Aether and the Beast

My friends and I were taken to a place that we thought was impossible. We gained the ability to manipulate what is called Aether, or as some people would call it, magic. When we came back to our own world from our adventure in a fantasy world, we accidentally unlocked the aether in our world. When we did that our world started to change showing the balance from reality to fantasy started to fade revealing things that should have stayed hidden. My friends started up a business that allows us to investigate these fades in reality. One case brought us to a place in Europe, a small remote town where witnesses state that they have seen a castle appear out of thin air.

Chapter 1: The Castle

Caidaen, Aurora, Chravis, Paula, and Jae all booked a flight to Europe to investigate the occurrence of the castle.

"Why can't we get a private jet?" Paula asks.

"Because we are not million-heirs Paula, we don't have large amounts of money like we did in the other world." Caid replied showing his annoyance while looking towards Aurora for some support but he was reading a book and listening to music. He ends up turning back facing forward realizing that Aurora had the better idea for the trip. After a few more hours of the flight the pilot announced that they are close to their destination.

They finally landed to their landing destination and took a vehicle to their true destination. When they arrived they stopped at the town to gather more information.

"So how should we do this? Split up and cover more ground or stay in a group?" Chravis asked.

"I can speak with the ladies to make things go more clearly" Jae suggested pulling out one of his instruments.

"Two groups should be fine, we can pretty much pass as reporters" Aurora stated.

"Aw, I wanted to be secret agents" Paula complained

"Its better to avoid any suspicions from people two groups should work. Aurora and I will take one side of town, Chravis, Paula and Jae will take the other side. Once we have info of what we need we'll meet up at the fountain and share what we got. And no messing around. Got it?" Caidaen stated. Paula rolled her eyes and agreed.

They made their way across the trying to gather as much information as they can about the castle. Finally Aurora and Caidaen were able to determine exactly where the castle is phasing in and out so they can go and investigate why it is there. After a few hours of asking around they all met up at the fountain and shared the information. Some people have stated that the castle is part of their history and others have stated that it doesn't exist at all.

"All the info is mixed and incoherent. I even checked my archives and couldn't find anything related." Aurora shared looking more concerned about the situation.

"Well if things like this were easy then we wouldn't really be needed" Caidaen replied "What we need to do right now is check out where this castle is phasing so we can see if its going to be trouble for this world." he stated.

"Are we really going to do more travel right after an airplane trip? I'm exhausted after all that and I want to sleep and rest." Paula complained acting like the child she is.

"Why are you still like this after all this time?" Chravis complained back.

"I can show my lady Paula to the Inn so she can rest." Jae said while trying to calm things down.

"Okay how about Aurora and I go and check it out cause Aurora has better vision for picking up aether so we can see what the problem is." Caidaen said

"What about me?" Chravis asked

"We want you to keep an eye on them so they don't do anything stupid" Aurora answered. Chravis rolled his and making a face of 'I don't want to'

"Look if either Aurora or I watch them we might end up killing them" Caidaen stated "You're the only one that has more self control than both of us when it comes to watching them." he added.

Chravis rolled is eyes and went along with Paula and Jae to the Inn while Caidaen and Aurora made their way towards the disappearing castle. It took them and few hours to make it to the area of the stories. Immediately Aurora was able to tell that there was something wrong with the aether in the area. ”There is so much wondering aether here that its no wonder a castle can suddenly appear and disappear. It’s making me dizzy and giving me a headache.” Aurora stated shutting his eyes to not pass out. Aurora was about to fall over but Caidean was able to catch him before he hit the ground. “Thanks for catching me. That would have been bad.” He stated. Caidaen helped Aurora get back to his feet.

”We should probably get into our job-classes so we can try and stabilize the aether in the area so we can actually fix the problems.“ Caidaen suggested.

”Yeah that’s a really good idea” Aurora agreed. They both closed their eyes and pulled out small crystals. Caidaen has a gold colored diamond like shape crystal with a symbol inside it. Aurora has a bright pink flower shape crystal with a symbol inside it. Both crystals glowed brightly and enveloped them and when the light faded away both Caidaen and Aurora were wearing a type of armor and clothes with weapons. They pulled out their weapons and started to focus their own aether into their weapons and their weapons started to glow very brightly. Caidaen’s weapon is a gunblade and it was glowing a golden color and Aurora‘s weapon was a floating mirror and it was glowing pink. As their weapons glowed more and more brightly, the either as the aether in the air started to calm and the castle started to appear more and more clear until it finally became a solid object. The glows started to dim and then disappear.

“Finally, I won’t get headaches” Aurora stated

“And we can try and find as to why this castle is here” Caidaen added. They both sheathed their weapons, putting them on their backs and made their way into the castle. They opened the large gold accented wooden door which looked as if it was going to fall apart from its hinges but thankfully it didn’t. As they entered, they walked into a grand hall with large stairs the split in two directions. “Do you see anything that can give us an idea as to why this castle is here?” Caidaen asked Aurora

“Thankfully with less aether in the air I should be able to pinpoint the the area.” Aurora stated. As he was looking around he was able to spot some aether that appeared to be colored which surprised him. “I am seeing aether that is a bright red color, but it doesn’t seem to be dangerous” he said. Caidaen was kinda surprised because of what Aurora has said, in the past about the aether in their world he has never stated a color for it.

“A bright red aether? How is that possible?” Caidaen asked. Aurora looked at him and simply shrugged and started walking towards to where the aether was in And Caidaen started to follow. They were heading towards the west wing of the castle and were climbing many stairs just to get to it. They finally reached the top of the stairs and Aurora was slightly winded.

“I need to work more on my cardio and step aerobics” he said while trying to catch his breath. Caidaen gave him a slight smirk And Aurora gives him a dirty look. They continued on into a large room which they both guessed would have been the master bedroom. Aurora thought that he would see so much red he would need to close his eyes again but the moment they entered the room, the red aether had dimmed so much the it nearly disapeared. “Uh, I canot seem to find the source of the aether anymore.” He stated.

“Then we should look around this room to see if we can find anything that could be the source of the aether. Do you know it disappeared?” Caidaen asked.

“I don’t know. As soon as we entered the room the aether like a bright light just vanished but I can still see some streams of it as if it was paint in the ocean.” Aurora described. They started looking around, moving objects not really wanting to break anything. Aurora started walking towards the balcony of the room and saw a small standing table with a tall glass dome on it. He started getting close to it to examine it. As he was getting closer he saw dead rose petals and when he was really close to it about to touch the glass dome the red aether became so bright on the petals that it became blinding to him resulting in him quickly closing his eyes. But, the light from the aether was so bright that Caidaen was able to see it as well and the light ended up enveloping Aurora and when It did it quickly vanished with Aurora, the table and the glass dome. Caidaen was so shocked that they disappeared pulled out his linkshell and called his other teammates.