Chapter Ninety – Cosmic Football – Part Two

Time is elusive to those who grasp at it desperately.

-Lost Archive of God Verun-

Cool air brushes my cheeks, my feet feel like they're sinking into something soft and forgiving. Everything is dark, besides the stars in the sky, and a sliver of light on the horizon. The two balls are still in my arms, good, I set them down. A step forward tells me that I'm walking on sand. A desert world, or maybe a beach. I take a deep breath, the air is dry, definitely not a beach.

"Moonless worlds suck," Tran gripes, "I can't see shit."

"You think that's sunrise or sunset?" Barlow asks in the darkness.

"Sunrise," Mwangi says, the sand around us tremors as he moves through it toward us.

"Vehicles didn't come with us," Greymore growls, throwing something at the ground, "Electronics aren't working either."

It's probably the magical circuits that bind this world. I've been learning a lot about them recently thanks to my new class, namely because Sera keeps complaining about Earth's malfunctioning. It costs her more than it should to show herself there apparently. She suspects that someone, or something has corrupted the Earth's runic lines for their own uses. Not really sure exactly what that means yet. She's not one to answer more than a few questions, even then it's extremely random if she will.

I'd tried telling Senator Alveria about it, and she told me that any information regarding the Earth's magical circuits is highly classified. Which told me, they already know. So many secrets.

I hear a little yip, yip near me, Cortez had asked me to add Niva the fox to the roster with the last open slot. She said she didn't trust the caretaker her mother left, and she was worried they'd study her when we were gone. Fisban hadn't done anything to calm her fears about it either. If Niva's here, then that means so is…

"Definitely dawn," Cortez says, leaning against me, I feel Niva snaking between my leg and rubbing herself on my boot, she better not be getting any ideas about using them as a latrine again.

The light on the horizon begins to grow slowly as it rises upwards. It looks nearly identical to Earth's sunrise. Pulling up my interface, I open the map. It doesn't have a lot of detail on it yet, and the desert stretches past what I can see on it.

"Any quest yet?" Cortez asks.

"Nope, nothing yet, last time it…" I pause. I'm about to finish my sentence, but the hairs on the back of my neck tingle from a strange sensation, not one given by the system, or some magical skill. One derived from a slender finger tracing along my shoulder toward my neck and moving up to grasp my face gently. Their silhouette dances in the sunrise as their eyes begin to glow a deep pink with swirls of colored flares.

"Darling… there you are."

Before I can even think or react, she pulls my face into hers, kissing me on the mouth, it's warm and… what the fuck. I push her off me. Blinking fast, wiping my mouth.

"What the fuck, Mira?" I breathe, shaking my head, "You don't just walk up and kiss people."

"You're not just a person… you're my darling," she says, tilting her head to the side, "Why else would you have rescued me from those…" she stops mid-sentence as Cortez steps between us.

The light of day is becoming just bright enough that I can see her eyebrow twitching up a storm again, "Stay the fuck away from my boyfriend," she seethes.

Mira smiles, then leans closer to Cortez, smelling her, there's a pause before her expression changes, the color of her eyes flickering red, "You smell like that bitch, the one that tried to have me tortured."

Mira's dragon, now the size of Niva since it had its level reduced is standing between Mira's legs. I think her name was Sylfie or something like that, she's sizing up Niva who's puffing out her chest and giving a low growl.

"That bitch is probably my mom," Cortez says, picking up Niva in her arms.

Mira's smirk gets dangerous, her hand moves to raise up, but a ruby colored dagger presses against her neck. Glad I told Clayton to be on guard for Mira, I wasn't sure if she'd be nice or like a hornet's nest after getting kicked.

"Wouldn't do that," Clayton warns with a grin, pressing the blade firmly against her throat.

"You'll find that my skin is tough to cut," Mira says, her eyes traveling slowly to Clayton's dagger.

"That a challenge, sweetheart?"

Her eyes narrow, her fingers unfurl next to her side like she's ready to claw him to death.

"Okay, everyone just relax," I say, nodding to Clayton, "She's a member of the task force." I turn to her, "She's not going to fight anyone, right Mira?"

Her hand curls back and she nods slowly, eyes not moving from the dagger.

"Wow, sexy demon chick is back!" Tran yells, shuffling through the sand, "If like you need a new darling since Jimmy is most definitely taken, you know, like…"

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Her face scrunches as she looks him up and down, her gaze shifts to me, "Why is your servant speaking to me in a familiar manner?"

"He's not my servant."

She sniffs at the air, a look of disgust on her face, "He smells… like a brothel."

"So hot," Tran breathes, seemingly not deterred. He's resilient if anything.

"Leave her alone," I groan, but I somewhat regret it, because me coming to Mira's defense seems to perk her up.

Fucking hell.

"So how is she here anyways?" Tran asks.

"She was still in his Respec quest party from the last time," Barlow says, shaking his head at Tran.

"We didn't tell you, because you're completely unreliable to keep secrets," Dorliac says, moving toward Mira, she extends a hand cordially, "Pleasure to meet you, my name is Amber Dorliac."

Mira looks at her hand for a few moments, then turns back to me, "Do you always surround yourself with so many whores, darling?"

Dorliac's hand falls to her side and she turns on her heel, giving a few choice words under her breath before she leaves.

Clayton deposits his dagger back into the sheathe, moving to my side and whispering, "This is going to be fun." With that, he pats my shoulder and heads toward Greymore who is conducting recon with the other troops in the distance, "Holler if you need me."

"Thanks," I sigh.

"What's that?" Gilroy asks, pointing in the distance.

We all turn to look, something massive is jutting up from the endless sand dunes, I can't quite make it out. Barlow pulls out his binoculars, Tran had been pissed at him for not bringing the electronic ones he'd gifted him over the holidays. Glad he brought his old school ones, they're always reliable. I see Greymore sporting a pair as well, pointing in a different direction than Gilroy's object. Looking around, there are more in almost every direction I look.

Each has different shapes and sizes. Light seems to travel through parts of the objects, but not others. After a minute, Barlow hands me his binoculars. It takes me a few seconds to realize what they are. Spaceships. Massive fucking spaceships. Old and broken, I can make out scorch marks and melted metal on the hull of some.

A purple text appears in my vision. About time.

[ Quest: Slay the Marorak ]

I blink at it. The Marorak… what the fuck is a Marorak?

"Anyone know what a Marorak is?"

Everyone I look at just shrugs. I turn and see that Sera is staring at the horizon with a bored expression on her face. Which means that I won't be able to call upon Sage or Terra for more information.

"I'm going to ask Sera," I say, letting out a sigh, I move past Cortez who is still rightly pissed off staring a hole through Mira's head while Tran asks her a million questions.

Standing next to Sera now, I ask, "Any idea what a Marorak is?"

"For a moment I thought that the story of your life was going to get more interesting," Sera says with a frown, "But you seem too scared to take a second lover."

I squint at her, "It's not that kind of story. Do you know what it is or not?"

"Shame," she yawns, turning and tapping my forehead, the touch of it feels so real it almost surprises me, "Call me if anything interesting happens."

"I won't," I mutter, shuffling through the sand past her toward Greymore who's giving orders still.

"We'll see," she smirks, "Something tells me you won't succeed with this version of the quest. If you want me to…"

I turn to look at her, "At what cost?"

Her grin tells me all I need to know.

"Pass."

With that she disappears, in a bit my Sage skill, no… Nexus… what was it called? Nexus Counsel, fucking hell, so many new skills to keep track of. Anyway in a bit it should reactivate since she's fucked off.

"What's the quest?" Greymore asks when I reach him.

"Slay the Marorak."

"The hell is a Marorak?"

I shrug, "Sera left, so I'll ask Sage and Terra when they show up."

"Good enough, perimeter is secure, got a team heading to scout one of the ships. Going to be slow going without comms though," he spits, there's a fat mound of chewing tobacco in his lip like a chipmunk. He motions the small hocky puck sized can of tbacco at me.

"Nah, I quit last year."

He shrugs, "Well, good for you."

"Did the inventory stay with the Humvees too?"

He nods.

"So, only what we were carrying came with us."

He nods again, spitting before saying, "Is what it is. Your plan still going to work?"

"Should, we can just use one of these ships."

"Right, any preferences?"

"The tallest one."

"Roger that."

***

It's been about an hour since Sera left, and Mira has settled in. She seems less crazy than before. She even gave a rough approximation of an apology to Cortez after I asked her to. When I told her I was off limits, she muttered something under her breath. I haven't asked her for what I need yet, probably better for her to settle in a bit more.

I'm about to talk with Cortez when Sage and Terra pop into existence in front of me, seemingly deep in conversation.

"I still don't understand why they named the restructured class Soul Whisp. It's dumb."

"You know, like a whisper, but you can't hear the end of it, because they're whispering. Also, it's a play on words because their summons look like little soul wisps."

She squints at him, "Wisps doesn't have an h."

Sage turns to me, an annoyed expression on his face, "I don't think she's getting it, meatsack."

"I get it, but they could have done it without the h. That was my point. Also stop calling him meatsack."

He blinks at her, "Perhaps we should do a lesson on what a point is."

"For fuck's sake, let's drop it."

"I acknowledge your forfeit."

She rolls her eyes, turning to me, "You requested us?"

"Yeah, sorry to bother you."

"No bother," she smiles. Damn, she's a lot better at this than Sage.

"Speak for yourself," Sage chimes, looking at his perfectly manicured nails, they're painted black and white to match his hair.

"Anyway, did you see my quest?"

"We did not, meatsack," he turns to Terra, folding his arms, "We no longer have that capability. Someone," he raises an eyebrow at her, "Accidentally deleted that aspect of the skill. Now, we have to request it directly from the user."

"Okay… how do I share it?"

"Give permission, and speak it."

"Uh, you have permission. Slay the Marorak."

Sage's eyes glass for a second before glowing bright blue, "Yes, there it is."

"He doesn't need to give permission you ass."

"It sounded better like that."

My patience is a little worn right now with Mira's stunt and losing the vehicles during the transfer, but I keep my cool, "What is a Marorak?"

Sage shrugs, "No idea. Mythren has locked us out from accessing this system's lore and information."

"Damn… wait, did you know that before I asked?"

He nods.

"Then why… never mind. Alright we'll figure it out the old fashioned way, if you find anything, please let me know," I say, Terra nods and they disappear.

Okay. No information on what a Marorak is, no vehicles to traverse the desert, and no supplies besides what we carried on our backs. Could be worse.

"Dragon's do not let demons ride them," Mira says, matter of fact, "Nor do they let unworthy humans… pet them."

"I told you!" Jericho yells at Tran.

"But like, you don't know everything, right?"

Mira's dragon Sylfie narrows her diamond shaped irises at Tran, if she was her original size, I don't think he would feel as comfortable questioning Mira's knowledge. Guess it's a good thing that dragon sizes scale based on level. One thing the system did that seems somewhat fair.

"Okay, Tran, go ask Greymore for something to do."

"Man, come on, I haven't even gotten to the good questions yet."

Barlow grabs him by the arm, half dragging him through the sand.

"Your servants are very… undisciplined, darling."

"I'm not your darling, and they're not my servants."

She tilts her head, but she's not looking at me, she's sizing up Cortez.

"We'll see..."

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