"No One Signed Up to be a Hero"

"It's a Thunderbird. We should be fine as long as we all can dodge." Ardrossan remarked. Then he looked at Candeloro who glared at him.

"Very funny," Candeloro retorted.

"I don't get it?" Nanthanaphon looked between them.

"Inside joke," Ardrossan responded. "I'll go tell my dad to stay inside until it's safe." He commented but didn't sound urgent.

"You two trap it and I'll seal it," Candeloro instructed. Ardrossan gave a deadpan that felt more like a glare. "Sure,"

Candeloro made a summoning circle appear on the ground. In an instant it was dotted with candles.

The bird screeched and sent out jolts of electricity. Ardrossan charged forward and jabbed at the right wing using his shovel. The talisman glowed but otherwise it had no effect on the bird.

"It's using a shield," he remarked "we'll need to wear it down before sealing. Otherwise it will just rip through," he explained.

"How do you stay so monotonous and flat on situations like these?" Nanthanaphon asked.

He briefly looked saddened. "I have my emotions under a charm that keeps them subdued." He admitted.

Nanthanaphon gasped. "What the fuck? why??"

He looked back at the bird. "It was supposed to be a defense effort," with a scowl flung a shovelful of dirt at the Thunderbird.

The bird was not happy about that in the least and let them all know it. Nanthanaphon briefly blacked out and came to with a confused look on her face. The screech was deafening and the electric attack it released sent several patches of grass on fire until she noticed Candeloro had pulled out a flask of water from somewhere and was putting them out.

Ardrossan had his clothes singed."Why did you try to seal me away with the bird?" He demanded. His tone was angry but he hadn't accomplished raising his voice.

Nanthanaphon sat up what happened?" She asked. At least she hoped that's what she said. Her ears were ringing.

Candeloro said something in reply that sounded like "you know damn well why!"

Nanthanaphon felt grateful because even though the electric shock had hurt and knocked her out, her magic circuits seemed to be operating at full capacity. She clasped her hands together. Her barriers of light shown forth. Candeloro made a summoning circle appear on the ground again. Like before it was dotted with candles.

Nanthanaphon concentrated not minding the sweat sliding down her forehead.The rays of lights became brilliant gleaming swords with various elaborate handles.

Unfortunately the blades shattered on impact against the Thunderbird.

Nanthanaphon teetered and wavered slowly to the ground.

"This... takes... a lot out of me," she wheezed as she crouched down; feeling like her vision was swimming and more exhausted than an entire day running around the district trading.

"Your magic circuits aren't used to such work. I imagine you spent most of your life without any training for magic. You can't handle it- suddenly using your abilities when you've never managed to before," Candeloro explained handing her his staff. She used it to stand up.

Ardrossan yelled at he was thrown backwards against a tree. His shovel snapped in half.

The paper talisman stopped glowing and abruptly looked like a tattered old piece of paper.

"Damn," he muttered at the sound of it snapping.

Ardrossan sat up. He jumped up and yanked, unkindly, four of the blue feathers out of the tail.

Then Candeloro tackled Nanthanaphon out of the way as Ardrossan

The candles were immediately lit and the bird was successfully trapped. The Thunderbird screeched then roared- sounding eerily like thunder. In another effort to protest being sealed up it sent out waves of electrical currents that knocked all three of them off their feet.

Nanthanaphon stood up and tried to conjure the swords again. But her light wavered a bit too long and simply remained a half efficient barrier. The electric current from the bird's nest wave shocked them but they managed to stay on their feet.

She let out a yell of frustration. "I'm the only one here not adding to the fight!" She raged.

"Probably for the best. They remember faces," Ardrossan cut in.

"They what-" she began but her shield failed in just enough time for the Thunderbird to change tactics and send an actual lightning bolt at them.

Nanthanaphon shrieked in terror and ran away. However she learned she ran the wrong way as another bolt zapped down in front of her. Ardrossan used his body to shield her, taking the brunt of the electric attack and seeming unfazed.

"I'm fine. This is nothing to what I'll be forced to go through in the future," he assured.

"You sound very sure of that," she responded.

He didn't respond. His gaze fell on his broken shovel. Whatever use it had before clearly gone since he hadn't picked it back up.

"Candeloro, seal the bird. I have.... I have a way to stop it," Ardrossan said quietly.

"I'm a doomed existence. Candeloro hates me because I'm one of the humans of Midgard know as a Eldritch Fated. A human cursed to never see their full potential and become a puppet to a higher being that will either eat them or destroy them."

Nanthanaphon's hands flew to her mouth in horror.

"I hadn't planned on telling you. But what the hell." Ardrossan decided simply.

"Breaking the Seal of Enigma over my now corrupted abilities...."

"I sacrifice my last emotion; Kindness. To protect what's right here, and imprison the beast before me," Ardrossan finished the spell, choosing to say the next words in English.

From his hands extended purple lighting that exploded when it touched the bird. Sending feathers singed and unsinged flying everywhere. Ardrossan however crumpled to the ground with something more than exhaustion.

Candeloro couldn't look too concerned and immediately acted to seal the bird away. The summoning circle appeared, blazed bright green and the candles extended in height.

"Pillar of Silence!" The bird was imprisoned in what looked like a Greek column. But it was etched in runes promising warnings of death if broken open.

On the ground Ardrossan's hands shifted, the nails already turning very long and dark colored.

"That was so stupid of me- doing that to help you." Ardrossan gasped. "I don't even know or care about you," he remarked painfully.

Nanthanaphon looked like she was going to tell him where he could put that thought.

"And yet I couldn't let you die, now I must in your place," he said, sounding dead inside already.

'Perhaps it's destiny running it's course. Just as you are bound by it, Nanthanaphon is someone who can evade it and is crucial to saving the world," Candeloro responded offering a hand to help Ardrossan to his feet.

Ardrossan didn't respond but didn't look pleased either. Though Ardrossan had hardly changed facial expressions the entire time she'd known him so that wasn't much of a comparison.

"I have helped you this time. But be warned. There will come someone who looks like me that is not a friend." Ardrossan responded staring at Nanthanaphon.

Nanthanaphon got to her feet as she looked at him in worry.

"You won't be able to trust them," he warned.

'Who will it be specifically -? Can you tell me that-" she stopped. Ardrossan's consciousness had faded. The only thing in front of her now was the tainted and corrupted remains of the boy she knew. He stood up, without a word to her and walked down the hill, maneuvering around tombstones on autopilot and heading to the forest that she had come from when the first met.

She felt tears sting her eyes even though she had known him half a day. It felt so wrong for him to be gone so suddenly.

'Ardrossan's magic circuits have changed to that of a rare Class! A Berserker!" Candeloro noted.'Is it to balance the change the Eldritch being will place on him once he's taken as a vessel?'

"Is that bad?" Nanthanaphon asked. She was not going to be able to fight something she didn't know how to combat.

"It's not one of the worst magic types. But fighting him will be difficult as Berserkers are known for their adaptability and destructive range." Candeloro explained.

"Can I at least-" Nanthanaphon started but Candeloro pulled her back.

Ardrossan had stopped at the end of the hill and stared at her, his eyes seemingly more empty than before.

Eventually he looked away, avoiding Nanthanaphon's concerned expression.

"I've cast a protection spell. It won't do anything about whatever fuses with his body to finish his transformation. But it should prevent people from being harmed by him." Candeloro explained after a moment of having his hands clasped together as though he were praying.

"He's right about trust though, the Eldritch Fated humans are not to be taken lightly nor are they a collective in anything besides their destiny of fusing to monsters." Candeloro said, tone apologetic. Nanthanaphon shakily stood up and wiped away the silent tears.

"That's cruel," she said coldly.

"It can't be helped." Candeloro commented.

"That teenager just threw away his entire existence to save me and all you can say is that is just the way things are?" Nanthanaphon asked.

"It's the era of the Apocalypse Epoch. It's simply one of the things about this way of life. Select humans are burdened with the bond to a nonhuman entity beyond our comprehension."

"Because of some greater good?" Nanthanaphon asked

"Because of the conglomerate of curses that closely orbits the two worlds. Curses that decided the fate of everything and concluded punishment for the way everything has been,"

"The cause of the curses... If it's destroyed it's suspected that this will all end. But no one has ever gotten that far. Most don't even make it to the trials," Candeloro retorted

Nanthanaphon looked curious.

Candeloro recoiled sharply as if impaled by something.

"Are you going to have something happen too!?" Nanthanaphon asked. Candeloro shook his head.

"I have to go, Lord Malthanne is summoning me," Candeloro commented weakly. He very clearly didn't want to leave.

He cupped his hands and in them appeared a golden orb, similar in appearance to a Sovereign's Orb, with a small crown at the top.

"It will help you find allies you can trust." He said handing it to her.

"Now hang on just a -" Nanthanaphon protested. She almost dropped it upon contact, not anticipating the weight.

"What is this heavy expensive looking thing?" Nanthanaphon asked.

"It is a Orb of Nascency, it help you channel your abilities." He said.

Nanthanaphon did notice her body felt more ...complete now that she was holding it.

"It will be a good tool and safe in your hands." Candeloro assured.

Nanthanaphon blinked. "But this-"

"You do understand that if I keep this and get to go home I'm turning it into food and money-" she started.

"I have faith that you will prioritize the important thing when the moment comes," he smiled faintly. Then he disappeared in a familiar shimmer of light.

"Malthanne just teleports people willy nilly, doesn't he?" She asked no one.

"Alright then Orb of Nascency... Lead me to potential allies I guess," she remarked, partly hoping she could find Ardrossan again. But it led her in the opposite direction.

She looked longingly in the direction of the trees Ardrossan's body disappeared in.

'If we meet again. Will I be able to reach you?' She wondered then walked off as the Orb made a steady pulsing noise.