Fallen Fate Online



"I found it..." Anet muttered, looking at the red dot in the midst of the massive magic circle.

"Hmm?" Erel raised an eyebrow, and then his face changed, "Great! I'll report to Order right away and in a few hours Zayne will be home! Where is he?"

Erel walked over to Anet to get a closer look at the magic circle, but he had a hard time understanding anything about the system Anet had built for herself. To Erel it was confusing, but to Anet it was obvious.

"Well... Looks like Zayne's chances of survival are even less than we thought..." Anet said with a slightly shaky voice, "He's in the Dark Mist Forest, in the northern part of it..."

Erel's eyes went wide. He knew the main regions of the Dark Lands well, and Dark Mist Forest is in one of the most dangerous and most importantly the farthest of them.

"Shit... Even if a group of the Fate Knights led by Crusader set out to rescue him right now, it would take them hours just to reach Dark Mist Forest!" Erel clenched his fists, "And that's assuming they have no problems and use the portals!"

Anet nodded, "Yeah, but we don't have any other option anyway. By the way, if you can talk the Fate Knights out of Border, we can save Zayne a lot faster."

"Sure. I'll contact them right away." Erel said sternly, walking out of the room.

Anet took a deep breath and turned to the other Oracles. They were below her rank and were handling the auxiliary parts while Anet did the main work. However, they could barely stand on their feet, completely exhausted.

"Hey, you're free to go. We've already done the main work, I can maintain the tracking myself." Anet waved her hand, "You should go and rest, it won't be good if you die of fatigue."

Three of the four Oracles nodded silently and headed for the walls of the room. Their targets were couches, chairs, armchairs, or empty corners, any place they could sit down and take a nap.

"You're not going to leave?" Anet glanced at the girl with short red hair, there were dark circles under her eyes, and her skin was pale due to exhaustion.

The girl shook her head, "No... I'll follow the others now, I was just wondering... How do you do it? You've done more than the four of us, with you initially being tired and us being full of energy!"

These four Oracles to help Anet, were sent by Order. They were closest and were engaged in their tasks as Oracles. A few hours ago, they had enough energy to run a marathon, but now, they were struggling to move.

However, Anet, who had wanted to sleep badly from the start, had done most of the work and the hardest part, yet she still had the energy to continue.

Anet smirked, "Hah, you lack three things. One is experience, two is energy and three is any kind of dope. Coffee is ideal, but sometimes you have to use something more powerful and not exactly legal."

"But..." The girl muttered uncertainly, "The academy said that overloading your body can have a negative effect on us!"

"Well, that's obvious. Do they have any other choice? They're bound to say that, since you come to these methods with experience and because of emergencies like this." Anet shrugged, "Just remember my words, but don't forget that experience and energy are more important."

Step. Step. Step.

A tall silhouette with short black hair and glasses entered the room. He was one of the few people who were still awake in the entire academy.

"Hey girls, looks like I got here just in time, didn't I?" Reeves smiled, carrying a tray with several cups of freshly made coffee.

He placed it on the tray, took two cups, and headed towards Anet and the girl.

"Here." Reeves handed the cup to the girl.

"Thank you... I didn't expect this..." The girl was confused, clutching her cold palms around the hot cup while the powerful smell of coffee spread around.

The girl took a sip and closed her eyes in pleasure.

"How did you know I like sweet...?" The girl asked, slightly puzzled. Normally coffee was supposed to be bitter, but with its powerful flavor and aroma, the sugar simply overshadowed the main features of this drink.

Reeves smirked, "Well, you're still a kid, obviously you're not ready to understand the beauty of bitter flavor yet."

"Hey! I'm actually in my twenties!" The girl exclaimed as she puffed up her cheeks. Most Oracles by that age had already graduated from the Academy and completed several important tasks at their stations.

Reeves didn't answer anything, he just handed the cup of bitter coffee to Anet, while a sly grin remained on his face.

"What's more! You don't look much older than me! We're definitely almost the same age!" The girl said confidently.

Reeves and Anet glanced over with bitter smiles.

"He may look young, but he's not at all." Anet said calmly, "If you found out how old he really is, you'd be surprised. However, there's no way he'd answer that."

The girl gave a questioning look to Reeves, but, he just shook his head, showing that she had no chance of finding out.

Reeves looked to be twenty-five, maybe thirty years old, at least that's what the girl thought. In fact, the figure could have been much higher. He was an alchemist and had his own ways of dealing with aging. 

"Reeves, how about a little extra, for me personally?" Anet glanced at him.

"Sure." Reeves nodded as his ring shone brightly. A flask of blue, clear liquid appeared in his hand. With a smooth motion, he poured it into Anet's cup.

Shiny particles appeared among the dark coffee for a while, then they disappeared, dissolving completely into it.

"What is it?" The girl asked with a curious look.

Tap.

Reeves patted her head, "It's too early for you to know about this. You don't need it, at least not right now."

The girl didn't answer anything, she understood what the supplement was about, so she just continued to drink her coffee, watching Anet.

At the same moment, Erel was negotiating with Fate Knight from the Border. Their job was to guard important points to keep the Dark Lands from spreading into the Empire. They were the first line of defense and always acted in emergencies.

After a while, Erel put aside the white crystal and nodded deeply.

'Fine, it's good that his squad agreed to do this. Zayne is lucky, there's low activity in the Dark Lands today, they'll be able to get to him quickly.'' Erel muttered inwardly, looking up at the bright blue moon.

Erel sighed, 'Well, hopefully nothing bad will happen to him in these few hours. Losing him would be a real setback. Considering how many times Fate has turned its attention to him, he'd make an excellent Fate Knight."

...

"Zayne!" Toruf exclaimed, getting up from the ground and quickly approaching Zayne. There was no way he could help him since Toruf didn't have any healing skills.

"Shit! I knew this would end badly!" Toruf frowned, while his eyes moved from side to side. He tried to think of a plan, he couldn't leave Zayne to continue lying on the ground.

Zayne lay on the ground while blood flowed from his many wounds. What he had done was far beyond the capabilities of his body.

He was able to gain the strength to lift a heavy creature like Toruf, but one second of such strength made his body go out of bounds.

These were not fatal wounds as his organs were not damaged, however, unless someone gave Zayne first aid, he would definitely die. His bleeding was heavy and his muscles were badly damaged.

For Toruf, this task was more difficult than getting Zayne into Empire territory. Finding an honest doctor in Dark Mist Forest was an almost impossible task on such short notice.

"Well, well, looks like someone needs help." From the forest, came a quiet voice.

Toruf looked around as he saw a silhouette slowly emerge from behind the trees.

It was a man with shoulder-length crimson hair and amber eyes. He was wearing a simple black leather jacket and spacious pants. Around his neck was a silver chain and in his hand, a half-eaten red apple.

"Who are you!" Toruf was wary, stepping in front of Zayne. He was going to protect him, no matter what it cost him.

"Oh, a talking beast. Even in places like this, it's rare. My name is Edvin Nystuen and you shouldn't be so uptight." Edvin said calmly before taking a bite out of the apple slice.

'Damn... This guy is clearly not Zayne's friend. He gives off such a creepy aura... I have to get rid of him while I can!" Toruf pondered before tearing forward.

This lunge was even faster and stronger than the one he used against Zayne.

Edvin nodded slightly as if he understood why Toruf was doing this.

Then, Edvin took a step forward, passing through Toruf's long horns and ending up right in front of his face.

Edvin's palm came down on Toruf's broad chest, sending powerful pulses through his body. Several shockwaves spread around, kicking up dust and small stones from the ground, then the impact threw Toruf back several meters.