Chapter 70: Chapter 70: Echoes of War
Enjoy the last chapter of Vol 2!
A double sized chapter to round off the volume!
Giliath demands your power stones. Let's get over 500 again!
*
As Campanella began to have fun with his shuffle time, the sands of time began to churn again. It didn't take the five long to clear the Instance Dungeon. The jaegers did pose a small risk to the group due to receiving enhanced battle qi thanks to the Gamer System, but these pillars of Ouroboros have long gotten used to fighting either alone or in groups, and it did not take them long to clear the jaegers out.
Each one fought one of the five shadows. Arianrhod to Shadow Vandyck. Vita to Shadow Celestin. Tamamo to Shadow Olaf Craig. Faceless to Shadow Hyarms and McBurn to Shadow Neithardt. McBurn was at first mad seeing who fought who, as it was obvious Vandyck's strength was far above the rest of the four Shadows, but this particular version of Neithardt was Instructor Neithardt. He posed enough of a challenge to where McBurn no longer found himself bored.
Since Tamamo was to the party leader, every single bit of experience was rewarded to her, causing Tamamo's levels to soar. As far as the concepts of levels went, the members of Ouroboros couldn't see their own level or their fellow party levels, it was as if they didn't exist. From their point of view, it was similar to how Campanella acted, only knowing that Naoto was able to "create" dungeons for now. The concept of levels didn't exist from their point of view, which meant no experience went to them.
Still, that didn't mean they didn't get unrewarded though. Once the dungeon was cleared, Arianrhod felt her battle qi thicken. She thought she had reached the pinnacle of her strength, but the Gamer System said otherwise, showing her a new light.
The Faceless obtained new knowledge he could use to further his studies on creating his dream, artificial Stigmas. As to whether he could actually realize it still depended on his efforts. The Gamer System is impartial, it did not regard people as heroes or villains. If the Gamer System assigned a quest to a party and one of the party members happened to be a villian, it would still reward such a person. The Faceless knew well who gave him this reward, and now he owes Naoto a favor, as he hates owing favors. This will be kept in mind, should he decide to try and erase his own presence from Naoto's mind, as that was one of the special abilities of the Faceless, and why he obtained such a moniker in the first person.
Naoto wasn't against this either, as he too was interested in the theory behind how Stigmas worked, and as to whether he could manifest one himself. He was curious if an artificial Stigma would give the Gamer System a power boost to his stats. He was placed under a mental burden during the raid on his villa but unfortunately no artifact was around at the time to see if he could awaken a Stigma. And if Weissman successfully creates one artificially, Naoto could essentially take that knowledge for himself with the favor the Faceless now owes him.
But in the end, that is still dependent on Weissman's efforts.
As for McBurn...he started to see Naoto in a new light.
What the Gamer System granted him was essentially flame essence, making him become more one with the element of fire. Fire was essentially his entire being, and he didn't know this was even possible. This prompted McBurn to go into secluded meditation to dive into this reward given to him, quickly saying goodbye to the group after the Hamel Tragedy passed.
But perhaps the one who received the biggest reward besides Tamamo's boost in levels was Vita. The Gamer System effectively doubled her current mana capacity. Imagine having an orbment slot locked. Whenever a slot gets unlocked, it provides a boost in EP. If Vita had 1000 EP prior to this dungeon, she would now be at 2000 EP. Feeling such a strong surge in mana made her feel giddy for a good moment, but at the same time, it caused McBurn to want to leave even quickly.
Campanella may have gotten the shaft on the rewards, or did he? Campanella was not given any materialistic rewards like the others were given. Instead only his favorability meter rose by a good chunk. He didn't know the concept of the favorability meter either as it was tied to one of Naoto's passives, so all he received was a desire to meet Naoto more in person now. So maybe he called that a win?
All in all, the dungeon was conquered, and the Hamel Tragedy came and gone. Ouroboros quickly left just as swiftly as they first arrived. Loewe ended up fleeing with Joshua in the direction of the closest military outpost. Campanella made sure to keep track of these two as they fled. A child named Johan ended up fleeing toward closest city in the Sutherland region, only to be picked up by an information broker named Miguel.
The girl who perished in Loewe's arms that night, did unfortunately perish. Tamamo could have tried to save her, but Naoto decided against it. He did not know much about Karin unlike his own mother Kasia, if he saved her he wouldn't know what would happen to Loewe and Joshua as a result. The growth they need to go through affects the sky series more than he thought saving Karin would. As such, Naoto decided against it.
Besides, Naoto is no savior. One reason why he saved Kasia was the fact she was his current mother. He wouldn't save anyone just willingly. Some things needed to stay true to the world he was now residing in. And to add to that, Roselia acted as a medium with Tamamo being the conduit. Since Roselia is currently out of commission, and if Naoto relied on Vita for the incantation, it may have placed too much of a strain on her to handle.
The next target Naoto has for this forbidden incantation is Emma's mother, Isola Millstein. Her battle with the Black Alberich won't happen for a couple more years, so he has time to prepare.
Seeing the Hamel Tragedy take effect, Weissman returned to his contacts In Erebonia, which was none other than several influential royal
With Weissman out of sight, McBurn also excluded himself from Ouroboros's affairs for the time being. Campanella made sure to take note of this when he returned to the Celestial Globe to make his latest report. The Grandmaster became pleased with Naoto's parting gift to them, and ensured a spot would remain open should he decide to join in the future.
That only left Vita to her own devices, along with Tamamo and Grianos. She would let Grianos go hunting after she recovered from her boost in mana. In the mean time, she decided to follow Tamamo's schedule, with their next stop being Liberl. And to the exact point, Cassius's house...
Thanks to the Hamel Tragedy taking place, it didn't take long for the soldiers of Erebonia, those belonging to the local Provincial Armies, to discover what had transpired that night. Most of Erebonia's military was still ruled by the nobility so with several strings pulled, this news quickly worked its way up to a key figure. Lechter Arundel's father. He ended up reporting the loss to the upper echelons, despite being the one who was actually behind the attack.
Seeing all the villagers dead and several imperial soldiers dressed in green dead, the Provincial soldiers quickly saw that they were wielding Liberlian weapons. The only conclusion they could reach was that Liberal launched a sneak attack on Erebonian soil.
Since that was the case, the generals had a meeting with the Emperor, His Majesty Eugent III and drafted up an official letter to address Liberl. They had officially declared war on their neighboring country. While His Majesty was against it, he had no way of stopping of what would eventually become known as the Hundred Days War.
The moment the war declaration was signed, the 13th armored division stampeded the quiet road that lead to Titus Gate. Passing Titus gate leading into Haken Gate, several orbal powered steam tanks started opening fire. Many, many blast shells were launched that day, thoroughly destroying most of Haken Gate...
Liberl posed little no threat to the might of the Erebonian army. Each region started to be occupied by its many orbal tanks and soldiers.
Haken Gate was completely destroyed.
The famous market city Bose was next to fall. Due to its centralized structure, Erebonia was quickly able to route the Liberlian army inside of it.
From there, it split into two offensives. The Erebonian Army went west, all the way down to the port city, Ruan, but at the same time it went east, heading right to the city of Rolent.
Unfortunately, along the way, due to Liberl's blockades, Erebonian soldiers began to use artillery fire to destroy them. As a result of these shells being launched, a nearby village was struck, killing many of its villagers. This village was known as Ravennue Village. The very same village a certain hot-blooded red haired teen and his sister were currently living in...
Besides monitoring Cassius, another mission Naoto gave Tamamo was to watch the Hundred Days War. He didn't know Vita would now be with Tamamo so Vita experienced watching a war and the destruction it brought with it. Vita had explored some parts of Zemuria so far including having her fair share of battles, but seeing a full scale war like this one was definitely a first for her. She felt like she wanted to do something, but Tamamo reminded her that they were to only observe.
There was one thing Tamamo ensured Vita could take action on, and that was none other than Ravennue Village. Despite the deadly artillery fire, some of its villagers managed to flee. Two such villagers were were a red haired boy and girl, seemingly fourteen and twelve years old respectively.. As it was the boy's birthday soon, the red haired girl forgot her birthday gift to him and quickly rushed back to the village despite the ongoing firing.
In a lull between reloads, Tamamo took this time and gave her the birthday present she was meant to give to the red haired boy, and didn't go back into their house. In mere seconds, they saw an artillery shell drop on it, promptly crumbling their home to bits and dust.
This left the girl in shock for a good while, enough for the boy to reach her. After receiving a berating, the boy knew they could no longer stayed in Ravennue Village, and quickly fled with the other villagers. Vita saw this happen and decided to give aid by healing those who fled. The girl didn't forget to say thank you to the little mysterious fox that brought her her present.
Both Ruan and Rolent weren't as lucky as Ravennue Village though. Ruan had its water bridge connecting both halves of the city destroyed. It would take a good while for them to repair it after the war. As for Rolent...
Rolent's popular clock tower that everyone loved to visit while they're sightseeing Liberl got blasted to smithereens. An unfortunate brown haired mother-daughter pair ended up getting stuck in the crossfire. As a result the mother protected her daughter from harm, allowing the debris to pelt her instead. Her entire being got pelted as a result, and ended up dying from blood loss. By the time a certain prominent brown haired man from the Liberlian military arrived to the scene, it was already too late. He could only rescue her daughter from the accident...
Bose fell. Ruan fell. Rolent fell. Three of Liberl's five major cities fell into the hands of the Erebonian might. Zeiss was next on the radar, which caused all of its technicians to flee into Zeiss Central Factory, including a certain Russell family. Zeiss itself would enter a grip lock with Erebonia, as they didn't want to lose the Zeiss Central Factory...
This swift and decisive combat tactics that pierced Liberl through quick maneuvers through soldiers and tanks alike was commonly known as the Blitzkrieg tactics often seen in wartime of the past.
Cassius was able to keep Erebonia at bay by keeping three secure locations, which was the Zeiss Central Factory, Leiston Fortress, and Grancel City, including the royal castle.
Being put under severe strain while hope seemed all lost, Zeiss Central Factory's Albert Russell was transferred to Leiston Fortress, and began to secretly develop orbal patrol ships, at the full expense of the military. Unfortunately General Morgan was not present during the revising of Liberl's counterattack, which was therefore spearheaded by Cassius Bright. That didn't bring shame to the revision though, as these three orbal patrol ships were successfully crafted, and donned with armor far surpassing that of Erebonia's current tanks. It wasn't just that, the engines and firepower were drastically improved as well.
One by one, the three orbal airships launched a successful counterattack, quickly eliminating the several armored divisions sent by Erebonia. Just as quick and fierce Erebonia struck, Liberl struck back hard, successfully reclaiming their lost land.
So much that caused Giliath Osborne, who was leading the armored divisions, started to send more reinforcements to fight this counterattack. Unfortunately for him, Calvard, who was currently Liberl's ally at the time, started to respond in kind and assist Liberl.
It wasn't until this time the Septian Church took action, formally requesting a ceasefire between Erebonia and Liberl. By this point, a full hundred days had passed during the war between the two countries, which promptly called it the Hundred Days War...
Queen Alicia II confronted Giliath Osborne, and signed a peace treaty. It was either the Queen signing this treaty to protect her people, or to make the tragic loss that started this whole war vanish from the face of the map. Queen Alicia II chose the prior, which caused Hamel Village to be wiped off the map.
All the still while General Morgan continued his own mission of trying to find Liberl's new secret Crown Prince, to which it was basically him tucking a tail between his legs. Any clue he thought was a lead would get dumped into the waters, only to find himself further away. He couldn't even find that the Crown Prince was currently residing in a DG Cult base, let alone the main DG Cult base. Even the word DG Cult wasn't brought up as he continued his searching...
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"And all of that now leads me to this point...huh?", a voice uttered softly in the depths of what appeared to be a vast dark area.
Deep within a dark cell in an unknown area, a violet haired boy could be seen sitting in a relaxed manner with his knees crouched.
However he didn't appear alone. A smaller figure could be seen resting against his legs with tears forming in her eyes.
"Big brother...big sister...", the smaller figure uttered softly, revealing a somewhat pained voice. If one had a close look at their body, chain marks could be seen around their wrists and their ankles, but no cuffs could currently be seen around them.
Hearing this, the boy slowly raised his hand and started to wipe the little figure's tears away as they continued to rest.
"To be honest, I wasn't expecting to meet one of you guys here.", the boy softly uttered to not wake the other figure, which appeared to be a girl. She had somewhat short but bright lilac hair. But what made her seem prominent were her red eyes. Her clothes seemed somewhat torn, but they consisted of a small blouse and a blue pleated skirt.
I got confused thinking this girl would be her, but the hair color is way different. This girl's hair is lilac, while who she reminded me of shared a more prominent shade of purple hair.
"Sherryl Sky, little sister to that of Jillian Sky, who has connections within Remiferia's royal lineage...", I uttered softly.
That's right, the boy was of course me, Naoto. As for the girl who was currently resting on my knees, she was someone who I was not expecting to appear at all in this world, a character straight out from Akatsuki no Kiseki. I guess characters will be bound to show up as they come, eh?
To be honest, I was expecting to meet Ennea while I reside in the main DG Cult base , but Sherryl came first. She didn't know who to trust shortly after she was kidnapped and brought to this place, but she quickly found peace in my being. The only thing she really misses now is her big sister, Jillian Sky, who should likely still be residing in Crossbell.
However, that thought soon ended by what appeared to be a rather crude voice that suddenly struck our dark cell the two of us were residing in.
"Hey brats, here's some fresh meat for ya!", A rude voice said which seemed to have come from someone wearing a dark colored robe, which hid most of their features. At the same time, the sound of a chain being unlocked echoed in the darkness. A thud soon followed, revealing a figure of a person being tossed our way.
"...", the figure said, not uttering a single word even after being tossed around like that. Upon a closer look, they were currently dressed in a light, easy to move around outfit. But what attracted me was the color of this figure's hair. It was bluish-indigo in color, and very wavy.
"Welcome to the pits of Gehenna. What do they call you?", I decided to ask the new arrival.
"...", the figure responded, only to slowly lift her eyes up at me. Her eyes appeared void of life, but at the same time I could feel a dangerous air around her. In fact she even had a dagger close to her waist. It wasn't even confiscated by the people dressed in hooded robes.
"Perhaps I had a slip of the tongue. What do they call you?", I asked again, to which I started to churn my mana a bit, revealing a hidden pressure.
This caused the the new girl to shiver a bit, before they looked directly at me. If one looked closely a faint smell of blood permeated from her body.
"...Ennea...", The blue-indigo haired girl said, uttering her name as she introduced herself to me.
Vol 2 FIN.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Aht
Aht Giliath demands your power stones Let's try to get over 500 again!
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
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