Becoming Legend

"As soon as the expedition went inside the Gate," Gadsi began telling Prince Aesril and Gelethorn what had happened that cause the portal to destroy. "They were attacked by monsters. That's the only reason I could think of. Unless humans. No. I never felt their presence, not even mana leaks"

"As if they were are waiting." Prince Aesril rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Yes," Gadsi followed up. "As if someone has been waiting." She paused and looked at the trio behind Gelethorn. The humans stood with their weapons at the ready. They listened to the trio of elves which made Gadsi feel uncertain. As far as Prince Aesril could remember, it was her first time seeing humans. He learned from Elder Calanye that humans were venturing the Dark Continent, perhaps trying to catch more elves or treasures. But most of them were caught and killed. No point in letting them get back to human civilization. They've been avoiding wars for centuries, and they will for the next one.

"Our ships were destroyed. The encampment was attacked." Gadsi stared at the forest yet her thoughts were not lushful.

"How about the other elves?" Gelethorn said, snapping her thoughts back to them.

"They were taken." Gadsi balled her hands until her knuckles turned white.

"All of them?" Prince Aesril said and almost did not believe her. If it were not Gadsi telling her, he would not have believed it at all.

Gadsi nodded and looked the prince straight into his eyes. "They were not just taken," she blurted, her eyes can't seem to look at the prince for just a second. "They were turned."

"Turned?" Gelethorn said.

"I don't know either! Their lifeforce. Their mana. It's like not them at all." She cried. Standing up and summoned the dagger off of her dimensional ring. "Humans did it!" The tip of the other pointed at the three humans, nonchalantly listening to them. "They did it!"

Prince Aesril held her wrist and slowly lowered the dagger. He looked over his shoulder and caught Jack raising fingers and attached it to the tip of his ears, imitating an elf's ears. Prince Aesril thinned his lips and gripped his free hand. Jack fell to his knees. Yet, he said nothing as though he was already expecting it. As though he was getting used to the control of his lifeforce. Jack was sweating beads.

"I'll deal with them," the Prince said. "For now, we have to leave and tell me everything along the way."

They left the stream and went deeper inside the forest. It was only an hour, nearly two, that they went inside the Gate but the group felt as though it had been days that passed. Even for the prince, he was unsure about the time inside the Limbo. He was more unsure now that his senses were kept limited by the Limbo.

***

Along the way towards the second habitat of the Limbo, they encountered monsters of the Limbo. Normal looking freybugs, some mechanical birds with blacklight circling their wings to which Prince Aesril thought to be part of their bodies. But it was the first time that the prince had seen that kind of beast and it took him a handful of fire magic to put them down. The monsters inside the Limbo vary greatly in their environment. Mechanical birds live on the top of the trees. A female humanoid figure with jaw circled with teeth wide open on its mouth. It took the three humans to take down one. While Gelethorn managed to take a swarm of them that counted to twelve all by himself.

"Their wings seemed to evolve recently," Gelethorn had said as soon as he finished defeating the flying female humanoid.

"It is," Gadsi had said. "It seemed that the Limbo itself was evolving."

***

For three days they traveled the first part of the Limbo while taking no time to rest. This however put strains on the humans' lifefrorces. Especially Jack and Captain Creft. Prince Aesril had a hard time healing their wounds. Where a second to heal a scrape now took him three seconds to do so.

An attempt to control someone's lifeforce was greatly forbidden for the clan of elves. Seeing that it was the first that Prince Aesril attempted to link his lifeforce with the humans, Gelethorn and Gadsi were of course worried.

"Why must you do it?" Gadsi asked the same question Gelethorn had been asking him.

"And why must you be here?" Prince Aesril asked almost the same question as hers. She was the successor for the dark-elves. Like him, they must not be outside the Dark continent. For him, it was a matter of a burden he needed to surpass and accomplish. He wanted to lead the elves not only for the sake of his name. But because of his deeds. For Gadsi? It was a matter of stubbornness, or agenda Prince Aesril did know about.

"Father does not approve of me as his next successor," Gadsi said, eyes flickering in the distance towards the second habitat of the Limbo.

They were near, and Prince Aesril knew it even without feeling it.

He smiled. Just like him, indeed. But more stubborn.

"You know you could challenge your brothers right?" Gelethorn said instead of Prince Aesril.

She never answered. Stubborn indeed.

Once rested the group moved towards the second part of the Limbo.

Midway towards the next part of Limbo, Prince Aesril learned from Gadsi that the way the elves were taken was more confusing even for him.

The elves' encampment was already empty when Gadsi arrived at the city hall.

Like Prince Aesril, her mana sense was near to accurate outside the Gate. She saw ribbons of mana leak. Following the ribbons, however, made no sense to her at all as the mana leaks started to crumble. Once she tried to touch the mana leaks scattered on the ground, it turned to dust but after turning, they exploded with black light.

"Lifeforce," Prince Aesril said. Yet again, it was about lifeforce. "But dead. That's the only explanation I can think of."

Dying lifeforce always turned black.

Prince Aesril had been hunting the dark continent grounds, and once he killed monsters, their lifeforce always turned black, then disappeared. They could never become a mana leak. A dead lifeforce could not be a mana leak since it disappeared even before leaving the body.

"How could it be?" Gadsi said, confused as him.

"Guess we'll find out," Prince Aesril replied as soon as they arrived at the barrier that divided the Limbo. Across was a desert, sand brewing in the distance and was visible from afar.

Before them, was a cliff. And once Prince Aesril moved on the edge of the cliff, he instantly saw the battle looming under him.

It was them: elves against elves—but dead.