Chapter 263 - Child of this planet (Patreon)

The area where the fight happened is destroyed, with walls crushed and the road full of deep craters from attacks that came from the duo. For the first time, I detect the mana of the attacker in the air.

I recognize the signature almost immediately.

Oh my, isn't this interesting?

After looking at the corpses of lynthari she probably known for over a hundred years, Myrra follows me, and both of us enter the tower.

The tower is the biggest one I've entered so far, and used to be near the Living Tree, dwarfed by it. But right now, this building is impressive, and the fact that it still looks so good after so much time tells a lot about the way it was built.

The hallway is massive as well, with polished stone as the floor, covered in smaller debris, dust, and some fresh blood, as well as a few more corpses.

Under my feet, broken glass and remains of old furniture crash and sound into the room, but I don't mind it that much, and Myrra seems to be the same. Currently, the lynthari’s face is interesting to look at. The expression is something between anger, sadness, and something else.

At the end of the trail, we find Isola sitting on the last remaining piece of furniture. A pale, black-haired guild master of Obsidian Circle greets us with a smile, waving at us with her hand that is covered in blood.

"Feral angry kitten and invader Myrra, it's nice to see you!" she greets us.

"Who is here with you?" I ask curiously instead of greeting her back.

The other person I sense in the tower is somewhere far above us and using something that makes it hard to identify their signature, no matter how much I attempt to do so.

"It's probably a secret, but who cares," Isola jumps to her feet, the old armchair behind her cracking. "It's Thalen," she says.

From Isola a pulse of mana shoots towards the signature I carefully detected. Most likely a warning or a call for help.

Without much trouble, I reach out and disrupt it before it even gets to the ceiling of the room we are in.

"That's rude, Nathaniel," she calls me by my name. "You know I won't have a chance against you and Miss Invader without Thalen’s help."

"Isn't that your problem?" I answer her.

"I guess," Isola shakes her head, and after looking at Myrra, she looks back at me. "You are with invaders now?"

"I'm on my side. What you guys and lynthari do is not my problem."

The pale woman laughs. "You talk as if you’re not even one of us." While she talks, tattoos on her forearms increase in size and spread all over her body, changing their shape and effects to adapt to the way she decided to fight. And I let her, carefully observing what she was doing.

"But you always did that, didn't you?" Isola stretches her body lazily. Muscles under her skin move, showing the strength of her body.

[Stoneheart - lvl 228]

"What are you and Thalen doing here?" For the first time, Myrra asks.

And Isola answers without hesitation, "Thalen had a spy among the scavengers that went to the Old Capital, and they located a few really interesting items, so we came here to get them. You know, mostly the kind that works against lynthari only. Poison against you guys, paralyzing enchantments. Stuff our ancestors were using during the war."

"So it's gotten that far?" Myrra asks in a somber tone.

"Yes, the attack of the Colony didn't help, and with you and Matriarch being gone, things went to... well, to shit. You will have to tell me why you decided not to come back, Miss Invader Myrra. Still, I don't think you being there would change things much."

"Obelia's work?" When I ask, Isola turns to me.

"Mostly Thalen's. I work for him, and Obelia helps us. Both of us owe Thalen a lot, stuff like prolonging the lives of people we care about, saving our lives, and restoring missing limbs. Over the years, things like this accumulate."

And here we go again.

"Doesn't Virelia have more healers?" I ask, even though I suspect the answer.

Myrra answers me instead of Isola, “Only a few lynthari that rarely heal humans. As for human healers, they tend to disappear."

"Thalen can be quite persistent if he wants something. Feral angry kitten, do you know that he also asked Obelia to bring him the healer from your group?" a smile climbs on Isola’s lips, “He did it only after you left, of course. He thought that it would be easy for Obelia, who was able to gain your trust. She is good at reading people, so it wasn’t supposed to be that difficult for her.”

Isola tries to send another signal towards where Thalen is, but I cancel it again, to which she furrows her brows but still smiles at me.

She takes a step away from us, “Tess was somewhere else, and even your other guild members were busy, so it was the perfect opportunity. Yet, Obelia returned with her entire arm and entire leg missing, barely escaping with her life. Even Thalen was unable to restore her destroyed limbs. What is with that black-haired healer girl?”

An anchor I placed behind Isola explodes with kinetic energy and pushes her toward us. She is not wounded because of her barriers, but I shorten the distance, a dagger made of blue and infused with resonating mana cuts against her neck.

Isola ducks under my swing and shouts loudly, the floor under our feet vibrating. The shout doesn’t reach Thalen as I do not allow it with my resonance to create a dome around us. Yet Isola still smiles, knowing that the more skills we use, the higher the chance of Thalen detecting us.

Like snakes, glowing tattoos swirl all over her body, vibrant against her pale skin, and at the same time, she moves at immense speed, using her body to the fullest.

Isola takes on a blast of golden flames with a swing of her hand and pushes through [Redistribution], but I boost my body with the entirety of my mana for a split second, my epic passive allowing me to do so.

I become faster than her, and my dagger cuts off her hand cleanly, the resonating blade ignoring the incredible barriers she built up over her skin and the sheer strength of her body.

The woman doesn’t even flinch, and in exchange for her hand, she kicks against my chest where armor made of [Regalia] and infused with kinetic energy forms. My body doesn't move at all and the armor absorbs her attack.

Jumping back, she flings her cut-off stump at me, throwing blood against my eyes, and then jumps away from me, running towards the stairs.

There, Myrra stands, floating pieces of her aurora glass around her.

“What a fucking situation,” Isola giggles. She boosts her body more, tendons and muscles tearing as she dashes towards Myrra with a leap that feels impossibly long.

Isola tanks multiple of Myrra's attacks and dodges the strongest ones, her talent showing and her body moving nimbly, accurately, and incredibly quickly, each movement containing immense power.

The flooring cracks under Isola´s feet, her attacks destroy pieces of aurora mirror, a swing of her fist disrupts flames, and her kicks break Myrra’s ice. One of the tattoos on her body glows and disappears, in the process restoring her hand and healing her body.

Meanwhile, Myrra fights calmly, with barely any emotion on her face, all the attacks calculated and executed with perfect timing and in a way that shows her long years of getting used to her skills.

Even having a lower level than Isola, I watch as Myrra destroys her, calculating the pale-skinned woman's attacks to the point it nearly seems like she is playing with her as she teleports from one aurora mirror to another and stabs the glass pieces into Isola after finding weaker parts of her barrier.

And then, after a minute, Isola is unable to get through her and falls to her knees, her ligaments cut, terrible wounds all over her body with Myrra standing in front of her. The tall lynthari looks majestic. A proud gaze in her eyes and a relaxed stance while aurora glass flickers around her body, moving according to her will. Myrra isn’t even warmed up yet.

“So this is the Champion candidate I heard so much about,” even now, Isola’s expression is daring without any hint of fear.

“A fake Champion candidate,” sounds from the top of the balcony that oversees the hallway.

A presence I felt moving closer the entire time stops hiding its signature, and the older red-haired man reveals himself.

Thalen, guild master of Luminous Order, the only human healer in Virelia.

[Pulsebinder - lvl 234]

A warm mana that I know so well radiates from him, and the small tattoo on Isola´s neck glows brighter. A mark left by the healer that works similarly to the Crown of Lily that I used.

Isola gets immediately healed, a speed much faster than Lily's.

“I don’t think there is a reason for us to fight,” the man says. His voice is calm and confident, and I notice him holding an orb that he seems to operate with his mana.

“Little Thalen, who do you even think you are? I knew you ever since you were a brat, barely reaching my waist, and now you are using such a tone against me?” Myrra's canines show and even her cat-like ears stand up, her swinging tail showing her annoyance.

“Miss Myrra, I have nothing but respect for you and do not wish for us to fight.”

“Interesting to hear from someone who went looking for weapons against lynthari,” Myrra's canines show even more.

Thalen looks at Isola, who just smiles playfully, and then he sighs, turning his attention to Myrra again, “It’s something I don’t want to use. The weapon will be there only to make sure lynthari have a conversation with us. I promise not to use it if you don’t threaten us.”

Sounds quite reasonable, doesn’t it? Curious, I observe the white-haired lynthari.

“Thalen, dear little Thalen, I always hated you spewing out such bullshit with a straight face,” taking a step towards Isola, Myrra continues to stare at the red-haired man.

“It’s all for us humans, Miss Myrra. I think it's reasonable to strive to be free of you, especially now that we found out that our world was invaded by you.” A circle of mana appears behind him, its diameter being around half his body.

That circle starts glowing, and Thalen floats over the railing and into the air over Myrra. Mana radiates from the man wearing pure white clothes that contrast with his red hair.

He spreads his arms, “You don’t even seem to be interested in the title of lynthari matriarch, so I ask you, no, I beg you to allow us humans to decide on our own. To decide if we want to live with lynthari or if it’s something we are unable to do anymore.” A sad expression appears on his face.

Thalen also turns to me, “And for you, guild master of Angry Kittens, Nathaniel Gwyn, I ask you to stand on the side of your race, as you are also a child of this planet.”

Even though he tries so hard, I notice his tone change slightly. Almost imperceptibly as he says the name of our guild. A hint of contempt, as if even saying such words out loud is something beneath him.

“Yeah, no,” I answer.

“May I ask you why?”

“I don’t like the name of your guild. What is it even, Luminous Disorder?”

“It’s Luminous Order, Guildmaster Gwyn.”

“Looming Disorder?”

“Luminous Order.”

“Oh, Ruminous Border.”

“...Guildmaster Gwyn, did I get on your bad side somehow?”

***

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