Book 3. Chapter 18.
“Barrier.” Part 1
“Have you got it yet?” Artemis asked, somewhere between excited and anxious as the gentle breeze coming through the window of her room stirred the strands of hair escaping from the braid decorating her right shoulder, at the same time as she tightly ruffled the skirt of her dress between her clenched fists.
“Wait a minute,” Kalysto muttered as she displayed all the profession choices the violet system was giving her.
“Don’t you dare choose any other profession! Even if my mother gave you the gift of being able to access a third one, you can’t trust it! If you don’t do it now, you’ll lose the gap the system gives to get ancient languages and runes at the same time as enrollment! And it’s not always easy to learn what the conditions are for these opportunities to happen!” She added quickly, but as she did so, Kalysto couldn’t help but remember the moment when she chose her magic specialty when the blue system switched between giving her the option to choose ice and water together, and then showing them as individual elements. “If you miss this one chance, it will be impossible for you to learn in less than a hundred years to imbue the power in runes, glyphs, and other ancient languages to their full potential! Even if you choose wrong, you would have to lose the freedom to choose a profession or lose the chance to get all three at the same time and have to settle for only two and we need all three! It is essential that it be all three! You can’t go wrong!” insisted Artemis. The anxiety in her voice was becoming more and more disproportionate, which led Kalysto to think that maybe this was where Artemis had made a mistake in the past and that was why they needed her now. “While glyphs could be considered an ancient language, it is lost in most worlds and is difficult to learn! Ancient languages are dominated by sacred beasts, or very ancient creatures, and it is difficult to access such knowledge! Besides, runes were a gift the gods gave to their creation so they could learn magic, but not all worlds have access to them or the combinations needed to make it worthwhile to learn them! Inscription is necessary for you to create barriers of any kind!” She ended up shouting.
Seeing her like that reminds me of Alice’s manic behavior the day the first portal appeared. Kalysto thought to herself, boasting that Artemis had no knowledge of mind magic. In fact, according to what she had heard, the fairies were more interested in illusions than in mental magic, so there were only three who had basic knowledge of the subject. Although she had no idea who they were, she suspected that the queen was one of them.
[Warning: the user has selected inscription/glyphs/runes/ancient languages as the secondary profession. Are you sure you wish to learn this profession?]
[YES/NO]
Kalysto selected ‘yes’ and immediately selected potions as the third one.
[Congratulations, the user is now an ancient language apprentice.]
[Congratulations! The user is now a runic language apprentice.]
[Congratulations! The user is now an apprentice of glyphs.]
[Congratulations! The user is now an apprentice of inscription.]
[Congratulations! The user is now a potions apprentice.]
[The user has learned the following skill: Super reading memory. Level 1.]
[The user has learned the following skill: Understanding ancient languages, runes, and glyphs. Level 1.]
[The user has learned the following skill: Herbal identification. Level 1.]
[The user has learned the following skill: Brewing basic potions. Level 1.]
“Ready!” Kalysto announced to the fairy’s great relief.
“Great, now I want you to study and learn these books as soon as possible! There’s no time to waste!” Artemis enthused, handing her forty-five thick, heavy books that she pulled from her inventory. The loud thud of the books as they fell onto the delicate wooden table made her wonder if her instructor had enchanted the table to be much more resistant than it looked.
What kind of trouble have I gotten myself into? Though her hands itched to touch the books and acquire their knowledge, if there was one thing she had learned about Artemis it was her hellish training sessions.
“How many months did you say I have to learn these?” Kalysto questioned with her voice full of disbelief, fearing the fairy’s answer as she took the enchanted bag that was on the table and began to store them there.
“A month?” Artemis hesitated with a nervous smile on her face, which she hastened to wipe off. “You must learn them as quickly as possible!” She added, sounding more confident and a bit more haughty this time.
“Are you crazy? You want me to learn in a month what normally takes a fairy a hundred years?”
“It only takes that long when you fail to take advantage of the small gap at level forty to get all three professions as one! Now you have them, so it won’t take you a hundred years to learn each one! And it’ll be much faster for you since you’re so diligent and hardworking!”
That’s what I earn to put in the effort to finish the contract fast! Kalysto growled, disappointed by the overwork Artemis always put on her.
“You don’t understand Kalysto! The priestess of Seth-Mainyu has already conquered half the continent! It’s only a matter of time before they come to destroy us and with Mhiralla keeping us in their sights at every turn, it’s impossible for me to prepare everything while I continue repairing the breaches in the barrier I created years ago! It’s a gigantic waste of mana! I can’t do it all alone!”
“Wait! Have they really destroyed almost the entire continent? That’s supposed to take them a whole year!” She worried. “And what else is it that you’re supposed to do with my help?” She asked, suspecting it was about the fairies’ escape to the neighboring continent, as Kassandra hinted in her book.
What the hell was it that changed? They weren’t supposed to advance so fast! It’s barely been seven months since the summoning of the heroes and it’s supposed to take them a year and a half to destroy the entire continent!
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“...Two more kingdoms and they will have destroyed the eastern half of the continent, not counting the demon territory, of course! I doubt they will be strong enough to defeat them now, but that will only be a matter of time. I’m sure they’re saving them for last,” Artemis muttered. Making Kalysto’s face lose all the color it had.
“Map!” she shouted, quickly checking the position of the other heroes with whom she had made a contract. Fortunately, all her dots were glowing, indicating that they were still alive. Kalysto felt a great weight that she didn’t know she had lifted from her shoulders as she touched Rita’s dot, which was in a different kingdom than the rest of the group, who were still north of Balsahty, and sent her a message. “Rita, it’s Kalysto! Take Oscar and gather everything you need to travel immediately! I’ve got a way to send you back, but it must be now! You have one minute to get everything you need! As soon as a summoning symbol is drawn under your feet, don’t move! Warn Oscar and make sure you stay away from other people!” Then she opened Koden’s. “Koden, it’s Kalysto! I found a way to send you back home, but you must make sure you stay away from other people! Pick up everything you need! You will see the same symbol at your feet that you saw under me the day the portals opened! Make sure you are alone and don’t move as soon as the symbol is drawn! This is important. It’s not me who is casting the spell!” She clarified, knowing that he would understand that she was talking about her fussy boss. “And don’t trust Edward! He betrayed me and handed me over to a temple madwoman to kill me by stealing my power!” She added. “You have less than a minute, hurry up!” Then she saw the two points of Madha and Eric and sent the same message to both of them. “Hey, it’s Kalysto! Stay away from the eastern part of the continent. It’s overrun by monsters! Get a map and escape to the north! The West is ruled by fairies and elves, but monsters have already ravaged some of them! I have found a way home but it will take me time to gather all the requirements! Tell no one else and escape, but above all, don’t trust Edward! He gave me to the enemy, and I almost died!” She warned them. Although she felt bad about leaving the two shadow mages behind, she was all too aware that she couldn’t save them all, at least not for now.
Even if I manage to get them back to Earth, Eric lives in London and Madha in Edinburgh, so leaving them stranded in the middle of Yerast Park in Blasky, with no one to help them, will be a problem.
The champion immediately touched the delicate golden tattoo on her left wrist.
“Boss, I need to claim the reward you promised me after closing the portal!” she said aloud.
[The one about sending three of your friends back to the place where I found you?]
“That’s the one! Koden Scott is in the kingdom of Balsahty! Rita and Oscar are together and I’m touching their spot on the map right now!”
[The other young man also appears on your map?]
“Yes!”
[Touch their dots. I’ll send them right away!]
“Ready!” She announced as soon as she did as instructed, touching Rita’s point with one hand and Koden’s with the other.
[And Kalysto?]
“Yes?”
[I’ll have to modify your second mission. Since we are running out of time, it will no longer be necessary for you to make me a second barrier that covers my entire kingdom. Instead, I need one that protects a specific place so that only fairies can enter. Artemis will update you on the situation. You have a month to do so. There is also an experiment I wish you to perform. Aegir and Artemis will explain what you need to know. In return, I will reduce the three years equivalent to the extra year you added to our contract for fear of not having enough time to study the black plague.]
Looking back, Kalysto realized how foolish she had been to negotiate her contract. But there was nothing she could do about it now.
Anyway, as soon as I successfully complete the third mission, my contract will be terminated, so it doesn’t really matter much.
Meanwhile, in the northern kingdom of Balsahty, inside the Temple of Light, Koden ran out of the training camp to the room that the people of the temple had assigned him to share with Edward even though the relationship between them had been damaged shortly after Kalysto’s disappearance. Although Koden himself had suspected Kalysto’s healing skills along with the ease with which she had on more than one occasion given them holy water to heal his wounds indicated that she was a saintess, he also suspected that Edward had something to do with her sudden disappearance and absolute silence for months, he never imagined that his idiot former best friend would have been able to deliver her to her death.
Though with all that Edward had changed, Koden had no way of denying it.
As soon as he got to his room, he took the sheet from the bed and in it he stuffed the weapons he had been given at the temple along with half the vial of holy water Kalysto had given him and his cell phone.
“What am I forgetting?” He mumbled, closing the door to the room, remembering at the last second what Kalysto had warned him about her boss and the seal while tying the blanket so that nothing of what he had put inside it would fall out.
As he thought about what else he could take from there that was of value, the symbol was drawn under his feet and he stood still, waiting. Fearing that if he moved, Kalysto’s boss would nullify the spell.
But nothing of the sort happened.
After the violet light devoured everything around him, blinding him in the process, the cool breeze caressed his face and his heart galloped against his chest as soon as he could recognize Yerast Park, though parts of it looked different. And as he admired how changed everything was, a voice he hadn’t heard in months caught his attention from behind his back.
“Koden? Oh my God, you’re alive too!” Rita greeted him by running to embrace him and next to where she had been standing was Oscar, with his shirt and shoes off. The scars on the toned brunette’s body bore witness to his constant encounters with monsters and his work as a hunter.
“I’m glad to see you too,” he greeted her, pulling her into his embrace under Oscar’s watchful eye. It was when she broke the embrace that Koden noticed something different about her. “Rita, did you get fat?“
“Don’t be an idiot!” She scolded him, slapping him against the arm at the same time that Oscar approached her and grabbed her around the waist.
“We’re pregnant,” announced the brunette, to Koden’s great surprise.
“Wow, you guys really don’t waste any time!” he muttered, not knowing what else to say. At the same time, Rita looked to the side, her gaze lost for a moment as if she was reading something.
“Kalysto says that we must hurry to register as hunters in the hunters’ association. She says that the government has passed a law that forces everyone with a system to register, or the government will send them to prison and force them to fight monsters. She also recommends that we go to live in other countries.”
“I have acquaintances in London,” Oscar said immediately, ready to get her out of the country and keep his family safe, no matter what he had to do to achieve it.
“I can’t leave without my mother! I need to know if she and my sisters are alive!” Koden turned pale. The temple had been using him for months as a war pawn, just like the other heroes who failed to escape the day Kalysto took them out of King Medhas’ castle dungeons.
Longing to finally hear from them, he opened the blanket he had worked so hard to tie up and took out his cell phone, immediately turning it on and praying that it had a signal and some battery life.
“Is yours still working?” Rita was surprised.
“If there’s one thing I’ve known about Kalysto during the time she was captain of my track team, it’s that she always keeps her word. That and it’s better never to make her angry, she may seem nice sometimes, but she has a hell of a temper when she gets mad and she can be very cruel and vengeful when she wants to be.” He explained as he prayed internally that he had enough charge. “So as soon as she assured us that she would find a way to bring us back, I knew she would do it. So I turned off my cell phone so that when I could get home, I would still have a charge and be able to call my family.” However, when the phone finally picked up a signal, his mother didn’t answer. So he started walking back and forth, trying to find more signals until finally his mother’s sweet voice rang on the other end of the line and Koden’s heart skipped a couple of beats with excitement.
“Koden? Is that you?” Koden’s voice trembled and relief washed over him that his mother was alive as his eyes blurred with tears.
“Mom?”