Posting this since most of you don't seem to mind cliffhangers

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Part 1

The strategist leading the monster army assaulting the large town/small city of Tellap stared at the siege in progress as if it were a puzzle he had been trying to solve.

Almost three days had passed since the siege had started and the town as still holding out. The decisive day of battle was drawing close by. He knew he had to succeed.

After all, his lord had trusted him with this task and left him with the stronger half of the monster army before going off to lead the siege on the city of Naidiriv personally. He could not bear to disappoint his master’s expectations of him.

Originally this army had been comprised of 3000 monsters.

Approximately, half of them (1500) were the infantry type monsters. Now, late in the siege, about half of them had died.

About one sixth of the army (500) had flight abilities. 150 of these were lost in the siege so far.

Another sixth (500) could be classified as cavalry types. However, if you counted the mounts and the riders as one unit then there would only be 250 of such units and they had not taken part in the siege as of yet.

About 300 had been ranged attack/support types. 200 of them remained.

The remainder had been summoning type monsters. On average, each unit was capable of spawning one weak soldier every three minutes and could spawn up to 10 at the same time. These units were the key to success in the battle as although their summons were extremely weak, they were disposable pawns who would be used to create a smokescreen for the stronger units to survive in.

Compared to that, the defenders of the siege had suffered considerable losses as well. However due to high morale they had been able to hold out for so long.

A loud commotion near rear of the army, near where he was, brought him out of his musings.

A white robed figure riding a white horse trotted effortlessly through the headquarters of the monster army. The mane and tail of the horse seemed to be composed purely out of white fire.

It was a Pale Horse. A level 400+ elemental monster notorious for being extremely difficult to tame and ride. Having a unique white flame showed it was also probably a boss monster class as well.

The white robed figure riding it was obviously no ordinary person.

Trying not to let his fear show, the strategist demanded to know the intentions of the rider. In response, the rider had said:

“I have been sent here to hunt for a certain individual who may be inside that town. If you wish for the fall of this town then we share a common goal. I will assist you in this battle.”

The figure gave a proposal which left no room for refusal. The strategist decided not to worry about that now.

There was no doubt that the monster army had just gained a powerful ally.

And with that, he had just figured out how to make a breakthrough.

Part 2

Ferrex looked absently around him. He was in a white space of nothingness. Again.

This space could be said to be the interior of his soul holding vessel. In other words, the “interior” of pendant that he had given Godou for safekeeping.

In this space, he had a body.

No it would be more accurate to say that in this space he could create anything he wanted.

This space could be seen a representation of his soul, his being itself.

The problem was…

“I got trapped in here again…”

Due to the fact that his soul binding process was still unstable, there were moments when he was cut off from the outside world.

Not that he could really do anything on the outer world anyway.

In the outer world, in reality, he was nothing but an object, an item now.

He couldn’t move things by himself.

He couldn’t cast spells.

He couldn’t fight.

He couldn’t do anything other than talk.

Never had he ever felt so useless before.

No.

Correction.

There was a time when he had felt like this.

After the Divine Saint Knight of Beelzebub had destroyed his church he had lost his sense of purpose and became a useless “doll”.

But the Church of Freya had helped him.

The Divine Saint of Freya had become his friend and benefactor.

And through him, Ferrex had made a new friend who was capable of doing things beyond his expectations.

And it was through the efforts of his new friends and benefactors he had regained his resolve.

Yes.

Right now, he was useless.

Right now, he would be unable to help his new friend even if he wasn’t stuck in this white space.

But right now, he was still alive.

And if he was alive, there was still hope.

A spark of inspiration suddenly lit up in his mind.

Ferrex considered the idea carefully…

It could work.

But it would require careful planning and consideration.

Withdrawing all his attempts to break out of the white space, Ferrex started to refine this spark of inspiration.

And started plans for the recreation of his physical body.

Part 3

The three days that the siege had gone on for had not been easy for Godou and his party. The number of invading monsters seemed endless and the continuous fight was taxing on both the body and the mind. Godou, Spade and Harris were also players as well so unlike their NPC teammates, they could not stay in-game 24/7.

The monster attacks didn’t even stop when night came either. During the night, visibility was worse for most of the defenders while the monsters gained a 50% increase in all stats. The fact that he didn’t seem to gain any experience from all this fighting did not make it any better for Godou.

Despite this, Godou tried to keep his spirits up. After the first day of the siege had passed, the party was reassigned to the less chaotic second line of defence where they could have a slight reprieve from the fighting. Godou took the opportunity then to log off and get some sleep.

Godou was thankful to find that the town was still holding out when he logged on the next morning. Conversely, his party had been reassigned defend the walls again. He made his way to rendezvous with them and spent another day defending the walls continuously with his party.

During this time, Godou had found himself developing a sense of camaraderie with his party mates. As comrades bonded through trauma they were people he would trust with his life.

The awkward atmosphere between himself and Inori had already become a thing of the past, forgotten over the events of siege.

Hel also seemed less wary and friendlier to him in that regard. And it went without saying that he got along well with Spade and Harris.

Speaking of which, Godou had finally managed to figure out why Harris had seemed so familiar to him. His confident manner of speaking and reliable atmosphere was the same as when Godou had first seen him. It had only taken Godou a while to figure it out.

Like Reta, Harris was a veteran player in Kallamore.

Just like Reta who was called the “Grey Phantom”, Harris had participated in enough battles to have gained a nickname bestowed to him by the player community of Kallamore.

And just like Reta, Harris did not like his call sign very much.

Harris was “Quick Shot”.

In other words, the player who had told everyone to form into parties back in Naidiriv when they were about to leave to intercept the monster army.

Ding!

Status Update! The orders for the 136th Defence Party have changed

136th Defence Party

Members: 5/5

Orders: Retreat from the walls and man the second line of defence as reserve troops.

After several exhausting hours spent repelling attacks on the front line, it seemed that Godou’s party was given the chance to have a respite.

Grateful to have the chance to rest, they retreated from the wall and made their way to the bottom of the stairs leading to the wall.

Being part of the reserve troops meant that they would be the first to intercept any monsters that had managed to make their way past the wall and stop them from opening the town gates from within. They would also be called as reinforcements if something happened on the wall as well.

Although things were not as laidback as being in the middle of the second line of defence it certainly was more relaxing than having to concentrate for enemies every second on the town walls.

Godou rested with his back against the cool wall, panting heavily.

Fighting for so long had been very taxing. It was like having to play a sports match right after running a marathon while simultaneously memorising a textbook. Sweat trickled down his back and his limbs felt leaden.

Godou found it particularly difficult since his weapon had broken on the very first day of the siege and he hadn’t had time to replace it. Although he could compensate for that somewhat with his Mana Weapon Creation skill, he still found it quite tough, especially in the brief moments where he ran out of mana and had to rely on his amateur close combat abilities to survive.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

Speaking of which, I should have other combat skills as well. Why haven’t they activated?

Putting aside the Divine Wind Decree skill which Godou had decided to use only as a last resort, Godou certainly recalled having passive skills which would vastly help in combat. He opened the information windows for these skills again.

Overpowering Will (Passive) Beginner Level 1

Your determination to do the impossible allows your battle spirit to overcome your limits. You can temporarily exceed your physical limitations in battle and ignore the effects of your opponent(s) fighting spirit and MORALE. Your fighting spirit will continually rise in battle. Stamina consumption and hunger will increase for the next few days afterwards due to pushing your body beyond its limit. Activates automatically depending on your mental state.

Survival Instinct (Passive) Beginner Level 1

It is said that a cornered beast is many times more dangerous than a normal one. An adrenaline rush surges through your body causing your ability to deal damage to increase as your condition worsens. As this skill grows your ability to perceive danger will sharpen. Activates automatically depending on your mental state.

Might of Ruler Beginner Level 1

You have denied the power of higher beings. Inflict psychological pressure on your opponents

Shatters illusions and dispels magic/buffs. Fighting spirit increases proportional to the power of the strongest opponent present. This skill activates automatically depending on your actions.

Heretic Decree: Unknown

A Heretical Divine Decree that has yet to take form as a useable skill. It will transform into something useful according to your desires during a time of crisis.

Godou wondered what he needed to do to be able to activate these skills. Apparently all of the activated according to his mental state or actions but having been an active participant in the siege so far shouldn’t those passive skills have activated at least once by now?

Going with flow, Godou had at some point conformed to the “kill or be killed” mindset that had been present in the battle.

Reflecting back on this, Godou realised that having such a mindset was really no good. As a pacifist, should he be trying to avoid having all the fighting happen? But then talking to the soldiers themselves was no good.

He would have to somehow meet the one leading the monsters to be able to do that. But the leader was bound to be at the very rear and to reach at that place he would have to neutralise all the soldiers.

But wouldn’t be hypocritical to suddenly try to stop the battle there?

Troubled, Godou’s ran in an endless circle.

“Here.”

A soft voice interrupted Godou’s thoughts. He looked and saw Hel holding out a sheathed dagger to him.

Speaking of which, Hel had finally taken off his helmet so Godou finally saw his face. Hel’s light coloured hair was oddly long for a boy. His features were androgynous and graceful, almost girlish even. So much that Godou was sure that he would have mistaken Hel for a girl if he wore feminine clothing.

Hel also seemed younger than Godou expected. In fact, he seemed to be the same age as Godou.

Seeing Godou’s confused expression, Hel adverted his eyes and said in his light voice:

“You’re troubled because your weapon broke the other day right? I’ll give you this as a replacement since it was partially my fault that it broke. T There’s no other special meaning to this alright!”

So he noticed that and came to apologise huh? Hel seemed strangely flustered as he said that. Godou felt his heart skip a beat from the sight. Hel’s hesitant composure lacking of any confidence was so different from the self-assured atmosphere he normally emitted that he seemed almost adorable.

Get a grip on yourself Godou. That’s a guy… I think.

Godou quickly stopped his thoughts from traveling in another dangerous direction.

Now that he thought about it though, he had never explicitly heard what Hel’s gender was. From his domineering armoured composure and physical manner of doing things, you would assume that he was a guy but-

Realising that he was seriously arguing with himself to find hope in such a topic, Godou felt quite sad.

Hel who had been holding the dagger the whole time seemed to take Godou’s silence as a rejection.

“Its fine if you don’t want it. I guess I’ll just-”

“Sorry, I was just thinking on some things. I accept your gift. Thank you very much.”

Hel sounded like he was about cry as he said that. Realising that that a rift would form between them if he let Hel finish his sentence, Godou accepted the gift. Not that he had the heart to refuse, her… him.

“This is just one of the standard issue weapons for Kallamore Knights. There’s no s special meaning to this so…”

Hel passed Godou the dagger before trailing off awkwardly.

“So yeah… Oh hey would you look at that, a monster’s broken through. Better go kill it!”

Hel left quickly to intercept a monster. Godou had the impression that he had run away from the conversation. What a strange fellow.

Initially Godou had thought that Hel had hated him but that didn’t seem to be the case. Godou identified the dagger he had just received.

Enhanced Steel Dagger

A mass produced dagger primarily issued to Kallamore Knights and other officers in the Royal Kallamore Army. It was owned briefly by a young Kallamore Knight who passed it on to a comrade as an apology and a token of friendship.

Restrictions:

100 Strength

150 Agility

Durability: 47/60

Damage: 113

Bonuses:

The durability of this weapon does not fall easily.

The durability of this weapon does not fall due to rust.

Chance to deal double damage when attacking with this weapon.

Increased ability to lower the durability of the objects it strikes.

In all aspects except for probably reach, the Hel’s dagger was a lot better than his Hard Iron Sword.

“Haah Helena… after all these years you still haven’t fixed that bad habit of yours”

Godou started. At some point in time, Inori had snuck up next to him. The normally clumsy loli girl was looking at him seriously now.

“Please don’t mind Helena. She was raised in a strict environment and trained hard to become a Kallamore Knight. Because of this, Helena is not very good at interacting with people and making friends.”

Since Inori had started a conversation about someone completely unknown to him, Godou asked tha obvious question.

“Who’s Helena?”

Inori looked at him in tilt headed confusion before saying.

“Helena is a childhood friend I guess? Our families were close and we used to visit each other’s homes all the time. Back then, Helena used to lack a lot of self-confidence and couldn’t do anything by herself. Really, what a troublesome girl!”

Godou thought it felt quite discerning to see someone who looked like a child say something like that. For some reason, he had the impression of an adorable child asking to be praised. Godou supressed his desire to pat her.

Putting that aside, Godou still didn’t know what Inori was talking about. Was Helena related to Hel some how? Both their names sounded foreign to Godou. As expected of the naming scheme of a fantasy game.

But looking at Inori’s expectant face, Godou couldn’t help but think that a misunderstanding of some sort had been created again.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

An explosion of light erupted from the top of the wall, bring Godou back from his idle thoughts.

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Word Count: 2,853

A tsundere knight appears

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