Jade Leywin POV
Flying out of the portal I slid to a halt and watched as the connection with the portal in the zone we were in was cut
I turned around and observed my surroundings, a group of soldiers were staring at us uncertain on what to do, Caera approached them
"I am Caera of highblood Denoir, I've been sent on a mission to gather allies by lady Seris, I request a meeting with her as soon as possible" she told them
One of the soldiers sprinted away most likely to relay what happened to Seris and we were told to wait in front of the portal
*groooowl*
The sudden sound of a stomach growling drew our attention and we all turned towards its source, Caera was clutching her abdomen while her face was beet-red
"Please tell me you didn't hear that" she mumbled
"I think even the people outside of the Relictombs heard you, Caera" Arthur commented
"At least pretend otherwise, I know we had been fighting for some time but still we ate just before entering the tempus warp" she hissed
"Ehm that might be my fault" I spoke up
Everyone stared at me confused
"When I patched up her ankle, that was a phoenix mana art, I basically increased her natural healing and that must have consumed a ton of calories, so yeah you should really eat something" I explained and they just nodded
"CAERA!"
"SIS!"
Several voices cried out and a fairly well built, olive haired man embraced Caera out of nowhere, judging by her flabbergasted expression she was just as confused as the rest of us
"Caera, oh Vritra's horns, you're safe" the woman of the trio exclaimed
"I see quite a lot happened during your stay in Dicathen" the man at her side added staring at her horns
"Lauden, if you could stop crushing me please" Caera muttered clearly uneasy
"Oh, right, of course" Lauden said awkwardly as he let her go
"Father, mother, I think I can say the same about you, I'll be blunt but I didn't expect you to join lady Seris" Caera greeted her adoptive parents
I'm pretty sure her relationship with her foster parents was strained to say the least, what the hell is happening here?
"Hah, you can thank our dear uncle for that, he made the call for us" Lauden stated venomous
"My brother took advantage of the chaos that followed the events of the Victoriad coupled with lady Seris's revolution to declare me and by extension Lenora and Lauden traitors of the Vritra, it didn't help that you were one of lady Seris's closest aids and that we exposed ourselves to take Grey under our patronage, we were thus forced to flee from our estate and join the ranks of the revolution, well to be honest I was seriously pondering about joining anyway, way too much alacryan blood had been spilled in this pointless war against Dicathen and that made clear that to the high-sovereign we are nothing more but expendable pawns for his glory, still I would have liked to bring the whole power of the Denoir highblood with me instead of just knocking on lady Seris's door basically begging for protection" Corbett explained
"I need to report to lady Seris about my mission" Caera told them
"I'm afraid lady Seris is not available at the moment, nor she will be any time soon" a new voice spoke up and we turned around to see Cylrit marching towards us with several attendees in tow
"Cylrit, what do you mean?" Caera questioned
"Ehm, before that, you should really eat something Caera, I have no idea how much energy you consumed when I healed you so you might lose consciousness if you don't eat" I spoke up
"What? What happened?" Lenora asked worried
"I'll explain later, what happened to lady Seris?" Caera told her mother before shifting her attention back to Cylrit
"Follow me" Cylrit simply stated before turning around
We did as he asked and followed him, on the main road we attracted the stares of pretty much everyone in the zone, I noticed though that some of them were hostile
"Professor Grey!"
"Professor!"
Two kids called Arthur as they made their way through the crowd
"Seth? Mayla? What the hell are you two doing here?" Arthur asked as he stopped in his tracks
"We're helping!" Mayla declared cheerful
"More or less" Seth added and this earned him an elbow from Mayla
"This isn't a place for kids, if the soldiers manage to make it in here they're not going to spare you just because of your age" Art scolded them
"We know" Mayla stated determined
"We thought a lot about this, like you taught us, we used our own heads and thought long and hard about what would have been the best course of action and we reached the conclusion that this revolution must succeed, I'm not sure how much we'll accomplish because well we're just kids but even so we want to do our part" Seth explained with a fiery determination in his eyes
"*Sigh* Just don't get too reckless okay? Mayla your father and your sister must be worried sick and Seth you're not as alone as you might think, some people will miss you and grieve for you if you get yourself killed" Art told them and they just nodded
"We'll talk more later" he added as he noticed he was remaining behind
We reached a square where several portals were shimmering in the air, in front of each portal stood a pillar with a crystal embedded on its top that seemed to emit an energy capable of interfering with the portals, each pillar had a massive wire come out from its base, following the wire with my eyes I saw a transparent jar filled with a mysterious liquid, inside the jar there was a half rotten head
Beside the jar I noticed Seris, she was kneeled down with her hands immersed in the jar, channeling mana into my eyes I saw as several mages infused their mana into another set of crystals, the mana traveled through the wires to the jar where Seris absorbed it and changed its nature before sending it inside the head, from there the mana traveled through the wires ones again to reach the crystals that were preventing anyone from entering the Relictombs
Focusing on Seris I noticed that her core was empty, she looked extremely tired and frail, she was always on the petite side but now she looked emaciated as her skin was sickly gray in color and dark bags hanged on her eyes, her core was basically empty and I noticed that she somehow managed to develop a primitive version of [Mana rotation]
"Lady Seris!" Caera exclaimed at the sight
"Caera... it's good to... see you" she managed to mutter her voice little more than a whisper
"What happened?" Caera asked
"Orlaeth's mana... ran out... two weeks ago..."
"You've been doing this for two weeks?!"
"Our last resort would have been to just destroy the portals leading here, I was just about to give the order" Cylrit spoke up
"No... that's not... your call to... make... Cylrit" Seris chastised him
Analyzing the mana that was coming out of the jar I made my own mana match with it and injected it into the device, the strange liquid in the jar started to glow as the crystals in front of the portals hummed with power
"This should be enough to last for at least two weeks" I said as everyone looked around surprised
"Thanks, now... we can talk" Seris stated as she got up
"Lady Seris you should get some sleep first" Cylrit protested
"Nonsense, we waited long enough now that they're here we need to decide our next course of action" Seris declared as she stumbled, Cylrit immediately reached out and kept her on her feet
"*sigh* you know that you won't be of much help given how tired you are right?" I asked her
"I'm fine" she insisted
"*sigh* alright" I said as I refilled her core, the effect was immediate, she straightened up and blinked a couple of times as a sharp light returned in her onyx eyes, even her skin returned to its usual alabaster colour
"What did you do?" she asked revitalised
"Just gave your core a quick recharge, just so you know this is NOT a substitute for actual sleep, this will only keep you awake for the time being but after our meeting you should seriously get some sleep, think of it like gulping down twenty shots of coffee" I explained
"Thank you, now if you're all so kind to follow me, I believe we have a great deal of things we need to discuss" Seris stated as she started marching down the main street
We reached the down part of the settlement and entered an inn, it was definitely a cut above anything else in this area, still it was nowhere near as fancy as a place a noble would usually choose
"I admit I thought you would lead us to some grandiose mansion" I stated as we entered
"I think this establishment is more than enough for me and my closest collaborators" Seris replied
"That and lady Seris enjoys the look on the highlords and matrons' faces when they need to go through the area of the town normally used by people of lower status in order to get an audience with her" Cylrit added
Arthur and I chucked as Seris gestured for us to sit down in the seats that had been placed opposite to hers at the head of the table, we sat down and waited for the various highbloods (whose name I honestly don't care to remember) to arrive
It took almost 15 minutes for everyone to sit down, Seris was seated at one head of the table with Cylrit and Caera at her sides, Arthur and I were seated on the opposite end with Sylvie at Arthur's side
Speaking of Sylvie, I didn't notice before due to everything that happened after our arrival but it appears she somehow managed to grow up when we were in that forest zone, she didn't look like a child anymore, she looked as old if not slightly older than Ellie with her face only retaining a little glimpse of childishness while already developing the traits that would no doubt make her a beautiful woman in the future
Chul on the other hand remained standing in a corner towering over everyone else with his height and keeping a scowl on his face, I guess he's not exactly thrilled to be here helping alacryans when his mother is still a prisoner
The representatives of the many highbloods and named bloods sat at the sides of the table leaving a fairly sizable gap between our groups
"Well now that everyone is here let's begin this meeting" Seris declared
"If I may lady Seris, I would like to ask a question first" one of the highlords spoke up
"Sure" Seris agreed
"I just like anyone else here thought that this revolution was for the betterment of Alacrya, if that is true please tell me why two dicathian generals are sitting here with us" the man asked in an accusing tone
"If you're trying to imply that I sold my own homeland then you are wrong, I asked for their help because we need it, I prepared this revolution for centuries and honestly I finished almost all those preparations decades ago, why do you think I waited so long?" Seris asked back
"Because until now no one had the strength to truly oppose Agrona, well no one outside the asuras from Epheotus that is, now though things are different, two humans have obtained the power to directly face the asuras and emerge victorious, now it's time for us so called lessers to free this world from those self-proclaimed deities and in order to do so we'll need their help" Seris continued seeing that no one had an answer for her question
"But what is in for them? I doubt they're doing this out of the goodness of their hearts" a middle-aged woman asked
"Of course not, they would be fools to take an errand like this one if they had nothing to gain, I promised them that once Agrona is deposed we would immediately sign a peace treaty with Dicathen also I accepted to pay war reparations since we are technically the ones who attacked them, I doubt they'll make an outlandish request and I'm sure whar is contained in the Sovereigns' coffins will be more than enjoy" Seris stated
"If this is all we should begin this meeting" Seris continued as she gestured for one of the servants
The maid hurriedly spread a map of Alacrya on the table using weights to keep it in place, then she marked three locations using game black pieces from a Sovereign's quarrel set, one was in Central Dominion, one in Truacia and the last one in Etril
"Given that he lost all of his scythes in the war Agrona has no choice but to rely on his Wraiths, now while they are very powerful they are not unbeatable, Jade and Arthur here already managed to slay two teams of these asura-slayers, that said a direct assault to Taegrin Caelum would be nothing short of suicide, Agrona has hundreds of thousands of Wraiths all living under the fortress but he can't deploy them carelessly, if he sends only a handful of them Arthur and Jade will have no trouble dispatching them but if he sends too many he'll expose himself to an attack from Epheotus, still one day we'll have to march on Taegrin Caelum so we'll have to do something" Seris explained
"Oh, bold plan Seris" I commented as I understood her intentions
"You're planning to negotiate with the Wraiths aren't you?" Arthur guessed
"Exactly, while they're extremely loyal towards Agrona they're not emotionless machines they still have their own free will if we show them that Agrona is not the infallible deity he claims to be at least some of them will change sides" Seris explained
"As for how exactly we'll do that, we're going to kill a sovereign right?" I asked
"It's so good to work with people that can understand quickly" Seris said delighted
"Lady Seris if you would be so kind as to explain to the rest of us what your plan is" another woman spoke up, irritation slipping into her voice
"Quite simple really, with the failure of the war against Dicathen Agrona's image had already been sullied at least in the eyes of the regular citizens, the Wraiths think that all of this is some sort of master plan concocted by Agrona and that we lost because he was planning to, so if we want to break that trust we need to strike at something valuable, one of the very symbols of the power of the Vritra clan here in Alacrya" Seris explained
"Which is?" one of the man asked, god I can't believe this is supposed to be Alacrya's finest nobility, I guess relying for centuries on the Vritras for all the thinking crippled their ability to think for themselves
"We'll kill a sovereign" I declared