Not the Only One [ Part 3 ]

They drank late into the night. The tavern was bustling and exciting. Even some of the soldiers had come to hang out for a bit. Despite the spiraling thoughts in his head, he did enjoy himself around these people. Ragan seemed to be happy as well as they all talked and laughed among each other.

Idris had already gone up to his room though. He hadn't touched the alcohol but Killan said that it was normal for him when Emre asked. Apparently, he didn't like the taste. Emre had also discovered that Idris had joined up with their party in Apsume Village which was to the north of this one.

Idris had been their newest member, having only joined them for about a week and a half. To be honest, he didn't have much connection to them quite yet but apparently, he was a good fighter. Of course, Emre did not doubt that judging by his mana pool. He already was able to use all the elements plus the addition of shadow magic.

According to Killan though, the element he used was fire. He was quiet but good at helping the party out. Garrer had mentioned that he was like a solid wall and they were trying to slowly chip away at it and get him to talk to them more. Emre understood why Idris was so closed off though. There was no telling when he would separate from them.

Emre wasn't very tipsy as he sloshed the liquid inside his mug around. Most everyone other than Conin had red cheeks and carefree demeanors so Emre could easily tell that they were drunk. At this point, he was just chuckling along to their wild words.

'Emre.' Idris's voice entered his mind at that moment.

'Hm?' Emre responded.

'I will work together with you.'

'Oh?' Emre felt his spirits rise.

'Under some conditions.'

'Alright, what are the conditions?'

'Are you able to cast oaths?'

Emre's brows raised in surprise. An oath? Was he going to make Emre make an oath?

'I can.' He responded after a pause.

'We will each make an oath then. I will cast an oath on you, and you will cast an oath on me.'

Emre subconsciously nodded at the idea. It would be fair if they both made oaths. Not just one or the other. Of course, his nodding only looked normal as he seemed like he was listening to the drunken babble of the others.

'Okay, but what is the oath?' Emre asked.

'We both will vow to not lie to each other.' Idris said.

This is quite reasonable. Dragons were egotistical creatures so it was natural that trust among each other is very rare. Each one does what they want and will use others if they need to. An oath like this was simply a reassurance that Emre and Idris could converse about the circumstances without any funny business.

'And what is the consequence of breaking the oath?' Emre asked.

Idris was quiet for a moment as if he was thinking.

'Pain. Pain that cannot be hidden. If either of us lies to one another we will feel immense pain until we speak the truth.'

'Okay. I am willing.'

There was little hesitation in his words. Emre had no intention of lying to Idris in the first place. Especially if finding each other here wasn't a coincidence.

'Okay, then come up to my room.' Idris said.

'Eh? We're making the vow now?'

'We can do it tomorrow if you'd like.'

Right now was actually a good idea. People were drunk and Ragan was busy chatting up with the others. If he went upstairs now, it was unlikely for Ragan to go up right after him and find that he is not in the room.

'No, it's fine. Where is your room?'

'Second floor. I'll be waiting outside the door.'

Emre didn't respond as he took one last gulp of the ale and stood up. He stretched out his arms and smiled at the party that had looked toward him.

"I'm going to head back to the room now." Emre told them.

"Whaat?? So early! What a wimp!" It was a drunken Ragan.

"Hey, old man, watch yourself." Emre responded as he started toward the stairs. "Don't pass out later.~" He called back behind his shoulder.

Emre quickly headed up to the second floor, slipping past two girls who were mumbling to each other, something about a handsome man. In the hallway, Idris was leaning back against his door but glanced up as he noticed Emre heading toward him.

He gave a small dip of his head before turning and opening the door to enter the room. Emre followed after him into the musty tavern room. It was a single bedroom and had extra space. Filling that extra space was actually a small table and two chairs. Convenient!

They each took a seat in the chairs and sat across from one another.

"Ah, can I cast a barrier before we start? It will make it so that no one can hear or see us."

Idris nodded his approval and Emre focused on the room and cast Barrier. A slight shimmer of gold came from Emre before it disappeared. It was a quick spell to cast it seemed.

"Okay, done." Emre nodded.

"Alright, we'll make the oath at the same time. For mine, you will swear to Animor, the God of Death."

Emre's brows lifted a bit. Ragan hadn't really told him much about the gods because he never really asked. But Animor he knew about. He had asked the Voice in passing if there were any gods on par with Tirian. He asked because he was worried about the power the Goddess of Despair might have.

Animor was the God of Death, but he was not an evil god. Usually, when one would mention death, it would be related to evil. But he was not evil. He helped and guided the souls of the dead to their respective afterlives. As such, many priests of him call him the God of Souls instead to avoid the prejudice that came with the word death.

While Tirian provided him radiant magic, it wasn't surprising that Animor would be the one to provide Idris his shadow magic.

"For mine, Tirian, the Goddess of Creation." Emre said.

"Let's start then."

Emre nodded and wasted no time casting Divine Oath. Within the second, in front of them, each was two faintly transparent chain links. The chain in front of Idris was golden and the chain in front of Emre was a dark navy blue. They each began to speak.

"I vow to Tirian." Idris began.

"I vow to Animor." Emre followed.

"That I will not lie to Emre."

"That I will not lie to Idris."

Then their voices spoke together, one right after the other. "If I do so, may I feel immense pain until the truth is told."

With that the chains moved to each of their forearms and lowered down, wrapping around their upper part before fading away. The curiosity got the better of Emre as he removed his bracer and pulled up his sleeve halfway up his arm. Right below his elbow was a navy blue-colored chain link tattoo that wrapped around and connected to the other side.

Oaths were good, but it seemed the downside to it was that it was obvious that an oath was made due to this tattoo. Then again, it wasn't bad looking. Audr would probably think that it looked cool, at least.

"Do you have any questions you want to ask first?" Idris asked.

Emre noted that it seemed he was going to be courteous this time. After all, there was no chance for Emre to lie to him now.

"Yes." Emre nodded. "Why did you come here to kill the dark creatures?"

"I'm doing it to repay a favor."

"To who?"

"Animor."

"Why?"

"Because he allowed me to return when I was on the brink of death and also gave me the ability to use shadow magic. He told me that he would save me if I agreed to fight on his behalf."

Why would Animor want to kill the dark creatures…? Actually no, it made sense. It made perfect sense why he would want to get rid of them. The Goddess of Despair was creating dark creatures out of the dead. Did that mean their souls were being taken away by her instead of going to Animor? It was very plausible.

"What about you? Why are you protecting the village? Are you fighting on behalf of Tirian?" Idris asked.

"I'm protecting the village because I want to." Emre started with a shrug. "I'm killing the corruption because I want to. Tirian is just enabling me to do so easier. She probably intended for me to fight on her behalf when she offered me this magic though."

"I see…"

"Ah, by the way. How did you end up at the brink of death?"

Idris's face darkened a bit as if a nasty memory had come up. Emre could tell that he was reluctant so he waved his hand in dismissal.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." He said.

While the oath-bound them to not lying to one another, there was no rule about needing to tell each other everything. They could opt to not answer.

"Okay, I won't then." Idris seemed content with that.

Emre let out an awkward chuckle but shrugged to himself. So be it.

"Why did Tirian offer for you to use radiant magic?" Idris asked curiously.

Emre placed his chin in his palm. "No clue." He had speculations, but he really didn't know why she gave him this magic.

Idris looked shocked for once. How could he not know why a God gave him the ability to use one of the rarest magics in the world? What was special about him? Even so, he had to be telling the truth…

"It's probably for a similar reason as to why Animor wants to get rid of them. But I really don't know what she is thinking." Emre let out a sigh.

"I see. How well does your magic affect the dark creatures?" Idris moved on to the next subject.

"Quite well. I can take on the bigger ones by myself with little injury. But I did just get a bit stronger since then so it's possible I can do it with no injuries now."

"I haven't been able to use my shadow magic often since I joined up with these humans. I'm not sure how well it would do against the dark creatures."

"It's a holy element, I'm sure it can't do much worse than mine." Emre shrugged before moving on. "Killan told me you use fire magic primarily?"

"Yes, to the humans my element is fire."

"Mine is obviously wind. Unfortunately, it is not as strong as my radiant magic yet."

"And you don't know any of the other elements."

Emre shook his head in response. Idris was quiet for a moment as he thought about something.

"Do you have any intentions of doing something that may harm me in the future?" He then blurted out.

"What? No." Caught off guard, Emre responded in shock without hesitation.

"Good. I have no intentions of harming you in the future either."

While it was surprising at first, he understood why the question was asked. They can't lie to each other, but there had been no confirmations beforehand about their intentions. Even so, what brought up the question so suddenly?

"Since that is the case for both of us, I am willing to teach you the other elements if you teach me how to use my holy element better." Idris added.

Ah, that made sense. Of course, Idris was just taking precautions before offering things. But his holy element?

"I don't know if I know much more than you." Emre explained. "Plus this offer seems very one-sided in my favor."

"It's a holy element. It is stronger than the other elements. I can't use mine well and I can see in your mana that the gold color is very prevalent. Compared to me, who has barely learned anything about shadow magic, you are likely more knowledgeable."

Emre slowly nodded to the reasoning. Since he evolved, his radiant magic had increased quite a few levels to accommodate. He hasn't actually used his magic in battle since then either so he didn't know how well it's improved. His mana being mostly golden now made sense either way. Even then, he was unsure if he knew enough about his radiant magic that he could help Idris with his.

"I don't know if I'll be a good teacher or how much more I know than you do, but I can try." He stated.

There was also no guarantee that their elements worked the same way. Idris's shadow magic most likely had aspects that Emre's wouldn't be able to do and vice versa. But there was no harm in trying it out. Idris nodded, seeming satisfied with Emre's agreement anyway.

"But Idris, how much do you actually know about the dark creatures?" Emre asked.

"I know that Animor doesn't like them and that they have specific appearances. I remember word passing about the first invasion and knew they were bad but I never looked into dark creatures until Animor asked me to fight them. They weren't a horrible issue until now."

"Dark creatures, also known as Corruptions, are created by the dead. They are created by the Goddess of Despair. I don't know her name, just her title." Emre shook his head with furrowed brows. "The intelligent corruptions call her mother. I have a feeling that this battle is going to be less of just defending against a couple of weak monsters that managed to get together and more of a start of war."

"War... with The Goddess of Despair… And you said intelligent?"

"Yeah… When I fought one of the large ones I spoke to it and it responded. This means it's likely for monsters to give other monsters orders."

"This is…" Idris let out a breath and rubbed one of his temples. "Turning out to be a lot more than I expected it to be."

Emre let out a small stressed chuckle and nodded his agreement. When Emre first came to this world he had expected that he was just getting a second chance. Just like Tirian told him. Turns out it was just to do her bidding. He couldn't help but feel a bit bitter in the back of his mind.

She was still giving him a chance. Even if it was right when the world was about to be thrown into a war that they couldn't even see coming and still can't see. Even if he would fight the corruption anyway, Tirian providing him radiant magic before he even knew about dark creatures just proved further that he was meant to do what she wanted him to do.

"Well… I'll let you think about that. I need to go to my room before Ragan does so he doesn't ask any unnecessary questions." Emre said as he stood up from the chair.

"Alright." Idris responded simply and stood up as well.

Idris followed Emre to the door and waited as he exited without any additional words. After seeing Emre out he closed the door and began to ponder what he had just learned.

Emre started toward the stairs to head up to his own room. Just as he got to the stairs, a form quickly turned and just about crashed into him. Her face was a bit rosy from drinking and she looked surprised as they each took a step back. It was Nalia.

"Ah, sorry." Emre quickly apologized.

"I-It's fine." Nalia responded just as fast as Emre stepped off to the side to let her pass.

He quickly kept on his way as Nalia watched him leave up the stairs. He hoped that run-in wouldn't bite him in the back as he entered his own room. Luckily, it seemed Ragan was still downstairs.

It was time to get a good rest after knowing that another dragon was on his side.

He wasn't completely alone.