Book 2: Chapter 31

Three days had passed since Cyil disposed of Jughog as one would of livestock--unfeeling and natural.

In that time many things had happened. The first and most important was that the city had descended into a state of panic. Many people had packed their belongings and fled either to the capital located in the center of Rovaria, north, south, or further east, but no one dared to go west. A majority of nobles with real estate in the city choose to reluctantly stay and wait it out. Perhaps the Rovaria army could stop the monster tide before they reached the city, they thought. Some nobles who had inside knowledge already managed to liquidate their assets before news became public and fled at top speed.

The cause behind this chaos was none other than the King’s decree of a mandatory draft for the incoming beast tide that had already trampled over two kingdoms. The death count was unknown. Millions of people have been displaced, migrating to other kingdoms or to less populated areas within their under-siege kingdom. When people heard of this 99% of the population was shocked. There had been a beast tide ravaging through the human kingdoms and only now they were told?

Many people grew upset at the king and how news of the situation was handled. Of course, trickles of news had managed to reach certain powerful prestigious people, but the great amount of land each kingdom covered made it difficult to efficiently spread the news. So unless you were part of a mage guild, high ranking mercenary group, or was an esteemed noble then news of the beast tide never would have reached your ears.

Even Cyil hadn’t heard about the beast tide and was surprised that two kingdoms had already fallen. “Do you know what a beast tide is?” Cyil asked the Nefarious Saint who was just as shocked as Cyil.

The Nefarious Saint didn’t respond for a long time: “Beast tides are a congregation of various beasts, who have either been enraged or are being directed by another higher ranked beast. The former case is what usually happens and the number can range from 100 to at most 1,000 beast. These beast tides usually disperse after the beasts have calmed down or finished their objective. The latter case is more rare and it spells disaster. Usually only an elder level magical beast can control and command a beast tide, but even then they could at most control 10,000 magical beasts. When a beast tide is being controlled they are a force to be reckoned with. Disregarding the elder level magical beast which can match a rank 9 mage in strength, the numerous magical beasts are enough to whittle down any hero who dares to face it alone.”

“What about you? How would you fare against a beast tide?” Cyil egged on the Nefarious Saint, who seemed to be down these days.

“Hmph. If I had my body, I could easily take out a beast tide even if it were being controlled by 10 elder magical beasts!” The Nefarious Saint replied without hesitation and a hint of pride. “In addition, taking out the leaders is the most efficient way of dispersing a beast tide, because to kill each and every beast would be quite tedious.”

“I understand that you’re great,” Cyil laughed, slapping the glove. “But how did two kingdoms fall? What is the mage and mercenary association doing?” Cyil was quite baffled by this point. Where were the rank 9 mages and Saints? The rank 8 warriors? How could they allow two kingdoms to fall to a beast tide? Was the human race really so weak? Many questions swirled around in Cyil’s mind.

“I don’t know, but the mage association should have their own plans.” The Nefarious Saint replied and would have shook his head if he had one. “Alas, many lives were probably lost in the meantime.”

“Hmm,” Cyil gave the whole situation a look and firmly decided. “I’m not going to take part in this war. With the entire human race at stake, someone will step up to stop it.”

“If that’s what you think.” The Nefarious Saint kept his own opinion to himself.

“Alright, let’s go to visit the Immortal Refugees Headquarters now. I heard they were having an interesting competition.” Cyil stretched his body loose and checked his mage ranking. “I’m already a rank 2 level 10 mage. The strength of a soul works wonders.”

Cyil had been focused entirely on training his soul for nearly 2 years and had neglected his mage and physical training in the meantime, but both his physical body’s strength and mage ranking rose considerably. Of course, Cyil knew that his greatest strength was his soul domain and its attacks, but he still wanted to supplement his strength in anyway possible. A rank 2 level 10 mage did not seem too terrifying when compared to elder magical beasts or rank 9 mages, but a rank 2 level 10 mage who could also attack someone’s soul was fearsome.

Before Cyil walked out of the inn, the Nefarious Saint reminded, “be wary of the grassland serpent.”

“I know,” Cyil answered calmly and headed on towards the Immortal Refugees headquarters…

The Immortal Refugees headquarters was bustling with people. This was the next big news: they had open their gates to the public with the promise that anyone who could enter into the inner courtyard would have a chance to meet Selia. Because of this people now flooded into the headquarters like a swarm of locusts. The sole news of this was almost as shocking as the beast tide’s announcement. But of course, getting into the headquarters was not so easy. First, you had to pay 100 gold coins then walk across the courtyard. Right, the second task was walking across the courtyard. It seemed simple, but this eliminated over 90% of visitors.

People did not know why they would end up outside of the Immortal Refugees headquarters when they had clearly walked straight through to the other side of the courtyard. This phenomenon prompted accusations, but when a few people managed to get across, those other people’s complaints naturally simmered.

There were also people who paid the 100 gold again and again, unconvinced that they couldn’t make it through. There were some people who must have tried over 100 times or until they ran out of money. Rumor had it that one muscular man, a rank 4 warrior, had even borrowed his girlfriend’s money just to enable him to keep trying. Alas, he never made it pass the courtyard.

Also, 100 gold was a lot of gold so to spend it so lavishly was enough to cause someone to grimace. Of course, while everyone was trying their best to pass this simple test, the leader of Immortal Refugees was rolling around laughing. He didn’t care about the gold, but reveled in the contestant’s wild surges of emotions.

“This is too fun. They can’t pass a simple illusionary formation and can only walk around in circles.” The leader, a man who looked to be in his thirties laughed as he observed the people struggling through the courtyard.

“Hmph hmph.” Selia pouted off on the side, her rosy cheeks puffed up in an adorable fashion. “Father, you’re even more childish than me!”

The man roared in laughter, “do you not find this fun, Selia? If your mother was here she would also enjoy this sort of thing.”

“Mother,” Selia’s voice momentarily dipped before she continued. “Mother would scold you if you treated people poorly. Hmph!” Selia stomped off to her room to resume meditation.

“Ah,” the man scratched his forehead then shrugged, his eyes returning to the courtyard.

“So many people yet no one knows about illusionary formations. But that’s to be expected here.” Sighing with longing, the man raised an eyebrow as his eyes focused on a young man. This young man had a decent looking face, but otherwise looked like a commoner. “He actually walks so calmly on the right tiles. Is this luck like the others or?”

Before the man could finish speaking, the young man had already passed to the otherside of the courtyard. “He actually made it through! Haha. Go on to the next test. Blind luck won’t help on this next one.”

The leader had promised people a meeting with Selia if they passed, but of course he had no intention of letting them meet her so he set up some impossible tasks. Even Selia agreed to meet the person who managed to pass all these test, because frankly, she knew it was impossible.

The young man approached the next courtyard which no one had managed to pass before and actually did not charge through, but stopped and stared, as if he was admiring a sculpture.

“Smart move, boy!” The man applauded the young man in a joking fashion. “But if you can make it through this bewildering and illusionary formation then I would dare to walk on my hands instead of my feet!”

As soon as the man said this, the young man looked up to meet the man’s eyes.

“What?!” The man lost his cool, a chill running through his spine before he regained rationality. “He can’t see me at all. Must be a coincidence.” The man was confident because he was up in a tower and hidden behind a window that could only be seen from inside to out and not from outside to in. There was no way the young man could see him.

“Let’s see how you do then.” The man focused on the young man’s every actions.

After looking around the second courtyard for enough time to boil water, the young man closed his eyes and actually took a seat right on the ground.

“What?” The man knew how to navigate the 2nd courtyard, because he was the one to set it up and he knew that sitting down was not going to do anything.

“Is he giving up?” The man frowned. “I had high hopes for you, but ah well.” The man shrugged and no longer paid attention to the young man, but directed his gaze towards other contestants…

The day dragged on and now the sun was hugging the horizon. The Immortal Refugees headquarters was going to close their gates soon, thus anyone still inside must leave until tomorrow.

As people trickled out, the man’s attention returned to the seated young man. “He’s still there? What a patient young man. But you have to leave until tomorrow.” Taking it upon himself to inform the young man, the man came down from his tower and quickly walked towards where the young man was. The bewildering and illusion formation had no effect on him at all.

As the man neared the seated young man, he suddenly stopped 10 meters away and actually jumped back. “What is this?!” A reasonably horrified look slapped itself onto the man’s face. “No, it can’t be. This, this.”

Slowly, the man reached out with his hand at the empty space in front of him.

*vrmmm*

A slight vibration, barely audible, entered the man’s mind. “IT IS!”

The man felt a flood of mixed emotions: joy, confusion, awe, fear, excitement. “This is the legendary soul domain! Even big brother doesn’t have one! Could it be this boy is the controller?”

The man then quickly shook his head. “No no, that’s impossible. He’s too young.”

As the man was having an internal conflict, the young man slightly cracked open his eyes then said:

“Hello, leader of Immortal Refugees. Pleasure to meet you.”