Aftermath & Worry

The Beast Wave ended by the end of the day, the bodies of the beasts still littered the plains as people walked around with wagons hoisting them onto the piles.

The meat of the White Wolves and Primal were especially coveted as they had strengthening effects on the human body, of course, the appearance and death of a primal would normally have been a cause for celebration among the troops but only silence reigned through the camp.

The appearance of the strange creatures in the middle of the battle had been especially shocking to all of the soldiers – what had surprised them ever more, however, was that the bodies of the creatures simply dissolved into a black mist that drifted back towards the forest.

What remained was a solid pearl-like core, it was pure black and radiated darkness, a darkness that not even Dark Elementa could pierce – those who'd tried had collapsed as soon as they'd tried to make contact with the core using Elementa.

But both the recruits and veteran soldiers had been thoroughly shocked by the appearance of the strange creatures in fact if it wasn't for the wave of light that seemed to wipe out their fatigue in the midst of the battle there might've been many more who ended up dead.

The strange creature's strength was only enough to combat the recruits however when the flying one had spoken the human language it'd surprised them greatly, but what was even more surprising was that the creature was much weaker than a Beast King.

When it'd first started speaking everyone had suspected it was at least a Beast King as it was common knowledge that non-human creatures could learn the human tongue when they reached such a level.

But the strange flying creature had neither strength nor the aura of a Beast King, in fact, it was even weaker than a primal but despite this it'd truly been a relief when it'd suddenly disappeared, they'd seen the other two flying creatures drop dead from the sky so they assumed the same had happened to it.

Strangely, however, many soldiers had repeated hearing the strange creatures use the human language on more than one occasion – cries for help and some screaming for a 'healer' it was truly bizarre.

The Prince sat in the command tent looking through the reports, the list of casualties laid beside him on the wooden desk.

He seemed deep in thought as he turned the pages but every so often he'd look up and at the corner of the space: a small bed nestled into the corner where a boy with gold hair lay on, he continued to sleep soundly not even making the smallest of movements.

This boy, of course, was Bailey – Lewis had received the reports of what had happened in the Healer Tents and was thoroughly astonished. The healers who'd contributed to the light wave had already woken up although they were all exhausted and resting.

Bailey was the only one who remained unconscious and it was truly concerning for Lewis – Baileys' Light Elementa was extremely useful in this period of time, many soldiers were in the brink of death and barely hanging on by a thread.

But more importantly, Lewis was worried for his friend, yes his friend, although they were separated by status the distance between Heaven and Earth Lewis had grown fond of him in the days they'd spent together.

In fact with the contributions Bailey had made by saving all of the soldiers on the brink of death at the same it wasn't out of the question to bestow a rank of nobility upon him.

But Lewis had no idea if he'd accept it, he'd long grown to know Baileys' personality – he was a laid back person with no ambition in life and had somehow come to be so powerful, it was truly infuriating in some ways but it was also a good thing.

If a young man with that much power had enough ambition there was nothing he might not do, of course, you could argue that he'd changed over the last few weeks but was it truly that easy to change the attitude someone had held for the last eighteen years of their life?

Of course not! As soon as his life was no longer in danger Lewis had no doubt in his mind that Bailey would return to his carefree self, 'but what if he doesn't?' He thought worriedly.

Deep in thought, Lewis was interrupted by someone rushing into his tent, a blur of red was all he saw before the figure rushed to the corner where Bailey was sleeping.

"Bailey!" The voice of a woman filled the room, "Bailey…" She said again quieter, this woman was Bella – Lewis had sought her out after remembering she had some connection with Bailey, but he'd never expected her to be so beautiful.

"You-you're Bella, right?" Lewis said, stumbling slightly with his words as he looked at her, no one could blame him for this she truly was a beauty, it was surprising to see a woman like her risking her life in battle.

"The Prince I assume?" She said coldly as she looked at him, 'He's the one who made Bailey heal all those people, with Baileys' attitude, of course, he wouldn't do things simply! Look what happened!'

She'd heard about what had happened on the way here, she didn't know how Bailey had trained his Light Elementa but she knew she understood him more than anyone else.

He was a coward through and through but when his life was in danger or his comfort was threatened he'd go all out, once upon a time his father had threatened to burn all his books if he didn't complete his chores.

This was an empty threat of course because books were incredibly expensive, their family had moderate wealth but it wasn't to that extent.

A sixteen-year-old Bailey had been frightened by this however and had completed the chores for the entire town in one day, when someone finally managed to make him move he'd do everything to the extreme – it was simply how he was!

Bella thought back to another time, a group of kids had been bullying her due to her family being worse off than others, Bailey had noticed this and simply grabbed her hand and walked off, the next day none one bullied her again.

She soon discovered that Bailey had beaten them all, one versus eight and he'd completely defeated them – the only reason Bella insisted he come and fight was because knowing him he'd go all out again and would become a true hero.

No one knew him better than she did, she had absolute certainty in this but then he'd suddenly been pulled off the frontlines to heal people…

She didn't care who she was talking to at this point because Bailey was someone who'd go to the depths of hell for his friends so why shouldn't she do the same for him?

Lewis simply nodded, noting her cold expression he walked over to the sleeping Bailey and handed her a report, "The healers summarised his condition, he's completely healthy. He could wake up any second from now or never, they have no idea what's wrong with him."

Bella nodded bitterly, she knew all the good her friend had done and all the people he'd healed – she heard them speak of how he'd saved dozens of people on the brink of death and how that wave of light that'd washed away their fatigue and injuries had been because of him.

Once again she owed him her life, she'd been on the brink of collapse physically when fighting with a White Wolf before that wave had washed away her fatigue, silently she kneeled beside the bed and laid her head on the side.

"Wake up… You have to wake up you idiot." She mumbled, her fatigue from the final few hours finally taking over her body as she fell asleep next to him.

"You have a good friend…" Lewis mumbled watching the scene from his seat, turning his attention to the casualty report his face twisted and a soft sigh escaped his lips.

Silently he stood up so he didn't disturb the two and walked out of the tent, he ordered a messenger to ride to the capital and report the situation, he watched as the man rode into the distance before returning to the tent silently, the whole camp was shrouded in this eerie silence…

Two days later reports came to the capital of these strange creatures having attacked each army, the casualty report was staggering but even worse news came a day later – across all five continents the same strange creatures had appeared.

In a spire of the palace in the Keilan Empire capital one of those 'strange creatures' sat in a cage, an old man observed it from the corner of the room, a detailed sketch of the thing and some notes about its appearance were written on the side.

"Where am I?" The voice came from the corner of the room, the old man looked over in surprise to see his 'guest' had woken.