The First Adventure

Walking through the dark and rocky road of Titans where there is not even a single soul around, Taka cannot help but think about what happened to this place. From the map that he obtained from the dead merchant, he realized that the closest area next to Titans was Lavaria. However, to get to Lavaria, one must pass through one unique place called the Sleeping Lava. Sleeping Lava is a mountain that borders Lavaria and Titans. Legends said that there was once a mythic creature guarding this location. No one knew, heard, or even saw the creature there was no guarantee if it was real or not. Coming toward the Sleeping Lava, Taka starts sensing his energy drawn towards this place. He knows for sure Lavaria is right behind it, so he wastes no time and keeps on moving.

"What great depth. I can see the Lava is still moving down there." - Taka comes to the mountain rear and looks down where the lava can be seen.

Sleeping Lava is unique in its movement. On top, it looks like everything stays stills since the surface is hardened, but right below it is lava that keeps on moving from one corner to another. The heat coming from the mountain is strong enough to push one away if he or she is not prepared. That explains why no trees or animals are living around this place. Fortunately, there was a small road that locates far enough from the mountain that Taka can move on (as he got this information from the merchant). The more he goes deeper through the mountain, the more skeletons he realized are scattered around the area. It seems like a great battle happened here a while back.

"Who are these people? And what are those symbols?" - Taka stops at one skeleton and looks at its outfits quickly.

All of a sudden, a huge sound pops outright from the mountain itself. It is so loud that the hardened surface of the Sleeping Lava is now broken. The lava starts to rise and splurt out its hot magma everywhere. From the road, it is like a rain of fire from the sky. Taka has no choice but to run as fast as he can towards a random cave nearby to shield himself from that.

"Seriously? The Awakening? Right now?" - Taka complains.

It turns out that today is the full moon day, and from the merchant's information that only on full moon day that the Sleeping Lava is called the Awakening where it increases its pressure from the core of the mountain and pushes the lava outside. This phenomenon is really rare as it happened almost only once or twice before. Taka looks that the raging fire from the Sleeping Lava, and somehow that draws him closer and closer. He cannot help but starts to step out of the cave.

"...Come.." - A strange voice appears again and speaks to Taka.

"Who...are..you?" - Taka responds.

A second sound pops out from the Awakening again. This time it gets even bigger and louder than the first one. The entire mountain is now on a verge of collapsing. The ground around the mountain is cracking more and more. The Awakening is now filled with a sea of crazily hot molten lava, and the core of the mountain slowly rises. It is a shiny and dark orb. The orb is so dark that not even light can shine through it. The core begins to cover itself with the lava. The lava then gets hardened quickly to form a unique shape right in front of Taka's eyes: A Dragon waking up from its sleep has appeared. It gives out a huge roar that blasts away everything around it.

"Finally, I am back after a very long time. The core has responded to the Call then which must mean that it is time for me to work." - The Dragon speaks to itself

"Huh... why do I sense a lifeforce coming from this side?" - The Dragon also realizes Taka, who is now too shocked to move an inch away from where he was staying. The Dragon thought he was burnt alive so it did not pay much attention to him, but now Taka got its attention.

"Who are you, little one?" - The Dragon glares its eye at Taka.

"The name...is Taka. I was just passing by this place." - Taka tries to calm himself down.

"And how did you survive my fire?" - The Dragon asks back.

"I have no idea myself either." - Taka is just as confused as the Dragon.

"Interesting...Very few people can take the fire head on, and yet you are here right in front of me knowing nothing about it. But....what happened to this place?" - The Dragon holds Taka back while looking at Titans.

"Besides your roar which destroyed everything around here. Titans had been like this for a very long time now." - Taka explains.

"And...is this because of you people? Why are you with those creatures?" - The Dragon starts to get angry as he sees Taka is with a skeleton he was looking at earlier.

"You must die. I cannot let you live any further, pathetic brat!" - The Dragon gives out another roar and starts to cover the entire mountain with its fire. No one can enter as well as escape as the fire can melt one's skin immediately the moment skin contact with the fire is made. The Dragon fires a ridiculously hot and powerful beam of energy toward Taka. He had to use everything just to avoid that beam, but he cannot dodge it completely as parts of his body are still getting burnt from it.

"Please wait a minute, Great One. There must be some kind of misunderstanding." - Taka tries to explain the situation one more time.

"SILENCE! I WILL NOT HEAR A SINGLE WORD COMING FROM YOU!" - The Dragon uses a high chunk of its energy to form multiples fire orbs surrounding the areas.

"Volcanic Embrace!" - The Dragon yells out loud and those orbs begin to explode one by one. Knowing he had nowhere left to go, Taka can now only try to shield himself.

"...Do..not..worry.." - A strange voice appears again in Taka's head.

"Who are you? and why are you inside my head?" - Taka talks to the strange voice again.

The voice seems to shield him from the orbs, but the impact is still there as he is getting burnt more and more through his entire body. From above, the Dragon is now becoming more agitated as it sees him still alive.

"HOW DID YOU LIVE? There must be some tricks you hide, you coward! Then I will go all out and make this end once and for all." - The core of the Dragon moves out of its body. The core shares the same power as the Dragon and starts absorbing the surroundings again. A spear slowly forms and is firmly held by the Dragon. The sky turns red all of a sudden the moment that spear appears. The air is becoming harder to breathe as well.

"This is where you meet your end." - The Dragon uses all of its strength and throws the spear as hard as possible at Taka. The spear is so strong that it evaporates every single thing the moment it touches the ground. If the Awakening is filled with lava around the mountain then the spear now completely breaks the mountain to pieces. The entire place is now nothing more than just an empty and burnt place.

"..F..a..l..k..o..r" - The strange voice speaks to the Dragon very faintly.

"!!! Is that..." - Realizing the voice, the Dragon rushes down to the ground and looks for Taka's body. He is now lying on the ground unconscious as this immense power is too much for him to handle, but at least he is not dead after receiving the spear to the body.

The Dragon stays silent for some time while looking at Taka. There is something on its mind that its want to question Taka further. However, the Dragon decides to bring Taka to another place far away from the Awakening. This place should be safe enough for him to wake up and continue on his journey. The Dragon returns to the mountain, and the red sky slowly fades away. The fire barrier surrounding the mountain is also no more.

No one knows what happened to the Dragon, but one thing for sure is that the mountain (which looked like it was broken into pieces from the fight) is now back to normal. It is as if nothing occurred before.

Seems like Taka's life is still too precious to be taken away from the Dragon...

Chapter 4 - End