Moments passed, and though I cannot see them, I can at least tell that the Beastkins within Remus' ranks aren't advancing towards us. If they did they'd have entered the range of the World Devourer's awareness. The fact that they hadn't means that they have not approached. I wonder if they're stunned by the sudden appearance of their Keeper. I reckon they must be. Though she is [Corrupted], she is still their Keeper, the being that has sway over both their continuing existence and their extinction. When they decided to march, it was out of desperation. Something had led them to believe that by attacking us, they'll find salvation. However, with their Keeper in my control, it should be clear that I am the one who can save them. They need only to submit.
"Hm?"
However, in spite of it all, one lone Beastkin enters the World Devourer's range. It's Remus. And at the speed by which he is approaching, I'll bet it's not because he wants to beg me to let him join us.
It is as Nine had guess then, an unknown force is behind Remus. After all, as far as Remus and any Beastkin should know, sticking to their Keeper is the only way to survive and thrive in this world. To stand against that, they must either have a death wish or that they have knowledge from beyond Elgardia.
However, to approach alone, he must either be very stupid or is very confident in his powers. I'll bet he thinks that so long as he takes out the Keeper, he'll regain control of his troops. If it's me, I might do the same thing. I'll take out the Keeper as swiftly as possible and just tell the others that it was only an illusion, a trick. With their hopes dashed, I'm sure the Beastkins will be more than willing to believe him. Of course, Remus, I'll have you know that such straightforward plans aren't just going to work as you'd like them to.
As Remus gets into range to strike at the World Breaker, a figure appeared right behind him. It's Merida using her skill [Assassination]. Using the spectacle that is the arrival of the [World Breaker Behemoth], she had snuck close to the princess without notice and hid behind the World Breaker. She was there precisely to deal with Remus should he decide to approach.
It seems that Remus is able to detect her, however, and promptly he turns around, swinging his bare fist to deal with her.
Forgetting a little something, have you? The World Breaker isn't just there for show, you know. Or were you actually convinced that it's actually an illusion?
Regardless, the World Breaker swipes her massive claw at Remus as he's distracted by Merida.
"Tch!"
But, he got away, turning into a black mist, Remus used [Shadow Step] to get out of the pincer. Exactly how many skills does he have? And they're all from different classes too. It's almost as if he's using a cheat. If I'm in the game, I'd report him immediately. Sadly, this is Elgardia, so I'll have to deal with him the good old fashion way.
After breaking away from Merida and the World Breaker, Remus heads towards the princess. Perhaps he thinks that she's the one who summoned the World Breaker? Well, it's worth a shot I suppose, at least, that's what I would be thinking. Still, that's not going to happen.
Arrows cut through the air, flying past the princess just in time to intercept Remus' path. As expected, the Faefolk Archers wield their bow like their own limbs. Disappointingly though, Remus deflects them with his bare hands with ridiculously little effort. It is as reported, he's strong. However, the moment I was able to stop his troops in their tracks, he already has no chance of victory. He might have gotten some ridiculous power, but a well-coordinated attack is all it takes to throw him off and sooner or later, he'll have to reveal his opening.
"Won't you give it up already, Remus? You don't stand a chance!"
The princess opens her mouth to speak. From her tone, it's not so much telling him to just lie down and die and more so to convince him to surrender without further conflict.
"Silence your wicked chants, witch! For what you did to my brother, your own father for your wicked plans, I'll slay you!"
However, it doesn't sound like he understood her. I suppose not. Once the princess had switched over to the World Devourer's [Corruption], those with the Holy Beast's [Corruption] will only see her as some filthy [Demon]. That aside, what did he say about the king? What did she do to him? I remember seeing him only once. He's a frail old man, with seemingly only skin and bones left on his person. It was as if all of his muscles and fat had been drained from him. If he weren't moving and speaking, albeit weakly, I would have taken him for some sort of thousand-year-old mummy. However, here is his brother, Remus, looking rather young, in his early thirties maybe. What exactly happened to the king?
Eventually, more Beastkins begin to enter the range of the World Devourer's awareness. Their numbers are definitely not few, and while I doubt they're the entirety of the army Remus brought with him, it certainly must be bulk of it. They either must be very loyal to Remus and his cause, or more likely, they are driven by the madness brought on by the [Corruption], the madness that makes them regard those not of their own with utter hostility.
I was afraid that this might happen. Because unlike the World Devourer, the World Breaker I have here is not the same one that had been the Keeper to these Beastkins. This one is the previous Keeper, the one Nine had defeated and taken control over during an earlier cycle. The one he somehow hid in my world, in Elysium Online, and the one I had somehow obtained.
What now? Just like the World Devourer, the summoned World Breaker has nowhere near the power and magnitude of its original body. In regards to its strength, it should be just slightly stronger than the weakened Holy Beast that Oro had fought. While it should have little problems dealing with just Remus, when up against an army, there may be trouble.
Unleashing a [Whirlwind], the World Breaker pushed back Remus and his approaching soldiers. With that opening, the princess and Merida grab onto the World Breaker and hastily retreat back into the forest through the large city gates. Though it did not go exactly as planned, with that, phase one of the plan concludes. Now, we begin phase two.
Once the princess, Merida, and the World Breaker retreated, the gates to the city were quickly shut tight. There will be no further battle. Here, thanks to the World Devourer's power of life manipulation, we have plenty of supplies that would last us indefinitely. On the other hand, Remus and his forces are living off a dying land without a Keeper. If we play the waiting game, it's all too clear who would win. Time is not on Remus' side. Once his soldiers begin to starve, regardless of their [Corruption], they'll desire to come to our side. It has been said that the more desperate one becomes, the more willing one is to take even the devil's hand. Not to mention, by sowing them the World Breaker, it should be impressed upon their minds where salvations lies.
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That was the plan at least, to hold out as long as possible and outlast Remus' forces and wait for them to break. However, with a massive explosion that even I, while sitting in the throne room of the palace located at the center of the capital, could feel the vibration of, I realize now how much I've underestimated Remus' powers.
The gates, the walls around it, as well as the building and trees a hundred meters within the vicinity of the gates, all of them were obliterated. Along with them, the hundreds of Beaskin soldiers stationed there had been reduced to dust as well. That was more than half of the Beastkin I have within this forest, and just like that, Remus erased them.
"Au- Aurelius, what happened?"
Toto who had arrived here a while ago looks to me with worry. She looks scared, more than she has ever been. In truth, I'm scared too, that explosion was more powerful than any [Meteors] I've seen, and the force of the explosion shook me down to my core even though I'm sitting all the way over here. I had planned initially, should Remus broke past the walls, to use the trees to our advantage and gradually dwindle Remus' forces with hit and run tactics. However, if he has the power to just wipe clean everything within a hundred meters, then there's no point. No one is going to outrun that.
"They've just broke past the front gates."
I try to say it as calmly as I can, but from Toto's paling complexion, I am supposing that it did not come out at all like how I had hoped.
"I... I'm going."
"No, you're not. You've seen Remus in action first hand. You're just going to die."
She remains silent, but though there are no words, her reluctantly still feet are all the answers I need from her.
"Toto, listen, I've got a plan."
"R-really!?"
"Of course, I do. I always have a plan. Just go and get me the princess, alright?"
"Got it, leave it to me!"
"And take the fairies, they know the way!"
Finally having something to do, Toto eagerly runs off with some fairies. Little did she know, I've already sent a fairy to get the 'princess'. I merely need her to not be here when I execute the plan. Well, though I call it a plan, it's more of a last-ditch effort I came up with just a moment ago. Of course, I've considered the possibility a while ago, it's just that I never thought that I'd have to actually try it out. If I could, I rather avoid having to do that. However, at this very moment, with no combat-ready Champion here to fight against the vastly overpowered Remus, I can't say I have much of a choice.
***
"Is this the one?"
Slung over one of the Dragonbrood's shoulder is a figure dressed in thick black robes. Standing amidst the snow, she'd stand out like a sore thumb, which was likely why Six targeted her to kidnap. If it were me, when I see her sticking out like that, I might have suspected a trap, but I suppose such concerns are not something Six would have.
Removing her hood, what we find hidden beneath is the face of a fair-skinned young girl with hair as white as the snow covering the mountains and her black robes only made them more pronounced.
"She looks... normal."
Six expresses his surprise, apparently expecting something else.
"We have Aurelius to thank for adjusting our H.U.D.s. How are the Dragonbroods, Oro? Are they feeling particularly hostile?"
"They're calm. It doesn't look like they're feeling the least bit threatened by her presence."
Corona then steps in, taking a close look at the girl.
"That's good for us, but for this girl, it'll be a different case. We should tie her up. Oh, but even then, she might escape with one of her skills won't she? Did you get to see what her class were, Six?"
"She's a Cleric/Enchanter, I think, but she might have other skills. You never know with this world. Besides, I've heard that Aurelius broke free of restraints with just Enchanter skills before, so even then, ropes might do no good."
"Hm... Maybe we should put her in a condition similar to Oro and Aurelius? After being healed from near-death, Oro enters a coma-like state when he goes to sleep and Aurelius only has a limited time he can stay awake, right? So, maybe if we deal damage to this girl and heal her back up just as her Hp drops to zero, she might end up in a similar condition and just stay asleep most of the time without troubling us."
"Corona... You... How should I put this?"
This woman says the most bone-chilling things so casually, without even blinking an eye too.
"Hmm... It's worth a shot, I think."
"Uh, Oro?"
"It could work, maybe?"
"Six? You too?"
Wait, am I the weird one here? This isn't normal, right? What? We're just going to stab the girl and then heal her back up in the nick of time? We're fine with that?
"That's it, I've heard enough out of you savages! Are all Champions like this?"
Marching up towards us is a girl with horns of mismatched sizes growing on her head. I think her name was Asha? Apparently, she's what they call a Half-Dragon, a descendent between one of the previous Champions and a Dragonbrood. As for how it worked out, I rather not think about it.
"Oh, Asha, I thought you'd be huddling by a fire and complaining about the cold or something."
Of those here, Oro is easily the one most familiar with Asha. I'm told that they get along, but all I've seen them doing were taking shots at one another.
"I was, but I heard that you guys captured an enemy Champion and thought I'd check it out."
"What for?"
"To makes sure she doesn't run off of course. Or what? Did you guys think you could just hold her in ropes?"
"Well no. Hence our discussion."
"And I was telling you that it's barbaric. You might as well chop off her limbs and tie her up with her own innards while you're at it."
"Okay, now who's the savage one here?"
"What I'm trying to say is, there's a better way to do this."
"Do tell, we're all waiting."
"Well, you have me, don't you? I can seal off her abilities."
"Really!? You can do that!?"
"Of course I can. Who do you think I am?"
The method Asha was talking about turns out to be a spell: [Curse of Silence]. Back in Elysium Online, it was a spell only certain enemies have and were inaccessible by players. Apparently, it had been originally planned to be part of a list of non-class restricted spells to be released. However, it was eventually scrapped due to balancing difficulties. I didn't think that the same spell would exist here in such a manner.
This reminds me of what Corona had said, about how this world felt weird to her, that it feels artificial. I wonder if we're really in another world created by the One Being like Aurelius had said, or are we really just trapped inside Elysium Online itself. Aurelius said that the One Being created both worlds, but is that really true? Is there even a One Being? I mean, at the end of the day, it was just something Aurelius saw in his dream, right? And even assuming that there is such a thing as a creator and said creator created both worlds, why is the only similarity found in Elysium Online, a single game, and nowhere else. To even begin with, while the One Being may have created our world, assuming what Aurelius said was true, Elysium Online, a game, was created by people. How did these people create something so similar to a whole other world?
Speaking of which, who were the ones who developed Elysium Online again? I never really paid attention to such things so even if I saw their names or logo here and there, I can't quite remember.
"Hey, Six, who were the ones who made Elysium Online again?"
Six turns towards me with a quizzical expression. We were watching over Asha as she applies [Curse of Silence] on the captured Champion, so this question may look like it came out of nowhere.
"You didn't know? You've seen their logo when you start up the game, right?"
"Yeah well, I never paid attention."
"Huh, I thought you're a more detail-oriented sort."
"Well, what could I say, I never really cared about who made the game."
"Anyways, it's Anima Softworks."
"Hmm... Anima Softworks. Anima Softworks. Anima Softworks. Alright, I'll remember that, probably."
"Sure, but why ask now?"
"Nothing much. Just thought I'd look them up once we get back."
"I doubt you'll find anything about Elgardia though."
"Maybe, but I want to take a look anyway. Maybe I'll learn something."
"Well, good luck. If we ever make it back I mean."
"Don't you go jinxing it, Six."
"I'm just saying, that's all."
***
End of Chapter 84