When Xavier had deemed it safe, he’d pulled the blackout arrays’ spikes out of the ground and deposited them back into his Storage Ring, then he’d contacted Siobhan to let her and the others know what had happened.
Getting the captives to all come back to one place was more difficult than he’d expected. Apparently, a muscular man in a dark robe carrying a wicked looking scythe-staff with the ability to kill a camp full of over a hundred invaders was a scary sight to them. He supposed he couldn’t blame them.
Part of him had wondered if he should just let them run—but they’d probably just get themselves killed out in the middle of nowhere. Besides these people had been on Earth in the couple of weeks following the integration that Xavier and his party had missed.
They may very well know something that he and the others didn’t.
Some of the captives were injured. They had bruises on their arms, scratches and cuts on their faces, and no doubt other injuries and wounds he couldn’t see that had been hidden by their clothes and armour.
After getting them all together, he’d contacted Siobhan and the others again, letting them know it might be best for them all to make it over to the invaders camp. Something told him that seeing more faces from Earth—faces that were less scary than his own—might make things a little easier.
When Siobhan and the others arrived, the captives were all standing in the middle of the camp. They looked like zombies, and were completely unresponsive to Siobhan, Howard, and Justin’s arrival.
Siobhan’s eyes widened as she saw them. She whacked Xavier on the shoulder, with her staff no less—though it didn’t hurt him in the slightest—and gestured at the twenty-two former captives. “You used your mind control on all of them? Have you lost your mind?”
Xavier ran a hand through his hair, feeling a little sheepish. “It seemed like the best way to get them all in the same place. In hindsight, it might not have been the nicest thing for me to do.”
Howard grunted, shook his head. “At least it’s an effective crowd control technique.”
“Of course you would think that.” Shiobhan levelled a glare at the former cop. The man returned her glare with a simple shrug.
Xavier touched a finger to his Storage Ring, contemplating the spherical device he’d taken—the one that had been tossed out of the tent by the invaders’ leader. He’d tell the others about it later. “I was hoping you’d be able to talk to them,” he said, looking at Siobhan.
Siobhan blinked. “Me? Why me?”
“You’re a healer, and you look a lot friendlier than I do.”
Siobhan sighed. “All right. Are you able to release them one at a time?”
Xavier raised an eyebrow. “You don’t want me to let them go all at once? I thought using my mind control on them was a bad idea?”
Siobhan crossed her arms. “It might be a bad idea, but I’m all out of good ones.”
Xavier inclined his head and did what she asked. He released a man that looked to be in his sixties. Out of all of them there, he was the most injured—his face was purpled with bruises.
I’m glad I killed all the invaders, especially if this is the way they treat out people…
The man’s face went from slack, to suddenly alert, to frightened.
Siobhan took a step toward him. Only a small one. The man looked like a wild animal ready to flee. He was wearing basic mage robes, practically identical to the ones that Xavier had when he’d first been integrated.
“We mean you no harm,” Siobhan said. She didn’t have her staff in hand, having deposited it into her Storage Ring—which seemed like a wise choice—and her hands were raised in a placating gesture.
“How… how did I get back here?” The man’s eyes widened as they settled on Xavier. “Y-you!” He shook his head, took a hesitating step back.
Xavier bit his tongue. He wanted to tell the man he’d just freed him. That he should be grateful, but he knew how incredibly insensitive that would sound. For all he knew these people had been captured right at the beginning of the integration.
I can’t really imagine what they’ve been through. The trauma they must have suffered.
He took the opportunity to scan them. All their auras were weak, and he barely bothered scanning enemies any longer. He probably should have done it earlier.
{Human – Level 1}
He frowned, scanning the others. All of them were only Level 1?
No wonder their wounds aren’t healing. None of them even know the power they’ll gain from levelling up. They’ve been left behind right at the start.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
For a moment, he imagined if he’d been put in their position, how he might be feeling right now. The impatience he’d felt at the captives being afraid of him drifted away.
These people aren’t weak, they just haven’t had the opportunity to become strong.
A rage filled him then, as he looked down at the invaders’ corpses that littered the camp. He clenched a fist. So far, what happened to Earth had been simply in his mind. Earth had been invaded. He’d known that since he’d encountered the goblins. But spending so much time in the Tower of Champions, he’d been removed from it all. This was the first time he’d come across the evidence of what was actually happening.
How many other atrocities have been committed against our people all across the world? How many of them have been captured, killed, or something much, much worse?
“He saved you,” Siobhan said, tearing Xavier out of his thoughts and back to reality of the situation unfolding before him. The reality of what the man in front of him had gone through. “He saved all of you.” She took another step forward. The man didn’t run, though he didn’t look as though he trusted her. He probably knew that there was no way for him to get away. “I’m going to cast a healing spell on you.”
The Divine Beacon didn’t bother bringing out her staff. Having her staff in hand would have boosted the spell’s strength, but she didn’t need the spell to be stronger, it should be more than enough to heal this guy’s wounds.
A white light enveloped the man, had him stumbling backward. When the white light cleared, he touched his face. The older man blinked, staring at Siobhan. “Thank you. What… what are you? Some sort of angel?” His gaze slid from her to Xavier, and Xavier wondered if the man thought he was an angel of death.
I suppose I am.
Siobhan smiled warmly. The expression lit up her face, and Xavier wondered how she couldn’t look trusting. “I’m not an angel. I’m a support class.”
“Class… yes. The System made me choose a class. I chose mage.” He looked around. “Though they took my staff. I—I tried to cast a spell on them, but I didn’t know how.”
Xavier remembered the first time he’d tried to cast a spell. He hadn’t been able to either. He couldn’t imagine still being in that position.
One by one, Xavier released the other former captives from his control. They took away their bonds, breaking the metal circlets around their necks. They didn’t appear to have any keys. One of the women said a mage had melted the metal together, fusing them and burning their necks. He hadn’t noticed the burns before, but Siobhan quickly had everyone healed. She cast her Divine Beacon spell, and it healed every one of the captives all at once.
Xavier used his fingers to break the circlets, finding his Strength attribute more than enough to deal with them. According to the captives, the circlets had some sort of enchantment on them that was able to interrupt the flow of their Spirit Energy, making it impossible for them to cast spells.
They found their weapons discarded in one of the tents. Though as they were merely basic weapons, Xavier allowed the captives to loot the bodies of the dead soldiers in the camp. He had to imagine that most of the soldiers had come in at the beginning of integration. Looking through his kill notifications, he found the invaders’ leader had been Level 20.
He looted the leaders’ corpse himself, finding the man had a Storage Ring on one of his fingers, though he didn’t care about the man’s glowing, golden armour, he was interested to see if the man had anything else of value.
Howard came up to him while Siobhan and Justin were outside with the captives, and Xavier was inside leader’s tent.
“This is where the portal was.” Xavier gestured to where the red carpet ended.
“A little ostentatious,” Howard said. “What are we going to do with them?”
“When they’re a little… settled, we’ll gather information from them.” Another thing Xavier hadn’t noticed at first was how skinny the former captives looked. They’d been the ones cooking the invaders’ meals, but it looked as though they hadn’t been given their fair share to eat. To become that skinny in barely two weeks… they must each be incredibly hungry. “Once their bellies are full and they’re feeling safer.”
Howard grunted. “It’s a lot easier to get information from a witness when they feel safe. But that’s not what I mean. I mean, what do we do after? We have to keep moving. Find Fronton. Find our families.”
Xavier turned and faced the man. “I know we do, but we can’t just leave these people out here to survive on their own. They wouldn’t last. The beasts in the forest have grown beyond what Level 1s are capable of dealing with.”
Howard ran a hand through his hair. Shut his eyes. “I’m not suggesting we leave them behind. I just, don’t know what to do, is all.” He sighed. “I still feel as though I’ve betrayed you.” He clenched his right fist, his fingers curled around the haft of his double-bearded axe. “Is there any way you can get out of this contract?”
Xavier frowned. “You didn’t betray me, Howard. Nor do you betray Earth.” He walked over and stood in front of the man. “You were willing to sacrifice your life to break the contract.” He lowered his head. “I don’t know whether or not I would have done the same, in your position.”
“I haven’t known you long, but you always seem to make the right choice, even when it’s hard to tell what that is,” Howard said.
Xavier smiled, a little surprised the man had so much faith in him. “Then trust me now. I won’t let anything happen to Earth. I can’t get out of this contract, and I don’t intend to. Instead, I’m going to work it around to our advantage,” he said, thinking, even if I’m not sure how to yet. He laid a hand on the man’s shoulder. “Trust me?”
“All right.” Howard sighed. “This quest… do you plan to lay claim to the area?”
Xavier thought on that for a long moment. “At first, I wasn’t sure if that would be the best choice, even though I wanted it—I want to plant the Seed Sanctuary. Get that process started. But finding civilisation was more important.”
“Was?”
Xavier nodded. “We’re going to find your family, Howard, but you know we can’t just leave these people behind to fend for themselves.”
Howard dipped his head. “I was hoping you would say that.”
“You were?”
“A little voice inside my head was telling me the same thing.” Howard sat at the edge of the long dining table. “My wife’s voice. She’s… always been a helper. Whenever she saw someone in need, she’d do anything she could to help them. It’s one of the reasons I fell in love with her, to tell you the truth. That generous soul of hers. And she… she always said she fell in love with me because I’m a protector.” He looked up at Xavier. “What kind of protecter would I be if I let you leave these people behind for my own, selfish reasons? Twenty-two souls to find and help three?” He shook his head. “I need to find my family, Xavier, but not at the expense of innocent lives.”
“You’re a good man, Howard. I look forward to meeting your wife. She sounds wonderful.”
Howard cleared his throat and pushed off the table. His expression, which had been some mix or sombre and wistful, fell away, turning serious once more. “What’s our next step?”
Xavier tapped his fingers against the table. “We scrounge this camp for anything useful. Make it as safe as we can for those we’ve freed. Then we head over to those dungeons.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Howard said.