Chapter 577: Exodus I

Chapter 577: Exodus I

I had a million things to do, and extremely limited time.

“Let’s go talk with Katerina.” I split my mind again into several processes, doing a dozen different things at once.

The ‘simplest’ one was designing multiple spells that could help handle all this ash and smoke in the air. We were all breathing through masks - a perfectly serviceable solution - but if this state of affairs were to persist, I wanted a dozen different solutions. Hopefully I wouldn’t need them, but I’d done my reading. I knew how long ash and smoke could linger from a large wildfire, and it seemed like this was one to dwarf them all.

The next part the still-named [Luminary Mind] focused on were the details of all the new skills. I hadn’t read them all in-depth in the world of my soul, and given how my ‘as quickly as possible’ class up had turned into half a day, I was glad I hadn’t tried. I’d probably still be out of it even now.

A Drop of Eternity in a Sea of Starlight: Immortality skill. Turn back the hourglass of time, then shatter it.

Oh nice! I was more than familiar with my skill at this point, and the upgrade strongly implied that people would stop aging as well as becoming younger. No more would they still need to seek out their own Immortality skill, or find further ways to fend off White Dove.

Also... I could totally turn someone into a child, then they’d be stuck there. Something to keep in my back pocket if I was ever being extorted heavily over it.

Domain of the Healer: Rapid regeneration of everyone in range. All who cry out your name in request of succor will find your touch lands upon them. -32,752 mana regeneration.

Oh hey! The ‘call my name’ skill got merged into my healing aura! On one hand, there was a strong ‘educate people on what they needed to do to make it work’ aspect, on the other, my name was literally healer. Anyone who called out for a healer would miraculously find their prayer granted.

Just as long as they didn’t call for a medic, doctor, or nurse though. They’d be plain out of luck.

Goddess. How weird was it that this made complete and total sense to me!? No more questioning it, no more finding it weird, just complete and total ‘yup, that’s exactly the way it should be’. I was finding the acceptance odd, not the phenomenon.

Clad in Twilight: Harness the ethereal essence of twilight, the fleeting moment between day and night, to reinforce your gear. -8192 mana regeneration.

The ‘low’ - and how far I’d come that 8000 was low - mana regeneration indicated that this wasn’t the strongest of armor skills. Such was life - simply being able to reinforce my gear and prevent hostile Classers from directly manipulating it was enough for me, and the real bonus was my vitality being added, not from the skill itself.

The Mantle of Dusk and Dawn: Dawn and dusk. Protection and destruction. Aegis and shield. A flipping coin, one side of absolute void and the other shining with the brilliance of every star in the sky. Shield and protect with both, granting succor to all those who wish to shelter in your broad shadow. -131,008 mana regeneration.

That was a terrible skill description, and I’d have to do extensive testing to see what, exactly, it meant. It wasn’t like skills came with a second set of instincts that automatically let me know exactly how to use it and what it did.

A tiny, childish part of me was squeeing with joy that I might have both types of shields - the protective starry mantle that I’d had when I was young, and the destructive [Event Horizon] skill I’d eventually evolved it into.

Elaine Eternal: Neither exhaustion, weariness or fatigue, nor gloom of night, can keep you from swift completion of your duty. -512 mana regeneration.

There was a slim part of me that hoped it would merge into my domain skill. The overlap was there - but I was in no position to start to try and figure out a brand new skill.

Iona and I didn’t bother being subtle about moving through the city. We went to the rooftops and sprinted over to where Katerina and the rest of her command structure was located.

The dragoneye moons were rising in their full crimson glory, an ominous nimbus radiating off them. Lun’kat was in a bad mood, and letting the world know about it.

The moons weren’t supposed to be full tonight.

The city was in bad shape.

When the first city-destroying strike had hit Massa, it had shaken but not fallen. People were still looking out for one another, lending a helping hand. The community came together in face of the disaster, pooled their resources, and did their level best to help each other.

Oh, sure, there were pricks the world over, and I wouldn’t pretend Massa or even Exterreri were any different. Selfish hoarders who wouldn’t lift a finger to help their neighbors, criminals taking advantage of the chaos, and low lifes who took the moment to take advantage of people.

Even... even adventurers tended to only be lowlifes who took advantage of people when they could about half the time. When adventurers had the moral advantage, it was bad.

The second hit, the Decay elf rippling caustic destruction through the city, was more than the fine citizens of Massa could tolerate. No longer were they lending a helping hand to their neighbor, sharing what little they had. The very real possibility of starvation was rearing its ugly head as the news that almost all food had been rotted away ripped through the city like wildfire.

Whoever said civilization was only three meals away from collapse got it wrong. It was an overestimate - the cracks were rapidly expanding at one missed meal, and it was all going to go to hell by the second one. The guard was gone, probably gone home to their families. What was the point of maintaining law and order if that simply resulted in starvation? Already the seeds of various riots were forming, and full centuries of steel-clad [Legionaries] hustled down the streets to break them up.

“This is going to get bad.” I said.

“Brrpt.” Auri agreed. “... Brrrrrpt?”

Iona eyed the walls.

“Burning the walls down might unironically help the situation if you can do it in a controlled way.” She said. “You’d be causing a panic, and I assume you can not burn people out or suck out all their air, but preventing people from getting trapped would be a boon.”

“If Katerina agrees, sure.” I said. Fenrir snorted doubtfully at the whole thing, but didn’t comment. Auri started to burn brighter in her excitement, but wasn’t quite able to zip around me - we were going too quickly.

Iona and I hammered out what I was going to say to Katerina and how we were going to frame things.

She groaned at my initial presentation. I had a whole speech about Sentinels being for all the people of Exterreri, not just the Sixth. It followed all the rules in my big book of social rules! I double checked! I imagined she’d break out some mention of ‘abandoning us in our hour of need’ or something.

“No, no, that’s way too blunt. You can’t tell her that in front of everyone! The Sixth will end up deserting! She’ll have to try to arrest you, we all know how well that will work. Here, let’s do it like this.” My wife suggested.

We arrived at the bristling wall of shields and spears that was Katerina’s headquarters, a large number of citizens muttering darkly out of reach of the weapons. Torches were held high for light, and I’d be surprised if there were no confrontations. Everyone’s hair was going white under the relentless ashfall, and one of the civilians was busy scooping out ashes from the top of an open rain barrel.

We strode in like we owned the place.

“Dawn. Excellent. We’re hoping to move out tonight.” Katerina said without preamble. I saluted, hyper-aware that it might be the last time I ever saluted.

“Legata. We’re happy to join the Sixth out to their final destination, but after that point, my team’s going back to Sanguino to evaluate the situation, and possibly bring back news from High Command or the Senate. There’s a chance we will be basing ourselves near Sanguino, and continue to act as War Sentinel for the Sixth, or the founded town.”

Perfect! Hit all the points Iona suggested. Phrased it as ‘we’re doing this for the Sixth’, while still clearly communicating ‘we’re breaking off’.

Legata Katerina shot us the stink-eye, and Leona, the second-in-command, made a noise of visible disgust. Fenrir’s hackles went up, the shrunken wyvern curled around Iona’s shoulders like a scaled scarf.

“Good. None of the scouts we’ve sent towards Sanguino have returned, and at this point I suspect foul play.” Katerina’s response came a few seconds later. “Fenrir being based out of Sanguino will relieve our logistics. We plan to march out of here at midnight, and do a forced march all the way.”

Whoof, that was going to be rough.

“Dismissed.” Katerina said.

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I saluted again and left the tent.

“Let’s see what we can do.” Iona suggested, and I was all for it.

“Brrrpt...” Auri was a little sad that she hadn’t been able to talk with Katerina about Operation: BURN IT ALL, and I shrugged.

“Why don’t you carefully make a number of gates in the wall?” I suggested. “You don’t get to burn everything, but clearly marking what’s going on and keeping the flames contained should manage to get it done.”

Iona nodded.

“Take Fenrir with you. If something happens, Elaine, light up with your skill. Fenrir, get large and throw Lightning around. Understood?”

I had a nostalgic flashback to my time as a Ranger, where we had to go around in pairs.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Chimera (Elvenoid)]

[Age: 112]

[Mana: 15,541,730/15,541,730]

[Mana Regeneration: 52,526,131 +(165,273,822)]

Stats

[Free Stats: 0]

[Strength: 135,674 (Effectively: 1,085,392)]

[Dexterity: 160,008 (Effectively: 1,703,765)]

[Vitality: 566,922 (Effectively: 8,858,156)]

[Speed: 554,154 (Effectively: 10,907,413)]

[Mana: 1,554,173]

[Mana Regeneration: 5,537,971 (+ 16,527,382)]

[Magic Power: 2,283,963 (+ 144,574,858)]

[Magic Control: 2,282,950 (+ 144,510,735)]

[Class 1: [The Elaine- Celestial: Lv 1266]]

[Celestial Spirit: 1266]

[Domain of the Healer: 1266]

[A Drop of Eternity in a Sea of Starlight: 558]

[Luminary Mind: 1266]

[Universal Cure: 1266]

[Clad in Twilight: 513]

[The Mantle of Dusk and Dawn: 860]

[Elaine Eternal: 1266]

[Class 2: [Seraph of the Dawn - Radiance: Lv 982]]

[Radiance Mastery: 982]

[A Light Shining in the Darkness: 851]

[The Rays of the First Dawn: 982]

[Radiant Angel's Spear of Obliteration: 430]

[Celestial Dew: 982]

[Sunrise Halo: 982]

[Wings of the Seraphim: 982]

[Six Wings, Six Million Feathers: 982]

[Class 3: [Sage of Tomes - Spatial: Lv 909]]

[Spatial Authority: 909]

[Scripture Savant: 909]

[Teleportation: 840]

[The Library of Infinite Wonder: 909]

[Tower of Knowledge: 434]

[Reality, Writ As You Will: 701]

[Astral Archives: 909]

[Endless Pursuit of Knowledge: 909]

General Skills

[Long-Range Identify: 624]

[Dexterous and Handy: 500]

[Companion Bond between Elaine and Auri: 1266]

[The World Around Me: 533]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 1266]

[Sentinel's Superiority: 1266]

[Persistent Casting: 1266]

[Tender Gardening: 627]