Chapter 195 - Message (2)
3
Laura was exhausted as she sat in front of the campfire. She had her eyes closed with an ashen face. After talking to Kairen through the Guardian Shadow, Azell spoke with a weak voice.
“I’m sorry.”
“I should be the one saying that to you.”
“…….”
“I’m the one that made the wrong judgement. You don’t have any reasons to apologize to me. I’m sorry.”
Azell gave an apology.
The monsters, who were left behind by Atein to protect the sealed transcendent being, were terrifying. Azell and Laura were able to defeat them after a fierce battle. However, Laura had used too much magical energy, so she was exhausted.
Azell was also tired, and he was injured. Azell had become injured protecting the exhausted Laura.
Azell didn’t relay any of this through his communication. He wanted his comrades to rest in peace. He wanted to take care of his comrades.
Laura spoke.
“If I didn’t possess the Vitan’s Chalice…….”
“If so, we would have had to fight a foe equipped with the Vitan’s Chalice. You shouldn’t place unnecessary blame on yourself.”
Artpe unfastened his cloak, and he placed it around Laura’s shoulder.
“You’ll feel better soon. The Guardian Shadows will keep a lookout. We’ll rest for an hour here. You should take a quick nap. I think you need sleep more so than meditation.”
“What about you? You should be…..”
“I’m all right. I’m built much st.u.r.dier than you.”
In truth, Azell’s wound wasn’t light. There was a large cut on his left side, and couple ribs were cracked. He had used his Spirit Order to stop the bleeding, but he would need proper healing.
Still, Azell wanted Laura to rest first.
“I want you to sleep for now. If you don’t recover enough to move on your own, it’ll become troublesome.”
“…yes.”
She had abused her mind and Energy Pulse as she consumed her magical energy. Sleep washed over her as she felt a chill. Laura swallowed the words she was about to say, and she went to sleep for a brief amount of time.
When she opened her eyes again, Azell was putting out the campfire.
“Are you awake?”
“Yes. When you started putting out the campfire, I a.s.sumed it was time for us to move.”
It seemed she used a spell that was activated when a prerequisite was triggered.
She had slept for a short amount of time, but she had recovered significantly. Laura queried him.
“What did you do?”
“I talked with the duke once again after you fell asleep.”
The party had destroyed the waypoints of the Road of Emptiness for the past 40 days. They had travelled all over the continent. They had fought at an incredible pace. They had traveled several hundred kilometers per day, so they hadn’t taken any breaks. Even Azell’s condition was deteriorating.
They had worked in concert with the members of the Guardian Shadows to destroy 31 waypoints of the Road of Emptiness.
Their enemies still had 191 waypoints left. They still had enough waypoints to travel the entirety of the continent.
“We’ve significantly decreased their mobility, but….. We didn’t take any breaks as we made the big push. That is why we are slowly hitting our limit. We’ll have to spend a good amount of time on fixing ourselves..”
“How long is a good amount of time?”
“If nothing drastic happens, it should take a fortnight.”
They would have to leave the battles to the members of Guardian Shadows in each country. They would have to focus on supporting them with intelligence.
Laura’s expression darkened.
“The others will be able to rest, but you…..”
“We’ll be fine.”
Azell went out of his way to use the word ‘we’.
“We’ve worked diligently, and as a result, there are huge gaps in the Road of Emptiness. We’ll pick one of those regions.”
“What about the Albatan forest?”
“That’ll be our last resort. We’ve already used that place as a refuge once. If we repeat our actions again, it might not matter that we are in the Albatan forest. The Plain of Darkness might risk a war with the Albatan forest. We can’t discount that possibility”
If that happened, Albatan couldn’t guarantee the safety of Azell’s party. Albatan was the leader of the forest, and he would have to make decisions based on politics. If he made a level headed judgement, there was a high probability that Albatan would chase Azell’s party out of the forest.
-Awaken Dragon Weapon! Crying Phoenix!
An enormous bird made out of fire appeared in front of Azell. It was as big as a house, and it looked if it was capable of carrying several people on its back.
In fact, it was capable of doing just that.
“Let’s go.”
He got on the fiery phoenix. No one in their sane mind would want to get on it, yet Azell and Laura didn’t hesitate as they mounted the phoenix. When the two of them got on, the phoenix beat its huge wings as it flew into the air.
In a flash, the ground dropped away. Laura asked him a question.
“Was it like this during the Dragon Demon war?”
“What do you mean by your question?”
“The whole world is on our side, yet we don’t have any refuge we can use.”
“No. It was a war where the allied forces were putting up a fight against invaders. It was a different situation than the one we face right now.”
Azell’s gaze headed towards the darkening sky.
It was as Laura had said. The Dragon Demon king worshippers were the enemy of world. This was why the whole world was on Azell’s side.
Still, they didn’t have any place where they could rest in peace. Their enemies were on the defensive, yet they had to travel at a pace where their enemies couldn’t catch up with them.
“If Almarick and Reygus didn’t exist, we could hole up anywhere…..”
Those two were the the problem. Aside from Azell’s party, no one could contend with Amarick and Reygus. To be precise, Azell was the only one that could fight on an even ground with them.
When the two of them woke up, Laura couldn’t help but worry about other hidden forces that might wake up within the Plain of Darkness.
“Still, this fight has an end. The pressure on us lessens everytime we destroy a waypoint.”
“It doesn’t erase the fact that our enemies know our location.”
“Aren’t we coming up with some ways to counter that? As I’ve told you earlier, I don’t want you to blame yourself. It is better than watching a city with tens of thousands of people being evaporated into ashes by the Vitan’s Chalice..”
“…….”
It was as he said. It wouldn’t have mattered if it was a regular Dragon weapon. The Vitan’s Chalice was too dangerous to hand over to their enemies.
However, it was also true that the Vitan’s Chalice was the root of many of their troubles. That"s why they had thought about destroying the Vitan’s Chalice….
‘There is no guarantee that they won’t be able to summon it again even if we destroy it.’
The Dragon weapons of the Dragon Demon generals were affiliated with the Great Darkness. If its owner was dead, it would return to a fixed location. This occurred even if one gave up rights to the weapon.
The problem arose from the fact that Carlos had been unable to decipher the structure of this system.
Would the Dragon weapon cease to exist if it was destroyed? Or would its essence be returned to the Great Darkness? Would it be recovered as time pa.s.ses?
If it was the latter, it would be the worst possible outcome.
In the case of Azell, he had a reason to be pessimistic in regards to the possibility of Vitan’s Chalice being restored. He had recovered his Sky Splitter.
In the Balan forest, he had gone through the Dragon Slayer’s Ritual with an Earth Dragon. He had thought his Sky Splitter had ceased to exist. However, he had found the fragments of the Sky Splitter within his Energy Pulse, and he was able to restore it.
In the end, Azell had no choice, but to maintain the status quo.
Azell spoke.
“It is true that the distinction between allies and enemies were much more simpler during the Dragon Demon war. That part was easier.”
The Dragon Demon king’s army had attacked the world as an army of conquerors. In turn, humanity coalesced into one to resist against the attackers.
Of course, there had been a lot of problems. There were political problems, and various forces fought for their own profits. These were the types of problems that had been present at the time, but it wasn’t as complicated what they faced right now.
‘Since things have turned out like this, it might be better to reveal the existence of our enemies. What if we make it everyone’s fight instead of a fight between the Guardian Shadows and the Dragon Demon king worshippers?’
It wasn"t as if Azell’s party hadn’t thought about this before. However, they decided the collateral damage from a head to head fight would be too large.
Unlike the days of the Dragon Demon war, the continent was divided into seven kingdoms.
The Guardian Shadows transcended nationality. Their mission was to fight the Dragon Demon king worshippers. If the Dragon Demon king worshippers were revealed, the existence of the Guardian Shadows would be revealed too. It would create many problems.
This was why Azell’s party hadn’t gotten involved with the civil war inside the Dailan kingdom. As a n.o.ble from another country, Kairen’s involvement would cause an incredible amount of backlash.
It would have been great if everyone could cooperate with each other for the sole purpose of fighting the Dragon Demon king worshippers. It would have been great if the world was that simple.
Since the world could never be like that, they had no choice but to fight in this manner.
On the other hand, the Dragon Demon king worshippers didn’t want to reveal themselves to the world either. It was a fear that was developed during the Dragon Demon war.
They were afraid of their existence becoming common knowledge. They no longer had the power to fight against the entire world.
“We have no choice but to nudge the world at a slow pace.”
Their plate was already full taking care of the chaos caused by the Dragon Demon king worshippers.
Still, this didn’t mean they weren’t going to do anything. They possessed operatives like the Dragon Demon Queen of the Rulain kingdom. The organization called the Guardian Shadows kept itself hidden as they carried out their work of eradicating their enemies.
“If possible, I want to finish them before they make themselves known to the world. I don’t want a repeat of the Dragon Demon war.”
Azell liked this peaceful erra.
Of course, it wasn’t as if the whole world was peaceful. However, he was able to find peace in this world.
He didn’t want the entire world to suffer under a war. He didn’t want the world to go crazy again. He didn’t want children to be born into the world where it would be hard for them to imagine a world without a war.
“I want girls like Ms Enora to live in a peaceful world. I don’t want them to even know about the war until it has already come to an end.”
Laura quipped.
“…you sound like an old man.”
“Are you saying that as a revenge for what I said to you before? However, I cannot refute your words.”
Azell burst out into laughter.
4
As each waypoints of the Road of Emptiness were destroyed, the freedom of movement enjoyed by the Dragon Demon king worshippers were decreased significantly.
When traveling to a place, it mattered that they were able to appear in front of their destination. The difference in what they could do differed significantly if they had to travel an hour to reach a destination. If the Road of Emptiness could be used continuously, it might not have mattered. However, it took time to restart the gate, and the number of forces that could be move through them was limited. Their effectiveness decreased noticeably.
When problems occurred, it was getting progressively harder to gather all their forces in one place. This was why each waypoint had defensive forces stationed there. They were no longer on the offensive, and the burden they had to shoulder also grew.
Moreover…..
“It is as if they can read our mind.”
The biggest problem was the fact they they were falling behind in terms of information. Kieren had on a serious expression as he pointed out this fact..
In the beginning, the Guardian Shadows attacked blindly. This was why the Demon King worshippers were able to smash them into pieces in several occasions. However, at some point, their tactic had changed.
First, they attacked a waypoint to induce additional forces from the Plain of Darkness to be sent in. If someone that they couldn’t handle showed up, they would give up on the battle. They cleanly cut their losses as they retreated.
Niberis asked him a question.
“What if it is there plan to attack different locations at the same time?”
Kieren and Niberis weren’t dispatched amongst the normal defense force stationed at the waypoints. They acted as support. They were only inserted when there was a problem.
In the beginning, the two of them smashed their enemies, and they made glorious contributions. However, at some point, their enemies retreated everytime the two of them were dispatched. They were coming up empty.
Currently, they had already used the Road of Emptiness to come here, so their hands were tied. While they were waiting, another waypoint was being attacked.
It was obvious that their enemies had created a list of dangerous figures they would avoid. Moreover, the Guardian Shadows possessed capabilities similar to the Great Darkness where they could a.s.sess a given situation in real time. They were fighting the battles in an organic manner.
Kieren frowned.
“That’s it. They attacked as if they waited for us to arrive here. It seems the nearby forces were mobilized, but…..”
“Where’s the nearest waypoint?”
“It is 32 kilometers away. We won’t be able to make it in time..”
When a waypoint of the Road of Emptiness was used once, it needed 10 minutes to recharge.
Even if they waited for the waypoint to recover in 10 minutes, they wouldn’t be sent directly to the waypoint that was being attacked. If things were going poorly, the troops would have already been sent from the Plain of Darkness.
Niberis spoke.
“They really are focused on decreasing the density of waypoints.”
The Guardian Shadows weren’t just decreasing the number of waypoints. It was clear that they were attacking the waypoints as they stuck to a game plan.
The game plan was to to maximize the distance between each waypoints.
The Guardian Shadows were steadily cutting away at their mobility. This was what Kairen had aimed for.
“We just have to hope that the they can last. Our waypoint will recover faster, so when the other side recovers, we can immediately move…….”
“Sir Baldazark!”
Suddenly, Niberis desperately yelled out loud. At the same time, she activated her defensive magic.
Gwah-gwa-gwahng!