Spell 22 : The Past

The Sands of Time is a complicated place. It is a realm sealed off by space and time, protected by ancient guardians as old as history itself. Beings who know of it call it the 'archive of past events' because it is a land that records history and keeps it safely away for studying. Those who have been there have described it as a desert with many underground caverns. A historical event is each stored in a cavern. Those foolish enough to walk into these caverns without the guide of one of the protectors will find themselves forever trapped in that memory, subject to replaying by historians who wish to study that particular event.

But there is one particular memory that has been too greatly disturbed. That memory was altered, and as a result, has spiralled out of control. It never stops replaying itself, thus inflicting a great amount of stress on its cavern. If that memory is not stopped soon, that cavern will collapse and that memory will spread out over the entire Sands of Time, thus consuming it. Without a proper store for history, the entire timeline of the world will be corrupted, which will eventually destroy the future as we know it.

That memory is known as the Battle of the Three Kingdoms, and it needs to be corrected.

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I was supposed to meet Aeryssya at a small village called Tinding located at the outskirts of Serabourg. But she was running late, so I went to buy some glass which I will probably need now more than ever because of my recent discovery of Enchantrix. I went back to the said meeting place only to find no one there. I took a seat at one of the small tables under the apple trees which were abundantly grown in this place.

This village was small by comparisons, and pretty much unheard of. Aeryssya only told me to meet here because it is near one of the many entrances of the Sands of Time. I checked the game time in my user interface repeatedly until I just gave up and put my head down to rest. I fell asleep without realising it, and was rather grudgingly woken up only moments later. I thought it was Aeryssya, but boy, was I woefully wrong.

There was no mistaking that auburn hair anywhere.

Vanyssa wasn't alone however; there were two other familiar figures next to her. They were Kiry and Connor, the monk and paladin who helped me the last time in the Forest against the troll warlocks. I rubbed my eyes, thinking that this was still a dream that I have not woken up from but there was no mistaking it; this was real and three of the people I most expect not to meet were actually here in this mundane town. They all laughed at my dumbstruck expression and moved to sit down.

'What, you think you were the only one who accepted this quest?' Said Connor who was just removing his helmet, revealing the tanned skin he had. I never did ask him, but I think Connor was from some part of Africa.

'How can you go on this by yourself so selfishly? Did you forget that fun time we had back then?' Kiry said.

'Well, unluckily for you, Aeryssya contacted us, asking us to come help her on this quest. Connor and I thought, why not? So here we are. To help sister Aery and to bother you too, dickhead. Can't believe you didn't ask us along.' With that, Kiry just sat there and pouted. I didn't know how to react, and so I just chuckled.

Well, I was glad for their company, but I had something more pressing on my mind.

Why is Vanyssa here?!

I stole a look at her. She was just wiping her claymore sword, which I noticed, was studded with a second gem. She had not said anything since sitting down. Her face still held that same determined expression whenever she was concentrating on something. I loved that look about her. But, with a slight pang, I remembered that day at the concert when she was Dennis and I looked away. Kiry and Connor had begun talking among themselves, and so there was no way I could intrude into their conversation. And so, I just sat there and stared into the distance while fully regretting not taking this chance to try and start a conversation with her.

Just then, Aeryssya arrived on her gigantic owl. She dismounted gracefully. Before I could open my mouth, she cut me off.

'Sorry, I am late. I was trying very hard to find our guide for this mission; she was being particularly elusive this time round. I finally found her drinking in a bar up north. Anyway, she'll meet us at the mountain pass, where there is an entrance to the Sands of Time. We best be going.' And with that, she stormed off, muttering something about drunkards and useless protectors. We gathered up all things and followed her hurriedly. Clearly, none of us wanted to piss off an angry Night Elf ranger any further.

We left the village and headed into the woods that would eventually lead to the mountains. On the way there, Aeryssya led the group while Kiry and Connor were walking together. I was left with a silent Vanyssa. For the most of it, I was just looking straight ahead and not saying a word, though in my mind I was panicking. I did not want things to be awkward between us even before we started this mission.

'Well, aren't you gonna ask me why I'm here?'

I turned my head around so fast that my neck snapped. I rubbed the back of my neck with my hand as tears came up in my eye. Vanyssa could not contain her amusement and started to giggle. I forgot the pain upon seeing her laugh.

'Sorry about that. Well... Why are you here?' I asked, still wincing.

'Well, we were getting worried about you. You didn't reply any of our mail in-game, and even when we left you a bunch of messages on your phone, you did not get back to us. The guys were convinced you were probably lost in your head training somewhere, but Dennis and I, we were worried. Cluck told me to try looking for you in the Forest. Well, I had not realised that it was so easy to find your name there. Anyway, I found Lady-Ranger Aeryssya after being introduced to a few people there. She was the one who sent me here, after checking up on my identity of course. By the way, congratulations on becoming a Council member. That must have been quite a feat.' I felt my face flush when she said those words. Honestly, I wasn't a person chasing after for compliments, but she was a special person to me. But I grew solemn again, when I heard Dennis' name.

I had no idea if she knew telepathy, because she immediately went on to talk about him.

'Dennis and I are just good friends. We met while we were heads of our various school activities. He's head of Student Council while I'm head of Dance. So we hit it off pretty well at the start. He's more like a... Sis-kin to me.' I had a feeling she was going to say sister, but I let her continue.

'Anyway, Cluck did had the peculiar idea that Dennis and I were together. But I cleared up the air with them, and so I thought you should know too. Besides. I can never be attracted to him in a way I can be attracted to...' She broke off, clearly embarrassed at having revealing too much. I listened with a start; I never did saw that coming. She was just about to reveal the person she did like!

I was about to question her when I heard Aeryssya giving a shout. We both looked to the front and saw Aeryssya running up the stone paths. I had not realised we had already reached the mountain pass. Connor and Kiry had already swiftly followed her up, leaving me and Vanyssa still at the base of the foot pass. I knew Aeryssya was still in a foul mood so I used Blink to quickly follow. Vanyssa was gracefully leaping up the paths also. Pretty soon, we reached a small hole which led into an empty den that had nothing but small rocks all over the place. I thought something would happen, but I was wrong. At least, not till a golden gnome appeared several moments later. I knew this was one of the protectors of the Sands of Time, because she was dripping sand all over the place. Not to mention she was completely golden.

She was obviously drunk though, just like that old man I met back in Gloucest Castle. Now I knew why Aeryssya was pissed. And she's looking even more livid by the second. I decided to take things into my own hands lest Aeryssya went completely berserk.

'Protector, we are here, as promised, to fulfil the quest given to us to save the Sands of Time. As such, we would appreciate it if you can bring us to the Sands of Time right now.' At the mention of the place, the rocks in the den started vibrating and flew towards the center of the den, smashing together in the shape of a huge golem. It started slamming its rocklike fists together menacingly at us. We were armed in an instant, but the gnome just grinned and waved away at the golem. It collapsed with a slight groan and the rocks flew back to their original locations.

The gnome said nothing and walked over to the end of the den walls. She threw some sand on it and the wall immediately gave way, revealing a swirling vortex of radiant colours. She spun around and beckoned to us.

'Here... Here...' Was all she said while pointing to the vortex. All the logic in me screamed against following a drunk gnome's directions, but I knew this had to be it. We all looked at each other and nodded. One by one, we stepped into the vortex...

And found ourselves by a giant river. As far as my eyes could take me, we were in a vast grassy plains. We weren't alone however; over in a distance, I could make out several camps. It looked like we had entered straight into the memory itself. But before we could make a move, Aeryssya made us conceal ourselves by laying down as flat as possible in a circle.

'I probably should have briefed you before we entered the vortex, but we were running out of time. The entrances to the Sands of Time are delicate; they only open for several hours in a day. I had to make sure that we would be able to enter in time.' She took out an extremely old map from her bag and laid it out for us to see.

'Right now we should be near this great Hobei River. There are settlements to our east and south. Where we shall go next will depend on your choice. As I have mentioned to Crow before, these lands belong to ancient Orientai, where great feudal warlords fought again and again over these lands. Of these, there were 3 who emerged to be the greatest. Liu Bei of Shu, Cao Cao of Wei and Sun Jian of Wu. There were other minor warlords, but the most notorious one was a man named Dong Zhuo, who was a tyrant and used his power to indulge in his own greed and lust.'

'These battles were fought a long time ago, and there was no clear winner because the 3 that I spoke of, all died during the war and as a result, the war was brought down to their descendants. The war eventually died down because the fighting simply did not continue. The rulers who were in power were either brought down by coups or those that took over from their previous rulers simply did not want to fight anymore..'

'Whatever it was, apparently there was someone from our world who was not happy with the way things ended so that person came here with the intent to wipe history and rewrite it. What he did has meddled with the timeline too much, and now this memory we are in right now will eventually grow too big for even the Sands of Time to contain. Eventually, ancient powerful beings that were supposed to stay dead will find themselves very much alive in the world that we live in. Imagine the chaos that will ensue if they bring their conquest ideas with them into our world. We too will live in never-ending conflict. We have to end this fight.'

'So what do we do?' I asked.

'It should have been a much simpler quest initially. All we have to do is help one faction emerge victorious, thus ending this cycle of carnage. But because we're rewriting history here, you see, and the protectors themselves cannot determine which faction should emerge victorious. Naturally, the adventurers that they have gathered from our world will be fighting in the faction that they themselves believe should be the victors. Had the protectors themselves unified and determined a single faction to win, this battle would easily be resolved and we can have one clear winner. But, it is most likely that we will see people from our world all over the place, fighting for different causes. And as such, we will be fighting many others. I would say we're more fortunate because we get to choose our faction. Our protector chooses to remain neutral in this crisis.'

We all nodded in agreement. As we examined the map, we realised that each faction had its own advantages and disadvantages. Wei held the most territorial land size, but that also meant it has to spread its army evenly across the lands. Wu had the most defensive position, but that also meant it would be constantly under siege and will be unable to send out armies to fight. Shu had the most number of talented generals, but its troops are mainly made up of peasants who have low fighting experience. As we discussed which faction to choose, I suddenly remembered something. I caught Aeryssya's eye and indicated that I wanted to speak to her alone.

'Well, what is it?' She asked when we were out of earshot.

'Your sister. Have you heard anything about her?' I asked.

She looked away before speaking, and when she spoke, I could hear a strain in her voice.

'She... She is not here. It would appear that my source was wrong. But no matter. I had already accepted the quest and it would be on my honor if I should give up the quest. Success or failure, I will go through this quest to the end.' And without another word, she walked back to the group. I shook my head in shame and joined the others.

Eventually, we decided on joining Shu because its ruler, Liu Bei, was well-known for his virtue and benevolence. If anything, at least he was fighting on a just cause. At least if we're gonna be killing people, we would be fighting for a better future. Well, sort of.

And so we gathered our things and headed for one of the Shu encampments. As we approached the encampment, we were greeted with hostility, much to our dismay. Archers stood in a line with their arrows pointed at us and one of them even shot an arrow at our feet to mean their business. We stood our ground and declared ourselves as adventurers here to fight for Lord Liu Bei's cause. Though I could feel the tension lessen, they did not lower their bows.

After what seemed like an eternity, there was a horn blowing and the situation change immediately. The archers kept their weapons and rushed to the top of the wooden barricades while infantry troopers carrying swords and pikes were rushing out from inside the encampment. They ran past us without even giving us a secondary look. Then the cavalry came up behind and at their lead was a man wearing a brown bamboo hat while wearing very thin robes that were obviously not suited for warfare. He rode past us while shouting.

'If you want to fight for us, show me what you are made of!'

Apparently, one of their scouts had spotted an enemy battalion marching on this location and had sounded the horn. These Shu soldiers were rushing off to face them in battle. We wasted no time and rushed off in the same direction, eager to get some attention.

The enemy battalion was from the Wei faction, identified by their blue colours and battle standards containing the single character '魏‘. Pretty soon, the battle began. Metal struck metal as swords and spears came into contact. The man in the bamboo hat was yelling out orders to get the men into formations. We combined our efforts with the soldiers and fought fiercely as well. Vanyssa was no longer that fearsome warrior I had seen back in Gloucest Castle; she was now a war goddess on the battlefield. Her sword cleaved through lines and lines of soldiers and every now and then I could see a shadow of a dragon hovering right above her. Soldiers were all intimidated by that Dragon Roar of hers, which now provided boosts to damage to all allies.

And then, things got pretty sticky on my side. As a mage, I was definitely not dressed for close combat fighting, and the Wei soldiers pretty much felt I was an easy target.

What they did not know was that I had 2 rubies that contained fully-charged Meteors in my arsenal.

To be honest, I have never tried using Mana Manifest to power up Meteor before. But I must say, having not 1, but 3 flaming balls of death coming at you from the sky is scary enough to make you piss in your pants. One moment they were rushing at me with delight, and the next moment they were all knocked away like pins in a bowling alley. I heard the sound of hooves coming up behind me and I turned to see the bamboo hat man approaching. He tipped up his hat and whistled.

'Son, I'll be damned if I don't recruit you in right here and right now. You're in.' He said.

'By the way, here's a spell that I think you might find useful.'

*DING*

[p=center]You have gained a new Spell : Earth Spikes!

Earth Spikes Beginner Level 1 0%

Call upon spikes to shoot up from the ground around you to impale enemy targets. This will only affect enemies in a small aoe around you.

Mana-cost : 350

Cooldown : 35s [/p]

I cycled through my spells, thinking what would be the best combination to Invoke this spell with. I thought I'll use Barrier, since I haven't really been using it for Invoking for a long time.

*DING*

[p=center]You have gained a new Spell : Iron Maiden! (Invoked)

You encase a target in a block of stone. The stone block will absorb all damage taken by the target while it is being encased in rock. Once the damage threshold has been reached, the stone block will shatter, showering all nearby enemies with iron needles, stunning them and dealing damage. Damage absorbed depends on the level of Barrier while damage done and stun duration will be dependent on the level of Earth Spikes.

Mana-cost: 750

Cooldown: 80s [/p]

Iron Maiden huh? That would be a useful spell to turn the tides on enemies.

But before I could do anything, Quick Time was activated and my precious 4s started. I could see a volley of arrows coming towards me from my left.

Time to try this Iron Maiden out!

'Cast Iron Maiden!'

Immediately, the world turned dark. I felt around me, and touched solid rock.

The sound of multiple strikings outside told me that the arrows have found their mark against the rock. However, the damage this rock took had not reached the threshold yet. Simply because my Barrier was too high leveled, and so this rock would have to take a larger amount of beating before it would release. Pretty soon, I began to hear the hammering of swords against the walls. The enemy archers must have called for reinforcements.

Moments later, I could hear cracks coming from above me. I looked up and saw light streaming through. That same light ran down like lightning along the wall. Suddenly, the world around me exploded. I covered myself with my arms, but I took no damage. Around me, I could hear people screaming in agony and shock. I looked up to see a mess of bodies, all lying on the floor with iron spikes running through them. Luckily for me, I was facing level 50 normal foot soldiers, and so they were easy to take out. Those who were stronger were still standing and they came rushing at me, yelling out for revenge.

I used telekinesis to extract out a round amethyst from my gauntlet and launched it straight at them. They never saw it coming. The moment the gem struck the ground, a Tempest Storm as wide as a swimming pool engulfed them. They fell as well within seconds. It was a bit of an overkill, I would admit, but I was itching to see a fully charged Tempest Storm.

The battle was almost over as soon as it had begun. Connor was the target of every enemy assassin; he was responsible of keeping almost everyone alive along with a bunch of medics but he was protected by the equally fearsome Kiry, whose blows sent enemy soldiers flying a few feet. Aeryssya was using some ability to launch the arrows from enemy archers against themselves. With our aid, the battle was over with minimal casualties to the Shu faction. Though it was a victory, the Shu soldiers were vigilant, and kept watch for any other ambushes. When none came, they joyously returned back to their encampment. The bamboo hat man rode towards us, and invited us in to join in the victory toast.

The encampment was made up of pitched up tents that were gigantic for their size. Most of them contained sleeping mats that the soldiers rested on. Weapon racks were placed all around the camp, and there was a makeshift kitchen of some sort by a hastily dug up well. Though we pretty much won the battle for these soldiers, most of them still eyed us uneasily. Eventually, we were brought into the biggest tent.

Inside the tent was a round table that had roughly the same map that we had. But it was plotted with many bloody crosses and scribbles. The bamboo hat man indicated that we sat down, which we obliged.

We looked at him as he removed his bamboo hat, revealing a face aged so old but contrastingly lit up by a young and joyous smile.

'Welcome to the Fenglin Camp. My name is Pang Tong, commander of this camp. What can I do for you?'

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