Chapter Text
"With the power of friendship, I shall destroy you all" you hummed ironically.
Your eyes glow with excitement and reflected into the thick layer of glass before you, your pupils delated at the revelation of the new global sphere right in front of you. You pressed your right hand on the surface and took your time to admire the patterns of the landscape: a bounded world-bubble, a glowing shell that much likely serves as a protection or a barrier to preserve safety - or to confine something. The thoughts in your mind all spin around with certain possibilities and theories all at once; What is this actually? Overall the view doesn't quite strike as conventional, per a contrario, its entire existence feels artificial made, something that Gods implied. Maybe the living beings there are sinners that shall be kept away from the rest of the universe, perhaps bigger than the ones from our own planet. Clearly a curse - you thought.
"Such a peculiar finding must be shared undoubtedly to a certain someone". Happily you turned around and shout down the spaceship hallway "Ace, come see this!". After a moment of silence you decided to continue "Come on, fast! You miss the interesting part!!".... "COME ON!" Only then you got a reply. "Stop shouting, dumbass!!! I'm not coming!!"
You shook your head and proceed to move forward towards the room of your dear brother, Alexander. Ace is not technically your brother, but you do branch off from the same bloodline; as cousins. Anyways, it doesn't matter all that much as the two of you behave like siblings all the time, so you would rather refer to him as brother than anything else; And who would be any main character without their companion? Anyway, you kind of grew fond of his company, even with his unenthusiastic attitude.
"You are annoying, you know?" he said as he saw you in the doorframe, throwing you a disinterested look. Of course he has to be like this, why would he listen to you like a good guy. This requires a change of tactic. Something to string him a little.
"Only jesters got to under-" But you didn't get to reply, your words cut short by a rather powerful wave of energy that shook your entire nervous system, making every strand of hair on your body stand up. Instinctively you took a step back but didn't have time to run to the control panel as the ship shuddered violently and you got flown forward , hitting your back hard into the opposite wall. You weren't unconscious yet, so you struggled to get a sense of self in order to get into the Command Center Room as fast as you could. But your body won't obey no more with the celerity your mind intended. You searched disparately for a stable object around your grip but fail to find anything. You tried to move forward but couldn't do much, the whole space still under violent tremor. Maybe that hit paralyzed you entirely, even you thought you would be more durable than that.
But who could save the situation if you don't? Flying objects everywhere had you shielding you face of any potential damage, but from the corner of your eyes you could see the figure of your brother getting out in the corridor while still holding onto the door to support himself. For a moment you really thought all the hope wasn't lost. That was until one more strike sent you into the ceiling , causing you to hit your head badly and blinding you entirely. The last thing you remember is hearing your brother screaming "No! Oh no, no, no!" in terror. Even he realizes you both are done for good without you, at least. The light shut down after.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
You woke up with a certain feeling of panic still lingering into your brain, memories from the last encounter overwhelming the mind in a rush. Except you were no longer in the familiar space of your travel vehicle, but somewhere out in the open. Your half opened eyelids trailed down the location you are at the moment; from you point of view it seems like you were resting directly on the firm ground across wild grass, trees all around you- perhaps in a forest. "Ugh, unbelievable. This is the planet I've been observing, isn't it?". This is the most logical explanation that comes to mind- "But there was really no need for such a forceful measure, we planned on invading it anyways" you said to yourself while pushing you up with one hand into a seated position. With the other you checked your head and found a bandage wrapped around loosely, you don't feel any kind of dizziness or headache howsoever. But you didn't get to put your thoughts properly in order as a voice raised from your side.
"I see Foreign Nara woke up! Are you feeling better?" And then this... something pop up next to you. It was clearly an alien creature, but you couldn't put your hands on what exactly it was. A mushroom ,perhaps? The thought almost made you laugh --Gods these days be creating anything. Anyways, your new company doesn't detect as a threat to you at all.
"And what are you exactly? A sandwich ingredient?" you said it with a grin, observing the stupid looking green thingy. Such a peculiar specimen - their body part was circular and yellowish, if not for the tiny stubby limbs hanging on the sides you would've confused his round-like form with a plant. On top of his head he bore a giant green cap akin to one of a fungus, ornated with a few brownish leaves. Its baby face was the cherry on top, eyes like two little black beads that seem to hide no apparent thoughts of any sort behind- how sugary uncanny. You couldn't help but wonder what it tastes like.
"Phew, Aranami thought that you would live up your final nights here in the forest, you got him really nervous. How do you feel?" He started inspecting you quickly as you got up on your feet.
"How did I ended up here?" was the first question that came to mind. "Aranami doesn't really know himself, he just saw Foreign Nara laying on the ground injured and unconscious. But I suppose you fell from the sky, or this is what it looked like to me." -"And this concludes it for my latter assumption. So I was right, we descended down here after all . Moving on..."
"Hey, quick question, have you seen a decently large.. ship in the vicinity perhaps?" It is still a possibility, a fortunate one indeed, that the spaceship wasn't stolen or damaged entirely by the impact. This would be a bright scenario for you considering the general amount of equipment you brought up on the board, not to mention your key of leaving this planet. Not that you plan your departure too soon.
"Ship? No... Aranami haven't seen nothing alike here. He would've certainly notice something like that..." the creature said. "WelI, I guess I need to open my mind to new perspectives then; but overall that's not a problem, no use to bother myself with it anymore."
"But how incredibly unpolite of me to not ask. What is your name, little one? Is it Aranami? And what is this place?" you asked looking around.
"This is Vanarana forest, a sanctuary where us Aranara coexist. As for my name, you are correct.-- Aranami treated your wounds for a period of time, while you couldn't move. At first he was afraid of approaching you, as we aren't usually kin on Naras... so grown up. Most of them aren't even able to see us." "By "Naras" i would say he means humans."
"What made you help me then?"
"Aranami can see your dreams, all of them from the past few days, and he could tell you are a good Nara. I believe you were predestinated to come here. I could feel it, this place is welcoming your arrival. And seeing you so vulnerable, it broke Aranami's heart to leave Nara like this."
"Welcoming as they should be by my presence." you said to yourself. Hmm, so he has the ability of seeing dreams? You'll keep that in mind for now.
"Really.. Are all the people in this world like you?" You stopped when you realized you forgot to mention about something, or someone.
"Oh, and have you happened to encounter a guy: dark hair, about this tall" you made a motion with your hand a few centimeters above your head. How did you forgot about him though? That's a bit mean, even for you.
"Actually, yes. The other foreigner that came with you has the same unusual way of dressing. And likes to talk about weird things... just like you. Poor tormented boy passed by this place baffled like a tomato in a corn field, not even Aranami could put his hand on what he was thinking back then." the Aranara replied. Sounds pretty much like him. "Excellent news! Do you know where I can find him as well perhaps?" you asked again. "Not far, his spirit within a whisper of distance away. Aranami can certainly show you the way to reunite with your friend."
Of course you agreed, not that you know much about this region, let alone this forest and you also didn't plan to separate your way from your brother's. Together you started walking through the woodland, the tiny living plant guiding the path for you.
You took your time to observe your surrounding for a moment. Nothing outstanding so far, nothing you haven't happen to encounter in your past expeditions. And even with the unusual chromaticity of every element of nature, it's facet is as bland as ever. Or maybe your standards are too high.
After a while, your eyes fell back on your tiny companion.
" You mentioned previously that you are an "Aranara", I believe? And you have a connection to dreams?" You questioned.
"Aranara are protectors of the ties between reality and the dream realm; we preserve memories that would otherwise be lost, seal corrupted dreamspaces and prevent the erosion of reality when the Irminsul is wounded by forbidden knowledge. Aranami can see other people's memories and dreams by perceiving them as emotions and mnemonic frequencies, this is how he knew where to find Foreign Nara. You guided me to you."
Irminsul? Forbidden knowledge? Nothing of this terms strike a cord to you. But what you were much more interested in was your new "friend" that apparently possess some very special powers. You can only imagine how much you can do with the little Aranara in your hands, how many things you can test out and experiment. As you say, the possibilities that curiosity can bring to one are endless. You also got the desire to just break it in half to inspect it's organs, take your time to disassemble every nerve out of its structure, see how this organism works from inside out. Does blood pump into his veins, or is it something else perhaps? Unfortunately you don't have a place right now to indulge into your fantasies further more; dissecting this little guy without proper equipment would only turn out to be a waste.
"Oh, I see. So this is how you know so much about me." you fell into thoughts for a second and continued. "But I have a question. You must know by now that I am no terran of this world, and that must mean I don't appear registered into any data base out here - the Irminsul that you were speaking about, I presume. So how did you access them?..." you asked, letting the question linger for a moment between the two of you. "That's because the Irminsul did not fully rewritten or governed over your past, but Aranami could still detect fragments of you through mind. The moment you arrived here, that moment the Irminsul sensed you." the Aranara explained. "Hmmm, is that so...?"
"Liar." You couldn't help but grin. Of course, he couldn't have known your memories nor see your dreams because none of them are linked to this planet. Nonetheless he is still naive enough to believe that, by throwing such a blatant lie as a front , you'll be gullible enough to swallow that and believe him. Such simple mind he is. No, in reality neither Mother Nature nor any Divinity drove its lamb towards you, it was actually the handcraft of curiosity. He wanted to know what you were perhaps; and pray further even if he played with someone utterly inscrutable to him; such an alien as yourself. Such innocence couldn't belong to no one but a child. He was as fascinated about you as you were of him, after all.
As you approached to what seemed to be a town, you spotted the figure of your dearest dear brother by standing at the gates. He looked pretty tired, probably waited for you all this time thinking you would eventually pass by, and you did. You jumped up a few times and flew your hand in the air in a greeting gesture in order to capture his attention from afar. One may say you felt a bit too happy to spot him.
A shame is that, when you checked behind you, your Aranara was out of sight. Disappointed, you also grabbed the bandage that covered your head and threw it carelessly on the ground.
"Oh, FINALLY!!" He yelled the moment he spotted you as well, his face twisting into a mixture of concern and furry. "You had me worried SICK for you! Where have you been all this time?!?"
You were almost up to say a word for yourself, saving your dignity and putting an end to his worryings, but he didn't even let you start. "I swear, this is the LAST time I EVER agree on traveling anywhere with you! I don't know how I was such a fool to trust you...!" He lashed out his words spiked with outrage in a much bitter manner than the one of his usual outbursts. Maybe all the exasperation of waking up alone in a total new world was too overwhelming for him, you could've guess.
It was almost like he thought it was your fault for the situation you both happened to be stuck in. Almost like you should've magically known where to find him. Nonetheless, you knew better than to indulge into his little tantrums, especially when it's clear as day that they are the byproduct of his own solicitude.
In addition to that, his screams attracted quite an audience that you didn't personally fancy at the moment.
"I'm fine, I'm fine. Can't you see? I'm-"
"No matter." He let out an exhausted sign and picked the bridge of his nose. "Where's the ship? How do we get out of here?".
"Oh, about that ... " You gave him a smile of a million words. You can already see the way he was trying hard to keep himself from throwing yet another fit, which you found rather amusing. "Yeah I don't know." But you also love to piss him off surely.
"Of course!... When will ANY main problem be anything else but an impediment to you!??? ...You dragged us into this, you find a way out."
"Pinky promise I'll do." You said giving him an 'encouraging' smile, hoping he understands to cut it out already. "But for now, what have you discovered here?"
You took a look behind him towards the city, to all the people rushing, talking and wearing weird looking clothes that seemed to be Persian-inspired at first glace. Many of the ones you could spot wear the same attire, the wizard-like robes fancy embroidered with its gold-trimmed borders and geometrical shapes appearing to be the common clothing through the people here. Much like the standard uniform, you assume. "This town doesn't seem mundane. Or is it?"
"Ugh, as far as I've seen it's a scholar town, full of stuck-up intellectuals who believe themselves as philosophers. Really, everyone seems to be talking about "cultivate" subjects at every corner, asking questions like "What is the purpose of life?" or "What is this world meant to be?". Dumb losers believe their global sphere is flat. Can you believe it? Anyway, this is mostly the topics of conversation, but I also don't understand much out of them."
"How wonderful really. And such extraordinary minds needs a place to flourish their... revolutionary ideas. That must means there is an academy or a school of a sort close in the proximity."
"Precisely." He paused. "But you need a valid ID to enter. I already tried. "
Your eyes scanned your surroundings rapidly and finally landed on two students that seemed to be leaning on the more isolated side of the city, right past the gates. Then you looked back to your brother. And then back to them.
"No we don't do this."
"Hm really?"
"No we don't "
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Akademiya is surely bigger than you initially imagined. With particular... hardships you found your way through the labyrinthically streets of Sumeru City to the bibliotheca. So much for cosplaying a scholar -- fortunately the effort paid off.
The moment you stepped in the overwhelming feeling of ecstasy dazzled all of your senses, and for no apparent reason at most. You were never really that much of a schooler yourself, all the paperwork and assignments that you always found to be a waste of time didn't shape you as a genius in no part. But what you really do thrive for; is knowledge. And in front of you there is plenty of it. How all the answers to your questions just found their root there. And you were also to ascertain if this world has anything to offer or not from the very start.
Wasting no time, your hands grabbed the very first book that caught your attention. You flopped over it's pages from beginning to the end, scanned through it rapidly and closed it. This is what you will be doing for the entire day, you don't have time to waste with nonsensical or unappealing bullshit.
Your heels clicked on the concrete floor, crashing the scattered papers under your foot with ease. After minutes to hours of laborious study your research proven to be resourceful and this is, prior to anything else, the most important fact, nonetheless of the present aftermath that seemed to be a mess. Literally. Truth be told, you were never the individual to pay much attention to the outcome or the manners of it when it came to englobing yourself into your activity of interest.
This much you understood the moment you dedicated your life to behave as a seeker in this life time, and that is that anchoring yourself over humanly standards of etiquette is simply downgrading on ones mind. Must of us care to show so much, lose each other into the most mundane things without effectively targeting our own desires- to the point of losing the track of the path we pursue.
Of course- you are a researcher and on top of all, a creator. You let the chore of cleaning in the hands of the much more mediocre ones -- the servants. This is only befitting, after all.
Moreover, that wasn't your laboratory nor your home, furthermore nobody's property... so why would your fellow 'classmates' throw such shady looks in your way meanwhile passing by?
Anyways, what actually captured your interest were something so entitled as visions of the Seven, the fundamental source of magic fallen from Celestia, the most purest form of power lowered from the divinity itself through the mortal realm in the form of enchanted crystal globes. "God's gaze", they name it themselves.
Even more, they refer to it as a blessing -what a joke. Gods are in no measure benevolent to share their strength with the ones they subjugate unless the ultimate price is pain. That's the reason why the poor falters in poverty, while the endowed ones shall rise to greatness forevermore. Why other else would some be considered more entitled for power than the others? Half-witted be the ones who pay the wages in the end, it's not something new.
And how urgeful you feel to decimate the apparatus of those self imposed Gods; how fun that would be.
But perhaps you are extraordinarily an exception by nature to the rules of this world, so you may as well exploit their little masquerade of charity to your liking for now. After all, what's a little discord within the mortal kind?
"Ace, check this out! You leaned forward to the opposite chair and extended the hand that was holding the book before him. "What is this?" He gave it a glance but didn't quite seem enlightened.
"I'd say, the key to our success." You explained with a smile. "And you think those 'things' would work on us as well? What gave you the impression that the Gods here would give you their blessing?" He said while crossing his arms.
"Our simple presence here is a pleasurable explanation. We are Descenders, first and foremost, so most of the rules don't apply to us." You giggled. "Just be in the front lines when my most spectacular idea comes to reality!" You gave away a brief explanation of what your mind was able to conceive in the last of 2 minutes, the unattended details that were left out purposely and the way you were moving past the plot making you sound rather chaotic than anything. Everything will eventually fall out in place at some point.
"Let me get this straight, you... your intention is to conquer all the elements from each statue and....combine them all into an indubitable force?..." He falls for a moment into thoughts and seems like he truly measures this new idea.
"We don't know much about this world yet. I'm not sure if it's a good idea to mess around right away with something like that ... "
"Come on. What stops us from trying at least?" You gave him a smile in return. He seemed reluctant for a few moments, but in the end he muttered an "Alright". And this is all you need.
Without wasting any time, you got off your seat and grabbed your brother by the arm, making a pointing gesture towards the grade door while attentively yanking him towards it. With the book you previously debated on still in hand, you were ready to peacefully make an exit and be in your way, that until someone decided to call you out from behind.
"Hey, stop you two! I didn't know the library was a free cleaning service, last time I checked people that come here clean for themselves." You must be kidding me. You let go of his hand and checked behind to see who dared to make the comment expecting anything else but... someone with a funny looking hat. You had to chock yourself trying not to burst into laughter.
"So how about turning around and arrange every book back to the place where it belonged?" You could sense by his tone that he was being serious as well. You turned on your heels in order to face to face him realizing that, the more you got to see of him, the more annoyed you grew to be. You could tell this guy wasn't even an official just by his clothing, the nerve he has to lecture you.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know my inconsideration would bother someone to this rate...but since you were so eager to attract my attention to the point of bringing it up, how about doing it yourself?"
"Hmph, your impertinence is showing a lack of proper education from home on your side. How insolent. But I should've expected as much from scholars like you." He shot back, at what you responded with "How about you regulating that tongue of yours?"
He seemed ready to lash out another insult directed to you but stopped himself from doing so halfway, or that's what you could deduce from his act. His almost confused expression made you question what was he contemplating about for a moment.
"What's the deal with you two? I've never seen you before in the Akademiya? And you don't look like locals certainly." he replied, maintaining the visible hostility on display just like before. The perfect opportunity to put an end to this wearisome encounter, no pleasures included.
With a shift motion your free hand slid silently into your pocket, holding the hand grenade you have on yourself with a firm grip.
"You must have missed us, that's all." You responded sarcastically.
Taking advantage of his temporarily distraction, you yanked the safety ring free and hurled the CS gas canister down to his direction before making a run for it in the few seconds you have left.
You didn't look behind you, but the powerful chemical smell caused by the lachrymator and his violent coughing that followed after depicted enough evidence to declare yourself satisfied.