The trip back to the command post wasn't without incident. As we made our way back, we picked off stragglers here and there. I shot down a few more Ravenous Ravens that were trying to flee, while Sigmund, Myria and Morten dispatched the ground forces. Even the fairy sisters continued to cast spells to eliminate the Bats we encountered, while my ghost type spirit beasts forged ahead to scout the forest and eliminate any surviving foes.
Still, it didn't take more than an hour to return to Colonel Blake's tent. The overall expeditionary commander looked like he had just been through quite the brutal battle himself, with blood splattered over his face and Kevlar armor. Despite limping, he was still directing the battle with a ferocity, reorganizing our lines and sending reinforcements to those parties who needed it. He actually sent out a general recall order and was marshaling everyone to return to safety for rest and resupply.
"Good to see you guys," he said after speaking to a military aide who had dashed off to speak to a couple of medics. The three of them then turned toward a retreating party to treat their wounds as they staggered back to the rear.
"How goes the battle?" Sigmund asked without preamble.
"Excellent, thanks to you guys." Blake smiled wearily. "You did us all an immense service by assassinating the Kobold King. By all accounts, it appears that you also ran into an unexpected Earth ranked opponent there too…Corvus, the Raven Lord? I'm relieved you guys still pulled it off despite the strength of the enemy."
"The credit should go to these young mages for taking care of the Kobold King while I was struggling with Corvus," Sigmund said.
"Not at all!" I protested. "If you weren't around, we would have been annihilated! There's no way we could take on both the Kobold King and Corvus the Raven Lord without your help! Not to mention, we wouldn't have punched that deeply into the enemy lines if it weren't for you leading the charge!"
"We can argue about assigning credit later." Blake raised a hand to forestall any further argument. "But the gist of it is that, yes, we won. The enemy's forces are in full disarray, and we are routing them. I estimate that they will be completely wiped out by morning. You guys did the heavy lifting and contributed the most…you fought the toughest enemies on the battlefield. Now take a good rest. I might still need to call upon you in a few hours, to rotate out the squads still busily combing through Noctwood Forest for any surviving foes, but you deserve a break now."
"Thank you, sir." I saluted. He dismissed us with a wave of his hand and began barking to another squad, swapping out the beleaguered combatants for fresh reserves to commit into the dying embers of the war. The rest of us exchanged weary glances.
"Well, I suppose we should find some place to settle down and get some shuteye," Morten said and trudged toward a tree. He promptly sat on a root, leaned against the trunk and dozed off immediately. The girls found a better location where they rolled out several mats that they could lie on.
"You want to join in?" Myria asked teasingly. I shook my head, too tired to banter, and proceeded to sit somewhere near Morten and sleep in the shade of the tree. It no longer seemed as withered as before, having reveled in the purer mana that flowed through the surroundings now that we had demolished the corruptive monument.
Only Sigmund stood still, but he decided to lean against another tree with his arms folded, his head tilted back slightly as he closed his eyes. The guy could actually sleep standing up. I was amazed. I didn't bother trying to look cool because I knew I couldn't replicate his impressive feat. I would just fold over and lay flat on the ground eventually.
In the end, the colonel never called upon us. I wasn't sure what happened while I was sleeping, but the alliance of humans and elves were able to clear the forest completely over the next few hours, ensuring there wasn't any enemy left. Bat, Raven, Kobold…not even the dark elves were spared, though the majority of them had seemingly vanished into the shadows. The beasts, though, had been thoroughly exterminated, with not even a single survivor spared.
Their corpses were left to decay in the forest, scavenged and consumed by the denizens. Not the Owls who helped us, but more of the…uh, ecological existences that contributed to the process of decomposition and decay. Even though they were foul things, their carcasses would be broken down and turned into nutrients to continue renewing the cycle of life.
Whatever the case, the main point was that everything was over by the time I woke up. As I groggily adjusted my glasses and blinked the sleep out of my eyes, I could see Colonel Robert Blake going to the center of the muster and waving for everyone's attention. Morten stirred to wakefulness, as did the girls when aides and runners ran around waking everyone up. Once he ensured that everyone was awake and listening, Blake bellowed.
"Listen up, everyone! I have good news! This battle has been an overwhelming victory for us!"
Cheers erupted throughout the massed ranks of humans and elves. To be sure, we had suffered casualties. I could see a place set aside for the dead, most of the corpses wrapped in white shrouds, the fabric now stained red with blood and dirtied after being brought to the battlefield. There was a medical tent set up nearby where healers did their best to cast recuperative spells on the wounded, but thankfully, most had recovered enough to stand and listen to Blake's announcement. They even joined in the cheering, waving bandaged limbs as they embraced and shouted.
"But it's not over yet!" Blake loudly proclaimed over the yells and whooping of the excited mages and warriors. He clapped his hands and waited for the excitement to die down before continuing. "The last of the enemy have gathered all of their remaining strength at the top of Yggdrasil. Once we've rested and worked out an attack plan, we will go up there and finish this once and for all. Make no mistake – this is a major win for us, and we have greatly disrupted their plans, but the war is not over! As important as this conflict was, this is just the penultimate battle! We're close to an overall victory, my friends. Just one step away! Let's kick those bastards out of the World Tree!"
"YEAH!"
Elves and humans alike roared their approval, waving weapons and hands into the air and united in their hatred for their demonic foes. After all, it wouldn't just be the elves who would be affected if Yggdrasil was corrupted. The fall of the World Tree and its contamination would have profound effects on the entire planet.
While everyone celebrated minorly in their own ways before prepping for what looked like the ultimate battle for the fate of Yggdrasil, I went back to resting. Still tired despite the few hours of sleep, I sat wearily on a protruding root of the tree I had chosen for my resting place. Morten was no longer there, having joined his compatriots in cheering their hearts out and talking excitedly about the next phase of the war. The final campaign, so to speak. A few had even dubbed it Ragnarök, but nobody took them seriously. This was a colossal crisis with catastrophic consequences if we failed, for sure, but it was hardly a clash of epic proportions between gods.
While they chattered and discussed among themselves, I noticed a new notification window.
-Mission 'Raven Wing' completed. The following reward will be bestowed upon the user: The Eye of Odin. –
"Say what? The Eye of Odin?" I repeated incredulously.
-A Mythic Rare Item, it is the eye of Odin, the ruler of all of Asgard. Willingly given in exchange for the infinite wisdom obtained at the Well of Mimir, it will allow the user to decipher runes and perceive the flow of magic. –
"…what? You're kidding, right?"
That sounded…overpowered. Why the hell would the system give me such an incredible item? And it was Mythic Rare too? Did the system mistake me for Min Jae Hyun?
-The user is advised not to get carried away. You will not be able to instantly learn and replicate spells just because you witness them being cast in front of you. This is not an overpowered Mythic Item that conveniently allows you to become the strongest mage ever. It simply allows you to perceive the flow of magic and comprehend both ancient and modern runes. The principle is similar to your qi sense when you learn Flowing River Clear Sword. –
Oh. Well, it was still pretty impressive because if I could perceive the flow of magic, then I could potentially disrupt it by interfering with the threads of mana or something. Though I would actually have to try it out in reality to check how practical it was. Still, I couldn't complain. A reward was still a reward, and depending on how I used this, it could prove to be indispensable to my plans going forward.
"Jun Wen? Are you all right?"
"Yeah." I glanced up when Myria approached, with the fairy sisters in tow.
"Your right eye…what happened to it?" Sylvie gasped when she made eye contact with me. I blinked in confusion and brought a hand up to it, though the path was slightly blocked by my glasses.
"Huh? What happened to my eye?"
"You don't feel anything?" Silvia asked, leaning closer. "Hmm, it seems like it changed color. It's now blue instead of dark brown, and there's…esoteric energies swirling about in your pupil. It's almost like your eye became a treasure item. An enchanted item."
"Do you feel any pain?" Sylvie asked, concerned. I shook my head.
"No, it seems that I made a breakthrough during this battle, that's all. I'm not sure how, but yeah. It appears I can better perceive the flow of magic with this eye now."
I covered my left lenses with my hand and peered through my glasses at my surroundings. Like the system had promised, I could actually 'see' the drifting mana threads that diffused, expanded, contracted and spread across the environment. I could see how some mana was directed and coalesced into spells, and how others were absorbed by the people as they trained or breathed. I could also sense mana that was directly fed into the environment to nurture the trees and organisms living here.
It was so…overwhelming.
"Can't I switch it off?"
At that, the mana threads disappeared. It was almost as if a filter had been placed over my right eye, and everything returned to normal. There were no more weird arcane energies surfing around me like a living creature.
"Ah!" Silvia pointed. "Your eye is back to brown! There's no more weird mana circulating around it!"
"What did you just do?" Sylvie was curious and half relieved. I shook my head.
"Uh, I just shut off my ability."
"Oh? So it's an active ability?" Myria leaned in closer, placing her hands on my shoulders as she looked into my eyes. She then nodded and withdrew. "Well, as long as it doesn't have any ill effects on you, then that's fine."
"Yeah. I think it might help, but I'll have to perform a few experiments."
"Just don't overdo it." She thought about it. "Does this have something to do with your summoning skills?"
"It might," I admitted, not sure if I should tell her that it was a reward from the system. They might find it hard to believe. "Though I suspect it has more to do with somebody wanting to rip off a certain manhwa or Korean web novel than actual summoning."
Just look at the damned chapter title.
"There you guys are." Morten finally rejoined us after speaking to a few of his fellow liaisons. He grinned, buoyed by our recent victory and raring to go for another battle. "Let's gather up and discuss our next plan of action. Colonel Blake has asked for the different parties to submit proposals for the next stage of the campaign, and I'm sure you guys will have some ideas how you want to go about it."
"Not really," I said. "I'm just going to listen to orders."
Myria rolled her eyes and resisted the urge to smack me. She turned to Sylvie and Silvia before beckoning Sigmund over.
"Stop being lazy," she reprimanded me. "The next step will be crucial in determining victory. We are going to need to do our best to ensure we don't fall short at the last moment."
"Yeah," I acknowledged. "But I'm not much of a strategist. I'll leave the planning to you guys. Just tell me where to fight and I'll point my summoned spirit beasts in the right direction."
"Speaking of spirit beasts," Morten said with a shudder. "I've only been hearing rumors so far, but it doesn't sound good. It seems that the top of the World Tree is currently being dominated by flying spirit beasts such as Growling Griffons and Wind Wyverns. It seems like the dark elves have managed to recruit a sizable horde of them to their cause."
"You've got to be kidding me!" Silvia exclaimed, throwing her hands up. "Of all the enemies…?!"
"Ugh…" I groaned. "Not flying spirit beasts again…this is going to be troublesome."
"Worse than that," Sylvie said softly, wringing her hands anxiously. "Growling Griffons and Wind Wyverns are some of the strongest spirit beasts in Mystic rank. And if they are present, then I wouldn't be surprised if they are being commanded by at least an Earth ranked spirit beast like a General Griffon or a Wind Dragon."