Chapter 397 – Call To Arms
While Damion was marveling at his progress to A Rank, his communication tablet suddenly went off, the alert that went off he recognized as a call for reinforcements. The signal, relayed through the Adventurer Association was a call for every knight and mage B Rank and higher to report to either Argentum, Rubrum or Viridis with all due haste. The call itself was worrying to Damion, but what worried him more was when he viewed the message there was an annotation that no one was eligible to use past mission credits to skip this call to arms.
Damion did not hesitate and rushed towards the city council chambers where he was sure most of the high Rankers of Atlantis would be heading. After all, none of them would want to be left in bad standing with the Mage Association should they fail to report and the only way they would be able to report would be for Mage Fletcher or one of her family members to open a Portal for them.
As Damion flew over the streets on his Ice Sword towards Avalon, he pulled up the map on his tablet and took a look at the live map. Since the White Zones had completed their grids of auto-mappers, everything happening there was able to be detected by the artifacts. There was no sign of anything in any of the cities themselves, but as Damion zoomed out on his map he found out what the problem was.
A few minutes later, he and the rest of the council were in their chairs ready to address the adventurers of Atlantis that would be responding to the call for aid. There were a few people missing, mostly B Rankers, as they did not have many A Rankers in the city and one S Rank was absent. Mage Chaparro was taking her turn among the S Ranks to train inside the labyrinth.
“How bad is it?” asked Yara Parivar, she was the only adventurer in the room Damion recognized.
“From what I can see on the Explorer Guild’s map, around each White Zone city, roughly one hundred Realm Breaches have opened.”
“Are we sure this isn’t some kind of hoax or trick to lure the adventurers that have come to Atlantis back to the White Zones?” Mage Strand asked.
“I designed the auto-mapper,” Damion said. “And even I don’t know how to create a false signal for it. Given that the alert is from the Mage Association and appears to have been sent to every adventurer in every Zone, I have to side on this being a real threat.”
“What about around Atlantis? Have there been a mass eruption of Realm Breaches around us?” Mage Levine asked.
“I’ve checked the area around us. There are no Realm Breaches inside the barrier mountains. And as far as I can tell, there is no increase in the number of Realm Breaches on the other side of the mountains. Since we haven’t yet made an effort to collapse or contain all of them, I can’t say for certain if there are more, but there do not appear to be and certainly not on the level of what has appeared in the other White Zones.”
“Then we will go, the question is, to where do we go?” Mage Teft asked.
“Can’t we decide for ourselves?” a mage shouted from the gallery.
“Yeah, I still have family in Rubrum, I want to go fight alongside them!”
“Dividing our forces ahead of time would not be the wisest of choices,” Mage Teft said. “Even if we let you all go where you want, the Mage Association may order you somewhere different. I think it best if we go to one of the White Zone cities and let the Mage Association disperse us as needed. I’m sure they will take into account people that want to assist a certain city.”
Mage Teft’s reasonable statement brought a host of murmuring to the crowd of adventurers, but no one out right raised their voice against it.
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“Let’s put it to a vote of which White Zone we report to,” Mage Teft said. “All in favor of Argentum, raise your hand.”
Only a few hands went up in the room, none of which belonged to anyone on the council. Damion marked down the five he counted, and Mage Teft moved on to the next voice.
“Those who would like to respond to Rubrum, raise your hands.”
There were more votes this time, but not terribly many, Damion quickly counted and came up with fourteen. It seemed like they would be going to Viridis.
“Those in favor of Viridis.”
To Damion’s surprise, there were a few more hands that went up, but not nearly the amount of the remaining adventurers. When some of the people with raised hands saw that most were not raising their hands they began lowering theirs. It seemed that not everyone wanted to respond to the call for aid.
“Well,” Mage Teft began, “it appears we have a bit of dissent on if we should respond at all.”
“We simply don’t see why we should respond when we came here to get away from the rules of the nobles.” One of the mages in the group spoke up, Damion recognized him as one of the few A Rank mages that relocated to Atlantis outside of the Protectorate’s group.
“We aren’t responding for the nobles. Or for the Mage Association,” Damion began. “We are responding for the innocent people in those cities. Most everyone that came to Atlantis is an elite adventurer, tired of working hard only to be pushed aside for a noble scion. But we can’t let their despicableness dictate our actions. People need help and we need to help them. I won’t force anyone to go that doesn’t want to. I won’t even put sanctions on you or keep you out of the labyrinth, but know if we don’t respond to calls for help, how can we, in the future, ever expect anyone to answer our own calls for help?”
“Well said, Damion,” Mage Fletcher said. “My family will be going. And I will be opening a Portal in the main plaza in three hours to take us all to Viridis, since it received the most votes. Come. Or don’t. Your choice.”
After making her stance clear, Mage Fletcher got up from her council seat and started to leave the room. Damion and the rest of the council decided to follow behind her.
Damion headed back home after the council meeting, wanting to spend a bit of time with his family before heading out. The only beast wave he had ever fought in before was the Saung beast wave nearly two years ago. That battle had lasted several days, the upcoming battle for the White Zones seemed likely to take longer.
“Why are you going?” Elicia asked. “No one in Atlantis owes the White Zones a thing. We should…”
“What? Cut ourselves off completely? I wanted Atlantis and Avalon to be new starts, to be an example of a way forward for humanity. How can we be an example if we don’t help our fellow man?”
“Fine. But I don’t like you going. And I especially don’t like being left behind.”
“You’ve only just reached C Rank. You need to stay here and train and help Bethany in her training. I’ll be leaving Phil here to look after things. If you go into the labyrinth, take him with you, just in case.”
“Why aren’t you taking Phil with you?”
“It is a beast wave. How can I be sure that no one will attack Phil by accident with so many other Demonic Beasts around?” What Damion did not add was that he was somewhat afraid of people attacking Phil on purpose. Using the beast wave as cover to target him and his companion.
“I suppose you have a point,” Elicia said as she snuggled up to him while counting down the minutes until his departure.
While spending time with Elicia and Helge, Damion reached out through his companion bond to Phil.
‘I have to go on a journey for a while. Stay here and protect the family.’
‘No come?’
‘I need you to stay with Elicia. To make sure she and the baby stay safe.’
‘Protect family.’
‘Thank you.’
When the time finally came for Damion to head to the main plaza he set out leaving a teary-eyed Elicia holding Helge in the doorway. He did his best not to worry, but he felt there was a good chance that this was going to be a rough battle.
At the plaza, Damion was surprised to see Mage Thresbane. He knew the Protectorate did not usually get involved in responding to beast waves, which confirmed to him the severity of the situation.
“Mage Thresbane, I did not expect to see you here,” Damion greeted the SS Rank mage.
“I usually only get involved if absolutely necessary. I am the lifeline of our people, but I also can’t stand by and let innocents die. I will stay in reserve, until I am truly needed.”
“It still good to know you will be out there with us. I just hope nothing too strong shows up.”
“With this many Realm Breaches opening. There is no telling what might show up. Looks like it is time.”
Ingrid Fletcher had just arrived along with a number of other mages from her family. Damion did not see Arica though, which he thought was understandable, since she was still C Rank. A moment later, Mage Fletcher opened a Portal to Viridis and the mages gathered at the plaza began to go through.