No light in sight

Few minutes ago "Huff..Huff..Huff..looks like my skill got rusty with age like my body, If it was me in my prime, I would have killed these two within a minute. I hope Sara would be alright till I finish these two. I could jump across the wall, but these two will follow, so I need to finish the fight here first' Seeing her calm and relaxed while facing them, the elder one among them taunted her "Oii granny, do you seriously think those on the other side can survive?? Our eldest has arrived on their side and the only thing that awaits them is death."

And as if proving him correct, cries and shouts came from the other side, indicating their fate which was set in stone unless Venessa went to help them. She jumped to cross over the wall but had to change her direction with vines mid-air, dodging an incoming wind blade by few inches which went forward and created a meter deep crack on the reinforced wall. Seeing no other options, she turned to face them and started barraging them with vines and using earth spike to hit them when they tried dodging the vines. The youngest tried closing on her but was hit with rock barrage which pushed him back.

'No, I have to help Sara somehow!! I can't let down her highness, I must protect her family at any cost!! I shouldn't have just retired and become a nanny. Even after all that, how foolish of me to forget my staff!! I will just use all the mana, atleast get hit you buffoons!!!' She continued pouring all her mana into her skills and destroyed nearby buildings and other structures in an attempt to hit her enemies, but they were far too nimble for her attacks to hit. She could only stop them from coming closer to her and the wall behind her. She could hear everything happening behind the wall, but could do nothing to help them. Her eyes turned red with frustration and tears started to form in her eyes. This continued till the screams and shouts suddenly stopped coming from behind the wall, halting their current face off, with an eerie silence filling the town.

'*pierce*'

"No....no no no no!! not Sara!! No!!"

*sob*

A drop of tear fell from both her eyes upon her wrinkled face.

Excruciatingly, she spoke "I am sorry your highness. I have failed you, I will pay for this sin with my life, Die along with me you fools!!!!"

""RAHHHHHHHHHHHH""

As soon as her declaration ended, she tried to self-destruct along with her enemies when an inhuman roar filled the entire town and beyond. After the monstrous roar was over, she felt goosebumps all over her body, a phenomenon which she hadn't felt since her prime was over. An intense bloodlust filled her surroundings, which seemed to come from the direction of roar, behind the walls!!! Sensing something amiss about all this, she surrounded herself and her enemies with a two-way mana barrier, which defended against master class attacks and prevents any sound from transmitting to either side of the barrier. She turned around and saw her enemies who began shaking in their boots, something which signified their weakness despite being trained to the bone, the fear of death!! Realising that she was struggling against a bunch of genius amateurs, she facepalmed herself. But slowly realised the gravity of their situation.

A bunch of such genius swordsmen class masters couldn't come out of just nowhere inside a kingdom, especially in such a remote town. They were the top powerhouse of any kingdom. Each kingdom had atleast 1 master of any class, and they always held an important place inside the kingdom or royal family, residing at top of the food chain. They mostly stayed inside their kingdom's capital unless they were a noble, an adventurer or had to participate in any kind of wars. Such existences in a remote region where only sign of a bigger conspiracy at play.

But before she could continue her thoughts or decide on her further actions, she saw the earth wall behind her vibrate from the corner of her eyes. Sensing something unusual happening after that roar and bloodlust, she jumped aside and started desummoning the wall, which was much harder than summoning it since it was reinforced with mana to withstand the attacks from master level battles. In the process, she had to remove the mana barrier since it was taxing on her to maintain the barrier while the desummoning the wall.

*Clank Clank Clank Clank*

Both her and the two brothers heard constant bashing of swords against the walls, everyone realised that the person or rather people on the other side were not on their level, but at the same time were not far behind in strength since they could feel that the wall was about to fall apart, and so it did.

*crack* *crack* *Boom!!!*

The entire wall caved down, revealing the other party through the dust.

A group of kilt-clad men full of unchisled muscles with blonde hair and long horseshoe mustache, wearing a battle hungry expression on their faces emerged from the other side and behind them sat two women. Gretta holding a new born child with detached cord hanging and Leah who was holding onto the unconscious Sara. After the wall fell, Leah looked up and saw Venessa on the other side. She enthusiastically shouted "Granny!!! They are with us, please leave the enemies to them and help Sara, she!! she!!"

Venessa, who now understood that the reinforcements were on her side left the enemies to them and ran towards the ladies who were calling for her help. The barbarians also ran towards their enemies, both of whom had pissed in their pants upon seeing two familiar headless bodies and similarly familiar chunks of meat on the ground behind the walls. Their throats went dry and they couldn't think straight with heads, causing them tremble upon witnessing the barbarians rushing towards them to claim their head. As soon as barbarians and Venessa crossed each other's path, the latter spoke "thank you, whoever you all are and please don't let them escape alive". Hearing her, the barbarian at the front replied in a hoarse voice "Sure".

No more words were spoken, with both the party rushing towards their respective objectives. As Venessa got near, she turned to look at the newborn child and then at Sara, with only a single sentence escaping her mouth "This needs to be opened again".

Meanwhile, Le'Nur who was still out of his wits noticed his brother scrambling to get up and escape, seeing him he tried to do same but since he was too tired after the previous battle, he ended up falling on his back. By the time he got up again, the barbarians had closed in and were just at meter distance from him.

Understanding that he might not make out in time, he swung his sword diagonally in an attempt to damage them, or atleast thwart them off. But to his surprise, only five barbarians met his attack head on and knocked his sword down the ground. Five random barbarians in a corner of an impoverished region of a kingdom at the corner of the continent, not just defending against but overpowering a master swordsman class opponent through sheer strength!!?

His brain.exe stopped working and he couldn't respond to 5 other attacks closing on him and..

*Slash×2* *Pierce×2* *Slice...splurt* *thud*

Both his upper limbs fell down and his heart and stomach got pierced, with the final blow slicing his head off which fell and kissed his own feet.

All barbarians turned their head at once to watch their final target trying to escape, but constantly tripping on his legs and trembling all over as he watched Le'Nur's head on the ground, which had a gaping mouth and an expression of complete disbelief of it's death. He himself had an expression full of fear and his teeth clattered as he attempted to get up on his feet, but fell down on his butt again. But before he could try again, he saw his executioners slowly closing upon him with their waist length swords scraping the ground as they walked towards him. He couldn't do anything but slowly wait for them and then deliver his head on a platter.

A stench of piss permeated the surroundings when he wet his pants for a second time and fell backwards foaming through his mouth as he swallowed a poision he was carrying inside his tooth. But before the poision could claim his live, a blade came for his heart and pierced it, his eyes turned hazy as his dead eyes reflected his executioner looking down on him with disdain.

"Chief has commanded us to hide and survive in the eastern forests for the time being, he will send someone to pick us up later. To the forests, Charge!!!!"

""Yahhhhhh""

Under lead of the barbarian ordered by Sanu, all barbarians ran towards the forest, leaving Venessa and her group behind, who were puzzled at their behaviour but didn't thought too much and focused on the task at hand.

One week later...

Inside the double storey mansion of baron Martin, a blonde haired lady was hugging a newborn infant tightly and crying. She bawled her eyes out but no one tried to stop or console her. Eventually, a purple eyed man behind her came forward and kept his left hand on her shoulders, in response to which she stopped crying but her tear stricken face was visible to all those present inside the room.

"Sir Bittu, I do not doubt your skills as a healer or something but I must ask again. Is there really no way to heal Atheus' broken aura circuits?"

"I am afraid not baron Martin, as far as mana circuits are concerned, I haven't heard of a completely destroyed mana circuit being rebuilt or healed back even in the empires. Even my master who is a member of Magic tower hasn't heard of it either. I am extremely sorry for not being of much help to your child's cause"

"No sir healer, I thank you again for coming there to check up on my child and healing him through the best of your abilities."

"You sure jest baron, how can I take credit for the healing when the famous Venessa Trafalgar is here."

"It's been years since I have been called by that name child. I am just a nanny now and healing isn't my forte despite being a master class nature mage. But I must also thank you for your help on checking the young Atheus' circuit."

After all the pleasantries, healer Bittu returned to his stay and the room became solemn again. Sara looked at the baby in her hands and started cursing herself "It's all because of me, I should never have gone there. Father lost his life because of me, everyone I knew there is no more. And my child...my Atheus' mana circuit broke. What class will he even get now, I ruined his entire future!! I am such a bad mother!!"

Martin hugged Sara from behind and calmed her down with a soft voice "No Sara, it wasn't your mistake, none of it was. No one predicted an attack on the Rime town. And if not for you, your sisters wouldn't be staying here with us. As far as Atheus is concerned, he is our child Sara, he is our blood. He won't let such a thing let him down and if he ever curses us for his loss, I will bear it equally. I couldn't do anything myself Sara. I would be a failure of a father if I run away from my actions towards my child, even if indirectly. We will always be behind him, so don't take to heart, talk it out with him once he grows up. Now rest a bit, you have barely even slept since that incident. Granny said that Atheus will wake up in day or two so let him sleep in the cradle and relax yourself too."

"Mhmm"

Martin leaned down and kissed Sara on her cheeks. After that he turned around and walked out the door towards his office where he handled his paperworks and other such stuff. Along the way, his eyebrows furrowed and his expression turned grim. He entered the office where his butler was waiting for him. The butler bowed upon seeing him enter and he replied with a nod. He sat on his chair and ordered his butler "Bring me commander Ashvolt". In response to which butler simply left the room and returned with with commander Ashvolt in tow.

He was an old man with white hair and beard, commanding a spear in his right hand. He looked at baron and greeted "Greeting baron".

"Hmm, let's skip the pleasantries and jump to the matter at hand. Brief me on the investigation."

The veteran commander Ashvolt, who was his trusted aide and his spear started narrating his briefing.

"We found their traces along the eastern shore where they most probably landed. All along ciff were carcasses of wolves scattered, whom they must have encountered and killed upon landing. We found no other traces except a small submarine capable of supporting a small group of people, which we have kept in our custody at the warehouse outside the training ground. The submarine artifacts are products of the magic tower and they are a scarcity even in the Empires with only Grand Empires holding onto most of them. The attackers can potentially have an Empire at their backing or maybe trades with them. Or they might be from a powerful organisation capable of purchasing such mana-related artifacts. In any case, since we are still in dark about their background, I must refrain from any further comments."

"Good job Ashvolt. Keep the searching for clues, but don't use much manpower on it since I don't expect them to be leaving any further traces. You may go now and carry on your duties."

With that, Ashvolt went out of the room without any further ado. Martin turned to his butler and asked "Anything you could trace out their identities with?"

"No my lord, their armours and weapons didn't match any of our neighbouring kingdoms' big or small forces. Since they were custom made, it's impossible to find out their origins with just this."

"Since you said it like this, then you must have other clues in mind about their origins?"

"Yes my lord. Each of them was a swordmaster and such classes at a young age are a rarity throughout northern region. Most of them belong to the extreme eastern region, especially Xin empire and it's vassals. But they aren't Xin considering their facial structure, and other kingdoms or Empires aren't fools to let such young talents go on a mission without any kind of supervision. Things stop making sense especially after the arrival of those reinforcements. They too came out of nowhere, helped us and disappeared."

"You are right James. From what granny described, from their builts they seem like the barbarians from south. But those tribes have black hair with tattoos all over their body and do not understand ours or even Pangean language, unlike these whose leader replied to granny. But since they were our benefactors, it's too impolite to think about finding their tracks when they themselves wish to hide."

He stood up and walked towards an adjacent window, through which he overlooked the surroundings of his mansion. The butler tried to say something but hesitated, seeing which the baron smiled and said "I know what you are thinking, there was probably a third party or additional reinforcements since the three who almost killed Sara where brutally killed with a single attack. An attack which originated from tearing apart a mithril spear bare-handedly. Such levels of strength can only be achieved by level 50 above powerhouses or the so called Prince level and above beings. Even if we try, we can't possibly find that existence since they are only found in 3 places throughout the continent. We are completely in dark about this entire incident James, with no light in sight"

*Sigh* "I just hope my son is safe and wakes up soon. I haven't heard his cries even till now" lamenting his and his son's fate, he sat down and started working on the paperworks and documents.

Meanwhile, in a small cradle at the center of Sara's room, an infant's hand moved and he opened his emerald eyes which shone brightly like a gem.