Burial (2)

For what felt like almost an eternity, Orion found himself trapped inside of a blanket of nothingness.

Much to his horror he couldn’t hear a single sound nor see a single speckle of light.

All was darkness, all was silent and all was nothing.

After the 13th day he was on the tether of losing his sanity.

Orion was beyond the idea of panic. He understood one of two things had transpired. Either he was killed or he was caught off guard and sealed.

The latter was a hard concept to understand considering he knew very well only a handful of exceptionally gifted folk could pull it off under such circumstances. None of his current predicament made any sense. He could only revel in the soundlessness around him, whilst he sunk into the bosom of madness.

Perhaps this was the underworld. A swift and painless ****. And perhaps that was all someone like him deserved.

Time continued to move and Orion was close to certain that more than 3 weeks had passed. By now he was also confident he had been killed and this was currently the aftermath of ****. But what plagued his mind continually without end was the idea he had no knowledge of how he had died. Orion replayed the scene back to himself over 1000’s of times at this point. But each version of his thoughts ended the same way. The silver-haired fellow clapping his hands and his world subsequently being turned into darkness as a result.

Orion was seated on what felt like nothing. His mind and his heart floated within a sea emptiness. He remembered when one of his most fatal wounds was a deep strike across his chest, a wound he earned from a broad sword dressed in red beetle poison. He spent a good portion of 10 months trying to recover from that. That was during his days as a Bronze Ranked Knight, when he was much too eager with making a name for himself rather than learning the true ways of a warrior

And yet, he would trade this feeling in with that one so many times over.

A warrior? what was that he asked himself. Within the dark world Orion replayed countless images of his past...the regrets, the joys and even the often forgotten about simpler times.

The days of his youth.

He felt a slight feeling of warmth caressing his chest. Finally, it felt as though he had finally accepted his fate.

An ear piercing glint suddenly echoed from somewhere, Orion's lowered helm was jolted by the sound and raised itself. A stream of tears threatened to fall as he beheld a bright golden light sitting in the formless air above him.

"Ori...on...O..Ori....orion...w...Wa...Orion....Orion-Wake up."

Orion drew a deep gasp and awoke to the familiar bright sky above him. His breaths were still labored and he could hear himself wheezing still. Sweat drenched his entire clothe less torso

'Wh-what the fuck just happened to me.' His thoughts soon discovered bloody answers.

"h-h...hey" He heard a broken whisper beside him forcing him to twist his aching body to the side. What he found here almost broke his heart.

Kalfa was laying on her side with a pool of blood gathered beneath her. Wounds covered her entire body as her body twitched every so often. Orion was so speechless and could only slowly stretch a hand out towards her. Gently he caressed her cold arm.

Kalfa creased a bloody smile, "Sto-op...looking at m-me that way-*cough*" A stream of heavy blood poured out from her mouth. Orion was so caught up in the disaster before him that he failed to even notice his surroundings. He quickly picked her up in his arms gently. Her lips had turned purple as the blood had drained away from her face. He was lost in a trance of coldness. This nightmare he thought...how was he supposed to break free from this.

"Hehehe"

He heard an adolescent voice twisting his innards. Orion turned his burning gaze to the area around him, his anger was quenched and replaced with the look of disbelief.

Three figures stood not too far away from him, two of which were suspended in the air with flapping wings and glowing scales against their body

Clarity swiftly returned to Orion as he had just caught on to the reality of things. His eyes trailed west and his heart almost froze upon seeing the lifeless bodies of the two Elves sprawled against the ground. Both Elisa and Aubrey had been piled on top of one another. Orion could no longer sense their Qi. And so he already understood they were dead.

"You should be honored" The voice came from the silver haired fellow in the middle. Only looking at him closer, Orion soon realized his appearance had slightly changed since before. Revealing his bare torso, one could see he was covered in colorful runes and bright scales like a lizard. There was a twisted look of shock mixed in with sheer horror worn across Orions face.

"Who-who are you?" his mouth almost trembled.

"Our Lady doesn't wish for you to die, so be honored we only want to study those 'Gears' you and that beast girl can use. I imagine simply asking you for it wouldn't have bred much feedback. Therefore our hands were **** to act." The silver haired fellow softly explained.

"hehehe senior brother Ryuu-he's here look he's here!" said the girl with red scaly wings.

'They want our gears? so that's their goal...' He felt a deep sadness gathered within his chest, Orion had already learned that once a gear had been bonded with its host, the only way to part with it was in ****. There was a terrible premonition growing inside of him whilst he held the bleeding Kalfa in his arms. Despair had filled his entire mind and he couldn't find a single thought of how to ease her pain.

This Quest was a failure. He knew that much. But he still couldn't shake away the growing doubts within his mind. Demons? since when had demons cared about the Gears of mortals. For one, with their demonic cores there was almost no chance they could be bonded with the weapons bestowed upon by the Gods. Gritting his teeth he could only stammer the same question as before.

"who...are...you..." If his eyes could bring ****, the three flying figures would've fallen by now. The expected response never arrived from the fellows in the sky. But a familiar youthful voice appeared from his rear.

Orion heard the voice echoing through his entire body and almost wished that he had been wrong.

"We are what your kind say we are, no? Are we not demons?" footsteps slowly moved from behind him. To his side Orion noticed a dazzling golden staff with an obnoxious shape of a half moon adorned at the helm.

A dark robed youth soon emerged out from his blind spot. A boy with short dark raven hair. A boy with fair skin with the most dazzling pair of scarlet eyes.

A boy whom he had doted upon for so long ever since he met him back at the capital.

A boy named Vox. The boy who he assumed was dead.