A Journey Within the Realm

I was awakened by the smell of Rin’s cooking. After stretching, I got up and left the tent. There I saw everyone sitting around the fire pit, eating their breakfast. I walked over to Rin and sat down between Miki and Rin. Once I was seated, Rin handed me my breakfast. Hmmm… eggs and bacon… yum. After we finished our meal, I cleared my thoat to get everyone’s attention.

“Something happened in the middle of the night,” I said.

“What?” Miki asked, glaring at Tazu.

“I met someone who wants to help us in order to save her life,” I answered.

“What did you say?” Miki asked, now confused.

“Now, before you guys judge, hear me out,” I replied, “She is, in fact, a shadow commander. However, after finding out what happens to incompetent commanders, she escaped to try and find us. She decided to help us get inside the Undershadows for our protection. I already warned her that if she betrays us, she dies by my hand. So… give her a chance. Understand?”

Everyone nodded in agreement.

“Solada, you can come out now,” I called out.

Within seconds, Solada appeared behind me. However, she hid behind my back.

“Don’t worry, show your face,” I comforted her.

Solada slowly came out of hiding and waved to say ‘hello.’

“Meet Solada, youngest sister of the shadow witch commanders. Solada, this is Miki the elf, Kuri the fairy, Nori the ghost, Rin the witch, Kyoko the vampire, Miwa the goddess, Shina the kitsune, and our newest teammate, Tazu the demon.”

“Nice to meet you all,” Solada said.

Everyone just stared, making Solada nervous. Solada quickly hid behind my back again.

“Guys! Be nice! You’re making Solada feel unwelcomed,” I exclaimed.

“Sorry…,” everyone said, lowering their heads.

Miki got up, walked over to Solada, and held out her hand.

“Your right, Randy. Nice to meet you, Solada,” Miki said, smiling.

Solada smiled as she took Miki’s hand and shook it.

“So where is this portal?” Miki asked.

“In the center of the circle of five cities,” Solada answered.

“You mean… all the cities outside of Killum Forest?” Miki asked.

Solada nodded.

“Can you take us there?” Miki asked.

Solada nodded.

“How long will it take us to get there?” Miki asked.

“Two days at most,” Solada replied.

“Then, let’s get going,” I said, getting up.

Everyone followed my example and got up to pack everything. Miki was about to follow, but Solada stopped her. I perked my ears to listen.

“Ummm… Miki?” asked Solada.

“Yes?” Miki asked back.

“Would you mind if I hide in your shadow?” Solada asked, nervously.

I looked over to where they were talking. Miki had a surprised look on her face. I waited a while, watching to see Miki’s reply.

“I-I-I guess it’s okay,” Miki stuttered.

“Thanks, Miki,” Solada said, happily.

After Solada bowed as thanks, she disappeared within Miki’s shadow. Miki turned towards me and gave me a weak smile. I smiled back before continuing my packing. Once we were finish packing, we went on our way towards the center of five cities. As we made our way, Tazu walked over to me.

“What’s up, Tazu?” I asked.

“I’m just wondering how you are here in the Magic Realm,” Tazu replied, “There hasn’t been a man here for ages. On top of that, you are a Light Mage! How is this possible?”

I explained to Tazu how I found out that I was a Light Mage and what my goal was.

“So… along with the job to defeat Overlord Kei, you are trying to find the exit book,” Tazu said.

“Correct. And Kei has it,” I replied.

“Ahh… the ‘kill two birds with one stone’ deal,” Tazu said.

“Exactly,” I agreed.

Just then, Miki walked up to us.

“What are you two talking about?” Miki asked.

“Tazu just had a few questions about me and I was answering them,” I answered.

“What kind of questions?” Miki asked, glaring.

“The same two questions that everyone else had,” I replied, “You can stop being jealous, Miki. Nothing is going on between us.”

Miki smiled as she went back to where Kuri and Nori strolled.

“Sorry about that,” I said, scratching the back of my head, “Miki can get quite jealous when other women talk to me. Started once we got into Transbola. In Triharvest, Miki had to give me some of her blood. That’s why I’m a half-elf.”

I showed her my ears.

“Let’s just say, I share more than just feeling with Miki,” I continued, “So… just watch what you do around me.”

“Phooey… and I was hoping that I had a chance with you,” Tazu joked.

I laughed. We walked until nightfall. After setting up and eating dinner, we went straight to bed. However, before Miki and I went inside our tent, we asked Solada to leave Miki’s shadow until morning. Solada understood and hid in a shadow of a rock. Once the sun started to rise, we had our breakfast, which was the terrible oatmeal again, we packed up our stuff and started walking again. When the day struck noon, we stopped for lunch. Everyone waited for Rin to finish cooking the meal. Suddenly, we heard a low moan.

“What was that?” Miwa asked.

“Sounded like a moan, and a very sad moan at that,” I answered.

Another moan.

“Sounds creepy, like a sad lost soul,” Nori said.

Suddenly, Solada appeared. She looked very worried.

“What’s wrong, Solada?” I asked.

“Nori is right,” Solada answered, “It sounds like Commander Chiyo’s Undead Shadows!”

“’Undead Shadows?’” Rin repeated, dropping the spoon she was using.

I sighed, “I don’t mind battling one of Kei’s Shadow Commanders, but I’m not happy if they disturb my meal time.”

Miki chuckled at that.

“Solada?” I asked, looking at Miki’s shadow, “What kind of Undead are these shadows?”

“The kind that were dead, came back to life, and want to eat flesh,” Solada answered.

“So… in other words, Zombies,” I sighed, “I hate Zombies.”

I got up and walked a little past our camp. Then, I placed my hand on the ground and cleared my thoat.

“Ring Quake,” I yelled.

Suddenly, a flash of light came out of my hand and shot into the ground. Within seconds, a ditch in a shape of a ring appeared around our camp. I dusted my hands off before returning to my seat.

“Is lunch ready yet?” I asked Rin.

Rin’s mind snapped back into reality and looked at me.

“Huh? Lunch?” Rin repeated, “Oh! Lunch! Almost done.”

Rin quickly picked up her spoon before she went back to cooking.

“Where did you learn that kind of spell, Randy?” Miki asked.

“I didn’t learn it, I made it up,” I answered, “It’s an ability novelists have.”

“What did you just do?” Miki asked.

“I made a ring-shaped ditch,” I replied, “Just watch the Zombies… you’ll see.”

Miki turned towards the ditch and watched as the Zombies appeared, stumbled a little, and fell into the ditch without thinking.

“Uhhh… they aren’t too bright, are they?” Miki asked, with a weak smile.

“They’re the Undead; they have no brains. Well… no brains that are working,” I answered.

“Grrrrrrrrrrr… Why you!?! You you, Light Mage,” a voice exclaimed.

I chuckled, “I figured if the Undead Shadows were here, so would Commander Chiyo.”

Suddenly, A dark flash of light appeared. After the darkness disappeared, Commander Chiyo was the next thing I saw. By the looks of things, Chiyo was really pissed.

“Look what you did to my soldiers,” Chiyo yelled.

Her eyes were glowing redder by the minute. This wasn’t good.

“I, Commander Chiyo, leader of all things dead, am going to kill you,” Chiyo yelled, forming a massive ball of dark energy.

Okay… this was bad! This was very bad! I was about to tell everyone to run, but Rin spoke first.

“Nori! Behind me, now,” Rin ordered, grabbing something from her bag, “Randy! Catch!”

Rin threw the thing that she had grabbed and I caught it. I took a glace at it. I-I-It’s a bottle.

“Quickly, Randy,” Rin exclaimed, “Open the jar and point it at Chiyo!”

I raised an eyebrow. I shrugged for a second before opening the bottle. Then, I pointed the bottle at Commander Chiyo. Suddenly, the jar started to suck Chiyo inside.

“Where, on the face of this realm, did you get that jar!?!” Chiyo screamed, “This can’t be happening to a rank two commander!”

Right after Chiyo said that, she was inside the bottle. Without a second thought, I corked the jar. I looked at the contents in the bottle. Wow… Commander Chiyo was inside the jar, pounding on the glass.

“Rin?” I asked, showing her Chiyo in the bottle, “What did you just give me?”

“It’s a ghost capture jar,” Rin answered, “I picked it up after the battle with the Shadow Goddess and Shadow Fairy. It was the exact same jar that they used to capture Nori.”

“Huh… go figure,” I replied, tossing the bottle into the ditch, “Well… here goes nothing. Ring of Fire!”

Suddenly, the ring-shaped ditch burst into flames. It kept burning until the ground around it filled up the ditch. Once I made sure everything was the way I wanted it, I turned towards my team and smiled.

“Let’s quickly eat our lunch and head out,” I said, still smiling.

We finished eating and packing within 15 minutes. After walking for ten minutes, I looked back at where we camped. As I stared, I kept wondering what had happened to Chiyo.