Side Story 8: Kayafe
Alysara hasn’t talked to me for a while now. Kayafe mentally sighs.
It’s hard to keep track of time in the Mana Arc, but she can tell a long time from a short time. Normally she would go dormant and wait for the young girl, but she never came. It’s not the first time this has happened, as life often throws obstacles in one's way.
She’s probably busy curing her cursed skills or anima.
It reminds her of the time Dwohl was so focused on curing his own cursed skill.
Did he ever manage to cure it? Kayafe wonders.
Memories flash in Kayafe’s mind. Memories of a time more adventurous, more alive than now.
* * *
“This blasted curse!” Dwohl swears, hissing as wisps of ectoplasm drifts off his arms like steam. He shakes his four powerful arms as if trying to shake off the pain. “I promise that I’ll get rid of it one day!”
He grinds his tough digging claws against each other as a way to distract himself from the pain.
“Your flesh is weak,” Verdant remarks, almost teasingly. “We elves need no pain we ju—”
“Ah, shut it, you leafy bastard!” Dwohl kicks a fist-sized rock, sending it flying into the brush “I’d like to see your kind dig through earth and stone as easily as a dwarf!”
Dwohl raises his horn head high as if to challenge the elf.
“Enough!” Alexander barks. “We need to get to the top of this mountain today, we can’t stand around all day arguing! You two, scout the perimeter. Kayafe how much longer will the butchering take?”
“Almost done,” She replies, her spells extracting the best of the monster materials.
* * *
The memories stop, but she can’t help but feel nostalgic. Dwohl and Verdant were always arguing over something or another but their rivalry only made them best of friends in some weird way. It was only a month after climbing that mountain that they’d see the consequences of carelessly handling cursed skills and after that Verdant started helping Dwohl research cursed skills.
* * *
Ting! Your party has slain a Displacer!
All around them, people and things are melded into the ground, trees, and walls. Houses are stuck halfway into the ground as if being swallowed by the earth. Hands, legs, and halves of people stick out of the ground, their faces contorted with pain, making the scene look like a horrifying nightmare.
The cursed being would teleport people and things into other solid objects, quickly killing them. Death spirits drift around, spreading small amounts of death essence in the air. No one was spared, not even the women, children, and infirm.
They had nearly died as well; none of them had teleportation resistance, nor do most people. It was only because of Verdant’s healing that they are still living. It’s such a rare ability to offensively teleport others, and there are usually safeguards built into the skill to prevent something like this from happening.
“Such, terrible power.” Verdant says solemnly. “Is this what cursed beings are capable of?”
“This is only the beginning,” Dwohl says. “The kid only had a level thirty skill, imagine if he had a level two hundred skill. Imagine how powerful the cursed being would have been”
“You mean to say that the stronger the cursed skill is the stronger the cursed being they become?!” Verdant looks at Dwohl, his emerald eyes wide with shock.
“Yes,” Dwohl hesitates before speaking further. “We… I was part of the king’s experiment, a mere test subject. We were never told the consequences, just that we’d be allowed to ascend if we followed orders” Dwohl spat out the word like it was venom.
“Thankfully, I escaped after one of my brothers transformed into a cursed being. He had a level one hundred sixty skill, and his death, or rather the death of the cursed being he became, was worthy of a world message.”
“A cursed being equal to a legendary being?!” Alexander looks aghast. “Dwohl, your skill is over two hundred! That’s way higher than a hundred sixty!”
“Yes, If I were to absorb my skill into a Class or Race I will become a very powerful cursed being” Dwohl looks down at the corpse of the cursed being, with anger and confusion in his eyes.
“I told him not to do it! Why did he not listen?!” Dwohl takes a deep breath to recenter himself “It took me a few weeks after my escape, but I eventually learned to never do that. However, it’s more complicated than that. Levels aren’t everything, breakthroughs matter too, if not more so. A level capped skill may produce a weaker cursed being than a skill of the same level but more breakthroughs. We need to find a way to remove or cleanse the curse from a skill to prevent this from ever happening again, and so maniac kings don’t take advantage of this bullshit for their own gains!”
They all share a moment of silence before Verdant speaks up.
“I never knew you had such a troubling history. I will help you in your endeavors to cleanse this world of these foul abominations"
“You have my oath that once the human kingdom and its corrupt rulers are overthrown, I will support your cause with everything I have to spare, we will see to it that this will never happen again!” Alexander motions to the ruined village around them.
“I too will help you if and when I can, Dwohl; you are not alone in your efforts.” She says.
Dwohl crosses his four arms and turns around to hide his emotions.
“Thank you,” Dwohl says, trying to control his tears.
* * *
That was before they reached Legendary tier, and the fight had been their most difficult fight yet even though the cursed being itself was not equivalent to Legendary tier. The mere notion of fighting Legendary beings had never even crossed her mind, even if they would have to, to overthrow the human kings.
Kayafe can’t help but wonder if the old dwarf ever succeeded in his quest. How would he react if he knew Alysara had pretty much figured it out? She might have been able to solve it if she had spent more time training [Sense Mana] and evolving it to [Sense Magic]. How different would the world be if things had gone just a little differently?
There's no point in thinking like that, the last few breakthroughs would have been too hard to figure out by the time she settled in the Nexus. In the end, she only managed to survive her journey because she trained [Manipulate Mana] so much.
So what about Verdant then? Was he able to go further in the heirloom tier like Alysara? He got his Heirloom race after getting his first Legendary point, so compared to her, he was far behind; or maybe she's just far ahead?
* * *
Verdant lays motionless on the inn's feathery bed, one would think he's dead if they didn't know better. Elves don't have lungs, so they are particularly still when sleeping.
Outside, a flock of feathery birdmen gathers around, hoping to see the one who slew the Great Scorcher.
"I hope you don't take this the wrong way," Holoo, one of the winged feathery men, says. "But please let Verdant take full credit, the people can accept a plant man to be the slayer, but wingless surface dwellers? Your names are not on the world notification so no one will believe it."
"What?!" Alexander furiously exclaims. "And whose false pretense is it that your people are somehow better? I didn't see any of you fighting that Scorcher!"
"Aside from Kayafe, we are born Heroic or Exalted tier; you Oowals are only born Major tier. You would do best not to argue supremacy!" Dwohl growls threateningly.
"That matters not" Holoo shakes his head. "You have no wings. It shows that you are descended from those who flew too close to the great flame and had their wings burned off. The wingless are cursed, and it shows, as it was the plant-man that got the slayer notification, not you who are undeserving."
"What utter nonsense! You try to justify your prejudice with myths!" Alexander glares at Holoo, rage burning in his eyes.
"The truth does not rely on you believing it, but don't say I didn't warn you. Our people despise glory takers, especially from the wingless."
"Hypocrite!" Alexander says to the man as he turns and leaves the room. "I know you're used to this kind of thing, Kayafe, but this is the type of thing we aim to solve; you should speak your mind more."
"There's little use arguing about it, Alex. Only through shared bloodshed can two different people learn to see past their differences. Those who think themselves superior are reluctant to admit they are wrong." Kayafe says.
"Perhaps," Alexander says after a minute of thought. "But isn't that just something they learned? If we teach them that all races can achieve the same level of power no matter where they start, before they learn this crap, then they won't be so prejudicial."
"I second that opinion." Dwohl nods in agreement to Alex’s argument. "Every other dwarf I know believes any race with a tier less than Heroic is incapable of emotion and doesn't feel pain. But I never grew up in normal dwarven society, so I never learned any of that. When I escaped, I could see with my own two eyes the pain and torment other races are subjected to under dwarven slavery, unlike my brethren."
"In order to prevent prejudice and crimes on such large scales, we must tear down these barbaric cultures that perpetuate it and build one that accepts all races for who they are." Alexander declares.
"Even if that means tearing children away from their parents? War and destruction? That will only teach other races to hate humans more." She says.
She is conflicted; on one hand, Alex isn't wrong that it is through bad tradition and culture that prejudice persists, but on the other, the actions that Alex thinks need to be done, she can't agree with.
However, before they could discuss anything further, Verdant woke up, revealing a third emerald eye on his forehead.
* * *
Alexander did not heed Holoo's warning, and they were chased out of town that evening. However, as fate would have it, this was a stroke of fortune as a few days later, that town was obliterated by a phoenix, a foe they could not have hoped to contend with at their power at the time.
As the first among them to reach Legendary tier, Verdant was the most helpful in slaying more Legendary beings until she was able to get the second kill. However, Kayafe was the third to reach Legendary tier since Alex realized he was born with a point due to being a reincarnated Legacy soul.
With three Legendary tiers in the group they felt powerful and ready to take on anything, however, soon after descending from the sky islands, they learned what true power really was.
* * *
Before them sits a dragon, no larger than a domestic Forron, but one with stars and planets for scales. Space around it cracks and fragments like shattered glass only to be healed seconds later as if it is on the verge of rupturing permanently while strange spacial waves sweep through the temple, distorting everything they pass through.
A being of such unparalleled and unobtainable power that even its very presence rends space itself apart and could even kill a Legendary being without effort, if it wanted.
"So you wish to traverse the realms?" The dragon asks.
* * *
That was the start of their adventure across realms. The dragon followed them, often offering advice or commentary and transported them to other realms but otherwise never interfered. It explained that it was a traveler, not an adventurer, and that it made a promise to itself not to interfere in foreign realms.
That, she has to admit, is a good thing, for if that dragon had destructive tendencies, the world would have been destroyed already.
Kayafe sighs, growing weary of nostalgia, and drifts off to dormancy, the last thought running through her mind is if Alexander has had to use that dragon's parting gift yet…