Chapter XVIII: Tenebris Quibus Jussa Explentibus

"Achieew!"

"You sneeze like a kitten", Mea remarks after hearing Solis' adorable sneeze.

"What is that? I felt something warm in my ribs, I think", Solis wonders.

"Maybe someone's thinking lewd thoughts about you", she humorously suggests.

"I don't know what lewd means...." Yet again he pleads his innocence.

They've been riding from Xenovia for a few hours now. It's barely afternoon, but they've almost made it to their destination: Fortuna's Citadel.

 There was a story about that place. A long time ago, it used to be a thriving city. It was home to a famous apothecary who could heal any type of wound and cure any kind of disease or sickness. He was challenged one day to create a potion that could bring the dead back to life, but it backfired and instead zombified the corpse he tested it on. Soon it infected the entire town. It ravaged the people like a plague and threw the place to a world of chaos. By then, the apothecary had been blamed for all of this, so he thought of a plan to exterminate the infected before it could spread. He cast a spell on himself, a spell that transformed him into an obsidian studded dragon to eliminate the ones that are sick. But since he was overcome by this power, his new form killed all the townspeople, both infected and uninfected. Now, it sits there on its nest at the top of the highest tower, haunted by the maddening echoes of the women and men he once knew. 

"Why are we stopping?", asks Credo inside the carriage, wondering why they stopped in front of the steps going to Fortuna's Citadel.

"Eve?", says Anna, opening the door through the wagon as she peers outside, "What's wrong?"

"Just a little detour", she jumps off the vehicle, "Come on, Solis."

"Hey, what's going on", Nash barges and "accidentally" pushes out Anna with her... huge rack .

"Watch it!", she sneers.

"Oh, sorry!"

"You guys sit tight", Mea says as Solis follows her lead. "This'll be over real quick."

"Where are you guys going?", Credo asks them.

"'Diba sabi mo hindi pwede sa'kin ganitong spada?", Solis replies with a question while unsheathing Kirin.

"May spada diyan?"

"Oo, makikipag-sapalaran lang kami sa dragon."

"Oh, well, you expect us to wait out here? I wanna help too."

"Mabilis lang 'to. Nanakawan lang naman namin siya."

"Hurry up then."

"Be back in a flash!", Solis dashes toward the rickety wooden stairs with Mea following behind along with each other's Anima scurrying from the vehicle.

"Credo, could that language possibly be Elemental?", Lanette inquires as she exits the carriage.

"Yeah, why?"

"Does that mean they're gonna steal a sword from a dragon?", she tries to decipher their conversation.

"Something like that."

"They're gonna what?", Anna interrupts.

"He says they're gonna steal a sword from a dragon that lives in there."

"I don't think it's just a dragon", she explains, "People who've been there says it's an [1]Elder Dragon."

"That just means it's older, right?", Nash clarifies.

"No!", Rylai hops out followed by Lina, "[1]Elder Dragons are much more powerful than regular dragons. Some posses [1]the power to alter weather conditions while others change the nature of the very food-web of a stabilized ecosystem!"

"Really?" She squats to face the little cat then begins caressing its forehead. "You're so cute when you act smart."

"Stop...", she demands but then gives up to the bewitching sensation and eases her eyes with each stroke. "How... alluring", she twitches her ears.

"Me too! Me too!", Lina insists with both paws raised.

Nash starts patting her head too, "There, there...."

"What do you wanna do in the mean time?", Anna tells Credo.

"Well...", he fishes out a pair of blue dice from his pocket, "I still got these from that bet we made with A'melle." 

"You're...", she blushes just enough to make her look flustered, "...still holding onto that?"

"It's the only thing I managed to save from our childhood", he plays with each die in his hand.

While putting the two cats to sleep, Nash sees the dice which gives her an idea of what they could do.

"Hey guys!", she stands up, "Are any of you familiar with the game 'The King's Dice'?"

"I think I heard that from my father before, but I don't really know what it is", Anna replies.

"Never heard of it", Credo acknowledges.

"In that case...", Nash grabs the dice from his hands, "This just makes things more exciting!"

And so Nash begins to explain the rules for them, and they begin playing. 

The rules for the game? Maybe I'll tell you later, my dear reader. For now, let us explore the ancient ruins of Fortuna's Citadel. The writer probably has a lot of fun planned for our main character, right writer?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Smells horrible", Tenenbaum remarks while covering her tiny nose with her antennae.

The place was pretty much like your regular abandoned castle, except for the whiff in the air, of course. It kinda smells like rotten eggs cooked in frog's blood in such a way that it forms a cellular membrane that resembles that of a carrion flower's. By the rusted gate, there was a sign posted in a large piece of cloth: "A dreadful storm awaits those who enter!" The old marble city walls still stay as sturdy as they were, but not enough to withstand an earthquake. Through the entrance way were snuffed-out torches and wild vines crawling through the cracks on the blocks that make up the hall. Ahead of the two pairs was a large door that leads to the interior of the citadel with another sign, this time vaguely painted on a piece of wood plastered against it: "Point of no return"  

"Should I be worried?", Solis speaks up from his excitement.

"By no means should you be", Mea answers.

Solis pushes the door open. It took quite an effort to open it since the hinges were almost rusted to immovability, plus a lot of dust puffed up from the sudden force. 

"Ladies first?", Solis permits.

Mea walks in with Lux after she takes one of the torches conveniently located at the side of the door then lights it up with Lux's miniature spark. Solis follows with his cat, and saw before himself the shattered remains of the castle's town square. Dead bodies were scattered around the ruined stalls while some were already part of the soil where wild plants grow. An unnatural storm rages above them, causing thunders to echo through the ruins and black clouds to block out the sun. Good thing they got a torch.

"Great. Just when I thought I wouldn't be taking a bath for a while", Mea complains as she gets herself soaked in the heavy rain. She pulls up her hood, then proceeds through the dark. I dare say that she looks so adorable when she's got her hood on.

"You were thinking of giving her your coat, were'n't you?", Tenenbaum spitefully whispers on Solis' ear.

"Shut up, Tenenbaum", he follows her.

He treads lightly, trying to navigate his way through the forsaken vending areas and broken sign posts. The dead litter the floor, giving him that creepy feeling in zombie movies where you hope these damn things stay dead. Not to worry, though. These guys are burnt to a crisp. The writer's got a phobia for zombies coming back to life and gnawing against a fictional character's neck, so we won't be seeing any tragic infection action here. But then, due to his surveying and uneasy thoughts, he loses sight of the light that guides him. Literally.

"Um...", he looks around to find her, "Damn. Where'd she go?"

"Over there!", Tenenbaum sees a glistening light.

They go and run toward it to avoid being left behind, but they already were.... When they get to it, it was just another torch hung up on a stall with a wanted poster of Scorcher next to it.  

"Where the hell are they?"

"Hey, bro", they both halt, "I think I smell something...."

[2]"Oh... my glob", Solis sees something striding limp from afar. Slowly more and more of them make their way toward him.

He turns to run like hell, but before he knows it, they're already coming for him from every side. Frightened like a little lost kid, he pulls out Kirin from its sheathe and tries to fend them off. Tenenbaum is able to kill these things since disabling body fluids means destroying the substance that causes the zombification. Still, it's not enough to keep the bodies from piling up and the severed parts from coming back to life.

Damn it, writer! I thought you said no zombies?

It wasn't long until more of them came and held him down. They surround him and gnaw through the flesh on his neck whilst he screams for help. They took turns biting him and nibbling through his innards, until he woke up. 

Oh, I see what he's doing here.... The writer is screwing with us!

Solis wakes up, still under the dark rainy sky. He was laying on the streets with Tenenbaum nibbling the side of his neck to open his eyes. It appears he got knocked out for some reason.

He tries to get up, "What happened?"

"Your resistance against magic is pretty low", Lux tells him.

"My what is what?"

"Because your mana is so low, your resistance against magic is also down", the golden cat explains further, "There are toxic fumes here that affect Humans; Elementals are able to resist them, but your body could barely stand the viral air."

"Viral air? You mean I can catch a cold by just breathing?"

"Not just a cold, baka", says Mea, blushing and avoiding eye contact with him, "You would've been infected with a virus that zombifies the host."

"WHAT?", he stands up straight. "Does that mean I could be a walking corpse by now!"

"Relax", Tenenbaum says, "We've already taken 'precautionary measures', so don't worry about it."

Solis glares at her, "I don't like how that sounds...."

"We better get going", she goes ahead, still blushing.

Lux climbs up her shoulder and whispers, "So, how did your first kiss taste like?"

"That doesn't count!", she angrily replies.

"Really?", she grins mischievously, "Then why didn't you let us do the 'resuscitation process'?"

"He was gonna die!", she clarifies, "Besides, [3]it's not like I like him or anything...."

"You're so cute when you suppress your emotions with an aggravated facade!", Lux comments. To translate it into a more simpler statement, she's a tsundere. "Don't worry. I'm sure your childhood friend wouldn't mind you kissing someone else."

"How about we focus on what we're doing here?", she states, "I'll definitely find him after all of this is over."

"Hai-hai", Lux reassures, "Goshuushou-sama."

"Hey, wait up", Solis strides through the dark to reach her. We wouldn't really wanna see our main character get eaten by zombies again, would we?

"Keep up, would you?", she waits for him then continues moving once he's close enough.

The sound of a bolt of lightning cracks through the echo of the rain falling heavily from the gray sky. It's actually pretty convenient that Mea isn't one of those dirty attention-w****s who act like they're scared of thunder just to haphazardly cling onto someone they don't even like! 

Do you have any idea what it's like to get the wrong idea every damn time! It's absolutely disheartening! I... sorry... looks like I did it again.

As they tread lightly through the wafting of decomposing corpses, (Hopefully, they stay dead this time) something sparkles faintly atop the tower at the end of their way. it was a medium, one-handed sword with an epitaph inscribed on its blade, impaled next to the flag that beats from the tower. 

"Is that shiny thing it?", Solis questions.

"Looks like a sword to me", she dashes to go get it, only to be pulled back by Solis right before shes gets struck by lightning.

"Whoa! This guy's huge!", Tenenbaum remarks as she gazes upon the colossal black dragon, sitting atop the tower.

Huge wings, black diamond scales, and a spiked tail make it look like those dragons you usually encounter in dungeons where you have to rescue the princess. It walked in a quadrupedal manner and took flight over the intruders, further darkening the skies. It swoops down and lands behind them, crushing some of the stalls under its feet. Quite a thrilling sight for any Slayer, if I do say so myself, save for the fact that it can potentially take his life. Solis has hunted a lot of large monsters before, even [1]Elder Dragons on some occasions, but he's never seen anything this powerful before.

"He looks like a cross between a [1]Lunastra and a Daora", Tenenbaum suggests.

"And a big one, at that", said Solis backing away.

"Could you hold him back while I get the sword?", Mea requests. She puts out the torch now that their eyes have adjusted to the dark.

"No problem!", he unsheathes his blue blade, excited to tangle against an unfamiliar enemy.

"Lux, you stay with him", she orders as she hastens to get the weapon.

"Ryokai!", Lux hops off her shoulder.

Solis takes a good look at the black dragon. Slowly, it crawls toward him on all four legs with an intimidating look in its soulless yellow glare, and Solis just stares right back at him. He tries to read its movements through the way it motions itself, the way it's wings stay down, the reason why it's not flying, and the reason why it's not showing any teeth.

"Why have you come here, Demon?"

Did that dragon just talk? He did, didn't he? I didn't know he could talk! Why's he talking? And why does his voice sound like [4]Morgan Freeman's?

"Oh, you can talk", says Solis, less surprised as I am, "I thought you were just being territorial."

"Territorial?", he blurts in an arrogant tone, "I am the Great Embalmer, Plumbum!"

"A black Elder Dragon that shoots static electricity from its mouth... named Plumbum?", Solis plays him with his words.

Tenenbaum joins in, "That name kinda blows!"

"It's like it's trying to pull down your reputation's pants!", Solis keeps on insulting.

"WHAT!"

An even more bombastic blast of lightning strikes from the other side of the map, nearly causing Mea to slip and fall from the tower that she's climbing. Back in her village she was taught to use her hook blade for climbing, in which I'll discuss in the latter chapters. What I don't know is why she won't just use her ethereal chains to pull herself up. I guess I'll ask the writer why later.

"Plumbum is the Latin name for Lead(Pb)!", the dragon argues, "How could it possibly blow?"

"Of course it blows!", Tenenbaum still goes for it.

"Yeah", Lux also participates, "Ferrum(Fe-Iron), Aurum(Au-Gold), or even Wolfranium(W-Tungsten) would've made your argument on your name more conclusive." Actually Lux, it's Wolframium, not Wolfranium.

"Seriously", Solis pisses him off even further, "Who the hell would get scared of something named Plumbum?"

[5]"You, a mere Demon, make a mockery of me!", he charges up a storm in his mouth.

"He thinks we're Demons?", Solis asks Lux who shrugs as an answer.

A destructive amount of intense plasma gathers inside Plumbum's mouth, set to bursts forth towards the Slayer. But before it's able to get the right trajectory, Mea throws the sword to Solis from the high walls of the tower. 

"Catch!", the sword glides downward.

"Not catching!", Solis evades the sword instead of catching it, causing it to scrape the dragons face. This made the energy that he built-up backfire and blow up in his mouth. The sword gets flung upward from the resulting explosion, and this time Solis tries to catch it. He leaps upward then grabs it by the handle, causing the sword to grow brighter as it gives him a feeling that he hasn't felt for a while.

His insides start to shiver yet his mind calms down. This is probably the side effect from that sudden burst of energy when he came in contact with the weapon. It somehow replenished his depleted mana and gave him much more power than he ever had before. It seems his Elemental Affinity matched the weapon exactly as it is, almost perfectly.

He sheathes Kirin and holds the golden sword in his hand. "Feels natural....", he says in bewilderment, astounded with his new found power.

"Why don't you try lighting him up?", Mea suggests. She recently just got down from the tower. 

"Good idea."

Plumbum rises back up from the wreckage of the city and finds a chance to retaliate. But before he knows it, Solis already has him where he wants him.

"Boom!"

With a snap of his fingers, the sun breaks through the awful tempest that surrounds the castle and severly damages the black dragon with its ultraviolet rays. 'Tis a beautiful sight indeed to witness a rare monster being roasted alive, especially for our main character who's enjoying the view with a grin in his face.

The light fades as Plumbum drops while his scales seep out smoke from the burns. He looks up to the Slayer standing before him.

[5]"You... you are not a Demon, are you?"

"Who knows?", Solis replies with indifference in his tone, "I'm not even sure, myself."

"Regardless, you have proven your strength", Plumbum remarks. "Please, grant me my fate."

"Fate? What do you mean 'fate'?"

"I was meant to be slain by someone stronger than me."

"A monster that begs to be killed?"

Slaying beasts should be pretty much a piece of a cake for any Slayer, especially for one like Solis. But when you're a kid and you see something that actually wants to die, it's possible that you'll have a bit of a clash with your conscience. It's kinda like a debate about euthanasia. It's either you let your pity or your morality win. For our main character, he lets his morals win.

"No", he turns the other side of his sword.

Plumbum opens his eyes to confirm his victorious enemy's verdict.

"Why'd you fight me if you just wanted to die anyway?", Solis lowers himself to face the fallen dragon.

"If my life were to be taken from me, I'd rather have it taken by someone I can acknowledge", he sincerely proclaims.

"I'm not killing anyone who still responds to his conscience", Solis replies then stands up. "Besides, there's more to life for a black Elder Dragon other than haunting an abandoned castle."

"So you're sparing me?"

"I have no reason to slay an endangered species. Plus I'm not familiar on giving a quick death to large monsters anyway."

"So be it...."

Plumbum lifts himself up and spreads his large wings, then soars upward, taking the nimbus clouds with him. Wait a minute... where's he going?

"Where do you think he's going?", Tenenbaum asks him.

"Beats me", he shrugs.

Despite the fact that he's an idiot, this kid has a lot more fortitude and resolve than he looks. Osiris taught him many things about respect, honesty, love, goodness and a bunch of other things that give Demons a burning sensation other than using a sword. He's a nice kid, to tell the truth. If only he were less dense and a lot more smarter.... 

Once all four of them were on their way down from the citadel, Mea had already removed her hood, thereby exposing her side-ponytail once again. 

"I need a bath...", she says as she tries to wring her clothes.

"Yeah?", Solis, "Well, I need something to kill!" He cheerfully examines the sword.

"That was a really nice thing you did back there", she states.

"You think so?"

"Yeah", she continues, "I didn't expect you to do that."

"I guess it's the only thing I know besides hunting."

"So what'cha gonna name it?", Tenenbaum implies.

"I think I'll name it... Mercy."

"That name kinda blows, bro"

"Really? I thought it had a ring to it", Solis wonders for a moment.

"What about Grace?", Mea proposes.

"Yeah, that sounds much better", Tenenbaum agrees.

"Grace?", Solis indecisively thinks.

"Well, both of them have similar meanings", Lux supports the proposal. "Basically, mercy means not giving punishment to someone who deserves it, whereas grace means giving compensation to someone who doesn't deserve it."

By then, they've already made it down the steps and back at the carriage, where they find an interesting scene of three women and a man playing "The King's Dice", a game concocted by the writer. The rules are simple:

Each player rolls the dice. He who is fortunate enough to roll the highest is proclaimed the King. The King shall be given the right to give any order to those lower than him. Whosoever wishes to defy the King's orders shall be bestowed the chance to roll the dice again. If his numbers be higher than that of the King's, the round is reset, and all players get to roll again. However, if the odds are against he who rolls again, the cretin shall be given punishment and will not be allowed to roll for the next three rounds.

The writer's pretty meticulous when it comes to the persona of which he writes, isn't he? Hopefully we don't see more of him any time soon.

Credo, Anna, Nash, and Lanette have been playing this game for about, 37 minutes and 29.712 seconds. It's Lanette's turn to be King and her order was for Credo to "tell me if you've had a relationship before". I don't think they've noticed the two have already come back yet.

"Um... What are you guys doing?", Solis questions as Credo tries to dodge the question.

"Oh", Credo reacts, "You guys got the sword, I see."

"Yeah.... Wanna get moving? I really need a bath", Mea suggests.

"Me too", Solis takes off his wet coat.

"Okay, let's go", Credo takes the dice and abandons the game and proceeds to the carriage.

"But what about the game?", Lanette really wants to know.

"Come on. Let's pack-up; we gotta get to Quinholm before sundown", he rides on the driver's seat with Lina. Nash quickly follows and sits on the seat next to it.

"Hey! That's my seat!", Solis complains.

"Oh, come on. You had your chance earlier", Nashor counters.

"Tch. Fine", Solis reluctantly yields, trying to practice his maturity. "We're staying in, Tenen", calls out.

Lanette sighs and follows everyone else inside the vehicle. So now, Nash and Credo are on the front seat and they resume their journey to the Lower Kingdom. 

It's already 1:08 in RWT(Real-World-Time), and now that we have four Elementals together with the proper equipment, maybe it's about time we end this messed up story! Unfortunately, we can't. The writer wants at least fifty agonizing chapters. He's such a pain-in-the-a*s. By the way, if you're wondering why the title is so long it's because I had to translate something very short into something very long.

=====================================================================

1. Both Lunastra and Daora are Elder Dragons, a type of monster from the Monster Hunter series.

2.An expression commonly used in the cartoon series, "Adventure Time".

3.Famous line from tsundere girls.

4. Yeah, his voice calms me down.

5. Dialogue between Cerberus and Dante from Devil May Cry 3

Reviews

[❀Subaru_Nyaa!
..]

Goshuushou?Do you mean Gochisosama? (ごちそうさま)　Goshuushou is different. If you meant to say what people say after they eat, it is Gochisousama which I assume what you meant.

[Oran]

Goshuushou is an expression of pity, like saying "You poor thing", so I actually meant it that way.