Soul of the Warrior

Reivyn held Kefira's wrist as he channeled his unattuned Mana from his hand into her meridians. The frown on her face gradually lessened as his Mana acted like rain on a dry desert. She had completely emptied her Mana Pool, that last Spell she used to alter everyone's time had cost a lot of Mana. Reivyn had seen a Mana Stone disintegrate in her hands before she collapsed.

That last Spell had also come as a shock to Reivyn.

She wasn't lying when she said she was a magical prodigy, he thought. I was told that it's impossible to be skilled in both Space and Time simultaneously, yet she is. I wonder what mother will think when I tell her? Reivyn chuckled.

Reivyn sat on a stool next to Kefira's cot, and Serilla stood at the foot of the bed, watching him like a hawk. Reivyn wasn't in the mood to get up to tricks regardless, but he was actually appreciative of Serilla's attitude. It meant he never had to worry about anyone trying anything funny when he wasn't around.

The frown on Kefira's face gradually eased, and the sweat beading her brow evaporated. Reivyn had been pushing his Mana into her pathways ever since he had caught her on the hill, and it had been a couple of hours. He couldn't read her Status to see the exact numbers of her Mana Pool, but it was only now that he could perceive a noticeable uptick in the Mana within her.

It wasn't that she had so much Mana that he couldn't fill it, though. Most of the Mana was dispersed to deal with the side effects. Not only the Mana he sent to her, but her own passive recovery as well. One of the consequences of a Mana expenditure backlash was requiring Mana to soothe the body before it could fill the vessel.

Kefira's eyelids fluttered briefly before she opened her eyes. She gazed around in confusion for a moment before her face took on a look of panic. She leaned over the side, and Serilla expertly tossed a bucket to Reivyn. He caught it, and Kefira immediately emptied the contents of her stomach into it. She continued to dry heave for a few moments before finally settling down.

She collapsed back onto the cot, exhausted from the strain, and Reivyn gently wiped her mouth with a wet cloth. He was relieved to see that the discomfort seemed to have finally fully passed, though, and she didn't relapse back into unconsciousness or break out into a sweat again.

"Ugh... That sucked," Kefira muttered, her forearm covering her eyes. "How long have I been out?"

"Three hours," Reivyn said quietly, afraid a loud voice would give her a headache.

"Whew, I've never had such a strong backlash before. My worst one before now was, like, twenty minutes."

"You shouldn't have pushed yourself so hard," Serilla rebuked.

Kefira rolled her eyes.

"It was necessary. You saw what we were up against. Not only were we outnumbered twenty to one, but that Jezebel was pretty tough."

"Jezebel?" Reivyn muttered, confused. "She told me her name was Aeriella."

Kefira focused her attention on Reivyn, staring at him with a flat look for several seconds.

"A Jezebel is a woman who... never mind," she waved her hands to dismiss her words. She narrowed her eyes at Reivyn. "But I see that you know her name. Have a pleasant conversation with her?"

It was Reivyn's turn to roll his eyes. He grabbed her hand and patted the back of it with his other.

"Knock it off. You have nothing to be jealous of. I did learn some valuable information from her, though."

Kefira sat up without letting go of Reivyn's hand and scooted back so she could sit cross-legged in her cot. She kept her blanket pulled up to her waist like she was just enjoying a comfortable day in bed. Her expression went from narrowed eyes to one of curiosity.

I would never say jealousy looks bad on her, but this look is definitely cuter, Reivyn thought to himself.

"Like what?" Kefira asked.

"Should I call for Major Dobrik?" Serilla asked, taking a half step toward the tent flap.

"Sera, you can be really stupid, sometimes," Kefira sighed. "He can wait. I'm talking to Reivyn."

Serilla resumed her stance, arms folded across her stomach with a small pout at the rebuke. Reivyn just chuckled.

"I learned that they're not actually invading the kingdom and that they'll let the civilians go if or when they complete their objective."

"And you believe her, just like that?"

"I have a Skill. It's not very high, but my gut tells me she was being honest."

"Did you find out what that objective is?"

"No, but I imagine it has something to do with the caves beneath the Lizaldon settlement."

"The Spider Lair?! What could she possibly be after with the spiders?" Kefira was genuinely confused.

"No idea, but that's not the only thing down there," Reivyn replied. "Do you remember what I told you about how I ended up here?"

Kefira nodded.

"You said something about being in a Dungeon, and you got separated from your teammate and ended up here somehow."

"Uh-huh, but I left out a couple of key details. Do you remember how you told me the desolate sands are the remnants of something people from the Verdant Realm did, sucking the life out of the Region?" Kefira nodded her head again. "Well, there's more to it than that. There's a connection to the Abyss Realm down in the depths."

Kefira gasped and Serilla's eyes widened at the news.

"There was a gateway in the Dungeon I was in with my teammate, and when we went through it, we were on a bridge between the Realms. That's actually where we got separated. Some things happened, the bridge was destroyed, and I got chased by... something... and I ended up escaping back into our Realm through a different gateway.

"That gateway led me to one of the Boss Dungeons at the bottom of the Spider Lair."

"So you're saying there's a bridge to the Abyss Realm down there?" Kefira gasped.

"Maybe?"

"What do you mean, 'maybe?' You just said there was."

"Well, the thing that was chasing me was destroying those bridges left and right. I think it broke around a dozen or so as it chased me. I managed to dive through the gateway ahead of it, but I don't know if it destroyed the bridge or not. I didn't stick around to find out, and then I was in a boss fight against a giant spider that was tainted with Abyss Mana."

"Ok. So, you know about the Abyss connection down there because that's where you came from, but how would they know about it?"

"That's my point. If they have a connection to the Abyss, they might have been able to sense it somehow. The Spider Matriarch down there is still alive, and it's obviously been tainted by Abyss Mana. My conjecture is that the boss I fought in the Dungeon was a snapshot of that giant spider from thousands of years ago."

"A thousand-year-old Spider Matriarch? Are you sure it wasn't its ancestor or something?"

"No, but the matriarch down there was about a quarter the size of Kirlon, so..."

Kefira and Serilla's eyes opened wide at that information. They shared a look between each other before focusing on Reivyn once more.

"If it's really an ancient, thousand-plus-year-old spider, it might very well be Tier 7," Kefira said. "Do you think it's possible their goal is to do something with that spider?"

"It's possible," Reivyn nodded his head. "As I said, I don't know for sure. The attitude of the invaders leads me to believe they have some sort of connection with the Abyss. Their cavalier attitude toward life is very similar to those with connections to the other Realm I've encountered in the past.

"Right now, though, with the information we have, we should assume their goal is either something to do with the Abyss or the Spider Matriarch. Either one of those things could spell bad news for everyone here."

"Ok. We have to gather the other officers for a debriefing, and we need to get this information sent to the local authorities. I can send a message to my family, though, so we don't have to worry about that.

"Sera, you can go inform the Major, now. Reivyn and I will wait here for you to come back with the other officers."

"Sure thing," Serilla said, walking to the exit. "It's pretty early in the morning, though, and everyone's bound to still be asleep. It might take me a while to round everyone up." She winked at Kefira before ducking out of the tent.

"Maybe she's not so stupid, sometimes," Kefira muttered with a smile.

The next moment she launched herself out of the cot and wrapped her arms around Reivyn. Their lips met.

"You're certain you destroyed the teleportation platform?" Major Dobrik asked Reivyn.

"A hundred percent," Reivyn nodded.

"Any chance they have a backup? Or some other way to transport troops and supplies?"

"Not that I know of."

"From what you've described, and the activity we've seen, it doesn't seem like they're overly concerned with the issue, though," Dobrik pressed.

"I can't answer that," Reivyn shrugged. "Maybe they already have everything they need to accomplish their goal. Maybe they have another escape route, or maybe they just don't care about getting away the same way they got here."

"Hmm, it's definitely something we'll have to keep in mind." Major Dobrik turned his attention to Kefira. "My lady, what are your thoughts on the intelligence Lieutenant Reivyn has gathered?"

"I doubt we'll be able to stop them from completing the Runic Spell," Kefira said. "They just have too much manpower for us to contend with. The only way we'd be able to effectively do so is with the support of the reinforcements from Wispan.

"In my opinion, that leaves us with two tasks: One, weaken them enough that the reinforcements can take them out quickly and easily by continuing the efforts we've already started in hitting their supply convoys and engaging them in smaller scale skirmishes. Two, find a way to preemptively counter their plan involving the Spider Lair.

"We don't know for sure what their actual goal is, but we have narrowed it down. The problem is, I have no idea how to stymie their efforts, especially if we have to do so after they've completed the Spell. From what we've seen, if they're on equal pace all around the desolate sands, we have a week, at most."

"That's... disturbing," Major Dobrik said, stroking his chin in thought.

Reivyn watched the discussion without offering any input now that his report was over. Kefira was a member of the Wispan Imperial family, and Major Dobrik was the local military commander. Even though Reivyn had performed extremely well and gathered lots of valuable information, it wasn't his place to interject without being invited to do so.

He and the other lieutenants simply stood off to the side, out of the way, and even the other captains didn't interrupt the two people in charge as they deliberated their course of action. Reivyn was already pleased to see that Major Dobrik had had a complete mental shift in how he approached the war effort, no longer letting his experience fighting nuisance monsters cloud his judgment from what he could see, and he could tell that his thoughts and theories on strategy and tactics had rubbed off on Kefira.

To be perfectly honest, he had no idea what to do in this situation either. The enemy had overwhelming numerical strength, and they apparently had units that were just as strong as theirs, as well. If their goal was to do something with the giant Spider Matriarch, then there was practically no road forward without assistance from an extremely high-level team from Wispan. They would need to be even more powerful than his own parents.

It wasn't hard to imagine that Wispan had access to teams like that, especially since a lot of their conflict between other empires centered around Tier 5 and 6 Regions, but if they had to wait for those teams to travel from a higher Tier Region all the way to Drallo, then there was no way they would arrive in time to do anything to interfere with the giant spider before it was too late.

"We have to do something to weaken the Spider Matriarch," Major Dobrik said.

"What about collapsing the caves on top of it?" One of his staff members supplied an idea.

"Wouldn't work," Dobrik shook his head. "If what Lieutenant Reivyn said is accurate, and this thing really is Tier 7, it would just be an itch on its back. The rest of the spiders down there would die, but we don't really have to care about them."

"What if we destroyed the Boss Dungeons down there? The energy released should be enough to hurt the spider," another staff member said.

"Absolutely not!" Kefira denied. "What if the connection to the Abyss is still there, and it tethers itself directly to the Realm? That would be an even bigger disaster. We would be criminals of the entire Realm if that happened."

"Then what about just the Boss Dungeons that don't have the gateway?" Major Dobrik asked. He turned to face Reivyn. "How many Dungeons were down there?"

Reivyn had to think about it for a moment before giving his answer.

"I couldn't see very well while I was down there, so I'm not 100% certain, but I would guess at least five. The Dungeon I came out of had a high Tier 3, maybe low Tier 4, boss in it, and its position makes me think it was on the low end of the power scale. The other Dungeons might have Tier 5 or 6 variants in them."

Of course, Reivyn had to reveal the information that he had traveled to the kingdom of Drallo through a connection between the Dungeons. He didn't reveal everything about the experience, but he did have to tell them about the bridge to the other Realm.

Kefira had insisted on everyone making a System sanctioned vow to not ever reveal anything about the information without Reivyn's express permission. Even accidentally revealing the truth would lead to harsh punishments, though Reivyn had exempted Kefira and Serilla from that aspect of the vow.

Serilla had complained that it would make her job more difficult to keep that information hidden from Kefira's parents, but Reivyn didn't care. He simply said he and Kefira would tell them all the facts when the time was right. That concession had marginally mollified Serilla.

"Going down there to destroy the Dungeons would be a suicide mission, though," Kefira pointed out. "It definitely wouldn't be enough to kill the Spider Matriarch, and if the energy released is powerful enough to hurt it, it would kill those involved. If the destruction of the Dungeons somehow didn't kill the ones down there, then the Spider Matriarch definitely would, and I don't know anyone who would volunteer to be eaten alive by a giant spider"

"So destroying the Dungeons is a last resort, one we don't even know will be necessary," Major Dobrik replied. "What about engineering a Dungeon Break? Even if the boss monsters inside the Dungeons are snapshots of the Spider Matriarch from the past, they're just soulless shadows. They would be seen as an invading nest, and they would be mindless monsters that would attack the Spider Matriarch all on their own."

"That's all well and good," Kefira said, "but do you know how to engineer a Dungeon Break?"

"No," Major Dobrik conceded. "I had hoped that you would maybe have some ideas on that, being a noble Caster from Wispan, and all."

"Nope, sorry," Kefira denied. "Even those of us from the Tier 4 empires don't know how to cause Dungeon Breaks. That being said, there is someone here who has experience with them. Lieutenant Reivyn," Kefira turned to look at him, "you've been through a Dungeon Break before. Do you know how to make one happen on purpose?"

"I do not," Reivyn shook his head. "All I know is that there was an excessive amount of Mana leaking out of the Dungeon prior to it happening, but it lasted for months before the break occurred. Even if I knew the mechanism behind doing so, we wouldn't have enough time for it to happen in a timely manner."

"Hmm, pity," Kefira said.

Major Dobrik stared at Reivyn for a moment, still stroking his chin.

"Lieutenant Reivyn again," he muttered, a gleam in his eye. "You'll have to sit down with me one of these days and regale me with your story. Just one soldier to another."

"Certainly, sir," Reivyn agreed. Since he had already come clean about his origins, and he didn't have anything particular to hide, there was no reason he couldn't tell the Major about his experiences.

The meeting continued for several hours, most of the lower rank officers growing bored at the constant back and forth with no clear plan established. They would occasionally be asked for their ideas on the situation, but most of them, even the captains, didn't have the experience or knowledge to contribute anything worthwhile.

The meeting eventually ended with the tentative plan of continuing to hit the enemy bases, luring them out of their fortifications and whittling their numbers down, while they chose a wait-and-see approach toward dealing with the enemy's objective.

Major Dobrik motioned Reivyn over as the officers filed out of the tent. He walked over to join the Major with Kefira and Serilla, Kefira giving him a wide grin as he approached.

"Lieutenant Reivyn," Dobrik said, holding his closed fist out, palm down, "with the recommendation of Lady Kefira, as well as in light of your own, personal merits, I have decided to give you a field promotion to Provisional Captain. Captain Sanjin will remain where he currently is, and you'll take over as the full-time Company Commander for your company."

Reivyn held his hand out, and the Major dropped something into it. He opened his hand and saw that it was the rank insignia of a captain.

"You're still not a regular officer. As a Provisional Captain, you're a half-step below all the other captains in the chain of command, but you're now above even the regular lieutenants. Keep up the good work, Captain."

Reivyn offered a salute, that Major Dobrik returned, before turning on his heels and marching out of the tent. There was no official ceremony or anything for the promotion. Reivyn simply removed his lieutenant's insignia and pinned the captain's insignia on his lapel. Because everyone wore their own armor, the rank insignias could be attached anywhere on the lapel or shoulder area. Reivyn's heavy armor had a leather strap in place where he could attach such a pin.

He stepped out into the sunlight, and Jek immediately threw an arm around his shoulder. He leaned his weight on Reivyn in a friendly manner and immediately spotted the new captain's insignia.

"Well, it looks like I really do have to address you as 'sir,' now," he chuckled. Lieutenants Laris, Grent, Furok, and Derik were also waiting nearby. They all fell in together as they made their way to the mess tent that had been erected. The meeting had lasted so long that it was nearly lunchtime the following day after Reivyn and his platoons had been surrounded.

Each of the other lieutenants congratulated Reivyn on his promotion, and they bantered back and forth while talking about their experiences engaging the enemy.

"The war has hardly begun, and you're already hoarding and cashing in on all the merits," Jek joked. "See, boys, I told you we wouldn't go wrong following his lead."

"Haha, you say that now, but don't you know the old military maxim, 'crap rolls downhill?'" Reivyn quipped. "Credit goes up, and responsibility goes down. All of you will have to work twice as hard to make me look good from now on."

The others laughed at the joke, obviously knowing that he wasn't being serious. They had had enough experiences together to know Reivyn wasn't like that.

"By the way," Reivyn said, "does anyone know what a Jezebel is?"

The other lieutenants shared a look before breaking out into laughter.

"Let me guess, Lady Fira said something like that about that Aeriella girl," Laris said, chuckling.

"Yeah, how'd you know?" Reivyn frowned.

Jek slapped him on the back, still laughing.

"A Jezebel is a woman who sleeps with a married man," he answered.

"Oh. I see," Reivyn said.

"Looks like Lady Fira didn't take too kindly to the offer that Aeriella made to our captain, here," Laris said, failing to suppress his mirth.

"Ooh, you'll have to explain it to us in more detail," Jek jabbed Reivyn in the ribs.

"That woman is definitely crazy," Reivyn shook his head.

Reivyn explained the situation, with Laris adding remarks about the encounter from the side, over lunch. The other lieutenants thought it was the funniest thing in the world, but Reivyn was actually a little worried about Aeriella's intentions.