Free Web NovelChapter 255: Chapter 255 - Oh
Twelve.
Lena had known about them since she was twelve.
Why did that matter? The way Lumi thought of it, if the Auspicious Beasts were from Masteria, which they were, how could Lena possibly know about them?
The only answer he could possibly think of was that somehow, Masteria had been connected to earth much earlier than he thought. But still, he couldn’t resolve two issues in his mind. One, why the auspicious beasts? Two, why Lena?
Seeing him in confusion, Lena tilted her head. "You see the problem?"
Lumi immediately nodded. "Absolutely. Why do you know them?"
"H-" She was about to question him on the spot, but then realized that Lumi was almost perfect. Her job was to assist him, and that involved in going along with any performance he’d like to put on.
So how could she know if it was a performance or not?
She immediately sent him a message through the system. She often forgot it existed, mostly because it was annoying. "Do you actually mean that? Or what? I was more confused why they are here."
Lumi froze. He turned to the others. "One second."
The elder didn’t react. He was on no strict schedule. If they needed time to prepare, so be it.
As for the others, they were clearly confused, but didn’t say anything.
Lumi sent another message. "What do you mean?"
Lena: "They exist on Earth, you know? Like, for hundreds of years."
Lumi: "The beasts are on Earth!? How come nobody knows!?"
Lena: "Pookiebear... everyone knows. It’s just mythology. The four cardinal beasts? Azure Dragon, Vermillion Bird, White Tiger, Black Tortoise? It’s from China. I learned about it from reading fiction. There’s a whole zodiac wheel and everything, the four of them guard the directions. I’m surprised you don’t know it."
Lumi: "This. This has been a staple in mythology?"
Lena: "Yeah?"
Lumi stared at his own message for a moment after sending it, as if rereading it would change what she’d just told him.
What?
As soon as he got off Masteria today, he would immediately look it up. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe Lena, but it shook the foundation of what he knew.
Perhaps there was another explanation. Or perhaps something had changed? He wasn’t perfect, he knew that. It was difficult for him to process that he hadn’t known that. Not even slightly.
Lumi suddenly shook his head. It made no sense. If you thought about it, if this was common knowledge on Earth, then he should have learned about it from other players, or perhaps the forums themselves.
How come he had read countless forum pages and comments regarding these very same beasts and absolutely no one mentioned anything about their earthly mythological variants? Surely someone would, no? At least one?
That was why this entire thing made no sense to him. He felt sheer, unadulterated confusion.
He sensed the notification of another message, and he checked Lena’s follow up.
Lena: "You really didn’t know? You’re acting like I just told you water is wet."
Lumi: "There’s a few contradictions I’m having trouble with. I’ve never heard of this"
Lena: "Skill issue." ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com
...
Lena: "Sorry. But yeah, it’s like a thing. You good, pookie?"
Lumi went into thought.
If the four auspicious beasts were Earth mythology, then whether they were native to masteria was now entirely uncertain. Which meant the question wasn’t how Lena knew about them. The question was how Masteria had them in the first place.
Lumi: "So if they’re from Earth originally... do you know how?"
Lena: "That’s literally what I was asking you two minutes ago."
He exhaled slowly, glancing back out at the plain.
Masteria was its own world. A world the Dark One had reached into. Those were the absolute, undeniable facts. The connection between them was something the Dark One had engineered by spreading his influence to certain CEOs to get the game produced.
But if that were true, where had four beasts straight out of Chinese mythology come from? Coincidence felt like a very generous word for something this specific.
Either Masteria had borrowed from Earth somehow, long before any game existed. Or Earth had borrowed from Masteria, and the so-called mythology Lena grew up with wasn’t mythology at all, but distorted memory of something real that had reached Earth a very long time ago, dressed up over centuries as folklore because nobody alive still remembered the truth of it.
Lumi didn’t like either answer. Both of them broke what he knew.
Regardless, there was a time and place to be internally debating this, and that time wasn’t now. He turned to the others. "Everyone ready?"
He received nods all around. He turned to Elder Shen. "We are ready, Elder Shen."
"Very well then." The man nodded, and jumped back. He entirely disappeared from view, leaving the party along with their own thoughts.
Soon enough, the first sounds that weren’t their own breathing came to faintly echo.
Stomp... stomp... stomp.
A few figures materialized into view from each of the directions.
Starting off, from the east, the Azure Dragon uncoiled across the sky, long and blue-green, moving through the air as it pleased.
Lumi ran a quick scan on it. ƒrēewebnovel.com
[Azure Dragon Phantom: Level 64]
Its body trailed mist as it turned. Its golden eyes found the ground in the distance, and it stared into their souls. Its eyes flashed, and in an instant, clouds began to form, as a localized storm materialized before their very eyes around the beast.
Lucy couldn’t help but take a step forward. At some unknown period in time, six daggers had appeared between her fingers, gripping three in each hand. Several imperceptible strings were attached to each, leading to various unknown locations.
"Ho hoh. I like this one." She tilted her head up to match eyes with the Azure Dragon. The beast met her gaze, and it was certainly not amused. "ROAAAAR!" A roar most majestic shook the air, as the beast claimed its dominion.
Lucy grinned. "Every dragon... has a reverse scale, does it not?"
Suddenly, from behind them, the sun glowed harder, and a searing heat began to press down on the group. From the south, intense rays began to overflow, scorching the land. They turned to see that the Vermillion Bird descended.
It was a large, vast creature, built like a raptor scaled to the size of a building. Its plumage was deep red and burning orange. Though it was not fire, it was not distinguishable from it without close inspection.
It hit the ground at the edge of the plain, and spread its wings majestically. "SCREEEEE!" The sound radiated throughout the air, shaking the group.
"Ow!" Eden couldn’t help but yell out. His shoulder, which was already heavy from Sol being on it all the time, suddenly twisted in pain as Sol drug his claws in. "Dude!"
Sol was staring at the Vermillion Bird hard. "SCREEEEE!" It screeched back, imitating the Vermillion Bird’s own tone, screaming in an unnatural sound that bypassed the ears and went directly into the chest.
"Alright, buddy." Eden took a step forward. Sol spread its wings out, his own Phoenix fire burning bright, and took to the skies, hovering close around Eden. "We’re doing this."
"Hey..." Lily couldn’t help but comment as she noticed yet a third enemy beginning to appear. No, he was wrong. It was the very first to have appeared, yet it moved so casually, so slowly, that no one had noticed yet.
"A white tiger..."
From the west, the White Tiger came at a walk. It moved low and unhurried. It’s coat was white as bone, though with void black stripes. Each step pressed lightly into the grass.
When it sensed a gaze on it, it looked up. It matched gazes with Lily, and looked at Lily for a few moments, unhurried. Suddenly, in an instant, the wind picked up faster than even the Azure Dragons storms, and it disappeared. In a blur of light, it crossed hundreds of feet, closing a majority of the gap between itself and the group. It stopped at its edge of the plain and looked at them with its head lightly tilted up, looking down on the group.
"You..." Lily’s mind flickered. What the heck? They were supposed to beat that? The power differential between himself and the beast he had just witnessed was insane. Even attempting to engage in this fight went against every military doctrine he knew!
Already knowing that there was but one beast left, Lumi faced north. Sure enough, the Black Tortoise arrived last and slowest, enormous, its shell black with faint line patterns across it that resembled something between a map and a star chart. Coiled on its back was a serpent with dark scales, which lifted its head and tasted the air in their direction.
"Buff up." Lumi commanded, taking a potion out of his inventory.
[T4 Magician Potion - Master Craftmanship]
[Casting Speed +1]
[Magic Attack +30]
He drank it, and his teammates followed suit, getting themselves into their peak state.
