Since I have more free time again will try to post chapter daily or every other day.
I am still hesitant to show much of the DG Cult stuff, There is still another couple years of cooldown before mc encounters Renne or Tio, so may do another timeskip.
Keep dropping those power stones!
*
"Huff...Huff...", A hurried voice said, quickly running through the trees. This voice belonged to a tall middle aged man, as he could currently be seen running with a black haired child in his embrace. It was as if he was running from something.
"Ah...", The figure said, only to feel himself trip over. As he fell down onto the ground, he tried to make sure the boy in his arms didn't fall out. As a result, he found himself scraping his knees, falling onto them. Seeing no one chase him, he left out a sigh of relief.
But worry quickly overtook the man again, seeing the child he was holding panting in erratic breaths. He was still constantly losing blood from what appeared to be a large wound draped over his heart. Despite leaving his home to cinders with his other child trying to fend off the enemy, the man felt like he was at his wits' end.
This man, Giliath Osborne, with Rean Osborne in his embrace, couldn't help but yell out in anguish.
"Oh Aidios, please! Someone answer me! Goddess or fiend, I don't care!", Giliath yelled out in sorrow. Even tears started to drip from his eyes.
"I'll do anything...You can take my life instead, if you must! Just please...spare our second son's life!" Giliath said, crying out to the skies above.
Silence. That was all Giliath heard as he mustered the courage to say that. He left his first son behind who was still fending off the enemy, and now, he felt had nowhere else to run to. What method of saving Rean's life? He could barely even save himself right now!
And yet, after a moment of silence. Giliath felt a sense of dread strike against his very being. It didn't take long before a voice could be heard inside his mind.
"Oh how I've waited so long to hear those words...", A deep voice echoed inside Giliath's mind, causing him to blink for a moment.
"Waited. Waited. Waited. And Waited. I have waited for so long, Dreichels. For two hundred long years.", The deep voice continued to say. As it did, a gigantic shadow began to form not far away, which drew Giliath's attention. It appeared to be in the shape of a large knight of sorts.
"This time. You Will Be My, Awakener. Not The Ashen Knight's.", The deep voice said as it carried a scornful tone.
"Agree. And upon you I will deliver your second son from death. I can no longer interfere with your firstborn.", The deep voice proposed.
Hearing this, a realization dawned upon Giliath.
"...It was you, wasn't it? Your the one who did this, all of it!", Giliath retorted in anger.
"But I don't care! Take my body. Take my soul. Do what you will! So long as you save Rean, and don't interfere in the path Naoto will tread. It doesn't matter what happens to me!", Giliath yelled out.
"Ebon Knight, Ishmelga!", Giliath responded, answering the covenant that formed before him.
"Acknowledged. Potential Awakener has now been found. Now commencing mana synchronization...", The deep voice said, and the voice boomed from the giant darkness before Giliath. In no time at all, that giant knight of darkness swallowed Giliath entirely. At the same time, Rean's heart wound began to miraculously close its wound, allowing a pitch black heart to take root in its once near empty cavity...
Meanwhile, as Giliath was now set on his own path to fulfill seeing his figure retreat further beyond north into the Eisengard Mountain Range, I could still be seen within the inferno of once what used to be my home just earlier in the day.
But now, most of it has crumbled away, revealing a large pile of rubble. Within it, two swift shadows could be seen moving around. One of these was mine, while another belonged to a red haired kid similar age to mine, but a couple years older. We would clash swords, letting sounds of smoldering steel streak across the night. Besides us, gunshots would fire off, which slowly started to die down.
Not too far away deeper into the first floor, a silvery small white fox could be seen, releasing a dense aura. And yet the two kids ignored the fox as they were currently in their own world, trying to slash each other down. In the next moment, the aura finished condensing around the white fox, only to have its eyes glow a deep light. At the same time, the fox opened her mouth, and an ancient-sounding voice escaped from it. This voice felt very familiar, almost as if it came from Roselia herself.
"O Vagus Anima, Vienet Luceat Aeternum!", Roselia's voice resounded. Hearing this brought a smile to my face. Tama was successfully able to connect with Roselia from Eryn Village, and her spell went off without a hitch. As much as I would like to turn around to watch Kasia, I had to keep myself occupied with Randy. Every so often, pierce marks would dig into various parts of his body, letting blood splatter.
But I wasn't without any damage myself. Several slash marks could be seen cut into my robes, letting blood of my own run down. That weapon of his was no joke, even though it wasn't Berserker. It was a more run down version of it, but still, it was a powerful weapon.
As for what was happening behind me, Kasia's corpse began to glow slightly for a moment. It didn't last long, but the glow slowly merged toward the large chest wound that was inflicted upon her. To the normal naked eye, a pale ball of white light in the shape of a sphere came out of it. As if it knew its destination, the pale sphere of light didn't flew upward to enter its next course, but instead, invisible threads latched onto it, which came right from the silvery-white fox. Using her mana, she reeled the sphere. With a big chomp, Tamamo actually swallowed Kasia's soul whole. Seeing it gone, her tail started to wag happily.
"Brat, the spell is done. Everything is up to you now. Till the next time we meet, I expect some good growth from you.", A voice came from Tamamo's mouth, revealing to be none other than Roselia. However, she only spoke that that before Roselia cut off her connection with Tamamo. No longer hearing Roselia, Tamamo started to wag her two tails again.
"Kyuu!", Tamamo responded happily as she watched us two cancel out another clash. At the same time, she felt a bit sad, knowing what was to come next. Hopping down, Tamamo had one last look at me before she dashed away from the battle, slowly vanishing into a similar direction Giliath departed in not too long ago...
That's right, I had assigned a certain mission to Tamamo. The first part was to make use of her Barrier Skill, and to undergo Roselia's teaching these last couple of years. As a result, Roselia was able to use a joint spell between witch and familiar to activate one of her more complex, if not, forbidden spells. And the result was that Kasia's soul got sucked in, only to arrive at Roselia's side, though it was unfortunate I couldn't witness this part.
As for what Tamamo would do next, for now, I would have her follow after Giliath, to ensure he successfully passes Rean onto one of his closest confidants, Teo Schwarzer. Thanks to that unique skill, Sight Link, I would easily tell when this would happen.
And now, without anything else hindering this progression, I could finally act, as this battle has gone on quite enough.
Each time we clashed I could see both my HP and Randy's HP drain. We were both well below half now. And to my surprise, his level was only slightly higher than mine. Which kind of makes sense, since it hadn't been long since Randy started to actively partake in the Red Constellation's jobs.
I've come to learn that I get zero experience to raise my level unless I hunt down monsters, or likely kill fellow humans. While I may be doing the latter after I enter the DG Cult and join some Jaegers, at this point, i had yet to kill anyone. So thinking of what to do with Randy was rather questionable.
After I was able to parry his sword again, I quickly struck out, piercing Randy's left shoulder in quick succession. More blood splattered onto the ground.
"Kuh...", Randy said, letting out a painful groan. It wasn't without consequence though, as he found an opening, only to slash out once more at me. This time his blow was heavy, and caused me to get knocked backed a bit. My hands felt a bit dumb, also also splattering some blood.
"You really aren't a pushover are you, Randolph?", I said, praising him.
"...I could say the same to you.", Randy unexpectedly said, revealing his voice for the first time.
"Oh? So you can speak after all.", I retorted him. As I did, I quickly rushed in, going with another jab. Clink! The moment I struck out, Randy quickly brandished his, bringing his sword over his chest. My rapier jabbed right into his sword again.
This has been performed enough times to where cracks began to form on his weapon.
"Haaah!", I said yelling out, only to give into a spontaneous thrust. The moment I did, Randy felt a large impact strike against his body, only to have his eyes turn wide. Shatter!
He actually saw his weapon crumble away into several metal chunks, now rendering it useless.
"Now that that annoyance is out of the way, it's about time to wrap this up.", I said, revealing a smile. It was this time I jumped back, upping my own tempo. Hopping around a bit, I dashed toward Randy once more.
"Piercing Light!", I said, letting my rapier glow.
"Ahhh!", Randy said, yelling out in pain the moment he heard that. He only felt a searing pain go right through his right eye. Thanks to the heat of Piercing Light, the pain only lasted temporarily, before more blood splattered onto my rapier. He then shut his eye, unable to use it. Once the attack finished, I actually arrived behind Randy's back.
"Piercing Light!", I yelled out again once more. In quick succession, I did a diagonal upward jab, aiming right Randy's throat. Randy with his spare eye, only looked down to see a short blade pierce through his own throat...
But unexpectedly, he didn't see me pull my rapier from his throat. I kept it lodged in there for a moment.
"Package retrieval unsuccessful...", Randy said, mustering up his strength to say, only to have blood splatter from his mouth.
And yet he was still living, despite having his throat currently pierced. He felt his arms go limp.
It was then the battle was decided.
But to kill one of the future main SSS would leave a bad taste in my mouth, even if him being a Jaeger now would influence his actions early on.
So I would neither kill him, or let him walk away scot-free.
There was always a third option, wasn't there?
Thinking that, I revealed a grin. Randy would make an excellent pawn to see what would happen in the Red Constellation in the early stages now, wouldn't it? I decided to use my Gamer System at this time.
[Player Naoto is seeking to change his current job from Noble to True Dhampir. Would Player Naoto like to proceed?]
Y/N.
Without hesitation, I selected yes, only to feel my body start undergoing a change. My pupils started to constrict, only to reveal them changing into a dark crimson hue...
However, at the same time, we heard several footsteps reaching our side. Most of them were members of the Red Constellation, with a couple figures walking before us. The giant ogre-like man I saw arrive even began to clap his hands.
"Hahaha, to think Randolph would meet his match in this area. So. Aren't you going to kill him?", The ogre-like man said, revealing his own grin.