Nami was not worried of that because she could use the shadows easily and they all avoided detection. There would soon be more light entering behind the mountains so they must hurry. Getting the powder proved easy but suddenly, something unexpected happened. There was a guard that noticed one of them but as he was about to attack, Obeli came behind and cut him down. She took no chance and stabbed him many times in the head. They knew they would have to hurt the brain to make them die and they made it happen fast.
The soldier was dragged away and put into a box that was covered up while they continued to move back to the room with the powder they had taken. Nami was standing in front of all the powder and looked at the ceiling. She had placed the powder in a section of the room that would bring down the magic stone and anyone next to it. One of the masked people added a fuse and moved it as far as it would go. When they finally had placed all the powder and were ready to begin the attack, the sun was about to go up. The soldiers were ready and had placed themselves back inside the dungeon ready to emerge with Lisaro behind them. Nami gave the sign for the fuse to be lit and they took cover to wait for the blast. It took thirty seconds and then a massive blast was heard through the castle. The people that were then awake looked up at the castle that had a lot of smoke coming out of it. The soldiers that were on the ground looking slow suddenly woke up and began to run towards the castle.
Nami tried to see in the room but the smoke was too thick for anyone to see. A sudden gust of wind pulled the smoke out and finally, the damage was revealed. She could hear voices upstairs and soon saw movement on the floor. She gave the order to attack and the room was quickly filled with fighters that cut any moving soldiers down. The soldiers followed by Queen Lisaro all rushed out fast and overran the rooms with pure man power. They assaulted the room from above and forced their way through. The Daku soldiers tried to fight but were then in trouble as the amount of Domoro Land’s soldiers came swelling in.
Kemi’s soldiers took many hits to bring down and took many of the newly released soldiers with them in death. Lisaro’s soldiers killed everyone left in the room and soon meet Nami’s assassins coming from below. The soldiers Kemi left were much better fighters than what Nami’s assassins had met earlier and she lost two of them in the fight. The people of the Domoro Land then realised what was going on and decided to attack any soldier that was still below. The soldiers below were not as strong but were able to kill some of the people attacking them but soon got overrun by them. With everyone then joining in the fight to free the castle, it went quick. The whole kingdom found and killed all of the soldiers not already dead.
Before breakfast was about to be served, the kingdom was once again under the control of Queen Lisaro. She gave the order to bring down the shadow stone that was still not showing any sign of life and asked any of her wise men what they should do with it. None of them knew much since very little information was found in the kingdom but they believed the magical stone was only made for war. Lisaro had seen what had happened and did not want anyone ever to be effected by its power so she ordered it to be destroyed. Several tries were done to break it apart but the Alumrylite stone was not showing as much as a mark. As it could not be destroyed with what they had, they decided to make sure it was never found again.
Lisaro had made sure to bring in only the most trusted of her men in the same room as the shadow stone. Nami had only Soste with her and they then made a decision about the magic stone. Nami told Soste to send out a message to everyone in the kingdom that Kemi had lost the shadow stone and was now defenceless inside the mountains. She also said in the message that the Alumrylite stone had been successfully destroyed and split into a thousand pieces. Queen Lisaro did not want to have the shadow stone in her kingdom ever again and asked Nami to please take it away to hide or to find a way to destroy it.
Nami packed it away in a bag that she put over her horse and then took off with her warriors. Queen Lisaro ordered a collection of the dead soldiers to be brought outside the kingdom and burn them. The smoke filled the sky and the Domoro Land’s people start to fortify the kingdom in case of Kemi returning to them. Queen Lisaro organised people to repair her throne room and when she looked over to the mountain, she wondered if the water stone was really there. She hoped Kemi did not managed to find it ever and it stayed hidden from anyone else too.
Meeting an Old Friend
Sophia, Isabel and Gon had finally come to the north of Nanta. With them were those loyal to the school that would follow Gon wherever he went. They had found a small town next to the ocean that had a scent of fish and they could smell it from far away. Isabel was not happy because she disliked the smell but she had no choice and walked with the others to the town. When they arrived, they noticed the town was very quiet. Gon saw there were very few boats and the rumour of the Grasoll army had reached as far as the town probably long time ago. A sign said “Welcome to Yoyu” with a picture of a mountain drawn on it. The mountain could be seen from where they were and it was, indeed, a great one but stood alone from the mountain chain. Gon’s suspicions got realised when a woman told them that the last big ship had left for the other continents as soon as they heard about the infected army.
Sophia asked why the woman was still there and she responded that she had lost much anyway because both of her sons were in the Grasoll lands army. She had been told by one of them that managed to flee home that her other son was still in the castle when a magical stone transformed everybody. With the army then going around the country, it was only a matter of time until her son came back to the small fishing town. Gon told her the soldiers were not like they used to be and her son might not even recognise her, but the woman who was clearly upset said she didn’t care. She wanted to meet her son once more to tell him she loved him. Not wanting to further bring pain to the woman Gon asked about others that had come like her second son. She said many of the Grasoll lands army as well as many others already came to the town to try and get a boat. They, like her son, were all heading towards the other continents to find a safe place to be.
Isabel asked if there were many people left in the town and spotted one more person walking with some fish. The woman said there were still around 200 people left that refused to leave, but most were old or not able to travel because of other reasons. She told them there was a fisherman that still had a few boats but he was not leaving until he could see the twisted army coming. Gon asked Wame to divide everyone to walk around and find anything that they might be able to bring with them. Isabel went with them and would try to find out more information about where to go. Gon and Sophia walked to the house that the woman told them the fisherman lived in.
As they knocked, they could hear a sound from the back of the house. Gon told her to wait there in case the fisherman would come and then walked around the corner. There were stacks of crates and fishing nets blocking the path. He tried to see by jumping but he was not successful due to the amount of equipment being there. He came back to Sophia who told her father she would go and have a look. They found two walls that were close to each other and she said they would help her. She took aim to run towards her father after backing away a little. He put his hands down to lift her when she jumped to help her come up.
She got a big push and jumped away on the wall she was aiming for. With the extra elevation from the wall, she was able to get onto the edge of the roof high up. From there, she used her hands to get to a crate that she then landed on. She looked around and told her father she could see several small boats that were lying anchored at a small boathouse. She saw the different path that was leading to the boat was blocked by various things including sharp wooden poles that were sticking out from the ground.
Gon figured the man must be wary of the people trying to steal his boats to get away. He heard a loud bang behind him and saw the fisherman running out with a sharp spear. The man was standing in front of Gon and told him to leave his boats alone. Sophia was quick and jumped up the roof to run to the oth
er side where she jumped down on another house to be able to get to street level. Gon told the man to calm down and tried to insure him that they were not going to steal the boats. The man looked at Gon then said he didn’t believe him and started to walk forward. Gon knew the man was no threat but did not want to hurt him since they had not come to make trouble.
Sophia was behind the man and told him to let his spear down. The man turned and looked upon Sophia who was coming for him. The next thing he knew was the spear being taken out of his hand and another hand holding his shoulder hard. The man said the boats didn’t work anyway as all the sails got stolen by some of the people leaving the town. With no one selling the material he needed to repair it, they would not move for a while. Sophia said they only wanted to go with him or hire him to take them over the ocean. The man calmed down and Gon let go of him after feeling he won’t do anything stupid.
The man said even if he wanted to help, he couldn’t. He said that there were some pirates patrolling the ocean to try to get the people crossing over to steal their possessions. The Redonian fleet usually kept them at bay but the pirates had become braver now that they knew more people were leaving with many valuables. He said they would need a fast ship to avoid anyone coming to make trouble but he had none left. The man spit on the ground and said the pirates would fire their weapons at them if they tried to escape on a ship that could not outrun them. Last time, he tried to escape when suddenly being surprised by them, they caused damage on the only ship he had.
When Sophia asked where it was, he told her that it had been stolen by some soldiers wearing the Grasoll brand on it. Gon thought the pirates on the ocean must be taking advantage of the situation that’s going on in the land. He knew the times were tough if the soldiers from Grasoll had begun to steal. He asked where the pirates were patrolling and the man said he heard from one of the people he met earlier that they sailed all over. He let them know the Redonian Kingdom was chasing them down but many of the ships were avoiding them with their fast ships. Any pirate ship found would be surly sunk and crew taken back to Redonia but they only had a few ships faster than the pirates.
The man said that if they would ever see a Tarikan flag of the old rulers then they must flee. He looked at Sophia and said the pirates were known for taking young women away to not be seen again or sold to the many brothels after they had their fun with them. Gon was not hearing this and told the man he would execute anyone touching his daughter. The man shook his head and said he feared for anyone trapped with the pirates at sea. Sophia looked at her father and he said they would go and find another way. Before they left, the man asked them if it was true that the Domoro Land was attacked. Both Gon and Sophia looked at each other and then said they didn’t know and hoped the people in the land managed to hide away. The fisherman said his daughter lived there with her mother so he hoped they were well.
Gon and Sophia said good bye and thanked him before coming back to the others that had some news to tell. Wame had some news and pointed to the mountain then said there was a monastery in the mountain that was hidden. Perhaps they might be able to seek refuge there for a while. Gon wondered how they found out and an older woman came forth to tell him there was a great master that had taken over the security of the monastery. She said the monks made trips to the town on occasion and always treated the people with kindness. ‘Perhaps,’ she said, ‘the master might let them into the monastery.’
With very little boats available, the options were limited and he believed they needed to take the chance. Gon told everyone what he learned from the fisherman and believed they should leave towards the mountain the very next day. In the morning, they started the journey to the mountain but there had been some rain in the night and using the old carriage was proving hard as it was getting stuck. The more they moved the carriage, the more it got stuck in the mud. With a pull from many of them, the wheel finally broke and they were forced to stop. Gon was looking at the carriage that had followed him for so long and that took him with his wife, Senji, from the big city of Shetana. He knew it won’t be moving anytime soon so he told them they would leave it.
The carriage was emptied and they took parts of the carriage to be used for the continuation of the trip. Gon was showing a move for some of them that trained while they waited for the carriage to be emptied. One of those helping to clear the carriage of things called for Gon to come. He got to the carriage and was told they had cleared everything but they had found a secret compartment. Gon instantly remembered about the little built in compartment and said he used to put money in it as there were many thieves in Shetana. He wondered if there was something inside and saw the lock he hid in the wood. He told Sophia to come and to bring her spear with her. She came up and Gon told her about the compartment that he had forgotten. He said he did not have the key anymore but he could open it with her spear. She handed it to him and he stuck it in the lock hole. He said he didn’t know if there was anything inside but it would be fun if there were some old coins in there.
With a hard twist the lock cracked and he gave back the spear to Sophia. He grabbed the broken lock and could then take it off from where it had been for so many years. He got a surprise when he pulled the box out because inside was not coins but a book. He said it looked like a children’s book and as soon as he opened the first page, the world around him seized to exist. On the very first page were notes and he could recognise his wife’s hand writing anywhere. It had only some sentences and some questions asked in it. He looked at the book and suddenly, he heard a voice that woke him up. He turned his head and Sophia was standing in front of him. She wondered if he was okay and he showed her the book. She saw it was her mother’s and immediately told everyone to follow her to train. She would leave her father to look at the book with Isabel who wondered what book he had found. Everyone knew how much Senji meant to him so they all walked away to train.
Gon was looking in the book together with Isabel and he wondered how she got it in the first place. There were songs and stories about magic in it with many words he couldn’t understand. They look ancient and also Senji must have wondered because she had written down some notes on the first page about them. He noticed the Alumrylite stones and figured Senji must have thought this was truly a children’s book because she thought some of the texts were songs. She tried to sing them too and translating some of the strange words she wrote in the beginning. She had inserted question marks at some of the places because she didn’t know why the magical stones said some of the things it did when it was supposed to be a children’s book. He read about the magical stones and since he had seen first-hand what they could do he understood more about what was in the book. He closed the book and gave it to Isabel to hold on to.
Not really knowing what the book meant, he decided he had to figure it out later because then they need to find somewhere to hide. He told everybody to pack up and got ready to leave right away. After walking for a couple of hours, they reached the mountain. There was a route that looked like it would lead up on a path so they decided to take it. Isabel was talking to her father about the birds she saw around them as they walked the mountain, he listened but still had other things in his head. They finally came to a pass where a sign was saying the monastery was further up the mountain but was closed temporarily. Sophia said they should not go back to the town and struck at the sign. She broke it and said it’s better that no one knew there was a monastery there, and Gon smiled then told her to lead the way. The mountain was high and at the end of the day they still haven’t seen a single sign of life or any buildings. They took refuge among some trees and set up camp there.
During the night, they could hear small animals and it was very peaceful where they were. Gon talked to some of his best students to be on guard as it might be wise to be careful and keep their backs from being attacked. They had a quiet night but Gon felt uneasy and sensed something in the night. He was wearing a hood over him as well as the others since the nights had become co
lder. The morning came and they soon left after finishing the last of their food they brought. They walked for a couple of hours until they saw a bridge. It was a misty morning and the moisture in the air was making the air sticky. The bridge was next to a waterfall and there was a sign telling them to leave.
Sophia was looking at the sign and with the others suddenly heard a noise on the other side of the bridge. They all saw a short hooded man coming towards them. He was holding a staff that had a red shiny gem in it. He suddenly stopped and told the travelling party to leave then and that the monastery was closed for visitors. Sophia didn’t care and asked to see the head master to seek shelter. The man said again that they must leave or the monastery saw them as intruders and would defend itself. Several people were coming out of the shadows of the mountain and stood with the same sort of staff as the short man.
Sophia walked back to her father and asked him what they should do. Gon walked up to the bridge and asked to stay because they were in need of help. He said that they only wished to rest until they could figure out how to get across the ocean. The short man said they did not have permission to come over the bridge regardless of the circumstances. A voice was suddenly heard from behind the other hooded men and it said that they could cross if they could prove they had the skill to beat five of the monks in hand to hand combat. They had to hit five times on the body and if they were successful, they would face the last challenge. The voice was dark and echoed amongst the mountain between the many walls of it. The short hooded man threw his staff on the ground to reveal himself as one of the monks and said they would have to send five people that could fight the five monks in combat that would be chosen by random. He said if they could beat at least three, they would be let in and move on further.
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