“I think it’s best if you hear it from him directly.” Angela teased, her expression made it absolutely clear that she was triggering him on purpose.
“I’m guessing it’s the small team with a teleporter and lots of mana crystals...” Gilliam knew this would work... unless there was something weird blocking travel between the landmasses, but based on Sirzan’s explanations it should work. Incidentally, due to the sandy air and uncertainty of distance, flying between the landmasses should keep them safe for the time. Unless someone teleported and informed the others...
There were a lot to consider, and though he got a lot of good info out of Sirzan it was not enough to base everything on. He could also have been lying about things.
Angela shrugged, it seems that either she didn’t actually know, or she wanted to keep him in the dark about it. Either way she seemed surprisingly satisfied, and given her prophecy it would hint a bit towards the small group concept, as that would make them the most heroic if they succeed.
The rest of the food was eaten surprisingly fast, Gilliam might be somewhat patient but when he has control over what he’s doing, like the speed of eating, he was just as impatient as most kids.
Once the food was done they immediately made their way towards Ledels’ office, dodging half sleeping people in the hallway was a norm quite some time already. Walking up the spiral staircase to his office was oddly exciting, in both a positive and negative way. He had made this walk several times before, though today was a bit different; he expected to be told to somehow Uno reverse card the invasion and invade the demon world instead. Last time he was there against his will, if he was to go there now it would be with preparation and a more solid goal in mind.
Being deep in thought most of the walk there he suddenly found himself at the headmaster’s door, autopilot had him knock on the door and enter before he properly got a moment to think about it. Inside of the fancy office was not only Ledels himself, Kintas was there, as was a very ornately dressed man and a large tiger-man that looked like he could bench-press horses. Ledels himself looked devastatingly tired where he was sitting behind his desk.
“Ah, Mr. Gibson.” Ledels started as the group entered the room, Angela closing the door after they had all entered. “I’ll get straight to the point. The Emperor has decreed that everyone who can fight should protect V’ida and her people. Meaning that we’re not going to get much help from there.”
The fancy dressed man didn’t seem to agree with the wording, but nodded nonetheless. Given the situation this seemed like someone higher up in the hierarchy on that side of things.
“I have discussed the different ideas and info we have with my more tactically inclined contacts and... Well... The best idea so far is as you mentioned yesterday; a small group of people going in, finding their leader and taking him out. You fit this idea for several reasons.”
As Ledels started explaining why Gilliam was suited for this, he got up from his chair and walked around his desk to better face Gilliam.
“You are not directly tied to V’ida, so you won’t be considered to go against any decrees, and I believe you might be one of the few that might be able to actually succeed.”
Gilliam couldn’t help but be a bit flattered at this, he knew this off course, simply because of what he could do and the dumb power level he was capable of using, it was somewhat clear. But even so; flattery didn’t hurt.
“Now, that being said, you shouldn’t go in alone...” Ledels looked across the group that was already present. “Your slave should not be a problem, but Ms. Sizoc is a problem.”
Angela chimed in with a shrug. “Not really, if I just sign a vague short-term contract to be part of his circle that should fix itself.”
The statement came fast enough that she had clearly planned this ahead, either that or she was just more fast-witted than Gilliam expected her to be.
Ledels’ eyes widened a bit alongside a smile. “That’s a wonderful idea, it should also keep you from any problems when you come back.”
There was a brief moment where Ledels had an odd pressure on ‘when’, Gilliam considered that he might have been wanting to say ‘if’ but managed to catch it before saying it.
“So... Is that all? The four of us? If you count Savia?” Gilliam didn’t seem too happy with the group. There was going to be a lot of shit going down, unless they managed to somehow bypass it all but that seemed incredibly unlikely.
“I was considering sending Kintas, but to be honest he’s probably one of our most vital combatants here at the academy if more gates open... So unless you manage to recruit someone else...” It was clear that Ledels really wanted to help, but for several reasons couldn’t.
Had it not been for that dumb decree then anyone could be part of this, and though said orders made sense to protect the people it was still a bit problematic. Though a lot fell on Gilliam’s shoulders it was still not something he hadn’t somewhat expected.
One could argue the point that there was no reason for him to go out on a limb like this for a world that’s not even his own. The counter to this is that it is his world now. He might not know that much about it but if it gets properly invaded it will really affect him as well. The longer it goes without stopping the worst it’ll most likely become, meaning that the only way of really getting a stable life here is to be part of the invasion. Sending waves of soldiers and other people could end up just giving them more and more food, which will in turn empower them more and more. So the most logical reason is to go in with a few and do the most with that.
At least that was the logic Gilliam used to persuade himself. A little of it might also be the childlike Hero-syndrome, a lot of men dream of the overwhelming odds kind of scenario but always hope it never happens. In Gilliam’s case, no matter what excuse or reasoning, he is the best one for the job, both for his own sake and others.
A part of him almost wanted to discuss a reward for this, but he quickly realised that the fame would come with its own, and the potential threat of him not staying could be enough.
But that was a discussion for future Gilliam.
Some time went to discuss the upcoming plans, they also fixed Angela’s contract right away so this was solid; it was set with an expiration of when the demonic invasion is handled, or mutual agreement of both parties.
The upcoming plans were surprisingly simple in concept, they would keep training and preparing themselves to go on a moment’s notice. The first gate that opens would be their entry; they were to teleport in and up. To make sure that their arrival was not shared in the Fractured Lands a bombing of the inside of the portal was needed. From there they just had to make their way to the center, through figuring out their local teleportation or a mixture of flying and teleporting, and find the lord before publicly challenging him.
Since Aeris was not allowed to go, something Gilliam was completely fine with, and there weren’t any other available teleporters; a lot of this fell on Savia. She had shown great promise after such a short time. The only thing the academy could really do in this situation was to allocate teaching and aiding resources in Lisica, as soon as the gate opened they were on their own. The academy itself would go more into practical combat teaching anyway, though this teaching was always present it would be focused more on due to logical reasons. A lot of students will be sent home as part of a war-like clause in the contracts, in short there will be more combat training at the same time as there would be less students.
“Can I take some of Kintas’ time?” Gilliam requested Ledels. “The training I did with him and Ghaos really helped me, I want to give Angela and Petal a chance for the same.”
Though that would absolutely need the dome.
“You can request the time of anyone who isn't doing anything else, same with any resources the school normally has, if it’s not already in use you can take advantage of it.” Ledels gave him a blanket OK for anything as long as it was something he should normally have access to.
Though it was nice to get that confirmed, it really didn’t change much, however if everyone was in combat-training mode it should at least make a few things easier.
The meeting ended without ceremony, the group left and was left to their own. The first thing on Gilliam’s mind was supplies. He had the ring, so carrying things wasn’t a problem, based on the tests with the ant and the apple slice, things should last for quite some time in there as well. Asking about he was simply sent to the kitchen connected to the wing he ate in, and they were more than happy to help. Seemingly having been informed about this already it was not a problem to persuade them.
Food that could be eaten as is, and can be stored at least moderately long, just in case. Though he could create drinkable water, having something with more energy in it was probably a good idea, so some juice and dried stock in the form of small dice; just add to water and have a nutrient rich drink.
He filled a sizable part of the ring’s storage with this, as it was one of the most vital parts of the trip. The next thing were normal tools, never underestimate the value of things like a hammer or rope. Worst case scenario it could always be taken out of the ring to make room for something else, but this way they were at least prepared. The local janitorial force of the academy helped fine with the mundane tools and equipment.
This gathering of resources only took a few hours in total, they had stored food for quite some time, many different mundane tools and some travelling equipment like tents, tarps and bedrolls. Odds were that they would be underground like he spent time before, but victory favours the prepared.
Once that was handled lunchtime was barely over, and at this point the only thing was to train and wait. There were improvements they could do to themselves, more group training to get used to fighting together and just general self improvement. As they couldn’t get into the Fractured Lands without a portal, so they were just using the waiting time for something practical.
And once the Gate does open, they were reliant on Savia, meaning that she had to get a certain mastery level before they could really consider going, so if a Gate opened before she was ready they would just have to close it and wait for the next.
“Yeah, I can fight them.” Kintas seemed to have some downtime as Gilliam walked over to the surprisingly empty sparring arena he taught in. He turned towards Angela and Petal specifically. “You want a sparring or a fight?”
The confused faces of the two made sense, they hadn’t been through the same talk that Gilliam had before. Or, Petal kind of had, being in Gilliam’s room when Kintas demanded a fight, but she might not have been awake at the time.
“I think we’ll activate the dome and have a fight.” Gilliam smiled, it was the most realistic kind of training and Kintas was a good example of an overwhelming combatant.
“Yeah, no problem.” Kintas starts walking towards the Light Field where the Dome was constructed. “We can do a three-on-one if you want. That could be interesting. It’s been a while since I had a challenge.” He smiled widely, cocky and arrogantly. However, having fought him before Gilliam knew that it was not all arrogance. However he did wonder how well he would fare against the three of them.
Angela and Petal were a bit confused at his idea of teams, Angela did muse that it could let them work on their team play but could Kintas really handle all of them?
The musings and some talks passed the short time until they got to the Dome fast enough. Gilliam put in one of the large mana crystals and activated it easily enough, the dome formed like all the other times and the lot entered it during its construction.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Kintas pulled his oddly short blade and socketed the teal gem in its hexagonal pommel. Cutting his arm ever so slightly he saw that it healed itself instantly, signalling to everyone that the dome was working as it should.
“Well, come at me whenever.” Kintas didn’t even take a stance or even look ready. Gilliam knew that the man had like 70 years of highly specialised experience or something so he was not exactly a random pleb, but just the way he looked defenceless seemed to be enough to trigger Petal.
She ran in and seemed to go for a somewhat obvious attack of clawing at his chest, he effortlessly dodged both that and the real attack which used the first one as a feint. It almost looked like Kintas just twitched with his blade before Petal fell to the ground mortally wounded. She healed in the matter of a second and was moving again, but it still meant that whatever he did in that twitch of his was enough to leave a deep and fatal cut across her abdomen.
Angela didn’t take nicely to this, a deep breath and refocusing later she also darted in, she lasted a little longer due to sheer training experience but it didn’t take many moves before she was also heavily wounded.
“So...-” Gilliam started as he manifested his sword, activating the slender, teal Aether blade. “I guess this means you took it easy on me before?” It was more stating the obvious rather than an actual question.
Kintas didn’t reply but rather sported the most sinister shit-eating grin you could imagine. The fucker didn’t join this fight for their sake... did he...
Casting a simple Aether dart at him, Gilliam aimed for it to mainly distract him enough for Angela or Petal to do something behind him, it would have worked had the man not.. sensed... or something, what went on. He easily attacked the supersonic dart in the air, breaking its stability and having it fade, in the same movement he grabbed onto Petal’s incoming clawed hand and used her own hand to stab Angela in the chest. Petal was horrified for a moment before the wound in Angela’s chest healed. This calmed her down a bit but it put them both on proper guard against the extreme expert of close combat.
Kintas calmly pulled his finger along the flat of the blade, activating several teal runes as he did so. Looking at the group who had currently surrounded him.
“Bring it, fuckers!”
The following fight was so one sided that it didn’t even count as a fight, it was more of a repeated massacre from Kintas’ side. Changing blade elements helped a bit but he seemed to catch on relatively quickly, though changing the effects mid-attack seemed to help a lot in keeping him guessing, making his reactions at least a tiny bit slower. Gilliam wanted to use this as a good time to try out some of the more sinister concepts of the blade, but decided against it as possibly affecting friendlies with the Darkness mist didn’t sound good...
The boost built into the coat he was wearing helped Gilliam quite a lot, however it was still not enough in front of Kintas’ self empowering magic, he also changed the crystals of his pommel which in turn gave him different movements and effects. And it seemed that if he swapped crystals fast enough the runes on his blade took up different colours; letting him stack or change the effects through some weird synergy.
Naturally, Gilliam didn’t consider only melee, he mixed in plenty of magic, this turned the tide substantially when done but it was hard to make sure he didn’t hit Angela or Petal. In the moments they realised that he was preparing a spell and moved away, this became a sure victory. No matter how fast he was, he couldn’t dodge large area effects. Though that said it seemed like he had some spell disrupting abilities as at times he was able to cancel out the spell as it was mid-flight, though this was not the case for spells that ‘became real’ after casting. The Aether Dart was magic through the point of impact, but pulling up a rock and throwing it couldn’t be dispelled after throwing as it was just a rock at that point. Though that only worked a very few times.
Gilliam did find amusement in how much he feared the possibility of throwing the large mana crystals, however based on the explosion they had made before he didn’t do that as it would most likely take out everyone. However, he did use some marble sized ones, launching them via telekinesis, even Kintas couldn’t dodge actual supersonic speed projectiles, the resulting explosion also took him out several times. However, just as often as it landed, he also managed to either dodge it or force friendly fire by putting an ally in the marble’s path.
This went on for quite some time, and like the other times they didn’t really stop until it was becoming dark outside. The shimmering field of the dome illuminated them enough that it was not easy to see unless you actively looked to the outside. This didn’t deter any students from looking, and as the other times there was a crowd outside. Some cheered, some booed and there seemed to be some exchange of items or money... Again people were betting on them..
Ignoring all of that, the end result of the fight was extremely beneficial, even Kintas commented that their teamplay had improved substantially from the start. Though he said it in a joke’y manner that it didn’t become a proper challenge until they started working together, it was still praise and praise is good!
Gilliam had also gotten a different appreciation for the smaller mana crystals, the orbs didn’t always penetrate due to their round nature, but nothing stopped him from making a small dart or arrows head out of mana crystals. It would penetrate as it exploded causing significant damage, he would definitely make many of those.
Leaving the dome on as they exited, Gilliam was assaulted by a familiar little creature slap-landing in his face. She really did give the weirdest hugs.
In a single rapid sentence, like a kid hyped on sugar after winning a contest, she started rambling about how today’s training had gone.
“Calm down, I can’t even understand you.” Gilliam had to command his fairy-like companion as he pulled her off his face.
She sat down in his hand, inhaled and smiled widely. Again she went on a spree, a little slower than last time. It seemed that she had been teleported all over the place, to the point that she got sick, and then teleported some more. The so-called ‘angry lady’ had given her hints and explanations. All of this boiled down to her completing her massive one-sentence daily report with “Savia can teleport people!”
“Oh, that’s amazing!” Gillaim responded with honest happiness. Not just for her sake, but this meant that the actual plan was coming together.
Aeris walked closer and joined the conversation. “She’s still not super stable, I don’t recommend letting her teleport anyone who isn’t already a teleporter. But with a few more days I think she’ll get there. She’s made incredible progress in just this little time.”
Aeris’ voice was filled with a weird sense of pride, but also envy. Something Gilliam was beginning to understand more properly after Ghaos’ statement earlier. The young girl probably used days, weeks, months.. However long she used to get to an acceptable level, if not even just for her first teleport. And now Savia is doing it for her first time in a few days.
It was probably a sub-effect of the Heptagon Mage thing, he did realise not long ago that the morning-after-glow he felt himself after his and Petal's first night, Savia had made almost supernaturally good progress on her healing. She’s to the point now that you can’t even see the events with Garend on her. Something healing magic struggled a little with.
All this considered, given their weird soul bond, it would make sense that she could reap some benefits of whatever happened to him.
“Well, then I suppose you’ll have to keep training, so you can teleport me all over!” Gillaim exclaimed this as the best thing ever. And honestly it would be amazing having private transport like that. Savia was always with him anyway so this was just a huge boon. Adding her size she would also be an amazing scout or infiltrator.
“It seems she can also read the Teleporters Code.” Aeris smiled, more honestly this time. Hinting that she could do this as well so it might not hit her ego as hard.
“Teleporters code?” Gilliam couldn’t remember having read or heard anything of the sort. Since it was in the context of reading, was this some odd language?
“It’s a teleport coordinate system, if you can read it, you will get a feeling of having been somewhere before after reading the code. Not everyone can read it but it allows a teleporter to go places she hasn't been before, with the same safety as if she has.” Her tone was very matter-of-factly as she straightened up her back and spoke more clearly, Aeris’ teacher-mode was oddly adorable.
“Oh, that’s interesting. How does it work?” Gilliam wanted to give reading it a go, since he had his language cheat it could be interesting to take advantage of this as well.
“Hmm...” Aeris thought about things for a moment. “It’s hard to explain. It works almost like a spell, once you’re done reading it, a mental image of a place just pops in your mind. Like this.”
She took a folded piece of paper out of her pocket and showed it to Gilliam.
Unfolding it and taking a look, it was a solid paragraph of gibberish, like someone had just hammer-fist-slammed a keyboard for a solid paragraph and printed the result. However, once he had read it all he had a strange mental image of a peaceful island. He had never been there before but at the same time he felt like he absolutely had.
“A... tropical island?” He asked confusedly. It felt the same as if someone walks up to you and says Giraffe, you can’t -not- imagine a giraffe. Like that compulsion effect he now had a location in mind, familiar enough that he felt like he had spent decent time there.
Aeris’ eyes widened with a childlike glee. “You can also read it?!”
She had the expression of there being a lot of fun in the near future.
“I suppose so, I wonder if I can write it as well.” He returned the paper to Aeris and took out his own notebook and ink-pen.
Since he hadn’t been too much around in the world, he had to consider one of the few places he had been before, and starting out with the demon realm didn’t feel right as a test. As Aeris was the one that would confirm this, it felt better if it was somewhere she could properly go to if she wanted, or even better; having been there before.
He imagined the island where he tested the Star Lance, imagining the point he walked down into when testing the sword. He focused on the place as he tried to focus on the weird collection of runes and symbols used on Aeris’ paper, and he just started writing.
It felt so random, he sort of knew what symbol to use but it almost felt wrong, like being told random letters to type in no particular order it just feels off when you hit something that feels like a pattern. But in the end he had a solid paragraph of gibberish.
Looking at it for a few seconds it.. Felt right?
He handed it to Aeris who looked at it for a long moment before looking back at Gilliam with a smile.
“It’s the island you used the big fireball” She looks super satisfied with this, almost more so than Gilliam did.
This sparked an idea for Gilliam, he spent some time in the Fractured Lands...
“Aeris, is it possible to teleport to other worlds if you have the coordinates?”