AKARI

Once it was made sure that Glade was free from any future attacks, we headed out the next morning for Elvenowl. As of now, we're still about fifteen minutes away from the city and the snowstorm has passed, leaving a few feet of snow on the ground in its wake.

"So," Sora starts as he walks next to me and I glance over at him, his hands in his pockets, "yesterday, you asked Clea about Patience too. I was wondering what happened to the previous one, if you don't mind me asking."

"The last Patience died years ago," I shrug. "His name was erased from all records for some reason. According to rumors, it was because of committing some forbidden act. Nobody nowadays really knows. I'm sure Carmin would, though."

"Not even Clea knows?" Sora frowns slightly.

"No," I shake my head. "If she did, she would've mentioned it when I asked. She wouldn't have had a reason to hide it. Plus, I saw that it wasn't on the page."

"Well, what happened to the original weapon of Patience, then?" Sora asks.

"It was broken," I say after a few moments. "It was the only original weapon to have ever been broken."

"What?" Sora's eyes widen. "How?"

"It was broken in battle whenever he died. Whoever broke it must've had some serious abilities because nothing like that has ever been done before, nothing anywhere even close," I say. "It would've been hard for even Wrath to do that."

"But there has to be one of every sin and virtue alive, right?" Sora frowns. "So, now what?"

"There's a Patience alive somewhere," I nod in thought, "but whoever they are, I must say I feel rather sorry for them. They'd never get their weapon or unleash their true potential."

"That sucks," Sora sighs and I offer a sad smile.

"I'm sure they're managing," I offer and Sora smiles in return. "They probably live on some little farm off in the country somewhere, far from danger. I'd say they'll live a happy life. Maybe they're better off that way anyway."

"I don't know," Sora's smile slips slightly. "If it were me, I'd want to know so that I could do whatever I could to help people. I mean, wouldn't you? In my mind, if I don't do it then how do I know anyone else will?"

"That's true," I sigh. "Very, very true."

"Hey guys, look!" Isabella shouts and points ahead to a city in the distance. "We made it!"

"Wow," Clea breathes out as we approach the city.

"Wow, indeed," Shae smiles fondly as he looks around inside the entrance and adjusts his glasses.

"Welcome to Elvenowl, girls and boys," Gambit grins as she places her hands in her hips and admires the view ahead of her.

Elvenowl, unlike the rest of the mountaintops, is a city that has high tan walls with a glass ceiling overlooking the entire city to ensure that it's free of snow, the snow going to the tan tiled floor that starts just before the giant tan and red designed stone doors that lead into the city. Additionally, the city feels like spring, unlike the cold winter outside. The city itself has roads made of tan stones and has different colors of banners hanging from the sky that are strung between poles, as well as multiple strings of fairy lights, vendor booths on the sides of the roads, and a public square with a giant stone water fountain with rose petals in the water and aspen trees and rose bushes surrounding the fountain and the square. Further in the city, businesses and homes start popping up, each building pressed fairly closely to another, only a few feet between each one. However, the pretty stone sidewalks and sleek black lamp posts add a pretty sort of aesthetic to the areas.

"Woah!" Clea ducks down as a white owl swoops down and flies by her head as we walk through the deserted streets.

"It seems that the owls have stayed," Gambit muses and watches as a tawny owl flies through the sky, accompanied by multiple other owls flying underneath the glass dome.

"Elvenowl is known for having its guardian spirits be owls," Shae begins as we walk through the city. "Elvenowl itself is a sacred haven city for all sorts of owls. They even have shrines in here that people pray to for protection and insight. There's really nothing quite like it anywhere else."

"I'm willing to bet that the source of the nightmare creatures in Elvenowl is coming from deep within the underground tunnels that lead to the dome where all spiritual rituals are held," Gambit says. "That's the heart of Elvenowl, quite literally. It's both the heart of the people and the heart of the city."

We follow Gambit's lead to the center of the city. Eventually, we come to a stone entrance way that has glass doors with owl runes and markings on them and the entrance way leads to a stone pathway that slopes downwards. Gambit pulls open one of the glass doors and walks inside, the rest of us following suit. Along the walls, sconces hang and fairy lights connect from wall to wall in order to light the way, although most of the lights have blown out and only a few of the bulbs are still on, making for dim lighting as we walk down the tan stone pathway that's lined with dark stone walls.

"At the end of this tunnel, we'll come to a crossroads where we can either go left or right, and there's also a waterway on the far side of the pathway that has who knows what in it, so I'd recommend not disturbing whatever's residing in it," Gambit says. "Normally, the water would be pure and used for prayers and rituals, but due to the nightmare creatures, I wouldn't trust using it."

"How do you know so much about Elvelowl, Gambit?" Sora asks. "Not just the city itself, but everywhere we went up here."

"Well, duh, knucklehead," Gambit grins as she glances over her shoulder as she walks and she twirls around effortlessly, her hands clasped behind her back as she faces Sora and grins. "I was born here."

With that, Gambit whirls back around and Sora's left staring at her back with raised eyebrows and an expression of slight surprise. Gambit continues to lead us down the pathway until we reach the end of it and she then takes us right. The only sound in the tunnels comes from the sounds of our footsteps and the running water beside us, the area we're in now significantly more lit than the tunnel we were just in due to it being more out in the open and having a few sky lights here and there. Once we reach the end of this pathway, Gambit turns us right again and we continue walking down a short hallway and we pass by several doors until we turn left and we go down a pair of cement stairs that lead to a giant set of wooden doors with runes on them that match the ones on the glass doors at the entrance way.

Gambit frowns as we approach the doors and she clenches her jaw before she stops at the end of the stairs and she holds up a hand for us to stop.

"Something definitely isn't right here..." Gambit trails off as her eyes flicker around the area before she slowly approaches the doors. "Be careful."

We nod in response, even though she's looking ahead of her, before we draw our weapons and follow after her. Gambit pushes on the doors and they heave open with a loud creak and the sound of heavy wood shoving forward against the ground. Once the doors open, we're left facing a giant dome-like room made of grey stone floors and walls, all the sacred items long removed to make the room look like a ghost town aside from the winding tree roots that uproot some of the stones, the trees reaching clear up to near the top of the dome. Dark pulsing energy slithers around the trees and throughout the room, slinking slowly and coldly almost like a snake would.

I tense slightly at the sound of metal clanking throughout the room and echoing around, wondering where in the darkness it's coming from. A chill blows through the door in a rush of wind as a loud screech is let out and suddenly I'm able to see a black as night owl swooping down towards us, its bright yellow eyes the only thing visible in the darkness.

"Look out!" Shae shouts and summons aura shields for all of us as we brace against the strong winds as the owl swoops by.

"That's the guardian spirit of Elvenowl!" Gambit shouts, her eyes watching as the owl makes circles around the dome. "It's been transformed by the nightmare tendrils! The tendrils must have multiplied due to all of the fear of the villagers! We'll have to purify it!"

"How?!" Shae shouts back, his eyes slightly wide. "We don't have Sander!"

"I can do it!" Isabella shouts and opens her book to scan the pages. "I'll need time though!"

"Alright," Gambit nods. "Let's stall it and protect Isabella!"

Isabella begins casting her spell to purify the area while we set out on our duties. Shae guards Isabella from the front while Clea guards her back to make sure that no creatures come out from the shadows in the tunnels. Sora, Gambit, and I rush into the dome area and fend against the owl as it swoops down in attempts to scare us off in its skittish nature. The owl itself is multiple times bigger than a regular owl and is definitely bigger than any of us, its wings made of shadow energy that clings to the room in slashes of darkness as the owl flies around.

Gambit runs over to the edge of the dome as the owl makes another sweep around the room before she jumps up and kicks herself off of the wall to leap up into the air and land on the back of the owl. The owl veers straight upwards into the air in an attempt to shake her off but she holds on for dear life. Meanwhile, Sora focuses on trying to clear some of the tendrils from the room with energy from his staff. The tendrils around him wither and shrivel to nothingness as he swirls around and leaps around the room, slicing through several tendrils at a time. I flip my scythe around and switch it into its gun mode and I put in a cartridge of bullets that spiral before they explode and release nets of green energy to capture what the bullets are aimed at.

"Gambit, get ready to jump!" I shout as I aim for the swiftly moving owl.

"Rodger!" Gambit shouts back before I take aim, take a breath, and release the trigger.

I watch as the bullets I fire off spiral through the air before they explode in a burst of green light and green nets are released from the casings. As the nets get closer to the owl, Gambit swings her body around the owl so that she's hanging off of it upside down and she grabs ahead of its head to steer it directly into a net before she lets herself fall to the ground. Sora glances over at her and without hesitation he casts a disk of green energy to fly out and catch her as she falls. Gambit grins as she spins around and lands on the disk on her hands and knees before she climbs into a crouching position and grabs the edge of the disk with her left hand. Gambit then raises her right hand above her head as she jumps off of the flying disk, purple energy coming to life around her fist as the owl screeches in the net that it's trapped in and writhes on the ground. Gambit lands a few seconds later, her fist crashing into the ground and sending off a shock wave of purple energy that runs throughout the room and all the remaining tendrils shrivel to ash almost instantly, the pestilence now chased away.

"I've got it!" Isabella shouts as a growing white light suddenly flashes throughout the area, temporarily making it impossible to see anything but white light before the flash dies down.

Once the flash dies down, I'm able to clearly see that the owl has transformed into a black and deep blue-green colored owl, its eyes still bright yellow but with more clarity than they once had. The nets around the owl vanish and the owl slowly climbs to its feet and flaps its wings before it flies upwards and spirals around, lightning crackling around its wings and thunder sounding throughout the dome. The owl hovers up near the top of the dome in the center of the area and the six of us watch as a bubble of white light forms in front of the owl before a runestone floats down to us. The runestone floats over to Isabella, who holds it with awe as she examines the oval stone carved with beautiful markings that symbolize both Chastity and Lust, the markings matching the designated colors of each sin and virtue, the one for Chastity being white and the one for lust being hot pink that blends into red.

"Guys, look!" Clea points across the room to an archway that was activated by pressing one of the stone blocks.

"None of us in here pressed that, so..." I trail off, my breath hitching in my throat. "Somebody else was in here."

Sora and I exchange a look before the two of us run off for the passageway and the others chase after us as well, the owl now content and the area purified. The stone passageway becomes more narrow as it goes on and I place my hand against the wall to find that the stones are wet. I instantly pull my hand away and frown, glancing down at my hand as I briefly run to see that some water has gathered on my finger tips from the wall. I skid to a halt whenever I reach the end of the passageway and I hold my arms out to keep anyone else from running any further, my foot resting on the edge of a cliff-side, a roaring waterfall pouring down in front of us into the nearly endless looking fall that leads to snowy mountains and fields below.

"Where would they have gone..." I mutter quietly as my eyes scan our surroundings, virtually nowhere in sight to go but down.

Suddenly, Gambit rushes passed us with her lips pressed into a determined line as she leaps off of the edge of the cliff-side.

"Gambit!" The five of us shout simultaneously as Gambit flies through the air and smashes her fist into what appears to be nothingness, however, her fist collides with something that sounds like glass breaking.

"It's an illusion," Gambit says as she lands and glances back at us, the imagery before us shattering and turning into another stone room similar to the one before us. "One that could only be accomplished by someone who's been long gone."

My breath hitches and the others around me remain equally as quiet as Gambit turns to look where the rest of us are facing, her lips drawn into a frown. Before us stands a young male in his twenties, his orange-sandy colored hair tousled as he leans against the furthest wall from us for support, his right leg in a metal brace and the golden wings on his back partially replaced by metal feathers, his brown eyes conflicted as we stare each other down, his body leaning into himself as if he wants to curl away and never be seen again.

"Reverence..." I breathe out.