Looking down at Lumisara, I glanced at the Void beast and felt irritation build within me. I had wanted to prove myself, to show myself that I had grown strong by bringing the Void beasts down without any help, yet this Spirit had come along and ruined that for me. My irritation grew stronger before my mind snapped me back to reality.
Why am I getting so annoyed? Just a moment ago I had started to realise the reality of the situation I was in, that I had gotten myself into hot water with a high chance of death. Even though I had yet to sustain any physical damage, my mana wasn’t going to last and sat at 60% left. My head cools down as I once again look at the dead Void beast, relief spreading that at least one of them had been killed.
A year and a half ago one of these beasts would’ve tore through our base, and perhaps with a few sacrifices we may have stopped it and killed the beast. Yet here I am, casually handling both without magic, thanks to the Traitor, and still able to keep pace with them. Isn’t that more than enough to prove that I’ve become far more stronger? Looking down at Lumisara, I breathed out before speaking to her in the language of the Spirits.
“Rise, Lumisara. Now is not the time to kneel.”
Lumisara stood slowly, her silver eyes meeting mine. If it wasn’t for the large silver wings on her back, I would have taken this Spirit as a human. No, there is also the overwhelming feeling of her being a Spirit. Turning my gaze over my shoulder, I saw that the Traitor had suddenly raised his guard, no longer looking at us casually, but with full attention, his eyes simply looking at Lumisara.
“Lumisara, I will deal with that freak. Can you handle the last beast?”
“Yes, O’ Queen of the Spirits. My life is yours to command.” Lumisara turned to the beast, her hand slowly reaching up and grasping the sword, slowly unsheathing it as I turned to the Traitor, walking towards him.
“Heh, so you had an ally hidden away. Clever trick, slut. Do you really think you can defeat me, a pro player from Illuminate?”
“Oh, you’re from that bunch of sour pricks. Tell me, why turn against the others and join the Void Legion?” I didn’t know if he had, I could only guess that is what he had done. Seeing the grin form on his face, I knew that he actually had joined them.
“Because they have the strength to lay waste to this world! I’m no longer bound by the stupid System either. Oh how it kept me from having fun with all those women, freezing my body if I dared tried, warning me I would become a Traitor if I continued my actions! When the Void Legion showed up, I happily bent the knee to them! They gave me this strength, the System cut me off and now I can do what I want! And I’m not the only one, all those who are strong in Haven joined the Void Legion! You’d have to be stupid not to!”
Huh, I hadn’t imagined he’d just spill the beans like that, but it gave me a lot of information. So if you attempted to harm another incarnate you’d be punished, warned about becoming a Traitor. If you became a Traitor then you’d lose the support of the System. But by the looks of things, one can still gain Lvls, or at the very least gain evolution and strength. It’s interesting though that the Void Legion allowed him, and the others from Haven, to join.
His presence here made me wonder if it was Haven that targeted my base or if it was the Void Legion. To learn that Haven, or at least those that claimed to be strong, have become Traitors made me feel a bit sick. Trinity and Geode had escaped from there before the second Nexus event, which is when the Void Legion first appeared, so I know they hadn’t become Traitors or been tempted to. Their account said that the strong Clans there held power, but to think it might’ve become a city of those who swapped to the side of the Void Legion.
One thing had me worried from his narration, the fact that the System could apparently control our bodies, or at least freeze us in place, if it detected an action that could be considered hostile towards other incarnates. We still didn’t understand what the System is, if it’s a God or another stronger being, but we all had a similar thought; being directly controllable like that is not a good feeling.
Preparing myself, I calmly analysed what needs to be done. As much as I wanted to take this person prisoner and interrogate him for information about not only Haven, but the Void Legion, I knew that we didn’t have the resources nor strength to keep him restrained. This was going to end only one way, in death. I hadn’t killed anyone from our world and deep down I felt a bit hesitant to do so. I knew that this hesitation, if it came up during our fight, would spell the end for me. So I did the only thing I could, and that was to steel myself, ridding the hesitation as my mind saw him as not one of us, but as a Void Legion being.
Interlocking my thumbs, I came up with a plan quickly as I once more surged my mana forward, bringing my hands up to my face. With an amused expression, the Traitor scoffed and stomped the ground, a large magic circle with 2 circuits appearing behind him once more. Grinning, I knew he had fallen for it and gathering my mana instead to my palms, I pushed them forward, launching off both a Fireball and a Frost Orb.
Surprised by this, the Traitor went to dodge the balls and flicking my wrist, roots emerged from the ground, wrapping his legs. Easily ripping them with just his strength, he narrowly dodges both orbs, but in that second, Ghost appears, stabbing the back of his neck with one dagger and plunging the other into his neck. Quickly withdrawing, Ghost fades once more as the Traitor swings at him with an annoyed face, exposing the wounds to me.
I could see them heal, and extremely quickly. Is this due to being part dragon? I noticed around the wound on the neck, green lines crawling from the initial wound, though tiny. This meant that Ghost's daggers were poisoned, and he had succeeded in poisoning our foe.
Seemingly giving up on going after Ghost, he turned to me before plunging his hand forward in front of him. I disappeared, but I quickly realised that it had reached into some sort of void pocket and seeing him withdraw a pouch, I pressed the attack, covering my fists in Frostfire.
Opening the pouch, the Traitor took a pill out before throwing it into his mouth, swallowing it with no hesitation. As soon as he does, power erupts from him, forcing me back as he starts growing in size, becoming about 50% bigger in both height and mass.
“Oh God, he’s hulking out.” Muttering this to myself, I watched not the growth of the Traitor, but his eyes. They became sort of clouded, but with some focus in them. If I’m not wrong, the pill or whatever gave him extra power, but potentially at the cost of reason…
“HAHAHA, OH THIS FEELS AMAZING. TOO BAD, NOW YOU MUST DIE.” I had to wonder what caused him to suddenly take such a risk, that is if the pill is irreversible. Suddenly a presence appeared by my side and glancing at it, I saw Lumisara standing there, unharmed and seemingly unphased as she looked at the Traitor. Confused, I looked back, only to see the Void beast in several pieces. It had been less than a minute and she had already killed the other one.
It explained why he suddenly consumed the pill, but now with the amount of magic seeping from him I had another thing to be concerned about. The Traitor raised both hands before slamming them into the ground, a massive amount of mana surging into the ground.
“Golden Sea of Fire!”
Golden flames erupted from the ground beneath us and sensing death, I jumped as high as I could. I couldn’t fly, I’d have to come down at some point and I needed to figure out how to avoid landing in the sea of golden flames. As it turns out, I didn’t as I felt myself start to float, an arm from Lumisara wrapped around me.
Remembering the stare from earlier on, and the confirmed fact that Lumisara could fly, I suddenly realised that it had been her that was watching me. But why, and how? I turned my head to her.
“How long can you maintain this?”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“For a minute, O’ Queen of the Spirits.” Once again, her voice sounded out without her lips moving. It was a pleasant sound that didn’t bother me.
“What is the highest Tier spell you can use?”
“Pseudo-Tier 3. It will take me thirty seconds to prepare it. I can heavily damage the enemy, but it will take me out of the fight temporarily.”
I didn’t know what she meant by Pseudo-Tier 3, but I knew it likely meant it would be a forceful upgrade of a spell.
“Do it. I’ll follow up with my own spell.” The Traitor’s eyes became more clouded, as if he was losing all reasoning. Raising his hands, he fired off basketball sized golden fire orbs around him, as if trying to hit something unseen. Understanding that Ghost had somehow managed to not only dodge the sea of flames, but also gain its attention, I raised a hand up to the sky, preparing my own spell.
Condensing almost all of my mana, reserving at least 10% to keep my mana shield up, I focused everything into refining my spell. Both Lumisara and I surged with magic as 40% of my mana disappeared into this spell. Aiming my palm down towards the Traitor, I continued to focus as he looked up towards us, his eyes no longer holding any reason within them.
I saw bullet holes appear along his face, seemingly coming from nowhere, as his attention was once more diverted to Ghost, who I could now sense quickly moving around the shadows of the battlefield, avoiding the flames ever so narrowly. A massive surge of energy came from Lumisara as half a dozen Tier 2 magic circles appeared above the Traitor, leading all the way up. Another magic circle flickered into existence, a Tier 2 circle, but a third ring slowly flickered into existence, but disappeared but once again fading in again.
Whatever she was trying to do must be extremely difficult. Her eyes suddenly flashed silver as a massive surge of mana once again came from her, the third ring finally appearing on this singular magic circle as all the Tier 2s linked up to it. Raising her hand as the Traitor looked at us, she swiped it down, softly speaking with her mouth for the first time.
“Jacob’s Ladder.”
From the magic circle, a large pillar of light slams down into the ground, directly hitting and covering the Traitor. Pushing my palm forward, a large Tier 2 magic circle appeared, before starting to shrink, eventually turning palm-sized. A small ball of Frostfire appeared and as the light from Jacob’s Ladder disappeared, I shot this magic off.
“Frostfire Dome.”
As it hits, a barrier is formed around the outline of the Traitor before it’s filled with Frostfire. This is a technique I learnt using my lessons from the lake, a barrier technique imbued in my magic for large scale or powerful Fire or Frostfire magic. We can’t keep burning towns down afterall.
The sea of golden flames disappear as Lumisara slowly descends, placing me down gently on the ground before kneeling and heavily panting herself. Tensing my bow and loading an arrow on it, I gained distance very quickly, watching with Hawkeye. Frostfire Dome disappears, revealing a heavily wounded figure.
Pulling back on my bow, I am about to release but at that moment I saw the face of the Traitor once more. I hesitated for a moment, but seeing the rest of him, I understood the truth of the matter and fired my bow. Thanks to being about 300 metres away at this point, my shot caused his head and upper chest to explode into pieces.
You have killed a Traitor of the Incarnates!
Rewards are available.
Ignoring the System, my gaze didn’t leave the corpse of the Traitor. I didn’t exactly feel anything, not dread, not satisfaction, nothing like that at all. It’s like I had just killed a Husk, is it because he became a monster at the end? Feeling exhaustion in my muscles I walked back towards where Lumisara stood. Upon seeing me, she once again knelt and deciding to worry about this later, I looked in a certain direction. Ghost emerged, a cold sweat on his forehead.
“I knew your magic had grown stronger, but to think it’s to that degree. Who is the angel next to you?”
“We’ll discuss it later. For now, we have a horde that was previously being controlled no longer under any influence.” The packs of monsters and Husks had changed once the Traitor had died, becoming disorientated. The Husks of course quickly switched back to their mindless selves and began attacking the monsters. The monsters attacked back, though some seemed to want to retreat, but their eyes met my figure, and those with some intelligence tried to figure out where to go, only to be attacked by the Husks.
“So Husks just attack anything whilst the monsters wouldn’t usually partner up with them. Interesting.” Breathing out, I turned to look at Ghost. “Can you keep pushing?”
Shaking his head, Ghost looked over his body. “I’m exhausted, that prick hit like a truck. What about you?”
“I could abuse Refreshing Sniper Call to regain my mana. But that’s not necessary anymore.” Looking towards the horde, all of a sudden several large pillars of flame came from nearby. In the next moment, a large woman grew in size and charged through the horde, smashing them all out of the way, quickly reaching our location. Looking at the giantess that looked around, I smiled softly when her eyes landed on me, stepping towards my location. On her shoulder stood another man with flaming red hair and a horn on his head.
The giantess makes her way over to me, shrinking in size as the man jumps off her shoulder. Seeing them both, I approach them, meeting up with Dawn and Jupiter halfway.
“We figured that either a random group of survivors found us or that you had returned. Welcome back, Midnight.” Jupiter spoke first, looking me over before giving me a slight nod. Dawn also greeted me before looking behind her, watching the horde which was now fighting itself.
“Good to see you both, but you both need to head to Sectors one and four, the forces there are normal Lvl 1 and 2s, they won’t stand a chance against the Traitors.”
“No need to worry, we’ve sent two teams of Lvl 3s to deal with them. We’ve got about ten new Lvl 3s, we’ve just kept them cycling during this attack.” Dawn spoke while looking me up and down, frowning ever so slightly. “I expected to come out here and find a very bloody and wounded person, but you’ve barely ruffled your clothing. Except for the bloody nose, you don’t seem to be hurt at all.”
“I could’ve sworn I saw you get cut in half against those beasts earlier.” Ghost spoke up and looked at me. Shaking my head with a smile, I made a point to look at the horde.
“We’ll have a catch up later, for now I think it’s best we handle that mess.”
The other three turned. The Husks were slowly killing the monsters and would soon be freed up to turn on us. Though with the variants here, they didn’t pose a threat to us, but leaving them as they were wouldn’t be good, especially if they found Jokestar’s bunch of Useless humans.
“Are you in any condition to clean up?” Jupiter turned to me and understanding what he meant, I glanced at my mana before shrugging and grabbing my bow.
“I’m low on mana for now, but with a few shots I’ll have enough.” With that, we quickly planned our formation. Lumisara would pair with me, since the others had no idea who she was and I didn’t want to take the time to explain everything, while Ghost would do what he does best and assassinate any threats like Heavies or Acidmancers before they got close to us. Jupiter would be in mid range support while Dawn would keep enemies on her.
Over time we started to clear out the horde, slowly making our way towards Rebecca’s side. We made contact with her, and saw the corpse of another Traitor, this one resembling the Void Legion and soon we cleared both sectors with no problem. Over the radio we heard that Sector 1 and 4 had also been mostly cleared, and deciding to assist with the clean up, we separated into two groups, one with Rebecca, Lumisara and I while Jupiter, Dawn and Ghost were in the other.
“So, new girl, are you a Spirit as well?” While walking towards Sector 4, Rebecca looked at Lumisara with some interest.
“Yes. I exist to serve the Queen of the Spirits, her command is my reason for being.” An ethereal voice rang out, Lumisara’s lips not moving again. I had figured this is some form of telepathic speaking, but I couldn’t be sure.
I knew from Maji and Greyback that the Spirits had all spread out, searching for ways to restore this world and/or awaiting for the next Spirit Queen. Had Lumisara been here the entire time, or was she just passing by? She is well versed in combat, watching her wield her sword, I could tell she’s far more skilled than Silver is, and her magic is Holy, which causes Husks to burn from the light.
Looking at the wall to the base, I couldn't help but feel relieved that we’re finally home. Of course, I could’ve left at any point, but surviving today’s ordeal might’ve been a lot harder…of course, if I sniped the Traitors it might’ve been over fairly quickly.
Glancing over behind me, I saw two groups of humans opposite each other, as if unsure on what to do, Jokestar stood in front of one of the groups, an expression like he wanted to approach the others, but in front of the group from our base stood Aerith, Melody and Trinity.
“Well, guess now the battles over introductions are needed.” Looking at Rebecca, she nodded as we both started walking over to the groups, with Lumisara following.