46A/N: 12k words. I did not mean for it to turn out this way but it did. Also, maybe I should have clarified that interludes will be few and far between. Also also, I know exactly what I'm doing with the four isekai students because their stories are pretty much totally laid out. All I've gotta do is write them now.
"How's it looking back there? See anything?"
Oliver paused to glance through the rear door windows. The only thing he could see were the shadowy silhouettes of large, decrepit and abandoned buildings shrinking further into the distance. "Nah. I think we're in the clear."
"Good." Layla sighed as the muted revving of the van's engine died down a little, overtaken by a constant crunching as the road switched from pavement to gravel. "Let's hope it stays that way."
Oliver wholeheartedly agreed. Everything that happened the past hour was damn insane. Being transferred to another world was one thing, finding out that he wasn't human anymore was another. It messed with his head. Maybe he was never human. Maybe there was a god back on Earth, and he'd always been a holy winged-being that never knew because his soul flame was never unlocked. Or maybe he was turned into an angel when he got to this world.
He tried not to let the mystery bother him, but there was a limit to how crazy something could be before it would make him crazy. And now that he'd literally lost his humanity, he felt he'd just about smashed into that limit.
The winged programmer turned away from the window and refocused on Lorraine. The kikimora was still unconscious, her chest rising and falling slowly. The programmer gently placed a hand on her shoulder. Lorraine's body and clothes were pretty much untouched, but Oliver winced when he found the head injury on the back of her skull.
His own clothes were similarly in tatters, and his healing powers seemed to have no effect on them. They were effective on wounds though, so he got to work on healing Lorraine right away. When he finished, the kikimora's eyes slowly opened.
"Mmm…?"
"Ay, you're up!" Oliver smiled. The woman tilted her head towards him. Her eyes flitted up to his wings.
"…AH!"
"Whoa whoa whoa—ay whoa whoa! Hold on! You're fine! I'm not gonna do anything, see?" he assured Lorraine, raising his hands and hurrying to take a step back. His wings scraped against the ceiling as he did so, making him wince. It didn't hurt, but it was unpleasant.
Lorraine stared at him warily for a moment longer before her eyes darted around the interior of the van. "What happened?" she asked, her voice soft and yielding. She quickly spotted the two mamono seated across from her. "Yukino? Amanda?"
"H-Hey," Yukino waved timidly. The yuki-onna had suffered several lacerations and concrete-laden puncture wounds on her back, but thanks to Oliver's new ability, she turned out fine. Her clothes, however, were shredded to scraps, leaving her with very little to cover herself. "We managed to escape that prison somehow. All of us."
Sitting next to her, Amanda gave a thumbs-up. Similarly, the dozens of cracks that marred the golem's stone-like body were no more, but her clothes were ripped, torn, and dirty with sand and blood.
"We did…?" Lorraine wondered aloud. She looked back to Oliver with a wary expression, placing one hand on her chest.
"We did," Oliver assured her. "Somehow. How are you feeling? Any pain anywhere?"
"No, I don't think so. I feel..." She looked down at herself, checking her body with surprised eyes. "Did you do something?"
"I can heal people now, apparently. Dunno how it works, but it does," Oliver shrugged. "You had a head injury and were out for about twenty minutes, but it should be gone now."
"Oh." When she heard his explanation, she seemed even more surprised. For the first time, she gave him a genuine look devoid of any fear or hostility. "T-Thank you."
"You're welcome. Just let me know if anything else happens." Oliver offered her a nod and one last onceover before sitting back down in the corner of the driver-side. He grimaced again as he felt his wings press against the cold metal walls of the van's interior. That would take some getting used to.
"Wait, where are we?" Lorraine asked, looking around again. Her gaze landed on the back windows, and she stared at the disappearing town in the distance.
"Uh…" Oliver's mouth hung open for a moment.
"We don't know." Both Oliver and Lorraine turned to the front, where Layla was driving and Natalie was sitting with her rifle in her lap. The latter glanced at them over her shoulder. "We just escaped that abandoned town, but there weren't any road signs, and it's nothing but grass and trees for miles."
"So, we're lost?" Lorraine asked.
Natalie tilted her head at her. "Yeah…that's…what I just said."
"Let me help then. I can get us back to Valor."
"You can?" Layla blurted, her voice full of skepticism. Everyone else turned to Lorraine with the same uncertainty, Oliver included.
Lorraine only nodded. "My husband and I…we were soulbound years ago by a blessing from Eros's ritual. We can feel each other no matter how far apart we are, and I can faintly tell what direction he's in."
Oliver froze. Nobody noticed.
"Last I checked, your husband was at Anchorage with the rest of us," Layla pointed out.
"So?" Lorraine retorted, a twinge of annoyance in her voice at Layla's implications. "If he was still there, then that is where I'd go. I would not leave him behind. Luckily, he isn't there, but recovering in Valor right now. If we just follow his trail, we'll get there."
"Wait, wait, wait," Oliver finally interrupted. A dozen questions exploded forth from his mind, but only one came out of his mouth. "How do you know Arthur's alive?"
Lorraine turned to him with an almost offended expression. "Do you think I'd be so calm and collected if he were dead?"
"Er…I mean, how is he alive? How did he survive?" he rectified, desperate for an answer.
"I took care of him," Lorraine replied simply. "I didn't see who attacked him, but the moment I felt him being attacked, I came. When I got there, he'd lost his arms," she said tactlessly. Oliver's eyes widened. "So I used the nearby fire to cauterize his wounds and applied tourniquets to them. When the bandits took me away, I could feel him being moved south of Anchorage in the direction of Valor. Since then, his condition has gotten better. I can feel it. I'm certain he was taken back to Valor. So, if you let me navigate, it's the biggest chance we have of getting there."
Everyone was rendered speechless for a moment, Oliver most of all. Arthur was alive? He got both of his arms chopped off and managed to live!? First of all, what a badass for him to have survived that. Second, the soul-crushing weight of immense guilt on Oliver's shoulders dispersed so quickly that he felt light-headed. Arthur was alive.
The programmer refrained from mentioning anything about what he knew, opting instead to take a deep breath before staring at the ground. 'Holy crap.'
Layla was the first to recover. "Damn…shit, alright. You're our navigator then, kiki."
"Please, call me Lorraine. And for now, we're going in the right direction. I'll tell you if we need to make a turn."
"Lorraine, then," Layla corrected, a note of respect in her voice. "Can you tell how long it'll take to get there?"
At that question, Lorraine looked a little nervous. "Um…maybe half-a-day?"
"Hmm…that's not bad. The fuel is still three-quarters till empty, so we'll probably make it. We won't have to worry about food or water, in that case," Layla mused, satisfied. "We're safe for now. It gives us plenty of time to talk."
The atmosphere seemed to shift a little when she finished speaking. Lorraine leaned back in her seat, and Oliver could feel her sidelong glance drilling into the side of his face. Yukino was playing with her hands, and Amanda had an unreadable expression. Everyone appeared slightly less comfortable than they did a moment ago.
"…"
"…"
"…"
"...What the fuck happened in there? What the fuck happened at Anchorage!?" Layla exploded suddenly. The temperature seemed to increase a little. "First we get raided, then that bitch betrays all of us, captures us, then while we're all in shackles she has the audacity to ask for our help and preaches to us about some bullshit 'greater good', then Oliver, it turns out you're a fucking angel!?"
Oliver could agree on most of that. He silently fumed as the vivid memory of what Vhesla did to him surfaced in his mind. He was still pissed. Pissed about the way she, in his view, tried to seduce him again. Pissed because he wanted answers from her, about who she was and what her whole operation was, about why Max and Helga had to die. More than anything he wanted to punch her in the nose, but…the world was big. What were the chances they'd ever cross paths again?
His inner, long-dormant anxiety flared up as all eyes focused on him, Lorraine's in particular. "Ahah," he breathed nervously. "I-I…I didn't know about that. Really. I mean, do you think I would've let myself be captured if I knew? I think right now we should focus on Vhesla."
Layla took in a deep breath and sighed heavily at his answer. "I guess you're right. But we're coming back to this later, got it?"
"G-Got it," Oliver caved to her demand. He paused to gather his thoughts. "First, there's something y'all should know. We all know who Vhesla is, right?"
"We've met," Layla said simply, belying the anger within.
"She was the succubus that betrayed us," Lorraine said simply.
"Okay. If we all know he she is, then we all know the attack on Anchorage was planned and she was like a scout or a spy for them the whole time. I don't know if you guys heard what I heard, but Vhesla isn't a bandit or a slaver. At least, not in the way you think?"
"I think that much is obvious," Lorraine agreed. "She was speaking as if putting us in those collars would serve a greater purpose other than to just shackle us."
"Well, your intuition would be right," Oliver sighed. "Listen to this. I heard a whole conversation about how the attack on Anchorage was planned while I was awake in my cell…"
And so he told them. Everything he knew, from the plans for every town of Manifest Expansion, to the luring of Chaos and Distorted, to the spies that siphoned funds from Valor, to the political bomb they planted by facilitating Anchorage's destruction. The reactions to such distressing information were varied, but universally, everyone was mortified by the knowledge.
"You…that's insane," Layla muttered. "You're telling me that that bitch, a mamono like us, is part of a terrorist organization that wants to take down Valor!?"
Oliver shrugged. "I'm as in the dark as you are! All I know is that she can't be working with normal slavers or terrorists if she and her people were able to do everything that they did," he added. "On top of that, they said that the slave collars were a temporary measure. I think it's how they get new soldiers into their ranks or whatever. It must've worked well, because they had guys that could beat the two of you apparently. As far as I know, that's pretty damn hard to do, isn't it?"
The van went silent, neither Layla nor Natalie able to refute his assertion. Oliver hoped that someone else would be able to make more sense of what he heard than he could. Thinking about it, the behind-the-scenes shit that was going on with Vhesla and her associates was incredibly concerning and way bigger than he was. He had no business being a factor in their operations, but hopefully, Valor's authorities would be once this information got to them.
"...Um, I have something to say that might change things." Yukino broke the silence.
Oliver turned to see her raising her hand as if in a class. "What's up?"
Yukino wrung her hands together. "I didn't tell anyone at Anchorage, but…Vhesla was my friend..."
Oliver felt his stomach twist. Vhesla's betrayal hurt him like nothing else ever had. He couldn't imagine how someone who might've been closer to her would have felt. "You knew her before Anchorage?"
"We met in primary school."
"Oh."
"I don't want to get into my life story or anything but…I've been friends with her for a really long time. We stayed together all the way through college—we even graduated from Debonair with business degrees together."
Yukino sighed as she reminisced. "Long-story-short, she disappeared off the face of N'erra more than a year ago. Her family and I filed missing persons reports, but the authorities never found her. But then a couple months ago, she appeared at my doorstep. She doesn't explain anything, she doesn't even say 'hi', she just tells me to sign up and come to Anchorage with her."
'Aw fuck,' Oliver cursed as realization dawned on him.
"I wanted answers, so I followed her. All she tells me is that she got married when she was gone. That hurt, more than anything else, you know? Learning that she got married, but she never even invited me to the wedding? I don't even know what her husband's face looks like. What's with that?" The yuki-onna's fists clenched atop her thighs. "Then suddenly she drugs me, and I wake up with a collar around my neck. And now we're here."
The woman's voice was worryingly steady as she spoke, like she managed to bottle all of her emotions up and shove them down into the recesses of her being. Oliver would have cried. He did cry not too long ago.
"That's terrible," Lorraine said quietly. She hugged herself, uncomfortable at even the thought of something like that occurring to her. "I can't imagine…"
At the same time, Amanda chose that moment to wrap her arms around the yuki-onna in a one-sided hug. It was a vain attempt to comfort the woman, but Yukino seemed to appreciate the golem trying.
Oliver took a deep breath and resisted the urge to run a hand through his hair. He didn't know what to say. "Uh…if you want to cry, it's okay."
"I'm alright…I think," Yukino replied in-between breaths. "The reason I brought it up is, I can't imagine any reason why Vhesla would do this. Why would she work with such terrible people?"
There was another long stretch of silence as everyone digested the information. Natalie looked down thoughtfully, but eventually she looked back up at them. "Ah...Wait! Don't you all remember what Vhesla said?"
"What did she say?"
"She said we were supposed to be sent away and shown the truth about something. 'The horrible secret of this world' is what I remember her saying specifically. That's when she brought up the greater good."
"Now that you mention it, I do remember that," Layla added quietly.
Natalie turned, pulling on her seatbelt to look back at Yukino. "You said she disappeared a year ago, right? Maybe she also got captured, and ever since then, she's been working for them?"
Oliver's eyes widened. "Whoa."
"Wait, but Vhesla didn't have a slave collar on," Yukino argued, frowning.
"That's the thing. Maybe once she learned about that truth she was referring to, she decided to join them of her own free will."
"That's not it. I can't accept that!" Yukino glared. "Vhesla never would have agreed to killing people. She'd never hurt anyone—she's a succubus for Lilith's sake! Her dream was to help people find love! She wanted to open a speed-dating brothel to bring back Era of Rape-style dating!"
Oliver choked on air. "I'm sorry, the era of what now?"
He was ignored as Yukino grew more heated. "Someone like her would never abandon her mamono principles so quickly. Not with all the passion she had for it. It'd be like…like…like a mamono hating sex!"
Natalie shrunk away from that declaration, a horrified look on her face. "W-Well…if you insist it's like that, then I guess the only other explanation is she must be under some sort of mind control."
Oliver felt Yukino freeze just as he did, their hearts stopping at the mere idea Natalie suggested. Mind control? That was a fate worse than death. But there's no way Vhesla could be under mind control. It would mean she wasn't responsible for anything she did. Part of Oliver wished for that to be the case, but another part of him kicked the other one aside, offended at the idea of giving Vhesla even a chance of being pardoned for her crimes.
"You…" Yukino had no retort for Natalie, but her expression said she was displeased. She stared frustratedly at the ground. At the same time, Natalie sighed exasperatedly before sitting back down.
Oliver bit the inside of his cheek, feeling just as conflicted as Yukino probably was. He looked at Amanda to gauge her reaction to everything. The quiet woman had only a solemn look on her face as her eyes looked from Yukino to Natalie and back. Clearly, she didn't like it when people fought.
"Either way, mind-controlled or not, Vhesla's still an enemy right now, and she wants to take down Valor," Layla said definitively. "Us talking about it won't change that and we won't know whatever that stupid truth is for a while. We need to get this info back to Valor as soon as possible." She paused, looking into the rearview mirror. Oliver swallowed when her gaze fell on him. "That said, the only reason we're all alive and managed to escape at all is because of what happened to you, Oliver."
Once again, all eyes were on him. "Ah…back to this, huh?"
"You're damn right," she said brusquely. "Back at Anchorage, I knew you felt strange for a reason. All this time you were a divine being, and you're telling me you never knew?"
"Never. Not until Vhesla lit my soul flame or whatever and I exploded," he answered truthfully. He never really believed in Arthur's claims until that moment.
"That's weird," Natalie added. "How have you gone your whole life not being caught? In history classes we're taught that the Order's angels were some of mamono-kind's worst enemies. Who were your parents? Where were you from?"
"Well, I'm not from Valor or the Order Kingdom. I'm from Texas."
"Texas? Where's that?"
Oliver took a deep breath. "Doesn't matter. It's…gone now."
"Ah. I'm sorry…"
"It's fine," Oliver shrugged. "My parents…my parents were pretty normal. My dad was an electrical engineer, my mom worked in finance, and my grandparents were refugees from the east."
"Hmmm," Layla hummed incredulously. "Okay. I believe you."
"You do?"
"Yeah. I'm more interested in how you beat him."
It took Oliver a moment to realize what she was talking about. "Who, Keller?"
"Yeah. That guy…he floored me, and I didn't get to see the fight. How did you beat him?"
Suddenly, everyone was looking at Oliver again. Lorraine was the only one who looked confused. Oliver bit his lip. "Luck. Pure dumb luck. He wasn't paying attention to me at all…and I just got really pissed off…"
Because of all the shit that happened to him. All of the unfair odds that ended up with him being dragged to an alien world, captured by a group of extremists or terrorists, all of his new friends slaughtered with one of them being the greatest traitor in his life, and suddenly becoming what he was.
"I don't wanna be too graphic but I will anyway: I grabbed his head, stuck my thumbs in his eyes and dragged him across a wall while flying. He stabbed me, we fell, I kicked him, then I just…smashed his face until he stopped moving," he recalled descriptively. "It's the first time I've ever actually jumped someone because I was mad. It just so happened to work out, I guess."
"Damn…that's one hell of a powerup you got. Must be nice."
Oliver almost scoffed as he remembered what happened when Vhesla unlocked his soul flame. "I guess, but how is Valor going to take it?" He waited a moment for a response, but nobody replied. "I mean…not to cast aspersions but Lorraine apparently knew what I was when I got to Anchorage, and that somehow led to me being told the night we all got captured that VISA was after me for something I never knew about myself until that fucking week, something I never even believed until these damn wings appeared." He bit his lip as an edge of anger creeped into his voice. "It's not fair but…fuck me. Can I even go back with y'all?"
"Wait, VISA?" Natalie gasped. "The VISA? The one with all of the spies and secret agents and auditors?"
Layla looked at her. "You watch too many spy movies…"
Oliver snorted. "Yeah. That VISA. I might not be able to go all the way back to Gallant with you guys if that's where you're going, but I could stop at a town. I was thinking of changing my name and getting a new ID at the GAC. Maybe figure out how to hide these things before we get there."
"Sheesh. That's rough," Natalie sighed. "Good luck with that, Oliver. If you want to hide, you should try and suppress your aura by the way. It's a little more noticeable than before."
"Yes. Please do that," Lorraine interjected. "I didn't want to say anything, but please. It's starting to get…oppressive."
"Oh shoot. Thanks," Oliver nodded. In seconds, he drew his ambient mana in and confined it to his being to hide his presence, just like Vhesla taught him. He noticed the way everyone seemed to relax slightly—shoulders coming down and their bodies deflating. "Am I…Am I seriously oppressive to you now?"
He looked at Lorraine, Yukino, and Amanda. They all gave him nods, much to his unease. Just how much had he changed?
"You definitely have more raw power than any of us do now," Layla said helpfully.
"Hn…" He acknowledged. He frowned as another thought occurred to him. "I don't get it though. If I've been an angel all my life and have all this power, why did I only get it when Vhesla unlocked my Soul Flame? What even is that, by the way?"
Natalie tilted her head. "You don't know anything about Soul Flames?"
"Explain it to me like I'm five years old."
"Oh…Okay then." She had an unsure expression on her face but complied nonetheless. "The soul flame is a…a term we use to refer to the power of your soul when it's been awakened. You can also call it fighting spirit, but the official term is the soul flame. It's like mana, but produced by the soul. While normal mages get their mana by absorbing it from their surroundings, people with their soul flames awakened produce it directly from their soul, meaning that even in manaless environments, those with soul flames can still regenerate their mana. The difference is, unlike regular mana, fighting spirit can only be used to enhance physical traits like strength, speed, and toughness. However, while the soul-flame is restricted to those few applications, it's far better at them than regular mana is, and as a plus, it can be used to create a personal shield that can protect users from damage."
She paused, as if remembering something mid-explanation, and Oliver realized that she must be reciting something she learned in a class. "It's the counter to magic, and the perfect tool for close-quarters combat. It's the only reason why melee weapons are not obsolete in modern day combat." Her tone shifted as she finished reciting the knowledge. "Now that you have yours unlocked, there should be a barrier separating your regular mana from your soul mana. Can you find it?"
"Hm. Okay…" Curious, he searched for the barrier she was referring to, reaching deep into the depths of his mana pool. When he didn't find it, he went even deeper. Deeper, deeper, deeper he went, until eventually, he found nothing but a small, indescribable sphere of…him. It was him. His everything—everything that composed who he was and what he knew. It was generating mana, and something much…purer at a steady rate. His eyes widened a little.
"U-Uh…I think I just found my soul," he blurted. "There's no barrier."
"What?" Layla squawked as Natalie's expression shifted to one of confusion. "You found your soul. And what do you mean there's no barrier?"
"I mean there's no barrier. I looked. And I found my soul. I don't know how I know, I just do. And it's pumping out mana as well as…something more pure and dense, I guess, I dunno."
"The fuck?"
"Maybe it's because he's an angel now?" Natalie offered. "I mean, it's the only thing that makes sense, right? In history, we're always taught that divinities were always above all human and mamono limits. It's the only reason the angels back in the Era of Rape were able to beat Demon Lord Lilith and the lilim."
Oliver did a double-take. "I'm sorry, that term has been brought up twice now. The era of what-now?"
Natalie gave him a strange look. "Y'know? The Era of Rape? The time before the seventh century when mamono followed Demon Lord Lilith's principles of Rape is Love? It's where all of us mamono got our instincts from. Demon Lord Lilith imposed the nature of succubi on all the monsters, and now even in the modern day, mamono still get the urge to rape men they fancy. Some even do."
"Damn, you actually pay attention in history class?" Layla scoffed. "Nerd~"
Natalie glared at her, lifting her head from her knees. "Hey, screw you! You know that subject was on our final exam, right?"
"So what? That test was open-note."
"Still! It's an important history about our culture and heritage. You don't ever wonder why we're horny all the time?"
Oliver decided to cut in there, shaking his head in disbelief. He tried to ignore the fact that he was in a vehicle full of only mamono. "I think we're getting off track here. Back to soul flames—thanks for your intuitive explanation Natalie, but none of that explains why I grew a pair of wings when Vhesla unlocked mine."
Naively, he looked at the girl for answers. The lizardman shied away nervously. "Er, I don't really know the answer to that one to be honest…"
"Hmm…" 'Figures.' He heaved a great sigh. "I guess this is just something I'll have to figure out myself, huh?"
"Probably."
"Eh, that sucks," he grumbled. He looked down at his hands, feeling the raw power within them. He looked down at his body, noticing the difference between his old body and this new one. He'd been pretty damn fit before, but now he was more toned than he'd ever been, with well-defined muscles from his abs, to his chest, to his back and biceps and beyond. It was…unfair, as if a master sculptor had come to chisel away all of his previous imperfections. The question now was, what were his new body's limits?
"...Well, go back to arguing if you want. If anyone needs me, I'll be trying to figure out what's new with this body," he decided aloud.
"You're going to practice with your magic?" Lorraine asked worriedly.
"Don't worry, I'll keep it contained." With that, the newborn divinity got to work. "Procrastination was the greatest enemy…"
Hours passed after that. At least, that's what it felt like. Oliver wasn't really keeping track, and it wasn't like he had his phone to check, but enough time did pass for it to stop raining, revealing that it was just around noon based on the sun's position. At that point, Layla needed a break from driving, so she switched seats with Natalie, allowing the lizardman to take the wheel.
Throughout the hours of their journey, the van was filled with low chatter between Lorraine, Yukino, Natalie, and Layla. The four talked about where they all came from and why they decided to come to Anchorage. Oliver didn't actively partake, but he did listen with one ear.
It turned out, everyone had pretty diverse backgrounds. Lorraine came from the Order Kingdom, as Oliver knew from Arthur. What he didn't know was that she once lived as a maid in the forced servitude of a noble, one that was apparently favored by the Chief Goddess's angels, which was probably how she knew what they felt like. Life was hell. She didn't elaborate about her early life any further, but sometime a decade in the past, there was a short-lived rebellion through which she and a few others managed to escape their master. She met Arthur while the man was still in the military and on a reconnaissance mission. The two hit it off and have been married for more than a decade now. Anchorage was supposed to be the start of a new chapter for the two of them after Arthur finally retired from the military..
Yukino was only twenty-four (which meant Vhesla was around the same age), born and raised in the suburbs of Debonair, a walled Valorean city west of Gallant and the same city she went to college at. While her father was from Valor, her mother was from Zipangu, the eastern island nation separate from the Mist Continent that sounded eerily similar to Japan. Apparently, Yukino had the dream of starting a bathhouse company that would sell soaps and beauty products, but also operate actual bathhouses, saunas, and onsens. Anchorage just happened to be near mountains where geothermal spots had been detected, a perfect location for an onsen, which was one of the reasons Yukino came—she wanted to stake her claim on the free land Valor was offering to volunteers so as to grab that location if she could.
Layla and Natalie were both eighteen-year-old college girls attending the Archer Valentina School of Sentinels and Combat Majors at Gallant University. They met at orientation when Layla made the declarative statement that she would be better than everyone else, and she and Natalie were put together as partners, much to the latter's initial displeasure. Both came from smaller, poorer towns far and away from the larger cities and were working hard for their own reasons—Layla just wanted to get stronger, while Natalie wanted to eventually take high-paying commissions so she could improve her family's living conditions. They'd just finished their freshmen years a couple weeks ago and took on Anchorage as a commission so that they could fund their summer spending.
Aside from Oliver, Amanda was the only one who said nothing, but that was a given since she clearly couldn't. All the while Oliver listened to everyone's stories, he managed to review his new abilities.
The most obvious were his heightened senses. From energy sensing to hearing and smell, everything had improved drastically. He even had night vision now, as was proven when the sun came out but the brightness of the land remained the same, and he could see and feel auras in a much more concrete way.
The first real discovery he made were the changes to his mana. His mana pool had grown to a ridiculous size, and for one reason or another, his mana's color had changed from a silver to a bright mix of pure white and gold. It was also much, much purer than before, and a lot of it was being generated from his soul, then concentrated in his wings, which was probably what gave them their golden-sheen despite their pure-white color.
The second discovery he made was the ridiculous control he had over his mana now. Before, it took conscious effort to even urge it in a direction, but now manipulating it was as instinctual and easy as flexing a muscle was. Mana flowed according to his will both inside his body and outside of it and pretty much trivialized his one-and-only mana-blast spell.
Before, his limit was a single, stable sphere of mana, but now he was able to create multiple mana-spheres around him at once, and what's more, he could shape them into spears and arrows with moderate ease and will them in different directions. It was like he had telekinesis.
That thought led to his third, more shocking discovery: he did have telekinesis—rather, it was more like mana-kinesis, in that he could manipulate objects around him using his mana. It took a lot more concentration than manipulating mana within him, but with practice, he figured it'd be a powerful tool at his disposal.
The final discovery that he made was of the existence of an even purer, denser mana that seemed to mingle with his regular already-pure mana. It flowed around his soul, his mana core, and his wings. He theorized that it was some kind of divine power, but he wasn't quite sure, and was a little afraid to test it out.
Once Oliver made these discoveries, it was all a matter of practicing with them. There was probably more to discover, but he didn't want to do anything dangerous in a confined space, so instead, he focused on what he already knew. To practice, he expanded his mana senses in a wide radius around the van and tried to identify objects as they passed with his mana alone. Along with that, he maintained a pair of mana spheres in the middle of the van cabin, slowly looping them in a figure-eight to work on his stability.
It was quite incredible what he was able to do, when just a few hours ago, his limit was a single mana-blast—and that took a lot of concentration, even with his automated spell to back it up. And things only continued to get easier with practice.
Eventually, as he was able to keep a steady balance between sensing the area around him and controlling his mana spheres, his thoughts slowly drifted to the others.
What diverse and incredible people they all were. They made him wonder about how big the world was, and what his own plans were going to be. At the moment, he didn't have a clue.
When he finally gets that adventurer license, what would he do next? What was he going to do when they arrived at Valor…?
Something shifted. Something in the ground below them moved.
Oliver blinked as his concentration was broken, the two mana-spheres he was maintaining dispersing immediately. The edges of his senses touched something dark, something that made him cringe. He looked around at everyone else. Lorraine, Yukino, and Amanda were all asleep. He looked at the front. Natalie was still driving, but Layla had also dozed off.
"...Hey, Natalie, did you feel that?" he asked quietly.
Natalie was startled by his voice. She eyed him in the rearview mirror. "Huh? What? Feel what?"
Oliver frowned. "Hm…I guess it was nothing—"
CRACK.
The low rumble of the ground breaking apart shook the cabin of the van. The multi-layered sound of metal suspensions and flimsy bumpers creaking was accompanied by a sudden force that threw everyone forward. The mamono in the back yelped and cried out in the confusion as they were startled awake, and in the front, Natalie was panicking as Layla extricated herself from the dashboard.
"Natalie, what the fuck—!?" the salamander glared at her lizardman counterpart, only for her eyes to widen as the front of the van began to tip forward.
A dreadful feeling filled Oliver's gut as he looked through the windshield and saw the walls of a quickly-forming hole in the ground grow closer, masses of dirt and rock crumbling into its epicenter. "SINKHOLE!"
Before the word registered in anyone else's mind, the van tipped further, and suddenly their stomachs were in their throats as gravity took hold.
"AHHHHHHHHHH!" Natalie screamed
"HOOOOOLY SHIIIIIIIT!" Layla translated.
Everyone else's diction was much the same as the crumbling hole in the ground swallowed them whole, light from the sun above streaming in just enough for them to see what waited for them at the bottom. Water—crystal-blue cave water with sharp stalagmites rising from them like jagged spears.
At that moment, Oliver's instincts took over. His wings unfurled to their full length to save him from freefall, but rather than spare him from it, they ripped through the thin metal walls of the van, effectively pinning him in place and sealing his fate.
"Ah."
The crash was soul-shaking. Metal was shredded, glass cracked, the front of the van crumpled instantly, and cold water flushed through the shattered windows and windshield. The van stopped completely, but Oliver's momentum carried him downward, and his wings ripped through another three feet of metal before furling back to his sides. His breath was forced out of his lungs as he crashed gut-first against the van's console, which broke on contact, then something soft, but heavy landed square on his back.
Before he could wonder what it was, the van tipped backwards, and all four wheels were on the ground once more, the suspensions creaking heavily as everyone tumbled back to the ground. Finally, the shaking stopped, and everybody groaned.
"Fuck me," Layla groaned.
"I-I second that," Yukino whimpered.
"Twice in one fckn day," Oliver grumbled, sitting up.
Lorraine somehow ended up face-down, rear-up against the back of the driver's seat, with Yukino laying back-to-back against the passenger's seat. Amanda was sitting flat on the floor, legs on top of Oliver's. He looked behind him. Both Natalie and Layla were pinned between their seats and the front of the van, which was now a crumpled piece of metal.
With a grimace, Oliver pushed Amanda's legs off of him, stood up, then helped the golem up. She was somehow uninjured. "Everyone okay?"
Lorraine managed to push herself up. "I-I think so."
"Yeah, just soaked as shit now," Layla grumbled. With a grunt and a short burst of her soul-flame, she pushed the warped metal pinning her in place out of the way, then climbed out of the van through the windshield. After a moment, Natalie managed to do the same.
At the same time, Oliver helped Lorraine and Yukino up, making sure they weren't injured. Miraculously, they weren't. Once he confirmed this, he turned to see Amanda kicking the back doors clean off their hinges, sending them flying to the sides. They splashed in the cold cave water as the golem stepped out, revealing the water to be only ankle-high. Oliver followed her out, the last two mamono following after him.
Once they were all out, they found themselves slack-jawed, standing in a massive, open cavern possibly a hundred feet from the floor to the ceiling. Oliver looked around, able to see with his newfound night vision. There were pools of water, stalactites and stalagmites arranged in large half-circles or straight lines, and massive, naturally formed pillars of misshapen rock that supported the weight of the ceiling. In terms of floorspace, Oliver figured there were five or six football-fields worth of room to maneuver around in, possibly upwards of three-hundred thousand square feet of space.
"Holy…" he looked up at the small, van-sized hole in the ceiling. Compared to the surface-area of the ceiling, the hole was nothing but a dot on a sheet of paper.
A loud whoosh startled everyone, and they all collectively turned to the van. A fire billowed from the engine block, and from the outside, it now resembled a piece of modern art, banged-up like nothing else, with large lacerations ripped into its sides, shattered windows, a nightmarish twist of metal for a front, and broken, flashing lights. Suddenly, the front detonated, sending jagged pieces of metal everywhere and forcing the discombobulated spectators back. Slowly, everyone lowered their raised-guards and stared at the burning wreckage.
"..."
"..."
"...I…take no responsibility for this." Everyone looked at Natalie. "W-What? How was I supposed to know there'd be a sinkhole there?"
"Shit…dammit!" Layla cursed in succession, kicking the water. "We just lost our easy ticket home. Now we've gotta walk back to Valor?"
Lorraine sighed. "It'll be alright, Layla. I've gone on long hikes with my husband before, and I'm sure a pair of sentinel-students and our resident angel will be enough to take care of anything that gets in our way. It'll just take much longer, that's all"
Amanda also gave a confident thumbs-up.
"I'll be fine too," Yukino assured. "I used to run marathons for charity, you know?"
"Really?" Lorraine looked at her with open-curiosity. "You never mentioned that about yourself, young lady."
"W-Well, it's not something I ever usually talk about."
Oliver looked at all of them, mouth half-open in slight disbelief. "Guys. We're stuck a hundred-feet down in a giant hole in the ground. Rather than getting back to Valor, how are we even gonna get out of here in the first place!?" Slowly, everyone turned to him instead. He endured their stares for only a moment before cowering anxiously. "W-What? Priorities! I'm right! I'm right!"
"Oliver. You can fly…"
"Oh…" If he had the proper pigments to blush, he would have at that moment. Instead, the programmer coughed into a hand. "A-Ahah, I…yeah. I guess I carry us all out of that hole one-at-a-time then?"
"That seems like the best course of action, yes," Lorraine said with a smirk. Was she sassing him?
"Ahah…okay then." He looked up at the hole again, his wings subconsciously unfurling. "So who go first?"
"Hm…I'll go fir—"
Oliver started to look back down, and as he did, he caught only a short flash in his peripheral vision before his senses went haywire. Something—some presence tickled the edge of his sixth-sense, and he knew some incredible danger was coming towards him. His eyes shot to the corner of his vision, and for the briefest of moments, he saw it. A small, spiraling piece of metal blurring towards him.
Pain.
He stumbled back, eyes wide as they could be when something punched him in the throat. Milliseconds later, he heard the crack of a rifle echo throughout the cavern. A burning, searing agony flared in his throat, a warm fluid more viscous than water leaking from the new hole that ripped through his trachea. He tried to speak, but all that came out was a spurt of red and a horrific-sounding gurgle to accompany it.
'W-What? I c-can't breathe!'
Everyone around him stared at him, stunned beyond belief. When he fell to his knees, hacking and gurgling, it was as if everyone had snapped back to reality.
"SNIPER!" Layla roared. "DOWN!"
The mamono fell to the ground, splashing into the ankle-high waters and shielding themselves with the multitude of waist-high stalagmite walls. Oliver looked up at them, attempting to call for help but just as he did, he saw another flash. Pain exploded in his shoulder and he fell on his side, gurgling in agony.
"Oliver!" he heard Natalie scream.
"Ambush! It's Chaos!"
"Chaos!? We fell into a dungeon!?"
"INCOMING!"
BANG!
A cacophony of cracks and pops deafened the survivors, the sound of war, of rifles and machine-guns firing away filling the cavern. Oliver was finally able to cry out as his throat healed over, pushing out the bullet. The warped piece of metal plinked into the water below him, and he looked overhead to see bullets flying everywhere. Nevermind the fact that he could now apparently perceive bullets when in close proximity to them, who the fuck was shooting at them!?
As soon as his shoulder healed over, he hastily crawled along the floor, peering over the nearest stalagmites just to see what was going on. Then he saw the first of them. They were far, far away, crouching or prone along an elevated position, but with his newly superior eyesight, he could see them in great detail.
They were monsters. Person-shaped monsters outfitted in dark military garments, and with skin the color and luster of obsidian. Their eyes were white, empty, and seemed to glow slightly, and in their claws they pointed an assortment of world-war-two-era rifles and mounted machine guns in the group's general direction. The weapons seemed to have obsidian crystals growing out of them.
"Obsidian Soldiers!" Natalie hollered over the rain of gunfire. "Layla, they're going to surround us!"
"I know! You break left, I'll go right and—"
Before the salamander could finish her sentence, something else appeared. Oliver's skin crawled as he witnessed giant, spider-like creatures the size of people appearing from holes in the cavern walls. Along with them came several larger, slower ones with green carapaces the size of cars, and smaller ones with red carapaces that crawled up the walls. They came from all directions.
'Oh hell no.'
"CHAOS ARACHNIDS!"
The bugs ignored the 'obsidian soldiers' and began skittering towards the group, disappearing behind distant stalagmite walls then reappearing over them seconds later. It would take about a minute before any of them reached the group.
Natalie, panicked, turned to Layla. "What are we gonna do!? We don't have the ammo for this!"
"We'll hold them off! Oliver! Get on your feet and get people out of here!"
Oliver heard her cries. He tried to stand up, but every gunshot made him flinch and wince. He turned to see Layla and Natalie putting rounds down range, bullets occasionally pinging off their soul shields. Seeing them stand strong against all odds, his confidence grew.
"O-Okay!"
He stood half-way up, looking for the others. Lorraine and Yukino were pressed against a thicker stalagmite, crying out every time another bullet chipped away at their hiding spot. Amanda sat on one side, hugging them both to her chest as she looked worriedly in the direction of the obsidian soldiers. His heart pounding, adrenaline flowing, senses frayed beyond all reason, he ran for them. In his franticness, he missed the giant figure appearing from behind the burning wreckage of the van.
"OLIVER BEHIND—"
Oliver barely spun around before he saw stars. A kaleidoscope of pain exploded across his entire body as his arms bent over and his legs bent under the thing that slammed into him. His feet left the ground, air rushed by his head and out of his lungs, and he saw a glimpse of obsidian.
He careened back-first through a row of stalagmites, smashing them to bits and shredding his back muscles, then he was pulling multiple Gs of force as the thing that had him in its grasp spun in place. He was thrown against the ground, and his flesh was pulverized as the ground cracked beneath him. He sucked in breath and screamed in pain as the monster released him from its grasp. For just a moment, he could briefly see that what attacked him was a lanky, twenty-foot-tall obsidian giant with arms as thick as tree-trunks, and a large red gem for a face.
Then the giant laid into him with a barrage of blows the likes of which he'd never experienced before. His shoulder was crushed into the ground behind him as it was struck, then the other shoulder, then his head cracked, then his guts were blown apart, then his legs were shattered.
When the giant stopped, he was broken and bloodied, unable to lift even a limb. His organs were paste, red painting the area around him, his vision was blurry. Then the world flipped end-over-end, and he felt the air rushing by again. He'd been kicked like a fucking football.
He landed, every nerve in his body flaring, warning him of the critical damage to his system. He coughed up blood, agonized out of his mind, and hoped desperately for his self-healing to kick in. But before anything could heal, something skittered near him. He turned his head, fear overriding every part of him.
Bugs.
Sharp legs and mandibles stabbed into him, and he screamed again. Countless organic knives ripped through his flesh, pulling in different directions. Then a green, gaseous liquid was sprayed upon his body, and he began to melt away. Flesh, organs, everything but his bones seemed to yield.
Pain after pain, agony after agony, it seemed endless. Pain so bad he went blind, pain comparable to what he felt when he transformed. Pain so terrible his mind seemed to crash and restart over and over again. Pain that would never stop because his body kept trying to heal the damage.
Pain because he was ripped apart, melted, then put back together again.
Again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again…
Layla smashed another Chaos Arachnid with a soul-flame infused fist, caving its carapace in and allowing her to spray its soft flesh with flames. Another bullet ricocheted off of her soul-shield, and she growled, turning away from the now-crispy bug and towards the obsidian soldier that shot her. She unloaded her pistols into it. Her heart sank when, after two shots, the weapons clicked empty.
"I'm out!" she called, sitting down behind one of the only untouched stalagmites left. She looked down at the stolen hip pouch at her side to find it empty. "I'm completely out!"
She looked to her right to see Natalie laying back against a pillar next to the other mamono, a magazine dropping from her assault rifle. The lizardman gave her a look that she felt in her soul, an expression that conveyed a thousand words in its silence.
"Me too..."
It was over. Neither of them said it, but neither of them needed to. They were strong, strong enough to crack stone with their fists and fast enough to run on highways, but this? They were outnumbered, outgunned, with no escape route, and their only wildcard was taken out by an Obsidian Giant that came out of nowhere—a laser-head variant at that. And there were more coming, surrounding them entirely.
Layla could see them. From the light of the burning wreckage and what little sunlight streamed in, she was able to see the arachnids approaching. Countless arachnid grunts, arachnid praetors, and arachnid acid-spitters, supplemented by a whole platoon of obsidian soldiers, and five obsidian giants. She almost laughed. This is what real sentinels had to deal with?
It happened so fast. One moment, they were driving, the next, they were being assaulted by an entire dungeon worth of Chaos entities?
This was hell.
A month ago, she'd been the top of her class, the strongest there was for her year, and even stronger than a few second-years too. She thought she was invincible, that she was on track to be a champion. Is this what she deserved for her hubris?
She knew she could be a bitch sometimes, especially when it came to strength. She was aware of her own arrogance too, but was it really arrogance when she was the strongest in her class? Wasn't this kind of punishment a little too much? Perhaps not. Perhaps this is what happened to selfish people like her.
The salamander gazed sadly at her counterpart. Natalie was the complete opposite of her. She was better in every way. While Layla became a sentinel for selfish reasons, Natalie dedicated her strengths to the betterment of her family's lives. She didn't have magic, and her soul-flame was weak, but she trained, trained so damn hard every single day for the people she loved. And she was always there to help people, always saw the goodness in even less favorable members of society. She was a good person.
'I'm sorry. You don't deserve this.'
Layla looked up at the hole in the cavern above. Freedom from this…this nightmare was so close, yet so far. It was as if it was mocking them by putting itself just out of reach. She and Natalie could both jump as high as small buildings, but their escape was just too far.
She looked back down to where the bugs were. They were cresting the nearest stalagmite wall, now. Layla's fists clenched.
If she was going to die, the monsters were going to work for it. And she wouldn't dare let them touch any of the other mamono while she could still breathe. By no means would it make her a better person, but if she was going to die, she wanted to die at least doing what was right. At least doing what her better friend, Natalie, would do.
She stood up, gathering every last bit of her soul-flame for the coming onslaught. Her pistols dropped into the water, sinking uselessly to the bottom as she put up her fists.
This was it. This was the end. "Bring it on. BRING IT ON!"
She charged.
…
…
Light. Light so bright she went blind. White light that washed the massive cavern with its glorious rays, accompanied by a BOOM as loud as any she'd heard.
Layla stopped, shocked, and her arms went up to cover her eyes rather than fight. When her eyes adjusted enough to the light, she lowered them. Her jaw dropped open.
A being as bright as the stars emerged from a mound of arachnids, standing among them in a brilliant aura of white and gold. His wings were fully-extended, arms and legs outstretched as he threw his head back in a mana-infused roar that swept the cavern. His aura exploded around him, becoming a giant flame as wide as his wing-span, and Layla felt a significant pressure on her soul that she'd never felt before, one that, for a moment, made her feel afraid.
So shocking was the event, so mind-bogglingly sudden, that every last living being within the cavern stopped their charge and turned to stare in awe at him. Then the being's aura receded back to his body, clinging to him like a second-skin, and he went wild.
Like a bullet from the barrel of a gun, he threw himself at the nearest living thing and punched. The bug seemed to explode, like a stick of dynamite went off in its mouth, and gore was splayed across the floors as the angel moved on to the next target. Bug after bug fell, each blow resulting in a gory kill that should've painted his body red if it were not for the heat of his aura burning all the entrails away.
As he attacked, obsidian soldiers turned and unleashed lead hell upon him, but even as holes were ripped into his flesh, they healed not moments later, and he continued as if mortal wounds were a mere inconvenience. There was no rhyme or reason to his movements, no grace or elegance—only feral, glorious rage.
A green-shelled praetor attempted to spray him with gaseous acid, but his fist cracked against the side of its head in a wild haymaker, throwing its whole body to one side. It could not recover before the angel kicked its underside, sending it flying through a line of arachnids with its soft underbelly turned to pulp. An arachnid bit down on his arm, but he yanked it over and swung it into the ground, crushing it and sending a spray of water upwards. Before most of the droplets came back down, he sent his fists through the faces of possibly a dozen more bugs, dirtying the waters with blood.
Suddenly, an obsidian giant appeared, barrelling towards him at breakneck speeds. It swatted him with the back of its hand, knocking him into the air, then it brought both fists up to smash him into the floor. It followed through with its intent, and the impact resulted in a spray of water that obscured everything from view. But when the water settled, Layla was shocked to see that the angel stood upright, having caught the titanic blow above his head, the ground cracked beneath his feet.
The angel shoved the giant's arms away with a beat of his wings, then he bolted for it, charging one of its legs with his shoulder. Obsidian cracked, and the giant made a low droning sound as it fell to one knee. Then the angel leapt for the back of its head, and with a strike so powerful it produced a flash of light and a shockwave, the giant went face-first into the ground, shattering rock. When the angel landed, he rushed for the giant's head, gouged his fingers deep into its obsidian skin, and ripped its head in two with a viscous roar.
As the angel screamed to the heavens, bullet's tore into his sides, his legs, his chest, then dozens of arachnid grunts, possibly thirty or more piled onto him—so many piled on that he was no longer visible. For a moment it seemed as though the rampage had ended, but from between the joints of the countless bugs, white-gold rays of light shined through.
The effective dog-pile abruptly detonated in an explosion of white, holy fire that incinerated everything they touched, scorching the ground and leaving behind white-hot molten rock in its wake. In the fire's epicenter rose an angel bathed in divine light, a spear made of white light appearing in his hand, and multiple orbs of gold coalescing in the air around him. Before anyone could react, the angel thrusted his spear forward, and the golden orbs shot forwards, exploding against the ground like heavy artillery shells, ripping droves of arachnids apart, sparing none.
Then the angel began his one-man crusade anew, ripping through the unending tides without a shred of hesitation or mercy.
'Holy shi—' Layla felt something bite down on her arm. She growled as she remembered where she was, throwing a fist into the arachnid that blindsided her. It let go with a shriek, and she grabbed its mandibles, planted a boot on its face, and tore it to pieces before turning the mandibles in her hands, holding them like a pair of knives. She turned to Natalie and the others, who were still watching Oliver in open-mouthed awe.
"Nat!" Her fellow student jumped in surprise, turning to her. "Come on! We still have a fight to finish! We can win!"
"Y-Yeah! Okay!"
Layla grinned. "This is gonna be fun."
Maybe the gods were giving her a second chance. Either way, she was taking it. She was a selfish person after all.
When Oliver came to, he was on the ground without a shirt on, standing upright with a spear made white light in his hand. He didn't know where he was, what he was doing, or what happened—only that he was unbelievably angry, and that he needed to hit things.
'I always did have anger-issues.' His parents never let him forget it. He never went to therapy though. He always channeled it into the gym, or at a punching-bag.
He looked around as his muscles ached, seeing that he was surrounded by bugs and obsidian soldiers. For some reason, he wasn't afraid. Instead, he rushed forward without a shred of self-preservation in mind.
A bullet cut into his exposed pec, but he ignored the pain as it healed over almost instantly. He rammed his spear through his attacker's chest, and the soldier immediately burst into holy flames, warbling in pain as it burned away despite the fact that it was made of obsidian—literal lava-rock. He swung the edge of his spear at another soldier, not a clue in mind about how to actually fight with one, but confident that, at the moment, skills didn't matter. He stabbed three, gutted a fourth, then threw his spear at a fifth. They all incinerated to nothing, with exception to the last, which exploded in a brilliant display of holy light, leaving nothing, not even the surrounding bugs behind.
Another bullet hit Oliver on the side of the face, tearing through his cheek and leaving him bleeding, but only for a moment. Quickly, he spat the bullet out, turned and grabbed the soldier by the throat, ignoring the next few bullets that drilled through his abdomen and his shoulder. He did a half-spin and threw the monster like a shot put ball at a group of bugs. The sheer force of the throw was enough to knock them all on their sides. Oliver sprinted at them to finish them off.
Power. He had so much power. Where the hell was it all coming from? He felt like a damn anime protagonist!
Another bug approached from his left as he finished off the last of the incapacitated. It was a car-sized green one that opened its mouth to spray him with gaseous acid. He leapt at it, kicking it upwards so hard it almost flipped over, exposing its underside to him. Oliver charged, wrapping his arms as far around its belly as he could in a tackle.
He grit his teeth as he used it as a meat-shield, plowing it through a group of bugs before punching through its belly, reaching shoulder-deep into its innards. A large limb slammed into him suddenly, knocking him into the air and the green bug off his arm. He growled, spreading his wings to regain air-control, and he turned to see one of those giants staring at him. Its singular red 'eye' began to glow, and Oliver's senses tingled.
A moment later, his eyes widened when a huge red laser surged through the air, sparks flying around it. It tore through a stone pillar, then dug a red-hot trench along the cavern wall as it moved to follow him. Oliver didn't know how fast he was, but he beat his wings as hard as he could to get away. It was a mistake.
In a blur, he shot up towards the ceiling, only leveling out at the last moment. It was all for nothing when he felt the intense heat and force of the laser burning into his side, and he lost control, shouting as he spiraled into the ceiling, ricocheted off of it, then went spinning to the ground.
Stone cracked in an angled plume in the direction of his crash-landing, his nerve-endings on fire as they quickly healed. He scrambled to his feet, only for a bug to bite down on one leg, then another on the other, then a third on his arm, and a fourth spat acid at him. It seared lightly on his skin, unable to eat through, but nevertheless it pissed him off.
He yanked the bug on his arm over and punched a hole through its gut. While it was stuck on his arm, he used it to parry away another acid spray, then he slammed it into the bugs on his legs, caving their heads in. He grabbed the weaponized corpse and threw it overhead at the last bug like an axe. Both bugs were crushed against each other, and Oliver turned back to the giant just in time to see its eye glowing red again.
Oliver's glare narrowed further. He drew mana from his well, and four orbs of golden mana appeared at his sides. He shot them forward, and they collided with the giant's torso, detonating in violent explosions that completely blew it apart. Its remains crashed heavily into the ground.
For a moment, Oliver could breathe and assess the situation. He looked up and around at the massive cavern. Stone pillars were crumbling, the ceiling was cracking—it was all coming down soon. He looked for his companions. Quickly, his eyes found Layla across the entire cavern. The student skillfully dove to the side to dodge a barrage of bullets. While she was in the air, she made a slicing motion with her arm, and an arc of red-hot fire cut through the air from the motion like a blade, severing several obsidian soldiers in two at their waists. At the same time, Natalie was performing a backflip off the back of a green-carapaced bug, dodging just in time for an obsidian giant to smash the spot she'd just stood in, inadvertently killing the bug.
Seeing the giant so persistently attacking the lizardman, Oliver's fists clenched. He learned he couldn't fly consistently for shit, but he had to help. He had to since he had the power to. Gritting his teeth, he took off in a sprint. Fast. Faster. He accelerated to highway speeds at least, then moved even faster. Bugs and soldiers got in his way, but he chose to simply run through them. They couldn't, wouldn't slow him down. He crashed through several like a bowling ball through pins, and as he approached within thirty feet of the giant, he kicked off the ground, leaping for its head.
He had the power. He knew he had the power. So why hesitate to punch solid obsidian?
His fist rocketed forward, careening against the side of the giant's head with power enough to create a shockwave. The giant was sent tumbling headfirst into the ground, crushing whatever enemies below its mass. Oliver landed at its feet, scrambled to climb up onto its chest, and with a powerful stomp, he shattered it completely.
Breathing heavily, finally feeling at least somewhat winded, he turned to Natalie. The sentinel looked up at him with a hesitant expression, holding onto an obsidian-made rifle.
"Where are the others?" he called over the shrieks and gunfire.
Natalie took just a moment to snap out of whatever daze she was in. "Over near the van! Get them all out of here first!"
Oliver nodded, but before he left, he gazed out at the remaining crowds of bugs and soldiers. Seeing their still-massive numbers, he quickly produced and launched three volleys of four golden mana blasts in quick succession. The explosions and shockwaves were large enough to take out at least forty enemies total, littering the battlefield with craters and making Natalie stumble over, slack-jawed.
"Sorry." Satisfied, Oliver turned and ran towards the nearby wreckage of the van. When he arrived, he found a dome of untouched ice. He stared at it for a moment before the realization kicked in. Gently, he gave the ice a light punch. It cracked easily. He plunged his fingers into the cracks and tore it open.
Inside, Yukino screamed and hugged Lorraine as Amanda stepped forward with her fists raised, only for all three to freeze when they realized who he was. He waved them out.
"Come on! I'm gonna get us out of here!" He spread his wings. The three hesitated briefly, but the sounds of combat urged them to take action.
Once they stepped out, Oliver pulled Yukino and Lorraine close to his body, holding them both below the waist so they wouldn't slip from his grip. He looked up at the hole in the ceiling. 'Will I make it?'
He had no choice. It was time to find the fuck out. He looked to Amanda, going to say something but then another realization kicked in. "Wait, different idea. I don't know if this will work, but I need all three of you to let me take control of your mana. Do not resist, got it?"
"Yeah, yeah, just get us out, please!" Yukino cried.
Nodding, Oliver breathed. As quick as he could, he weaved his mana into his companions, filling their bodies and connecting them to him. Then he willed it all upwards, raising a hand. Lorraine and Yukino gasped, and Amanda's jaw dropped as the three of them began to levitate.
Feeling only stability, Oliver grew more confident, and he pushed them faster. In ten seconds, they gently floated up and out of the hole in the ceiling just before the mana tendrils connecting him to them grew too thin. Exhaling, he moved them out of the way of the hole, then cut the connection. As he did, a giant obsidian fist slammed against his forehead.
"Fuck!" he cursed as he crashed through the remains of Yukino's ice dome. Spinning around, he let his mana manifest into a spear in his hand and drove it through the leg of the obsidian giant that attacked him. Feeling spiteful, he left it there and created another, stabbing it up through the giant's pelvis area. As the giant fell over, he created a third, and rammed it through the bottom of its head, piercing it from jaw to skull. It fell over with a loud thump, then with his will, all three spears detonated at once, creating a colossal explosion of gold that shook the cavern intensely.
Large pieces of rock fell from the ceiling a moment later, shaking the ground as they crashed into it. "Oops."
Oliver turned to the sentinels. The two were now back to back, Layla with an obsidian-riddled belt-fed browning-esque machine gun, Natalie with an obsidian trench gun, the former laughing and shouting profanities as they unleashed lead hell on the monsters that surrounded them.
The newborn angel hurried to them. Knowing they weren't fragile, he took each of them in an arm and jumped, beating his wings. They both dropped their guns in surprise.
"Whoa—Hey, what the fuck!?"
"We're flying!?"
"I've got you! Let's get out of this shithole!" Oliver assured them, even as he struggled to maintain focus. Larger parts of the ceiling broke free, light from the world above streaming in as it all began to crumble. With a desperate beat of his wings, he dodged falling debris the size of small buildings. Perhaps out of sheer luck, he managed to guide himself to the hole, and in moments, they were free.
"Shit!" Oliver cursed as he lost control again, falling headfirst towards the ground. In a panic he let both sentinels go and shielded his face just in time to make contact. Mud exploded across his body as his momentum dug a short trench through the ground. He groaned in pain as he came to a stop. "Owie."
"Ough, fuuuck," Layla agreed. "You couldn't warn us before dropping us like that?"
"S-Sorry."
A sudden tremble startled them both. The two sat up and turned to the hole. Their jaws dropped at the sight of the utterly massive crater that now existed in the hole's place. The entire cavern had fallen through, dust and debris rising to the heavens from its depths. Slowly, Oliver stood up and walked over to the edge, peering into the crater. There were no monsters left. Just piles of rock.
"That…was so, freakin', AWESOME!" Oliver flinched, turning his head as Natalie leapt to her feet, literal stars in her eyes as she rushed him. "I thought we were gonna die! B-But then you exploded, then you went bang and pow! And then you RAAAAH and ripped a giant's head off! A-And you did all of that flashy magic and blew all those monsters up—and was that a spear made of fire!? That was sooo cool!"
Oliver's mouth hung open for a different reason. He could only flush at the praise, totally stunned into silence. Natalie bounced up and down excitedly, smiling at him so happily it was overwhelming. "A-Ahah…"
Off to the side, Layla snickered into her hand, drawing his exasperation. "Look at that. You've already got a follower. Now you can start a religion."
"Oh, come on, Layla!" Natalie whined. "Wasn't he amazing? He just saved us. Again! And we got to fly!"
Layla tilted her head in acknowledgement. "Yeah, I guess I can't lie. That was pretty badass." She grinned at him in a way that made him feel in-danger.
"Heh? Er, thanks…?"
"Oh my gods, you made it out!" Luckily, before anymore could be said, he was saved by the sight of Yukino, Lorraine, and Amanda running over to them from the edge of the newly-formed crater.
"Oh, you guys got out just fine too?" Layla raised a brow.
"We did," Yukino said. She looked at Oliver with an expression he couldn't place. "You saved us. Again."
"You're welcome…" He trailed off as everyone stared at him for a moment, their eyes shining with gratitude and…admiration? He tore his gaze away, his cheeks growing warm as his wings beat unconsciously. "I wouldn't celebrate though. We don't have the van anymore, which means we'll be going on foot for who knows how long."
"That may be so," Lorraine interjected, "But I distinctly recall all of us agreeing that we're all capable of making it through this. Also, you may have doubts, but you've just shown all of us how capable you are, Oliver. I think I speak for all of us when I say that your strength is very reassuring."
"Yeah! If any monsters show up you can just blow them up again," Natalie tacked on with a cheery grin.
"Are…are you sure?" Oliver slumped over skeptically.
"Dude…you just set off enough magical explosions to outclass an artillery battery." Layla gave him a flat stare, gesturing to the ex-cavern with one hand. "I've been training with my magic for half my life and I can only blow things up like three times before I'm out of juice. You're fucking incredible." She shook her head at him almost disappointedly. "Were you even paying attention to what you did? You made that whole cave collapse pretty much on your own."
The programmer opened his mouth to refute her but found no argument. "Huh. I guess you're right."
"You're damn right I'm right! Take some pride in yourself, idiot."
"Hey…"
"Great, if we're all in agreement here, then I think we should get moving," Lorraine suddenly took charge, stepping past everyone with her hands behind her back. She turned and smiled at them. "The sooner we get moving, the sooner we can all get back to Valor. I really want to see my husband again, so I'm counting on you all, alright?" She winked almost playfully at them. "Especially you, Oliver."
Without another word, the kikimora continued down the road, walking casually like she hadn't just been in the center of a massive battle.
Oliver winced as Layla slapped him on the shoulder. "Looks like you've been acknowledged. Good luck living up to expectations, rookie," she teased as followed Lorraine.
Yukino and Amanda followed her too, and before he knew it, Oliver was being dragged along by an excited Natalie. "C'mon Oliver. Let's not get left behind."
"Huh? Oh, sure…" And just like that, despite their losses, Oliver and the mamono were on track back to Valor. "Take care of me, I guess?..."
A/N: Don't worry, programming-related things will come back. I know all this holy stuff seems unrelated, but trust me. I like to think I know what I'm doing.
Anyway, that's all for now. This chapter was hell to write. Possibly upwards of 70k+ deleted words and rearranged paragraphs and fucking Christ I'm glad to finally be done with it.
Next chapter starts with a timeskip. About one month. And then? They'll be back in Valor.
Welp, cya next time. I'm out.