Legends of Nahvra: The Koldryth Beast
Chapter 3: The Portal

“As for now, we need to replace a way to rebuild the portal and get to the Koldryth Realm. This will be dangerous, but I bet it can be done. Who’s with me?” Drakel said aloud, hoping people would be on his side.

“I’m with you, Drakel!” I said, raising my hand. Hanako and Tarquin soon joined as well. “For now, though, we should rest,” Drakel said as he sat down. “He’s probably right. We should sleep,” I said, sitting next to Drakel. “How exactly do we rebuild the portal in the first place?” Hanako asked Tarquin. “I think there is a graph mapping out the instructions. Sadly, this place is a mess, so it may take a while to replace,” Tarquin sighed in annoyance. In the meantime, the others and I fell asleep while Tarquin looked around for the instruction manual.

I woke up to a loud roar. I noticed the temple was destroyed, and it was falling apart. There was fire everywhere. The heat burned so much, and I felt as if I was going to pass out. As I tried to run out, I saw the Koldryth Beast was there, right in front of me, hovering over the corpse of someone familiar. I couldn’t make out who it was. For some reason, the beast wasn’t moving despite me moving forward. As I got closer, I noticed who that corpse was... It was Drakel’s dead body. I tried to scream, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t cry... I couldn’t even speak. I tried to get up, but I couldn’t move either. What was going on? Fire was spreading quickly, and the trees were burning around me. The creature then moved its arm and stabbed me right in the chest. My vision turned black, and I could hear a voice. Was I dead? No... I knew that voice. It was telling me to wake up. Was I… dreaming?

“Wake up! It’s me, Drakel!”

“Ah!” I screamed as I got out of bed. “What happened? Everyone woke up hours ago,” Drakel asked me in a worrying tone. “Oh... It was nothing. Just a nightmare,” I told him truthfully while also trying to cease any worry.

“If you say so. Anyway, Tarquin found the instruction book!”

“Really? Nice!” I said in mild excitement. I then ran over to Tarquin. “I heard you found the portal instructions!”

“Yes, unfortunately, there are a few things we need: two enhanced mana cores, condensed magic essence, and a Koldryth Gem. Other than that, we have everything we need. Oh, I almost forgot, we need to rebuild the frame, which should be easy.”

“How the hell are we gonna get a Koldryth Gem in Othania? Also, who is going to stay back and rebuild the frame?”

“That would be yours truly. You three will collect the materials while I remake the frame, alright? As for the gem, there are these things known as rifts that basically spread stuff from one realm to another. To make a portal, you need something from that other dimension. Look in the caves for a Koldryth Rift.

“Sounds good to me!”

I then walked away to tell the others. They all agreed to the plan, and I signaled Tarquin that we would be heading off. “Oh, don’t go yet! Here, this is a map that should lead you to where you need to go,” Tarquin said to us as he handed us an old map.

After that, we had left the temple and headed off to get the Koldryth Gem. There was luckily a cave in one of the mountains, but it was a bit far away. However, we decided to go there anyways. Drakel called over Nora, and we started to move. After hours of riding, we were ambushed by a large number of Koldryth Spawn.

“Shit!” Yelled Hanako as one of them attacked her. “More Koldryth Spawn?” I exclaimed out loud. Hanako started to rip through most of them; however, one jumped onto her arm and started to bite her. “Damn it! Get off me, you piece of dragon shit,” she said as she threw it off her.

Drakel then signaled Nora to attack some of the Spawn which she did. Unfortunately, a few of them grabbed onto Drakel and started to attack. I pulled them off, but Drakel had obvious bite marks and wounds. After a few hours of fighting these pests, they finally stopped and there was no more. “Well, that was just peachy!” I said with a sarcastic tone in my voice.

After that, I bandaged up Drakel and Hanako. We decided to take a small rest to heal up. I grabbed some berries and a few herbs to heal them. After half an hour, we decided to start moving again.

As the minutes turned to hours, we finally arrived at the cavern. As we walked in, we noticed something. Something was watching us. It was behind us. We swiftly turned around only to replace another person. “Who are you? How long have you been following us?” I said to the man.

“I wasn’t following you until recently. I heard you were trying to take down that beast! I would like to help. By the way, the name is Skaro Draconite!” He said to us. We decided to let him help because we needed it.

We informed him that we needed a Koldryth Gem. They were black and grew near Koldryth Rifts. “Well then, I would like to come along.”

As we ventured deeper into the cave, the entrance had closed off! “Oh, come on!” Hanako yelled out. We now needed to replace another way out. The further we went, the more I noticed something. It was a strange crimson glow similar to the one on my necklace. “Guys, I found something!” I yelled out. It was a strange crimson rift with dark crystals nearby. “This must be the gem we needed,” Hanako said quietly.

“I got this,” Skaro said to us as he tried to pull it out. He used a lot of force but in the end, he managed to pull it out. It was glowing with Koldryth magic. I then grabbed the gem and put it in my bag.

Unfortunately, our only exit was closed off. We decided to keep going deeper. We heard a large growl. “Everyone, grab your weapons. We have company,” I said as a feral direwolf ran at us. It first jumped at Drakel and bit his arm. “Fuck!” He yelled. His arm started to bleed immensely. Hanako and Skaro then ran at the beast and stabbed it in the eye. It then let go of Drakel.

The wolf was wounded and bleeding. It tried to attack me; however, Drakel stabbed it. “Nice save!” I said to him. We continued walking for hours. It felt like we were going nowhere. After many hours, we found an exit! It led us back to the kingdom. Luckily, we knew how to get back.

We quickly returned to Tarquin’s base; however, he wasn’t there. Instead, we found a note on the table reading, “If you are seeing this, the frame has been built, and I am going to replace a few mana crystals to make the enhanced mana cores. I have already made one, and the magic essence is currently condensing. I should be back tomorrow. -Tarquin”

“Portal? The hell are you planning?” Skaro said in suspicion. “We were going to the Koldryth Realm to grab an ancient arcane relic,” I stated. “I have a bad feeling about this,” he said to me.

“Hey, it’s getting dark. Let’s rest,” Hanako said to us. “You’re probably right,” Skaro said to her. We all sat down for a minute. After that, we fell asleep. The only two awake were me and Skaro. “Can’t sleep, huh?” I said to Skaro. “No. I don’t think we should be going to that beast’s home world. Not only are we practically abandoning Othania, but we don’t know anything about the other world. I don’t like this.”

“Don’t worry. We will be fine,” I said in a reassuring tone.

Me and him finally fell asleep after an hour or two. I woke up to Tarquin telling me that he was back. “Everyone, wake up! I am back and have the magic items we need,” Tarquin said holding a bag of materials. “Nice!” I said aloud. “Now that we have the materials for this portal, let’s get to work,” he said to us.

Tarquin then pulled out the condensed magic essence, and I placed it in the mana cores. “Now, we use this magic essence and open the portal!” Tarquin said as he placed the magic essence into the portal frame, opening the portal. Everyone walked in except Skaro. “Hey, what are you waiting for? Let’s go!” I said to him. “Oh. I’m coming,” Skaro said, worryingly as he came in. The vortex behind us then shut. We were now in another world... The Koldryth Realm.