Interface: Hollows and Bones

Chapter Six: Journey

The stench of smoke and blood made him cough as he trudged forward on the rocky terrain of his town; Vailand. The gash in his stomach had stopped stinging him thanks to the female warrior who saved his life; Tina. He would have tried talking to her, but all he could do was thank her before he passed out. He had been awoken by the other male warrior, a mean guy with a lightning scar across his nose. He had tried to gather his thoughts when Ag popped up again.

He'd since then been fiddling with the system in his head. He acquired a reward of two ES that he'd later known to be Essence. This essence would help him improve his magical energy. He was a Order 0 Sorcerer and he was currently at level One. His level progress had increased to fifty percent after he improved it with the 2ES he was rewarded with. Ag had notified him that missions would be harder as they progressed.

He was currently reading about his skills, Heaven's Winter and Hell's Wrath.

/Skill Library:

Heaven's Winter: A skill that allows the user to reduce the temperature of an area or surface they contact. Users can reduce the temperature of such surfaces to the extent of freezing them. Skill costs: 10 MP.

Hell's Wrath: This is a skill that allows the user to forcefully explode objects they contact with immense heat. Skill costs: 50 MP/

He shook his head, he only had five MP. The MP; Mini Points were points he could use to unlock his skills and use extraordinary abilities. Even though he didn't feel any different, he felt he indeed had extraordinary abilities.

A loud shrill cry reached his ears, snapping him out of the system. He turned back to see one of the remaining survivors, a redhead woman on the ground screaming.

"Curse all Magicians! Curse you all!". The shrill scream followed.

The lady that'd saved his life walked towards her and smiled, she extended her hand towards the wailing woman and said one word.

∆Rest!∆

The woman collapsed, fast asleep on the ground and immediately, two other warriors lifted the woman. Coral turned forward, they'd almost reached the base of their town, where Tina claimed a 'transit curtain' was. The town had been wiped off from the attack of the two beasts they called balmoxes. From the look of it, those creatures were not strange, they seemed to be a normal phenomenon that plagued them.

According to the bits and pieces picked up by him. The balmoxes seemed to be a series of monsters they have been at war with for decades. Tina and her friend were what the people called warlocks. For some reason, the people didn't have as much faith in them, in fact they had zero faith. They were skeptical and angry with their overall authorities for sending just two warlocks to help them. The other warriors were humans and what they called magical practitioners. Coral had no idea what they were, so he kept quiet.

After a while, they made it to the base of the town and Tina ordered the seventeen of them who survived and the other seven warriors to stop. She picked out a book and started to recite something from it. She chanted softly so silently that all Arlo sensed were hums.

When she finished chanting, a bright light covered the space and they all had to close their eyes, by the time they opened them, they were in another place entirely. It was daylight here and the sun made Coral shut his eyes instinctively again. After a while he grew accustomed to the effect of the sunlight and he took in his surroundings.

What he noticed first were the blue plants surrounding them, and how they possessed large leaves and seemed more alive, with the way the people looked at their surroundings they weren't a bit surprised, it seemed to be the norm here. He glanced up at the sky and a greenish cloud spread across the expanse, the source of daylight wasn't one but two small suns. He was still enjoying the scenery when he noticed the red uniformed guards that were surrounding them. They were still as statues and as cold as ice, their weapons were long red lances that transmitted the murderous intent their helmet-covered eyes might hold. Their amour held the insignia of a feather and a quill woven together by a vortex of threads.

Tina spread her hands out in surrender and spoke a word that Arlo forgot immediately. In an instant, the red guards separated and let them pass. Tina walked forward, the mean warrior and the other seven warriors led the crew through a majestic gate the red guards were guarding.

Coral's attention was still on the green sky and the emerald clouds floating and sometimes obscuring the ray from the two suns lying parallel to each other, but his attention was soon allured by the bustling city they walked into.

Normally Coral wasn't used to this kind of sight, he could only have seen them from movies and images of his former world, but being right here in the middle of this city. It was exhilarating, so much that he gasped.

The city grounds were made of gravel, all arranged in a straight lateral line. The side roads were scattered with people and houses made of bricks and woods. The people were screaming and waving at the soldiers as they led the people. Above the grounds, far long into the horizon, three large arrow-like structures floated like pieces of a large machinery. They stood, spooky and majestic, black and gray like a godlike engine overseeing the vast land.

Soon they had left the main road, and more soldiers had joined them, some of them had started to carry more of the ones who could barely walk among the seventeen. One of them even came up to Coral, but he shrugged them off. It didn't take more than a few minutes till they reached a building that was built in connected rows and columns that seemed to extend forever. The other soldiers that joined them began to disperse, carrying different people into different sections