13 EX Chapter 2 - Nathan's Quest: The Lost

July the 1st of the year 495. It's a sunny day in Lugnica. Nathan Harmonia was walking through a forest along with another girl. Both were exhausted and their clothes and hair were messy. The girl is a short, very attractive woman and young. She wears a sleepy yet curious expression and modest and sloppy fashion. Her long green hair is messy and uncombed or bundled on top of her head in a messy bun.

Nathan : "Lugnica is so boring."

After a silence, Nathan Harmonia tried to start a conversation with the girl, yet no success as she still ignored him for some reason.

Nathan : "Melissa! Stop being silly, talk to me."

The name of the girl is Melissa Lestrange. The name "Lestrange" is relatively unique in Lugnica. The Lestrange family is a noble family which used to resident in western Lugnica. However, after an incident, most of the family got murdered. Melissa is one of the survivors, but she doesn't feel like a noble. She also doesn't like being one.

Melissa : "I'm sorry... But... How could you lose the left overs?"

Nathan : "I'm sorry! I already told you!"

The girl named Melissa was pissed because Nathan lost their last food.

Nathan Harmonia and Melissa Lestrange were in a forest western of the Lugnica Capital Nastra, it was the "Athena Forest", an ancient forest with trees which are at least one hundred meters tall. The trees are abnormal, they keep a certain amount of mana in their leaves. The trees don't have a specific name, except one---

Melissa : "It's fine already. Let's find something to sell. If we don't find anything, Felt will starve to death."

Nathan : "Going to the Athena Forest isn't the best idea to find something to sell Meliss, but I'm not gonna steal."

Melissa : "Then we've to find some kind of Meteor."

Nathan : "M...Meteor?"

They stopped walking and looked in each others eyes and--

Melissa : "Meteors. Yeah. You don't know what Meteors are?"

Nathan : "Not really. Sounds weird in my opinion."

His voice trembled a bit because of him being pretty shy while being near Melissa.

The girl sighed.

Melissa : "Meteors are Artifacts that allows people who's gate isn't working properly to use magic. It is known as a magic generator that does not require the user's mana or training and everyone is able to use Meteors. There are many sorts of Meteors, while most of them are created by the most skilled craftsman of the world. Magic Stones are commonly used in Meteors, however it does increase the rarity in a Meteor."

Nathan : "Meteor. Sound great to be honest. Beyond my imagination to be honest."

Melissa : "They're quite rare in general though."

Nathan : "Ah... Like always, Melissa knows the answer."

Melissa : "Stop being silly!"

Melissa started to blush and turned her eyes away of Nathan. They were walking towards the east.

Melissa : "By the way, have you heard about the Royal Lugnician Family?"

Nathan : "What's up with them?"

Melissa : "Few weeks ago, a member of the family was infected with some kind of disease and he died. After his death, suddenly every royal family member started to die."

Nathan : "What?! Zabinel and Ford are dead too?"

Melissa : "Yes, they were one of the first ones that passed away."

Nathan : "Damn. Zabinel Lugnica and Ford Lugnica were great guys. I remember meeting them along with the King, Jet Lugnica."

The King of Lugnica is named "Jet Lugnica". He's a man with gold hair and red eyes. He's the current king and is the 42nd King of Lugunica.

Zabinel Lugnica and Ford Lugnica were both relatives of Jet and were good friends with Nathan some time ago when he still lived in the normal district, and not in the slums with Felt.

Melissa looked at Nathan and saw the sorrow in his eyes, immediately knowing that she shouldn't have started about it.

Melissa : "I'm sorry for mentioning it. I forgot that—"

Nathan : "It's okay. You didn't know anyway."

Melissa : "Ah... Well... I think that I've rested enough. I might be able to re-use my Clairvoyance again. This time, I'll try to look for something rare."

Nathan : "Give it a try."

She closed her eyes and focused on her surroundings. After a few seconds of Nathan whistling and Melissa shaking, she responded.

Melissa : "I can't find any Meteors around here. Though I do see some people there!"

Nathan : "That's great.."

She pointed towards the north west, but she her voice contained fear.

Nathan and Melissa ran towards there. They ran as hard as they could. Not because they were worried, but the Athena Forest is actually forbidden territory. Only people of high Nobility are allowed to enter this forest.

Thousands years ago, people sacrificed humans to a majestic spirit who is forgotten already. Relatives were promised if they sacrificed their oldest son that they would have eternal beauty, life and love. When they finally arrived at the location which Melissa saw in her Clairvoyance, that person wasn't there anymore.

Melissa : "What's this? I don't sense his Aura anymore."

Nathan : "What color was it?"

Melissa : "It was either Purple, or Blue, or maybe Amethyst. No, it way uniquer, it was something extremely rare--"

Crack

A crackling sound was able to be heard. It were leaves. Leaves of a brush. Nathan and Melissa turned around to a huge tree. Immediately, they couldn't think of anything except the fact that someone was in this forbidden forest and was standing behind that tree.

Nathan : "Excaliba Akra!"

Nathan immediately summoned a shining blade created by thin light. Because it's so thin, the light is able to cut through every material. It's not heavy, easy to use and is efficient.

Melissa : "Who's there?"

The sound comes back, again. A person revealed himself. It was a handsome boy. The first thing they noticed was his beautiful black hair.

??? : "Ah! My apologies! It wasn't my intention to scare you guys!"

Nathan : "What... are you doing here?"

Nathan released his sword and it disappeared. As he saw in the unnamed boy no intentions of fighting.

??? : "Well, I'm from Volakia along with my family, but I kinda lost the way, haha. Silly, isn't it?"

Melissa : "You scared me though. You do realize this is forbidden territory?"

??? : "Whaaaat?! No!? I didn't know that! My apologies, again and again! I thought that this was a garden of Lugnica."

Nathan : "No problem. Just don't get find my the Kingdom Knights. They're the knights that guard the Kingdom and this forest."

??? : "I see! So, this isn't Kremaldy Forest?"

Nathan : "No... This is the Athena Forest."

Melissa : "You have a funny accent... eh..."

Lucius : "My name is Lucius von Rosewald. Nice to meet you!"

Nathan : "I'm Nathan Harmonia. This is Melissa Lestrange."

Melissa : "He has a different Aura. It's not the one I saw."

The boy named Lucius walked towards them and leaned back on the tree. Nathan and Melissa sat down and took a breath.

Lucius : "So ehh... You guys don't know where I can find the Kremaldy Forest, do ya?"

Melissa : "Wait a second please!"

She grabbed her backpack and started searching for something. She grabbed a piece of paper out of her backpack and opened it.

Melissa : "Here, this is a map of Lugnica."

She opened it on the ground, but it was a bit wrinkled and was hard to see things.

Lucius : "Great! What is this place?"

The boy Lucius pointed towards a place in the southern part of the country.

Nathan : "You don't know the Earth Dragon Capital? It's called Flanders. It's one of the five major cities in Lugnica. The Earth Dragons were created there by Volcanica. Also, Reid Astrea, Flugel and Volcanica met each other there."

Lucius looked fascinated at Nathan while listening about Flanders. He then pointed again towards another place. This place was more at the western part of Lugnica and was actually pretty near them.

Melissa : "I know that one. That's also one of the five major cities in Lugnica. it's called Picoutatte. It is a beautiful merchant city separated into five different areas. If I remember correctly, the rules and features are different in each area."

Lucius : "Wha! Lugnica is truly amazing!"

Nathan : "By the way... what are you doing here?"

Lucius : "I'm on my way to the Kremaldy Forest. Let's say... I've to meet a certain person."

Melissa : "For work?"

Lucius : "Nah--"

BOOM!

A loud explosion was heard by the group. It came from the northern part of the forest. It was hard to see what exactly happened. But they clearly saw something burning there. A ton of smoke was heading towards them.

Lucius : "What... What was that?!"

Nathan : "I'm not sure, are you okay?"

Lucius : "I'm fine! We should check out what's there!"

Melissa : "I agree"

Lucius von Rosewald, Melissa Lestrange and Nathan Harmonia headed towards the explosion to see what happened. They ran as fast as they could. Arriving there, they saw a huge plateau with ruins and a small temple. Most of it was white, but vines and grass covered most of it. There was one fountain in the middle with the form of a dragon.

Melissa : "This... is the Hyclara Plateau..."

Suddenly, two girls came out of the temple. They were for sure the cause of the explosion. As one of the girls had still Fire Mana surrounding her.

??? : "Finally. Some Lugnicians. These better know more."

??? 2 : "Let's get this over with. I just want to go home.

Melissa : "Why the... Why did you just destroy the Hyclara Plateau?!"

??? : "Because this is our job, and I see that you are Lugnicians, so we're kinda ordered to kill you now."

Nathan : "Who the fuck are you two?"

Starla : "My name is Starla Hyades. I'm the leader of my team!"

Annie : "I'm Annie Leonhardt."

Starla is a very beautiful woman with long golden hair, gold eyes, and a slender body. She wears a white and blue battlecloth, black arm covers, and long blue boots.

In contrast to Starla, Annie doesn't wear any kind of armor. Annie is a young girl of considerably short height with a small, yet very muscular build and physique. She has an oval-shaped face, blonde hair, blue eyes, a Roman nose and pale complexion.

Lucius : "Why are you destroying such a sacred place? Our Divine Dragon created these lands for us!"

Annie : "Don't care. Stop being so serious."

The words Annie said weren't offensive. Yet the way she told it rebuked Lucius.

Melissa : "We aren't the Kingdom Knights. But destroying such a sacred place have consequences. I'll kill you."

Nathan : "We'll stop you right here!"

The woman, Starla started grinning and grabbed her sword from its sheet.

Starla : "Your desire to protect the lands of the demons is truly phenomenal. I truly admire both of you."

Annie : "Are we seriously going to waste time on these two?"

Lucius : "Yo--You! You're forgetting a-- About me!"

Annie : "I was counting those with the courage to fight. Not sure if you already knew, but we are not interested in hurting those who won't judge and control."

Nathan : "What are you saying? Neither are we!"

Starla : "Lestrange. Harmonia. Quite noble names, don't you think?"

Nathan : "I've completely no connection with the Lugnician Royal Family! This is a huge misunderstanding!"

Melissa : "They are right. I'm from the noble bloodline. But I will face the consequences of being born like this. I'll destroy the both of you!"

Starla : "Fine..."

She jumped towards Melissa and kicked her a few meters away. She critically hit her in her stomach. With the right coordination, it could even me lethal. Melissa's body hit the wall and fell on her knees, bleeding out both of her forehead, arms and coughing blood.

Melissa : "Bluagh!"

Annie : "How boring. Why are Nobles weak--"

Nathan : "MELISSA!"

He looked at Starla, who was a few meters near him and summoned his sword.

Annie : "Hm? Excaliba Akra? Now this is interesting."

Lucius : "Ugh! Al Wald!"

The boy, who was supposed to be useless, suddenly started summoning Yang Magic. Al Wald made him summon twenty Light Crystals filled with burning Yang Mana and fired it towards Annie.

Annie : "Pff."

She swung her hand. Only once. Out of nowhere, she created a wall of a certain substance. It looked exactly like ice, but it wasn't. She blocked all the Light Crystals, but the weirdest thing was yet to be mentioned.

Lucius : "What was that?"

Melissa : "What the... A Semblance?"

Annie : "You might be weak, but you aren't stupid. It's indeed a Semblance."

Melissa : "Without using Mana?!"

Annie ignored Melissa's question and again, created that substance but this time in the form of a blade.

In the meantime, Nathan was still looking at Starla. He dashed towards her with a great speed. Before dashing towards her, he collected enough Wind Mana to cover his body so his speed was beyond immense.

He tried to hit her with his sword, but she easily dodged and predicted his movements. While Lucius, Melissa and Annie were at the entrance of the Plateau, Nathan and Starla were at the whole other side of the Plateau. It was impossible to interfere with each others battle.

Nathan stopped going for her and started to use Magic against her, as it was clear that physical attacks were impossible to land on her.

Nathan : "Exliatoras Fura!"

He started firing the basic Fura spell, but this one is different. This one also curses the target on hit. But like Nathan already thought, she dodged it.

Starla : "You're quite good. It's sad that you weren't born in our Hometown."

Nathan : "What are you talking about?!"

Starla : "It doesn't have a name. We call it the Hometown. That is were we are trained and now we're ordered to destroy the Kingdom. We will follow their orders and we will tr--"

While talking, Starla felt something sharp hitting her leg. Without her noticing it, Nathan successfully hit a Curse Fura. The feeling she felt was something unique, she felt her Mana being absorbed from her body along with her Aura.

Nathan : "Quite rude to interrupt a woman, don't you think?"

Starla : "You... Fucker! Terrra!"

She put her hand on the ground. Immediately, all the living organisms like plants, grass and water died. She absorbed the Aura and Mana from those organisms and gained theirs. Weirdly, the Curse was also gone.

Starla : "I'll kill you!"

In the meantime, Melissa and Lucius were extremely exhausted and their Aura was fatally low. However, Annie hasn't even broke a single sweat.

Lucius and Melissa were standing at a fountain while Annie was standing on a statue of Volcanica.

Annie : "I'm not gonna lie. You guys are good. I'm impressed that you're still alive."

While pointing at Lucius, she said those words while playing with her hair casually.

Melissa : "You... Demon!"

Annie : "What are you talking about? I'm not the Demon. You Lugnicians are the reason why this world is wrong. We are just doing our job so we can live our life normally."

Melissa : "You... are a team... Are you the new Team RWBY?"

While hearing those words, Annie stopped moving and so did Melissa and Lucius. She looked at Melissa while noticing sorrow in both eyes.

Annie : "Team RWBY... I remember them. They betrayed our Kingdom and joined the Demon Kingdom Lugnica. Truly amazing. We're similar, but we are not Team RWBY..."

Lucius : "Hmph!"

Suddenly, Starla appeared and so did Nathan. Nathan and Lucius got kicked at the same time by Starla and were send right through the statue, possibly breaking some bones if they didn't have their Aura up.

Starla : "You're still not done Annie?"

Annie : "Talk for yourself. Harmonia even landed a spell on--- WHAT ARE YOU DO--!"

For the first time, everyone heard Annie's voice change for some reason. Melissa looked at Nathan who was still unconscious lying on the ground with his whole body covered in blood. However something was off. Lucius was gone. Annie was shocked and Melissa looked where Annie was starring at that moment.

Everything happened so fast, but Melissa looked at Starla and she noticed Lucius standing behind him. This was disturbing, scary, terrifying. The expression Lucius gave was beyond human.

Lucius : "Goodnight, bitch."

He grabbed the head of Starla. Starla was scared, but couldn't move for some reason, and the same for Annie. Her gorgeous hair was in his hands and so was her skull. He started laughing, but not in the good way, the creepy way.

Lucius : "Bad girl."

Melissa looked at Lucius while he was standing behind Starla and holding her head. But then--

Crack

He twisted her head and broke her neck in just a split second. There was no blood until...

Lucius : "Anyone want a cup of tea?"

He grabbed a knife out of nowhere from his coat which he didn't use at all in battle and cut her throat open. A fountain of blood started raining and the statues, fountain, plants, ground and Melissa were completely covered in it.

Annie was still in shock. She even collapsed. But she wasn't the only one. Melissa looked at Lucius while terrified. There was something controlling her body and also the one of Annie. Nathan however, was still unconscious.

Lucius : "You see, I'm not that weak as you think."

Annie : "I don't get it... This wasn't the plan... what are you doing? You were supposed to kill them, not Starla... you ignored the orders... You'll be punished... no... you'll die..."

She didn't cry. But her facial expression remained shocked while her voice started to tremble.

Lucius : "Aha, you see. I'm actually not really listening to those orders. Listening to orders while you're a free individual is stupid. Because of that, you're trash. Excuse me, but I'm kinda late for my meeting. After all, I'm always busy! Now, you two..."

Lucius looked at both of them in the eyes and started smiling. He even winked once but then--

"Ugh... What the fuck did just happen?"

Nathan finally woke up from after the battle. But---

Nathan : "Where... are they?"

While looking around him, there was no trace of them. Not even a single tear of blood and the whole Hyclara Plateau was undamaged. It was impossible. The structures were completely destroyed and so was the fountain. But everything got repaired somehow.

Nathan : "Melissa? Melissa! Where are you!"

"Was it... just a dream? No... Where is she? Maybe... Maybe she's already back at the Cafe. I guess it's fine."

He stood up, without pain and without any blood on his clothes, while being covered in blood sometime in the past.

"Fuck... I've to check it out. What if she isn't there?"

Nathan walked towards the exit of the Plateau and left. Worried and running towards the Motion Cafe, hoping that Melissa is there.

Somewhere in the trees, high up at the top, someone was standing there and looking at Nathan without him noticing it. He was holding a mirror in his hand which was a Meteor which allowed people to communicate from one place to another.

??? : "Killing a member of my organization is quite cruel. I'm pretty disappointed, as Annie now has some issues... But sacrifices are sometimes necessary for the best outcome. Now... Did it work and where is the cute girl?"

A beautiful voice was heard from that Meteor and the listner replied.

??? 2 : "What do you mean? Of course it worked and Melissa is with me. I'll send her as soon as possible to you. Please have a little bit of faith in me, My Lady..."