Azure Dune, Chapter 5 - GOLD (Patreon)

“You know… I occasionally forget that you are the same person… the same being we fought in order to save the world back in the day,” I said as I watched Xeron siphon the corrupted Aether into herself on one side while I used my snow to purify it on the other side.

“Mmm, and I have a hard time believing you are the same easily embarrassed shy boy who managed to rally everyone into fighting me into a standstill and then sealing me away.”

My eyebrows scrunched for a moment when she said ‘boy’ but I quickly waved it away.

“So, how are we going to do this? Do you think your… daughter will recognize you?”

“She might, although I don’t think she will. She was too little when she last saw me, after all.”

I hummed in response.

Just Xeron’s presence here with me was already more reassuring than if I were to try and take her on myself, but it still made me nervous. Regardless, we slowly marched on, bit by bit, toward what Xeron figured had to have been the core of the corruption.

The plants around us looked rotten yet still living. Zombified, almost. Some of them tried lashing out at us but, as plants, were too slow to reach us before either one of us took care of their corruption.

On the other hand, the corrupted fauna had legs. More than usual, in fact.

The twelve-legged rabbit appeared in front of us, baring its fangs jutting out of its mouth at odd angles as it charged us with its warped horn.

Xeron dodged out of the way and allowed me to catch the little corrupted critter in a ball of snow and applied the purification magic before using some basic calming magic to put it to sleep. We continued on, leaving the poor critter in a patch of purified grass.

“You are as soft as ever,” Xeron said with a chuckle after seeing me take care not to kill the creature. “Just like when you were the hero for the first time.”

I gave her a sad smile.

“As the team’s healer, I had to be, no?”

“I disagree. Healers can be plenty vicious.” Xeron then suddenly blinked and looked into the distance. I quickly followed her eyes and tried sensing around before discovering what must have caught her interest. “Mmm, looks like we finally found someone,” Xeron announced.

Just a little ways ahead of us, there was a distinct absence of corrupted Aether. A circular space filled with familiar radiant Aether with a golden sheen. I cracked a smile upon recognizing it but then immediately frowned in concern upon realizing just how small and brittle this golden Aether felt.

“This isn’t good. We need to go help them!”

“Agreed.”

And so we did. We trudged through the thick corrupted Aether toward the golden spot and soon found its source. Two people stood in the middle back to back, fighting off the corrupted tentacles of the local flora lashing at them from all sides. The man with a chiseled chin and short blond brown hair held a short glowing sword and shield, while the muscled woman with long blond hair swung her greatsword around, radiating a golden aura. Even through their dirty and exhausted faces, I could recognize my old companions.

“Devon! Ellen!” I called out to them.

Their gaze snapped to me as we barged onto the scene and did our best fighting off the corruption.

“Who are–”

“Oh shit! You’re Azure, aren’t you?!” Ellen interrupted Devon as soon as she saw snow moving around to defend them.

“That’s right,” I said with a fond grin.

“Azure?!” Devon’s eyes widened but he never stopped to look at me as he continued to deflect the assault.

The shouty reunion was cut short by a mutated boar with four times the amount of normal eyes bulldozing out of the forest and right in our direction.

None of us even hesitated as we fell back into old habits. I sent a wave of snow at its legs to hinder its movements, Ellen shot a golden beam of light right at its face, blinding it, and Devon immediately stood in front of it with his shield, making it ram head-first into it with a bonk.

I immediately grabbed the stunned animal with my snow and began applying purification magic but it was too slow. We were really missing our other mage in Trevor here.

Luckily, we had someone else to pick up the slack. Xeron made it to the restrained pig in a quick motion, connected to it with her own Aether, and then sucked out all the corruption in one fell swoop. As soon as the boar stopped struggling, I put it to sleep, just like with the rabbit.

It didn’t take long from there until we pushed back the corruption enough to take a breather.

“Phew! Finally some respite!” Ellen cheered as she wiped some sweat and dirt off her face before turning to me with a beaming grin. “Azure! My boy! It’s been so long! How are you even here, though? Did Trevor summon you without telling us again?”

“Ah, well, something like that. We–” I began to explain only to get cut off by Ellen again.

“Gah! I knew that old fart was doing something shifty again. Even after promising not to bother other worlds and saying it would be dangerous to summon you again…” Xeron then entered her field of vision. “Oh, and who’s the sexy lady? Your wife? I can’t believe it! My tiny cute awkward Azure has a wife now!”

“Ellen…” Devon groaned out with a sigh.

“What? Don’t tell me you’re not curious, you liar! I saw you looking at her with those lecherous eyes of yours!”

I couldn’t help but laugh at Ellen’s rapid-fire chatter. Exactly as loud and nosy as I remembered her.

“She’s not my wife. Let me introduce you.” I gave her a dry smile. “This is Xeron.”

The golden aura around Ellen suddenly exploded, as if her previous exhaustion was a lie. Both Devon and Ellen tensed up, the look in their eyes told me they were ready to fight to the death.

I couldn’t help but groan.

What was with this feeling of deja vu?