Chapter Two Hundred Fourteen: 'The encroaching Storm...'

Even as he was staring at the screen and listening to the report, Hector could hardly believe his eyes or his ears.

Could this really be happening? Maybe the reports were exaggerated. Maybe everyone was just freaking out. Overstating things.

A second Continental War? Now, of all times? Why? How?

Everyone knew about the Continental War. Or, the first one, at least. How strange it was, to think that they might have to start making that distinction now. It wouldn't just be the Continental War, anymore. It would be the First Continental War.

Insanity.

It had been well over a hundred years since the great war that had spanned the entire Eloan continent. Hector may not have been a very good student, but with how much schools had focused on that subject and how much the war had influenced books and movies and television, it was impossible to be completely ignorant of it.

His understanding was that the First Continental War had been the result of several decades of build up, wherein many countries formed military alliances due to a pervasive fear of being attacked by one or more of their neighbors. And when one of them finally did get attacked, it created a chain reaction of war declarations that consumed all of Eloa.

The first aggressor had infamously been the nation of Dozer--though, it might've been called something else at the time. Hector wasn't too sure on that part.

Knowing what he did now of Abolish, Hector might've expected Dozer to be one of the aggressors this time as well, but according to the news report, that wasn't the case.

The five invading nations were Ostra, Corrico, Kavia, Calthos, and Vantalay. There were currently only four nations on the defense, because Ostra and Corrico were attacking Melmoore in unison from the north and south, respectively. The other three defending nations were Hoss, Sair, and Czacoa.

The one that stuck out the most to him, of course, was Sair.

The Rainlords were not going to be happy about that. It was still way too soon for them to head back there, and he felt like they knew that, but...

They were going to be super fucking pissed off when he got back to Warrenhold, weren't they?

"Hanton," said Hector, only half-conscious of what he was saying, "please tell me this news report isn't real. That's it's just another one of your illusions..."

'If only that were so,' the Sparrow said grimly. 'I could never have come up with an illusion like this. And if I had, I would not have considered it believable.'

Jessup flinched suddenly. "Ah! Lord, I nearly forgot! I apologize, but there was something else! With everything happening so quickly, I--'

'What is it, Jessup?'

"It is Lady Pauline, Lord! As soon as she saw this report, she disappeared!"

Hanton's massive wings flapped suddenly, and his avian body popped up off the ground briefly. 'What?!'

"O-of course, it is not so unusual for her venture out on her own without warning, but given the circumstances, I thought--"

A low rumble escaped from Hanton's huge form, creating a sound unlike anything Hector had ever heard before. Was that a growl? Could birds growl?

Hanton settled himself. 'Thank you for telling me, Jessup. I shall retrieve her. Lord Goffe, I am afraid I really must insist that we conclude this meeting here. There is more I would discuss with you, but my daughter takes priority.'

"I'll help you look for her," said Hector.

The Sparrow's head reared back a little. 'A kind offer, but an unnecessary one. My children and I are psychically bound. Even if I do not know her exact location, I will always know in which direction I must go in order to find her.'

"Uh... I see," was all Hector could think to say.

Hanton gave a mental sigh. 'On the matter of secrecy, I ask that you tell no one of us, but I also understand that I may be placing you in a difficult position by doing so. For now, please do what you think best. I shall visit your Gray Warren soon so that we may speak again.'

And without waiting for Hector's answer, the Sparrow shifted his posture and then launched himself off the ground, creating a wind so furious that it pushed Hector in his full armor back a step and caused all the decorations in the room to tremble in place.

Hector watched as Hanton flew up through the half-open ceiling and then disappeared entirely. He couldn't tell if that was because of Hanton's invisibility or if he'd simply been flying that fast.

Hector looked over to Jessup, whom he'd shielded from the wind with a quick wall of curved iron. He dematerialized his work, and the man was standing there, hands out in front of his face but eyes wide open.

"...You okay?" said Hector.

The butler required another moment to find his composure again. "Ah--yes, sir. Th-thank you for... whatever you just did."

"Sure thing."

There wasn't much point in sticking around, so Hector moved to leave, and Jessup offered to guide him back to the entrance. Hector didn't really think he needed the help, but he accepted, anyway. A part of him wanted to wander around the Gaolanet's estate and see if he could find any other Sparrows to talk to, but he figured he should get back to Warrenhold.

His small army of iron-clad human statues followed close behind, and he could tell that they unsettled Jessup. He tried to reassure the poor guy, but he wasn't sure how much it helped. The butler kept asking--rather shakily--if there was anything else he could do before Hector left, such as providing refreshments, but Hector politely declined.

By the time he made it all the way back to the car, everyone was still frozen. Since he still didn't actually have a driver's license, he decided to wait. It wouldn't be long now.

Hopefully.

He pulled out his phone to check the news, but there wasn't much to go on yet.

The more he thought about it, the more easily he could believe that Calthos had attacked Sair. As he recalled, the Abolishers who attacked Dunehall had, supposedly, been biding their time in Calthos beforehand; and he remembered the Sandlords being concerned about tensions with that country, too.

He'd also gotten a brief update from Asad about two weeks ago regarding the state of things over there. The Sandlords had been working hard to keep the peace, and the Vanguard showed no signs of leaving anytime soon, apparently trying to court Abbas Saqqaf.

The Sunsmith. The most powerful man in Sair now. Hector had briefly met him, of course, having witnessed him take down the Salesman of Death single-handedly with that crazy suit of mechanized armor.

Was Abolish really attacking again so soon, though? Even after losing Ivan?

Oh, wait, perhaps it was precisely because they'd lost Ivan. They probably wanted to get him back, didn't they? And it certainly made sense to attack while the Rainlords were gone.

Aw, fuck, Ivan being set free was the last thing he wanted to imagine, right now. The conversation he'd had with the Salesman of Death was still burned into his mind, and somehow, he doubted that Ivan would just forget about him and leave him alone.

Hector had already intended to keep a close eye on Sair moving forward, but now that seemed more important than ever.

Honestly, though, after what he'd seen Abbas do, Hector was fairly confident that the Sandlords would kick the shit out of Abolish. And with the Vanguard there as well? According to Asad, the one they called Iceheart was in charge of operations in Sair right now, and while Hector didn't know much about him, he knew that the guy was a Field Marshal.

Hector might've liked to meet him, but supposedly he was some kind of ultra hardass. What would you expect from someone named Iceheart, though?

As he mulled the news over again in his head, he began to wonder if he shouldn't actually be more concerned about the war between Vantalay and Czacoa.

One of the treasure hunting teams that they'd dispatched from Warrenhold had been sent to Ridgemark, a coastal city in Vantalay. According to their early reports, they hadn't made any progress in tracking their target artifact down, and a war certainly wasn't going to make it any easier for them.

Perhaps it would be best to recall that team and send them somewhere else. It was a shame that so much time will have been wasted, but it was better safe than sorry.

The biggest worry of all was no doubt if Atreya would somehow get drawn into this larger conflict. At the moment, that didn't seem likely, since there were only nine nations involved in total, but Hector had a feeling that more would be joining in soon. He didn't consider himself to be very knowledgeable when it came to geopolitics, but he doubted that all the other countries in each region were just going to sit back and watch.

'...H-Hector?' came a silent and familiar voice.

'Garovel,' he said calmly. 'Welcome back.'

'What... what the hell happened?'

Before Hector could even answer, the others all began to stir as well. He didn't annihilate all of his iron immediately, but he did bring the orbiting to an end and made holes for the reapers to let them out. He wasn't sure if they would feel safer inside their iron confines, so he felt that this was a decent compromise.

As expected, everyone was terribly confused.

And Hector, being the only one who could explain, did not have a very easy time of it.

"What in lakefire are you talking about?" said Diego Redwater.

"Check your phones. News of the war is all over the internet."

"H-hold on," said Diego. "I mean, that's--agh, that's insane, too, but I'm still trying to wrap my head around the part where you met a giant telepathic bird."

Hector sighed. "I know how it sounds. But that's why you have a gap in your memories, and that's why you're wearing armor, right now. I made it and infused it with my soul in order to shield your minds from him. The effects took a while to wear off."

'And where is this Sparrow now?' said Diego's reaper, Yangèra .

Hector did his best to explain again.

This continued for a bit longer, with even the reapers apparently having trouble understanding what he was saying, until at length, Lynnette chimed in.

"He's telling the truth," she said. "I remember as well. I couldn't speak or move, but I saw and heard everything just as Hector did."

Wait, what?

"I thought it was the same for all of you, but apparently not." Lynnette held up her half-gauntled hand, though it was currently somewhat concealed beneath a glove. "I can only imagine that this thing somehow interfered with Hanton's abilities."

Hector stared at her in disbelief.

Everyone else was apparently speechless as well.

She took the opening to keep talking. "Honestly, is it so difficult to believe? This is Hector we're talking about. Do you think he'd make something like that up?"

Diego tried to scratch his neck, but his armor was in the way. "Er... hmm."

Hector was grateful for his own armor as he felt his face grow hot with embarrassment.

"In that case, I should very much like to meet Hanton again," said King William. As he spoke, however, his gaze continued to search up and down at his own armor. He hadn't actually mentioned anything about it yet, but he seemed somewhat transfixed by the suit Hector had made for him.

"Well, he said he would drop by Warrenhold soon," said Hector.

The King perked up at that. "Ah, is that so? Then perhaps I have reason to extend my stay again!"

Hector could hear Lynn sighing inside her helmet.