As expected the villagers here weren't normal civilians, they were retired adventurers, mercenaries, etc they also had a lot of magic artifacts and weapons to fend for themselves.
Letting out a tired sigh I looked at the sight in front of me. Dozens of cracks in the sky appeared and black dots started to come out and land on the mountains. As soon as the black dots were visible a loud alarm could be heard and all the machines started to make noise and the magic cannons they had started to glow bright blue.
I felt a huge amount of mana in the cannons and was slightly amazed how good the mana concentration it could produce in a machine. Usually to produce higher qualities of concentrated mana it would require a lot of concentration from the brain, something that would be hard to imitate with a machine, but it seems like this civilization's technology was more advanced than ours, which would be understandable with how the folks here have to adapt to their life situation.
Soon I could hear loud shrieks and rustles from the bushes. I focused some mana into my right eye and closed my left eye. The vision around me turned to black and white. The sky was black, the machines were black, the ground was black, everything that was not alive was black, while the living were white. It was a nice enchantment to have, but it was a shame that I could only get it for one of my eyes. It was one of many ancient enchantments from my family heirlooms.
I gripped my knuckles harder at the thought, but for now I had to focus. I had more important things to do, like dealing with this wave of rift monsters.
Soon the black dots were starting to shape into a creature that has four legs and a stinger on their asses. They were around five meters long and the other thing that stood out were their eyes. The creature had a total of twenty eyes. Ten on each side of its face that stretched back to its sides of the body.
"Ground unit ready your concentrated cannons. ETA fifteen minutes till the air units can come and support" a male voice could be heard from the village and I saw a magic crystal that was the source of the voice.
Soon I saw the raid members going into their battle forms as their horns started to poke out and their mana and aura were starting to thicken.
"Happy hunting people" the voice said before the machines started to make noises and the metal on their shoulders moved to the sides and a lot of small holes were revealed. Soon the holes shun bright blue and the machines tilted their bodies into a semi bridge position and blue mana concentrations shot out from those holes, although not as strong as the ones they had in their main cannons, but still strong enough to kill those rift monsters.
The mana shots were fired towards the forest and as soon as they landed loud explosions could be heard from the wall and the machines returned to their normal shape.
"Collective shots recharging" One of the machines spoke in a robotic and static voice and soon all of them spoke the same line.
"Cannons ready!" A female voice could be heard shouting and shortly after it was followed with all the machines raising up both their hands and their cannons ready to fire.
"Hold" The same female voice yelled and I turned towards the forest to see the rift monsters starting to burst out from the forest in large numbers.
I heard a loud rustle of metal and I turned towards the raid group to see them already ready to fight. The tanks had their shields out, the archers already notching their arrows into their bows, and the mages already had their staff, spellbooks, and catalysts ready to shoot out magic. Their muscles were so tense that I could see it from this distance and I couldn't help but chuckle at the sight.
"Hold" I shouted and they relaxed their muscles a bit.
"Archers prepare the splitting arrows, mages prepare quantity type magic. Tanks and melees stand down and prepare to move if those bastards are within twenty meters from you," I barked out orders whilst also turning around to find Angelica.
"Where the hell is that brat?" I thought as I walked back to try and find her, but I stopped when I heard a loud explosion behind me and I saw that there was a giant worm-like monster coming out from the ground, making the stone underground shoot out towards the army.
"Shit" I thought as I took out my sword and dashed quickly towards the frontlines.
"O Goddess of Protection, bless my blade to be sturdy enough to cast this protection spell" I prayed and my sword glowed bright gold as I felt her blessing in my mana channels.
"Ultimate Skill Absolute Fortress!!" I shouted when I reached the area in front of all the army behind me and soon my body was enveloped in a light golden ray. I turned around to see the machines, and the raid team was covered in a golden layer and sighed in relief. The stones that were falling down soon hit the army, but none of them received any damage or injuries.
I felt my mana drain at a ridiculous amount as I also heard him groan.
"Damn it boy. Next time warn me when you want to pray to a Goddess," He groaned and it seemed like he was in pain judging from his voice.
"Why? Scared of a little prayer?" I mocked him and I could hear him grunt.
"Me and Alexia do not have a good relationship" He sighed and that statement made me raise my eyebrow.
"Weren't you sealed there for a long time?" I asked him and I could feel him mentally shake his head.
"Even if I was sealed it was just most of my power and consciousness, I am death. If I am not in the outside world to monitor the cycle of death. This world would've been plunged into chaos a long time ago," He explained to me in a nostalgic tone as if he was reminiscing about his past.
"I might regret asking this, but what was your relationship with the Goddess of Protection?" I asked and there was an eerie silence that made me uncomfortable as well.
"Hey don't shut down on me now," I spoke in a worried tone as I focused some of my skill into the tanks since their shields broke again.
"She was my ex" He spoke and it was as if I was a deaf man, the surrounding sound around me became nonexistent and bewilderment filled my entire being.
"S..s.so you're telling me. You are the ex-boy.."
"Husband" He cut me off which made me plunged into a deeper state of perplexity.
An eerie silence filled our mental conversation as well as my hearing of what's happening in the real world.
"Let me get this straight," I calmed down a bit….. Who was I kidding? I was anything but calm.
"The old spirit I am currently hosting happens to also be the ex husband of Alexia The Goddess of Protection who also happens to be my contracted Goddess," I spoke in a neutral tone while containing my urge to scream and slap myself thinking this was some kind of sick dream.
"Wait now hold the fuck up. You're saying SHE'S your contracted Goddess?" He exclaimed and yelled the she part.
"Fuck I'm screwed if I enter her point of view," He spoke in a pessimistic tone and I had to hold the urge to form a disgusted face.
'MOTHERFUCKER YOU'RE SCREWED?!!! HOW ABOUT ME WHO'S CAUGHT IN THE CROSSFIRE? WHO ALSO HAPPENS TO BE A FUCKING MORTAL?!!!' I wanted to scream mentally.
My focus returned to the real world when I felt a hand on my shoulder and I turned around to see Angelica who was the one holding my shoulder with a serious face.
"What's going on? Your face seems disturbed," She stated and I just shook my head.
"It was nothing. I was just concerned with the amount of rift monsters that came out from the crack," I lied and she bought it for now which was a good thing, but my mind still couldn't shake off that disturbing information that I had just recently received.
"Fuck it's too early to deal with that level of bullshit. Might as well let off some steam" I thought as I canceled my skill and looked towards the monster wave.
"Dark arts Stalking shadow" I chanted and in a blink of an eye I was in front of a group of monsters and I quickly dismantled their limbs before beheading their heads.
"Wow they're as soft as butter" I thought as I turned around but immediately pulled back to a bridge position as a stinger flew past me.
"Fuck that was close" I thought, as soon as the stinger was pulled back I jumped back into a standing position and jumped back.
"Razark pull back you're too deep. None of us can assist you if you go in further" A static female voice could be heard in my ear peace, but instead of heeding to her words I pulled out a black earbud and put it in my ring.
"Alright Old man. If you're going to be with me. Make yourself useful" I thought as I concentrated a large amount of my mana.
"Dark Knights Valor" I chanted and soon two giant humanoid knights appeared behind me, their halberds and shields ready.
"Old man I'm gonna need a recharge on my mana reserves" I spoke in a brash tone and soon I felt mana flow inside me.
"Alright you damn bugs today is the day I exterminate your existence from this world" I spoke while a grin started to form in my face as I formed a mana sword with my other hand.
"Oy brat I can only transfer mana to you one more time and that's it. It's not because I don't want to, but it's because of your body. Even if I give you another charge, your body is too tired to function and then your entire body will shut down by itself" He told me in a warning tone and I nodded at the information before focusing back on the monster wave in front of me.
Angelica POV
That crazy bastard really surpassed his limits again.
That damn abnormal man just did that in front of all these people. He summoned two humanoid knights that were around eight meters in the frontlines, and let's not forget that he is also fighting off the monster wave whilst maintaining his spell. And he had just finished casting his ultimate spell that from past experience drained his mana by a lot.
Just what happened to him?
I shook those thoughts away when I heard cheering from the raid team.
"Go get em Vice captain" One of them shouted as the knight slashed down killing a few of those rift monsters. At least our morale was lifted up.
Those knights aren't weak either. I sense their mana concentration even from back here.
"Is that really the power of a mortal?" A local asked me and I shook my head.
"If all mortals have that kind of power you wouldn't need to go to these lengths for living space" I stated and he seemed to agree with me as well when he nodded his head.
"That is the power of the last descendant of the Imperator Family" She replied and the man's eyes widened hearing the name.
"The forsaken clan?" He asked but I shook my head.
"Not forsaken. Slaughtered would be the more appropriate word to use when describing the fate of his clan," I spoke in a solemn tone while the man stared at Razark in disbelief.
"You know, His father once saved me from a group of soldiers," The man spoke in a nostalgic tone.
"Even though it happened more than two hundred years ago I still remember the day I nearly died to the remains of the scarlet king's army" He chuckled as he took out his pipe and started lighting it.
"Are you the sole survivor of that incident?" I asked, my eyes widened and bewilderment filled my mind.
"Yup Ragnar Ragur at your service Lady Angelica" He gave a short bow before huffing his pipe.
"Even though news comes at a slower pace here. I have my ways of finding out what's happening in the outside world," He flicked his pipe a bit to get rid of some ash before continuing to inhale the pipe.
"The Merchant From The Other Side" I stated and his eyes widened before a loud laugh resonated out from his mouth.
"It seems like I am growing old and senile if you manage to figure it out that fast" He let out a sigh as he put away his pipe and took out a cigarette.
"It was easy to piece it together with the current condition. Had we had this conversation on the other side I would've surely been confused," I replied in a neutral tone and his expression didn't change at all.
"Don't humble yourself too much. If you do, you'd have no chance in catching up to that monster," He chuckled a bit while lighting up his cigarette.
"Hey maybe soon enough you'd invite me to your wedding" He teased whilst putting the cigarette into his mouth.
It took me a while to process those words and when it hit me, I turned towards him wanting to drive my fist to his skull, but he was gone.
"Damn you old man!!!" I screamed in frustration and stomped my feet to the ground which caused a small crater.
My frustration was cut short as a loud crash could be heard and I saw that a beast bigger than the ones that we've faced started to appear from the forests and charged towards Razark.
The two humanoids thrusted their spears and managed to kill four in a thrust, but the others just maneuvered and surrounded the two and Razark. The beasts clung onto the two giant humanoid's backs and started to claw their way through Razark summon's armor.
Worry started to swell inside me, but when I was just about to interfere I felt a huge concentration of mana coming from Razark and only one skill popped up in my head with the amount of mana he was using.
A rainbow flamed colored Phoenix appeared in the battlefield and swept through the monster forces and went straight through the forest, burning all of the trees that were in its way.
I started to hasten my steps towards him and when the dust cleared out I saw that Razark was starting to show signs of fatigue and it was then I realized his right arm was severely burnt.
"Razark!!" I shouted and ran towards him. When I was next to him I took out a red vial from my ring and gave it to him.
"Come on we need to go back," I spoke in a worried tone, but when I looked at his face a shiver traveled down my spine. Razark was wearing a creepy smile I've never seen him use before.
"Go back, raid captain. Can't you see this is a good opportunity to test my limits," He spoke and the two humanoids behind us crumbled into little stones and eventually turned into dust.
"Razark, you're not straight in the head right now. You've just recovered and it's too risky for you to keep on fighting in your current condition," I tried to reason with him and it seemed like it worked as his smile slowly disappeared and his crazy eyes slowly returned to normal. His once dilated pupils returned to its normal size.
"Sorry. It seems like I got a bit carried away," He sheepishly spoke whilst scratching the back of his neck, his lips curved up to a nervous smile.
I sighed in relief and looked in front of us to see the next wave approaching us.
"Come on let's regroup with the others" I hurried him and he nodded, we both dashed back towards the village whilst also turning back and attacking to lessen the numbers of the enemy forces.
"Captain, they're gaining distance. Go ahead I'll stall," Razark spoke and I turned around to see him still normal and was still in his right mind so I nodded and he stopped.
I stopped a few feet away from him and provided ranged support.
I took out my bow which had a silver body with gray engravings, the string was red and when I pulled the string a red-tipped arrow appeared.
"Be careful out there Razark," I prayed and let go of the bow string for the arrow to fly and hit a rift monster that was lurking behind Razark.
Razark turned towards me and gave me a nod before he took out his sword and started to slash the monsters. I watched as his sword was enveloped with something I've never seen him use before. A pitch black aura was covering his sword and it seemed like he was slicing through the monsters as if they were made out of butter.
I kept on supporting him while we waited for the machines to recharge for another large aerial attack.
"Captain, they're ready to fire another round. Get the vice captain out of the explosion field!!" I heard a shout and when I turned around I saw one of my raid members. I confirmed with a nod and charged up a decent amount of mana into this next attack to give Razark an opening to retreat.
"Razark fall back now!! The machines are ready for another one of those aerial strikes!!" I yelled and thankfully he heard it and started to fall back slowly and it was then I released my bow string and my arrow flew and took the form of a dragon and charged towards the rift monsters.
Without a second later the same blue beams invaded the surrounding and hit the monsters, creating large craters that exploded the monsters and soon nothing was left alive in the battlefield.
Soon the world began to stabilize as the sky became brighter and the cracks from the sky started to fade, but it didn't close off completely.
Noisy wind noises could be soon heard and when I turned around dozens of flying machines invaded the sky and went towards the forests and started firing, probably getting rid of the rest of the monsters.
"Looks like our job here is done," Razark spoke as he started to walk back to the village.
Letting out an exhausted sigh I just followed suit and tried to collect the energy I'll need to scold him later for pulling that kind of stunt.