บท 20: Resolution
Shout out to my new patron:
The Main Man
You are a legend
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(General POV)
Finn rubbed his thumb as it suddenly began throbbing. Whenever this happened, it usually meant something momentous was about to happen. He looked around the masses below him worriedly.
Ais had still not come back. Hopefully she had found Garth as she was good at finding what she sought. If everything about the guild notice was true, then his help would be invaluable.
It was taking all of Orario's greatest mages to sustain the barrier that protected the coliseum. Riveria was beginning to feel the strain of having to direct a large potion of them as well as Hedin of the Freya Familia.
Finn's thoughts came back to Garth himself. Everything on that notce was just unbelievable, Inconceevable even. Not even in the ancient legends did anybody with supposed power like that exist.
But anything posted by the guild was official information, although he doubted it was yet verified. But then again, he doubted the Freya Familia would weave such a ridiculous yarn. Freya had a high standing in the world, and she couldn't afford to fool around like this.
But a level of 999,999?
That was just too ridiculous. As much as his gut was telling him otherwise, Finn still refused to believe it. Sure, Garth did demonstrate power and strength beyond somebody who was a beginner.
But nothing he'd done in the dungeon had hinted of any power on par with some of the strongest adventurers he'd seen. He'd been around during the era of the Zeus and Hera Familias, so he knew what overwhelming power looked like.
Those families were packed with so much skill, strength and quality over quantity, a level four from either one of those would drag his face across the ground even if he was a level six.
Garth had displayed nothing close to that. Sure he'd taken out every monster that he came across with one blow. But those were monsters of the upper floors suitable for level ones and twos.
And to insinuate that Garth had been hiding strength greater than both the two legendary Familias combined hundreds, no thousands of times over?
Finn hated it that as stupendous as it sounded, his gut was telling him to believe it.
At that moment, Tiona came rushing over.
"Captain!"
"What is it Tiona? Is everybody in?"
She nodded.
"So far we believe everybody has reached here. Daedalus and the entertainment district were the last to clear out. The only ones who haven't come back yet are the adventurers each Familia sent to make sure everybody is headed this way."
"Then they should be heading back about any minute now." Tione said from beside Finn. "Good job sis."
Finn looked down at the thousands of people stuffed into the tight space of the barrier. The coliseum seats and arena as well as its outside were full of people stuffed together.
They stayed as far away from the barrier as they could, trying to make sure they were nowhere near it's edge. Partially because Bete and other adventurers were keeping them away so they wouldn't be distractions to the mages.
And partially because they seemed to believe that by doing so, they were in less danger of the meteor about to collide with their city.
"How did it come to this?" Finn said as he looked up at the incoming fireball.
"Is something the matter Captain?" Tiona asked.
"Apart from the fact a mountain sized ball of flaming rock from beyond the edge of the mortal world is about to rain down and destroy everything we adventurers have built for the last millennium? No nothing much." Finn deadpanned.
Tiona meekly rubbed her head.
"I know Captain. But it seemed like there's more that you want to say."
"Think about it. That meteor will destroy all of Orario. After this day is over, we will all have nothing, if any of us are still alive to begin with. The city will be overturned, and Babel will be destroyed. Leaving the mouth of the dungeon opened wide for the monsters to spill out and swarm the surface once again like they did in the ancient times. All our advancements will be taken back a thousand years." Finn said forlornly.
"You've never spoken a truer word, Captain of the Loki Familia." A new voice piped up.
They looked over to see who spoke, and were not surprised to see who was nosy enough to intrude into their conversation.
"Lord Hermes. What are you doing here?" Tione asked.
Hermes smiled that wily smile of his.
"Why, we're here to survive the impending doom of course."
"We know that. We meant why are you up here on the roof, instead of down there?"
"I would ask you the same thing you know. Not exactly wise to stand on top of a structure like this during a meteor strike. Not that we are all going to survive to learn from this experience." Hermes said as he sat on the floor dangling his feet over the edge.
Asfi who had come with him shook her head, immediately detecting that Hermes was about to play on people's mind again.
"What do you mean Lord Hermes?" Shakti said worriedly. She and the Ganesha executives were also situated on top of the roof since Ganesha pretty much owned the site for the Monster Felia that regularly took place.
Hermes smiled sadly.
"The barrier will not protect us. It's too weak against a calamity like that."
"But they calculated its trajectory didn't they? It's not landing any where near the barrier!" Another member of the Ganesha Familia tried to reason. It was that guy whose name everybody kept forgetting...
...what was his name again?
"The barrier is out of it's path for sure. But the devastation that will erupt from its impact will most certainly destroy the barrier. As powerful as it is, magic doesn't do well against a force of nature like that.
And even if the barrier miraculously managed to hold, the earthquakes caused by the impact would make the coliseum collapse on itself, killing everybody inside."
Tiona jumped up worriedly.
"Then we have to get everybody out now!"
"Too late for that." Hermes replied. "Even if you did, where would you send them? That ball of rock is about to hit any moment now. Even if you did manage to get everyone out in time, the meteor would probably just open up giant chasms in the ground to turn the city in on itself, or we might become apart of the crater it would make."
Everyone stood around tied over what to do. The more they spent time like this, the more they realized the futility of what they were trying to do.
"Face it Orario's time is over. It was good while it lasted." Hermes sighed wistfully.
"Can you not intervene on our behalf? Use your sealed powers to stop this calamity?" Finn asked.
Hermes shook his head.
"No. We kind of tied ourselves up here. It would take a lot of Arcanum to stop that thing. And the contract we agreed upon to enter the lower realms would immediately expel us from it if we were to use any portion of it."
"So we are all doomed to die anyway." Shakti asked.
"Yeah." Hermes said while bowing his head,
Everybody's faces fell at this revelation. Hermes suddenly whipped his head up again with a smile.
"Unless of course some powerful, nonsensical miracle happens to save us from it." He said cheerfully before looking behind all of them. "Isn't that right Freya?"
Everybody followed his gaze to see Freya in her usual getup walking up to them, tailed by Ottar and her executives. The boys in the Ganesha Familia suddenly started whispering amongst themselves. She flashed a small smile.
"I'm afraid I don't follow you Hermes. Why ask me that specific question?"
Hermes returned the smile.
"Well you do have the strongest group of children in the city as well as the most accumulate talent. Surely they could do something to at least lessen the damage this could do." Hermes narrowed his eyes as the smile disappeared.
"Namely your newest recruit with the most absurd power level ever seen." He said in a voice full of suspicion.
Freya just kept smiling.
"While I will admit he hasn't said anything to me yet regarding dealing with that nuisance up there. But I have faith that he is up to something which will help us."
"Lady Freya. Please tell us honestly, is everything on that notice true?" Tione asked.
"Why do you ask?"
"Because it doesn't sound right!" Finn exclaimed. "Loki confirmed the truth of his words when he said he'd never been in a Familia before, nor had he been an adventurous type! Even if he had been, there is no way that in the amount of years he's lived, he's been able to stack up that many levels, much less outside of the dungeon! Its impossible."
"Yes. Would you mind explaining that Freya?" Hermes followed.
Freya's smile held.
"My newest child is...special. In ways that I cannot reveal at the moment. But rest assured, his level and his stats are real as they can get. If anything, I'd say its the most that the Falna can calculate of his power."
"Well you'll have plenty of time to to tell us all the juicy details in the next Denatus. Ouranos is especially excited." Hermes said. Freya merely nodded.
"Of course if your new child does have some miraculous plan to put an end to this cataclysm." Hermes looked down at the grounds outside of the coliseum. "Oh look, I think that's him right there!"
"Huh!!!" was everybody's reaction as they rushed to the edge. They saw someone exit from the crowd outside the coliseum and begin approaching the barrier's edge with a basket in hand.
"So that's him huh. The supposed strongest adventurer in the world." Shakti muttered.
"What is he even doing? He doesn't look like he's got a plan. He just seems to be walking aimlessly to the edge of the barrier." Tione said as she watched him toss the basket into Riveria's hands. Ais was following behind him.
"Guys." Finn said as everybody turned to him. "My thumb is throbbing again."
Everyone's eyes widened as they turned back towards Garth who opened his arms and appeared to hold them out towards the sky.
What followed became known as the day 'The Light of Hope reached Heaven instead of coming from it'.
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(Garth POV)
Ais and I were currently jumping along the inner walls of the coliseum, trying to avoid the crowd and becoming lost in it.
"Riveria is on the other side directing some of the mage company. We should find her there." Ais called out behind her to me.
"That's good. Sooner we get to her, the better." I replied as we managed to reach the other side of the coliseum and jumped down on to the ground outside."
"Why do you want to go see her?"
"I'm going to help with the barrier efforts."
"It's going to require a lot of Mind, Garth. Do you have enough to last?" Ais asked me as she walked beside me arms slightly swinging.
"If my level is indicative of anything Ais, I'm certain I have more than enough." I laughed.
Ais frowned slightly before stepping closer to me.
"Tell me Garth." She said quietly. "Is it true?"
"What?"
"Your power level. Is it really 999,999?"
"It is. What of it?"
"It's just unbelievable. But for some reason I trust you." She looked up at the sky forlornly.
I detected some sadness and despair in her. I walked a little closer to her and held her arm lightly.
"Hey." I said.
She looked at me surprised. To my silent astonishment, there was small colouring on her cheeks when I did that."
"What's wrong Ais?" I said in soft voice. NOT a gentle one.
I figured that adventurer women such as her who were so focused on being strong would not appreciate a coddling tone of voice. It would probably give off the impression I saw her as weak.
I mean she was only younger than me by a year, and I had breached levels of power she could not even conceive (I do not forget it was through cheats). So she was little more than an ant next to me in the eyes of everybody who would accept the truth. But still, I was not going to treat her like so.
"It's just...I've spent so long trying to become strong. I thought I was nearing the top being a level five and all...but then you came and suddenly I see a height that looks so unreachable, at my pace it would take a thousand lifetimes and I still wouldn't be able to reach you." She said looking down.
"Is there a particular reason why you want to be strong? Some sort of motivation?" I asked her.
She paused for a bit, unsure of what to say or even if she should say something. Finally she relented.
"I...I have one." She said even more quietly now. "Have you ever heard of the One Eyed Black Dragon?"
"The one who escaped the dungeon a thousand years ago and also destroyed the Zeus and Hera Familia not that long ago? Yes, I've heard of it."
"I want to grow strong enough to kill it one day."
"Is that it? Surely someone as motivated as you would have something more than that to reason for pursuing strength? What more is there to it?"
She looked away.
"It's personal." She mumbled.
I looked at her for a few moments, knowing she could feel my eyes on her.
"It took someone from you didn't it? Someone you loved." I asked.
She whipped her head around to stare at me.
"How did you...?"
"I smiled at, shaking my head with a sad smile.
"Call it an empathetic mortal's intuition." I looked up at the sky at the incoming meteor. My mind wandered to my old world, my past life and certain memories resurfaced.
"I had someone I loved taken from me as well." I muttered. The fury I'd buried deep inside me for that moment in my life began pooling in my chest. "I'd have done anything to put the bastard who did it through the worst torment possible. But...I was too weak. I couldn't have done anything even if I had the guts to. I also learned from the experience and started to train and become stronger."
It was more of my father recommending me to take MMA and boxing classes to vent out my frustration and anger as well as lift me out of the depression. Boxing was helpful, but I found MMA more therapeutic as I was moving all of my limbs to fight. It helped release the pent up energy even more.
"Is that how you grew this strong?" Ais asked me.
"You could say that." I replied. I mean it probably was an event that started off a series of chain events which led to my reincarnation. So technically it was true.
"Did you get your revenge?"
"...No. Somebody else got the bastard before I did." I said disappointedly.
Although getting shanked up after 'dropping the soap' in prison was a consequence fitting of the crime he committed against my family and our honour, I still very much would have liked to tear him apart myself.
"Oh." Ais said.
"But the point is Ais, I can sympathise with you...because I understand how you feel. While most others can only empathise because they haven't gone through what you and I have.
I'm not saying that it is impossible for you to reach the same heights as me. I've seen the impossible become possible before. You're chasing a noble goal Ais. Don't let anybody convince you other wise."
I held her hand up between us and watched enjoyably as the colouring on her cheeks darkened.
"I intend to find that beast myself someday as well and put out it's fire once and for all. If a creature like that continues to exist, even more people are going to die.
For now, I plan to put together a party of strong warriors to take it on. Will you join us the day we venture North to kill the thing, and finish what Zeus and Hera couldn't?"
"Couldn't you just kill it yourself, with your current power?" Ais asked me.
"I certainly could, With ease no doubt. But I'd have trouble finding it on my own. Plus, I would be denying people like you the chance to get a piece of him when we take it down."
"But more people could be dying even now."
"I know. But the importance of this is to give a message to generations to come. That in the face of perilous danger, mortals must band together and fight to survive. Doing it on my own would drive more people to pursue singularity, which will kill even more people than you can imagine. You'd be surprised what a story about a hero can drive people to do." I said thinking of a certain albino.
"So you want to show that comradery is what wins a battle, not the main figure in it?" Ais questioned in understanding.
I nodded.
She looked down to our hands still clasped.
"That beast killed my father." She said quietly. "Ever since then, I swore I would avenge him, that I would kill the beast, restore his honour and put his soul to rest. But now I see that I shouldn't follow this goal on my own, and teach people the wrong things with my actions."
She looked up at me with hardened eyes on her expressionless yet still red face. She grasped my hand tighter and gave it one shake.
"I accept your proposal."
"I look forwards to working with you Ais. Hopefully in the future, you and I can come together over other types of proposals as well." I said.
(Elsewhere, Loki shivered in a sudden bout of jealousy)
"Oh look there is Riveria." Ais said.
I hadn't noticed that we'd been out of the coliseum by this point and were already out of the crowd. Sure enough, momma elf was by the barrier, magical energy from her staff flowing into it. We approached her as she heard out footsteps and turned to greet us.
I was intent on putting on one hell of a show today. When this day was over, all of Orario would know my name and would recognise me for my truth. That nobody was above me.
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