Picture? (Ch. 7)

A missing section? 1/3

"Morning, Ella, morning Eve." Said Eric.

"Well, aren't you up early today, Eric." Said Eve.

"Haha, I guess your right, I could not sleep last night, even though I was exhausted. I just kept thinking about what happened in town. I don't know if we should consider this a blessing, or a disaster, especially since I can sense divine energy entering my body as well, and it's slowly increasing, and I am guessing it is the same for you as well as Sam." Said Eric.

"Your right... But right now, we can't do anything about it but to seal the power within our bodies, so that it does not affect others around us." Said Ella.

"That is not a permanent solution Ella." Siad Umbra.

"What do you mean I thought the method you taught us would work unless we willingly unleashed the power?" Asked Eve.

"Well, it is, but let me ask you a question... What happens to a balloon when it fills with water?" Asked Umbra.

"It expands and fills with water." Said Eve.

"Ok, then what happens to the ballon if it is constantly filled with water?" Asked Umbra.

Eve's eyes shoot wide open.

"Are you telling me we can explode!" Said Eve as she fell to the ground in shock.

"Something close to that, but opposite, you will be crushed. Think of this energy as a small grain of sand. As time goes on, that send slowly grows bigger and bigger. Slowly that grain of sand turns into a large grain of sand, and after that, it's a small rock. It will continuously build behind the walls of your castle, but what happens to that castle, when everything within it just turns to dust?" Asked Umbra.

"... It collapses." Said Eve.

"That's right. If you consistently seal this power, not only will it be trapped within your body, it will grow denser and stronger as time passes. However, this is a good thing, as it will be purer in qualitatively, as this form can be compressed at extreme levels to be released, as a weapon. That can damage the souls of its enemies. However, it puts a tremendous amount of stress on the user's body. However, as you all are gods, this stress won't appear for quite a while." Said Umbra.

"So you're saying that we will eventually have to release our power, but will it weaken us, or affect things around us?" Asked Ella.

"It depends on how you release your power. If it's in the form of just being released, it will cause hallucinations to creatures around you that will see you as a god or a devil, depending on your mood, as well as nurture or kill the land it touches. If its to strengthen your body, it will transform into a form closest with your divinity, in Eric's, and Ella's case Birds, and in Eve's, and Sam's case wolves." Said Umbra.

Some times passes, and information is shared with the family. Umbra teaches them how to control the divine energy. As well as explain why it is necessary to release it every once in a while.

On their journey, they have crossed about a quarter of the way to their next stop. While taking a break before resuming their journey, they hear a loud roar.

"GRRROOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAA!!!" ???

CL~ANG! CLANG~

"AAAAHHHHHHH!" ???

"MAT! NOOO." ???

Eric looks up at Ella and smiles.

"Looks like we have a few potential customers that way, are we going to help, or sit and wait?" Asked Eric.

"What do you two want to do?" Ella looks down and asks the two children.

Sam and Eric look at each other and nod.

"Someone needs help. We can help or ignore the pain that will surely befall those men. If we help, we may be in danger, but is the reword for holding out a helping hand, worth the risk. It is better to assess the situation than to charge in blind, Ella/Eve let us take a look and decide after." Eric and Sam said after much thought.

"Very well." Said Eve.

After Eve says, that the two individuals leave to see what the yell was about. When they get to the location, they see a brutal sight of fifteen ogres dead and one heavily wounded. While across from them covered in blood are three tall lengthy figures ashen skin and pointy ears.

"One ogre, and five reaping elves, what do you kids think we should do?" Asked Eve.

"Well, elves are a very evil species, with no intellect, and can destroy the land they occupy, if there are only five, they may not be apart of the main branch, let's save the ogre, and treat those that are still alive." Said Eric.

"They all look dead to me." Said Ella.

"No reaping elves don't kill... They cripple and take the woman for breeding, while using the men, as a food supply." Said Eric.

"Verry well, Eric." Ella and Eve said at the same time while rushing out to intercept the elves.

Woosh, woosh, slice, slice, slice, slice, clang.

"Ohh, this one lived. Eve, should we leave it to the kids, to learn to fight?" Asked Ella.

"No mom, we are quite well trained in the art of killing, I believe even if you team up with Eve, you will lose, even if I only use one finger." Said Eric.

"Quite cocky, aren't you?" Said a blood elf.

The blood elf takes a step forward, then turns into a puddle of mud, mear milliseconds later.

"Well, since Sam took care of it, let's look after the injured." Said Eric, who looked at his shocked parents.

Roughly an hour later, three ogres wound up dead, from blood loss, seven were severely wounded. The remaining five were affected by aphrodisiac.

"So why was a group of fifteen ogres out here?" Asked Ella, who was wrapping one of the wounded ogre's arms.

"We were tasked to track down some rumors, saying that elves were spotted near the city. We were heading back with empty hands when one of our scouts rushed back to use with urgent news regarding two things. The first was they were not elves we were tracking but, reaping elves, and a necromancer." Said the ogre.

"WHAT!" Shouted Ella and Eve in shock.

"Calm down, that's not the end of it. What comes next is even more surprising. We were asked to stop tracking the elves, and we were told to escort a picture, back to Ravenclaw city." Said the ogre.

"What drop the request, and escort a picture to Ravenclaw, that does not make any sense. What is the image of that could allow reaping elves and a necromancer to go free, not to mention Ravenclaw city, is at least a thirty-day journey by airship?" Asked Ella.

"Well, its a picture of four sacred beasts." Said the ogre.

"Can we see them? Or umm well the picture of those beasty." Asked Sam.

The ogre hesitates for a bit but then says.

"Well, I owe you guys, not only did you save my life, but you also save many other lives in the process. Please do not destroy it, as I have to deliver this to a king in another land." Said the ogre.

"Ok." Said Eric.

Ten minutes later, Eric, Sam, Ella, and Eve are all awed by what they saw. It was a picture of them.

"What do you mean, it's just a picture of ...mumble..." Sam Covers Ellas mouth with her hand.

"I see, good luck delivering this information." Said Eric.

The family waves to send them off, and continues on their way.

"So, about that picture?" Asked Ella.

"It was a picture of our divine forms, not our human form, as you two are probably thinking..." Said Sam.

... Ella and Eve

A Dying Mans Notebook. 2/3

A blood-covered man walks forward under a dark moonlit sky. In front of this man, he bent down and dug through a corps. He picked up a notebook and a picture. The picture contained a loving family of four, a beautiful husky dog and a bird that looked quite exotic, while the journal seemed quite old, and worn down, the title was still readable. It read Von's Jurnal. The man smiled and said something under his breath, and two individuals appeared behind him and cleaned up the mess of corpses in front of this man. Within the journal contained Von's travels, the man flipped to the last chapters in the book.

It has been many long days since the last time I have seen my beautiful ogre wife. During this trip, we have been tasked to track some elves. We searched from the bottom of the marshes, all the way to the top of the mountains. But we have found nothing. We are on our way back from this trip to report the events, and evidence found suggesting that there are no elves in this land. We will be heading back today to report our findings.

We have arrived back in the city, we rested for a few days, and partied for a few more. Some of my brothers have even left to the redlight district. Even Evon, I wonder how his wife is going to take this, probably going to be his second divorce, haha, deserves the fool right.

Our last day in this citie was supposed to be resupplying our necessities, which we did, but something unexpected happened. The countesses of this city who have been rumored to have relations with the strongest man in the world have appeared outside of their mansion. It was insane people nealing for these two people and their two little ones like they were gods. I will admit that even I, as an ogre, have to give it to these individuals, they were extremely attractive like to the point that when they walked past a patch of flowers. The flowers looked dull and wilted, compared to their beauty. It was, indeed, a sight to see. I even heard someone took a picture of them.

Apparently, it was not a rumor. We have even been tasked to take this picture to the mages temple to get it verified. When we first saw if a few of my buddies said that it was a picture of animals, while I saw a family. The more I looked at this picture, the more confused I got, because not only was it never the same picture, as when I first saw it, because the people and creatures in it moved and changed each time I looked at it. Sometimes the children I first saw were adults, animals, even gods depicted in foreign religions. Oddly enough, the strangest thing I noticed was that there were only two individuals in the picture, one was dead with no head while another was weeping over the corps, and a strange black purplish flame was emitting from the body. When I saw this it gave me chills, but then... Then it looked at me. I think I'm going crazy. We must hurry to drop off this picture.

We have been rushing through this forest for who knows how long. We ran out of rations and resources about three weeks ago. It feels like we are going in circles, some of our members are starting to lose it, saying that they think we are being followed.

A month has passed since we got this picture. We are convinced that we are trapped in this forest. We have been getting by, by hunting and eating the creatures trapped in here with us. The picture we are carrying feels like a curse. We have tried to drop it, but it flys back to us. We tore it into peace, but it reforms and reappears the next night in our bags. We have burned it, eaten it, fed it to beasts, and anything else we could have thought of to destroy this picture, but the more we try, the stronger it gets.

We have given up on the picture; all we can do is run. The rummers of elves, we correct, but they were not only just elves but reaping elves. Our group had initially consisted of twenty-five ogres, thirty trolls, and one orc, buy over our travels they have died to the elves. The elves vastly outnumber us. We may be able to take them out slowly, but they are picking us off one at a time at night.

A year has passed in this godforsaken forest, the elves have slaughtered many of my brothers, I fear that this may be my last entry into this journal. As such if an adventurer does find this journal, please send it to my wife at xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx if you make it out alive.

It has been five years since my last entry. We have become strong, but so have the elves. My twenty-five brothers and I have decided to make one last stand against the elves. There are only ten left, while my brothers may be injured we are willing to take the risk, to kill off the rest of these elves.

We have been saved. After fighting for ten days and ten nights, we were on the brink of death. All my brothers were laying in puddles of their blood, and yet there were still five elves left. They were so strong I fear that if it were not for the two women who saved us, we would have perished.

We have lost many of our members, but from the looks of our last fight, we only lost three of my brothers. I don't know if I can even be considered ogre anymore, I have become cold long ago, I am afraid of what my wife may think of me when I return home. I wish to thank this family, as well as get rid of this curse. Maybe they may be able to free us, or are they trapped in here like us. I am tired of this constant forest. I, I... I want out.

It is a miracle; they were able to touch the image and even-handed it back without being phased by it. But what's more amazing than that is today's date. We have been trapped in here for so long. From what these people are telling us is that not even an hour has passed since we left town. It is time we leave this forest, and rush to complete our task. We followed the family out of the forest and split ways shortly after.

repio qughn ads flk;vnq eroip juhnbg;la sdkmn vieqrru gnhvl;kfdsk knbv opiqur jpehng v;asd lff vkhn eq rpoijvg ndfsao lkj;bgvnhepi ouhnbv dafpo lkghjn qerp oivgkl; nhd fa.,mhg nvo iuqejklrg hn vapsdfoi kl;hcxjnz vg oieq rkljhgkjvn pdfsoa;iklgjvbm eqprodil;ik mads;lvc ikh npoirekl;gfj snm there was not only one picture taken that day voijah skrdfn gp;o arilskfv jhnfoa disjklhn verpiou ghav nba9ds poif gb npoaekr lvfnas dvfl; lksdah gnv (unreadable passage because of blood seeping into the pages.)

The blood-covered man slowly closes the journal after riping out the bloody pages and throws the journal into the air when something swoops down and catches it and flys off.

This is not good... Eric

Swoosh Eric disappears from the scene.

What? What Was That? 3/3

~Problems detected activating safety protocol.~

~System rebooting commence.~

~Alerting host of the system reboot.~

That is not a permanent solution Ella. Umbra

~Host an issue has appeared, and the system was reactivated.~

"What do you mean I thought the method you taught us would work unless we willingly unleashed the power?" Said Eve.

-System activated, emergency protocalls.- Eric was communicated to telepathically from the system.

~System is activating the emergency protocol time cycle. The host has exactly twenty-four hours to fix the one thousand and seventy-three issues.~

-System send out everyone and calculate the locations I have to visit myself.- Eric

~Estimating.~

~Estimated locations twenty-seven.~

-What if I send Umbra and Trinity?- Eric

~Estimating.~

~... Estimated locations five.~

-Can you calculate them so that they are the ones on our way to the next location?- Eric

~Calculating... Calculating... Calculating...~

~If they are on your route, then there will be ten issues you will have to take personally.~

-Can we use the issues themselves to solve each other, like hypnotizing them or something?- Eric

~Checking.~

~Posible, but will require resources.~

-Which resources and how much do I have of that resource.- Eric

~It will take ten of every material we currently have. Do you still wish for the material list?~

-That's... What is the issue that has popped up?- Eric

~Remember that cameraman this morning?~

-No...?- Eric

~He took a picture of your device forms and captured some of the divine energy within the photo itself. Now it always changes based on all of your emotions. So it can either show you all as beasts or as humans, angels, devils, even slaves. That image must be destroyed, or your plans may be significantly affected.~

-Fine... For the materials, are there any rare resources that we are using for the RJ project going to be used? If so which ones?- Eric

~The planed rare resources are ten argon crystals, for the RJ project, and two hundred and thirty-one Eidolon Shards.~

-TWO HUNDRED! EIDOLON SHARDS! TWO HUNDRED! HOW MANY DO WE HAVE, THOSE ARENT EASY TO GET!-

~Calm down Master, while you were asleep for the ten thousand-odd years, Umbra has been busy, he not only farmed for materials to repair the ship, he also awakened his brothers and sisters to go off and gather material. You currently have fifty-one shards from Rhino alone.~

-What about the others?- Eric

~All together you have five hundred and twenty-eight shards.~

-Fine, fine, fine what about the argon crystals?- Eric

~thirteen thousand.~

-Necros?- Eric

~necros, necros prime, hydro, and hydro prime.~

-Haha, you weren't kidding when you said he was worried... So if we get all of this put in, how much work do I have left to do before we get to the next city?- Eric

~Three sections. One filled with ogres, one filled with goblins and the last is a location with trolls.~

-Ogres, goblins, and trolls, hmm, that could be problematic. Can I get a description of each race?- Eric

~An ogre is a small creature with human intelligence far surpassing most engineers. In this world, they can be considered as the greatest and brightest individuals when it comes to working with metals. Goblins are a fat species that indulge in food and have bodies resembling humanoid pigs. They are considered the greatest glutens amongst all races, as well as the greatest cooks. The last on the list are trolls... Would you believe me if I said they were sentient horses with horns on their head?~

-What the hell man the naming system in this world is so fu**ed. First, we got ogres, which are goblins/dwarf subspecies, and then we got goblins that are actually orcs, and finally trolls which are unicorns. Ahh, this hurts my head so much.-

==Time skip==

"MAT! NOOO." ???

==Time skip==

"Lets camp here for the night, Sam has been somewhat odd ever since we left this morning I'm worried about her." Said Eve.

"Ok." Eric and Ella replied.

==Time skip ends==

Its time to get to work... System, can you age me to my adult form. Asked Eric.

~Yes Master.~

So we get three stops to make correct? Asked Eric.

~No master we have two the area, you found this morning with the ogres was the first stop, the system has already taken the divine energy from the photo and altered it just enough so that it does not resemble you, or lead back to your family.~

"Good. So where to next." Said Eric.

~BZT compass generating. ←~

Swoosh.

"So these are the goblins? So odd seeing a walking pig, but oh well. System, what do these goblins have that has alerted the system to be a threat?" Asked Eric.

~They have a copy of the picture, as well as started to work on recipes that would best be used if creatures such as these were caught and bread for livestock while using the females for breeding pigs.~

~Worrning detecting that host has lost con....~

"RRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!~~~~~~~~~" ???

.

"MY GOD WHAT, WHAT IS THAT!!!!!!!!!!!!! " ???

"NNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! MY LEGS!" ???

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!~~~~" ???

.

"Ahh, my head, system, did I lose control again?" Asked a bewildered Eric.

~Yes Master, however as this was a space locked down by the system none were altered, however...~

"However, what system." Asked Eric.

~Do you want the good news or bad news first?~

"Good news." Said Eric.

~Well, you only have to take care of the orcs, now.~

"And the bad news?" Eric asked.

~Sam may have also lost control as well...~

"Shes with the parents at most, they will notice I am not there, Sam won't be questioned too much. Said Eric.

~That was not the bad part.~

Then was is? Said Eric.

~She might have awakened...~

O_O... "You do know what to do, correct?" Eric asked, very concerned.

~Yes... But it is hard.~

"I'm sorry. Let me finish with these orcs, and I will reward you." Said Eric.

~Thank you.~

Woosh

"Hey you fucking trolls, you have something I need. If you want to live, hand it over. I am in a bad mood right now, so do not test my patience!" Siad Eric.

"Haha, stupid hum..." The Troll tried to say something.

Thunk, a troll's head lays on the ground.

"ANY OTHER QUESTION!" Asked Eric.

"Oh, great human, what is it you are looking for?" Asked Troll2

"The picture hand it over!" Demanded Eric.

"TOM HAND THIS MAN THE PICTURE." Yelled the Troll2 in fear.

"Here you go, human," said Tom.

? Eric tilts his head left, and then right, and inspects Tom.

"Do you know another ogre such as yourself named Tom?" Asked Eric.

"Another Ogre named Tom, yea, my brother, why?" Asked Tom confusingly" Tom

"Oh, sorry to be the one to tell you this, but..." Eric trie to say.

~System has completed the task.~

"But, your brother died to the hands of some reaping elves yesterday, at the edge of Fairview town, oh, and here you go, this is a gift to you." Said Eric.

Eric's hands back the picture to Tom.

Oh, and one more thing. IF ANY OF YOU SAY THAT YOU HAVE MET ME I WILL KILL ALL OF YOU AND YOUR FAMILIES! Yelled Eric towards the end.

As Eric yells that he channels some energy into the surrounding air, and a glowing figure of a crow appears and looks down on each of these trolls, and one ogre.

"UNDERSTOOD!" Said, Eric

"YES!~ Everyone else.