Pov Sapphire:
Sigh
I thought everything was going as we planned, I thought the battles had been easy because we were outnumbered this time, but once I got to the third floor and passed the camp I realized how wrong I was.
I stayed in the camp for a while to see people from my village coming back and I noticed that there were many wounded and there were more than a hundred dead this time.
That was just a quick count I did, after that, I went to the meeting at Zenos' mansion along with the village council and those of Zenos' group.
During the meeting two bad pieces of information come out, the first one is about a crystal that can turn the recently dead into undead.
The other bad information was about our next two targets, it looks like the two have teamed up and we're heading in that direction, if our deduction is correct they're heading back to Farus' stronghold.
Knowing that the enemy was going to be outnumbered and thinking that they might have more surprises we don't know about made me feel a little scared as the village council split into two sides, one side in favor of returning to the village and the other side in favor of continuing with our attack, the members of Zenos' group were quiet without saying anything, Zenos himself had his eyes closed as he had a serious expression on his face showing that he was thinking about all this.
I tried to calm the conversation until Zenos opened his eyes, he's already proved to be better than me with planning, so I'd better let him think about it and see if he can get us out of this crisis too.
As I expected, Zenos opened his eyes with a viable plan, in fact, it was a different way of using the plan that we were already using, we all listened to him, and even before he spoke the dangers of the plan had already been noticed.
This was our best chance to end Farus, the more time we waste the worse our situation will be if we return to the village nothing will change and it will only be a matter of time until our defeat.
As the village leader, I have to accept the weight of the sacrifices they will have during the battle, the lives my people lose are my responsibility.
Even if many die, the chances of this Zenos plan being a success is still high, so I accepted, then we started to decide where we would attack Farus' troops, after that we closed the meeting and continued talking with the village council about preparations that we will do before the battle.
———-
I'm lying on the branch of a big tree with my tail wrapped around the branch, that's one of the fruit trees we brought from the mountain range here into the dungeon, I'm eating one of its fruit as I look up to the sky and think of the battle that gets closer.
I chose to stay in this place because I can feel a great harmony of nature in this place, it calms me down in the same way that talking to the Guardian always calmed me down.
"Are you thinking about the upcoming battle?" (Ivan)
While I was lost in my thoughts, that Undead from Zenos' group approaches a strange girl.
The girl has silver eyes and light red hair, she looks young but I can tell she looks like this Undead.
"This isn't the first time we've seen each other, but nice to meet you, leader of the village, my name is Lyra, I'm the daughter of this pile of bones." (lyra)
"What a cruel thing to say, what part of this handsome man looks like a pile of bones?" (Ivan)
"That's just your spectral body ability, not your true appearance, father." (lyra)
"Who said that? This may be an ability, but this appearance is still mine, my spectral body is as true as your flesh and skin." (Ivan)
"…" (I)
"(Why did this duo come all this way?)" (I)
I was taking advantage of the silence to think, in those moments I would normally go to the Guardian to talk, but that's not possible for now, at least until these two arrive to bother me.
"You seem to be worried, is there anything about the master's plan that you don't like?" (Ivan)
"His plan is a good one, arresting the generals for a while while we all deal with the remaining 10000 enemies, this is still a good plan that could be an almost guaranteed victory." (I)
"Looks like there's something else, right?" (lyra)
"It worries me that there are more surprises that we don't know about Farus' troops like that crystal, I also have to think about the lives that will be lost during the battle." (I)
"Don't waste your time thinking about things you have no control over, instead you should think about what you can do to reduce the death toll." (Ivan)
"When I was still alive I was a general, I was in command of entire armies on the battlefield and there were many times I had to see my soldiers dying in front of me." (Ivan)
"I know you don't trust me, but let me tell you one thing, don't feel sorry for the lives that will be lost during the battle, every person who is fighting under your command does it for an ideal, that's why they're facing an enemy more strong and are prepared to lay down their lives for the victory." (Ivan)
"So instead of whining about lives that haven't been lost yet, harden your resolve to prepare for combat." (Ivan)
"My Father is right, don't think about these things now, you have to prepare for the fight…" (Lyra)
"What is this…" (I)
"Master…" (Ivan)
"What is this feeling…" (Lyra)
Suddenly a presence seems to spread everywhere and in all directions, such a strong and strange presence, somehow this presence is chaotic and deep, I feel like there are many different layers that make up this presence, but the strangest thing is that this presence mixes and harmonizes with the environment.
A short time later I feel the space around me shaking, then several energy spheres started to appear everywhere, these spheres were shaking and their brightness was getting higher and higher, it felt as if these spheres were alive somehow.
I feel movement beneath me and when I look up I see Ivan and Lyra on their knees, as I think about why they were doing this I notice something even stranger happens.
The light from the spheres scattered around begins to harden into glowing crystals, then the light begins to pulse like a heartbeat, in a few minutes I see silhouettes forming inside the crystals and strong energy of several different elements begins to spread around the surroundings, then suddenly the crystals explode in dazzling light.
"…" (I)
I am speechless when I realize what was really happening, the creatures that came out of the crystals were Fairies and Spirits of the lower level, they were beautiful and as soon as they came out of the crystals they started dancing while flying happily, this beautiful image left me mesmerized.
I didn't know what was happening here, but at that moment none of that mattered, I just watched that scene of legends while the strange presence disappeared without me realizing it.
———-
Pov Sophia:
"Your punches are very aggressive, how many times do I need to say that being aggressive is not the same as being strong, now repeat this sequence of punches 100 more times until I can do it without even having to think." (I)
"Yes, Coach." (Alice)
I didn't participate in the meeting that the master held with the people of the village, none of that mattered to me as I am a true warrior who swore loyalty to a master, no matter where the master sends me to fight, I will go.
So I don't care what they decide at these meetings, but even so, Freya always makes a point of keeping me updated, especially with the change of situation as our next battle will be.
Instead of attending this meeting, I preferred to stay training Alice all afternoon until the evening part, not because I'm too demanding, but because she asked, Alice seems obsessed with getting strong for some reason, even the master noticed that and asked me to guide her to the right path.
Alice is very isolated from everyone unlike Nolan who is always interacting with everyone, Alice only talks to Irina, Érica, and the master.
She seems to have a lot of respect for everyone, but I can see that she admires the master a lot, I've seen her spying on the master's insane training more than once, I've even seen her spying on the moments when the master does dangerous things like consuming the bloodline of Dragon or merge powerful bloodlines, she doesn't say anything but it looks like she is mirroring the master which is very dangerous, the master does these dangerous things but he has the potential to withstand this madness, unfortunately, Alice has no potential for combat.
Alice's body seems weaker than a normal Vampire's, but it seems that she has talent with magic, but she doesn't have the patience to learn little by little, I hope that with hard training she can better control her emotions and put her thoughts in order.
"Coach, when are you going to teach me about Auras?" (Alice)
"It would be useless to teach you now, learning about Auras without having an Aura skill as a starting point can be frustrating." (I)
"You could spend years trying to learn from an Aura master and never succeed, take the master, for example, he has multiple Aura skills but he doesn't have complete control over them, he can barely hide his normal Aura." (I)
"It's already night, we should stop your training and…" (I)
"What a magnificent presence this is…" (Alice)
"Master…" (I)
As I was going to ask to finish the training today, I suddenly feel an Aura spread all over the place, this Aura is very familiar to me, this chaotic, deep, layered and mysterious Aura can only belong to the master.
Just feeling his Aura made me realize that it's not one of his abilities, it's not a characteristic of his Aura, this is the master's normal Aura, his true Aura that exploded spreading all over the place and harmonizing with the environment in a way that I didn't even know was possible.
As soon as I felt this Aura I knelt down instinctively, being surrounded by the Master's Aura makes me feel like I'm being embraced by him and fills me with power while making me feel safe.
But I felt that the Master's Aura was being sucked by something, it was almost imperceptible if you don't have a lot of experience with Aura manipulation, so I see several glowing spheres appearing and I know they are Fairies and Infant Spirits.
Soon these spheres absorb traces of the Master's Aura as they create cocoons for themselves, I can feel traces of Auras starting to appear inside the cocoons as silhouettes form, then Fairies and Spirits are born from within the crystals in a magnificent scene I never thought would return. to see.
"Since I left the side of the World Tree I never thought I would see the birth of Fairies and Spirits again…." (I)