The Will Of A Life: Astras

The Hero & The Strange Reunion

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CHAPTER 2
A Strange Reunion
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   The crew ran through the massive halls lined with gold and marble before arriving in the throne room. A trail of quest papers dropped by Yori following them. As they approached the large doors the party slowed their pace, and re-adjusted their clothes. When they entered the room they saw the queen waiting in her throne for the group. This was Isis, one of the king gods, she wore a stunning red suit with a long-tailed coat, along with a mask hiding her face. On her head was a tophat with holes that perfectly fit her large horns, she had long red hair that looked as though it was burning atop her head. At the age of five she was a fearless warrior who went on many adventures to eliminate dark lords and other such beings, and she has only obtained more recognition as she grew. Chosen by her trusted friend, Queen Lilitrine, to rule over the goddesses with her.
   She had been only 16 at the time but had worked as Lilitrine’s trusted servant and advisor for almost all her life. Initially the many gods of the worlds had opposed this due to Isis’s young age, however she followed Lilitrine’s suggestion to challenge all who opposed her. She had challenged 87 goddesses. She beat them each in their respective fields, conjuring larger flames than the goddess of fire, making a more beautiful design than the god of crafts, and even beat the previous goddess of death at her own game.
   Isis had hailed from the world of Estatia before its fall. Astras or the Astras sector is linked directly to Estatia and when people die their souls are often brought to Astras where they inhabit a body and lead with the same goals the original person had. People can also be summoned to Astras as “heroes” but are often mistreated or enslaved.
   The guards around the halls who usually stood at attention at all times were slouched on walls or sitting on the floor while some nobles sat tiredly to one side of the room making small talk. Vera waved at some of them as she entered the room, and they all waved back with forced smiles. However Arch-duke Austin Lorena Nerveheim gave a bright smile to the girl.
    Next to the queen was a girl with black hair that was braided straight down her back but despite this her hair still fell down to the floor and dragged behind her past where anyone could see. She wore a silver outfit and a white veil over her face. At the sight of the girl, Vera’s face lit up but she was quick to make herself kneel before the queen.
   “Something tells me you took a long time because of a lack of orders,” Queen Isis claimed, annoyed “I know my subordinates aren’t very smart when compared to you all.”
   “To be fair, nobody in the kingdom knows who we are, your highness,” said Yori, “it's fair that they wouldn’t be able to reach us.”
   The queen then went on to introduce the girl who stood beside her “this is the honorable Comera Westitch, the future goddess of death.” At the mention of the girl's name Vera smiled, she seemed to turn red. The queen then turned to a bright creature, who looked not unlike a cartoon drawing of the sun, and muttered “Solara please escort the onlookers out and to the front gates.”
   “Ah yes Ms. Isis on it!” cried the overjoyous creature, as a small cloud followed them away from the room.
   Comera’s face turned from serious to happy in less than a second, as she walked down the steps that led to the throne. Vera stood from her bow just as fast, the others looked at her as if she was mad. To stand in front of the queen without permission was unseen, and highly dangerous. Then she did something she had never done in all her years as an adventurer, and lowered her hood. The room was in shock, the group stood unable to move, even the queen rose from her chair.
   “What are you doing! Why would you lower your hood?” shouted Yan.
   “Hello m’lady.” Vera said with a nonchalant voice and an over exaggerated bow “it's a pleasure to see you again ‘mera, how did your training go?”
   “It went lovely darling, how's the guild?” The room was still frozen trying to comprehend the situation. Yori questioned if her friend had gone insane but Vera responded with a shrug.
  “It’s going just great,” said Vera with a sarcastic tone, “only 400 quests to do right now so I got it easy. These guys think it’s a sign I need to take a break.”
“Want to go get some food? On me!” claimed Comera.
“Yeah sure I know a place where we can get some really good sushi!” said Vera “Can I bring these idiots along? they will be at eachothers throats in a minute if I don't watch them.”
“You know I'm starting to think you really have gone crazy, and how do you know this girl anyway?” Yan asked.
Vera’s hair then changed colors from brown to blond, but only Yan noticed. She had used a spell called ‘conceal’ which changes the person's features to their liking. Only her hair seemed to change, though she did have more freckles than before. Her face didn’t need changing seeing as she wore a white mask over the majority.
  Comera started to explain that they have known each other for many years but claimed if she told anybody who she was with, their identity would be easy to find. Yori wasn’t sure what was happening but knew to follow her leader, using ‘conceal’ turning her hair from white to ginger and making it much shorter before lowering her hood.
  Yan started to understand what was going on and after some short nagging from his sister, lowered his hood too, making his hair look gray and become curly. Vera was about to remove her mask when Yan stopped her knowing that she was prone to doing stupid things, and he knew better than to let her do this much. “Look captain, I get it you’re excited, but you must remember that we are in front of the queen. Can we please stop with this.”
   Vera started to realize that she had done something wrong, before she was able to speak the queen called for her. “I see you are familiar with our guest, this certainly makes your mission easier”
   “You have called us for a mission then, who is our target…” Yori asked with a dark tone in her voice, she meant business.
   “I’m surprised you are the word of reason now, but nonetheless your mission is detrimental to the goddesses realm. Your target is Comera.” hearing this Vera and Yan’s bickering stopped. Yan knew what was about to happen, not only was V the strongest person in the realm beside the queen and most in the castle, she was also an aura user. Which means that when she gets mad the queen isn’t an immortal goddess to her, she is an obstacle.
   AURA:
The manifestation of will and heart, the stronger the person the more physical influence casted on the targets. The stronger the mind/emotions the better the control and area of intensity. You do not need to be strong to have a deadly aura, you only have to have stronger emotions.
   Vera had lost it, and this was no joke to make her friends stop talking or to get information from a criminal. Everyone in the room felt the crippling weight of Vera’s Heart. It took only a few moments for the hoods to fall to their knees, gasping for breath from the magical pressure. Turning to Vera Yori watched as her hair became black and a red liquid like substance that seemed much like smoke oozed out from the walls and sealing making it impossible for her to locate Yan.
   The queen almost fell as well, but the only person in the room who stood without any attack was Comera. She didn’t know the extent Vera's rage could take her, and despite the danger she knew that if she didn’t stop her, she would end up killing somebody. Comera started to run forward to Vera stopping as she reached the barrier between the world and Vera’s aura. It looked slimy, and flowed desperately to keep from reaching her.
   Reaching into the deep red cloud and continuing on holding her breath, Comera ran to Vera. Her vision was getting fuzzy but she was able to draw a sigil pressing her hand to Vera's chest. Vera instantly fell asleep and as the fog dissipated. The team and the queen struggled to regain their footing. Fortunately everyone was mostly unharmed. Yan noticed as Comera sat on the ground holding an unconscious and re-hooded Vera who’s conceal spell had been deactivated in her rage.
   Yan called to them and ran to ensure Vera was ok, followed by Yori. As he reached her he casted a spell called embers of life, a high grade spell meant to heal injuries to even the extent of replacing limbs in a matter of seconds. This spell is insanely powerful and the dream of all priests, however it is also feared for casting it requires an impeccable amount of mana that could easily end even the most skilled mage. Yan however seemed entirely unaffected by the large amount of mana he used as he had a mana pool at least twenty times stronger than that of a high mage and at least ten times more than any castle mage.  
   As Yori made it to Vera, her pain had subsided but was now replaced with worry. Yan turned to the queen to ensure she was alright, casting the same healing spell again. Comera held Vera in a soft but sturdy manner to insure her head wouldn’t reach the floor.  
   “Trust me everybody will be fine, but we should leave now before the blank knights discover where I am.” Comera told Yan with a reassuring look in her eyes, “I know this doesn’t make sense but your job is to make me seem as though I was killed here, without killing me.”
   Yan seemed confused but could tell she spoke the truth as he casted an area dispel turning everybody's appearance back to normal as they put their hoods back on. “Then we should move from here fast,” Yori said as she finally reached the group “is everybody alright?”
   “Everyone appears to be in good enough condition to leave.” Yan responded.
   “Then we should probably head out,” Yori claimed. Yan reached his hand into his pocket and grabbed a silver brooch with white wings and a mask similar to Vera’s. Embewing magic into the object the group was quickly whisked away in a flash of light. Left behind was a puppet, called a mimic.
   MIMIC PUPPETS:
Made with illusion magic (courtesy of Arthur Leonheart), mimic puppets are able to turn into any person as long as the owner invisions them properly.
   The queen was rather annoyed at the outburst and chaos, but seeing the puppet she thanked the crew anyway, before calling the puppet to become Comera and chopping its head off.