Chapter 15: Land Of The Developed

“Ugh, my head…” A blinding light burns into my eyes as I painstakingly try to recover from the dizziness caused by the storm from before. Being sucked into a whirling tornado is definitely a first for me, and I can say with confidence that I do not want to experience that ever again.

Although, around my body right now is definitely not the wet feeling of water or the coldness of the freezing wind…

As my vision finally comes back to me, the first things that my eyes can see are endless sand dunes, stretching way beyond the horizon. Sand everywhere I see, as well as this almost unnatural heat… a beach would be a fair conclusion, but then the absence of water is sure to raise some eyebrows. As much as I don’t want to believe it, but somehow, we’re in a middle of a desert.

“Hgnn…” Bea’s weak growl brings me back to the situation at hand. Rushing to her side and carefully lifting her up, I ask:

“Are you okay?”

“… I’ve seen better…” Her almost fading voice proves to be anything but what she says. “… how about you? ...”

As I’m holding her around my arms, I can immediately tell that her body’s heating up. Her condition is not good at all. “We need something cool, fast.” I hastily say, but I can’t just leave her on the hot sand to search for our supplies scattering around.

“It’s makeshift, but a dome for cooling off would work.” Just when I’m starting to panic, the voice I’ve been dying to hear ever since I woke up sounds once more.

“Yeah, a dome! That’s right!” Not even thinking of thanking Balam for his advice, I attempt to draw out Excalibur. However, that proves to be more of a challenge than I thought, as my body instantly crackles in pain as soon as the blade appears in my hand.

“Hrkk! What’s wrong with me?” I cry out in pain, but still keeping my volume to a minimum. The last thing I want to do is to worry Bea in this kind of situation.

“Your body is in tatters from that storm, so Excalibur is using most of its energy to heal you first.” Balam lets out a sigh. “Don’t rush it, my King. Just plant it into the ground and slowly release its magic.”

“… Okay.” I follow his advice and plant Excalibur into the ground, closing my eyes and relaxing my muscles in the process. This time, I can hear the rustling and rummaging coming from the shifting sands, and soon, the area around me grows darker, and the heat doesn’t feel as unbearable anymore.

Opening my eyes to see a rather small, but barely enough for two people, dome around me, I let out a sigh of relief:

“Ah, thank goodness it worked. Now, to look around…” 

“Don’t… you’re still recovering… right?” Bea, who seems to have heard my cry earlier, struggles to finish her question. However, looking at the sorry state she’s in right now only fuels my determination even more, as I head outside once again, drawing out my blade:

“We need to get out of here, fast. With what little food and drink we have left, it’s only a matter of time before we lose our lives.”

“The only problem, though, is I have no idea where this place is.” I let out a sigh and mumble to myself. In the few lessons I paid attention to, I saw no land near us that had this much sand and this little water, not even the most overused soil. From France, where could we have gone to… certainly not England, we don’t have this kind of large desert. Spain, maybe? Could be, that place is in ruins now…

A thundering sound interrupts my train of thought. In this clear sky and bright sunlight, the presence of a thundercloud sticks out like a sore thumb, even if it looks to be quite far to the east. And if that’s not enough of a scene, flashes of lightning occasionally strike from within the clouds, signaling a powerful storm brewing. Although… however tempting an approaching storm to cool us off of this scorching weather may sound, I haven’t been taken out by the heat enough to not notice the fact that a storm in the middle of a desert is pretty much an impossible thing to happen. I turn back and point out towards the direction of the storm, signaling the one behind me:

“Hey… I’m not hallucinating, right, Bea?”

“That’s… I see it too.” She quickly gives out a nod to confirm, her face as shocked as mine just a second ago. “But…”

“I have no idea how or why it happened,” I shake my head. “But right now, we have two options: either wait here for the zero chance of getting aid, or go there and find out just what is causing that storm, and maybe if we’re lucky, it will help us. Unfortunately, I think we both know which is the better option.”

“… I agree,” Bea nods in answer. “But it’s going to be alright. I’m sure of it.”

“We can only hope.” Letting out a worrying sigh, we both head out. However, just as we set off, my partner once again sounds from within me:

“Hold on, my King.”

“What’s wrong?” I ask. It’s the first time I see Balam pausing like this.

“Bael.” Balam sounds, unsure if happy or worry. “I just sensed him.”

“Bael?” Recalling the contents in the diary, I exclaimed. “Another one of us?”

“Yes. And by the look on your face, you must have seen his power in work just now.”

“You mean that big thundercloud?” I ask, unconsciously tensing up my body in both anxiety and excitement. If they are willing, as well as able, to help us, they will make a powerful ally. However, this flashy show of strength is not reassuring, to say the least. Why are they activating their power? Is it like Petra’s first showing, when it manifests itself randomly and automatically? Or are they fighting someone else that forces their hands? If the latter is the case, then are they in the kind of situation to help us? And even if they’re capable of lending us their aid, will they happily accept our plea, or will they be like Petra when we first met her and turn into another foe for us to escape from?

As I’m still deep in my own thoughts, Balam has already given his answer:

“Yes, but I wouldn’t count on him too much if I were you.”

“How so?” I ask once more, curious to how the usual relaxing and whimsical sounding Balam can be so careful and worry.

“Let’s say our history… isn’t too pretty. He can be strong, sure, but he’s quick on his temper, and… no, never mind. Still, most likely his vessels are like him, so it doesn’t hurt to be careful too much.”

“I’ll keep it in mind. But for now, whoever’s with Bael is our only hope right now.” I make a firm nod, almost as if I’m convincing myself, but the dreaded anxiety in my gut still isn’t going anywhere.

“Let’s go.” I signal towards Bea, and we head towards our light at the end of the tunnel. However, like the imaginary oasis travelers never actually get to touch, our little trip also proves to be much more difficult than we expected. As we keep walking in the desert, our feet become blistered and numbed, our bodies heating up, and our heads dazed. With the scorching sun beating on our heads, our sense of time has long been dulled. How long has it been since we started walking? Minutes? Hours? I don’t know anymore. It’s hard enough to keep ourselves conscious, even with us stopped talking to each other to preserve our strength and avoid dehydration. It’s like more and more chains are being strapped onto our bodies with each step we make, while our skins get more and more similar to the barren ground we’re treading on.

A large “thud” sound interrupts my thoughts. Don’t tell me…

“Bea! Bea, hang in there!” Rushing towards the now unconscious girl, I frantically try to wake her up, but no matter how much I call or shake her body, her eyes still wouldn’t open. I pour out what little remaining of our water onto her face, only to be met with disappointment. Our food has run out already, and now water is also no more. And to make it worse, I still can’t see our destination anywhere near where we are. For now, we can only buy some time by making another earth dome as the shelter.

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However, it seems like today is not my lucky day. As I unsheathe my sword, a fluttering of feathers suddenly falls from the sky. But its gentle embrace on our weakened bodies can only be described as the worst of the worst situation, for I know all too well what those white feathers mean, especially in an environment like this.

To my expectation, a group of five angels emerges from the sky. The four in the corners of the formation all have a stoic, almost emotionless look on their faces like all other lackey angels I’ve met. The one in the middle, meanwhile, stands out much more. His long auburn hair gleams even brighter in the sun, while his white, almost pale complexion is an unusual case for someone supposedly stationed in this desert land. What catches my eyes the most, however, is a seemingly too large of a leather bag he’s wearing around his shoulder. Before I can ward him off, he has already spoken first:

“It’s not every day do I get to see people stranded in a desert like this. Can I help you?”

It seems like he doesn’t recognize who I or Bea am. If we play our cards correctly, we can use them to our advantage. But I have to be careful: if we get taken to his base, even if it’s in goodwill at first, there’s no hope for us.

“We’re… tourists,” I answer, trying to sound as natural as possible. “We had a shipwreck a few days ago. I don’t know what happened to the other passengers, but the next thing we know, we’re stranded here, and now my mistress has collapsed. Please, sir, can you help us?”

“Sure thing, dude.” Contrary to his appearance, the angel is surprisingly lax, to the point of not even questioning us any further. “Men, prepare a stretcher for the girl. We’ll take the two of them to my city.” He signals the angels around him, and the four, with each taking off a piece of their robe and tying it to their spears, quickly finishes a temporary stretcher for the unconscious princess.

With Bea safe, for the time being, I’m free to walk alongside the angels, while the presumed leader flies just slightly above the ground. Opening his bag, the angel opens his bag and gives me a full pouch of food and water, enough for us to survive at least a week.

“Drink up, dude.” He says. However, even though the prospect of food and water is very tempting at the moment, his words from before strike more of an interest to me.

“Thank you, sir. But, earlier, you said… your city? Are you perhaps…”

“An Archangel, yes.” The man nods, patting me on the back once again. “But stop the formal language, dude! We’re pals here!”

“Uh… thank you…”

“Gabriel. That’s my name.” The angel, now Gabriel, says. “Now, tell me about yourselves. Who are you, and what are you doing stranded here in the middle of the Sahara?”

The angel’s words are like a bomb exploding in my head. The Sahara? I remember having read about it from one of Bea’s books when we were still at school. The largest desert in the world, completely devoid of any life… But most importantly, it’s in the continent of Africa, to the south of us, and our ship surely was making its way to England – up north. How did we get from there to here, then? Was it truly a natural disaster, or maybe… divine intervention? For now, let’s just say what we know. It’s still technically the truth, so the angel shouldn’t question us too much.

“I am… Arthur. Arthur Gold, acting as a butler to my mistress, Beatrice Bakere.” I say a random fake name, remembering Balam’s words from before. If Peter really is a name to be recognized as a threat to God, then I’d be safer hiding my real name from now on.

“As for how we ended up here, … I haven’t a clue.” I shake my head, scratching my head to fake a confused expression. “We were on a cruise ship traveling back to our home, but then suddenly, there was a tornado that lifted us in the air, and the next thing we know, we’re already here. I never thought oceanic storms could be that powerful.”

It’s a hard story to believe, but unfortunately, it’s truly what had happened. The angel seems to also think the same way, as he pats me on the shoulder and laughs out loud:

“A shipwreck, you say? Dude, if that was some lame excuse that you thought of to trick me, then boy you’re a terrible liar! Just for that, I can tell that your story must have been true, no matter how ridiculous it might sound!”

“I wouldn’t believe myself if I didn’t experience that.” I let out a sigh, trying my best to imitate Pedro from my memories. “I’m mostly fine, but Lady Beatrice is unfortunately frail, so she passed out while we’re trying to look for help. Had we not met you, Lord Gabriel, we…”

“Hey. I said cut the formal language, dude.” The angel shows visible discomfort for the first time in our conversation. “I’ll get really angry if you don’t, and you wouldn’t like me when I get really angry.”

“Uh, sorry… Gabriel.” I answer, nervous and confused. That wasn’t just him showing off some weird attitude, that was truly him being annoyed at the fact. This Archangel… there’s something wrong with him. Contrary to what his buffoonery might show at first, he’s a dangerous one.

“So, this… city of yours, Gabriel, is it far from here?”

“No worries, dude. We’re already here.” The angel lets out a mysterious smile, as our group stops in the middle of the desert, surrounded by dunes of sand.

“Uh… there’s nothing here.” I shrug at the claim.

“That’s what you think.” With a wave of his hand, a small sandstorm suddenly arises. It’s not enough to engulf everyone in, but it’s still annoyingly difficult for the eyes. As the dust settles, a strange, large circle with markings I cannot comprehend appears on the ground before my eyes. And to make matters even stranger, as the four angels carrying Bea step into the circle, a large blue pillar of light erupts towards the sky, and in only a second, all of them disappear without a trace.

“What did you do?” I shout in anger, almost grabbing Gabriel by the collar, but managing to hold back just in time.

“Easy, dude. Step inside and you’ll see.” With a mysterious smile, the angel urges me to go inside the circle, himself doing the same as well.

The same blue light embraces us, and a white flash blinds my eyes.

 

As my vision returns, what appears before me is a scene I could only imagine in my wildest dreams.  Towers erecting from the ground, each almost feels like it’s touching the sky itself. The streets are bustling with people, each wearing such luxurious outfits and jewelry that one could easily mistake them for kings and queens of foreign lands, from silver hats, gold-plated tops to diamond rings and platinum legwear. And the sunlight just makes everything so much brighter, making me feel like I could truly go blind if I looked any longer. Meanwhile, with his arm around my shoulder, Gabriel starts pointing at the spectacle he calls his city:

“Bet you didn’t get to see skyscrapers like these every day, dude! And look at the streets! More exciting than your crappy old English town, huh?”

“Well… wait a minute.” His words were fast, but not unnoticeable. Did I mention to him the fact that I was an Englishman? … No, I’m sure I didn’t. But if I didn’t, then… how did he know? Does he know my identity? Should I just attack? … No, Bea still needs treatment. I need to play my cards correctly. Don’t lose your cool just yet, Peter. The last thing you want right now is more enemies that you have to deal with.

“Well… yes, this certainly is impressive.” I try to let out a smile”. “But… have I mentioned that I was an Englishman before?”

“… Bwahaha!” The angel hesitates for a brief moment, then answers with a laugh. “Your manners, your accent… they all show English heritage, Artie. It seems like you have a lot more learning to do if you can’t even distinguish that as a butler.”

“I… see.” His answer makes sense, but I can’t shake off the feeling that it’s not how he could tell. However, I can’t seem to find out another reason, and questioning him further will only lead to him doubting more, so it’s best to just accept it for what it is for the moment. “But I digress. We need to find somewhere to treat my Lady right away.”

“Already on it, dude.” Gabriel lets out a confident grin and makes a thumbs-up while pointing towards the group of escorting angels already leaving the scene. “My men are taking her to the nearest hospital. But since she’s most likely suffering from heatstroke and dehydration, she should be fine after a day’s rest.”

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