Brigadier Klein Arvent fell into a daze after the battle and he came face to face with the young mage he fought with. He realized that the man was extremely familiar. If his eyes were black instead of dark green, he would've looked exactly like Meredith Empire's Marshall, Devon Morgan.
Suddenly, the young man in front of him who was perfectly fine just a few seconds ago slowly fell down. By instinct, Klein Arvent caught the young man. He realized that the latter was already unconscious.
Klein looked behind to see 13 people staring back at him, their faces filled with both worry and exhaustion. The people only then realized that the water mage who saved them was one of their city's Brigadiers, Brigadier Klein Arvent. They all stood straight in attention, showing utmost respect.
Klein Arvent could still feel the young man breathe so he stood straight and carried him. "He's fine. Let's go to the bunker."
Brigadier Klein Arvent moved forward.
….
Outside Sera City.
"Wrap thing up! We've been stalled by these beasts for too long!" General Solare Samo yelled urgently as he stared at the city behind them. Colorful lights were being reflected by the dark thunderclouds just above the central district and thick bolts of lightning would strike down from time to time.
The soldiers around moved faster as they killed the last of the remaining beasts.
For a full 20 minutes, beasts kept coming out of the holes that the moles dug open. Moreover, those colossal beasts that were frozen didn't even die immediately. General Samo and his soldiers had to spend a great deal of effort just to keep everything under control. Fortunately, the ones who were previously sealed were already close to dying.
After a full 50 minutes of fighting, everything was finally stabilized and they started the sweeping.
After another five minutes, all of the beasts were finally killed.
However, no one cheered and everyone kept silent. They stared at the broken walls of the city with dread.
Without even taking a rest, General Samo and his men immediately headed back to the city. Everyone followed him, even those who were on the brink of collapse. After all, if they rested now, would they still have homes to return to later on?
Those who fell unconscious were dragged back by their companions.
After a few minutes, the group of 120 mages finally regrouped with the ones at the city wall.
The people at the wall already knew that there was a battle going on in the central district, but being too short in people who could still fight, they didn't respond. Now that General Samo and the rest had returned, they decided to go all out.
Their numbers increased to more than 1600 where about 700 were normal soldiers.
Now, they were ready for the real battle.
The army of 1600 pressed forward and slew any beast that would come their way. They fought by letting the high-level mages wound the beasts and leaving them for the regular soldiers and the E-ranked mages to finish off.
It was clean and energy-efficient.
With General Samo and his men at the forefront, those who were wounded and weak got to rest as much as they could while moving forward. After 15 minutes, they should be able to regroup with the other mages, who were probably the Academy's people, in the central district.
After that would be the purging of the entire city.
….
Aeon opened his eyes. It was quite dim because only the light of a single candle illuminated the bunker.
He had already been inside that particular bunker earlier, so he wasn't quite surprised. He attempted to move his hand, but he realized that he could barely feel it. He slowly looked down and saw that his body was coated entirely in ice. Realization dawned upon him and he felt numb.
"You're awake. That's good." A deep voice suddenly echoed through the bunker. Then, the ice that wrapped around Aeon's body started melting.
Aeon only then realized that aside from his boxers, he was completely naked. Aeon screamed like a litter girl as he tried hard to cover his crotch. However, after being frozen, his movements were quite sluggish.
The people inside the room started giggling.
"Cryotherapy. It's good for the muscles and for relieving pain," the voice said.
Aeon groaned as he struggled to sit up. Right beside the elevated bed he was lying on, a towel was neatly folded. He took the towel and dried himself up. After looking around, he realized that the owner of the voice was the man wearing a full white plate armor who was sitting on a chair right next to his bed. Behind him were the people he saved earlier.
The man had very similar features to Korona.
"Mr. Arvent!" Aeon greeted.
"Please, call me Klein. This," Klein Arvent affectionately caressed the hand of a beautiful woman standing right beside him, "is my wife. And you are?"
She has Korona's eyes.
Aeon nodded at the lady respectfully before he responded. "Aeon, sir!"
Klein Arvent sighed. He really feels old whenever people call him sir. Young people don't listen. "Aeon... you did a great job. These people told me about your deeds."
"Actually, I'm just here because I'm a friend of your daughter's and I wanted to see if your family was doing okay," Aeon said with a crooked smile as he looked at the people.
Despite this, the people still showered him with thanks. Aeon was slightly dazed and didn't know how to respond. It was really not his intention to save people in the first place. It was just a coincidence that he bumped into them. He wasn't really proud that he was filled with reluctance before he decided to help.
Since Aeon was looking away from the Brigadier, he failed to notice Klein Arvent's shocked expression. However, he immediately recovered. Klein Arvent shook his head. "It doesn't matter. You saved many lives."
The families he saved nodded at him with gratitude. Their expressions were filled with sincerity.
Aeon smiled sincerely back at them.
Then, he realized that he should not be wasting time there because he still needed to check on Suri's family. The people immediately stopped talking when they saw the worried look on Aeon's face. "Sir! How long have I been sleeping?"
Naturally, the Brigadier didn't miss Aeon's weird reaction.
"About 12-14 minutes. What's the matter?" Klein Arvent responded with a worried expression.
Aeon stood up frantically looked for his clothes. As soon as he saw them just above the pillow, he quickly started to get dressed. "I need to check on Suri's family."
"Suri? You mean General Samo's boy?" Klein Arvent asked.
"Ehhh..." Aeon debated whether he should tell him about Suri's special relationship with Korona. In the end, he decided against it. "Yes!"
That long pause was really weird, but the Brigadier decided to ignore it.
Klein Arvent started thinking. If he remembered correctly, the General should be living in a subdivision about eight kilometers west from their current spot. It should only take an average teenage mage about 16 minutes to travel that. But the one in front of him was quite extraordinary.
He could probably do it in 12. Maybe 14 since there are beasts around.
"You do know that there are more monsters there compared to here, right?" Klein Arvent asked. "Something's happening somewhere around the west and the beasts are attracted to go there."
"Yes, sir. I am fully aware," Aeon tied the strap of his swords on his back, "but I need to go."
"But you just passed out a few minutes ago," Brigadier Klein Arvent said with concern.
Aeon tested his body. "Somehow I feel a lot better."
"Alright. Go then. Don't think that I didn't stop you," the Brigadier replied while waving his hands in front of him indicating that he won't bother him anymore. "I'll send you off."
The people around them started gasping and whispering. They knew how dangerous it was outside. Traveling alone… how would he fare? Unfortunately, they couldn't stop him. They've been a huge burden already.
"Big brother," a little girl from the crowd stepped up and held onto Aeon's pants, "do be careful."
Seeing the kid, Aeon smiled. He ruffled her hair and said, "I will. Don't worry about this big brother. He's super strong."
Aeon stood up, and so did the Brigadier. The two walked away and climbed the ladder that led towards the exit. Just before Aeon disappeared from sight, he gave the people who were cramped up in a small bunker a reassuring smile.
The door once again opened with a creak.
The two men went outside and felt the air. It reeked of blood, but at least it wasn't so stuffy.
"Off you go. Just be careful. I'll take care of the things here," Klein Arvent said nonchalantly.
"Thanks. I will! And thank you for the cryotherapy," Aeon replied with a smile. He turned around and started walking away.
"I saw you fight."
Aeon suddenly froze and looked back with a crooked smile.
"Mages usually don't fight like that. The only person I know who does is an A-ranked wind mage," Klein Arvent continued.
Aeon replied while scratching his head, "Adrenaline sure is something!"
Klein Arvent did not reply anymore.
Aeon looked ahead and continued moving forward.
After a while, the figure of the young man disappeared from his view.
"The medicine I gave him cost a fortune," Klein Arvent said with a sigh. He kept on grumbling until he entered the bunker once more.
….
Damn, he saw me fighting while using my Tenro. That shouldn't be a problem, right?
Aeon ran at a high speed. He entered several alleys and jumped over broken fences just to avoid as many beasts as possible. He was taking a roundabout path, but it couldn't be helped. The number of magical beasts as he pressed forward really did increase.
However, something bothered Aeon. He only got to rest for almost 15 minutes, and yet, he wasn't exhausted now at all. In fact, he was feeling quite light and full of energy. That cryotherapy was really something.
I'd have to ask Korona more of that.
After 14 minutes of running, Aeon arrived at the subdivision. He followed the streets around as he kept on repeating Suri's address inside his head.
One thing that he observed in that particular subdivision was that only a handful of bunkers were pried open. Probably, the people there invested lots of money to fortify theirs in case of an emergency. Aeon felt sad for the unfortunate people, but, at the same time, he felt more at ease.
Though it was quite sad. People were really not equal. Privileged people still got the upper hand, even in such a disaster.
Aeon hoped that the poor people in the outskirts of the city remained out of reach to the gigantic beasts because those people didn't even have a bunker to hide in.
After a few twists and turns, Aeon finally arrived at the Samo residence.
….