"...How long will they last?"
Oh, how long indeed.
Standing alone in the heavy rains, Athelei felt the world around him.
Wisps of grey fog surrounded the Arthime territory, and wherever there was death, he was there to reap their minds. The Reaper took their souls, while Athelei took their sentience.
Drums and cymbals were playing in his ears—every crackle and boom of lightning and thunder; every scream of agony.
While the humans worried for their sad fates, Athelei felt like he could breathe easier. The air was cold, and so were the rains. But with every deep breath he took, it was sweet revitalisation.
The territory of the Arthime household was doing well in their fortified fortress. The endless labouring of the two Rank 2 Artists was not put to waste as Mystic Energy ebbed and flowed with the waves of the undead.
There was even a Rank 2 Evolver, moving alongside the lightning, and battering down the colossal Ulthasiair. It was Apple, and the man's fists rained down rhythmically and barbarically on every damaged snake scale.
The lands of Sky Cross matched the undead horde with their own numbers. Students, teachers, and Adventurers all went wild and made noise. Arrows of Tangible Will rained down from the school's highest point, deadly and precise.
Paliver Hare somehow had the ability to shatter the cores of the Undead Remnants with his precision strikes.
It allowed Sky Cross to breathe for now.
The Veritas had their own fair share of elites lingering throughout their territory. A dome of purple Tangible Will was pulsating like a giant, beating heart. Whatever monster that climbed the slopes, whatever beast that emerged and croaked, they were all placed under heavy suppression.
But even if Liam's stamina seemed limitless, the horde of the undead seemed to be too. They were piling up, looking like a slow-moving slime, creeping forward. One step at a time.
With enough time, the monsters would outnumber every human there.
Death would only follow if the other Elites could not thin the horde fast enough.
As for the Lotus family atop their mountain, they had something else in mind.
Lotus Weizhe had already lost hope of winning the battle and living through the war. The beast tide was feeding the undead. Who knows how long it would take for an abomination like Ulthasiair to spawn?
What happens when the mutant sea serpent itself perishes under the force of the Arthime family?
Wouldn't it be consumed... and... recycled?
Ulthasiair might just rise again, stronger than ever, with the help of those chaotic bodies of fog.
And that was why Weizhe stood under Lady Karire's rain, looking at the entire battlefield. He saw the smaller safe zones fighting for their lives. He saw the large safe zones only capable of stalling for time.
"Time..." Weizhe muttered as he watched, "We cannot win against time..."
Humans can tire, and energy can be depleted.
The battle had been raging for half an hour, and in that time, Lady Karire's lightning strikes had waned. Even her rains had weakened, and only the storm clouds lingered without fading.
Although Ulthasiair looked heavily wounded, it was still alive despite the bombardment of electricity. It looked dazed or crazed. Perhaps both, as burn marks could be seen in its flesh.
Hundreds of its scales had already been fried and torn off by human hands.
"I hope that winged Nightwalker did not lie to me..." Weizhe laughed wryly at himself, "A friend of Nikiri Mist? Traitors of the night? Am I supposed to believe that?"
Weizhe then took out a marble egg of white and blue.
"But this... This cannot be a lie."
[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]
Seed of Atlantis
- Has a high chance to birth a city construct.
[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]
Even his own Appraisal agreed with him. With the number of treasures he had come across in his life as a member of the Lotus family and now as its head, Weizhe could not believe that his amassment of knowledge would betray him. It simply wouldn't make sense to him if all the books he had memorised and studied, and all the lessons he had been taught and learned, would make a mistake now, when his life and the lives of his family was at stake.
He did not want to believe he could make a mistake. Else he loses himself to indecision.
And so, Weizhe breathed and recalled the words of the winged Nightwalker.
"Retaliate." He echoed out the Nightwalker's words, "If you were forsaken, then become independent. Fight, for I am giving you an answer to your worries."
Those were the exact words spoken to him. He could now recall it clearly after a long night of rest.
H U U U U U U U M M M M M M M M !
Weizhe had already filled the Seed of Atlantis with as much Mystic Energy as he could. And now, all he did was flick a switch.
Yes, it felt oh so simple.
All his worries felt so irrelevant in the face of such simplicity.
"Perhaps I feel this way because I'm leeching off of the efforts of others." Weizhe sneered at himself, recalling the burning nobles he had seen just a day ago.
He suddenly heard their screams once again. He recalled their melting skin, their charred flesh, and their black bones.
Those nobles were sacrifices.
The puppets of the Exiled, the punching bags of the Banishers, and the toys of the Nightwalkers.
Power welled up from the Seed of Atlantis.
It was immense. Indomitable.
The raging floods, the strong winds, and the rains, all seemed to become silent around Weizhe. The Lotus mountain experienced a moment of peace, as even the undead froze for a short moment.
WHOOOOM!
A massive pillar of light pierced into the sky like a beacon of defiance. Weizhe felt an immense weight suddenly settle on his shoulders. It was a familiar feeling had to bear for many years of his life.
He was shouldering the weight of a city.
But this time, it was not the great seaside city of Avina.
It was the lost city of Atlantis.
.
.
.
"Sir Weizhe did not disappoint." Athelei smiled from where he stood, on a balcony in the Arthime mansion.
He had been waiting, patiently and expectantly. His silky black hair was now well and truly soaked, and yet the strong winds could still blow strands across his face. Standing in the midst of a storm, if not for eighty percent of his body turning ethereal, perhaps he would've had the shivers.
And now that a sky-blue pillar of light had suddenly appeared, excitement coursed through his veins. He got the shivers from a totally different source. The adrenaline rushed through what was left of his veins, creating that excitement he couldn't keep down.
But it was also paired with a pinch of panic.
Athelei heard raging roars coming from all the beasts in the sea. It shook the already stormy waters even further as they all surfaced to have a look at the beam of light. Hate and rage could be seen in their beady eyes that stared without blinking.
Six flashes of light suddenly drew Athelei's attention, emerging from the safe zones of Avina and rushing towards Lotus mountain. They brought with them a similar enraged emotion as they moved across the waters.
'The Banishers,' Athelei noted, seeing that Lotus Weizhe may just have a problem.
And yet there were still more enemies going after that pillar of light.
Nightwalkers appeared, despite the time of the day, using the shadows of the storm to travel. They all sprung out of the beast infested waters and began climbing the mountain, eager to snuff out any of Avina's attempts at survival.
Some Nightwalkers were also scaling the safe zones, seeking carnage and destruction.
BOOM!
An explosion sounded out near Lotus mountain's peak, and Athelei could only guess which party that was.
'The Exiled?' Athelei strained his eyes and yet he could not figure out anything. But when a glowing gold light appeared, accompanied by waves of a familiar bloodlust, he was given the answers he sought.
Lucien Ophlain and Amerie of Aren had still been hiding within Avina's destroyed walls.
And now Lotus Weizhe had enemies on all sides:
The Banishers who disliked all that was connected to blasphemers,
The Nightwalkers who wished for Avina's total destruction,
The Exiled who wanted the lost city of Atlantis for themselves,
And the beasts, who somehow harboured a grand hatred for the pillar of light.
"...Goodluck, Sir Weizhe," Athelei wished to help, but aggressive presences had suddenly shaken the entire Arthime mansion.
"I wish to help, but it seems like the rest of Avina has been assumed to be your allies..." Athelei chuckled wryly as the Area pattern appeared in front of him. The many wisps of his fog body returned as well.
Athelei took a deep breath as the presence of a few enemies seemed to have materialised out of nowhere, "Let's see if I can survive this..."