Judgment to the Wicked

Chapter 4

The Myine Symbols

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The climate was awfully cold in that dark underground hideout, but not too cold for the demons that lived there. Only massive computers with their light monitors and buttons and the luminant liquid from several different pods barely lit up the place. One demon with a long white beard and little hair around his head was standing, facing the biggest pod with a light blue illuminant liquid, which appeared to have a naked female body inside, with thin tubes connected to its chest, stomach, arms and legs. The demon wore a dark purple long robe and held on his right hand a big wooden staff with a light blue orb on its peak.

Soon, another demon, who seemed a lot younger, walked in to the room, next to him. He had light blue short spiky hair and crimson eyes. His horns were curvy, but short and he wore dark blue garments and held a tome on his left hand.

"Sir Jed," he spoke up, "You've been studying this human in here for quite some time. It would be best if you rested for a while."

The demon going by the name, Jed, stared at the human for a few quick moments, then turned to look at the blue haired boy, "… This is no ordinary human, Graav."

"Huh? What do you mean , sir?" Graav seemed surprised.

"She's from a different world. She's definitely not from Zarhea."

"From another world you say? But how is that even possible?"

Jed stroked his beard once, "I'm not quite sure myself, but according to my research, not only is she from a different world, but also giving off this strange and quite dangerous aura. Not to mention she somehow got infected with C croids."

"… I do not think I understand, sir. What's dangerous about her aura? And what happens if you're infected with C croids? I didn't think it was actually possible for that to happen to someone either."

"This is why I'm still researching. I'm almost certain that her aura is dangerous for both her and her surroundings. It seems that something is troubling her." Jed closed his eyes in though, "I would assume that her heart is being plunged into darkness, yet she's trying to resist it and in that way having a negative effect on her. In other words, she's suffering… Now about the C croids, I cannot understand how they got in her, but this infection… It's not spreadable nor dangerous, from what I've realized so far that is, but who knows what will happen as time progresses."

"…Then isn't it dangerous to keep her here?"

The elder demon opened his eyes and frowned, "Researchers like us always have to take risks… Now, we will be observing her more to answer all of our questions. Graav, I will
need a lot of your cooperation on this task."

"… Yes sir…"


The group of girls, once again, continued their journey, walking through a trail of dirt and sand. All of them seemed exhausted. All of them, apart from the Knight Master.

"Ugh I'm soooo tired!" Arme groaned, "We've been walking for such a long time!"

"Two days straight in fact." Elesis added.

"No whining!" the Knight Master's tone turned serious.

Has she become more strict or what? the Ruby Knight thought.

"We're heading to <<Gorgos' Dungeon>>." The Knight Master went on, "From what I have heard, one of Kaze Aze's foolish servants is lurking there. Anybody who has any connection to Kaze Aze must be brought to justice!"

"We can also gain more information on her whereabouts and plans too." Lire explained.

"We are here." the Knight Master and the girls stopped in front of a cave's mouth, "We just need to enter through here."

"Oh! We're going in a cave?" Arme exclaimed, looking at the entrance in curiosity.

"Yes, so we have to be more careful. We could be ambushed at any time while we are inside there. Let's go."

The moment they walked inside, a red monster with a long tail and orange draconic wings came flying at them, but with a quick slash from the Knight Master's blade, it fell down on the ground, screeching.

"Prepare yourselves." she said as she sheathed her sword, "We will be battling a few monsters on the way, of course."

"Heh! We're used to this already." Elesis laughed.


After fighting for some time, the ground began to shake lightly.

"Huh? An… earthquake?" Lire jumped.

"Do not worry!" the Knight Master assured them, "It is just a small one. We need to keep going."

They fought all the red monsters they encountered for a while longer, then reached a path that split into two different ones.

"So I guess we'll have to split up?" Arme spoke.

"I suppose, yes." The Knight Master nodded, "This place is not as dangerous for us not to split up, but keep your heads up. Me and Elesis will take the left path. Lire and Arme should head right."

They all nodded and headed off.


The Knight Master and Elesis walked through the ominous silent path. There were only a few orange stones that lit the way, which the closer you got to them, the more they shined and the more you felt their heat.

The Knight Master glanced over at Elesis and stared at her for a while, "Can you keep going?" she asked.

"Eh?" the girl pondered.

"You seem… tired."

"It won't stop me from heading on."

"Are you sure? That's easier said than done."

"I'll do whatever is necessary, even if it pushes me to my limits."

The Knight Master was silent and thoughtful for a while, "… What is it that gives you this much courage?"

Elesis' eyes bolded and she began to panic a little on the inside, Would it be okay to just tell her the real reason? Maybe make up some things to make it sound more reasonable? Or would lying to her lead me into trouble…? "Well… It's because…" she began uneasily, "During one of the expeditions to find Kaze Aze, which my father participated in, he… disappeared along with the other men he was with. He's been gone for about two years now. I always tell myself that there's no way he could've died… But wouldn't he be back by now, if that was the case?"

"…Hmm…" the Knight Master closed her eyes, "Maybe he is not. Who knows? For all we know, he could be trapped somewhere and has not been able to come back…"

"I hope that's it… I really want to find him…"

"… So, that was your reason for joining?"

Elesis' eyes widened, How did she- "Erm… Not entirely. I just though that it was a great opportunity and all, but I also want to help put an end to this darkness."

"I understand… I too lost someone very important to me during the Demon War." The Knight Master's face suddenly saddened, "I hope that he would come back, but…"

"… Who was he?"

"He was my-"

The ground shook heavily this time, as rocks and pebbles fell off the cave's ceiling, many of them landing on the warriors' heads, although the Knight Master didn't really have a problem with the helmet she was wearing.

She quickly grabbed Elesis by the arm, "Run!"

They both sprinted until they had reached a wider room of the cave. Standing right on front of them was an immense red monster that looked similar to the other monsters they had fought before, only five times their size.

"Kyak! Intruders!" it roared.

"That's one huge Gorgos!" the Knight Master stared at the beast wide eyed.
Elesis gripped her sword tightly, "It doesn't seem too friendly either and look over at its chest!" she pointed at the monster's chest where a very dark bluish orb was attached to it, which was quite familiar to them.

"Just as I suspected." said the Knight Master as she unsheathed her silver sword.

"Lady Kaze Aze won't have to deal with the like of you!" the Gorgos' loud voice rang,

"I'll take care of you brats for her."

The Knight Master looked over at Elesis, "Are you ready?"

Elesis' eyes sparked and she grinned, "Whenever you are!"


From the path on the right, Lire and Arme were travelling together and struggling to keep
on walking.

"I'm still sooo tired!" Arme kept on whining, "And to think that we have to keep fighting
without any breaks to rest! Ugh!"

"Arme, don't make me remind you of the difficulties we'll be facing, again." Lire scolded her.

"I know! I know! It's just that I need a bit of rest, that's all. My energy is all worn out."

"I'm tired too, but you don't see me complaining!"

"Maybe we should just rest where we are…"

"No! Arme, we're doing something at the moment."

"Fine…" Arme let out a big sigh.

They kept on walking for a while longer, but all they managed to do was reach a dead end.

"Oh no…" Lire was disappointed, "I guess the left path was the right way…"

"Ugh!" Arme groaned, "Now we have to walk all the way back there? Great!"

"Huh? What is this?" Lire walked over to the wall at the end of the path, where some strange dark purple runic symbols were printed on it.

"What's what?" Arme asked as she turned to look at Lire's way, "Oh my… It's a Myine Symbol! I never thought I would actually ever find one!"

"What's a Myine Symbol?" Lire had never heard of such a thing.

"Technically, it's a fragment, or a part of a person, mostly lost memories or something like that and they're super rare to find since most people don't usually lose memories. Haha! But only mages of high intellect can open the gates of these symbols to see illusions of that person's memory. If you manage to open the gate, then that memory will be attached to you until you come into contact with its proper owner."

"Wow! Sounds helpful, I guess."

"It is if you think about it. And since I am considered a mage of high intellect, I'll be able to open this one. I've never actually done this before, but now I get the chance to!"

"Well, then maybe it isn't such a good idea, for all we know it could-"

Before Lire could finish her sentence, Arme placed her right hand on the symbols and began talking in runic language. Once she had stopped, she closed her eyes, the symbols started glowing softly along with Arme's runic symbol on her right shoulder and illusions formed inside her mind. A gate opened and she was led to a strange place. It seemed as if she was taken to a very poor city, yet the place was very crowded. The colors were very dull and mostly grayish and Arme couldn't make out what was going on.

What is this place? she thought, It looks nothing like Zarhea…

Many people were walking all around the streets and all of them had the same dull and gray color. However, there was one person that Arme could recognize that stood out from all of them. It was a young girl with long wavy dark brown hair, who's colors were more lively than the others'. The illusions designed it to highlight the memory's owner. She was leaning against a wall on the side of the road and had her hand covering part of her face, as tears rolled down from her cheeks. The girl let out an unusual dark aura that seemed to disturb Arme. Nobody around her paid any attention to the girl and just left her in her misery. Every now and then, she would lift her head and look around, then lowered it again.

After a few moments, the image faded out and a new one faded in. This time, every person in that small, poor city, was running rampant through the streets, panicking. Arme saw the same girl running with three more people who looked like her family, her mother, father and brother. A few people dressed in dark green armor surrounded them. The girl whimpered and was shaking in fear, as her brother held her close. Then suddenly, two of the soldiers pointed their guns at her. The only thing that Arme heard before she was pulled out of the Gate of Illusions and back to reality, were a few loud gunshots and a girl's scream. Arme then fell back as the mark on the wall disappeared and the runic symbol on her shoulder glowed brightly with the color of the symbols on the wall for some time.

"What happened?!" Lire ran close to her.

What was all that? Arme was confused, Those memories of hers looked so… horrible… I wonder how I can possibly find that girl.

The ground suddenly began to shake violently and startled the girls.

"Arme! Come on!" Lire yelled and grabbed the mage by the hand, "We got to get out of here. Fast!"

Arme stood up and ran with Lire back the way they had come from.


Elesis and the Knight Master were fighting the giant Gorgos with all their might, along with his oncoming minions. Elesis focused on taking down as many minions as possible, while the Knight Master attacked the gigantic red monster.

"These Gorgos just keep on coming non-stop!" Elesis exclaimed, "Not to mention they're very quick!"

"Just try to keep most of them distracted," the Knight Master spoke quickly, "Do not worry if you miss just a few of them. I can take them."

"Kekeke!" the monster laughed, "You humans are nothing compared to our superb dark powers! You will all end up-" Two arrows came flying at the monster's back, "Kyak!"

"Hah! We're not too late are we?" Lire laughed.

Arme came in right after shooting firebolts at the Gorgos, "Let's end this!"

The archer and mage quickly took out the small enemies, as the rest that were there fled.
Elesis weakened the giant Gorgos with her attacks as much as she could, along with the Knight Master. Then the red knight gave a boost to the blonde woman, who pierced her blade through the Gorgos' chest.

"Kyaaaak!" it screamed, "… I… Lady Kaze Aze I… failed you… I shall not… let these pests… get away…"

The red beast slammed its massive tail as hard as it could on the cave's wall and the whole place began to shake violently, as rocks fell from the ceiling.

"We have to get out of here! The whole place is going to fall if we don't hurry!" the Knight Maste shouted as she led the way out.

The rest followed her and went through the more lighted paths. Rocks fell down everywhere, like raindrops and bruised the warriors' faces and bodies, but they ignored the light pain.

I still can't help, but wonder what that illusion was… Arme thought as she was running, There's no way it took place somewhere in Zarhea, I'm sure of it. But who was that girl? She looked really miserable. Not to mention that aura she gave off… But if she isn't from this world, how did her memories end up here? I need to find more of these Myine Symbols and get to the bottom of this.