Athelei had to drag Irene to her bed as she had fallen asleep on the couch. Her eyelids were shut tight due to exhaustion of the short yet gruelling escapade of advancement.
It took a Hunter pattern together with his newfound abilities as a mid-level Rank 0 Dictator to gently move her body towards her soft mattress.
Through this, Athelei quickly discovered how Tangible Will worked. It was just as the Information Network claimed.
=o=o=o=o=
One's Tangible Will is your desires given form.
If you desire to cut, your Will shall become sharp.
If you desire to strike, your Will shall grant you strength.
If you desire to live, your Will shall keep you lively.
If you desire to discover, your Will shall bring you perception.
=o=o=o=o=
This gave Athelei an idea, and it was one that mixed his skills as an Artist and Dictator.
'The night is still young... Half-past midnight...' He thought to himself, 'I have enough time.'
Athelei closed his eyes, and his right hand first glowed with an olive-gold light. With his index finger, he then began drawing the Mystic Pattern for Guide. He imbued the pattern with his Will and desires.
"Lead me to Javiexis' Concrupture." Athelei mumbled as the pattern displayed a direction.
Athelei dispersed into a faint fog and went in the direction he was pointed towards. Every step he took made the Guide pattern fainter and fainter. He moved through the acropolis of Aren, fell through its steep cliffs, and floated towards the Middle Ring.
When the pattern disappeared, Athelei drew another pattern, and the arrow pointed elsewhere. He continued to drift around Aren, drawing patterns for Guide until his energy began to wane.
When Athelei was about to draw his last pattern before he had to take a long break, a flicker of shadows caught his eye. He scanned the area and moved to where he espied the moving shadows. He shortly found himself in front of a rather large cathedral. Gardens spread all around the cathedral, but the shrubbery and trimmed trees were all tools that aided the enemy more than they helped those that lived there.
Athelei breathed, using his Tangible Will to scan the area. 'I can finally catch their trails,' he grinned as this realisation dawned upon him.
The shadow-wielding Nightwalkers could no longer instantly disappear from his senses.
Athelei followed after the Nightwalkers, and he moved into the cathedral. The faint hum of a Mystic Artifact sounded out from the altar. It caused Athelei to spread himself even thinner than before. There were many abilities he had yet to learn of and witness, and with every ability that he heard of, he gained a better sense of how difficult it was to spy on different people.
Now, standing piously on the altar was a lady draped in long sky blue robes. Her blue-dyed hair was swaying in the faint breeze that blew through the arched constructs.
'Priestess Haille,' Athelei recognized the Nightwalkers' target. He licked his lips and used Inspect on the Mystic Artifact that lay peacefully on the altar.
"What is your main purpose?"
[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]
Pure Bottle
- Gives water special effects.
[ +1 Exp to Analysis Skill: Inspect (Current Exp: 10/15)
[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]
Athelei was pleased to gain experience as he pondered how he could steal from the thieving Nightwalkers in the same way he had stolen that green Manifestation of Spirit which had turned out to be a Spirit Shard.
'Those are two treasures that I can both use for my Inspect and my amassment of power in the future...' Athelei felt a twang of human greed influence his thoughts, 'I want them, but it would be hard to keep them. There's no way I can carry them all the way to my physical body... I guess I'll think about that later.'
Silence descended and consumed the cathedral while Athelei was debating on how he could utilize his experiences and skills for some more thievery. The sudden change in the auditory atmosphere prompted the young child to once again pay attention to the world around him.
Five Nightwalkers flashed out of their shadows, surrounding Priestess Haille in an instant. Athelei saw the Priestess frown as eight Mystic Patterns manifested all around her. There was not a single movement of her hands and yet all those patterns appeared in an instant. The collective humming of all eight patterns' presence now overpowered the silencing effect of the green daggers. Athelei felt the air vibrate and echo throughout the spacious halls of the cathedral.
On top of that, seven other people clad in blue robes appeared from different areas of the cathedral. Mystic Patterns appeared in the air, and Athelei had no idea which pattern did what. All he knew was that half of what they drew were used for violence.
And so the battle began.
The shockwaves wrought by Nightwalker abilities and Mystic Patterns rattled the pews while the shadows danced with the rapidly evading Nightwalkers. Beams of energy whizzed around the cathedral, staining the white stone with burns and scars.
The confrontation had only lasted for a few seconds, and the Nightwalkers were clearly disadvantaged. They kept falling back under the endless manifestation of Mystic Patterns that displayed their brutality in many different manners.
Athelei, who was watching the organized chaos noticed a sudden spike in the Nightwalkers' energy levels. He could have blinked and the next second, they had all dashed towards the altar once more.
But this time with manic intentions.
Panic had barely appeared on Priestess Haille's face when a blinding light consumed the entirety of Athelei's vision.
'Oh, no—' Athelei couldn't even swear as every particle of his body was flung violently into the sky.
BOOM!
A collective explosion consumed the entire cathedral. From its gardens and spires to its stone walls and cobbled walkways. Five white spheres of energy ravaged the area, and Athelei realized he was suspended high in the sky where the clouds were hanging peacefully.
He looked down and was met with another shockwave, flinging him further up.
'That's just wild,' Athelei commented upon seeing how ruthless the Nightwalkers were when he wasn't present to suppress them.
It took a few seconds for the energies, dust, and debris to settle down. When it did, only Priestess Haille was standing with bleeding wounds and freshly cut hair. She now donned a messy bob cut, and her damaged robes made her look like a battle monk. Her previously thick clothes had thinned down considerably, and showed a lot of her wounded and singed skin.
Her chest was heaving up and down as she staggered to the ground. Her legs gave up on her as blood spilt from her lips.
Athelei then looked away from the priestess and saw that she was truly the one and only one left. Not even the Mystic Artifact was present.
'That means it was either stolen or destroyed... but it's likely the latter. Could Master Wes be the next target?'
Just as Athelei harboured those thoughts in his mind, another explosion of energy shook from another part of the city. More white lights lit up the night sky and gave him a forceful shove. That was probably another wild charge of the Nightwalkers, and Guard Master Wes should've been on the receiving end.
'...' Athelei was speechless for a few moments. It seemed to him that the Nightwalkers had decided on a simple requirement for this night's mission;
[If you cannot take it for yourselves, then no one can have it.]
Athelei pursed his lips as he lamented yet felt intrigued by that aspect of humanity. It made him recall a lesson he learned during the Exiled's attack on the Harmonic Knight camp, 'There are no winners, and it's all down to who loses less... But I guess that such is the charm of mortals.'
He even thought that the Nightwalker who carried Javiexis' Concrupture had also been in the squads who blew themselves up, and thus that Mystic Artifact was now gone forever.
.
.
.
{[ April 2, 102 A.A. ]}
{[ Elk Inn, Revillie Village, Holy Nation of Illyas ]}
Athelei was browsing the Information Network through his small Cosmic Interface. He was currently enjoying a warm breakfast before setting off for the roads once again.
This time, the night had been peaceful in Revillie, and it seemed like the Nightwalkers either had no plans to come here or had yet to arrive. He didn't which one.
Athelei was unsure of such a fact because the radical actions of the Nightwalkers had occurred all across Illyas. It wasn't only Aren City who lost their Mystical Artifacts. Most of the cities incurred losses, from the total destruction of the artefacts to losing them in a theft, and even the diminution of their artefact's abilities, or worse, the inhibiting tampering of its powers.
Avina, the city he was headed to had lost a quarter of their harbour to suicidal Nightwalkers.
'Unfortunately, I lack the capability to profit off of their mutual losses,' Athelei sulked for a few moments to vent out his human emotions.
"Orien! It's time to go!" A voice sounded out just as Athelei finished his sulking. It was Lisa, and her smiles had been growing larger with each day they got closer to the great seaside city of Avina.
After passing through Zi Village later today, there would no longer be any villages in their path.
It was the last stretch, and Athelei too was excited. Although a Cold War was about to erupt, that didn't mean too much to him. He was still a child, after all, and the fights were left to the adults. People like Irene and the Lord of Aren were the ones who had to worry about those things.
The most he and Lisa would be was collateral damage.
Their job was to grow in strength. And grow Athelei shall.