I awoke in a confined and empty room. My staff was missing and my head was pounding. I waited around in the room for a few hours trying to figure out how long I'd been unconscious.

If I had been asleep for a few days what could have happened to Oritz and Melora? How was I going to get out of here? How was I going to stop Lycitor?

There wasn't much to do other than to think about those questions. I had to get out of this place before Lycitor took other lives. That monster had to be stopped.

Just before I was sure nobody knew where I was, the door creaked open. Seltzer stood in the doorway looking down at me. "Good. You are finally awake."

I rubbed my eyes from the light that washed over the room. "How..? How long have I been asleep?" My voice was sore and inconsistent with a lack of use.

"Three days. The officer hit you with an absurd dose, when you weren't dangerous to begin with. Fortunately, he'll have a long time to look back on his poor choices while he looks for a new job." Seltzer told me, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

I sat up. "Why are you here? Don't you have other things to do?"

"Right to the point, eh? Well, Avian I'm here to let you go. Now you must be quick, Zucker will demand you be detained so if you intend on getting your friends back you mustn't waste a moment. The Yeti was stationed back at the Glacial Outpost, I do not know where the Mermaid went but I assume she returned home." Seltzer informed me, handing me my staff.

I stood up and walked out the door. "Thank you, Seltzer. I won't let you down." I turned and Seltzer was now smiling widely.

"I know you won't. Just be safe, Lycitor is incredibly powerful. Though I sense there's more to you than even you know. Victory is attainable if you're willing to give everything you've got. Now I must go child, be careful." With that Seltzer turned and walked off. I ran down the opposite hall.

I didn't know all of the locations in Soulwielder Corporation but I did remember some of the halls from when Lily showed me around. Next thing I knew I was in the transporter room. I set the location to Aquosis and warped off.

Aquosis was as magnificent as I remembered it. In the early morning, the sun gave everything a pink tint. Using what little time I had spent in Aquosis I thought back to where Melora lived in took one of the air tunnels. Which felt about as great as you could imagine.

I arrived in the more tightly packed part of Aquosis. Melora lived somewhere around this place, like most of the MerPeople in Aquosis.

Wandering the alleys didn't do me much good, other than getting some looks from groups of MerPeople. Though I was sure my Soulwielder Staff would keep them away.

I'm never going to find Melora at this rate. Before long I'll be a wanted criminal and then it'll be too late. Just as I was about to give up hope the Maker showed some mercy on me.

"Avian? Oh, my goodness is that you?" Melora ran over to me from behind a building. "It's been three days! I was so worried you'd been cooked alive!"

I couldn't even begin to describe my expression after hearing that. "What do you think human punishments are for actual crimes?"

Melora put her hands on her hips. "Ok, we'll talk about this later, what happened when you went back to Earth?" I explained everything she had missed, ignoring her multiple interjections.

Melora paused when I finally finished. "That's... insane. I really hate these guys who are in charge. Anyways, as much as I hate to say it, we need to find Oritz and do it quickly!"

I nodded. "But wait, what happened to you guys while I was unconscious?"

"Well some guy told Oritz to go back to his post in the outpost and Oritz just left, I suppose the guy was in command. I've been hiding out with a couple friends from my gang days. I'm not going back to my mom's house unless I have to. I don't need any more of her lectures." Melora recapped.

"Well, then we better go and find Oritz. We can't waste any more time." I told her and we ran off to find the nearest transporter.

We arrived at Frigidity by midday so the sun was glistening through the glacier. "Ok Melora, we have to be careful. Odds are the government is looking for us. So we need to find Oritz and avoid letting anyone see us."

I led my friend through the base, luckily it seemed like there wasn't anyone patrolling the halls. We checked multiple areas and ended up on the roof where the snipers were stationed.

Oritz and Lief were sitting down at a table playing a game of cards. Their swords were set on the floor. We climbed up the stairs, I felt relief wash over me when I saw him.

"Oritz! Finally, we found you!" Oritz looked up from the cards and grinned.

"Avian! You're back!" He stood and put his hand on my shoulder, Yeti soldiers didn't really show affection so this was really nice. Then his eyes fell on Melora. "And you brought the Mermaid with you."

"Ok if we had more time I'd work out whatever rivalry you two have but we're in a time crunch. We need to go before we get caught." I told Oritz, briefly telling him what had happened when I had left them in Wurturence.

Oritz put his hand to his chin. "Well as much as I'd like to go, I can't. Avian, not only are you breaking the law but you're asking me to abandon my post and go awol."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "Oritz this is life or death! That monster killed my best friends and you promised me that you'd help me. Not only that but you're supposed to be my friend! Am I really not as important as your 'orders?'"

Lief had remained silent the whole time, now he set his cards down. "You can't ask him to go awol just so you can lose a fight against some firetongue!" Firetongue was a slang term for Lizolis, meant to insult them.

"Avian you must go. I'm sorry but I can't come with you. But I'm not going to betray you, you were never here as far as I'm concerned." Oritz told me.

Melora clenched her fists. "Ave let's go. We're wasting our time with him."

I was in shock, I thought I had my friends with me no matter what. I guess I was wrong. "You need to reevaluate your loyalties, Oritz." I walked off with Melora. Oritz said nothing else.

We traveled down the halls back to the Teleporter. But before we could reach it we were stopped by Yeti soldiers. On both sides of the closed halls.

"Surrender now, Soulwielder. You're surrounded." One of them said. I took out my staff, trying to think of spells that would let us escape without seriously hurting anyone. Melora, however, seemed ready to start mowing them down one by one.

"Fine then, they've sealed their fates!" A soldier charged at us, swinging his swords like a madman. I could tell he was afraid of me. My staff wouldn't do me much good in such close quarters but I tried anyways, blocking his blows with the wooden stick.

I managed to disarm him throw the Yeti back into the crowd. I wasn't sure how many of them I could take. On Melora's side she just set up a wall of water and nothing else had happened.

A Yeti tried to freeze me with their ice breath but I simply created a small whirlpool at the tip of my staff to counter it. The fighting was getting ridiculous.

"Melora get ready I'm going to melt through this ice so watch out for the fire," I warned her, and I began to cast the Molten Drill spell. The Yeti all charged at us in a blind last ditch effort.

"Everyone stop!" Commander Xorg's voice echoed through the tight ice walls. "That is quite enough. I'm ashamed to be the commander of this army, have you no honor? This boy saved our outpost when nobody else could, for that we owe him so much. The least we can do is allow him passage through the very place he saved. Wanted or not Avian has my respect and trust and he should have all of yours as well!" The commander pushed through the crowd shaking his head.

"Commander, thank you so much." I was in shock, Oritz's refusal to join us had made me sure that the commander would've never allowed anything like this. But the next thing I knew we were walking down the halls in peace once more.

We reached the Teleporter and set the location to Fiorione. "It's finally time to end this." And we went off.

The first thing I noticed about Fiorione, it was incredibly hot. We arrived in a bland stone shack with a cardboard box of temperature regulators. Luckily I already had one equipped, immediately I felt it working to cool my body temperature and return it to normal.

"I hope word about you being a criminal hasn't spread to this place too. We don't even know where to start looking after all." Melora said, pushing the door open. "Welcome to Fiorione's biggest city. Pyratopolis."

The city took my breath away. Tiny volcanos shot lava into the air like fountains. The brimstone buildings were gigantic and practically touched the sky. The sidewalks were lined with large paths of molten lava that Lizolis swam through the get around.

Fiorione Palace was set at the farthest end of the city. The palace was made of obsidian. And a gigantic stone was placed on top of the palace that captured the sunlight for energy.

Fiorione was very industrial, lots of machines and electronics were all over the city. The streets were lined with screens advertising various products.

The entirety of Pyratropolis was surrounded by a giant swirling inferno shielding it from monsters. Monsters commonly survived in small camps in conquered land due to Fiorione's rush to take over their planet. They had taken control of over half their homeworld but monsters were lurking everywhere.

Lizolis bustled about quickly not wasting a single moment despite many street vendors trying to get their attention. Lizolis looked like human-lizard hybrids. Their skin was scaly and black like charcoal, with splashes of fiery red on their body.

Lizolis had claws for hands and feet, large tails that reached the ground, massive sharp teeth, and thin lanky bodies. Lizolis could increase the temperature around them simply by allowing some of the intense heat inside of them to escape.

Lizolis were known as tricksters. Wielding rods with knives at either end that could be detached and used as individual blades.

"If I recall my dream, Lycitor told me he could be found on the outskirts of Fiorione. Let's see if we can find a map and then look for towns that are towards the borders of the empire." I suggested.

We wandered about the city, I willed myself not to think about how strange we must've looked to the locals. Suddenly two Lizolis soldiers approached us.

"Hold it right there. Where's your identification?" One asked us. I had it sitting in my pocket but I assumed they were asking me because they thought I was Avian. Which I was.

Melora, on the other hand, didn't seem to have an I.D on her, instead, she kneed one of the Lizolis in the stomach and turned to run. The other leaped over her head and drew his blades. "Stand down, Mermaid. You don't want to play with fire."

The air condensed with heat. It was so hot that I couldn't think of what I was supposed to do. Melora didn't seem bothered by the heat, instead, she charged at the soldier throwing them both into the lava river next to us.

That snapped me out of my exhaustion. The heat regulator wouldn't protect her from pure lava. Only a Lizolis could survive something like that.

Melora surfaced from the lava and stepped out. "I knocked the guy out. We've got some time."

Melora had forgotten about the other soldier, who had recovered from her attack. "End of the line you two!"

"That's enough of that, Larry." A familiar voice said, Dustin, strode over to us oozing with confidence. "Good job apprehending these two, I'll cut out the middleman and take them right back to the Corporation."

Larry nodded and sheathed his weapons. "Thank you, Captain Dustin."

Dustin led us down the street until Larry was out of sight. "Alright you two, where are you trying to go?"

"Great to see you too, Dustin. What town on the outskirts would a criminal like to hide out in?" I asked him, not realizing how this was making us look.

Dustin sighed. "I can't believe I'm telling you this, you want to go to Clepteir. The guards there are all drunks but the empire doesn't care enough to replace them. It's basically a place for people on the run to go. Now hurry up, I doubt this'll blow over so I don't see why you're running away."

"Dustin let me explain what we're trying to do, it makes us seem a lot less unlawful," I told him everything that had led to my jailbreak and everything I knew about Lycitor.

Dustin seemed to believe me. "That's so absurd that it almost makes perfect sense."

"You're just going to believe him like that?" Melora was taken aback.

A couple of guards were heading near our position. "Well if you must know, Seltzer told me about Zucker's real intention with the Dragons and the only way Avian could know this is if he was at least somewhat telling the truth. I wish I could help but I have duties to attend to. I wish you both the best of luck. If you survive I'll be sure to advocate for your freedom. Now goodbye friends." Dustin turned and went to distract the guards.

We snuck around towards the nearest Teleporter. While we were walking I thought back to the fight with the two Lizolis guards. "Hey Melora, how come you didn't die when you plunged into that molten lava?"

Melora didn't turn around. "I don't know Avian, I've been trying to figure it out myself."

I thought about everything I knew. "Melora, you don't remember seeing your dad right?"

Melora gave a nod and aimlessly led us through the alleys in between the gigantic brimstone buildings.

"What if your dad is a Lizolis?" Melora stopped moving abruptly. "Think about it, you've got a purple hue to your skin, you aren't bothered by heat, you can't go turn your legs into a tail. It would explain a lot. Wouldn't it?"

Melora seemed to be shaking. "You're right. I know you're right, and that's the worst part. If I'm some sort of hybrid than what am I? I'm already weird for a Mermaid, even removing all the traits I got from my weird parents. Avian, I don't know who I am if this is true."

I took her hand. "You're Melora. You're my friend. You've stuck with me through everything. It doesn't matter who your parents are, in the end you're still the same."

"I mean you're wrong but I can't help but believe your stupid speech. If anything it was pretty sweet. If I'm being honest Avian, I really joined you because I thought you were cute and I wanted to get away from home. But now neither of those are true. I want to go home and make up with my mom. But first I'm going to help my friend." Melora squeezed my hand and then we continued on our journey to Clepteir.

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Thanks so much for reading today's chapter, I hope you enjoyed it. Next week I plan on releasing the final 3 chapters at once because they fit well together and this story should go out with a bang.

Today's Question of the Day is: What story taught you how to read?

That's all for now. Have a great day! Bye!