Otherworld Adventure

Once all his powers acc.u.mulated and coalesced on his spear, he furiously hurled it out, aiming straight for the army commander that he had singled out using his Mana Sense.

With the natural mana array inside the spear activated, his spear flew like a golden bolt of lightning straight for the beastmen army commander.

The commander could only widen his eyes in horror when he saw the golden spear rip apart his men as it continued to fly straight at him. He tried to dodge, but when the spear struck the area he was in, the intent-fused mana that Cecil had channeled into his spear immediately exploded and destroyed everything within range of the explosion.

When Cecil saw the outcome of his spear throw, he scoffed derisively and pulled out all 4 of his World Tree"s Thorns and unsheathed his Adamantium Sword. He materialized his Sword Intent and controlled his swords relying only on his Intent and Mana.

"Wow Cel! I didn"t know you could do this!" Lulu exclaimed when she saw the swords floating and rotating around Cecil. It was similar to Fina"s use of her mana armaments.

"It"s almost like Fina"s Mana Armaments!"

"Heh, I was the one who taught her that, it"s only natural that I can use it as well. Of course, she has a natural advantage due to her family"s unique magic. Also, I only just got the hang of using it and it"s also a really good application of Sword Intent, and Seri, you can use it to some degree as well, right?" Cecil replied as he stretched out a hand and his Adamantium Spear flew straight back to him. He quickly caught his spear and flared it around him.

Serilla stepped up and smiled, "I can"t let myself be outdone by you two~ now, look at big sis" sword!"

Serilla released her Sword Intent and flung her sword out. It flew straight into the crowd of frightened beastmen and cut them apart like b.u.t.ter, reaping their lives as if they were but wheat stalks in a grain field.

When Serilla willed it, the sword immediately flew back to her and cut down the beastmen in its path.

"Hehe~ I can do what darling did too~" Although she was a little conflicted, Serilla tried her best to keep herself cheerful and unperturbed in front of Cecil...just like what Lucia"s currently doing.

Cecil only chuckled and turned a cold glare at the dumbfounded beastmen. "I don"t like killing, but what you guys did to me... I"m paying it back now."

He rushed head on into the beastman army and began striking down the beastmen around him. Flashes of Ascending Blade, Mana Volleys, Flash Cannons, Sword Waves and his Spear Arts bombarded the army and no matter what they did, the beastmen army couldn"t contain nor cope with Cecil"s furious a.s.sault.

Lucia and Serilla were fighting together in a different part of the army, but they weren"t as flashy or ruthless as Cecil. They only attacked the ones that were still surging forwards and left the fleeing ones alone, though not many were running away for that matter.

Lucia struck down any beastman that approached her with her weapons and sent magic spells into the large crowd farther away. Serilla was guarding her back and also handling the beastmen in her own way.

She sent waves of Sword Intent at the beastmen and occasionally flung her sword at the beastmen. Whenever she did this, Lucia would toss her katana over to her and focus on using spells to attack the beastmen.

The two were working in sync, but they knew they couldn"t keep this up. Even as they kept on cutting down the beastmen around them, there was no end in sight. They only continued to do this and wait until Cecil had finished venting his anger.

They also weren"t fighting to kill. The two girls strictly struck down any beastmen that were radiating killing intent towards them and only injured the ones that weren"t. Lucia"s spells that she sent into the crowd of beastmen were also only the time that severely injured a person and not the instkill type.

"Cel really knows how to keep a grudge—Geyser!"

"Yeah, but after this...we need to support him, okay Lulu?"

"Yeah...I know...he"s going to feel bitter after all of this..."

Even while in battle, these two still had the leisure to banter among themselves. This greatly unsettled the beastmen warriors and they felt that they were being mocked.

It wasn"t their intentions, but Lucia and Serilla"s actions angered some of the beastmen greatly and they began to stupidly charge at the two in reckless abandon. Some were provoked by the girls" actions and because of it, they quickly lost their lives. Others however, tried to explicitly avoid the two slaughter maidens by going around them or just running away.

While those 3 were straightforwardly attacking the army, Yuna and Silver were working together to keep their mobile home safe. Yuna would open up Misty Gates and send unsuspecting beastmen into them. The exits were placed somewhere in the sky so occasionally one would see a beastman falling to his doom on the battlefield.

Silver wasn"t in his colossal form and was only smacking and whacking away the beastmen that were close to him and the wagon.

The beastmen weren"t as strong as the Nocturne Lion"s First Fang and this was a fact that Cecil immediately knew instantly as he was fighting.

They were pretty good at coordinating with each other, but it wasn"t like the flawless coordination that the beastmen who attacked him had.

"I know that you aren"t the ones who attacked me, but this is disappointing...it"s like I"m reaping the lives of ants. Monsters are stronger than you insects."

Cecil said in provocation, but not one beastman in his area retorted. They were too afraid. Their commander was taken out right from the start, and they didn"t have anyone commanding them anymore.

Not to mention that the boy"s apathetic and cold gaze fiercely intimidated everyone around him. This was not the gaze of a human teenager, but that of the grim reaper.

Many beastmen wanted to retreat while the more hot-headed ones didn"t even take the situation into account and just rushed head first into death"s embrace.

"At least use your brains and know when to f.u.c.king run." Cecil spat. He readied his swords and twirled his spear, just as he was about to shoot forwards, Yuna called out to him from behind.

"CECIL!"

"Hm?"

Cecil paid no mind to the beastmen around him and turned his gaze back to the wagon. He noticed that a group of humans had actually detached from the main army and gathered around the wagon, defending it alongside Yuna and Silver from the attacking beastmen.

"Heh, a rescue squad, I"m impressed."

Cecil decided that he would stop here. He was done venting and didn"t want to take any more lives. When he looked down on his clothes, he noticed that the entirety of his equipment was stained red with blood.

He only frowned in distaste and turned around to walk back to the wagon. He looked at the beastmen surrounding him and said coldly, "If you don"t want to die, I suggest you retreat."

Hearing his words, some of the beastmen unconsciously nodded and began backing away in fear. Others grew furious and rushed at him, but Cecil quickly took care of them by sending his swords their way.

When Cecil arrived back at the wagon, Lucia and Serilla were already their waiting for him. Unlike his red-stained clothes, theirs were still a beautiful white.

"C-Cel! Are you okay?!"

"Darling?!"

The two girls immediately rushed up to the boy in haste, but Cecil lifted a hand and stopped them from approaching. He reeled in his bloodl.u.s.t before approaching his party.

Lucia immediately cast a cleanse spell removing all the blood on Cecil. She frowned when she saw that it didn"t remove the blood staining his clothes. She was just about to cast another one, but Cecil stopped her.

"Don"t, Lulu, I rather like the color red..."

"I"ll dye it red later! I"m not letting you wear that disgusting blood-stained—"

"O-okay, here, please clean it..."

"Yeah...are you okay now, Cel?"

"...I...don"t feel anything. Neither the sense of accomplishment nor the sense of fulfillment... I guess revenge really just leaves you with an empty feeling..."

"..."

"Nothing ever comes out of desiring revenge darling...You should just let it go. That empty feeling isn"t so great, right?" Serilla said as she pulled Cecil into her embrace and began to pat his head lovingly. It soothed him and he felt much better.

Now Cecil felt that it was better to not have held onto that awful grudge. It was only eating away at him, and thinking back to how he was acting just earlier, wasn"t he being a little hypocritical?

Just before he was expressing his distaste at the humans" actions when they were a.s.saulting Galhorne City, but here he was ma.s.sacring the beastmen like they were monsters. As he thought of this, it was then that all the remorse flooded in and completely erased his earlier relief. He then remembered the awful feeling from the night he ma.s.sacred all those people in his frenzy while being controlled by the Corruption.

"...s.h.i.t..."

Serilla immediately noticed that Cecil had begun trembling. The boy was just about to push her away, but she tightly hugged him and said soothingly,

"It"s okay, darling~ it"s okay. Next time, you can still vent your anger, but let"s not do something like this again, okay?"

"Y-yeah... d.a.m.n...I did something horrible again..."

"Again?" Serilla immediately grew worried when she heard him mumble those words. She continued patting his back and stroking his hair until Cecil"s trembling began to calm down.

She was acting like a big sister now and Lucia only smiled gently at the two, but unfortunately for them, there were other people present as well.

"ahem, w-we"re here to rescue you? Our commander wants to bring you back to regroup with the Army. I"m guessing you guys are adventurers, right? How did you arrive back here?" A soldier said. Judging from his attire, he was probably high up in the chain of command.

Cecil immediately separated from Serilla, and addressed the people who had come to their "rescue".

"Thank you for coming. Our wagon had broken down on the way here, and when we finally fixed it, we were left behind by the army. We arrived just as the beastmen army attacked."

"I-I see...which adventurer party are you?"

Cecil pulled out his ID and pa.s.sed it over to the captain-like person.

"P-Platinum?! N-no wonder you guys are so strong!"

"You flatter us, if we hadn"t luckily sniped the army commander, then we would have most likely been overrun sooner or later."

"I see...I think we should head back and regroup. We don"t know whether or not that army would retreat only temporarily and attack us again later so we should back off before we fall for another one of those beastmen"s dastardly traps."

"Yes."

"My name"s Karnis Burnam, First Battalion Leader of the Midgardian Unified Border Army!" Karnis said with a military salute.

"Cecil Silvaria, platinum ranked adventurer and this is my party, the Wanderers."

"Wanderers?"

"Ahaha, we just like to travel a lot, so we settled down with that name."

Karnis nodded and ushered them to follow after. The soldiers quickly got onto their mounts and began riding back to the army.

Cecil fastened Silver"s harness back on and quickly jumped onto the driver"s seat. He had the girls remain inside of the wagon. He didn"t like the looks of some of the soldiers who were sent down to "rescue" them.

"They"re mine...don"t even thi—"

"Woah... did I just actually think that?!"

Cecil made a surprised face. Lucia he could understand, but Serilla...

"Ah...looks like she"s found a place in my heart as well...this sure is troublesome..." Cecil smiled helplessly and resigned himself, but he resolved to himself that Serilla would be the last one.

He looked at the unprotected backs of the soldiers in front of him and felt a little relieved that they didn"t have their guards up or were wary of their party.

"They don"t seem to be suspicious of us and other than some of the soldiers; most of them seemed serious with what they were doing. The Battalion leader seemed like a nice person. Let"s just hope that there are no problems later."

Cecil thought inwardly as his wagon quickly approached the army of humans.