Sol

Wind brushed on Sol’s face as he yawned and got up. Sol felt he had a headache, but couldn’t remember where he last was. He looked around, and eyed dark trees. He was in a forest. However, what interested him was bright lights, not far away. “A city,” he thought. He stood up from all the leaves on the ground, wondering how long he had been sleeping. But he still couldn’t remember anything, thanks to his headache, he thought, so he focused on walking towards the bright lights. Night had long fallen, and Sol felt somewhat tired, even though he had slept for a long time.

After Sol finally neared the city, he immediately noticed something. It was in shambles. He saw people fighting on the dirty streets, and buildings broken and fires starting. He knew he had to hide. Sneaking around, Sol had no time to think where he had come from and where he was. He had to be out of sight, as he had no option to fight back.

Soon, Sol found a hiding place  in the countryside. It was dawn, and he saw no one in this desolate and rural place. He spotted an empty old shack, and decided to stay there. But there was one problem- food, and Sol also thought about how he would get back to his family, friends, and such. Even though the headache had subsided, he still could not remember anything, and he couldn’t talk to anyone about it. But he knew the first priority was to get food and water, and be able to survive.

The next day, Sol was getting hungry, so he knew he had to find some food. After some scouting out, he knew one good place to get food- The Abandoned Supermarket. But it was in the center of the city, which meant a ton of danger. Sol used a bit of wood to craft a wooden sword, but he already knew it would be no use against the people he’d seen. They had huge metal swords and guns as well! But he had to try, because he was really hungry and thirsty.

Sol entered the outskirts of the city, already seeing sieges on the dying city. But he slowly slinked around the city, nearing the supermarket. He spotted a few guards around the supermarket, and was unsure how to get any closer, but he was in luck, as the guards soon walked away from the supermarket. A few minutes later, Sol decided it was safe to head into the supermarket.

The supermarket looked old, and parts of it were destroyed. He noticed that people must’ve fought here before, as there were blood stains on the floor. Not much food was left, but definitely enough for a few weeks. Enough for the time being, at least. He grabbed a cart from the corner,  useful for storing everything he was going to take. He was wary of the expiry date, but everything seemed to be fine. He took lots and lots of water, as well as tasty food. He felt happy as he finished taking what he needed, but as he was going to exit the supermarket, an armed man jumped in front of Sol, hoisting his rifle. “Hands up!” he yelled. Sol didn’t know what to do, but before he could think, his hand shot forward, releasing a mysterious yellow blast, sending the man flying. Sol felt victorious, but also confused, not knowing what happened, but outside the supermarket, a sly man smiled, writing down on his notepad ‘Subject 326 - Sol - Mysterious powers seen, I am very interested. I don’t know what the potential of this is, but we ought to see.’

Sol snuck back to his shack, noticing a piece of paper on the old table he hadn’t seen before. It read ‘Come to Brickbend Avenue. Open the wooden box and press the red button. Then go down the ladder This is not a trap. If you are not Sol, this message will explode.’. Sol expected this to be a trap, and it wasn’t signed.

After some thinking, Sol decided he would see what it was. He didn’t know much about this world, and had forgotten everything, so he had nothing better to do, and no point to just stay in that old shack forever, so he packed up his things and set off to Brickbend Avenue.

After making his way to Brickbend avenue, he immediately noticed the wooden box and opened it, and as he expected, there was a red button inside. He thought for a moment, and pressed the button.  The floor opened, and he spotted a ladder, leading down. He climbed down the ladder, not knowing what to expect. 

Once he entered, a man greeted him. “Sol, isn’t it?” the man asked. “Yeah,” Sol replied. It was a bigger space than Sol thought it would be, but then again, he didn’t even know what this was. He put his stuff down, and was guided to a room. The whole place looked high tech, and Sol felt oddly excited. Was this not a trap after all?

Sol was informed that this was apparently an underground peace organization, named the Crimson Organization. They had a network of offices ranging across both continents, Sol now learnt, which were Eternia and Elvia, separated by Midzone Isles, a couple of islands. He also learned that this was Alven City, where the Crimson Organization’s headquarters in Eternia was. Apparently, he was recruited into the Crimson Organization as Matthew, the man he was guided in by, saw that he could harness some sort of rare and strong sun power that Sol used against that guard in the supermarket, as he said he was passing by. Sol also wanted to learn more about his powers, so he decided to join. 

Sol was already tasked with his first mission, freeing Eternian prisoners from Midzone Isles. Sol didn’t know the purpose of this mission, but he wanted to do it anyway. Sol was assigned this mission with two other people, an expert mage, Felix, and a rookie Swordsman, Ivan. Sol was also given a long steel broadsword, which had the word ‘Sun’ imprinted on the blade, a pistol, a map to tell Sol where the prison was, as well as water and food. He was ready to go on his first mission!

“When did you join the organization?” Sol asked Felix, as they got onto the train that would take them to the Midzone Isles. “Two years,” Felix replied, looking proud. “Wow, the war has lasted two years?” Sol said. “Nope, seven. One of the longer ones.” Felix said. “I’ve joined for only two months, but I've already completed three missions! Four, if you count this one!” Ivan boasted. 

Sol was feeling good by the time they had arrived at the Midzone Isles, as he, Felix, and Ivan were fast friends. They were directed right to the center, which on the map, read ‘Midzone Prison’. “Well, Sol and Ivan, since this mission won’t look to be very hard, may as well train your swordplay,” Felix told Sol and Ivan. After all, Sol was new and Ivan was still a rookie. Felix said there would be a few guards, but not many or very strong. 

As they neared the prison, the sun started setting. Night would be the perfect time to strike. They prepared their supplies and got ready to enter. They were outside the Regalia Forest surrounding the Midzone Prison.

Once they entered Regalia Forest, Felix took out his wand and used the light spell, ‘Lightos’. The area around them soon lit up, and the tree journeyed forward. “Careful, there may or may not be wolves,” Ivan said. “I read about it in a book. Apparently, a special type of wolves, Regalia Wolves, live here. They are not usually aggressive, but very territorial. If you get into its territory, the whole pack will attack you.” Felix added.

Sol, Felix, and Ivan slowly but surely made it extremely close to the prison. They could already see it, before- “HOWLLL!!” a loud howling sound filled the air. Sol, Felix, and Ivan knew it- the Regalia Wolves were coming “Firo!” Felix yelled, shooting fire at the incoming wolves. Sol and Ivan drew their swords, but couldn’t do much, since there were so many. However, Sol did get a few shots with his pistol. His sun power, however, didn’t get used at all. Sol suspected he could only use it when he was in danger. 

There weren’t many wolves left, thanks to Felix’s onslaught of Firo and Blizzaro spells, so Felix asked Ivan and Sol to try and defeat a few. Ivan, although a rookie, clearly showed talent as he defeated multiple wolves at once- Sol on the other hand, was struggling to defeat even one, but eventually, using the special blade technique he had just learned before with his Steel Broadsword, Punisher Blades, Sol and Ivan defeated the rest of the Regalia Wolves, but there was a bigger problem. All the guards knew they were here, and thanks to their performance in that battle, would probably call for backup. 

The party knew that they didn’t need to lay low- everyone knew they would be right there, so Felix casted a protection spell and the party pushed forward.

Pretty soon, they started seeing swarms of guards- Sol counted 50-, with their sophisticated guns and armor. He doubted they could take 10, let alone 50. Since Felix was still using the protection spell, Felix and Ivan tried shooting some guards with their pistols, but the guard’s armor was too strong.

However, Felix’s skillful spellcasting strategy- stopping casting the protection spell and casting Firo, then immediately casting the protection spell again, let them stray quite close to the prison, but just as they were about to enter, five large, red robots jumped  in front of them, and started shooting lasers at the party. Felix’s protection spell was quickly broken, and Ivan unsheathed his sword and started slashing at the bots, to no avail. “These must be the new bots Elvia Military was developing,” Felix muttered, trying to cast Blizzaro. Sol didn’t know what to do- his pistol would do nothing and his swordplay would be the same, until a minute later, his sword started glowing bright yellow. He unsheathed it, interested, but quickly jumped backwards, dodging a swipe from a robot’s arm. He dashed forward, attempting to slash, and surprisingly, cut straight through the robot! He did the same with the other two, with both Ivan and Felix looking in awe. They were both incredibly tired, as well as Sol, when he finally realized what he did, was shocked- and almost collapsed. But the three pressed on, not seeing any guards.

They quickly entered the prison, talking about what Sol did. Sol just thought it was his sword’s special power, but it also felt somewhat connected to the sword. They saw about fifteen Eternian prisoners inside, and quickly freed them. With Sol’s newfound power, they breezed through any guards they saw, and quickly got back onto the ship to return to Eternia.

Sol returned to his shack with Felix, awaiting his next mission. For the next few weeks, they trained, and trained, and trained some more. Sol improved vastly in swordplay, and even learned five basic magic spells- Fire, Blizzard, Thunder, Heal, and Shield, but after that, Sol received a notice- it was a new mission from the Crimson Organization- it read: “You have a new mission, meet in the same area.”

Sol headed to Brickbend Avenue, and once he reached the base, he met Matthew once again, and was briefed on his mission. This time, he was to head to the Elvia Desert and steal the Possession Ring, which could be very dangerous, and would worsen the war. Sol was sent with Felix, Ivan, and seven other troops- they were expecting more conflict this time. 

After getting to Elvia, the team trekked to Elvia Desert, and although they encountered plenty of orcs and wolves, they easily dealt with them. Once they got to the top of the mountain, Sol marveled at the scenery. Unlike Eternia, Elvia had lots of lush forests and grasslands, as well as mountains, unlike Eternia, which seemed much more modern. But after about two hours of walking the team arrived at the end of the forest and the beginning of the desert, having their lunch break. They soon finished and headed to the temple which contained the Possession Ring. The temple looked old and worn out, but also like people had been here recently. The inside was lit up with torches, and surprisingly cleaned. They didn’t have to walk far until they saw guards, who were Elvian. Not wanting to hurt anyone, Felix casted a sleep spell on the guards, which worked and put the guards to sleep. Unusually, there weren’t many guards until they got to the center of the tower, but the center looked old like the outside, untouched. The Possession Ring laid right in the middle, guarded by anything. Excited, Ivan rushed in to grab it, not hearing Felix and Sol’s cries to not go so quickly -  they were sure something was guarding it. But once Ivan got too close, an alarm rang and the wall opened up. Sol realized that it wasn’t a wall - but a door blending in with it! Then a huge, brown, robot came out, and immediately started shooting lasers. Everyone was blown back and Felix’s spells were doing nothing, and even Sol’s slashes weren’t doing anything to the robot. No one knew what sort of tech this was - ancient, was what Felix thought. Sol knew the only way was to flee, but the doors behind them were closing and the Possession Ring was not seen by anyone, but Ivan saw a shine and jumped at it, grabbing the Possession Ring! And as Sol held off the robot, Felix casted a Lock spell on the door, locking it in place, and instructing everyone to run out. As one of the troops had called base to come pick them up, there was an aircraft waiting outside, and quickly brought the team back to base.

Back at the base, everyone was cheerful as the mission was successful, and they put the Possession Ring in the vault, in which lots of dangerous artifacts were stored.

The next day, Felix went to check on the Possession Ring, and entered the vault doors - it was gone.

THE END