It took them nearly three days to return even remotely closer to Eve Glade. Throughout the way, the mood hasn’t exactly gotten better, but it hasn’t gotten worse either.
Zeke went off to give his condolences to Jackie, offering solace despite feeling that his brother’s death was due to his failure. Whether Jackie knew his guilt, or perhaps he’s always been mature that way, he accepted them with gratefulness.
He also did the same for Philip, who shared his own grief as he knew Lisa along with Philip, being part of the mage group. While Philip was still hurting from it, Zeke knew that he could get past it.
Though it would take a while, considering Philip had a thing for her. However, he couldn't do a thing about that, so Zeke returned back to the carriage. Or rather, was held by Mikella and Myra to give his blessings. It was a little embarrassing as Mikella once again decided to carry him in a princess-style.
Along the way, as he promised, Zacharia asked both him and Mikella about their knowledge. Thankfully, Piker offered up his help just in time, giving the general the rundown of their knowledge via their travels together to save Zeke from the dungeon. And better enough, Zacharia understood the half-truths he said.
Most of the information they got were from their master who was actually an exile from the country of mages, something that clearly got Zeke’s interest before delving back into the topic. After figuring that mages were involved, Zacharia understood that whatever they focus on tends to go way beyond his pay grade, so Zacharia finally left them be.
The two thanked Piker, as he responded with a wave of his hand.
“You two went far beyond your norms to help us. It’s only natural to give due. And Zeke… thank you for saving the captain. No matter how much I trained, there was no way for me to help anyone in such a state.”
It turned out that while Piker trusted the general with his life, he also respected the captain as much as any other soldier did. Zeke already knew that while Piker can be a dick sometimes, he is actually a pretty good dude.
Though Mikella leaned heavily on him still being a dick in the worst of times, for which Zeke can’t really deny.
Eventually the four; Zeke, Mikella, Cloud, and Val gathered together to talk about the attunement. Myra would’ve joined, but she was off consoling Jackie by making sure he wasn’t alone. Not that he was in any danger of being by himself, but when grieving, it’s better to be surrounded by the people you knew and loved. Zeke also knew that Myra needed this just as much as Jackie did.
They talked about how they gained their attunements, which got Cloud shocked to find out how Mikella gained her attunement via combat, and how Zeke got such a rare aspect. Despite his weary state, Cloud went into overdrive as he considered what they had gained throughout the battle.
“It’s one thing for Mikella’s Unbridled Fulmination. I heard that there are sub-variants for these types of elemental attunements. What Mikella has is the more aggressive type of lighting-based Mana, and the element itself is rare by itself. However, it is also difficult to control. I suggest we find ways for you to train without hurting yourself in the process.”
Mikella grimaced, but she nodded in affirmation. Once again, Zeke couldn’t help but think that Mikella got the bad end of the power receiving, often getting difficult to handle powers like her class, and now her attunement.
“As for you, Zeke… I think what you got yourself is an aspect from a higher plane. Something rarer than your normal aspect attunement.”
“Higher plane?” Zeke asked, his attention now fully grabbed.
“Right now, we’re in a plane where these elements reside, ranging far beyond the normal four elements. But somewhere beyond us is a plane with higher concepts. Such as the ability to perceive spiritual pressure that doesn’t exist in this world, or being able to meet creatures that cannot live here, only existing beyond our existence. Such aspects can be found there, but only a few can ever grasp on something so intangible while their souls persist in the mortal coil.”
“So… Zeke somehow managed to transcend from our realm?” Mikella asked, worried about painting her tone.
“Rather, something from that realm forced itself onto me,” Zeke said, getting Mikella even more worried by the look on her face.
“I can’t deny that it sounds potentially troublesome, but I doubt that’s the case,” Cloud continued. “Unlike Undeath, a rare but incredibly malicious aspect, those from the higher realms are… just above it. Even if it did took your choice away, I doubt anyone would complain about an attunement that’s more powerful than anything else. Though I’m still not sure on the specifics. I never heard of an attunement called The World, after all.”
Zeke grimaced, nodding in thanks to Cloud’s wisdom once more. He also can’t help but think that somehow, the reason why his mental disorder hasn’t gone away at all in the past world is mostly due to this. His mind was somehow not connected to his real body, and only managed to do so after years of hard work and toil.
The more he thought about it, the more bitter he got. That apparently was caught by Mikella as she asked.
“Zeke?” She tilted her head at him. “You okay?”
“Yeah…” Zeke shook his head. “Just taking a while to get used to this.”
Eventually they got to talk about the tier wording, which for them was at one. Apparently they can raise the tier and increase their attunement’s power and abilities some more, but it’s not as easy as leveling, and it could even get extremely expensive as they need a powerful source of where their aspect came from, or a specialized concoction like Myra’s potion to gain the Fire attunement.
As time passed, Zeke tried to recover what little Mana he had, at least to test out his new aspect. However, it was becoming harder to gain back his Mana than usual, due to his spirit still being out of sorts.
Not that the others let him do anything anyways. Just like with Val, he was resolutely locked out of combat, mostly due to making sure he doesn’t do anything rash that could end up killing him. Mikella was clearly the instigator behind this, but it only made it apparent when Cloud added in his bit as well.
So Zeke and Val got more time to hang out together in the carriage, which resulted in the two getting seriously bored. The best they could do is converse, which easily became the worst thing for Zeke as Val started talking about the romantic parts with Cloud, and even worse, asking him how he was with Mikella.
But then the group stopped moving. Zeke looked up to see the others looking confused for a second as Cloud looked onwards.
“What’s going on…?” Cloud muttered, making Zacharia come over to take a look.
“Is that smoke coming from there?” The general pointed out as there was in fact a large trail of black smoke crawling upwards to the afternoon daylight.
They should have been getting closer to the town, with Zeke slowly returning back to normal. His body was still sore, as though his soul damage returned in full force.
But after seeing the large trail of smoke, particularly coming from somewhere they knew would be their town, Zeke pulled himself out of the carriage along with Val who walked over to Cloud’s side.
“Cloud, what is this? That couldn’t be…” Val asked with a hint of worry in her tone.
“No, no…” Cloud shook his head. “That can’t be.”
“Eve Glade is under attack!”
Zacharia shouted as he immediately commanded his horse, spurring it on to gallop towards the direction of the town.
The moment the words escaped from him, everyone immediately began to act. Each one began to run along with Zacharia, with both Zeke and Val forced to return to the carriage, led by Cloud and Myra who were also in hot pursuit.
However, the way there was marred with dozens of trees and overarching branch paths. Even if they were close, they had hours before they could return, and who knew how long the town could last.
Seeing this, Zeke called out to everyone.
“Guys! I’m making a barrier bridge!” Zeke shouted, getting their attention as he aimed his finger at the sky above them. “We’ll go straight above the forest!”
“Wait, Zeke, that’s too dangerous,” Mikella said. “Your body won’t–”
“I know that!” Zeke shouted back. “But Clara is in there!”
The moment Clara’s name was mentioned, Mikella had no choice but to stay silent. Her eyes were practically screaming to head over to the town, but deep inside Zeke could tell that she was fighting for his own safety.
However, despite everyone urging her to do so with a silent stare, Zeke spoke up again.
“Let me do this,” Zeke assured her as he stood upright to his knees in the carriage and closed his eyes.
He commanded his mana through his damaged channels, feeling the strain on his soul. And when he casted his barriers, it felt…
Simple. Like breathing. He knew it was maxed out and had a potential to improve again, but this was something else. It was barely given a thought before a slew of barriers were formed. One barrier was placed diagonally upwards, then another one and another one formed right after the other, easily getting over the canopies themselves.
Even more so, he felt his vision expand as the barriers kept being created, as though his very soul was traveling across the rows of barriers before him. Before he realized it, his barriers were reaching over hundreds of meters away from himself.
Everyone else was gaping in shock at the sight of it.
“By the gods…” Philip said, his voice in awe.
“D-Didn’t Zeke say his barrier got maxed out?” Paul the scout said, remembering the words Zeke said throughout their three days. “And the attunement too?”
“That ain’t a power that a simple Expert mage can pull off,” Philip said, shaking his head in wonder. His words weren’t hostile–if anything, they were praises.
“Less talking, more moving!” Piker shouted as he and the general were just about ready to step onto the newly made bridge of his barriers. “Zeke, can you assure that they can keep our weight even up in the air?”
“Yes!” Zeke shouted, getting everyone to look at him. “Now go! just go!”
Before everyone else could even consider the potential danger of riding along the bridge made without any rails for safety, Mikella galloped forth with her horse in tow.
She and the horse ran across the stable bridge without any issues, and their speed easily eclipsed the amount of time and effort needed to pass through the forested areas in front of them. The others quickly followed, with Myra taking her time with Cloud to go on with the carriage.
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“There’s no time,” Val shouted, making herself jump up and expertly land behind Cloud. That easily surprised him, but Val ignored any further protest as he turned to Zeke. “Myra, go get Zeke out!”
“Roger!”
And thus, Zeke was treated like a disabled veteran as Myra helped him out of the carriage and straight onto her horse behind her. Zeke knew the urgency was there, but he couldn't help but get embarrassed being treated like this despite Myra having no objections to it.
And soon, the rest of the army followed the branching barrier bridge upwards, making a direct way there to the town that was burning right in front of their eyes.
…..
Anger boiled in her veins as her horse galloped across Zeke’s bridge.
As usual, the bridge held her aloft despite the impossibility of it all. She was currently going about two or three times faster than she normally would have through the forest, not having to go through the tumultuous natural obstructions it provided and making sideway paths forward.
And despite his exhaustion and how his mana refused to recover as quickly, it’s as though the barrier has become stronger and denser than before. If the barrier from before the dungeon run felt like reinforced glass, this now felt like being on top of naturally born steel crafted to perfection.
Maxed level aside, Zeke truly put in the effort. Even now, as she ran and noticed the bridge up front was falling short, more barriers were created, as though Zeke was following behind her by every step, allowing her through.
She used it all gladly as she could see the town in front of her. Her heart slammed against her chest as the smoke from earlier led to a horrific truth.
The town was being attacked, and not by monsters–but by people.
Perhaps it was due to her being at Expert stage, she could see far beyond what any normal human being would in her past world. Through her eyes, she saw a plethora of humans wearing heavy plated armor with light leathering between the joints. They were colored in the blue and gold colors of some territory power. She couldn’t care less about where they came from as she only thought about one thing.
Clara.
As if the horse felt her rage, it neighed in defiance against the intruders, catching their attention as they finally noticed the impossible bridge that was just made recently.
And the flying horse with a woman on top of it jumping off, her sword in hand. Electricity coiled around her body as she could no longer hold back her rage.
Earlier, she made her adjustments with her class upgrade. The options that which Zeke, rudely enough, chortled at when she got them.
> -Chaotic Dragon Warrior
> -Dragon Berserker
> -Dragon Knight
The first two options were the ones that Zeke laughed at, which by all accounts were entirely plausible thanks to Mikella’s personality. And she was sure that her madness would only get worse if she picked one of them.
However, after looking into the single one that had a respectable name, the Dragon Knight, it was based solely on dueling a single opponent, which wasn’t something she intended on becoming. Sure, getting more power facing a single opponent would be nice, but life isn’t fair like that. You would get put against multiple enemies as like one would expect, numbers always trump quality in more than many occasions.
So with great effort, she decided to look into the first two options. Chaotic Dragon Warrior had a description that would describe the worst case scenario, capable of causing massive destruction without a thought on who stood beside her.
Sure, Zeke could just put up a barrier around the scene to make sure Mikella can go as crazy as she wished, but as usual, she hated the idea of Zeke having to work off her slack of self-control. So even if the class offered way more power than the other two, she put that aside for the next one.
> Dragon Berserker
> A dragon warrior’s path that goes far beyond that of fighting. A Dragon Berserker is one who uses everything in their arsenal, no longer specializing in just one aspect of fighting. They don’t care about punctuality and only focus on one thing; Winning the fight.
>
> Attribute Growth Per Level:
> +3 STR
> +3 DEX
> +3 END
>
> 2 Skill Choices at Level 30, Level 40, and at Level 50.
In the end, it was the better choice out of all of them. It no longer mentioned sword fighting, which if she was honest, she liked the idea of using multiple weapons. Not to mention she would definitely like the option of using bows as the dungeon taught her that close-combat doesn’t always solve everything.
So she chose the class, as well as the skill choice that went along with it.
> You have chosen Dragon Berserker
>
> For each level, you gain:
> +3 STR
> +3 DEX
> +3 END
>
> For choosing Dragon Berserker, all current and future weapon mastery skills has advanced. They are now Uncommon.
>
> Spear Mastery has become Uncommon
> Axe Mastery has become Uncommon
>
> You gain points based on the advanced rarity for all of the current skills:
>
> +1 STR
> +1 END
…..
> Class Skill: Draconic Fury
> A Dragon Berserker knows no bounds, no limits. Enter into a state of unequal power, increasing your Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, as well as the regeneration rate of your resources. Increases overall bonuses according to the level of the skill.
…..
She roared and struck down on the ground, flaring Draconic Fury. Her muscles tensed as her stats rose, the impact exploding out from where she originated. Shockwaves of pure lightning appeared around her vicinity, passing through the air and hitting the invaders who screamed in agony and pain.
Upon closer inspection, she noticed that the town was actually covered in a barrier, despite the town’s buildings being partly broken from the outside. While she had no clue why there was a barrier around there, she figured it was something the lords had made in response to them leaving.
All she cared about right now was that the barrier had a broken entrance, something that was clearly done by the invaders to get inside. She didn’t know how long it was broken, but she knew that the limited opening was enough for the invaders to go through.
She didn’t care whether they were the knights of some territory, something that she was warned not to mess with by the lords. After all, they were clearly attacking the town despite whatever peace they had before then.
So when one of them approached her, anger rising in his eyes as he tried to stab her with a sword, she didn’t hesitate and sidestepped, delivering judgment by slicing his head right off his neck.
It was so easy. So very easy. Just like that, she took the life of a human man. A being just like her in every way. But her eyes only saw enemies, invaders trying to take her home, and kill her family.
Her little sister is too innocent for this world. She held her promise even now–she will pave her path in blood if it meant protecting her.
Two more soldiers showed up to take her down, but she was too quick as her body reacted faster than before. Electricity coiled in her veins as she dodged one strike after another, her stats soaring through her numerous skills as she sliced through their arteries and limbs without batting an eye.
Two more invaders down, and she wasn’t even inside the town yet. She dashed forward, using Dragon Descent to the max despite more knights approaching her.
She slaughtered them all with her sword drenched in lightning. Nothing stood in her way as scorched blood drenched the gates, her body covered in it as though she stood under a waterfall.
She dashed through the opening of the barrier, heading into the town to find the entire place in total chaos. Enemy Soldiers flowed through the streets, trying to either burn the town or to find the citizens within the buildings.
While finding her little sister was the main priority, if killing the other soldiers would help the town a little, she wouldn’t refuse. She killed one after another, uncaring about their motives or goals as their lives were snuffed out before they could even realize what was happening.
She could tell that most of the soldiers were laughably weak. While their levels ranged beyond Expert stage, it was nothing compared to the crap she went through at the dungeon. If they were to even try to raid in their state, they wouldn't even go past the first room suffering through the undeath.
Not that they could survive at all without having a support mage among them. Not a single mage or healer were among their group, so even if one knight managed to survive, he’ll surely bleed out from the loss of extremities.
She put that to the side as she searched every nook and cranny of the town, but most of all trying to find the place where Vivian was at to teach the children. But when she arrived at the school Vivian used to teach the kids, she was at a loss.
The building where they taught the class and the outside of it was covered in flames and debris. There was no sign of life there, and the only corpses were the few soldiers and citizens that must have fought to protect themselves.
Putting aside the stench of corpses and burning cinders, she saw someone who was still alive. Her eyes widened when she saw the woman herself on the ground, unwilling to give up as she crawled.
“Vivian!”
Mikella shouted as she knelt down to Vivian, noticing that there were wounds covering her whole body. It looked as though she had a nasty tussle with one of the knights, and she managed to get away, though she looked worse for wear.
“Oh gods… Mikella…” Vivian spoke, her voice harsh and dry from the heat of the flames. “Thank gods you’re here… The girls… they ran that way. Someone… someone was chasing them. Hurry…”
Mikella knew it the moment Vivian finished. She knew Vivian would be fine. She could see it in her eyes that she was a fighter to the end. Nodding to her in appreciation, Mikella ran over to the direction Vivian pointed at. Her eyes were fully locked for combat, her fingers gripping hard on her sword’s hilt.
She ran, her heart slamming against her chest and almost reaching critical mass. All the while, the thoughts of her little sister as well as Ana, from what she gathered from Vivian, possibly getting hurt filled her mind.
She used that as fuel as she turned a corner, seeing what she feared all along.
The two little girls, who must have run away under Vivian’s orders, were stuck in a corner with two soldiers in front of them. They looked down upon them, their eyes filled with nothing but greed and hostility.
Were they actually planning to kill them? No matter what reason they have, what good would harming children even provide for whatever backwater territory they came from?
She could only figure, in the back of her mind, that doing so would make the parents of those children despondent. Or perhaps they knew who Ana was, and figuring killing the child of the lords would turn the town worse for wear. After all, what kind of parent can do their job right after their child dies?
She saw the soldiers now for what they are–Monsters to be killed. Her eyes glowing bright yellow, she roared herself as she jumped into the air.
Lightning covered her body whole as she landed with a horizontal slice across their bodies. They didn’t even realize how they died before their torsos were cut off instantly, blood pouring out from them.
Their bodies dropped instantly, and Mikella kicked them to the side with ease as she knelt down to the girls, to Clara and Ana hugging each other, their eyes closed and tearing up from their potential death.
“Clara! Ana!”
The girls opened their eyes when they saw that it wasn’t the knights trying to hurt them, but Mikella, her eyes softening and tearing up.
“Sissy!”
The two shouted in unison as they embraced their older sister. Mikella hugged the two back with fervor. Her heart was screaming in her chest all this time, but now a powerful relief took over, making her muscles tense in the worst ways, then relaxed.
“Thank god… thank god that you’re safe! The both of you are safe…” Mikella said, her voice breaking in relief and joy.
“Sissy! I was so scared…!” Clara shouted, already sobbing. “They just… they just came out of nowhere…”
“It’s okay, it’s okay sweetie, Sissy’s here now,” Mikella shushed her with soft whispers, rubbing her black hair . “Everything will be fine.”
“I-Is Mommy and Daddy here too?” Ana asked, her sobs low but constant.
“Yes, they’re here too,” Sissy smiled at Ana, who also rubbed her hair softly. Ana held her tighter, to which in Mikella’s eyes she might as well be another sister to love and cherish.
She held onto the two for a while longer, something that she herself needed after so many days away fighting for her life.
However, she didn’t realize that one of the knights was slowly approaching her. Noticing the girls huddling together, the knight slowly brandished his sword up to the air, ready to swing down.
Mikella didn’t even notice the knight. She was so absorbed in comforting the girls that she didn’t see the knight smiling menacingly at her, ready to strike her down.
Then an unexpectant voice shouted at them.
“Mikella!”
Her eyes widened when she turned around, finally noticing the knight ready to strike her down. But rather than doing that, she saw that very knight’s throat get impaled by a sword.
He gasped in shock and horror as he dropped his own sword to the ground, the metal blade clattering noisily.
Mikella watched in awe as the very sword that impaled the knight swiftly sliced through the neck, using a small opening from the roman-style metal helm between the shoulder and head. The attacker killed the knight instantly as he fell to the ground, his eyes turning glassy and distant.
Mikella watched the perpetrator look down at her, his sword covered in red carmine. But his hands didn’t tremble. There was no fear in his eyes.
Only happiness and relief were shown in Zeke’s eyes as he smiled at her.
“Thank god I found you guys,” Zeke said, a smile showing across his face that had blood smeared under his chin and cheek.