I slept in my tent for the first time in a while. Normally, even as the leader, I'd have to set up my own tent, since the only ones everyone has to pitch are the utility ones. However, mine didn't count as one. Ashley had set it up while I was training.
Considering I'd been sleeping on the floor of a wall made of a material not unlike concrete, the hammock was a blessing. But, because of my habit of sleeping fairly little, I'd gotten up and didn't want to wake Ashley next to me. I assumed it must be around three or four in the morning, since Ashley gets up at least half an hour before five. It was less than four thirty in the morning.
In other words, the only ones awake right now were the lookouts and the kitchen, with Grayson in charge. I, on the other hand, would normally be either awake or unconscious these days, but I'd be training with Jane, who I wasn't sure would be waiting for me on the wall.
So I was practically alone with my thoughts and delirium, trying to sleep not an option because I couldn't be more awake. In a way, I envied Ashley, whose breathing I could feel, and as if she knew I was about to leave, she hugged me in her sleep and lifted one leg over me.
I wonder if I'm doing the right thing. I know I'm on the right track as the military leader of this entire operation, although I'm not sure what status I'll have once I win the war against the fire god. But is my relationship with Ashley okay?
One way or another, it all happened so fast, and perhaps because of the conflicts and adrenaline of having my life on the line, it led me to overthink everything even more and feel like time is passing extremely slowly. Although I've only been here a short time, I've already made very good progress in almost every aspect. Of course, I can't deny that I've had quite a few factors in my favor, like Azumi near the camp, or the medallion the matriarch gave me, which broke when I accidentally summoned Jane, which also brought me here, and which brought Ashley here.
The pieces don't fit together if you just think everything is random. Up until this point, I hadn't cared who the hell dragged me into this world. After all, there was so much work to be done in this place that I just felt like I belonged here. So, I had a lot of things to do, and how I got here wasn't important. Of course, that only worked because I had nothing left to lose.
Once again I return to the subject of Ashley, on that fateful day I not only lost my companions, my soldiers, I lost all my friends, I lost my fiancée, it hurts to remember her, and in a certain way I remember a lot of her in Ashley, I live because they wanted me to live, I fight because it is who I am, and I do what I do without remorse, because they saved me so that I could live, in short, they saved me so that I could follow my path, not to alter it and stay hidden.
With that in mind, the months I spent hiding from my government, doing practically nothing and living off a foreign account hidden in a certain country, were far more of an insult to their memory than doing all of this.
They are false ties and they are just that, memories. But what do I do with the love I still have for them? That, although not palpable, is real, at least for me, so Ashley's answer takes on weight. They didn't just save me out of love, they told me very clearly, I am capable of being a leader, I am capable of training to defeat a god, I won a world war, never alone, of course, but I knew how to lead them and I know how to lead them, so with that in mind, even though their memories hurt me and when I heard the shots, I swear they are close to me, using the techniques they always did. It's simple: I rise for the fallen, and I fight for those who are still alive. In that moment, the faces of Mason, Jane, Azumi, all the boys, appeared in my mind. My body wanted to make a move to get up, but immediately I felt the weight of Ashley's body, and what is probably her drool on my neck.
Because I wanted to love her, I wanted to get up, but she had also worked hard and I'm sure that if I got up she would too, so I wanted her to rest.
That made me wonder how she feels about me. What am I to her? And I wonder because she says I saved her during my military campaigns. I'm her hero. She admires me, and it shows. But she also saw my other side. She saw my real side, and she stayed. And it really wasn't until she saw that side that she became a much more affectionate person toward me.
I have nothing to worry about, because it's simple, I know what I want: I want to be with her, I want to save them all, I want to kill the fire god.
I finally felt a change in Ashley's breathing.
— Good morning! How long have you been awake?
Ashley looked at me with her face all sleepy, which I thought was adorable.
"I don't have a watch, so I'm not sure. I'm assuming 30 minutes," I replied.
She pulled a pocket watch out of one of her pockets, which I found interesting, since I didn't have one, and I scolded myself for not having one. I literally walked around like a caveman, guessing the time by the position of the sun and asking everyone the time.
—Actually, it's four o'clock. In any case, you got up at three thirty, which is even worse. Even though we went to bed early, you only slept a little over five hours.
— I'm extremely used to sleeping little, not to mention that now with the magic thing, I don't get sleepy easily unless I've used it up first.
"Privileges, I guess." She closed her eyes and rested her head next to mine, then stood up from the hammock.
I followed her. We dressed and put on our trench coats and green berets. I noticed someone had started putting a strange insignia on them; it looked like an arrowhead with the typical arc of branches surrounding the decoration.
"What's this?" I pointed at the badge, while asking Ashley, who was lightly slapping her cheek.
"Frost Valdergart, the white-haired soldier, now a sergeant major, had them made for everyone," he replied as we left the tent, the guards silently greeting us with respect.
—Everyone in the forest is a sergeant for administrative reasons, but how did she become a sergeant major?
"That's my fault. You didn't tell me the ranking system, so I made one up." She looked away while giving me a guilty smile.
I stopped in my tracks and looked at her.
—So, you trained for my company? That means you already had basic training, and I know you learned because you know a lot about administration. Are you telling me you don't know your ranks?
—I could make excuses, but honestly, were ranks that important to a private soldier, from the perspective of military heroes?
—I understand your point, so tell me, what ranks exist?
I couldn't help but laugh playfully as I looked at her and she shrank from the stupid error in ranks.
—I'll name them from lowest to highest: Private, cadet, sergeant, elite soldier, elite cadet, elite sergeant, sergeant major, general, major general, imperial general.
She knew the table of ranks sounded idiotic to anyone with military knowledge, which made her subconsciously anticipate a scolding. I, on the other hand, was about to burst out laughing.
The reality is that the old system was one of nobility, a completely medieval concept and therefore obsolete. Although this empire had developed a meritocracy, granting titles to those who excelled, it was only natural that we would have to invent ranks, since military discipline was like the sun and the moon. But the logical thing to do was to use the ranks of our world. I mean, I gave Ashley the order because I trusted her to know what the ranks were, which set off a red flag in me. Why didn't she tell me?
"Why didn't you tell me you didn't know the ranks?" I asked, stopping laughing but not getting lost in it.
I had no reason to distrust her, there was surely a logical explanation.
"I'm your second-in-command. When I came to ask you, you were oblivious to training, so I thought quickly. You didn't put me in charge to constantly ask stupid questions; you put me in charge to take action. That's why I decided to start by creating the administrative system for new soldiers. Besides, it only sounds stupid to you because, again, I don't know the ranks."
—You're right. Stopping for something so stupid is pointless, and me apologizing for not being there is pointless, because in this case, if I don't put in enough effort training, everything we're doing is useless. Thank you.
I was going to keep asking the same question: Why did Frost have such a high rank? But something caught my eye, and I could always check later. I trust Ashley, and I trust her even more now after the competent conclusion she just gave me, so I trust her to choose Frost as someone high-ranking. On top of that, Frost had distinguished himself as a soldier; I'd already met him face-to-face, and he'd made a good impression on me. The only reason I was going to check it out when I had the time is simple: trust, but check.
Snapping out of my thoughts quickly, I turned my attention to Grayson and pointed out to Ashley what Grayson was doing. He was either waking the boys up, slapping them, or deliberately sneezing in their faces. Obviously, this made everyone jump up with a vengeance, but he silently gestured for them to wait a moment.
Ashley and I approached and they greeted us silently, Grayson was pale and helpless because he didn't want to make noise so as not to wake up the soldiers who were being trained by Mason and surely had something horribly hard to do.
We followed Grayson as he led us towards the stairs of the wall while Mason twisted his arm. Once he was sure that no one would hear us, he spoke.
"Azumi's waiting for us upstairs. She says she heard Jane say we should get there soon," she said as she began to struggle.
"I understand why you woke us up, thanks." Tech reached out and smacked Grayson in the head with his open hand. Grayson couldn't cover himself because of Mason.
"But there were better ways to wake us up, bastard." Tech was annoyed, but maintained a smile, indicating that he still found it funny.
Immediately afterward, they all rained blows on Grayson's head, hitting him with everything they had and without mercy, but when it was Mason's turn, Grayson's eyes opened wide.
—Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Wait! Mason, please don't overdo it. No! Grayson was nervous.
Mason let go of one of his hands and Grayson covered his head with it, but when Mason raised his arm, even I understood that Mason wasn't planning on hitting him over the head... he was going to directly hit the ideas that were in his mind.
The blow was so severe that Grayson was stunned, tears welling up in his eyes. In fact, he checked himself several times for blood. I think he was somewhat disappointed that such a blow didn't draw blood.
We all burst out laughing, of course, and Tech threatened that when Grayson was asleep, he'd regret it. When we reached the top, Azumi greeted us and pointed out Jane, who was walking calmly across the plain.
—One question. Why are we waiting for her at the top of the wall like complete idiots, if we're just going down to show her the cave anyway? —Tech asked.
"Jane always climbs the wall when she arrives," Azumi replied.
Ashley and I nodded.
"But, idiot, she'll climb the ladder, won't she?" Tech argued.
"Uh, no, she actually jumps. We'll have to wait for her in the middle of the plain. To prevent her from jumping, and in fact, she rarely uses the stairs; she just hops down the wall. I think I'm capable of doing it now too..." I hadn't finished my sentence when Azumi interrupted me.
-Let's see.
I quickly heard a muffled scream from Ashley as Azumi pushed me off the wall. I didn't have time to curse Azumi or all of her ancestry and possible offspring, so I focused on fully enhancing my body with magic. Concentrating, I could feel the air hitting my body and an idea came to me. I braced myself for landing, but I concentrated my magic around me. It was difficult and honestly, it was a better idea in my mind. I basically made a parachute of magic that didn't end up coming off but it did give me more time to think about something else in case my body couldn't handle the fall. In fact, all the time I spent thinking made me realize how high the stupid wall is, and what a psycho I was when I sent them to climb it.
Then something else occurred to me, I made a ball of energy in the middle of my feet, and just before touching the ground, I let it explode, partially canceling a lot of the force, I landed on my feet by a miracle, but I'm sure that if I didn't have my feet reinforced with magic they would have blown off, I would have left the ground cracked, and my legs hurt quite a bit.
Jane had noticed, so she ran towards me; in no time she was in front of me.
"Why did he throw you away?" Jane asked, confused.
The sun had not yet risen and no one was getting up.
"She wanted to see if she could fall off the wall without any problems," I replied.
—Well, if you hadn't done the crazy thing you just did, which makes me realize you still have a lot to learn, you would have gotten hurt.
Azumi went down with Ashley in her arms, Tech set up a rope to lower herself, and the boys climbed down. Once on the ground, Tech pulled another rope to pull the first one up so it wouldn't be left hanging above.
Once everyone gathered around Jane, she already knew what was going on, obviously she touched her katana, but Ashley looked into her eyes and gently shook her head, something that calmed Jane a little.
"I'm sorry to tell you this, but the cat found out, and she told the boys, only we know. I know this is hard for you, but before you talk, please follow us," I said.
As we walked, there was a deathly silence. Ashley quietly told her to calm down, that it wasn't anything bad, and Jane had probably regretted opening up yesterday.
When we arrived, she was sort of stunned, as if asking why the hell we were showing her a piece of rock, and I got the impression she hid behind Ashley.
—Jane, Ashley, and I know and care about you. I've told you before, but they have good hearts, and even though they don't know you, they owe you something and want to help you, too. So, to make you feel safe and not be far away where you might be in danger, we built a cave. We thought that since you were living in one, maybe you'd find comfort living in one again.
She opened her eyes in puzzlement and slowly approached the cave, like a cat entering its new home for the first time; at that moment, Tech pointed to the hole in one of the walls.
—If you give it heat, you'll hear the sound of rain.
It's worth noting that Tech said it nervously, and suddenly he had become a child talking, if I remember correctly, he is actually twenty-two years old, being one of the youngest in reality.
Jane still said nothing, her face still confused, but she followed Tech's instructions. With her finger, she made a small red circle with tiny letters inside. A burst of heat shot out from it and heated Tech's contraption. Sure enough, it was soon pouring with rain. While it was powered by fire, she'd applied direct heat, so it was stronger than usual.
The boys wisely stayed outside the cave; they didn't want it to feel surrounded. I stood outside next to the straw door, while Ashley and Azumi were inside. We'd made the cave relatively spacious, but if we all went in, it would cause some claustrophobia.
She turned around and looked at us.
—Thank you… I don't know how to repay you for this… It's incredible… —Jane said while holding back her urge to cry.
Mason, demonstrating an interesting emotional intelligence, signaled for all the boys to leave; he even dragged Azumi along. This was because she obviously didn't feel comfortable around everyone, something evident since she barely knew Azumi and the others.
"We're the ones who are grateful. We're a team. If you need anything from us, just let us know." Mason smiled at her.
I think this is the first time I've seen him smile innocently, although Jane didn't see it, didn't have the courage to look him in the eyes, I don't think that mattered much because Mason had said it with such a warm tone, that in fact it offended, offended everyone who had seen him like an evil psychopath crushing skulls and breaking bones, while with a smile he fires a machine gun.
Once they left, Jane cried as she tried to calm down.
—I... haven't received a gift since before all of this. I want to believe I'm strong, but I always end up weak when I remember anything from the past.
"It's normal, it has nothing to do with being weak. Now come on, we all have jobs to do." Ashley cleverly led her out the door to distract her.
That will keep her stable while she slowly processes everything. The most important thing is that she's no longer alone. Ashley left, and Jane took the initiative. With a hand signal, she told me to follow her and led me toward the wall.
"You know, it's obvious I don't really know much about combat. I know some strong spells, but many are imperfect copies of things I learned as a kid. I've had plenty of time for it... However, one very useful thing is being able to walk on walls and ceilings. I'm not sure how to explain it to you, but with your current knowledge, it should seem pretty simple. You just have to use magic to stick your feet to the surface. Imagine it applying force," Jane said.
This time, her voice sounded relaxed, although tired. I guess she hadn't been able to rest properly.
However, once again showing off her knowledge, she walked calmly along the surface of the wall, leaving me behind. She continued leaving me behind. She continued climbing calmly, as if it were a normal path.
But when I tried the same thing, it wasn't so easy. Gravity was pulling me down toward the ground; I felt the force of gravity pulling me down. At least the feeling made adrenaline rush through me, and in that moment when I felt I could reach the world, I focused, improved my body, and noticed something very interesting. Not only was it now easy for me to do so, but by improving my blood flow, I felt my body was producing more magic. I ran up the wall, which wasn't easy, because yes, it was indeed holding me down, but not just my feet like she said, because if I took a step forward, I would fall. I couldn't just run; I had to push my whole body and take advantage of the upward movement, which from my perspective was forward. At that moment, I pushed my whole body toward the wall. Moving was difficult, and the pressure grew stronger as I climbed.
At that moment I saw Jane quickly come down with the katana in hand, forcing me to create a katana to defend myself from the attack.
I descended several meters from the wall, still concentrating on not falling. Jane moved seamlessly along the entire wall, as if it were the ground, but this speed was terrifying even for me. Although when I decided to concentrate, I realized what she was doing: she was propelling her entire body with her magic; it was an effect of speed and strength.
I just copied it, I was honestly impressed by how I had learned to control magic, making the energy ball.
We both left cracks where we stepped from the force applied, and we fought on the wall, exchanging attacks. Before I knew it, I'd gotten used to the wall, to fighting in this position. She smiled at me.
—Reach your limit, fight! Fight!
I imagined my energy coating the katana with force, leaving a trail in the air, energy that was left behind. We both clashed katanas using the same technique, but she leaped back, inflated her lungs, and blew a flame at me. She slashed with energy, parting the flames like Moses parted the sea.
She had to take cover. I lunged, and she threw flying spears at me, a technique like the one I'd invented to fight the fire god, but she'd imbued them with energy; I couldn't break them. But I did the same. We both collided with each other as our weapons countered each other, but just then I started to feel tired, from the high magic expenditure.
She smiled, and a strange, rune-like symbol appeared, like a neon light in the air. A lightning bolt shot out from it, which I was forced to block with my katana. It took all my concentration to keep the lightning from destroying me. That, indeed, was energy. My body groaned from the impact, and I was dragged backward. I fell a little down the wall, not from the lightning, but from exhaustion.
The symbol disappeared, and I realized that she was snapping her fingers, to make them appear, but I was constantly bombarded by her attacks, I closed my eyes and opened them again, using every bit of magic I had, I managed to dodge them, but when I was in front of her, I let myself be hit by the lightning, I felt the blow down to my bones, I even stopped breathing for a moment, and with a burning in my chest, desperately searching for oxygen, bleeding from my eyes and mouth, I realized something as my slash approached her.
She told me herself, this is pure energy, the dragon's is different. When I received her full-on attack, I understood it perfectly because I felt it. Her energy is like a hammer; it doesn't simply spread like mine; it hits multiple times and doesn't waste a single bit of energy. If it's in the form of a blow, it doesn't disperse; it keeps hitting; if it's a slash, the energy keeps cutting.
Up until this point, my katana slashes had only had a destructive effect, and I focused on the movement. What had seemed like an eternity to me, passed in a matter of seconds.
My katana, the energy took the sharpness of the blade, as fine as I could feel, aimed to cut the katana itself.
Jane blocked the attack, but the katana began to glow. She smiled and lowered the katana. I simply dropped mine.
—I didn't expect that one. You're truly special, Sean. You understood the attack because you felt the difference in what seemed like seconds.
"It's simple when you feel it, I don't know how to explain it." I was panting a little from exhaustion.
—You have a lot of magic, normally you would have to train really hard to grow your magic, but since I met you, I have only seen you increase it, of course after today I can say that you have reached that limit.
—The more magic, the easier it is to learn. It's interesting, in a way it fits because this attack was something basic before, and now no one uses it. It's hard to be strong enough to reach it. But why do I have so much magic if I'm not a full god?
—I don't really know how to fully answer that question, but I can tell you one thing: in your fight against the fire god, you didn't feel his full power because he wasn't fused either. Of course, after the first fusion you reach new limits, but if I remember correctly, one fought fused, he didn't.
—He was confident and that's why he didn't come with his dragon?
"That's a very good question. The gods can force the fusion. It's possible. So even if his dragon didn't want to help him, he could force it." She looked at me as if worried about what I had just said.
—I won't force you, Jane... We'll beat him.
She smiled at me and looked into my eyes for the second time. Her blood-red eyes filled with tears as she murmured, "Thank you."
"I know I can't help you that way, but I'll do my best to help you achieve your goal, Sean, a goal I want to share. After all, the fire god is the kind of scum who would see me as a plaything."
At that moment, my eyes felt very heavy, and I lost all magical control. The last thing I could feel was the wind hitting my face. Of course, I was falling off the wall... But I was too tired to respond.