However, my attention was focused on something beyond all of this.
A large army stood a hundred yards away, dressed in armor of dirty silver, and armed with all sorts of weaponry.
But their numbers didn’t bother me. Their race did.
Dark elves.
***
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Out of the darkness and into…more darkness.
Four thousand enemy ranks stood before me, all armed with bows, swords, spears, and ten other things I couldn’t identify.
Their armor covered most of their body, but I could make out their black-shaded skin as well as the pointy ears coming out of their helmets. That was more than enough to tell me what I needed to know.
“That we should probably run now?” Nyx asked.
Probably not.
Closer to the front of the army stood a few people not wearing armor, but cloaks of dusty silver instead, with hoods covering their faces. It was easy to tell that they were mages, and also probably the reason my wind twister had died down.
“Also why the Blood Rain stopped,” Acnologia added.
And speaking of Acnologia, I was bothered that this army did not seem afraid of the Dragon. Almost everyone I’d faced before had at least reacted to Acnologia’s presence, and yet these elves seemed to be completely accustomed to him, as if meeting a dragon was a normal occurrence.
I frowned. It can’t be normal.
I used my Analyze skill on the elves closest to me and saw that they were all around Level. 400.
Won’t be hard for me take out.
“Especially when I’m also here to aid,” the Dragon said.
I turned to Freya. “This is close to the battle we waged against the Dark Alliance back in Ikarius, isn’t it?”
She clenched her fists. “No, it is not.”
Flashing within her eyes were a complex mix of emotions—fear, anger, and something else I couldn’t really understand.
“Welcome, friends.” A man walked up to us, taller than the rest, and with a helmet that looked too grand to make him a simple foot-soldier. A quick Analyze told me he was a Level 548, a pretty significant step up from everyone else.
I nodded at him. “Hello,” I said. Maybe he isn’t here to battle us
“I wouldn’t hold my breath,” Nyx said.
I see you’re optimistic as usual.
The man’s eyes moved to Freya. “A Moon-Elf,” he chuckled. “Amusing.”
Freya’s hand trembled and she gripped her sword, holding it at her side.
Do moon elves not get along with Dark elves?
“Seems like that’s the case,” Nyx said.
“I will keep this short.” The man looked at me. “Give us the Moon elf and we can all leave happy.”
“Eh?” I blinked.
“Yup It definitely seems like that is the case.”
The man smiled. “Give us the Moon-elf.”
Heat coursed through me, and my mentality flipped. I looked at the man, and raised an eyebrow. “You realize who you’re talking to, don’t you, elf?”
The man straightened, and then leaned away from me. “Do I know you?”
I smiled. “Oskis!”
A blast of fire surged from my palms, and shot to his side, leaving him alone, but burning through maybe twenty men before the attack ceased.
The leader looked back at the flaming bodies of his men while the other soldiers desperately tried to put the fire out. I couldn’t tell much of what he felt given his face was hidden under a helmet, but I could certainly tell that he wasn’t feeling confident anymore. His slumped shoulders and hunched head yelled that out loud and clear.
I blew the smoke off my fingers. “You were saying?”
The leader turned to me, and his knees lowered. “Attack!” he yelled.
I raised my hand to strike him down, but before I could, the man dashed away from view, heading behind his ranks.
Tsk. My fists clenched. Running away.
“Well, the elves ARE super fast,” Nyx said.
“What shall we do, Diablo?” Acnologia asked. “The enemy has declared an attack on us.”
I grinned. “We take them all out.”
“Bloody Dark Elves.” Freya’s form flickered beside me. Winds swirled, and sparks showered through the air, as though lightning were ready to descend the earth. The elven assassin changed appearance, with her hair turning blood red and her eyes changing to a deadlier version of the same shade. Runes of black formed over her body, and the mysterious shapes decorated her skin.
The longsword in her hand glowed white and expanded until it was a massive broadsword of jet black, its width the length of my forearm and its height much more than its wielder herself.
The enemy elves slowed down their advance, as though her very presence had stirred fear within them. Whispers of ‘Demon-Elf’ echoed through the ranks, but they kept moving nonetheless. I paid no heed to the attention they gave Freya, and started my attack.
And what better way to start than to turn the enemy onto themselves.
“Au Ferah!” I yelled.
I felt a pulse in my mind and a second later a wave of dull light spread out. Cries came from the enemy ranks that charged towards us, and multiple bodies fell to the floor as they approached. Some of the elves started to realize something was going on, but before they could do anything the elves I’d taken control of sent them to their graves.
About fifty elves had defected over to my side, due to my little ‘persuasion’.
“Is that what you’re calling it now?” Nyx asked.
I chuckled, watching as the first wave of enemy elves reached us. “Why not?”
Frey shot forward, and her massive sword sliced through the enemy cleanly, cutting multiple elves up in a mere second. I rushed to the other side, and swung Dawnbreaker through everyone that came up to me. Acnologia did his part as well, rising into the air and delivering a fiery hell down onto the middle of the army, letting his flames burn their way through them all. But just a few seconds in it was clear we weren’t going to win this battle with just physical prowess. Their numbers still overwhelmed us. We needed more strength.
I jumped back a few feet away from the attackers and threw my hands up into the air. “Beltair, Uher!” I yelled, using my Chain Casting skill.
The already-black sky turned even darker, and the ground exploded. A dark phoenix, much larger than Acnologia himself, rose into the air, crushing through multiple ranks of enemies and sending them flying away.
Two hundred elves went down with just that one attack. Great, just have to do that twenty more times and we’re done.
I heard the fast pace of metal striking metal from beside me and saw that the dark elves had now overwhelmed Freya with their numbers, turning the battle into a ten versus one. I surged forward, striking through one of the elves in the circle around her and sliding to a stop a foot in.
I brought myself as close to her as possible and thrust my hand into the air. “Peona!” I yelled.
A twister spurred up around us, consuming the elves and sending them flying into the air. I didn’t need to look at their health bars to know they hadn’t survived that. I summoned the attack a few more times, and after the third instance I raised it in the middle of enemy ranks. About a hundred elves were caught in the strong gales
“Probably have to hit harder,” Nyx said.
I know. I put my hand up. “Uher!”
The Dark Phoenix rose from the ground once again, and smacked into the charging elves. At this point it was less of a battle and more of just me playing a game of ‘how many elves can I kill in one attack?’.
A blast of white hit the air, and sunk right into the flying dragon. He trembled for a moment, and his body went stiff.
“ACNOLOGIA!” I yelled, and watched in panic as the Dragon glided down to us.
“I am fine,” he said. “It appears they used some kind of paralyzing mass spell on me.”
The mages. My eyes widened. And
just in time too.
Chanting rattled the air, and words echoed between the winds. I understood none of the words, but I’d been on the receiving end of mass spells enough times to know it was best to keep away from one.
I shot forward, picking up Dawnbreaker, and jumped high into the air, scanning for a group of mages. I spotted a small huddle of maybe twenty cloaked people towards my right and I ran to them the moment my feet touched the floor. I cut through the elven soldiers in my way, burning some with my Fire Arts spell—Incineration Beam—and simply slashing through others. In a second, I had reached the mages, who were still chanting. I shot through their ranks, and cut them in halves. Their bodies all slumped to the floor, completely lifeless.
And yet the chanting continued.
I heard laughter from before me, and the leader appeared, the elf I had talked to before. A set of knights around me turned, while chanting the words from the mass spell.
My eyes widened. The mages were disguised. But it was too late.
“You asked me if I knew who you were before,” the man said. “I have to confess. I do.”
He opened up his palm and within it sat a stone of dark purple, pulsating with a bright light, moving in tune with the words of the chant.
My eyes widened. “A Dearth Stone.”
“Indeed,” he chuckled. “Welcome to the Hexel Ruins, Diablo.”
The chants stopped, and I turned around, just in time to see Freya cut through the last mage standing. A pile of dead bodies laid beneath her, with their blood pouring into the mud. “You were saying?” she huffed.
The leader of the dark elves stood still, completely stunned. “How did you…what?”
Freya smiled. “Surprised?”
On the contrary, the man laughed. “How amusing,” he said. “I did not expect to see you here, the Forbidden Queen of Iskaeil. It has been many years since I saw someone from that Kingdom.”
“Well, we don’t like associating ourselves with the dark elves.”
“Or the demon elves either. Must be hard on you to be treated as an outcast.”
I realized now that the men had stopped attacking, and had instead formed a ring around us, sealing us in. The enemy faced us on all sides now. I looked up, and noticed Acnologia gliding through the air.
Is your paralysis fine?
“I can attack when you need me to.
“What do you want?” Freya asked the leader.
“A Moon Elf dares step into our lands?” he muttered. “And what’s worse, you turn out to be THE Queen of Iskaeil? Such a thing will not be allowed.”
“That’s all this is?” I glared. “Border control?”
“You will not understand the ways of the elves, Eternal,” the man said, stressing the last part.
“Tsk,” I clicked my tongue, and held my sword out at him. I wanted to kill him, and I probably could have, given he was out in the open now. But I felt like he knew of things I wasn’t aware of and that made him a valuable resource, because information was something I needed desperately at the moment.
“Who did you get that stone from?” Freya asked. “The Dearth Stone is not something that is easy to find.”
“So you say,” he said. “And you, Eternal. Did you really think a Mass Spell was the only way to use such a thing?”
A black flame emerged inside the glowing stone, and a white sphere of translucent light immediately shot out of it, sinking into my skin. A shooting pain hit my heart and I collapsed to the floor, gasping for breath.
No, no, no, my mind yelled. This can’t be happening again!
The images before me swirled around, as if reality was taking a hike. My vision shifted, and I lost ability to make out anything in front of me. My forehead throbbed as if something was trapped within. I clutched my head, wishing the images would disappear. The sounds around me dulled, and I was left in silence, a silence that I didn’t want.
“Diablo.” Acnologia’s voice reached out to me. “Focus. Break through this.”
I concentrated on the Dragon’s voice, and channeled my inner energy up into my mind. I imagined waves pulsate out of my head, pushing back at whatever this mental attack was. Sounds filled my ears again—dull noises, but sounds nonetheless.
A second later I opened my eyes, and my vision came back to me, with the noises around turning full-fledged as well.
The leader of the Dark Elves stood before me, holding Freya’s hands behind her back. I blinked, and saw her sword on the floor before me.
“Ah, so you fought the stone’s effects,” he said. “I’m impressed. I’d expected you to do it, but not so quickly.”
“What the hell happened?” I muttered, steadying my feet, and lifted Dawnbreaker up in front of me.
“Perhaps you do not realize the situation.” The leader brought a silver dagger to Freya’s neck. “You would not want me to do anything to her, would you?”
Someone always gets caught. Why can’t I just go full on for once without worrying about other people? I stared at the man. Maybe I should.
I grinned at him. “You think I give a damn if you do something to her?”
“Eh?”
“Oskis!” I yelled. The blast of fire struck towards them.
“Ekta!” Freya yelled, summoning a shield around herself and in extension, the leader as well.
My attack struck her defense, and both of them canceled each other out. Surprisingly.
“What the hell are you doing, Diablo?!” she yelled, her voice trembling with anger. “You were trying to kill me?”
“That attack wouldn’t have killed you,” I said.
“Are you crazy?!”
“She’s not calming down anytime soon,” Nyx said.
Yeah, like I don’t know that already.
“How amusing, Eternal,” the leader said. “So you would kill an ally. How fitting for a man deemed the Phantom Lord.”
“Shut up,” I muttered. “Let the elf go, or I’ll make sure I kill you.”
“Sure,” he said. “Do it. However, I can’t promise my forces will back away from the elf after I’m left dead.”
“Okay, first of all your forces suck,” I grinned. “You really think they can take me down?”
“Not you.” He brought the knife closer to Freya’s throat, and smiled. “Her.”
A grey flash shot out from before us, nearly blinding everyone. I rubbed my eyes, bringing back my vision, and when I did, I was completely stunned.
A black-bodied elf stood there, dressed in robes of silver-gray, with her milk white hair falling far below her shoulders. Her eyes of emerald-green gazed at everyone, and pierced them with her stare.
“Ijyela,” I whispered. Why is she here? HOW is she here?
The leader stepped back, and the hold on his knife shook.
“W-what are you doing here?” he asked.
Ijyela smiled. “These are two very good friends of mine, and you seem to be playing around with them. Though I’d tell you to stop.”
“T-this isn’t what it looks like,” he said. “I was not aware you knew these people. They trespassed these lands, so I was just—”
She stepped forward, and glared at him. “You will let them go, brother."
***
CHAPTER TWELVE
Holy hell.
That was my first thought, and the phrase just repeated through my mind over and over again. I gazed at Ijyela’s form, at her hair, at her robes sifting in the wind. Everyone else on the battlefield froze at the sight of her—from Acnologia to Freya to the leader to every single one of his soldiers.
In that moment, it seemed the entire battle had suddenly cut off, with weapons lowered and sounds silenced. The whole place had frozen, and Ijyela’s words were left echoing into the dark skies.
She’s his sister? I blinked. That seems…odd.
“Did not see that coming,” Nyx said.
The leader on the other hand did not seem amused in the least. He tapped the inner side of his helmet once and a hiss so
unded. The bottom section expanded out and he lifted the headgear off. Dark blue locks of hair flowed out from within, and he shook them off his face, revealing eyes of a similar shade.
He frowned at Ijyela, but he still leaned away from her.
And then I used my Analyze skill on her.
Name
Ijyela
Race
Dark Elf
Level
434
Health
7790
Mana
13510
Stamina
5370
Whoa, I said.
“I can’t believe you never Analyzed her before this,” Nyx said.
I have! She wasn’t this strong though.
“Maybe she was hiding it too.”
I frowned. More secrets?
“Ijyela,” the leader mumbled. “What are you doing here?”
“Protecting my friends,” the elven witch said. “What are you doing attacking them?”
“They crossed the borders, into our lands,” he said. “We cannot allow—”
“They are my friends, Heslia. You will treat them with respect, understood?”
The man looked at her, and then at the ground. “Yes,” he said softly.
“She’s definitely the older sister,” Nyx said.
I grinned. Definitely.
“Elves, fall back!” Heslia yelled, and the soldiers stepped away from us, with the collective step in such sync that the sound echoed far into the lands.
“Where are the horse coaches?” Ijyela asked.
He paused for a few seconds. “A mile away.” The words were forced out of his mouth.
“Good, I trust we are allowed passage within them?”
He stared at her, and she raised an eyebrow. He sighed. “Yes.”
“Splendid. Let us head there quickly then.”
The man turned around, and led his men away, to wherever this coach was. His shoulders slumped as he moved, and even I felt a little bad for him. I glanced at Ijyela, who walked ahead of us, wondering what exactly her connection to all this was.
The Eternal: Infinity - A LitRPG Saga (The World of Ga'em Book 4) Page 10
