Golden Sun - Grave Eclipse

‘I have a bad feeling about this…’ The Venus Adept thought as he recalled the recent deaths in the city, ‘Those monsters will surely cause more than one or two more deaths in this part of Weyard…’

A few days had passed since the group left Belinsk and had made it out from the eclipsed area safely. From Eoleo’s request, the ship where the Adepts were on was heading south towards Champa, Eoleo’s hometown. The ship was docked at the coast where the camps for the survivors were and they went to the camp to find out that Obaba, Eoleo’s great-grandmother was still on the top of the hill back in Champa.

-Matthew’s POV-

All of us went back to the eclipsed area and headed towards Champa, only to find that it was nearly destroyed. No monsters seemed to have got into the town as it was brighter than the other eclipsed area, but many houses were covered in flames. In the middle of the town, huge fire was being made by two people who seemed to be from Champa.

“I gotta find Obaba. You guys just stay here, ‘kay?” Eoleo walked away from our group, turning his head away from us. Even for someone as strong as Eoleo, to lose a family was a hard beating.

I decided to wait for him near the town’s entrance along with the others when I saw something that made my blood boil in anger. I curled my hands into fists as I saw a corpse lying motionlessly a few meters in front of us. I turned to look at the others, who also saw the corpse of a Champan man lying there on a pool of dried blood with his body filled with vital scars and his face completely ruined by the scars and blood.

Tyrell looked disgusted, as if he was going to throw up any second. Rief was looking down at the corpse sadly while holding his staff very tightly to hold back the tears behind those glasses of his. Amiti was standing behind the two with his eyes closed and his right hand over his chest, praying for the lost soul. Beside him was Sveta who had the feeling of guilt clearly written on her face as her brother was supposed to be responsible for the deaths. Himi was beside Sveta, clearly frightened by the sight as her small hands were shaking while holding her staff as Kraden comforted the priestess. There was supposed to be eight of us here, but where did Karis go?

I suddenly felt heavy on my back and turned a little more to look what it was when I saw a familiar green color. Wait… was that… Karis? Before I could turn around to face her, she grabbed my right arm with both of her hands and leaned her head on the back of my shoulder. Her entire body was trembling in fear and she was covering her eyes with my shoulder.

“Can we please… just leave…?” She whispered quietly, her voice was shaking.

I gave her a nod, though I knew she could see it as she got her eyes hidden with my shoulder, “Alright, but we’ll get Eoleo first before we leave this place.”

“Look everyone! There are many other corpses around the place!” Tyrell’s voice was heard as he pointed at hills where Obaba should live, “Man, I’m so gonna be sick!”

“Tyrell, you have to pay respect to the poor lost souls!” Amiti told him, “Their bodies might be torn apart, but their souls remain pure and innocent!

While Tyrell and Amiti were arguing behind, the rest of us walked to see the hills a little closer and found out that what Tyrell saw was true. Many bodies in pools of dired blood were torn apart, even worse than the one we saw near the town entrance. I could feel Karis’ shaking body leaning against me with both of her arms warped around my right arm.

I could feel the heat rising on my cheeks, with the fact that Karis was hugging my arm. We had never been this close physically, not even once! But I didn’t seem like she minded at all as she didn’t let go of me even after a few minutes and Eoleo had come back to our group. Her grip on my arm loosened as we left Champa, but her arms never left mine.

Seeing how much damage the monsters from the shadows of the eclipse had done, Amiti had also asked me as the leader of the group to head further south towards Ayuthay. As Eoleo had done before, Amiti also left our group to look for his uncle and his people who survived this horrible event. Tyrell, Eoleo, Himi, and Kraden decided to stay in a safer area near the city gate while Rief, Sveta, Karis, and I went out to look for survivors outside.

At first it was going to be the three of us, but Karis insisted on coming along with us despite of her fears. Knowing her, she wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer so I decided that she would come with me along with Rief and Sveta. I was hoping that we would find a few living people and not corpses, but I turned out to be wrong.

Karis was the first one to notice and let out a yelp before hiding behind my back and hugged me from behind me, very tightly, “I… can’t… breathe…” Karis slowly loosened her arms, but didn’t let go of me. After taking a few deep breaths after almost being crushed by her hug, I looked at the two corpses lying under the huge tree we went through the first time, “Wait a minute… Those armors… They’re the Kaocho generals!”

Rief, who was standing on my right, nodded, “Yes, I remember them being kept here before. So this is how they meet their end, isn’t it?”

Sveta suddenly walked over to them from my left side, “I can try my Spirit Sense on them to find out what happened during their last moments…”

Sveta focused her mind as she stood close to the generals’ corpses. I could only watch a little farther from her as Karis had pulled me and prevented me from walking any closer. Judging from the looks of them, I could tell why she didn’t want any of us to get any closer. Their conditions were worse than the ones back in Champa.

Ku-Tsung’s head was apart from is body, which was sitting a few centimeters away from the body. The only things remained on his face were dried blood, a little flesh, and the skull itself. His arms and left leg were splintered the wrong way, while his right leg was cut clean off, nowhere to be found in the area.

Beside Ku-Tsung were the remains of his brother, Ku-Embra, who had a big hole on his chest straight through his body. He had no face anymore, only a worn helmet covering his skull. His arms and legs were cut off, lying where it was used to be. His entire body was covered with dried blood and their foul smells could even reach my nose.

Sveta turned to me before walking back towards Rief, Karis, and I, “From what I sensed from them, they had hidden a treasure note near Kaocho’s palace. Other than that, I couldn’t sense anything else.”

“Interesting…” Rief nodded after hearing Sveta before he turned to me, “Matthew, should we check the palace? They could be hiding something important…”

I opened my mouth to answer, but stopped when I heard Karis yelled from behind me, “No! We are NOT checking it! We are NOT going to Kaocho!”

“But we will go there, Karis…” I tried convincing her, “Even if we don’t want to find the note, we still have something to deliver, remember? We need to deliver a gift from a girl in Tonfon to her grandmother in Kaocho,” I saw the disappointment in her face, but I couldn’t just forget my promises as well. But with many people died under this Grave Eclipse, would the girl’s grandmother survive the threat?

The four of us went back to where the others were and found that Amiti had returned as well. We soon made our way north to Kaocho, which had the similar situation as Champa. Many corpses were lying on the streets as we passed by while Karis’ arms never left mine until we reached the grandmother’s house as our group separated.

Rief had decided to look for the treasure note near the palace, accompanied by Kraden, Eoleo, and Himi. They went north of the city while we entered the house on the northwest of the city. The foul smell of death was worse than with the generals as the house was isolated, making Sveta covered her nose as her smelling senses were sharper than any of us.

We went deeper into the house, only finding two corpses of elderly in the house. I could still remember that the old woman was the girl’s grandmother after we gave a gift from her to that girl in Tonfon. Seeing that her grandparents had passed away in such an unfortunate way saddened me. I would hurt her lot to hear it after she had missed them a lot. I just put the wrapped gift in front of the grandmother and walked out with the rest, but suddenly a voice called us to wait.

“Please wait, young one…” I saw a ghostly figure floating on top of the corpse, jumping in surprise as Karis completely freaked out and was hugging me with her eyes closed while sobbing quietly in fear.

“You can kick some evil monsters’ butts mercilessly, but you’re afraid of some ghosts who can’t even touch you?” Tyrell suddenly commented with a chuckle after seeing Karis’ reaction, slightly annoying me, “Seriously, you’re even scarier than ghosts when you’re mad!”

“THAT’S ENOUGH, TYRELL!!!” I couldn’t hold my anger anymore. Even if I had to yell at my best friend, the one who had almost been like a brother to me, I would do it for her, “Can’t you understand, Tyrell!? Karis was afraid, but how could you make fun of her, and even laugh at her!? Do you think that this is really funny!?” I would do it for Karis.

I glared at Tyrell, who was looking at me with a surprised look. Everyone did. Even Karis had stopped sobbing on my shoulder. I took a deep breath to calm myself down, which worked out perfectly. I turned around away from them to the ghostly figures who thanked us before they disappeared from above the corpses.

After delivering the gift, we went to the middle of the city to wait for Rief and the others. Oddly though, Karis stayed silent after I yelled at Tyrell. She didn’t look at me, or Tyrell, or the rest of us. She was still holding my arm, but I could feel that her fear was slowly disappearing for some reason.

-Normal POV-

More days had passed and it had been a month since Matthew’s journey along with his friends’ started. They had just got everything they needed to go and activate the Apollo Lens and stop the eclipse. It was already night and they were sailing back to Tonfon to reach the Endless Wall before they could reach the Apollo Sanctum, where the Apollo Lens was.

Eoleo was on the wheels while the other Adepts were sleeping in their own cabins, except for two. The group leader, the blond Venus Adept, and the green-haired Jupiter Adept were both restless in their cabins. Karis decided to get some fresh air outside and walked out of the room she shared with Sveta and Himi quietly, not wanting to wake her roommates up.

Karis made her way to the back of the deck, unnoticed by the red-haired pirate. She leaned on the left railings, looking at the dark blue sea below her as she recalled the events when they visited the towns and cities affected by the eclipse and let out a sigh, ‘So many people died because of the eclipse… So many… corpses…’

Karis hugged herself as she felt afraid when she looked at the torn bodies lying around in the towns and cities they visited before. She also remembered that every time they came across a corpse, she would run over to Matthew no matter how far apart they were in the group, which made her blush.

‘Did I do that…? But why Matthew, of all guys in our group? I just felt… my body moved on its own and I hugged Matthew every time I saw them…’ Karis lowered her head a little, not noticing that a person was behind her, ‘He’s nice and I’ve known him for a long time… We’re best friends, along with Tyrell too… But compared to Tyrell, I feel more comfortable around Matthew… I feel… safer with him…’

“You can’t sleep too?” A familiar voice said suddenly, surprising the Jupiter Adept and snapped her out from her train of thoughts.

“M-Matthew! What are you doing here?” Karis asked, still surprised with the Venus Adept’s sudden appearance.

Matthew walked to the railings and leaned on it next to Karis, “Tyrell snores really loud, perhaps rivaling his dad’s…” Matthew’s sarcasm made Karis laughed a bit, but noticed his changing expression as he let out a sigh, “That, and another reason.”

“And that reason is…?” Karis asked in curiosity.

“The fact that I’m feeling doubtful if I can be a good leader until we stopped the eclipse,” Matthew didn’t turn around, but he knew that his Jupiter Adept best friend was listening to him, “I was the one who led you guys into this, into a bad situation, so I don’t know that I’ll keep leading you into bad situations even worse than this…”

“We were tricked into doing this, so it’s not your fault,” Karis responded, “Besides, you were brave enough to go and visit cities with many corpses around… I can’t stand them… I couldn’t sleep because I was afraid that I would see more of them…”

Matthew put a hand on her shoulder, her fear fading away once more, “Don’t worry, Karis… If you’re really scared, just close your eyes and I’ll lead you the way.”

Matthew’s words made her blush even harder than before when she was on her own, which she hid by lowering her hair and let her hair covered her face, “T-Thanks Matthew…” After a short pause, Karis looked up, a slight hint of red still on her face as she turned to Matthew, “You know what? I think you’re the best leader we can ever ask. Even if you have your mistakes when leading us, you will always lead us back to the right path.”

It was now Matthew’s turn to blush while rubbing the back of his head nervously, “Yeah… I-I guess so…” Matthew swallowed quietly, “So, are you feeling much better now? You’re not afraid anymore, are you?”

Karis shook her head before she stood up straight, “I feel a lot better now that I know that I’m following the right leader,” Karis closed the distance between them and landed a quick kiss on his cheek before walking towards the cabin, “Good night Matthew…”

Matthew just stood there, completely frozen in his place. His face was red as he stared at the direction where Karis had gone off to, “Did she just…? Wait, she did… S-She kissed me…” Matthew let out a nervous smile before slowly walking back to his cabin and lied down on his bed in the room he shared with Tyrell, ‘I’m the right leader, huh? Thanks for the confidence boost, Karis…’