Chapter 239: Qualifications

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No Cliff. 

AN: Got some editing suggestions? Suggest it on the Google Docs here:

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This battle has been very brutal, enough to make me queasy. Yrania helps me with her Bond, but I don’t think I need it. I’m no stranger to battle and the horrors that come with it.

What I did not expect was for Alexander to pull out an absolutely terrifying move like he just did. Whatever he did must have been with his Bond because I did not see any spell being used, but the fact it affected a massive area, at least thirty kilometers in radius, shows just how strong he really is. Same for those Elves, too; I could not detect them until they had already killed some of the Oathbound, and some of them even managed to escape. The assassins must have been quite powerful to kill even the Oathbound so swiftly, so I need to be careful when on this continent. Helping these Humans will probably earn me some enemies if they find out. Well, the cat’s kind of out of the bag since Kayafe got a kill message, so I guess it’s a little late to go unnoticed.

However, I think it was worth it in the end. I now know where the rest of the world stands when it comes to their level of power, assuming the Dwarves and Humans are average in power.

“Oh, definitely not,” Yrania comments. “The Alaxan Empire and these Dwarves, as well as their Elf neighbors, are much higher powered than normal.”

“I stand corrected then.”

“Indeed, but you are currently sitting,” Yrania jokes, her amusement leaking through the link. “Anyway, the vast majority of nations will only have a few Legendary beings. You can expect about one Legendary being per ten million or so people. This holds true regardless of what tier they are born at. Exalted are roughly one in a million, and Heroic are one in a hundred thousand. Alexander only has so many Oathbound because he sacrifices so many people just for one to reach Legendary, but that’s different from someone who reaches Legendary by their own merits. In the end, someone who would not normally ever reach Legendary on their own will die soon enough.”

Considering how the Oathbound outnumbered the Soul Lords almost four to one but still lost more than half their number while so many of the Earth Elementals were kept busy just shows how low quality the current Oathbound really are.

“Indeed, you are worth at least two of those Oathbound as you currently are. However, Alexander knows all this. In truth, most are simply afraid of the Legendary tier itself.” Yrania says

“I don’t blame him. Having one hundred Legendaries is still a good deterrent no matter the case, as long as the other side doesn’t have an equivalent force. It takes a long time to gain such a sizable force of properly talented people. Having lost so many a few years ago, his citizens would be worried if he didn’t quickly fill the ranks of the Oathbound. In truth, he had no choice but to take this route. Surrounded by enemies and weakened, he must appear strong.”

Ting! Oathbound Jonathan, the Human, has slain a Fire Elemental!

“At least not all are low quality. That one seems to have potential.”

I see Jonathan appear out of nowhere, slumped against the wall of the hole and breathing heavily. He looks utterly drained, but he is still gripping something I can’t see. It has no mana, but I can guess it is a weapon of some sort.

“Hmm, tell him to keep fighting. You, of all people, should know what he’s suffering through.”

“You just want to see how far he can push himself; can’t you see how exhausted he is?!” I accuse Yrania.

“Of course!” Yrania freely admits. “But if he really has Legendary potential, he will be able to do it, just like you when you healed your people.”

“Alexander, Kayafe, and others are already fighting that last Elemental; hasn’t he done enough?”

“There’s still the one that ran away, and if the Elves were ready enough to launch an attack on such short notice, then they are surely mounting an invasion force. The others will need to conserve their strength.”

I send a perception field over toward the Elven border, and after several minutes of scanning, I do indeed find an army of Treants and plant people, the Elves, already raiding some villages.

I grimace as the villagers are massacred heartlessly. People scream in fear and grief as their loved ones are murdered right in front of them. They did nothing wrong, they are innocent, yet they are still being hunted down and slaughtered. No one is spared; in fact, the Elves seem to relish in the bloodshed; one of them even disemboweled a child’s mother right in front of her! He ripped her guts out and started eating them, all the while taunting the young girl.

I almost threw up, but Yrania helped me tolerate the scene with her Bond.

“What kind of monsters are they?!”

I can't just stand by and let this nightmare continue! I can at least give the ones running away a chance!

I crank my perceptive pressure as high as I can, stacking several perceptive eyes while activating [Fear Gaze], localizing it around only the Elves.

All the Elves immediately stop in their tracks, frozen with fear, but that is all I can accomplish. I can’t actually bring justice to them. I need a more offensive gaze skill, yet I don’t even know how to get one.

Before long, the Elves grow used to the pressure and start moving again, paranoid of anything around them.

I feel completely useless. Most of my airships are destroyed, and I can’t save these people from such a horrible attack; all I can do is let Alexander know.

“Emperor! The Elves are attacking; they are raiding a village on the border!” I inform Alexander.

“DAMNIT!” he roars. “Jordan! Elizabeth! Go now!”

“Yes, Emperor!” They immediately teleport away.

“They ALWAYS do things like this! Alysara, they will have a main attacking force too; did you happen to see it?”

“No—”

Ting! Time Warden, Greenleaf, the Elf, has slain Alvaro, the Human!

“It seems they are attacking our Erudite allies. We have to help them!”

“Erudites?” I ask.

“A subrace of Humans fathered by a progenitor. They are our close allies, vassals, technically. Too much is going on right now, and all of my Knights are too exhausted.”

“There is one who can help, Alysara. With the Earth Elemental killed, Alexander will be free to help his allies,” Yrania says to me.

Why is she so insistent on this? But she’s right.

“Jonathan, did you hear all of that?” I ask, referring to my conversation with Alexander.

“Yeah, you don’t need to tell me twice.” He stands up but nearly faceplants in the process.

“Jonathan, rest. You’ve done enough. Alysara, don’t push him; he’s no use dead,” Alexander commands.

“Sorry, Emperor. But I made an oath, to defend you, and this country, even if it would cost me my life, and I intend to fulfill it. I still have a little bit left in me; it’s just one more Elemental.”

Alexander just sighs. “I can’t afford to stop you. I’ll restrain it as much as I can. Kill it quickly so I can aid our allies.”

I feel a deep sense of respect coming from Yrania.

“We Dragons love this kind of thing. Having the determination to sacrifice oneself and the determination to break past one’s limits is the mark of someone truly worth respecting.”

“So you wanted him to kill another Elemental just because you would respect that?” I ask, bewildered.

“Of course. Every creature has behavioral instincts that serve some function. For us Dragons, we have the desire to break past our limits; it is a trait that makes us strong, ensuring our survival and the survival of our offspring. Those that can’t push past their limitations will simply die. On the other hand, we despise arrogance, as it is simply the barking of a weak animal!”

I guess that does explain some things. Safyr used to never call me by name until I spent two years healing the souls of my people. I guess that was when I showed my ability to ‘break my limit’.

Alexander uses his Bond to restrain the movements of the Earth Elemental while Jonathan shifts back into what I think is the Soul Layer. After about ten minutes, the kill message finally appears, and Alexander teleports away without a moment's hesitation. Lin and four other senior Oathbound follow as Jonathan reappears, on the verge of unconsciousness.

Kayafe tends to the rest of the Oathbound, the ones that had been Squires, as well as two seniors who stand watch in case more assassins show up. There are only about twenty left, the best of the Squires.

I walk up to Jonathan with one of my airshipless clones. There isn’t much I can do for him, but I can at least try to soothe him with my Bond.

“Thank you, but my wounds aren’t physical; the others need healing instead.”

I simply point to one of my other clones and Kayafe healing the wounds of another Oathbound.

“I see…” Jonathan says, looking a little bashful.

“I know it’s painful, and there’s probably some residual backlash you are feeling, but I know from experience that having someone with you helps.”

“Experience? You attacked someone’s soul before?” Jonathan asks, raising an eyebrow.

“Soul surgery. Had to drill through the soul barrier.” I don’t elaborate; I’d rather not remember that time if I can help it.

“I didn’t take you as a healer too. Have you trained [Pain Tolerance]?”

“I’m not, but it had to be done, and only I had a skill for it. No, I had the skill but didn’t train it. I simply got used to it after a while.” I flick my tails in irritation; I didn’t sign up to answer questions.

“Got used to it? How many times did you perform soul surgery?” Jonathan asks, furrowing his brow.

“Enough that I lost count.”

“What happened that you needed to do that so many times?”

“It was a Cursed Being,” I say, getting up and walking away, having had enough of being interrogated.

I only have two airships left. Three can easily be repaired, they sustained damage to the sails and can’t fly, but with Kayafe there, they can be up and running in no time.

“You didn’t tell me there was a war going on,” Kayafe complains to me, now that the battle is over.

“Well, I didn’t know it was going to be like this,” I defend myself. “I didn’t even know there was going to be a battle then.”

“He’s gotten so much stronger now. He can easily rival average Dragons…”

Kayafe must feel like she’s fallen behind. They used to be equal in power, and now Alexander has a ten-thousand-year lead on her.

“Hmm,” Yrania hums. “This is so much easier than following people around; I could get used to this.”

“Do you have to, Yrania?”

“Yes.”

I decide to ignore Yrania.

“Do you want to talk about it, Kayafe?” I ask.

She shakes her head.

“I can’t change the past, and I don’t think I’d want to anyway. The Runalymo ended exactly how I wanted them to be, well, minus a few surprises, but culturally so. That is not something I could have done. I would have screwed things up, so it’s better this way.”

“I don’t know. From what I’ve heard from Safyr, the Nexus had a rocky history. It wasn’t until she flooded the place in such a way that made it impossible for large cities to form that we had relative peace. You shouldn’t beat yourself up.”

“I’ve missed out on so much, Alysara. The whole world is different now; I don’t even know where to begin.” Kayafe wraps her arms around herself. “To top it all off, this ‘body’ is deficient. I can’t even feel touch, let alone see or taste anything.”

I see, so it’s a combination of everything. I can sympathize with her body issue; it’s just like my clones. Suddenly waking up in a strange world has to be very disorientating too, not to mention seeing how everyone you know lived on without you.

“Then let's figure out how to get your old body back,” I say, giving her an encouraging smile. “I’m sure there is some way to do it. A ritual, perhaps? Maybe we can make an item that can do it. Perhaps you can train a skill to do it. There are a lot of ways we can try! And after that, we can rediscover this world and see everything that has changed; you and me, we can go on our own journey!”

“Thank you, I would love to go on a journey with you.” Kayafe smiles back at me.