Laerton did a quick head count. "Pock, Ragna, Greenie, Herta, Clause, Falco, Miranda, Ghost, Gormay, Susie, Olivia, Ken, and Sieg. We're missing three. Vlad is somewhere doing Haru knows what, and I bet Davi and Olem are still out in the chilled zone."
"We're missing two members." Myth also did a head count. "Ash and Max."
The two captains were not out in the frozen wasteland where time didn't move. They had long since entered the walls of the city, which now hung behind them. They weren't able to get a good look at most of the city, and the area they were in was swarming with guards, all men in ivory-white armor with helms shaped like goat heads. Before them was another walled-off area that led to the actual city.
Unlike the frozen wasteland, the city was extremely warm, offering a nice warmth that allowed everyone to take their coats off. Color was also back, and snow softly rained from the sky, but it turned to steam when it touched someone's skin. Above them all was a bright golden beacon that looked like a sun.
"So you're missing two, and I'm missing three." Laerton rubbed her chin. "Damn, I expect Olem will get here soon, but Davi's got some serious shit luck. I'm worried something might happen to him."
"You seem to care for that one a lot," Myth mused.
"Piss off." Laerton huffed and rubbed the back of her neck. "If you want, I'll give him to you in exchange for one of your members."
"No thanks."
"Excuse me." Laerton turned when she heard the voice, and she craned her head up to stare at the soldier who stood before her.
"Yeah? What is it?"
Unlike the other soldiers, this one's helmet was shaped like a ball, and it had various tips poking out of it, forming a circle. He also wore a red-and-gold cape, a dozen medals of honor, and a sling full of chalk. He was mounted on something that looked like a horse, but it had scales instead of fur and claws instead of hooves.
The soldier placed a fist over his heart, giving a sort of salute. "I'm General Sunny. I overheard that you still have some guys out in the still-realm? If you don't mind, I can go and round the last of them up."
"You'd do that?" Laerton raised an eyebrow. "How come?"
"The Queen is eagerly looking forward to the games," Sunny said, and he gestured to the wall that blocked off the rest of the area. "I cannot lower the wall until all players on the list are here, however. To make my Queen happy, I'd very much like for her to see you all as soon as she can."
"The games don't officially start until tomorrow." Myth pointed out. "This first day is meant for us to get our bearings."
"And that is still the case." Sunny nodded. "But even still, simply seeing you all would make the Queen as well as her daughter very happy. So, with your permission, I'll set off at haste and find them for you."
Myth and Laerton shared a look. "Sure." Laerton shrugged. "Why not-"
Suddenly, a cloaked figure landed next to her. His entire body was hidden in the shadows, even with all the light that was on him, and his hood was pulled all the way up, masking him.
"Oh, hey, Vlad, you made it." Laerton grinned. Vlad held a hand out to her, one that was pure black, shadows wrapping around it. Laerton rolled her eyes and reached into her robes, pulling out a small handheld gaming device. "Here, you freaking screen junkie."
Vlad took the device, walked over to the rest of the Phoenix Flight guild, reached into his shadow, and pulled out a large blanket. He wrapped it around himself and then started to play.
"That creeps me out so much." Myth said flatly.
"Yeah, he's a weirdo," Laerton admitted.
"So, I believe you're only missing two each now?" Sunny asked, unbothered by what he just saw. "I only need to find four Knights?"
"Yep."
"Alright. I'll set out at once then."
The strange scaled horse glowed, and then it leaped into the air, making a series of hops, going up and up, walking on the wind itself, before it finally made it past the wall.
Over with Olivia, she glanced up at the retreating soldier and let out a whistle. "This place is cool."
"Was that a cold pun?" Ken frowned.
"Maybe."
"I don't like it here," Sieg muttered. "We all got separated, and now we're stuck here, and there's no sign of Davi."
"Ash is missing also," Olivia hummed. "I got lucky, because Ken, Susie, and I all appeared next to Pock, and he just teleported us to this city."
"I got spawned in next to Ghost," Sieg grunted.
"I rode on his back!" Ghost announced proudly.
"Oh, yeah, that reminds me, Ghost, how are you here?" Olivia looked to the girl in confusion. "I thought you couldn't leave the guild base?"
Ghost gave a sheepish grin. "I can't, but technically I can? It's the same reason Olem can't just leave. We're attuned to a field of mana. The train serves as this field for us and allows us to stay manifested. It's because that train is actually an old elven item from way back in the day, and it gives off the same energy that the elven towers give off. Dungeons give off the same sort of energy and radiation energy at the same time, and so Olem and I can also be in dungeons, but usually it's hard for us to get to one since we can't get very far from the train. These games are the only time I get to do anything, usually."
"Cool!" Olivia laughed and high-fived Ghost. "I guess this means we'll see you in action."
"Only if Davi shows up." Falco muttered. "Seriously, what's taking him so long? I wanna start, but we can't! I bet he's doing something dumb."
Meanwhile, with Davi and Ash, the hammer came down with enough force to turn a person into mist, but Davi was ready for it and swung his sword up, slicing the construct in two. While he did that, Ash got ready to fire an arrow and aimed it at the group of armored men.
"Stop!" Ash called out.
"We're not invaders," Davi said coolly. "Are any of you General Sunny? High told us to talk to him."
The soldiers stopped for a moment and looked at one another. "High? No clue who that is."
"Seriously?"
"As for you wanting to speak with General Sunny, nice try, but we won't fall for it, invader." The soldier pointed his chalk at Davi. "Do you think we're blind? You don't hold the Light of the Mother. You're from the Abyss, just as the sealed chilled one is."
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Davi pointed his thumb up at himself. "Seriously, just look at me. I'm a human." He had his armor on, but the helmet was gone.
"He does look human." One of the soldiers muttered. "Also, that other one with the strange weapon doesn't have the feeling of an invader?"
The soldier, pointing at Davi, hesitated for a moment but then growled. "A trick! They're using their powers!" He weaved the chalk through the air. "Mother's Light-"
Ash fired his arrow. It blasted forward with incredible speed and slammed into the armored man's helmet. A current of air flowed from the tip, cushioning the attack, which stopped it from stabbing through the metal, but the force also threw the soldier to the ground hard enough to knock him out. Before the other soldiers had a chance to react, Ash fired three more arrows and knocked out another three of them.
The last soldier yelled and lifted his shield. He parried the strike and whipped his piece of chalk forward. "Mother's Light!" An orb of golden flame formed at the tip of it and blasted toward Ash, but before the fire could reach him, Davi jumped in front of the attack, and with a single swipe of his blade, he batted the attack away.
"We're not your enemy," Davi announced. "Stop this."
The soldier jumped behind the large golem, and he drew something across its body. "Let's see you deal with this, invader!"
The flowing writing along the golem's body shimmered and swirled. It began to creak, and its arms moved up and down. The symbol of an eye appeared directly in front of it, and it then locked onto Davi. Both its hands shifted and changed, becoming massive drills that spun fast enough to swirl the frozen particles around it.
"Looks like it's coming," Ash called out.
"Yeah," Davi said in his usual blank tone. "It's even stronger than the golems Gray made."
"The vice captain to the Mourning Stars guild?" Ash questioned, his face turning pale. "So we'll have to get serious to take this thing down-"
"No." Davi stabbed his sword into the ground and began to walk toward the golem. "I'll take it out in one shot."
"What about your sword?"
"I don't need it."
Davi held his arm out and faced his palm to the sky. Mana began to spark and swirl as an orb formed in his hand. "Self Sphere" is what the system had called it. He preferred a new name. One that he came up with himself.
During his training with Laerton, he had tried to use the attack, but she shut it down several times. Despite that, he had still learned a lot about the attack and how it worked.
The obvious stuff was that it was created by drawing in impure mana that was in the air. This was done with Old Bird's Flapping Wings. The impure mana would then be dragged by Way of Self Iron and spilled out of his body in the form of a blast. Thanks to a Vow he created on the fly, he had managed to contain that blast into a new form. That was the sphere.
The sphere was strong, especially as he lacked a proper Destruction ability, and it didn't need him to yell out a spell name. He could just throw it out. It worked like a Golden Orb, and watching how Susie had used hers gave him a few more ideas. Her orbs could be controlled by her and didn't instantly explode like his. They were like a second limb.
His goal was to do something like that, but first, he'd need an easier way to create the orb. Using Old Bird's Flapping Wings wasn't practical. It had a number of uses, and while he had figured out ways to extend them, by patching himself up with his Vault spell or getting healed, he could still only rely on that technique for so long.
That led to his newest creation.
Why rely on Old Bird's Flapping Wings when he could just take a shortcut and gain a similar effect? After all, the only reason Old Bird's Flapping Wings allowed the move to work was because it drew in chaotic mana, and Way of Self Iron would draw it in, thinking it was kinetic energy. With a simple Vow this could be changed.
Mana existed in everything, from particles to space to even time. Magic could come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, and that meant chaotic mana could be formed from almost anything as well. The Vow was simple. In exchange for not using Way of Self Iron to grab onto kinetic energy that filled his body, it could instead draw out the faint chaotic mana that was generated from an emotion.
That's right, even emotions contain mana, and in this case, the feeling of pain was the one selected. Upon being hurt, he could no longer channel the kinetic energy through his body, but he could use that pain as pure chaotic mana, and with another Vow on Old Bird's Flapping Wings, the chaotic mana would rapidly swirl around inside of his body, over and over again, as its own mini core, containing nothing but impure mana that existed for only one purpose.
"Pain Ball." Earlier, when he had fallen from the sky and made his landing, there had been a reason for that. All that pain, the damage his legs took, all of it formed into the very same orb of chaotic mana he now held.
The golem stabbed down with both of its drills, but it never stood a chance. Davi slammed his orb into it, shattering its arms and plowing straight through it. The orb left his hand and kept rotating, pulling and dismantling the body of the golem, and then it started to rapidly carry it off into the sky before it exploded in a mighty blast that shook the land.
The last soldier fell to his knees and stared in shock. "W-What? H-How strong is this invader? That attack wiped out one of our star golems."
"I keep telling you." Davi frowned and folded his arms. "I'm not an invader. I'm with the Phoenix Flight guild."
"Liar."
"It's the truth…"
The soldier pointed his chalk at Davi, and he sighed before moving so fast that he delivered a punch to the man's gut before he even had a chance to draw upon his strange power.
"Damn it. Why the hell are these guys attacking me?" Davi rubbed the side of his head, getting an ache. "This sucks."
"You do have a scary face." Ash snorted.
"Yeah, yeah. Come on, let's grab these guys and head to the city-"
"Mother's Light." A pillar of heat rammed into Davi, and he gasped, dropping to his knees. From the sky, a horse made of scales landed, and another man in armor dismounted.
"G-General Sunny." One of the soldiers weakly said.
"It's okay." Sunny flicked a piece of chalk, and golden chains formed around Davi. "I'm here now. I saw everything. You guys were right for attacking him; he's an invader for sure. He used the same attack as the chilled one."
Davi grunted as the chains formed around his legs and arms. "Seriously?"
An arrow flew forward and shattered the chains, freeing him. Sunny whipped his head around just in time to see Ash launching another one at him. With blinding speed, Sunny's other arm came up, and he caught the arrow. After that, he threw it back at Ash, who narrowly dodged.
Davi jumped for his sword and grabbed it just as Sunny flashed over to him. "Mother's Light." The piece of chalk twisted and became a sword of golden flame, which he swung out with. Sunny's blade met Davi's, the two clashing. Sunny grabbed another piece of chalk from his belt with his free hand. "Mother's Light." It twisted into a dagger, and he stabbed it toward Davi's neck.
"Row Shadow Vault." From the darkness that swarmed them due to the absence of light, a claymore jutted out directly in front of his neck, blocking the strike. Sunny jumped away, getting some distance, and he threw the knife at Davi, who caught it. Davi got ready to throw it back, but it suddenly exploded like a grenade. "Ouch… You shouldn't have done that." From his damaged hand, a massive white orb the size of a beach ball formed, and he tossed it at the man in white armor.
Sunny reached for another piece of chalk, but Ash's arrow was faster, and it tore the sash off his body, preventing him from grabbing one.
"Yeah, take that, ya jackass!" Ash laughed. He loved this bow. He had picked it up since it would be the perfect weapon for beating Olivia, as it countered her style of fighting, and because Sieg was the squire he respected the most after the bowman had saved him. Also, bows were just cool, so that factored into him picking one up as well. "You're screwed!"
Sunny winced as the orb met him, then he pulled his head back and slammed it down, headbutting the attack, as if his life depended on it!
"Is he stupid?" Ash made a bewildered face. To his shock, though, Sunny's attack worked.
The white orb glowed like it was about to explode, but the blast never came. The helmet Sunny wore glowed, and then the Pain Ball disappeared, swirling away as if it had never been there. Sunny didn't get off totally unharmed, however. Several of the points along his helm snapped off, and cracks began to spread out, getting larger and larger. He reached up, feeling that his helmet was about to break.
"Give up, invader."
"I'm with the Phoenix Flight guild," Davi said yet again.
"I might have believed it if not for your earlier attack." Sunny spat out. "Chaotic mana shaped like a golden orb? The invaders fight like the beings from Gallenth, yet they don't possess the same core. Not to mention your energy is so cold; even I can feel it chilling my bones, and I've survived in a place like this. You can't actually expect me to believe that you're human after all that, can you?"
"I don't know what to tell you," Davi grumbled. "I'm me."
"Well, 'Me,' I'll do what I must." The cracks all formed together, and the helmet finally shattered and broke. "I am Sunny of House Hoenn, and I will slay you where you stand!"
Davi's arms dropped, and the sword he held nearly slipped out of his grasp. Ash let out a loud gasp and covered his mouth. The two of them stared in utter shock at Sunny, who was a very handsome man with long blonde hair, bright purple eyes, and a pair of pointed ears.
An elf stood before them.
"Mother's Light." Sunny shimmered and blasted forward, appearing next to Davi, who was still stunned by what he was seeing. Sunny swung his sword out, about to behead the man, but before the blade could reach, a stone hand caught it.
"Do. Not. Hurt. My. Guildmate." Olem stood behind Davi, holding the blade back with absolute ease.
"Y-You?" Sunny said, stunned.
There was a loud click, and a line ran along Olem's stony form. Suddenly, the rock body he had split open, coming undone, and folding out. He revealed his insides, which were completely hollowed out, save for circuits of mana that ran along the smooth parts of his body, akin to nerves. He could likely shove someone inside of him if he wanted to, but that wasn't what he did.
"Row Atomic Barrel." The stone inside of him shifted and molded, and soon, several dozen gun barrels jutted out of Olem's body, aiming at the stunned Sunny. "This battle is over."