"Let's go." Arthur and I followed the two toward the council room.
"It's good to see you two together." Elder Virion peeked at us. "Arthur, your brother has been nothing but dominant out in the field, I can tell you don't like that, but if he wasn't out there, Tessia would be dead."
"What?!" Arthur exclaimed, looking at the both of us as we entered into the council room where no one else was. "Tessia almost died?"
"It was the day I took down the Retainer." I told him as we took a seat around the table. "Alacryans attacked her team inside of the dungeon, I rushed in, saved them, and then the Retainer showed up, killed ---." I froze, I realized that Arthur knew Samantha.
"Who did they kill?" Arthur asked me, as Elder Virion and Aldir watch us, we were sitting next to each other.
"Arthur, do you remember a girl named Samantha, because she knew you." It still made me sad to think about her, I let her die.
"Yeah, we went into a dungeon together, during my time as an adventurer, why?" Arthur's face turned to one of sorrow, understanding where this was going.
"She was on my team early on, but while I was rescuing Tessia's whole team, Samantha was with me, and I didn't see the attack coming. The black spear hit her right the heart and killed her in front of me." Both our faces showed sorrow as we thought about the girl.
"I'm sorry to hear that." Arthur said calmly. "She was a nice person, this Retainer, what was his magic like?"
I turned toward Aldir and Elder Virion, and they motioned for me to speak. I didn't know if they wanted to talk Arthur about something else, but I guess this was important too.
"Arthur, his magic was nothing I've ever faced or seen before, the only reason I won was because of my blood magic. He was able to manifest these black spikes from shadows in an instance, like as many as he wanted." He should though, he saw Alea's memories.
"So, it is true, that's the same type of magic I saw in the dungeon when I found Alea." There it was. "How where you able to defeat him, I know you have blood magic, but still, you struggled with Lucas."
"I am nowhere near that strength anymore, Arthur." I told him. "You have no clue the monster I am now."
"Monster? What are you talking about?" Arthur turned to Elder Virion, and then back to me.
"It's not your fault, but the Beast Will you gave me, was corrupted with some Alacryan Virus, it's basically making me lose my mind. In the dungeon, when I had the opportunity to kill or let someone live, I chose death every time, but I wasn't just killing people and mana beast, I was doing it for fun and brutally. It was bad." Arthur's eyes were deadpan on me; I was unable to read the emotion coming from him. "Like I said, not your fault, Arthur."
"He's right, there was no way you could know." Elder Virion spoke up.
"Your fine now?" Arthur asked me.
"Uhh, yeah, I have it under control, it's still in me, so I could lose control, but ever since I hit white core, I've be good." I wanted him to know I was fine. "But if I didn't have that Beast Will, I would be dead, no doubt."
"I'm sorry, Veer, I would have never given it to you if I did know." He paused for a mere second. "Wait, you are white core now?" He looked shocked, I thought he knew it already.
"I am white core, and It's fine, Arthur, like I said, if you didn't give it to me, I would be dead right now." I turned to Elder Virion. "Should I tell him what else happened that day."
"Go ahead."
"When I first came in contact with the Retainer, while we were speaking, Lance Olfred showed up. I knew he was coming, I was spying on him the whole time with a clone, while he was in the castle." Arthur interrupted me.
"With a clone?"
"Yes, I can create clones of people, with powers as well." He looked shocked by this; it was fun telling him all this stuff. "Basically, Lance Olfred was working for Alacrya." His eyes widened even more. "And to add on that, most of Darv, is working with Alacrya."
"What?"
"He's telling the truth; we are trying to deal with it." Elder Virion told him. "Queen Glayder is there right now."
"Oh my, so did you take on both the Retainer and Lance Olfred?" Arthur asked me.
"No, Lance Olfred left me for the Retainer, their plan was to abduct me, Retainer Uto told me that Agrona wanted to do experiments on my magic. I had my clone who was here, get Lance Bairon, and he took on Olfred."
"Wait, they were trying to abduct you?" I nodded at Arthur. "Then you shouldn't be out in the field."
"It's fine, they haven't come for me since." I waved my arms. "I'm not leaving the field because of that."
"What else has happened?" Arthur looked around the room at everyone.
"Cynthia Goodsky, the director, my old friend, has a curse on her, it's put her in a coma." I healed her temporally, but it didn't get rid of the curse.
"No wonder I didn't see her here, it's that bad?" Arthur gave Elder Virion a meaningful look.
"Yes, it is, your brother did manage to wake her up, but it wasn't for long." Aldir told him, then I spoke.
"My blood magic couldn't remove the curse, but I could stop some of the symptoms for a little, I tried other ways, my blood magic just wasn't working."
"I'm sorry to hear that, gramps, I knew you guys were close." This seat was freaking uncomfortable, but I would rather sit than stand. "I hope she recovers."
"Thanks, Arthur." Elder Virion and her go way back. "You know Tessia has a team, but you should know that both of King Glayder's children have also formed a team."
"I figured; how have they been doing?"
"All three of them have been doing great, leading their teams through the dungeons. Of course, I made sure Tessia's team was always with Virion here, so that if anything happened, they had each other." Elder Virion responded to Arthur.
"It seems like that was a smart idea, with everything that happened." It was a good idea, if I wasn't there, Tess would have been captured, and the war would be over to some extent. I had no idea why they went to capture her so early, or if it was really only to get to me. "What about my parents? Veer already said they were talking about joining the fight."
"I made sure they waited until you came back, I can't make them stay though." Elder Virion answered him, but I think I made progress in that area.
"Actually, I talked to them about that, I think if don't say anything, I can handle it." They all looked at me. "I basically said that if they went out there, and something happened, they wouldn't be just hurting us, but hurting Dicathen."
"Clever." Aldir approved of what I said. "Now, to the war, Alacryans have been infecting mana beast, and controlling them like you saw. The main fight is going on at the wall, no mana beast or Alacryan Soldier has gotten through. The wall was a fortress we had built to keep their forces in the Beast Glades. You know that there are teleportation gates set up all throughout Dicathen by spies, which means that they could have a number of troops hidden."
"From what Aldir just said, what do you think about everything going on?" Elder Virion asked my brother.
"It feels like they are buying time for something, I can see why they are in the Beast Glades, if they can get their hands on S Class and SS Class mana beasts, they can build a pretty big force with them. However, if they can't get through the wall you speak of, they're either buying time for something, or we are just that much stronger." Arthur paused for a second, and then continued. "I think it's the first one, they could have a massive force already here, and we wouldn't even know."
"Then you are thinking exactly what we are." Aldir told him, and everyone had a look of concern.
Elder Virion continued talking for him. "And that's why, what I am about to tell you, you can't blame yourself for." He was going to tell him about the Dicatheous. "Take a look at these." He used wind magic to float pictures over to him.
"Is this the Dicatheous?"
"No, but they used your designs." I examined Arthur as his jaw dropped.
"It's a replica, and we believe it's from Alacrya." Elder Virion spoke while Arthur tried to gather his thoughts. "We think that they are buying time, like you said, to get their ships here." It was a ploy of some sorts, the ships have prisoners and soldiers on them, there was nothing I could do about that. Of course, the ships with prisoners won't be here for a while, the ones closer are the soldiers.
"It's not a big deal, Arthur." I told him, and he turned to me. "So what, they have ships, it just means we know where they are going to be showing up at, that's if they're even using them." I was trying to make him feel better about the situation.
"It is a big deal, it changes things." Arthur disagreed with me. "We won't know how many troops they have until they get here, plus the additional troops they already have here."
"I guess you're right." I let it go, he had a point.
"The good news is that you defeated a Retainer, he's here now, right?" I nodded to Arthur. "And I'm sure he hasn't spoke at all, but if Veer was able to take a Retainer down, that's a good sign for us, maybe they aren't as strong as we thought."
"Arthur, has Virion told you about his magic?"
He nodded his head. "Somewhat."
Elder Virion continued. "He has now defeated Lance Varay twice in battle, and he's stronger than all the Lances."
Arthur shot his head toward me. "Yep, I am at the moment, the strongest mage in Dicathen."
"You defeated Lance Varay, twice?" I sent him a smile, even though the mood in the room was dark. "Hmm, in the fight with the Retainer, did he say anything to you?"
"Not really, but he was supposedly the strongest Retainer." I started to think about what else I could tell him. "He really didn't give me any information, I told Elder Virion and Aldir everything, there's not much to go on."
"It's hard to picture you defeating a Retainer." Arthur shook his head. "I know we've been talking about it, but from what I have heard, they are twice your size."
"Size isn't everything in a fight." I tilted my head at him. "You should know that."
"He's right, your brother is quite a strategist." Elder Virion told him. "That day he took down a Lance and Retainer, he came up a with a plan on the spot." I remember when I told Uto to shut up, because I was thinking about what I should do next.
Arthur looked at me suspiciously, like he knew something, but didn't want to bring it up.
The doors to the council room swung open, a guard came running in, I knew what was happening. "What is it Abold?!" Elder Virion stood up and exclaimed loudly.
"Commander!" He paused and tried to catch his breath. "Lord!"
"Abold, speak!" Eldir Virion ordered as we all stood up.
"It's not good, they've been spotted, Alacryan ships, on the western coast." We all stood there in silence, taking in his words. "A lot of ships."
"How far out?" Arthur took a step toward the soldier.
"They're only a few miles out of Etistin." The soldier stared around the room, waiting to be told what to do.
"Come on, Sylv, we're going!" Arthur and Sylvie began to take more steps.
"Arthur, wait!" Elder Virion called to him. "What are you planning to do?"
"I want to see what I caused." Arthur told him, and then began to run out of the room.
Aldir got up and spoke. "Let me go talk to him." We watched as he left the room, it was now only Abold, Elder Virion, and me now.
"Go back to your post, Abold." Elder Virion ordered, and Abold bowed and left the room. "Shit!" Elder Virion fell back into his seat. "What do you think about all of this?"
"About what? The ships? We knew they were coming; it was inevitable. It's not really a big deal, the thing that sucks is that it took us this long to see them coming." I shrugged at him. "Arthur is back, we have our force, now it's time to plan."
"Tch, an eleven year old helping to calm me down." He smiled at me, even with everything that was going on. "You are exactly like your brother in so many ways, promise me, that if anything happens with your Beast Will, you come to me."
"I will."
"I don't know what I would do if something happened to either one of you, I know you're not my children, but I helped raise both of you for a couple years." Elder Virion looked at me sincerely.
"Gramps, don't worry, we've got this." At least I hoped we did. "I appreciate everything that you have done for me and my family."
"Virion, you have done a lot for my family as well." We exchanged smiles, and fell silent, thinking about what to do next.