Shadowbane

Finally...

After forty-five days of running(and two weeks of sleeping) I was now staring up at the portal to Aetheria. If it wasn't for that damned mountain I would've been back much sooner. Flying over it would've took no time at all, but it would've been way too dangerous.

I wasn't able to find any Merfolk in the cavern or near the rivers, so I decided to just swim through the lake underneath the mountain. I was underwater for almost three weeks trying to find my way through all of the different tunnels that twisted every which way. And I'm lucky Luna was there. Three weeks is a small amount of time compared to how long it would've taken me without her assistance.

{I-I don't like this part... Wake me up when we arrive.}

As soon as she finished speaking I could feel her aura fade to a glimmer.

Unlike her, I loved slowly moving through space as an ethereal entity as I traveled to Mother last time, so I was excited to do it again.

After sticking the bird summon to my waist I jumped into the portal and immediately I was flying through space again. Although this time I was heading toward Aetheria.

As I neared Aetheria I tried looking for anything that might stand out, and I found quite a bit. First off, the bottom one-third of Aetheria was covered in dark clouds, which was obviously the borders of Viktor's nation, but it was still surprising to see that he was blotting out the sky again. While I was in Xethra, and when I was eating the Xerath near his nation's borders, the sky was clear.

I asked the Tengu about that on the way to Gaia, and he said that Viktor generally keeps the clouds transparent so his people can see the sky. Apparently crime skyrockets when he blots out the sky, and people become more depressed overall, so he only does it in times of crisis, or war.

So something serious must've happened if he's shrouding his entire nation in darkness. The Eldritch gave him the all-green, so it's probably related the Abyss and Xerath. It could be a Demonic threat, but considering what happened in Telebron eleven months ago, it's most likely the former. I've got some catching up to do information-wise.

The other thing that stood out was a long thin bridge I could see connecting the western edge of Caedrus to the dark lands. People in Arcadia probably already knew there was a bridge there, but I had no idea there was one.

That suggests the people who used to live in the ruins of Caedrus needed a direct line of transport to the dark lands, which was kind of surprising. The only thing giving me pause was the memory of Viktor's town in Urza, that Jericho place. He was obviously harvesting something from the dark lands there, so the people of Caedrus were probably doing the same thing. No clue if this information will matter in the end though.

Eventually I reached the portal on Aetheria and rematerialized as I passed through it. I immediately poked Luna's soul and she woke up with a jolt. Not one of surprise, but excitement.

{Rei, fly there!}

Do you not remember what happened on Mother? After Varuna helped me figure out how to create my wings we went flying for a bit to test them out and I was barely in the sky for two minutes before something hit me with a spell so powerful it nearly shattered my armor. It's simply too dangerous. Especially in Caedrus. That's what you wanted me to do right, fly to the Elven continent?

{Aww come on... And why is it worse in Caedrus? Mom told me that the machines there are scary and really strong, but they can't be stronger than the Eldritch we faced on Mother, right?}

Oh you cute little naive fairy. Your mom either decided the information was useless and didn't bother going into detail about how powerful they are, or she didn't want to scare you. And by the way, I'm talking about the western two-thirds of Caedrus. I can probably fly on the eastern one-third just fine.

{Don't try and wrap it up with the word 'powerful' and say that's that! Are they stronger than the Eldritch we faced or not?}

... From what I've seen in my memories, they are. Admittedly I haven't actually been there or seen them in person, but there is another reason we can't fly over there, and it's also the reason none of the mechs in Arcadia can fly. There is a specific type of machine hidden all over the western side that fires at anything flying through the sky. I mean we can still try to fly there since I definitely have the mana to survive a few barrages from them, so we'll be able to get away. I'm just telling you that we won't be able to fly over Caedrus until we're on the eastern side.

{Then do it! I want to see these 'powerful' machines.}

She said the word powerful with such sass I could even visualize her rolling her eyes. It seems she doesn't fully believe that the mythological machines are as powerful as they're made up to be, and it's not really much of a surprise. After all, only the Elves have to deal with them and anyone who moves into Arcadia has to deal with them. And for some reason even if living there is really difficult, when people move to Arcadia, they almost never leave. They either find success, or die. I guess that's the kind of resolve it takes to move to such a horrible place.

I activated my halo which automatically brought my wings out as well. Once they were charged up I leaped into the air and began to soar higher and higher until I was around ten thousand feet above the ground.

Before anything could shoot at me I flew northeast, toward the middle of Caedrus. It's best I go there instead of flying directly north. That'd land me in an area I don't think anyone has ever been, and I'd rather not be the one to discover that there are even more powerful anti-air machines over there.

{Wooow look~, the world is so beautiful from up here!}

You can fly too, stupid. Why are you so amazed right now? Have you never been this high before?

{... Mom wouldn't let us fly very high, even in Telebron. We're small, but our auras are easily detectable when we're not inside people. And most things in this world find us delicious, so we were forbidden from becoming 'free meals'. That's what she called any fairies who wanted to fly into the sky.}

I turned hard toward the right, flying perpendicular to the coast.

{Why are you turning? Did you give up? Come on, I want to see the machines shoot you.}

What a scary thing to say, but no, I am not giving up. I'm going this way to take a quick look at Telebron. I want to see if the Eldritch killed that Abyssal God who took over the wellspring. If they did, then I'll need to worry about the purge again.

The sights were beautiful, she wasn't wrong about that. And I could see threats for miles up here, which technically wasn't all that different from when I used birds as scouts, but I definitely preferred seeing it all with my own eyes.

One of the threats was a group of Demons battling one of the Xerathian packs I was attacking previously to get stronger. The Demons had a Satyr with them so they were winning quite easily, but I couldn't help but think about what a bad sign it was to see Demons this close to Telebron. This increases the chances that Demons are responsible for Viktor going into war mode. Or at least taking part of the responsibility.

I flew along the coast for around two days before reaching Telebron. It was basically a war zone. There were several different types of Eldritch firing spells and artillery at the Abyssal God in the middle of Telebron's ruins, but he looked completely undamaged. So it looked like they were only draining his mana, which he could easily replace thanks to the wellspring. But if they really are achieving nothing here then they would have given up already, so there must be more at play here that I'm not aware of.

Between the Eldritch and Abyss were countless bodies on both sides, but it was really hard to tell thanks to all of the fog.

Luna, did you spend most of your life in that cave, or did you also stay in Telebron sometimes?

{Most of my life was spent in Telebron. Mom had brought me to that cave when she warped there to see you... Why?}

How often was it this foggy? And it's centered around Telebron, so I'm getting a really bad feeling. This whole area is reminding me of somewhere else I was in the past.

{Um, it was foggy sometimes, but isn't every place like that?}

... She's not wrong, but seeing a bunch of thick fog emanating from the location of an Abyssal God can only mean one thing in my book. They're corrupting the area, which is common practice among Eldritch, Xerath, and sometimes Demons. I just didn't know that the Abyss could do it too. And since this one has access to the wellspring, does that mean he can turn all of Aetheria into the Abyssal Realm?

If he can I hope it takes him a long fucking time. I'm already going to have my hands full in Caedrus. I don't want to have to worry about these Abyssal fuckers as well. Although they did have one of Viktoria's mirrors planted somewhere on the western edge of Caedrus, but I'm still not sure why they had done that. Might've been nothing more than a singular instance of the Abyss checking out the machines... Probably wishful thinking on my part though.

I turned north and began to fly toward Caedrus.

{Yeaaah, here we go! Get shot!}

......

I flew in silence as the sounds of battle continued on behind me. The amount of highly dangerous auras was the part I couldn't help but focus on. I had never felt so many powerful beings together in one spot before now.

{Ah...}

Luna whispered as Caedrus appeared in the horizon. The jovial feelings I had felt from her up to this point were turning into one of fear and trepidation.

{Y-You know what, I changed my mind! I believe you now. Very scary robots. Yep, very very scary. So let's turn east... Okay?}

Nope. We're here, and now I want to see them for myself as well. Also, it'll be nice to see how much damage these anti-air machines can do. It's best I know now instead of in the future. If I ever encounter a scenario where I might need to try flying away, I'll need to know if it's even possible.

I pushed mana into my armor, ensuring my aura was coating the armor before anything attacked me. This was a test to see how much mana I was going to lose after all.

{Uuu...}

Visibility wasn't the greatest, it had been snowing hard for awhile now, and part of the ocean near the continent was completely frozen. Seeing Caedrus covered in snow and ice again was really hitting me hard. I was still alert, scanning the ground for enemies, but I couldn't help but feel this overwhelming sadness at seeing my homeland again.

I was really close to Caedrus when I saw several red lights appear in two different locations. One was kind of close and almost directly below me, with the other being far off in the distance. It was so far away I barely saw the red lights through the snow storm.

But I didn't get to look at them for long, as two things happened in quick succession after that. First, a volley of rockets came flying out of the red lights below me, while the ones in the distance fired something supersonic at me. Whatever it was, I only just barely perceived it a split second before it hit me. It sent me reeling backwards as I did one cartwheel after another in the air.

I managed to right myself and begin flying back toward the south at max speed around the time the missiles were halfway to me. But the machine below me wasn't satisfied with just that, it began firing a large caliber bullet at me at a very high speed, and they were spread out around me, so even when I began to weave in one direction, I was still getting hit by the bullets that were initially shooting past me in that direction.

{Need help?!}

No! Only project a barrier if I'm dangerously low on mana, but so far I'm holding up quite well.

The first wave of bullets knocked me down a single percent, but it wasn't anything I couldn't handle. Although, if I was close to the machine and was hit by hundreds of bullets a second, then I'd really have something to worry about. But hopefully I won't end up in a situation like that.

The missiles were fast, but not fast enough. By the time I escaped the bullets firing range, the missiles were already far behind me. About thirty seconds later they fizzled out and fell toward the ocean. The first five or six missiles hit the ice and merely bounced off of it, but one of them must've triggered something as it hit the ice because it created a chain reaction of explosions.

{Oooh that's so cool!}

It wouldn't have been if that had hit us, but I'm certain we still would have survived. Even with that said though, I did get a small taste of what they can dish out, and I know flying over the western side of Caedrus really is not a good idea. I'll need to look into them more when I arrive at Arcadia, but it's just too risky. That one below me was over ten thousand feet away and still managed to hit me quite a bit. I'm not all that keen to see what happens when I'm only a thousand or so feet away.

{How about that regen, huh?}

Very nice actually. Your support skills really are amazing these days.

During our trip over Mother a few important things occurred. For my part, I realized that I could no longer overenhance myself, but it was actually for a good reason. Once I hit my peak, my halo kept all of its power, but now it's considered a regular enhancement, so there is no backlash. Which is massive, and it's also why I'm able to fly around like this for weeks on end.

And secondly, Luna and the other fairies kept unlocking more and more support abilities every time we had to do battle. The one percent of mana I had lost from the bullets hitting me has already been returned through the natural regen Luna is giving me.

It even surprised Lunaria. It's not like the fairies were new to doing battle, but the strength of the enemies we were dealing with were leagues higher than their average enemies, so it had a profound effect on how fast they grew. It was the same for everyone in fact, and probably why I ended up unlocking my wings. A few tips from Varuna helped as well of course.

{Hmph, they weren't that scary.}

You're flip flopping again little fairy. And not only did we barely see anything, but we were really far away too. Just wait until we have to fight something like a butcher up close.

{That's why they're considered scary, you all gave them ridiculous names like that one!}

I ignored her while chuckling. I decided it was best to let our future encounters speak for themselves. Especially since I planned on trying to collect those codes at some point. We'll be stealthing through though and hopefully not fighting anything during that mission.

... Not that I've seen the powerful machines either, mind you. The only machine I've seen was one of the snatchers. They aren't very strong in battle, but they hide and then sprint at their prey before plucking them up and running away.

About a week later I flew directly down toward the ocean until I reached the ice, and then I turned my halo off before quickly turning invisible.

{Sleep time?}

I'm not exhausted yet, but I'd like to play it safe.

I ran toward the land and stopped when I reached the beach. There was a bipedal machine there on its knees with its head and arms hanging down limply. On its knees it was still around eight meters tall.

{I-Is it dead?}

I don't know, but even if it's not we shouldn't need to worry about it. I still don't have proof that these things won't be able to sense me through my veil, but I'd be surprised if they could.

I walked past the giant and made my way up the snow covered steps before arriving on a street that probably hasn't seen anyone alive in hundreds of years. There was a railing running along the entire beach side, with several rusted bikes placed against them. On the other end of the street was a row of homes, and most of them had long-since abandoned vehicles parked out front.

{What's that big car there?}

I looked at the white dot she was projecting on a vehicle and had to stifle a laugh.

That's not a car sweetie, that's a plow truck, and a super advanced looking one at that. In fact, the parts I can see don't look rusted at all, what the hell...

I walked through the snow up to the truck and wiped a bunch of snow off of its front and driver-side door. The metal was clean to the point that it looked brand new.

They must've made it out of the same alloy that their mechs are made of. Most of the good ones still look brand new too. Weird that they'd use high grade alloy on a plow truck of all things, but there must have been a reason for it. Like the fact that it snows so damn much here.

I turned to the right and walked up to the home the truck was parked outside of. The door was gone so I was able to walk inside without breaking it down(although the window was shattered too so I could've just got in that way). Inside was a kitchen and dining room on the left, with stairs leading to the second floor in front of me, and on the right side was the living room.

I walked over to the TV stand and picked up one of the photos. It was a gruff looking man with his hands placed on the shoulders of two much younger looking Humans. One boy and one girl.

{I knew people lived here at some point, but I feel so weird seeing it like this...}

That's because it's no longer just some distant abandoned place for her after seeing this. People lived normal lives here, and now it's a ruined wasteland full of killer machines. I can't blame her for feeling weird after seeing it in the flesh, because even I feel strange after finally seeing this in person.

There's a world of difference between hearing about what this place was like, and seeing it in person. It's so different from every other place I've ever been or heard of after all. Normally it's Eldritch, Demons, Xerath, monsters and corruption. And then we come here and it's just so completely different from what we're used to...

I put the portrait down and walked over to the couch. After wiping the snow off I laid down on it and closed my eyes.

{On the couch?! G-Go sleep under the stairs like you normally do!}

There's no need, we'll be fine here. And my core will wake me up if anything approaches us anyway. There's going to be a lot of 'new normals' from here on out Luna. So you better get used to it now.