“Why?” I asked Rhea.

“Don’t thank me, thank my sister,” she responded.

“Your sister?” Suddenly, those exchanges with Tyrants made more sense, “Lady Briele is your sister?”

“It’s been a while.” Briele smiled. “It seems you’ve grown a lot in power. What level are you now?”

“Thirty-eight.” I didn’t need to hide anything from her.

“So quick? Where are your two friends? Aaron and Isabelle?”

“They… didn’t make it.”

“So you’ve been alone? That must have been hard.” She walked over and gave me a hug. For some reason the tears I had been holding in for so long burst forth. I couldn’t stop them from running down my cheeks.

It felt like an eternity before I could get a hold of my emotions. Long enough at least for me to realize that regardless of what Briele had said to her, Rhea still had made the final decision to risk war with Tyrants. I looked to Rhea, “Thank you for saving me. I have something I can give you to show my appreciation.”

That brought a smile. “Oh? What could you have that I would want?”

I didn’t beat around the bush and beckoned for her to sit down, then immediately set off to recreate my experience this past month. At first, she was only politely interested, but then became very intrigued by my story of what had happened in the Frozen Wastelands.

“Wait, what? You found a teleporter to West Abithos?”

“Quiet sister!” Rhea reprimanded Briele. “If this is true, this could spark a war on its own.”

“Does the name Fresey ring a bell?” I asked. It was the only detail I could think of that might prove my theory.

“Fresey, Fresey…” Rhea tapped her chin, before it seemed that an idea occurred to her, “Wait here!” She disappeared into the back of the guild building.

Now only Lady Briele was with me, so I gave her my full attention and asked, “How have you been?”

“Given the circumstances, very good!” She smiled. “I’m a bit embarrassed at your progress though, it makes me feel like I’ve been slacking.”

“Why? What level are you now?” She had already reached level forty when we had first met, and that was many months ago.

“Forty-four.”

“You’re right, I’m surprised. Why so slow?” I joked.

“You’ve become quite bold since I last saw you, eh?” She suddenly cracked her knuckles. “I’ll have you know, being the sister to a guild master comes with a lot of responsibilities. I don’t have much time to adventure these days.”

“How is everyone else?” I tried to change the subject.

“Well… do you remember our assassin?”

“Venom? Yeah…” I suddenly knew what she was going to say and felt downcast.

“He didn’t make it… but everyone else is good.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be. I’m already blessed enough as is. Most parties lose members a lot more frequently than that.”

My experience was certainly far worse in terms of party losses, and it was definitely getting worse with the escalating situation on the continent.

“So what did you say to Rhea to encourage her to stick up for me?” This was what I was most curious about.

“Oh, I just told her to go to war or she’d regret it!”

“That was it?”

“And… I maybe teased her and threatened to reveal one of her biggest secrets.” Briele smiled. “Do you want to know it?”

“Absolutely not!” I blurted out. If Rhea would rather go to war with Tyrants than reveal a secret, then it was definitely not something I wanted to know.

Just then that Rhea reappeared from the back, “What are you two talking about?”

No doubt she could see the embarrassed look on my face; it was always a dead giveaway when I felt awkward about something.

“Oh, nothing at all,” Briele brushed the question away. “Did you find anything about Fresey?”

“Yes! Joseph really has found a teleporter to West Abithos. The name was familiar to me because it’s mentioned in one of the founder’s books. Fresey was a magical city located on West Abithos. In fact, it was the founder’s home town, and the place she worked on her experiments.”

“The founder of the Valkyrie guild?” I asked curiously.

“Yes! Magdela was a Grand Magician, one of the few to ever exist.” Grand magician… grand magician, I had heard that term before on Eastrath.

“Oh, I saw a painting by a Grand Magician on Eastrath before. In a guild hall!”

“The Eternal Twilight,” Rhea suddenly said.

“You know of it?”

“Of course, that was painted by Magdela, our founder!” Rhea was growing more excited, “Anyway, back on topic. According to her notes, Fresey was her hometown, and it is definitely located on West Abithos. In fact, it is far west, dangerously west.”

“So why is this good news?” I asked.

“Because West Abithos has been uninhabited for hundreds of years; the plant life will not have been touched by Adventurers in all that time,” Briele suddenly spoke up. “It is likely to be a treasure trove of herbs and tonics. We could make an absolute killing there.”

“I won’t lie to you both. I was nearly attacked by a monster when I got there. Whatever that thing was… it was unbelievably strong.”

“Right, the monsters of West Abithos are the strongest creatures on this planet, but there are still ways to make profit. You must not tell anyone about this,” Rhea looked at me earnestly. I could only nod my head in understanding.

“Anyway, where are my manners?” Rhea suddenly changed tone. “With all the drama I haven’t had time to welcome you properly.” She breathed deep and then let out a sigh. “Firstly, it’s great to have you back Joseph.

“I wanted to discuss with you a new party grouping. You know by now that Joy and you were the only two to return from your previous group. I did have something in mind…” She paused and looked at Briele. “But now that it has come to light you know my sister, and are quite well acquainted… I think it best you join her group.”

“Sister, as much as I’d like that, is that the best decision? Two mages in a single party is not the best idea.”

“Why not? You heard his story. You lost an assassin, and it seems Joseph is quite adept in melee combat now.” I decided to stay quiet and let them speak about it. The two continued to bicker for many minutes.

“Let’s just ask him then. What do you think Joseph?” asked Briele.

“I think… I am strong enough to be in your party Lady Briele. I’ve come a long way!” It felt good to be able to express myself so confidently before her. Briele had seen me when I was a lowly noob, and back then she had believed in me. Hopefully, I would make her proud of what I had become.

It was at this moment that a little bit of light came back to my life. These past few months had been nothing but darkness and despair. I had done my best to hide my unhappiness from myself, but now that I felt uplifted by the thought of joining Lady Briele’s group I could admit it. The façade had been slowly coming down in any case.

“Then it’s settled, Joseph will be your new member. We will pay him extra attention and support him to the best of our abilities,” Rhea announced.

“Alright.” Briele suddenly turned to me, “You have big shoes to fill.”

I suddenly recalled the moment we had departed on the Zeppelin for Cape Tou with Venom perched on the side twirling his daggers smiling down on us. “Yeah, I do.” I said.

Rhea beckoned to the clerk at the front desk, “Give him his room key as well as double the normal guild member supplies.” Rhea then turned to me, “Work hard, things will be getting crazier in the upcoming days.”

***

Rhea hadn’t been exaggerating in the slightest. The subsequent days were busier than I could have imagined. Every day, my door was knocked on at dawn by Briele and I was briefed on the tasks we faced.

Arturii had been sieged for over a week, and yet the monsters showed no signs of trying to storm the walls. It was like they were locking us inside this fortress. Were they trying to starve us into defeat? I couldn’t be sure.

The officials of Arturii as well as the top guilds were growing uneasy. This level of intelligence and co-ordination among monsters was unprecedented. Something was behind all of this, something terrifying. The city’s plans were being updated constantly.

I also learned something of the experiences of the city’s main attack force. They had, in fact, encountered a major boss and forced it to run, but the feeling was that it had not been the one in control of this situation. A troubling aspect of that encounter was that the boss could speak our tongue and had sufficient intelligence to mock us.

Worst of all, though, that encounter had barely been a victory for the human side. The high-level team could not kill the boss, but had at least managed to send it fleeing. According to our subsequent scrying attempts, it had gone all the way back to the West Abithos continent.

Over the course of these days I had also met Luther, Bryan, and Cid again. Our party was back together, although it was clear they had reservations about my abilities. Unfortunately, there was no opportunity to show them my skills. Everyone was on standby while a solution was being discussed to the current problem.

After my news about the teleport, Rhea had taken an renewed interest into the guild founder’s notes. She had read them before, but the situation was proving to be more interesting than she believed. There were mentions of these issues in Magdela’s books, and even of a discovery the founder made hundreds of years ago.

Whatever this discovery was, the guild leaders were saying nothing more about it. It seemed that they were planning an expedition through the teleporter, but obviously this would be dependent on the siege of Arturii being lifted.

After a week of training and research, an order came through from the city’s authorities that reinforced the idea that this was not the time for Valkyrie to send its most powerful Adventurers through the teleport. We were to sit tight until further notice. No one was to leave Arturii unless given special orders to that effect.

The response on the streets at first was enormous, as people expected the worst. Gathering in large, angry groups the people of the city complained that those who had chosen not to flee were now trapped in a city sieged by monsters. Their fear was that it seemed inevitable that their fate was to starve to death, or be eaten.

The Arturii authorities assured everyone there was enough food reserves for six months. Not only that, but in the zone between the city walls and the main body of monsters, it was sometimes possible to attack creatures and many of them were edible. Teams of volunteers were therefore organized to risk the no-man’s land and secure the remains of monsters for cooking. This initiative also abated some of the public discontent. Many signed up, but only the best of each guild were allowed to partake. Fortunately for me, I was one of them.

“Another boring day?” Luther asked. He was twiddling his thumbs. Most of his priest’s robe was drenched through from several shows of rain that had passed overhead. We had been sitting outside the walls in a small fortification of our own for several hours.

This was our daily life. It wasn’t all bad though. The payment was good, and we did occasionally get battles, albeit very rarely.

“Looks like it.” Bryan said. His face was focused on his shield as he polished the metal with a white cloth.

Everyone needed to find something to do to deal with the boredom of being on patrol, and for me it was practice in enchanting. Rhea had found out about my bet with Julian long ago, but only after seeing my progress did she express interest in nurturing my talent.

Low level gemstones were only good for this anyway, and the Valkyrie guild had no shortage of them. Gathering an abundance of crafting materials was of the main reasons that I had wanted to form a guild back on Earth. Unfortunately, the guilds of Yetera were already so well established that the idea of starting a new one wasn’t realistic.

All of my former companions were gone now too. The people I hoped to shelter with a guild were no longer around. There was still my brother and parents, whom I hoped to find one day, assuming they were on Eastrath still.

The Tyrant guild were still out for me, but in the end they never declared war with Valkyrie. It seemed even they didn’t dare drive a wedge between the guilds of Arturii when the survival of humanity was in the balance. I still desired to destroy them, and this small victory felt good.

“Looks like we’ll have some action today after all.” All at once Bryan stood up. The ground started to shake ever so slightly. This was a common occurrence when monsters passed through the no-man’s zone.

“This…” I said. The shaking was growing louder, to the point where it felt like a stampede was coming towards us. There was suddenly a loud horn, a phenomenon we had never heard before.

“We need to retreat!” Bryan said. Perhaps this was what the authorities of Arturii had been waiting for? The scale of the noise and rumbling suggested that an all-out attack was coming. We grabbed our packs and rushed along the wall before entering a gate that was soon blocked with a portcullis and barred.

The ground began to quake even harder and when I got up to the walls I saw that the sheer amount of beasts now rushing at Arturii was inestimable. This might have been what Arturii had been preparing for, but it wasn’t good news. The walls were high, but they weren’t made to face such a sea of monsters.

There was suddenly a crack like thunder as something powerful smashed into the wall. A voice was projected magically all around us, “We are under attack! Everyone please report to your designated stations and prepare for battle!”