Part 17 - A Return

  Elizabeth badly wanted to needle her way into the following meeting with the Exterreri envoy about the ‘spatial tremors’ but the entire process swept along unnervingly fast.

  The gist of the ‘meeting’ covered the delay of the Gala and the change of location as well. In essence, Exterreri involvement had caused the Vajra invasion force to shift the Ball to a northern coastal town with a beautiful church on a cliff overlooking the ocean from the highest elevation in the former Justiciary, a city named Mourningloft.

  It meant one thing for certain. The event itself was a trap, and with high level people from immortal lands visiting, they needed a more solid strategy to do whatever the trap was meant for. Rapid changes to the plan had been hashed out before Team Iota gathered their gear and hit the road alongside the Senator’s entourage.

  Liz was still in the same role as she had originally been meant for, serving as a tag-along for the team escorting the vampire Senator and his group, thanks to her being a [Priestess] of Seira.

  She still couldn’t figure out the sudden haste of the group, so she decided to ask about it as the group swiftly made their way through the forest, traveling at the limited speed of the noncombatant politician, the vampires of the group surrounded by a bubble of ash woven together by one of the Rangers, who was not actually a [Ranger] which was still confusing to her.

  “The spatial tremor caused by my [Gate] skill to bring the Senator to this country changes things. I cannot use a powerful skill to take us all directly to the city without making the regional stability worse. Therefore, we have to travel a lengthy distance on foot, largely restricted by the daylight, since we do not have the mana needed to travel far with this [Sphere of Ash] skill.” Sentinel Magic was still an enigma, having not revealed his true appearance a single time, maintaining the facade of a very forgettable human man. She could feel roughly where his invisible body was, but the footsteps on the ground felt somehow wrong. A mystery for the ages.

  She grunted briefly in reply, though the comment was made to the group, not her specifically, and the group continued on, moving at superhuman speeds under the effects of some sort of passive aura skill.

  Even the politician had amazed her. He was grinning at the idea of having his own little adventure, and his demeanor told her he might’ve been a human military [Leader] before he’d moved on to being a Senator. Her read on people was feeling better and better the more she met the individuals of Pallos and got used to how unique the system-granted abilities made them all.

  The group was full of unique people all around, and one of the Rangers’ Earth [Mages] had Aegis and the Ranger team leader gliding on a rolling mound as they discussed team strategy for any possible wilderness encounters. Liz was rather impressed at the Operatyf Commander’s willingness to share some secrets with his counterpart. She wondered how much communication there really was between Exterreri and the supposed dedicated country of the Goddess of Order.

  For her own part, she was traveling while wearing a simple tunic that had a similar vibe to the Exterreri style, with her fancy suit made fully invisible by a skill from the Sentinel.

  It wasn’t quite nightfall when they’d traveled far enough north through the forest to reach Heron Lake, or what was left of it.

  Heads remained on pikes at the gates, though the stench of death and decay had clearly invited a number of carrion beasts to the ripe corpses. She felt her eyes begin to water as she cautiously approached the pike she remembered seeing her first mentor’s head on.

  She clasped her hands and briefly wished them all a peaceful next through Seira’s care.

  Sylvestre’s remains were nearly unrecognizable now, flesh largely picked clean.

  “This is awful,” was all the response that was heard as a female Ranger broke the silence.

  “We don’t have time to bury them. Though, I am curious, what happened here?” The Senator inquired before he offered a brief prayer beside her as she had her head bowed.

  “The Vajra.” Aegis spat the word before giving a signal to the team’s scout, followed immediately by similar orders from the Ranger leader. “Some of the companies of their mercenaries were brutal conquerors who only had a taste for blood. They slaughtered anyone of high level, then abducted anyone below their 128 class advancement to sell as slaves.”

  Liz didn’t miss the glance the gruff man cast her way before he carried on.

  “We’ll rest in the town briefly until sundown. I assume that’s the best choice?” Aegis looked to the Ranger who was maintaining the ash globe around the core members of the foreign envoy.

  A nod was all he received in reply, and the scouts from both teams returned.

  “The town has been trashed, some places burned, but there are solid enough stone structures to rest in. There are some occupants, though. They’ve been burying the bodies, but also looting a lot of valuables, by the look of it.”

  Liz bristled a bit about the idea of looting corpses, though she checked herself as she considered the new way of life on which Pallos operated.

  Aegis turned to her, leaning in to whisper, “you’re from here, right? If you need some time, we’ll give it to you while the vamps take their time hiding from the sunlight. Stick with us until the looters are dealt with.”

  She nodded in thanks, then followed the group into the small town.

  She hadn’t spent much time in the streets or markets, but she’d known a few of the people around the church. Even as they passed the street the church had been built on, she could only see what appeared to be a blast zone around the square where the building had been. She’d take a closer look later, she vowed to herself that she’d bury the people she knew, at least.

  “Halt! Who goes there?” The voice was raspy and sounded like the tone of an over-confident weasel.

  Liz scoffed, wondering if the person who sounded like a small-time criminal was capable of using [Identify] to see how high level almost every person in the group was.

  “None of your business.” Aegis took point, and none of the Rangers seemed too happy to be outside of whatever borders gave them their authority in such situations.

  “That ain’t how this goes, prick.” The man stepped out of a building down the street and Liz wanted to burst out laughing.

  [Warrior - Wood (Lvl 384), Steam (Lvl 285)]

  She couldn’t believe how out of his depth he had to be.

  “We’re the Vapor Blades, A-rank adventurers! Name yourselves and why you’re out here in the sticks like this.” The man had an entire criminal look going on, from his ragged beard and hair to his patchwork armor, half of which looked like it had been stripped off some of the Heron Lake town guards.

  Aegis visibly rolled his eyes as he glared at the man. “Adventurers don’t have a presence in the Justiciary, last I heard.”

  “You must be behind the times, then. There ain’t no Justiciary no more. The Guild has sent a buncha parties in recently.”

  Liz was already counting the number of ‘adventurers’ she could feel moving around in the buildings closer to their group, though she’d lost track of some of Team Iota and the Rangers as they fanned out in the area, creating too many targets for her to recognize which was which.

  She could feel her blood pumping faster and faster as she sensed both the Ranger leader and Aegis getting ready to give a strike order. She did briefly wonder why they’d not bothered with a verbal solution, but she didn’t care much for ‘adventurers’ based on the first impression.

  “You’re not too bright, are you?” Aegis provoked the slovenly stranger, and with teeth bared, the man began to shout, mouth opening a bit wider, so close to calling to his allies before…

  Thud!

  [*ding* Your party has slain a [Filigreed Philanderer - [Wood] lvl 384], [Vapor Trails - [Steam] lvl 285]!]

  She frowned, figuring he loved women and treasure. Or men, she wouldn’t discriminate.

  The man lost his entire head in an instant as one of the Rangers released a searing beam of Radiance, clearly with an imbalance of power and control, given the size of the attack. Liz burst into action regardless, darting forward and delivering a strike straight down into the ground with a full force axe kick that collapsed the ‘hidden’ tunnel an adventurer had been trying to lay an ambush within.

  The lack of notification on the strike told her the person inside wasn’t finished, so she plunged her hand into the ground, elbow-deep, to fish the woman out, eying the row of holy symbols tucked into her belt like trophies.

  She let her anger wash over her mind as her blessing processed the battle around her into reasonable flows of information.

  A half dozen of the enemies—there were roughly twenty within her field of tremor-based perception—had been assassinated by the sneakier members of the team, and the Rangers held closely to their duties to protect the Senator, remaining in a closed formation.

  Team Iota had split into pairs, where Elina and Aegis remained in the center of the main formation, blocking incoming projectiles. Everyone else was off handling their fights in a one-sided battle that had the adventurers soundly trumped by stats and experience.

  Liz focused on her slightly delirious [Mage] opponent who was struggling to break free of her grip.

  [Mage - Earth (Lvl 186), Earth (Lvl 159)]

  “Boss, do we need any prisoners to interrogate?” She didn’t cast a glance his way, keeping her focus on the woman who tried to struggle against her for control of the stone around them, locked in a battle between the [Mage]’s higher level and her own superior [Earth Authority].

  “Not a single one.” Aegis gave her the green light, so she tugged on the woman’s hair, eliciting a cry of pain from her prey.

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  “Let me go! I’ll do anything, just don’t kill me!”

  Liz had no pity for a woman who’d pilfered the religious symbol of the five gods from the bodies of the people she’d known at the church.

  “Sometimes you make bad decisions in life, and then you have to face the consequences.”

  Liz was about to finish the woman off, but her ability to move her body started going haywire.

  It wasn’t that the woman was suddenly stronger than her at controlling her own stone, but the slight tugging at the material made it awkward to control, and the [Mage] was desperate and trying to lash out with everything in her immediate vicinity.

  It turned out to be extremely annoying, and forced Liz to try other methods that didn’t require her [Earth Manipulation].

  Her expression turned sour as she realized she didn’t carry many weapons beyond her chains and resigned herself to how things would end.

  She lashed out with her bladed chains, trying to make a quick slash at the throat, but the woman finally managed to screw with her enough that her grip loosened. A shriek of pain was let out as Liz accidentally slashed across the woman’s cheek, up across her nose and forehead.

  Elizabeth finally let out a long sigh as Aegis gave her a twisted look of disgust.

  “You couldn’t make this easy?” She didn’t want to make others think she was interested in torture, and the entire concept burned at her.

  She took a step back to fully regain control of her own body, distance making her ability fully superior to the dedicated double-classed Earth [Mage]. She realized she might be vulnerable to more than a handful of different classes, and being unable to fully resist one of the most common [Mage] elements was a pretty grim thought.

  She studied her opponent, who was trying to desperately scramble away, blood running across her face in an expression that could’ve made slasher film stars jealous. Liz kicked off the ground as she flipped over a projectile that cracked through the air, followed by a flip and spin around several more.

  “S-stay back!”

  As she got closer, the woman created uneven terrain that barely slowed Liz down, leading to more and more desperate attacks and even some grizzly spikes of stone launched up from below.

  “What did I ever do to deserve this! Damn worthless idiots had to pick a fight with high level monsters!”

  Every attack was solidly inside of Liz’s [Earth Shattering Arts] field, and her new mana perception could even see the mana being converged, giving her a much better method to practice her skills with, and [An Eye for Detail] got a subtle workout feeding her information on the amount of mana charged into each spell aimed her way.

  With a now fully trained sense for her boosting skills and plenty of practice dodging under pressure, Liz began using [Earth Conjuration] to create tiny shields to block the incoming attacks, even when they weren’t going to hit her.

  [*ding* You have unlocked the class skill [Active Guard]!]

  She ignored the option, and disabled further notifications. Her slots had good enough skills already.

  Elizabeth made full use of the opportunity as she watched the mana within the woman steadily dwindle to nothing, then she studied the mess left behind by the frantic mage who just looked defeated. Liz strode over to the woman and shook her head.

  “Sorry it had to be this way. I had wanted to make it quick.” The street was a mess of discarded stone, both conjured and manipulated into projectiles and spears. She swept her hand in a completely unnecessary motion as the bladed chain finally slit the woman’s throat, adding to the notifications she’d been receiving from the battle all around her.

  [*ding* You have slain a [Earth Mage - [Earth] lvl 186], [Stone Slinger - [Earth] lvl 159]!]

  She didn’t feel very good about the slaughter, really. Part of it was her gut reaction to being back in Heron Lake, but the other part was how much she’d been ignoring how many different counters there were to her skills. She’d practiced with Iota’s [Earth Mage] and not done much beyond practice dodging a storm of projectiles. She’d not even realized how another higher level person with [Earth Manipulation] could wreak havoc on her skills so badly. She had plenty of options to make herself more resilient, and even had the right tools to fight higher level [Warriors] but she still found herself struggling with the vast creativity of [Mages] and how many counters there were to directly oppose her skills specifically.

  She grabbed the dangling religious symbols of the five gods before taking off into the alleys to assist in the rest of the battles and skirmishes between the remaining adventurers and her allies, determined to get as much out of a combat opportunity as she could, grimly determined to raise her level and outgrow her limitations by force.

  It didn’t take long. The Rangers were exceptional at teamwork and Team Iota was clearly well trained even by comparison to them. Still, Liz used the opportunity well, and even hunted for any stragglers, which hadn’t taken long with the village being so small.

  After the battle, she realized the rest of the Rangers and Team Iota were dragging the adventurers—read, looters—out of the alleyways and houses to create a heap to burn.

  “Damn adventurers. I swear, they’re just organized criminals. If they were respectable, they’d be in the Hunters’ Guild or they’d be Rangers.” The other members of the Exterreri envoy all seemed to agree with the comment from one of their teammates.

  She sidled up to Aegis who gave her a calculating look.

  “Sorry, she was screwing with my skills, like we were fighting for control over the stone in my body.” She shook her head in frustration with a sigh.

  “That is a glaring flaw in your skills. You need to pay attention and avoid opponents who have Earth magic in the future, if you can, and especially never get too close to them.”

  She nodded in response, then checked over how the fight had turned out for her levels.

  [*ding* Congratulations! Your class [Acrobatic Templar of Seira] has leveled up from level 83 to level 94!]

  [*ding* You have gained the following stats per level! +30 Free Stats, +60 Dexterity, +50 Vitality, +60 Speed, +30 Mana, +80 Mana Regeneration, +50 Magic Power, +50 Magic Control from your class! +4 Free Stats for being Partially Human, +2 Vitality for being Partially Stone Golem! +1 Vitality from your element!]

  [*ding* Congratulations! Your class [Fate’s Shackles] has leveled up from level 61 to level 75!]

  [*ding* You have gained the following stats per level! +4 Free Stats, +6 Strength, +4 Dexterity, +10 Vitality, +2 Speed, +5 Mana, +5 Mana Regeneration, +4 Magic Power, +4 Magic Control from your class! +4 Free Stats for being Partially Human, +2 Vitality for being Partially Stone Golem! +1 Magic Power from your element!]

  [*ding* [Seira’s Tenet of Equivalent Exchange], [Earth Authority], [Earth Manipulation], [Tenacity of Stone], [Rigid Body], [Earth Shattering Arts], [Mental Partitioning], [Learning] and [Imaginative] have remained capped! 83 -> 94]

  [*ding* [Earth Conjuration] has leveled up! 62 -> 66]

  [*ding* [Templar’s Conviction] has leveled up! 34 -> 48]

  [*ding* [Chain Proficiency], [Elegant Chains], [Chain Reinforcement], [Chainmail], [F-L Dexterity], [F-L Vitality] and [F-L Mana Regeneration] have remained capped! 61 -> 75]

  [*ding* [F-L Speed] has leveled up! 53 -> 58]

  [*ding* [An Eye for Detail] has leveled up! 58 -> 76]

  [*ding* [Fate-Linked Dexterity], [Fate-Linked Vitality] and [Fate-Linked Mana Regeneration] may be merged to create the skill [Fate’s Bonds]. Would you like to merge the skills? Y/N]

  She’d paused at that notification. She’d never been asked about a merge before. Something about it implied a loss involved with gaining the open skill slots. She’d been hoping to merge the skills anyway, and after checking the description, she decided to take the new skill in a heartbeat.

  [Fate’s Bonds: Your life is chained to fate itself, and Fate is bound as you wish by your own hands. This skill will make your fate a bit more malleable. Passively improves Dexterity, Vitality and Mana Regeneration when facing opponents at least 100 levels higher than yourself. +1% per level]

  Reflecting on the level gains, the skill would’ve barely been active against the [Mage] at the start of the skirmish. Boosting skills were at the top of her bingo card, restrictions or not.

  [*ding* You have unlocked the Class Skill [Fate-Linked Magic Power]!]

  [*ding* You have unlocked the Class Skill [Fate-Linked Magic Control]!]

  She was only slightly annoyed at having to grind skills from level one to the maximum again. They were similar to the prior ones that had merged, meaning they had their standard limits on duration, and couldn’t be used simultaneously. She could see a future of explosive bursts of power with almost no control at all, and weak moments of extremely delicate precision in her future.

  [*ding* You have unlocked the General Skill [Merciless]!]

  [Merciless: You will give no quarter, even to those who beg for mercy. Gain increased experience for slaying those who beg for mercy in their final moments. Each level comes with a 3% increase in exp for all other skills and classes. -8 Mana Regeneration]

  The new skill option made her realize something. She’d actually never truly done that before. It didn’t make her regret her actions, nor did she feel bad for taking another life again, but something about killing someone who begged for mercy seemed like it should’ve worn away at her even more. And yet, she only felt annoyed that the system was calling her out on it.

  She took the skill. In no world was she going to spare the life of someone looting the holy symbols off corpses, and turning down bonus experience was a terrible idea. She had her own will and could make her own choices about who deserved to be killed. She refused to allow the skill to tempt her into becoming a mass murderer in the future, regardless.

  “Why’d we even start this fight?”

  Aegis gave her another look, full of concern this time at her quiet, whispered question.

  “Many reasons. I still serve the Justiciary, and follow the laws, even if the country has fallen. Adventurers are not allowed within the borders, since they’re lawless criminals who rob graves and break into places they don’t belong. The second reason is that anyone we run into this early in the journey could track our path backwards to the base. I could’ve aimed for peaceful resolution and chose not to. Does that bother you?”

  “Not at all. I just want to understand these things. Life has changed pretty rapidly for me. Rationale and reasoning are widely varied for many people across different circumstances.” She then began to think over his given reasons.

  Adventurers meant little to her. The idea was common enough in fantasy stories, but she could understand that real adventurers wouldn’t have any of the heroic traits that show up so often in the genre on Earth. Of course they’d do whatever it took to get by, and rather than being a lawful organization, the members would be loosely defined ruffians who took odd jobs and lived hand to mouth. They were effectively the opposite of what Seira’s faith would seek. She wrote off the overall organization as people to avoid and ignore in the future, and individuals would be on a complete case-by-case basis going forward.

  The group steadily split into groups to gather and burn the bodies of the villagers and adventurers while the vampires in the group took cover inside a large mostly intact building to await sundown.

  Elizabeth recruited Aegis and Elina to help her gather up the bodies of all the church workers and hold a small funeral in the short time they had.

  On Pallos, it seemed good people were fated to die, and only the [Merciless] would survive.

  [Name: Elizabeth Fereday]

  [Race: Stone Golem/Human Hybrid]

  [Age: 21]

  [Mana: 28,586/31,930]

  [Mana Regeneration: 20,105 (67,295)]

  Stats

  [Free Stats: 2,172]

  [Strength: 324]

  [Dexterity: 5,039 (8,818)]

  [Vitality: 4,861 (8,506)]

  [Speed: 5,067]

  [Mana: 3,193]

  [Mana Regeneration: 6,293 (11,012)]

  [Magic Power: 3,804]

  [Magic Control: 3,729]

  Classes:

  [Acrobatic Templar of Seira] - Earth - Lvl 94

  [:Seira’s Tenet of Equivalent Exchange 94]

  [:Earth Authority 94]

  [:Earth Conjuration 66]

  [:Earth Manipulation 94]

  [:Tenacity of Stone 94]

  [:Rigid Body 94]

  [:Earth Shattering Arts 94]

  [:Templar’s Conviction 48]

  [Fate’s Shackles] - Metal - Lvl 75

  [:Chain Proficiency 75]

  [:Elegant Chains 75]

  [:Chain Reinforcement 75]

  [:Chainmail 75]

  [:Fate’s Bonds 75]

  [:Fate-Linked Magic Power 1]

  [:Fate-Linked Speed 58]

  [:Fate-Linked Magic Control 1]

  [Class 3] - Locked

  General Skills

  [:Mental Partitioning 94]

  [:Dancing 30]

  [:An Eye for Detail 76]

  [:Merciless 1]

  [: ]

  [:Learning 94]

  [:Stunning 43]

  [:Imaginative 94]