The Calm Before the Storm

The city opened the gates and all the citizens were reunited there to see the adventurers coming back, but all they could see were hopeless faces and injured warriors. Instead of celebration, they all became sad and hopeless too.

Many adventurers of Virtus were famous or have family in the city, and now only a few returned. So many non-humans and adventurers died to delay the attack from the orc army, but was all in vain, after all, they are the next target now, and they're nothing to defend them anymore...

Geoffrey went running looking for the captain guard, to ask why the reinforcements didn't arrive if the mages did. However, the worst-case scenario happened, there was another front of battle in human territory, so the Empire decided that was best to let Lathirium fall, to send all available troops to the other front.

In the end, was all about politics and nothing more.

The total of adventurers alive now was 87 of rank A, 63 ranks B, and 173 ranks C. Plus the seven mages and a few hundreds of guards in the walls, but the guards were not as strong as the adventurers, being of rank E or D with few exceptions like Neywell who was of rank B. Fortunately, the walls of the city is huge, now was the time to find out how much damage it was able to take without falling.

Also, Neywell recognized Gremory and went to talk with him when he was entering the city.

"Gremory? Is that you? You probably don't remember me, but I was very close to Robert and I am sorry for what happened." Neywell spoke rubbing his eyes while looking to Gremory, disbelieving that the boy in front of him was the same one he found on the battlefield.

"Of course I remember you, how are you doing after all these years?" Gremory asked, shaking his hand.

"I was doing very well, I am the one with the higher position here, after the captain of course. But you know, the orcs kinda mess up everything, in these last weeks everything has been pretty bad, the work was hard, reinforcing the walls and making traps everywhere..."

"I see, do you have family here?"

Neywell started to rub his eyes once more, but this time there were tears in his eyes.

"Yes, two small children and a beautiful wife, but nothing will matter for the orcs. Look Gremory, everyone calls you monster around here but if there is anything I can do to help you kill those orcs, just tell me."

Neywell was an incredible warrior, but age has come with his experience and he had a lot to protect.

"There is something that you could do for me... Do you know any store here in the city that sells Mitre Crystals? And are you willing to steal them for me?"

They needed every help possible, and Neywell knew that.

"There is one, usually I would be allowed to take these things in moments of war, but the store is from Sani of the Malior house. It's closed right now, but I think I could take them in the night, just wait a bit."

'It's closed because I killed her... oh, that's so great.'

----

The trip took four days for the adventurers while using the road, but the orc army was big and not that fast, so it would take a few weeks for them to arrive at the city gates.

Yet, there was a major issue, the villages near the city would probably be destroyed by them. So they decided to evacuate most villages and bring every piece of food to the city.

After talking to Neywell, Gremory decided that was time to see his friend from the Derlvit. And so he did, Edward was near the other mages in the walls.

It was a sunny day, Edward was looking to the horizon near the border of the walls. The light of the sun reflected the blue robe and matched his blue hair just like his element. He didn't turn his back to see Gremory, but he spoke.

"It has been some time since the last time I saw you."

"Yeah, I see that time was good to you. I remember you not being so strong." Gremory replied, activating his Hanzor body rune, his eyes shined and were his way of showing that he could see the power of Edward.

Edward was just a child and different from Gremory, he had no pleasure in fighting and killing, his only ambition was to give a better life to his family. But here he was, without seeing them for months. He collapsed once he heard the voice of his friend, talking about how he hated the situation he was in.

"Good? how time was good for me? All I wish is to come back to the time before being selected, to my mother, my father, sister, yet here I am fighting endless battles one after the other. I wish to run in the streets with the other children once again, if this is the cost for power, then I would easily give up on it."

"You could at least say that you miss your friend or something like that before all this. Look, life can be hard sometimes, but there will always be better times and now you are a powerful mage, so it wasn't that bad."

Edward turned his back and his eyes shinned while looking at Gremory mana.

"Sorry for that, it's been a while since I saw a real friend... There were many things stuck in my mind. But I am happy to see that you became stronger too."

"Actually, I was rank B already during the Derlvit."

"Yeah, I know. That means that you probably are near the rank A, there is a big difference between the ranks above B so it's common to take more time."

Gremory and Edward finally had met after all this time, so they spend the rest of the day talking about everything that happened.

The mages with Edward were no superior to him, Edward is a prodigy who quickly became a mage and went up the ranks very quickly. There are 3 earth mages, two water mages, and two wind mages in total.

Gremory was hoping that maybe one of them would be a rank S, but that's not the case.

He also wanted to just leave the city burn, but he was continually remembering the conversation he had with Robert and that held him in defense of the city.

'If I die, I will go back home?'