The Third Party - Chapter 37

Ken’s Person’s POV (12 yrs. and 8 months old)

“What?” I look at Glen who spoke and paused for awhile. Oh.

“Ah, hehe, I’m just surprised at how high up we are.” I look back at the side of the trail where a cliff is eminent, I mean yeah there is still a lot of room for about three people to walk side by side without falling, but damn, this is a cliff?

‘You’ve been hanging around one yourself and now you’re afraid of it? Unbelievable.’ -White-

‘Is that supposed to be a complement or an insult? And no I’m not afraid, just surprised.’ I reply while tying my hair into a ponytail, it’s gotten longer now, hehe.

‘O-kay, if you say so.’ He said scoffing. I just smiled and slowed down a bit so we, positioning myself at the back of the group so no one would wonder why I’m smiling to myself.

‘Ugh, can’t even remember how many times your friends caught you laughing to yourself. -White-

‘I know, right, and I’m sure one day, I’ll run out of excuses to give them.’ I grazed with my hand the wall feeling for its roughness and sent a tendril of magic to scout the area of any deformities and giving myself a map out on our track.

‘You know, sometimes I wonder how the two of us sync so much, it’s like we have the same thought process.’ I said into my head as I analyzed the data gathered and found small deformities here and there, hmm, how about the forest downstairs, what would be down there?

‘Hmmm… I don’t know, maybe we just get along well or have you forgotten that we’re bound to each other?’ He replied, I turn to my left and smile.

‘I- ‘

*BOOM*

“Wah!” WHAT THE?! What happened to my footing… great, now I’m falling, ‘Momentum Magic: Flight’ I stopped mid air probably about twenty percent down from my initial position and released another magic sweep on the area, hmmm, I find nothing.

“Wind and Arcane Magic: Surgical Sweep!” I snapped my finger as both wind and arcane magic burst forth to cover over fifty miles radius around to inspect, except I cannot inspect the inner part of the mountain, I mean, have you ever scanned something solidly compact?

I find nothing and just blame it on the terrain, but didn’t I scanned it earlier? What happened? White, what happened?

“Ken! Are you okay?!” I look up and see Glen bending on his knees by the cliff along with Allen and Wilbert at his sides, the rest at the back, I flew up and landed beside them, all eyes on me.

“I’m okay, just fell down but am good.” Glen nodded and Coralia reverted the group back on track. White?

‘The sound earlier was caused by the forceful dismantling of the land by your feet creating a hole where you fell, and immediately reformed itself.’ -White-

‘But shouldn’t I have been grazing the sides if that’s the matter?’ I ask, bobbing my head to the way of my hair, left, right, left, right.

‘That’s the thing, the sound must have caused you to propel at the side.’ He replied, I stopped moving confused as how that was possible, but shrugged my shoulders and bobbed my head again catching up to Glen and Allen walking side by side, as they’re directly in front of me.

‘Okay’ I reply.

“Glen, Allen, do you mind if I sing for a bit?” I asked, positioning myself behind in between them. They took a glance at me.

“Well, I don’t mind.” said Allen.

“Go ahead.” said Glen. I smiled and began singing an upbeat song, and in case you are wondering, I enchanted my singing to be unrecognizable even in any language that is spoken in this world, as for the song, hmmm, I’ll leave that for another time.

And since I’m at it, I guess I should introduce what I’m doing, along with the enchantment of unrecognizable language in the song, I think I want to create the songstress class, where a song can influence the field of battle.

In my perspective they are basically enchanters with a wide area of effect spells that are channeled.

‘Are you sure you want to incorporate this in your battle style?’ -White-

‘But of course, for I’ve always wanted to sing while wielding magic, isn’t that fun.’ I reply having finished the song, all that I need now is to use magic to enhance whatever type of tempo I want for the song to take effect.

‘I suppose so. Well, guess we can’t help it, it’s your choice anyway.’ I smile back, and summoned my raw magic to both my hands, I’m sure the group noticed it but I pay them no mind as I produce notes out of raw mana.

I’m not that proficient in using notes since I’m not a music major student in the past, but you can see some familiar notes- OOFFF! I look forward to see the chest of Allen.

“Umm, why did you stop?” I ask, and dispersed the magic, Allen looked at my hand then to my face, noticing that his companion wasn’t beside him anymore Glen turned around to me and Allen, he walked to Allen’s side.

“What are you guys doing?” he asks, I shrugged my shoulders and looked back at Allen, this time he looks me in the eye.

“What where those?” he asks, ah he’s curious of the notes, what should I say so he’ll understand?

“Umm, I was testing out some shapes, and that was what I came up with.” hope his works.

“Really, cause to me it looked like you already know what you were doing.” insistent much? Okay, just reply casually, he’s not suspecting you, just curious.

“That’s because I’ve tried those shapes in the past, so I’ve gotten the hang of shaping them into distinct features.” I reply, he nods and continues walking, sometimes I wonder how his curiosity could be so strong. I shake my head and continue walking.

Wait, have I done enough magic for the day? Hmmmm, probably not.

‘You know, you could take a rest at using your magic so much, I know that using them regularly gives you mastery points to level them up, but overworking your body can cause some serious setbacks’ -White-

‘Okay, I’ll stop, thanks for the reminder, I’ll probably need it later anyway, but let me just use some more for a little bit, is that okay?’ I ask.

‘I suppose it doesn’t hurt to do so.’ said White, I nod. Now what element shall I start with, hmmm…..

“Water Magic: Water Ball.” I conjured a ball of water on the palm of my right hand, and compressed it to the size of my fist.

“Fire Magic: Fire Ball.” and a fire ball at my other hand and compressed to the same size as the other. Two Magic circles of different colors appeared below the elemental balls.

“Ken, what are you doing?” asked Allen, he then turned to walk beside me.

“Oh, I’m just practicing my spells, this time, I’m going to concentrate on the power behind a single water and fire ball by compressing their energies tightly and adding more if I like too.” I compressed the two elements even more to the size of tennis balls making the center shine white but the exterior was of the element.

“Oh, aren’t spells already fixed with a certain amount of power that you can neither increase or decrease its proficiency? Not to mention that you made their size smaller, surely its effects would be minimal.” He reasons, well…

“I beg to differ, I have been very curious as to why we always use our elemental magic to create various big and strong spells to outdo our opponents, I get the fact that it has a strong firepower due to the size and effect of the spell,

but what if I concentrate and create a smaller size of the spell but with compressed energies?” I held out the fire ball that closely resembled a ball with a white orb, but with the exterior being blazing hot.

“Arcane Magic: Manual Input.” a magic circle the color of purple appeared on the inside of the elemental balls imprinting itself so I can choose when to explode the energies within.

“Watch.” I threw the small fireball high up into the air relatively away from the mountain, and I made it float still, while walking.

“What am I supposed to be seeing?” he asks.

“Detonate.” A big explosion occurred in the form of a fire nova minus all of the smoke in a radius of, I think, twenty meters? No worries, it didn’t reach us as I had thrown the ball of fire fifty meters away. Oh no, some of the forest go caught on fire.

“Ice Magic: Cold Winds.” with a small magic circle barely the size of my palm appeared beside, casted a cold breeze that swept the fire caught on the trees.

“Nature Magic: Rejuvenation.” and another small magic circle appeared near the previous one restored the burnt part of the forest, is that a small portion of the forest or not?

And in case you are wondering how I am able to do that, just remember I have the power of concept, hehe. The concept of connection.

“Wow you really never fail to amaze me.” said Allen, I smile to him and took a step forwar-

“Why’d you guys stopped?” I ask as I watch at the flabbergasted faces of our companions in front, even you Aunt Coralia, Uncle Trunk? Surely you guys must have seen such display of magic, right? Or… maybe not.

“Will you stop talking to yourself Ken and just say it out loud?” said Allen, I scratch the back of my neck with my free hand sheppishly.

“Hehe, sorry, ahem!, were you guys surprised?” I ask, they slowly turn to me, and slowly, agonizingly nodded their heads, should’ve warned them first.

“What are you gonna do with that water ball then?” asked Allen, hmmm, let’s see…

“I’ll just throw it into the air too, HEY GUYS!!! HEADS UP!” I shout as they all look at me and I threw the water ball into the air and used my magic to make it travel a farther distance of seventy meters away from us and probably fifty meters high.

“I’m gonna do it now.” I say as I look in their faces for confirmation, they nodded their heads, reluctantly.

“Detonate.” another nova occurred in the form of water a radius of about twenty meters before falling down as droplets to the forest, did someone get soaked on that?

Or better yet, was someone burned by the fire ball earlier? Nahh, too lazy to inspect. I turn to Allen and his look gives me the impression that he gets what I mean.

“What do you think.” I ask.

“I get the point, now I’m really curious as to how you are able to do it.” I chuckle and said…

“Maybe I’ll teach you some other time, but for now, we have a mission to finish, I mean start since we’re still not informed on what to do.” Allen nodded at me and we start walking again, good thing the group recovered relatively fast.

Along the way I showed Allen all the basic spells of each element I can wield and did the exact same thing as what I did with the water and fire element, it became a fireworks display when I repetitively used the elements for about three times each, but not including my moon magic.

Since the effects would just be too devastating, haven’t I did a performance on Master Klein’s cave by recreating the effects of fireworks?

But there were similarities this time since the energy undergoing the nova was very compressed that after extending on its outer sphere the element would still be solidly visible, unlike last time where it clearly resembled fireworks.

And this time sound booms were much more contained along with the force it exerted.

‘What’s does that mean? What did you do with those elemental balls?’ -White-

‘I’m glad you asked, you see, I used the concept of containment so the effects of those spells would only be limited to its extended radius, meaning there will be no strong sonic booms and force propelling anyone backwards from the explosion.’ I explain while walking and silent beside Allen, who is silent too, thought you might need that information.

‘Isn’t that going to leave energy residues since you’ve contained the energy? Anyway, why that kind of method?’ -White-

‘Yes it does, but with the energy conversion spell I have I can easily wipe out the chaotic energies lingering in the air and revert it back to its normal state, as for the other question, I just want those people I consider to be stuck up opponents to get a taste of turmoil within every spell that I have, but this can only be done with my arcane spell, Manual Input.’ I reply.

‘No don’t give me that look.’ I say.

‘What look?’ -White-

‘For even if you’re just a ball of white that I can see I can still sense your emotions and perceive your reaction.’ I say.

‘Okay.x, but seriously thought, you are still not over that part? -White-

‘Not while I know those kinds of people live here, and considering the fact that I’ve yet to acquaint myself with them, it doesn’t hurt to be prepared right? But don’t worry, I’m sure I can keep this in check.’ I reply.

‘Okay, if you say so, just know that I’ll be here to help you.’ -White-

‘Thank you.’ I reply, I took a glance at the side and see that we’re even more high up, what kind of place are we visiting? It’s like we’re going to a nest of bird type magical beasts.

I return my gaze to the front and was met by a cave, and it’s an entrance inside the mountain, and this one is small, since I can see light on the other side, ooh lions are there too. I’m surprised how there’s an entrance with a cliff at the side.

We walk inside and were met with darkness for a bit before clearing and we’re greeted by a place full of mountain lions, wow, the sun is visible in the sky, it’s like a valley on its own but on a mountain? Wonder how wide this place is and how they built it.

They must have used their power over the earth to carve out the inside of this mountain and pushed it to the side so it could be a valley inside a mountain, and there are trees here too! This is nice, ah fresh wind too, *sigh* I’m sleepy.

“Oi! Ken! Wake up!” Wah! Huh? I shook awake.

“You were standing asleep dude.” said Wilbert as he chuckled.

“I did?” I tilt my head to the side, but the winds so comfortable, oh no wait, I have to explore this place first so that I don’t get lost.

“Ken, you better stop right there.” I abruptly stop and turn around, a cheeky smile on my face.

“No, you are not going anywhere not until we have met and paid respect to his majesty.” said Coralia as she stood beside Wilbert, awww, how does she know I want to go explore right away? I pout.

“Okay, but can I do so later?” I ask.

“You can.” I jump in joy, YAY!

“YAY! Then, let’s get this over with.” We walk further into the place and about twenty meters forward we see an elevated rock with lions around it, there’s the King, at the top.

“Ahh, our guests have arrived.” said the King as he stood up and walked down the rock and met us halfway with his two lion warriors, I know it’s them because I recognize them. “Thank you for accepting our request.”

“You’re welcome your majesty.” said Uncle Trunk as he and Aunt Coralia bowed to him, I stare wide eyed at Uncle. “What do you request of us your majesty that had you in an urgent pace?” Uncle Trunk asks.

I am completely speechless right now, still wide eyed, gaping at Uncle, NOTICE MY BLATANT STARING UNCLE! He turned to glance, I composed myself instantly, he then returned his gaze, I returned staring, and slowly glaring daggers at his back.

“Our request is simple, the time of the year has come for one of the demon gates to open.” said the King. Demon gates? We have that here?

“The Lion Kingdom’s Military force is already strong is it not?” Aunt Coralia asks. What’s a demon gate? Why do we have that here?

‘You know they can’t here you right’ -White-

‘Mm *nod*, teheee.’ I reply.

“I’m afraid our forces has been stretched thin for we had unexpectedly encountered many gates opening simultaneously.” said the King, he stepped backwards and summoned an- OOOOHHHHHHH a map using the earth, and it shows a wide map of the valley too!

Oh, the exquisite detail almost 3d like. That’s so cool! Gotta learn that spell.

“As we all know, we monitor this valley as it is our rightful task to do so, and with this earth artifact, we are able watch over the anomalies happening everywhere in the valley.” The King then shifted the map to show us locations, showing us three, those locations must be where the gates must have opened, with the swirling sand and all.

“But the monsters coming out of these gates are far stronger than what we’ve faced in the past, so we decided to ask for your help.” said the King, Uncle and Aunt nodded. Have I encountered one of those monsters in the past?

‘To answer your question, yes, yes you have.’ -White-

‘When?’ I ask.

‘Remember that time when you were fighting a pack of wolves?’ -White-

‘I remember. It was four years ago.’ I reply.

‘Well, those wolves you fought weren’t normal wolves, they were touched by a chaotic energy, only faint, maybe that’s why you weren’t able to notice it back then.’ -White-

‘Ahh, what kind of chaotic energy?’ I ask.

‘We’ll talk about this later once you’re assigned with the task.’ -White-

I nod mentally. Why were those wolves touched by chaotic energy anyway? Let’s go back into the conversation.

“The tasks I will be giving you are, to wipe out all the monsters on a specific demon gate I will be assigning your group to, and make sure that no one leaves the place until the gate closes, then report back to me.” said the King, we all nodded and formed a cir-

“By the way, who was it that was using spells on the way here?” The group all turned to look at me. Really? “Ahh, it was you my boy, I admire the part that you want to practice your spells at any given time but do use them relatively lesser, the citizens were anxious of the magic fluctuations in the air.”

“Ah, hehe, I apologize your majesty.” I say and bowed he nodded and looked back at Uncle and Aunt.

“The gate that I will be assigning your group is at the territory near the Nature Deers, I’ll have one of our scouts escort you to the location.” He says and walks back and conversed with his two warriors with their plan, I like to think of it as a battle plan, wonder if we have one.

“That reminds me, Auntie, Uncle! Are the Lions living here at this mountain the ones we passed on the first day we met you guys?” I ask.

“Not exactly, those group of Lions were just a fraction of their whole population, they were just at our territory because they were making their home bigger, which is where we are at now.” said Aunt Coralia, I nod in confirmation.

“I hope we’d get to meet those nature deers in the past again.” said Celine who positioned herself at my side.

“And those lava wolves too.” said Wilbert positioning at my other side.

“Anyway, Guardian Coralia, Guardian Trunk, what shall we do now?” asked Princess Lang.

“We wait for the scout to arrive and from then on we’ll be on our way.” replied Uncle Trunk, Princess Lang nodded and conversed with Lila at the side, are they teaming up or something?

“Can we sit down while we wait? My feet are killing me.” The group chuckled at Icarus’s remark, and so we sat ourselves at the shade of a nearby tree on the soft grass.

The group immersed themselves in small talk while we wait.

“Are you guys familiar with demon gates?” asked Flin, that got my interest.

“Nope.” -Allen-

“No.” -Saber, Lila, Celine, Wilbert-

“Mm M! *Shakes head*” said by me and Glen, we both chuckle. Icarus just shrugs.

“I have little bit of knowledge regarding that, why?” said Princess Lang, she has knowledge on that? Nice. Flin played with his fingers for a bit.

“Well, the demon realm is what you would call the opposite of the spirit realm, it’s just that, this is my first time hearing the demon gate opening on this realm, for in my knowledge only we can open gates to other realms, and demon realm fairs no other.” Flin explained.

“That might be so, but other phenomenons have been happening on this valley for quite some time now, and the demon gates opening are no better, only this time, like what the King said, the monsters that poured out are far stronger ones than before.” explained Uncle Trunk.

“Oh, okay.” said Flin timidly. I’m bothered, why did he react that way?

“Anyway, first things first, we must create a battle plan to tackle our situation effectively, Ken, would you mind taking the lead?” said Saber, oh, almost forgot. Saber get’s all serious if we’re stuck doing nothing, especially on missions, he doesn’t like wasting time.

“Okay, like in the past, we’ll have Glen and Wilbert take the guard as they can take much damage from the enemy, while the rest provide them support from the back, rear or at the trees, summing up to three teams, which I’ll call as frontlines, support and backliners.

But since we have new members on the team, I’d like to add Icarus on Glen’s team the frontlines, Flin and Riyah, on the support team, and Princess Lang on the backliners, is that okay with you guys?” The four nodded. “Good, Uncle, Auntie, would you like to join the teams as well?” I ask.

“We’ll step out on the first part or so, and provide assistance when needed.” said Uncle Trunk, Aunt Coralia nodded at him.

“Okay, Now the teams will be, for the frontline team, Glen, Wilbert, and Icarus, for the support team, Saber, Lila, Celine, Flin and Riyah, and for the backline team, Me, Princes Lang and Allen. If you have any questions feel free to ask them within your group, and make sure to appoint a team leader.” I finish and the people then dispersed to form three circles of the corresponding teams.

“Ken, what do you mean by us being at the backline?” Princess Lang asks, as the three of us sit down on the grass in a circle, if you could even call this a circle.

“Our main purpose would be to dish out long range spells from a distance and helping out our supports when needed be, since we’re all versatile and can switch from long-range to short-range combat easily.” I explain, the Princess nodded, while I smile.

“Is Allen like that?” asked Princess Lang.

“Hey, despite using mostly long-range spells I can do hand-to-hand combat too.” said Allen grumpily.

“He’s right, you would be surprised to witness him fight hand-to-hand combat.” I reply, smilingly amused at the situation.

“How come I haven’t seen it before?” she asks, further deepening Allen’s frown.

“Well it’s either you didn’t get to witness him fight since you arrived late or left early, his fights tend to last half an hour or an hour so.” I said, the Princess nodded, while I cannot paint what Allen’s face is at the moment, annoyance? Anger? Or maybe just annoyance.

It’s almost lunch, and we haven’t prepared something to eat.

“Hey guys, let’s prepare our food for lunch!” I call out and they nodded and stood up to do their part in preparing food, one thing I’ve come to love at being the group’s chef is that they all comply to my wishes when it comes to food, I mean who wouldn’t love my recipes.

They are top notch and the plate is always empty from being gobbled whole, did I mention that I’ve become the chef now? Oh wait, I just did.

“That won’t be necessary.” said a voice, we all turn to look and a lioness approached us. “Please follow this humble servant to his majesty’s dining hall.”

We all glanced at one another before settling at our two guardians, they eventually nodded signaling that we won’t be cooking for ourselves.

“Please, lead the way.” and so we walk back to where the elevated rock is at, to the back where we’re met with hundreds of lions eating a feast, there are fruits, vegetables, and all other kinds of fruits, and raw meat, laid on elevated rock platforms, well so much for a mountain of lions.

We had lunch with the lions and let me just say that it was a disaster but funny at the same time, since, you know, not all are acquainted with the fact of eating while seating on the ground, lucky for them, I cooked the raw meat we were given.

And yeah, it was a fun lunch.

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