“So, let me get this straight,” Corie said, waving her hands around. “Just for the sake of clarity.” She pointed a finger at me. “You are the reincarnation of some kind of god.”
“Immortal,” I interjected. “While an Immortal is similar to a god, they are different kinds of beings altogether.”
Corie waved off my explanation.
“You were one of these Immortals,” she said. “But then you died and got reincarnated into the Otherworld, or Earth as they like to call it. You died there and got reincarnated here on Lumina. However, you didn’t remember your previous two lives until you almost died when you had your duel with that other Otherworlder.”
I was never going to live that down, was I?
“After that, you came up here so you could put into practice all the things from the other Otherworld that you now remembered how to do. Is that about right?”
“That’s a good summary, yes,” I said.
Lorelei, Corie, Leroy, and I were sitting in the House Sturm carriage as it traveled with the caravan heading west towards Rosewood City. It was a little cramped, but no one complained. What we gave up in comfort, we gained in privacy.
After I forged the familiar contract with the dragon spirit, my companions and I headed back to Little Cross. I moved slower than I had earlier that night, because of how tired I was, but we still made it to town with time to spare.
We returned to the inn, made it back to our respective rooms, and fell asleep for the night.
The caravan set out early the next morning. The dragon spirit continued to sleep inside my dantian, so I left it alone.
To my surprise, no one else in the caravan mentioned anything about what happened last night. It was as if they hadn’t noticed the storm that brewed when the dragon spirit and I forged the familiar contract. Maybe they hadn’t, or maybe something prevented them from noticing.
Instead of walking alongside the House Sturm carriage, Leroy and I decided to join Lorelei and Corie inside so I could explain things to them. While I didn’t tell them everything, I made sure they understood the gist of the situation.
If the two of them were going to be my disciples, they should know what they were getting themselves into. Lorelei seemed to already have some idea, and she was a Chosen, so she had no difficulty accepting my words. However, Corie and Leroy struggled. In Leroy’s case, that was partially my fault. When I first explained things to him, I had downplayed just how powerful I had been during my life on Spirit Earth.
It wasn’t everyday that someone told you that they were a reincarnated divine being. If it hadn’t been for my demonstration last night, I doubted either of them would have believed me.
“So, that hot guy from last night was you?” Corie asked. “Or what you looked like during your previous life?”
Why was she so fixated on that?
“Yes,” I said in a wry tone.
She slumped in her seat.
“Aw, that’s disappointing.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose, already regretting taking her on as my disciple.
“Wait,” Corie said, perking right back up. “This ‘cultivation’ you talked about. Is that why you can do all those weird things you do? Like the talismans, that weird mist spell, and that Lightning spell that lets you zip around?”
“Yes,” I said, still pinching the bridge of my nose. “While cultivators aren’t as good as wizards when it comes to the mystic arts, they are much better at martial arts.”
“Can you teach us how to do cultivation?”
I looked up at her. She stared at me with an intense look in her eyes. It didn’t take me long to figure out why. Cultivation would give her an edge when she faced off against her father and his House in order to get her revenge.
“Yes,” I said in a soft voice. “You are one of my disciples, after all. I will teach you about cultivation.” I gestured to Leroy. “I’ve already started teaching him, though we just started so he hasn’t gotten far yet.”
Leroy nodded, before looking out the window. Despite his presence, he didn’t participate in the conversation much. He focused his attention outside. I would have to get his take later on.
“Thank you,” Corie said. “I know I’ve been a pain in the ass towards you, but thank you.”
Lorelei took her hand and squeezed it. Corie gave her a grateful look.
“However, we’re going to have to wait until we return to Icefall City,” I said.
Lorelei and Corie’s faces fell.
“What?” Corie said. “Why?”
I nodded in the direction of the rest of the caravan.
“We don’t have enough privacy,” I said. “Maybe if we were traveling on our own, I’d think otherwise, but not while we’re surrounded by so many people. I’m trying to minimize the amount of people who know the truth about me. I originally only planned to tell my family and Leroy here.” I gestured to Lorelei. “This one’s patron had other ideas.”
Granted, I could have refused Terra’s offer. It wasn’t like she twisted my arm or anything. I didn’t need a familiar for my cultivation. Having one would just make it go much faster.
“Speaking of which,” I said, facing Lorelei. “It’s your turn to talk. Spill it.”
Corie also turned to face her friend. If Lorelei felt any embarrassment or nervousness at having two people stare at her while sitting in a small and confined space, she didn’t let it show.
“Very well, Master Gabriel,” Lorelei said. “What do you wish to know?”
“I want to know how much you know about me,” I said. “And I am also curious as to how much your patron, Lady Terra, knows about me.”
During my previous life as Immortal Celestial Thunder, I hadn’t had any interactions with divine beings from other worlds. I focused on Spirit Earth and its affairs.
During this life, I neither worshiped Terra nor did I interact much with her followers. My family worshiped Tempest, the Storm God. According to my family’s legends, our storm dragon ancestor was a servant of his.
Terra was one of the few gods who wasn’t part of Sol’s family nor was she his servant. Thus her followers weren’t a part of the Church of the Sun. However, her priests and priestesses were respected wherever they went, especially in rural communities. When your livelihood depended on the land, you made sure not to piss off the servants of the Earth Goddess.
Putting all this together, I wondered how Terra knew about me or how she knew the language of Spirit Earth. Had she visited Spirit Earth before? That was possible, but it doesn’t explain how Terra knew about me.
Wait a minute. Did she have something to do with my reincarnation here on Lumina? That wasn’t outside the realm of possibility.
“I don’t know how much Lady Terra knows about you, Master Gabriel,” Lorelei said. “I only know what she has told me.”
Disappointing, but not surprising.
“And what did she tell you about me?” I asked.
Lorelei opened her mouth to speak, but Corie interrupted her.
“Don’t start there,” she said. “Start at the beginning. How long have you been a Chosen? What is it like? Who else knows besides us? Your parents? What sort of blessing did you get?”
Lorelei wore an amused smile at her friend’s barrage of questions. Before she answered, she glanced at me. I heaved a sigh, before giving her a nod.
“I’ve been a Chosen for as long as I can remember,” Lorelei began. “As far as I know, I’m not that different from everyone else. It just means Lady Terra speaks to me in my dreams, teaching me and giving me advice.”
Divine beings had to be careful when interacting with the mortal world. An errant sigh from a divine being was enough to wipe out an entire continent. That was why they worked through intermediaries. Even then, they had to be careful in how they communicated with their people. Dreams were one of the most common ways to go about it.
That would explain how Lorelei knew the Earthen Rampart spell. The literal Earth Goddess taught her. Chosen had such bullshit advantages.
Nevermind that I was a reincarnated Immortal, and had even bigger bullshit advantages.
“No one else besides you three knows that I am a Chosen,” Lorelei said. “Not even my parents.” She looked downcast at this. “I’m afraid of how they’ll react, Papa in particular.”
That was something I could empathize with. Even though I know it was necessary, I dreaded having to tell my parents the truth about me. It would change my relationship with them, and I didn’t want that. They were the only parents I remembered having. I was an orphaned street rat as Immortal Celestial Thunder, and I was a foster kid as Brandon Norwood.
Corie threw her arm around Lorelei’s shoulders, and pulled her into a side hug.
“I’m sure it will be fine, Lorrie,” she said. “Guildmaster Sinclair doesn’t seem like the kind of woman who would let something like this rattle her. As for your father, I don’t think he would mind too much. In fact, I think he would be proud of you.”
I wasn’t so sure. Lorelei’s father was a priest of the Church of the Sun, which worshiped Sol and his family. Terra wasn’t a part of that. It was possible he would have trouble accepting that his daughter was the Chosen of another god.
From the look on her face, Lorelei felt the same.
“As I said last night,” she said, moving the conversation along. “My blessing is having Master Gabriel as my teacher. Lady Terra told me that with his guidance, I would have an advantage over the other Chosen. In fact, I might even be able to surpass them.”
“Which brings us back to me,” I said, leaning back and crossing my arms. “How long have you known about me? And what do you know about me?”
Lorelei shook her head.
“I don’t know much, to be honest,” she said. “About two weeks before you arrived in Icefall City, Lady Terra told me that her blessing for me would be a teacher; a fallen god who would teach me the secrets of another world. After that, she showed me the message I gave you last night and told me what it said. She said to pass it along to you when the time was right. That was all she told me about you.
“I started to suspect that you were my teacher when you dueled Gyles. I hadn’t seen anyone move the way you did before, not without using magic at least. However, you looked so young, so I didn’t know for sure if you were the teacher Lady Terra mentioned.”
“Wait,” I said. “Was that why you were so nice to me?”
“Yeah,” Corie said, sounding indignant. “Was that why you sided with him over me? Your best friend?”
Lorelei’s cheeks turned pink.
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“That’s part of it, yes,” she said.
I grinned at her.
“What’s the other part?” I asked, pretending that I didn’t already know.
Lorelei turned red, and covered her face with her hands. Corie looked at her, looked at me, then looked back at Lorelei.
“No way,” Corie said in disbelief. “Him? Really?”
Lorelei lifted her head from her hands.
“Shut up!” she said. “You’re the one who called him hot last night.”
“That’s different.”
“How?”
I held my hands up in a placating gesture.
“Okay, that’s enough teasing,” I said. “And Lorelei, as flattered as I am, it would never work out between us.”
“I know,” Lorelei said, fanning her face. “I knew that you might be my teacher, so I held myself back.”
At least she understood that part. The relationship between a master and disciple was sacred. It was like the relationship between a parent and their child, or at least an older sibling with their younger sibling. Muddling that with romance and sex was wrong on so many levels.
Besides, my heart belonged to another.
“After I saw the markings on the talismans,” Lorelei continued. “I knew for sure that you were my teacher. They looked similar to the characters of the message Lady Terra wanted me to give you.”
Well, I had been wrong about Lorelei not seeing anything like the magical symbols on the talismans.
“What would you have done if I hadn’t agreed to be your teacher?” I asked, out of curiosity.
Lorelei shrugged.
“Lady Terra told me that you were too smart to do something stupid like that,” she said with a teasing gleam in her eyes.
I wasn’t sure how to feel about that statement. It felt insulting, but I wasn’t quite sure how. Or maybe I didn’t want to know.
“Well, this has been an enlightening and somewhat frustrating conversation,” I said.
Lorelei’s story answered some of my questions, but not all of them. Terra’s involvement worried me. Just how much did she know about me and Spirit Earth? Not knowing irritated me.
Oh well. It didn’t matter for now. I already accepted Terra’s offer, so fretting about it now was counterproductive. It was better to just forge on ahead and keep working towards my goals. Who knows? Maybe this would end up being for the best in the end.
“For now,” I said. “Let’s continue to act as we have been. We still have a job to do. After we return home, we can discuss the details of your training.”
Lorelei nodded, accepting my words, while Corie huffed.
“Patience, little one,” I said.
“‘Little one?’” Corie sputtered. “I’m older than you are!”
“Only in this lifetime.”
With that, I exited the carriage before she had a chance to respond.
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Later on that same day, I talked with Leroy about the conversation we had earlier. I wanted to get his take on both my past lives, and Lorelei’s status as Chosen. To my surprise, he was pretty chill about it. When I asked him how he could act so nonchalant, he gave me a surprising response.
“I’m used to the strangeness that surrounds you, young master,” he said.
I could not muster up a defense against that, because I had done some pretty strange things ever since I arrived at Sturm Hill Hall and began my cultivation. Well, strange by Lumina’s standards. Back on Spirit Earth, all this stuff would be pretty tame in comparison. Hell, at this point, I might have already been involved in a sect war back on Spirit Earth.
Then again, House Icefall’s conflict with the Black Wolf Gang might count.
I also tried to talk with Leroy about not contacting my parents, but he imitated a stone wall and refused to answer me. In the end I had to give up. It wasn’t like I could force him. At the end of the day, he served my father, not me.
That meant I needed to prepare for my parents to know the truth about me sooner than I had expected. A pit opened up in my stomach at the thought. At this point, I doubted that Leroy had a communication crystal. If he had one, my parents would have already summoned me back to Sturm Manor. That meant he needed to rely on messengers.
If I was lucky, Leroy would wait until we returned to Sturm Hill Hall. If I was unlucky, he would send a message from Rosewood City. It would take a messenger about two weeks to go from Rosewood City to Sturm Manor; three at the most. That meant that I didn’t have much time before I faced my parents again. I had hoped to reach the Foundation Establishment stage first, but it looked like that wasn’t in the cards. Unless I convinced Leroy not to narc on me.
The lands west of Little Cross weren’t much to look at. It was all barren hills, with nary a trace of life. No plants, no animals, no magic beasts. Only the hardiest and most stubborn of lifeforms lived here. No wonder nobody settled in this area. They would be hard pressed just to survive.
However, about half a day’s journey from Little Cross, I noticed someone sneak closer towards the caravan. At first they remained along the edge of my divine sense’s range, but soon they drew closer.
It was a woman, who wore a camouflaged cloak over black leather armor. She was a Second Circle wizard with an affinity for Air.
This woman kept pace with the caravan, always remaining far enough away that most people wouldn’t notice her presence. The only reason I could was because of my divine sense.
Oh good, the Black Wolf Gang had started to make its move. A part of me had worried that they wouldn’t. After all, Lord Icefall’s plan depended on them attacking the caravan. At least, that was the plan according to Guildmaster Sinclair. I doubted she had told me everything.
While she hired me to protect her daughter, and ensure that the package went to the right people, that didn’t mean she trusted me with all of her cousin’s secrets. The only reason why she included me at all was because of her husband’s divination. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been a part of the caravan at all.
If the woman watching us was from the Black Wolf Gang, then I needed to let the others know. At least, I needed to let Lieutenant Hayden know.
I knocked on the carriage door. The window opened and Corie poked her head out.
“Yes, young master?”
“Would you mind delivering a message to Lieutenant Hayden for me?” I asked. “We have a watcher.” I told Corie about the watcher and her position relative to the caravan. “I would do it myself, but I would draw too much attention to myself. The others are less likely to give you trouble since they like you more than me.”
Corie studied me for a few seconds.
“I would ask how you know this,” she said. “But it will probably be some weird cultivator thing.”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “I just noticed her with my divine sense.”
“Don’t you mean spirit sense?”
I grinned at her.
“I know what I said.”
Corie rolled her eyes and opened the carriage door, muttering something about annoying Immortals. I pretended not to hear it.
Rather than rush up towards Lieutenant Hayden, Corie took her time about it. She wandered up ahead, chatting with a few people along the way. To any outside observer, she looked like a young woman stretching her legs after spending hours riding inside a stuffy carriage.
While she did that, I made sure to inform Leroy and Lorelei about the scout.
After about fifteen minutes, Corie reached Lieutenant Hayden. The two of them had a brief, but heated, discussion before Corie slowly made her way back. She looked somewhat annoyed.
“Lieutenant Hayden says thank you for the information,” she spat out.
I raised an eyebrow at her.
“Why are you so upset?” I asked. “Did Lieutenant Hayden not believe you?”
“No, he did.”
“Then what is the problem?”
“Because he’s not going to do anything about the woman spying on us!” Corie said, throwing her hands up. “What was the point of telling him if he’s just going to sit back and do nothing?”
“I didn’t expect him to do anything,” I said. “I just wanted to warn him that we might get attacked soon. If that woman is from the Black Wolf Gang, then her presence means they’re scouting us out. Lieutenant Hayden will let the others know so we can get ready for it.”
“That’s why we should take care of the woman now rather than letting her scout us out!” Corie said. “If we keep them from getting accurate information about us, they might hesitate before attacking. If they send another scout, we can kill them too. The Black Wolf Gang might not even bother attacking us if we kill enough of their people.”
I tilted my head at her. It was unfair of me, since no one had told her the actual plan, but I wanted to tease Corie a bit.
“Why would we want that?”
Corie looked at me as if I had a screw loose in my head.
“What do you mean?” she asked. “We’re supposed to deliver a package to Rosewood City. Getting attacked by the Black Wolf Gang would make our job harder, assuming we even survive the attack that is.”
I leaned forward so I could whisper into Corie’s ear.
“No one ever said that the package was supposed to reach Rosewood City,” I said.
Well, Lord Icefall had, but that was for the benefit of the people listening in on his conversation with Guildmaster Sinclair way back when. Well, the people besides me.
“What?” Corie asked, giving me a confused look.
“Let Lorelei handle the delivery part of this job,” I said. “We just need to make sure she doesn’t get hurt in the process.”
Corie studied me for a few seconds, before her eyes narrowed.
“This is another one of those situations where no one tells me anything until the last minute, isn’t it?” she asked.
I shrugged.
“You’re the one who decided to come with us when you weren’t invited. Don’t blame us for not telling you everything.”
Corie huffed and crossed her arms.
“I hate when this happens.”
“Look, if you really want to know, ask Lorelei.”
“Fine, I will.”
Corie opened the door to the carriage and slammed it shut behind her. I could have listened in on their conversation, but I decided to respect their privacy. However, based on the expression Corie wore when we made camp that night, I assumed Lorelei told her the truth.
Corie looked eager and bloodthirsty. After what happened with the burned down hamlet, I didn’t blame her.
In fact, I felt a little bloodthirsty myself.
----------------------------------------
The Black Wolf Gang’s scouts watched us for three days before they made their move. Most of the time it was the Second Circle Air wizard, but sometimes there were others as well. They kept a constant watch on us.
The Black Wolf Gang was more cautious than I had expected them to be. I assumed they wouldn’t spend as much time scouting us out before attacking. This behavior further deepened my suspicion that they weren’t a simple group of bandits.
During those three days, Lorelei made sure to keep her comically large backpack next to her at all times, even during meals and when she slept. This was for the benefit of the scouts watching us.
As we drew closer and closer to Rosewood City, the mood for the caravan grew more and more tense. Even those who weren’t in on the plan knew that something was about to happen. Given the desolate nature of the area, it was clear that they expected something to happen. They didn’t know what exactly, but they expected something.
I spent this time preparing for the upcoming attack. I had a feeling that my talismans and potions would play a key role for me. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any more Mana Ink or Ghostfire Ink. Otherwise, I would make more talismans.
As for potions, I had neither the knowledge nor the supplies to make any. Hmm, perhaps I could pick up a book on alchemy while we were in Rosewood City. Thanks to all the Protection Talismans I sold, I had quite a bit of coin on me.
I also continued to cultivate, though I made sure not to let anyone outside of our little party notice. I didn’t want any unwanted questions directed my way.
Thanks to the two Inferno Wolf mana cores, I came close to breaking through to the third small realm of the Energy Condensation stage.
On the night of the third day after we left Little Cross, the Black Wolf Gang attacked. Everyone was full from dinner, and sleepy after a long day’s travel. With my divine sense, I noticed a large group of people heading our way from the north. All of them were wizards, though only four were in the Second Circle.
My party and I were situated at the southern end of the camp.
“We’re under attack!” I shouted, drawing my sword.
I activated one of my remaining Protection Talismans.
Most people from the rest of the caravan gave me blank looks. However, Lieutenant Hayden and the five adventurers hired by Guildmaster Sinclair reacted right away and cast shield spells on themselves.
Right around this time, the ground beneath us began to tremble. It didn’t seem like a spell, but rather like something large and heavy was running our way. That was when a large construct reached the edge of my divine sense. It was vaguely humanoid, made of steel, and was about twice my height.
“They have a Steel Golem!” I shouted.
One of the adventurers, the second squishy spellcaster, cast a summoning spell. Unlike Crispin, the Fire wizard, she was a Water wizard. An orb of water filled to the brim with mana formed in the air in front of her. This orb shifted and moved like a living being.
A Water Elemental.
The Water wizard must have prepared this beforehand, because summoning spells usually required a magic circle.
That was when the rest of the caravan realized that this wasn’t a joke and began to prepare for battle. The noncombatants scattered, looking for a place to hide, including Jeffrey, my driver.
My party activated their own Protection Talismans.
A few tense seconds passed, before a barrage of spells hit our makeshift barricade. The vehicles that made up that part of the barricade exploded, and wizards clad in black leather armor poured in through the burning wreckage. Several Inferno Wolf familiars rushed in beside them. The five adventurers and the other guards attacked with spells of their own.
The three warrior wizards rushed in, swinging their weapons, while the squishy spellcasters slung the spells from the back. I watched as Crispin bathed the area in front of him with flames, burning several people alive. The Water Elemental weaved its way through the Black Wolf Gang, slashing at people with tendrils of water.
Only a few seconds passed, but there were already several casualties on both sides. The Steel Golem, a crude creation as these things went, made its appearance. It burst through another part of the barricade. One of the warrior wizards, an Earth wizard wielding a hammer, stepped up to face it. They clashed, the sound ringing out in the air.
The mana in the area roiled and writhed as everyone manipulated it to cast their spells.
The others and I held back from joining the fight. The attack from the north was a distraction, since the Black Wolf Gang’s goal was likely the package that Lorelei carried. A lot of people had worked hard to ensure they learned of its importance.
Well, Corie didn’t hold back. As an archer, she could snipe enemies even from this position. I watched as one of the Black Wolf Gang took an arrow in the eye before collapsing.
Where were the others?
Even as I thought that, I noticed three people heading towards us from the south. All three were Second Circle wizards. One of them was the Air wizard who had been spying on us. The others were a Wood wizard and a Metal wizard, with another construct accompanying the latter.
I grinned.
Good. Things were about to get fun.