“What in the hell is happening…” Reivan mused out loud as he held four orbs in his hand — all of which contained some of the most powerful spirit beasts he'd seen since his arrival, averaging at around 800 Might each.
Right after he set out with Dom and Dippy, the next few hexagons he entered each had at least one very powerful spirit beast in the area. Of course, though powerful, they were absolutely no match for Reivan or Dom. In fact, Dom didn’t even feel the need to fight them at all.
The grumpy white wolf king still did it in the end despite the obvious annoyance on its face, easily restraining the spirit beasts — who apparently had to stay in the orbs by default unless Reivan released them, unlike Dom and Dippy who could roam freely as long as he was close by.
Another surprise was how catching the spirit beasts with orbs didn’t earn a reaction from [Supreme Insight]. No affinity sharing, no true name picking, no extra skills… no anything — implying that no bond whatsoever was formed.
‘I can’t stop looking at these guys… I’m so glad I saw them before time was up!’
Reivan supposed that his luck was like the tide — sometimes it was low, and sometimes it was high. He just wished it didn't stay low when something important was happening, otherwise, he'd be finished.
The first spirit beast he caught was a [Fire] attribute lion, which was perfect for Elsa. Afterward, he found twin spirit beasts that were now reserved for Helen and Hector. And then after that, he had stumbled into the lair of a mighty swan-type spirit beast belonging to the [Light] attribute, which he reserved for Gwendolyn.
Just because she helped him out so much.
She would probably say something about just doing her job or how she would have served him loyally even with no reward. But that wasn’t right — good service must be rewarded. He would be hopeless without her at this point, even when she was so far away.
Of course, a part of Reivan actually wanted to keep the swan for himself so he could get the [Light] attribute, but Gwen would probably stand by his side for a very long time and it would be to his advantage to see her grow stronger.
He also didn’t want to hog all the good stuff to himself.
‘Besides…’
After obtaining [Frost Mastery], he no longer felt the need for new elemental affinities. The recently obtained extra skill assured that he would at least have his [Ice] attribute to fall back on no matter what the enemy’s resistances were. Rather, now he considered trying to focus on improving his control of [Ice] and maybe try compounding the element with his other affinities instead.
Also, concentrating on being proficient in a select few aetherblade arts was better than being moderately adept at hundreds of them. That was why knights — and even Reivan — picked a few arts that suited their fighting styles and stuck to those, only using other arts when the situation called for it or utilizing them as inspiration to modify their main arsenal.
Reivan wasn’t at the stage of modifying arts yet, content with knowing lots of arts for all kinds of situations. He still had favorites though, like << Spellblade >> as a constant buff to his weapon’s edge and << Lightning Transformation >> to get out of sticky situations in an instant while also enabling him to control the distance between himself and his opponents.
“Whoo! Good haul, boys.” Reivan laughed loudly as he threw the orbs into Zouros’ stomach for safekeeping, absolutely elated at how his fortune turned right around after that traumatizing fight with his wolfy companion. “To the next place!”
The spirit beasts he caught weren’t at Dom’s level, but they were as close to ascendence as he could hope for considering how shit his luck was these past few hours. Reivan couldn’t complain at all, nor would he even think of bypassing them for the possibility of meeting something better.
Even more so now that he had more orbs than he knew what to do with.
Helping Elsamina achieve immortality had just become much more realistic, which made him so giddy he could dance the samba naked.
‘Ah. I still haven’t caught one for my Clover Salwyn cosplay… Hm. I gave up on it, but if I see another one with the [Light] attribute, I’ll really catch it. Too bad I’ve only seen one so far. Christ, how rare are they anyway…?’
It seemed both [Light] and [Dark] attribute spirit beasts were rarer than attractive virgins in a college sorority.
Reivan checked his pocket watch once again and confirmed that there were only thirty minutes left, which was cutting it way too close. He had to transform back into Clover Salwyn just in case his estimate was a little off or they were taken out of the world before the 24-hour period was up.
‘Wait… Actually, I've been at enormous risk by staying in my original form for so long, huh? I mean, everything I've gained up to now makes getting caught slightly worth it, honestly, but I should pull out while I'm ahead.’
Realizing how careless he’d been, Reivan hastily deposited all his clothes in Zouros’ stomach before using [Reality Falsification] to change identities. He then donned Clover’s clothes and smoothed them out, ignoring Dippy’s confused stare and Dom’s suspicious glare.
“It’s me. Relax, alright?"
Dom remained skeptical, circling him with suspicion while Dippy just accepted his words as they were, bouncing up and down as it waited for further instructions — or maybe food, judging by how its mouth was open.
"I have to leave you guys here for a while." Reivan smiled sheepishly and dumped a large pile of food on the ground, as a sort of apology. "But don’t worry, I’ll summon you guys out of here in… Uh, well, I don’t know yet. Just wait here and help each other out.”
Dippy sent wishes of good fortune and reminders to take care through their connection as the little black blob excitedly jumped into the large pile of food. All the while, Dom looked at the heap with disdain, apparently disliking the notion of eating food it didn't hunt itself.
After checking that his bond with them was still included in his extra skills, just "hidden" for now, Reivan waved goodbye and hastily passed through a hexagon’s border. Spirit beasts couldn’t stay too far from their anchors unless they were in different worlds, so he also wanted to test what would happen if “Reivan Aizenwald” technically "vanished" from existence. According to Valter, the spirit beast literally couldn’t travel too far, by foot or by air, tethered to their human counterpart. But in cases where the anchor was suddenly teleported far away, the spirit beast would be teleported with them for free.
Reivan blinked a few times to get used to the sudden brightness, scrutinizing his surroundings to find himself on a tropical island filled with white sand, coconut trees, and various crustacean-type spirit beasts. Clearly, the island he found himself on was very far away from the land-locked forest he was just in. When he scanned his surroundings and didn’t find Dom or Dippy teleported with him, he pumped a fist and sighed in relief.
‘My theory was right.’
Reivan quickly confirmed that the bond still existed, before concluding his little experiment. He didn’t want the Spirit Tower to know of Dom and Dippy — his Double D's for short — so he would leave them here in this world until he got to a safe place like the Embassy in the city of Arkhana.
It would have been convenient if he could bring them with him in an orb, but unfortunately, orbs didn’t work on bonded spirit beasts — or rather, the ones he had with him didn’t work on bonded spirit beasts, but perhaps the Tower had orbs that did. He couldn't really be sure, but the whole point of his mission was to find out.
“Anyway… I don’t like this place.” Reivan looked around and frowned, finding the tropical climate on the island uncomfortable. It was hot and he was dressed for slightly lower temperatures given Arkhan's horrendous weather.
Just as he was about to go back the way he came, gambling on finding a different place to wait for the rest of the 24-hour period, the hexagon’s border rippled and a figure popped out.
A young man who still had a bit of baby fat on his cheeks groaned, seemingly grappling with a bout of vertigo. He then looked up and noticed Reivan, groggily raising a hand for a friendly wave. “Oh? Hi, there. Don't mind me, I'm... just gonna vomit everything I ate... or not. I think I'm okay now.”
“... Hello there, friend.” Reivan decided to act amicably for now, pasting a smile on his face. “There’s apparently a hundred of us in this world but I haven’t met a single one until now. I was starting to think I was alone in here.”
“True." The young man chuckled. "Actually, I met a pair a few hours ago, but not since.”
“Lucky you.”
“Hardly. They were a couple. While we're all out here, waddling around in swamps and shit, they were… Ehem. Anyway, how’re you doing, Brother? Caught a beasty yet?”
Reivan shook his head and lied. “No. I'm afraid I haven’t found a suitable one yet.”
“What? Really? Cutting it a little too close, no? You should stop being too picky like the proctor said.” The young man pulled out an orb and smiled proudly, showing it to Reivan. “Here. Take a look at mine. I think I was lucky!”
“Oh, yeah? Lemme see…” Reivan leaned over and readied his wand behind him, his eyes squinted, peeking through the semi-transparent material of the orb. “Looks like a… cat.”
“Hey, man. It’s a panther.
"So it's a big cat."
"Just you wait. It's small right now because it's young, but after a while, it'll be bigger than a bear!”
“I see.” Reivan nodded, though he was inwardly unimpressed. “That’s neat.”
“And get this, I think it's really rare.”
“Oh yeah? What makes you think that?”
“It was shooting light from its eyes and stuff. Isn’t that cool?”
“Light…?”
“Uh-huh. I had to catch it while its family watched… which didn’t feel that great, but hey! Me or them, y’know? They're at fault for being born as beasties, eh?”
“Sure…” Reivan answered noncommittally and looked into the orb again, using [Supreme Insight] to confirm that the beast inside actually did have the [Light] attribute. The purple tint of the orb's material made it hard to notice the beast's color, and he hadn't bothered to use his ability the first time, thinking that there was no possible way for a first-year recruit to catch anything worthy of note.
'Man. This guy's really unlucky he met me.'
With a sigh, Reivan pointed his wand at the young man. “Hey. I'm really sorry about this.”
“What? What do you me—”
The young man never got to finish his sentence before Reivan blew his face off with an ancient military-grade spell he’d learned from Aguru's pearl.
Reivan released a weary breath as he watched the young man’s lifeless corpse collapse onto the sand. For a good minute, he engraved the result of his actions into his mind before kneeling down to pick up the dead man’s orb, which had fallen from the corpse's lifeless hands before the body hit the ground.
“Nothing personal. As a soldier of a potential enemy nation, I would’ve killed you even if you only had peanuts in your pockets.”
Reivan momentarily imagined how the young man’s parents, siblings, and friends would react once they heard news of this youth’s death. As someone who also had people he would mourn, the remorse welling up inside him wasn't insignificant.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
He had killed numerous criminals before. Thinking of the people they victimized, he even tormented them with relish, deeming their suffering as a minor consolation for the aggrieved.
But this young man was the first innocent Reivan had killed and probably wouldn’t be the last.
‘This is war.’
Just a bunch of innocent people killing other innocent people, with some not-so-innocent people in the mix.
The young man whose name he didn’t even know hadn’t done anything to Aizen yet, but Reivan shared the kingdom’s view on enemies — prevention was better than cure. Rather than mending the damage they do, it was better to prevent them from doing anything at all.
Rather than avenging your dead comrades, it was better to kill one's enemies before your comrades get killed. With this belief as the nation's mantra, Aizen survived as the oldest country in history simply because it got rid of most threats before they became too great to ignore.
'I don't think I'll be sleeping for a while after this...'
Reivan heaved yet another sigh, deeper and heavier this time. He searched the young man’s body for anything useful but eventually came up empty, save for some money and personal effects. In particular, there was a small note from the man’s mother that pricked at Reivan’s heart. Despite his normal courage in facing monsters and beasts, he could not muster the will to read the words on that piece of paper.
He returned the note and everything else to the youth’s pockets and stood up, pointing his wand at the body to set it alight.
‘Again, I’m sorry. And I know there's no afterlife, but I hope you rest in peace anyway.’
Reivan would do it as many times as it took until Aizen had no enemies anymore. But that didn’t mean he could do it unfeelingly. So with a heavy heart, a ball of flame erupted from his wand, igniting the remains in an instant.
Watching the body slowly char black for a few more somber moments, Reivan brought the young man’s orb up to his eye and spoke to the beast inside. “As you may have surmised, you will be under my care now. With any hope, you’ll find me a better master than a dead person.”
Surprisingly, the miniature baby panther inside the orb looked quite happy about the development, hopping up and down while growling at the young man’s corpse.
'Even spirit beasts hold grudges, huh?'
“You’re kinda cute…" Reivan smiled to himself, trying to cheer himself up after what he had just done. "You remind me of a certain white cat back home.”
Still wary that each orb was linked to each first-year battlemage somehow, Reivan freed the beast inside the youth’s orb and recaptured it with his own orb — which annoyed the little white panther tremendously. Now it was growling and hissing at him.
‘I should get outta here.’
The last thing he wanted was someone else walking into the scene of the crime. He was the most suspicious person there and actually was the culprit too.
Reivan snapped to attention when he heard some rustling nearby. He turned around and drew his wand in an instant, firing a spell in the direction of the noise. A purplish bolt of magic power shot across the air and penetrated straight through the trunk of a palm tree and connected with the creature behind it.
A cry of pain rang out as a woman collapsed on the ground, grasping at the burning hole in her thigh. Her pained gasps and the sweat already peppering her forehead announced her agonizing pain. But still, she struggled to get back behind cover.
"Maya..." Reivan's eyes widened when he saw who it was, but he didn't lower his wand, keeping it pointed at her. "Stop. You can't run."
"C-Clover..." She squeezed the words out through the pain, her eyes trembling as they locked on his own. "P-please don't kill me..."
"Now, why would I do that?" Reivan's expression was calm as his mind spun rapidly, trying to think of a way out of this. He then gestured behind him, where a corpse was still in the middle of burning. "Oh, that? I didn't do that. I just... found the body there. Killing a fellow battlemage is treason, and didn't we all swear that oath thing? Believe me, Maya, it couldn't have been me."
You have used [Essence of Falsehood]
[Essence of Falsehood] has failed.
'Shit.'
Reivan cursed as the fingers around his wand tightened.
His ability didn't make his lies absolutely believable, it simply made people more inclined to believe them.
And that had limitations. Telling people that the sun was black or that he had three heads was obviously not a lie that anyone would believe — because the contrary was already an iron-clad fact in their mind or could easily be confirmed with their eyes.
In this case, the reason it failed was obvious.
'So she saw me... she saw me do the deed.'
The noise that alerted Reivan may have been her trying to get away from the place, but she must have been there for a while. He couldn't have sensed her because he was using Clover's identity. There were six other sides to the hexagonal area for her to enter from without him noticing, and it was also highly possible she was already in the region before he even arrived.
'Fuck.'
All of that meant that there was no talking his way out of this predicament.
“Maya,” he calmly called out as he strode closer toward her. “Are you going to tell anyone?”
She gulped, the tremor in her eyes intensifying with every step he took. "D-Don't..."
“Are. You.” Reivan enunciated every word with force. “Going. To. Tell. Anyone.”
Maya bit her lip and suddenly tried to pull out her wand.
Bang!
Reivan easily blew it out of her hand with a weaker spell before targeting her face. “That was unwise, Maya. You know I’m a better sorcerer than you. Now, I asked you a question.”
“P-please don’t kill me… I w-won’t tell anyone… Please… I'll do anything you say...”
Hesitation halted Reivan’s steps as he deliberated on what to do. He checked his pocket watch again and bit his lip in frustration at how little time there was left — and that was if the whole 24-hour limit was followed.
They could get pulled out of this world at any minute now.
‘She’s not lying about her intentions… But that only speaks of her current intentions. It's easy to admit when under duress, but later on... is a whole other matter.’
If the two of them ever had some kind of conflict in the future, she could use the information against him. The same could be said if she ever got close to someone he couldn’t touch — which was highly possible with her social skills.
‘Her favor is… in the forties. It was practically nothing before and it even decreased after this incident... Or rather, it's decreasing as we speak.’
The fear and apprehension she displayed just a few seconds ago was proof that her trust in him did not run too deep. If she had been on the same level of favor as Helen, Elsa, or the president’s daughter he seduced for his mission, she wouldn’t be afraid of him. Instead, she would be thinking about how to help him get away with the murder. Reivan would have felt comfortable leaving her be if that was the case, or if her favor was at least in the seventies.
But it simply wasn’t high enough.
And by the time he finished his thoughts, her favor had already dropped down to the negatives. Any time now, it would dip into the level of hostility.
‘The mission…’
Logic dictated that leaving Maya alive was a massive liability to his mission, while the advantages of sparing her were questionable at best.
‘Fuck...’
Reivan clenched his teeth as Maya continued to wither under his gaze. To him, the mission was everything. There was too much at stake — too much time and resources had been invested into its success.
And most of all, his family and a lot of other people were counting on him.
‘The mission… The mission comes first.’
“I'm sorry.”
Reivan made sure not to blink, staring into her fearful eyes as a bolt of magic power fired off from the tip of his wand and penetrated deep into her skull.
════════════════════════════════
Reivan felt the familiar jolt of teleportation, and a moment later, the scenery around him changed. The clear blue sky was replaced with a high stone ceiling, the palm trees were and the endless seas around him was replaced by tall walls, and the sand became a marble floor.
He was back in the chamber where he was briefed about the Sanctuary.
“Welcome back, brothers and sisters! I hope you all had fun on your little adventure! I know I did, way back in my day!”
The female proctor, a silver cloak by the name of Bernadine, energetically spoke from the middle of the massive circular chamber. A few dozen meters behind her was the male proctor, speaking to the people on the other side of the room. Noticeably, the massive ball of fire that had been the chamber’s centerpiece was missing, but that was obviously because the portal to the sanctuary had closed.
Bernadine allowed the young men and women some time to calm down and even converse with the people next to them. But as she scanned the room, her smile gradually fell off. “Hm? There are… There are quite a few of you missing…”
Confusion spread before it turned into panic as some of the first years started realizing that some of the people they knew weren’t present either.
“Aleyna! Aleyna, where are you!?”
“Davic! Big Brother Davic! Where are you!? Stop fucking around and come out, you piece of shit!”
Some of the tower entrants couldn’t hold back their worry any longer, unabashedly calling out, their voices gradually rising in intensity the more their cries went unanswered. But no matter how loudly they shouted over Bernadine’s attempts to calm the situation, they did not receive a response.
Reivan put his hands in the pockets of his overcoat as he watched with feigned confusion, knowing that at least twenty-six people were missing — twenty-four of which were slain by Dom.
While the last two died at his hands.
"Are you here!? Sister! Answer me!"
"Elders! Where are they!? Where is Vara!?"
"The guy next to me is missing too! What's going on!?"
The clamor over the missing people didn't stop no matter what the softspoken Bernadine did, only intensifying even further.
And why should they calm down?
For some, a childhood friend with whom they shared dreams of becoming one of the greatest mages in the land was missing. And while some were merely fast friends after meeting in the Spirit Tower, it seemed that the majority of those absent had lovers or kin amongst the other first years — either way, nobody would settle down without gaining some kind of explanation.
But this was the Spirit Tower, not some common street alley where they could make as much of a fuss as they pleased.
Eventually, the chaos grew to the point that the male proctor flew into the center of the expansive chamber, his presence alone enough to fill the room. With a flourish of his wand, he fired off a clamorous spell that thundered in everyone's ears, forcefully gathering their attention.
"Silence, please." Ozran Esteros, the renowned silver cloak battlemage, loomed over them all and then spoke in a surprisingly gentle voice — as gentle as gravel could be, that is. "I am sure you are all worried about the friends you made in your short time here. But you will achieve nothing by screaming your heads off and calling out to them when they aren't even present."
"But sir...!" A young man with freckles sparsely sprinkled across his face voiced out loud. "Wh-what could have happened to them? Why aren't they here...? I thought we couldn't be hurt in that place...!?"
"You are protected only against the spirit beasts, not everything in creation," Ozran corrected sharply, shaking his head with a sigh. "I am loathe to admit, but accidents can happen — rather, they do happen. You’d be surprised at how easy it is to slip and hit your head when you’re gallivanting about all over the place, not being particularly watchful of your footing. Though, the number of accidents this year is the highest I’ve ever seen in my lifetime…”
The clamor resumed yet again, and this time, Bernadine spoke up to calm the crowd. "We would love to investigate this matter, and I'm sure some of you are thinking that someone could go inside and save them, but sadly… you cannot save someone who is already dead."
“B-but…” one young man ventured, but couldn’t quite think of what else to say.
“And even in the unlikely event that they still draw breath and can be saved, no battlemage in the tower can go back into the sanctuary to do so. After someone has left once, they cannot re-enter the Sanctuary. And all battlemages at this point have.”
Suddenly, someone in the with a deep and commanding voice spoke up. “Then why not have my guards go inside and take a look? I can guarantee that they’ll keep your little portal a secret.”
“You must be joking, Your Highness.” Ozran looked like he really wanted to sneer or say something mean, but the old mage held back by plastering an obviously fake smile on his face. “We have already taken great pains to… accommodate you and the other guests. It would be extremely taxing for us if we had to accommodate your guards as well.”
Prince Alphon raised both arms in surrender and shrugged. “It was merely a suggestion. The offer still stands, however. The empire is Arkhan’s friend, and we don’t want to let this tragedy pass like this.”
“We appreciate your sympathy, Your Highness. Sadly, there is nothing we can do at this point." Bernadine insisted with a troubled smile. “It is simply how it is. Unfortunate though it may be, this is not the first time people have failed to return from the sanctuary — and it won't be the last. While we must mourn the early deaths of our brothers and sisters, we cannot undo what has been done. As for an investigation, that is unlikel—”
"Oh, an investigation will be held, alright." Ozran cut her off, scanning the faces of every young man and woman. “One by one, each and every one of you will be questioned in private. The rest will head back to their quarters and are not to come out until they have been cleared of suspicion."
"Ozran, you cannot possibly think that..." Bernadine looked to the other proctor, her gaze meaningful.
"We'll see." The male proctor then pointed at someone at random. "Let's start with you, the boy from Room #002. We'll go by order of room numbers."
Right after saying that, the male proctor and the youth he pointed to vanished in the blink of an eye.
And a moment after that, Reivan suddenly found himself back in his room, a familiar suitcase propped up against the side of his bed. It was, without a doubt, the room assigned to him.
Everything looked just as he left it.
"Haaaah." Reivan released the breath he'd been holding for a while as he walked over to his bed, collapsing into its soft embrace.
An embrace that still smelled of a woman he used to know.