68: Attack Incoming
Running away from the fight felt like a bitch move, but Aidan had to remember that he technically did his job. He did his job very well, as a matter of fact.
Haley was safe and secure, and he did enough damage to the Red Riot that the leader himself came out throwing a tantrum ready to kill the fucker that did all of that. Though if he was honest with himself, he really intended on destroying the entirety of Red Riot right then and there.
But he now recognized that no matter how powerful he became, that didn’t mean he could stand to fight an army of gang members whose specialty is procuring rare magical items that could easily turn a war around depending on the right buyer. He should’ve realized that the Red Riot had enough secret weapons up their sleeves that could outright annihilate everything they could ever want. So just having one powerful mage fucking them up wouldn’t really outright destroy them.
But he certainly did fuck them over. At least he hoped he did.
“Guess I can’t keep this up forever,” Aidan muttered, which Haley caught and showed concern. “Oh, don’t worry, I mean that I can’t keep fighting them and making them waste valuable resources anymore.”
“But we can run away?” Haley asked, hope in her eyes.
“Oh yeah, we could’ve run away a while ago,” Aidan answered earnestly, and he totally deserved it when Haley slapped him on his chest, albeit weakly.
“Then let’s get out of here already!” Haley screamed.
“Alright,” Aidan chuckled. “Just tuck in and trust me. Maybe also close your eyes.”
While Haley wasn’t sure what Aidan was planning, she followed his words as she made herself comfortable and gripped him tighter. He felt her fingers dig deep into his skin, but his Toughness was durable enough to handle it with ease. He then turned his flight path around, aiming directly towards the group of gang members trying to kill him in the air.
“He’s coming!” One of them shouted.
“Fucking end him!” Volburn ordered, his sword pointed right at him.
As before, multiple spells aimed to hit him, but Aidan bypassed most of them and just Phased right through the missiles launched at him. As soon as he approached one of the men, Aidan grinned as he Phased right into him physically.
At the same time, he cast Vanish on himself and Haley, so from another person’s point of view, it looked like Aidan just outright possessed the poor guy who looked mortified at what just occurred.
“W-What the fuck?” One muttered.
“D-Did he just… enter into his body?” Another added.
“G-Get him!”
Aidan grinned wickedly as he heard the last one shout, then shot a spell right at the poor guy who kept grabbing his stomach as if trying to pull the specter out of his body. That ended up hitting him and making him fall to the ground, with the other dumbasses following along with their own strikes.
It took Volburn an embarrassing amount of time to convince his moronic lackeys that Aidan just escaped with some illusion, as even after having killed one of their men, Aidan never showed up.
Looking back, Haley then turned to Aidan with a sort of haunted look on her face.
“You’re awful.”
“It was funny,” Aidan suggested. “I seriously thought they knew better than that.”
“That’s still awful…” Haley repeated, her eyes glaring. Then they softened. “...But yeah, it was kinda funny.”
He knew he couldn’t get away with this kind of joke with anyone from his old world, which proved that Aidan really changed since coming into this world.
But that didn’t matter. What mattered now was that Haley was safe, so Aidan kept Haley tight as he flew themselves out of the Grim Corner and into the town beyond. The destruction left behind at the Dark Zone a solid reminder of what would happen if any of them messed with Nina Alcatroz.
…..
Just as he suspected, Aidan noticed several of the guards from the city flowing along the traffic, aiming towards the Grim Corner, which was having some kind of war with some mysterious troublemaker that left the scenery a while ago. There were some important looking guards, having decorated armor and emblems displayed proudly on their chests, making commands and ordering the civilians to stay calm while they sort things out.
Aidan didn’t care much about what was going on as he noticed the Raining Treasures close by. Then as he approached, he saw Yin, their newest member, apparently waiting outside while looking upwards, as if noticing something was amiss.
Aidan still had his Vanish on, which surprised him as he found out that Yin was actually able to sense him. Seeing him coming, he heard Yin shout to the inside of the Raining Treasures.
“Lady Nina, Aidan has arrived, and with a guest.”
Aidan dispelled the Vanish spell and landed on the ground, finally letting go of Haley. As soon as Yin spoke those words, Van rushed out the door and saw the two land, his eyes widening.
“Haley!”
He shouted, and the two siblings ran towards each other for a powerful hug filled with explosive relief. Van kept shouting how worried sick he was while Haley just kept asking if Van was alright.
“Are you okay? Are you healed?”
“Who cares about that?! What happened to you? What did they do to you!”
“I’m fine! In fact, you’re the one worst off!”
It was clear the siblings cared more about each other than they would to themselves, which only brought a smile to Aidan as the siblings tried to calm each other down while, at the same time, amping themselves up over their well being. Eventually they calmed down enough for Van to look back at Aidan. The look in his eyes was sincere and filled with gratitude that honestly made Aidan feel a bit awkward.
“Aidan… I don’t know what to say.”
“A ‘thank you’ is enough,” Aidan suggested. “Seriously, it’s fine.”
Van shook his head. “You don’t understand. I… I seriously thought I was gonna lose her. It’s thanks to you that she’s back here, safe and sound. Thank you, Aidan. Seriously.”
Aidan just waved it off, though he understood the severity of his emotions. His soul practically screamed it at him. “Van, Haley is precious to me too. It was only natural. I’m just glad nothing else happened.”
Van nodded, knowing full well that Aidan was serious. Haley also thanked him profusely, which only made him feel even more awkward.
“Oh, by the way, who’s this?” Haley asked, eventually turning the conversation over to the elf waiting beside them.
“That’s Yin,” another voice rang out, belonging to Nina. “She’ll be working with us from now on.”
Nina walked out of the building, looking over at Haley and Van. Haley, no matter her opinion on Nina beforehand, walked up to her and bowed her head.
“Thank you for sending Aidan after me,” Haley said. She was utterly sincere as she looked at Nina in the eyes once she raised her head. “I promise that I’ll work hard to ensure that you won’t regret helping me.”
“You misunderstand,” Nina said promptly. “I didn’t do it because I wanted you to owe me. They went as far as to vandalize my property and take one of my valuable assets away from me. Even daring to harm another in the meanwhile. I’m more than satisfied that you turned out well. Rather than that, do you need anything? I’m certain they didn’t treat you well while you were captured?”
“Oh, uhh… I-I’m fine,” Haley said, sounding extremely surprised at Nina’s reaction. “Thank you for asking.”
“Don’t be afraid to let me know,” Nina said. “Also, while I know you’re still a bit shaken, can I ask you to tell your brother to relax? We treated his wounds but he refused to stay still. Look, his bandages are already starting to redden up.”
Nina pointed out, and Haley instantly noticed that Van did indeed have bandages over his open chest and arms, having to remove his armor in place of simple clothing. The bandages were reddening from the blood loss as his wounds opened up, prompting Haley to look at Van with a glare.
“Van, bed, now!” Haley shouted, which forced Van to raise his hands placatingly.
“I-I couldn’t help myself, okay?” Van said, trying to defend himself.
“I don’t care! Get some rest!”
The fact that Van was still hurt despite knowing that Nina gave him some potions proved that his injuries were a lot more serious than he expected. Just to be sure, he patted Van’s shoulder and cast Heal, but realized that his spirit was still recovering slowly.
“Bro, your sister’s right. I can’t even Heal you properly,” Aidan said, fully backing Haley’s concern.
“It’s… not that bad,” Van said, though he sounded defeated now that Aidan was involved.
While the two kept clamoring, Yin approached Aidan and stood by his side. She stared at him for a moment, and her soul showed she seemed rather pleased.
“It looks like it was the right call to follow Lady Nina’s leadership. It turned out she cares quite a bit for her underlings,” Yin said, mostly in favor of speaking to Aidan only.
“Yeah, though she doesn’t show it,” Aidan admitted. “Thanks for looking out for them while I was away.”
“I sensed that you have unleashed a lot of power over where you were,” Yin answered. “I can only imagine what humanity would fare against an enraged spirit of your caliber. I just hope that the natural balance wasn’t disturbed due to it.”
“I mean, I didn’t go overboard that badly,” Aidan offered, somehow figuring out what Yin was referring to.
It made sense that Aidan would use some kinda super-powerful spirit magic or something that would decimate the entire dark zone, and somehow, he had a feeling that he could. He could’ve just used an overpowered version of Rend to destroy and twist everything apart, but he instead just used his swords and crafted air to destroy everything anyway.
But he knew using Rend on things would somehow make things worse rather than better. That was why he kept using Craft as a form of offensive magic instead of Rend, despite it being the official offensive magic he owned.
Yin nodded, as though agreeing. “I am glad that you turned out safe, and this Haley as well.”
“Yeah, but I wish I could’ve done more, y’know?” Aidan asked, shrugging. He really felt like the Red Riot got away with it despite making so much trouble. “Actually, I could go back and–”
Thump.
Aidan paused, his eyes widened. His soul felt a shiver that hadn’t sensed before.
Thump.
His chest tightened, his face paling as he looked above almost instinctually.
Even though it was night time, there were dark clouds gathering in the sky above, almost unnaturally so. But to his senses, he felt an indomitable wave of negativity flowing through, like an ocean wave ready to crash into them.
“Aidan?”
Aidan was snapped back to reality, noticing Haley and Van’s looks of concern on him. He wasn’t able to speak yet, but he didn’t have to as Yin spoke up instead.
“What is this… malice I sense? It’s overpowering everything…”
While Yin was at a high level, she sounded horrified as she also glanced upwards. Van, Haley, and Nina also looked up, noticing the strange patterns going on.
“...It’s coming.”
Aidan simply spoke, but that got everyone to react strongly as they turned to him.
“The attack… it’s here,” Aidan said, his voice ramping up. His heart pounded against his chest as he immediately took flight to the sky.
He closed his eyes, allowing Sense Vibrations to expand all across the city and beyond. And to his horror, he finally saw it.
Within the large expanse of his vibrations, he noticed small motes of utter darkness blinding him from where they were. They moved at a slow pace, but they were approaching from the northern side of where they were. Following this pattern, he saw a multitude of dark motes, an array of them approaching the city from far away.
From his estimates, he could conclude that there were easily more than a hundred of them closing in, and all of them contained that strange sense of malice that Yin spoke about. Their souls only wanted one thing, and one thing only–
Destruction.
“Fuck!” Aidan shouted, getting the others’ attention. “There’s a whole army of monsters coming here!”
“What?!” Nina shouted. “Is this the attack you mentioned?”
“Yeah,” Aidan growled. “And they’re not your average monsters either.”
He sensed monsters before, and while they contained nothing but natural hostility, it was almost natural, like how air belonged to the sky and water belonged to rivers and lakes.
These monsters approaching them were nothing like the regular monsters. There was a sense of wrongness that made his body quiver. He couldn't allow them to get close, not even for a second.
“Van, get to the guild and report this to the Wise Guys. Get every adventurer on the line to help with this,” Nina ordered, pointing in the direction where the guild was. “Haley, you'll come with me. I'll need you to help me out with some stuff.”
“She just got back from being kidnapped, and you want her back out with you?” Van said, clearly not liking how this is turning out.
“Van, trust Nina for now,” Aidan called out. “I know you're scared, but we need every hand on deck for this. Please.”
Aidan sensed Van's soul rising in agitation and obvious fear for Haley's safety, but it gradually lowered the longer the moment passed after he spoke. Van turned to Haley, who nodded in return.
“I'll be fine, bro. I can’t be anywhere better than being with someone as powerful as Nina. Just don’t overextend yourself–you’re still injured!”
“Yeah… you're right. Sorry, I'll get right to it.”
“Make sure to mention my name if you want them to work faster,” Nina said. “Use everything in your arsenal to get their asses moving. As for you, Aidan. Do what you can to stop the monsters from approaching the city. Make sure not to let yourself get taken while we're working on developing a defense force. Yin will come with you.”
Aidan nodded in agreement before facing Yin. “Do you have anything that can help you fly, Yin?”
Yin didn’t answer. Instead, she closed her eyes as Aidan sensed mana churning within her soul. Air drifted in and coalesced around her, eventually pushing herself off the ground and meeting Aidan in the same distance in the air.
“There will be no issues.”
“Then, let's head out!”
Nina shouted to everyone. Van replied with a sharp ‘yes’ before running off. Nina and Haley also set off, Haley giving Aidan a shout of good luck before leaving.
Aidan and Yin flew together to the outer zone of the city, ignoring all the people looking up at the strangely darkening skies with confused or concerned looks on their faces. He didn't really have any time to relay anything to anyone right now, keeping his focus on the problem at hand.
He saw the barricade that separated the town from the outside, as well as the guards that were filing out one after another. It was clear that they had the order to head out to the Grim Corner to figure out the earlier war going on, which only proved just how shitty this timing was.
He looked ahead, seeing the vast greenery of the forest as well as the dirt terrain and paths that lead outward to the world, showing that there was nothing amiss. He only needed to expand further with his Perception stat to see how wrong that was.
Further beyond, he saw the creatures coming, each one of them as pitch black as the nothingness they left on his senses. They didn’t even appear remotely beast-like, or any other monster he recognized around the vicinity.
They had black skin, or rather, a luminous, almost film-like surface that covered their bodies. Each one had markings that glowed an intense color, ranging across the color spectrum from red to blue to green and yellow. Some of them were quadrupeds, and others walked in bipedal forms at the same speed.
But more than that, their eyes showed not a single sclera, only a pure white color that felt like it drained all other colors from existence.
“What the hell are those…?”
Aidan scanned the creatures, coming up with a disturbing name for their equally disturbing presences.
Eldritchian Horror, Level 34.
Eldritchian Horror, Level 36.
Eldritchian Horror, Level 24.
Eldritchian Horror, Level 43.
Eldritchian Horror, Level 38.
He knew from his past vision that the threat would be incredibly dangerous, but he was once again stumped at the true danger coming before him. Their levels ranged more or less around level 30, which on average to every civilian in the city was around 10% according to his best guess.
The rest were lower than that, or in the extreme high ranges, but the only one he knew that was higher level was Nina and Volburn. There was also the fact that he wasn’t sure whether it was even safe to fight these without suffering some sort of backlash from touching their dark-riddled bodies. But he had no other choice.
“Yin, we’re gonna have to push them back as much as we can before we get any support,” Aidan added, followed with Yin approving. “I’ll take the brunt. You stay here and keep out anything that might get past me.”
“Good luck, Aidan,” Yin said, her soul earnest in her words. “I fear that they are more dangerous than they look.”
“Tell me about it.”
With a small prayer in his head, he launched himself into the fray, unleashing everything he had to the incoming horde.