Capítulo 39: Chapter 39 - From one battle to another
[Luz Leywin POV]
"Argh... Guys... Ta hell... What happened?" I said when I finally woke up, feeling a strong pain in the area of my mana core.
In my line of sight, there were only Elijah, Art and Jasmine, I was slowly sitting up, with the help of my brother, to soon see that we were in the hallway before the boss arena, and with the only light there being a fire nearby.
"You passed out after using the second phase." Arthur answered me directly, and I just shook my head, with one hand still on the area of my torso where my core was.
"Are you okay?" Jasmine asked a little worried.
"I think so... The energy was so much that even now I'm feeling the pain of multiple currents of mana entering my body... Argh... It was weird..." I said with a slight cough, realizing now that I was still wearing my mask, which was strange as it had fallen off my face in my transformation.
"Weird in which way?" Elijah asked this time.
"If I compare it to what would normally happen... Imagine that flowing mana through the body is the same as making water go through a tube... Now imagine that instead of water, it's a super thick honey... That's what I felt." Everyone looked at me with a look of surprise, but they seemed to have understood my analogy.
"Well... Now the ultimate question... Where are the people? I thought they had all survived..." I said, taking my hand off my stomach and facing the trio in front of me.
"Well, about that... Brald was the only one who didn't survive the attack, the rest are alive, but they decided to get out of here before you woke up, because they wanted to take Lucas soon to report him... And because They were afraid of you." Arthur said with a sigh and I soon noticed him taking off his mask.
I was looking at him oddly as to what he did now, but Elijah soon heaved a sigh as well. "Relax. I've already seen your faces and Arthur has talked to me for a bit about the two of you... Don't worry."
"Oh.. Alright..." I said taking off my mask, I must have had some bloodstains in my mouth and near my eyes, by the way it was smeared on the back of the mask.
"But.. Can you return to this topic? What do you mean they were scared of me?" When I asked that, both Jasmine and Arthur's faces became serious, while Elijah looked uncomfortable.
"Well... There was a moment when you just had a rage attack and started attacking Lucas.. And me. I mean, you made Lucas humiliated and then you pressed me to the floor asking me weird things... until you passed out again." Elijah said, scratching his own cheek.
"What the fuck? Is this serious?" I asked confused and they agreed.
"Guys, is this for real?" This time I asked inside my mind.
"Yep, completely, you put on a show and made that blond brat throw up and pee all over himself." Zalgnity said with a laugh at the end.
"Weirdly, the part where you went to Elijah... For some reason I heard your voice like it was a high pitched noise, not words... But since he's saying you said something, maybe we just couldn't hear it at all by some mental block." Sylvia was super confused by that, and I was too.
"What about Sirius?" I asked mentally, but no one answered. "Hi...? Hello?"
"What's the problem now?" Zalgnity replied.
"I asked a question, guys. What about Sirius? He told me that you guys knew about him and you didn't tell me." I thought a little confused still with everything going on.
"Huh? Did you ask a question? I honestly didn't listen." Zalgnity was answering me again, as if he had only heard the first part of what I said.
"Wait, are you really not listening when I asked?" I mentally spoke to them and only received a psychic confirmation from both of them.
"It seems that every time I try to say something about Sirius they don't listen? Geez boy, what kind of thing are you up to... Really, when you told me not to ask the others about you, you didn't were you kidding...? Right, Mr.Sirius?" I thought to myself, giving a little cough and returning to the conversation with my dungeon team.
"Well... I see... We'd better see this situation later in a safer place... Oh and my name is Luz, Luz Leywin." I said extending my hand to Elijah.
"So you really are brothers? I thought you call each other like that because you are a duo." he said while we shook our hands.
"Not exactly." I said laughing a little.
"He was adopted." Art would say and I would give a light little cough.
"I see, since you're awake now, we can get out of here without any problem. Shall we?" Elijah said getting up and Jasmine followed him.
"Wait... Where is the Elderwood Guardian's mana core?" I asked and they looked at me confused.
"Must be in the boss room.... And like, the place collapsed, so..." Elijah said scratching the back of his head.
I gave a big sigh and got up towards the boss room, where there was a hole that possibly was where we exited. In it there were several stones thrown, which supported the fact that the place had collapsed.
"Are we going to do that?" Zalgnity questioned, curious.
"I can feel the corrupted energy of the mana core... And we're less than a kilometer away from it... So yes. Doing that is possible." I spoke to Zalgnity while reaching my hand towards the hole in the wall.
The trio that was waiting for me was confused, but soon I could hear a noise from something there. My right hand begins to be surrounded by a black and red color.
"Come to me.... Oh... Corrupted one... I am your real god... I am your real leader... Obey me and don't run away.... Your escape is the same as refusing your own existence."
I was reciting in a low voice and the aura in my hand gets much denser, suddenly a loud noise occurs and something goes flying out from under all those rocks, at high speed, landing on my hand. It was a smooth and beautiful sphere with a greenish color like a moss, but with a black layer around it, it was the mana core of the mana beast we faced.
"How did you do it?!?!" Elijah exclaimed, while Art and Jasmine were impressed but not saying anything.
"The mana beast we faced.. It's been altered, its mana core is modified to make it more powerful and aggressive... That extra layer of power was easy to manipulate from here." I said keeping the mana core in my dimensional ring.
"That didn't quite explain it, but... Are you saying that it was STRONGER than usual????" Elijah exclaimed again.
"Yes... I would say it was actually 5 times more powerful..." I replied and approached them, putting my mask back on. "Are we going to get out of here or not?"
"Of course. Take your sword, Luz." Jasmine warned me.
"Actualy, we won't need to take our weapon, will we Arthur?" I said looking at my brother.
"How... How did you know?" he said confused
"How did he know what?" Elijah said shifting his gaze between Arthur and I repeatedly.
A tremor erupts from the ground we were standing on, causing Elijah to hold on tight to his staff while Jasmine grabbed the two daggers.
"Sylvie is here..." I said smiling and the tremor increased.
"Who is Sylvie?" our four-eyes questioned.
"My bond..." Arthur said and soon the tremors became more intense with some stalactites from the ceiling falling to the floor.
I could see what looked like a beautiful dragon for about 8 meters, its scales were obsidian-black that divinely reflected the glow that was coming from our nearby fire. Two horns in the head area that were very sharp, somewhat reminiscent of the horns I had in my Second Phase: Corrupt Trigger, but while mine had color, hers were completely onyx-black. The wings vaguely resembled Sylvia's in dragon form, but were very dark, following the black style of the rest of her body. On her back were blood-red spikes, down her spine. Even though her essence demonstrates the true nature of a pure and gentle dragon, the aura she passed on to others could be pure terror. Her face was very elegant and sharp, her black scales and yellow irises was like a type of topaz..? No... This reminded me the eyes that Sirius had when we were talking before.
Sylvie's powerful limbs, armored with jagged spikes at the elbows and knees, lifted as she approached Arthur with a graceful pose, despite her large size. It was funny to see when she lowered her head that was as larger as his torso, bringing her snout close to him.
Suddenly, her snake-like tongue shot out as she licked my brother's face with the force to lift him from the ground.
"My God, your breath is foul, Sylv." Art said while I started to laugh at this whole scene.
"I-is that a wyvern? But it has four limbs... I-it can't be right? Is that a d-d-d—"
"I'm pretty sure that this goood girl here, is a dragon." I finished for the dumbfounded Elijah, while I patted one of Sylvie's limbs, as her tail swung a little.
Our four-eyes stared up at the sight of the fearsome beast, his face filled with more horror than when he had seen the elderwood guardian. Jasmine, who had already known about our little dragon, was still trembling at the sight of my brother's juvenile bond.
"As I said before, Elijah, this is my bond, Sylvie." Art stretched his hand out to rub the dragon's snout, causing her hind leg to thump the ground in pleasure.
"You really didn't change that much." I said, while seeing that Sylvie still act like before.
Turning to face Elijah, Arthur put on a grim face. "Jasmine and my brother knew about this, but I want you to promise to keep this a secret as well. Dragons have been tought to have been extinct for centuries now, so if anyone were to suddenly see Sylvie... Well, you know what greed can do to someone." Elijah nodded frantically in response, his glasses hanging loose on his crooked nose.
"Okay... Art, it looks like you're still not walking right around using Dawn's Ballad as a cane. Stand on Sylvie's back. I'll go ahead to see if any adventurers show up. As the guys left earlier, there's a chance that they sent a backup team here." I said while feeling a little pain in the area near my mana core and a little in my legs, with my feet being surrounded by a small wind as I walk towards the exit.
Arthur was in Sylvie's back to follow me, while Elijah and Jasmine would follow close behind. The jorney back up only took a few hours compared to the full day we needed when we had travelled down.
When we reached the surface, my hair was lightly colored as I touched the grass, using a plant magic technique Alea had taught me in childhood, I could feel horses and a small carriage approaching.
"A rescue team really came. Sylvie, can you still transform?" I said looking at the dragon behind me and soon she turned into something that looked like a black cat, however, as my brother was still on her back, he fell to the ground in a comical way, with Jasmine helping him up.
"Kyuuu~" Sylvie made that classic noise of hers and jumped on top of Arthur's head.
Art and I adjusted our masks on our faces as we witnessed what came to "save" us. I was surprised to see Kaspian and Claire on top of the horse that was ahead of the others, I waved at them as they came to a stop next to us. Behind them, a carriage appeared with a medical symbol stamped on one side.
Claire was the first to get off the horse, in an extremely hurried way, she ran towards me and hugged me tightly, while my only way to react to that was to caress her shoulder.
"M-master Diamond! Oh my god! You're fine!" That's what she said as she buried her face in my shoulder, my robe still a little dirty.
"Oh my, are you guys okay? Your Party went to the nearest guild post and asked for a rescue, luckily I was there solving some problems." Kaspian said looking at everyone, getting a face of astonishment, since Jasmine had a bandage on her head and torso, Elijah had a broken nose, Arthur had a bruise on his torso, and I had wounds on my arms.
"We're fine, getting out of the Dungeon right now. It's been a long time since I was knocked out and.. Due to the dangers we went through in Dire Tombs when we went down there. We thought we'd better start coming to the surface when I woke up." I replied, as I felt Claire hugging me even tighter. "And why are you here? Shouldn't you be in Xyrus Academy for what I know?"
"Today I had decided to spend a day with my uncle... So I came here with him." Claire said, her voice muffled by the position she was in.
I looked back a little, I saw Sylvie doing a smirk, while Elijah and Jasmine had a surprised face, and Arthur, with the mask on, was probably making some expression, but I didn't see it.
"Anyway, we need to take you to safety, how is the situation with your bodies?"
"I just broke the Nose." Elijah said.
"Jasmine received a fire attack on the head and torso, while I received the same attack on the torso. I have a little pain all over my body and my legs are so hard to move." Arthur replied, the fact that it involved 'fire' made Kaspian's face go into disgust, apparently the denunciation of Lucas' betrayal was made.
"I'm already all treated, but still feeling a lot of pain...." I said and soon Claire let go of me apologizing, I just gave a weak laugh.
Two mages, probably emitters, got out of the carriage and walked towards us, they tried to take everyone to their carriages, but I was the only one to refuse, but I didn't refuse them to use a basic healing spell on me. So I feel a little better, even though there is still pain.
"Is it okay for me to go with you?" I said to Kaspian and Claire as the rest of the group was already leaving along with the carriage.
"But how are you going to do that? We just have a horse and we both ride it." Claire asked confused.
"Do you think I've spent these 2 whole years moving around on horseback? Nah. I really use magic." I said giving a smirk under my mask.
"You're all worn out already, mostly from what we've been told, an elderwood guardian... You and Note beat this and you still have the energy to use magic and move with us?" Kaspian said in disbelief.
"Yep. But what I'm looking forward to more is taking the opportunity to talk about it." I said taking the mana core out of my dimensional ring and giving it to Kaspian's hand.
"Wait... This here.. Is this Elderwood Guardian's mana core?!" He asked and I nodded in agreement.
"Oh my... And being covered by that dark layer..." He continued talking.
"Yes, according to what our dead Party leader, Brald, commented as we walked through the dungeon, it looked pretty modified compared to when he was here before. And with a mana core like that.. That means the Dark Guild behind from Sunshine Maze, was also here at Dire Tombs..." As I said that, Kaspian's gaze went from surprised to serious.
"By the way there were broken traps and the boss room was locked by a cracked door full of incapacitated runes. I'd say Dire Tombs was attacked or abandoned by this strange Dark Guild. The only traces of their presence there were the runes and the boss itself." I continued to tell my story, while Kaspian returned the mana core.
"I see, can we go?" the guild leader said getting on his horse.
"Of course." I said, absorbing some of the dark and plant mana that was inside the corrupted mana core. This filled up my mana pool so fast.
I put my hand on the ground and create a kind of vine board, it had a very slippery moss underneath, so to speak, it was a surfboard that worked out of water. "Wow... Can I go with you?" Claire said with light in her eyes as I climbed onto the plank. Looking at Kaspian to see his approval of the idea, he didn't seem to care too much.
"You can, but after this you'll go in your uncle's horse." I answered her, while she climbed on the board and kept holding on to my shoulders.
With that done, Kaspian started to leave the area using the horse, while I directed my palms back and started releasing gusts of controlled winds, serving to propel the board.
The strong wind caused by the high speed I was, made my hood go back, revealing my multicolored hair that was floating. I could feel Claire gripping my shoulders tighter as she gave a "WOAAH!" of happiness, it seems she liked the different idea I had.
I released gusts of propelling wind so I never advanced in front of Kaspian, always staying side by side with him.
"Diamond! Taking advantage of the fact that we are still apart from the others, I wanted to warn you in advance of something." Kaspian said, even with the strong wind, his voice didn't fade.
"What would it be???" I asked, getting very close to him to hear better.
"You and Note have become quite famous among adventurers and nobles. Even though you are listed as an elf due to your plant magic, most nobles of Sapin and Darv are looking to have you two as bodyguards."
"Any news on this, Kaspian?" I asked, after all, I already knew about these situations that Arthur and I would refuse, luckily until now it only happened very few times, because we were always away from the guild posts. With the exception of Guild Hall which was where we met with our parents every 2 months at least.
"Well, the latest proposal came from two royal families you know." When Kaspian said that, my eyes widened.
"The Glayders and The Eraliths???? What do they want with me?"
"With you two, actually. They've heard of the reports and rumours, and are wanting both of you as special guards working for their realms at the same time. I'm not sure about the internal arrangements, but possibly it's related to the process of uniting the three realms."
"I see, but why are you talking about this now and not when my partner and I are together?" I said confused, while Claire behind me seemed to get tired of being on her feet, so I got close enough to Kaspian's horse for her to be with her uncle now.
"That's why there was the report of Lucas Wykes' betrayal in the group of you two. So at least one of you needs to be prepared to know all the strong consequences of accepting or refusing the deal. From the way I know the Wykes, they will bribe or threaten anyone who learns of this betrayal, lest it be spread further. You need more influential contacts than the Wykes family to survive their possible attacks. And having at least one of the royal families is a good idea." Kaspian was telling me about the situation Arthur and I could be in.
"But... Kaspian, I've shown you before, I already have contact with both royal families." I spoke confused.
"Yes, you said who you are behind the mask has those contacts... But you as an adventurer don't. And from the way we know our king of Sapin, if you ask him for protection, being yourself, he will associate and try to have you just for him. So you better get support with your adventurer name too."
What Kaspian said was true, while I, as Luz, had contact with all of the two royal families. Me as Diamond was another story, only Tessia knew I was Diamond among them. But the real problem was if Blaine knew I was Diamond, besides what I'd done saving his daughter, my achievements as an adventurer would be used to make that greedy bastard get more reasons to have me even more... And I know well how people that kind worked when they dont get what they want...
"Fine, I'll check on the situation when we get there. I have to talk to Note about this." I said taking a long breath.
"Wait. If he becomes a special guard, won't he be able to mentor me anymore?" Claire asked.
"Well, I probably wouldn't mentor you anymore because of lack of time and freedom. But like I said, we'll still think about it." I answered her.
"You say it as if you have the alternative of refusing." Kaspian spoke, accelerating the horse.
"There is, but what Note and I need to talk about is whether it's really worth it to be frowned upon by Wykes without protection, or to be recognized by the royals as special guards." I answered him while also accelerating my board, with an OmegaFlame now being the spell that took me forward.
"Are you serious?!?" Kaspian asked, his voice showing that he was not believing what he was hearing.
"You know what I'm capable of magically speaking. And you know a little about my intellectual capacity to talk and get deals. So yes, I'm serious." I said with a laugh and finally accelerated, going in front of them.
.---------.----------.---------.
It took about one to two hours, but we arrived at the Guild Hall, at the entrance I saw Jasmine and Elijah sitting on a bench, I approached them, with Claire still next to me while Kaspian separated from us to sort out some things.
"Guys, where's Note? I need to talk to him about some things." I asked looking at both, until my answer came, when Sylvie came jumping on my shoulder from behind, when I looked to the side, I saw my brother approaching, with several bandages covering his entire torso, he was no longer wearing that shirt of his, but still had the cloak over everything.
"I hope you're feeling better, Adventurer Note." Claire spoke looking at Arthur.
"Hm... Thank you very much, and would you be...?" he asked with a curious look, remembering earlier when she'd hugged me and called me master.
"Oh! I'm sorry but I never told them about you because.. I didn't see the need... Guys, this is Kaspian's niece Claire Bladeheart. I've been giving her some magic and swordplay lessons." I announced to my group.
"Wait, so she's your disciple or something??... When did this start?" Elijah said adjusting his glasses.
"Remember the last time you saw me? So, I was going to see her. Before my family trip I had a year and a half ago, I had already met her and made the deal with Kaspian." I replied to Elijah, who seemed strangely pleased with the situation, after all he knew about me, he...
Should he be easily accepting things like that...?
We talked a little more around there, Claire didn't seem to be so focused at all, she looked more at me and Note due to our last dungeon. But soon our conversation was interrupted by Kaspian's secretary, Mary.
"Adventurers Note and Diamond. I have to inform you that we have special guests here and they want to have a chat with you both." Mary said with a voice a little shaky for the situation.
"Okay, can you tell them we're heading there, what's the room?" I asked Mary while the others, including Arthur, were confused. With Claire, the only one who knew about the situation, saying goodbye to us as she left the reception.
"Fifth room on the left in the main hall, it has two guards, you can't miss it. Please don't take too long." Mary said bowing and then walked away from us.
"Um... what is this about?" Art asked me.
"Well.. One more group of nobles wants us.. This time it's both royal families we know." I spoke softly using sound magic so only he could hear, my brother's eyes widened behind the mask.
"I think we better go. See you later, guys." He told our two companions who waved as we walked towards that room.
As told by Secretary Mary, it was a big door and had two guards guarding the place. They looked strangely when they saw us, my brother and I showed them our ID cards.
"I'm Note, Fire Augmenter AA-Class." my brother spoke.
"I'm Diamond, Wind Augmenter S-Class. I hear people inside this room want to talk to us, can we come in?" I asked politely after introducing myself, both guards still stared at us strangely, maybe because it was more common for someone to want to talk to royalty than the other way around, until they opened the doors for us to go.
We entered that room together, and we saw an interesting scene. That area was a large room with some rectangular tables, it seemed to be a meeting place for internal discussions between important adventurers. But the place was pretty empty, with the exception of two tables that were set back from the entrance.
At the table on the left, there were 3 people sitting on chairs, facing the entrance, these were the king and queen of the elven realm, along with my old mentor beside them. Tessia was sitting on a chair behind her parents, with her back to the wall.
At the table on the right, there were 2 people seated, also facing towards the entrance. They were the king and queen of the human realm. Curtis and Kathyln were there too, sitting in chairs behind their parents.
Besides them, there were 3 more familiar faces there, standing next to the elven royalty, were Alea and Aya. On the human royalty side was the person I knew as Kathyln's mentor, I don't remember her name now, but her codename is something I can easily remember, Zero.
I was kind of surprised by the fact that until now, I only knew that both royal families had two special guards each, one of the guards was currently missing from the royal family's side of Sapin... Where was Thunderlord?
Anyway, after a quick look of the room, we bowed for the two families there.
"Welcome, dear adventurers." Blaine was saying this as the guards behind us closed the doors to the room.
"You can sit down." Merial said sweetly and kindly, Arthur and I decided to do what was asked of us.
We sat on two chairs that were behind another rectangular table that was positioned so that we were all in a 'V' shape. The two tables in front of us, one on the left and one on the right, while there was the table in the center in front of them, which was where we were. Sylvie was with us, in that miniature form of her natural appearance, she decided to lie on my brother's lap, luckly, no one seemed to notice her.
"Phantasm, Can you please make our meeting a little more.. Secret?" Virion ordered Aya, which soon created a dense layer of Sound Barrier around the room.
"So Aya's codename is Phantasm...? It matches a lot..." I thought.
"It looks like the situation here is going to be too serious." Zalgnity took a long breath, he was bored.
"Relax, Zalg. After all, I'm a sage and my 'little brother' was a king in his past life... We both know how to behave in such situation." I thought, with a wide smirk under my mask.
Estado de energía semanal
-- Ranking de
Poder 
-- Piedra de
Poder