Chapter 22 -The Battle- Part 3

Before the war even took a step forward, my family and I used to work as merchants. Going from Kingdom to Kingdom, from city to city, selling accessories and cosmetics for people who weren’t from there and wanted a souvenir.

It was a family of five. My Mother and Father, my oldest brother, me and my little brother.

We had always thought that the four Kingdoms would be at peace with each other, however one month later the elven Kingdom had declared war against the three Kingdoms.

During the declaration, we had just passed the border into the elven kingdom when the basilisk troops had already made their move. We didn’t know about the war, stepping in the center of what the war was. Watching as elves and basilisk alike died at the hands of the human army.

My family and I were caught in between the conflict, putting our lifes in danger. Running and fleeing into cities that were later caught in battle, until one night, a peaceful night in a city that was far from any battles or enemies. Being at the edge of the continent, of the elven kingdom, a huge explosion had occurred.

Alarming the civilians that seeked refuge along with many other races. Running for their lives taking what was important to them, their blood, their family members. The howls of the people were heard from everywhere, going the opposite direction from what appeared to be a battle.

I searched for my family’s stay being near the battle, I feared for their lives being at stake close to those strikes that got louder and louder as I got closer.

My surroundings were destroyed buildings along with corpses of people being mourned, cried too. Fire radiated from the center of the fight, the atmosphere being as dense as being in the presence of two powerful beings.

I felt like giving up, my legs felt heavier moments away from falling. Nevertheless I kept going to where my family was, where they were waiting for me, worried for me.

Though fate is always cruel to those who expect too much from it.

Watching as the bodies of the people who I cared, laid lifeless, as the ones who suffered three buildings away from me. “Mom…” I muttered, walking closer to her body. “Dad…” saying it a little louder than before. “Brother…” Finally getting close enough to touch their hot yet cold bodies before letting tears interfere with my vision. Crying like a little girl who had just lost her favorite doll…

The memories of the past seemed to overlap my mind when I saw the building on fire. Something or someone had snapped my back into reality. I turned to see a hand on my shoulder that I was able to recognize. The person who I considered my sister.

Behind her there were marching dragon soldiers helping the hurt and those who were trapped inside the burning buildings. I then focused my eyes on Luna again, “Julie are you feeling okay?” Her voice revealed concern which I responded with a light nod.

By her facial expression I could tell that she didn’t want to leave it off like that but she had no choice, we were at a battle that involved innocent lives, lives that Alter entrusted to us while he was out.

“Soldiers, contact the generals, tell them that we have some impatient guest.”

When hearing this familiar tone Luna jolted to its direction and immediately saluted like she would back on Afreon. I moved to the side to see the owner of the familiar voice, to my surprise it was madam Millguard wearing what appeared to be a type of armor. I haven’t seen her since Alter left, she said that there was an important matter to be solved and she and the king stayed in the meeting room for days. Her blue tired eyes turned to me, having complete eye contact.

A sensation of panic rises, making my heart beat faster. Could it be that she found me out already? That I used the dragon device to form myself a mana core? I have to keep it cool, after all Luna didn’t say anything from seeing me use mana.

However all the queen did was smile at me. A smile that I haven’t seen on her since she saw Alter. “Lieutenant Luna, take Juliette to the armory and prepare her,” turning her head to where the catastrophe was as her purple hair moved along with the breeze of the wind. “Something tells me we won’t be able to avoid this battle.”

As we made our way to the castle, more soldiers began to scatter around the city. What was odd is that none of the generals are to be sighted. Usually they would be the first ones to attend the front lines before anyone else.

I pushed those thoughts to the side, concentration was my only thing to do. I needed to concentrate before something big, something that might have me caught off guard. Now that I have what I longed for, the very thing that makes me worth something.

“We are here, now pick your weapon and armor before we head back to the front lines.” Said the blonde girl looking outside, seeing if anything else unexpected happens so that she could run towards it. Turning to the armory I noticed that there were many weapons and armor in good condition. How can there be these types of things here? I told myself seeing how the place where we were was a complete old shack.

My eyes looked on an interesting type of armor, besides it, a spear that its blade was a cross.

“Beautiful” I muttered, astonished by its reflective white and gold color.

LUNA LYRIC

Something feels off… I thought as I looked into the distance where the fire was being put off by the dragon soldiers.

Many incidents have happened but no enemies have been sighted. Neither have the generals. I closed my eyes and began to concentrate on the middle of the city, something inside of me told me that everything was going to someone's plan. The aura around the city was the same, that includes the soldiers and civilians.

This wasn’t a simple monster attack, no, this was an individual’s plan.

Their objective must have been taking Alter away from the city, that person must know that Alter is a threat to their plans.

‘Lieut…’

‘...enant’

‘Lyr…ic’

‘Lieutenant Lyric, answer me, what is going on in the city?!’

This voice?! It is general Aidryss.

‘General, there is currently an incident in the city, the incident is a supposed attack from monsters.’ I sent back.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

‘Well Lieutenant, I guarantee you that the attack is not a monster but something even more dangerous.’

‘Dangerous? What are you talking about, general?’ Could there be something far more dangerous than the monsters in Ezar?

Nonetheless, the response I was waiting for never came through, instead a blast from the side of the house that blew me away. The blast was strong enough for me to tear through two buildings.

That hurt as equal as the kick Onyx gave me before, I thought, rubbing my head where it hurt more.

Still confused about what happened, I remember that Juliette was in the building too. I quickly got up from the crater I was resting on. Putting one foot out, an object landed next to me at the same speed I did.

Looking next to me, the unknown object had been the one I was worried about. “Julie!” I let out, walking to her.

She let out a grumpy sigh, the sound of metal went into my ears. The sight of Julie wearing armor was unexpected, she had always been greedy and picky about it. However, her armor was the opposite of what she would pick. Its colors reflected the moonlight, the rose gold armor looked like a unique set that no matter how many blacksmiths tried to recreate it, failure would be waiting at the end of their path.

An annoyed tone came out of her as she said, “This is giving me Afreon vibes.”

Moments later footsteps came from in front of us. The figure appeared to be a womans’, a strong physique as well as a pretty yet young face.

I felt nervous all over my body, a wry grin did so as well. “A wolf in a sheep’s skin huh?”

Taking out my sword I studied the person right in front of us. Juliette had said that this was giving her Afreon vibes, meaning that she could be talking about the fight with Onyx. In mere moments I started to know why Julie had said this. The aura surrounding her was not normal, the phenomenon gathered around her like it was its master.

As I gathered mana around my body, a strong pressure of mana was felt behind her, on her back. Four lights, brighter than the sun, emerged from her back. “Wings?” said the armored Julie next to me with a tone of irritation.

“Apart from strength, it also has wings?”

I clicked my tongue. Signaling to Julie to attack alongside me.

[Encount]

Activating the telepathy spell, not wanting to spill our coordination to the opponent.

‘We have to stop it here, any closer and it damages the city.’ Transmitting my concern to Julie, after all she had just gotten a hold of her mana core, much less having the knowledge to use it.

Julie used the mana in her core to augment her barrier on her body. Then without a word, we both dashed towards the winged opponent.

Swinging down the edge of my sword to her head while Julie’s spear aimed at her side.

Instead of getting to feel the cut of the flesh, our blades met a barrier sphere.

The blue transparent barrier covered her body whole, leaving us no more options aside from repositioning.

I had to think of many other ways to find a weakness, one way or another. ‘Julie, how much mana are you capable of storing?’ I said in my mind to hers. Feeling her confusion about my question, ‘about ten times more than I was with the mana ring, why?’

That should be enough then, I thought. Channeling mana from my core into my weapon. ‘Call the mana in the atmosphere into your core until it's at top. Then release it into your attack that you have been training to show Alter when he came back.’ I explained, once again dashing in the direction of the enemy.

Now, how the hell am I going to stop this winged-girl? My blade wasn’t reaching her at all, especially with that annoying barrier. Launching a set of attacks infused with mana, the dust of the ground was lifted creating a smoke screen.

I couldn’t sense her mana but I could sense the mana in her winged-spell. At least that was giving me the advantage in this fight, yet her mana concentration was abnormal.

Is it possible to have this much strength and not lose control of it?

The more I thought about her monstrous strength, the more mad it made me. She had the power to stop this but she decided not to. The power to even make me frightened to the bones, just being in its presence was like his during the war.

Gripping my sword, I made a decision not long ago, to be strong enough to carry half of his burdens, to be strong enough to end this war and have a peaceful life.

Using my attributes, fire on my sword and create stone bullets behind me. However this made me cacious that Julie was still condensing the mana in the atmosphere into her aid and her core. Letting me use less mana in the atmosphere and more usage in my core.

The Winged-girl expression changed from expressionless to astonished, astonished that I could use dual-elements at once. Her expression hardened, seeing how I prepared to attack once more.

But she didn’t know that I wasn’t going to fail this time, she didn’t know that I would use every bit of mana to destroy her barrier.

Now!

Sprinting at full speed, I raised my blade above my head and swung down activating the barrier. The stones I conjured before went off into the barrier. I felt the mana in my core fade little by little as the stones kept going non-stop into the target.

Lighting emerged from the strike, both of our eyes looking at each other.

Suddenly, a heavy aura fell on us including Julie who was almost done with her absorption of mana. Gravity felt like it was against us, dropping me to the ground, strengthening my legs so that they wouldn’t get crushed by such pressure.

Who’s aura is this? Aidryss? Someissoa? Freomal? The only three names that I knew that were capable of unleashing such pressure. However, this type of pressure was something I could handle.

I use my sword as support, absorbing the mana in the atmosphere into my core. I was right, this feeling of mana was different, better. I strengthened my body with the fresh mana. Turning my gaze to the winged-girl, a surprise was shown.

Her barrier was no longer active.

This was the chance that fate gave us.

‘Julie, now unleash it!’ I screamed as loud as I could in my mind. The radiating power that was accumulated blasted through the unwavering gravity to the enemy’s chest.

Upon contact the blast waves reached the city, causing a mini-earthquake. ‘Did I get her?’ Asked the black haired girl behind me panting.

I neither confirmed nor denied it, ‘I don’t know, her mana is not there’.

The more I thought about it the more odd it was, I felt her mana before the attack made contact, however when it did I lost her trace.

My body felt lighter as I thought about it. Whoever’s aura that was, it was easing up. I turned to Julie, she was sitting down with her spear grounded.

“That move was more powerful than I expected.” I admitted, jealous about it. “Come on, we have to reunite with Lady Millguard.”

Take step by step while my body—especially my legs—ache in pain from the pressure moments ago.

I extended a hand to my sister who was on the ground still gathering mana. Lifting her up to her feet, she picked up her spear and turned our backs to the crater and walked.

“You girls should know not to turn your backs to the enemy. Mainly when their status is unknown.”

My eyes widened to such words. Both Julie and I turned our bodies to the source of the womanly evil voice.

A surge of mana emitted from the crater, the exact place where the winged-girl was.

The dust cloud was still up and through it the four wings that she had, had grown in size. They shined through the dust revealing an army of soldiers behind her, enemy soldiers.

I quickly tried to grab my weapon but my hand was frozen. Trying hard to move my hand while still managing eye contact with her.

That’s when a soldier came up to her. We were still close enough to hear their conversation.

“General, the reports from Inox have arrived.” Said the soldier whose description I couldn’t identify, “which are?” Responded the woman.

“The confirmation of Alter Violet and his party’s deaths.”