Adrian
Adrian stood at the base of the wall carefully observing the guards who were on top of it. It was comforting to see just how careless they were. As far as he could tell there were no more than five guards at the gates and around fifteen or so all around the walls. Most of them were slacking off or chatting with their friends and others were meandering around.
It took him only a moment to use Dash to get over the wall and into the city. None of the guards had been looking at the point where he had crossed over and Adrian was quick to vanish into the maze of the poorly designed town that Idol Rabier ruled over. He didn't move to the rooftops, it was possible that one of the guards could see him, instead, he used Blindsight, Dash and his speed to navigate the dark, empty streets.
There were a few people around, homeless folk, some prostitutes in the red light area and a few drunken fools but most people were asleep. It was hard to believe that it was only ten at night. It highlighted just how important sunlight was to these people, they lacked the magical lights that the capital had in abundance so they had to stop all or most of their activities at sundown. Adrian used his Blindsight to carefully check for guards, adventurers and others who were armed. Taking note of all of them but he found almost no one in town who was awake or alert. There were almost no guards in town, save for a small group in a bar drinking and chatting about something. The adventurers were all clustered around a few spots around town but they were not active.
It seemed that none of the guards were worth being concerned about in town so he would only need to worry about the guards on the walls and at the gate. Adrian took a breath, glanced at his HUD for the time, noted that it had only been five minutes since he had entered the town and then focused his attention on the mansion that was present on a hill overlooking the town. Unlike the town which was quite a dump with nothing that marked it as even reasonably impressive, the mansion was quite ornate looking if his telescopic vision was considered accurate.
Adrian moved closer he didn't take the winding route up the hill. Instead, he used Dash to move along the steeper side that was covered in trees, making sure to use his sensory skills to ensure that there were no traps until the whole mansion was in the range of his Blindsight.
Back in the forest, the range of nearly a kilometre was impressive but often required a lot of movement from him to make optimal use of. Inside a city, a kilometre radius meant that he was aware of a fair fraction of the city at any given time. So he was barely halfway up the hill when the whole mansion and the surrounding areas came into clear view.
Instinctively he tracked down the basement and found what he had expected. Three Demi-human children, one of them lying on the ground, barely alive, while the other two were relatively intact with nothing more than a few bruises. He carefully noted their features so that he could show them to Raphtalia later and scanned the rest of the dungeon. Adrian's mood darkened when he saw the rotting corpse of a wolf demi-human. The body had belonged to a child no older than six or perhaps the child had been even younger with a higher level. The sight crystallized his intent and banished his doubts.
Idol Rabier would die. Raphtalia would have the right of first refusal but if she refused then he would kill the man, no matter how wrong it felt.
While Adrian and his party had been travelling to Rabier's domain he had been trying to figure out what the hell he had been thinking when he had decided to kill his stalkers. The only conclusion that Adrian had come to after meditating on it was that he hadn't considered it. The excuse was paper-thin but even after thinking about it he didn't see any obvious solutions. Speaking to them, trying to run or even leaving them be were not valid options. Sure it was possible that they wouldn't kill Adrian and his party but it certainly wasn't likely.
Still, his doubts had persisted and it had made him reconsider his judgement. His actions may have been pragmatic but they hadn't been well thought out or moral. In truth, he had even begun to wonder just how he should deal with Rabier. Adrian was pretty sure that they could rescue to children even without letting Rabier know about it.
Now he felt certain that he could not allow the man to live. Not when he would just buy some other children to torture. Plus, the man was a noble there was no one who would be willing and able to hold him accountable and he could be a valuable information source especially as the rosary and shrine indicated that he was a devout follower of the Three Heroes faith.
Adrian carefully studied the target's location, trying to objectively assess the situation and trying not to focus on the children and their wounds and scars. The guards were distributed around the mansion. The servants were asleep as was Rabier and there didn't appear to be any sign of a wife or children and as far as Adrian could tell with his Blindsight there didn't appear to be any physical traps or barriers.
Adrian used Dash to move upwards. A quick use of his mana sight to check for magical traps was enough for him to be blinded by the beacon of magic that was the obelisk. Adrian took a deep breath, trying to stay calm as he was suddenly reminded of theMagical T-rex that was sealed using that obelisk somehow. His fantasies of blowing up the place using a couple of explosions and Sword Beams died a quick death. He really didn't want to risk fighting that thing without Fitoria waiting in the wings.
He shook his head and got back to work, carefully using his Dash, Blindsight and Mana Sight to move out of sight of guards, check for magical traps around the basement, in the basement and in Rabier's room. Once he was certain that there was nothing worth noting Adrian used his Dash again. This time he moved vertically upward for nearly five seconds reaching a height of nearly two kilometres in that time. His ears popped as he stopped Dash but his stats blunted the negative effects from his rapid movement.
For a moment he used Glide to just slow his fall to a crawl and used his perception enhancement to study the town below him. It was out of range of his Blindsight but telescopic vision and his other skills to see in the dark and outside of the normal range of vision allowed him to study that town even if it was shrouded in darkness for most, while he waited for Dash's cooldown to end.
Adrian considered the size of the town, his skills and then felt a slight thrill of fear as he realized that he could casually raze the whole town to the ground. Thousand Swords twice, Dash to reposition and retreat, Sword Beam to deal with the hard targets and Sword Change to convert the two thousand swords into elemental explosives and the whole town would be levelled. As long as he had an SP potion he could do it in less than a minute and then leave with absolutely no long term drawbacks, even his SP would be fully restored by the potions.
A few powerful adventurers might survive but by the time they reacted Adrian would be long gone. He took a deep breath and used Dash again but the idea didn't leave his mind. Adrian wouldn't do something like destroying a town full of innocent people, he knew that...but just a few days ago he hadn't imagined that he would or even could kill three people out of fear for what they might do.
He shook off his thoughts, he would need to think about this later, as he approached the camp in the nearby forested region. His party were sitting around a small fire at the shore of the lake. Adrian had selected the site because it was easily visible from the air.
He landed a few meters away from them and then noted that it had taken him about fifteen minutes for the whole scouting trip. That fifteen minutes must have felt like an eternity to Raphtalia because the moment he appeared she had gotten up from where she had been leaning against Trystan, who was in his Filolial King form and approached him.
"Was Rifana there?" she asked without preamble, absently brushing off the black feathers from her clothes, Isis and Trystan who had been talking about something walked closer to him as well.
Adrian just activated his illusion sword and carefully thought back to the three children in the basement, the image of the three demi-humans formed in thin air, it didn't have much in the way of colour as Blindsight didn't give him that information but the way Raphtalia lit up when she saw the girl who had been lying down was enough to confirm things for him. Rifana was still alive and was apparently a weasel demi-human of some kind.
"That's her," she said, for a moment he thought that she would cry but her expression shifted to absolute determination in an instant, "let's go and get her!"
Adrian nodded, "Let's take a few minutes to plan this Raphtalia," he said, trying to calm the girl down a little, "we don't want to risk giving Rabier the chance to activate her Cursed Seal."
He didn't like saying the words but it cooled her enthusiasm. Cruel but effective. He quickly spoke up, not wanting her to dwell on the words, "Our main goal is to save those three demi-humans and for that, we absolutely need to break the seals. As we've tested I can break the seal from either end," he said, nodding at Isis and Trystan who both winced at the memory of him testing out the Seal Removal Sword and the Curse Seal Sword. It had taken him a bit of time but the results had been telling.
Adrian could remove a slave seal by either targeting the master or the slave. Using the Seal Removal Sword, he could also apply a seal and remove it with ease and removing the Seal from the master's end allowed him to remove the seal from all the slaves at once. There were however two large drawbacks. The first was time, both swords took nearly thirty seconds of direct contact to work and if he broke a slave seal it warned the master.
This was precisely why he absolutely needed to target Rabier first. If he didn't he could easily imagine the man activating the seals and killing the demi-humans that he didn't free first.
Adrian was quick to explain his plan. It was simple and had a fair number of contingencies. Drop-in using the Disc, he would capture and bind Rabier while his party would rescue the slaves and then they would leave. Should things go wrong...well he had a few things he would set up just in case but even if his entire plan and all the contingencies went awry Adrian was quite confident that he could just crush all his opposition without much effort.
Raphtalia was nervous and tense as he bought out his Disc and they moved into the air, the air growing colder as he quickly rose to nearly two kilometres in height. Once they were up in the air he looked at the three members of his team and pulled out a large bag and a few sets of medicine and some healing cream.
Raphtalia was the one he handed the bag full of healing items too. She looked at him questioningly and Adrian felt a bit happy that he had distracted her from her worries, even if it was for a moment.
"Heal them up once I give the signal," he stated, trying to keep his tone calm even as he felt his tension growing, "and be careful."
She nodded, "Yes, Mr Adrian. I will," she paused for a moment, "thank you for everything, I-I know that I can't ever repay you for any of this but I'll try. I promise."
Adrian wasn't surprised. Raphtalia was a good person all the way through but she was giving him too much credit.
"I have affected your life a great deal Raphtalia," he stated, "but remember that it didn't cost me much to help you out. A few hours of time, some resources that I had nearly a thousand times more of and perhaps a little bit of emotional support. Judge me in accordance with what I sacrificed to help you, I think you'll find my actions a lot less impressive."
Adrian meant it. Kindness was valuable. Altruism was excellent for social animals like humans and given how similar demi-humans seemed to be psychologically, them as well, but his help had been born from guilt. A desire to have an ally who was not likely to betray him and nothing more. Perhaps from the outside, it looked like he was kind but it was nothing of the sort and it pissed him off that she was so grateful for his impulsive, thoughtless actions.
She stared at him for a moment before shaking her head, "No that isn't…" she said, trying to frame an answer to his statement before giving up.
Adrian started to continue before he saw that the walls were approaching rapidly, "We'll talk about this later," he said firmly as he moved the Disc faster, hoping that they would not be spotted, even if all the guards were likely to see was just a small dot.
Raphtalia nodded and held the bag of medicines tightly in her hand. Isis closed her eyes and took a deep breath in an action that was reminiscent of what Adrian himself did to start his meditations while Trystan stood up and got ready to transform into his Filolial form.
It took them less than a minute to reach the mansion and Adrian stood at the edge of the disc before looking back at his party, "Remember the plan and stay calm. I'll move the disc lower once I've confirmed that the situation has not changed and then I'll move it to the basement after I place the seal on Rabier. Wait for my signal." he said, his voice calm, almost mechanical, and his party responded with serious nods, even Trystan who was normally the one who worried him most was gratifyingly serious.
"Good," he said with a smile and then jumped off the disc. Time to get this started.
Adrian put his party out of his mind and focused on the rooftop that was his target. He activated Dash and once he was in range Blindsight told him all he needed to know. Nothing had changed, the plan was still practical.
Immediately he landed on the spot on the roof directly above Rabier's room. A moment to double-check the locations of the soldiers and he started to slowly move the disc closer to the ground, out of the line of sight of the guards.
Adrian took a moment to focus on his Sword Projection skill and created four blades, he moved them into a vertical position, blade pointed at the roof and hilt pointed at the sky before having them just touch the roof. A moment of thought later all four have the lowest power Sword Beams activated and Adrian had moved them in a quarter circle.
Instantly a circular hole had been created and the stone that made up of the roof had been cut. It started falling but before even a second had passed Adrian created four more swords below the circular section of the roof and caught the cut section of the ceiling before it hit the ground.
He quickly flared his Blindsight and felt his heartbeat settle as he realized that nothing had gone wrong yet. Rabier was still asleep, his party hadn't been detected, the demi-humans were still alive and the guards were still as passive and inattentive as before.
Adrian slowly moved the circular section downwards and jumped into the hole which had a diameter of a meter or so. The room was quite warm thanks to the fireplace but it was getting colder now that it was exposed to the environment. He didn't waste any time and he called all eight of the Swords he had created, the four to make the hole and the four to carefully keep the section down without making a sound, and used Sword Change on them.
Two of them became the Seal Removal Sword, two changed into the Cursed Seal Sword while the other four changed into forms that had a very, very high attack rating. In case this all went wrong they would blast the man...and most of his mansion. Adrian was grateful that the obelisk and the basement were in the opposite direction as the man's bed. He then created another two swords. These two would be used to keep him quiet.
A moment of thought and the Seal related swords and the final two swords he had created began to float above the man. Rabier didn't stir. Another instant and all four of his Sword Beam dedicated Sword aimed at the exact location of their target. A last-second where he double checked everything with Blindsight and then Adrian took a deep breath and willed his swords to move.
Four Swords thrust into the man's body with ease. Two of them, the Seal Removal Swords pierced his shoulders while the Cursed Seal Sword cut into his knees. Rabier got up, a scream primed, and Adrian used his final two swords which were pointed at his throat and diaphragm, hilt first, it was the only reason he was alive as they slammed into him with enough force for him to cough up a wad of spit that landed on his chin. It silenced the nascent scream into a whimper.
The man's eyes were unfocused and terrified, Adrian watched it all with a strange detachment as he activated the Seal Removal process. When Rabier tried to move Adrian simply twisted the swords buried in his knees and silenced the scream by pressing the blade against his throat. By the time the Seals were destroyed and Adrian got a message on his HUD the man's bed was soaked in his blood as his shoulders and knees bled profusely. The smell of blood was much the same as most of the monsters he had killed.
Would this man die so easily? Adrian had assumed that like most monsters such simple injuries to non-critical spots would do limited damage. Had his assumptions about Rabier's level been false?
Adrian then triggered the Cursed Seal Sword and walked towards the man who had stopped struggling. It took no more than half a minute before he got a message on his Status Screen stating that Idol Rabier has been registered as a slave. Adrian set the punishment settings to maximum and made sure that he was not allowed to harm his party members, disobey or move away from him before adding the man to his party and moving closer to the man.
He blinked in surprise as he saw that the man still had more than half of his HP left and that he was level 63. Adrian frowned and quickly checked that man's stats, if they were too high, he would have to kill him here and now, and blinked in shock as he realized that while they were a little higher than Raphtalia. His filolials had stats that surpassed this man. Hell, none of Rabier's stats was even half of his, not even defence which was his worst stat and Adrian's attack was over ten times what the man had.
Adrian shook himself and drew out a powerful sleeping drug from his sword and walked up to the man who was struggling to breathe and poured the drug on his face, the man tried to shake his head and opened his mouth to scream, a mistake as it allowed the drug to enter his mouth and take full effect even as he roughly pulled out the four swords that he had embedded in the man and slammed down with a sword on the man's stomach.
Rabier choked and then began to cough. Adrian activated the Cursed Seal's punishment feeling a cold sense of satisfaction as the man began to writhe in pain before the drug fully kicked in and sent him off to sleep. It was quite impressive how despite the pain and limited amount, the drug had worked quite quickly. Then again the blood loss probably played a part in that.
Though the fact that the man still had half of his HP was a terrifying reminder of just how effective the level system of this world was.
Adrian quickly started moving the disc towards the basement from their position above the mansion. Blindsight guided him in the matter, while Adrian himself dragged the nobleman by the nightgown the man was wearing, grimaced at the blood coating the fat man, and pulled him out of the room using the circular hole that he had entered from, the meter diameter hole proving its' worth. He made sure to leave most of the projected Swords in there and changed their forms to a more explosive configuration.
Then he quickly moved nearly two kilometres up in the sky with Rabier in tow. The man's bleeding had already stopped which made Adrian a little nervous but he ignored the man's quick recovery and drew out one of his older wooden platforms and projected the Swords into the structure, dropped the man on them, tied him up as best as he could and then let the man hang from the edge. If the fool woke up and struggled he would get a one way trip to the afterlife.
Adrian took a look back on the ground and Dashed back to the surface as soon as he could. His party being outside of his Blindsight was making him very nervous.
It was a relief to find that they were waiting near the basement.
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Raphtalia
Raphtalia had not known what it would feel like to see this place again. She had assumed that she would feel scared or sad or something but it looked very different at night when she was floating so far above it that she could barely even see the buildings properly.
"Raphtalia," she heard Isis speak, "Please calm down. Father promised that things would be fine and he always keeps his promises."
She looked to the silver-haired girl and nodded, trying to follow her advice. had kept all his promises and despite what he had said he had always helped her but Rifana was right there she could almost imagine that she could hear her. Raphtalia tried to keep her tail from swishing about. It was an embarrassing habit.
Then the disc started to move, slowly at first but faster as time passed. Raphtalia quickly held onto one of the supports that were embedded onto the edge of the wooden carrier, the filolials did the same. She took a deep breath and held onto the bag in one hand and a small dagger in the other. Not for the first time she envied Isis and Trystan. They could both fight.
It took them a very short amount of time to get to the ground and as they descended Raphtalia found herself beginning to shake as the features of the buildings around her slowly transformed into something familiar. Raphtalia couldn't help but remember the cage she had been in before. She swallowed and quickly jumped off the disc once they had reached close to the ground.
"The basement is there," she said after taking a deep breath, pointing at the small stairway that led to where Rifana was.
Trystan nodded, "Got it!" he said and transformed into his filolial form and ran down the stairway before slamming into the door with a loud clang. Raphtalia looked around but didn't see any guards...though she was sure that even if some did show up Isis would destroy them.
The door shattered like it was made out of glass and the Filolial quickly looked up and said, "Come on,"
"Yes, let's go," said , "and try to keep the noise down Trystan."
Raphtalia staggered back at his sudden appearance before noting that the disc was gone, probably absorbed by the Sword but she felt a sharp surge of relief. He was here which meant that Rabier no longer had any chance of killing Rifana. They were safe.
No. That wasn't true, she still had to get her out of this place.
"Let's go," he said, changing his sword into a form that radiated light, "Raphtalia please take the lead. Rifana is the first person you should see, please give her some medicine and then get her out as soon as possible. Isis, Trystan take care of the other two while I stand guard. Please make it as quick as possible."
Raphtalia nodded and quickly ran down the staircase and then stopped, stunned, as the smell started to make her hand shake, it was just like before. Suddenly she was hanging from a wall as he hit her again and again and again. A pain-phantom pain- she tried to remind herself, struck her side and her mind slowly slipped away.
"Are you okay?" asked Isis, breaking her out of her mental prison. Raphtalia didn't know how long she had been standing, frozen, in front of the door.
"Y-yes. I'll be fine," she said.
The girl looked sceptical but nodded and said, "Give us some medicines," pointing to herself and her brother who was back in his human form, "we'll need to heal the other two."
Raphtalia did so, fumbling with the bag a little but quickly giving out four doses of each type of medicine, the filolials took them and ran into the depths of the dungeon without hesitation. Raphtalia felt a bitter feeling emerge at their bravery. She cursed herself. She had failed her parents and everyone in the village and now she was failing her friend as well. Rifana was just a few steps away and she couldn't even walk up to her.
Then she felt a hand on her shoulder, she turned quickly, half expecting a guard but when her punch was casually dodged she saw that it was Mr Adrian.
"S-sorry." she said, "I didn't-"
"I know. Let's go help your friend," he said and started to lead her by the hand.
"But you need to stand guard!" she said, "The plan-"
"The plan was overly cautious it is optimal for me to be here," he said, "rest assured that no one will come anywhere close without me knowing about it. As of this moment, none of the guards are even slightly wary."
Raphtalia silenced herself. Not willing to admit to how comforting it was to have him here. She knew that even if that man showed up Mr Adrian would defeat him in an instant. He was a lot like Sadeena. Ridiculously strong and very kind.
It didn't take them long to get past the empty cages to reach the familiar place where she and Rifana had been kept in, she winced a little but all her attention went to the girl who was lying in the filthy, wet straw. Her eyes were open but she wasn't looking at anything.
The Sword Hero slashed through the door without even trying, the two halves of the door started to fall before he caught them and gently put them down, he then walked towards Rifana, Raphtalia followed but he seemed to just disappear and reappear, one moment he was in front of the now-destroyed gate and the next he was kneeling at Rifana's side with a bottle of medicine in hand that he was carefully pouring into her mouth.
Raphtalia winced as she noticed that Rifana hadn't even tried to resist as moved her and slowly emptied the bottle. She knelt down beside them and said, "Rifana, can you hear me?"
Raphtalia waited for a long moment. "Rifana," she said again, her voice a little louder, but the girl didn't respond at all. Her vision blurred when Rifana didn't respond, she wiped away with her sleeve viciously. "Rifana! Please say something…"
"She's healing and needs some rest and food," said, withdrawing another bottle and some cloth from his sword which he slowly poured over her wounds after tearing off the rags that Rifana was covered in. He gently picked her up after wrapping her in the cloth once all her wounds had been drenched in the potion which had instantly been absorbed.
"Father!" she heard Isis say, "We've got them!"
Raphtalia turned to see Isis, Trystan and two other Demi-humans who were standing behind them, looking scared. Neither of them were badly injured and Raphtalia felt a small surge of bittersweet emotion. Why was Rifana the only one so badly hurt?
Mr Adrian stood up, she quickly did so as well, and nodded, "Good job you two," he said, "Any emergency concerns?" he asked Isis.
"No father," she replied quickly, "their injuries are healed and they are good enough to move."
He nodded briskly and then looked to her, "Please hold her. I'll take the lead and give you a signal once we're in the clear."
He handed Rifana to her and then a large Sword appeared in the cell, "when that changes form please come on out. Okay?" he asked.
Raphtalia quickly nodded as she adjusted her friend, feeling a sense of disorientation as she realized that she could hold her friend in her arms so easily.
Mr Adrian walked out of the cell, gave Isis and Trystan a pat on their heads, ignored the flinch that the two demi-humans performed and vanished. Less than ten seconds later the sword changed form and all of them started to move out. Trystan in front, Isis in the back and the rest of them between them.
When the got up the staircase they found the wooden carrier floating slightly above the ground while the Sword Hero stood up on top of it. Carefully scanning the surroundings.
Trystan jumped on without hesitation but one of the demi-humans hesitated and that made the other hesitate as well.
Raphtalia moved past them, carefully lay Rifana down, and then spoke to them, "Please don't be scared. I promise that we just want to help you. I was hurt, just like you were, by that man."
The looks turned from fear and wariness to confusion.
"Look, you can stay here and get hurt again or come with us," said Isis bluntly as she jumped onto the disc, "you're wasting time. Come on."
That got them moving and soon enough they were on the disc and were flying away from that place. Raphtalia sat down next to Rifana and moved her friend's head into her lap. Not quite able to believe that Rifana was still alive, that she would be okay.
It took them no time at all to reach high above the city and an even lesser fragment of time before they had started to move away from it but when they had just reached the edge of the town, right above the walls, she heard a massive explosion and turned to see that a bright orange glow was coming from the mansion.
Raphtalia turned towards Adrian after the sudden burst of colour reduced in intensity and saw him smiling. It wasn't the same smile that he offered Trystan or Isis. He didn't look happy. It was more like a baring of teeth. A promise of pain.
A guilty sort of joy flared up at watching the destruction from afar but soon any thought of it vanished from her mind as she slowly traced the features of her friend.
Rifana was safe. What more could she ask for?
