Ebony forced the outer shell of their coffin to form slanted screw heads and even around the body of the coffin. It made the coffin look like a screw tank. The hardened earth desperately resisted any sort of change in its form but he was able to drive them upwards slowly. they were at least 3 kilometres deep but even after leaving and entering more than once, he didn’t measure it accurately due to the situation.
“It might take half an hour, can you take it?” He was worried she had any internal wounds.
“...it’s getting hard to breathe.” The body of a Grandmaster wasn’t so weak, other than the wound on her thigh she was practically uninjured. She must have used skills that Ebony was unaware of because he didn’t remember her being so strong. Maybe she had underwater capabilities, something that Ebony and Ning Xin sorely lacked.
“Here, better?” Of course, he didn’t pop the bubbles of air he stored in his lungs and exhaled it for her. He simply moulded the runes onto the walls of his coffin to convert his mana to air. He had long studied the most important runes and moulded them enough times to be able to do it in his sleep.
“What did you do?” Athena didn’t appear to be shocked but she was pleasantly surprised.
“Runes, they convert mana to air. It shouldn’t be any different from the air we’re used to breathing.”
“You can do just about anything huh? Where can I find another man like you?” She put her palms under her chin.
“Everyone’s unique. I’m sure a gorgeous lady like you can get any man you like.”
“Gorgeous? Lady? Gosh darn, are you really trying to make me fall in love?” She had two last stakes on her back that poked into her as she stepped back in the cramped coffin. It was hard to tell if the light blush was because she held her breath for a long time.
“No? Why do you say so?” Ebony cocked his head in confusion, he just said what came to mind.
“...No one ever called me gorgeous or even a lady. Only brutish, tomboy or manly.” Athena scratched the frozen layer over her skin uncomfortably.
“Is that so? Is it other women?” Ebony thought that it might seem that way from another woman’s point of view.
“AlI I know is that they are less manly than I am. Is this how to talk to Scarlet?”
“This is how I talk. Why?” It felt a bit random to him to bring Ning Xin into the conversation. He thought he had already gotten the hang of flow of conversation.
“I just think she’s pretty lucky to have found someone that can make her feel like a woman. Women are strange creatures, they want to be stronger than men but hate when they are not treated like a woman.” She looked down at one of her bootless feet.
“...Is that so? I think I’m luckier to have met her when I just arrived. I’m sure you’ll find someone, just make sure the other party treasures you.” Ebony continued to drive them up. The resistance was great and the ground constantly crushed him which made it hard to concentrate.
“Ju--just shut up…” She blurted out with her face turning a bit more flushed.
Awkward minutes passed and Ebony was able to move upwards faster and faster as he got used to the motion and had his domain freeze a layer of earth right outside before the screw on their enclosure could smoothly latch onto.
“Hey, you’re getting colder. Are you okay?” He knew her face was getting more and more flushed and her breaths more uneven but he assumed it was claustrophobia.
“Th-the stupid plague. I was only acting tough…Who the hell has three thousand points in Constitution? I ran my mana enhancement for defence all night or I would’ve shown those fish who’s tougher.” Athena gulped, not a single cough had come out of her.
“The men in the camp are indeed weaker, they didn’t even have the strength to act tough.” He was surprised that he didn’t find out she was suppressing her symptoms even with his Perception.
“So am I not a gorgeous lady anymore?” She teased.
“You’re a strong, gorgeous lady.” Ebony didn’t catch on to the teasing and answered honestly.
“Goddamn, I’m gonna have to fight Scarlet.” She raised her voice and acted as if the plague didn’t bring strong men to their knees or even on their backs.
“Be nice, she likes you. You can’t even get close anyway.” Ebony knew that Athena was probably the first female friend that really clicked with her. Mallory wasn’t a fighter and didn’t really understand Ning Xin and vice versa, they were too different.
“Ouch.” Ebony could tell she wasn’t crying out in pain because of the plague. He gave himself kudos that he was able to tell she wasn’t actually in unimaginable pain.
“You’ll need a method to breathe in low to no oxygen and increase your heat resistance.” He added to the reasons he thinks that Athena couldn’t beat Ning Xin. At the moment, if they were both at full strength Athena had a decent chance at hitting Ning Xin harder than she could recover from but if the battle dragged he believed Ning Xin would win as Athena didn’t show many methods of countering fire or the lack of air.
“That’s what you meant!? I forgot you’re a bigger battle maniac than I am.” Athena shook her head, her loud and energetic voice really made it hard to tell that she was sick. Perhaps, her effective Constitution and mana enhancement was just barely meeting the mark.
“What did you think I meant?” Ebony thought she had been talking about fighting.
“None of your busine-keh--ough.” She coughed and held the next one in, belching when she half succeeded.
“Don’t lose to a silly illness, we’re almost there.” Ebony estimated that they should be near the surface soon but he still tried his best to go faster.
His estimations were on the dot.
The pressure crushing their screw tank quickly loosened and he broke them out. Jumping out but almost overshooting yet again. He dipped into his mana pool which was not completely full, so his weight was reduced by a noticeable degree. It was easy to stop himself from touching the corrosion cloud before he took another step and found himself amidst a group of Glacial Models that circled Ning Xin. She was in the arms of another Model who was pacing around nervously.
Needless to say, if the two of them weren’t able to cope with the magical plague, the army down below was trashed. Although he saw that the army was still standing and fighting back reasonably well, it might be that Athena and Ning Xin were directly hit by the plague. The army below barely showed any symptoms but he felt that it was only a matter of time.
Cap Dwarf was still going strong and causing mayhem to enemy lines but he was already cooling off. His giant earthen snake head had quite a few unconscious members of the same team and Cap Dwarf took it upon himself to carry them back to safety. However, he caught the attention of too many elite Trolls and could only stay to fight without the help of his earthen snake.
‘The higher the vitality, the stronger the plague can get…’ Ebony speculated. Ning Xin’s condition was getting worse at the fastest pace. The constant healing she got only fed the plague and her Constitution wasn’t anywhere near a Grandmaster warrior’s.
“...I’ll be quick.” He disappeared again, alone.
Unleashing half of his compressed mana pool as a domain, he did more than surprise the Trolls. A large platform was conjured and he tossed the familiar people onto it.
“Take care of them, boy. I’ll deal with the rest!” Cap Dwarf didn’t appear shocked outwardly and he was able to keep up with the sudden situation and his sudden appearance. As expected of an experienced freelancer and war mercenary.
“Roger Cap. Don’t die, I still want to drink under the moon with you.” Ebony had a lot of respect for the Dwarf and they were drinking buddies for a while now.
“You better bring out the wine you made! I’m not a tea drinker!” Cap Dwarf had been eyeing his frost plum wine that he brought up once. He also encouraged the Dwarf to drink tea during the day but he wasn’t a fan.
“I’ll be back after I find a healer.” Ebony saw the Trolls' number increase by the dozens every second. They might not all be Grandmasters now but the mountain of flesh was breaking through with sheer quantity.
“Grab one over there, just suppress their symptoms for now.” Cap Dwarf had his earthen snake point with its snout to a tent at the foot of the cliff and base of the walls.
Ebony wasn’t polite and had his mana pressuring everybody in the tent. His Glacial Models leapt down with Ning Xin and Athena in their arms but Athena was still standing and only had the Model support her and control her landing.
There was too much essence all over the battlefield and most soldiers were already numb to it but his overflowing Wisdom was like a breath of fresh air that washed all those aside before bearing down on everyone’s mind.
“Heal them first.” He spoke normally and didn’t know that under the influence of Will and oppressive overflowing Wisdom, his words were more like orders. It was an effect that was present for a long time but he usually made sure that he didn’t affect people with his mana unless it was for the positive effect. The effect also strengthened along with the increase in his regeneration and overall aura.
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The healers worked fast and Ebony quickly found the two healers that had healed their unit that morning. After bustling around for 5 minutes the conclusion was that the plague had already gotten much stronger and they were not able to suppress the symptoms as much. Most were just half conscious and either vomiting or coughing with total body weakness. The healers could wake them up but they were just in constant discomfort and pain. At least most of them could walk and wield their weapons.
“W--we can only expedite her leg’s healing b-but the plague’s not reacting to our magic…her body is different from a human, beastmen, dwarf or even an elf’s…”
Ebony stood over the healer and his figure seemed to grow and loom over the healer that was in the midst of breaking down due to the gravity and overflowing essence boring down on him. Ebony bent down and the healer shrieked in terror but he only carried Ning Xin gently before stepping out of the busy tent.
“Can you hear me? Call Sister Jing.”
“...mmm.” She was still conscious but her hands barely had the strength to hold onto him
High-pitched shrieks tore through the clamour of explosions and clashes of bone and metal. A large wave of gigantic birds flew over both armies in record time and spears were thrown into the city. The army only reacted after the first wave of attacks and brought up the barrier fully a bit too late. Ebony was able to stop those around him but he wasn’t able to stop tens of thousands of spears wreaking the city walls. At least the buildings behind were fine, all thanks to the corrosion cloud that the riders weren’t able to fly any higher.
“Evacuate to the south gate, get away from the walls!” The soldier in charge of the city-wide speakers acted fast as well. A lot of the buildings near the walls facing the sea were military so there weren’t many civilians around other than those that worked in military camps and those fishermen.
The archers and artillery mages did not expect a sudden charge of such huge numbers but their aim didn’t go all over the place. Their Commanders ordered them to continue holding the ground units back so that their soldiers down the cliff weren’t overwhelmed immediately. The Radiance Envoy redirected his cannon-sized magnifying lenses to the skies and fried dozens of birds instantly.
As for Ebony, Ning Xin was weighed against Fifth Tide on a metaphorical scale. Fifth Tide was lighter than a feather. He didn’t have the power to contest the army of Trolls by himself. Not even close. Not even Korta can manage that. Although, the Arch Mage might be contesting the very best warriors that the Trolls had deep into their territory and was basically launching a three-man assault on the entire race. Ultimately, they weren’t able to stop the advance of the Trolls. There were even King-ranked Trolls that slipped past the 3 Frost Elves but that was hardly surprising as they were just 3 mages against literal millions.
The riders seemed to recognise him but he turned around and flashed away towards Fourth Tide. Hoping to see Mallory somewhere on route. He tried to call her many times but the mental link could barely start up with the current undulations of essence all around him. They couldn’t reach Sister Jing even with the callstone on Ning Xin’s mask. Because he didn’t go deeper into the mainland, some of the riders thought it was a good idea to go after him. He turned his head to look at them, preparing his spells as he took another step to fly through the air. They were all shocked when each of them shrank in each other’s vision. Ebony could barely see them after taking a single step. He left them in the dust!
With that, he didn’t manage to look at the ground to check if there was a group of soldiers moving towards Fifth Tide. He backtracked to make sure that there was no one before getting back on track. Fourth Tide was close to Fifth Tide. When he was a Journeyman he followed the coast and reached one of the external training camps near Fifth Tide within 3 to 4 days. He could easily reach in minutes at this rate but he didn’t. Ebony was scanning the route and forests to make sure he didn’t miss carriages or marching soldiers. Walking and marching were just so overrated. Just to save a bit of stamina, they were taking their own sweet time?
Even when he was just a Journeyman, he basically travelled at top speed for as long as he desired. Something that no freelancer or soldier would do. What would happen if they met a monster and were too exhausted from running to fight? It would be fine if they were riding horses or some tamed monster but that was hard to supply for a large army.
He found the contingent pretty quickly but his heart was beating faster than usual and Everlasting Tranquillity wasn’t giving him its full capabilities.
“Mallory!” Mana Vibrations amplified his voice to the entire contingent of tens of thousands below. They were actually rushing a little but they were too slow in his opinion. It would take them at least 4 more hours to reach Fifth Tide and even more time to be deployed on the ground or walls at their speed. There were plenty of carriages with literal tons of supplies so it was really hard to blame their slow advancement.
The soldier clamoured and yelled but not a word registered.
He quickly scanned the lands and found the pink hair crown princess as regal and conscientious of her bearing as usual. She sat on the edge of her invisible barrier with her legs crossed. Still wearing a dress without regard for the occasion.
Her guards were uptight at the rude call. It was more than enough for harsh punishment for any Imperial and not just soldiers of the Empire. He was supposedly not allowed to call a Royal by their name either. Of course, Ebony was not aware of that and neither were her guards aware that he already called the Empire’s King and Queen by name.
Some of the soldiers around her were graduates of Tidal Academy. The academy was only established for less than a century but they gained plenty of fame. Most graduates would engrave or embroider the crest of Tidal Academy on their armour or clothes and it was a sign of status in a sense. There were different levels and different crests for different courses but Ebony didn’t study or learn which was which. It was said that all courses would have their students graduate with at least 7 tier 3 skills be it a Class, Sub-Class, Profession or maybe even a Generic Skill.
If you exclude resistances, that was way more than Ebony had. But that didn’t make a difference to him. He was pretty sure the Commanders in Fifth Tide had plenty of tier 3 skills as well but none of them put Ebony or Ning Xin on the edge. Apparently, most people took roughly 30 years to graduate so there were only a few generations of graduates so far. There was a high requirement for skill refinement degree and skill level and it took years to evolve a skill even if one was training in the same way a tier 3 skill was used.
Most of his attacks were a mixture of multiple skills from all 3 of his classes working together. Compounding compatible skills of a lower tier can cover the gap between tiers. At least for relatively low tiers. There were definitely lineages with a whole list of compatible skills and Classes but he wasn’t afraid of them. Mallory probably had optimised all her routes based on her Royal Lineage and her Fortifications must work really well together. She was a support class that could beat the average combatants with relative ease. Unless there were such people in the group, he didn’t see how the Grandmasters could harm him.
Not that he was here for a fight.
“Mallory, we got hit by a Shamanic Plague. Please save her…” He sent the thread of mana to vibrate for her ears only.
“Stay up there. Keep moving.” She spoke to him through the thread before commanding her unit. Seems like no one had any further complaints after she spoke.
“I don’t know how it spreads but I isolated us in ice and used gravity to pull air around us so that nothing leaked out to the surrounding.” Ebony had the presence of mind to come up with some preventive measures.
“Most likely spores. They cultivate some kind of mushroom on the corpses of their people, feeding it their Vitality every so-called plague grows to have different capabilities. I see, this one is especially weak. Made for stealth but grows faster the stronger the host’s vitality is.” Mallory ascended through the skies with far more ease than she used to have. She might be wearing an obfuscation jewel but he was pretty sure she had long become a level 300 healer of sorts. She seemed to have determined the information the second she saw Ning Xin.
“I hope I didn’t spread it to the forest,” Ebony commented. He needed the reassurance of a knowledgeable healer.
“They’re made for living organisms but the life force of plants and vegetation are not compatible. They’ll die out in a day without a host. There aren’t any animals or monsters in this area so we should be fine.” She had absolute confidence in her words despite it being her first time dealing with the Shamanic plague. Unless she dealt with it in Fourth Tide.
“Can’t heat kill it? She basically boiled herself.” Ebony imagined spores to be relatively weak to heat. Her blood boils at a temperature where low-quality metals melt after all.
“It’s eating her life force and growing resistance to the magic she’s used to using. It’s made difficult for one to remove it from themselves. She’s receiving constant healing…that fed the spores even more. This is more troublesome than I imagined.” Mallory’s brows knitted slightly.
“Can…can you not heal her either?” That slight change of expression caused the uncomfortable feeling to rise again. Without anywhere to push his overflowing mana, he had no choice but to compress it near him. He could just let it go but it was already a training habit.
“Your aura’s unstable…Is that liquid mana? Don’t kill my soldiers by accident. It’ll just take more time. Leave her to me.” The confidence in her voice was not lost on Ebony and he trusted it. At the very least, he trusted her confidence more than the healers who couldn’t do a thing.
“She can be healed…thank you, Mallory. Th-” Ebony already noticed that Ning Xin was rousing rather than getting weaker. Mallory’s skill with mana manipulation was far from Ebony’s, in the opposite direction. She was even better than him in this regard. Other than some of the older Frost Elves, he hadn’t seen anyone’s mana manipulation to be as fine and precise as his. There was no elemental change to the mana as far as he could tell, it was probably arcane magic. Perhaps the Healer Class had Fortifications to change their mana to have stronger natural healing properties. Observing her mana enter Ning Xin’s body was very similar to sound magic which was supposedly also arcane magic.
“I’m a healer and the Crown Princess of the Empire. I will heal her with whatever it takes. If you want to thank me, please save the soldiers fighting out there. Buy time for me to be able to save as many of them as I can.”
“Can I trust you with her?” Ebony stared into the Crown Princess’s bright pink eyes.
“Will you?” Mallory wasn’t affected by his mana at all, that was something that stayed constant since their last meeting.
“...” There was a moment of silence between them. Ning Xin sat up in his arms and blinked a few times.
“Did I hear mushrooms? Mushrooms are trying to eat me? Haha, Mally, I’ll do the rest. I just have to devour them and show them who’s the predator and who’s the prey.”
“I trust you, please continue to heal this girl. Tell me if she’s disobedient. No blood or ice cream for a year if you don’t heal up within…how long?” Ebony decided instantly but he didn’t know how long the treatment would take. Now that Ning Xin gained enough strength to wake up and talk, he wasn’t as worried. They were good enough friends to talk about what entertainment series or skincare routine to watch and follow. As long as Ning Xin can get better and stay alive longer, there is still Yvette the Life Queen.
“3 days. No training. I bet she moved life force around without regard, that’s why her condition had a drastic change.” Mallory seemed to guess that he didn’t really trust her skills. It was quite amazing that she knew Ning Xin’s condition had suddenly changed compared to others whose symptoms slowly developed. Ebony finally realised the unfamiliar discomfort welling up had been anxiety. When it came to her, he got anxious more easily and didn’t have unconditional trust like he usually does.
“3 days.” Ebony poked the shocked masked girl. Her eyes looked as if she got betrayed by him.
“Bu-”
“You can only cook or rest. If you exercise or fight, then forget about having any ice cream, burgers, pizzas, burritos, donuts and…” He listed fast foods and desserts that he thought she would like.
“Wha--wha-what are those? Are you still hiding recipes from me…how could you!?” A wave of confusion and desire burned in her eyes. Her belly grumbled a bit but that was something only both of them noticed.
“Some of them are quite unhealthy. Your meals are much tastier so I didn’t think I had to introduce them.” Burgers were practically sandwiches and he wasn’t a fan of sweet desserts.
Ning Xin was a bit pacified by that but she was clearly unhappy about not being able to add to her repertoire.
“Be good. We can eat those after you recover.” She already stood on Mallory’s invisible barrier so he patted her head the way he likes it. He didn’t know that he was doing that because he wanted her to notice that he wanted to get a head pat.