Tired of Pretending

Inside a forest, at its wide center, there are not many trees to be seen but a variety of colorful flowers, grass stalks, and a small house.

The door of the small house opens, and a young man steps out from the cabin. 

He moves his eyes everywhere and the smell of flowers and grasses spreads everywhere as the wind blows over the grassland.

"Wait, where is she?" he moved his eyes everywhere and then he moved his eyes downward.

His bare foot is stepping on a rectangular paper. He moves his foot slightly from the rectangular paper and bends his upper body downward, hence, he grabs the rectangular paper.

He straightens his upper body and the edge of the paper extends downward. 

His eyes grow wide as his eyes are analyzing the whole paper. His lip begins to open as fluid forms on his forehead. "N-No! Celia will not do this!"

He turns around, opens the door, and runs inward the cabin while breathing faster.

The fluids on his forehead are falling immediately onto his chin and all he can see are his moments with Celia.

"Ija! Ija!" he halts in front of a door, "this is bad!"

Afitera extends his hand to the doorknob, twists the doorknob, and pulls it. Hence, he steps inward the room and sees a woman sitting on the mattress while her eyes are calmly staring downward.

"Celia! She left us!" Afitera looks straight at her mug, "this letter implies that she is aware of Lumina's location and she's going there alone to rescue her."

"Leave her be," Ija moves her eyes to the young man, "at this moment she might be kidnapped by the hungry giants of North."

Afitera's eyes widen as his lip opens, and his hands start to shake at a fast pace as he walks backward. 

"B-But she's our comrade!" Afitera told her.

Ija opens her lip a bit, and she raises her hand immediately; her hand turns onto brown thick wood and begins to grow longer as it travels swiftly towards Afitera.

 Ija yells, "Now is the time for your training, Afitera!"

Afitera crouches and Ija's hand hits the door and pierces it. 

He begins to roll aside, and so he stands up and jumps toward her but a brown thick wooden hand strikes his abdomen.

Afitera flies toward the wall of the room and it bursts apart causing him to hit the floor of the next room.

He opens his eyes as his teeth are gritting. He puts his hands on the wooden floor and pushes himself until he's standing on his feet, and Afitera immediately scrambles out of the room.

The young man is breathing swiftly as his eyes are fixated forward while moving at a great speed.

He moves his head beside him. "What's wrong with Ija?"

A door bursts and a woman comes out from the clouds of dust. Her thighs down to her feet are wooden tentacles, and glowing green vines can be seen on her chest reaching her chin. 

Her green eyes remain to stare at Afitera whilst he holds the doorknob of the main door and steps out from the cabin.

Before he reaches out from the house; Afitera is staring at Ija while his mouth is wide open.

"How could she become like this?" he falls on the soil and flinches, "I must find Celia no matter what happens!"

He stands up and begins to move at great speed in a certain direction, while his hand remains to hold onto the letter.

"Afitera!" a woman riding a horse halts in front of him, "where are you going? Your father is worried about you!"

"I need to rescue Celia!" Afitera begins to step forward, "I don't care about the chapel."

Angie hops from the horse, and she diminishes her eyes at Afitera. "Don't you dare turn your backs on your elder!"

Afitera remains walking away from her. She begins to inhale through her slightly open lip and moves her hand toward the handle of her sword.

She yells, "Whether you like it or not! I will bring you back to the chapel!"

Afitera stops walking, and he turns around with glaring eyes. "I must rescue Celia first! She was the only one who made me feel this way!"

"Celia! Celia is a servant of the leader of the clan of Kref," Angie begins to walk toward Afitera at a fast rate, "I know everything about her and you should not rely on your heart for her safety.

"I'm sure that this is all just a trap for them to lure you through using Celia. The likes of Celia cannot be trusted."

Angie halts not so close to Afitera, and she moves her hand from the handle of her sword and extends it towards Afitera.

"What do you say, Afitera?" she extends her hand toward Afitera, "shall we go back to the chapel?"

Afitera remains staring into her eyes as the wind blows gently over them, not until Afitera thrusts his hand towards the handle of her sword.

Afitera pulls the sword from its sheath but his hand slips as his whole body is moving away from Angie, and so Afitera falls to the ground.

Angie smiles softly while staring at Afitera. "I see what you're doing. There's no possibility that you will successfully steal this sword from my grasp."

Afitera is now standing in front of her eyes, and he asks, "If you know Celia, can you tell me more about her?"

"Celia is a loyal servant of Jelifrita, the leader of the clan of manananggal," Angie stares at Afitera's brown eyes, "if you want to rescue her then I suggest that you stop for now."

A wave of dusty wind goes them, thenceforth, a gigantic wooden humanoid can be seen near them, and this creature has wooden tentacles serving as her feet, a wooden body, and a pair of giant wooden hands.

Angie turns around and raises her hand, ergo, a bright round light shines in front of her. A gigantic wooden tentacle goes toward her but the bright round light turns to shield; the shield blocks the tentacle.

"I-Is that," Afitera begins to stand from the soil, "Ija?!"

Angie turns her head aside and her eyes fixate on him. "No wonder she tracked us easily. Do you know what you're destined to be?"

Afitera's eyes are widening whilst Angie turns her head away from him and says, "You are destined by fate to be a hunter of the likes of that friend of yours and Lumina."

After a yells at her, "Wait! How did you know about Lumina?!"

Angie extends her hand towards her shield and points it at the gigantic creature, and a thick line of bright light emerges from the shield; the bright light strikes the chest of the gigantic creature and it falls to the ground.

"You must decide whether to kill this friend of yours or watch me kill her." Angie began to sprint toward the gigantic creature.

"Please! Don't kill her!" Afitera's eyes began to narrow as his eyebrows curved downward.

Angie dodges the tentacles and gigantic fists of Ija, and she begins to swing her sword; her sword cuts the gigantic left arm of Ija along with her tentacles.

Strains of bodily fluid are flowing from Afitera's head down to his chin as he remains standing in his position while watching Angie striking his comrade with her sword and shield.

"You're slow," Angie landed on the soil.

She jumps aside and a gigantic tentacle strikes where she stood. 

Angie looks at the gigantic wooden tentacle deepened in the soil. "Too slow."

She turns toward the gigantic wooden tentacle and swings her sword downwards and the gigantic wooden tentacle beside her is cut in half.

Her eyes begin to widen and a gigantic seed strikes her, and she flies away and hits the soil. 

Angie glares as she stands up and she turns toward Ija whose arms, tentacles, and body have been healed and regenerated.

"I see," she chuckles, "regeneration? What a troublesome feat."

Ija opens her gigantic green mouth and releases a loud deep cry whilst Angie is sprinting towards her, and Ija begins to do the same.

Upon closing the distance with each other: a floating young man appears in front of Angie.

Angie's eyes are widening. "Afitera?!"

"Enough!" the young man swung his dark hand toward Angie and she flew away.

Afitera turns around and sees Ija still running in his direction, therefore, he raises his hand at her and a huge dark pillar appears above Ija and it falls toward her; the gigantic dark pillar pins her whole body on the soil.

"Both of you shouldn't fight," Afitera walks toward Ija, "what happened to you?"

Ija's green eyes slowly turn to the color of brown, and her eyes widen upon seeing Afitera.

"A-Afitera! Run!" Ija's heart begins to beat faster, "she's coming for you!"

Afitera's eyes are widening. "W-Who's coming?"

A heavy feeling weighs on his whole body, and Afitera's thighs are trembling as blood is flowing from the corner of his lip.

"Afitera," a voice of a young woman echoes near his ear.

He looks aside and his eyes glimpse a young woman standing near him.

"I-It's you!" Azer gulps as his eyes are widening, "Lumina!"

"I've never neglected the fact that you didn't even see what my true intentions are," she begins to step closer to him, "you're ignorant towards me that you chose to save Celia more than me… I was there to witness all of it through Ija's eyes."

Ija's eyes broaden while witnessing Afitera and Lumina. "Don't do that, your majesty! I did what you told me to! I betrayed Celia and gave her to the giants.

"In exchange for Afitera's safety and freedom!"

Lumina ceases her movement before reaching Afitera. 

She begins to move her eyes toward Ija. "At this moment, I am truly sorry for what I will do."

Afitera moves his eyes toward Ija and she moves her eyes toward him. Ija closes her eyes and nods whilst Afitera moves his trembling hand toward Ija's direction.

Lumina shifts her eyes toward him. "What is he going to do?"

The dark pillar disappears, and so Afitera's whole hand begins to be coated by dark energy; the dark energy coating his hand flies towards Ija at a fast rate but it was hit by a large fireball.

"That was smooth," Lumina said.

Ija's head begins to inflate as she releases a cry and bodily fluids from the corner of her eyes.

"IJA!" Afitera's eyes begin to turn small as veins appear on his mug, "how are you capable of doing this? Answer me!"

"How?" Lumina slowly moves her calm eyes toward him, "and how did you manage to be satisfied while knowing I was in danger?"

Cracks appear on Ija's whole head as Afitera moves his eyes toward it. He begins to stand up and therefore, scrambles toward Ija while extending his hands toward her.

"I'm sorry," Lumina raises her hand towards Ija and closes her hand, "I swore to slaughter everyone that matters to you."

Afitera stops running and turns toward Lumina as he raised his hand towards her; small dark energy spheres emerge from his fingertips and fly towards Lumina.

A small force hits Afitera's back, hence, he turns around and there he witnesses Ija laying on the ground while green fluid is flowing from her neck.

Afitera falls to his knees, his eyes broadening as his jaw is trembling.

"Why?" Afitera speaks to himself, "why am I powerless? Weak and vulnerable? What did I do to witness all of these?"

Lumina begins to move toward Afitera while floating fireballs are appearing around her shoulders.

Dark particles are appearing around Afitera and then he looks up and the dark particles flicker, therefore, releasing an enormous force of dark energy toward the sky.

The clear blue skies begin to turn dark and Lumina stares at it, and her eyes move downwards only for massive dark energy to strike her.

Afitera remains standing in his position as the dark energy around him disappears. 

A dark aura is surrounding his whole body, his eyes are red, dark lines can be seen extending from his eyes down to his chest, and dark chains are floating around his neck.

"I'm tired of being nice," he begins to move forward, "I'm tired of being okay but the truth is I'm not doing well."