Waking up the next morning, I climbed up on top of a nearby tree and patiently waited for Anise to do as well.
Last night was kind off wild, I even saw the notification of losing some health points a couple of times, but in the end we both enjoyed it and that's what matters.
Today was the day we're finally going to reach Bastion and I was kind off excited to join the fight against the demons.
As I was playing around with a water ball, Senna's voice sounded in my head.
[*What are you thinking about?*]
'Nothing special. I'm just a little excited and a little scared that I'm going to be fighting demons.'
[*You should try to form a complete party. Having people to help is going to make it easier.*]
'I'll try, but I'm not really the team player type. Senna, do you mind if I asked you a personal question?' I asked with a pensive expression.
[*Not really. Ask away.*]
'Have you ever been in love with two people at the same time?'
[*You're going to start with the feeling guilty bullshit again? After what happened last night? Some of that stuff you did managed to even scare me.*]
I blushed slightly at her words and replied: 'Not really. I already accepted Anise and I sure as hell am going to get back together with Alison. It just somehow doesn't feel right…'
[*Well, I personally haven't. I've only admired two people in my life and even I'm not sure if it was actual love. Once was one of my sisters in the dark dimension and the other one… well that is a long story for another time.*]
'Hmm, what happened? and, was she your biological sister?'
[*Nothing really. With him, we never really had the chance to make things clear. And my sister, let's just say that things didn't work out anymore after I got imprisoned. Also, how can she be my biological sister when us people of the soul race are created by the universe itself? Are you an idiot?*]
'I forgot about that, but damn, that sucks. I'm sorry for bringing it up.'
[*Don't be. For beings like me, like us, who dwell in eternal life, love is only a fleeting feeling. Back to your thing, there are people in the multiverse with thousands of wives, worrying about two is a bit…*]
'I get it, but it still feels a little weird to me and don't know what to do about it.'
[*Don't do anything. That guilty feeling will pass with time. Just continue to enjoy yourself, you didn't seem to have any problem with that last night.*]
As I was casually chatting with Senna, I noticed that Anise slowly started getting up as well. Dropping down from the tree as silently as possible, I hugged her from behind as I kissed the side of her neck.
"Morning, sleepy head."
"Mmm" Anise let out a soft sound, seemingly enjoying the feeling before she replied: "Morning to you too."
We enjoyed some morning cuddling before climbing atop of Zephyr and continuing our journey towards Bastion. It only took around three hours of traveling at full speed before a huge city appeared on the horizon.
"We should walk on foot from here on. Let's not attract to much attention since the start." Said Anise as she was gazing at the city.
I agreed and we both continued the rest of the way on foot.
Once we reached the base of the huge walls that surrounded the city, we were surprised to notice that there was no entrance queue, only a bunch of guards. The guards all had a stern and serious gaze, completely different from every other guard we saw before. They were also not wearing the Empire's armor, but a completely black one that had traces of being worn in combat many times.
As we reached closer to the gate, one of guards came towards us and said:
"Stop there. Tell me your purpose of visiting Bastion City."
Both Anise and I stopped when he told us to and took out our adventurer badges before replaying to the guard: "We're adventurers and magicians coming from Cloven City. We're here to join the war against the demons."
The guard's expression eased up a bit once he heard my words and he came up to us: "First of all, I want to thank you. There are not a lot of people that are willing to join the war these days and every single helping hand is surely appreciated. Now, if you don't mind, can you pass me those adventurer badges so I can check them with the guild? That is the procedure to make sure they are not stolen."
We agreed and handed over our badges to the guard. He passed them to one of the other guards which went inside the city, probably towards the adventurer guild to check their authenticity.
As we were waiting, Anise asked the guard: "If you don't mind, can you tell us what the situation with the war is right now? We don't get a lot of news in the south."
A sigh escaped the guard's mouth as he replied: "To tell you honestly, it's not looking good. The number of reinforcements we're receiving from the Empire and the affiliated kingdoms is smaller than the number of knights we lose on the battlefield. If nothing changes, it's only a matter of time before the demons manage to breach Bastion and start conquering the south as well."
"That bad?" I replied, "Why is the power discrepancy that big between the demons and the humans?"
"The problem are not really the demons. Most of the battles are fought between humans. Their side is mostly made out of mind controlled humans or resurrected undead. Even the ones we lose, if we're not able to burn their bodies, we'll have to fight them too eventually."
This seemed strange to me, so I asked: "Doesn't our side also have undead magic? Why can't we use it as well to fight against their undead?"
The guard nodded and said: "We do, but the Empire banned the use of undead magic. Apparently, the demons can take control of the undead we resurrect so it's just a waste of mana and it's also helping them."
'Senna, is that a thing?' I asked the best expert I knew on magic of the darkness element.
[That is not impossible, but it's highly unlikely. The undead are controlled using the mana of the caster, if there is not that big of a level difference, wrestling their control away is impossible. And even if it was possible, the mana consumption makes it not worth.]
'I thought so as well. I wonder why the Empire would ban the use of undead magic then..'
As we were talking the guard returned and passed us the badges back before saying: "The badges check out. You can enter the city now."
After thanking the guards, Anise and I passed through the gate and entered the city of Bastion. There were a lot of people inside, but most of them were knights, mercenaries or adventurers with only a few without combat experience, probably merchants. The atmosphere was heavier than we imagined and you could see all the people walking around with worry in their eyes.
We walked through the crowded streets and, after asking for some directions, we made our way towards a local inn. Once we entered the inn, an old man greeted us in the empty lobby and said: "Hello, are you new to the city? Do you wish to rent some rooms?"
I nodded and replied: "Yes, please. A single room for both of us. One with a bed for two if possible."
"That is no problem." He picked up a key with the number 21 on it and handed it to me before continuing: "The room is on the second floor, first room on the right after climbing the stairs."
"How much?" I asked as I took out my money bag.
"The rooms are all paid for by the Empire so you will not have to pay rent. I only need you to tell me how much you're planning to stay so I can know when to release your room for renting again."
"They pay for everyone in the city?" I asked in amazement.
The innkeeper nodded and said: "Yes, since everyone that is allowed in the city is either a warrior or a magician that came to fight on the battlefield or merchants that bring in supplies. This is one of their way of attracting more people to fight."
"I see. Then we'll book for an entire month for now. We might extend later."
We picked up the key and went to drop our luggage inside the room, keeping only the gold coins with us. After that, we asked the innkeeper on our way out for directions and headed towards the adventurer guild.
About twenty minutes later, we reached the adventurer guild and walked inside. The place was full of adventurers, their numbers at least ten times higher than Cloven City. Even the quest board was a lot bigger.
After Anise leveled up to 25 and we both registered for rank C badges, we went to look through the quest board. We started browsing from the F rank quests and worked out way up towards the C rank ones.
There were a lot of quests, but there was not that much diversity. Most of them were to get stationed on the battlefield for a number of days or to escort merchants towards nearby cities to resupply. The rank F ones were the only ones inside the city. They were quests to help with the making of weapons or medicine.
After discussing for quite a while with Anise, we decided to take a quest on the battlefield, but we settled for a D rank one since we wanted to get a feel for the situation at first.
//Joining the fight(D rank) - quest//
//Join the fight together with the K14 squad.//
//Duration 2 days//
//Reward 2 gold coins//
After registering the quest, I asked the person behind the registration desk:
"One more question, how do we find the K14 squad?"
The clerk showed me a map and said: "This is a map of the battlefield. See the K section? That is where your squad we'll be fighting. To group up with them, you must first ask the people at the wall when they'll get back."
I asked Ai so memorize the map and we walked out of the guild. Once outside, I said to Anise.
"Let's first go and check the weapon stores. I want to try and find a decent spear."
We asked for directions from the people around and started walking towards the only weapon store inside the city. On the way, Anise asked me:
"You plan on fighting with a spear?"
"Not really, I'm not that strong physically after focusing on increasing my magic, but I want one nonetheless. There is no need to use magic against weak enemies and might even help me catch a strong one by surprise. If I find one with good enough conductivity I could even channel my lightning through it."
Once we reached the weapon store, we were both surprised by the size of the place. It was the biggest building we've seen up to now in the whole city.
As we walked inside, we saw that it was full of people. After we walked a couple of steps and saw that we kept getting pushed around, Anise cast a small wind barrier around us to push people away as we kept moving forward. Once we found an employee of the place, we asked where they kept the spears and headed there.
The room with the spears was less crowded so Anise canceled the spell and we started looking around. I kept checking the spears around the place as I asked Ai to see if any of them was any good. After checking more than forty spears, I picked up a silvery white one and Ai exclaimed:
[This one has the best conductivity yet. It's also quite sturdy. You should buy it.]
I looked at the price tag and saw that it's price was 40 gold coins. That was pretty much half the money we had left. After considering for a moment, I picked it up and went to the clerk in the room. Paying the gold coins, I walked outside with the new spear tied to my back.
'This is quite an expensive spear.' I exclaimed in my mind.
[It's made out of titanium, which makes it really sturdy. Titanium has low conductivity but it's also coated with silver. Silver is the reason for the good conductivity.]
'But, if lightning magic is not a thing in this world, why bother covering it with silver?'
[Silver is a good material for fighting the undead.]
'Oh, I see.'
Once my doubts were cleared, we started heading towards the battlefield. After walking through the city for over an hour, we reached the wall in it's northern part. We told our purpose to the guards and one of them escorted us to see the quartermaster. Apparently he was the one in charge of adventurer distribution.
After we walked for about five minutes through a tunned inside the wall, we reached a room and the guard knocked before mentioning for us to enter.
Inside, a middle aged man was sitting behind a desk and looking through some maps. Once he saw us, he looked at our badges and said: "C rank, not bad. Are you new?"
"Yes, sir." I replied.
"Which squad are you here to join?"
"K14, sir."
He looked through some documents before saying: "They will return late tonight or early tomorrow. Do you want to return then or just wait here?"
Anise and I looked at each other and said: "We'll wait for them here if possible."
The quartermaster nodded and threw us two new badges with the letter K on them: "These badges will prove your identity as members of the K squad. You can go and wait for them on top of the wall, this will also let you take a look at what you should expect. Once the K squad returns to resupply, I will send them to look for you. You're dismissed."
We saluted the quartermaster and went outside. We asked the guard that lead us here and he agreed to guide us to the top of the wall. As we reached there, we were again surprised by it's size.
The wall surrounded the whole city, but the northern side was a lot thicker. It was at least 30 meters thick. After walking at the northern edge, we saw the opened sea far in the distance and the battlefield right at it's shore. Using magic, we could clearly see the people fighting underneath.
It was my first time seeing an actual war, and I was soon going to join it as well.
"This is frightening, I can see people constantly dying.." Said Anise. From the looks of it, it was her first war as well.
I nodded absentmindedly and kept observing the situation. As we were both immersed in our own thoughts, Senna's voice sounded in my mind.
[*The humans are really fucked this time.*]