The Great Sage woke from his deep slumber. When he woke up he had this awful feeling that he couldn't explain.
He was currently in his room, it was dark, gloomy, dusty, and plain, there wasn't even a window. The room's only source of light is a candle on his desk that he would sometimes light up.
In his room there was only a bed, a closet with dozens of identical robes much like the one he is currently wearing, and a desk.
Aside from the candle, the desk had a paper with a sketch of a middle aged woman, her face was plain and simple, with short, dark hair, and a mole under her left eye. That middle aged woman is the Great Sage's mother.
When he was barely summoned, he did his best to sketch photos of his mother, who he loved. It is the only way he could remember her.
He had long forgotten her scent, her voice, her warmth, everything he had forgotten except her face.
Before the papers went bad, he would quickly sketch her face before he forgets.
Ignoring the weird feeling, the Great Sage did something he hasn't done in a long time, go for a walk.
Using a spell of his he changed his appearance to that of a middle aged man. He may look younger now but it was all an illusion.
Usually his daily routine would be to sleep, keep an eye on the heroes, eat, and sleep more. Rarely he ever walks anymore since he just levitates everywhere.
'I think it's been 20 years since I've walked down this road?' He thought to himself. He has walked down this road millions of times when he was younger.
This kingdom has changed several times over the course of 300 years.
The worst and best part about change, at least for him, is when the people change instead of the buildings.
He has seen many children grow up to be old, and have families, die, and those families' children grow up old, have families, die, and the cycle repeats itself.
Although change can be beautiful, he feels nostalgic about the past and sometimes wishes he could go back. Most of his time in this world has always been tragic, but there have been a good few times in his life that he really cherished.
He hasn't had a friend in so long or else he'll see them die. It is the price he has to pay for his long lifespan.
True, elves would make great friends because they have a long lifespan, but the majority of elves hate him and blame him for many things, most of which he isn't responsible for.
Silvas he would consider to be a 'distant friend' but it was nice to see a familiar face despite being over 300 years old.
He does have a family, but the family he has now are his descendants from the women he loved 300 years ago, his own children, who are long dead, are now ancient ancestors to his current descendants.
Even though he had many women in his time, his offsprings were never as strong as he is.
He also didn't feel like raising a new family anymore despite numerous kings asking him to do so. He just didn't feel like 'doing' it anymore.
As he continued walking through the street, he noticed it was much quieter than usual. He sighed knowing why it was quiet, because of the tax laws.
The Great Sage did not care about that, as he believes people have the right to choose where they want to live, and if they want to live near the Sun Kingdom, or with the Empire, then by all means.
The Great Sage also feels that maybe it was for the best. He was getting older, tired, he didn't even feel like helping people out anymore.
Perhaps… moving out of the Reyes kingdom is a good thing.
He even had problems finding out the child killer that had evaded him for years, never knowing that the main culprit was a noble who was under his nose this whole time. This showed him that he wasn't as powerful or as great as he once was.
Sad part is he can't even retire. People will always expect something from him wherever he goes.
'If I were to die, right now, would I go to heaven, or hell?'
The Great Sage has been asking himself this question for over 2 centuries.
Meanwhile…
Victoria managed to run all the way to the Sun kingdom without even using a guide.
Upon arriving she saw the magnificent stone walls. Outside of the walls was a village that was still being developed.
She looked around and it truly didn't look 'deserted' anymore.
"Hero!"
A man named Louis recognized Victoria and ran up to her to greet her. He is the same man who gave the three disposable heroes a ride on his wyvern.
Then he noticed a deep pain in his stomach. He couldn't breathe at all and just fell to the ground holding onto his stomach as spit exited his mouth uncontrollably.
"Oops, sorry, you surprised me." Victoria said with no hint of emotion at all.
Her acting skills were basically non-existent.
She did see him coming, she could now even sense and hear monsters who stalk her from behind. She just thought that this is a good enough reason to punch someone.
Truth to be told, killing monsters and animals is getting too boring for her. She needed something else to hurt, to torture, to kill. Something more… human-y.
Most killers don't just become murderers in one night. It takes time. And they usually start off by killing small, innocent animals as a form of 'practice' before killing humans.
And at this point, she has had more than enough 'practice' and has started to become bolder, and is growing impatient. If only the Great Sage weren't alive, who knows how many people would have died by her hands by now.
It wouldn't be the first time a hero has tried to kill innocent humans while fearing the Great Sage.
"Hmmm… what to do." Victoria ignored the village and just circled around the castle's walls for some reason.
She found it hard to believe someone like Will, a small and insignificant person, could build something like that.
She had read reports about Will's kingdom, and how at the top of the castle there are these numerous machine guns. Obviously, the three heroes who broke into the Sun Kingdom had not read it before since they thought it was boring and useless.
Circling around the kingdom a few times, Victoria had enough.
She transformed her hand to that of a 'shell club' her hand appeared to be more alien than animal. Considering its huge size that was as big as her stomach
She slowly pulls her 'club' arm a few inches back, going, very, very slowly.
Then her club arm springs ever so slightly and causes part of the wall to crack and make a huge noise.
Adaline got up first as the sudden loud noise spooked her to her very core.
The Golems noticed, readied their arms, and notified Will, who was busy building more Golems in his cave.
Victoria transformed her arm back to how it originally was. She moved it, clenched it, and she sighed once she noticed it didn't hurt.
"Looks like practicing punching those stupid animals with this arm was a good thing. Else it would have been like last time."
By 'last time' she meant the time when she was in the tournament that Bruce had one. That day she had tested that power of hers and it damaged her arm for a long time, despite having a hero's healing factor.
It was so powerful that it injured her arm, it would be the equivalent of a horrible muscle ache.
"What's wrong?" Will teleported back once his Golems told him his kingdom was under attack.
Adaline, still spooked, hid behind Will.
"Where did the noise come from?" Petting Adaline's head, Will asked his Golems.
"There!" one of the Golem's pointed at the cracked wall.
"Adaline, hide. Golems, if the enemy attempts to break in open fire!"
Will flew over the walls. He merely saw one individual looking down on her arm. The individual had a very familiar appearance.
'Oh, god, what is she doing here?' Will was afraid that this might have happened. He had hoped that this day would never come.
*Sniff*
Victoria's nose, who was that of a dog's, smelled something above her. Something that reeked of metal, dragon, and gunpowder.
Looking up, her eyes transformed to that of an eagle's. She could clearly see Will.
"Hm." Victoria smirked upon seeing him.
Jumping as far as her fat legs could let her, she could barely reach Will. She then transformed her arms to that of an eagle's. Her arms turned to feathers and were long, feathery, and brown.
She didn't like to fly as it required both her arms to be occupied, something she didn't like.
Victoria appeared to have trouble flying, as if she isn't used to flying.
"Well, well, are you going to run again, Will?" Victoria referred to the time he basically called her 'fat' in front of the classroom, and ran away because it was the last day of school and also the final subject.
This is the first time they've seen each other since then.
"It hasn't been long enough, Victoria. Did you do that to my wall?" Will looked at part of his wall that was cracked.
He very slowly flew around Victoria, as if he was analyzing her.
"So what if I did?"
"No reason."
Once her vision of him was limited because she couldn't turn well, he quickly pulled out two enchanted pistols from out of his inventory, and Will shot Victoria.
Not expecting Will to shoot her, Victoria instinctively covered her body with her feathers.
*BOOM* *BOOM*
Victoria crashed down as her arms were heavily injured and covered in smoke, part of her face and body was also injured. But such injuries quickly healed.
"Ohohoho! Someone grew some fucking balls!" angrily, she jumped towards Will.
Any ordinary hero would have been taken down by such explosives. But Victoria wasn't a useless hero, she has killed, and fought monsters.
If heroes train long enough, even their bodies eventually harden and take more of a beating, similar to how professional fighters' bodies get used to being punched after fighting for many years.
Will wanted to shoot her, but she was near his castle, and Adaline was there.
"Crap!" Will flew to another direction.
Instead of her arms transforming into feathers, one arm transformed to that of a snake and coiled around Will's legs.
Will felt something wrap around his leg.
"ATTACK MODE {ON}"
The sentries below him detected one enemy that Will hadn't registered, Victoria. They started blasting away. If they aimed at the sky Will would have no need to worry about anyone getting caught in the crosshairs.
She pulled Will's leg while her snake hand was still attached.
*POP* *CRACK*
Will heard his leg make a sound it shouldn't be able to, which hurt quite a lot as it was suddenly pulled with a great amount of force.
*RIP*
Part of Victoria's snake arm was torn as a hail of bullets shredded it to pieces, as well as multiple bullets hitting her body making her bleed out.
"FUCK!"
As she was falling and being shot at, Victoria's body turned to crocodile's skin. The bullets, however, still hurt but not as much as before.
Crocodile scales are very resistant to bullets but not immune. It was the equivalent to wearing a bulletproof vest. It will save your life, but it'll hurt like hell.
Many of the villagers heard the gunshots and started to flee thinking that a horrible battle was happening and they would be caught up in the middle of it.
Ignoring the injury on his leg, Will wanted to shoot. But all he had were explosive ammo, a horrible oversight he had not foreseen before. Any other ammo he has was in his cave.
If he missed his shots, which he most likely will, he could not only damage his kingdom but hurt Adaline as well.
"Crap!"
Pulling out the only other weapon that didn't have any explosion enchantments attached to it, a pickaxe. The pickaxe isn't only a tool for mining, it has other uses as well, like shrinking stuff he touches, or breaking down stuff, or using it as a weapon to rip open Victoria's head.
He flew after her as she was falling down. He flew a bit to the side to avoid getting caught up in the sentry turret bullets.
"TO HELL WITH IT!" Victoria wanted to get rid of the turrets as quickly as possible. Her left hand quickly regenerated, she used her hand to her face from the bullets, each bullet that hit her hurts her beyond anything she has ever felt.
Her regeneration outclassed any of her heroes because she also has an animal's regenerative ability, a lizard's regeneration to be precise.
Combined that with her hero's regeneration, of course the process would speed up significantly.
She then transformed her other hand to that of the 'club' using her feed to kick the air, she was suddenly falling down straight to the kingdom, instead of outside.
Will didn't like that at all. What was she planning? And what was up with her arm?
There is an animal out there that has the 'strongest punch' in the animal kingdom, the mantis shrimp.
A mantis shrimp's punch is the equivalent of a bullet exiting the chamber. Anyone who comes across such a dangerous animal should not come into contact with it at all costs.
Thankfully, the downside of the mantis shrimp is its small size, which is 2-7 inches. Imagine a 6-inch long subway sandwich crawling and having the punch equivalent to a bullet?
Now imagine that someone had the human-size arm of a mantis shrimp, combined that with a hero's strength, what would be the total casualty if someone were to unleash such power?
The result was simple… unimaginably powerful.
*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*
Despite her body covered in wounds and bruises, Victoria's punch landed right in the middle of Will's kingdom using her full strength, she was not holding back this time.
Cracks formed everywhere, rubble flew everywhere, all of his buildings were down, his walls collapsed, the Golem's flew back from the force of the impact, Will also flew back despite being a distance away, the entire area shook as if a meteor had struck.
The only thing that was intact was the waystone. Despite the ground beneath it being toppled, it was still in place as if it was levitating, totally ignoring the laws of gravity.
"Oooowww!" Victoria held her right arm, it was badly wounded and turned purple, she couldn't even move it. It wasn't healing as fast as it should be.
Worst part is not only was her entire arm affected, but she could feel a great pain on the entire right side of her body.
Before her injury wasn't as serious as it was right now, it was nowhere near close.
She might have the power of a mantis shrimp, but her body is not used to such power. A human's body, even a hero's body have their limits.
Behind her, she sensed a very pissed Will.
Swinging his pickaxe he aimed to pierce her very head. Heroes are not immortal, they can still die like any other living being.
Will wasn't stupid enough to rage cry to let her know he was about to attack her. He was simply too pissed off to think about anything else that didn't involve his pickaxe lodged inside her brain.
The kingdom was the second reason for his anger, the first reason was Adaline…
Due to his rage, he forgot he could have used his guns to blow her up.
Victoria jumped up high, the pickaxe missing her head but hitting her already injured right arm.
"FUCK OFF!"
Victoria screamed angrily, her left hand transformed into a mantis shrimp's claw and blew Will's head off completely by simply being slapped.
Will is not a hero, but simply an ordinary man, meaning that he could not dodge her attack even though he saw it coming.
Will's body fell limb. Seeing his lifeless body Victoria simply had one thing in mind… run.
Before she would have been overjoyed to finally kill her first human, especially it being Will, but right now she was afraid and vulnerable. This is the closest she had ever come to dying.
Once the adrenaline wore off, she could feel the intense pain, some bullets had lodged themselves inside her body which caused her unimaginable pain just from moving.
And thus, she ran…
She had failed to notice the rest of Will's body fading a few seconds later. The only thing that remained was his armor, and his pickaxe. Everything else like his cape, or magical items he had placed in a chest before or were inside his inventory.
"GASP! ADALINE!"
Waking up, Will grabbed his helmet, pickaxe, and nothing else. The room he was was messy because Victoria's punch also affected the cave, even though Will's cave is several hundreds of feet deep;
Exiting his room he noticed the rest of the cave was the same. There were a lot of cracks and a lot of rubble everywhere.
"Master!" The Golems, or those who weren't buried greeted him.
"Quickly! Go upstairs, and help me find Adaline!" Will ran to the waystone.
"How many Golems should we bring?"
"ALL OF THEM!"
Will teleported to the waystone.
"AAHH!" Will crashed down, some of his HP depleted once he hit the ground.
The waystone was hovering at the very top of the crater. It really did look like a meteor had struck the kingdom.
Ignoring everything else he had one thing going on in his mind, Adaline.
"ADALINE! ADALINE!"
Swinging his pickaxe around like a madman, he screamed in hopes of finding Adaline. He hoped that he would give her a signal, anything to tell him that she was fine.
He had already lost a friend, he wasn't going to lose another.
He placed all the rubble in his inventory to clean it up in order to find Adaline faster.
After nearly 20 minutes of searching over 200 Golems exited the hole, which was covered in rubble. They all had pickaxes and shovels, a few carried some empty chests.
"Find Adaline! If you see her let me know!"
The Golems got to work.
One would think that 200 golems working together would find Adaline quick, but no.
After nearly 12 hours of searching, not once had Will stopped looking, a golem called to Will.
"Master, over here!"
Will rushed towards the golem that called to him.
It was nighttime, and a golem saw something blue glowing that was peeking from the rubble.
Will collected the rubble and placed it all in his inventory, clearing up space rather quickly.
Upon clearing the rubble, he saw Adaline in her exotic form, and was weak.
{Adalis}
{HP: 37/20,000}
Part of Adaline's body was torn and wasn't regenerating. Her beak was broken almost like shattering a piece of glass. She could barely move an inch. Her body was growing darker, as a sign that she was slowly dying and withering, like any flower or tree.
"Adaline…" Will stood beside her.
He thought about how to help her.
"Rest of you, clear the rubble around her. I'll be back."
Will grabbed his armor and flew towards the waystone, teleporting somewhere else.
Will was inside his cave. He found a few healing pills and flowers that might help, they were healing flowers that can be used to heal others, only if they are refined as pills.
He would have made pills with the extra flowers he has, but Victoria had completely decimated the pill area. One place that also wasn't destroyed by Victoria is the exotic seed room, where the exotic seed grows which was also deep underground.
Taking with him the healing pills and flowers, as well as scorpion meat, Will managed to make it back to Adaline in no time.
"I don't know if these will help. But gently take it."
Will placed a healing pill in Adaline's mouth, but she was too weak to consume it.
"Dammit! Water!"
Running back to his cave and returning to Adaline, Will got a leather bottle with water, crushed the healing pills to dust before mixing it with the water.
"I know it's not much but I'll find something else."
Will slowly poured the water mixed with healing pills over Adaline's body. Her body absorbed the water.
{Adalis}
{HP: 437/20,000}
Once he saw the numbers go up, he was elated. Still, it didn't mean she wasn't out of danger.
"I need something better. Golems, bring her water, do anything to help her. I'll be back soon."
Will once again ran to his cave to get some gold. He teleported near the empire where he secretly placed a waystone underground.
He flew towards the empire at lightning speed.
"WOah! You can't enter!" Two guards prohibited Will from entering.
"Are you serious?"
"Relax, hero, we recognize you. We just can't allow you to enter with that armor, and pickaxe."
The Empress had given Will permission to enter her Empire, but just like everybody else, he had to go through the inspection process.
Without missing a beat, Will dropped his armor to the ground as well as his pickaxe which he brought with him unconsciously.
What seemed to take forever, the guards scanned Will in case he brought any dangerous equipment.
He wanted to run right now, but now he can't afford to make trouble, if he does he believes he'll waste more time than going through the normal process.
"You can enter."
Will entered the Empire, the guards wondered why Will was in such a hurry.
"Where is it? Where was it?"
When Will was buying supplies the last time, there was a shop he remembered but didn't catch his eye at the time, a potion shop.
After finding the shop, Will entered hastily and dropped a bunch of gold coins on the shop's desk, the one behind the desk was baffled at the sight of so many gold coins.
"Bring me all your healing potions, and regeneration potions! Everything!" Will almost screamed.
"But, I, uh!" The man couldn't form a sentence.
"If you do it in the next sixty seconds, you can keep all the change for yourself!"
The man dashed so fast that he nearly disappeared in a puff of smoke, similar to how a cartoon character would act.
It didn't take 30 seconds before the man brought all the healing and regeneration pills he had.
"I believe that's everything I have. I could make more since I have a lot of ingredients."
Will placed everything in his inventory and ran away, leaving the shop owner with a small pile of gold coins, which was way overpaying for some healing pills, although regeneration pills are more expensive than healing pills.
"You're… welcome?"
Upon exiting the store, Will failed to notice that the Empress had come to greet him once she heard of his arrival. She felt that Will was hiding since one of her men reported to her that Will was attacked by a hero, and he was looking for someone.
But what she wanted to know is how Will managed to make it here before he men reported to her? According to her men Will still hasn't left his kingdom, or what was left of it.
This did make her realize that Victoria was more dangerous than she had thought. That kind of power was more fearsome than Josh's ability.
It wasn't just her that learned of this, the king received the report and he started to sweat bullets. One of his heroes is missing, and the other is probably pissed at the Reyes kingdom because the king was the one who sent Victoria to his kingdom, as well as the other three heroes before her.
Will had built a wall where his kingdom was so nobody else could see his golems, which was relatively easy since he had his {hologram platform} with him that could make anything instantly. But this mostly helped so people wouldn't come anywhere near close to him when he was looking for Adaline. He only trusted himself and his Golems for that.
As for Sandra, she still had no idea what had happened.
Will returned with pills in hand. He had very nearly forgotten to bring his dragon scale armor and pickaxe if the guards didn't remind him.
"Drink up." Will crushed the pills to powder and mixed it with water.
{Adalis}
{HP: 645/20,000}
{HP: 870/20,000}
With the regeneration pills and healing pills Adaline was making a recovery. Her roots and flowers were returning to their normal color. Her body was also regenerating. The one thing she wanted right now was to drink lots of water.
Will cared for her. He fed her scorpion meat. She fell asleep on the floor once her HP reached 17,000.
Will sat down. The fatigue on his body started to weigh him down.
"What now, Master?" A Golem asked.
"I don't know… just give me a minute."
In reality Will didn't last a minute before he fell asleep while sitting up. He was too tired at this point.
In order not to disturb his master, the Golems stood still like motionless statues in order not to wake him up.
Once morning rose, Will stood up. His back was sore from sleeping in such a bad posture.
"Golems, get back to work in the mines. And clean up anything you see in the caves, any and all rubble that you see. I'll take care of this."
The Golems listened to Will. As per his orders, 12 fighter Golems stayed behind.
Will sat beside Adaline, petting her gently.
"Golem."
"Yes, master?"
His most intelligent Golem, the advanced Golem, stayed behind, as per Will's orders.
"I want you to make a few things clear for me. There are two kingdoms right now, the Sun kingdom, which is this place, and the Reyes kingdom."
"That is true."
"And the hero who attacked us, Victoria, she's from the Reyes kingdom."
"Affirmative."
"So… what kind of message is this? What do you think the message was when the Reyes kingdom decided to send not just Victoria, but those other three heroes to kill me and destroy the kingdom?"
"I would say the message is… a declaration of war?"
Will took off his mask. Revealing his bloodshot red eyes, and an angry look on his face. He gripped his mask so hard that it was bending.
"Exactly what I thought."
Will, all he wanted to do was build, craft, live with his girlfriend and with Adaline. He did have people who were after them in the beginning, but he always took care of them. He was quite frankly enjoying his life.
He never had a clear end goal, as the system never provided him with one. Except to just build and craft. But now his goal was clear as day…
Revenge.