A handful of crystals here, and then to mentally connect them to my [Aurumons].
“Yes, you guys are being useful without being here directly.
No, it’s not only for ‘BOOM’, get creative: Pitfalls, nets, ropes, flashbangs- OK, yes, ‘boom’ is also one of those options.
You have your own [Affinities]!? That’s weird and slightly concerning, but you’re free to use them all you want- Yes… [Water] and [Fire] together CAN make a ‘boom’.”
I have so many things to worry about that I’d prefer my allies blowing my enemies into gruesome bits not being one more.
“And I see you [Kenny]! Get back to rest: You’re not fully healed yet- Don’t flash at me! Just go back to bed!”
The annoyed lantern did just so, although clearly reluctantly, its light notably dimmer than normal.
“Great, now even my [familiar] is pouting at me.”
Another handful of crystals, instruct more tiny minions that not everything revolves around exploding -or ‘boom’, as they were so fond to transmit the word- and then simply rinse and repeat.
The work was incredibly hard, surprisingly repetitive, and unbelievably boring; with all these powers combined, I was about ready to quit early. It was not like there was much left to do, maybe just another round around the house itself, but I was getting nervous that I couldn’t perceive the marching army as of yet.
“This is absurd! I know that lamenting not being under siege is dumb, but I have known that they were coming for a while, so now I’m just getting worried.”
And as I was just thinking about it, a couple of golden threads enter my vision uninvited… or maybe I did invite them? I know that I said to Merga that I wouldn’t mess with them, but something inside me was telling me to do it in spite of her warnings, and this time it wasn’t my usual recklessness nor antagonistic personality.
And so, I just kind of touched them with my [Aura], just a prod to see if that was enough, and… I sort of felt images flash behind my eyes. But, like, way too fast for even my enhanced mind to register them.
“That was… huh. Let’s try that again.”
Unmoved by the difficulty, this time I take the time to stop spreading my crystalline seed- nope, not going to even deign that sentence of another thought- to actually touch the golden threads with my actual fingers, enveloped in my [Aura], as I normally were, and just left the finger there until I-
Rage.
Eagerness.
Contempt.
Determination.
Fanatism.
A plethora of feelings belonging to none of those around me assaulted my senses, somehow being registered by my [Aura] at the same time they were already ramming themselves into my mind.
Everything felt violent and uncoordinated. Nothing felt natural or… real. And yet that ‘cape’ of [Holiness] that pervaded it all was enough to make it real.
Everything about it felt wrong.
How could that ever represent [Purity]? It was almost a perversion of the literal concept of ‘what is pure’.
No time.
I now had no doubts that I couldn’t stall them: They were coming for blood, and blood there would be.
And yet, there was another small something that I noticed, but that contradicted what someone had stated just a few minutes ago.
“Are the [Knights], like, just harassing them?” I asked the [Captain], resuming the spreading of the seed, while pointedly ignoring the questioning gazes of the others present.
“let’s just say that by grouping up in such short time, even if only bit by a bit at once, their size has now reached the point where their number poses a legitimate concern of public safety. Which means we can hold them for questioning, at least until they can prove they don’t plan problems for the community living here”, Sir Prise casually replied, and it was no wonder I didn’t notice the slight uptilt of one corner of her mouth.
This woman really needed to learn to show her emotions a bit more.
Like you, you mean?
“Well, no. That would be too much.
And yes, I’m saying this because I recognize the problem.”
“Wait a Goddamn minute: They are here to cause problems for me, and I’m part of the community!”
“… There are various ways to prove either that you’re not really part of the community, or that, by their own ideology, getting rid of you could be counted as a service to every community”, she said after a moment, and I noted a slight tilt in her head when answered.
“And how the fuck would they convince your guys of that!?” I was legitimately incredulous that they were somehow convincing anyone of that.
But, wasn’t that the exact problem as to why they hadn’t been apprehended already?
“They don’t, but… Well, politics and divinities get mentioned, the neutrality of the [Guilds] is called into question, and then nothing is as easy anymore”, Prise explained, clearly exasperated by the situation herself.
Meanwhile, hoes and shovels tilled the last bit of seeded garden and I decided that I was done with this little pet project. It was about time, instead, that the crux of my plan started playing a part in this.
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
Do you want to come after me with an army? I’ll come after you with my own!
With a small movement of my hand, I opened a black and golden portal, about waist height, and out of it started coming out [Tier 1 Aurumons] of every kind, once they were in the hundreds I had to cut the rally short because I couldn’t handle summoning them directly anymore. That didn’t stop their ever-increasing numbers, because the moment they came out they started splitting out [Tier 0 Aurumons] that then merged with each other and formed new [Tier 1] instances, and not even five minutes later there were almost a thousand [Aurumons], with a bunch even finding proper [Tier 1] matches, allowing them to further [Evolve] into [Tier 2s], which was the max I could handle having out at any given time.
Certainty, having so many instances of the [familiar] wasn’t easy, and the already budding migraine in the back of my eyes started blooming in something nasty, but that’s exactly why I had waited on summoning them until the last moment.
“Ok, enough blabbering-“
“You’re the one that has talked the most so far.”
“-It’s almost go time: And that means that Sir Prise has to do whatever she has to do-“
“I told you not to call me ‘Sir’.”
“-While we prepare to give our unwanted guest a very warm welcome!”
With an index pointing into the air, and ignoring both Sheeno and Sir Prise trying to distract me from my monologue, I casted [Repair] on myself for good measure and finally went back inside.
“I honestly thought you would want to leave, at least until first contact”, I ended up asking the second interrupter once she followed me inside the house.
And in response, she fully raised an eyebrow, one of the biggest emotions I have ever seen on the face of the wolfen woman. “All I have to do is hide myself from view until they inevitably break their farce and attack. There’s no reason for going further from where I would be able to protect you all.”
“Are- are you sure? Isn’t that going to cause problems for you later?” I thought that she didn’t like me that much, or Sheeno for that matter, so I was surprised that she was risking her professionalism for our sake, especially after accusing her of not doing this exact same thing.
So now I felt like shit.
“Let me handle the aftermath of my own decisions: For now, let’s just worry about the now”, she said with a resolute nod.
And now I felt even worse about my previous actions.
“I… thank you”, and now I was speechless, grateful, and utterly ashamed of myself.
She observed me for a moment, and before she could give voice to whatever thought had been bouncing in her head the hears atop her head flickered, and soon after I also felt it coming.
“They’re here. I’ll hide inside your house for the moment being. You all are free to provide a unified front so that things might not get too messy too quickly.” With those words, the [Knight Captain] made herself sparse.
My [Aura] then told me that a small [Party] would detach from their main force and approach separately. No doubt because such a big group approaching a residence could be seen as threatening enough to warrant a response from the [Knights], which they didn’t want until their objective became too obvious to negate.
And that wasn’t even just a conjecture on my part, but pretty much what everyone knew, but politics made it so you were forced to dance around it unless you wanted to upheave the status quo, which in turn would cause plenty of problems for a lot of powerful people, which in turn would give them an excuse to bother us.
And I already had too many powerful entities after me, so no thank you!
…no matter I really wanted to do it.
Soon, down the road a group comprised of ten people became visible coming from around a bend in the road, making it clear that they were coming in our direction, given how the street that connected to our mansion was a one-way one; at the head of said group was a face that I really didn’t want to see again, with skin the color of dry mud and a flaky texture to match, with the others around him an eclectic group of different [Races], with only two among them wearing lighter clothes and the golden vines marking them as part of the cult of [Purity].
Never noticed how that ass infatuated with Undine looked dirtier than dirt, but I could easily chalk it up to my higher [Stats] making me able to notice finer details easier, or a newfound lack of hygiene on his part.
“Undine, we are to take but a moment of your and yours time”, the [Earth Nymph] kind of declared once he decided he was within earshot, which obviously meant just outside our closed gated, with the rest of his forces clearly visible in the background.
“That isn’t a very polite way to ask someone of something”, Undine responded, her tone clearly irritated.
“I wasn’t asking”, he responded with what I was starting to recognize as his default tone of haughtiness.
“And that isn’t the way you should talk to your superior”, the [Water Nymph] shook his head in displeasure.
“You never were my superior! NEVER! You just so happened to be the favorite fruit from your mother’s whoring!” The noble was now clenching his fists at his sides while veritably snarling at the still-composed [High Priestess].
“I wasn’t merely talking about our [Job]’s position., you arrogant asshole: I was talking about our moral standing and level of personal power. In that, you have no way of refuting my superiority”, Undine made one step forward, and all nine people around the asshole tensed, ready to throw magical hands.
He raised a hand, and everybody on his side immediately backed down, albeit reluctantly in most cases.
“I don’t care what you think. I already know that I’m the right, and this time things will go my way!” He said, while also making a single step forward.
Meanwhile, I was looking between Undine and the other Nymph, finding it hard to believe that they were just ignoring me and Sheeno, even when she was clearly readying to unleash some kind of attack, with all the frost that was congealing around her feet. And let’s not even talk about how dirt-guy was having a hard time not looking at me, for some reason, his eyes constantly bouncing between Undine’s and mine.
“Oh, hey, I remember you now!” I said in an exaggerated expression of realization, even adding a snap of my fingers for emphasis; fingers that until now had been idly massaging my chin while I was squinting at the guy.
All for scene, of course: I definitely knew who the guy was.
“Of course, you know me! And I wouldn’t be surprised if you knew of me, given my illustrious name and your link to Undine’s spawn. But I’m sure you remember-“, the [Earth Nymph] sounded scandalized at the mere notion that someone wouldn’t know him, but, unfortunately for him, there was someone else that had had enough of hearing him talk.
Sheeno started slowly putting the draconic weapons over her first, “I don’t care about who you are, I never did as a [Princess], and still don’t as a [Banished] one. But I do have to agree with Undine on the fact that you sure sound like an asshole”.
“How dare you-you impure-!” His head snapped to her, his mind finally registering the now ice at her feet, at least that’s what I figured when the hearth beneath his feet got infused with his own [Mana].
“Noe now, Sheeno. Don’t you remember? I did mention this guy at least once while talking about my arrival on this [Nexus] and my relationship with Undine”, I motioned excitedly at him with one hand, and some in his [Party] flinched back at my motion, while the other rested lazily inside on of my pockets.
“You did?” She raised an eyebrow at me, pausing to see where I was going with this.
“Yeah! He’s the asshole that tried to murder me for being different… what was his- oh, yeah- Jeff!” I said with a big grin, while mentally sending a message through the [Guild Card] I was holding onto in my pocket.
The content of the message wasn’t important, given the inability to check in this stressful situation. But all that was needed as a signal was the slight buzz that came with the receiving of a message, so everybody was ready for what came next.
“MY NAME IS JEOFF! RAAAAAH!!!” In an explosive fit of rage Jeff was at the front gate, the lackeys at his sides reacting barely fast enough to activate some kind of oblong tool that made the magic on it fizzle long enough for him to charge through it with a simple [Earth Enhanced] kick.
Thankfully that thing seemed like a one-time overpowered [Artifact], because after the second step in our newly tilled grass, Jeff was launched upwards by a spray of compressed air and dirt, sending him in an uncontrolled cartwheel while still shouting obscenities my way.
Undeterred by the unfortunate situation their leader found himself in, the rest of his private army charged right behind him, meeting no greater success than him.
“Boom indeed”, I muttered with a chuckle, looking at how, out of the ten people that charged in, only two didn’t get blasted by something somewhere else.