Chapter 74 Ten

Isaac and Lenna purchased a handful of Shadow Orb spawning throwing darts from the Adventurous Tastes under the recommendation from Fable. They would have purchased more but Shy had already cleaned the rest out. Shy preferred knives but darts would work until she got back to the artificer she usually frequented. While they were there they dropped off some parts of the Royal Executor so Alexander could finally get to work on Isaac’s armor. With that errand out of the way, Isaac and Lenna found themselves in the Adventurers’ Guild Library talking over his fights with both Esk and Fable.

“I think, for your level, you did far better than anyone could expect.” Lenna told him.

“I know.” Isaac replied. “I just feel like I could have done better.”

“You could have.” Lenna acknowledged. “But not realistically. You are young Isaac, cut yourself some slack.”

“But if I had remembered he could use Limit Break I could have saved my arm.” Isaac explained. “In the heat of combat I completely forgot about it.”

“I am not telling you to forget about your failures but there is no reason to be angry with yourself about it now.” Lenna chastised. “Mark it down for the future and move on. If it’s bothering you so much, ask Fable to spar again.”

“I get the feeling he won’t want to.” Isaac replied. “Something about what he asked of me makes me think he is going to die soon. It was an obvious death flag.”

Lenna rolled her eyes. “He’s an aging hero, of course he is going to be thinking about the future.” She told him. “If anything, I think it was more an acknowledgement that he wouldn’t be able to stop you if you turned on humanity.”

“Why wouldn’t I?” Isaac questioned. Lenna paused at the question. “Sure, I like Izen, Sera, Celeste, and Edward; I’ve made investments here in Safeharbor too but I don’t have some speciesist loyalty to humans like everyone else seems to have.”

“I think Fable realized that. That is why he asked what he did of you.” Lenna explained.

Isaac hummed in thought. “Maybe you’re right.” Isaac conceded. “But back to the fight, after that seventh throw I should have…” Isaac and Lenna’s discussion of his fights continued well into the evening

—

Isaac and Lenna walked into Izen’s war room and panned their gazes over everyone present. The room was not meant to house so many people at once. Duke and Duchess Arbencroft, Sir Michael, Magus Alexander, Captain Tim, Edward the Blade Master, and Fable the Glinting Blade looked back at them. There were also half a dozen adjuncts and assistants trying their best to stay out of the way. “Good, everyone is here.” Izen began. “Guild Master, what new information do you have?”

“The Contantis military garrison is organizing and readying at the moment.” Edward began. “From what we can tell it is a massive percentage of their total military power. Under normal circumstances we would be forced to call for support from the capital. The odd thing is that none of the other drow cities are mobilizing. This appears to be completely isolated.”

“Do you think they could be mobilizing in secret?” Izen questioned.

“No.” Lenna spoke up. “Contantis is the only one with a proper military. The V’Nova clan is the backbone of the drow military. If the other cities decided to help they would just send reinforcements. Jallen V’Nova wouldn’t let anyone share command with him during a conflict and none of the other clans would stand to be ordered around by my uncle.”

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“That’s not even considering the personal nature of his current actions.” Isaac added. “He would be wary of trading favors for something like this, especially when he doesn’t think he’ll need any help.”

“And what exactly is he doing?” Edward questioned before Izen could.

“He’s coming to take his twin sister back, kill his estranged niece, and remove a city that is blocking their raiding parties from taking on the outside world.” Isaac explained. “Two of his three reasons are personal. Jala may be a L’Vore in name but in the end she is the twin sister of the branch family patriarch of the V’Nova clan in this region.” Isaac continued. “Also, Lenna stabbed him in the throat and said he was bad at balancing the budget.”

Isaac’s final thought seemed to catch everyone in the room off guard. “Bad at… balancing the budget?” Sera spoke the question on everyone’s mind.

“That part doesn’t matter.” Isaac tried to get them back onto the topic at hand. “What does matter is that Lenna has a target on her back and I probably do as well. I have no idea if Jala has been in contact with her brother while she’s been here. There was a time when she was in the Guild Hall where it would have been easy enough for her to send him a mental message or two.” Isaac panned his gaze across all of those present again. “So, what is your response to this?”

After a long moment of silence Izen raised an eyebrow. “To what exactly?” He questioned.

“To the fact that Jala, Lenna, and possibly me are Jallen’s targets. How are you planning on handling this situation?” Isaac answered.

The leaders of Safeharbor looked back and forth at each other. Fable respectfully maintained a neutral demeanor and simply waited. “If Contantis is going to come to us, organize the majority of their troops out in the open, and challenge us then so be it.” Izen stated. “If Jallen V’Nova wants to skirmish outside of my walls then he is more than welcome to. I just hope he isn’t a sore loser when I target him with a ballista.”

Isaac grinned. “I knew I liked you for a reason.” He told the duke of the city he was living in. “Now, I have an idea of how to end this once and for all.” Isaac’s face turned devilish. “We are going to bait, trap, and kill, Jallen V’Nova.”

“And how do you plan on doing that?” Tim questioned. He rarely spoke out of turn but he was invested in the death of Jallen V’Nova and he had worked with Isaac in the past. He knew that if Isaac had a plan it had a high chance of success. Unfortunately he hadn’t worked with Isaac enough to understand that Isaac’s plans were always a touch insane and most people would call them borderline suicidal.

“The specifics will need to be ironed out once I learn how sieges work when magic is involved.” Isaac explained. “But the gist of it is, Lenna will be bait for the majority of their forces under the condition that Fable, Edward, and Michael are nearby to cover her at all times. Lenna is already a target and I might have a way to cause her area to become an even bigger target, I’ll need some time to work on it though. While the actual military force is concentrating on one location it’ll be easier to suppress them with area spells and artillery. Once the battle is in full swing I’ll sneak behind enemy lines and fight the strongest paladin within a few hundred miles while being half his level.” Isaac had been keeping his level hidden up until this point because he wasn’t sure if he fully trusted those in power yet. Izen’s comment about taking Jallen on regardless of the reasons and Sera’s consistent support proved to him that he could trust them. If they broke that trust in the future there would be hells to pay but as it stood he felt like they truly had his back. They had proven themselves time and again and it was time that he rewarded that trust with some truth.

“Half his level?” Edward asked with confusion on his face.

“No,” Fable whispered with widening eyes. “you weren’t lying?’

“Is Lord V’Nova a demigod?” Alexander questioned. In the mage’s mind the only way for Isaac to be half of Jallen’s level would be if Jallen was over level twenty. None of the living demigods had made any sort of comments on whether or not they could level beyond the level twenty level cap but following Alexander’s train of thought the theory had just been proven to be true.

Isaac shook his head. “No, Alexander, Jallen is level twenty.” He explained.

“That’s not possible.” Edward stated. “I’ve fought alongside you. There is no way that you are anything less than level seventeen.”

“If you are only level ten then that means that you are only at half of your potential strength at the very most.” Alexander stated. “I want to believe you, but I can’t wrap my head around that kind of power.”

“I can.” Fable cut in. “I’ve fought alongside Catastrophe and Judgement.”

“And?” Izen questioned. “Is he as strong as a tenth level demigod?” Izen had slowly passed the point of doubting Isaac’s claim of demigodhood, especially after Isaac had told him that he honestly didn’t know if he was a demigod or not. That bit of truth from the dark mage had actually led Izen to believe the claim even more.

Fable slowly nodded his head. “He might be. I’ve never heard of them leveling like this though. Usually it is a very abrupt power spike.” He explained. “I’ve seen it. A strong sense of divinity washes over the area and the area becomes their divine domain.” His gaze never left Isaac. “He doesn’t have a divine domain or any feeling of divinity so I assumed that he was not a demigod.”

“But if their twentieth level up is what causes the feeling of divinity and the creation of their divine domain then he wouldn’t feel like a demigod until then even if he was one.” Alexander finished for him.

“As amazing as all of this is,” Sera joined in with a raised hand that commanded attention. “are you all just going to let this young man fight that ancient monster alone?”