The 11th God

The Minisveria Mystery Arc I

[Percisca]

It is odd how I badly want them to help me with my mission. At first I thought I can just do this on my own but after the recent events and me being exiled in Minisveria, everything has gotten out of hand.

I stand in front of the guild hall's request board where every quests, missions and tasks are posted.

The guild hall is composed of a quite lovely aura today. I can see every person in each table sharing a smile at each other, giving off positivity around the whole guild hall. Everybody is exchanging conversations, giving toasts over something and just basically initiating conversation while I stand here in front of the quest board.

Any moment now I should do something because I can't just let myself be stuck in here while I have a lot of things in my hand. I grab one of the flyers in the request board and walks towards the table where the god and the rest are.

Just like the others, one seems to initiate a conversation while the rest go along with the flow, continuing conversations that lead to certain topics which should later on, also be the source of their next topic.

While they were all talking to each other, I gently place the flyer that I took earlier from the request board towards the table and all three of them look at me.

"A quest?" the god asks me.

"Mhm." I replied with an emotionless face without directly looking towards them.

I know that soon, I shall regret this decision of mine but I have already initiated it, there is no use going back now.

“Seems fair to me, I mean it’s your turn already to pick a quest.” the god replies.

I look at them with a shocked face. I never thought they’d actually let me pick a quest because maybe I’m not an original member of their faction. I’m a fake.

“Are we really?” I clarify.

The god nods.

“Plus, I think that quest is kind of fun, I think it’s worth a shot for an adventure.” the tall i***t guy replies.

“But can we clarify first, why is there an egg inside our room?” the small kid ask.

[Aljinn]

Let me clarify this one thing, we were able to seal the dragon’s egg inside the Silver Linings cave without any fail; I am sure of it. When we left Zebulon, I still feel the seal that Diether made around the cave which is why I have no idea – even one – how come the egg is still here.

“But can we clarify first, why is there an egg inside our room?” Diether asks.

“I told you guys already, I didn’t know how the egg ends up inside our room.” I told them.

“That’s the dragon egg?” Elio asked.

“Yes, observing it carefully, it is the dragon’s egg. If you would look at the egg for a few minutes though you’ll realize that there are some changes in it.” I told them.

“Like what exactly?” Diether ask.

“The marks and the seal had changed. Sure you’ll see the seal revolving around it but have you seen the image of the seal? Honestly speaking there’s no seal anymore to the egg; the remaining white marks are all the design of the egg.” I told them.

“We’re lucky enough bringing the egg in here, but please don’t tell me we have to raise this dragon. There will be tons of casualties that lie in our hands if we ever do something wrong about raising this dragon even once.” Diether replies.

“I know that trust me. However, if this dragon came along with us, there is no point bringing it back to the cave of Silver Linings. There is a possibility that this egg will hatch midway from our adventure towards it” I told them.

“Okay let’s first calm down; remember we are not inside our room right now. Any words that get out of hand will immediately alarm everybody.” Elio said.

“The i***t has a point; we should get back to the room first.” Percisca told us.

“Stop calling me i***t you long ear, I have a name.” Elio replies.

Percisca aims her guns at Elio, “Call me long ear one more time, I’m not going to hesitate to shooting you.” Percisca told Elio.

We all stood up and walked towards our room. Upon entering, we see the egg lying in the middle of the room while covered with pillows and blankets – to warm it up before it hatches, I think.

“This is stupid.” Elio says.

“You’re only saying that now?” Percisca replies.

“The only stupid thing here is you, Elio.” Diether joins.

“We have no idea if this is really going to work.” Percisca says.

“All babies needs warmth as it grows, I see no difference in an egg.” Diether reply.

The idea of keeping it warm by putting soft objects around it is Diether’s. We had to do something though rather than keeping the egg in here and do nothing.

“Aren’t we just speeding up its hatching phase?” Elio asks.

“Sooner or later the egg will hatch; it is better doing something quickly than waiting for to it happen in the most unexpected way.” Diether explains.

“For the mean time, we should bring it with us.” I told them.

“To the quest? Won’t that be a very bad idea?” Percisca asks me.

“We don’t know when it will hatch and we will be going on a quest that we don’t know how many days will it take, if we are ever to let it stay here, there is a possibility it hatches without us and we will be totally in charge of the danger it will cause.” I explained them.

“Fair point.” Percisca replies.

“Prepare your stuff now, we will be going to do the quest.” I told them.

“Aren’t you still tired from yesterday’s quest? Imagine sealing this dragon the whole night and then ended up being inside our room.” Elio asks.

“Would you rather stay here and watch the dragon hatch then?” I calmly ask them.

Elio walks towards the wardrobe and prepares his stuff, “Point taken we should go. I don’t want to bore myself in this room watching this egg for a whole day.” he says.

The rest of them did the same too. They all prepared their bags and readied themselves up.

“How are we going to bring this though?” Diether ask me.

The quest is located in the western part of the map. Among all the regions, the western part of the map will be the longest region to travel coming from the center. Since Ylgaea is divided into five regions: Northern part is Laban, Southern part is Zebulon, Western part is Trophimus, Eastern part is Philetus and lastly, the Central part is Hergrinct.

Each name has its own meaning in various languages – which I don’t know where it is based exactly – but don’t ask me the meaning, I also have no idea where they came from.

The western part of Ylgaea is not that different to Hergrinct. The evolution of civilization from Hergrinct is also the same with Trophimus which looks rather odd, because who would have thought that the farthest kingdom from Hergrinct will be the kingdom that is almost the same as it?

“I can’t use my power for a very long time yet. The trip will take some time and by the time we arrive at Trophimus I might be running out of magic energy already. Instead, we will be using this dimensional bag that I got from the king of Zebulon.”

I gave them the bag that the king of Zebulon gave to us along with the other rewards inside the pouch. When we were in Zebulon, I used my power to conceal the presence of the egg which is why I wasn’t able to sleep much during the trip. I used half of my power for a whole hour just to hide the presence of this egg. Luckily, the privacy in each rooms are secured to the point that you won’t even know whatever’s inside the room unless of course, whatever’s inside the room is greater than the magic used to conceal the insides of each room.

Dimensional bags are explained more like as a bottomless pouch. You can put anything inside it without worrying – unless you carelessly lost the bag which is very disappointing of course – but nevertheless, you can get the items inside it by picturing the item inside your head though you must be the owner of the item or else you will be shocked by an electric current.

We are already halfway from our travel and it’s already past twelve in the afternoon. We are taking a carriage that is lent to us by the kingdom of Zebulon in the southern region.

“We should be seeing someone along our journey that will guide us?” I ask.

“Yes, that is what it says here.” Percisca told me.

“What is the quest about exactly?” Diether asks.

“The quest is about finding out the mysteries in a church named Minisveria.” Percisca told us.

“Minisveria? Isn’t that some sort of name for a different world?” Elio asks.

“It’s not some sort of name, Minisveria really is a world. It’s probably just some coincidence that it is also the name of a church in the western region.” Diether ask.

Diether’s face lightened up immediately after hearing the information about the quest.

“What makes you so into this quest exactly, Diether?” Elio asks.

“I told you, my dream is to serve the church that I have always dreamt of serving. There is no specific church exactly, but the church I dreamt of serving is the one that Suthain the god of light created.” he explains.

“Suthain created his own church?” Elio asks.

“As a light affinity user, you should know that.” Diether replies.

“But nevertheless, yes Suthain created a church to worship not only him, but every living god out there that deserves to be worshipped.” he continues.

“Which is why I know Suthain is still alive somewhere along with the other gods, and I know the nearest connection I might possibly have with him is by serving the church that he created.”

“That’s nice.” Percisca told Diether.

Diether nods with a smile in his face.

I immediately sensed a presence of a creature near us.

“A fairy?” Diether asks as he looks in front.

“It is.” I told them.

“I want to answer too, but I can’t sense the presence of magic around me if I don’t enhance my senses. Apparently, enhancing my senses for a very long period of time tires my physical body quickly, which is why I don’t use it most of the time.” Percisca answers.

“You’re really into this quest too, aren’t you?” Elio asks her.

“Why exactly did you choose this quest, Percisca?” Diether asks Percisca.

“I have my own purpose too.” Percisca replies.

We already felt the presence of the creature near us.

“You have arrived.” something small welcomes us.

At first we find a hard time finding where the source of the voice came from until something in front of us glowed immensely to the point that it almost blinded us.

“I’m here.” the voice whispers.

It’s a fairy.

“It’s good to see that someone took the request. I’m Pan, and I’m your fairy guide for this quest.” the fairy told us.

“Why exactly do we need a fairy to guide us?” Elio asks the fairy.

“I possess knowledge that you are not aware of. You are from the central region Hergrinct right? If I’m not mistaken, the western region Trophimus is at the least interest of people because most of the beaus in Hergrinct do quests in the northern and southern part of Ylgaea.” the fairy explains.

“Are we near to the quest destination yet?” Diether asks.

“Yes we are actually. Follow me.” the fairy says.

Fairies are one of the known creatures here in Ylgaea. I have witnessed some of them from the past quests that we did and most of them are during the battle of the factions event in Hergrinct. They all possess a single affinity: Light. Fairies are believed to be the nicest creatures out there that are made to tell the truth always. If they ever lie, you will immediately sense it because fairies will get weaker and weaker the more lies they tell.

We followed the fairy for a few minutes before we arrived exactly in an – from what it looks like – abandoned structure or church?

“Here we are.” Pan told us.

“What is this?” Elio asks.

“It’s a church, dumbo.” Diether replies.

“More like a cemetery–“ Elio continues.

“Hey, watch your words i***t. You’re speaking in front of the church that is created by the God of Light Suthain.” Pan says to Elio.

Diether was in shock until somebody walked outside from the church.

The guy is wearing a robe, a white one with cross and diamond patterns around it. The guy – or the old man – is not that tall but his robe shows the opposite. His robe is so long that it even touches the ground and slides along with his movement even as he steps down from the ladders outside the church. His hands are both held together but it hidden inside the long sleeves of the robe he’s wearing.

“I suppose you’re the adventurers?” he asks.

We all nodded in agreement.

“Come on in then, there’s time to explain everything.” the old man says.

He walks around again back to the church but this time we are walking along with him – except for the fairy, he’s flying with his wings that glow in color yellow.

The inside of the church shows the same look as the outside: abandoned, dark and lonely. We’re lucky enough that we are here in the afternoon and not during the sunset because if we ever walk in here at night with darkness surrounding this whole church, I would be the last person you want to do this quest with.

We walk inside the halls of the church until we reach a certain room. The old man opened it and chandeliers lit by candle lights are on top of a very long table with chairs around it that are surprisingly empty.

“Run.”

The old man takes his seat first and we all followed him. The door – a huge one, a very tall door that looks like the entrance of the church itself – closes on its own with the creepy squeaking sound showing horror along with random drops of water echoing across the silent room.  The room is well lit though; you can’t completely say something bad – or worse – is to happen in a place well-lit unless of course something waits for us in this light. It’s a church, not some sort of maze where monsters lie.

“We have called you to help us with something.” the old man says.

“Shouldn’t we go first with the introductions?” I bluntly speak – accidentally.

They all look at me due to the way I speak.

“I’m sorry.” I say as I look at each one of them.

“He’s right though. How rude can I be? Of course we all need introductions in order to know each other.” the old man says.

“I’m Pedro, the archbishop of this church. I’ve been serving this church for almost a decade now.” he told us.

“I’m Aljinn, these are my comrades: Percisca, Elio and Diether. We’re adventures or beaus rather from the central region Hergrinct.” I introduce.

“I’m Pan, the guiding fairy of this church.” the fairy introduces.

“Now that introduction has been made, let me get straight to the point.” the archbishop says.

“Ever since this church was established along with my span of time serving in this church, we have never experienced a distortion in the gate of connections before.” he continues explaining.

“Gate of Connections?” I ask.

“Every church here in Ylgaea has a gate called Gate of Connections. It is a gate that connects all churches from Ylgaea. It is created in order to transport archbishops and priests at ease without having the effort to travel to different regions due to the time it consumes when one travel.” the archbishop  explains.

“What is this distortion, exactly?” Diether asks.

“You see everytime someone travels through this gate, the gate will light up as blue and that the gate will close automatically on its own. These past few days, the lights of this gate become black at certain times and that the door does not close on its own. It only means that someone has been using this that isn’t fundamentally aware of how the gate works or – my worst nightmare – somebody from another world is using this gate to teleport here.” the old man continues.

“How is it possible exactly that someone from another world will teleport towards Ylgaea using this gate? And why are they teleporting in Ylgaea?” Diether asks.

“That’s what we can’t explain exactly.” the archbishop says.

“I know why.” Percisca says.

[Percisca]

I didn’t know that I’ll be exposed as soon as today. I thought I can finish this mission without actually telling them about me or what I am but here is the truth.

This whole quest is planned by me. Using my powers, I had to do something in order to bring the people from another world here. Sure, using one of the artifacts is possible to get through here, but that will consume too much energy from an artifact possessor as it is a really huge request to teleport between worlds. I had read about churches in this world – Ylgaea – that can teleport other people in far ranges.

You see, worlds are not just some multidimensional thingy where you can only teleport to another dimension by using grand magic spells. Worlds are more like planets if I were to describe them. They are placed specifically somewhere far from each world to the point that they can’t actually be seen or distinguished by someone from another world. I learned about this after using my midnight eye.

I once used my power to look greatly into future but it went completely wrong and instead it gave me sight to see the smallest of things, even those that compose people. With this accident, I saw various worlds around Ylgaea, positioned there without anyone realizing it exists. I can’t determine though how far a world is from another world not how long does it take to go another world just by travelling. It is just like planets, where you can see them through a telescope, rotating on its own and revolving around the sun.

But I saw farther than just planets, worlds to be exact. These worlds are like rifts in the air, you can see them rotating and possessing these gaseous energy around them that makes them blurred a little bit, but my eyes saw through it all.

“It’s because of me.” I told them.

“You?” Diether ask.

“What do you mean, Percisca?” Aljinn ask me.

“You already know that I’m from another world.” I explain.

They all remained silent, waiting for me to continue my explanation.

“I’m from a world called Minisveria.” I continue.

“A world with the same name as the church?!” the archbishop said.

I nodded in agreement, “Exactly. I was exiled from Minisveria because of these powers that I possess. You see, in my own world, we only have one deity, the goddess of Minisveria, the creator of the world I used to live in. She created these materials that give its possessor the ability to do peculiar things and they are called “artifacts”. There are a total of ten artifacts, but one of them went missing right after the day of coronation. Coronation day is when ten chosen people are to possess these artifacts. I was exposed to the whole world possessing this ability the same day as the tenth artifact went missing, and that’s when I was accused of stealing it which doesn’t make any sense though. If you were to steal the artifact, it will never trigger its power unless you are chosen by the goddess itself.”

“So you’re saying, you have these powers for no reason?” Diether ask again.

“I have no idea either why I was bestowed with this power, as much as I want to ask for a sign by the goddess creator of the world I used to live in, I didn’t have enough time. I know I have to run because all of the nine possessors of the artifacts are tasked to chase me. Luckily, I have read about the existence of different worlds and that’s when I was exiled and ran away towards this world, Ylgaea.” I continue.

“I was the first elf to ever travel using this gate from another world. Back then, the gate was working perfectly fine. But then, after a series of transportations by other elves, it causes the gate to malfunction and create a rift everytime somebody uses it.”

“The rift is dangerous and this is my fault.” I ended.

“How is it dangerous exactly?” the fairy asked.

“This rift in the gate gets bigger everytime somebody uses it. Once it is big enough, it will explode, creating a major damage here in Ylgaea.” I explained.

“Why are you here then exactly?” Diether asked.

“I needed help. I wanted someone to help me clear my name and transport me back to my world without using this gate. There is a possibility that I am the last person to use that gate before the rift completely explodes due to the powers that I possess. The rift eats up the powers of whomever teleports using the gate, and my powers are big enough for it to explode.” I told them.

“So that’s why you decided to help Al.” Elio said.

“No, you’re completely wrong. The thought of him helping me only came when I felt so desperate, so desperate that I needed help from people. At first, I only helped him because I saw him struggling over those shades.”

“Is this also the reason why there are so many unexpected changes in Ylgaea?” Elio asked me again.

“What do you mean?” I ask in confusion.

“When I first met Al, I saw a shade walking towards him in broad daylight which shouldn’t be possible. The greatest weakness of shades is light and therefore they shouldn’t be able to walk in broad daylight. Then during the island of experiences event, there were top tier monsters that shouldn’t be there but there they are, coming right towards us.” Elio explains.

“I have no idea what you are talking about since I don’t have any idea about the monsters here in Ylgaea, but one thing is for sure. The rift isn’t capable of changing a whole world in just a blink.” I told them.

“That’s odd.” Elio said.