Waking Up To Ruins

Nyana led the two royal guards back into the colosseum, or what was left of it. Everything had been reduced to rubble and it took a lot of effort to navigate around all the stacks of rocks and holes in the ground, not to mention the uneven ground.

While they were doing this, Sirks and Wompa took Iris somewhere safe for the time being. Rui wanted to assign some soldiers to protect them, but Sirks was still a little skeptical about her and Lentis and said that he would be fine himself. "I was able to handle this much when we were getting hounded by those soldiers. I could handle this much," or so he said. Rui really didn't want to leave them alone but she had no choice.

The three arrived at a rather big hole near one of the walls of the colosseum and Nyana stopped. "Why here?" Rui asked out curiously. It seemed very random.

"This was the last place I saw him." Nyana kneeled down and got to work straight away. With the magic restrictions out of the way, she summoned vines and had them crawl into the hole before branching out like tree roots and searching the entire area for Kies.

"Incredible..." Lentis muttered. Rui was also in awe seeing the elf's magic.

"This is probably my first time seeing non-combat suited magic," Rui commented.

"Magic can be used in so many ways. It's just that you humans decide to use it for killing," Nyana told them, sounding disappointed in them. Rui and Lentis didn't say a thing in response or defense. They simply lowered their heads, ashamed by what she said because it was true. Humans could've used magic for something other than war, but chose not to. War was all they knew, and it brought upon the downfall of all the other human kingdoms.

Speaking of which... This was a bad time to inform Rui about this since they already had a problem in their hands, but Lentis needed to tell her. Nudging her arm, Lentis got Rui's attention.

She turned and looked at Lentis. "What is it?"

"I found out the people responsible for bringing the baby dragon into Silverfield."

"You did!?"

A baby dragon? Nyana raised her eyebrow but didn't butt into the conversation. She focused on her work and listened in on them.

"Yes. They were remnants of one of the kingdoms we betrayed. They wanted revenge."

"..." Rui didn't know what to say to that. She should've been angry, but she knew that it was what they deserved. Silverfield did it first and they had no right to complain about something like that.

"Was that what you were doing this entire time?" Rui asked, already knowing the answer now that Lentis told her about this information.

"Yes, but that's not all I found."

"It's not?" What else could Lentis have found? Rui wanted for him to go on.

"It's quite problematic... You see, they're also here in Otane... Under the name of the Black Fang or something."

"Really? I think I encountered their group before..." Was it those so-called thieves that have been giving her a headache all this time? Whoever they were, she didn't really care. If they were then getting rid of them would mean getting rid of multiple problems at once, which she didn't mind.

After a couple of minutes of searching, Nyana's vines found something under all the rocks. "I think I found something." She pointed at the section of rubble to the far right of them just a few meters away.

Lentis walked over to it and kneeled down, placing his hand on the stone. "Under here?" He closed his eyes and concentrated his magic. The ground shifted to either side and opened up to reveal a body at the very bottom. "He's not moving." Either dead or unconscious. They would have to bring him up to find out.

"I have this handled." Lentis moved out of the way and let the elf do her thing. Her vines reached down and wrapped around Kies' body. It then slowly lifted him up and dropped him back on ground level.

"I don't feel any heat coming from him..." Rui noted. But then again, she didn't feel any heat coming from his body the first time they met.

"No pulse either," Lentis also added after he tried to find one.

"So, is he dead?" Rui assumed that he was, but he wasn't human. He was something else. He could still be alive, but Rui didn't know anything about what he was and was asking the elf if she did.

"I'm not sure myself..." Nyana admitted. She placed her hand on his neck and felt a faint trace of magic flowing throughout his body. "Maybe..." Nyana tried something, not knowing if it would work or not. She transferred the magic from her body into Kies' body, making sure to match the pace of the flow.

The flow of magic inside Kies body quickened. This was Nyana's first time seeing something like this.

Nyana retracted her hand and they all watched what would happen next. Kies' finger twitched and his eyes sprung open. He sat up straight, and the first thing he did after waking up, was place his hand on his chest.

Was he checking for a heartbeat? Nyana and the two royal guards were speechless. Coming back to life with just magic, was it possible? Something like this didn't make sense.

"You brought me back?" Kies turned to Nyana and asked, no emotion showing on his face. The elf couldn't tell if he was thankful or angry for reviving him.

"Yes...?" Nyana replied with uncertainty, unsure if he would lash out.

"Thank you." Kies pushed himself up from the ground, stuttering and freezing randomly like a robot. He injected himself a few times with his own magic to get his magic flow functioning properly.

"What are you..." Nyana closed her mouth. She didn't mean to say that out loud but she was just so surprised by all of this.

"Hm? Didn't you approach me because you knew what I was?"

"I know that you are a magical being, but I don't know the specifics."

"I see. Well, don't worry too much about it." Kies only learned of his identity not too long ago and still had many questions, but he couldn't ask them anymore. The Stormcaller used up the last bit of magic stored in the fragments to keep Kies barely on the brink of death. It was a good thing that Nyana gave him some of her magic or else he would've been out of commission for a year.

Kies took a look at his surroundings and saw what was used to be a colosseum, now leveled to the ground by something.

"What happened here?" Kies asked the three. Did a dragon attack after Ayrete knocked him out? The destruction was on the scale of that of a mythical beast's. "Actually..." Kies spotted smoke rising into the sky all around him. It looked to be coming from the city. "What happened to this place? Did a war break out?"

"I'll keep this short. We need your help," Rui told Kies out of the blue. "I know that you've just... Um, woke up?" Was that the right description? Close enough, she guessed. "But there are monsters running rampant out there."

Rui briefly gave Kies a summary of what had happened while he looked around to see the situation for himself. She explained how Ayrete infected several hundred people and blew up the colosseum. She included the part where they saved the princess and met the other one as well. And lastly, the most important of all, "Reports came in that there are more infected people in the city."

"Really?" Kies said, sounding unsurprised by the turn of events that unfolded. That certainly explained why there was so much smoke that it was blotting out the sun. So in order to get the fragment from Iris, he was pretty sure that he had to solve this first. But did he have to?

Killing the humans... That was one way to prevent the war, he was sure of it. Otherwise, why would Tonahl and Arc have told him that it was his mission? Of course, there was another way according to the Stormcaller, but getting rid of the human race... Those two wouldn't have told him to do something like this without a reason behind it. So...

Wiping out the human race was definitely easier to do. The majority of them couldn't use magic. It was much easier than trying to fight the demons. Every single of them was a challenge to fight and all of them could use magic. But, the humans have allies. Was he willing to make enemies out of them as well? It was a tough choice...

"So, will you help us?" Rui asked, extending her hand.

"..."

The decision can wait. For now, he needed to get the fragment first. He could figure it out after that. Realizing this, Kies took Rui's hand, agreeing to help, for the time being anyway... "Tell me where to start."

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