Chapter 37 - Chapter 37: The Unexpected guests

A wyvern so that is what made that annoying sound. No wonder Zari rushed here. Why are all this people here? They are soldiers? Have we interrupted a war? Both sides are looking at us like we are aliens or something. "Zari. We are in the middle of a battlefield." I said. Zari looked around as were floating above the air. "Savior you have come at last. Thank the gods." Roy shouted. Savior? Who Zari? She only came here because a creature made a sound that she found irritant. A sound she said was meant to intimidate others. She found it laughable that a creature would try to mess with her. "What is that human talking about?" Zari said as she looked at me. "The enemy has reinforcements, fire the arrows." Commander Franz shouted. Arrows? This was going to be boring. They could not harm the six of us here. Zari had brought her 4 subordinates for this mission who were all dragons. "I will deal with this." I said. I raised my left hand and created a disintegration zone around the six of us. This was where if any arrows crossed, they would turn immediately to powder.. The disintegration zone was ten meters in radius. Below us, a cloud of dust formed as the arrows continued disintegrating. "Chrono! What do we do?" Zari asked. This was more of a bother and not a risk for us so we wanted to respond appropriately. "Just toss a fire attack next to them. Make it flashy." I answered. Zari tossed an attack on the ground just in front of the army. The Lokain army scattered away in panic. The arrows had now stopped. "What do we do now?" I muttered. "Let's go see that human. He called me a savior." Zari answered. We flew and landed on top of the wall. The troops here were very wary of us. "Human. Why did you call me a savior?" Zari asked. Pretty straightforward, very Zari like. "Our priestess spoke of you. She said that a savior will come to aid us in our fight against the invaders." Roy answered. What is he talking about? There was nothing in particular about saving this kingdom. In fact, I just met Zari today and we decided to fly here tonight at random. I was excited to see the continent so I went with her idea. The probability of us ending up here were so slim. You're telling me somebody prophesied our arrival? Then if that is true, she could help us find the Arachnid. "Tell me more about this priestess." I said. "I would like to but we are at war." Roy said as he pointed towards the enemy. I am not interested in killing them. I should try capturing as many as possible. There was an ability, Drya that allows me to control plants. I got this from the battle with the giant tortoises that could control vines on their back. "Zari, you guys wait here I will be back." I said. This was my first time using this ability at its full power. I flew to the center of the battlefield and raised my arms. A large tree over three hundred meters sprout from there. Panic set in and the Lokain soldiers started running away, however the tree's vine managed to catch at least 5,000 of them. Not much considering that the army was over forty times that size. "Run. This is a demon." "Move you idiot." Screams were heard all around. This tree containing moving vines managed to illicit a greater fear than Zari's earlier fire attack. I had managed to capture Commander Franz although I would not know this until later. Hour four. The rest of the army had retreated far into the horizon. Having completed my task I flew back to the wall. "I didn't know you could control plants?" Zari said. "Ooh that. I learnt that a while back. I don't think it is an everyday skill you know." I answered. "Co control plants?" Roy muttered. I turned my attention to him and was seriously shocked. 50 that's it? How weak can you be having mana reserves of 50? The others too. Nobody has more than 70 in mana reserves here. "Human. My companion asked you a question earlier." Zari said. "Yes. I remember. How about you come meet her savior." Roy answered. "Just call me Zari. What should I call you human?" Zari asked. "Roy. Call me Roy." Roy answered. "Chrono, I think stopping here for a while is a good idea. What about you?" Zari asked. "Yes. Maybe this priestess can help us look for what we are searching for." I answered. We followed Roy to what we though was a temple. "Your Priestess sure has some fine taste." Zari answered. The compound was well kept and everything was neat. "No. I am here to take you to father first." Roy answered. "What?" we both said in sync. The only reason we had not left here was because the priestess sounded intriguing. Now he is taking us to his family? "See my father is the king here. I want to introduce you to him." Roy said. Well royalty to us meant nothing. Zari was the sister to the Emperor Dragon. I was the son of a King and was also The White Eagle. Whatever another king intends to tell us is of no consequence. "Roy. I am only here for the priestess." I said. "That is okay. I was only going to take savior." Roy answered. Ooh my heart hurts. "Chrono. This one has some guts right?" Zari said. The other four dragons were not laughing at all. They even seemed madder than me. Due to saving their race and what not, I managed to get a decent following among them. "Relax guys. Its fine" I told the four of them. We were escorted to some form of throne room that was barricaded. "Allow me." Zari said. She pushed the door open bending the metal rod placed to keep it shut. "They have come for us." "We shall die" various people screamed. "Calm yourself. I have brought our savior here with us. The priestess was right. She came for us. The war has been won." Roy shouted. Screams of joy were heard. "Did we really?" "Thank the gods." "The savior you say?" the room unlike a moment ago, was now very noisy that is until someone rose up. "Calm down. Roy my son. Is that really the savior?" the king asked. "Yes father. We almost died and she rescued us. Just like the priestess said, the savior shall come at the nick of time." Roy answered. I was now a far distance back from Roy and Zari. I did this at the insistence of Roy. Maybe it was too dark that he did not see what I had accomplished. Well no matter, in the morning the enemy soldiers and the giant tree will be visible. "My daughter are you the savior?" The king asked Zari. "Haha human. You are too young to call me that." Zari said while laughing. Yeah I saw that coming from a mile away. Zari always loved bagging about her age to me. "Insolent brat. You are in the presence of his majesty. Kneel before him." A noble shouted. Zari to kneel? Zari kneel? "Roy. Where is the priestess?" Zari asked while assuming the command. "Guards arrest her." The noble shouted. "Is this necessary uncle, I mean duke…" Roy was interrupted. "Don't move. If you do you die." An old woman's voice was heard. "Priestess? What are you doing here?" the duke asked. "You should really learn to control yourselves. This six people here cannot be defeated by us. You could mobilize the whole army and still not scratch any of them." The priestess said. "Preposterous. You describe them as if they were god. Guards arrest them." The duke shouted. Them? What the hell did we do? The priestess hurried and blocked the guards. "Please your majesty I beg you. Let me have this people and teach them some etiquette before you seem them tomorrow. It is already late in the night." The priestess said. "It seems everybody is tired and on edge. Let us reconvene here tomorrow." The king said. "Thank you your majesty." The priestess bowed her head. The duke was displeased but did not say anything. "Follow me." The priestess said as she looked at us. We did as instructed and followed her out of the room. We then went on to a separate and magnificent building. "Welcome to the temple of our goddess of harvest" the priestess said. The structure although not as grand as the castle, was magnificent in its own right. A statue depicting a goddess was placed at its entrance. "If you don't mind, it has been a long day. Let me show you where to rest and we can talk more tomorrow. Is that okay?" The priestess said. "Sure" "No problem" Zari and I both said. We were taken into guest rooms prepared beforehand. "If you are hungry we have some fruits here. Tomorrow we are certain to prepare a feast for you." The Priestess said. "Don't worry about us. We are fine." I said. The priestess left. "Hey Zari, is this the town you wanted to take us?" I asked. "No. it is further north and has desert like conditions. This is where to look for information." Zari answered. We talked a little more about the subject and then retired to our individual rooms.I was woken up by a loud knock at the door. 'What is wrong with this people?' I wondered. "Just a moment." I said. I readied myself and opened the door. It was my first time realizing this but our clothes were different from ours. I was dressed in some form of trousers and an oversized coat. The people of this kingdom were all dressed in robes with varying colors. I stared at Roy who was looking frantically at me. Zari was also outside her room to look at what had caused all this ruckus. "You have been summoned by the king, Chrono." He said. I don't remember telling him my name. He must have picked it up on his own. "Can't the guy wait until we eat first?" Zari asked. I don't know what time it is because we are underground. But my guess is that sunrise was a few moments ago. "What does he want?" I asked. "This is about the prisoners you took." Roy said. Oh now I remember. Those people are still outside and tightly bound by my vines. I was not going to kill them because I did not understand the nature of the conflict. "Right. So you want me to release them?" I asked. "Well. I don't know what he wants." Roy said. "Zari. Let's go and look around. Maybe we can get more information here." I said. "Fine. Let's go." Zari said while pouting. She was not a morning person. We walked out of the temple and headed towards the castle. "That is huge. I didn't see it as clearly yesterday." Zari screamed. I turned to look and saw a very large tree. I could see a group of soldiers some hanging as fruits while others were deeply embedded in the trunk. "So this is what it can do." I said. "You didn't know that?" Zari asked. "Well I have never used this power at such an intensity before." I said. Outside the castle gate, we were met with the duke. "I apologize for my earlier utterances." He began but Zari cut him off. "Don't worry about that, you are all too weak to harm us anyway." Zari said. The duke gave a nervous laugh and led us to an outdoor setting. We walked in to see a large gathering of people. "These are the saviors?" "They dress strangely." Comments were flying in and out of this area. We were led to seats at the front of the group. A few moments later, the king emerged and was followed by the Duke and Roy. The room fell silent. The crowd rose on their feet and bowed. We did not do either. We were only here for the priestess and nothing else. Perhaps seeing this, the crowd began to grow hostile to us. "Stand you impudent…" "Show some res…" "Silence. These are our honored guests." The duke shouted. Well that was a full 180 considering what happened yesterday. The crowd fell quiet. The king sat at the front row next to us. He nodded his head to acknowledge us as he passed. We responded in the same way. The duke was left on the stage. He was probably going to lead this function. "I thank you all for coming here this early…" the duke went on. He gave a brief history about the conflict between the Orthon and Lokain Empire. He also asked the general to come and explain how the war had come to an end. "They threw fire?" "Control plants?" "Are you playing games with us?" This sounded farfetched according to the crowd present. It seems magic is very weak here for some reason. "It is all true. I swear it on my life." The General said. "Miss Zari would you mind offering a demonstration." The duke asked. Zari raised her right arm and from there rose a violent torrent of fire. The crowd jumped back out of fear. Zari then extinguished the flame and looked at the duke nonchalantly. "That is impossible." "How can they control fire?" "Does that mean the giant tree is also their doing?" "Sir Chrono?" the duke looked at me. I raised my hand and all the flowers around us bloomed. I could not risk performing a flashy spell because I was not used to this ability. I might have captured everyone here in vines. "Now that you have seen this, I must ask you to respect our guests." The duke said. We were then asked to introduce ourselves. All six of us went to the front and began. "My name is Zari. This four are my subordinates…" Zari concluded. What I noticed is that she did not say she was a dragon, only where she was from. I decided to take the same route. "My name is Chrono Silva. I am from the same place as Zari, the Yaran Continent. We came to this continent in search of truth, thank you." I said. It was impossible for them to know about the Island of despair but Yaran continent was well known for its nerve wrecking stories. Parents scared their kids by telling them that they will be left at the Yaran Continent to ensure obedience. "Thank you. You may take your seat." The duke said. The rest of the meeting was about how they were now safe because they had us. They were simply trying to guilt us to stay while gauging our reactions. We were all wore a stoic face that did not give away our emotions. There was really nothing exciting here. Sure the buildings were nice but they paled in comparison with the gnomish ones. It was just a suffocating environment for us in general. The duke went on and on until finally I was asked about what to do with the giant tree. "The enemy soldiers are alive. You should bring your army to capture them." I said. The duke then declared that this was to be done immediately. The group followed us outside where I began releasing the enemy soldiers a hundred at a time. The exercise lasted a few minutes. "Please leave the tree there" The duke said. "It is not possible. This area does not have enough energy to sustain its growth. It may start predating on people if left alone. However, I can reduce it in size." I said. "Yes, the symbolic nature is what matters." The duke answered. The large tree was now shrinked to five meters. "There. Now it should be strong enough to grow on itself." I said. "Did you know something like this was possible?" Roy asked the priestess. "He does not know it but he wields part of god's power inside him." The priestess answered.