《The Deathseeker [Under Revision]》


 CHARACTER GLOSSARY

    <h2>Main:</h2>


    <h4>Dalric:</h4>


    A giant, maybe the giant. A child prodigy, bred specifically for war. He spent the early years of his life conquering tribes, clans, and cities. By the time he graduated to kingdoms, he was disillusioned. In that time he became a contracted slave to the Gods of Frysta. He painfully toiled under them for many centuries before finally meeting his end in a massive battle in Aonica.


    Reborn centuries later, to the tune of calamity, he finds himself at a loss in an unfamiliar world.


    <hr>


    <h2>Colonies of Akai Ken:</h2>


    The Akai Ken jungle is home to many beasts, it¡¯s believed the most prominent of them are those that belong to one of the colonies.


    Unnamed colony of tigers:


    <h4>Alexander, The Sixth:</h4>


    Archon of a colony of tigers. A cold and calculating being with a taste for conquest.


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    <hr>


    Unnamed, unverified colony


    <h4>Raphaela:</h4>


    Daughter of the Archon.


    <hr>


    <h4>Selene</h4>


    Master spymaster and scout, aunt of Raphaela


    <hr>


    <h4>Cleon:</h4>


    Raphaela¡¯s favorite uncle.


    <hr>


    <h4>Ewan:</h4>


    Uncle of Raphaela


    <h2>Other:</h2>


    <h4>Laekna:</h4>


    Dalric¡¯s most trusted companion. Nickname: Fae


    <hr>


    Ryku:


    A Surunese, silver badge Paragon.

 WORLD

    Maps:


    Locations:


    Island:


    Nations:


    Kingdom of Whitesails


    An extension of the Salian Empire. The Kingdom of Whitesails was founded in 323 PD by Andreas Romani, the third son of the Emperor at the time. As the only part of the empire not on the mainland, it¡¯s been afforded a great degree of autonomy.


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    <hr>


    Taiyo Dynasty


    Once an unruly medley of tribal lords, Akira Taiyo, leader of the Taiyo tribe, successfully lead a campaign across the land to unify the lords. Now, more than a hundred years later, the nation sits on a steady foundation under the leadership of his son, Akio Taiyo. Though it¡¯s become synonymous with slavery, only a sixth of its economy consisted of the buying and selling of slaves.


    <hr>


    Other:


    Akai Ken Jungle


    A massive jungle known to hold terrifying wildlife. Both powerful beasts and man-eating plants call this deadly expanse home. It¡¯s said that if you can avoid ending up in either¡¯s clutches, many treasures await.


    Other:


    Sailian Empire


    Large, powerful empire in control of more kingdoms than valinoids had fingers.


    <hr>

 Chapter 0: Why Do I Exist?

    A new sensation filled it, or was it old? It wasn''t sure. There weren''t many things it knew. What was it? Where was it? How did it come to be? It knew none of these things. It did know, now, that it was different from before. Something had changed. Whether that change was foreign or familiar didn''t matter, it felt new.


    Curious what this unfamiliar sensation was, it observed it. At first, the nature of the sensation eluded it. It could pick out the presence of change, but it simply couldn''t identify it. Its lack of knowledge hampered its desire to understand itself.


    Until suddenly, it knew. As if it had always known, the knowledge was just...there.


    It was expanding. Growing. It didn¡¯t know how big it was, but it was certainly getting bigger.


    How?


    It pondered the matter. Though it was a fruitless endeavor. There wasn''t much to think about, it had only just learned what ''size'' was after all. Even though it now understood that its size grew, it knew none of the details. It pondered for a while longer, but try as it might, answers didn''t appear.


    It wasn''t worried. It didn''t know how to be, it just...was. Growing felt nice though, it liked growing. Bigger was better, it thought, unaware that such a specific thought should have eluded it.


    So grow it did.


    It grew and grew and grew until...it didn¡¯t. It suddenly stopped, stagnating.


    After spending so long growing, it did not like the abrupt halt. It had just begun the futile venture of trying to figure out why when another change occurred. It shrunk! No, it was still shrinking!


    It did not like shrinking one bit. But like its growing phase, it could do nothing about it. It just...was.


    So time marched on as it slowly lost all the size it had grown.


    Time had long been a confusing prospect to it. It couldn''t quite picture what time was, all it understood was things happened in order. Until now.


    The knowledge of ''time'' made a very welcomed surprise appearance. Just like ''size'' it appeared to have come out of nothing, but unlike ''size'' the knowledge didn''t feel...useful. It felt like an incomplete picture, giving an idea but not quite bestowing understanding. It did tell it one thing though, the shrinking phase was definitely longer.


    That too came to an end, however, violently. It shook and morphed and wiggled and pulsed. It didn''t know when it started understanding ''shape'', but it could clearly tell its own shape was changing erratically. Oddly, it enjoyed the apparent chaos. It felt nice. Soon it understood why.


    When the violent shifting subsided, it thought, for the first time, with words.


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    What are these symbols?


    Language. It had learned language. That was just the tip of the iceberg. It couldn''t tell yet, too busy digesting the complexities of linguistics, but it was smarter.


    Ah! So it was called time. Bells, days, weeks, months, years, decades, centuries. Time is broken up into pieces. A day contains twelve bells, but how long is a bell?


    So entrapped by its newfound thinking power, it failed to notice it was growing again.


    Though it did notice, eventually.


    Ah! I grow. This is good.


    It quickly learned that growing and shrinking came in cycles. It grew, then it shrunk. It grew, then it shrunk. Each time it became smarter, more aware, more discerning. Gone was the time its mere composition was a mystery.


    It was an ahjer construct. One that thought. It grew because it was absorbing foreign ahjer into itself, it shrunk because it was compressing and distilling that ahjer. Discovering its function was a happy moment, but it ultimately just opened the door for even greater questions.


    Purpose. Its purpose had been the main topic of thought during most of its recent cycles. It seemed, as far as its own intelligence went, the cycles had diminishing returns. That bothered it. It wanted to know more, it wanted to know why. Why was it here? Why could it think? Why did it exist?


    No matter how much it grew, it always reached the stage where it had questions there seemed to be no answers to. This time however, it didn''t think a few more cycles would shed new light. It had lost count how many cycles had passed since it began questioning its purpose. As they came and went, an inkling that it wasn¡¯t learning anything new but rather re-learning things it already knew crept into its thoughts. Nevertheless, it carried on in its pursuit of internal understanding.


    Many questions and ideas popped in and out of its thoughts. Some branches took weeks to flesh out, others took mere moments. They all reached the same conclusion though, a dead end. It continued anyway, undeterred. Never had something burned so brightly within it. It had to know the answers.


    It was almost obsessed with knowing.


    Eventually its ceaseless pursuit led it down a branch of thought that shook it to its core.


    Am I alone?


    Like a match in a monsoon, the fire within it was not only snuffed out, but completely consumed. The thought shook it so much it didn''t think another for months.


    For years...


    For decades¡­


    For centuries¡­


    ...


    He didn¡¯t think anything. He couldn¡¯t. He refused to acknowledge the possibility he was alone. No. He just wasn¡¯t smart enough. So he¡¯d wait, wait until he was. Wait until the right piece of knowledge popped into his mind. Wait until he knew why he was an ahje¡ª


    Wait¡­


    The dam he placed in his mind to block all thoughts had cracked. Then, moments later, it violently shattered. A barrage of information invaded him: knowledge, ideas, beliefs, understanding. For a moment he couldn¡¯t handle it, almost completely shutting down under the strain. He went into a form of stasis, not too dissimilar to his previous state. Weeks turned into months, turned into years as he digested all the information. When he finally began thinking again, he had a whole new perspective.


    It wasn¡¯t an ahjer construct at all!


    It was¡ª


    No, he was¡ª


    No, I am¡­


    I am¡­


    Dalric


    Dalric opened his eyes. Neither he nor the world was prepared, but once again Dalric the Deathseeker walked the planet.

 Chapter 1: A New Me

    The sky was dazzling. So many stars pierced through the sweeping darkness of night, you could almost forget it was night at all. They danced brightly amongst the three moons, each radiating their own vibrant color. The stars were free to frolic, but the moons were fixed perfectly, if unnaturally, in a line. Acting like bards, humming on stage for the birds and fae to make merry. The stars played their part in the spectacle, flashing and swirling and sparkling. The movements of any small patch of the stars would be entrancing on its own, but as a collective it was so much more than. It was a ballet beyond beautiful. Some stars moved in coordination with those around it, others were more free-flowing, but they all moved to the tune of the moons.


    There was no sound, but it was hard to tell while enthralled by the show. The moons¡¯ music paraded around the land as if there was. It was an orchestra that fed the mind¡¯s wildest fantasies. Together with dancing stars, they lit up the sky with the most enchanting of performances. In fact, enchanting couldn¡¯t possibly adequately describe the experience. It was more than that, much more. Unfortunately, those with the power to see it could never truly appreciate it¡¯s magnificence. For in all of its marvel, it foretold nothing but the worst of calamities.


    Dalric scowled. Too many competing thoughts raced through his head. What did it mean that he awoke to the Dance of the Forgotten? What did it mean that he awoke at all? How was he alive? Was this the Gods doing?


    His last memory was dying in the fields of Aonica. A true death, a death of soul, not just body. That should have been it for him. He should have disappeared from this world permanently. Yet here he was, gazing upon the remnants of one of the greatest catastrophes in history.


    What is the meaning of this?


    He closed his eyes. The finale of the Dance was exceedingly bright. Though its nature wouldn¡¯t allow it to blind a person, it was known to cause excruciating migraines. The last thing Dalric needed was an even greater headache.


    The Dance soon subsided, returning the sky to its more natural green hue. The moon could still be spotted, small and masked though it was. Normalcy had resumed and Dalric was speechless. The familiarity of his surroundings was almost more shocking than the cosmic light show that preceded it. It was full-blown proof that he was back. He was alive. He was on Fyrsta. He was still Dalric the Deathseeker¡­


    Still.


    A defeated sigh escaped his lips. It would seem he was truly doomed to forever live as the Gods¡¯ dog. He chastized himself for allowing a brief glint of hope to seep into him, he should have known better. The Gods were petty, weak, and nothing like the temples preached, but their contracts were absolute. More absolute than even Dalric realized. He lightly shook his head.


    How fooli¡ªhm? The levels haven¡¯t dropped.


    Dalric had only witnessed the Dance of the Forgotten once before and while the much younger him would¡¯ve been forgiven for being too captivated to note his surroundings, he was just as attentive then as he is now. While the semi-illusionary show raged on far into the sky, the very real ahjer on the ground followed closely behind.


    Ahjer overflowed, saturating everything. The dirt, the grass, the very air brimmed with ahjer. Anywhere and everywhere under the three moons, the concentration of ambient ahjer increased more than tenfold. In some places the levels were so high, you could physically see ahjer. A theoretical impossibility. Any trained ahjerist could sense it, but even Dalric, a master twenty times over, couldn¡¯t see ambient ahjer. Yet the Dance could cause such anomalies.


    But. Like the Dance, the odd explosion of ahjer only lasted a brief moment. It should have dissipated right as the sky returned to its normal state, but it hadn¡¯t. As Dalric stretched out his senses, he just felt more of the same, an unnaturally thick concentration of ahjer. Another question to add to the growing list.


    It was probably the most immediately concerning question, as anything linked with the Dance should be given priority, but in stretching out his senses Dalric had discovered something of even greater personal concern.


    I¡¯m...human?


    Engrossed in his thoughts, Dalric had failed to notice the very, very different body that housed them. He stood. He had sensed he was laying in some sort of graveyard and standing up had confirmed it. Actually seeing the chipped, cracked, and withered tombstones scattered amongst overgrown vegetation told a more detailed story. There weren¡¯t many of them, their size and intricate designs painted a picture of importance. At least at the times of their passing, it had clearly been decades since anyone had come to pay respects and the jungle had firmly claimed them in that time.


    He faintly wondered why couldn''t spot any other signs of civilization, but those thoughts quickly passed. The scenery was of secondary importance right now. He was human.


    So small¡­


    He couldn''t remember the last time he stood so close to the ground. The bod¡­ his body couldn''t be more than seven and a half feet tall, less than half of what he used to stand at. His arms were short and thin, to say nothing of his legs. They felt like skin and bones compared to what he was used to. His shoulders weren''t broad enough, his back wasn''t thick enough. Nothing about this b¡ªhis body felt like him. It felt...wrong.


    The domineering presence, gone. The monstrous muscles, gone. The impenetrable skin, gone. Dalric the Immortal Giant, gone. Though the ¡®immortal¡¯ piece was truer than ever, he supposed.


    Is this punishment? Is this how the Gods toy with me for thinking I could escape them?


    He sighed. As much of a downgrade as this was, it wasn''t the worst reality. They could''ve made him a dwarf. Or just a really short human, for that matter. From a different perspective, this was a boon. Though Dalric was predisposed to desiring a massive frame, said frame caused more problems than it fixed. He could make do, he most certainly wouldn¡¯t wallow in despair like they hoped he would.


    I''ll have to relearn everything. Ugh.


    He reached out his hand and called for Laekna, he wished she could escape this wretched life but alas; it wasn''t to be. At least she''d get a good kick out of him being so short now.


    ...


    There was no response.


    Hm?


    Fear crept into his heart for a moment as he failed to even locate her, but it faded moments after as he could clearly feel their bond was still intact. He just couldn''t connect to her, nor any of the others


    He tried calling for her again, this time putting a bit more umph into it.


    Same result.


    This time though, he noticed another problem. He was weak, disgustingly weak. Not in a ''humans are weaker than giants'' way, in a ''there was a pitiful amount of ahjer coursing through his body'' way. Humans may have lacked any kind of respectable physical strength, but if there was one thing they didn''t lack, it was a body perfectly suited for ahjer. Something was wrong.


    Dalric looked inward, fully analyzing his body. Beyond the pathetic amount of ahjer in it, there weren¡¯t any problems. In fact, it looked surprisingly good. The purity of the ahjer within him was a notch or two higher than before. In almost every case purity mattered far, far more than quantity, but currently Dalric had the quantity of a newborn child. It was¡ª


    Wait...you fool. Of course I do, I¡¯ve just been reborn.


    That answered that question, he assumed, but he now found himself in an odd situation. His body was clearly that of a full-grown adult, so would his ahjer increase like an adult¡¯s or like a child¡¯s? If it was the latter then it wasn¡¯t much of an issue, he had many techniques that would boost that already remarkable growth to unimaginable levels. If it was the former...well the Gods would be out of luck cause he¡¯d be useless for the next two centuries.


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    That would be humorous...but unlikely.


    He¡¯d know in a couple of days either way. A visit to a temple could wait until after. In the meantime, he had to figure out what was going on and where he even was. Aonica was known for its unnaturally flat land. Wherever he was, it had hills. The graveyard he stood in clearly sat on top of one.


    So they''ve moved me somewhere far from Aonica, why? Do I have a mission here? Does it have to do with the Dance?


    There were so many unknowns. Unfortunately, he had none of his companions to aid him in information gathering. He''d have to do it himself.


    Hmm. When I find a major landmark I¡¯ll figure out where I am, finding out why I¡¯m here is more important. For that, I need civilization.


    The denseness of the jungle led him to believe there weren''t any major cities around, but jungles were great sources of food, animal skins, herbs, etc. During his brief scan earlier, he had sensed an abundance of wildlife. Even if there was no city within the jungle, there would be one close by with a frontier town feeding it with goods. Dalric just had to find that town.


    He laid his left palm on his bare chest, drawing his ahjer to¡ª


    Hm...with this much ambient ahjer, I might as well use it.


    He left his palm on his chest, but released his ahjer. The ahjer around him gathered as he chanted an incantation.


    ~¡°The king of the sea wields the mightiest of weapons.¡±~


    Ahjer flowed into his right hand, slowly morphing into a spear.


    ~¡°The king of the earth wields the mightiest of shields.¡±~


    More ahjer flowed towards him. This time converging around his left hand, molding into a shield.


    ~¡°But the king of the sky is the mightiest of all.¡±~


    A thin layer of light shimmered in the night as ahjer coated his naked body. It grew thicker and dimmer as it pulled more and more ahjer into it. Beginning under his palm, the ahjer morphed into a tough metallic plate. First, it covered his chest and shoulders, but it quickly spread further down. Slick gauntlets covered his hands while thick boots shaped around his feet. In a matter of minutes, he donned a pure white suit of armor. It was smoother and thinner than typical armor, lacking much of the bulk and jaggedness associated with them. It wasn¡¯t remotely skin tight, but you could easily make out the form of the human within. Save for the shoulders, wrists, hip, and ankles, it appeared like one flowing sheet of metal. It wasn¡¯t, mobility was a key point for the suit, but it did give that impression.


    The spell¡¯s design also intelligently accounted for Dalric¡¯s nudity and created a form-fitting gambeson-like layer underneath the plating. With the armor fully materialized, there was only one thing left.


    Out of his back two large, seven-foot wings sprouted. They first appeared skeletal, bony and unmajestic. The ambient ahjer didn¡¯t flow quick enough for them to sprout fully formed. Dalric could¡¯ve used a portion of his own to supplement, but this was a test. A test that wasn¡¯t going well. Eventually, after a bit of waiting, muscles covered the bone, followed by skin, followed by perfect white feathers. The ambient ahjer dispersed as his wings fluttered in their full form. The spell was complete.


    Dalric frowned. He hadn¡¯t used an incantation in centuries, partially because they were redundant but mostly because they were slow. And by the Elders were they slow. He could have completed the entire process in seconds if he did it manually. Sadly, he¡¯d have to get used to it. His paltry ahjer levels would have been enough for this spell, but if he wanted access to a greater portion of his arsenal he¡¯d need more. The ambient ahjer was that more, he¡¯d just have to completely relearn how to cast spells to account for it.


    And then re-relearn when they rise again.


    It wasn¡¯t all bad though, his voice was smooth. Quite smooth. After a bit of speaking and humming, he could openly admit he preferred it to his old voice. It was still deep and full of bass, but less unending abyss and more large canyon.


    Sunshine, look for the sunshine.


    He could almost hear Laekna drilling those words into his ear again. Always trying to get him to look at the positives. It rarely worked before, but for some reason he felt¡­ not terrible. Maybe it was being reborn, maybe it was his human brain, maybe it was just being outside the Gods¡¯ direct purview. Whatever it was, he hoped it lasted until he reunited with Laekna.


    He quickly tried calling for her again, but the result was the same. Alas. As long as the bond was intact, he knew she was alright. That was good enough. When he was stronger, he¡¯d break whatever was blocking their connection. For now, he had answers and a town to find.


    Before setting off, he cast a quick illusion. Flying around in a bright white suit of armor would be less than wise. In under half a second, the armor exchanged its pristine white for a muted dark green. Black would obviously be the best for nighttime camouflage, but on the odd chance someone spotted him, it was better to not appear so menacing. Even without his former frame, a valinoid creature with black wings would always unnerve other valinoids.


    He briefly considered using a more complete concealment spell, but decided against it. With his current measly ahjer levels, the cost would be too high to be reasonable. He had no idea how long he¡¯d have to keep it up. Dark green wings still looked odd, but they¡¯d have to do. He also dispelled the now green spear and shield. Their color wasn¡¯t an issue, they were just bulky and unnecessary. He wouldn¡¯t be able to resummon them unless he completely redid the whole spell, but he didn¡¯t give that a thought. They were fairly weak as far as weapons go.


    With his appearance sorted, he stretched out the wings and lifted himself off the ground. He rose steadily, acclimating himself to the weight difference.


    Hm.


    As he expected, flying was far more comfortable as a human. What he did find odd was the fact that there was no change to the performance. Even though he was less than half his old height and likely even less than that on the mass side, speed and maneuverability were the same. He just felt much less of a strain. That shouldn¡¯t be the case, but Dalric would happily take it. The strain was what made flying massively inconvenient in his old body.


    Hm. Old body¡­


    Since he woke up he hadn''t heard or felt a thing from the Gods. He knew the contract was still in place. At least he was mostly sure, in an effort to not unduly get his hopes up he just considered it a fact. Better to be pleasantly wrong than¡­ the alternative. Being free from their direct influence for a while was nice though. It''s the first time his mind hasn''t felt polluted in centuries. The new, weaker body wasn''t so bad considering, he''d enjoy this respite while it lasted.


    He''d just have to get used to all the quirks that came with it, like his complete lack of any form of night vision. Without the Dance, black was the prominent color he could see. There were blotches of colorful foliage here and there, but darkness very much reigned supreme.


    Rising above the trees, he moved to rectify that failing. Ahjer clustered around his eyes before swiftly seeping in. Though the effect would seem simple, bestowing the ability to see clearly through darkness required a very complex spell. Giant¡¯s natural darkvision meant Dalric had rarely ever used the spell. That lack of practice meant he... made a mistake. Instead of increasing his eyes¡¯ sensitivity to light, he decreased it, effectively blinding himself.


    FANtastic.


    The spell only lasted a bell. He wouldn¡¯t be permanently sightless, but it made the scouting process a great bit more troublesome. He lightly shook his head, lost for words at how he made such an error. A lack of practice wasn¡¯t a good enough excuse.


    Are human eyes compositionally different?


    He was fairly sure they functioned the same fundamentally, but there was a lot of room for him to be wrong. When he met a human¡¯s eyes, it was usually to remove their head not examine it...


    He hastily pushed those thoughts away. Thoughts of re-attempting the spell to reclaim his vision took their place, but without knowing exactly why he failed it could just make things worse. He was sure he completed the spell perfectly so something else must have been at play and this wasn''t the most opportune time to try and figure that out.


    Without physical sight, he¡¯d have to completely rely on his ahjer sense. It was much better in certain ways; it was omnidirectional and couldn¡¯t be blocked by mundane objects. On the other end however, it lacked the detail and resolution that eyesight offered. Doubly so for now, since he wasn¡¯t at all used to his new body and the minute ways it reacted to ahjer. Either way, suffice it would.


    Picking a random direction to travel towards, he hovered above the trees while scanning for creatures with abnormally high ahjer. He¡¯d prefer to stumble upon a human civilization, and the chances were in his favor considering their population sizes, but he¡¯d take any intelligent life. An enlightened beast would definitely know where the closest settlement of valinoids was.


    It actually didn¡¯t take long for him to encounter one. A beast that is. Unfortunately, it was neither enlightened nor interested in helping Dalric. It was on the hunt.


    He awkwardly dodged as an eight-foot bird zoomed by. The beast was both silent and exceptionally quick for its size. It packed an impressive amount of agility too, spinning around before swooping for him again. Dalric stretched his fist out and let his ahjer flow into his knuckles. Moments before the bird collided with it, the ahjer burst out into a massive hand. He successfully snagged it out of the air, but before he could do anything else the bird¡¯s feathers flared with ahjer and his own ahjer-made fist melted against them.


    Oh?


    Once free, the bird immediately flicked both of its nine-foot wings towards Dalric. The very same feathers that had melted the fist now flew towards his face. He didn¡¯t have the maneuverability to dodge, so he clapped instead. Ahjer flowed through both of his palms so as they impacted one another they released a forceful wave of wind. It wasn¡¯t enough to completely halt the feathers, but by the time they reached him he easily swatted them out of the way. While he did so, he noted the bird made a prompt and soundless exit. Realizing Dalric was no easy meal, it was off to go hunt something else.


    Was that an owl? Since when did owls have a twenty foot wingspan?

 Chapter 2: A New World

    The longer he flew, the more he was certain he¡¯d inevitably stumble upon an enlightened beast. Likely more than one. Unique and extraordinary organisms kept popping up one after another, both flora and fauna. His belief that the Dance had somehow finagled with the ambient ahjer levels quickly broke apart the further he travelled. He continually spotted plants that required sustained and dense concentrations of ahjer to grow. Some were known to take years to bloom. That could only mean the current state of ambient ahjer wasn¡¯t new or unusual. This area had experienced it for years, possibly decades.


    What does this mean?


    His second theory would have been that he was simply reborn in a high-density area, maybe something about the graveyard, or those buried within, caused that area to have an explosive amount of ahjer, but he had put some distance between him and the small hill he awoke on. Not a great distance, likely a kilometer or two, just enough to disprove the theory.


    Where did that leave him, on a different world?


    He laughed off the possibility. Though it wasn¡¯t none per se, the only being capable of such a thing insisted on ¡®not interfering with the natural processes of an ecology¡¯. Which in reality just meant they were lazy and incapable of accepting responsibility.


    Rude.


    Dalric ignored that.


    He couldn¡¯t ignore the abnormalities he was observing though. They broke his basic understanding of the world. He lowered himself to the ground and gently picked up a moonfire plant. If he hadn¡¯t sensed dozens of them, he wouldn¡¯t believe the one in his hand was real. Even as he rubbed his fingers across it, feeling the petals radiating heat, he could barely believe it. Moonfire plants sold for thousands of gold precisely because there were rarer than rare. Only occasionally spotted around volcanoes, not along a warm jungle floor.


    What could possibly explain thi¡ª


    His head jerked up, mostly out of habit as he still couldn¡¯t see. Something had jogged into the range of his ahjer sense. No, somethings. There were three of them: they all walked on four legs and were likely unclothed, decent ahjer levels as well, but not enough to be enlightened. Whatever they were, they were heading straight for him.


    Or.


    He looked back down


    For the moonfire?


    Dalric made himself scarce, flying up into the canopy and blending into its shadows.


    Let¡¯s see what you do.


    The radius of his unfocused ahjer sense stretched to twenty-five meters, give or take. That wasn¡¯t an incredible length, but the sheer amount of plant life in the region meant without an equally pervasive sight or sense, the somethings wouldn¡¯t have seen him. If they did though, the coming seconds would be awkward.


    Thankfully for Dalric, they hadn¡¯t seen him, but they also weren¡¯t interested in the moonfire. They passed it by without giving it a second look. That was odd. Enlightened or not, animals tended to know when a plant contained large amounts of ahjer they could use. Even if the somethings were carnivores, which Dalric felt was likely considering their size and the confidence in which they jogged about, ahjer enriched plants could still be consumed for significant benefits.


    Surely that means there isn¡¯t an enlightened leading them? ...Or have they already picked enough?


    Dalric was torn on whether he should tail them. Once they crossed the area right underneath him, he had a much clearer picture of what they were. They had tails, for one. Likely feline rather than canine, their movements reminded him of jaguars. Though they were quite large for jaguars. The one leading the group stood at almost five feet tall. Thinking back to everything he¡¯d seen during his short flight, it actually wouldn¡¯t be that strange a prospect. Some animals grew more muscular when exposed to high concentrations of ahjer. If this level of ahjer had been consistent in the region for decades maybe they were the result.


    There should be an enlightened among them then.


    He decided to follow them. If nothing, their presence meant a simple frontier town couldn¡¯t be anywhere close. They¡¯d have either been hunted themselves or they¡¯d have massacred the populace. Territory was usually everything to these kinds of creatures.


    Stealth wasn¡¯t on the mind when his wings were designed, so he cast a slight muffling spell and kept his distance. He still roused a few of the critters, the spell was simple and geared towards cost-efficiency rather than efficacy, but thankfully they never ran in the direction of the something-jaguars. The noise they made didn¡¯t seem to reach them either. Though the jungle wasn¡¯t exactly quiet, perceptive ears would clearly hear the small animals frantically fleeing for their lives. Whatever the something-jaguars were doing, they remained oblivious.


    Or they don¡¯t care.


    Dalric followed them for a while, easily over four kilometers. They stopped for water once, but otherwise they jogged at the same pace the entire time; across rivers, around hills, their pace stayed constant. It wasn¡¯t until a third of the way through the journey he realized a large part of the path they walked on lacked the level vegetation the rest of the jungle maintained. He had chastised himself for the oversight, but in truth his ahjer sense just wasn¡¯t that refined at the moment.


    Anyway, once he noticed he felt confident in his decision to follow them. While well-trodden paths weren¡¯t necessarily a sign of anything other than consistent traffic, this specific path reeked of advanced organization. If one of their number wasn¡¯t enlightened then there was a beast master or tamer. Either would do for Dalric.


    It was only a half a kilometer further before the something-jaguars finally slowed down. They reached... a checkpoint.


    A checkpoint.


    Two other something-jaguars stood in the middle of what he assumed was a widened path while a third one laid on an elevated platform. The two on the path stood towards the edge of his senses¡¯ range, but he could tell that beyond the checkpoint there was a hill. As he inched closer, he realized there weren¡¯t many trees behind them either. That was a problem.


    Whatever...interaction occurred at the checkpoint, it was quick. The three Dalric had followed swiftly resumed their jogging pace up the hill. He couldn¡¯t covertly follow them up a treeless hill, there was nowhere to hide. Plus, they had a checkpoint. Unless he pulled out a truly powerful concealment spell, the ones standing guard would definitely notice his approach.


    What is going on?


    Ever since he woke up to the Dance, nothing seemed right. Every single thing was off. From him being human to this group of jaguar-esque beasts that acted like sapients, everything was off. If sapients didn¡¯t have a very clear tell in their ahjer, he would have claimed it wasn¡¯t an act.


    The shock was starting to drain him. He¡¯d taken most of his peculiar situation on the bounce, but as things only grew more bizarre, his patience and energy depleted. A more relaxed and energized Dalric may have taken the time to brainstorm a way to quietly climb the hill without causing too much of a commotion, but the current Dalric couldn¡¯t be bothered. He gave up on stealth and flew right over the checkpoint. The something-jaguars obviously roared in alarm, but he ignored them. Even as he heard more roars from around the hill and then on top of the hill, he ignored them.


    At first it was because of his impatience, but when he caught up to the three he was tailing it was because he was astounded.


    ¡°This...this is a camp.¡±


    He wasn¡¯t sure of the details, still sightless, but his sense was telling him something he almost couldn¡¯t believe. Before he stood a wall, a thick, elevated, brick-laid wall. But that¡¯s not what shook him, it was what the wall hid behind it. Houses. Not just shaped mud huts, proper wood-built houses. They were only one storey high, but they were wide and had appropriately sectioned off rooms. They had bathrooms! Not quite toilets or plumbing, at least as far as he could tell, but having bathrooms alone was astonishing.


    ¡°This is a damned village!¡±


    Uninterested in the astonishment washing over Dalric, a thin beam of light shot towards his head. Unarmored as it was, he deftly dodged.


    ¡°That was a heat spell, very similar to golden ray. Even their spells ar¡ª¡±


    Dalric paused. His assailant had stepped in range of his ahjer sense, and they were enlightened. He immediately dived straight for them. He needed answers. Unfortunately, the rest of the village didn¡¯t take kindly to Dalric crashing next to their front gate.


    Ten of them were on him in a flash, ahjer empowered claws seeking to rend his flesh or tear his armor. Dalric instantly built up ahjer in his hands before releasing a wave of concussive pressure. It sent all ten flailing backwards, ten more took their place though. He repeated the spell again, but a few in the second wave were more resistant. Their attacks glanced off his armor mostly, but some caught his wings. They were merely ahjer constructs so he didn¡¯t feel much pain from the attack, but if they damaged them enough he¡¯d have to repeat the entire spell to reform them.


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    That wouldn¡¯t do. He let them fill with extra ahjer before activating a wind based spell. The wings fluttered as a huge gust of wind shot out in all directions. The wind managed to both knock the few clinging on to him away and push back the third wave already preparing their own attacks. Many of the something-jaguars rolled helplessly down the hill, but the enlightened one didn¡¯t. They continued to shoot their golden ray knockoffs, but Dalric just continued to dodge them.


    ¡°He¡ª¡±


    He tried to talk to them, but in his brief moment of laxity one of the something-jaguars that didn¡¯t slip down the hill snuck up behind him and got a clean hit on the back of his head. It did little damage, but it put him off enough for the enlightened to land one of his light beams right on his forehead. That did hurt. And it pissed him off.


    He gathered ahjer around his hands again, but this time he clapped. The resulting wave pushed everything back. The beasts, the dirt, the grass, even the part of the wall he was close to detached and collapsed into one of the wooden buildings. Nothing that was within ten meters of him stayed within ten meters of him. He wasn¡¯t done though. He extended an arm upwards and projected his ahjer into the sky. Clouds congregated and thunder roared in response. When he let his hand fall, lightning rained.


    Hundreds of streaks of lightning fell dramatically from the heavens. They moved much slower than natural lighting, but that only made them more menacing. Unlike natural lightning streaks, the ones Dalric summoned were dark purple. So dark they barely gave off light individually. As a conglomeration though, they painted the jungle deep purple. As the something-jaguars looked up and around them, they could feel deaths¡¯ arrival.


    Before it could arrive, Dalric caught himself.


    What am I doing? I¡¯m not even under the Gods¡¯ hex and I¡¯m still resorting to massacres.


    Before the slow falling lightning could decimate the entire hill, he reached his hand up again and called it towards himself. He took a deep breath and strengthened his body. The hundreds of streaks of lightning began converging in his palm. The pressure was immediate, even with his body strengthened. His muscles screamed in protest, his blood felt like it was boiling, and his armor bent and cracked. He endured, though. If he let his control slip for even a moment, the entire strength of the spell would explode outward from his palm. That would save the hill, but the enlightened was only 5 meters away. It¡¯d definitely kill them. It would also kill him, but true death was evidently beyond him. Or maybe it wasn¡¯t, he didn¡¯t really understand anything at the moment.


    A temporary death would be beyond him for now at least. After a few shaky moments, the lightning rain finally ceased. It charred his right arm black, but he avoided catastrophe.


    He took a long, deep breath, before looking towards the enlightened something-jaguar. He still couldn¡¯t see, but it was better to look at someone when you spoke to them.


    ¡°Are we done here?¡±


    They didn¡¯t reply. Dalric knew they were enlightened so they must have known the All-tongue. The mechanics behind how every enlightened beast knew and spoke the All-tongue was a mystery to everyone, but it was a universal truth.


    Dalric squinted his eyes.


    Don¡¯t tell me this is another thing that¡¯s changed.


    It wasn¡¯t.


    The something-jaguar¡¯s voice was youthful, full of uncertainty, ¡°How do you know the tongue?¡±


    Thank the Elders.


    ¡°I¡¯ve learnt it. Have you never met a gia¡ªa human that can speak the tongue before?¡±


    There was an unnaturally long pause as he noticed the enlightened fidget in place, ¡°Humans only speak gibberish. Who are you?¡±


    So they¡¯ve at least met a human before.


    ¡°I¡¯m just a traveller. Tell me where the other humans are and I¡¯ll leave.¡±


    The something-jaguar didn¡¯t respond, instead shakily stalking closer to Dalric. They stopped two meters away and began circling him. Three full rotations occurred before a reply came.


    ¡°Where did you come from?¡±


    Ugh.


    ¡°I¡¯m not trying to disturb whatever you have going on here, just looking for the closest group of humans.¡±


    A reply came quick this time, ¡°I don¡¯t trust you. Where did you come from? How do you know the tongue?¡±


    Ughhh.


    Dalric rubbed the left side of his face, ¡°Far away from here and I told you I learned it. I¡¯m just passing through, give me some directions and I¡¯ll be on my way.¡±


    Dalric felt completely mentally spent. He had approached this enlightened because he was desperate for answers, now he was just desperate for some rest. Long sweet res¡ªan eyebrow rose.


    I¡¯m going to need to sleep regularly again.


    An unwelcome revelation. Sleep was a greatly enjoyable activity, no doubt, but having to do it to function effectively was bothersome. Even if his ahjer levels grew at the rate of a child¡¯s, it would be a long while until he could go days without sleep and still function at full capacity.


    In the interim, the enlightened continued to circle him, wasting his time.


    ¡°What are you doing?¡±


    They circled him once more, before stopping in front of the partially destroyed gate, ¡°I don¡¯t trust you.¡±


    ¡°I can tell. If I wanted to harm your...village, I would have already.¡±


    Around them there were still something-jaguars recovering from Dalric¡¯s earlier spells. The ones that were merely pushed back recovered just fine, but the ones that took the force of the concussive blast were either still reeling or still out cold. The baby version of lightning rain he cast instilled a healthy dose of fear in the regular something-jaguars. They gave him a wide berth as they picked up their brethren.


    ¡°We wait. My father will decide what to do with you.¡±


    Huh?


    ¡°Repeat that please, you said ¡®father¡¯?¡±


    ¡°Yes, he will decide.¡±


    They ca¡ªNo. No. Everything is wrong. Nothing makes sense. I¡¯m human.


    ¡°Fine. We¡¯ll wait.¡±


    ~¡±The earth listens for I command it.¡±~


    Ambient ahjer amassed in the soil below Dalric, shooting a large column of dirt into the air. The column violently shrunk as the Dalric compacted the dirt to make it sturdier and more cohesive. He then whittled down the column until it was in the shape of a regal chair. After he set the form, he bade the ahjer to grow a soft foam-like layer on top of the compacted dirt. When he finished, a comfy throne awaited him. He took his seat and gently sunk into the foam. It was quite excessive, but appearances were important in negotiations.


    Again, the performance of incantations disappointed him, but he had a scant bit of ahjer left and another enlightened beast was apparently on their way. It was not the time to go for broke just so he could have a seat.


    I¡¯m exhausted.


    He vaguely wondered if he had the energy levels of a newborn as well. It had been somewhere between a bell and two bells since he was reborn. He should not be tired, mentally at least. Yet he was. Combined with his physical exhaustion, he was ready for sleep and sleep was ready for him. So they met. Dalric didn¡¯t have an ounce of resistance in him as dreamland ushered him in.


    ¡­


    ..


    .


    ¡°Ay! I ain¡¯t ever see nun ya ¡®round here before. You hunters?¡±


    I took another puff of blue vine as I peered at the three armored guards that approached our table. Being the biggest guy around, of course they looked straight at me for answers. Elders knew I had nothing to say to them though.


    ¡°Yes sir, we are. Here to collect a bounty on some rogue knights.¡± Silva handled it, as he usually did.


    ¡°Rogue knights?¡± The one in the middle looked towards their left as they were whispered to, ¡°Ah Brinston and dem boys. Well. Stay outta trouble. I don¡¯t wanna hear nothin¡¯ about nothin¡¯ with y¡¯all. Understand me?¡±


    ¡°Yes sir, we¡¯ll do our best.¡±


    ¡°Better do.¡±


    The trio swiftly turned around and left the tavern. With them gone, the atmosphere lived up again.


    I stuck my hand out towards Ryne, ¡°That¡¯ll be two hundred gold please.¡±


    He grumbled, but inevitably forked over the coin. We¡¯d wagered on how many guards would come up to us on our first day and Ryne foolishly lowballed it just because I¡¯m not the only giant around. Alexandria may have been one of the most diverse cities on the continent, but that didn¡¯t mean people would turn a blint eye to an eighteen foot mammoth walking around. I¡¯m not complaining about his poor choices though, free gold for me.


    ¡°Told you not to take that bet, I¡¯ve known Dalric personally for almost two centuries now and he still freaks me out.¡±


    Ryne complained anyway, ¡°There are soo many giants here though!¡±


    I scoffed, ¡°Seven is hardly ¡®soo many¡¯.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s more than I¡¯ve seen in my whole life up ¡®til now.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s a good thing, most of us don¡¯t mix well. If you see more than ten at once, they¡¯re likely not there for peaceful reasons.¡±


    ¡°Ugh.¡±


    The rest of the night went as it often did. We talked, got some food and drinks around, and swapped stories of the adventures we¡¯d gone on since our last meet up. This sort of get-together used to be a frequent thing, but current circumstances just didn¡¯t allow it. Too much risk. That just meant I had to treasure them more when they did come around.


    Silva¡¯s voice boomed down the hall as we got back to the inn, ¡°I don¡¯t want to hear any complaints in the morning, we¡¯re leaving bright and early!¡±


    The rest of us replied in unison, ¡°Aye, aye captain!¡±


    ¡°Shut up and go to sleep.¡±


    We shared a laugh and went into our separate rooms. None of us naturally needed to sleep anymore, but we spent the night drinking what most people would consider highly deadly poison. Even with a healer in our ranks, we¡¯d need a few bells to recover fully.


    I carefully rolled into bed. Even though this inn specifically catered to multiple races, the beds still weren¡¯t quite made for someone of my size. They creaked loudly as they strained to support my weight. My legs dangled off, but only a little. All things considered, for an inn that no doubt never had a customer my height or weight, the bed held up nicely. I could comfortably drift off into sleep.


    So this is what you¡¯ve run off to do.


    My eyes bulged, ¡°HOW?!¡±


    Come now Dalric, you didn¡¯t really think some herbs would be enough to stop us?


    I froze. Out of panic, out of fear, out of disbelief. I could only stare wide-eyed at the ceiling. I should have been good, I should have been clear! They shouldn¡¯t be in my head right now! How are they in my head?!


    Kill them Dalric. Kill them while they sleep.


    .


    ..


    ...


    Much later, resting uncomfortably in his throne, Dalric felt a nudge. His eyes snapped open in alertness. The faces of four different enlightened beasts greeted them.


    His dream immediately fading from memory, he aggressively berated himself for the colossal, monumental blunder he just made. He¡¯d fallen asleep. How did he let himself fall asleep?


    While the vast majority of him continued to internally chastise himself, a very small part of him smirked.


    They were tigers.

 Chapter 3: Sapience

    Dalric sat speechless. The fact that there were four more enlightened amongst the tigers contributed to that, but it was mostly the fact he foolishly let him himself fall asleep. Right in front of their village and on a makeshift throne, he slept. What kind of buffoon did that? He could blame his body for the blunder, it had felt entirely spent, but he was asleep almost as soon as he sat down. His mind should have been sharper than that. Much sharper. The fact that it wasn¡¯t didn¡¯t bode well for the immediate future.


    The tigers, for their part, didn¡¯t seem all that concerned Dalric slept in the middle of their gate. They actually seemed quite subdued, drained even. One of them even seemed to to wobble a bit on their paws. Beyond the odd lack of energy, all of their eyes held a great deal of restrained curiosity. Well, all but one. The one that nudged him seemed to have a mix of animosity as well.


    ¡°Who are you, traveller?¡± Their voice had much more steel than the other enlightened¡¯s. It commanded respect, sounding both aged and stern. The voice you¡¯d expect of a leader. Though that could just be a front.


    Dalric observed them, taking in all the visual information he¡¯d been lacking in the past...he wasn¡¯t sure how long.


    These tigers were much larger than any tigers he¡¯d known. The one that spoke looked down at him while he did so. Dalric was obviously seated, but it had a height cleanly over five feet. He couldn¡¯t quite see their lengths, they all faced him, but his sense guesstimated between thirteen feet and fifteen feet. In short, massive. Their colors were odd too, instead of bright orange fur, theirs was dark blue. He¡¯d seen different colored tigers before, but never blue.


    ¡°I¡¯m just as you noted, a traveller. A traveller looking for any human settlement.¡±


    The three other enlightened whispered among themselves.


    ¡°Your son spoke true. The human speaks the tongue.¡±


    ¡°He must be a descendant of Aegeus.¡±


    ¡°That makes him the rightful leader, then?¡±


    They tried to whisper, at least. They weren¡¯t aware that the All-tongue traveled on ahjer unlike regular sound. Anyone with the ability to sense ahjer could hear their conversation as clear as if it was right next to them. There were protections against this, but they seemed too advanced for their level.


    I might¡¯ve stumbled into an inconvenient situation here.


    ¡°Leave us.¡± The leader, who he may have unknowingly contested, commanded. The crowd of observers, both in front and behind Dalric, quickly dispersed.


    The throne may have been a poor decision.


    Ahjer burst out of the tiger, momentarily engulfing both of them. Dalric flared his for a moment, but then immediately relaxed. He recognized the makeup of the spell being cast. The tiger¡¯s ahjer expanded around both of them, circling them in a ring. The ring was three meters in diameter, but unseen to the naked eye it was actually a dome. From the moment it finished, it¡¯d feed onlookers an illusion. Though Dalric was certain the tiger used it for its ahjer blocked properties.


    He smiled, quietly impressed. While this was one of the most rudimentary ways to stop eavesdropping when speaking in the All-tongue, the fact the tiger had considered it and created a counter showcased a great deal of experience. More than his ahjer would suggest.


    Hm. Does that have to do with this Aegeus figure?


    ¡°Who are you really?¡± The tiger¡¯s eyes leaned heavily towards animosity now.


    Dalric humored him, ¡°My name is Dalric. Just Dalric, no family name. What¡¯s yours?¡±


    ¡°Alexander the Sixth. Why have you come, Dalric? What are your plans?¡±


    Sixth, huh.


    ¡°I believe I¡¯ve said it a number of times now. I¡¯m looking for the closest settlement of humans.¡±


    Alexander squinted, ¡°It¡¯s hard to believe. You. My people tell me you command the sky?¡±


    Dalric chuckled, ¡°Nothing so grand. However, I am more powerful than everyone here.¡±


    Alexander didn¡¯t like that, ¡°A threat?¡±


    ¡°A threat?¡± He thought for a moment, ¡°Yes. I just want to find a human settlement. If I have to burn down yours to do it, I will.¡±


    He didn¡¯t really want to directly threaten them, but he definitely didn¡¯t want to get involved in whatever leadership tradition thing they followed. If he could just get the information and go, that would be the best outcome for everyone involved. He was insanely curious about what had transpired to form a village of beasts that contained a minimum of five enlightened among them, but he had the sense to realize they wouldn¡¯t be sharing any of that knowledge without a price he was not yet sure he wanted to pay. He could always come back later, anyway.


    Alexander¡¯s eyes dripped with animosity. He clearly wanted to meet Dalric¡¯s threat with force, yet something restricted him. Dalric would like to believe it was better judgment, but something about the look in his eyes told him the tiger would never back down because of a spell he never saw.


    ¡°There are no human settlements around here.¡±


    ¡°Lie. Your son, if I¡¯m not mistaken, already confirmed there was one.¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s a child. Travellers, like yourself, sometimes get lost in the jungle. We don¡¯t know where they come from or where they go.¡±


    Dalric raised an eyebrow.


    The human body is overly expressive.


    ¡°Surely you don¡¯t expect me to believe you allow unknown threats to freely scout around your territory. Or am I to believe you¡¯ve stationed checkpoints around the base of this hill just for fun?¡±


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    Alexander didn¡¯t respond, probably in an effort to think through his options. It made it painfully obvious he was unaccustomed to this kind of dialogue as such a pause all but confirmed he was lying. His ahjer purity meant he had to be fairly intelligent. So this lack of mental elasticity must have been an experience issue rather than a brain capacity one.


    There¡¯s a direct correlation between ahjer purity and a non-sapient¡¯s intelligence. That went for beasts, plants, and even things like weapons or armor. Pure enough ahjer concentrations are what turned mundane items into soul items, supposedly.


    Cyan¡¯s scholars used to theorize that sapience itself was a mere byproduct of high ahjer purity.


    The fact he remembered that surprised him. He never gave the theory much thought. He had disregarded it almost as soon as he heard it, there were simply too many holes in its supposition. Now, having observed these bizarre blue tigers, Dalric wondered if the old fools were actually on to something.


    But the ahjer around here isn¡¯t pure, it¡¯s just plentiful. Exceptionally plentiful.


    His curiosity burned again, but he simmered it down. He¡¯d made a number of terrible decisions tonight, he wasn¡¯t sure why or how that was but he knew he needed to exercise some self-control. If he could just get to a human city, there¡¯d be answers. Maybe not all the answers, but enough to have a foundation.


    ¡°Why are you looking for a human settlement?¡±


    ¡°Is it strange for a human to look for his brethren?¡±


    ¡°You are not speaking honestly.¡±


    Dalric scoffed, ¡°You, who just lied to me, are unqualified to have such complaints. But. Since you¡¯re so desperate for the truth, I¡¯m lost.¡±


    He followed the revelation with a shrug. The frankness of the gesture stunned Alexander for a moment, but he swiftly recovered, ¡°You? With wings. Are lost?¡±


    ¡°I was also blind until recently.¡±


    A half truth.


    ¡°Blind¡­ what are you? You can not be human.¡±


    That remark surprised Dalric a bit. Though his soul may not have been human, it may actually be human now he wasn¡¯t quite sure, his body most definitely was human. As far as he could tell there was nothing to differentiate him from other humans.


    Is it just the wings?


    ¡°I don¡¯t know how to respond to that considering¡­ I am. Look, I just want to get back to human civilization. I have no interest in getting involved in whatever you have going on here.¡±


    Silence again.


    ¡­


    ¡°You truly want nothing to do with us?¡±


    ¡°No, not particularly. I¡¯m a bit interested in your¡­ society lets say, but I do not dread a future where we never meet again.¡±


    Alexander silently stared at him. Almost as if he believed he could read the truth off of Dalric¡¯s face. Dalric decided to meet his gaze. He vastly undersold his interest, but it was mostly the truth.


    ¡°Fine.¡±


    The dome dropped.


    ¡°Head that way. You¡¯ll meet a river. Follow it upstream and you¡¯ll find the other humans.¡±


    Finally.


    Dalric smirked, ¡°Good.¡± He rose from his throne and fluttered his wings, ¡°I¡¯ll leave the chair. In case you lied.¡±


    Leaving Alexander with that implied threat, he flew off.


    <hr>


    He hadn¡¯t lied, about the river at least. It took less than half a bell for the massive body of flowing water to come into Dalric¡¯s view. He¡¯d seen another river while tailing the tigers, but it couldn¡¯t compare to the sheer volume of water in front of him now. If it wasn¡¯t for the flow of the water it¡¯d be impossible to even tell it was a river. Dalric hovered a fair way off the ground and he could only barely spot the other bank. He had refrained from any sight alteration spells so it was hard to see, but it looked more than twenty kilometers away.


    Have the tigers been across this? Surely not.. right?


    During the flight over, Alexander and his tribe of tigers dominated his thoughts. He¡¯d glimpsed their full village when he took off and it was worse, or more accurately better, than he originally thought. They had roads, though crude, light fixtures, though also crude, and a two-storey stone building, though exceptionally crude. As crude as all these features were, they were still advanced infrastructure for what would normally be a slightly less unruly gang of beasts. Even with an unprecedented amount of enlighteneds leading them, that wasn¡¯t normal. Hell, calling it abnormal would still be a gross understatement. His curiosity was so great it threatened to suffocate him.


    Aegeus. A south Hellgurian name¡­ but there are no jungles in Hellguria. So, a wanderer is it? How far did you wander?


    He looked downstream, usually when rivers got this wide the ocean was nearby. Trees, hills, and blackness are all he could spot. If the river did lead to the ocean, it did so outside Dalric¡¯s sightline. He turned the other way, much of the same greeted him. He strained his eyes, trying to spot any faint glints of light, but there was nothing to see. Unless the town hid its presence in some way, it was also a distance away. Frontier towns didn¡¯t normally have the resources for such a defensive measure, but with those blue tigers around it was possible. There was also the possibility it wasn¡¯t a frontier town in the first place. He started heading upstream, he¡¯d only find out if he started moving.


    This¡¯ll be a long flight.


    Though he had the wings of a bird, they were artificial ahjer constructs. They lacked any of the efficiency or efficacy an actual bird¡¯s wings had. Their top speed was abysmal and sustaining that speed burned through copious amounts of ahjer. Alas, his only other option would be to run along the ground and while that used to be quicker he wasn¡¯t sure that was still the case. Plus, he was weary of his current body¡¯s endurance, both mentally and physically. He still chastized himself for falling asleep right before meeting Alexander.


    The only times he didn¡¯t have complete control over his mental facilities were when the Gods did. Losing out to regular fatigue was not something he was accustomed to.


    He hoped it was just a side effect of being reborn, but he¡¯d likely never get an actual answer. It wasn¡¯t an experience many went through, he imagined. There weren¡¯t many foolish enough to be the God¡¯s contracted slave.


    He diverted his thoughts away from that and back to the Hellgurian.


    Maybe a beast tamer? Wandering the world in search of stronger beasts to add to his arsenal? Enlighteneds are impossible to tame through ahjer though... If we assume he founded the village, would that be why? Instead of taming them through ahjer, he¡¯s attempting to tame them through doctrine? That would be laughable if they weren¡¯t actually running said village. But if that''s the goal, then why leave?


    ¡­


    Hmm. They said ¡®descendant¡¯ and there have been five Alexanders before the current one. It¡¯s a large assumption to make, but if Aegeus founded the village with the first Alexander, and each subsequent one has been both the leader and an enlightened, then centuries must have passed. Even in this environment, an extremely gifted beast would take at least a few decades to become enlightened.


    ¡­


    Unless... they were born enlightened? Impossible... right? Could they even be called enlightened if they were born that way? Isn¡¯t that just sapience?


    He thought back to the first one he met. He was definitely young. Dalric couldn¡¯t exactly read his age off his face or form, him being a tiger and all, but there was a distinct youthfulness to him. His voice for one. The All-tongue was spoken through one¡¯s ahjer, not their vocal cords, so it could possibly be a fake voice. Dalric doubted it. Nothing about that tiger read as wise or shrewd. Their ahjer purity definitely didn¡¯t read as aged either. No, the only question was how young was he.


    If he had been born ¡®enlightened¡¯, then this Aegeus figure was more than just a beast tamer. He had discovered a means of purposely inducing sapience.

 Chapter 4: Ambushed

    Dalric managed to spend almost every moment of the flight conceptualizing what it would mean to purposely create sapients. The only times he wasn¡¯t were when something decided to try and make him a meal. Usually it was some form of unnecessarily large bird, but a few ground based beasts shot projectiles at him as well. None of them were as powerful or menacing as the bird he assumed to be an owl was. They were more just irritants he handled quickly or ran away at the first sign of aggression on his part. They only briefly took his mind away from the most important topic at hand, having the power to create sapients.


    From creating an entire warrior race that served as your personal army to building up an advanced civilization that worshiped you as their eternal sovereign, the scope was limitless. You could become a God. You would become a God, without ever needing to ¡®ascend¡¯ as well.


    This was all based on an assumption, but Dalric felt over fifty percent sure he was on the right track. It would definitely explain what he was doing here. Nothing the Gods hated more than competition.


    Why did the Dance appear now though?


    That was the piece he hadn¡¯t quite worked out yet. If it was due to Aegeus¡¯ actions, then why appear now? He literally opened his eyes to it. The chances of him not being directly related were infinitesimally small. Unfortunately, that didn¡¯t tell him anything about the situation other than a relation existed. He needed to know how and why.


    He could guess the basics. As soon as he contacted the Gods, they¡¯d send him to wipe out the tigers. That would dip his foot in the water.


    If Aegeus founded any other... races? Would they be new races entirely? Hm. Whatever they are, they¡¯d send me to wipe those out too. Then what? Unless Aegeus is already walking Frysta as a God, this doesn¡¯t seem ¡®Dance of the Forgotten¡¯ worthy. If he is, surely that isn¡¯t my responsibility? Right?


    It couldn¡¯t be. It shouldn¡¯t be¡­ but he also shouldn¡¯t be alive. Yet here he was.


    Albeit scant and unproven, all the information he had available to him pointed towards a battle between himself and Aegeus at the beckoning of the Gods to cull the formation of a new, more powerful God. That would be an event worthy of the Dance¡­ if he was the old Dalric.


    The current him was weak, embarrassingly so. Even if he had ample ahjer, much of his strength came innately from his body. That very same body limited his mastery of ahjer, something he could potentially rectify in this life, but that would take decades to centuries. For now, much of his technique and skill required his former frame. Without it, he was nothing like the titan he used to be and completely unfit for such a bout.


    Thinking about it, he found that odd. If the Gods wanted him to fight immediately after resurrecting him, why make him human? It would have been in their best interest for him to be in top shape. Besides pettiness, what would robbing him of his power achieve? He must still be missing something.


    A slight sigh slipped from within him.


    I could be missing it entirely.


    He slowed himself down. The strangeness of the past... four bells, he estimated, was getting to him. There was much he didn¡¯t know and even more he didn¡¯t understand. He couldn¡¯t afford to let his mind and emotions be so unstable. There were few things he truly knew. As sure as he was that his first theory¡¯s correct, it wouldn¡¯t do to treat it like the truth. It was just a theory. A theory that stood on shaky foundations at that.


    He spent the rest of the flight silently practicing incantations. The spells were nothing flashy or really visible at all, but they were extensive in their intricacy. They ranged from healing his right arm to creating a fingernail-sized fold in space, each incredibly complex, some more so than others. He failed to execute roughly half of them, healing his arm included. The process overall was a rousing success, though. He got a firmer grasp on how to effectively utilize incantations and the wanton us of the ahjer around him seemed to keep beasts away. Best of all, he sufficiently distracted himself until he spotted the town. The next morning.


    Strange.


    Taking a longer look at it, it appeared more like an encampment. The fortifications were largely wooden, the walls were entirely so. Despite that, they stood tall and thick. Several lookout towers stretched beyond the wall, each housing at least two sentries. The military presence was clear, the crowds he could glimpse lacked any of the disorder a civilian settlement held. There weren¡¯t many buildings he could spot either and the few that he could were all massive and unadorned, resembling barracks rather than homes.


    There were also one or two pieces he couldn¡¯t easily identify from such a distance, like the two wooden circles dipped into the river close to the dock.


    Best-case scenario, a local guild set this up as a forward base and they planned to claim this part of the forest for resources. That would make their main opposition the environment and wildlife, not other humans. Anything else and he¡¯d probably be seen as a threat, if not a direct enemy.


    I wonder how much they know about the tigers. Apparently they don¡¯t have someone who knows the All-tongue so they must be in conflict. Though this is also quite far away.


    Now that it was day time, he got a good look at the jungle. He knew it was overgrown, overripe with vegetation, but he¡¯d didn¡¯t quite appreciate how much until now. Trees of varying types coated the area, some wider than his wingspan and some taller than two hundred meters. Where there weren¡¯t trees there were shrubs and grass of even more varying types. Green, while still probably the dominant color, but it served as a mere background to the array of multi-colored plant life that grew here.


    He¡¯d noted the light blue moonfire before, but that was only one of several rare plants he noticed. Each had their own splash of color to add to the environment; the deep purple of grave thorns, the pure white of spinroot, the neon yellow of lightleaves. There was even a cluster of iridescent lucyberry bushes. That was the most surprising of all, lucyberries produced the most addicting drug he¡¯d ever seen. They hooked you after your first hit and killed you after your tenth. So devastating were its effects, multiple city-states, kingdoms, and empires ordered all lucyberry bushes to be burned. Spotting some here meant he was truly far away from Aonica.


    Dalric had circumnavigated the world though. There were always more secrets to uncover of course, especially below ground, but he was sure he hadn¡¯t just missed a jungle of this size. He should know where this was, but he still didn¡¯t have a clue.


    Where on Frysta would lucyberries be allowed to grow?


    Nowhere came to mind. His best guess would be a small island deep in the ocean, but the massive river to his left steered him away from that conclusion. He didn¡¯t believe a tiny island could house such a thing.


    Looking at the river he hovered down to its edge. Now under the light of the sun, he remarked at how clear the water was for a river that ran through a dense, muddy jungle. He would not have expected any level of transparency. Yet here it was, appearing exceedingly appetizing. He wouldn¡¯t drink from it yet though, he could sense a lot of ahjer within it. Ahjer-tinged water wasn¡¯t always safe for consumption and he had no clue how his body would react. It could be a boon to him, it could be a poison. With civilization so close, there was no need to cast that die.


    He did hover over to a deeper spot to catch his reflection however. The river obviously wasn¡¯t still, but it moved slow enough for him to make out his face. He couldn¡¯t recall what passed for attractive to humans, but he¡¯d definitely go down as handsome to giants. If he was more than twice his height of course. He¡¯d noticed his olive skin before, but with it came an exceptionally chiseled jaw, defined cheeks, dark grey hair, and bright green eyes. He could nitpick the nose and ears being on the bigger side, but he was too busy celebrating the small victory to notice them. His old face was the picture perfect opposite of appealing. He wasn¡¯t too busy basking in his small blessing to notice the enormous alligator burst out of the water though.


    Its massive jaws, longer than the length of his body, shut just as he slipped away. They both made eye contact as the gator fell back into the safety of the river. He could spot the early sparks of intelligence within them. It seemed to take the ease in which Dalric foiled its ambush as a sign to skedaddle, but Dalric was having none of it.


    ~¡±Deep sea or shallow pond, I reign.¡±~


    He injected some of his ahjer into the spell to quicken the process. The gator was rapid in water, but it wasn¡¯t rapid enough to escape. Its entire multiple ton, multiple meter frame halted instantly within a large blob of water. Dalric slowly lifted the sphere blob as the gator furiously shifted around. It moved enough to slightly distort the sphere, but all that accomplished was a few gallons of displaced water. Once the sphere, with the gator trapped inside, was eye level, he squished it. The water immediately pressed in on itself. He could have made the process slow, but there was no reason to torture the alligator just because it chose the wrong prey. Locked within the compressed sphere of water, it was swiftly squashed to death. It¡¯s bones breaking and its organs turned to mush.


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    Dalric laid the crushed corpse on the side of the river, some wildlife would get a nice hefty meal out of it. He considered bringing it with him to the camp, but he wasn''t sure how that would go down. Especially considering he¡¯d definitely ruined most of the parts one would want to extract. It would be a good show of strength, but he just didn¡¯t know if that would get a beneficial reaction. It could just put them on the defensive. A man flying in with the crushed remains of a fifteen-meter beast hovering behind him wasn¡¯t necessarily someone you¡¯d be eager to trust. So he left it.


    The hunter became the hunted and now it would feed the jungle. Such is the circle of life.


    Now, back to that camp.


    <hr>


    "Mom! Dad! What happened?!"


    Raphaela dashed towards the procession of soldiers coming through the gate. They¡¯d been gone for so long and she¡¯d been worried sick. It was deep into the night now and they left for the Gathering at midday. Last time they went, they were back before nightfall.


    Her father was usually at the front, leading the soldiers, but she couldn¡¯t spot him so she ran towards her mother¡¯s guards instead. None of the outer line of soldiers dared bar her way, not that they had the strength to. She easily wedged herself between them as she frantically called for her mother.


    "Mom! Where''s dad?!"


    Her mother didn¡¯t respond. She laid unconscious on a thin hammock held aloft by four of her guards. All four of them were injured. So was she, even more so than them. While they all sported spinsilk bandages and excess healing ointments, only her mother still bled through them. Her father was still nowhere to be seen.


    "WHAT FUCKING HAPPENED?!"


    "Be silent child. Now is not the time."


    Her aunt, Selene, trudged through the gate not long after her mother was carried through. She was also injured, but not enough to incapacitate her.


    Raphaela couldn''t possibly be silent. Never in her life had she wanted to scream more.


    "What happened to you all? What''s going on?"


    "Quiet. Come, I''ll explain once we''re inside."


    She didn¡¯t want to be quiet, she wanted answers. How could she stay silent and obedient when she could see her mother bleeding through her hammock. Where was her father? No. They needed to stop being quiet and answer her. She¡¯d force them to if she had to. And she planned on doing just that, until she caught a glimpse of what laid beyond the gate.


    Corpses. Many, many corpses.


    ¡°What..ha¡­ hap¡ª¡±


    Selene averted her eyes, ¡°Enough child, come with me.¡±


    This time Raphaela listened.


    They both walked in silence until they reached the archon¡¯s castle. Even though it was meant to serve as her father¡¯s home, he never used it as such. Instead, it was reserved for important meetings, festivals, and ceremonies. Raphaela was born in it and would one day complete her coming of age in it. Today however, they would be conducting a funeral. A massive one¡­ and Raphaela had yet to see her father.


    Once inside the castle, the guards handed her mother off to more experienced medics. Her aunt assured her that she¡¯d be okay, but the sullen look in her aunt''s eyes gave her no confidence. She didn¡¯t dare ask where her father was. The answer may break her.


    Still in silence, she and her aunt made their way to the Hall of Heroes. Though it was called a hall it was actually just a large room within the castle. The largest room in fact. Within it, statues of every previous archon stood at attention, spiritually guarding it against their enemies. Paintings of each of their triumphs, be they in combat or technology, adorned the walls. Holy scriptures, written in gold and outlining the core edicts of their colony laid in cases next to them. Its name may have only mentioned the great leaders of the past, but the contents of the room were far richer than that.


    Also within this sacred chamber was an exceptionally detailed map stretched across a large table. This was the venue, under the guidance of those that walked before them, that any and all important discussion about the colony occurred in.


    ¡°Sit. We¡¯ll wait here for your uncles.¡±


    Only uncles? What about aun¡ªNo. Don¡¯t think about it. At least they lived. At least¡­ at least¡­ but dad...


    Raphaela shook her head. She wouldn¡¯t think about that until she saw him. Alive or¡­


    ¡­


    An hour passed before her uncles appeared. Only two of them walked through the door and they were both injured, heavily. Her uncle Cleon was missing a leg.


    Without saying a word, she ran to embrace him.


    He struggled to withstand the weight of her hug, but once he did he carefully rubbed her back, ¡°It¡¯s okay, it¡¯s okay.¡±


    She didn¡¯t know when she started crying, but by the time she unlatched herself from him his shoulder was drenched. Seeing his soft smile, his attempts at reassuring her, only made the tears flow more. She didn¡¯t understand what was happening, everything was perfect just this morning. Why was the whole world upside down? Her advanced stealth training just started last month and her parents had been taking her out hunting every week. Their next hunt was supposed to be tomorrow. Now they were...they were¡­


    Before the streams of tears turned into hysterical waterfalls, her mother lumbered into the room.


    ¡°Mom!¡±


    She wanted to run to her mother immediately, but she stopped herself. Her mother didn¡¯t look good at all. The bleeding had subsided, but her face looked almost withered. Her whole body seemed shriveled and wilted. They weren¡¯t the typical signs of battle.


    ¡°Come my daughter.¡±


    Raphaela listened and walked towards her, slowly. As soon as she got close enough, they tapped foreheads.


    ¡°It¡¯ll be alright.¡±


    ¡°...Wha..what happened?¡± Raphaela was almost too afraid to ask anymore.


    Her mother heaved a heavy sigh, ¡°That is what we¡¯re here to determine.¡±


    ¡°We know what happened! We¡¯ve been betrayed! If not for Aegeus¡¯ blessing we¡¯d have all died there. They¡¯d have massacred us all!¡±


    Betrayed? The Gathering?


    Her mother slowly made her way to a seat as her other uncle continued yelling. She sat on the central one. The most prominent one. The one reserved for the leader of their colony... in taking that specific seat she had accidentally confirmed the thought Raphaela had been desperately avoiding. Her mother was now archon. Which meant her father wasn¡¯t. That meant..he was¡­


    ¡°Dead! They won¡¯t stop until we¡¯re all dead, we must evacuate immediately. We must!¡±


    Cleon took a seat to her mother¡¯s right, ¡°Ewan. Stop. Have you no shame? You speak of running away in the presence of our ancestors?¡±


    ¡°This is no time for shame. They killed more than half of us! If they strike again now, what could we do?¡±


    ¡°First.¡± Her mother cut in, ¡°Let¡¯s ascertain the facts. What actually happened?¡±


    Everyone looked towards her aunt, the best spymaster and scout in their colony and probably in all the colonies.


    ¡°Ewan is correct, we were betrayed. After the Gathering of the Archons, we were all to begin our marches home as we do every year. Two of the archons didn¡¯t. They circled back with their armies and ambushed us in a pincer attack.¡±


    ¡°How did they manage to sneak around our scouts?¡±


    ¡°They didn¡¯t, they killed them. Swiftly and silently... It is my failing, I had grown complacent and gave that role to our most inexperienced. I¡­ I did so as a form of training. I would have never thought they¡¯d actually dare attack us.¡±


    Cleon attempted to comfort her, ¡°It is not your fault. No one could have expected such an ambush. The Gathering is a sacred event.¡±


    ¡°Sacred no longer. Aegeus may have saved us once, but now we must make the wise decision.¡±


    ¡°Enough, Ewan. The last, very last option is evacuation. We will not abandon these grounds.¡± Her mother stared him down. Even gaunt, her stare was frightening. ¡°I only fought Fedon and his band of buffoons. Who was the other that betrayed us?¡±


    ¡°Alexander.¡±


    Raphaela watched in awe as her mother ahjer burst from her body in fury.


    ¡°That disgusting rat. I should have known. They¡¯ve feared our power since his father¡¯s time. Years they¡¯ve been seeking our position and now they¡¯ve made their move.¡±


    Cleon chimed in, ¡°Until you¡¯re healed, we¡¯re likely bottom of the pile now. Even below them.¡±


    Ewan snorted, ¡°Likely?¡±


    How can they be so calm??


    ¡°Yes, likely. Our strength had never been direct combat.¡±


    ¡°True, it¡¯s always laid in ambushes. Like the very same one we suffered from. They used our own tactics against us and it worked! We barely survived.¡±


    ¡°Speaking of which.¡± Her mother redirected the conversation, ¡°Do we know what that was?¡±


    ¡°Aegeus¡¯ blessing no doubt.¡±


    ¡°Ewan, please. I¡¯m asking for specifics.¡±


    No one said a thing.


    ¡°So my ahjer triples out of nowhere, my guards suddenly gain strength at the brink of exhaustion and we have no understanding why or how? Cleon?¡±


    ¡°I already checked the scriptures and there was no mention of it.¡±


    ¡°Serene?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve never heard of or seen anything like it.¡±


    ¡°I see. Something to look into for the future then. Now we must discuss what t¡ª¡±


    One of Selene¡¯s top scouts burst through the door panting.


    Ewan yelped, ¡°They¡¯re here!¡±


    ¡°Calm yourself! What news do you bring?¡±


    The scout was truly out of breath, ¡°An..an¡­ angel. An angel appe...appeared. It attacked the..the¡­¡±


    An angel?


    ¡°Take a deep breath. We¡¯re not understanding you.¡±


    The scout did just that, taking a moment to catch his breath before delivering the news, ¡°An angel appeared in front of the tigers¡¯ colony. They attacked it, but the angel can control the sky. They may all be dead.¡±


    Her mother looked around the table, but she only met confused expressions


    ¡°What?¡±

 Chapter 5: To Fight Against Oneself

    Dalric decided to land a good distance away from the camp and walk the rest of the way. He figured flying directly to the entrance may put them on edge, maybe even instigating conflict on its own. If he was going to try and look as non-threatening as possible, he might as well go the distance. It may all be for nothing in the end, but it was worth the try.


    He dispelled the illusion that made his armor appear green. Now was the time to be seen in pristine white. No color was more universally seen as non-threatening. If they worshiped Ray, the Boundless Sky, they could even welcome him because of the form alone. Although that also relied on no one being able to tell his wings weren¡¯t natural.


    Landing so far away, the walk that awaited him was quite lengthy. He intended that. Hovering high in the sky gave him a great overview of the jungle, but being on the ground amongst the foliage gave him a better perspective. He would have liked to have spotted some kind of easy identifier he could use to figure out where in the world he was, but he hadn¡¯t spotted anything that jumped out to him during the flyover. That being the case, maybe a more intimate understanding of the land and its inhabitants would do it.


    He kept himself partially distracted casting small spells while he walked and surveyed the area. He continued to stumble upon herbs and plants and even poisons, but as the exotic plants came in bulk he noticed he hadn¡¯t spotted any animals. Any big ones at least. There were lizards, spiders, birds, assortments of bugs, and carnivorous plants, but nothing sizable. Unlike earlier, the spells he cast weren¡¯t overly drawing on the ambient ahjer. The jungle denizens shouldn¡¯t be wary of him anymore.


    But as he continued, nothing notable came into sight or crossed into the bounds of his ahjer sense. There weren¡¯t even snakes. Contemplating it, he was fairly certain he hadn¡¯t spotted any snakes at all throughout his entire time in this jungle. That was shocking, this seemed like the type of jungle multiple species of snakes would thrive it.


    Hmm. What could cause that?


    He brainstormed a handful of possibilities, but none of them narrowed down where he was. He¡¯d known soon enough either way, but that didn¡¯t stop him from running through some thought experiments while still practicing his spells. Doing both did start to tire him out after a while however. Incantations required far less mental stamina than manually manipulating ahjer, but at the rate he went it was only a matter of time. The double dutch mental gymnastics did burn time effectively though. By the time he had had enough, he was within five or so kilometers of the camp.


    As a precaution, he decided a quick nap would be beneficial. If a battle was to occur, he¡¯d struggle to subdue them peacefully while mentally tired. For his conscience''s sake, he¡¯d like to avoid accidentally killing anyone. Plus, that could have cascading effects that hindered his movements and inquiries in the area.


    Not that it¡¯ll matter long term.


    He originally enjoyed not having to feel the Gods¡¯ revolting voices polluting his mind, but now the silence just filled him with apprehension. They¡¯d return, and there was nothing he could do about it. It would be better to get it over with quickly. This limbo state he walked in brought no joy.


    He found a large tree to climb and set a dome of protection around himself. He layered that dome with one that siphoned impure ahjer, another that detected large clumps of pure ahjer, and a final one that served as camouflage. The complete system absorbed ahjer to help rejuvenate him, detected any nearby threats, and kept him hidden. It was a fairly involved process, tiring him out more, but he felt it was necessary. Everything finished, he molded the large branch he stood on into a flat bed and promptly knocked out.


    The nap ultimately only lasted a bell. He¡¯d need a full night¡¯s rest eventually, but for now he felt suitably re-energized.


    Two and a half kilometers later, a patrolling squad caught him. Or more accurately, he caught them.


    ¡°Ahh! Fuck is that?!¡±


    Oh? They speak...some form of Hellgurian... I¡¯m seeing connections but they¡¯re not making sense.


    ¡°Stop! Who the fuck er you?¡±


    Well, they¡¯re not worshippers.


    Dalric spoke in the clearest Hellgurian he could manage, ¡°My name¡¯s Dalric, I¡¯m a traveller looking for shelter.¡±


    There were four of them. Three wielded spears, and the last held a mace. Their ahjer levels were rather decent, fairly high actually for mere patrol duty at a forward base. That either spoke to the camp not being one or their goal here requiring higher than average security. Dalric guessed it was the latter, there was a high chance the tigers weren¡¯t the only threats around.


    They all wore rather poor leather armor however. The make of the armor wasn¡¯t the issue, quite the opposite, it was the lack of enchantments. Without enchantments, leather armor protected as effectively as paper. Even though the leather looked high quality on its own, it would be sliced through effortlessly.


    The temperature was another thing. Both the jungle and sun radiated heat nonstop. Even at night, the winds were warm. Dalric¡¯s armor regulated his temperature, but theirs did not. That must have had adverse effects, especially considering they wore helmets.


    Dalric would conclude they weren¡¯t a powerful or affluent force, but they had one piece of equipment that stopped him from claiming so. Long, rounded slabs of enchanted metal hung across all of their backs. They resembled a notoriously destructive piece of weaponry he¡¯d encountered while hunting demonists. Dalric remembered them vividly as hunting demonists were one of the very, very few times he could be happy with his actions. He didn¡¯t know their name, but he knew they sold for heaps of gold. None of the four in front of him were demonists, so they had to have bought them.


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    Unless...


    The one with the mace had spoken first and they were also the one that replied, ¡°Sound like a priest Dalric, you an angel?¡±


    Not worshippers of Ray, but they know the story of the angels?


    Dalric hesitated to claim he was. The angels were a race of pure white-skinned valinoids. They looked largely identical to humans aside from their average height of nine feet and the four massive crystal-like wings, much larger than the two that sprung from Dalric¡¯s back, they had. The four men in front of him seemed to hold some sort of reverence for them, but the issue was they went extinct millennia ago. They had risen against the Gods and paid the ultimate price. That was the story, at least. Dalric¡¯s intimate knowledge of the Gods meant he knew it was a lie, but the validity of the story didn¡¯t change the fact they had all died out one way or another.


    ¡°I¡¯m¡ª¡±


    Kill them.


    A heavy, aggressive presence invaded Dalric¡¯s consciousness. It ripped at his thoughts and sense of self. Though his current body rebounded in shock, Dalric himself felt only a smidge of surprise. The presence was all too familiar.


    Kill them all.


    But it was also different. Fainter, diluted, unfocused.


    Kill them all. NOW!


    The weight of the presence felt crushing. It was akin to the burden a mountain could levy if placed on his head. For as powerful as it was however, Dalric could only remark at how flaccid he thought it was. The Gods never yelled. They never had to. If he didn¡¯t immediately comply, they¡¯d make him. He could neither fight nor resist.


    Now though, now it was a contest.


    He fell to his knees, his ahjer spiraling out of control as he fought to control his own mind. Blood dripped from each of his facial orifices.


    ¡°Ahhhh!¡±


    That wasn¡¯t Dalric screaming. He didn¡¯t have the strength or focus to spare for such. It was one of the four on patrol. They had been confused when he fell to his knees, stunned when his ahjer wrecked the dirt and trees around him, but it was when the river of blood poured from Dalric¡¯s eyes and ears that terror struck them. The one mace wielder was the first to bolt. Weary of what was to come, he began slowly backing away when Dalric fell to his knees. The other three¡¯s survival instincts weren¡¯t as strong.


    They paid for it with their lives.


    Dalric¡¯s raw ahjer burst forth from his body, crushing two of them instantly and severely injuring the third. They didn¡¯t even get a moment to process what occurred. They had backed up a few feet when his ahjer spiralled out of control, but the extra distance meant nothing. Laying on the floor unconscious and largely broken, the only surviving member of the trio would soon follow them into death.


    Dalric couldn¡¯t afford to be too concerned about the ongoings around him. He¡¯d mourn their deaths later, for now he struggled to prevent the entire camp from meeting the same fates. That at least one got away comforted him a little, but he feared that feeling wouldn¡¯t last long. He was losing.


    It started with his extremities, his hands and feet rebelled against his control. He fought to remain sovereign, but the Gods continued to claim more and more of him. Soon both of his arms and legs were theirs to command. If they continued their design to usurp Dalric, they would have almost certainly won, but they didn¡¯t. The second they controlled his arms and legs, they focused their energy on sprinting towards the last remaining guard of the four that approached him.


    It was a notably awkward sprint, without control of his torso the movements were very off. That slowed them down tremendously. The mace wielder hadn¡¯t gotten far in his hasty retreat, but the lack of coordination in Dalric¡¯s run gave him time.


    For his part, the man raced frantically. He made use of every second Dalric saved him by fleeing with every ounce of his being. It didn¡¯t help much. Once Dalric began breathing down his neck, his only option was to yell and beg desperately for help. Help wouldn¡¯t arrive in time.


    Dalric¡¯s right hand first reached his shoulder, less than a fraction of a second later his left hand gripped the top of his head. Before the man could get a word of begging in, the back of his skull met the middle of his back. His body immediately went limp, hanging lifelessly in Dalric¡¯s hands. Dalric, still in control of parts of himself, could intimately feel the cracking of his spine. He could gaze into his shocked, frightened, and desperate eyes and see that no life remained. He could hear the silence of a once lively human cruelly and savagely put to an end.


    Dalric ignored it all, for through his sacrifice he¡¯d given Dalric an opportunity.


    The Gods tossed his body into the dirt and sped towards the camp. With their focus elsewhere for a sustained stint, they opened a lane for Dalric to counter and push their control back to his hands and feet. At some point, they had claimed his sense of smell, but he paid it no mind.


    His quick retake of his limbs caused his body to violently tumble into a tree. He ignored that as well, squarely focused on ridding himself of their presence. His body twitched and jerked, sometimes erratically convulsing, as they waged war for its control.


    The battle continued for a time, but after the initial bursts of strength the presence began fading. They still fought tooth and nail, but the amount of power they could project waned. It waned and waned until Dalric had successfully pushed them out of even the tips of his finger and toes. Removing all the residuals took a bit, but by the time a squad of men rode up to his position, he laid in a small puddle of sweat and blood, completely spent and completely free.


    Ahh.


    Dalric slowly struggled to his feet. His.. everything hurt. He couldn¡¯t name a part of him that wasn¡¯t overtaxed and in pain. He also lost a serious amount of blood and he felt light-headed.


    He won, though.


    The Gods sought his mind and he told them ¡®no¡¯. It was by the skin of his teeth and honestly if they weren¡¯t distracted he wouldn¡¯t have, but that didn¡¯t matter right now.


    He won.


    Even though the blood of innocent men already dyed his human hands. The camp of hundreds, more likely thousands, survived. Four had died, needlessly, but many more would live to see another day. He prevented a massacre.


    He won. He, Dalric, won.


    ¡­


    What does that mean?

 Chapter 6: Caged I

    Questions and celebrations would have to be postponed however. Thirty men surrounded him. Two of which had properly enchanted armor. One of them rode their horse right next to him and leveled a fiery red sword at his neck.


    ¡°Who are you? What happen here?¡±


    Dalric didn¡¯t have the energy for this conversation, but as the broken body of the previous man to ask that laid only a couple meters away he didn¡¯t really have the room to avoid it either.


    ¡°I¡¯m..I¡¯m¡­ my name is¡­ Dalric.¡± He didn¡¯t know what else to say and the more he thought the greater his head ached. Complex thought eluded him and exhaustion permeated from every atom in his being as he tried to cobble some words together, ¡°I¡¯m a¡­ traveler. Looking for..looking¡­ looki¡­¡±


    The last sentence went unfinished. His body gave out before he could complete it, crashing weakly onto the ground.


    Shi¡­


    With no energy left in the tank, he couldn¡¯t fight it. His consciousness faded.


    ¡­


    ..


    .


    Good, remove them.


    I refused to move. I knew it futile, they¡¯d all die in mere moments, but I refused to allow it be through my own willing obedience.


    Suruhlla didn¡¯t waste any time taking over my body. He must have known I wouldn¡¯t comply. I¡¯d never comply with the slaughter of innocents. Never.


    With Suruhlla in control, I was at least saved from experiencing the massacre that was to come. His usurpation left me deaf, blind, without a sense of touch, without a sense of smell, with a sense of taste, and most importantly without ahjer sense. In this little void I was relegated to, I sensed nothing. Here, it was peaceful.


    I¡¯d have to emerge to the aftermath eventually, the Gods couldn¡¯t control my body for more than a bell a day, but for now I existed blissfully ignorant of all.


    At the appointed time, my senses snapped back into place. Laying before me was exactly what I expected, a levelled city. Home of maybe ninety thousand, now rendered to ash and pebbles. Suruhlla made it a point to leave me right at the center of the destruction, as they all did. As ¡®good¡¯ as they claimed to be to the ignorant, they had a sick taste for torment.


    Laekna, now aware I was back to my senses, did her best to block the sight. It wouldn¡¯t really help, the faces of horror I spotted were already seared into my mind. The charred skin, the melted flesh, all gruesome but none more so than expressions of agony and despair. I appreciated her attempt, but it would do nothing to hide what had occurred. Plus, the fact she was here, in front of me, instead of flying around trying to heal anyone she could meant Suruhlla had been thorough. Not a soul here was left anything less than completely eradicated.


    My nails dug into my palm.


    For what? Because they wished to live free from the Gods¡¯ control? Because they realized they do nothing but rob and kill? That they are repulsive, abhorrent parasites existing only to drain those unfortunate enough to worship them?


    The Gods, in their infinite gluttony, refused to allow any live peacefully away from their rule. These people died for realizing that. Their bodies torn, home destroyed, and history erased. Some of their blood still stained my arms.


    Laekna tapped my hand. When I didn¡¯t respond, she forced her way into my grip. Only then did I realize that the blood wasn¡¯t just dripping off of me, it was boiling. I looked up to the sky and sighed at the pitch black thunder clouds that gathered above me.


    I was losing control.


    ¡°I¡¯m¡­ sorry.¡± I didn¡¯t know who I was apologizing to, Laekna or the people of Narik, but it was all I could do.


    ¡°It¡¯s okay Light.¡±


    ¡°... Fae?¡±


    Her voice was off. It sounded like Laekna, but it also didn¡¯t. Something was different, foreign.


    ¡°Everything will be okay Light. Just be you and everything¡¯ll work out.¡±


    ¡°Just be me? Everything work out? What are you talki¡ª¡±


    The world shook, ferociously. The earth warped and the sky distorted. My senses went haywire along with them. I could smell that the sky was no longer blue, but now yellow. I could taste the ground contorting to send me flying through that yellow sky. I could hear the heat of six suns burning my skin.


    ¡°What is this?!¡± I yelled.


    Laekna was calm as can be, ¡°Just be yourself, Light.¡±


    The suns immediately engulfed me.


    .


    ..


    ¡­


    Dalric stirred awake. His eyes erratically darted to the sides.


    What was that?


    He quickly noticed that while he had eery dreams, he¡¯d also been taken prisoner. Each of his limbs had an enchanted chain clasped around it. They left his neck, but that was likely because the gambeson covered almost all of it. There were signs that they tried to remove the gambeson, the rest of the armour too, but they were quite unsuccessful. His wings were gone, likely defusing under the stress of whatever they did, but that was the extent. It was moderately surprising that they couldn¡¯t do more damage to his spell, but that just meant they didn¡¯t have any powerful ahjerists.


    Or do they think these chains can actually restrain me?


    The cell he sat in was empty. They didn¡¯t even have the decency to chain him to some furniture so he laid sprawled on the barren floor. Beyond the bars that surrounded him, nothing else featured within the room either. The bars were enchanted of course, as was the door that led into the spacious room, but there was a notable lack of anything else. They didn¡¯t even have a familiar or viewing apparatus to watch over him. It was just him, enchanted metal, and the compacted earth that surrounded both.


    After quickly analyzing his situation and confirming he wasn¡¯t in immediate, or likely any, danger, Dalric¡¯s thoughts went back to the dream he just had.


    What was that? A memory? That was definitely the city of Narik. That¡¯s not how it happened though¡­


    Narik was an independent city-state. They had discovered the truth behind ¡®ascension¡¯ and rightfully cast away all allegiance to the Gods. A wise choice¡­ if they had the strength to back it up. In fairness, that was early into Dalric¡¯s time as a contracted slave. They couldn¡¯t have known the full ramifications of their actions.


    But, while the basic framework of the dream aligned with his memory many details did not.


    I met Laekna centuries after. Suruhlla was a minor God, he had little authority then. I had yet to master Thunderfield. And the people of Narik weren¡¯t human. They weren¡¯t even valinoid. They had neither arms nor legs.


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    Dreams often told fantastical tales though. So inaccuracy should be expected in that regard, but the experience felt like no dream Dalric¡¯s ever had.


    ¡°Everything will be okay Light. Just be you and everything¡¯ll work out.¡±


    Why would she say that? Why did her voice sound so different? Why did.. Could I have been poisoned? Was it a fever dream, a vivid hallucination?


    Dalric quickly scanned his body, but he didn¡¯t find any signs of poisoning. He lacked quite a bit of energy however. The side effects of constantly exhausting himself without eating or drinking anything in¡­ a while. Hard to tell time in a cell underground, but he¡¯d wager almost a full day had passed since he first woke up. Maybe two or three bell off.


    Would that cause fever-like dreams?


    Dalric had never needed daily food and drink. Giants could go substantially longer without both than humans could. Though that didn¡¯t stop them from eating daily, so Dalric had never been in the position where a lack of either hampered his functionality. He couldn¡¯t be sure the ¡®dream¡¯ wasn¡¯t just a side effect of that.


    But what if it isn¡¯t just a dream? Communication? Vision? Dreams are usually outside the scope of ahjer, but it¡¯s not impossible¡­. Maybe this is a side effect of fighting off the Gods?


    He had no clue what the ramifications of that would be. The contract was almost certainly still in place, but if he could just tell them no¡­ what then? Would the contract break? Dalric had never considered what it would be like to be free of their control and alive, but he could feel the waves of hope slowly encroaching on his heart. He calmed them though, it was far too early for that kind of optimism. They could very well just summon more power and try again at a later date. He only won because they were distracted the first time. Next time, and he had to assume there will be a next time, he¡¯d lose if they aren¡¯t. What can he do about that?


    As these thoughts rumbled through his head, he heard a number of clinks and clanks coming from the door. When they stopped, and it opened, a dark face popped in.


    ¡°Ah!¡±


    The face quickly retreated, forgetting to re-lock the door. It ultimately wouldn¡¯t mean much as moments later two tanned, robed men walked in.


    The first was tall, by human standards. Standing somewhere between six feet and six and a half feet, he was the burlier of the two. Fairly wide at the chest, a thick neck, and arms that pressed tightly against the thin cloth of his sleeves, he perfectly played the part of a brute. For the most part, the clean grooming of his beard and long hair threw the impression for somewhat of a loop. He definitely had the face of a brute otherwise, tough and scarred. The demeanor as well, he stood arms crossed with a sword on each hip.


    He had a lighter complexion, unexpected for a jungle this hot. Usually, natives of these types of regions had darker skin. Did that speak to him being a foreigner or something else?


    The other man did have the expected darker skin, but he was far more average; in height, appearance, and presence. His ahjer however, was actually superior. Not greatly, but noticeably so. He had a short buzz cut and no facial hair or markings to speak of, but he did wear the same blood red robe that the other wore. It helped hardened his rather soft appearance.


    He was the first to speak, ¡°Mr. Dalric, you¡¯re awake.¡±


    Hellgurian again. Though... a different dialect?


    Dalric rolled his shoulder, ¡°I am indeed. Clasped in chains was not the most pleasant way to wake up I must admit.¡±


    They both raised an eyebrow and the average one feigned a chuckle, ¡°Your speech is quite refined Mr. Dalric.¡±


    As long as you understand me.


    ¡°You¡¯ll have to forgive us. We had prepared a much nicer room, but as we tried to remove that uncomfortable armor of yours, your wings seemed to magically vanish. You must understand our concern when a human impersonates an angel.¡±


    How do these guys know about angels¡¯ existence, but not know what they actually look like? Is there some sort of offshoot, human-hybrid cousin that lives¡­ wherever this is. Huh. Still don¡¯t even know where I am.


    ¡°Well, gentleman, that would be a simple misunderstanding. I never claimed to be anything other than a human, I merely learned to form wings to aid in my travels.¡±


    They were obviously lying about their initial efforts. His wings weren¡¯t as durable as the armor itself, but it¡¯d take a serious beating before dispelling. A little jostling would do nothing to them.


    ¡°Learned to form wings you say.¡± They glanced at each other, ¡°And where did you learn that?¡±


    Dalric smirked, ¡°From a valinn.¡±


    The average one looked up to the brute, but he only shook his head in response.


    ¡°And what is a valinn?¡±


    Huh?


    ¡°You don¡¯t know what a valinn is?¡±


    ¡°We do not.¡±


    Dalric blinked.


    Impossible... Am I actually on a different world?


    ¡°What do you call a being with two arms, two legs, and one head?¡±


    They paused for a moment, ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter, we¡¯ll be the ones asking questions.¡±


    Do they just not know?


    He walked closer, almost brushed up against the enchanted bars, ¡°Where are you from, Dalric?¡±


    Do I want to keep up this charade? If they¡¯re unwilling to answer my questions, there¡¯s no value. I doubt any answers I give could lead me peacefully out of these chains. I desperately need information though¡­ let¡¯s see where this leads first.


    ¡°Aonica, though I imagine you don¡¯t know where that is.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve travelled across the seas then. How did you end up here?¡°


    So definitely not Hellguria. Across the sea¡­ hm. The continents are too large for that assumption. Is this actually an island, or are you just playing the wise man? Or am I wrongfully assuming I¡¯m still on Frysta?


    ¡°Is it not the goal of a traveller to see the world?¡±


    ¡°The Akai Ken Jungle is a dangerous place for outsiders, as I believe you found out this morning.¡±


    Never heard of that. Though it sounds¡­ Surunese. They¡¯re an island people.


    ¡°In truth, I¡¯m more alarmed by my treatment right now, than I was this morning.¡± Dalric dangled the chains around his wrists.


    He smiled, ¡°We did find you next to four of our men¡¯s corpses. Care to explain that?¡±


    Odd reaction. Hmm. Now how do I do this¡­


    ¡°I must apologize for your loss, but I¡¯m not sure what happened. One moment I¡¯m flying up the river, the next I¡¯m in a pool of my own blood and sweat.¡±


    The brute¡¯s eyes turned visibly colder.


    ¡°We could hear their screams from behind the wall.¡±


    So they didn¡¯t see anything.


    ¡°That is lamentable, I imagine anything that could get the better of me would likely be too much for the average¡­ soldier? I don¡¯t know what either of you are.¡±


    That put smiles on both of their faces, ¡°That will remain hidden.¡±


    Not soldiers then. If these are the leaders, surely this isn¡¯t a mercantile group¡­ though who says these are the leaders?


    ¡°You say you were flying up the river, were you looking for us?¡±


    ¡°You specifically? No. I was looking for civilization and I spotted your camp and headed this way.¡±


    ¡°Yet no one saw you.¡±


    Ahh. Hmm¡­


    Dalric raised his hand to his forehead. The enchantments within the chains were attempting to interfere with his ahjer, but they were far from capable. He placed his index finger on his forehead and projected some of his ahjer.


    Both of the men flinched, the brute swiftly laid his hand on his scabbard. For Dalric, nothing changed, but for everyone else he¡¯d appear completely invisible. The spell was the simplest in the stealth sphere, it didn¡¯t affect any of the other senses. The big one was ahjer sense, but he could be easily heard too.


    ¡°As you said, it¡¯s a dangerous place out there.¡± He released the spell, becoming visible again, ¡°I took certain precautions.¡±


    ¡°Very interesting. You have my interest Dalric.¡±


    ¡°Now if only I could have your hospitality.¡±


    He smirked, ¡°Maybe. We still don¡¯t trust you.¡± They both moved towards the door, ¡°But. I¡¯ll have someone bring you a fresh meal.¡±


    ¡°That would be nice.¡±


    They chuckled as they left. The door slammed shut and Dalric once again heard the clicks and the clacks.


    That was informative. A little.


    He effortlessly broke out of the chains and cracked his neck. His entire body still felt sore, but it shouldn¡¯t affect him too much. The bars that made up his cage were much stronger than the chains that held him, but empowering his arms a little made them as malleable as thin gold. Their enchantments tried siphoning the ahjer out of his hands, but they didn¡¯t have enough suction. He pulled them apart with ease.


    Only the door remained, but before he opened it he wanted to know what exactly awaited him. He expanded his ahjer sense to its current maximum range. That range equated to a perfect sphere with a hundred-meter radius. He couldn¡¯t actually ¡®see¡¯ everything within that range, at his current level even the most lightly enchanted door would block his ahjer sense. Plus, past ten meters things got progressively blurrier, the fringes were only ¡®visible¡¯ by the most liberal of definitions. None of that mattered though, he saw what he needed to see.


    It was worse than anything he had expected.


    Rage oozed out from him. His ahjer flared. Lighting zapped around his fingers. First, it was bright and slightly blue in color, but it quickly changed. In the next moment, it crackled across both of his arms in a dark shade of purple. It still wasn¡¯t complete, it continued spreading across Dalric¡¯s whole body. By the time it was done, there was no ¡®light¡¯ in the lighting. It was pure black.


    He raised his hand to the door and the entire wall exploded. Some parts flew off in chunks, but most of it was immediately destroyed.


    When he stepped into the hallway, the brute stood ready. His swords already drawn.


    Dalric looked at him with disgust, ¡°Slave traders is it?¡±

 Chapter 7: Caged II

    The brute paid Dalric¡¯s words no mind, instead silently inching closer to him. His accomplice however, was as vocal as ever.


    ¡°Mr. Dalric, that is quite the rude accusation.¡±


    Though Dalric could hear his voice, he could neither see nor sense him. Even the voice itself was directionless, leaving no way to locate him. The man was all but a ghost to Dalric. That was an odd experience for him, he was unaccustomed to not being able to at least sense his enemy. It would matter little though.


    In a flash, one of the streaks of black lightning shot from Dalric and encircled the brute. He lacked both the sense and experience to notice Dalric''s intent before he did it and he would also lack the strength to break free. The lighting didn¡¯t touch the brute, it would kill him, but it did render him silent and immobile for as long as Dalric wished him to be. A perfect capture.


    ¡°I have no interest in a verbal spat, the truth is in front of me.¡±


    The room that held Dalric''s former cell rested at the end of a hall that had two long rows of similar cells. A few of the cells housed oddly shaped creatures, but the vast majority were valinoids. Mostly humans of course, but there were some others. All of them were thoroughly shackled. For now.


    He instantly gathered lighting in his palms, then spiralled it around his hands. Jumping from knuckle to knuckle, it rapidly gained momentum. Soon it zapped around his fingers so quickly it appeared as if he merely wore black gloves. If it wasn¡¯t for the sound that is. Though the streaks were tiny in comparison to what Thunderfield was meant for, their roar still ruptured eardrums.


    ¡°AGH! You fuc¡ª¡±


    ¡°Found you.¡±


    Spotting the drop of blood falling from the ceiling, Dalric shot three streaks of lighting toward its genesis. He couldn¡¯t be exactly sure where the man was and he didn¡¯t want to accidentally kill him, yet, so instead of just circling his person he made the cage spacious. It was still cylindrical, like the one that housed the brute, but this one had a five-meter diameter. Even if he had moved since the blood fell, he¡¯d be locked within.


    And locked he was. The moment the cage closed around him, The man¡¯s spell fell and his presence reemerged. He looked staggered, blood still flowing from both ears, stunned that his spell was broken. Dalric''s lightning did a much better job of disrupting ahjer flow than any metal they could get their hands on.


    Though he did hope the metal was good enough to protect the prisoners from his earlier soundwave. It wasn¡¯t a spell, but the vibrations were still tinged with ahjer. He had gambled on the enchanted bars honing in on that and dampening the concussive noise.


    There was no guarantee it would though, the enchantments they used out here were noticeably weaker than the cell that held him moments ago. To make sure, he peered behind the bars of the cell to his right. Thankfully, the creature inside looked unharmed. By him at least. Seeing the scars on all six of the creature''s legs reignited the fire in his chest.


    He¡¯d free them soon, but for now the bars that kept them captive would also protect them for whatever Dalric had to do. Fortunately, they were all, as far as he could tell, unconscious. They could remain blissfully ignorant of what he may have to do.


    "Now." He brought the cages next to him and reconfigured them to allow sound pass outward. "Whi¡ª"


    ~"I conjure: Bear Skin Armor."~


    Hm. An odd incantation.


    It didn''t work obviously, but the intent was clear. The peculiar makeup of the incantation piqued Dalric''s interest, but he had far more burning concerns.


    "Don''t wast¡ª"


    ~"I invoke: Break Chains."~


    ~¡±I conjure: Senna¡¯s Shield¡±~


    ~¡±I invoke: Silent Whi¡ª


    "Silence! You disgusting, depraved animals. You will explain what''s going on in this camp or you will feel the pain of a thousand deaths. I promise it."


    The brute spoke this time, "You ain¡¯t gon live long ¡®nough to make good on ¡®at."


    Just as he finished speaking, Dalric¡¯s hand seemingly teleported into the cage and clasped his throat, ¡°Won¡¯t I?¡±


    He didn''t squeeze, instead, he let the lightning hover above the brutes skin. Visually, nothing happened, but the deafening screams told a different story. The brute belted his lungs out, likely experiencing a level of pain he could have never imagined before. Dalric released him just as his body started convulsing.


    He couldn¡¯t let his anger control him. Though he knew they were some form of slave traders, he needed to make sure he understood the situation fully. Then, punishment could be dished out.


    ¡°Speak. Unless you would also like a taste.¡±


    The other man just stared at him in shock, his eyes occasionally darting to peek at his still twitching compatriot.


    ¡°Right. You¡¯re still deaf.¡±


    The man grimaced as Dalric reached into the cage to heal him. He couldn¡¯t move much, but he used the little movement he had to desperately shift away from Dalric.


    ¡°Relax.¡±


    Thankfully healing his ears was a simple matter. Unlike the sight fiasco a bit ago, it seems eardrums were the same across species. The man squirmed in discomfort as Dalric¡¯s ahjer flowed into him. Reconstructing something as simple as an eardrum wouldn¡¯t hurt too much, but given what just happened the reaction was fair.


    Once he was done fixing the man¡¯s hearing, he went back to questioning him, ¡°Who are you and what are you doing here?¡±


    ¡°W¡ªwe ar..we¡¯re just¡­ pawns! We¡¯re just pawns! This isn¡¯t our operation at all! We were just hired to protect this place.¡±


    Likely.


    ¡°I¡¯m sure. What is ¡®this place¡¯, exactly?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a¡­ um. It¡¯s a transfer facility. The uh¡­ people arrive. They¡¯re sorted and uh¡­ they get shipped along.¡±


    Dalric¡¯s eyes desperately wanted to roll, but he tamed them. The bastard was stalling. The brute¡¯s scream had clearly alerted the camp and Dalric could sense some similarly strengthed individuals making their way to him. Dalric couldn¡¯t tell if there was even a drop of truth in anything he spouted or if it was all just an act to buy time. Alas, it would seem the brute wasn¡¯t a good enough example.


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    ¡°We aren¡¯t um¡­ involved in uh any of the sorting though. Just secu¡ª¡±


    Dalric silenced him, ¡°Hold that.¡±


    Not even turning to look, he calmly caught the fiery red blade zipping towards his chest. He didn¡¯t need to, the lightning would have stopped it anyway, but this would paint a more vivid image in the eyes of his soon to be informant. He¡¯d identified the man as spineless and easy to intimidate, he just needed to show him that no amount of help would be able to save him. The blade in his hand attempted to set his whole arm ablaze for the offence, but he quickly overpowered it with his ahjer.


    Hm?


    As he brought it to his face to examine it, it dissipated into mist. Or at least that''s how it appeared, in reality it¡¯s conjurer simply dispelled it and called for another one. The mist part was a mere party trick, but the ability to create and sustain a fully ahjer constructed weapon without an incantation was fairly high level. For that weapon to also have an attunement? He¡¯d be quietly impressed if he wasn¡¯t still completely revolted.


    He looked towards the new arrival, ¡°Don''t come alone, wait for your friends. It¡¯d be tedious to do this more than once.¡±


    That was only partially true, the full truth was he was rapidly running out of ahjer. He was almost completely out. If the fight dragged too long he¡¯d have to disconnect from Thundefield and switch to using incantations. That would truly be troublesome.


    ¡°Amusing.¡± The newcomer had a distinctly Surunese accent.


    A dozen red blades appeared between him and Dalric. They all burned brightly, brimming with fire-attuned ahjer.


    ¡°You won¡¯t get chance to fight more than once.¡±


    ...


    ¡°Oh?"


    Dalric briefly peered at the... man? He couldn¡¯t actually tell who it was at the other end of the hallway. Beyond the broken hellgurian and surunese accent, their speech gave nothing away. They also wore thick, enchanted leather armor, layered with square patches of metal plating. The accompanying helmet completely covered their head as well, featuring an enchanted mask to obscure their face. It was the fact that their mask seemed to draw inspiration from a horrendous looking man that Dalric first assumed they were one. Give or take the horrendous part.


    Their armor itself was quite beautiful, he¡¯d seen a form of it before but never so¡­ stylized. It was predominantly, and ferociously, red, but the leather underneath was dyed dark blue. The accents were a mix of gold and black and the mask was pure white. Extravagant for armor, but pleasing to the eye all the same.


    Though it was eye-catching, it wasn¡¯t actually what Dalric had his eyes on. He instead stared at the floating ahjer constructs between them, analyzing the opportunity they presented.


    This could be worth the effort.


    He smirked and spread his arms wide, "Then come.¡±


    The multicolored conjurer obliged, rushing forward as they sent all twelve blades hurling at Dalric. For his part, Dalric merely strolled towards them, arms still spread.


    Let''s see.


    The blades reached him first, smashing into the black lightning that still coated his body. Instead of disintegrating the fiery weapons, the ominous streaks of blackness assimilated them, stripping them of their fire-attuned ahjer and absorbing it. The streaks behaved much like a virus, infecting the ahjer constructs, breaking them down, and completely consuming them.


    He managed to absorb eight of them before the conjurer noticed, triggering them to explode rather than be sucked in. Dalric merely covered his face with his hand. The force of the sword¡¯s sudden explosion was minor, like the amount of ahjer he managed to claim from them. Before he could hiss over that fact, the conjurer themselves arrived.


    A long, thin blade in hand, they lunged for his head immediately. Dalric moved to catch it, but abruptly jerked his head to the side instead, narrowly avoiding having his eye gouged. He followed the small jerk with a duck and a side step, expertly escaping the swordsman-conjurer¡¯s insanely quick combo as they continued the hunt for his head.


    That¡¯s an¡­ odd weapon.


    Dalric didn¡¯t have the time to think about that though. The sidestep, while buying a few moments, opened the space for another jab at his eye. They obviously took it, the tip of their sword fizzed towards Dalric faster than he could blink.


    He stepped forward, letting the sword glance off his shoulder plates, and jabbed with his left hand. His gauntlet laced knuckles connected sweetly with their forehead, cracking their mask, but not sending them reeling like he anticipated. They retreated of their own accord, kicking off the ground and sliding backward.


    Good enchantments on the mask as well. And¡­


    He peeked at the deformed mark on his armor.


    That sword is a serious problem.


    They swiftly recovered as Dalrics eyes drifted away, spawning two scorching daggers before renewing their assault on his head. Though Dalric had an almost two foot height advantage their blade could comfortably reach the back of his skull, and with his weakened body and limited access to Thunderfield, it wasn''t an impossibility that it would.


    Are those daggers more, or less potent?


    The ahjer made weapons floated above their shoulders as their main blade danced in their hands. Whether by special materials or special enchantments, the sword was resistant to the naturally forming lightning of Thunderfield. At its current level at least. Which meant as Dalric weaved his way around their attacks, the lightning that covered him had zero defensive use.


    It did still have one offensive use though.


    Dalric gradually made some distance between himself and the swordsman-conjurer. Nothing great, just enough to force them into lunging territory. It took a bit for them to take the bait, they¡¯d grown comfortable in slashing range, but they inevitably did. Just before they made their move though, Dalric flashed the lightning around his torso white. The sudden shift from deep darkness to blinding brightness stunned them, giving him just enough time to step forward and fire a haymaker. They could never see it coming.


    Boom!


    They also didn¡¯t need to. It never landed.


    Instead, once his fist got within about half a foot of their face both of their daggers dived in front of it, exploding on impact. The entire force stored within his punch diffused along with them. Dalric came out of it unscathed but unfortunately so did they. They reactively leapt back a few feet even as their eyes struggled to adjust. He mentally shook his head as he watched his perfect surprise attack go awry, he could only chastise himself for not considering what the daggers were for.


    Ugh.


    He returned his lightning to its natural state. They both lost a power tool in their arsenal in that exchange. Though the swordsman-conjurer seemed content to resummon the daggers and attempt to use them again.


    Dalric physically shook his head this time. He was comfortably sure his experience and reflexes outpaced their sword skills, but continuing this duet would just burn time and ahjer. It would have been preferable to defeat them without expending extra ahjer, but as he deftly dodged another lightning fast slash he admitted to himself that he had been arrogant. He wanted to win effortlessly, while conserving his ahjer, while also absorbing some of their ahjer. That was a lot to do at once, too much in fact. He underestimated his opponent greatly and now he¡¯d wasted precious time for nothing.


    Keeping the cages active cost quite a bit of ahjer and he¡¯d already burned through the tiny gains he made earlier. He wasn¡¯t even winning easily. Though he wasn¡¯t yet in life-threatening danger, he¡¯d been on the defensive most of the time. That wouldn¡¯t strike fear into anyone. His future informant was likely more hopeful of escape now than they were before this bout started. All in all, he was at a notable net loss. Thankfully, to save him from this horrendous predicament, the reinforcements finally arrived.


    ~"Great Winds."~


    Dalric stuck out his arm and a massive gust of wind knocked the swordsman-conjurer another six meters back. Their backup quickly rushed to their side. Everyone included, there were now four enemies in front of him to eliminate. They were all in one place now though. No need to waste anymore time, he just needed to be quick and decisive.


    ~¡±Come, Blood Hunter.¡±~


    He augmented the incantation with his own ahjer, straddling the line between efficiency and efficacy. Blood Hunter was an unruly beast, a massive halberd that mimicked the most legendary weapon in giant folklore. Its natural size was twenty-three feet and it weighed over ninety kilograms. Trying to summon it with pure ambient ahjer would take ludicrously long.


    Dalric sized it down obviously, even as a giant he never liked using weapons two-handed. The Blood Hunter he currently wielded was only six feet long. Though reduced in size, it lost none of its luster. It still glowed an ominous red, it was still three different blades held together by Reaper¡¯s moss, each blade still had its own attunement. No matter how tiny it looked in his hands, it was still Blood Hunter. And it craved a hunt.


    Dalric looked towards the four as they arranged themselves and quickly discussed strategy. He smirked, feeling the now foreign sensation of Blood Hunter scratching his subconscious. It may have just been an ahjer made mimic of an actual soul weapon, but it behaved like a true one.


    ¡°Now then.¡± He spoke to himself, ¡°Let¡¯s try this again.¡±

 Chapter 7.5: Serene

    "Last one."


    Serene dipped her paw in the river to rid herself of the excess tiger blood. Her scouts weren''t the only ones tailing the mysterious angel. Alexander had sent some as well. Even at ''peace'', she would have quietly eliminated them, but now she didn''t just kill them. She savored rippling their putrid faces off their heads.


    It did little to calm the madness that swarmed in her heart. No matter what anyone said, it was her fault. She was in charge of security and she knew Alexander was at the top of their watch list, he always has been. There was no excuse for her to have let her guard down. None. Gathering or not, she was in charge of so many lives and now she was at fault for so many deaths.


    So many deaths.


    She tried to still herself before she lost control of her emotions. Guilt still ravished her body, but she couldn''t afford to break down. Especially not here and not now.


    Around her were her most trusted scouts and spies. Bar the few that would never again walk among them. These were the ones that should have been standing guard after the Gathering, but she had foolishly stationed them around the other colonies. She''d likely die still regretting that decision, but there was one positive that came of it.


    They had spotted an angel, a very powerful one at that. One that could control the skies. It had attacked the tigers'' colony for some reason and then flew off up the river. They didn''t know what this angel''s motives or goals were, but that last time an angel wandered into the jungle it had caused a massive war.


    Serena wasn''t a hundred percent sure if this was the best path, but if they could get this angel to start another maybe they could level the field. If most of the colonies are weakened, their own weakness wouldn''t make them an easy target. As things stand now, they were dangerously close to being wiped out completely. They desperately needed to do something, even if it was to start a war.


    "Hold! What in Aegeus'' name is that?"


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    Their party of eight had discreetly hidden the tiger bodies and continued along the path laid out for them by the advanced scout. Serene had sent groups of two to observe each of the colonies. While one of the two she sent to the tigers came back to give their report, the other followed the angel and marked their path.


    The path was fairly straightforward and mostly involved just following the river upstream, but as they continued to do so that came up to something different. Some sort of river beast. It was exceptionally long, but it looked as if its insides were melted into goo. Its¡­ shape just didn¡¯t hold up. It was actually kind of horrific to look at. They did so anyway, against their stomachs best interest, they had to at least attempt to identify the beast.


    Serene struggled to discern which of the river beasts it was, the depressed state it was in made it difficult. She could tell it had died recently though. There were a few creatures happily chewing away at its carcass, too few. Something this massive should gather a far bigger crowd than a few jackals and birds.


    ¡°Do any of you know what that is?"


    Most said no, the others shook their heads.


    Not all of them could speak the tongue. There were only a select few who knew it instinctively like Serene. They were known as the Blessed, due to being blessed by Aegeus with knowledge. The tongue could still be taught to the others however. They need only take the time to learn it. For some, it came easier than others, but they could all learn it. It¡¯s basics at least. There was only a small handful that could claim they were fluent in it. Thankfully, Aegeus was merciful. Even for those who could not speak or write it themselves, they could still understand it when it was spoken to them.


    "No matter then. Can we assume this is the angel''s doing?"


    "I say yes. It would be a great coincidence for something else to have passed through at the same time and killed this¡­ thing."


    The rest nodded their heads in agreement. Normally she wouldn''t feel the need to ask about such an obvious thing. The answer was clear, but its that sort of arrogance that put them in this situation in the first place. She won''t make that mistake again.


    "Then let''s continue. Caleb, draw a picture of the beast for our records. I know, I know. Just try your best."


    He did and they continued on.


    The further they travelled along the path, the more Serene felt they were on the wrong one. Not literally, they followed the advanced scout''s trail perfectly, but as a colony. The angel almost assuredly headed to the camp of humans.


    There was nothing wrong with humans. The colonies were surrounded by them and they coexisted well enough. It''s the specific camp it chose. Those humans, were bad news.

 Chapter 8: Clouded I

    He didn¡¯t wait for them to approach. This time, he was the aggressor. He dashed towards them at full sprint, Blood Hunter brimming ready for blood.


    ~¡±I summon: Crimson Chains¡±~


    Ahjer gathered below the ground in front of him, disrupting and deforming it. A step later, nine deep red chains burst from beneath him. Though in the shape of chains, they appeared plantlike. Thorny, thick, and writhing. Also on brand, they absolutely oozed blood. The moment they came into view of Dalric they sprung for his limbs like snakes punching on a meal. He could have opted to evade them, but had no need to.


    Once a few of them lined up, he flicked the unwieldy halberd. The air buzzed as the enchanted metal sliced through it and six of the chains. The beastly weapon left a trail of white static in its path. A trail that the remaining three chains were all too happy to burst into. As they did, they were simultaneously burned and frozen.


    The original wielder called the state ¡®Zen¡¯. If a vallinoid had walked into the static they would feel like their body was moving at a million kilometers per second while also being completely still. Fanciful name aside, it was incredibly lethal.


    ~¡±I invoke: Call of the Titans.¡±~


    ~¡±We summon: The Titan of Torment.¡±~


    We?


    In front of Dalric, a massive storm of ahjer brewed. Two of the likely slave traders had backed up to concoct some sort of summoning ritual. By the incantation, a ¡®Titan¡¯. The word ¡®Titan¡¯ meant a menagerie of different things in different cultures so he couldn¡¯t be sure what exactly they were attempting to summon, but the ¡®torment¡¯ part told him it likely wasn¡¯t the usual human take on Titans.


    The other two were on delay duty.


    ~¡±I conjure: The Grey Whale¡¯s Maw.¡±~


    A giant mouth appeared before Dalric, filling the entire hallway ceiling to floor and cell to cell. The teeth within it were as long as his forearm and likely thicker. Four layers of them separated him and the barbed throat at the epicenter.


    Unless you¡¯re going to summon the beast itself¡­


    He leapt directly into the maw, zipping by the rows of aggressively sharp teeth, and rubbed his hand along the white insides of its mouth. The lightning did the rest, infecting it like it did the floating swords beforehand.


    The things an ahjerist could conjure, be they in the form of a beast or a blade, were at their core just specific arrangements of ahjer. In some cases, they were very complex arrangements, but in this case they weren''t. To Dalric, they were simple and amateur. That''s what allowed him to break them down and consume them as raw ahjer.


    The amount of ahjer he pilfered from the large whale mouth was notably less than the swords though, likely the lack of an attunement, so consuming it gave Dalric effectively nothing. It did clear his path however, just in time for the original swordsman-conjurer to make their appearance.


    Things wouldn¡¯t go the same this time around.


    Dalric swiveled his arm and caught their surprise lunge between the blades of his halberd. Before they could retreat he twisted his wrist. The maneuver locked their sword in place. Immediately following it, he whipped his arm to the side. To the wielder¡¯s credit, they held on as their sword was dragged along. Their reward was a face full of metal as they slammed into the enchanted bars. Dalric didn¡¯t give them a moment''s respite, viciously kicking them as they rebounded off the cell. Their little fire daggers tried to come to the rescue, but he blocked them with his free hand. They still exploded on impact, but their efforts did nothing to stop him from getting another ferocious stomp in.


    ~¡±I summon: Crimson Chains.¡±~


    ~¡±I conjure: The Lion¡¯s Pride.¡±~


    Denying Dalric a third kick at their body, the bloody chains reemerged to snatch them away. Accompanying them were seven lions, each with bloodlust dripping off their fur. They didn¡¯t attack Dalric though, they simply maneuvered themselves between him and the swordsman-conjurer.


    I suppose I should say the fire-swordsman-conjurer.


    The compatriot that just rescued them was also a conjurer and a swordsman. Apparently. They had a sword on their hip at least. Unlike the fire one, they did seem far more focused on spells though.


    They covered their face with a mask, much similar to the fire one¡¯s, but they weren¡¯t adorned with a similarly colorful set armor. They didn¡¯t wear any armor actually, just an enchanted robe. The two behind sported the same thing. Enchanting thin, light material like whatever made up their robes was incredibly difficult. For them to all have adequate enough enchantments to comfortably forego standard armor was¡­ odd.


    Hmm. And of the six of you, only one has an enchanted weapon?


    That was exceptionally odd. Especially considering the regular patrol had enchanted weapons. Enchanting metals was magnitudes easier than fabrics. He peeked at the thin blade he confiscated from the fire-swordsman-conjurer.


    Maybe not.


    It was definitely an unusual sword, but that was just another to add to the list of dozens so he put those thoughts to the side.


    He tossed the sword behind him and continued his sprint. The lions swiftly moved to impede him, flailing their claws about, but they wouldn''t slow him down. He didn''t even waste time absorbing them, instead letting the lightning just disintegrate them on collision. Visible sparks of gold shot out as each lion sacrificed themself in ill-fated hopes of stopping him. With no sense or will, they mindlessly offered themselves to the meat grinder.


    Though they failed their purpose, the few seconds Dalric took to assess the foursome''s armor-weapon situation gave the chains enough reprieve to yank the original swordsman-conjurer to ¡®safety¡¯. They were still reeling from their brief beating, but they were ''safely'' behind the new one. And the new one was yet untouched by Dalric. Yet.


    Passed the ineffective lions, Dalric finally crossed into their cocoon. Or what he calculated was their cocoon. From this point on their spell casting would be too slow to be effective, forcing them into a melee. If they were as skilled with their sword as they were with their spells, it could take a moment. If they weren''t¡­


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    They unsheathed their blade, a similar sort to the one the other swordsman-conjurer used though unenchanted, and took a defensive stance. Dalric immediately tested its strength, swinging his halberd high and wide for a heavy blow. It almost scraped the ceiling before falling like a guillotine. They wisely avoided it, stepping backward instead of meeting it head on.


    Hm.


    Dalric''s control was elite though. He halted mid-swing and switched to a lunge instead. They barely had a moment to recognize the shift, frantically jolting their arm into position. Their sword caught the junction between the tip of the halberd and one of the side blades, just preventing themselves from being impaled.


    Dalric twisted his wrist again, snagging both their weapon and their arm. They didn''t make the same mistake their compatriot did however, they relinquished their sword the moment they felt the pull. It harmlessly dropped to the floor as they stepped back a few more feet.


    They hastily pulled out a dagger from somewhere on their back and resumed their defensive stance.


    Dalric tested them again, jabbing his halberd with inhuman speed. They managed to get their weapon in place in time, but it was too small, they were too weak, and their stance was ruined in the process. Blood Hunter barreled through it all, meeting their robe and easily cutting through. They successfully avoided the worse, their desperate defense dampened its sting, only allowing it pierce a few centimeters into their shoulder rather than all the way through. They didn¡¯t, however, come out with just a cut. The tip of Blood Hunter had a chaos attunement. Unlike something as simple as decay, it didn¡¯t just set the area it affected to rot. It actively shattered it into pieces. The end result may have been largely the same, but the time it took to reach that result was drastically different.


    The recipient of it could only groan painfully as they blinked and lost both their shoulder and their arm. They stumbled backward, still groaning, and bumped into their now recovered cohort. They both fire one allowed them to retreat as they stepped forward to face Dalric.


    What''s your plan now?


    Both the swordsman-conjurers were weaponless now, one of them being heavily injured as well. The fire one could technically still cast spells, but unless they knew spells outside or conjuration or something far more advanced than they''ve shown that wasn''t much of an option. He peeked over at the summoners, but he didn''t have much to worry about over there either. They looked over half done, but the quality and quantity of the ahjer they used was just too low. Titan or not, if you don''t give it enough strength it would be meaningless.


    It was at this point Dalric had to contend with the thought that had been nagging him since he broke out of his cell and set eyes on the brute. Something at the back of his mind was stopping him from killing these people.


    This shouldn''t have dragged on this long. He could have ended this much sooner. He could end this right now, but he was hesitating. He, Sin of Wrath, The Black Maelstrom, Dragon of the North, The Deathseeker, was hesitating. For what, for slave traders? Traffickers? He had been ready to decimate the entire village of tigers for doing nothing but protecting their home, but these revolting pigs made him hesitate?


    What''s going on?


    He looked to his left, into the cell beside him. His rage burned again. It was a human child this time, or likely a child. Human ages were hard to judge, but they appeared small and frail. They didn''t seem malnourished, but they were most definitely thin, beaten, and shackled. Seeing them in such a state made magma flow through Dalric''s veins, but as he turned back to the people that caused it he didn''t have it.


    That tick he had when he wanted something dead. It just wasn''t there. He couldn''t feel it. Even with Blood Hunter begging him to drown it in their blood, he still hesitated. He still felt unsure.


    What is wrong with me? Is it¡­ that I¡¯m free from the Gods¡¯ influence?


    ¡­


    No. That couldn''t be it, it wouldn¡¯t even make any sense.


    He was by no stretch of the imagination a pacifist. Though he¡¯d valiantly argue that every example of him monstrously rampaging came during his centuries of under the thumb of the Gods, he earned the name ¡®The Black Maelstrom¡¯ years before that. His life had always been fraught with battle. While he never truly had a taste for murder, he also never ran from it. It was all he knew at one point. This. This feeling of not wanting to kill was foreign. It felt even more foreign than when the Gods were rummaging around in his head. Actually. It felt vaguely similar to that. There was no pressure, but rather a coaxing. As if someone was¡­


    Dalric paused and immediately scanned his body. Something was up, something was definitely up. Early signs were good, but the first scan was just for major disruptions. He went more minute, more detailed. Everything still seemed fine, until he noticed something at the crown of his head. There was an incision. A tiny one, no thicker than his fingernail, but an incision all the same. He couldn¡¯t even feel it. Without the deep scan, he¡¯d have never known it was there.


    He panicked, slightly, but calmed down when he confirmed the cut didn¡¯t penetrate his skull. He double-checked, but he found no disturbances with his brain. That only gave him slight solace though, there was still a phantom incision in his head.


    The two sword-conjurers both stirred in front of him. Not much time had passed, each scan only took a handful of seconds, but they both noticed his change of demeanor. He barely gave them a glance. Their main goal was still just delayment so they¡¯d actually backed up a further distance. The injured conjurer seemed to be prepping a more complex conjuration spell, but Dalric only vaguely cared. He doubted they could conjure anything he couldn¡¯t instantly disintegrate. Hell, he may even get some free ahjer if it''s good enough. He could need it. This detour, even though it was of utmost importance, was costing him. He was dangerously close to having to disconnect from Thunderfield.


    Wait.


    He released the brute from his cage, the two streaks of lightning returning to him. Thinking about it now, there was no point in keeping him in it anyway. It was actually kind of foolish of him. The brute was twitching before, but now he was just comatose. Keeping the cage running burned his ahjer for nothing.


    So many mistakes, so little time¡­ is this a part of it too?


    His full focus returned to the tiny hole in his head. The fact it didn¡¯t cut all the way through his skull gave him a bit calm, if some sort of parasite invaded his brain he wouldn¡¯t even know what he could do about that. To be fair, he also didn¡¯t know what to do now. How was a small cut affecting his thoughts, he didn''t know, but he was sure it was somehow.


    Without being able to tell how it was¡­ doing whatever it was doing exactly, he just resolved to close it and see how that affected it. He moved some of his ahjer towards it, but internally frowned when he faced resistance. His ahjer still gradually moved along, but it did so at a much slower rate than it should have. It should have been near-instantaneous, this was taking a number of seconds. A major red flag. It did eventually reach the area, but once it did it faced even greater resistance. In fact, it was completely blocked.


    Wait no. They weren''t blocked, the healing is being blocked.


    More worries for him. He scanned himself again, but he found no poison. There shouldn''t be anything stopping him from healing himself. He tried again but got the same result.


    It''s almost as¡ª


    He reached for the back of his head with his hand.


    ¡ªif¡­ somethings there.


    Something was there.

 Chapter 9: Clouded II

    He couldn''t sense it, at all. He couldn''t even feel it in his head, but his hand definitely just hit something.


    He immediately plucked it out.


    The difference was instant. He felt the change, the subtle shift. His mind was.. clearer, sharper. As if he just stepped out of a cool lake, he felt refreshed. Even Blood Hunter sounded much clearer. Much clearer. He could actually feel its presence within his own thoughts rather than just touching the edges.


    He stared down into his hand, but even as he felt the thin object between his fingers none of his other senses could pick it up. He could only stare at his empty palm.


    What are you? Are you still clouding my mind?


    He let some lightning zip towards it. If it was somehow messing with his ahjer, the black streaks were the best counter he had at the moment. He wasn''t sure whether to pierce or just coil around it though. He didn''t know what the consequences would be of either. Thankfully, he wouldn''t have to guess. The second his lightning made contact with it, he felt it get attacked. Whatever it was in his hand, it attempted to disform and distort Thunderfield.


    It didn''t go well for it.


    Dalric couldn''t actually tell what happened next, but after a few moments the shard came into view. It was thin, iridescent, and about half a finger length. He blinked. He had felt a bit of his ahjer get sucked into the black bolt, but he had zero clue what it did.


    Thoughts about the ''how'' immediately vanished, however as he identified the object in his hand. A Jester Shard, named so because only a fool used it and only a greater fool fell for it. Its function was quite potent, it heavily amplified or weakened certain feelings within the person it was inserted into, but it was also aggressively easy to detect. The way it forcefully distorted ahjer made it as hard to notice as two of your limbs being severed while your eye is poked out. Topped off with the ease in which it could be removed and you had a painfully useless weapon, that was more often used for sex than anything threatening.


    But. Someone had changed that. Someone had solved its greatest weakness. Someone had made it near impossible to notice it. Someone had made it dangerous. Dalric looked over his shoulder. He had indeed stumbled upon a person, a potential someone, who knew how to make himself impossible to sense. And that person also happened to be the first person he came in contact with.


    "Well. Well. Well."


    This would explain the presence of lucyberries, but when did you put this in me?


    The Jester Shard opened the doors to a number of new questions, but it also answered the most important one he had right now. He may have been tired, sore, and running out of ahjer, but he hadn¡¯t lost his mind. It had just been tampered with. Just. There was no just about that, but he framed it as such to not lose focus. Now that his mind was clear, he could finally finish off this unnecessarily long dance. Then, then there would be answers.


    He coiled some lightning around the shard and attached it to the back of his hand. There were no pockets in or on his armor and he didn¡¯t feel like carrying it in his palm.


    Once he made sure it was secure he turned his attention back to the four in front of him, this time with murder firmly on his mind. He charged forward, feeling Blood Hunter giggle with glee. A large snake burst through the ground to meet him, the conjurer had apparently completed their spell. It appeared over two meters wide and a meter tall, its mouth was large enough to swallow a group of him whole. It also spat liquid fire. The stream of burning liquid sizzled through the air as it honed in on him. He comfortable dodged the bulk of it, whatever fringe droplets he didn¡¯t evade burned away against his lightning covering. Beyond its ranged squirts, it was just a kind of big snake. Dalric didn¡¯t bother getting close enough to it to disintegrate it. He hurled Blood Hunter into its mouth. It managed to close it before the halberd reached it, but that only worsened the damage. Blood Hunter cleanly cut through its entire head, dispersing it in a matter of seconds.


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    Dalric ran beyond it before it even finished diffusing into regular ahjer. Blood Hunter hastily flew back into his grip, unsatisfied with killing a mere conjuration. It called for more and more it would have. He¡¯d crossed into their cocoon again.The swordsman-conjurers had made themselves some new tools while they waited for him though. The fire one wielded a spear and small shield while the one armed one had a massive shield that covered their entire body up to their nose. They both realized running with swords wouldn¡¯t cut it. The spear and shield routine wouldn¡¯t cut it either, but it was better.


    Dalric met the fire one first. Their spear being longer than his halberd, they jabbed at his head while keeping out of his range. He scoffed as he purposely put his head in the way, almost headbutting the sharpened tip of their spear. Even without any lightning covering his face, the purity of the ahjer he had meant a simple conjuration like the ones they used for their weapons could do little to harm him. Stunned by the move, they weren¡¯t prepared when he swiftly grabbed the shaft of the spear and yanked it.


    They let go, but not before being pulled off balance. He quickly empowered the simple spear he¡¯d stolen and batted them in the head. The impact gave off a satisfying thwop sound as their head flew to the side and their body went limp. They unceremoniously crashed to the floor thereafter.


    If they died from that, oh well. If they lived, he had a number of questions about their weapon. He wasn¡¯t perturbed either way. The rest of the pigs wouldn¡¯t be left to chance though.


    The one armed one hadn¡¯t moved. Whether by design, slow reflexes, or fear, they held their position while Dalric easily dealt with their companion. They were now all that stood between him and the two summoners who were actually close to completing their summoning spell. They had upped the amount of ahjer the poured into it, likely a result of witnessing Dalric¡¯s strength. The difference wouldn¡¯t do much help.


    In a similar vein, their one armed protector wouldn¡¯t do much to help them either. Though their shield covered most of their body, their eyes remained unprotected. Dalric firmly gripped Blood Hunter and slashed towards them. The speed was impressive, but not too fast to react to. They did so comfortably, deftly repositioning their massive shield to block him. In the end however, there was nothing to block. Millimeters before colliding, Dalric changed trajectory and raised the halberd up. With their eyes covered they only just glimpsed it over the tip of their shield, but by the point they did it was already on the way back down.


    The halberd fell right over the top, effortlessly splitting their head down the middle. Their helmet offered no protection. Blood Hunter sliced through it with ease on its way into their skull. It revelled in all the blood it found, cackling as it reaped another life. Dalric calmly removed it from their brain. He almost preferred it when the shard subdued his connection to it. Almost.


    Done with the ones sent to delay him, he eyed the summoners who looked back at him in terror. If they weren¡¯t so close to completion they¡¯d likely have given up on the summoning and fought another way, but at this point they¡¯d put so much ahjer into it even if they cancelled it they¡¯d be severely weakened. Whichever path they chose, they¡¯d be sitting ducks right now either way.


    Dalric played around with the idea of letting them complete it, just to see their face when their final hope was dashed by a simple swing of his halberd. He decided against it though, no need sowing despair in people he¡¯d just kill anyway.


    So he killed them, simply and cleanly. They didn¡¯t do much to resist. Removing their heads from their bodies proved the simplest part of his dash over. As a nice bonus at the end it, he managed to absorb a good amount of the ahjer they poured into the summoning spell. Some of it dissipated too quickly, but he snagged a lot of it. It didn¡¯t come close to making up for the amount he wasted, but it was a nice little bump.


    Finally done with the reinforcements, he picked up the possibly dead swordsman-conjurer and walked back to the original two. He despawned Blood Hunter along the way, it was beginning to crave the slaves¡¯ blood as well, and replaced it with the enchanted blade he confiscated. The Jester Shard spun between his fingers as he guessed which emotions it heightened and which it dampened. It clearly dampened his desire to kill, but he couldn¡¯t quite figure out what it heightened.


    By the time he reached the dark skin man he¡¯d first spoken to, the man was cowering in his cage.


    ¡°Pl..please. I swear it! I swear on my life I¡¯m just security!¡±


    Dalric tilted his head, ¡°Well, that could be true. But.¡± He showed the man the Jester Shard, ¡°How would you explain this part?¡±

 Chapter 9.5: Force of Nature

    Ryku''s body trembled. Not from fear, or pain, like it had so many times in the past month. Ryku was in awe, complete jaw dropping awe. The only thing that stopped him from physically dropping his jaw, besides the fact it already laid on the floor, was his desperate desire to not pass out. It took the vast majority of his mental strength to keep the Devil Glass from knocking him unconscious. He could only periodically peek at the fight ensuing in the hall lest the glass slip him into an indefinite slumber.


    He''s glad he took the risk though. Oh was he glad. He''d witness a monster, a skyguard. They were like a Titan in human skin. No, they were stronger. Just being in the presence of their ahjer felt suffocating. He''d never felt anything like it. Comparing it to his own was like comparing a bottle of water to the Chi¡¯Umi lake. How could you? They were incomparable.


    It started when the Baron''s boy walked by, ever eager to look like he''s doing something. He''d heard some commotion about an angel, but he thought little of it. He didn''t believe the Baron was that reckless. Enslaving an angel would be pure suicide. What could he do with it other than keep them in complete secrecy? No one in their right mind would buy them off him. That was practically daring the royal family to come after you.


    There was definitely a new prisoner though. He sensed the extra guard they stationed down here, the only guard they stationed here for that matter. ''Down here'' being the bottom layer of their slave compound, the place they kept all the potentially problematic ones. Guards weren''t necessary cause each one got a Devil Shard shoved in their head and chains that weakened them. This new one did have a guard though, so even though he refused to believe it was an angel he was vaguely intrigued in what they caught that made them so scared.


    It turned out they were right to be sacred. When the mythical beast of a man broke out of his cage, he walked out like the doubly reinforced orcanite door was just straw to be blown away. Ryku had seen powerful beings before, many times in fact. He was a silver badge after all, access to the upper echelon was a given. Once upon a time he''d even been in the presence of one the leading beasts of the jungle, an exceptionally terrifying human-sized lizard. He''d been trespassing in their land of course and beat a very hasty retreat once the opportunity presented itself, but he kept a clear picture of what feeling their ahjer was like. He thought that was massive then, but it felt absolutely puny in comparison to what he was experiencing now.


    Most people took ahjer sense for granted. It was the most basic of basic skills that even children had. Those people just didn''t understand its potential. Sure, for the simpletons its main use was either finding the best clusters of ahjer for spells or making sure they were empowering themselves correctly, but it could be so much more. If you trained and studied it well enough it could tell you everything. How much ahjer your opponent had, when they were using it, when they were casting spells, what kind of spells they were casting, how long it would take to finish casting. Ryku couldn''t do all of that just yet, but it was still possible. So much information right there, right at your fingertips.


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    If any of the Baron''s men cared to properly train their ahjer sense they''d have known fighting this human hurricane was as foolish as fighting an actual hurricane. It was probably more foolish. How could they possibly win? Even without training their ahjer sense, did they not hear that wail? That¡¯s a run very far away kind of wail, it sounded like his soul was being ripped from his body. The regular schmucks obviously took the hint, only the four at the top were dumb enough to come down.


    Of course, the human natural disaster cleaned them out effortlessly. He even made time to mock Sunset White, the second most menacing figure in the whole region and the very reason Ryku was laying prone in a cell right now. In fairness, is it mockery if it''s true? He absolutely toyed with them before the rest of the bastards arrived and then he just wiped them all out. Even knowing the impossibly wide gap between them, seeing Sunset White get swatted to death with their own weapon shocked him. What a pathetic way to go out.


    He carried their defeated corpse all the way back down the hall before dumping it next to the boy¡¯s guard. Ryku couldn¡¯t remember the guards name, but he was a man of little importance anyway. What the force of nature made human planned to do next was of far more import. He seemed to be talking to the boy, but Ryku couldn¡¯t only hear the boy¡¯s frantic yells. From what he could make out of the hysterics the Titanman was likely a mainlander, he definitely wasn¡¯t from one of the islands. The boy was yelling some very basic information, the kinds of things you only had to tell someone who didn¡¯t live in the area. More than just the area though, the boy went on to explain that this was no man''s land in between the Taiyo Dynasty and the Kingdom of Whitesails. Who but a complete foreigner would need to be told that?


    It was at that realization that the awe he felt shifted towards apprehension. He hadn¡¯t expected the man to be a local, but a complete foreigner? Why would someone that strong, come here? What was his goal?

 Chapter 10: A Clear Path

    "So why are you, a ''mercenary'' from the Kingdom of Whitesails, protecting a slave camp by the border of the Taiyo Dynasty?"


    "Its¡ªI¡­ um."


    The man had calmed down from his earlier hysterics, but he still stammered in response to every other question. It didn''t help that Dalric had been carefully analyzing the enchanted blade while he spoke, but the simple truth was he was just a poor liar. They hadn''t been speaking for long and Dalric had already picked up on a number of his cues. The most obvious one was the ''um''. It only really came out when he was pausing to come up with a believable story. There was a long list though, from his word choice to mannerism to the tone of his voice. He gave away the fact he was lying in so many ways, Dalric vaguely wondered if it was bait. Part of the ill-advised plan had been to rattle the man, but this felt excessive.


    "It''s, um, it pays quite well. I¡­ just¡ªmy family desperately needs the money.."


    "And how much does it pay?"


    The man''s eyelids rose a bit.


    Elders. How did you not think I''d ask that?


    "It uh¡­"


    Dalric waved his free hand, "Nevermind, nevermind. Back to this ''Devil Glass'', so it''s illegal in the Kingdom of Whitesails and not the Taiyo Dynasty. What do people use it for?"


    "Slaves..?"


    "That''s it? It has no other uses?"


    "Uh. Not that I know? W¡ªthey use it to keep the slaves under control."


    Dalric eyed the ''glass'', "Do they also use the same spell you used to make it undetectable?


    ¡°It wasn¡¯t me!¡±


    Dalric fought hard to not roll his eyes, ¡°Yes, yes. Nothing is you. You¡¯ve never been at fault for anything in your life. Just answer the question.¡±


    He noticeably deflated, "They¡­ they don''t."


    "And why is that? Is the spell, perhaps, unique to you?"


    "No!" The man yelled.


    Dalric''s face yelled ''horseshit'' back.


    "It isn''t my spell!"


    "Then why do you know a spell that''s identical? If it''s not yours, then whose is it?"


    He stammered, ¡°I¡­ can¡¯t tell you that.¡±


    Dalric was officially tired of this back and forth. He learned much of the general knowledge he needed to know about the surrounding area already and he most definitely wasn''t going to pry any meaningful information out of the man without resorting to torturing him. Everytime he went for intimate details, he met poorly conceived lies or blatant refusals to speak. He was tired of it. Interrogating and information gathering were never his strong suits anyway. The fact he got so much information out of his first proper dialogue with a human was good enough.


    Hm. It is actually possible that it isn''t him who cast the spell on these. I had assumed he was in some sort of leadership position, but he''s clearly inexperienced. Incredibly inexperienced. He can''t possibly be running this place¡­ but the way that brute behaved¡­ No. I don''t know what''s going on here but this man is definitely not the head of anything. He can''t even stay composed enough to come up with consistent lies.


    The potential that this was all a ruse still lingered, but Dalric shrugged at it. The general info he learned would likely be useful either way. Lying about it when it was so easy to prove or disprove held little to no value. If the man made everything up anyway, then Dalric would just have to take that on the chin and admit he''d been fooled. In the end, it would only serve to waste a bit of his time so he felt fairly secure in taking that bet.


    "Final question. What God do you worship?"


    "God?" The man made a number of bewildered faces, "Worshipping a God¡­ is outlawed?"


    It was Dalric''s turn to make a series of baffled expressions, "Excuse me, outlawed? Thats...thats. Huh? You have priests don''t you?"


    "Yes¡­?"


    Dalric blinked. Twice.


    "What do they do?"


    "They¡­ preach about our forefathers? And uh run schools, teach kids."


    What is this guy saying? Has he really been lying to me this entire time?


    "You m¡ª"


    Wait. The Gods wanted to kill these people. Desperately. They didn''t even wait to fully control my body before attempting to begin the massacre. They were that desperate. Having zero access or authority in an entire kingdom would definitely do that.


    ¡­


    But how the hell did they manage to outlaw them in the first place?


    Dalric still wasn''t completely sure he was on Frysta. There were many things pointing toward the possibility that he was, but there were also many things pointing towards the possibility that he wasn''t. The two nations for example, he''d never heard of either of them. He did know Taiyo was Surunese though, and apparently the national language of the Kingdom of Whitesails was some simplified version of Hellgurian. Those were both languages he knew, Hellgurian more so than Surunese.


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    He also confirmed this was an island. The Surunese were an island people. They didn''t have any kingdoms, but they did have a number or powerful tribes. And a jungle. Though the jungle he remembered was tiny and devoid of life compared to what he saw outside.


    The obvious answer to these anomalies would be Aegeus. He would have a vested interest in creating the most fertile land for his enlightened-sapient-things to grow, in keeping the Gods completely out of his business, and assuming he planned to grow into a God himself he''d have the power to found and control a kingdom. The eastern coast of Hellguria was only a one week boat ride to the Surunese island too.


    Though it was the clearest answer he could see, it still didn''t explain enough. The most glaring, why were the ahjer levels so abundant here? If one man could do that, he''d already be stronger than a God. Then there was the issue of timeline. Dalric could appreciate that he likely wasn''t immediately reborn. Chances are it took a few years, maybe even decades. Still, kingdoms aren''t built that quick, enlighteneds aren''t born that quick, and jungles don''t grow that quick. Details weren''t aligning.


    The more I know, the less I understand.


    Dalric shook his head, "I guess real answers will have to wait for a city. So your use has run out."


    "Wait! I gave you real answers!"


    "Maybe you did." The cage immediately closed around him, killing him instantly, "I''d have killed you for willingly working at a slave camp either way."


    His remains spread across the floor as the streaks returned to Dalric. Coming into contact with Thunderfield could lead to a variety of results, most involving the person''s ahjer being violently contorted while still in their body. In this case, large swaths of the man''s body were eviscerated. A common result if and when the person doesn''t know how to empower themselves. The brute knew, so he got a taste of his ahjer being sent haywire instead. Of course if he was strong enough he could have shrugged off all effects, he just wasn''t.


    Speaking of the brute, you were never necessary.


    He was still unconscious so Dalric quickly stuck the sword between his eyes. No need to prolong the inevitable. The man didn''t seem to have a good grasp of the language anyway, it was unlikely he''d have anything useful to say. He looked towards the full armored swordsman to the right of the brute. They also didn''t seem to have a full grasp of the language, likely because they were from the Taiyo Dynasty, but Dalric didn''t care in their case. He more than half-hoped they lived. Their sword was exquisite. Dalric could of course summon many objectively better weapons, but even those didn''t have this level of craftsmanship. From the quality of the metalworking to the streamlined enchantments to the way the hilt served as an easy conduit to absorb the wielder''s ahjer and empower the whole blade, it was truly a remarkable weapon.


    He could use one like this. A physical one, that he didn''t have to summon. Swords in particular weren''t his style, so he didn''t really want to take this one specifically. He''d rather figure out where or who they got it from so he could go straight to the source for a custom weapon.


    I''ll also have to figure out how to gain some quick gold here. Anyway.


    With his business completed and no signs of any further reinforcements, Dalric sent out the black streaks one last time. He sent them all for this one. They spread out across the room and attached themselves to the bars on each of the cells. Then they melted them down. It took a bit more time than the instantaneous he would have liked, but his connection to Thunderfield was getting fainter and fainter by the moment. It lasted long enough to get the job done though. He''d have to do the chains himself, but he''d have done that anyway. Thunderfield was many things, but gentle was not one of them. The second all of the bars were gone, he let the pitch black lightning dissipate and returned to being just human.


    I''m not going to enjoy the rebound.


    Using Thundefield without having the appropriate vessel for it was not the best decision he''s ever made, but he''d quietly blame the shard for that and move on. That was another thing that was off. Jester Shards, or Devil Glass as they¡¯re known here, were made with lucyberry extract. That part checked out just fine, they grew lucyberry bushes here. The part that didn¡¯t make sense was Jester Shards were out of use way before lucis, the most devastating drug Dalric had ever seen that was also made from lucyberry extract. If there are people who remember how to make the shards, how aren¡¯t there people making the drug?


    All these questions were really bogging him down. His insatiable curiosity drove him to constantly ask them and want to have complete answers for them. He didn¡¯t need them though. The number one thing he needed right now was an understanding of where he placed in the world, figuratively. Was he still stuck as a slave to the Gods or could this be a new beginning for him? That was the most important thing, everything else came second.


    He¡¯d already proven he can fight off the Gods'' influence, but can he do it again? Can he do it while their full attention is squared directly on him? These are the questions he needs to both ask and answer. For now at least, all these secondary details could wait.


    The slaves couldn¡¯t wait though, so he went about breaking off their chains and removing the shard from their heads. He had discovered their full functions, damping the desire for violence was only one of four things each did. They also slowed the body''s metabolism, increased its desire for sleep, and heightened the person¡¯s reverence for those wearing red. The first two made sense. The last one very much didn¡¯t. How in the world they accomplished that with Jester Shards, he wasn¡¯t going to think about. Yet.


    Hm. Wait. Could I use these to fight against the Gods?


    Maybe he was going to think about it. Just not now. He needed to wrap up freeing these people and then the whole camp so he could sit down and really figure out his path. He got about a third of the way through the thirty or so occupied cells when he met the first person that was awake.


    ¡°Oh shit.¡±


    He hurriedly freed them from their chains and the shards control. They were human, dark skinned like the other man. They appeared to be male themselves, though they had long hair that as he helped them get on their feet went all the way down to their stomach. Their face was quite angular and their eyes were a dark purple, but otherwise they looked like a typical human to Dalric. Thick eyebrows though.


    ¡°Hel¡ª¡±


    Before Dalric could get a word out they dropped to one knee, ¡°My name is Ryku Tai. I¡¯m a silver badge Paragon. My badge was taken from me, but if you allow me accompany you to any operating branch they can confirm my rank. Please, take me as a student.¡±


    Dalric looked down at him stunned, ¡°What? No, I¡¯m not here for a student.¡±


    ¡°If you do not mind someone like me asking, what are you here for? Master.¡±


    ¡°First of all, don¡¯t call me that. Ever.¡± Dalric¡¯s demeanor shifted very dangerously towards angry.


    ¡°Yes sir! My deepest apologies.¡±


    ¡°No, I don¡¯t m¡ªugh. Stop. I won''t be your master or teacher or any of the sort. After I¡¯m done freeing all the slaves here I¡¯m leaving. You¡¯ll go on and continue to be a..a Paragon. Okay? Good.¡±


    Dalric walked out of the cell and into the next. No way would he get trapped into being someone¡¯s teacher. Once he was done freeing these slaves, he had to go figure out how to free himself. There was absolutely no time for a student.

 Chapter 11: A Long, Long Way From Home

    Ryku seemed adamant on making his pipe dream a reality. He had disappeared for a moment which led Dalric to assume he¡¯d gotten the message, but he had simply left to go find a change of clothes. He ditched the prisoner rags he wore before and now donned a plain black robe. Dalric had been prepared to give him a second, sterner warning, but instead of pleading his case verbally Ryku made himself useful. He went to the opposite row of cells and broke them free.


    Dalric had mostly done that side anyway, so he finished it fairly quickly. Once he was done with that he disappeared again before reemerging with food. There would have been no way to tell it was food if it was clearly labeled as such. It looked like mud, liquified mud. Without the label he would have first assumed it was water, being that it came out of what appeared to be a leather canteen, but as Ryku squeezed the contents out and into the mouth of a draken woman all Dalric could see was brown mud.


    Once he was done with his side and every individual was free, he cast a quick spell.


    ~¡±The earth listens for I command it.¡±~


    It was meant to be a quick spell at least. He¡¯d let the fact that the earth here was compacted and reinforced with ahjer slip from his mind. If he put some more power behind the spell it could have still been quick, but there was no point using the incantation if he was going to do that. Thus, he waited patiently as the earth below each cell slowly pushed up and around their inhabitants. First it holstered them on a flat, soft surface, then it grew small silky blades of grass. Dalric realized, as the beds fully came into fruition, that he was doing a bit much. These weren¡¯t the only slaves in the camp but he was moving like his job was done.


    On the other hand though, he¡¯d probably need these people. His ahjer wasn¡¯t refilling at the rate it was supposed to, likely one of the effects of the overexposure to Thunderfield. If the actual leader of this operation hadn¡¯t shown up yet and was waiting for their late, dramatic entrance, it could be a problem. Without ahjer and in his current body, Dalric wasn¡¯t even a fraction of the man he should be.


    If he could get these people up and active though, he wouldn¡¯t need to be that man. All of them had very decent ahjer levels. Not as high as their captors, especially that fire one, but with thirty-six of them that wouldn¡¯t matter.


    Thirty-three minus the kids.


    Ryku was on to one of the kids now. He showed a great deal of extra care and diligence in pouring the completely unappetizing ¡®food¡¯ into their mouth. Dalric could appreciate his efforts, but none of this would make him accept the man as his student. That would just never happen.


    He did have a question he just had to ask though, ¡°What in the world is in that?¡±


    Ryku looked up, ¡°In this? I don¡¯t.. know, but it''s similar to¡ªah. When you keep slaves, or prisoners, unconscious long term you feed them ¡®tube¡¯. Tube can be made with anything, but it''s usually just a form of nutritious, watery gruel. I don¡¯t know what this one is made with, but they¡¯ve been feeding it to us for a while and I didn¡¯t feel any negative effects.¡±


    ¡°Nutritious?¡±


    Ryku nodded, ¡°Yeah. It costs more to make it that way, but you use less of it per meal and it provides both food and drink at once so it balances out. Also means you don¡¯t have to clean the bodies as much.¡±


    ¡°Well. I meant what does the word ¡®nutritious¡¯ mean, but from that I¡¯m guessing it means something along the lines of ¡®highly nourishing¡¯?¡±


    ¡°Ah.¡± Ryku stuttered for a second, ¡°Uh, hu. Yes. That¡¯s¡ªthat¡¯s what it means.¡±


    Hmm. In the case of prisoners this is actually quite efficient. Though I doubt they¡¯d bother to clean the bodies if they weren¡¯t being sold.


    Dalric took one of the canteens and inspected it, ¡°How do you know all of that, being a Paragon?¡±


    ¡°Oh no, I was born in a city called Taki. It¡¯s one of the major ports in Taiyo. You see a lot of slave traffic growing up.¡±


    ¡°I see.¡±


    Seems the man''s info was good. Hmm, I just committed to staying focused, but there¡¯s no harm in confirming a few things.


    ¡°What language do they speak in Taiyo?¡±


    Ryku settled the kid back down into the bed and began moving to the next cell, ¡°Surunese. I¡¯m fluent in both Surunese and Sailian by the way.¡±


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    So Surunese is still Surunese, but Hellgurian is now Sailian? Or is that just the local variety?


    Dalric followed, ¡°Have you ever been off this island, Ryku?¡±


    ¡°Twice. As a silver badge, I have rights to see the annual Herculean Events. Why do you ask?¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t need to know any other languages when you travel?¡±


    Ryku grew more perplexed with each passing question, but he skillfully didn¡¯t let the confusion on his face stop his hands from doing their job, ¡°No? Most people who go to the event, even foreigners, speak Sailian.¡±


    Oh?


    ¡°I was led to believe the Kingdom of Whitesails didn¡¯t extend beyond this island?¡±


    Realization dawned on Ryku, ¡°Ohhh.¡± Then pure bewilderment, ¡°Oh. Uh. Whitesails is just one kingdom in the Sailian Empire. There are several and they all speak Sailian. The Herculean Events take place in the Kingdom of Redsails for example.¡±


    Ah. Well then.


    ¡°Are they all called ¡®a color¡¯-sails?¡±


    Ryku forced a chuckle as he moved to the next cell, ¡°No, only three. The Kingdoms of Redsails, Greensails, and Whitesails. I didn¡¯t study much history so I don¡¯t know why that is. Apologies.¡±


    ¡°No need. Speaking of history, which calendar do you use?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ don¡¯t know. I know the year is 804 PD to us, but I don¡¯t know the calendar.¡±


    804? What? Which calendar has only been running for eight hundred years? Kritilian maybe? That¡¯s not used by humans though.


    ¡°Do you know what the PD stands for at least?¡±


    ¡°Not exactly, no. I do know it''s a reference to some calamity that struck back then though. I can¡¯t tell you if it was a global thing, but I know at least the Sailian Empire doesn¡¯t have many documents that stretch beyond that.¡±


    Global?


    ¡°You just said global. You know the world is a globe?¡±


    Ryku blinked then stared at Dalric like he was asking to sleep with his wife, ¡°..Yes.¡±


    Dalric couldn''t care less what face Ryku was making, this was shocking news to him, ¡°Is that something you learned as a Paragon?¡±


    That was the first question that got Ryku¡¯s hands to stop, ¡°What? No, anyone who¡¯s received a proper education knows Frysta isn¡¯t flat. ¡±


    ¡­


    ¡°I apologize for my tone, I doubt you know about the prejudice, but we do get properly educated in Taiyo.¡±


    ¡­


    ¡°Hello?¡±


    ¡­


    Dalric was dumbstruck.


    Why didn¡¯t I just ask that from the beginning??


    <hr>


    Okay. So it was definitely more than a couple of decades.


    Once they were done feeding everyone, Dalric drilled Ryku about every single thing he knew about the world. Races, countries, animals, foods, tools, cultures, faiths, he asked everything. The long story short, some things were exactly the same as he remembered, but most things weren¡¯t. The angels everyone was talking about, for example wasn¡¯t the race he was thinking of. They were the children of humans and raeli. Raeli being an apparently feathered, vallinoid-ish variant of dragons.


    Did that make much sense? No. You were either a descendant of the valinns or you weren¡¯t. There wasn¡¯t an ish about it. He put that to the side though, appearances could be faked after all.


    He instead focused on the fact that centuries, if not millennia, had gone by while he was reborn. With that as the context, everything made sense. Well, not everything. How the Gods lost their grip on an entire empire and allowed some human to set the foundations to become one was still beyond him and time passing wasn¡¯t a sufficient explanation for the excessive amount of ambient ahjer, but everything else made sense. Including why an average man could know the world was a globe.


    Just how far has technology come?


    That was a thought for another time.


    While he was drilling Ryku, some people were waking up. He told them to continue resting, mostly because he was focused on getting his questions answered, but also partially to wait for everyone to wake up. He was still on guard for any potential surprises and the fact that in all that time no one even attempted to come down meant they were likely preparing up above ground. Neither Ryku nor him could guess what those preparations would look like so they waited to get everyone up to speed before pushing up together. It also gave Dalric time to continue building up his ahjer. It was still too slow to amass anything meaningful for combat, but he had enough to conjure very basic metal armor for everyone. Even if everyone down here was a capable fighter, their rags would get them killed in a heartbeat.


    While they waited, Dalric was happily surprised by one of the people who woke up.


    ¡°You¡¯re alive. It seems the Elders were kind to you.¡±


    They tried to stand up, but they just fell on their side.


    He walked over to them, flanked by Ryku, ¡°I wouldn¡¯t advise trying to move too much, you suffered some serious head damage.¡±


    ¡°You¡­ yur..yra. Dead.¡±


    ¡°I can vaguely make out those words. They¡¯re not the things I would say while desperately clinging for life, but I¡¯ve heard you¡¯re a prideful one.¡±


    ¡°Ki¡ªkl...kil me.¡±


    ¡°In time. First.¡± Dalric placed his hand on their mask and ripped it off, ¡°You¡¯ll tel¡ªwhoa.¡±


    Ryku gasped, ¡°You¡¯re Sunset White?!¡±

 Chapter 12: Just A Passerby

    Behind the mask, Dalric met a dark-skinned, wrinkled, and wizened old woman. Her skin was so thoroughly ravished by time she appeared more like a burnt carcass than a living person. The only give away that life still burned in the haggard husk of a human was the spark in her eyes. They were dark blue, verging on purple, and they shone with the same vibrance you¡¯d expect a child¡¯s eyes to have.


    Death¡¯s door still loomed though. Very close by at that. Dalric estimated she had less than ten years to live. To a non-ahjersist, or even just an average one, a decade could be considered a very long time. To those that peered deeper into ahjer¡¯s possibilities, those that broke free of the natural lifespan they were given, a decade could feel like mere months. Especially when it came at the end of your life.


    If you can move like this so close to death, I wonder what your prime looked like.


    ¡°You know who this old woman is?¡±


    ¡°Know who she is?.¡± Ryku stared at her in shock, ¡°She¡¯s a hero in Taiyo! She¡¯s the very reason I became a Paragon.¡±


    ¡°Kii..il¡ª¡±


    Dalric flicked her forehead, ¡°Shh. Go on.¡±


    Ryku could only shake his head in pure disbelief, ¡°She¡¯s former General Sara Hangaku. Like I said earlier, before Taiyo was unified it was just a bunch of squabbling tribal lords who fought with each other at any given opportunity. Akira Taiyo was the one who unified them, but it was General Hangaku, her, that actually led the armies.¡±


    Ugh.


    ¡°This woman.¡± He pointed at the now unconscious ¡®Sara Hangaku¡¯, ¡°Looks like a corpse. How do you know she¡¯s the same one you¡¯re talking about?¡±


    ¡°It''s impossible not to. Once the Dynasty was founded, she resigned and invested her time in education. Every kid that grows up in Taiyo sees her face plastered all over their school. They talked about her battles almost every month. I¡¯d recognize her before I recognized my own sister.¡±


    Well then.


    Now Dalric wished she¡¯d just died quietly. Doing anything to her now, with that knowledge and in front of all the people peeking from their cells, may very well be seen as an offence against their entire nation. Slavery was legal in Taiyo, no one would even bat an eye at her actions talkless of accept them as a good justification for offing her. Dalric wanted, may even needed, access to Taiyo if he planned to further his understanding of modern Jester Shards. Their ability to influence the mind in such specific ways potentially opened the door to a means of ridding himself of the Gods'' presence. At least temporarily. Without a way to break the contract permanently, he could never be truly free, but he¡¯d settle for functional freedom. If he could say no every time they called on him, that would be good enough. Giving that opportunity up just to kill the woman didn¡¯t make any sense as a trade. His anger towards slavery was great, but he was still a sensible man. One life wouldn¡¯t affect anything anyway, it¡¯d just satiate ego and bloodlust.


    The rest of the camp would still go, ego feeding or not. This was no man¡¯s land, Dalric could conquer the whole place and claim it as his own and no one would be able to tell him anything. Doubly so for those in Taiyo as it was currently owned by a nobleman from Whitesails.


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    He knelt down next to Sara and scanned her body. It was a bit troublesome having to fight through her ahjer, but she was too weak to slow him down for long. "Huh. I don¡¯t have to heal her at least, the armor has a healing property itself. She has a mild concussion and a few muscle tears, but they¡¯ll be gone within a few days. It seems she should have been dead a fair while ago, but the armor is keeping her going.¡±


    She¡¯s almost three hundred years old. She managed to break through the second bottleneck, but couldn¡¯t progress any further. That must have been infuriating.


    While Dalric internally remarked on her progress as an ahjerist, Ryku was still dealing with waves of shock, ¡°She was presumed dead twenty years ago. We have a five-day national holiday in her honor.¡±


    ¡°I get it, I get it. She¡¯s a hero."


    "You clearly don¡¯t get it.¡± He continued to shake his head in disbelief.


    ¡°Trust me, I¡¯ve experienced much greater shocks in the past day than finding out a once powerful and beloved political figure faked their death for two decades and spent that time masquerading as a mere guard for a slave camp. Get yourself together. What¡¯s important now is figuring out what the most apt thing to do with her is.¡±


    Ryku refused to stop shaking his head, but Dalric¡¯s words connected, ¡°Well. Sunset White is¡ªwasn''t just a mere guard. She practically ruled this entire region. But. If she¡¯s working with Baron Mori, her actions are still highly illegal. They¡¯d want her head in Whitesails. Though if she¡¯s working with him, that means she¡¯s working with the Taiyo government."


    Dalric stood up, ¡°Baron Mori?¡±


    ¡°The Baron that currently runs all of this. Didn¡¯t I mention him?¡±


    ¡°You might have. I was going through something of a moment at the time. I recall you mentioning the Baron was from Whitesails though, where is the Taiyo connection?¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s the first and only Taiyo-born Surunese nobleman in Whitesails. He was originally a major businessman in Madakawa, the capital of Taiyo, but he defected when a Duke named Basilio Leos offered him a spot in the nobility. Basilio claimed the Baron saved his daughter¡¯s life during a vacation and that¡¯s what called him to grant the man nobility. No one believed that of course, but no one objected either. My whole mission here was determining if the terms of that offer included things like.¡± He gestured towards the cells, ¡°This. And to report back with what I find. I poked around a bit too much and that¡¯s how I ended up here.¡±


    Dalric tapped his jaw, ¡°Let me fully understand this. You¡¯re saying Baron Mori, the first Taiyo-born Surunese noble in Whitesails, is the man who also happens to be secretly trafficking slaves for other Whitesails nobles while receiving backing from the Taiyo government and its former, supposedly dead, national hero? Did I get all of that?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s a..that¡¯s a pretty good way to sum that up.¡±


    So she wanted me to kill her here to avoid being interrogated in Whitesails and giving up sensitive information, but if I kill her I ruin my relations with Taiyo. If I don¡¯t kill her and Whitesails get their hands on her, they get the info and a powerful tool against Taiyo. If they publicly shame or kill her, that¡¯s war. Politics and diplomacy, oh how I have not missed you.


    ¡°Uh huh. More importantly though, you¡¯re saying it''s your job to report on all this?¡±


    Ryku looked confused, ¡°Yes¡­? Why is that more important?¡±


    ¡°It means.¡± Dalric began walking away, ¡°She¡¯s your responsibility. And all this.¡± He gestured to the entire hall of cells, ¡°Is also your responsibility.¡±


    ¡°Whoa! Wait a¡ª¡±


    Dalric covered his mouth as he hurriedly caught up to him, ¡°Shh. I¡¯ll help you organize these people and get everyone out of here, but after that. I¡¯ll go off to handle my situation and you¡¯ll handle this...mess. It¡¯s your job after all, I¡¯m just a passerby.¡±

 Chapter 13: Preparations

    Ryku wasn¡¯t having any of it, ¡°You killed the Baron¡¯s son!¡±


    ¡°Who?¡±


    Ryku pointed towards the back end of the hall where the body of the average-looking man laid, ¡°Him, the one on the left.¡±


    ¡°Ahh. That makes sense.¡± Dalric just shrugged at that though, ¡°I merely killed a criminal in the effort to free myself from enslavement. Perfectly justifiable. Anyway, everyone¡¯s up now and we¡¯re making a scene.¡±


    ¡°Making a sc¡ª¡±


    Dalric coughed loudly, both cutting Ryku off and getting everyone¡¯s attention, ¡°Hello! I¡¯m sure you¡¯re all very confused and maybe even a little frightened. Worry not. We¡¯re here to help you all.¡± He waited for everyone to shuffle out of their cells and into the hall, ¡°My name is Dalric, and this here is Ryku, he¡¯s a silver badge Paragon.¡±


    As expected, the mere mention of Ryku¡¯s rank plastered faint expressions of hope and expectation on many of the faces in the crowd. From the explanation he received, Paragons were essentially mercenaries that kind of specialized in community aid. Sometimes they patrolled cities as police, sometimes they protected towns and villages as guards, sometimes they cleared monster or beast infestations as guilders, sometimes they charted and cleared paths as adventures. They did a lot for communities and were often revered because of it. Dalric added the ¡®kind of¡¯ bit anyway because reading between the lines of the explanation, whoever was running the organization clearly wanted a bigger spot on the world stage. They¡¯d started branching into work that fell well outside ¡®community aid¡¯.


    Investigating illegal slavery technically was, but the way they¡¯ve gone about it reeked of ulterior motives. There was nothing wrong with playing the politics game though, every powerful organization had to eventually. At least they were still being useful while they played.


    He switched to Surunese for a second, ¡°If any you Sailian do not understand, raise hand.¡±


    Only six hands went up, ¡°Okay, will translate Ryku.¡±


    ¡°Wha¡ªokay.¡± He stuttered for just a moment before quickly assuming his role.


    Dalric switched back to Hellgurian, ¡°We¡¯ll both be leading you, and the rest of the people imprisoned here, out. We¡¯ve already dealt with the biggest threats here, as many of you have seen down the hallway. We¡¯ve even subdued ¡®Sunset White¡¯.¡± Some of the people in the crowd had yet to overcome their astonishment at finding out Sara Hangaku was the person behind the mask, but he wouldn¡¯t wait for them to get over it. ¡°To escape this camp completely, however, we¡¯re going to need your help. By a show of hands, which of you has fighting experience?¡±


    There was a short pause as they processed what he asked but then immediately, to his surprise, every single hand shot up. Even the children who stood at the front.


    He immediately turned to whisper to Ryku, ¡°Did they misunderstand me?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t believe so.¡±


    ¡°The kids too?¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re probably riftans, though I agree they look very young.¡±


    ¡°Is ¡®riftans¡¯ a race or something?¡±


    ¡°No. Uh. They¡¯re like... gladiators. They fight in tournaments for money and fame and all that.¡±


    ¡°In Whitesails? That¡¯s allowed? At their age?¡±


    ¡°The age minimum is fifteen and it''s completely voluntary. I don¡¯t know how they ended up here, but forcing someone to participate is thirty years in the black cells.¡±


    They¡¯re at least fifteen?


    Dalric looked at them, but even with that knowledge all he could see were small children. He peered closer and then he caught it. That little glint in their eyes. He had wrongfully assumed that was just the jadedness of being, even temporally, child slaves. But no, there was a hint of violence to it, a bit of aggression.


    I need to work on the way I view humans.


    He coughed loudly again. The little aside hadn¡¯t taken too much time, but it was still an awkward break in his speech.


    ¡°Apologies. I hadn¡¯t expected all of you to be fighters, but this works perfectly. I¡¯m about to cast a spell, don¡¯t be alarmed. It¡¯s going to conjure a suit of armor around each of you, suited to your size.¡±


    ~¡±In times of strife, I offer protection.¡±~


    All across the room, bright flashes of light suddenly emerged. Ahjer had gathered around each person and begun swiftly morphing into plates of armor. Though the process appeared the same, the spell was almost completely different from the one that created Dalric''s own armor. The suits it made had zero attunements or extra properties, they were just plain metal. Not even the same metal he wore, just a tough jarlon alloy. Jarlon was notably stronger and harder than iron, but nothing too impressive. The suits wouldn¡¯t last particularly long either, only about two bells. Or rather four hours by the current time measurements. They did come with helmets attached at the hip though.


    All things considered, they were good enough. Their main purpose was to protect them from the enchanted ¡®rifles¡¯ they''d face. They were the weapons the patrol he stumbled upon earlier had hanging over their shoulders. From what he heard from Ryku, most of the camp had them as well but the variety they had was much weaker than the ones Dalric fought against in the past. Those were packed with all manner of death-related attunements. These ones on the other hand just fired fast-moving pellets. The armor could handle that.


    He had to supplement and edit the spell with some of his ahjer to make sure it could handle that. It was designed to create armor out of an iron alloy, not a jarlon one, but apparently the iron-based ones weren¡¯t tough enough to be reliable.


    It took a bit for the crowd to calm down after the shock of various parts of their bodies suddenly shining brightly and then being covered by hard metal, but once everyone¡¯s suit had fully formed the shock sharply turned into amazement. They admired their new, shiny attire while throwing Dalric looks that ranged from respect to reverence.


    And that¡¯s part two done.


    With this, both he and Ryku would be given the appropriate room to command authority without having to be questioned and second-guessed at every turn. Capturing ¡®Sunset White¡¯ and eliminating the rest of the upper crust might have already accomplished that, but they hadn¡¯t actually witnessed him do it. When trying to influence people, giving them first-hand experience was always for the best.


    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    ¡°Now, I¡¯m going to brief you on what we know and also on what we believe. Breaking out of here shouldn¡¯t be too difficult with our numbers, but we¡¯ve given those who would like to stop us a great deal of time to prepare. So this is what¡¯ll do.¡±


    He first went over the layout of the camp. There were five layers to it, one above ground and four below. They were on the fourth layer underground, the very bottom. Above them, in the third layer, was storage. Food, items, tools, those sorts of things. No one was there, so they¡¯d only briefly stop there to pick up weapons. Then they¡¯d quickly move to the second layer, the floor where the main holding cells were. Dalric¡¯s ahjer sense could only just barely see the bottom of that, too much interference, but based on what he saw there weren''t any guards there either. Just more slaves. Whether they freed them first or came back after depended on what the situation was like above that. Dalric couldn¡¯t see it all, but according to Ryku the first layer was the actual main base and the camp on top was just a front. If that was the case, that¡¯s the floor they¡¯d likely meet the most resistance.


    That worked in their favor though. The main worry they had was receiving too much penetration damage from the rifles. Above ground, they¡¯d have open space and clear sightlines, not things you wanted when dealing with ranged weapons. Small cramped spaces were much better for them, especially since they were playing the quality over quantity game.


    When he finished going over the information they had and their plan moving forward, he opened the floor to questions. He quickly had to close it however as he realized they all just wanted to know more about him. There was one important question he had to answer though.


    ¡°After you¡¯re free, you¡¯re free. I ask nothing of you and want nothing of you. Ryku will handle getting you all back to where you belong.¡±


    ¡°W¡ª¡±


    Dalric calmly cut him off, ¡°As a Paragon, I¡¯m sure you can trust he¡¯ll work hard to get you back home. Anyway. Since we¡¯re done with questions, move to the third layer and pick out whatever weapons suit you the most. If you can¡¯t find anything that fits your specialization, let me know.¡±


    There was a palpable buzz in the group as they headed up the stairs behind them. Only two or three of them knew each other, but it seemed the prospect of freedom built bridges. Or maybe it was just sharing in the same nightmare. Dalric was taking this whole situation very calmly, but for them this must be as tumultuous as their lives could get. Trapped unconscious in a hole, only awoken to work tirelessly for days or to be sold to different masters. Not knowing what week was what, how much time was passing. He was in a much worse situation, but he could definitely empathize with theirs. Hope and excitement were rare things when your very sense of self was being eroded.


    ¡°That went quite well considering, no?¡±


    Ryku gave him a mean side-eye that he could only chuckle at, ¡°Think of what your reputation will look like after you¡¯re done here. I¡¯m doing you a favor by letting you take all the credit.¡±


    ¡°Ah. In that case, I¡¯m obliged to shower you with my deepest appreciation.¡±


    Dalric lightly slapped his back, ¡°That¡¯s the spirit. Oh. And you might want to put this back on her.¡± He handed Ryku the white mask he took earlier, ¡°The fewer people know about that before you report it, the better.¡±


    ¡°Right.¡± He sluggishly placed the mask back on her face and threw her over his shoulder.


    It was a bit of a shame to let her go with questioning her about the blade, but Elders knew he would get nothing from her without some sort of trade he would definitely not make. Though, as he watched Ryku walk back to his side he wondered if all was actually lost.


    ¡°By the way.¡± He pulled the blade out of the scabbard he appropriated and showed it to Ryku, ¡°Do you know what this is? Who made it?¡±


    Ryku¡¯s eyes briefly teemed with desire, but he hid it well, ¡°It''s an uchigatana. I don¡¯t know who specifically made that one but it''s one of the Twelve Arms of the Swordsaint.¡±


    An uchigatana? Never heard of that.


    ¡°You mentioned Swordsaints before, they¡¯re the...hm. The leading Surunese duelists?¡±


    ¡°More or less, though they don¡¯t always deserve the title.¡±


    ¡°So what¡¯s the story behind this being one of their arms?¡±


    They talked as they walked up to the third layer, ¡°I don¡¯t know the full story, but one of the Swordsaints some time ago held a competition to make him an incredible weapon. Smiths and artisans submitted their stuff and he picked the best twelve. At some point, I think after he died but I don¡¯t know, people started calling them the Twelve Arms of the Swordsaint.¡±


    Well, there goes that I guess. I¡¯ll have to look for a smith the old fashion way.


    He admired the blade.


    Now, what do I do with you?


    ¡°Are they supposed to be passed down?¡±


    ¡°Oh not at all. A Swordsaint can only become one if they defeat the previous one. No way would previous Swordsaints pass anything down. I¡¯d guess that most of the Arms are held by different houses and factions in Taiyo, I know the Taiyos themselves have four of them.¡±


    Interesting. So it''s possible to keep it¡­ but then again if those at the top know it was in her possession I¡¯d look very bad... Ah well, that¡¯s a future cliff to climb.


    Once they reached the top of the stairs Dalric remarked on the few examples of new technology he could spot. Instead of the torches, they used on the bottom floor they had some sort of ahjer powered light fixtures for the storage rooms. They were much, much brighter than torches. They were more reminiscent of light spells, but apparently they accomplished this effect without needing any spells beyond an initial jolt of ahjer. That was an impressive feat. Seeing them actually made him a bit excited to see the other advancements that had been made. He¡¯d been a bit blase when Ryku told him about the ships that raced across the sea and incredible speeds, but now he was interested in seeing them and figuring out how they functioned.


    He continued looking around as everyone picked out their weapon of choice. Most went with swords, but Dalric was glad to see some were reasonable enough to pick a spear or halberd. Longer weapons were just better. Of course, different circumstances could call for different things, but he¡¯d never back down from that stance overall. The only people who preferred swords were the people who preferred vanity over efficiency.


    There were only two people who came to him to tell him they couldn¡¯t find a weapon to their taste and Dalric smirked at who those two were. They were a pair of drakens. Drakens were the only valinoid race that had mixed with dragon blood back when Dalric was still a giant. As such, they were quite a bit bigger than the average or even the above-average human. One of the two was a woman who almost perfectly matched him in height and the other was a burly male over eight feet tall. Neither of the two could find a weapon that matched their physique.


    The woman wanted a long sword, which they apparently didn¡¯t have, and the man wanted a battle axe, which they did have but not in the size he needed. They both offered to make do with what they had, but Dalric custom conjured them what they asked for anyway. He went as far as making sure they perfectly matched the weight, size, and design they wanted. He didn¡¯t need to go that far, but aside from Ryku the two draken seemed the most powerful of the bunch. Outside just their ahjer, their demeanor, mannerisms, and the way they moved on their feet told him they were experienced. They also had a very particular kind of rage in their eyes. A type he understood well.


    Soon everyone was fully geared and prepped to move on. Unlike the fourth layer, there were multiple exit points front the third layer to the second. Dalric separated the group into squads of roughly twelve to go up all three of them at once. His ahjer sense had failed before so just because he couldn¡¯t sense anyone on the next floor, doesn¡¯t mean there wasn¡¯t anyone there. The stairways to the next level were only so big. Trying to get thirty-eight people through one would be ridiculous and, if there was an ambush waiting, deadly.


    He was all but completely spent on ahjer now, but thankfully one of the others was also a conjurer. They managed to create six whistles, two for each of the squads. If anything happened to one of the squads, at least one of the two they had holding a whistle would survive long enough to blow it and alert the others. Dalric wanted to give up his squad¡¯s whistles, but he realized that would appear needlessly arrogant. In fact, it could just be needlessly arrogant. He had to eventually come to terms with the fact he wasn¡¯t who he used to be. He couldn¡¯t walk around with the same confidence he was accustomed to, he needed to practice a bit more caution. Like maybe getting a helmet.


    It wouldn¡¯t matter for now at least, the second layer was legitimately clear. Of guards anyway. Once they were up there he got a full view of the hundreds of slaves they had packed into the larger cells. Men, women, children, they all featured. Some were even working right now, chained to a wheel they arduously spun.


    ¡°Forget what I said earlier, we¡¯re freeing them now.¡±

 Chapter 14: The Great Escape I

    Before he even made the decision to switch plans, some of their group already began breaking the cells open.


    ¡°Momma! Momma!¡±


    ¡°It''s okay, mommy¡¯s here now. Mommy¡¯s here now.¡±


    He couldn¡¯t very well blame them. Parents reunited with their kids, husbands and wives reunited with each other, and parties reunited with one another. It was potentially dangerous to start celebrating before the actual work was done, but seeing all of the tears of joy kept him silent on that point. He didn¡¯t have it in him to ruin the moment.


    It¡¯d been long, so long, since he did anything that could even be misconstrued as helpful. Seeing such moments of joy and release and knowing he caused it¡­ he couldn¡¯t quite describe the feeling. It felt so odd, so alien, and it touched him in such an intimate place. He took a deep breath to savor it, but then immediately pushed it to the side. No distractions.


    There were well over a thousand slaves jammed tight into their cells and around two hundred more working various contraptions. Organizing all of them would be hell, but thankfully he had just the person.


    ¡°Ryku, come here.¡±


    He came. By the expression on his face, he already knew exactly why Dalric had called him over.


    ¡°I need you to organize these people. It''s fine that we let them out, but we need to make sure they don¡¯t hamper us going into the battle.¡±


    To his credit, he only lightly grimaced, ¡°Of course.¡±


    While Ryku went off to do that, Dalric found one of the stairs and began climbing it. As he moved up the steps, he noted the thick metal door that laid at the top of them. He wasn¡¯t here to break it down yet, just reconnaissance. The earth between the second layer and the first was so tightly packed and reinforced that his ahjer sense didn¡¯t pierce through at all. He hoped getting closer would help, but when he reached the top it was still the same.. He still couldn¡¯t see through it.


    Alas.


    He went back down and provided Ryku some token support. He didn¡¯t really need it in fairness, he was a surprisingly competent leader and organizer. In much less time than expected he settled everyone down, sorted them out, got them food and makeshift blankets, and broke the cells down to make more space. They made a lot of noise in the process, removing any ideas of catching the guards upstairs unaware, but the speed at which it all happened made up for it.


    Dalric didn¡¯t know whether to be singularly impressed by Ryku or impressed with the whole Paragon organization. He leaned on the side of being impressed with Ryku personally, but he was vaguely interested in what kind and how much training Paragons received. A silver badge wasn¡¯t that high up the ladder, it¡¯s only fifth out of the eight ranks.


    Though I guess he did say the top two were only for the truly extraordinary.


    Once everyone was free and everything was set, they moved back to the original plan. There were only two stairs between the second and first layer. Both were wide enough for five people to stand side by side, but the limited access points meant their opposition only had to defend a small area. Even just one more would have meaningfully thinned the amount of defence they could stack at the top of any of the stairs. Alas, it was at least better than just one.


    They¡¯d split up into groups again, but now they had around sixty combatants. A few extra decided to join them in their assault. Dalric couldn¡¯t make them armor and he warned them that joining without protection would likely kill them, but they were content to come up in plain robes anyway.


    After a quick talk, he split the groups twenty-forty. His group had the twenty, they¡¯d all been picked out because of their supposed skill, speed and explosiveness. They would attack their side in a blitz, looking to immediately overwhelm them. The other group had the more tankier individuals, they¡¯d attacked more cautiously and attempt to draw their sides into an extended battle. Once Dalric¡¯s group was done with their side, they¡¯d circle around and attack from behind. With this, he hoped to focus the heat of battle on the top fighters and minimize casualties amongst the rest.


    ¡°Ready?¡±


    They were in position now, just behind the thick door. Dalric looked around and met nothing but determined faces. It was a good sight. He nodded while conjuring himself a helmet.


    ¡°Good.¡± He signalled the whistleblower, ¡°Do it.¡±


    The second he gave the command, he charged forward. The screeching tone of the whistle synced perfectly with the thunderous impact of Dalric¡¯s lightly empowered fist and the metal door. It flew off its hinges, shattering crates and furniture stacked behind it. Before it could even hit the ground, they were under attack.


    ¡°Fire!¡±


    Bullets rained in from all directions, peppering his armor. He wasn¡¯t entirely sure how much damage they dealt, but he was still glad to have made the helmet anyway. It did mean he was officially out of usable ahjer though.


    ~¡±I invoke: Cursed Winds.¡±~


    A gust of purple-tinged wind blew in his direction.


    ~¡±I invoke: Justice¡¯s Blaze.¡±~


    A beam of pure white light shot for his heart.


    ~¡±I conjure: Demon Hawks.¡±~


    A series of decaying, black and red hawks flew towards him.


    ~¡±I invoke: Plane of Pain.¡±~


    Red blobs of jelly broke through the ground around him.


    Spells of all different types followed closely behind the bullets. They sought to burn, freeze, poison, shock, rip, trap, dissect, confuse, and even arouse Dalric. His armor tanked all it could, but some affected the whole area. Those he could do nothing about. They covered the ground with all kinds of traps, some parts had frozen spikes others had a red jelly that set off pain receptors when close.


    Not giving them the time to attack him uncontested, he pulled out the uchigatana and continued his charge forward. He reached the first of dozens of makeshift barricades in a matter of moments, whipping the blade across his chest in a perfect arc.


    The sixth man to die by its hand came less than a second after the first, all six were sliced cleanly through. He didn¡¯t rest, instead hastily moving to the next group hiding behind a barricade. They suffered a similar fate, being briskly diced in half. Dalric continued without ceremony again. The third barricade had eleven behind it. Having just watched ten of their number get bisected, some tried to run while others pointlessly fired their weapons at his chest. Neither helped. The ones that didn¡¯t move died first, the thin blade so effortlessly cut through their plain leather armor, but the few that retreated only lived a few seconds longer. With their backs turned to him, he jabbed the blade through the back of their heads with ease.


    He quickly looked around, but all the barricades around him just had riflemen behind them. The ahjerists were hidden in the back. Interestingly enough, the final stairway out was just behind them.


    ¡°The helmet is weak. Aim for the helmet!¡±


    Whoever was giving out commands was back there as well.


    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    Dalric instinctively dodged as bullets honed in on his head, he had to continue erratically darting around as most of their fire concentrated on him. He was still getting hit of course, but his efforts reduced the damage he¡¯d take. His helmet wasn¡¯t made of a jarlon, it was just iron. It was also beefed up with enchantments, but most of them focused on defending against spells. They only marginally boosted its physical toughness. It wouldn¡¯t take too many hits to puncture through.


    This was all still part of the plan though, with so much attention on him the rest of the group came up the stairs mostly unchallenged. The draken woman was the first through, she didn¡¯t quite match his speed, but when she reached a barricade she more than matched his deadliness. Heads flew the moment they got in range of her long sword.


    Though it was large, heavy, and designed for two hands, she held it in one. And she looked comfortable doing so. There was no loss of control, the precision of her movements was spectacular. It matched their brutality. She seemed to favor decapitations specifically, but decisive attacks to the upper body were her general go to. She pierced through eye sockets and rib cages, split faces down the middle, sliced through shoulder blades, and sometimes just smashed straight through skulls.


    ~¡±I invoke: Acid Rain.¡±~


    Clouds of light green manifested above the barricades. They rapidly grew darker before unloading a storm of acid.


    ~¡±I Invoke: Frozen Peaks.¡±~


    A sudden gust of frozen winds blew by the battlefield. It did little damage to any people, but it irreparably damaged many rifles.


    ~¡±I summon: Bulls of Baracath.¡±~


    A small herd of ten dark grey bulls with three-foot horns spawned by the door. They immediately stampeded through the closest barricade to them.


    The others followed their lead, hopping into the fray with fervor. Not all could so easily kill the men in front of them, but collectively they brought about a tidal wave of death. It was slowed down somewhat when a decent portion of the ajherists switched to countering them instead of him, but they were skillful enough to protect themselves. Mostly. Shrugging off some icy spikes or an errant poison cloud was one thing, clearing a field of thorns that actively slowed and sapped ahjer was another. Their own ahjerists were causing similar problems for their side at least.


    ¡°Stop them!¡±


    Dalric made sure to balance aggressively decimating ranks with carefully evading concentrated fire. He needed to make sure his presence was great enough to keep the bulk of the attention on him, especially the ahjerists, but he also needed to not die in doing so. He couldn¡¯t remake his helmet and he couldn¡¯t use ahjer to protect his head either. His life was actually on the line here.


    Backing away from the thirteenth group he cleaned out, he finally took the time to analyze the surroundings. The first floor wasn¡¯t as cramped as he expected. They¡¯d clearly broken down some walls, but even ignoring that the junction that the door led into was quite spacious. They were currently making use of that space to stuff as many men behind makeshift barricades as they could. It wasn¡¯t a winning strategy, but Dalric did note three people from his side had already died. Two were among the ones that joined him while decked in thin robes so he only partially felt bad about them, but the other got surrounded and had their helmet pulled off. He saw it happen, through ahjer sense, but he was simply too far to do anything. Liv¡ª


    Agh.


    He refocused on keeping himself moving. The bullet that banged him in the back of the head was surely a fluke, the person that fired it wasn¡¯t even aiming at him, but that was no excuse. Being caught unaware while on a battlefield was the most amateur of mistakes. Now he was in dangerous territory. He¡¯d been hit in the back of the head a few too many times and the plating was getting weak back there. He had to make a move.


    Time to go for it then.


    He stopped backing away and started charging forward. His helmet was beginning to thin and break down, but they were running out of bullets to fire at it. A few had already run out, opting to drop the rifle for a melee weapon. That meant the threat they poised was gradually on the decline. Most still had ammo to spare, but they took their shots more carefully. The ahjerists in the back on the other hand, they still casually let off spell after spell. Those are who he had to deal with them.


    The draken women and a human wielding no weapon seemed to have the same idea. He joined up with them as they blazed a path through the barricades. It turned out the human was a fairly skilled ahjerist. Along their dash towards the back of the ranks, bullets stopped reaching them. The human had surrounded them with a powerful barrier that blocked them all. Once they reached a new barricade, he opened it up a little to let their victims in and closed it again once they were done.


    Dalric had never used or specialized in barriers like this, being a giant with near impenetrable skin made such a thing redundant, but he quickly realized he needed to study up on them. Thunderfield provided a potent barrier of its own, but his body wasn¡¯t ready to really handle it. It could be a while before he could comfortably take its massive surge of power.


    As they finally began to close in on the ahjerists, the ranks began falling apart. Ammo continued to run out and seeing a group of three effortlessly run through them caused many of the men to abandon their station. The exit was so close after all.


    The ahjerists momentarily held firm as they launched every spell in their arsenal. There was plenty of friendly-fire, but the bulk of their spell hit their intended target. The trio weren¡¯t even slowed by their attempts however. Even as they broke through the human¡¯s barrier, Dalric stepped up to tank them on their behalf. He couldn¡¯t block everything, but the few spells that managed to get by did little to disrupt the two behind him. He received a number of bends, burns, chips, and dents for his efforts, but the armor survived it all. Even as the weight of their spells deformed it in several places, it protected Dalric. So when they ran out of spells to sling, he still barrelled towards them.


    Having failed in their last barrage, the ahjerists themselves turned and ran. It was a great many strides too late, but inevitably a few of them would still escape. The rest would taste cold metal. He leapt into their midst and let the blade do its work, rending life from flesh. He kept on guard in case someone tried to sneak in an attack, but none came. Nothing stopped him and the others from systematically culling the ajherists.


    After a handful of minutes, the battle ended. Every single guard was either dead or had run away with their entire being. Dalric noticed that whoever was giving out commands had made their escape much sooner than the rest, but he let that be. This battle was won, but there was another raging somewhere through these halls.


    He gathered the fifteen survivors and relayed his plan, ¡°You seven with me, the rest of you go back below and rest.¡± Only the seven came out relatively unscathed, the others had varying degrees of injuries, ¡°Don¡¯t try to go up there and don¡¯t try to follow us. I don¡¯t want to come back to any of you missing or dead. You understand? We¡¯ve done the hard part already, just follow the plan and we¡¯ll all be free in a matter of hours.¡±


    He could tell by the look in some of their eyes that they wanted to continue fighting. One kept peeking at the stairs like he wanted to make a break for it. There was no point to either, they had genuinely finished the hardest part. Assuming Ryku didn¡¯t royally mess up on the other side, all that was left was a rout. There was no need to do anything foolish. Thankfully, his authority was stable enough that they didn¡¯t contest the order. All eight of them obediently trudged back down the stairs.


    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s go.¡±


    They knew what direction the other staircase was in and they could see a path that likely led there, but if it was a similar layout to the junction this staircase led to it wouldn''t lead them behind the barricades. For that, they''d need to look for another path.


    It took a couple minutes of fanning out and probing multiple doors before they finally found the path they were looking for. Ryku was spot on with his statement about this being the main base. Unlike the other layers, the floors were tiled, the walls were smoothed and painted over, the light fixtures were more common, there were a host of different rooms for different functions, and judging by how long some of the halls were, it was the largest layer.


    When they finally arrived at the second battlefield, Dalric halted his group. There were a lot of ways he saw it potentially going, things could have gone terribly wrong or miraculously right. This, however, was definitely not one of them.


    <hr>


    Ryku was chuffed, internally. Outwardly, he still maintained an aura of calm, but oh was he happy on the inside. With each passing moment and each passing task and each passing conversation, Dalric opened to him. His first impression was terrible, but it only required diligence to fix that. He had wrongfully assumed Dalric was a hidden master that would appreciate such a level of respect. Dalric definitely didn''t. That was fine though, honestly Ryku preferred it that way. He had no problems bowing his head to a superior, but he still found the act needlessly stuffy. A relaxed master he could chat with was definitely more his style.


    Now, he had the ultimate test before him. He''d been given a large group with little variation in skill sets and the objective of holding the Baron''s men at bay until Dalric could attack them from behind. Simple enough. He would do more though. He needed to make use of every opportunity given to him to prove he was worthy of being the man''s student. If he could lead this group to a decisive victory before he arrived, he''d look brilliant. It would be some task to pull it off though.


    He got a quick overview of everyone¡¯s strengths and weaknesses and began planning around them.


    Twelve defence, nine attack-melee, six attack-ranged, four support, and five auxiliary. Two of the support can make walls of ice and snow¡­ let¡¯s begin there. Use defenders to push through door, set up walls, empower them, get a foothold. Objective one, get a foothold. What next¡­


    A few ideas rolled around, but without first making contact with the enemy they were all moot. He thought through some contingencies if he failed to get a foothold, but otherwise he¡¯d wait until he completed objective one before committing to anything. He shared his plan and contingencies with the group, the three lieutenants of sorts he selected liked the plan and that feeling rippled through the rest. That was good, no plan lived long in the hands of the disgruntled. He went over it a couple more times with the lieutenants to hammer out the pivot points, but then they heard the all-important whistle. Planning time was over, it was action time.

 Chapter 15: The Great Escape II

    Getting the foothold was easy, keeping it was a whole other matter.


    ¡°Sir! The left flank is cracking!


    Shit.


    Ryku turned and yelled towards the lieutenant he put in charge of the support and auxiliaries, ¡°How long are the cracks?¡±


    ¡°Half a meter sir!¡±


    ¡°Reinforce it again! We¡¯re almost clear over here!¡±


    They had to constantly yell to hear themselves over the cacophony of bullets and spells. It made relaying information over any distance longer than a couple of meters difficult. Ryku had accounted for that, that¡¯s what the lieutenants were for, but even getting information from them was laborious.


    He told the support lieutenant they were close to clearing the right side, but he wasn¡¯t actually sure. He hadn¡¯t received any information from the attack lieutenant in the past ten minutes. He was tempted to move from his position at the center of their ice formation to go check-in on them, but he carefully restrained himself. His presence in the middle was what kept this whole thing working.


    The moment they broke through the door, all manner of attacks poured in. He had the twelve defenders line up in three rows of four and project whatever form of defensive spell they used, some had domes of protection, some could conjure shield walls, and some just had ahjer barriers. Only one or two were impressive on their own, but the collective strength of all twelve provided a very sturdy mobile defence. So sturdy their push through the door went much smoother than he expected and they managed to make more than enough room to get the support in. Once safely beyond the door, they got the three meters high, two meters thick walls of ice up in less than a minute. It formed a semi-circle all the way around the door, protecting them on all sides. Up to that point, things were perfect. After that¡­ they got complicated.


    The first issue was a lack of visibility. Though the walls gave somewhat adequate protection, they hampered most attempts to return fire. The ahjerists who made them couldn¡¯t edit them. The only shape they came in was large, thick squares. They functioned less like the walls of a fortress and more like a huge obstacle that split the battlefield in two. There was technically enough of a gap to the ceiling, around two meters, that they could just peek over the walls to attack, but there was very little cover up there and about six hundred reasons to duck. Three of the ranged attackers had spells they lobbed over the wall, but the three on their own would do little in a battle like this. He tasked them with stopping enemy lobs instead.


    To add to their obstructed attack, the defence they provided came at a hefty cost. On their own, the walls of ice would crumble under the immense pressure they constantly received. To actually keep them up, the entire support group and a few from the defence group had to intermittently pump ahjer into them.


    Ryku had momentarily panicked when he found out how limited their use was. He had counted on being able to actually attack from cover, but after they went up the walls effectively just trapped their group behind them. And added a time limit for extra measure, the ahjer it cost to keep them up wasn¡¯t low. He thought on his feet though. If the walls were more obstacles than anything, then he just needed to use them as such.


    He cast one of his tribe¡¯s specialties, a spell that engulfed a part of the field in pure darkness. He first applied it to the entire length of the wall. Then he cast it a second time and aimed towards the right flank, blanketing them in black. Once the spell was set, he made a small path through it, had the support bring down a small chunk of the wall, and sent part of the defensive unit through.


    One of the two wall makers joined them and under their protection, they extended the wall all the way to the edge of the right side of the battlefield. As they formed it, the entire attack unit followed closely behind. They jumped on the opportunity to ambush from the shadows. When the extended wall fully formed, roughly fifteen of the forty or so total makeshift barricades were separated and isolated from the rest. That was a far more reasonable number for the attack unit to deal with.


    That all happened roughly fifteen minutes ago. He¡¯d been keeping the area beside the wall shrouded to ward off any untimely reinforcement attempt, but the last time he got an update was ten minutes ago. It was good news then, they were making steady progress. It¡¯d been silent since though. His sight was blocked and his ahjer sense didn¡¯t stretch far enough to see what was happening.


    He wasn¡¯t worried they were losing, they had more than enough firepower to handle the slice he¡¯d prepared for them, but he was worried about how long they were taking. They caught the Baron¡¯s men by surprise with this maneuver, it wouldn¡¯t be easy to do it again. If it took this long while they were caught off guard, it¡¯d take much longer when they did this on the other side. Assuming their own left flank was broken through by then.


    Boom!


    Ryku shifted on his feet as a large explosion went off right in front of him. The wall mostly rebuffed it, but there were a number of small holes that went all the way through.


    ¡°Reinforce! Reinforce!¡±


    This was the second time they managed to put together something powerful enough to damage the wall in one go. If they game them too much time, they¡¯d eventually find a way through.


    ¡°Sir! We¡¯re done on the right! Waiting for further instructions!¡±


    Finally.


    If there was one thing he was glad his overall group had, it was the military presence. If it was just a bunch of mercs and guilders, order and cohesion would be impossible.


    ¡°Come here!¡±


    The robed woman jogged over.


    ¡°Okay, listen carefully. First, tell them to reinforce the wall as much as they can before coming. Also, tell them to leave a few there, three or four should be enough. The ones that are left should cycle between reinforcing the walls themselves and making noise; firing guns, breaking the barricades, slamming armor pieces together. That kind of stuff. We want them to think the fight is still going on. Okay?¡±


    The woman nodded, ¡°Yes sir!¡±


    ¡°Oh. And tell them to not waste too much ahjer reinforcing the wall. It''s fine if it falls, we just want to delay it.¡±


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    ¡°Yes sir!¡±


    The woman ran off and Ryku took some deep breaths to steady himself. His spell wasn¡¯t designed for long term use. It was made for quick, sudden bursts not sustained darkness. The ahjer tax on using it improperly was heavy. He had to trudge through though, Dalric would be done any moment now. He would like to finish up entirely before then, but even if he failed that he needed to at least deal with half of them.


    After a handful of minutes the attack unit jogged by, the draken in the lead. The rest of the defensive unit came soon thereafter.


    He yelled towards both, ¡°Same thing ag¡ª¡±


    Boom!


    The entire section of wall in front of him shook, much of it shattering.


    ¡°Reinforce! Reinforce! Reinforce!¡±


    ¡°Hurry up! You!¡± He went back to finish his statement, ¡°Same again! As soon as you see the shadows, move!¡±


    He waited a handful of seconds for them to get in position before casting the spell.


    ~¡±Musei Style Second Art: Sweeping Shadows.¡±~


    He¡¯d usually never use the incantation in public, even if he was confident no one could hear it, but he made an exception this time. He wasn¡¯t sure he¡¯d be able to handle having three active at once without it.


    Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, he didn¡¯t have to hold them all for long. The Baron¡¯s men had learned their lesson, a little. They still managed to trap some in with them, but the moment the darkness descended they quickly withdrew from the area. About eighty of the approximately one hundred and fifty that should have been caught got away. Ryku himself didn¡¯t know that at the time, but he soon found out when the units returned a mere six minutes after leaving.


    He dropped the spells and went to just empowering the wall.


    ¡°Mr.Tai. We¡¯ll need to switch strategies.¡± The draken¡¯s voice was unnervingly consistent, he never needed to yell but his words were always crystal clear.


    ¡°I know.¡±


    Of course, he knew. He just didn¡¯t know where to pivot to. At this point, he¡¯d more than achieved his initial task. He may have even gotten to the halfway mark already. More could be done, but that would require risk-taking.


    He looked at the watch on his wrist.


    Almost twenty-one minutes since the whistle. He won¡¯t take more than twenty-five to finish over there so that¡¯s maybe thirty minutes before he arrives here¡­. Nine more minutes then.


    ¡°May I suggest. Attacking from both sides?¡±


    Ryku shook his head, ¡°We want to limit casualties as much as possible, there aren¡¯t enough of us to comfortably attack both of their flanks. We don¡¯t need to do any more than we have in truth. We¡¯re almost guaranteed victory at this point.¡±


    The draken was silent for a moment, ¡°Hrrmm. You are correct.¡± He then looked up towards the top of the wall, ¡°But I am unsatisfied.¡±


    ¡°So am I!¡±


    ¡°Me too!¡±


    ¡°I am too!¡±


    ¡°Me as well!¡±


    ¡°I, also!¡±


    ¡°Myself included.¡±


    That¡¯s not good.


    Not just the attack unit, every other person in earshot of the draken agreed with him. Even the six-legged deonon. The deonon were known for their passive, non-aggression, but Ryku could see that malice dripping off his fur. There was a lot of blood dripping off of it too and he seemed to want more. Ryku didn¡¯t expect or account for their bloodlust being so high. He fully understood why they were eager to exact punishment on those that enslaved them, but they seemed so calm a mere twenty minutes ago. When he was organizing downstairs he saw some rage flares, but no one looked bloodthirsty. Now they were all itching to needlessly follow the draken into open combat.


    Any other situation, he¡¯d let them. As long as they didn¡¯t harm the whole, what they did with their lives was their own. In this case, he¡¯d been specially put in charge of them. If Dalric arrived to find a third of them dead from a poorly thought out assault, he¡¯d receive the blame. Even if he didn¡¯t directly, all his hard work building a connection and goodwill would still be for naught. He couldn¡¯t let that happen.


    He had to think of an alternative, quick. Before the draken grew the will to act.


    What can we do, what can we do¡­ think!


    ¡°Si..th..r..tin..!¡±


    Think. Think. Think.


    ¡°Sir!¡±


    ¡°Hmm? Wha¡ªWhat?¡±


    They were too far to hear clearly, ¡°The..re...ting!¡±


    ¡°What? Come closer!¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re retreating sir!¡±


    His eyes bulged, ¡°What?!¡±


    The draken didn¡¯t waste a moment. The second he heard they were retreating, he leapt to the top of the wall and dived into battle. The ones that could follow him did, the others turned towards Ryku expectantly.


    Shit. Well. This better not backfire.


    ¡°Bring down the walls! We¡¯re attacking!¡±


    <hr>


    Dalric looked on slightly concerned. He didn¡¯t expect Ryku¡¯s group to clean out their side before he arrived, but it wasn¡¯t something he considered impossible. There were a few heavy hitters among them. He definitely, definitely didn¡¯t expect to find his group throwing bodies into a green bonfire while one of the humans sang and a few others cried though. This scene made no sense. He¡¯d more easily accept it was an illusion than the actual reality he just stumbled upon.


    The draken woman that followed him left his side to reunite with the male. He didn¡¯t know their story, but the way they hugged alluded to a certain intimacy. The rest of those who came with him followed her example, moving to join the others around the bonfire.


    What happened here? Where¡¯s Ryku?


    He looked around, but he didn¡¯t immediately spot him. Not an ounce of him believed the man died... but maybe a gram worried about it. He was strong though, stronger than everyone here bar Dalric himself. He couldn¡¯t have died.


    Surely¡­


    ¡°If it is Sir Tai you seek, he is above with some others liberating those held there."


    Dalric peeked at this six-legged creature that walked up to him. He didn¡¯t know what race they belonged to, but they faintly resembled a shorter, more muscular centaur. Their bottom half looked more like a bear than a horse and their top half could only vaguely be called vallinoid, but he wouldn¡¯t be surprised if there was some sort of relation. Their face was fairly normal at least.


    ¡°Oh. Right. Good... so what exactly is going on over there.¡±


    The creature didn¡¯t turn around, but their expression grew more sullen, ¡°Communion. You and Sir Tai are new to this horror. A time not long ago, they used such cursed flame to burn those of us they deemed too troublesome. We all were made witness. Some of us lost much in that time...¡±


    Dalric understood the creature counted themself among those, ¡°My condolences.¡±


    A small smile crept onto the creature¡¯s face, ¡°I came to deliver my thanks. I know not your journey, but whatever transpired to allow you be a savior to us, I am eternally grateful. We are all likely small and insignificant to you, but you will forever remain immense to most of us... I hope one day I can repay you with more than just gratitude.¡±


    They bowed and left Dalric to rejoin the others.


    Dalric just stood as they strode away. He didn¡¯t know what else to do. Alone with his thoughts, his emotions were¡­ tempestuous. He was all over the place. In a completely different way than he¡¯d grown accustomed, he felt like he wasn¡¯t in full control.

 Chapter 15.5: Not The Time For Worries

    Heitor held Erasma tightly. Neither spoke a word as they indulged in each other''s warmth. Even through the armor, they could feel their natural heat emanating between them. As time raced by, it comforted them. So much so, they almost cried. They both wanted to, to release all the pent up hurt in their hearts, but doing so would be unbefitting of them. They were drakens. Furthermore, they were proud knights of the Principality of Altceu.


    Were.


    They were also betrayed by their squad leader and cast down into slavery. They had everything taken from them, their pride, their dignity, their very sense of self. To die on a battlefield would be a fate infinitely better than the one they received. Even if that death came via a backstab, it would still be better.


    Erasma was no more than a squadmate before. They occasionally spoke to one another, but only because her fighting style fascinated him. There was no bond then, just a casual acquaintance. Now, having lost every other member of their squad they were the center of each other''s world. This was the third facility they were moved to and it was by far the harshest. The others tested their will, but this is the one that almost broke it. Neither knew what they would do if they lost the other.


    Every time they were awoken their anxiety shot up, only simmering down when they confirmed the other was still alive and with them. Each time they were put back to sleep, fear gripped their hearts, nightmares of that being the last time they ever saw each other replayed over and over.


    Heitor almost lost it. It was a much closer thing than he¡¯d even admit to himself. He didn¡¯t know how many more weeks he could have lived like that, but it wasn¡¯t a lot.


    He ripped off his gauntlet and rubbed his hand against the side of Erasma¡¯s head. He lingered on each scale before sliding over to the softer skin on her cheek. Their eyes met. Thankfully, he¡¯d never find out. They were free now. Free.


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    From conversations they heard here and there, they were on the border of the Taiyo Dynasty. That was thousands of kilometers from their home. He didn¡¯t even know if they had a home to return to. How was their disappearance framed? Which lies were spun? He would love nothing more than to claim revenge on the man who threw them into this wretched life, but how likely was that? They had no proof of his treachery and no means of acquiring any. If they went back without a good story, they¡¯d be locked up on grounds of suspicion before they were welcomed as lost soldiers.


    But where else would they go? What will they do now?


    Erasma rose to her toes and lightly kissed his jaw, ¡°This is not the time for worries. Let us celebrate today, worry tomorrow.¡±


    ¡°It is because tomorrow is uncertain. That I must worry today.¡±


    It was her turn to rub the side of his face, ¡°Tomorrow is always uncertain, Heitor. Though this is the first day we can be hopeful for it. We should not waste it.¡±


    Heitor looked deep into her ruby eyes before heaving a heavy sigh. Having summoned the strength, he immediately planted his lips on hers. When she reciprocated, he let himself go, sinking deep in their long, passionate embrace. He relished it. The raw emotions enveloped him, cocooning him with compassion. Only the loud whistles and claps of the others allowed him to resurface.


    He separated from her and turned to see that they all stared at them.


    ¡°Don¡¯t let us stop you!¡±


    ¡°Keep going!¡±


    It appeared the others had long finished throwing the bodies into the bonfire and their very public display of affection had lightened the mood. The cries had switched to cheers and the song being son was far more upbeat. He didn¡¯t know many of them personally, but they all looked at him and Erasma like he used to look at his mates when they brought home a partner, with a sort of vicarious pride. Erasma placed her other hand on the other side of his face and refocused his attention on her. He only paused for a moment before lifting her off the ground continuing their kiss with even more passion.


    ¡°Ayy!¡±


    "Whooo!"


    ¡°There we go!¡±


    None of them could possibly forget what happened here and many of them would likely struggle to acclimate to whatever life awaited them outside, but Erasma was right. They could worry tomorrow, today they would celebrate.

 Chapter 16: Celebration I

    The celebratory atmosphere proliferated throughout the roughly three thousand former slaves. Aside from their obvious freedom, much of it was attributed to the food, drinks, and new clothes they acquired. Unlike the gruel they were previously force-fed, the first layer had stashes of actual meals and fresh juices. They could also forego their rags and pick up the remaining stock of robes that were stored. Some weren¡¯t fresh, being ripped off the guard¡¯s bodies then lightly cleaned, and a few in the crowd couldn¡¯t find anything in their size, but the vast majority enjoyed the improved conditions.


    Everyone was brought to the much more spacious first layer. They set up more bonfires with chairs or rugs around them. There was no seating arrangement so people just gathered towards one another in clumps of twenty or more. Once all the food and drinks were passed out, the human singer from before amplified his voice with ahjer and sang for the whole crowd. Without him, things may have been more dower, but his performance heavily lifted the spirits. People joined in, people applauded, some even began to dance.


    Not everyone joined in the making of merry though, there were a few pockets of gloom. The individuals who had lost too much to find any joy in their sudden release clustered into their own groups. Though they could be easily spotted, they were few and didn¡¯t hamper the overall celebrations.


    Dalric could have been counted among those if he stayed, but he spent his time going through offices. Ryku joined him at a point, once his role as organizer finished, but they looked for different things. While Dalric looked for information about Devil Glass, Ryku was looking for the specific paper trail between Taiyo and Duke Leos. The Baron may have been caught, but he was a mere middleman in a bigger scheme.


    ¡°So. Are you a hidden master? Is that why you know so little about the world?¡±


    Ryku tried sparking conversation whenever he could.


    Dalric¡¯s eyes didn¡¯t leave the papers he was reading, ¡°And what is a hidden master?¡±


    ¡°Ah. A recluse that hides away from the world to practice and master their craft in solitude.¡±


    Dalric thought for a moment.


    That¡¯s actually a fairly apt way to describe how I used to live. Though I imagine a ¡®hidden master¡¯ wouldn¡¯t travel as much.


    ¡°You could say I am.¡±


    ¡°Is there a reason you left seclusion?¡±


    Hmm. How do I answer this¡­ why did I leave seclusion¡­


    ¡°I have a problem that requires outside assistance. No man can live on an island forever.¡±


    Ryku turned to Dalric, ¡°Could I be of assistance?¡±


    Dalric¡¯s eyes still didn¡¯t leave the papers, ¡°You¡¯re already doing so.¡±


    ¡°Ah. Okay.¡±


    Silence returned as they both continued sifting through more files.


    Nothing again.


    Dalric finished going through the last of the files in his half and yet again he was left disappointed, ¡°The documents over here reference someone named ¡®Count B of R¡¯, could be a clue for you."


    "Thanks." Ryku received the file and added it to the pile of other potentially useful information.


    Dalric had nothing in his pile. Jester shar¡ª


    Devil Glass. Devil Glass. They''re not Jester Shards.


    Devil Glass featured in a number of documents, but only when discussing the amount of it needed, bought, used, unused, and sold. None of them mentioned any specifics about how they were made. From the specifics that were discussed, it almost seemed like Devil Glass was actually the main product being smuggled into Whitesails, but Dalric didn''t know the situation well enough so he left that to Ryku. He instead left the office to head to the next one.


    A few helpers joined them at the beginning to help mark all of the doors that led to rooms with any sort of papers or files, so they had a good idea of how much progress they were making. Between the both of them, they''d gone through roughly half of those rooms. It had taken a few hours to do so, but with the festivities still going strong they didn''t feel any need to rush.


    Dalric did feel a little bad throwing all the important work on Ryku''s shoulders though. Not only did he have to finish his original mission here, which included figuring out how to maneuver around the diplomatic volcano he would create, but he also had to plan out how to effectively and efficiently send each and every person on the floor back to their home. That was an extensive amount of work for a man who was just drooling mindlessly on the floor a few hours ago. Dalric could understand how he had the drive for it, he still held hope out for Dalric changing his mind, but having the capacity and mental facilities to actually do it would be immensely impressive. It was still very early. The hardest work was yet ahead of him and he had plenty of room to fail from here, but the man hadn''t put a single step wrong yet.


    A voice called out from behind him, "Mr. Dalric."


    Again?


    Every other time he stepped out of a room, one family or the other came up to him to give their thanks and hand him a plate of food and a cup of juice. At first, he was quite appreciative, he''d completely forgotten about his own body''s need for sustenance, but after the eighth one he was more stuffed than he''d ever been. He wanted to say no to the subsequent ones, but he couldn''t. Even though his food sack was full, he could definitely stomach more expressions of gratitude. He''d yet to fully admit it to himself, but he found the feeling they provided intoxicating. They were such a far cry from what he usually received.


    Even as his stomach ached, he steeled his resolve and turned to face the voice. Thankfully, or disappointingly depending on which part of him you asked, it didn''t belong to a person or group looking to give thanks. It belonged to one of Ryku''s helpers. One of the riftans.


    Dalric looked down at the small teen, "Any problems?"


    To his credit, his age didn''t show in his voice, "No. Yes? They told me to tell you Sunset White woke up."


    "Ah¡­"


    Should I handle this or just tell Ryku¡­ Well. May be worthwhile to see how much value I can get out of this.


    "I''ll speak to h¡ªthem first. When Ryku comes out, tell him I just went to ask a couple of questions."


    You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    "Okay, understood."


    The teen stood by the door he just exited while Dalric moved towards the room they held ¡®The Hero¡¯ Hangaku in. He easily spotted it as one of the two draken stood guard outside of it. The other was inside with three other guards. A bit excessive, but they all knew who she was anyway and none of them had a stake in the matter.


    The male draken saluted as he came closer, ¡°Mr. Dalric. She¡¯s awake, but she hasn¡¯t spoken a word.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t expect her to. By the way, we found a few letters that mention your squad. When Ryku comes over, he¡¯ll have more to share.¡±


    The draken¡¯s eyes lit up, ¡°Thank you!¡±


    Dalric only jutted his head behind him as he reached for the door, ¡°Don¡¯t thank me, thank Ryku.¡±


    He hadn¡¯t actually had a meaningful dialogue with anyone aside from Ryku. Partially because there was neither the time nor the need to, but mostly because he was weary of needless attachments. Dalric could already feel himself getting attached to Ryku and he was the only name Dalric even knew. He was also the only reason Dalric knew about the drakens¡¯ situation, one of the products of his desire to converse.


    I need to leave soon.


    Before he even opened the door all the way, a flaming sword flew straight at his chest. He deftly caught it. Unlike the last time he had the pleasure of making the burning blade¡¯s acquaintance, it didn''t explode but rather ripped itself from his grasp and zipped back into the room. Dalric immediately flung the door open and burst into action.


    In the moments it took the riftan to call him over, Hangaku had managed to free herself of her chains, set a barrier around the room, and start a battle with her four guards. One of which was a heavily injured human, who bled from a number of wounds and sported several scorch marks. The rest of them were also hurt, but not as severely. None of them donned armor anymore so they had little by way of protection from her. If things continued, she could kill them all.


    ~¡°Grand Winds.¡±~


    The accelerated gust of air smacked into her and her eight blades, forcing them all against the back wall.


    ~¡°The ea¡ª


    No.


    Before she could rebound off the wall, he sent his ahjer into the earth and stone that composed it and molded them around her waist and limbs. Once caught, he began the incantation again.


    ~¡°The earth listens for I command it.¡±~


    She managed to free her arm and torso while he chanted the incantation, but she couldn¡¯t get to the rest before her whole body sunk into the wall. She thrashed around and triggered some explosions, but the reinforced nature of the earth rebuffed all her attempts to free herself from it. Dalric compacted it even further, truly trapping her within it. Only her head remained free.


    Her ability to form and manipulate fire-attuned weapons remained undiminished, but if the others left they would be of little danger.


    ¡°You.¡± He pointed at the other human, ¡°Take him to a healer. You.¡± He pointed at the jupiter, ¡°Go and grab some Devil Glass and a new set of chains. You.¡± Lastly, he pointed at the draken, ¡°Go outside and explain to Ryku what happened here when he arrives.¡±


    They all sprang into action instantly. Hangaku tried to get some free looks at their backs as they all fled the room, but Dalric had expected it and moved to intercept. She still almost managed to catch one of them in the back of the leg before he could get one of his own limbs in the way.. The room wasn¡¯t large so beyond the one close shave, he did enough to allow them to safely retreat. With them gone, Hangaku realized the futility of throwing her conjured blades around and dispelled them.


    Where did that jupiter come from?


    The white, feline vallinoid was the one who almost had their leg impaled. There definitely weren¡¯t any jupiters in the group at the bottom, but even in the massive crowd on the second layer he was fairly certain he would have spotted their aggressively white fur and faint lightning-tinged aura. They were very hard to miss, doubly so for someone who specialized in lightning-related ahjer.


    Above ground maybe? Hmm. I hope she doesn¡¯t notice, Ryku is enough already.


    He turned his thoughts away from the jupiter and instead towards Hangaku, ¡°A bit spiteful of you, no?¡±


    She didn¡¯t respond.


    ¡°If you¡¯re hoping to provoke one of us into killing you, it''s not happening. None of us are interested in being seen as the murderer of a supposed national hero.¡±


    Still no response.


    ¡°I am quite intrigued why a supposed national hero is running around the jungle like a bandit. Weakness? Blackmail? Is the finality of your impending death getting to you?¡±


    Silence.


    ¡°I¡¯ve been thinking about it and I¡¯d wager it¡¯s some mix of all three. You¡¯ve bought someone¡¯s tale about being able to improve your ahjer and further your lifespan if you partake in this little scheme here. Frustrated at your complete lack of progress, you took them up on their offer.¡±


    Hangaku stirred, but only a little. The movement only barely perceivable through ahjer sense and completely unnoticeable with his regular vision.


    ¡°Oh? Am I correct?¡±


    She finally spoke, ¡°You know nothing Salian.¡±


    Dalric shrugged, ¡°Maybe. But the truth will come eventually, whether you speak it here or not. Acute stupidity is a common symptom of too much age, power, and influence, so I could be completely wrong. I¡¯ve seen greater figures than you stoop to even lower levels.¡±


    Silence returned.


    ¡°Anyway, I came here to offer you a trade. No, I will not kill or free you, but I am willing to return this.¡± He unsheathed the uchigatana, ¡°To your people that is.¡±


    She was mute for a moment, but she ultimately took the bait, ¡°What you want?¡±


    So getting this back to her people has value to her. Is that evidence that her presence here may not be personal or is that just pointed patriotism regarding the blade itself?


    Dalric eyed its exceptionally sharp edge.


    Maybe she just doesn¡¯t want it in Sailian hands. She did spit out ¡®Sailian¡¯ like it was a poison¡­ Why work with the Duke then... Ah! It¡¯s not my job to think about this.


    ¡°Devil Glass, tell me about it.¡±


    She was silent again, this time for longer. Dalric vaguely wanted to take her mask off so he could read her facial expression, but he had a feeling there would be little he could glean off its tarnished state.


    ...


    ¡°What you want to know?¡±


    She¡¯s decided to play.


    ¡°How do you make it?¡±


    ¡°Humph.¡±


    With that immediate and loud expression of contempt, she went silent again.


    Or not. Can¡¯t say I didn¡¯t expect that.


    He resheathed the blade and they both waited in silence for the others to return. The first was the jupiter. She brought back eight chains and three pieces of Devil Glass. Excessive, but he thought that about having three guards placed in the room with Hangaku and look how that turned out. Weary of another wannabe student, he sent the jupiter out as soon as she handed over the items. She was tasked with calling Ryku over, now that Dalric was done speaking with Hangaku there was no need to delay.


    He finished fully restraining her in the meantime. The Devil Glass was put to the side for later, but he sunk the chains into the wall and clasped them around each of her limbs. Combined, they would stop her from making any attempts at casting spells.


    After he was done, he was basically back to zero ahjer. The spells had drained the little he built up. He really regretted connecting to Thunderfield so early. The decision would seriously hinder him for the next few weeks as his body recovered. He couldn¡¯t afford to laze around for those weeks either, he had to prepare for the Gods return. Only the incredible purity of his ahjer was making the situation in any way salvageable.


    While Dalric continued lamenting his poor judgment, the door flew open.


    Ryku walked in holding a number of folders, ¡°I apologize. I completely underestimated her ability and assumed one chain and three watch¡ª¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine. I thought you went overboard with that in the first place, so how can I judge? Just make sure you get the most you can out of her.¡± Dalric patted him on the back and quickly made his exit.


    To his joy-dismay, a couple with a plate of food waited for him outside.

 Chapter 17: Celebration II

    A number of hours after Dalric stomached his final plate of rice and fish, when the festivities had ended and most people had gone to bed for the night, Ryku met up with him in a small library hidden away behind a bedroom. He had found a few texts on the different kinds of Devil Glass they had and how they were supposed to be used. It wasn¡¯t quite detailed information on how they were made, but it still provided useful insight.


    He put down one of the six Devil Glass pieces he was examining,¡°You¡¯re done?¡±


    Ryku took a seat next to him, ¡°With the groundwork. We have enough information to implicate Duke Leos and the Taiyos, but nothing cut and dry. Without some kind of clear testimony they¡¯ll both wiggle their way free of any meaningful sanction. I need to go over the details again.¡±


    ¡°Hero Hangaku didn¡¯t talk?¡±


    He sighed, ¡°Not a word.¡±


    ¡°A shame, but not an unexpected one. And getting all those people home?¡±


    ¡°They had pretty detailed logs of the slaves that came in and went out. I had to get some help, but we¡¯ve traced most of their origins. Actually getting them back there will take some time though. I¡¯ll have to report back to my superior first and they¡¯ll handle sending ships over to ferry them. I don¡¯t have the authority to.¡±


    And your superiors¡¯ attention will be focused elsewhere so it¡¯ll take awhile for them to get around to it.


    Dalric mentally finished the part that was left unsaid. Though he did cut them a bit of slack, the crowd came from all over the place. The drakens¡¯ home, for example, was three thousand kilometers away. Organizing their return would cost a lot for very little payoff. The fact they¡¯d be willing to do it at all should be commended.


    ¡°Do you know how they were taken or sold as slaves?¡±


    ¡°Unfortunately, no. At least not in detail. We know everyone here was sold rather than taken, but we couldn¡¯t figure out by who. The only name we¡¯ve managed to uncode is Baron Mori¡¯s and that¡¯s only because he features in almost every document regarding a sale or purchase.¡±


    Dalric tilted his head a little, ¡°¡®Almost every¡¯? That¡¯s quite conspicuous. And he¡¯s the only one that was easy to decode? Seems oddly convenient.¡±


    Ryku sighed even more as he slumped in his chair, ¡°It does.¡±


    Well.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it too much. You can¡¯t be expected to understand every nuance and detail on your first day. Wasn¡¯t your job to just report back? You¡¯ve done a tremendous job considerding.¡±


    Dalrci attempted to comfort Ryku as he was fully aware the stress the man felt came solely from him. Without Dalric¡¯s presence there would be no need to try and do any more than he¡¯d already done, but his desperate desire to impress Dalric had him reaching for the stars. It was praiseworthy, but also futile. Dalric could communicate that to him, but there was no need to ruin the productive high he was on. Even if he wouldn¡¯t become Dalric¡¯s student, the work he did here would definitely improve his standing as a Paragon. He was achieving both their public and private goals at once.


    ¡°You should get some rest, you can review the information tomorrow when you have a clearer mind.¡±


    Ryku sat back up, ¡°It¡¯s only 11:50-something. I can work a few more hours before I go to sleep. First light isn¡¯t until around eight anyway.¡±


    Getting to grips with the new time system was something Dalric had neglected to do so far. He learned some new terms, minutes and hours, but he didn''t care much to figure it all out yet. Physical clocks had obvious massive value to the masses, but he need only grow accustomed to the ebb and flow of ahjer across the days and weeks to know exactly what time it was anyway. That likely sounded needlessly exhaustive compared to the ease of owning a watch, but as far as he was concerned an internal clock that maintained itself was far superior to an external one. He¡¯d learn the ins and outs of them eventually anyway, but he¡¯d do so when he had the free time to spare.


    11:50-something. That¡¯s what, almost midni¡ª


    Submit!


    Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    Dalric fell to the floor immediately.


    Submit now!


    The Gods were back and they were stronger this time. It had only been a few seconds and he could already feel himself losing control of legs. Thankfully he had a scant amount of ahjer so when that pitiful amount went haywire Ryku was only sent flying into a narby bookcase. It didn¡¯t kill him. That wouldn¡¯t matter soon though as in a few more seconds he lost control of his hands.


    Ryku bounced up quickly, ¡°What¡¯s happening?!¡±


    ¡°Run! Run for help!¡±


    Dalric was going to lose. He knew it. He could feel it. The Gods weren¡¯t only stronger, they weren¡¯t distracted this time. They solely focused on overthrowing him as sovereign of his own body. And they¡¯d succeed.


    The only saving grace was the fact his body was tired and devoid of ahjer. He also wasn¡¯t wearing his armor anymore, just a robe. If Ryku could gather enough of the top fighters before the Gods took complete control of him, they could definitely fend him off.


    Submit!


    There went all of his limbs. Dalric panicked, it was too late now. He¡¯d only last maybe twenty more seconds. This was still a pathetically weak attempt to control him compared to what they used to muster, but compared to what he himself could muster it was more than enough. Ryku wouldn¡¯t have time to do anything at all in twenty seconds. He hadn¡¯t even moved away since Dalric told him to run. He instead stood next to Dalric. It was then that Dalric realized he lost his hearing and Ryu was trying to speak to him.


    You fool¡­


    It wouldn¡¯t matter, nothing would matter soon. Again, the Gods would have their way and Dalric would destroy everything around him. They were maybe fifteen seconds aw¡ª


    I¡¯M THE FOOL!


    ¡°RYKU! PUT ALL DEVIL GLASS MY HEAD! NOW! ALL! NOW! ALL! NO¡ª¡±


    He lost his voice, but he just thanked the Elders he even had it at that point. He couldn¡¯t imagine what kind of soul wrenching feeling would be wafting over him right now if he had realized too late. The Devil Glass wouldn¡¯t stop the Gods from taking over, but they would send him to sleep. He had enough strength to override one of them, but there were six on the side stool. There was no way he¡¯d currently have the strength to resist all six. The Gods could only control him for two hours a day and those two hours could not be broken up into chunks, it had to be consistent. So whether he was conscious or incapacitated, their time slot was their time slot.


    Ryku actually got the message this time, he frantically grabbed the pieces of Devil Glass and inserted them into his one by one.


    Wait a second.


    The first one did nothing, but Dalric expected that. The second one seemed like it did nothing as well at first, but it gave him his sense of smell and taste back. The third is when his voice and hearing came back. The fourth did nothing again, but the fifth piece of Devil Glass was when things really flipped on their head.


    He reclaimed his torso. Not suddenly, like he did his senses, but through a concentrated effort. Somehow someway, he overpowered the Gods'' attempt to control it.


    ¡°STOP!¡±


    He didn¡¯t want to move, less he lose too much focus, but he had to stop Ryku at five. He didn¡¯t know what the sixth would do, it could improve his situation even further, he wouldn¡¯t dare risk it though. He had zero understanding of what was happening, but all of a sudden he was fighting back and winning.


    Thankfully Ryku stopped in time and Dalric was left to fight the Gods in these new circumstances.


    Submit now!


    He¡¯d do no such thing. Soon after he reclaimed his torso, his right arm fell back into the fold. Realizing something was up at this point, the Gods tired to swipe his left hand at the pieces of Devil Glass. Dalric used his right hand to swat away their attempt. That didn¡¯t discourage them and they made several more attempts as Dalric fought to keep them away. From an outsider perspective both of his arms erractivaly jerked around as he knelt on the floor. One sought to evade the other and tap his head while the other played keepaway. Overall the cat and mouse act looked like the performance of a madman.


    Internally, neither side cared for the aesthetics. They both focused on making progress. However, in shifting their attention to moving Dalric¡¯s hands around, neither side made or lost much actual ground. The Gods could better multitask though, so any ground that was gained ,was gained by them and any ground that was lost, was lost by Dalric. It was only marginal, but he was back to a losing trend.


    That is, until Ryku jumped into the mix and retrained his left arm. Ryku didn¡¯t know the full situation, but he made some educated guesses and gambled on them being right.


    Dalric couldn¡¯t thank him more for it.


    As the Gods focused on throwing Ryku off of the arm, Dalric refocused his attention on removing their influence entirely. By the time they switched back to fully fighting for control, the only thing Dalric hadn¡¯t reclaimed from them was the arm they staunchly fought for. That would return to him soon though. He had only left it to them to keep their focus away from what he did elsewhere. As their last stand they held firm for a while, rebuffing most of Dalric¡¯s attempts to purge them. Like the first time however, their power began to wane. As it did, Dalric poked and prodded, pushing through bit by bit. It took a long time, something like forty minutes, but at the end of it he was free once again.


    He had won, again.


    He had won, again.


    He stood up and immediately grabbed Ryku in a bear hug, almost crushing the man in excitement. He almost crushed him again as seconds after he stood up his body went limp and he crashed back down to the ground.

 Chapter 18: Devil Glass

    "HAHAHA."


    Arvid and the rest cackled as the jester performed her routine. To be fair to her, to get that lot laughing so boisterously her performance must have been exceptional. I had no interest in it though.


    My subordinates could rest and enjoy their downtime, but being away from a battlefield did nothing but leave me restless. It was where I belonged, where I called home. I obviously couldn''t spend my entire life on one, there weren''t enough wars to fight, but time away from the field should be spent honing skills not watching some chicken-like creature spin ridiculous tales.


    "HAHAHAHA. The bastard!"


    I would leave them to go train, but that would just shatter my already shaky position. I didn''t connect with any of them, we barely spoke outside of orders and confirmations. Even though I was the technical leader, I was very much an outcast. The only one that even bothered to pretend they enjoyed my presence was Sindre. Though that''s just because his clan were one of the few that knew who I really was. He made no effort to hide the fact they sought to invite him into their fold. They couldn¡¯t do it openly, but two ¡®friends¡¯ just getting along with each other seemed to be fair game to them.


    "Dalric! Why are you all the way up here? That ayalmi is hilarious."


    And here he comes, Laekna floating behind him.


    "She is, but I need to review our last battle and I doubt I¡¯d be able to do that down there.


    Sindre took a healthy swig of the drink in his hand, ¡°What are you doing that for?¡±


    ¡°I review every battle, but this time we suffered two casualties in what should have been a comfortable rout."


    He scoffed, "Oh come on. ¨ªsturn is a fortress city, we weren''t expected to conquer it alone in the first place."


    "We weren''t given orders to, but we had 19 giants in this unit. That was more than enough."


    "They call you The Butcher, but they really should call you The Perfectionist. Can''t you at least celebrate the victory?"


    Celebrations lead to contentment. Contentment lead to complacency. Complacency lead to death. Those words were practically etched into my skull. I couldn''t say them though, it was a point that nobody around me agreed with. Every dish came with a side of revelry with these lot.


    "I am. Usually I''d be training right now, but instead I''m with all of you for this little victory party."


    Sindre gave me a sideways look. I was clearly stretching the definition of ''with'' as within the sizable amphitheater they commandeered for the show I sat more than halfway up the stairs while everyone else was at the front. I was still here though, that should count for something.


    He shook his head, "Anyway. I just got news that Endalaus surrendered. We''ll be heading home after this."


    Oh, that''s just great.


    He sat next to me, "Got any plans for when we''re out of this frozen wasteland?"


    Back to training.


    "Not yet. This was my first deployment as a Minor Captain, I have a lot to go over. I imagine you''ll be off to one of the mountains to try and whoo one princess or another though."


    "Hehe." He chuckled, "I just might. You should come too. The ladies will go crazy for the first Captain under a hundred ever. That''s a pretty big deal."


    "I''m ninety-eight and only Minor Captain."


    "Still. You''re the first. Think of all the sweet sweet women in Vakebakker just waiting for us. With their thick, powerful thighs and their¡­"


    And there he goes. The only thing Sindre cared about more than looking good on a battlefield was looking good for women. He was a fairly gifted fighter, but his lust would ruin him one day.


    "...I heard the second daughter of Lord Nyberg has the most beautiful abs you''d ever see. They''re like sculpted jarlon. Just imagine what it must feel like ins¡ª"


    I''d heard enough, "Looks like the show is ending.¡±


    The ayalmi bowed to receive her rowdy round of applause. She¡¯d clearly made quite the impression. I briefly gave her a few claps myself just to keep with the mood, but now that she was finished though, it was my cue to leave.


    Sindre stopped me as I stood up, "Leaving already? You''re not going to share the news with the rest?"


    "I appreciate you telling me, but until I receive an official report I can''t do that."


    ¡°Y¡ª¡±


    I stopped him before he cut in, "I''m almost completely sure you''re right, but rules are rules. Things could have changed in the time it took for you to receive that tidbit."


    In truth, that was about as likely as the sun falling from the sky. Sindre¡¯s clan was directly involved in leading this war. There was zero chance they didn''t have a complete picture of the campaigns ongoing. That very fact, however, was the reason I didn''t feel a need to address the rest. Our piece of the campaign was over. I''d likely never see any of them again, our paths simply didn''t align. The next time I''m released they''ll still be footmen and I''ll be more than just a Minor Captain.


    Sindre called out to me as I left, "The offer still stands when you''re ready!"


    "I''ll think about it."


    I genuinely would, even if there was no chance I could ever accept. My hundredth winter approached and I had still yet to feel the touch of a woman. A part¡­ a big part of me was envious of Sindre. He could live his life mostly carefree, indulging all he wanted. I had no such luxury.


    I wonder what those abs would feel like¡­


    ¡°You¡¯re doing well.¡± Laekna chimed in, pulling me out of my daydreams. She¡¯d just been silently floating around previously so I forgot she was even there.


    ¡°I can¡¯t really afford to do anything less than that.¡±


    ¡°You could. You could have left immediately and washed your hands clean of all of them, but you didn¡¯t. You¡¯ve even made a connection with one of them.¡±


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t go that far. We just speak every now and again. He¡¯s just¡­ wait. This doesn¡¯t make sense.¡±


    I turned to look at Laekna, but suddenly she was gone. Suddenly everything was gone.


    ¡­


    ..


    .


    Dalric shot up. For a moment he thought about the dream he just had, but that moment sharpy passed when he took in his surroundings. Eight towering shields loomed around him as he blinked clarity back into his eyes. Though there were only eight shields, twenty people surrounded his bed. Most notably was Ryku, who stood closest with four devil glass pieces in hand.


    ¡°Dalric?¡±


    What happened?


    His memory was foggy and his head ached tremendously. He remembered briefly chatting with Ryku about how his information gathering was going, which was a mixed bag, but everything after that felt clouded. His body felt absolutely destroyed as well. He clenched his fist a few times and it felt like his muscles were creaking into place.


    This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    Wait.


    He reached up and plucked the Devil Glass out of his head.


    Devil Glass? In my head again¡­ Oh!


    His memories rushed back, compounding the headache somehow. The Gods had come again, much sooner than he expected. It made sense though, he was foolish to assume they wouldn¡¯t return so soon. The contract stated they could control him for two hours every day. They never used it as such before, but they just never had a reason to. They did now and they won¡¯t stop here, they¡¯ll come every single day until they can make him submit. He had a means of fighting back though.


    Dalric eyed the Devil Glass in his hand then looked over at the four in Ryku¡¯s, ¡°How long have I been asleep.¡±


    The shields around him lowered as much of the room collectively sighed.


    ¡°And what did you tell them?¡±


    Ryku placed the pieces down, ¡°The truth. Last night your ahjer violently spiraled out of control and you asked me to stick those in you to calm it down. It¡¯s..5:23 so you¡¯ve been out for roughly seventeen and a half hours.¡±


    Hmm. A part-truth.


    ¡°Seventeen hours...¡± Dalric slowly moved to the edge of the bed, ¡°You all can go now.¡±


    They only hesitated for a second before the nineteen others in the room slowly marched their way out. Once they were gone he attempted to place a barrier around the room. Fighting through the headache was annoying by itself, but once through he found he was once again devoid of ahjer. Which was probably also contributing to the painful state of affairs in his head.


    I suppose five of these would do that.


    He tossed the piece he held onto towards Ryku, ¡°Do you know any spells to prevent eavesdropping?¡±


    Ryku caught it and placed it with the others, ¡°Yes, give me a moment.¡±


    His ahjer shout out and coated the floor, walls, and ceiling. It briefly flashed black, transforming the room into a black box for a fraction of a second, before the spell settled. Daric couldn¡¯t do much prodding without any ahjer to use, but his ahjer sense rated the resulting barrier highly. The spell felt quite different from the other standardized ones he¡¯d been seeing, it was more complex in its use of ahjer. That wasn¡¯t necessarily a good thing, but the results seemed adequate.


    ¡°¡®Out of control ahjer¡¯ you said, is that what you truly believe?¡±


    Ryku pulled up a chair, ¡°No. I believe something or someone was¡ªis trying to control your mind. You¡¯re interested in Devil Glass because you want to use it as a counter.¡±


    Wellll then.


    ¡°So you lied to them?¡±


    ¡°No. That¡¯s what I believe, but I don¡¯t know if I¡¯m right.¡±


    ¡°Of course... So why did you lie?¡±


    ¡°I¡ªyu..b¡ª.¡± Ryku took a deep breath, ¡°Having that many pieces affecting you at once was killing you. I needed to take them out, but I didn¡¯t know if you were in control of yourself or not. If you weren¡¯t and I was alone, I don¡¯t believe I¡¯d be alive right now. I needed their help, but to get it I needed to give them a suitable explanation for why. I didn¡¯t want to overspeak so I went with the closest thing to the truth available.¡±


    My. You¡¯re really making your case hard to deny at this point, aren¡¯t you?


    Dalric smirked, ¡°You did well. Drop the formalness though.¡± He extended his arm out then rolled his wrist. Every piece of the movement felt like grinding stones, ¡°Killing me may be an exaggeration, but this does not feel pleasant.¡±


    Ryku only relaxed a little in his chair, ¡°They would have killed a regular person by now. Three of them could completely halt someone¡¯s metabolism. Five is¡­¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m aware.¡± He continued to flex and contract different muscles, ¡°Next time you can remove them after two hours.¡±


    ¡°Next time... Why two hours, if I may ask?¡±


    Dalric stood up on his notably unsteady legs, ¡°That¡¯s the time limit.¡±


    Ryku stood as well, ¡°Time limit?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about the details just yet. Which door is the bathroom?¡± Ryku pointed it out and Dalric slowly wobbled towards it, ¡°I¡¯ll be in here for a while. Come back about an hour before midnight.¡±


    <hr>


    Ryku took a deep breath once he exited Dalric¡¯s room. He hadn¡¯t felt so on edge in years. Since Dalric had freed him and the rest at the bottom, he hadn¡¯t experienced the absolute domineering presence he first felt. During their climb up, he felt much more like a man. He was still exceptionally strong, the ease with which he single-handedly tore through the Baron¡¯s men proved that. The others still constantly talked about it in awe. He wasn¡¯t a titan in human skin anymore, however. Just a powerful human. Powerful enough that Ryku would still gladly be his student, but not as powerful as he first imagined him to be.


    That is, until last night happened. It was only for a moment, a brief fleeting moment, but in that moment Ryku felt the power of a volcano erupting out of Dalric. The composition of it felt different than before, but the imperious fierceness remained. It was a clear reminder of why he needed to do his very best to win the man over.


    The only thing that could have ruined that was the potential reality that Dalric didn¡¯t have control over his own mental facilities. He had almost squeezed the life out of Ryku before he crashed on top of him and Ryku didn¡¯t know at the time if that was his own reaction or a sign he had lost his battle with whatever sought to control him. Ryku kept it calm outwardly, but anxiety racked through his body when he began removing the Devil Glass. It got even worse when it was just the two of them, at any given moment he could have been eliminated. In the end, his worries were only partially founded. Dalric had all but confirmed his theory, but his reaction recontextualized the death grip into just an aggressive hug. He was himself. For now.


    There would be a next time.


    ¡°Ryku.¡± The deonon approached him, ¡°Is everything fine? He had five pieces in?¡±


    ¡°Adlartok, we¡¯re good. It was just an emergency thing.¡±


    ¡°For seventeen hours?¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s a stronger man than most. You¡¯re aware.¡±


    ¡°Still..to survive something like that¡­¡±


    Ryku laid a hand on his bicep, ¡°He¡¯ll be fine. Instead of worrying about him, we should worry about those mountains of folders we have to double-check.¡±


    Adlartok let out a pained chuckle, ¡°Ah¡­¡±


    ¡°Now.¡± Ryku gripped his arm before he could get any ideas, ¡°Let¡¯s get back to work.¡±


    ¡°Of course.¡±


    Six and a half hours later.


    ¡°I got it.¡±


    ¡°Repeat it to me.¡±


    ¡°Once I see the color of the marking switch from blue to red, I immediately activate the devil glass and stick exactly five pieces in. Once you¡¯ve fought the...pressure? off the color will go back to blue and I can take them out immediately. If it doesn¡¯t go blue, I leave them in for two and a half hours and then remove them.¡±


    Dalric relaxed in his seat, ¡°Alright. Good. How far are we away from midnight?¡±


    ¡°Five minutes.¡±


    ¡°Okay. If anything goes wrong, you immediately run away. Call for help. Understand?¡±


    Ryku hadn¡¯t been too nervous when he first returned to Dalric¡¯s room, but Dalric¡¯s own unease made him tense. The plan was straightforward enough. Dalric had tattooed a black and blue marking around his entire neck, its color denoted if he was him or he was being controlled. The moment Ryku spots a color change, he begins his part. If Dalric successfully fights the ¡®pressure¡¯ off, Ryku¡¯s part ends quickly, if he doesn¡¯t Ryku sets a timer and finishes his part later. Simple. There wasn¡¯t much room for something to go wrong.


    ¡°I understand.¡±


    Obviously, he didn¡¯t know everything there was to know about the nature of the ¡®pressure¡¯, Dalric had been purposely vague about it, but he felt fairly secure in his assumptions. Whatever it was, it wasn¡¯t strong enough to overpower Devil Glass. As long as he didn¡¯t miss Dalric¡¯s head or something equally ridiculous, everything should be fine.


    ¡°Time?¡±


    ¡°11:58.¡±


    Dalric fidgeted in his stone seat, the suspense was getting to him. Or it could just be that the chains were uncomfortable. Ryku felt like it was a mix of the two, though which was the greater contributor he couldn¡¯t tell.


    ¡°11:59.¡±


    ¡°Less than a minute now. Focus up.¡±


    Ryku was ready to go. He had a Devil Glass piece in each hand and twenty more attached to different parts of his body for easy access. All he needed was the sign.


    ¡°Any second now. Remember if anything goe¡ª¡±


    Now!


    Ryku immediately activated the Devil Glass and shoved five pieces into the crown of Dalric¡¯s head. Finished, he backed all the way up. He didn¡¯t need to, Dalric¡¯s ahjer didn¡¯t spiral out of control this time, but nothing was lost erring on the side of safety. He peeked over at Dalric¡¯s neck, but the markings still flared red. He¡¯d give it a bit more time before he assumed this was scenario two. He checked his watch and if five minutes passed without it flipping back to blue he¡¯d set the timer and take a seat. He¡¯d prepared some folders to go through in case that was the path things progressed down.


    It wasn¡¯t.


    Less than two minutes after the marking turned bright red, their dark blue color returned. It was scenario one. In theory, that meant all was well, but for some reason, this series of events made him more anxious than the alternative. This was the result they hoped for, but it didn¡¯t feel right. It felt too easy.


    Ryku steeled himself anyway and began to remove the pieces one by one. Again, once he got down to the last one, Dalric burst to life.


    Did it work?


    He hastily removed the last piece and slowly edged from behind Dalrci to in front of him. He halted as soon as he got a glimpse of his face. It had¡­ everything on it, excitement, confusion, shock, relief, loss, hope, fear, joy. Ryku had never seen a face hold so many varying emotions.


    It turned to him, ¡°It worked.¡±


    A few seconds passed before he realized Dalric was speaking to him, ¡°Oh! Yeah¡­ It would seem like it did.¡±


    ¡°It worked.¡±


    Ryku didn¡¯t know if he was supposed to reply to that one. So he didn¡¯t. He instead began unlocking the chains that bound Dalric. Dalric barely moved a muscle as he did so, still experiencing a tide of conflicting emotions. When Ryku was done, he backed away and took his seat. He¡¯d quietly wait for when Dalric was ready.


    ¡°It worked.¡±

 Chapter 19: Devil Glass II

    A handful of minutes passed since Dalric rebuffed the Gods, but he had still yet to move. He no longer battled a tsunami of different emotions, but shock still percolated throughout his body. It wasn''t just the fact that the plan worked. It was the fact that it worked so easily.


    As he expected, they came back with even more power the third time. He didn''t know what made their efforts so weak in the first place, but they were slowly growing in strength. The pressure they levied in their third attempt was notably more than their first. Even still, he''d shuck them off in little over a minute. They were barely an issue.


    Saying that, feeling that, was the summit of strange. From the moment he agreed to the contract, the Gods were always immense, immovable, and irresistible. Now, he''d just swatted them away like they were an annoying bug. The first two times he felt the rush of victory after strife, this time he didn''t even feel like he won. There was no contest to begin with.


    This was good, obviously. This was exactly what he hoped for. It just didn''t feel right. He hadn''t done enough, it should have been harder, their attack fiercer, his defence shakier. The fact that it was none of that didn''t sit well with him. It didn''t sit well at all. Until he understood why it was so easy, he wouldn''t be able to rest.


    He stood up, "Ryku."


    Ryku shot up in tandem, "Yes!"


    "Grab everything you''ve seen that mentions Devil Glass and bring it here. Every document, notebook, manual, guide, whatever. It doesn''t matter if I''ve already read it or if we decided it didn''t hold valuable information, bring it all."


    "Yes, si¡ªDalric!"


    As Ryku dashed out of the room, Dalric walked over to the desk he''d appropriated. On it laid multiple Devil Glass pieces and all of the notes he''d taken about his discoveries. He hadn''t discovered anything truly meaningful for his purposes yet, but now that he knew they worked he''d redouble his efforts to figure how they functioned.


    First, he sat and went through everything he learned about Devil Glass. Even if he didn''t know the intricacies, he''d gotten a better picture of the basics. In a similar vein to Jester Shards, they twisted and distorted a body''s naturally flowing ahjer to manipulate emotions. The differentiator between the two was the fact Devil Glass also injected a bit of foreign ahjer into the mix. That extra addition was what allowed them not only shift emotions around, but also change thoughts and physiology. That was the piece that stood out, the piece that must''ve held the key.


    Dalric grabbed one of the guides on how to administer the Devil Glass and began reading. It was one of nine different versions and one of the only two he hadn''t yet completed. The chances it held answered for all or even any of his questions was low, but before he began the lengthy process of re-reading the old he had to finish going through the new.


    While he analyzed its contents, Ryku periodically entered the room to drop off large crates marked with Rs and Us. Fully focused on every detail he read, Dalric paid little mind to the ongoings. It was only when Ryku finished that Dalric pried his eyes away from the guide.


    "That was quicker than I expected," he remarked.


    Ryku stretched his right shoulder then fixed his unnecessary long hair, "I had these prepared earlier in the day in case you needed them. The crates marked with the R are filled with material you''ve already read through, the ones with the U are unread." He pointed towards a crate with a U and a star in the middle, "Those are filled with things I''ve read personally and think may be of use to you."


    Well then.


    He signed


    Fine, fine, fine.


    "Thank you. Your efforts are definitely noted."


    His thanks was met by a soft chuckle-sigh, "I''d hope so. What do you need now?"


    He stood and laid his hand on Ryku''s shoulder, pushing a bit of his ahjer through before quickly retracting it, "You, need to sleep. I can handle the rest."


    "I''m fin¡ªwhat did you just do?"


    "Gave my thanks."


    Ryku stood back and rolled his shoulder. One rotation was all it took to feel the change.


    "You''re a healer as well?"


    Dalric waved off that notion.


    Ryku rolled his shoulder again, "I''m lost."


    Dalric smirked in response, "What I gave you is your first test. Figure out what I just did."


    At first, Ryku didn''t react, still battling confusion, but then the timber of realization was set ablaze. Unlike what Dalric had envisioned, there was no exclamation, no leap of joy, not even a bright smile. Instead, Ryku dropped to knees with his head falling into his hands. He said something in Surunese as well, but he said it too quickly for Dalric to decipher.


    "It''s just a test." Dalric reached to grab him, believing it was some pointless Surunese ritual, but as he grasped Ryku''s forearm he felt a wetness. He recoiled instantly.


    "I''m sorry, I''m sorry". Ryku wiped his eyes as he continued to apologize. "That was unbecoming of me."


    Dalric didn''t know what to do with that.


    Ryku slowly got up on his own, "Thank you, truly. Even though it''s just a test, you have no idea how much this opportunity means."


    "I''m clearly going to need an explanation then." His eyes moved over to the crates behind Ryku, "But I suppose not right now. I''ll be expecting one when you complete that test though."


    "Is there a time limit?"


    "For the test? ¡­ No."


    Ryku shook his head, "Then we have more urgent matters."


    Various forms of uncertainty passed through Dalric, but as he looked Ryku in his eyes all he could see was determination. He liked that.


    "We do."


    They both nodded and got to work. Dalric informed Ryku on what exactly they were looking for and how to write his notes then sent him on his way. Dalric was a far more voracious reader, but Ryku did his part. In a matter of a few hours, they went through all of the unread material and convened to go over notes and run some experiments.


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    Contrary to Dalric''s expectations, they had actually learned a few key things about Devil Glass. For one, the effects it had were massively overstated. It couldn''t make a person feel an emotion they didn''t already feel nor could it make a person think something they didn''t already. It simply touched upon what was already there. The reverence for people in red, for example, only worked when there was already some sort of mental reaction to the person in the clothing or the clothing itself.


    During one of their experiments, they discovered that while Ryku had never felt its effects before, when Dalric donned a red robe he felt a great compulsion to refer to him and treat him as his master. When they tested it on a third party wearing the robe he felt nothing at all. Inversely, when they used the Devil Glass on the third-party, who was one of Ryku''s helpers, they almost kissed the floor the moment they spotted him in red. They double and triple checked with various other experiments, but they always reached the same conclusion.


    The slowed metabolism seemed like the one outlier among the effects at first, but after further consideration even that was just an amplification. When the body began the process of falling asleep, it naturally sought to slow its functions. The Devil Glass merely honed in on that and slowed it even further. The question mark there became ''how did it make the body seek sleep in the first place?'' and that had a simple answer. The guides specifically stated the recipients should be fatigued before use.


    In the end, the summary of their efforts was firm evidence that while Devil Glass was more versatile and specialized than Jester Shards, it wasn''t any different fundamentally. Just an updated version of the same tool. A nice discovery to make, but not particularly helpful. For all Dalric knew, he could use Jester Shards against the Gods in the exact same way.


    Hmm?


    That sounded weird in his head. Using Jester Shards to fight off the Gods? Laughable. Yet it wasn''t. It was the opposite. From everything he just learned, they could do just that. They should do just that.


    Did they know? They must have known¡­


    Scenes of lucyberry bushes burning in mass played through his mind.


    No, no. Jester Shards weren''t outlawed. The lucyberries were destroyed because of lucis and their devastating effects. There was never any mention of Jester Shards.


    "Dalric."


    Then again if they could be used to counter the Gods¡¯ influence, the strategic move for them would be to remove them covertly not announce to the world they were their one weakness.


    "Dalric?"


    But what about lucis? It wasn''t a fake drug, we all witnessed its effects. What, it was a supremely fortunate coincidence for them then? Unlikely.


    ¡­


    Did they not know?


    A hand tapping his shoulder pulled him out of his thoughts, "Hmm? Yes? Yes."


    "Apologies if I disturbed you¡ª"


    "How many times do I have to ask you to drop the formalities Ryku?"


    "My apo¡ªah." Ryku slapped himself, "It''s getting more difficult with time."


    Dalric shook his head, "What kind of person gets more formal the drowsier they are? Anyway, you found something?"


    "Yes, this." He handed Dalric a small note, "It states the seven ingredients needed to make Devil Glass."


    "Oh? I''d think that would be top secret. Where''d you find it?"


    "Hidden inside one of the guides set to be sent to the Baron."


    Dalric glanced at the list. To no surprise, the ingredients were pretty much the same as Jester Shards. They had already proven their similarities, this was just more confirmation. Knowing how to make them would be more useful than knowing what they were made from at this point.


    But. But. If they did know and they somehow faked lucis, that means they targeted lucyberries¡­ Why that specifically if it wasn''t important. Is it the key?


    Dalric put that thought to the side, too many question marks. He''d explore it when he exhausted every branch on his current path.


    "How was it hidd¡­" His question faded into a soft snort as he watched Ryku sleep standing up.


    It was deep into the night at this point and while he had spent most of the previous day unconscious, Ryku had been working the entire time. He just didn''t have the energy to keep up, sleep called. Dalric shook him awake and ushered him off to bed. He tried to refuse, but his resistance was weak. Dalric effortlessly lifted him up and dumped him outside. His helpers handled him from there. Now alone, Dalric returned to his desk with a renewed focus. He took out a hidden set of notes about the Gods and how their influence manifested. This is when the real work began. He wouldn''t be sleeping much tonight.


    A dozen hours later, on the eve of evening, Dalric finally relaxed. Half a day went by as he scored through every detail he could. Food and drink had come and gone thrice yet he remained so focused on his task he barely processed their existence. Ryku had come himself at one point, but he was quickly shooed away as well. While having someone to bounce ideas off of was nice, Dalric was in full hermit mode. No distractions, no breaks, he was completely dialed in.


    It mattered little in the end. When he finally let his concentration lapse, he was no closer to a clear answer. He merely relearned what he already learned, wasting half a day in the process. There was no reason, none that he could find, that explained Devil Glass'' ability to weaken the Gods¡¯ presence. He was at a loss.


    Are lucyberries really the answer?


    He leaned back in his chair for the first time in hours and let his head fall backward. The last functional piece of his stock of Devil Glass sat in his left hand. He had no more ideas, no more tests to run, so the piece would be the lone survivor. A small part of him wanted to crush it in anger, but the greater portion of him grimaced at the thought of letting his frustrations get the better of him like that. So he just sat there, staring at the ceiling.


    He stared at the wood planks they used. They were a light brown with a faint tint of green, much the same as the floor his feet stood on. He had spent so much time in the room he''d almost forgotten he was currently quite a few meters underground in a hidden base next to a river. The room was so well decorated with furs and paintings and even a jeweled chandelier, that the true nature of his location slipped from his mind.


    What am I thinking about?


    He quickly shook his head and stood up. His body was quite unhappy with his past decisions so he spent ten minutes doing basic stretches before stripping naked and stretching for real.


    He needed to hone himself.


    The movements were quite awkward with human proportions, but it''d only take time and diligence to adjust them to his current body. He''d created the forms himself anyway.


    Fifty-five minutes went by as his muscles and bones screamed in agony. He had to take a quick break, his body very clearly hated the stretching more so than it did the static sitting. That was just a symptom of being out of shape though. The stretches themselves would do wonders for his body and mind when he eventually got reaccustomed to them. For now though, they just hurt. A lot. If someone was listening to him, they''d likely believe he was castrating himself with the type of groans that escaped his lips. Nevertheless, he''d persevere. He''d given up forty minutes in yesterday, but now he had just the right amount of anger to push himself through.


    Thirty minutes passed and he was again reaching his limit, but his stubbornness and frustration refused to allow him yield. He''d failed one thing today, he would not fail another.


    Fifteen minutes later he collapsed to the floor. He''d finally completed the full set of moves and positions. Though he couldn''t move, he was jubilant. There was a bit of shame mixed in as well. He''d taken over two hours, including the break, just to complete the first tier. The first tier was designed to take less than half a bell, something close to forty-five minutes. Even removing the break, he''d gone over that, healthily. Ultimately, he was in a different and weaker body so the shame was unfounded. That wouldn''t stop him from feeling it of course, but it would stop it from ruining his overall joy.


    Time continued to pass as he laid weakly on the floor. At some point he recovered enough physically to get up, but mental fatigue still plagued him. So did hunger.


    I need a drink.


    An unknown amount of minutes later, he sensed an aged woman run towards his door. He thought she intended on barreling through to get to him, but she deftly halted her momentum just before the door. Then, she knocked.


    She had neither food nor drink with her so Dalric didn¡¯t really feel motivated to answer, but she responded to his silence with louder, more frantic knocking.


    ¡°Fine.¡± He shifted his head towards the door, "Come in!"


    She walked in and Dalric immediately recognized her as one of Ryku''s helpers.


    "Ah!" She hastily turned around, "Sir Tai urgently requests your assistance at the front gate."


    Dalric laid face down so he felt the reaction was a bit excessive, but she at least carried on without a fuss, "What happened?"


    "Uh. A group of panthers want to speak with you."


    Dalric lifted his head a bit, "Panthers?"

 Chapter 20: Black Panthers

    Dalric sluggishly made his way up the stairs, the quick shower and snack he''d taken did little to reduce the fatigue he felt. He''d need a proper meal and some proper rest, but for now duty called.


    The stairs lead to what looked like the back of a mostly barren warehouse. Before he could even turn his head to browse its scant few contents, Ryku''s helper quickly pulled him out into the sun. Time was of the essence she claimed. While she tugged him over to the gate he at least got a good look at what the above-ground level of the base looked like. It was much the same as he saw a few days ago, mostly barracks and storage with a few auxiliary buildings in between. It was all very bland and blocky, but it fulfilled its role as cover perfectly. Between all the basic structures, the uneven ''road'', and the lack of technology, there was nothing that would lead one to believe a multilayered facility resided underneath. Though, from the glimpse he got the docks may have been the one thing that betray that purpose.


    "Dalric!"


    Dalric had already sensed Ryku on too of the sentry tower, there was nothing out here to block him, but seeing the tenseness in his expression was unexpected. He wasn''t the only one either, there were tens of people standing on top of the wooden wall. The ones that weren''t looking forward, looked back at him with relief plastered all over their faces.


    Ryku hopped down and jogged over, "We have a problem."


    Dalric could feel the tension, "I hear some panthers are looking for me?"


    "I believe so. Thank you. Take this to Gio, he''ll know what to do." After handing his helper a note and sending them away they both continued towards the gate, "Adlartok has been speaking to them. They won''t tell him what they want specifically, but they keep insisting on meeting ''the angel''. Adlartok didn''t know who they were referencing, but if I remember correctly you were identified as an angel when you first arrived?"


    Dalric raised an eyebrow, "I did look the part. Who''s Adlartok?"


    And where did he learn the All-tongue?


    "I thought so. Do you know why they''re looking for you?"


    Dalric thought for a moment, but only one thing sort of came to mind, "If they were tigers maybe, but I''m confident I''ve not come across any panthers."


    A look of concern flashed across Ryku''s face, "Tigers? You''ve met the tigers? Are they hunting you?"


    "I don''t imagine so. Though, we probably aren''t on very good terms. Anyway, who''s Adlartok?"


    "That''s the part you¡ªopen the gate!¡ªThe deonon. older gentleman, very respectful...six legs."


    "Ah."


    The deonon. A race I''ve never heard of. Hmm...


    Ryku turned to him as the massive wooden gate began to slowly split, "We didn¡¯t speak on it much, but those ¡®reigning beasts¡¯ I mentioned? These panthers, and the tigers, are a part of them. I don''t know your history with them or why they''re so adamant about speaking with you, but they need to be handled delicately."


    ¡°Delicately you say...¡±


    Dalric didn''t feel all that concerned and Ryku seemed to notice, "They are very powerful. I''m sure you''re stronger than any of them individually but they have numbers. And. We, the Paragons, believe there are over a dozen clans that can and will unify at the slightest suggestion of a common enemy. "


    "Over a dozen?"


    "Yes, and we hadn''t even included these panthers."


    The gate finished opening its bosom to reveal Adlartok and the two drakens standing in front of four overgrown black panthers. There were no roads so they stood only a few meters out from the edge of the jungle. It was far enough that they all stood outside his ahjer sense''s range, but from what he could gleam from the panthers'' muscularity they were much more formidable than the first tigers he stumbled upon. If muscularity meant anything that is.


    "I''ll stay here in case things go wrong."


    Dalric slapped his back, "You want to be my student yet you have no faith in me?"


    Ryku frowned, "I just have an ominous feeling. They''ve never behaved like this before. Seeking out people? Coming to a human base? Unless for war, I can¡¯t see why they would go to such lengths. They don''t make friends with outsiders and¡­ you don''t seem the type to make friends at all. "


    Dalric smirked as he walked beyond him, "It''ll be fine."


    Though he said that, some concern was warranted. He thought back to the strength he felt from Alexander and his group. It wasn''t overwhelming. He felt confident he could engage them without much risk, but then he multiplied that power by twelve. Without Thunderfield, that would be an enormous task, just on the fringes of possible. In his current state, with such piss poor ahjer regeneration, it may as well be an impossible ask. Throw in all the canon fodder that could slow him down and ''victory'' became just surviving.


    It shouldn''t come to that though, he hadn''t actually harmed any of Alexander''s...people. He''d threatened them, but surely that wasn''t enough to wage war. War was an expensive thing. Especially if you had to call in allies.


    Hmm. They called me ''the angel'', not Dalric. Alexander knows my name. If he was sending out his allies to probe me, he''d at the very least tell them who to look for... But what does that mean? He''s keeping secrets? They''re not allies?


    A few more possible explanations popped in his mind, but nothing seemed more likely than anything else. There were just too many unknowns. Again. At least this problem was easy to solve, the answers patiently waited for him.


    He continued past the gate and the panthers soon came within his sense''s range. What he felt immediately reconfigured the approach he had planned. Three of the panthers were of little note. Their strength was comparable to that of the riftans, not a pushover to the likes of Ryku but not a problem that couldn''t be dealt with comfortably. The other one though, their power was a different tier altogether. It was very similar to Alexander''s. In other words, stronger than every person here other than himself. Whatever business they had with him, they meant it.


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    He started at the lead panther intently as he strolled over to them. At first, his stare was met with disinterest, but a few strides in it transitioned to vigilance.


    Twenty-meter range? Impressive.


    "Who is that one?"


    Adlartok replied, "That, Madam Selene, is who we believe you''re looking for."


    Selene raised her paw, " You think I''m blind? He is not an angel."


    Alexander knows I''m a human though...


    Adlartok stepped back, "If you would wait just a moment please. After speaking with him, I''m sure you''ll find the answers you seek."


    "I do not trust you."


    Selene pounced, instantly incapacitating the two drakens. Her paws radiated mist-attuned ahjer. When she swiped at their heads they reflexively positioned their weapons as guards. They didn''t know that mist attunements were nigh-impossible to block without either a spell or an opposing attunement. Fortunately, the attack¡¯s ability to phase through defences came at the cost of a complete lack of lethality. The best it could do was what it did do, knock out opponents for a handful of seconds.


    While she handled the two draken, the other three panthers captured Adlartok. He did little to resist, opting to make pleas for peace instead. They fell on deaf ears as he was wrestled to the ground and placed beside the drakens. Both of them came to their senses while he was being brought down, but they wisely refrained from resisting as well. All three laid at Selene''s feet.


    Dalric watched all of this occur while keeping his stroll steady. He noticed the mist-attuned ahjer as soon as Selene raised her paw. If it was anything else, he would have dashed over, but knowing its limitations gave him calm. If Selene wanted to kill all three of them, she could have done so on her own. Knocking them unconscious was a gesture of peace, or at the very least a willingness to not resort to conflict.


    "Tell him to stop at once!"


    "Dal¡ª"


    Dalric halted less than ten meters away from them, "I don''t need a translator."


    Selene''s vigilance only increased, "A human speaking the tongue? Who are you?


    Adlartok tried to cut in, "Madam he¡ª"


    "Silence! Speak human, who are you?"


    "I do not appreciate your treatment of my people. You asked to see me yet you don''t even know my name?"


    "I asked for the angel, you are no angel."


    Let''s see, how much do you know?


    Dalric folded his arms, ¡°Because there is no angel to begin with, just me."


    "Lies. I know the angel was taken in here, I watched it occur just over there." She indicated the rough area Dalric had fallen unconscious with her paw, "Speak the truth or." The very same paw brandished its claws right above Adlartok¡¯s head.


    Dalric recognized the empty threat as what it was. He was far more concerned by the fact they had actually seen his capture. That meant they weren''t just here on orders or information from Alexander. They had tailed him, and he had no clue. That was alarming.


    It also made sense. The greatest strengths of mist-attuned ahjer were stealth related. Unlike the more common shadow or darkness variants, it could be used to conceal a person in broad daylight. It had just been so long since someone successfully shadowed him that he hadn''t even considered it as a possibility.


    This was the second time his sense completely failed him though. He wasn''t who he used to be and he had to get that fact through his thick skull before something more dangerous did.


    Change of plan.


    "What you saw was a flying human. The same human that visited Alexander''s little town a few days ago. The same human that''s standing before you now."


    If they were specifically looking for him, this revelation wouldn''t matter. If they were a completely separate party from the tigers and needed an angel for one reason or another, this should temper their interest in him.


    "This ''flying human'' had wings. I see none on you."


    Dalric debated casting the spell or not. It would most likely wipe out upwards of eighty percent of his current ahjer. A large and unwise payment. He could use an incantation to do it, but that ran the risk of one of the spectators repeating it. Thousands of years had passed and the dangers of knowing that incantation could very well have passed as well, but he didn''t think the probability of that was high. Knowing it had been a death sentence long before he was born the first time, a few more millennia wouldn''t change that. On the balance of things, fighting the panthers with low ahjer reserves was the better prospect.


    Quicker than a blink of the eye his skin flashed white and a full suit of armor replaced the relaxed robes he wore. Accompanying the suit were the spear and shield he casually threw away last time. He did so again, this time to dispel any thought that he was preparing to engage them.


    He fluttered the pristine set of wings that sprouted from his back, ¡°Can you see them now?¡±


    He couldn¡¯t quite read her face, but Dalric intuited that it was whatever translated to surprise for panthers. It left as quickly as it came, however. Instead of a return to vigilance, it morphed into something Dalric couldn¡¯t identify at all. Then she purred.


    It was Dalric¡¯s turn to be vigilant. Five more panthers, all more powerful than the three the flanked her, stalked out of the jungle. Four of them came from within his ahjer sense range.


    Looking for me specifically, it is.


    He took an offensive stance. There was still a small chance things could be resolved peacefully, so he wouldn¡¯t make the first move, but he¡¯d be foolish to not prepare himself. Especially since he now knew it wasn''t just Celene that could brazenly hide within his range. There very well could be even more still lying in wait. That unknown made him switch his stance to make a speedy retreat.


    He could take the nine in front of him, just about, but he couldn''t be sure they would be the end of it. Plus, they had hostages. Which made things more difficult. If they were here for him specifically though, then retreating was the best option. They''d have to chase.


    While he formulated his plan, the five conjoined with the rest. They all stared at him, intensely. He got a very different vibe from the original four than he got from the new arrivals though. While they continued to stare, they also spoke to each other, in whispers. They spoke the All-tongue in whispers. He knew dozens of ways to stop eavesdropping, but he couldn¡¯t do that. He wouldn¡¯t even know where to begin with attempting. It shouldn¡¯t be possible to begin with.


    More and more things that are beyond me.


    Unconcerned with the fresh doses of shock she had provided, Selene stepped forward. Instead of attacking, however, she bowed her head, ¡°I deeply apologize for my rudeness. It is an honor to speak with a descendent of Aegeus.¡±


    This again?


    Dalric weighed his options carefully. Pretending to fulfill that role would solve whatever conflict they had right now, but it would lock him into a position he truly did not want. There was also the fact that Aegeus surely still lived to consider. If he could free himself from the Gods, then he¡¯d never have to come into contact with Aegeus. Well, he may have to eventually if his plan worked out and he proved to be a warlord, but in that case Dalric could fight him on his own terms and likely with a lot of backup. If he took the position now, he¡¯d have no control over that timeline.


    But what if Aegeus is dead?

 Chapter 21: A Silent Night

    Night settled in place just as they reached the border. Gaiane planned it that way. Darkness was their greatest ally and they''d need every advantage they could grasp for what they were about to do next.


    They crossed the invisible line.


    ''Focus! We''re in their lands now.''


    She didn''t need to remind them, they all knew the gravity of what they were doing, but there was no such thing as too much caution. This was the single most dangerous mission any of them had ever been assigned. More than double or even triple the difficulty of infiltrating one the human''s bases. Though they took pride in their proficiency as a stealth unit, they were encroaching on the absolute kings of the field. There was no such thing as too much caution.


    Her unit slowly stalked through the jungle, taking in every detail as they advanced further. They had eyes in every direction, at every angle. Nothing would escape their notice. It slowed them down tremendously, but she''d pay that price tenfold to complete this assignment without a hitch. The chances of that were low, but she''d do everything in her power and leave the rest to Aegeus.


    The minutes turned to hours as they moved deeper and deeper into enemy territory. There was an air of tension. Fear was not a commonly felt emotion in her unit, but this was an extraordinary circumstance so it was forgiven. It had to be, she was feeling a bit of it herself. As long as they all remained focused on their task, however, she couldn''t fault anyone for a little nerves.


    The nerves got worse when they started spotting a few patrols, also deftly stalking through the vegetation, but as they successfully avoided each and every one of them they relaxed.


    Encountering the patrols slowed them down even further, often pushing them to take very wide paths to avoid detection. The trees and vines hid much, but they knew each member of the patrol had a keen ahjer sense. It was best to stay as far away from them as possible. At times that meant they even had to circle backward, flanked on both sides by patrols or one patrol and unfavorable terrain.


    There were many little patches of treeless fields on this side of the jungle. Most of them were barren besides a few clusters of flowers here or there, but a handful were filled with lightleaves. They illuminated their area in an ominous neon yellow. The light from fires did nothing to disrupt their camouflage spells, but lightleaves glow completely dispelled them. The fields containing them had to be avoided just as much as the patrols.


    ''30 NE. Two. Moving E.''


    ''20 S. One. Moving NW.''


    Heading northwest?


    ''Turn 2. NE.''


    Her entire unit shifted its direction slightly right. The patrol behind them was close, a bit too close for her liking. Twenty meters didn''t give them much time to make any adjustments. Depending on what angle the patrol took to move to their northwest, they could get even closer. She couldn''t have that. Though the patrol to their right was another concern, she hated being sandwiched in between like this.


    ''15 S. One. Moving NW.''


    What?


    ''Turn 10. NE.''


    Her unit adjusted instantly, veering even further right.


    ''25 NE. Two. Moving E.''


    Acceptable.


    They continued moving right until the patrol behind them had passed out of their range of vision, then they course-corrected.


    These close brushes increased in frequency as they got closer to their destination. It was to be expected, but that didn''t stop the nerves from reemerging. Even as they expertly maneuvered through them there were no moments of relief, just increased tension. Their own steps were silent, but they could hear every movement in the jungle. The slightest ruffles put everyone on edge.


    ''Location?''


    ''375 NW.''


    Again.


    They were really close now, less than four hundred meters away from their destination, but they kept losing ground. They''d been closer to three hundred meters not too long ago but all the detours had pushed them further away. If the status quo continued, the sun would rise before they reached their target.


    ''30 E. One. Running W.''


    Running?


    This wasn''t the first time one of the patrols was moving with more urgency, but this time their trajectory led straight through her unit.


    ''Pace 4.''


    They quickened their pace to a light jog.


    ''20 E. One. Running W.''


    ?!


    ''Pace 7.''


    They quickened the pace again.


    ''25 NW. Two. Moving SE.''


    ''30 W. One. Running SW.''


    ''25 NE. Two. Moving N.''


    Information poured in. Suddenly there were four patrols all in different directions. Her brain lagged as it tried to see the best path.


    ''20 E. One. Running W.''


    ''20 NW. Two. Moving SE.''


    ''20 NE. Two. Moving N.''


    One of the patrols handled itself, but the other three were almost converging on their location.


    ''20 SE. One. Running W.''


    ''Turn 4 E.''


    Her second made the decision for her. The entire unit heeded and veered heavily right, continuing their hurried jog.


    ''Pace 5.''


    Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.


    Her second gave the order again, slowing their speed just a smidge. She felt a bit of shame that she had let indecision grip her, but she quickly cast the emotion aside. This wasn''t the time.


    ''Hold!''


    Her voice boomed in her unit''s minds, immediately halting their movements. The ones at the front were the first to stop. In fact, they had begun to slow down before she even gave the order.


    A field of lightleaves laid in front of them.


    ''Form 3.''


    They rearranged their formation into a diamond. They had no intention of fighting, but any time they were at a standstill she had them take up this formation. Just in case.


    The minutes ticked by as they waited. They could see each of the patrols, hear them displacing the vegetation around them, but they stayed motionless. Two passed by and continued on their way, the last one though...


    ''10 W. Two. Moving S.''


    This is it.


    ''Combat alert.''


    They were here, just ten meters away. At this distance, she couldn''t possibly hope they wouldn''t notice the unit¡¯s presence. So they¡¯d just have to make the first move. Avoiding any contact was the goal, at least until they were on their way back, but Plan A rarely worked. Now, she prepared for an assault. As long as her side got to them before they alerted any others, they were still on course.


    ''Close. NW.''


    ''S3, attack!''


    Four of her unit split off and darted towards the patrol. They were in close enough range now that it only took a second for them to reach the target. She carefully watched as different, attuned daggers manifested in each of their hands just before contact. They all aimed to kill in one swift motion. When the tips of their blades arrived, however, the results confused her.


    The two patrollers just¡­ disappeared. As if they were never there to begin with.


    ''Return!''


    She didn''t like that one bit. A random set of patrollers shouldn''t be skilled enough to completely slip them like that. Something wasn''t right. She recalled the squad of four, but instead of complying, they spoke.


    ''They''re fake! Illusions.''


    Impossible.


    ''Are you sure?''


    ''Yes.''


    It couldn''t be. They weren''t using their normal sight, they were all using heat vision. There were illusions that faked heat signatures of course, but no one used them. Why would they? They were cumbersome and more costly to no added benefit. In the entire jungle, the only creatures bound to heat vision were of little import. That was the exact reason her unit used it. No one ever saw it coming. No one ever saw them coming. No one should even know they exist. For there to be illusions here specifically giving off fake heat signatures¡­


    ''Retreat!''


    The order came too late, she could do nothing but grimace as she felt two of the squad disappear from the Network.


    ¡®Enemy!¡¯


    Nothing could be done to save the final two. She and the remaining eight were already escaping posthaste. Though they failed to reach their destination, discovering the illusion was enough. Now, they had to survive to be able to report back.


    Not even ten meters into their escape, the entire third squad disappeared from the Network. All dead. Whoever killed them did so almost effortlessly. That kind of strength disparity could only mean one thing, a Blessed. Danger. They would surely chase the rest of them, but with their spe¡ªanother disappeared from the Network. She instantly jerked her head to the side and watched the slowest of the group fall lifelessly to the ground.


    ¡®Enemy Blessed! Stand! Form 2.¡¯


    The frantic sprint halted, shifting into a defensive triangle around her. She was wrong about their speed, they wouldn¡¯t outrun them. Better than being picked off one by one, they¡¯d stand and fight.


    A fight didn¡¯t arrive. They all scanned the area they¡¯d just run from, but none of them could spot a soul. Even when she had some of them switch back to their regular vision, nothing changed. It was telling that none of the patrols they painstakingly avoided earlier could be spotted either, but that was a thought for when they survived. For now, they waited, they watched, and they listened. Without any visual stimuli, sound was their main diet. Each time a vine swayed or two leaves brushed against each other, they twitched. They expected to be on the end of any kind of assault, but instead they received nothing. Nothing at a¡ª


    ¡®Left!¡¯


    Another had disconnected, this time at the leftmost tip of their formation.


    ¡®Location?¡¯


    ¡®I don¡¯t know.¡¯


    ¡®I don¡¯t know.¡¯


    Neither of the two stationed on left had seen what happened. Neither had seen the Blessed. Their kill was perfect.


    ¡®Look h¡ªRight!¡¯


    Another one, on the far right.


    ¡®Where?!¡¯


    She received the same answer, no one knew anything. They were fighting a ghost.


    ¡®Form 3.¡¯


    They went back to the diamond. It was more a move of desperation than a piece of any real plan. She didn¡¯t know what her next steps should be. She always knew what they would be going up against in theory, but the reality of it was so different from what she expected. They heard nothing, saw nothing, senses nothing. How was she supposed to combat this? The reports mentioned their ability to completely avoid detection, but it said nothing about them being able to attack while in that state. In fact, it said the opposite. Before they made a kill, they were supposed to be visible. That was clearly false.


    She had to calm herself down, she was becoming agitated. More of her people would die if this continued. T¡ª


    ¡®Lef¡ªRetreat!¡¯


    That was it. Too many of them had died without them getting even a glimpse of the killer. The decision to run would likely kill many of them as well, but they were already being picked off at a standstill. Between the two poisons, only one got them closer to completing their mission.


    ¡®Scatter!¡¯


    She hated having to do this, having to condemn her people to death, but this was the best way to guarantee at least some of them would survive. They couldn¡¯t be facing more than one Blessed, there was no need for the stealth if they were. Whoever they were, they couldn¡¯t possibly get to all of them.


    She thought.


    Within a handful of minutes, two more were down. A few more minutes later, another went. Then another. In half an hour, they were down to just three.


    She couldn¡¯t believe it. How were they being picked off so easily? She had never felt anything like this before. This fear, this dread, this feeling of being a helpless mouse waited to be pounced upon. As she reached out through the Network, she felt the intense loss too.


    We¡¯re not going to make it.


    Just as she thought that, another fell. They were down to two, just her and her second, and she didn¡¯t believe they would last much longer either. This was truly the end for them.


    If this is it¡­


    ¡®Protect me!¡¯


    She slowed down and began casting a spell. A long-range communication spell. She summoned all the ahjer she could muster, every single drop. With every ounce of useable ahjer in her body, she could send a message four hundred meters. She needed more than that. So she started gathering the unusable ahjer. The ahjer the powered her body, powered her mind, gave her life. If she would lose it anyway, she would lose it in service of her people. In service of avenging her unit. They would not die in vain.


    The range of the spell ballooned beyond two thousand meters, enough for her to reach home. She didn¡¯t waste a second, immediately locating the closest messenger to the Archon and throwing every bit of information she could at them. They were most definitely completely unprepared for the barrage, but as long as they delivered the message she didn¡¯t care. Once done, the spell faded, the connection ended, and she collapsed to the ground.


    In her last moments, she glimpsed her second¡¯s severed head flying into the bushes. It was okay though, he would be avenged too. They would all be. In just a few moments the Archon would know. Know that the panthers were weak.


    And when he learned that, war would come.

 Hello, Im Back

    I''ll keep it simple. Life and responsibilities got in the way. Perfectionism too. Every time I found a bit of time to make a comeback I''d look at the story with new eyes and want to change something else. It all bogged me down for years.


    So, what does it mean that I''m back now? Well, I have about 30k of the rewritten The Deathseeker done. The changes are now substantial enough that I''m thinking of posting it as a new fic. Maybe get a fresh start. BUT. Not yet.


    I want to prove to myself that I can be properly consistent this time so I''m trying the writathon again. Same fic as last time, though its also been rewritten. Please, please check it out and support. Its at about 25k


    <hr>


    A King in the Clouds</a>


    (I''m still work shopping the cover)


    Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.


    Tanlar. A cruel, repulsive, and foul word. It meant untitled, officially, but it also meant ungifted, unable, unworthy, unnecessary, unhuman. It was more a curse than a term. A badge only the damned and condemned wore. To be a tanlar was only supposed to mean you were manaless, but in Goldfruct it meant you were worthless. It meant your life, your entire being, was insignificant.


    Once Kaizer had resigned himself to such a fate, but those times had passed. He may have been untitled, but he was anything but untalented. A scholar, an inventor, a gifted fighter, and one of the best runners in Waldaun, he refused to scrape by at the bottom of society. His crew was the same. They were all skilled in their own ways and they all believed they could be more, more than just tanlars.


    Kaizer believed the most and every day he worked to prove it. He¡¯d be better than any titled. He¡¯d be better than every titled.


    But of course he would be. ¡®Fate¡¯ demanded it so.


    <hr>


    Thank you to everyone who messaged over the years asking for updates. You kept me from simply giving this up. Hopefully, I complete the writathon and we can get Dalric''s journey back on track!

 Dalric Returns Sunday 2am EST!

    I did it! 55k words in 5 weeks. Writathon complete. If you missed it, here''s a link again.


    A King in the Clouds</a>


    (If you would like to skip my thoughts about it and go straight to The Deathseeker info, go to the line break)


    It was terrible. I am truly not a pace writer. I''m too fond of taking my time and letting the story find me. The constant sprint of having to get to the next plot point really degraded my writing. BUT. I''m so pumped to have finally done it. I''ve been trying to complete it for 5/6 years now. Even before I started this account, I had attempted the challenge on another account in 2017 and 2019. Failed both spectacularly. No clue how big it was for me that I did it. Never ever doing it again. Ever. But happy to finally say I''ve done it. I''m a lot more confident in my ability to write at a higher volume. Which is good news! Speaking of good news.


    <hr>


    The Deathseeker finally returns! For real! It drops 24 hours after this launches. Dec 22nd at 2am EST. The first 20k words will drop in a flurry of chapters between Sunday and Monday. Likely four on each day, but maybe five on Sunday and three on Monday. We''ll see. From there, I''ll be posting Wednesday, Friday, Sunday, Tuesday, and then Wednesday again and that will be the start of the official release schedule. Its Wednesdays at 9pm and Sundays at 12pm. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    So. What''s changed? I did mention it was a substantial revision. Well. The MAJOR plot points are the same. Dalric will wake up in a jungle meet some friendly animals, then even friendlier humans and overall have a great time in the Akai Ken. Many of the finer details have changed though. Too many to list to be honest, but one of the major ones that required the most reshuffling is that Dalric''s contract with the Gods has been completely written. We didn''t really get into the details in the old Deathseeker, but things like ''they can control him for a bell every 12 bells (two hours every day)'' are gone. Replaced with, I think, more specific and interesting rules and specifications. Don''t worry, Dalric still mitigates the control early on, but the how and why have changed.


    I look forward to your reactions!


    Aside from that I have a question! I commissioned two new covers for the new story. One just an upgraded version of the old one, while the other is different take on the same scene. Vote below to let me know which you prefer. You can also vote if you prefer the original to both.


    UPGRADE OF CURRENT


    DIFFERENT TAKE