Chapter 230: Mission Briefing

A crowd gathers as my airship splashes down in the harbor. I maneuver the airship until it lines up with the piers, and Lin ties it down so the river doesn’t carry it away. One of the Oathbound orders the bystanders to stand back and sets up a safe perimeter.

The bystanders aren't just humans; there are several other races among the crowd, of which I only recognize Humans and what looks to be Lunaleyans, although they look slightly different. They look more closely related to Kayafe and Lunaleyans, but they have more muscle, slender ears, and shorter tails.

The Emperor and the other non-human he was with stand in wait with an entourage of Oathbound Knights behind them. It’s a little intimidating seeing so many legendary beings in one place, waiting for me, but I suppose they intend it for my safety.

I walk down the gangplank, not wanting the Emperor to wait any longer.

“I welcome you, Alysara, to the ancient city of Starport, the capital of my Empire. I am Alexander; this is Tk’Thalim.” The Emperor says, motioning to the person next to him. Lin must be using his powers since I can understand the intent of the Emperor’s words.

Alexander? Isn’t that the name of Kayafe’s Human companion? It could be his descendant who is named after him, but he is also really powerful, so maybe he is the same person?

“I am delighted to make your acquaintance,” Tk’Thalim says, holding his head up high.

“I am pleased to be here, Your Majesty, and you too Tk’Thalim,” I say, adopting a diplomatic role with [Acting].

The Emperor is a tall man, taller than Lin, with a herculean build just like all the other Oathbound. His Bond exudes Justice essence, but I can see he and the other Oathbound are holding back so as not to endanger the nearby people.

It isn’t just that the Oathbound are tall. Humans, on average, seem to be half a head taller than me. I never really gave it any thought, but Runalymo, and the variant already here, are a little shorter than humans.

“I notice you aren’t here in person; I take it you have means of completing our request?” Alexander asks.

“I do,” I reply.

“Well then. Lin tells me you have some important matters to discuss, but we should talk about that in the palace. Tk’Thalim, will you do the honors?”

Tk’Thalim nods wordlessly, and the world shifts as if I was always fated to be here instead. I am in the Palace, an immaculately clean place with cultivated foliage in vases lining the room. There is a tangle of vines wrapped around the chandelier that has hanging bulbs that give off Light mana. Since I don’t see any other sources of light, I assume the vine’s bulbs serve that function.

In the room, there is an ornate round table with enough seats for all of us. Lin, Tk’Thalim, Alexander, and three other Oathbound are here. Outside there is a group of Knights in the same armor as the Oathbound and judging from their Bonds, over half of them are Mind mages.

“You already know Lin, captain of counter-intelligence,” Alexander says. “This is Elizabeth, my quartermaster. Ryan, captain of intelligence. And Jordan, my right hand.”

Elizabeth has short hair and is dressed in simple, functional clothes. She holds a strict, no-nonsense air about her. Ryan is the opposite, with long hair and a lax atmosphere about him, but with formal garments like one would wear at a high-class event. Jordan seems like the most professional, dressed in military-style formal wear, clean-shaven, and with short hair that wouldn’t get in the way during a battle.

“I must apologize to you, Alysara,” Alexander says, bowing deeply before taking a seat. “Under normal circumstances, I would let you rest and explore the city for a few days before getting into business, but we have no idea when the dwarves will attack; plus, Lin says there’s another urgent matter to discuss.”

“I understand, and I hold you at no fault,” I say, taking my seat too.

Once everyone has taken their seat, I explain the Calamity Egg, although I don’t directly mention it’s a Calamity Egg, but rather just an egg-like thing made of Miasma, which is still the truth.

After my testimony, all eyes turn toward Tk’Thalim.

“Yes, that does sound like my dream, but its fate still lies in the future; it is not an immediate threat.”

“What matters is that we now know what the dream was implying, and now that we know, we can begin to prepare for it,” Alexander says. “We have time, so we can put our efforts into the more immediate threat, but before we talk about that, Alysara, from what you currently know, is there anything we can do about the Egg?”

“No,” I shake my head. “It’s probably too late to prevent it from hatching. I can ask Safyr if she knows or has heard of anything, though.”

I can probably dig into my memories of the Archive of Eternity, but due to Yrania’s efforts, I can’t just automatically remember relevant information. It’s like she compressed the information like compressed files on a computer. The information needs to be decompressed first before it can be read.

“I’d rather her not know of this. I can’t risk her thinking our destruction is the solution,” Jordan jumps in.

“Safyr is cautious,” I try to reassure him. “Plus, there’s a strong chance that your destruction will be a catalyst for its hatching, so you have greater chances of her coming to your aid to prevent that.”

“We may need all the help we can get. If the egg is a world-ending threat, as implied by Tk’Thalim’s dream, then it may very well be a Fabled-tier threat; regardless, I have a contingency should it ever hatch. Make sure Safyr knows that if you do tell her. Now before we move onto the next topic, Tk’thalim, is there any question you wish to ask?”

“I do indeed, Alexander.” The Orc says before turning toward me. “Alysara, there was another dream I had, not directly related to the Egg but one that you may be able to give us insight on. It is of a Library an eternity old and infinite in size. There is a night sky in place of a ceiling in which an immaterial eye dwells, staring at me with the weight of Okyurion behind its gaze. Each book is endless if flipped through with contents written in an unknown language. Accompanying me is a beautiful lone soul, and when I follow it, it leads me to a Cursed Being consuming the library.”

“Okyurion?” I ask.

“That is the name we Orcs give the world,” He answers.

I know exactly what that dream is implying. The library is my status as the Archive of Eternity, the eye directly refers to my sight, and the soul possibly refers to mine, but it might be referencing Myrou. The Cursed Being either refers to my curses or the Reality Eater. But what does it all mean when put together? It’s about me, me, me, and me; why? Why are so many things pointing to me? This would give more credit to the other meanings where it’s about me being the Archive of Eternity, my sight, Myrou, and the Reality Eater. This assumes both interpretations are exclusive, but maybe both are right.

Ultimately I think the point of that dream is a warning about the Reality Eater, but why does it so heavily imply me? Will my status as a Primordial Soul not be able to survive the Reality Eater? From what Kayafe says, even if the soul is utterly destroyed, it should eventually regenerate, but maybe the Reality Eater prevents that. But why would that matter to Tk’Thalim? The only reason I can think of is that my status as the Archive of Eternity plays a major role in all of this, or maybe I do.

“Alysara?” Tk’Thalim asks, interrupting my thoughts.

“Yes?” I ask, turning toward him.

“I take it you know something?”

“I do. I know what that dream is about.”

He waits for me to explain, but I don’t.

“Are you going to tell us?” He asks after a minute.

“No. It’s a personal matter.”

Tk’Thalim doesn’t look like he believes me.

“I don’t dream about other people’s personal matters. This concerns the fate of the world.”

“Probably not,” I say with a shrug, “This world will likely fade at the end of time if it isn’t destroyed by something else.”

“If it were to be so far out, I wouldn’t have that dream.” Tk’Thalim pressures me.

“You should let it go, Tk’Thalim,” Alexander says. “She will tell you when the time is right.”

Tk’Thalim sighs. “I’ve been having that dream for a thousand years, and now that there are answers in front of me, I’m being denied? Do you know how frustrating that is, Alexander?”

I do feel a little bad. I can probably tell him what the Cursed Being is, at least.

“The Cursed Being at the end of your dream refers to the Reality Eater. It is so powerful that it can destroy realms. There is nothing you can do.”

“How do you kno— I see…” Tk’Thalim says, placing a hand on his chin before trailing off.

“Tk’Thalim? What is it?” Alexander asks.

“It is indeed a personal matter. It is not my secret to tell,” Tk’Thalim says.

“Wha— Tk’Thalim!”

“Let us move on to the next topic, Alexander; I have my answer.”

I can’t help but smile at Alexander and Tk’Thalim’s antics, and I am glad Tk’Thalim respects my secret; I’ll have to ask him how he figured it out so I can be more careful in the future. Now that I think about it, maybe this is a blessing in disguise, seeing as now I can ask him what the dream is trying to warn me about.

“Very well. If it doesn’t involve my people, then I shouldn’t pry. Moving on to the next issue, and so that everyone here is on the same page, a couple of months ago, the Dwarves sent a large army to attack us in an attempt to feed us false information about a future attack. They knew the army would be defeated and that the generals would be interrogated. Those generals were also deceived, so we could get no useful information from them. We know the Dwarves are planning something, but we do not know what they have in store for us. We believe they are preparing an attack the likes of which we’ve never seen from them before, taking advantage of our current weakened state.”

Alexander motioned to Lin. “Lin will give details of the mission.” He then releases a pulse of his presence, notifying the Mind mage group outside of the room to come in. It isn’t too much of a stretch to think they are involved in the mission in some way.

“Thank you, Emperor. The Dwarves had resisted every one of our previous attempts to scry on them, even severely wounding Ryan and his predecessor when they tried to breach their defenses. They have every type of anti-scrying method we are aware of and even ones we have never seen before. Alysara will be our main scryer this time. We will use every form of protection we have to defend her, and I will be personally in charge of defending her from Mind mages.”

I should also ask Yrania to help me with this, but I wonder how distance will play into the equation. What if some of their defensive measures for me require me to be there in person? I assume we can link minds even from this distance; if not, then enemy Mind mages would also be unable to detect and attack me.

I wonder how they will react when we link minds, and there’s a dragon. Would be funny as a surprise, but this isn’t the time for pranks.

I raise my hand to notify Lin that I have something to say.

“Yes, Alysara?”

“There’s no guarantee, but I can try to get a Mind Dragon to help us with this.”

The look on Lin and the group of Mind mages’ faces is priceless. Lin's jaw drops in disbelief.

“A Mind Dragon? How do you know a Mind Dragon?!”

“She’s Safyr’s granddaughter,” I shrug as if it’s no big deal.

“That makes sense; I just hope she isn’t like Safyr.”

“From what I gathered, she isn’t.”

“That’s good, but Mind mages aren’t the only threat. We have to deal with retaliations from both items and Skills; only proxies and scapegoats can defeat those.”

“Those aren’t much of an issue; if they are anything like your own defenses, they won’t even trigger.”

“Not even the ones below?” Alexander asks, raising an eyebrow, implying the Cursed Beings in his basement.

“Yes,” I give a short reply.

I know that he knows that I know of that secret, so there’s no point in trying to deny it; at least he will know once Lin gives him a report of what he saw from my abilities.

“There’s also perceptive traps and trackers that we have to be wary of,” Lin continues before pausing to see if I have anything to defeat those.

“Trackers are no problem; I have multiple ways to defeat them. Traps, on the other hand, I have only encountered once. I do have a method to bypass them, but it isn’t applicable here, so I’ll accept any help I can on that point.”

“Traps are difficult because you have no idea what form they come in,” Ryan, who has been silent until now, says. “They usually act as a warning, make your perception ‘stick’ to it to allow trackers more time to find your location, or some will simply act as a trigger for a retaliatory device, having a far lower threshold for the amount of perceptive pressure that will trigger it than the retaliatory device it is linked to. However, I think you should be able to bypass all but the most skillfully placed among that last category of traps, as low pressure is the standard means by which to bypass the others. However, I must stress that the best traps tend to function on principles that are independent of the level of pressure all together, and the Dwarves certainly have those traps in important places. I can go on about the different uses of high and low-skill traps, but that’s a topic for another day.”

“I suppose you don’t know how those ‘best traps’ work?” I ask.

“I do not,” Ryan says with a slight nod.

“The last thing we need to be worried about, the type even we do not know about, is a type of retaliatory gaze attack that seems to bypass all of our defenses,” Lin says.

“I’ve actually encountered that before!” I jump in. “Those things that trapped your teleportation use that tactic. It seems that they see you only if you see them. I do have a work around, but it’s not ideal.”

Scrying the shadows from another layer does not trigger them; but I’ll only be seeing the ‘shadow,’ not the actual things themselves, so my information will be limited. There’s also the risk of encountering native layer dwellers that may pose a similar hazard. I could also try to blind anti-scrying gazers, but I have no idea if that will work, and it requires high perceptive pressure compressed in a beam, so it may activate other counter-scrying measures.

“So, the biggest things we have to watch out for are the high-grade traps and counter-scrying gazers. Chances are that if those traps activate retaliations, we’ll need good defenses for them, so even if you can normally bypass them, we still need to prepare for them. We have good scapegoats and proxies, but they have to be near your physical body, Alysara,” Lin says.

“I already have that covered. I should be able to use them at a distance. And speaking of distance, that will also help to mitigate the power of retaliations, so even if the ones on your end fail, mine will have a better chance of keeping me safe.”

I have two item proxies; one is my Eyewraps, and the other is the star tree. But even before that, those should only trace back to my perceptive eyes, which I can have outside of my body, so I shouldn’t even need them. Plus, I might be able to reroute my perceptive vectors through their defense items as a front-line defense.

“What’s your most powerful scapegoat or proxy’s tier?” Lin asks.

“I have an exalted item and one heroic proxy that also serves as a very robust scapegoat; plus, I can easily make as many additional scapegoats as I need.”

“That’s quite adequate,” Ryan nods in approval.

“Then I don’t see why we should use ours,” Elizabeth finally speaks up, crossing her arms.

“Because we are asking for her service, so it’s our duty to keep her safe, even if it’s redundant,” Jordan snaps at her.

“Quite so, plus I made an Oath to ensure her safety,” Lin says.

“Jordan is right, Alysara’s safety is our responsibility,” Alexander says. “I understand you mean well, Elizabeth, and as my quartermaster, it’s your duty to safeguard our treasures, but it’s more important to safeguard our allies.”

“Sorry,” Elizabeth says, bashfully.

“Accepted. Now that we all know the plan, there is one last question to ask. Alysara, can you scry the Dwarves from here?” Alexander asks.

I told Lin that I can scry using my clone, not that my range is just this ridiculous, so I should stick to that story. Then again, he knows my scrying ability is very good, so I should give an answer he would expect.

“From close to the border,” I answer.

He leans forward. “Are you sure that's all?”

Did I underestimate his expectations? The Dwarves should be at least a thousand kilometers from the border. Wait, Lin hasn’t told him anything yet, so maybe he thinks that I am scrying from the Nexus?

“I understand you want to keep your abilities secret,” Alexander says. “You hardly know us; this level of caution is perfectly natural in your position, but you should also understand that I have a duty to make sure my people are safe, and the borders are dangerous. I’d prefer they are in a safer location.”

I’m not sure how to respond. My role from [Acting] isn’t much help either. It could be that he is testing me, but if he’s not, then sticking to my story could make him distrust me. I have reasons to distrust him, but not the other way around, so I should play it safe.

“I apologize. I had felt a need to hold back information on my true scrying range, as I imagine knowing my range exceeds the size of a nation and that I can even use it through my clones such that they have the same range as though I were using my abilities through my real body would make many people uncomfortable. As such, I'd chosen to reveal only the latter of those points and gave you a range that I felt balanced the needs of not placing your men in undue danger but also withholding the true extent of my range. It seems I miscalculated the degree of danger in regards to the figure I had given, however, and for that I apologize once again,” I finally say, using [Acting] to find the right words.

“I accept. However, you should come to expect that having powers that scale entire nations isn’t unheard of. Many of the most powerful legendary beings are capable of such influence. Safyr herself sank a region larger than this nation, so you need not worry about making us uncomfortable. You may have just entered the legendary tier, but you have two enhanced Skills, so people will expect more from you.”

So that’s how he knew I wasn’t being entirely forthcoming with him.

“Thank you for your wisdom,” I bow.

“No need to thank me.” Alexander then addresses the room. “We’ll commence the mission in three days. Lin and Alysara need time to rest after their travels. In the meantime, make sure our guest feels welcome and show her the city.”

“Yes, Emperor!”

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Back in the Lunaleyan Lands:

“So, how do you like our city?” Lanya asks.

She had just finished giving us a tour, and I am very impressed by the dedication to the healing arts and developing it in so many different and unique ways. From medicinal herbs and elixirs, to healing spells and everything in-between. The first stop was the Grand Academy which takes only the best of the best, but that wasn’t their only school. They also have specialized schools for every form of healing they have developed.

I haven’t seen any hints of herbs being used anywhere else, but here they are commonplace.

“We can’t always rely on our spells, and medicinal herbs and potions are quite profitable when there are wars,” one of the tour guides explained.

In wars, there aren’t enough healers, so their efforts are reserved for the mortally wounded. Injuries that aren’t life-threatening are treated by other means. The Orders also use potions and herbs from Helikan since they can’t always employ a healer on their missions, so even if there aren’t any wars, Helikan still has a steady flow of profits.

The next destination of the tour showed us around the National Park, which is a dense forest grown with the aid of nature healers. However, the nature healers don’t just make plants grow; they use their powers to alter them. Everything from genetic traits to form is molded painstakingly through trial and error. Apparently, the magical racial traits can’t be directly molded, but through careful selective cultivation, one can change them.

A competition is held every year, and the winner gets to add their plant to the park. Due to this, the park is a wild display of plants that, according to the reactions of others, and from the mana they produce, sometimes glow with a pale light.

The plants also range in forms, from large flowers with dazzling petals, to silvery and golden vines growing in intricate shapes. How they managed to make metallic plants, I don’t even know, but I suspect a large part of it is the Silver and Gold Bonds the plants have.

However, the most impressive part isn’t the plants, not even the flaming rose-like flower, but rather the entire park itself. They’ve managed to create a self-sustaining ecosystem, and I suspect that’s the primary goal of the competition judges. They don’t want one plant introduced that will out-compete all the others.

The next stop is at the craftsmen district, where many items focused around healing – such as a focusing lens that heals surface injuries when light is shone through – are being made, studied, and developed. They, too, have a competition, but it’s among themselves and held every month.

I notice a group of craftsmen huddled around one of my Lifedrop Necklaces, deep in conversation. They must have gotten one from Vocana somehow.

The last two places we visited were the Grand Coliseum, where fighter healers compete, and the dungeon entrance.

The Grand Coliseum is massive and always has fights, day and night. Apparently, anyone can join, and it isn’t to the death, although, in a country built upon healing, one can get much closer to dying.

Many fighters don’t even use weapons; they fight with their hands, legs, and sometimes even their tails. I see that most of them employ some sort of reverse healing upon contact with their opponent. There was even one woman who augmented herself with ash and used many ashen tentacles to deliver reverse healing. Everyone ganged up on her, and she still came out on top.

At the dungeon, it is explained that only those with permission are able to enter and that it is illegal to enter without it. Otherwise, the entrance stands inside a stone building. The massive double doors are made with some sort of ironwood and trimmed with steel. They have golden decorations and it takes two people per door to open. I suppose trespassers can’t get into the dungeon if they can’t even get past the door, so it makes sense.

After the tour, we went back to the Embassy for dinner.

“It’s quite impressive,” I answer Lanya’s question. “I especially love the park; it must have taken hundreds of years to get to where it is now. And having it ecologically stable is even more of an impressive feat!”

Seeing everything that Helikan, and the other countries, even the Human Empire, has to offer, I can’t help but want something impressive for the Nexus as well. We don’t have much, but with my current abilities, I should be able to make something; but what should I make?