole thing from the start.

"Why would I try to harm her? And I'm still not sure about imbuing my body. What if the same thing happens like last time?" I sighed. "And not to mention I don't have much mana left anyway."

"Don't worry about it," Alisa said, placing a hand on my back. A symbol appeared on my hand but this time she didn't faint. She did look a lot weak though. "That should be enough to stop any corrosion."

Ve did the same, but she didn't look a tinsy bit weaker. A new symbol also appeared on my hand and I'd actually seen this symbol back in Moire. The nun back then was wearing this on her neck. I kind of remembered since it was bouncing- ahem!

The two symbols were roughly two millimeters away from each other but both gave me auras and strength. 

My mana started to rapidly recover. Well, this sure was convenient.

I tried imbuing myself and after a minute, I knew, it was working. 

My mana coursed through my body and didn't hurt me. I didn't know if the other two kinds of mana were preventing this or maybe I'd just gotten better. But the mana did flow like blood, probably. 

I didn't know. But one thing was for certain. 

It worked. 

I now glowed in three colors. The colors never meshed though. 

For once, even after fully imbuing my body, I didn't burn out, or grow tired. Actually, this felt a lot better. And I definitely felt stronger. 

So without any more disturbances, I touched the crystal and focused. 

At first, nothing happened. 

"Try to imagine healing her. Like you imagined healing yourself," Alisa said.

I did that.

The Ice glowed and did respond, but it wasn't fast enough and the melted part started to freeze again. There were loads and loads of steam. 

The ice, or rather the crystal wasn't the least bit cold. 

"You can try to harm the crystal while trying to heal the girl. It's bit more advance procedure but it could work," Ve said.

How the hell was that supposed to work? Just trying one thing was enough to make me flinch and they wanted more?

Sigh. 

I also tried that. And sure enough, almost failed…. But it worked. The crystal melted faster than before.

There was a massive surge of steam. 

Everything glowed and everything melted. Slowly, the girl fell on the floor.

Her clothes were kind of wet: she didn't move. As I thought she was dead, she proved me wrong and tried to stand up. Her eyes were still closed.

Her clothes kind of, well, got torn. And a lot of things were now exposed. 

'Those are big.' Very big. She was slender like Lianne and definitely looked similar to Lianne: her eyes were a bit slanted though. But maybe just maybe she was at least twice- nay- three times larger than Lianne. I wasn't talking about the height!

"Stop staring at her chest, you moron!" Alisa hissed and made me turn around in an instant. 

I didn't want to, but I had to.  "But I can't help it!" I hissed back. I really couldn't. 

After seeing flats for all my life so far, how could I not appreciate largeness?

Ve sighed, looked at her chest, then at the Elf's, again at hers, and sighed again. 

"I patted her back. I know buddy, mesmerizing, aren't they?" I sighed too.

If a certain someone saw this, I had a feeling she'd have at least tried to kill me. 

Then again hers wasn't that flat. Ve's were though. 

Ve glared rather murderously. I guess I should have just kept my mouth shut. 

Now Alisa sighed. "Sometimes I wonder, why you are such an idiot. But anyway, we're good now."

And with that, I turned around and met a girl who supposedly slept for a few millennia!

***

"What is this, where am I?" I didn't know why but that voice sounded awfully mature. 

The girl in front of me, was totally naked, barely covered by Boriosa's robe. 

I cleared my throat and controlled my emotions. I really might have had a thing for well-endowed elves. "You're inside Boriosa's ring."

Her expression was nonexistent. "Boriosa?" She became quiet. "I see… so he passed away." her voice was awfully low. 

She sighed. 

She took it a lot easier than I thought. And not to mention, she was also very understanding. 

She then looked at me and observed me from head to toe. "You're wearing his ring and pants. I'm assuming you're his heir? Did he put you upto this task of freeing me?" She still didn't have any expression.

"I'm actually not. He trusted me with his belongings and with you."

"I see."

I might have said something rather weird while trying to explain stuff. "No, I mean-"

"It's okay. Did he-" She paused. "Suffer?"

"He lived as an undead for nearly 4 thousand years. But he passed away in peace." I sighed. Just remembering all that made me sad. But I did remember something else. "He told me to tell you one thing." I paused and gathered my courage. "Be free."

She looked at me, a bit shocked. Her eyes glittered, some drops leaked and she silently cried. She didn't wail, she didn't create a scene. She just cried. 

Alisa and Ve patted her while I just stood like a moron. 

'Well, at least I was able to keep one of my promises.'