Chapter 23 — WORM!?!?!

Editors: PROCRASTINATOR & GREETER

 

[Ei’s POV]

 

There’s the parade today! Apparently, we get to see the King and a bunch of other big shots. Well, time to meet up with Nadia. 

 

“Nadia!” (Ei)

 

“Hello Ei. Luna, Kurui.” (Nadia)

 

“Eh? Why’s Nadia here?” (Luna)

 

“We made plans after ya fell asleep! Surprise Luna!” (Kurui)

 

“Hehehe…” (Ei)

 

“Anyways, parade time! Let’s get some good spots!” (Luna)

 

“Ei… why are you smiling in such a menacing manner?” (Nadia)

 

“Hehehehe…” (Ei)

 

“Ei… what are you doing…” (Nadia)

 

Nadia is slowly backing away… perfect. Now you’re in position. Game over.

 

“[Gale Burst]!” (Ei)

 

“Not agaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiinnnn!!!” (Nadia)

 

I sent Nadia flying at a nice house. I hope she can stick a nice landing.

 

“Alright, who's next? I aimed towards that roof over there. I scouted it out last night.” (Ei)

 

“I’ll go!” (Luna)

 

“[Gale Burst]!” (Ei)

 

“WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE” (Luna)

 

Luna follows Nadia. Maybe she can help her land? I did send Luna with more horizontal velocity.

 

“I’ll just teleport.” (Kurui)

 

And then they disappear.

 

Well, I guess I’ll launch myself now. I do it silently, nobody’s watching now. Everyone is too busy trying to get close to the parade. 

 

“Alright I’m here now.” (Ei)

 

“Give me warning next time!!” (Nadia)

 

“You sound just like Luna on her first time.” (Ei)

 

““Hahaha…”” (Luna + Kurui)

 

“Well, from here we should have a pretty good view of the parade. It starts from the castle gates, right? Well, you can see them pretty well from here. I heard that the parade is going full circle around the capital, so we’re on the inside circle and I’ve pre-planned a path through the city to follow it.” (Ei)

“You really thought this through, huh?” (Nadia)

 

“Yep! Now let’s watch.” (Ei)

 

The gates swing open. I presume that these gates are theatrical gates because they are several houses wide. Highly impractical, if you ask me.

 

Out of the gate comes five floats. Since we’re decently far, we can’t make out too many details, but the most noticeable thing is the star theme. The first carriage is just plain stars. I think I see a piano on it, so I’m assuming that it’s musicians. The second is a galaxy and looks really fancy. Two people are in the center of it. That’s the King and Queen I presume? The third is a comet. That one’s for the magicians. I bet there are star bits all over it too.  The fourth looks like a nebula. I can’t really tell though, since looking at it is painful. Maybe it’s for the knights? The final one is like the first. More musicians I guess.

 

“Should we move closer or stay here?” (Ei)

 

“Here should be fine. We can just wait!” (Luna)

 

“I’d prefer to go closer.” (Nadia)

“I don’t care!” (Kurui)

 

“Great, so I have to decide… Fine, let's move up a bit.” (Ei)

 

Thus we moved closer to the floats. There’s actually some pretty nice music to go along with the parade. Now that I think about it, I don’t think I’ve encountered any music here before this. 

 

**ʳʳʳʳʳᵘᵘᵘᵐᵐᵐᵇᵇᵇˡˡˡᵉᵉᵉᵉ**

 

Well, let’s start following it. 

 

“WOAH IT’S KING FALL!” “LONG LIVE THE ASTRAEUS KINGDOM!” “WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!” “Is that the Grand Mage Shia?!” “WOOOO GRAND MAGE SHIA!!” (Crowd)

 

The Queen got ignored. What is this?

 

“WOOOO QUEEN SUMMER!!” (Nadia)

 

Nevermind. I’m not cheering for anyone though. I have no idea who any of these people are really…

 

**rrruuummmbbbllleee**

 

Eh? Did I hear something? Eh… must be nothing. The music is pretty loud anyways.

 

**fwyoooooo** ***pop***

 

Eh? They brought fireworks to a parade?! Why… it’s the middle of the da- never mind. It seems Shia made it night time again while retaining the general light level. Impressive. 

 

**fwyoooooo** 

 

***pop*** ***pop*** ***pop*** 

 

I wonder if they brought actual fireworks or if these are fake. Fireworks are dangerous, you know?

 

Honestly I’m not sure what I was expecting from a parade. It’s kinda boring. I mean, there are fireworks, but after seeing them for half an hour straight they start to get boring. Especially if the performance loops… Well, Nadia seems to be enjoying it at least. I think Luna fell asleep again.  I wonder why… she doesn’t normally sleep this much. I’ll ask her later.

 

**rrruuummmbbbllleee**

 

…There was definitely a noise that time. The ground is shaking this time too. This is part of the parade, right?

 

***GGGGOOOOOOORRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA***

 

That’s not part of the parade. A giant worm bursts out of the ground a few blocks ahead of the parade. While remaining in the ground, it towers over the nearby buildings… How tall is that thing? Either way, it’s mouth is so big it swallowed a good few houses!!! 

 

“What… is that?” (Nadia)

 

“A Primordial Sandworm! I haven’t seen one of those in a good 40,000 years!” (Kurui)

 

“You haven’t even lived that long…” (Nadia)

 

“Sandworm? What’s it doing here… there’s no sand in sight.” (Ei)

 

“No idea!” (Luna)

 

Huh. It seems the crowd ran away already. Well, now it’s just us four and the parade… are we really going to have to fight this thing?

 

“scra-KAW! Fledglings, what are you doing here? Time for you to leave, KAW!” (Mista Crow)

 

“We were just watching the parade… then this thing showed up!!” (Luna)

 

“Well, fledglings, you had better run, KAW! You may be good, but you’re no match for zis thing.” (Mista Crow)

 

Aww… but I wanted to fight it.

 

“Are you sure you can take it?” (Ei)

 

“I’ll have help, KAW! I won’t need help, even from Luna’s friend zere, KAW!” (Mista Crow)

 

“What’re you wasting time for? You don’t have time to be talking to kids.” (???)

 

“Grand Mage, I mean no disrespect but zese ones have more potential then you’d think, KAW!” (Mista Crow)

 

“Fair. One seems to have a lot of magical power, and I sense the presence of a spirit. Still, best to not have these kids when you know this fight could end up badly. Also, the worm is already rampaging. The A rank adventurers are barely managing to keep it contained, and I’m sure they’ll end up with serious injuries.” (Shia)

 

“Fine, fine. Fledglings, scram, KAW!” (Mista Crow)

 

“There is no time. Summer, protect them.” (Fall)

 

Eh? The King is going to fight?

 

“Fine, fine. Admit it, you just want to show them how cool you are.” (Summer)

 

“You did not need to point that out!!” (Fall)

 

“*sigh* Can we please focus on the point at hand?” (Shia)

 

The King puts his hand forth and a glowing white magic circle forms. He claps his hand around… something? He begins to pull up and a sword materializes… and it’s twice as long as he is tall!!! How do you even fight with such a sword??

 

“[Fire Wall]. There, now you’re safe dearies.” (Summer)

 

“Is this really the time to be acting like that?!” (Fall)

 

“Shush, you.” (Summer)

 

☆★☆★☆★☆★☆

 

[3rd Person POV]

 

King Fall jumps off the ground at the worm. Despite it being over a quarter mile away, he closes the distance in under a tenth of a second. Grand Mage Shia and Mista Crow are not far behind. (G/N: Fall just went at over 9000 miles per hour or 14400 kilometers per hour.) (P/N Remember the motto: Don’t question it)

 

Fall slams into the worm, piercing halfway into its gargantuan body. Spinning his sword around him, he carves a hole the size of a house in the middle of the worm's body, yet it is unfazed.  

 

The sky begins to bleed as the clouds in the sky cease to exist. A storm of fire blots out the sun, and at its center, Shia. The flames in the sky change as the sky turns dark. The only thing left to illuminate the sky are Shia’s flames. They burn bright red, then intensify fading into a dark blue.

 

Below the dancing sea of fire, Crow dashes around the worm. Though his sword is like a toothpick compared to the worm, his strikes are not. With his every slash, he carves a hole the size of a small room into the worm’s side.

 

The assault continues even at the worm’s base. Fall continues to leave gaping holes in the side of the worm, but he’s only getting warmed up.

 

“It’s time to finish this. Shia?” (Fall)

 

He is met with a nod from the mage, and he jumps into the air.

 

“Cower before the wrath of Mjölnir’s flames!” (Shia)

 

The flames in the sky coalesce into a single arm which wraps itself around Fall’s legendary blade. 

 

Fall crashes form the sky to the ground, slashing the worm in half. For a moment, the world seems still. A flash fills the sky, as flames burst up from the ground around where the King landed, charring the remains of the worm as it falls from the sky, leaving nothing else but a massive lava filled crater and an open hole, leading into a tunnel made of molten rock. 

 

☆★☆★☆★☆★☆

 

[Ei’s POV]

 

Queen Summer is standing with us. She looks rather bored, but seems to be watching Nadia closely. The King, Shia, and Mista Crow all bolted towards the worm at some incomprehensible rate. It was probably faster than I could move.

 

The only thing we can see of the battle from here are figures dancing around the worm. It’s slowly being chipped away, but at this rate several more housing blocks are going to be destroyed.

 

The sky begins to turn dark. It was red earlier, but now it’s even more ominous. GAH! MY EYES! Some light blinded me… is that it? I can’t see any worm anymore, only smoke. Huh… these guys are on a whole other level…

 

“Say dearies, what do you think of my husband’s display?” (Summer)

 

“Impressive.” (Ei)

 

“I’ve seen better.” (Kurui)

 

“Eh? Uh? It was… impressive?” (Luna)

 

Huh. Somehow Luna managed to not shut down completely. Good job, Luna.

 

“I agree, it was impressive… ᵉᵛᵉⁿ ᶦᶠ ᴵ ᵈᵒⁿ'ᵗ ʷᵃⁿᵗ ᵗᵒ ᵃᵈᵐᶦᵗ ᶦᵗ” (Nadia)

 

“Well then, run along now. The danger’s passed, and I want to see my dear husband.” (Summer)

 

And then she bolted off at the same incomprehensible rate that the others did… 

 

☆★☆★☆★☆★☆

 

People were trying to repair the damage all night, but nobody managed to get near the massive smoking crater. How powerful is the King anyways?!? Well, I guess it was a joint attack… still though. (P/N STRONK)

 

“Luna! Wakey wakey!” (Ei)

 

“Eh… I had the weirdest dream about a worm…” (Luna)

 

“That happened.” (Ei)

 

“EH!? Awww… that means no more festival, right?” (Luna)

 

“Dunno. Let’s go check. There’s probably an announcement on the bulletin board in the square. Kurui, wake up. Time to go.”

 

“12 more years…” (Kurui)

 

Only 12 years this time? That’s better than last time at least.

 

It took a bit to wake them up, but we managed to get out of the house before the big crowd of peo- Never mind. I guess that it makes sense there would already be a massive crowd considering what happened yesterday.

 

Ignoring the massive crowd, we manage to worm our way through. (G/N: Worm. Heh.) The billboard has one poster taking up almost a third of the space with two words spanning the majority of it. “Festival cancelled”.

 

Well, that was pretty predictable. I mean, there is a giant smoking crater in some random place in the city now. 

 

“Huh. It says that it is cancelled ‘until the source of the worm’ is found.” (Ei)

 

“Interesting! Well, maybe the Adventurers’ Guild has a commission for it and we can help!” (Luna)

 

“We goin’ to the Adventurers’ Guild? Okay, hold on!” (Kurui)

 

“Eh?” (Luna)

 

Kurui grabs both of us and we appear in the Adventurers’ Guild. It felt like moving through a wall of water… if that were possible. I swear that teleporting forced me to blink. Is the world just trying to hide the transition between locations?

 

Looking towards the commission board, right in the center of every request board except the S-rank one is a single commission. 

 

Request: Gather information about the giant worm attack

 

Well, I guess we’re doing that.

 

“Luna, Kurui, I assume we’re doing this request, right?” (Ei)

 

“Yep!” (Luna)

 

It says that the reward will be paid upon turning in information and that depending on the information,  the higher the rank. Well, let’s begin investigating.