MVR Round 2 P3

Long ago, there existed a nation called Iaia, in which the land prospered, crops and resources provided from an unknown pit at the centre of the land known only as the Dungeon. For many years, the people of Iaia lived off of the Dungeon's fruits, for which life energy emanated from the pits to sustain the various crops growing on the surface.

However, one day, the Dungeon stopped supplying the nation with its energy, and soon the nation of Iaia suffered a large widespread famine. Crops would not grow, leading to a decline in food and medicine. Water was not purified, causing a widespread epidemic to plague the land. Because Iaia was secluded from the rest of the world, with little to no connection to the outside, the people of Iaia suffered for years, until one day, a group of seers and priests came together to pray to the gods for salvation and repentance.

For months on end, the priests came together and prayed to the gods, until one day, the goddess Demeter, along with her disciple, Paladin Koloth descended from the heavens to warn the mortals of the true nature of the Dungeon. The Dungeon was a massive labyrinth created in ancient times to house monsters, and as monsters died, their souls would ascend the Dungeon to the surface. However, due to the monsters being impure, they are unable to enter heaven, and so, instead, spread to the surface of the land, their life energy supplying the world through bountiful harvest. Over time, as the nation of Iaia continued using this resource, their numbers continued to climb, but the deaths of the monsters did not, causing a deficit in the life energy supplied to the land. To continue to live, the people of Iaia must descend the Dungeons to kill monsters.

Praising Demeter, the numerous people of Iaia swore their allegiance to the goddess, begging for her to stay and watch over their nation. Taken aback by the sincerity of the mortals, as well as feeling satisfied with the increase in her followers, Demeter decided to stay and watch over the people, tasking Koloth with establishing a Folia Level System after his fellow Paladin, Folianon, the Paladin of Harvest and blessing the mortals with the power to become stronger, and wield magic. Equipping the mortals with a means to fight monsters, soon, many became trained to become the first adventurers of Iaia.

However, as Demeter continued being worshipped, the other gods in the heavens were not happy with the attention Demeter was getting, and decided to descend to the mortal realm themselves to also obtain followers. Realizing the potential for another divine war, Koloth suggested the creation of Legions, groups of humans would choose the deity they want to worship, and the deity may choose those who would be fit to be their followers.

Soon, Legions began to form, with the big three, Poseidon, Zeus, and Hades, Legions being the strongest, and some Legions being smaller than others due to the certain deities being less prominent than others. And for many years, adventurers of these Legions would descend the Dungeon to hunt and kill monsters, becoming stronger and establishing a trade system for monster shards to validate their contributions to the land.

The gods would return to heaven, with the Legions continuing to frequent the Dungeons and to become stronger, until the nation of Iaia prospered by these adventurers. The day Demeter and Paladin Koloth had come down from the heavens became mere folk tales, after centuries of prosperity, and with this, the rise of adventurer legends soon dominated the scribes, such as Leonidas Swallowtail of the Hades Legion, being the only Level 12 adventurer in existence, and Alexander Rosewald of the Aphrodite Legion, the greatest swordsman in the entire land.

R5

Nothing would go wrong, Ben said.

We were going to be fine, Ben said.

I guess he was half right, because the moment we were warped to Folia, we seemed to be on the right course. But then Sammy decided to jinx the whole operation by shouting:

"We good, boys. What can possibly go wrong?"

I glanced at Merrow, as she gazed at the opening of the wormhole, her eyebrows were furrowed. I lived with her long enough to know that whenever she was worried, her eyebrows scrunch up.

I reached out, but hesitated, stopping myself. Even if I tried to say something to her, I wouldn't know the right thing to say. I kept to myself as I brought my hand back down, dissolving into the mist of molecules that were dissipating and reassembling before my very eyes.

"Keep your emotions out of this." Ben said, his one eye reticule kept focusing and zooming in and out.

"I know." Merrow responded.

Ben turned to us.

"One of you is letting their emotions run wild. We need to keep it restrained. Multiversal travel through boom tube technology opens us up to attack if we generate a signal."

Merrow, Deacon, and Ben all gave me a disapproving look. I threw up my hands.

"What?! Why are you guys assuming it's me?!"

Deacon readjusted his sleeves.

"Out of all of us, we all learned to harness our emotions. The most likely people who would fuck up this operation are either you... or..."

Deacon's face paled.

"Great." He muttered, as everybody turned to Sammy, who's hands were inches from his mouth. Knowing him, he was probably biting his nails.

"Sammy..." Merrow put her hand on his shoulder.

"What?" Sammy perked up, jolting to our position.

"What's up? I didn't do anything. I'm taking this mission super serious for once."

"For once?" Deacon yelped.

"I need to make things right. I swear by it. On my life."

"Sammy-" Ben warned him, but Sammy kept going.

"Leah. I owe her that much. And not just Leah. It must be fate that she ended up in Iaia. Or I mean Folia. I've done so much messed up shit in the past, I need to atone--"

"Sammy!" Ben grabbed his ear, his face stern.

"What?!" Sammy snapped, his face contorted in irritation, when suddenly, a boom emitted from our surroundings.

"What the hell was that?!" I yelped. Deacon floated in front of us.

"Sammy's emotions. They've alerted them. Ben, what do you see?"

Ben put his voice encoder away and reached into his new overcoat and pulled out several orbs, each floating around us in a circular hexagonal grid. Sentry Orbs.

The Sentry Orbs all opened up revealing little modules which shot a beam of cyan light from one another, encasing us in a protective field. Then several mini drones were released from each one, dispersing around our vicinity, as Ben's cybernetic eye from his mask glowed a brighter cyan.

Energy Signatures. Ben's voice resonated in our mind.

Two Acolytes, and a much larger aggregate of power coming our way from behind them. ETA: twenty seconds.

Deacon powered up, his hands burst into black and orange flames.

"Acolytes. Do you know which ones they are?"

Ben shook his head.

Sammy spun around, and powered up as well, but I stopped him.

"Don't. Your powers will destroy the orbs around us."

"But-"

"Sammy, you've done enough." I heard myself say, as I instantly regretted it. Sammy sulked and looked down in shame.

"I- Sorry. I didn't mean it like that."

Mean. Meaning. Emotions. I love emotions.

A pale face with pure black pupils suddenly appeared in front of me. I froze up, as it cackled, revealing extremely sharp teeth that opened up to swallow me whole.

I tried to lift my hand in response, but I wasn't fast enough. It all happened so fast, but Merrow materialized in front of me, swinging her trident and disintegrating the Acolyte instantly. Swirls of water orbited her as she thrust the palm of her hand forward, unleashing a wide conical blast of Hydropower and knocking the other Acolyte back.

The Guardian is strong. She is too strong for me. The Remnants are protected by their creator's protector.