Roland sighed audibly as he trudged through the once beautiful Zarla. At one point the area had been a lush and ancient forest, but at some point, it had been overtaken by some odd crystallization disease that covered it in its entirety. In fact, Roland could still detect the remains of branches and leaves under the think crystalized formations that surrounded them. The disease had even extended to animal life, creating odd living rock-like creatures for various adventurers to subdue. Luckily today was not such a day, as he and @Magi Heart had been tasked to find the remnants of a specific flower nearby one of the last Yldian encampments. Most of the stronger creatures resided more rooted in the forest, meaning at most they should be only dealing with small cat sized monsters who were flushed out of the deeper recesses of the forest. Turning Roland eyed Magi Heart for a moment, wheels turning as he tried to get a sense of her motivations. When he had first met the girl, she had seemed so wide-eyed and innocent, and it appeared the game had stripped her of that in a rather brutal fashion. The fact that she continued to play honestly baffled the swordsman. "So..." he said breaking a long awkward silence that had befallen them, "From what I understand the flower is supposed to resist the crystallization disease plaguing these lands..." Roland paused a moment before adding, "They hope they can find out why, synthesize a cure from it, and bring back some of the forest's original splendor." Roland let the words hang in the air, barely paying attention to her response, partially not even expecting one. It was a gruff voice from behind that shocked him. "Huhmp, that's right!" Roland turned to look behind him; he was almost forgotten the laughably stout elf that plodded along behind them. A local alchemist, who seemingly cooked as well as he crafted potions. It was his idea to go off on this journey in the first place, contacting Roland due to his background in alchemy. Roland had initially declined the job offer forcing the man to look for others to join but joined at the last moment when he had seen Magi and the man preparing for their expedition. A glean of sweat covered the wannabe adventurer, as the heat of the forest got to him. "It..." the man wheezed, "Should be right around here...". Roland didn't understand why he had decided to come, finding a flower in this crystal tomb, that was in fact not a crystal seemed remarkably easy. Here the man was. Roland sighed turning to Magi and asking, "So..why do you keep playing this game anyway?" He asked rather bluntly. Whatever reply Magi would have had was cut off however as the man suddenly let out a blood-curdling screech. Shocked, Roland unsheathed his blades, twirling around looking for the unseen enemy before the portly man finally added, "The flower! It's right there!" The elf thumbed a sausage sized finger in the direction of clearing up ahead. Had they been any other forest Roland would have pegged the clearing for a large pond, hidden amongst the tree. However, as he moved closer he realized the entire expanse was covered with a thick layer of dark blue crystal. In the middle of the 'lake' stood a single blue flower, waving delicately in the wind. Cautiously Roland tested the sheet of crystal with his sword, slamming it as deep as he could into the crystal lake's shore. Once he was convinced it could withstand their weight he sighed and said, "We should be careful, this doesn't seem practically safe." The Alchemist seemed to agree as he made no move forward, "Well! I'll leave it to you two then! Be sure to get the entire root for me ok!?" Roland sighed again, becoming increasingly worried it was becoming a far too common habit of his, before moving forward. He had expected the surface to be slick, however as Roland tracked forward he found surprisingly reliable footing, making it all the way over to the flower without any issues. "I guess... I'll have to cut it out..." he said to himself pulling out his blade. "NO!!" Screamed the alchemist, "Let the girl use her magic! We can't risk you cutting up the roots!" Roland shook his head taking a long moment to compose himself before shouting, "I'll have yo-" His words were suddenly cut off however as the ground suddenly gave out beneath him without a sound. One moment, the lake was full, the next it was a dark, and ever-descending carven of nothingness, of which at least Roland stood in the middle of. Without cartoon-esque physics to hold him mid-air for a moment so that he could think of his demise, he fell quickly into the depths of the unknown.
It had been a while since Magi traveled with Roland. The magical girl always thought he was a nice person, and had some qualities about him that always made her think of a main character in certain anime. Not ones she actually watched much of course! Maybe he just wanted to play a character like that. That was cool beans. More heroes were never a bad thing. Magi had concern for him though because last time she had quested with the protagish swordsman, he had been drinking. Drinking was not a good trait! Thankfully he wasn't now, so maybe he decided to be a good role model to others. Magi Heart hoped so anyway. The quest was to find a flower that could cure the weird sickness that happened in the crystal land. Gee whiz... Magi was becoming creeped out by how she could not seem to stay away from the strange place. Now once again she was walking through the quiet crystal forest. At least this time she had Roland! They had survived being drowned and electrocuted together! So this.. was nothing right? They also had a plump alchemy person with them! He seemed nice! Magi nodded as Roland reminded her of the quest goal. She had gotten over her shock from her death long ago. She was happy that during that terrible time for her few people actually were around. It was hard but Magi was once again trying to do things right. Roland's question then came... why was she still playing? Wowzers... Magi thought she had the answer... but honestly deep down she was not really sure anymore. "Well...um. I like helping people... and I have to um... haha." The girl gave a nervous laugh as she tried to figure out what the draw was. She had made some friends. Maybe that was enough. the desire to keep them from harm, to prove that being a magical girl and fixing this mean world was possible. The story on the tablet helped keep her going. Eldhi helped, Alphabet helped... even people like Roland and the old lady she met the mushroom forest. Truly though it was a question that proved something, Roland was aware of how it bothered her. Magi was not coming off very strong or heroic. "I'm okay... really! A heroine of love and justice can't drop her magic brooch over a few um... rough times right?" After a little while, they reached a large crystal... uh, lake or something.The flower was there too! "Yay! Now we can help those who got sick!" Roland went ahead of her and the alchemist. Magi suddenly had a bad feeling... oh gosh... here it goes. The crustal 'water' below Roland shattered and he fell down into the darkness! Magi ran up and stared into the hole... it was so deep what should she do? Wait that's not the right way to think Magi! The girl shook her head and made a resolved look. She had to save him... somehow. "Stay here mister! I'll save him!" The heroine wannabe closed her eyes and leaped down praying she wasn't going to die again... anything but that. "Save him? What about my flower you dumb kid?! Hey!" The man was left alone with a annoyed look on his face. @Roland Rutledge
Blackness overtook Roland as he fell deeper and deeper into the abyss eventually landing on a smooth platform that zipped and zagged downwards in almost every direction before plummeting Roland forth onto a cold stone floor. @Magi Heart was not too far behind quickly spouting from the same entrance and landing on top of Roland with a thud. Roland groaned as he pushed himself away thankful that the girl weighed next to nothing and forcing himself to get his bearings. What he found himself in was some ancient ruin carved directly intricately out of the stone that laid beneath the forest. Currently, the two adventurers stood in a narrow passageway illuminated by odd crystal formations that had grown into the form of a ghastly chandelier. Spinning his head, Roland noted the tunnel from which they fell, curved massively upwards hardly providing an escape route. The only path was the one forward who led towards two crystalized doors which were colored blue and pink respectively. Roland sighed, "Well this is a fine predicament." he said eyeing Magi, "Are you ok? From the fall? Your shoes may have wings, but I'm assuming those don't work." He didn't exactly like dragging her into a possibly dangerous situation like this one, but he was happy he was not alone. Stepping forward he inspected his two options. Both the doors were identical, save their color which seemed to glow from runes carved directly into the door. In fact, the doors completely were covered in the same cryptic carvings that made Roland shiver. He wouldn't be surprised if it were some ancient language but it wasn't based on anything he had ever seen. Frowning he spotted a small depress in each of the doors that acted as a handle of sorts. "Well not much choice here but to move forward.." Roland said as he moved to the blue door, pushing his hand into the small depressed area. As he did so, the pink door began to glow even brighter than before, but the blue remained unchanged and unmoving. Frowning Roland moved to the pink door, trying the same method, this time the blue door lit up, and the pink door remained the same. "I could be wrong but I think each of these doors unlocks the other, we may have to split up here..." Slowly Roland moved back to his original door, pressing the indented area with his palm, causing the pink door to light up. Roland motioned Magi towards the pink door, "Go ahead and give it a go, let's see what happens." As soon as Magi's hand pressed upon the indent both doors began to shimmer even brighter than before. Quickly the doors started to phase into an ethereal form, drawing the adventurers into them against their will. Despite struggling with all his might, Roland was pulled into the doorway, seemingly entering another realm that bathed him in the blue and white light. The colors streaked by him as he lost sight of the world he had come from, plummeting him forward with unfathomable speed. He began to move so fast; he thought he could see the particles of light surrounding him, and even worse he saw several shooting past him. This only lasted a few moments before he was struck by the first beam light. The bluish rod of color slammed into him, piercing his brain, and reverberating through his body. Rod after rod, streaked in his direction, striking him, as Roland was unable to move anywhere but onward. Soon his vision began to blur, as all he could see was a bright bluish hued light before he passed out.
"Woah!" Magi slid down a long path and eventually with a surprisingly soft plop, found herself sitting on Roland's back. The girl lifted herself off of him and looked around with curiosity. This was new to her, as she mostly kept away from ruins, dungeons and scary places that would end up like Clockwork Ruins did. She was not really in a hurry to experience something like that again. Yet now she was in some kind of secret dungeony place... oh boy. "Sorry if I hurt you! Um... I can heal you if you want?" Roland seemed a lot more interested in the place they were in than any injury he would have gotten from having a twelve year old girl fall on him. The two doors in this weird place would glow and they had a colorful design. It was pretty different than other places. A blue and pink door. When Roland explained how he thought it worked. Magi could only nod. Sometimes she figured things out but most times she just went along with older peoples wisdom in situations like this. She was not very confident in her own ingenuity for these things. The idea that they might have to split up worried her but she went with it. "O-okay... I'll go try. If anything bad happens I'll help you! Heart promise!" Magi made a symbol of a heart with her hands to show her conviction to protect those who traveled with her. Especially a good person like Roland. She went to her door. Pink... at least it was cute. "Here goes..." Magi's white gloved hand pressed on the indent and the doors both began glowing. Magi Heart's face brightened up at the good sign that they were on the right track.. for whatever they needed to do to get out of here. She hoped the quest giving guy was okay while they were so far from being able to protect him. "Cool beans! It worked!" No sooner than when she said those words, Magi felt a incredible force reach out and literally pull her through the door! Her body flailed wildly as she waved her arms trying to figure out what was going on. She was shooting forward now with pink and white lights streaming past.. this was like well... really scary but also kinda neat too? "I'm flying! Wowzers!" And then a massive sphere of light appeared in the tunnel of pink and white. It was warm... and it almost seemed to be whispering. Magi reached out her hand to it but could not reach it. It was calling her, it was saying something important... but see could not hear it! She begged with all her being to know what it was saying, what such a wonderfully loving light could be wanting from her! Then everything went black. All of the colors... all of the warmth. Magi's eyes slowly opened. What was going on? What was that? Was it a dream or a illusion or...? She sat up now on the floor somewhere. She still could not tell because everything was so disorienting. This game was so strange all the time. Couldn't a dungeon place be kinda... normal sometimes? "Roland! Mister Swordsman are you alright?!" Magi said as she tried to get off the ground, immediately worried and hoping somehow they were still together after that weird experience. @Roland Rutledge
An annoyingly high pitched voice reached out to Roland from outside the void. The noise reverberated within his skull, painfully reverberating between his temples. With a groan Roland forced his eyes open, dazed by a white light high over head, he struggled for several moments to refocus his vision. A flick of his wrist allowed his condition status bar to appear, it seemed he had some sort of timed debuff effecting his character, but it looked like it would end soon. Turning he managed to spot @Magi Heart, whose voice he had heard before asking, "Wel, ek het dit nie regtig verwag nie. Is alles reg?" As he spoke he realized the words felt foreign in his mouth, as if the light show before had somehow manage to short circuit his brain. Roland coughed before trying again, "Are you ok?" After taking a moment to ensure her safety he stood up, happy she had insisted upon healing him earlier, his back would have likely still been hurting if he hadn't. The debuff was slowly wearing off, and his vision was fully recovering allowing him to see around them. It seemed they were in some sort of a cave, with a lush forest floor mere feet away. Quickly Roland ran towards the mouth of the cave, entering into the wilderness, noting the missing crystallized fossils, and quickly making out a large castle to the east. "We are in Acedus?" Roland said with a bit of wonder unsure of how they had made the journey. Roland turned to ask Magi what she had seen before encountering a pop up window, that took up a large portion of his screen. Congratulations! You Have Learned Aeromancy As Roland read he swore he could hear a cackling in the distance as if some mad man just had his wish granted. The thought filled him with shivers. "I think..." he said eventually, "We should go..."
Magi Heart was relieved to see Roland was okay. He said some weird stuff at first but luckily it passed. Yay! Now where were they? The only way to go was towards the light up ahead. Magi followed Roland out into a place with a lot of tall trees and... "Hey look it's Dormont! We got transported... ummm... oh gosh what about the..." Magi ran ahead of him and turned back with a small smile. It was nice to be away from that weird place... even if Astorea as a whole was not one of her favorite places either. All they ever talked about was war and politics and things that were far removed from the path of love and justice. At least it was not lifeless like Crystallized Zalra. The girl suddenly felt something strange. Roland seemed to stop for a second and check his status. Why? Did he get something? Did his masteries level up? That would be pretty cool beans! She kept feeling strange though and now she was getting worried. Magi looked at her hand and arms, the glanced behind herself. No one was there... weird. "Um... so I guess that's it right? I wonder what that place was for?" Magi remembered what happened only faintly. There was voice, like a whisper. A warm light. Maybe the game glitched or something? Magi wasn't sure but she saw a strange worried look on Roland's face that made her think that maybe... just maybe something happened that would be better left unsaid. "Yeah let's go see if we can find the alchemist!" What Magi did not know was that in her UI was a small blinking light where there should not be one. When she would finally notice it. This would appear... Congratulations! You Have Learned Phantasmia Elsewhere there was a quiet nod of a head and closing of eyes. Hopefully this small gift of power would help keep this soul from another world on the right course to fulfill her purpose....
