AUTHOR'S NOTE: I removed the part during his arrival at Carne where Icarus had his rapier out. This is where his Archangel weapon is introduced. Also, his Archangel armor is Legendary Class, not Relic Class. Writer's block is stupid, and I was kinda lazy, so that's why this is so late. New chapters schedule should be two, MAYBE three chapters a week.

CHAPTER 5

As the sun was high in the sky, a wooden cart, pulled by a single horse, could be seen traveling a hard road. The seven had set out a few hours ago, taking a path north, then east along the outskirts of the forest. They had agreed on this so that Nfirea could pick his herbs, and they could hunt any monsters that they encountered, which would make them some extra profit. Nfirea drove the cart, while the six of them took up positions surrounding the cart and walked. The ride so far had proven to be quite boring. However, the time spent wasn't completely useless. Using the excuse of being from a very far away land, Icarus had pried a large amount of information from the Swords of Darkness and Nfirea. The undisputed strongest human magic caster was Fluder Paradyne, an ancient man from the Baharuth Empire. He could cast sixth tier magic by himself. There were rumors that the Slane Theocracy could cast seventh tier magic, using large scale rituals, but those were unreliable.

"Huh, so tier six is the limit for humans in this world."

He was still under the guise of a fourth tier magic warrior, and Nabe was still a fourth tier magic caster. Thus, their abilities and senses were dulled. But that should be quite strong, and on the off chance that they were ambushed, they would reveal their true power. As he wondered about how the Swords of Darkness would react, Peter's next words interrupted his contemplation.

"This is the territory of the Wise King of the Forest, so we shouldn't encounter any monsters."

"Wise King of the Forest? Who's that?" asked Icarus, interested by the name.

"It's a very powerful beast that's capable of using magic, and it resides deep within the center of the forest, so eyewitness reports are few and varied." replied Peter.

Taking every opportunity, Lukrut added in:

"Nabe, don't worry, I'm here, so if the Wise King of the Forest comes, I'll protect us."

"Tsk! Go away you maggot." came the cold reply.

They were hours in, and the others were tired. He noticed the sweat and labored breathing of the others, and was glad that as an Archangel, he didn't sweat. Suddenly he sensed movement in the forest nearby. Nabe looked at him, and with an unspoken agreement,realized that they had both noticed the same thing. Soon after, Lukrut, as the ranger, also noticed and shouted out warnings for the party.

"Movement in the forest!"

Everyone quickly turned their attention to the nearby canopy, and saw a swarm of beings walk out. Around two dozen goblins, and half a dozen ogres were charging at them and would be on them within half a minute.

"What's the plan?!" Peter naturally asked Icarus, who was the strongest in the group."

"Nabe and I will fight the ogres, and you guys will hold off the goblins."

The Swords of Darkness all noticed that there were far fewer ogres then goblins, but none complained. Anyone with half a brain would rather fight a half a dozen goblins then a trio of ogres. The massive clubs the ogres wielded were especially intimidating, nearly the size of a grown man.

As the Swords of Darkness moved to intercept the goblin horde, their coordination and teamwork weren't missed by Icarus and Nabe. AS they walked towards the ogres, Icarus asked Narberal some questions with [Message].

"What do you think about their teamwork?"

"...I'll admit...their teamwork is good. They can cover for each other's weaknesses."

Ending the [Message, Icarus took a quick glance at them. Lukrut took up position in the center and used his longbow to pick off goblins. Peter, using a sword and shield, stood a few steps in front of him and held off any goblin that got too close for comfort. Ninya and Dyne prevented Peter from getting swarmed by using magic and held up the sides of the onslaught. Dyne could also cast healing magic, so any injuries Peter sustained on the front lines were quickly cured.

Meanwhile Icarus and Nabe didn't waste any time either. After their quick conversation, Icarus summoned [Judicus, his rapier. Following the design of his armor, his rapier was a shiny silver, with swirling runes, and a massive ruby inlaid in the pommel. His Archangel form traded speed and power for defense, thus, his armor was only Legendary Class, while his rapier was a Divine Class weapon. The Swords of Darkness looked over, and were shocked to see Icarus hold a weapon, a weapon that had seemingly formed out of thin air. They saw a flash, and suddenly Icarus was in the air in front of the lead ogre, his rapier ready to thrust and his free hand in front. Then, a flash, and a hole appeared on the massive monsters chest. As the monster fell, dead before it hit the ground, blood flowed out the front and back, proving that Icarus had pierced the hard skin, the heart, and more hard skin. Another flash, and Icarus was in front of another ogre, but this time, his swung his body around, and the ogre's head was separated from its neck with a single backhanded slash. As everyone saw this, they realized how weak the ogres were to Icarus.

"Are they orichalcum?" asked Peter, as he saw another massive head go flying

"N-No, I think they're definitely adamantite level." rebutted Dyne, who had stopped casting magic in shock.

Interrupted their conversation, they heard Icarus call for Nabe.

"Nabe."

"Understood."

With a casual point of her finger, she aimed at the fleeing ogres, who were frightened by Icarus's casual slaughter, and calmly spoke:

"[Tornado]"

An ever expanding vortex of howling wind flew out of her extended pointer finger, and slammed into the remaining ogres, leaving deep gashes all over their body, their hard skin providing no resistance. The violent currents then slammed them into the trees, where they had laid in wait to ambush them. Seeing their more powerful counterparts were easily killed, the remaining goblins threw down their crude weapons and fled. The party collected parts, as proof of kills, and some of the higher quality weapons, which they could sell for a bit of extra coin. The night came soon, the moon replacing the sun. They stopped by a flat patch of ground, and made a campsite, complete with tents and a fireplace, with logs as seats. They had packed some food for the trip, and the aroma of food cooking and smoke was quickly in the air. As the stew finished, Lukrut, ever the gentleman, scooped out the stew into bowls and gave one to Nabe first.

"Nabe, if your tired, I could personally feed you."

"I'll feed you to the dragons, you ant."

Lukrut ignored this, he had heard far worse. Icarus was smiling under his helm, admiring Lukrut's thick skin. As everyone got their food, he took off his helmet. Everyone was curious as to how Icarus looked, as until now, they had never seen his face. His face was quite similar, to his base vampire form, but his hair was pure white, and his eyes were bright golden. He tentatively sipped the stew, to check the temperature, and to see if he could eat as an Archangel. He was relieved to see that he could, not that it would help or hurt him if he didn't. He was an Archangel, he wouldn't starve to death. He could eat, and it would be converted into mana, but if his mana was full, it would simply disperse into the air. He tasted the thick meaty broth and smiled. Seeing this, everyone finally snapped out of their stupor, and jokes were Icarus saw the banter, he smiled, and remembered the old days back in YGGDRASIL. He remembered grinding the dungeons and bosses to collect that one specific weapon with all the others. He remembered the countless hours and the long nights arguing, laughing, competing. They had started and they looked up in admiration at the top players. and started asking him questions. He missed them so very much.

"What's that weapon you used, and how do you use it?"

"Oh, that's a rapier, its a sword mainly used for quick thrusts and stabs. I'm a magic warrior so you could think of it as a summon of mine. That way I don't have to carry a sheath or scabbard around, I can summon it any time I want.

"That's so cool Sir Light, where are you from?" inquired Dyne, ever so respectful.

"I'm from a land very far down south."

"What happened?"

"Our kingdom perished due to enemy invasion and a series of natural disasters. Very few were able to escape the chaos, and the neighboring nations took advantage of this and captured any survivors they found to use as slaves, or worse. You were considered lucky if you were killed them." said Icarus, a sad expression on his face.

"I've been meaning to ask this, why are you guys called the Swords of Darkness?"

"A-Ahh, w-we got together in order to find the four swords left behind by the Black Knight, one of the Thirteen Heroes." said Ninya, stuttering.

"Hmm, seems like I have more things to find out about."

"H-Have you ever been in a team before, Light."

Nabe frowned at the casual way Ninya addressed Icarus, but Icarus didn't care and simply answered the question.

"...Yeah, I was. There were eight others, and the nine of us had so much fun together. They were loud annoying idiots, but we had so many memories together. We weren't even friends, we all considered each other family. Now they're all gone."

"I'm sure you'll find some good comrades again." Ninya cheerfully replied.

"NO! I won't...I won't..." snapped Icarus.

Everyone, even Nabe, shook at the anger that they felt from Icarus. It disappeared as quickly as it had came, and Icarus apologized for the outburst.

"If you don't mind us asking, what happened?"

"...We eventually got different interests and split. We tried to remain in contact, but it wasn't the same, because we had lost a shared goal. Everything felt off...I'm sorry, it's still a sensitive topic...I'm going to bed. See y'all in the morning."

As he left, he set down his now empty bowl, and Nabe did likewise, following Icarus into his tent. This time, Lukrut made no comment or offer to Nabe, and simply watched the pair disappear under the cover of cloth. As the oppressive air was released, they slowly started conversing quieter, not to disturb the pair.

"...What do you think happened?" wondered Lukrut.

"...Arguments, death, betrayal, your guess is as good as mine. I felt some sadness along with the anger earlier..."

"They said they were from the south, we all know how it's going down there with the Beastmen. He also mentioned their kingdom was annihilated by enemies..."

"Goodnight everyone, we still have things to do tomorrow."

With this, everyone put out the crackling fire, and went to their respective tents to rest for the next day.

Icarus laid down and Nabe quietly did the same. But neither slept, and soon, they heard quiet snoring.

"Nabe?"

"Yes, Light?"

"I'm glad she's finally using the fake name."

"I'm going out for a walk, okay? Don't follow me, I want some privacy."

"U-Understood."

He quietly exited the tent and looked around, nobody was up. The horse was laying down in a patch of soft grass, tired from pulling the cart all day.

The night shrouded everything in darkness, and the shadows were long, but Icarus felt right at home among the shadows. He walked around, his footsteps only leaving faint prints in the grass, and gave no sound. He once again looked up at the sky, and thought. He saw this natural scene, and compared it to his old world, a world covered in metal and stone, poisonous gases in the air, he decided that he would try his best. He would do everything in his power to ensure that harm would never fall onto Nazarick, or anyone that was important to him. His grin faded away as he heard a strange noise. It was a quiet, constant sound that came from a nearby tent. As he got closer, he heard a feminine voice cry out.

"...Ahh..."

"That sounds like a girl. But isn't Swords of Darkness all male? Wait a second..."

He went closer, and the noise wouldn't stop.

"That's Ninya, isn't it? Was he hurt in an attack? I didn't sense anyone though..."

He decided to investigate, as it would be bad if an enemy that could avoid both his and Narberal's detection was actively hunting them.

"Is it the Slane Theocracy, back for revenge? I mean, I did wipe out one of their Scriptures, or something along the lines of that."

After the one-sided slaughter at Carne, he had learned that the Scripture he had annihilated was one of six. That meant he had destroyed a decent chunk of the the Slane Theocracy's elite forces.

"But isn't this too quick? Did they send out one of their top fighters? Maybe a powerful mercenary assassin? Whatever, there's no point in guessing, I'll have to just go in."

As he entered the tent with a silent flip of the entrance flap, what he saw shocked him. Ninya was completely bare, laying on the blanket squirming, face was red from panting, and a thin sheen of sweat covered 'his' body. Several fingers were rapidly thrusting in and out of a hole in 'his' "area".

"Ahh!..."

As Icarus entered, Ninya simultaneously climaxed. 'His' body buckled, and clear liquid sprayed out the entrance, coating 'his' fingers.

"I knew it, I fucking knew it. No wonder I was getting weird feelings about Ninya, turns out 'he' wasn't even a guy. Hmm... I wonder how she would react to seeing me."

"Ahem."

"AHH!"

Ninya was lost in bliss, but the sound of a cough, enhanced by the heavy silence of the night, sharply stabbed through her hazy conscience. She frantically tried to bring her upper body up, only to have a metal hand grab her by the jaw and slam her back down. Icarus didn't want a ruckus, and a scream was one of the best ways to cause precisely that, so he had knelt down and covered her mouth. She started panicking, as she was currently unarmed and naked, with absolutely no way of contacting the others, who were only less than a dozen meters away. But as her gaze focused onto her assailant, she relaxed, it was Light, the warrior who had slain the ogres from the afternoon with only a single slash. Seeing that Ninya was finally calm, as her frantic breathing slowed, Icarus removed his hand and sat back cross-legged.

"So I take it you're a girl?" Icarus chuckled.

"...H-Hmm? Y-Yes, I'm a girl." Ninya blushed.

"Why didn't you tell anyone else?"

"W-Well, usually girls aren't on adventurer teams because they don't like that kind of stuff. Also, a fair share of teams have disbanded or been betrayed because of women."

"What do you mean by that?"

Sitting up, Ninya explained, "Adventurer teams often encounter dangerous situations and spend a lot of time together, so it's only natural that relationships are formed, it would be weirder if they didn't. But sometimes the relationship will become more important than the goal and then the team will be backstabbed. In fact, I once heard about an orichalcum team in the Baharuth Empire that was dissolved after a girl and guy secretly took the team's assets that they had been saving up for quite a long time, and ran away during a dangerous battle and caused the other two to suffer a gruesome death. And that only made the Baharuth Empire's image of adventurers drop even lower then it already is."

"Oh? It seems that being an adventurer doesn't make you universally revered as a hero. But then again, from hat I've seen, adventurers are basically monster hunting mercenaries."

"I guess that makes sense, but that brings me to my other question, why are you here?"

"Umm, b-because I was hired for this job?" Ninya was very confused.

"No, what I meant was, why are you an adventurer? I heard about your ability, you could make way more money and live a far safer life as a magic caster, you could even eventually teach magic at a magic academy. Why are you out here fighting monsters in the fields and camping out in tents?"

Icarus noticed a change in her mood, she was suddenly sad, her head lowered, gazing at the floor.

"Because a noble took my sister. We weren't rich...we lived in a village, and I was our family's only hope of ever making it out...you're right, you know? With my talent, I could definitely have gotten a job involving magic with little problem, and that was the plan. Until my sister was kidnapped, GONE in the middle of the night. I-I said goodnight to her and went to sleep...not knowing that I wouldn't be able to say 'good morning' to her the next morning! I-I swore that I would find her again, and make the BASTARD that took her pay. Before I knew it, I had become an a-adventurer. My plan was to rise the ranks and social standings, and maybe I would eventually c-come in contact with my sister. But I've been stuck at silver, I-I can't go any higher...I-I just wanted to f-find-"

Her words were cut off, her sobbing and tears prevented her from going any further. Seeing this, anger slowly bubbled up, Icarus knew that it might not be the wisest choice, but he never was the wisest person, he decided that he would find this person, if they were alive, he would find him, if they were dead, he would find their corpse, and then resurrect them. He would make sure Ninya met the scumbag would had taken her sister from her, and then, the tormentor would wish that they were dead, they would beg for death. He slowly embraced her shaking body, and a gasp escaped her lips, but she showed no resistance, so he continued to hold her, until she eventually stilled. Disengaging, he stood up and left with only a few parting words. Ninya was still sitting in her tent, naked. as she remembered what she had told Icarus, she slowly laid down and covered her body with the blanket. She recalled what he had told her just a few minutes prior.

"You'll find her eventually, get some rest. We still have a mission to complete, and if i ever find that person...I'll let you know."

"Thank you, Light." was her last thought before the comfort of sleep took her in its embrace.

As he returned to his own tent and laid down, meditating, Nabe frowned, it was nighttime so she had stopped restraining herself. No matter what, her god's survival came first, her survival and the success of plan came second. Her enhanced senses told her that the her lord had the recent scent of a female on him. But she was confused, as she thought that she was the only female out of everyone here. But since Icarus didn't want to explain, she didn't want to disturb Icarus, so Nabe said nothing and simply laid there silently.

Back in E-Rantel, a drunk man was stumbling down a road, when he noticed shadows moving in the alley, he shrieked, but he was used to this. He was a heavy drinker who frequented the pub down the road, and he knew it. Today was a relatively light binge for him, so he still retained some of his mental ability. Thinking it was the alcohol playing tricks, he thought nothing more of it and continued on his path. If he had looked closer, he would have noticed two smiling figures, a cloaked female, and a bald robed man.

Currently Known Equipment and Abilities:

EQUIPMENT

-[Holy Set] (Legendary Class Armor Set) (Archangel)

-[Judicus] (Divine Class) (Archangel)

ITEMS

[All Seeing Eye] (Relic Class Item) (see all 6th tier or lower traps/read all written languages)

SPELLS

-[Cruel Contortion] (4th tier)

-[Implosion] (8th tier)

XXX

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Ninya will be referred to as 'she' from now on. My laptop tried to commit sewer slide on the 22nd and now the bottom left screen is cracked. My cursor is randomly going crazy and it's no longer touchscreen on half of the screen. Sorry for the late post! 7/26/20

-ASAI