Phantasia: The Princess Knight

A black river flowed as large bubbles popped here and there. Alicia could not make heads or tails of what this river was made of nor did she care. All she knew was that she had to cross over to the other side. Now normally she would just fly over but this river was special. Nothing could fly over it. It was like there was some kind of ancient formation that kept people from flying over the river. The river was also too wide to even think about jumping over it as well.

"What do we do?" Claire asked.

"Mmm… Well, one thing is for certain that if we try to swim through this we would die. The stick I just placed into the black water disintegrated instantly." Annelia replied. She had taken a long stick and stuck it in the river to test how safe it was. But anything that touched the water disappeared instantly. 

"Well… There has to be a way to cross." Alicia said as she looked around. It had been known that many undead had traveled across this river and back. But how they went about it was still unknown to Alicia and her group.

"What if we made a boat with magic?" Blake suddenly spoke up.

"Would that work?" Starla asked.

"Only one way to find out." Alicia said as she picked up a stick wrapped it in her magic and then stuck it into the river. Sure enough, when she pulled the stick back out nothing happened to the stick. It was perfectly safe.

"Looks like it will work!" Loeri said excitedly. 

"Okay let's do this then." Alicia did not hesitate at all as she made a large boat out of magic. 

Everyone climbed aboard and Alicia used magic to propel the boat across the black murky water. The waves splashed against the sides of the boat as they slowly traveled across the river. Alicia took things slow since it was not every day one could enjoy a boat ride like this.

"The breeze feels nice. Would be better if we did not need to wear these masks..." Starla complained.

"If we didn't wear them we would be turned into ghouls. Unless you wish to become a ghoul Starla? Did you meet a handsome ghoul that you wish to spend your life with?" Annelia said as she poked Starla's sides.

"As if!" Starla yelled as she balled her fist up and punched Annelia's shoulder.

The trip across the water took almost half a day. The river felt more like an ocean than a river. Once they reached the shore they disembarked and Alicia waved her hand making the boat disappear. They had now made it to the mountain itself. As she gazed up the cliff slopes she frowned because she could already feel the intense killing intent coming from the cliffs above. 

"Keep your guards up. The demon ghouls already know we are here." Alicia said as she took the first step up the slope. Only to be stopped on her second step.

A female demon ghoul was standing in front of her. The skin on her face was slowly rotting away, the stench from her body was pungent and made the already horrible stench in the air even worse. "You humans dare come to this place!?"

"I am here for the soul revival grass, nothing more. I just need a few stocks to save a person's life." Alicia said not caring for the threatening look the female demon ghoul was giving her.

"I do not care if you are trying to save a life or not. You came to our domain and wish to take what is ours. You might as well leave your life here and become our dinner." The female demon ghoul suddenly let out a loud cackle as she continued: "Oh, it has been ages since the last time I have had a taste of human flesh. Please do stay and let me dine on your beautiful skin." 

"Sadly, I can not comply. It is either you let us be and get out of my way to get what I need or I will erase you from existence. Pick." Alicia did not want to waste any more time. She wanted to quickly get this herb and quickly get back home so her mother can assist her in reviving Nomi.

"Humph! You talk big for a human. I was going to be nice and kill you before I ate your flesh but since you wish to act tough let's see how tough you are while I am gnawing on your bones." The female demon ghoul said as she lunged at Alicia. 

Alicia frowned and was about to attack when Loeri suddenly jumped in front of her saying: "Alicia you go ahead let me play with this demon ghoul for a bit." 

Alicia simply nodded her head and walked past Loeri, as she did she whispered: "Good luck and be careful." Loeri responded with a nod and watched as Alicia walked past the female demon ghoul with ease.

"Where do you think you are going..." The female demon ghoul went to block Alicia's path once more but was stopped by Loeri who shot a small flame breath at her.

"You!" The female demon ghoul was enraged that she was forced to stop. But she was surprised to see that when she turned around to look at who stopped her the whole group of people had disappeared. She turned back to see them all walking behind the girl from before. 

"You sure it's okay for you to be looking away in the middle of a fight?" Loeri's voice filled the female demon ghoul's ears. When she turned around all she saw was black and something hard hit her face. 

***

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