EVERNA Arcel Raine's
Three Paths

Terra Everna, Earth-like worlds in different dimensions will never be the same again.

Bare-chested and bleeding, a young man stood slightly unsteady while holding a new wound on his stomach. The wound wasn't too deep, but it kept bleeding.

The man's brown eyes stared hard like a wild animal in a corner. From his bloody lips spoken hardikan, “Dontact you, Mephistopheles!”

The redhead was a blood red-skinned demon, about five meters tall. He had four hands, six wings and seven horns. His giant body floated in the air, against the background of Yggdrasil, a Mountain-sized Tree of Life that was engulfed in flames.

“Whatever you say, you and the Bright Warrior have lost, Arcel Raine!” brag Mephistopheles while stretching out all four hands. His handsome face for the devil's size revealed a maniacal smile.

“The Age of Magic is over, but not the Machine Age, but the Dark Age! I, Mephistopheles, have completed a great mission that my two brothers, Lilith and Vordac, cannot defend. From this moment on, all of Everna will worship no more Vadis, Adair or even Enia, but me!” Following his victory laughter.

Arcel Raine jerks. The words of the Demon King were not fabricating. The entire energy of the Red Rainbow Crystal within his body had been drained. The other six companions, fellow holders of the Rainbow Crystal had been sprawled, even one of them was already lifeless.

With just relying on the Sword Angel of Justice in hand, was it enough to defeat Mephistopheles?

“Well, no need to procrastinate again! Terra Everna, welcome the real new age!” While saying so, the devil was forced to stretch out his four hands. A black sphere formed in front of him and began to grow.

Along with that enlargement, the ultimate dark energy is not spread, but rather compressed to become multiplied with immeasurable speed. When it had reached saturation point, the giant sphere would explode, scattering the dark energy of destruction in all directions with immeasurable power. That is the ultimate move of the Dark Stream, Gelora Destroys the World.

Seeing that, Arcel's entire body felt weak. “Jeez, how could I have overcome that style alone?” inner Knight. “With full strength of course I will not win, especially in conditions like this!”

Suddenly the voice of a heavy-pitched man sounded. “Don't give up, Arcel! Stay strong!”

Followed by the voice of a woman who was somewhat shrill like a cat meowing. “Usain is dead, but there's still us!”

Arcel turned his head and saw his five brothers in arms rising from a lying position to a standing position, half kneeling or sitting.

One of them, a beautiful woman with silvery white glasses named Genna Kapadokios exclaimed loudly, “This, Arcel! Accept our sixth Rainbow Crystal!” He shot the Nila Rainbow Crystal in his hand towards the heir of the Red Rainbow Crystal.

The other four Rainbow Knights did the same. Kylie Gurley, the petite girl from Mincarlie took the Green Rainbow Crystal from Usain Djisse's corpse from Ubanga and threw it along with the Purple Rainbow Crystal towards Arcel.

Orange Rainbow Crystal from Mahpiya Amitola, a female physician from the Myriath Continent.

The Yellow Rainbow Crystal from Zhu Yue, a half-woman, half-cat demon from Wushu.

Blue Rainbow Crystals from Sanjaya Tirtayasa, a burly male swordsman and accomplished sailor from the Antapada Peninsula.

The six colorful crystals resonated with Arcel Raine's Red Rainbow Crystals floating in the air. Then everything seemed to break apart and fuse into one True Rainbow Crystal, seven kinds of energy coalescing into the most powerful energy in the universe, surpassing the energy of light and darkness.

Then the ultimate crystal shot again as if alive and melted itself in the body of Arcel Raine, right in his heart.

From this second on, Arcel's body united full of Rainbow Crystals. In a split second, the entire seven-colored energy was also compressed and concentrated at one point, namely the tip of the Sword of the Angel of Justice, the Evangelical Excalibur in Arcel's hands.

Infinite energy intake with power equivalent to the style of the World Annihilation Gelora encouraged Arcel to exclaim, “Whatever happens, the Dark Age must never be repeated again! I must stop you, Mephistopheles, though I must drag you back to hell with myself!”

“Omong empty! It was impossible for the power of seven crystals alone to stop the power of the darkness core and the hundreds of thousands of curious spirits! The Dark Ages are inevitable, the strong will survive, the weak will perish! Greet, Arcel Raine!”

“Start!” Exclaiming right at the same time, the two fighters darted forward, shortening the distance between the two of them. The four hands of Mephistopheles seemed to push the giant black sphere, while Arcel drew his sword to the side, ready to be thrust through a simple nameless move that had just been created by him.

After entering the range of the sword, Arcel thrust his sword into the giant black sphere. “It's good to fight with you, Mephistopheles!” the screams were unexpected.

Mephistopheles pushed the ball with all his energy. “Same-sama, Arcel Raine!” yells. “I'm satisfied, really satisfied!”

I don't know why those strange words came out. Could it be that the two of them were aware that they would not be able to greet from the collision of the two ultimate energies which were immeasurable?

The divine sword and the giant black sphere clashed together.

In a second, two opposing energies attacked each other, devouring each other and about to disperse each other. But the impact of the collision even made them reach saturation point and exploded almighty with the sound of a bang that blared into the entire Yggdrasil Forest.

The fighters who were still alive in the battleground then survived desperately with all the rest of their energy.

But the most severely exposed were of course the two fighters at the center of the explosion. Mephistopheles' body flinched, almost smouldering. “So, this is the choice of the Age. I get it now!” he exclaimed, along with his roar of grief and his last breath.

Arcel Raine could only smile, accompanying a single thought at the nadir of his last consciousness.

“What day my life should end here. At least all the missions that I have to carry out in this world have been completed. Lestarilah Everna.”

\==oOo==

“Where am I?”

The next time Arcel Raine's eyes opened, there was a path. The bare-chested young man walked down the path that cut through the dark forest until he reached the open. His red hair fluttered in the night wind.

Arcel's brown eyes were wide. Before him lay a castle no larger than a middle caste noble castle. Surprisingly, the castle walls were made of special stones, so they seemed to glitter reflecting moonlight. A hunch pushed the redhead into the castle whose gate was open.

As he walked down the corridor after corridor, Arcel stared at the two rows of mirrors hanging along the wall. Uniquely, not the image of himself reflected from the mirrors, but a variety of images that almost all of them are not familiar.

Almost arriving in the middle of the castle's round hall, Arcel was shocked by the appearance of a giant black horse Instantly, all bad memories flooded his mind, whacking him without pause.

Reasonably, Arcel focused his mind on the sweetest memories and the most beautiful dreams. He looked at the black horse's eyes while shaking his energy within. The horse snarled loudly. Instantly, the worst memories of his entire life invaded his mind. That was when his teacher, Xavros Lenaviel killed his father, Marc Raine before his eyes.

With one whisper, “Gray! You won't be able to prevent the worst from happening, including your own death! Let death take your life!”

“This is not an afterlife, right? This is not the end of my journey! I don't give up on Mephistopheles, why should I give up on you?” Arcel rebuked. While shaking off the energy, he focused on the memories that overcame those worst memories, which were Marc's last messages to him.  The content of Marc's message is for Arcel to choose his own life wisely and live it to the end.

The black horse's body was hit hard by Arcel's energy to the point of slamming and slumping on the floor. Then he got up, flapped his wings and flew away through the large open window of the hall. “Sial, he is much stronger than I thought,”.

Arcel lowered his head while sighing in relief.

“Wah, you managed to drive out Nightmare, the nightmare guard at Dream Castle,” said a woman who approached Arcel from the edge of the hall. His skin was tanned and his robe was colorful. “You have passed the Dream Exam. What's your name?”

“Arcel Raine,” reply Arcel. “But am I still in Everna? The last one I remember I was caught in an explosion while fighting against Mephistopheles.”

“Now you are in Limbo, the realm between the afterlife, the mortal and the interdimensional. My name is Auryn, and I am one of the five Great Elders of the Dream Castle.”

Arcel gasp. “So, have I... died?”

Auryn. “Thanks to Vadis's will you are alive. However, now you have to choose between these three roads.”

Three mirrors appeared in front of Arcel.

“What do you mean?” ask the black cheek.

“Three roads lead to a place to continue your life. Look carefully one by one.”

When looking at the first mirror, it appears the figure of Vanessa, the elf girl who had been Arcel's lover in Ishmina. The choice of different ways of life made the two of them forced to separate.

In the second mirror was Genna Kapadokios, the silver-haired girl who was lamenting. He thought Arcel had died with the Demon King, Mephistopheles.

In the third mirror, there appeared a sweet girl with long green hair. His face was pale, as if he was in danger.

“Well, what road will you choose?” ask Auryn.

Arcel was silent for a moment, then replied, “I can no longer be with Vanessa. With Genna, maybe I'll live a quiet life. But I think I was called to help the green-haired girl. So, my choice is the third mirror.”

Auryn nodded with a smile. “Please, Arcel Raine. Carve out a new legend in the future and become a much stronger traveler than you are today.”

“Thank you, Auryn,” replied Arcel who nicknamed Musafir Ishmina while stepping into the occult portal in the third mirror.

Arcel did not understand Auryn's last words. But he gets a hunch, his journey to become a figure he never imagined before will begin.

Far away in the future.

Arcel Raine's character illustration in the content and cover by Andrian January Adilia.