A few days later.

They finally arrived at Sliver Pass.

Sirus and Riria were still seated on the carriage, but their eyes could make out the faint outline of the pass's fortress.

He sighed, "Finally!"

Riria, who was sitting in his lap, frowned: "The drive wasn't that bad."

"...Yeah," Sirus said awkwardly.

The carriage stopped before Sirus was forced into another awkward conversation, to his relief.

They got out of the carriage and laid their eyes upon the large stone block that was the fortress. Aesthetically horrible, but functionally brilliant, as the only way through the pass was the fortress, making it an excellent defensive position.

Walking to the entrance, they met with one of the soldiers stationed by the arch: "Names and Identification please." The soldier said upon seeing them. Naturally Sirus and Riria had no identification, but Sirus' adventurer's tablet should have made up for it.

"Sirus, and my companion, Riria." He said while pulling the tablet off of his neck and handing it to the soldier.

"Adventurer's?" The soldier asked, somewhat surprised. Although the Royal Army had set up a call for adventurer's, the adventurer's themselves rarely wanted to risk their lives against the somewhat superior Magic Kingdom forces.

The soldier inspected the tablet and felt somewhat disappointed as it was only a probation tablet, which meant these newbie adventurer's were likely to get themselves killed relatively quickly.

He shrugged to himself and decided it wasn't his problem, and granted them access into the fortress whilst also giving them some information: "Our forces are on standby until the Magic Kingdom makes a move, so you might be waiting around a while."

Sirus nodded his head and walked into the fortress with Riria.

They explored around the fortress, not that there was a lot to explore, it was quite a dreary place built for efficiency and not for comfort. The entire fortress was essentially just a big block of stone used to block up the pass.

Riria sighed, "Want to just go back outside and relax in the grass or something? It is a pretty nice day, and the soldier did say it would be a while before we are called out."

"Sure," Sirus said and made his way out of the fortress with Riria. They eventually walked their way to a large oak tree and laid down in the shade.

He let out a sigh: "It sure has been a while since I've relaxed on the ground like this, its a pity we can't lay under the sun."

"Well it's just me that can't lay under the sun, you can go ahead and bask in the warmth of the sun." She said with a frown and her back against the tree.

"I would, but..." He said while laying his head on her thighs, "I don't need the sun."

Riria put her hand to her mouth in a mock surprised expression: "Oh? And do you need me?"

"Yeah," He said with a goofy smile, "I don't think I could live without you."

Riria let her hand down from her mouth and ruffled his hair in her lap whilst smiling: "Way to make a woman feel special." She said while gazing at him fondly.

"Mmm" Sirus nodded absentmindedly with his eyes closed while basking in her warmth.

Riria bent down a little and placed a kiss on his forehead: "Do you think you'll see your old friends here?" She asked him.

Naturally Sirus had told Riria about his past experiences not soon after they had first met in the dungeon, with Riria doing the same.

"Who knows what they're doing." He said, a small frown spoiling his features. "I don't care about them anymore."

"What if you have to fight them while fighting the magic kingdom?" She asked again.

He responded: "If I have to fight them? They'll die." He said with slight vehemence, "They left me to fend for myself at my lowest, any sympathies I had left for them rotted long ago."

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Riria still pestered him: "What about that one... Sarah, was it?" She said, "Didn't she try to defend you?"

"Yeah. She tried. But like the rest of them, she too didn't succeed." He replied.

"Well there isn't much she could've done in front of the king, was there?" Riria retaliated.

Sirus sighed, "What does it matter? The only person I need is you, If anyone else gets in my way I'll just kill them."

"I suppose that works," Riria said, "But you better not get bored with little old me."

"Never..." He said while yawning, already starting falling asleep in her lap.

Suddenly a massive impact shook the earth below them, and the faint sounds of clanging metal could be heard coming from the direction of the fortress.

"Looks like the Magic Kingdom's attack has started," She said, "It happened earlier than the soldier thought it would. We should get going?"

Sirus groaned: "Can't we just stay here for a while? It's not like the Sword Kingdom's forces are going to be overrun in a few minutes?"

Riria grabbed one of his cheeks and pinched them, "What a lazy boy."

"Don't you care about those soldiers that are dying while we speak?" She continued.

"Not particularly, no. Didn't I tell you that you're the only person that matters to me?" He replied.

She laughed: "I suppose you did, but we still have to complete that mission, don't we?"

After saying so, she got up and let Sirus' head fall to the ground.

"Ow." He exclaimed, "What was that for?"

"Your punishment," She replied, "For being lazy."

"I think I liked the punishments you gave before better." He grumbled while getting up.

She turned to look at him with a wide smile: "Punishments from before? Okay."

Riria grabbed his head before he could react and pulled him into her chest: "Is that better?" She said sweetly. Her supernaturally strengthened arms suffocating him between her breasts.

She eventually let him go, but to her surprise, instead of looking like someone who had nearly died from lack of air, his face was flushed red and a wide smile was stretched across his face.

"Yeah..." He said, with an expression of pure ecstasy, "Yeah, it is better."

She rolled her eyes: "C'mon let's get going now."

"I don't suppose you'd do that again, would you?" He asked, ignoring her previous statement.

She sighed, "If you hurry up and join the battle, then perhaps."

He grinned "Many thanks."

"Want me to go into sword form?" She asked him.

"Nah, It shouldn't be necessary. I can just use my hand for these small fries, and you can watch."

"Confident, are we?" She said with a smile, "Well you're probably right, I'll just watch from behind you."

They made their way back to the fortress gate, but instead of going through, Sirus just launched himself and Riria on top of the fortress using a burst of his flames.

Eyeing the battlefield Sirus commented: "It looks like we made it just in time, the Sword Kingdom troops are retreating back into the fortress." He adopted a confused face, "Looks like there are more Magic Kingdom soldiers than there should be through... And what are those things in the distance? Flying cars?"

"Probably reinforcements, we should deal with the main force before they get here." Riria said.

They hopped back onto the opposite side of the fortress and walked to the commander who was shouting at the Sword Kingdom troops that were getting bombarded with spells.

Sirus grabbed his attention and said: "You should probably retreat faster."

The commander looked at him, confused. "Wha-"

Before The commander could finish, Sirus detonated multiple bombs of his wrath beneath his feet and launched himself a few hundred meters into the air.

Upon reaching the apex of his jump he activated his skill: "Wrathful Sword Series: Meteoric Fall."

A small spark of flames appeared beneath his feet, accelerating his fall.

The small spark grew into a ball, then a boulder, a meteor, a sun.

The flames encompassed the sky for hundreds of feet around by the time Sirus was close to the ground.

The Magic Kingdom soldiers below the flames looked up with expressions of dread, futilely firing spells into the mass even after they instantly got incinerated time and time again.

The massive sun of flames finally reached the ground and exploded.

Flames washed out from the center of the impact, instantly melting the skin off of bones and burning bones into ash.

Some of the higher tier mages had managed to protect themselves from the impact, and some were far enough away for their low level spells to protect them.

Sirus sneered: "Wrathful Sword Series: Circle of Flame."

He instantly swung his sword in a full circle, and when it completed, the residue flames grew brighter and brighter, the pale orange flames turning a deeper and deeper crimson red.

The flames finally reached a deep scarlet, to the despair of the remaining mages, they detonated. Instantly turning everything within dozens of meters into ash. The mages that had survived the initial impact were now no more than dust in the wind.

Riria walked back to him: "What a show-off." She said with a grin.

She settled her chin on her shoulder and kissed the skin behind his ear: "It was pretty cool though."

Sirus grinned, but his smile faded as he laid his eyes on the reinforcements that had just made their way over here.

A look of contempt leaked its way onto his face: "Can't they just run away? I really don’t feel like doing that again."

He started to walk towards the hovercrafts and straightened his palm, getting ready to activate wrath painting, when suddenly a familiar voice rang out ahead of him.

"Wait!"