The Runic Alchemist

Chapter 921: Thunder, Sun & Wind

Sanctuary City, A Month After Damian Left, Sam.

“Chairman Goldwick and the guild members are asking for another meeting,” Bron, Sam’s mundane assistant, said.

Sam was busy signing some documents that needed his acknowledgment, seated behind the large table in his office at ninth floor of the Sanctum building. No wonder Damian was always so unladylike with all these documents and signs day after day.

Added with these annoying merchant pests that just keep on giving.

“What do they want?” Sam asked while placing the paper on the signed pile and starting to read another.

“They mentioned something about renegotiating the terms now that Sanctuary has changed in many ways..”

“Not today,”

Sam looked up. He sensed Grace near the runic lift, coming towards him with hurried steps. Training his senses at every chance he got had indeed resulted in some noticeable progress. Damian was onto something with that sensing mana is very important crap.

The door flung open, and Grace barged in.

The woman usually knocked first and made a very annoying habit of reminding him to do the same, even though only two of them lived on this floor of the Sanctum. It must be something important if she was ignoring that.

“Leon,” She said, and Sam already guessed what her next words would be, “They have crossed the borders. The call to arms was just for the show to fool the empire’s defence. They are not waiting at all.”

Damn that guy!

Even if he had ten times the army, he would still lose if faced against a transcendent. This was the most idiotic thing to do ever.

’Looking down on people too much, aren’t we? ’

A voice spoke in his mind. Sam gritted his teeth and did his best to ignore it. Despite trying hard not to think about curses, he could hear the annoying laugh of the Sun God at his feeble attempts.

Leon had several Dawnstar second ranker nobles, but that would not be enough; the First Dawn only amplifies the power of a pathfinder; it cannot surpass the rank of an individual.

“Inform Souldealer to take charge,” Damian said to Grace and stood up.

“Einar has already left. We are not supposed to interfere, right?”

“No, but if anyone comes back, it is Sanctuary’s duty to protect,” Sam replied as he picked up his sword and opened a wormhole out of the translucent window.

In a moment, he was outside the sanctum, and in another moment, his flesh had changed to pure energy charging through the wind at the fastest speed possible for a transcendent.

———

30 Km from the South-West Sanctuary Border, An Empire Village, Leon Goldflame.

They knew it. Leon hoped it wouldn’t be the case. But who was he kidding? When was that treacherous thing on his side?

Six Villages on the border, followed by the small town named Coresaw. That was the plan. It wasn’t easy by any definition, but it was still possible with the numbers he had. That was if things were normal.

The very first village they reached had five hidden second rankers and an army of first rankers. That wasn’t the issue; however, the bastards had set up traps and blasted them from blind angles before they could even reach the village.

Shhooommmm..

“Another! Defence spells launch! Make south!”

BOOM!

“Run! Run! Run! Close the distance!” Leon shouted, charging head-on.

The burning balls of fire were raining down from the village built on a high hill. The surrounding vegetation was making it even harder to run for an army of 7000.

Every minute, three exploding balls of fire launched together. They managed to shoot down two with aura slashes, but one remained. The times when they could take all three down, they ran up the hill with everything they had.

The aerial unit was attacking the hidden weapons, the size of the house, which were hidden inside village huts with open tops.

’When the fuck did they move such massive weapons so close to Sanctuary without anyone noticing?’

The hidden troops of the Empire, clothed in villager disguise, were attacking the aerial unit and the charging group nonstop.

After brutal three minutes, finally Leon and Mealor, accompanied by the noble warriors, reached the village, and the real fight began. They won, obviously, but it was barely a fight.

7000 against barely 300, only a few second rankers in that. But the damage was immense. 1500 men were either dead or in no position to fight any longer.

The damned weapons were too fucking disgusting. Some of the men were completely obliterated despite wearing full plate armor and enhanced with Damian’s strength and mobility potions. This was no fight at all.

’A coward’s way of fighting!’

Hiding behind giant metal lumps. There was no honor in that. But then again, honor was left behind years ago in the Mainland’s race to become powerful at any cost.

Leon remembered that day as clear as ever. When he charged with his father and grandfather on the battlefield of hell. The names Goldflame and Mightyone rang true that day.

The power! The courage! The valor! The sacrifice!

..The death.

But there was a reason for the death, for the grand sacrifice. It could not be just for nothing! Just so they slave away at the mercy of others and grow fat, hiding behind the shame!

There was a reason Leon was given the First Dawn, the sword of kings, the soul of Dawn.

He was the descendant of the Legendary MightyOne! Blood of Lightbringer flowed through their veins! Any action that put them away from their birthright was more shameful than death itself!

Why was he fighting? They asked. He wouldn’t be able to make them understand even if he tried for thousands of years. The people who were on that battlefield understand, and that was enough!

’If only that damned Souldealer was still with me, this would actually have some chance of making a difference..’

This one piece of Dawnstar was theirs now. He had taken back a tiny amount of what he was owed. But the fight was far from over.

“How many do we spare to take our injured back?” Maelor asked.

Leon’s eyes finally shifted from the burning corpses. The captains of his army were waiting for his orders.

“Is that last weapon functional?” He asked.

“No, the last bastard did something, and the explosion happened inside the thing.” Lord Ashford replied, his armor covered in blood.

“If we were just unlucky, then it’s endurable, but if every village has this kind of abomination of creation, we can’t just go charge ahead even with greater numbers.” Dame Tokari Ronikin said, and most captains present nodded in agreement.

“If we send scouts ahead, it would be too late. It’s a gamble we will have to take.” Leon replied with a resolute, commanding voice.

Being around his father and grandfather all his life, he had learned a thing or two about being always in command, even if the situation made them scared shitless. They were not people, they were the Dawnstar crown.

Crown does not hesitate.

———

13456 Km away from the Mainland, Apex Vector FG1, Reize.

The vast blue ocean beneath and endless clear sky above, the early evening made the scenery ten times more breathtaking than it had any right to be. Reize had seen hundreds of such sites by now, but they always made her question her reality.

’This thing has to be a dream!’

They had mapped hundreds of islands, small and big, and discovered thousands of dungeons. Still, every time Reize took off in the air, the excitement of what more lay ahead filled her with an unquenchable thirst for curiosity.

The place she was at was visited by only a handful of people in the entire world.

The more they discovered, the smaller the world had started to become. Truly, the power of those waygates of Damian was frightening. Sanctuary had already become bigger than any kingdom on the mainland by now, and they were only at it for a month.

Right now, they were putting all their focus on exploring a massive land filled with forests, rivers, and mountains. They were supposed to rest if they wanted to, but not a single pair of the six Apex pilots had decided to take that option. There was always more land, dungeons, mystical sights, powerful mana beasts, and unreal natural phenomena to be discovered.

Damian had even let the people name some of the places, which excited and motivated people that much more to find more and name them.

Reize came across a decent-sized island, above 50 km, which was a sweet spot by island categories. Below that, they mostly ignored it unless something interesting was growing there or some rare beast was present there.

Of course, nothing would match the land in the north that had no end to it, even after three Apex Vector jets were scaling it for weeks. Already, it was proven to be bigger than the mainland. From high above, they couldn’t see much other than the geography of the place, but the exploring teams following behind slowly had found many interesting things.

The moment Reize landed on the high spot of the island and broke a branch from a nearby tree, a loud sky-splitting sound came from high above. Her head snapped up just in time to see a giant pillar of ethereal bright red resembling an aura falling from the sky, accompanied by red, white, and gold lightning.

The weather was so clear a moment ago. This couldn’t be natural.

Reize ran towards her runic jet but suddenly had to stop herself. Someone was standing on her ship.

He wore a mage robe, worn and a little scorched around the edges, with a simple dark brown chain of large beads hanging from his neck. What stood out were his hands—they looked burned, the skin rough and damaged, like they’d been too close to fire more times than he’d admit. He kept them still, almost like he didn’t want anyone staring too long.