Ceasefire After an Eon

"You Damn Whiffle-Whaffle!"

"Oh calm yourself, old man. I was just taking a nap."

"And how long was said nap?!"

"Just a year or twelve. I would have pleasantly continued and there would be no problemo if you wouldn't have made such a ruckus around here, gramps."

"You Utter FOOL! No problem?! NO problem?"

Two men were arguing nearby a shore of crystal, where once a grand lake of stardust and galaxies swirled, unblemished.

The 'old man' in this case did indeed have the appearance of an old man. Sort of.

Standing at nearly 3 metres tall with long scruffy silver hair that reached his hips and thick mutton chops on his face and eyes purely black, the 'old man' who had a frightening amount of muscles built up had his arms crossed. Looking down, he yelled at the middle-aged-looking man in front of him.

Semi-long, light brown hair sat atop the middle-aged man's head. At the back of his head there was a scruffy and seemingly hastily made manbun. His long locks that weren't tied in the man bun draped to the sides of his face. His scruffy chin supported his unmoving grin.

Wearing a brown short-sleeved shirt with a long collar and grey trousers over his mostly muscular build, the man scratched his cheek.

"Yeah, yeah I get the problem gramps."

The middle-aged man said as he placed a hand behind his neck and cracked it.

"You obviously don't! You were supposed to guard it!"

"The old pond's shrinking right? Either an omen like the blue sun or just something that was bound to happen. Besides I got the job because I was forced into it. Why not just let that new kid take the job if it's so important, like I suggested?"

"You FOOL!"

*BLAST*

The old man roared as a blast of energy left his mouth and caused the earth around them to rumble yet having no effect on the crystal coastline.

The blast of energy travelled directly at the middle-aged man only to instantly be deflected to the side where it travelled up towards the sky and explode a few seconds later.

"Come on gramps you know that won't ever work on me."

The middle-aged man said with a small sigh as he hadn't moved a single muscle and not even a single speck of dust was on his body.

"The lake is drying up just like all lakes do if you give them a few millennia. This one's just a little pretty and 'holy' or something, right?"

"No. This one is different."

The tall old man said, calming down as he stared at the shrunken lake of void and stardust.

"This lake isn't made of water or any other natural liquid. It's a pure, living Nebula. A fraction of infinity. It shrinking naturally is impossible. Something or someone is consuming it."

"Well, when you put it like that, with those fancy words and all, then it does seem like a bit of an incident."

"No one in all of recorded time has ever dared to even touch this lake. It had been a holy location for all life for many aeons before our dragon clan moved here together to monopolize it."

"Uhuh. And by monopolizing it we...?"

The old man sighed as he placed his hand over his mouth while looking down.

"*Sigh*... Gained nothing. Simply thinking of touching the lake 'water' made some dragons experience enough fear to think of ending their own lives. We have done a few experiments in the past. Taking a few weak creatures and throwing them in the 'water'. The moment they touched it, they clawed their way out and ended their lives in a panic before suddenly appearing waves came and absorbed their body entirely."

"And what did those experiments tell us then?"

"Not to fiddle with it."

"... So what if someone has consumed some of the lake? What do you think will happen, gramps?"

"... I don't know. But if a creature did consume this amount of the lake and survived, we might be unfortunate enough to live during the last few years of this planet's existence."

"Even if they have sentience?"

"If they do then we might all fall under a new overlord. If they are a dragon, then a dreadful overlord... We must gather the other Old Ones. Our Throne Race must be put on pause if something has consumed the lake or worse yet, has been born from it."

"Damn throne wars, never understood why all you try so hard to get that stupid..."

The man scratched hid head with an annoyed look before sighing and continuing.

"Fine gramps. I'll go and talk to the ones who like me. You take all the others."

The middle-aged man turned to leave.

"What? No, at least talk to more than five, I also have activities that need tending to."

The tall old man turned to him and said.

"That's almost double the work, I'll pass."

The middle-aged man gave a smirk and a peace sign before disappearing.

The tall old man let out a deep sigh and also moved away from the place after one final glance at the shrunken lake.

...

The rustling of leaves and faint sounds of raindrops falling to the ground.

Dashing through the forest, a small girl with golden blond hair riding a giant silver-grey tiger.

The happy giggles and laughter coming from the child as they hung on to the fur of the tiger brought an uncanny ominousness to the strange jungle.

Suddenly stopping in her tracks, the tiger crouched down and waited a few moments.

"Ainnoo."

The small child, Junko, pat the tiger on her side and jumped down onto the ground a second later as she understood that the tiger wasn't going to move from the spot.

Falling to the ground, spear in hand, she felt the wet mud and foliage on her feet. Uncomfortable and slippery.

The tiger, now that Junko had dismounted, moved quietly through the jungle-like forest with her ears twitching every so often. No matter how weak of a branch it stepped on or how large of a bush it passed through, not a single sound was made by the tiger.

*Crack*

*Rustling*

Junko.

Hurridly walking after the tiger with her spear dragging on the ground behind her, her steps broke all the branches that stood in her way.

Somehow managing to keep pace with the tiger while blindly tumbling her way through a thick bush, Junko fell forward as her leg got caught behind a sturdy stone that was wedged into the ground at the 'exit' of the bush.

Catching herself from falling face-first into the wet mud on the ground, she turned and fell on her behind, searching for the spear she had dropped in the bush.

Narrowing her eyes, the branches and leaves turned transparent as the glint of her spear caught her eye. Reaching her hand deep into the bush, she grabbed onto her spear and yanked it out, destroying the entire bush in the process.

"Ah."

Now holding the spear above her head, she let it drop behind her as she looked down at the rock that made her trip. Grabbing onto the rock that already had a small dent in it from her toes and clutching it in her hand, she crushed it till only scattered shards remained.

Cleaning her hands with a clap that didn't help in cleaning her hands at all, she propped herself up with her hands and stood before grabbing her spear and quickly following after the tiger that had been quietly crouching near a thicket of trees.

Running up to the tiger, Junko chose to try and stay quiet just like the soft-furred tiger. Glancing through the thicket, she saw a small group of five boars that much resembled the one that she had previously smashed with her spear.

Two of the boars were just as large in stature as the one Junko had previously 'hunted' while the other three were quite small compared to the others.

The small boars seemed to be resting as they layed on the ground, the other two were gnawing on some vegetables they had dug up from the mud. Although the two large boars seemed to have heard the breaking of branches and all the other noise coming from their direction, they didn't seem bothered in the slightest.

Junko looked on at the boars with hunger in her eyes and a slightly open mouth. Blinking twice, she glanced at the tiger next to her that also seemed quite hungry.

Tapping the side of the tiger's face, Junko reached her hand towards the boars while making eye contact with the tiger.

Seeing no visible reaction from the tiger, Junko tilted her head. The tiger simply turned its gaze back at the small group of boars and got ready to pounce.

Having no clue about what a proper pouncing position was, Junko just looked at the tiger who had her tail swaying from one side to another.

Suddenly having a great amount of interest in the tiger's tail, Junko was about to go and try to take it for herself before the tiger pounced.

Looking on at how the tiger was mauling all the boars with frightful efficiency, Junko's eyes shined in interest as she stumbled through the thicket and ran towards the boars as well.

Moving closer to a large boar that already had a flaming claw mark on its side as it attempted to charge into the tiger, Junko raised her spear and brought it down. This time she was actually using the edge of the bladed spear and finely cut into the boar's neck.

The hunt would go on for a fair while longer as Junko somehow ate nearly just as much as her tiger friend, if not more.

She was learning to hunt.

...

On the edge of the Great Dragon Continent.

It was now nightfall.

The ship had reached sufficiently close to the shore without much more trouble after the Juvenile Apex attack.

The mist and fog from the captain's relic item still encased the ship.

The ship had anchored down a small ways away from the shore. Three small boats with a generous amount of supplies sat on the shore of the continent.

There were several small groups forming around as most of the people were scattered.

Groups of adventurers carefully navigated the shoreline and studied the fauna nearby while keeping an eye out for any animal tracks.

Some mages with interests towards potions and alchemy chose to navigate with the adventurers.

All the knights that had come along were scattered across the shoreline, creating a simple reactive defence around the area within which all the adventurer and mage groups were working in.

Needless to say, within each small group, there were at the minimum of three knights on standby in case anything targeted the group.

"Yeah. Now is the best possible time. Any later and we might risk an attack."

The prince spoke to his white-haired fairy companion.

And so, at that time, the fairy cast an elemental skill that placed a protective barrier around all present members of the mission.

"Good. Thank you as always."

The prince said with a smile as he pat his fairy companion on her head before focusing back on the mission and calling for all the group members to reconvene.

Mission Objective: Attempt to recover the corpse and blood of an Apex at or above the Adult Rank but do not engage a living Apex above Juvenile Rank no matter the situation.

Secondary Objective: Make sure no Devil Shards have landed on the Great Dragon Continent.

Optional Objective: If possible, find and recover an egg belonging to the Apex.

"Let's start the mission then. Shall we?"