Looking around, Rueben swiftly hid as men in white robes ran across the sewers, intent on finding someone.
"Report! The Cardinal has found the Saint Candidate's traces and is tracking him! The Captain has ordered us to follow after him!"
"Roger!"
The men swiftly left the sewers, leaving Rueben hiding on the ceiling.
"..." He stared at them for a moment, then pushed down.
Saint Candidate? Who's that?
He thought to himself as he stared following after the men.
They are a theological country, after all, so saints may exist. But then, why are they amassing so many men just to catch the saint candidate? Did they do something bad, enough to make the whole military find him?
Pursing his lips, he slowly opened the manhole and looked around. A child stared at him.
Rueben stared at the child for a moment before the child patted the man in white robes beside him and spoke, "Hey, Hey. There's a monster, father priest.."
This made him close the manhole and made a run for it as the man in white robes just smiled at the child and patted his head.
"Monster? There's no monster in this city, little one. With us around, nothing here will be able to harm any of you..."
Rueben clicked his tongue as he looked for another manhole. Finding it, he pushed it open to look around, he found this manhole was in a dark alley, and he pushed himself up out of the manhole.
He grabbed a pipe from the building and began climbing to the roof. He didn't try to use his physical abilities to jump up into the roof. Rueben knew that if he used some strength in this territory, he might be caught by those who have some strength in this place.
Clicking his tongue, he remembered Illariel's information regarding this place and its overall strength.
The port city was the 2nd most protected city of the church, said to house a Mastery Class Theoretical Magic Affinity User.
What is a Theoretical Magic Affinity User?
To be honest? He didn't know.
From what Illariel told him, they were people who could control an illusory "energy" in the air called Spiritual and Supernatural Energy? Or, in short terms, "SASE".
Through that energy, and some kind of method to deduce logical mathematics? And solving metaphysical formulas or something?
Rueben sat down on the roof, leveraging the shadows of the taller buildings to hide himself, he continued to reminisce.
There was also those who use "Aura". An energy that you cultivate within you, for each "World" you create within you, the energy grows, and so too will your ability to control and manipulate it with your will through your physical form?
Shaking his head, he didn't understand those two things too well. All he knew was that there would be ranks or classes that corresponds to their level of power.
Though the Crown did warn him of people with strange powers, to stay clear of them and not clash with them under any conditions.
Rueben pursed his lips and took out a telescope and continued gathering information to report.
Nothing of note, he should probably head to that tall tower at the center of the city. From there, a high vantage point, he might find more interesting things to take note off. Using the tall buildings to hide his presence, Rueben ran towards the center and quietly climbed it.
He made sure not to alert enemies of his presence.
Upon arriving, he took out a small notebook and started watching the surroundings. A few patrols of about 30 strong guards everywhere in every street. Though he did find the lack of fear from being infected by the virus.
People where wearing short sleeves shirts, some where even wearing short trousers, short enough to go until their knees. Most of them wore something white though as he observed.
He didn't understand why people of this place seem to not be afraid of the virus infecting them and turning them into beasts.
This place is probably the den of crazy people.
Rueben mused to himself, not knowing that his country was the one called the Country of Madmen by the remaining forces in the continent.
Rueben made a few more notes.
On the side of the city, pointing east, a large port with countless ships unloading and loading carriage upon carriage worth of what he presumed to be supplies. He did find someone to take note off in the port.
A blue skinned child wearing what seemed to be a mechanical armor was giving orders to men at the port. He also saw the child pushing a button in a rectangular object, then an arm like machine flew towards him and grabbed him by the collar of his armor. The machine then carried the child towards one of the largest ships in the port.
"..."
He did also see a man with some kind of antlers...? A beast? No, not really a beast. He remembered what Gwynne had told him about the races of the world.
Most of who he had seen were humans currently, he hadn't met with the elven race, the blue skinned child might've been from the dwarf race and the man with the antler horns must've came from the Orcan race.
From what he heard from Gwynne, there were a total of eight main races.
The Human Race being one of those who have the largest population in the entire Big Bell, that was why they dominated the Victorian Continent, creating the Human Continent after a grueling war for land in the past.
Then the Elven Race, the Dwarven Race, the Aswarthen Race, the Anils Race, the Seacreas Race, the Repfolk Race and the Orcan Race.
These eight races are the main ones, there are subsidiary races under these main because they came mostly from that race. Subsidiary races are, for example, Humans. Their Subsidiary races came mostly from their skin color, there are brown skins, yellow skins, white skins, black skins and such, these are subsidiary races under the Human Race, but the Human Race is different than most races because all of the Human Race have the same type of body, just different racial skin types. This was also one of the reasons where racism against one another in the Human Race became prevalent in the past.
Another example would be from the Elven Race, one of their subsidiary races are the Fairies. The Fairies may have a higher population count than the elves but their bloodline did come from the Elven Race. They are the result of an Elf breeding with.... Let's just say flowers...? Yes, flowers. The flowers are impregnated from a type of hormone exuded by the Elf and this results into the birth of a Fairy.
There are other examples but Rueben didn't have the brain power to remember all of what she said.
Though now that he thought about it, maybe he should've listened to her, even for a little while longer.
There were also hybrids, the result of different races creating a child but those can't become one of the Main Eight races because their number's are low compared to the eight. Also, most of the hybrids die before they can be conceived because of the different biologies of each parent that may either clash or not, so their numbers mostly come into the ten thousands and such.
Rueben shook his head as he finished scouting. Just as he was about to leave for another vantage point, he suddenly looked to his left and found a man grabbing him by the shoulder.
The man smiled at him as Rueben froze in shock, the man then looked at him and grinned.
"Hey there, may i ask who you are?"
Rueben flinched even more when he felt the pressure getting stronger from his shoulder. Gritting his teeth, he closed his eyes and spoke,
"I-I am just a peasant, my lord. Please spare me..."
The man smiled, "Oh? Then do tell me what you're doing on this roof? Perhaps..."
Rueben shouted, "Oh no! No, my lord! Please do not misunderstand, i am just admiring the view from here and gather inspiration for my painting!"
"Oh? Painting? Are you an artist then?"
"Yes, yes my lord!"
"Then can you paint my brilliance right now? I am in need of a painting to put in my villa."
"..."
"Did you know?"
"..."
"We don't call our people here as peasants, and even our people doesn't call themselves peasants either."
"!"
"They call themselves believers."
"...I see."
The man grinned and spoke, "Well, too bad for you, Mr. You're just too suspicious to ignore, even your excuses are bad."
"..."
The man pressed his shoulder even more and grinned, "After all, no sane citizens in this city will come up here for inspiration for their painting, knowing that i'm watching."
Rueben stared at the man, the swiftly took out his Adam from his back waist and aimed it towards the man, who suddenly disappeared.
Upon finding his opponent was not in front of him anymore, he gritted his teeth and pushed his feet forward, towards the walls of the city.
"Oh? Rushing to leave already? We're just getting started!"
Suddenly, the space around his arms distorted and started rotating clockwise.
"Compression, Rotation, Push Force." He muttered silently.
Then he spoke, "Magic Bullet."
The man yelled as he appeared in front of Rueben and pointed one finger towards his head, to which Rueben swiftly knelt in one knee to dodge an incoming bullet.
Magic Bullet?
Rueben stared at the air as a compressed particle shot towards one of the buildings, destroying it in one go. The building collapsed from the explosion when the particle's delicate bubble was burst. Countless people in robes rushed towards their location. Rueben did find that the building had no one in it, then he found that all buildings near their location had people in it.
Since when....?
Judging by the face that there weren't people inside, it meant that the man appearing beside him suddenly was a plan. Though Rueben wondered when did he caught their eyes.
"Ah, you dodged that? Your intuition is impressive!"
Clicking his tongue, Rueben aimed both Adam and Eve towards the man, only for him to appear behind him.
"Wha—"
The man grabbed him by the collar and spoke, "Let's change the scenery for a bit."
"Coordinates." The man made a hand sign that resembles horns.
The world suddenly felt linear.
"Converge." Then he made the two horns touch each other.
Then, it compressed into a single point.
"Distort." He pushed his thumb forward.
The world suddenly started shaking.
Finally, he made a finger pistol. "Shorten."
Then, it started to smoothen and shorten.
A flash of light that moved backwards enveloped him. Rueben closed his eyes from the light that almost seemed to blind him.
"Teleportation." He heard a voice and promptly opened his eyes.
Suddenly, he found himself in a clearing outside the city. The tall grey like grass swivelled against the wind as Rueben felt the man grin at him from behind him. Rueben coughed up blood as he felt the rough bleeding wounds that suddenly appeared in his body.
The man opened his eyes wide before chuckling in an apologizing tone, "Sorry. Sorry... I forgot to include you in my calculations, the force of teleportation must've shredded you, though it's a wonder how you didn't get shredded into pieces. Did you know that most people might've already died from that?"
Then he muttered once more.
"Force." A sudden pressure dawned on his hand.
"Power." Suddenly, electrical properties started appearing.
"Homing." The energy slowly turned into a cube like object.
"Light." The energy suddenly shined, bright enough that Rueben had to close his eyes.
Doing 4 hand-signs in one moment, the man opened his fist as the bright shining light suddenly rushed towards Rueben, hitting him in the heart in an instant.
"Light Beam."
Zwooooot.
Bang, Bang!
Rueben coughed up blood as he bit his lips and sucked the blood that seeped out. His body started regenerating as two bullets from his pistols fired towards the man.
The man's eyes widened in surprise as he made another hand-signs to create an invisible barrier in front of him that made the bullets slow down before ultimately stopping just as it hit the barrier.
"You.." The man muttered as Rueben suddenly appeared in front of him.
"You're not human, are you!?"
Unable to react fast enough, the man's head jerked up as Rueben gave him a kick to the chin, followed by a punch to the liver.
Woosh!!
The man crashed into the wall, earning the attention of the people guarding it as Rueben gritted his teeth. He looked at his fist before turning around to escape.
I didn't hit him, no, rather, i couldn't hit him? What was that? All i could feel was that my fist wasn't able to come into contact with that man's body...
Escaping through the forest, Rueben knew he had to go back home since he failed his mission. He can't risk getting caught and forced to cough up information.
Though he was confident that he wouldn't tell any information about his country to this place, from the man's strange powers, it wouldn't be a stretch to think of someone who can read minds or even hypnotise him to tell the truth.
The chances are slim, but i can't take that risk!
The man coughed up blood as he looked down at his waist. His hand doing a hand sign. He wiped the blood from his lips and stood up.
"..."
The man then grinned and muttered.
"Coordinates. Converge. Distort. Shorten." Making the proper hand-signs, he looked towards Rueben, who was nowhere to be found inside the forest and whispered.
"Teleport."
He appeared in the skies, then swiftly chanted a spell that stopped a bullet from exploding his head. Below his feet were a transparent magic circle that helped him from falling down to the ground.
"..."
The man let out a sigh as he pointed at the direction of the bullet.
"Transcend."
"Linear Trajectory."
"Shallow."
"Flame."
The man pointed to that specific direction, his eyes locking towards Rueben, who was already running away after his attack was blocked.
"Weak Burning Line." A large beam made from fire erupted from his hand as it shot towards Rueben.
The entire forest erupted into a blazing fire, but somehow, the fire only made a straight line, it didn't even spread to other plants.
The man let out a smirk as he found a man burning in the forest.
"To think you can even endure being burned!""
The man swiftly made another hand signs as he muttered the words.
"Hydrogen."
"Area."
"Cloud."
"Point Break."
"Transparent."
The man smiled and a large mist started circling around him. The mist converged into a single compressed particle before it shot towards the ground.
"Wide Area Mists."
As soon as the compressed particle touched the ground, it expanded into a large bubble. The bubble bursts and a massive wave of mist covered the entire forest that Rueben was standing on.
Hiding behind a tree, Rueben checked his clothes, now burnt from the flame and clicked his tongue.
Feeling the cold sensation on his skin, he looked around the mist as he contemplated his next course of action.
Touching the earring, he thought of using it to go back home but that would, in The Crown's words, create a small pathway to Arkvem.
He didn't know if someone else other than him can enter that pathway but he didn't want to use it unless he was completely alone.
He can't bring someone who he knows would be a significant threat back home just because he wants to go back safe.
"..."
Just as he was about to dig a hole to hid, he suddenly heard a noise.
"Combustion."
"Rotation."
"Compression."
Rueben saw a small light falling from the sky.
"Fireball."
As soon as the small light touched the mist, Rueben saw a bright light flash his eyes. In the sky, the man smiled as he watched the entire forest in their area erupted into a huge explosion. Rueben gritted his teeth as he felt his skin burn, he swiftly tried to rush out of the fire when a woman in white armor suddenly appeared and swung her mace towards his head.
Good thing he was able to dodge it before he got hit and gave her a clean kick to the shin. The woman felt her knees bent from the force and let out a howl.
"AHH!"
Rueben flew away from the wind that came from the shout as he crashed into a tree, still burning. Though the flame couldn't normally be seen, it was as if the flames itself was transparent, though a little.
Biting his palm, he tried to drink blood when the man suddenly appeared behind the tree and did some hand-signs and spells before yelling out, "Magic Bullet." Rueben swiftly rolled to the side after that.
Just as he was about to recover from his injuries, he grabbed his cane, even though it was hot, and blocked the incoming mace attack nearing his head.
"Tch!" The woman clicked her tongue as her eyes glowed a golden hue.
"Twelve Basic Morning Star: Forced Eruption." She muttered as Rueben suddenly felt a strong aura envelop the woman's weapon.
Clicking his tongue, he grabbed his cane and pulled out the sword hidden within. The woman swung her mace with great force, the air being pulled apart as it forced itself to it's destination. But before it could amass the needed momentum to create a devastating attack, Rueben sliced off the woman's wrist.
The sliced wrist burst into a sprinkle of blood as the woman gritted her teeth and used the golden aura to stop her bleeding, she changed hands and put the mace into her non dominant hand while Rueben kicked her away.
Hard!
Rueben let out a scream within as he dodged another magic bullet from behind him.
What is her skin made off? Steel?
Fully intending to cut off her hand, he was only able to lightly slice off the wrist where her veins were. When he swung his cane to cut off her hand, he could feel a strong resistance from her skin, forcing him to put his all into slicing her wrist.
That energy too, the woman used that energy to block the blood from spilling out.
Rueben bent down as another one joined the fight, this time a man wearing just a tight skin robe with only gauntlets as his piece of armor. Dodging the incoming fist that was about to hit his waist, Rueben grabbed the opponents collar and pushed it towards the incoming magic bullet.
To which the gauntlet wearing man blocked with his gauntlet.
"Oh dear! Using my friend to block my attack!? How inhumane!" The man who used magic let out an amused roar as he stopped using magic bullet.
"Shut it, Bernard!" A woman's voice sounded out, it was the woman with the mace, Rueben blocked the incoming elbow that was swung as he looked at the woman's wrist, not healed but it was blocked by what seemed to be bandage.
Where...?
Rueben swiftly moved his eyes to look around as he exchanged close combat moves with the gauntlet man.
There!
His eyes focused on the trees, just a few dozen meters away from the fight and away from the forest that was burning. A woman in a nun clothing stared at him coldly, holding a bag of what he presumed to be medicine.
Rueben bit his tongue as he could feel the fire burning his body slowly dying down, drinking the blood. He didn't even have the time to pull out a Ichor Siphon from his bag. Though good thing all his weapons was still here.
Rueben exchanged punches with the gauntlet man before he suddenly lunged backwards and the woman with the mace jumped in. Her mace was already near his face but luckily, Rueben managed to block it by using his arms.
He felt his skin regenerate from the burn as his arms trembled.
"Tch! Blocked again!?"
The woman clicked her tongue loudly as she changed her footing and swung her mace from above. To which Rueben tried to dodge when the gauntlet man suddenly appeared behind him and held his waist tightly.
Rueben glared at him before he was hit with the mace at the face.
A loud booming sounded out as Rueben held his neck tightly, he could feel his neck was about to tear off from the attack, swiftly swinging Saif towards the gauntlet man, he finally let Rueben go as he lunged out of the scene.
Rueben let out a rough breath as he watched the man in the sky, smiling at him with crescent shaped eyes.
A three on one.
Rueben let out a breathe as he tried to recover, the opponents too just stood watch, recovering their breathing, watching every fiber of his muscles. Wiping the blood off his chin, he licked it and started healing.
His eyes shone with a crimson glint.
Author Notes:
I'm sorry for the very long release of the previous chapter, school kinda fucked me up in the head... Thank you for still reading my work. Enjoy the chapter.