"There is no fast path to success."
Lithia reduced the size of her attack to speed them up. I dodged those pellets only to encounter a wall of fire enclosing me from either side and an actual wall to my back.
Days had turned to months, and months to two years. The two of them had grown considerably in tactics. But it was still not enough. The best counter to forward-thinking is unpredictability.
Spreading the fire meant that I could counter it with speed.
I bounced off the expensive palace's wall behind me, completely shattering it, and dove straight through the fire. Of course, the tithe covered the repair costs so it was fine. But the fight itself wasn't that easy. On the other side of that fire, an ax swung towards me at full strength. I blocked it with my sword and was launched through the building. I balanced and stopped myself from making the entire castle tumble. The tithe covering that much would be an overreach.
My hand was still rattling from the sheer weight of the ax. As the dust cleared I saw the silhouette of the two people gasping for breath.
"Does that count as a win? You're out of the training field." Javes shouted.
"I suppose it does." I shook my wrist. "But the lesson is to not let your guard down."
I was in front of them before they could blink. Without using Prana of Time. I spent all these two years pushing my body to the extreme limits of speed. Without a moment's delay I landed an uppercut through Javes' chin. As his body flew up, his eyes looked down fully conscious. It was only a matter of fact that he would've learnt how to heal before the injury after two years of drilling it into him.
He jumped back.
In these two years, I had not used my skill that often as I had realized something after my use. Every time I used this skill, the world around me became a little darker. It might have been a complete coincidence but I didn't want to risk it. I sort of expected this in all honestly. The Prana of Time was too powerful to be compatible with the human body.
So to counter my first perceived weakness I trained and trained and got stronger as well. The best way to keep this secret hidden is to kill the enemy before they realise it. I found new uses for Prana I had encountered.
Iudex, the sword in my hand, started to vibrate.
"Wait! Are we continuing the spar?" The two got in position.
"Should we stop?" I stopped pouring prana into the sword.
"Yeah, we learnt the lesson already. Cut us some slack! That attack always puts us out of commission." Lithia threw a tantrum.
"Ohh, if you say so." I put the sword down. "Well, today you did beat me. So I believe it is time to call quits on the training."
"Really? I was kind of getting used to it too." Javes.
I picked my sword back up.
"NO! I was just joking. I meant are we going on a journey now?" He hid behind Lithia as if that would save him.
"I was joking as well." The delivery was so dry it barely gave them a wry chuckle. "Ahem.. Anyway, we are not going on a journey today. Before we do so, we'll have to part ways for a year with the intent to hone our skills and obtain proper equipment. I contacted the guild and informed them about what tools we will need come the actual journey. So the guild went out of their way to go through all the text sources they had on legendary weapons and created individual quests for the two of you." I pushed the two apart.
"You are headed to the east, and you to the west" I pointed in either direction.
"Lithia, what you need is a staff, you've been playing around with that stick for far too long. And a grimoire too while you're at it. Most of the royal directors have access to several different types of Prana, while you have only focused on honing one. That had its perk because at this moment no one alive can rival you in your use of fire. But gaining knowledge about the other spells would do you good. Your designated destination is the Director's pillar to the east. The Prana's needle is a weapon handed only to the strongest Director of the pillar. It has blades on either side that also function as a melee weapon. To accomplish that goal you will have to have at least intermediate mastery of all the spells offered by the pillar. You have a year."
"That is an extremely tall order!" She hit her stick on the floor.
"Can you do it?"
"If there are other talented directors it might give me some trouble."
"But can you do it?"
"Yes, I can."
"As for you James, your goal is pretty simple. Kill Rudea, the empress of ruin."
"Wait, that Rudea? Is she not a captain of the Untouchable's fleet?"
"I think I misspoke. Your job isn't to kill her. In a head-to-head fight you can't beat her. Instead, your job is to hunt her. You have a year, gather men, find her weakness, and hunt her. She is the empress of ruin, one touch from her and you'll die. So find a way to survive. What you need is her gem, it has the power to negate all ill omens."
"Do you think you'll lose if you have proper resources?"
"I reckon I'd win."
"Understood." A brief moment passed. "So what? Do we split up now?"
"What will you be doing, Miss Apostle?" Lithia asked.
"Helping the people." I looked up at the sky. Every day we get one step closer to our goal. Today I was closer to the Lord than I had ever been. But the issue with having such a simple goal is that you lose track of reason. My reason for doing this is to save my people. And for a year, I shall do just that.
"You really are an Apostle!"
"What did you think I was?"
"Please don't overexert yourself."
"Farewell."
"Oi."
*
*
*
And then, three years had passed since I met them on that battlefield with Xen. After our first encounter and paperwork, we stayed in our little town for a month before we headed to the capital. We trained even more there and learned how to work together as a unit taking on small battles in and around those areas. A couple of months later we moved to another country to study the different sorts of the Untouchables that country was engaged with. It soon became obvious that wherever we went the number of the untouchables decreased. Many-a-time unlocking trade routes, allowing safer access to resources. In one of the countries we even managed to prevent a famine.
Wherever we went prosperity followed. The morale of the humans that had been losing for years had started on an upward trend. My name as Leia's Apostle had spread, people worshipped me as they worshipped her.
And then the three of us split on our individual quests. A year passed after that. I passed through seven countries, having been in every country our continent had to offer. Wherever I went my cult followed. I was hailed the messiah, the saviour blessing the peasants, the nobles, the merchants, the soldiers, and the kids, alike.
The magnanimous acts of the previous apostle in saving many of the soldiers' families came to light during this time as well. Her image of superimposed on mine. With every passing day, I became even more perfect of a being in the people's eyes.
Influential people began to suck up to me. Despite being a woman of the cloth, I was even offered one of the prince's hands. Alas, no matter what carrot was dangled in front of this lowly pig, the stick was the only thing I was after. It was all for a journey.
Perhaps it was because of that single-tracked mentality to one day end up in the Lord's court, that I had forgotten about the consequences of my actions. Nevertheless, they come an haunt you when you least expect them.