Dauntless
It took me a few seconds to fully grasp my surroundings.
I hadn’t been knocked unconscious, I’d just been dragged through some kind of portal, and then the guy who’d done it had backed away from me. He had slunk away from me, and towards the large throne that looked to be made up mostly of gold.
I did mean slunk, by the way, the guy was slimy, and I was pretty sure he’d grabbed me with actual tentacles.
‘Any idea where we are?’ I asked Geulimja. It took him an uncomfortable few seconds to respond.
‘Yes.’ He replied, and if I didn’t know any better, I’d have probably thought he actually sounded scared.
‘So, where are we?’
‘My home dimension. This is… this is bad.’ he explained. I grunted, trying to push myself to my feet, although I quickly realized I couldn’t actually move. I was just stuck in an awkward, kneeling position.
“Don’t bother. Beezel’s tentacles secrete a paralytic. You won’t be moving for a little while, or unless he allows you to.” The man who sat on the gold throne explained, sounding rather casual. Even his posture was rather lax. He held some sort of sceptre in his left hand, but he was leaning back in his seat, and totally manspreading. His clothes were white and gold, and they were long and loose. His hair wasn’t visible, due to a weird, tall head garment he was wearing, but he was white skinned, with dull green eyes. There was also a woman practically sitting on his lap, and his right hand was around her back. She also wore white and gold, although her clothes were noticeably much tighter, probably intentionally. She looked east asian, and her eyes were sharp and dark brown. When I glanced at her, she sneered at me. He looked young, in fact, both him and the woman did. They couldn’t have been any older than eighteen, maybe nineteen. I was able to frown, which meant I could move my mouth. That was likely intentional by the guy who’d done this to me. Beezel, or whatever.
“Who are you?” I asked. The woman frowned, and an older looking east asian man with a neatly trimmed goatee, who stood to the right of the throne, gasped. A hooded figure, with tentacles for feet, the one who’d brought me here, stood to the left, and he seemed to go still. The man in the throne simply sighed, sitting up a little bit.
“I’m the Light King, you dumb fuck. Do you actually expect me to believe you don’t know that?” He asked, although his words were angry, he didn’t actually seem all that angry himself.
‘Don’t get smart with this one, Jared. He’s problematic.’ Geulimja told me. I sort of wanted to get smart, because this guy was a bit of a dick, but I also knew when to watch my words, and Geulimja wouldn’t have told me to shut up for no reason.
“Listen, I honestly don’t know who you are, or why you’d pull me through some portal and bring me to… wherever we are.” I said, before questioning Geulimja in my mind.
‘We need to talk. What do you mean this is your home dimension? Does that mean those other demons are here too?’ I questioned, earning me a simple grunt from Geulimja.
‘Yes. You’re looking at someone who’s been inhabited by one. Seems like they have a rather solid working relationship. If I’m not off the mark, he’s being inhabited by my brother…’
‘Well that’s good! Then he’ll probably let me go once he knows you’re inhabiting me!’
‘NO! I hate my brother. Don’t mention me, if you can avoid it.’ Geulimja explained, before the so-called Light King spoke again.
“This is the Kingdom of Light. Isn’t it obvious? I guess you really are from another dimension, huh?”
“You pulled me through, I’d expect you to know that.” I grumbled, to which the Light King just sighed.
“Oh wow. You’re kind of a smartass, huh?” He questioned, to which I just grinned.
“Allow me to discipline him, dear.” The woman on his lap said, but he shook his head.
“No no, it’s alright. A good king’s gotta be patient or whatever. Listen, fuckface, we pulled you through to do a job for us. So you’re gonna do it, or you’re gonna die.” The King explained, a smug grin on his face.
“Are you gonna let me go?” I asked, to which he just shrugged.
“Sure, once you agree to do the job I have for you.”
“Okay, what’s the job?” I asked. At that, the woman on his lap turned her full attention to me, frowning.
“I need you to kill my fool of a little sister.” She explained, clearly angry. For whatever reason, the mere mention of her sister had angered her, even though she’d been the one to bring her up. Now, to be totally honest, I wasn’t the type to just go around killing people. This wasn’t the sort of thing I was interested in, but these guys didn’t know that, because they knew absolutely nothing about me.
“Well, alright, if that’s the only way to get out of this weird trapped state you’ve got me in.” I grumbled, trying to make it clear I was reluctant through my tone, while also still agreeing to do the job. The woman sighed, leaning into the Light King’s embrace.
“I mean really, you should be more happy about this, you know. It’s not like I’m sending you to kill some poor, innocent girl. My sister is a monster. Millions will flourish with her death.” The woman, who’s name I still didn’t know, told me. The Light King nodded at this explanation.
“That’s right, listen you little shit, my girl here wouldn’t just sit around and lie about some shit like that, alright, so don’t worry. No idea who you are, but I asked the sorcerer to pull in a hero. Y’know why? ‘Cause I need somebody who can take care of threats to the land. Can’t be me, because I can’t leave this place undefended. You get me, right? So it’s up to you, got it?” The King asked. I really didn’t like this guy, and I wasn’t all that interested in killing anybody, but if this person really was such a major threat, perhaps it could be excused. Although, these people had snatched me from my home without consent. It was clear that they were the type to just do whatever they felt like doing. They could easily be lying about this woman’s nature.
“Alright, cool, I’m in. Can you get this paralysis off of me?” I asked. The King nodded at the hooded figure to his left, and suddenly, I could move again. I wasn’t stupid enough to try to attack the King. I was outnumbered, and even if I wasn’t, Geulimja had warned me that this guy was dangerous, and with little to no combat experience, I figured the best idea was just for me to go along with his plan for now, to give me enough time to figure out a way out of my current situation. Once I stood up, the king nodded, and a satchel appeared at my feet, with a wave of the man to his right’s hand.
“Take that with you. It has a dagger in it, which you can use for well… whatever you need. There’s also a map, which actively tracks the bitch we’re sending you to kill. There’s a picture of her, so you know who you’re looking for. The satchel also contains a tent, and food and water, both of which replenish themselves. Oh, I guess you’re not from this world, that’s right. The satchel is much bigger on the interior than it appears on the exterior, so don’t worry about carrying things.” The King explained, while I opened the satchel. Indeed, when I opened it, it seemed like there was an endless expanse within it, and things were placed inside, on what looked like shelves.
“I don’t believe giving him a weapon is wise, dear.” The woman said, but the King waved his hand in dismissal.
“Oh don’t worry your pretty little head about it. There’s nothing he can do to harm us, weapon or not.” He said, before turning to me.
“Well? What are you still doing here? Chop chop! You haven’t got all day, you know. Best to set out now, perhaps find a good spot to set up camp for the night. The journey is already a few days, and that bitch is always on the move.” The King explained, and so, without much else in terms of options, I listened. I made a hasty exit out of what I quickly realized to be a castle. I did take note of the large city that seemed to surround the place on all sides, but I didn’t waste time staring at it. The castle itself was pretty simple, with the large main castle building, and multiple towers around it. The castle had a moat around it, and a drawbridge of all things to cross the moat. Very medieval feeling.
The King had ordered a few of his guards to lead me to a secret passage. Apparently, he didn’t want his citizens seeing me, for whatever reason. So, they took me into one of the castle towers, where I then had to go down multiple flights of stairs, before making my exit. I had to walk through a tunnel, dimly lit only by torches, and when I got to the other side, I was in a forest, with incredibly tall redwood trees all around me.
‘Alright, buddy, you in there?’
‘I’m always here, and don’t call me buddy.’ Geulimja growled irritably.
‘Okay, jeez. Anyway, can you contact the X-Men?’
‘I would’ve done that if I could, although I’m not sure why you’d think I could.’
‘Well, you said this dimension or whatever is your home, right? Clearly, you got from this dimension to mine somehow, so I thought maybe you’d be able to communicate with them.’ I explained, taking stock of my surroundings again. There were the trees of course, but there wasn’t much in terms of animal noises. I couldn’t actually see any animals around, for that matter. There was plenty of undergrowth, though. Shrubbery and various small plants littered around the forest floor.
‘That was different. Myself and my fellow demons, gods, whatever term you prefer, have to be summoned to your world. Usually, at least. That being said, my being in your dimension may have torn the gates open. Like the witch said when she confronted you at the base, it’s likely the others will start spilling through and taking hosts of their own soon enough.’ Geulimja explained, his irritability seemingly starting to fade away slowly.
‘Okay, so does that mean someone summoned you to our dimension? How come you’re sealed up inside me?’
‘Like I said before, I can’t remember exactly. I just know it’s for both of our safety.’
‘Well, that’s helpful.’ I grumbled back to him, as I stopped near a tree to pull things out of the satchel. I needed to get a look at the face of the woman who I was supposed to be hunting, first things first. Then, I needed to use the map to find her, slowly but surely, most likely.
‘Don’t get snippy with me, boy!’
‘Oh whatever. Listen, man, I need you to tell me anything that might be helpful about this place. Not only this dimension, but this damn forest, and that Light King psycho we just ran into.” I said, squatting down and then shuffling around in the deceptively sized satchel to find the things I needed. Geulimja simply scoffed at my request.
‘What, do you think I’ve been in every forest in this dimension? How foolish.’ He grumbled, sounding frustrated. I grunted aloud, pulling out what I was pretty sure was the picture of the woman I needed to hunt. They hadn’t even given me the woman’s name, but she looked to be close in age to me. Also, the picture was, rather importantly, surrounded by the word ‘WANTED’ in large bold letters, as well as a price of ten billion in whatever the native currency was. Just above the price was a name, ‘Seo-yun’. The girl was… pretty. She looked fairly similar to the girl who’d been in the throne room, which made sense considering they were supposedly siblings. In the photo, she was frowning, and there was a bloody gash on her right cheek, dripping blood downwards, off her face. She looked worn out, but her eyes were bright, perhaps in protest or revolution. There was a hardness to them, as well as her posture, from what I could see, but it wasn’t sharp like the previous woman. It just gave the impression that she’d been through a lot, and lived to tell the tail.
‘Stop ogling.’ Geulimja snapped, prompting me to stumble backwards from my squatted position, almost falling on my ass before catching myself.
‘I wasn’t, dick!’ I grumbled back at him, placing the wanted poster back into the satchel. Now, I had an idea of who I was looking for, but not where to look. Thankfully, the map would fix that. I pulled it out, and was surprised to see that the red dot that represented my target wasn’t all that far away from me. I might actually be able to reach her within the day, if she didn’t move too far away from me, and I kept a good pace.
‘So, what’s the plan when you run into her?’
‘I dunno, talk to her, convince her that I want to help her, I guess.’
‘You expect her to believe you? This young woman has clearly been through a lot in her short life. She’ll see someone coming at her, sent by the King, who seems to have caused many issues for her, and see an enemy. Why would she believe you’re willing to turn against the king?” Geulimja questioned, as I started moving, following the map as best as I could.
‘I’m not really sure, guess I’ll have to come up with something good. Anyways, what’s the deal with that Light King guy? You said he was being inhabited by your brother?’ I asked idly as I walked, making sure to watch my steps. This was completely unfamiliar territory, afterall.
‘From what I can tell, yes. In this dimension, everyone looks like that Seo-yun girl or the rude lady in the throne room.’
‘So, what, east asian?’
‘Sure, if that makes it easier for you.’
‘That Light King dude was very much not asian.’
‘Yes, exactly.’
‘So that makes you think he’s possessed?’
‘Yes, but also it makes me think he, like you, is not of this dimension.’ Geulimja replied, a conclusion that I’d been coming to as well.
‘So what, you think your brother’s made his way to my dimension as well?’
‘Yes, well, he was always very interested in it. It wouldn’t surprise me. He likely picked out a host, a young one in good condition, so it’d last a while, then used that to come back here and fully conquer. I’d imagine he’s just building a force to make it easier to take over your world.’
‘He couldn’t do it on his own? I thought you demon guys were real tough.’
‘Sure, but with all the super do-gooders in your world, it’d be quite difficult to conquer on his own.’ Geulimja explained, as I took a hard right turn, maneuvering around a clump of bushes and continuing my trek.
‘I guess that’s a good point. So, your thing is shadows, what’s his?’
‘Light. He typically does blasts, but he can also make constructs, swords, shields, that sort of thing. He can also teleport, but his is much more like a flash, in comparison to mine, which is like crawling out of the floor. He is powerful, and not a foe to be taken lightly.’
‘Is he stronger than you?’
‘Both of us at our full strength, I’m not sure. We’ve fought many times, but it’s not like one of us has a clear advantage. As of right now, though, the state you’re in, you don’t have access to my full power yet. Blasts, teleporting, the shadow spikes, turning off all light in an area. You haven’t learned all of my abilities quite yet. I don’t know how much his host has learned, so I can’t say for sure whether you’ll be able to beat him. Even then, there’s something to be said for the individual talents of the hosts.’ Geulimja explained, giving me more detail than he really ever had on his abilities. So there was a lot more to his power? How and when would I learn it? I was curious, but I wasn’t sure this was the time to ask. There was a pause, neither of us speaking for a few moments while I thought.
‘You’re taking all of this quite well, being in another dimension and all.’
‘Well, maybe it hasn’t hit me yet. I dunno. If I take some time to stop and take a breather, I might panic, so I’m trying to avoid that. I’ve been focused on one thing at a time, first on getting out of that throneroom, and now on finding this lady and seeing how I can help her.’
‘I’m sure your X-Men would be impressed with your heroic efforts.’
‘That’d be nice, wouldn’t it?’ I asked, half to myself. There was another pause, but this time, I was the one to break the silence.
‘So, you said you hated your brother, right? Why’s that?’ I asked. Geulimja was silent for a few seconds, a few seconds that felt much longer than a few seconds.
‘Well, you know how the witch mentioned there being twenty five of us demons?’
‘Sure.’
‘Well, like I’ve told you, some consider us to be gods. In this dimension, we are worshipped as gods. Each of us are mainly worshipped by one civilization. Some are smaller, like the insect clan, and some are quite large, like the light kingdom. The ones who worshipped me, they were… they were wonderful. Although I am the demon of darkness and shadow, my people were full of light and life. In the city there must have been at least a million of them. Perhaps more. This was not appreciated by some of the other groups. They viewed me as a threat. Primarily, Mul, the goddess of the water kingdom, and Jigu, the god of the earth kingdom, along with my very own brother, Bich, god of light.’ Geulimja stopped for a moment, clearly trying to maintain his composure. I felt bad now. I hadn’t realized this was going to be so difficult for him.
‘I was supposed to be a smaller god, they all feared me, shunned me because of my specific powers. I suppose I’m not unlike you mutants in that respect, perhaps that’s why I tolerate you all. Anyways, they feared the growth of my power and following, and so, they put a stop to it. It was a three pronged attack, you see. Mul’s forces approached from the sea, riding a massive wave. It wiped out the coast, killing hundreds of thousands. Then, Jigu’s forces arrived, the ground in the centre of the city opening up to allow them through. This caused major tremors, the ground opened up and swallowed my people whole, you see.’ He paused again, and I knew this is where it was coming. The big gut punch, the reason he hated his brother so much.
‘Even then, that had only decimated about half of the population. They could still rebuild, and I had allies. Fellow gods who were disgusted by what they’d seen. Bul of the fire, Eol-eum of the ice, Geumsog of the metal, Namu of the nature, and my… friend, Haneul of the air. I believed, foolishly, that with all these allies, I could take down these two gods who’d been foolish enough to attack my beloved people.’ He snarled those last few words, then continued on.
‘Thankfully, I had my brother. I did not know, at the time, that he was aligned with those two. His kingdom was larger than mine, in fact, it was the largest, and likely still is. He gladly agreed to send some of his forces to my city, to help fortify. The elected leaders had decided to move anyone they could to the centre of the city, so everyone could be better looked after and taken care of. His forces arrived a week after the attack. They waited for two days before they revealed their true intention. They split off, moving to the places all the civilians had been organized, and massacred anyone they could find. Then, they had their fliers fly over the city and drop light bombs. Not even just the centre of the city, but all of it, to ensure any stragglers would be killed as well. There were no survivors. I went to confront my brother. Haneul urged me not to, said to wait, she could help, but I was so… so angry. Why hadn’t she helped my people, I’d thought. So I went, I confronted him, we battled, both of us were on the verge of death, and after that, I remember nothing until a brief memory of being placed in your body, then nothing until you woke me up.’ He finally finished his story, and frankly, I was speechless. I’d decided on one thing, though.
“Well, I’m definitely kicking that Light King’s ass, then!” I shouted as loud as possible, pumping my fists into the air. Geulimja chuckled for the briefest of moments, but quickly stopped.
‘You aren’t alone, boy!’ I quickly turned, scanning the area, but didn’t see anybody. I glanced down at the map, and saw that the red dot was right over my location. That was… I was supposed to be tracking her down, but right now, it felt like it had happened the other way around.
“Is that so? I was under the impression that you were working with him?” A voice asked. I couldn’t see where it was coming from, but it sounded like a woman’s voice. I looked around again, but still, saw nothing. I even looked up, and at the various trees, but still, no cigar.
“Oh ho, looking up was a good idea. What is it they say, that people never look up? You must be quite smart.”
“Listen, whoever you are, I’m not interested in working with the Light King! I’m not even from this dimension. That asshole pulled me into this one from my own home. I would just try to find a way home, but this Light King asshole pissed me off, so now I’m gonna go kick his ass.” I explained, yelling in no particular direction.
‘Real smooth, kid.’ Geulimja chuckled, to which I didn’t reply.
“Why should I believe that?”
“Uhh, I dunno. How can I prove it to you?” I asked, still having no clue where this woman was.
“Well, considering the fact that you have a satchel, clearly from the light kingdom, as well as a map which seems to be letting you know my location, I’d say there’s really no way to prove it. Although, it’s interesting. You look like nobody I’ve ever seen before, aside from the Light King. Perhaps you’re telling the truth about a different dimension, or perhaps you’re just his brother. Either way, I have no time for games.” The woman said, and before I could formulate a response, a woman dropped from the sky, her leg coming down across what would’ve been my head if I hadn’t barely managed to move my arms up to block. The kick was brutal, it felt like the bones in my forearms had been snapped in half, although I didn’t think that was actually the case. The woman pushed away with just her one leg, then landed gently on the forest floor, dusting off her pants. She was, without a doubt, Seo-yun, the woman I was supposed to be hunting. She was prettier than in the photo, which made sense, considering she was a real person I was staring at. Her hair was long, black, and tied up in a high ponytail, with her hair falling to just below her shoulders. She was a little bit shorter than me, maybe three or four inches. She looked weirdly put together for somebody who was supposed to be on the run. Her clothes were similar to the ones her supposed sister had been wearing in the throne room, although instead of gold and white, they were black and a pale blue, and they were a little bit less tight than her sisters, although that didn’t mean they weren’t tight. She wore what essentially looked like tights, and then a vest, which exposed her arms. Her arms were lightly muscled, and, although they weren’t exactly exposed, it looked like her legs were as well.
“Like what you see?” The woman, Seo-yun, asked teasingly, smirking at me while I blinked.
“Oh uh, listen, I wasn’t-”
“Like I care. I’m gonna kick your ass now.” She said, and then she rushed at me so quickly that I actually couldn’t react. She hit me with a swift kick to the stomach, and then aimed a punch with her right hand at my left shoulder, which was also too fast for me to react to, and caused me to stumble slightly.
‘Well, this is embarrassing. You couldn’t capture her even if you wanted to.’ Geulimja laughed, as I tried to put some distance between myself and my opponent. She looked confused for a second, before shaking her head as if to shake that feeling off, and moving in again, albeit noticeably slower this time. I had no real interest in harming this woman, considering the fact that as far as I knew, she hadn’t actually done anything wrong. I mean, it wasn’t as if I could actually hurt her anyways, if her speed was any indicator of her battle prowess. That being said, I did have some attacks at my disposal. I had the blasts, and the spikes I could generate. I could also probably envelop the whole area in darkness, although so far, that ability also made it so I couldn’t see either, and I couldn’t imagine that’d give me much of an advantage in a fight. Teleporting away wasn’t really an option, considering I sort of figured this person was my best shot at an ally against the so-called Light King in this dimension.
I actually managed to dodge a kick she threw, which I was thankful for, considering how much the last blow from her legs had done. It seemed to me like she was slowing down, but I wasn’t entirely sure.
‘Nah, she’s definitely slowing down. Probably because she realized it’s not gonna be much of a challenge to take you out.’ Geulimja observed, his tone being rather annoying to me. He was probably trying to piss me off, actually.
The woman, Seo-yun, stopped short of kicking me and moved her leg to the ground, pausing in confusion.
“Who is that? In your head?” She asked, her eyebrows furrowing as she tried to put together what was going on.
‘Huh?’
“Huh?” I repeated Geulimja’s question in shock. There was no way, right? If she was telepathic, Geulimja would’ve noticed and booted her out of my head by now.
Seo-yun’s expression turned to an amused one, as she seemed to relax completely, as if I wasn’t at all threatening.
“Well, you aren’t all that threatening. I probably could’ve killed you by now.”
‘Did she just-’
‘I don’t understand. I should be detecting telepathy.’ Geulimja grumbled, seemingly frustrated by this development. Seo-yun laughed, as if she’d heard what Geulimja had said.
“Oh this is just too much fun! Maybe I won’t tell you the secret, it’d probably be more fun that way, since it seems like the people who sent you didn’t tell you.” She said, suppressing her laughter to get the words out.
“Okay, first of all, it really isn’t that funny. Second of all, no, they didn’t tell me shit other than that they wanted you dead. I guess they did give me a picture and a way to track you, but they didn’t give me much else.” I explained, while Seo-yun looked me up and down, observing me, the reason for why was unclear to me.
“Okay, I’m starting to feel bad, and it doesn’t seem like you actually have any intention of hurting me, so I guess I’ll just tell you. I’m not a telepath, I can’t ‘read your mind’ as they say. That being said, I can hear your mind. I can hear your thoughts as you think them. Which is why it’s so confusing, hearing two voices in one head. I’ve never heard anything like it.” She explained, placing her hands on her hips and bending one leg slightly. Yeah, this woman wasn’t threatened by me in the slightest.
“Well, sure, I’m a unique guy.” I replied, Seo-yun raised an eyebrow at that.
‘Oh, that’s embarrassing. Try that one again.’ Geulimja joked, to which I just shrugged him off.
“You are most definitely unique.” She replied with a slight smile.
“Okay, so if you can hear my thoughts and stuff, why’d you attack me? Pretty sure I was thinking about how I didn’t want to hurt you.”
“Yes, but you were also thinking about how you couldn’t hurt me. That being said, after hearing some of your thoughts, I do at the very least believe you aren’t interested in harming me, and it seems as though you are against the Light King after all.” She noted, nodding approvingly.
“I said that when you first showed up!”
“Yes, but I initially had no reason to believe you. If you truly wish to combat the Light King, we’d be glad to have you, but you must leave the satchel behind. They’ll be tracking it if they don’t hear back from you for a while.” Seo-yun explained, crossing her arms over his chest. I nodded, going to the satchel and looking around for anything that might prove useful.
‘Take the dagger.’ Geulimja growled at me. I frowned, grabbing it.
‘Why? I don’t know how to use this thing, the attacks I can do without it-’
‘Just trust me, boy. Take the dagger.’ Geulimja snapped, clearly not interested in a prolonged conversation on that particular subject. That was fine, I just grabbed the dagger and nodded at Seo-yun, who stood a fair distance from me. Once I was done with the satchel, she held her hands up. Her eyes glowed white, and I felt a gust of wind around my feet. The satchel was picked up from the ground, and then flung into the sky, back in the direction I’d come from.
“What’d you do with it?”
“I sent it back to my dear sister, she’ll believe that you’re dead, hopefully they won’t bother tracking you.” Seo-yun said with a smile, before turning around and nodding in the direction she was now walking.
“So, when you were speaking to your friend in your head, you mentioned attacks you could use without the dagger. Considering you weren’t all that effective in our little skirmish, I’d assume you have some other attacks you can do? I also believe I recall you thinking of blasts during our fight.” She said cheekily. She appeared to have her guard down, but I could tell she was still watching my every move. Not that I could blame her.
“Uhh, well… it’s probably best if I just show you.” I replied, pointing my fist at a tree and firing a blast of pure darkness at it. Seo-yun looked at me with what appeared to be genuine shock, before she wiped that expression away and replaced it with a content smile.
“I see… you’re a host, then. That’s where the second voice comes from.” She mumbled, still sounding surprised although the expression of shock had disappeared. I shrugged, unsure exactly what that meant. Geulimja was inhabiting me, so yeah, probably a host fit.
“Geulimja inhabits you, perhaps you’re a blessing after all. His power may be our best chance at defeating the Light King.” Seo-yun muttered as we continued to walk. I wasn’t sure how true that was. The Light King’s forces had neutralized me immediately when I’d been pulled through the portal, although that hadn’t been a fair fight. Seo-yun looked up at me after that thought.
“I see, so you really aren’t from this world, truly? You are rather like the Light King, although you seem more noble.”
“I dunno about being noble, I’m just not an asshole.”
“That’s enough.” She shrugged, before halting her pace and turning to me.
“I’ve been rude. I should make a proper introduction. I’m Seo-yun, and you are?”
“Uh, Jared.”
“A unique name. Pleasure to make your acquaintance. I’m glad you’re on our side.”
“Back at ya.” I replied, as we got back to walking. She seemed like a powerful ally. Also, for whatever reason, the whole Geulimja thing had made her trust me more.
“You’ll understand when we reach the base.” She said, evidently hearing my thoughts again.
“How far is that?”
“Not too far. We set up a new camp every few days or so. Sometimes everyday, if we’re being extra cautious.” She explained. I nodded along, that made total sense, for a resistance force that probably wasn’t all that big. I realized that I had no real reason to trust this lady, other than that the Light King had been an asshole to me and wiped out all of Geulimja’s people. Was that enough to join a resistance against him?
Y’know what, yeah, it totally fucking was.