12 hours 10 minutes until the arrival of Eliminator
Ever since the arrival of the Holy Knight, Julie completely ignored Feylord. However, after the blinding blast of light that came from the South, the situation in the town grew much worse.
With the help of the Holy Knight, Julie already started evacuating the townspeople. Unsurprisingly, there were many that demanded an explanation. Notably, the few Noble families living Wilsden didn’t want to leave their manors and leave just like that.
Still, with a bit of threats and incentives, Julie managed to get them to leave. However, there were some few commoner families that vehemently refused to leave their homes, even when they were warned about the impending danger.
In just 30 hours, Julie evacuated more than 80% of the townspeople. Dozens upon dozens of carriages headed South-East, toward the Archwood Ridge.
There were more habitable and relatively big towns there, which would serve as temporary homes for the ‘refugees’.
Now, less than 200 people were left in Wilsden, most of which were people that accepted the inevitable doom that was going to fall upon them. Even then, Julie repeatedly warned them to stay away from the manor and to inform her if they ever saw anything suspicious.
“Julie, you should rest for a bit.”
Sitting behind her desk, Julie caressed the sleeping Furball while yawning.
Rein Goldstar sat across from her, a look of worry on his face.
“I need to wait for Mister Aerin. He said he would come back soon.”
“I know, but you should take care of your health too. Speaking of which… don’t you need to drink blood? Maybe it’ll rejuvenate you.”
“No.”
“Alright.”
Rein didn’t insist, he just nodded and stood up.
“I’ll go patrol the town and make sure there are no problems. Please sleep for a bit.”
Julie didn’t give a response, she just kept looking at Furball, seemingly in a daze.
…
Outside of the Baron’s manor, Rein, clad in his eye-catching plate armor, looked at the patrolling Knights and guards.
Despite her age, Julie was a very respected ruler, so it wasn’t a surprise when most of the Knights and Guards under her chose to stay. Still, the ‘forces’ under her weren’t big enough to be considered an army.
As he left the Residential District, Rein’s path was blocked by Elyna. This quiet maid, who would occasionally accompany Julie, made Rein feel extremely uncomfortable.
He could feel the demonic energy within her body. It was so potent and ominous. The minor ‘Holy Blessing’ he had made him feel as if he needed to exterminate the inherent evil inside Elyna.
“...”
As she kept looking at him with cold eyes, Rein forced a smile, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword.
After a prolonged and tense silence, Elyna simply walked past Rein. As he saw her figure disappear from sight, Rein’s body relaxed and a sigh of relief escaped his lips.
‘She’s suspecting me. I need to be ready…’
Rein considered Julie a very good and trustworthy friend despite the fact she was a Vampire. It was for that reason that he agreed to do this ‘mission’. He truly believed in the Holy Church’s capability to cure Julie of her Vampirism.
…
Greenbell Forest, 1 Kilometer North of Wilsden
Feylord wandered the quiet woods, enjoying the serene atmosphere and taking in the nature. With most of the townspeople gone, Wilsden was quiet too, however, the constant looks of disgust and hate that everyone gave him made him come here.
As he basked in the sunlight and aimlessly marched around, Feylord suddenly halted his feet and looked to the side: There, not even ten steps away, stood a woman with long blonde hair.
“Stop.”
Instead of feeling surprised, he frowned and muttered that word. He sounded annoyed, if not a little bit tired of this illusion.
It wasn’t the first time he had seen his mother appear in front of him. This odd ‘occurence’ started happening ever since the Anomaly’s reaction a couple of days ago.
However, as time went by, this realistic ‘image’ of his mother kept appearing more frequently. Moreover, it seemed to be trying to tell him something, though it never actually said anything.
“I’m not crazy.”
Feylord spoke those words through gritted teeth, his eyes furiously glaring at his mother.
To him, she was the only person he had ever cherished and loved.
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As his mother kept staring at him with a gentle smile, Feylord raised his hand and unleashed a small blast of flames.
The Phoenix Fire did nothing to his mother, but as it hit a tree and then disappeared, Feylord heard a soft gasp from the other side.
He swiftly reacted, his body turning around and his hand firing a fireball at a big bush a fair distance away.
When he saw the fireball hit the bush and then get absorbed by somesort of vacuum-like ‘energy’, Feylord prepared himself to launch an even more powerful attack.
“W-wait! Stop!”
A somewhat feminine voice, mixed with a buzzing sound, came from the bush. Much to his surprise, a big rectangular head with circular edges revealed itself.
It was an Arman, and from the look of the lower body, it seemed to be a female. The ‘eyes’, if they could even be called that, were colored pink and red.
“Arman?”
Feylord, his arm now covered in vermillion flames, didn’t show any signs of retracting his hostility.
“Yes! I’m Ferendia Valsik. Head of the Department of Science.”
One of Ferendia’s hands was holding a black ball that pulsated with a dark-orange light.
“That was the Phoenix flame, right?”
The ball in her hand pulsated with stronger light before it broke into pieces.
“Amazing! You really are the Phoenix!”
“What are you doing here?”
Feylord looked around, trying to make sure that she was alone. He knew of the so-called Gold City and the rise of the Armans, which was why he suspected that Ferendia wouldn’t come alone here.
“I… I came here to investigate… umm… please don’t attack me.”
The more she talked, the softer and quieter her voice was. Ferendia started to realize the trouble she had put herself in.
She wasn’t supposed to sneak so close to Wilsden, especially not alone. Unfortunately, her curiosity got the better of her.
“Investigate wha-”
“Can you help me? You’re from Wilsden, right? I’ve seen your face before… Feylord Lernon, yes?”
“...”
“I mean you no harm! I didn’t think I’d run into you here. I swear! This is all a coincidence! A happy coincidence!”
Instead of looking afraid, Ferendia was excited as she knelt on the ground and kept talking non-stop. Her ‘eyes’ kept blinking non-stop, scrutinising Feylord with extreme interest and intrigue.
A small burst of flames ignited from Feylord’s hand and cascaded onto Ferendia, though it didn’t harm her.
The Arman Scientist screamed and covered her head, but the flames quickly dispersed.
“Shut up for a second, okay?”
“Yes! I’ll shut up! My mouth is closed! See?”
She did a comical gesture of zipping her mouth, which looked weird since she didn’t actually have one.
“You were sent here to investigate what?”
“Actually, I don’t know yet! A lot of weird stuff has been going on in Wilsden. That and the appearance of the Nameless Knight!”
“...”
“Just in the couple of days alone, we detected the Energy Blasts fired from the Despot Collective’s Magic Cannon, but before we could intercept them, they just… poof!” She made another gesture with her hands, sounding excited.
“Such high concentrations of Mana can’t just disappear like that! Magic is like Science! It is subjected a set of rules! There is something in Wilsden!”
‘So that blinding light was from a Magic Cannon? The Anomaly reacted to that and stopped it?’
As Feylord was piecing things together, Ferendia, still kneeling, studied his expression.
“You know something, don’t you, Feylord? Can you tell me? Please!”
“Can’t you shut up for a minute?”
“But I wanna know! Ehm… I can pay you! I have lots of Gold! And I can build small and big artifacts that are considered high-grade!”
Instead of responding, Feylord approached her and took out one of the handful of artifacts in his possession. It was a rather low-grade magical chain that was used to bind Ferendia’s hands.
“W-wait wait… oh… I thought you were going to kill me. Are you bringing me to Wilsden? I can’t go there! The Consul will be angry if I’m caught! Spare me, Feylord! Please!”
Despite being in such a situation, Ferendia just wouldn’t shut up.
“Stand up and come with me.”
“No! Please!”
Ferendia clung to his leg and ‘cried’, though that only added to his irritation.
“Either you listen or I’ll drag you there.”
“But why? I’m not a useful hostage. You won’t get anything from the Lord Consul! If you want anything, I can give it to you!”
“No.”
“I mean it! Like… Our archives date back to the 2nd Era! I-I’m also ready to part with some of my strongest artifacts! Come on, Feylord… be merciful! I’m just a Scientist!”
As he tried to free his leg from her arms, Ferendia tightened her hold and kept her incessant begging.
After a bit, he looked down at her while hesitantly asking,
“What do you know about the Phoenix?”
“Oh, a lot! I can’t remember everything but our Archives have a lot of info about all Mythical Creatures!”
“...”
“Are you changing your mind? You are, aren’t you? I’ll take you to my lab! I have enough clearance to access most of the archives.”
“Are you stupid? Why would I intentionally walk into an enemy base?”
“Enemy? We’re not enemies, Feylord! In fact, we can be friends! Hehehe… having the Phoenix as a friend is something to boast about.”
‘Seriously, what the hell is this woman?’
The mood-shifts and her way of talking made her seem quite obnoxious, if not a little bit naive. It was hard to think of her as an actual Arman Scientist. Still, she didn’t seem to be strong enough to pose a threat.
“My lab isn’t in Gold City. Well, not inside of it, at least. I swear on the Arman Honor that no harm will come to you! You’ll be my cherished guest! So, can you not take me to Wilsden? Come on, Feylord.”
In the end, Feylord didn’t drag Ferendia to Wilsden, but he didn’t let her go either.
“Don’t leave me here”
North-West of Wilsden, somewhere in the silent and peaceful woods, he took her to a basement of an old and destroyed uninhabited cabin. The place was damp, dusty, and mouldy. Certainly, it was a good location to imprison someone, but until he sorted his thoughts, Feylord had to resort to this.
Between Rein Goldstar, whatever was happening with the Nameless Knight, and the escalation situation in Wilsden, he didn’t want to bring more trouble to Julie and risk getting kicked out.
Upon seeing him sit down and lean against the cold stone wall, Ferendia’s ‘eyes’ blinked non-stop in confusion.
“You’re not leaving? Why take me here? Torture won’t work on me, okay?!”
“Please… just shut up.”
Feylord massaged his temples and looked down, feeling a slight headache. After a couple of seconds, the figure of his mother appeared. He closed his eyes shut and held his head.
“...”
Ferendia kept looking at him, finally keeping quiet.