Before letting anyone exit, Kelsey opened the tent flap a hair in order to break the privacy enchantments Thadius had added. Once she was able to, she used her domain to scout the base camp, looking for any signs of The Librarians. Gwen seemed pretty sure that there would be people waiting for them, and Kelsey figured she was probably right.
Besides the tents and other structures that were shielded by privacy enchantments, she methodically checked every single centimeter of the first floor, which was a much easier task than it had been before thanks to her much stronger domain.
A few minutes later, her Senses of the Magus skill spiked as she noticed the group she was looking for. There were seven people all sitting around a campfire in black and silver clothing. None of them had any identifiable symbols on them to indicate they were Librarians, but she did notice the man, Kaydeth, that Gwen had warned her about. They were nearly a full kilometer away, which meant that whatever domain the man had, it likely wasn’t large enough to see Kelsey’s group because he didn’t react whatsoever to them suddenly becoming visible.
He was sitting down on a log silently. Across his eyes rested a pure black blindfold with no additional designs or ornamentations. He had long hair the color of snow and strapped to his back was a large double-edged scythe. He was wearing a set of pure black leathers with silver buckles that shone brightly from the light of the campfire.
Well, that has to be Kaydeth... for sure.
The people around him, who were all chatting and laughing, kept glancing over at the blindfolded man nervously. It was clear they were uncomfortable being in such close proximity to their supposed leader.
When Kelsey saw Kaydeth, her first instinct was not fear, or anxiety. The first thing she felt was a deep desire to laugh.
Holy shit this dude is so edgy. A scythe? Black clothes? A blindfold? No way this guy is real. I’ll bet anything that he’s an Otherworlder. He sticks out like a sore thumb.
In all of her time in Anoura, she had never seen anyone that dressed like Kaydeth. Most people in Anoura erred on the side of caution, preferring simple, practical equipment that was easy to repair and maintain. No one she knew would be caught dead using a weapon as impractical as a scythe. In fact, he reminded her so much of characters from videogames, movies, and books that she was nearly certain that he must be from Earth.
“Hey Gwen, is Kaydeth an Otherworlder?” she asked, her lips pulled back in a smile.
“Actually, now that you mention it, probably. He always seemed so strange... Always saying weird phrases that I didn't understand.” she responded thoughtfully. "He also used phrases like 'Your world' and 'This world' a lot. I didn't think much of it at the time, but yeah, it was weird."
“I see, well that's going to make this a bit more interesting...” Kelsey said as she exited the tent. “Let’s get this over with. Lisa, Owen, Gregory, do you wanna come? It’ll probably be entertaining.”
“No thank you, I’m fine staying here and waiting. I don’t particularly want to be used as a hostage again.” Owen said, chuckling softly. “Let me know how it goes.”
“Just going to have to help you get stronger I suppose.” Kelsey replied as she winked at Owen. “Lisa, Gregory?”
The other two both quickly answered that they were going to stay far away from two Immortal Classers trying to kill each other.
“Gwen?” Kelsey asked as she looked at the new member of the group.
“Oh yeah, I wanna see you beat the shit out of Kaydeth, for sure.” she said with a grin on her face.
With that, Kelsey and Gwen began making their way to the tent with where the seven Librarians were sitting. When they got within 100 meters, Kaydeth’s head whipped towards them in a clear indication of his domain's range. Kelsey used this as an excuse to Identify him and the rest of the group.
[Warrior - 307]
[Mage - 259]
[Warrior - 133]
[Mage - 112]
[Warrior - 161]
[Warrior - 103]
[Warrior- 216]
Kaydeth is level 307, so nowhere near as high as Leon, good... There is also only one other Immortal, he has a mage identification, so I’m assuming that he’s their Spatial mage.
As they approached, Kaydeth’s gaze never left their direction. Upon arriving in front of the tent, Kelsey smiled broadly at the seven Librarians. “Hey all, I assume you’re looking for me? Beautiful red hair, blue eyes, and a nice smile.” Kelsey said sarcastically.
The group of would-be assassins stopped chatting and stared at them before glancing at Kaydeth and hesitantly drawing their weapons. She could instantly tell that nearly all of the men and women who had just drawn their weapons were positively terrified. Thay absolutely did not want to be involved in this debacle and were clearly being coerced or threatened in some way.
There was one woman, however, who was staring daggers at both Kelsey and Gwen, who seemed positively excited about the prospect of murdering them. She seems kinda insane...
Kaydeth and the one she assumed was the Spatial mage just sat and stared at Kelsey, not moving a muscle. They had both clearly heard the report on what happened and were shocked to see their target just walk up to them and start chatting.
“Hey morons, not here.” Kelsey said towards the one who had drawn weapons. “Put your toys away.”
Gwen then added, “Listen, I told her all about you guys. We know what you intend here. Why don’t we go somewhere private so you can give it your best shot.”
“Yeah, I’m not going to try to stop you, but I will warn you that anyone who follows us will be considered my enemy. I’m going down to the third floor, the one with the sand and sharks. I’ll be waiting at the far side.” Kelsey said casually.
As she said that, she turned and began walking away, before dramatically continuing her sentence while looking at Gwen. “I sure hope no one follows me and tries to assassinate me! That would just be terrible!”
“Man, you sure do love your theatrics, don’t you?” Gwen asked, a small smile on her lips.
“More than you can imagine... I just hope the way I acted will convince some of them not to follow us.” she answered seriously. "They seem pretty scared. In a perfect world, Kaydeth will be the only one who follows us."
"Yeah... hopefully..." Gwen said doubtfully.
Gwen and Kelsey then made their way down to floor three.
"Can you fly?" Kelsey asked as they stepped through the door and onto the sand,
Gwen shook her head. "No, can you?"
Instead of answering, Kelsey simply extended her arms and picked Gwen up gently. Once she was secure, Kelsey activated Greater Flight which caused Gwen to give out an involuntary squeak of surprise.
“I did not know you could fly, holy shit, this is so cool!” she screamed as they flew through the air.
“Nothing better than the feeling of soaring through the skies, I promise.” Kelsey said as she looked over the vast desert landscape.
“I can think of a few things, actually.” Gwen said cheekily.
It only took them a few minutes to reach the other side of the floor, where Kelsey landed and put Gwen back on the sandy ground. As she did, Gwen’s face flushed in embarrassment as she thanked Kelsey for the experience.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Kelsey and Gwen chatted casually, talking about nothing important. They were both clearly anxious about who was going to follow them, and neither of them were all that interested in a bloodbath.
Thankfully, they only had to wait for about 20 minutes before Kelsey saw a small group enter her domain. There were only three of them. Kaydeth, the Spatial mage, and a level 216 woman with two shortswords on her hips who had been looking so angrily at the two women.
“Only three; Kaydeth, the guy who I think is a Spatial mage, and a woman with two daggers.” Kelsey informed Gwen happily. "I've got to say, I'm glad the others didn't follow."
“Okay, those three make sense. I don't know him well, but the Spatial Mage is in a similar situation as me. I think his family lives with him at the headquarters and he's worried about retribution if he disobeys or leaves..." Gwen explained.
Gwen glanced at Kelsey awkwardly a few times before speaking again. "Oh, real quick, may be important. The woman with the daggers and I were in a relationship before I learned how messed up she was. I found her torturing a fox in her room when I went to surprise her once. I really thought she was like me and joined the Guild for the Information Broker part. Turns out, nope, she’s just crazy.”
Kelsey grimaced in disgust. "That's horrible... Back on Earth, animal cruelty was one of those things people looked out for. It was a clear indication that someone was probably insane."
“Wait, Earth? You’re an Otherworlder?” she asked, clearly surprised. "Although, I suppose it makes sense... You're a little strange too." she added playfully.
Given her reaction, Kelsey thought back and realized that she had never actually told Gwen she was from Earth. It had just never really come up.
“Oh yeah, sorry, I forgot that you wouldn’t know. I've been here like a year... By the way, you're also about to learn some other stuff about me and my class. Uhh... mind keeping that between us?"
“Yeah, No problem. I’ve been wondering about that actually. everyone seems really secretive about what your deal is. The only thing I can think of is that you’re a higher level than Leon Garley or something crazy like that and you don’t want people knowing.” she said a bit absentmindedly. “Everything I’ve seen you do just makes it seem like you’re a strong spatial mage.”
“That was the intention.” Kelsey said as she winked. "I'm actually pretty terrible at keeping that kind of stuff hidden. I am kinda giving up on that whole charade now that I'm an Immortal."
"Are you saying you hide your skills because you don't want people to know how strong you are?" Gwen said curiously.
"Yeah, kinda. It mattered a lot more five days ago when I wasn't an Immortal. Now, I've kinda stopped caring." Kelsey said.
Gwen scratched her chin. "Five days ago... Wait you mean you became an Immortal the day before those idiots kidnapped Owen?"
Kelsey grinned. "Yep. Just in time."
Gwen let out a soft chuckled. "Those morons... If that's the case, do you think you can take Kaydeth? I'm pretty sure he's over level 300..."
Kelsey nodded. "I think so. Three hundred and seven, specifically. Should be manageable."
"If you say so." Gwen said as she let out a soft breath.
It was clear that she didn't fully believe Kelsey was going to be able to beat him, but also knew that she would be there to help if anything went wrong.
A few minutes later, the group of Librarians crested a sand dune and entered their line of sight.
They spotted Kelsey and Gwen a few moments later and began making their way slowly towards them.
As they approached, Kelsey was the first to talk. “Kaydeth. We need to have a little chat.”
“So, you know my name then, weakling?” He said, very clearly trying to make his voice sound deeper and more threatening than it naturally was.
It had only been one sentence and Kelsey already knew that whatever persona this guy had created for himself was going to be incredibly annoying. On top of that, of course she would know his name, she had one of his members standing right next to her.
I hate him already.
“Oh god, enough of this pretend tough guy act.” Kelsey said exasperatedly. “You’re an Otherworlder, right?”
Kaydeth paused for a moment before responding. “I am, what does it matter to you, vermin?”
Kelsey couldn’t help but find his attitude a bit funny. He was trying so hard to be threatening and cool like villains he had seen from Earth. The biggest problem was that he was terrible at it.
“Well, I’m from Earth too.” she said nonchalantly. “People from here may be scared of your whole dark and dangerous villain thing, but I see right through you.” Kelsey said as condescendingly as she could. “I’ve read comic books.”
“No, you misunderstand, weakling. I am a God here! I will destroy you and your pathetic friends!” He shouted as loudly and as threateningly as he could manage. It was not as effective as I'm sure he hoped.
As he was shouting at her, Kelsey looked at the other two members with him. The one she now knew was the Spatial mage was standing silently by Kaydeth’s side, his face neutral. He had short brown hair, and brown eyes. His face was soft and nonthreatening. He simply didn’t look like a cold-blooded killer. I think Gwen's right... He's not here because he wants to be.
The woman with the two daggers, however, was staring directly at Gwen with rage behind her eyes. She was only level 216, so Kelsey wasn’t even slightly worried about her involvement in this fight. She was sure that Gwen would be able to handle her without a problem.
After surveying the other two combatants, Kelsey looked back at Kaydeth, trying to disarm him, or make him angry. “When I look at you, I don’t see a God. I see a scared little boy named Kayden. I see a little boy that got too much power and let it go to his head.”
She paused as she let the words hang in the air for a few seconds. “Am I right?”
That simple question sent Kaydeth over the edge into pure rage. “Shut up! Shut up you stupid bitch! I am a God! I will kill you!” he screamed, his voice sounding much more natural now, almost tinny.
Then without any more preamble, their fight began. Kelsey’s Senses of the Magus spiked as he reached for the scythe on his back and brought it down, the tip aimed at Kelsey’s head.
Kelsey hadn’t gotten a real chance to test two of her abilities yet, so she decided to test both at once. Ramping up her perception and stepping to the side, Kelsey moved her body so the scythe would hit her shoulder instead of her head and decided to simply let it sink into her.
As the scythe got close to her skin, the blade seemed to collide with something solid and invisible to the naked eye as it slowed considerably, only piercing her skin by a few centimeters. She checked her status screen briefly and saw that she had only lost a couple hundred health. She then grabbed the scythe by the blade and pulled it out of her, letting her wound heal as she created material to also fix her clothes and cloak. Well, my Armor of the Magus skill is incredible.. My healing is still working too... Good.
The scythe blade still in hand, she tightened her grip and whipped her hand to the side, sending Kaydeth and the scythe spinning into the distance.
“Hey Gwen, you wanna take care of your ex? I got the other two.” Kelsey said as a wave of spiked telekinetic balls were sent her way from the Spatial mage.
Kelsey raised her hand, creating a telekinetic barrier in front of the projectiles. As they collided, she saw that the integrity of the balls collapsed almost immediately. “Minor Telekinetic Creation?” she asked the mage who had just attacked her.
She then saw Gwen and the woman with the two daggers split off and start fighting. Kelsey immediately saw that Gwen was going to win easily, but she was letting the fight drag on, probably so she could get some closure before killing the woman. Good for her. Can’t be fun to find out that you’re dating a psychopath.
The Spatial mage responded as he began creating a giant telekinetic spear that he clearly intended to send her way, “Yes. By the way, I’m sorry for this. That blindfolded asshole killed the other four when they said they weren’t going to be following you.”
“He did what!?” she screamed as she channeled all 55,000 of her mana per second into her manipulation skill and used it to destroy the telekinetic projectile the Spatial mage was in the process of creating.
It had gone unnoticed during her first inspection of her new skills, but her Greater Manipulation of the Magus no longer had the caveat of not being able to control other people’s magic. She had done some testing against a monster in the woods around Neim and found that it took roughly twice as much mana as the caster was using to wrestle control of someone, or something else’s manipulation or creation. Thankfully, Kelsey had mana to spare against someone like the spatial mage.
The Spatial mage stumbled and clutched his head in pain as the backlash from Kelsey taking control of his magic hit him. “He killed them all. I’m not a fighter, I have a wife and daughter at home. I don’t want to fight you, please let me go. I didn’t join this damn guild to become an assassin. And please, kill that blindfolded bastard.”
“Okay, get out of here. I’ll take care of the scythe moron. Leave the guild and do something better with your life, please.” Kelsey said sharply.
The man nodded at her in thanks before making his way towards the door.
Kelsey put the mage out of her mind and started looking for Kaydeth. She had been so focused on her conversation with the mage that she hadn't paid attention to where she sent Kaydeth with her throw.
A few seconds of casual searching went by and Kaydeth was nowhere to be seen. There was a small part of her that thought he might have run once he realized that he wasn't going to be able to push her around so easily.
Suddenly, her Senses of the Magus skill activated and sent her a strong distress signal that immediately drew her attention towards the fleeing spatial mage.
In the sand, a few dozen meters away from him was a small shadow racing across the desert floor. Kelsey watched as the shadow drew closer to the mage, moving faster than anything she had ever seen before. At first, her mind couldn't piece together what it must be, but everything clicked when she saw a figure forming out of the shadow. The shadow morphed, coalescing into Kaydeth, his deadly scythe aimed directly at the fleeing mage's back.
Kelsey wanted to move. She wanted to activate her Warp and save the mage, but she couldn't, she wouldn't be fast enough. She was forced to watch in horror as blade of the scythe made contact, easily piercing the mage's back and erupting out the front of his chest, dark red blood spilling across the yellow sand.
As the mage fell, Kaydeth pulled his scythe out of the body, flicked the blood off the blade and turned towards Kelsey with a small, satisfied grin on his face.
Walking towards her slowly, Kaydeth spoke just loudly enough for her to hear. "Death to all non-believers."