Chapter 17. Let's get out of here

“Let’s get out of here, hurry!” Red rushed their group to leave the town.

“What’s the matter Riley? Is it that guy from earlier? How strong was he?” Magenta asked. Since he was from Naturelle, and transfers from Lumiere were all Prodigies it was impossible for him to know how strong that person was.

“Yeah, it’s that guy from earlier Mason, that guy is at least a Tier 3 resonance or higher.” Riley replied with an anxious voice.

“How do you know?” The friend with a scar on his face asked as they were running back towards the mountain village.

“You three may not know this since you guys haven’t awakened your powers to learn about them, but resonance can only be sensed by others with the same colors.” He paused before muttering. “However, that’s only true if they’re equal or within 1 tier of each other. Those who are 2 tier or higher will be able to sense everyone below them.

“He could sense me, that’s why he displayed what he did, but I couldn’t sense him! He could be anywhere tier 3 and above!” Riley’s words started to make the three understand a bit.

“How strong is a tier 3?” Scar face continue to ask.

“You know, right now I’m the peak of tier 1, I’m already stronger than dozens of men and can crush a boulder with my bare hands, right?” Riley’s reply got everyone to nod their head in confirmation. He continued “Well, I’m not sure since our teachers never showed us how strong they were, but if I had to guess it’d take 100 of me just to go even with our teachers.”

His reply gave everyone a sense of dread, a man who is a tier 3 was a servant to the Governor was as strong as a teacher from Lumiere or Naturelle. How strong was the Governor?

“I-if he’s that strong, how strong is the Governor?” The scrawny guy asked.

“I don’t know, maybe at least tier 4 or higher. But I’m not staying here to find out.” Riley replied.

“Tier?” The glasses guy was confused, “what is Tier?” Riley was about to reply when Mason stepped in to respond.

“I’ve only heard this from classmates, but there are tiers in Resonance, the stronger we are the easier it is for us sense everyone within or below us in resonance. Mason continued “I don’t know much else about Tiers or how many there are, I’ve heard there’s 9, but I’m not sure.”

Riley nodded his head and continued for Mason, “Yeah, in class we’re taught about how the world at one point had 9 Tiers of Resonance thousands of years ago. However, the teachers said there has never been another high tier Resonance since then.”

“What is a high tier Resonance?” The scar face twenty something year old asked. Riley shook his head, “I’m not sure, our teachers have disputed on this, they said high tier starts at 7, but others says it’s 8.”

“Why’re they disputing?” The scar face man asked. Riley thought for a moment and answered. “It’s the two major kingdoms, our Zeldova and the Tillowisk Empire who’re saying different numbers. I think it’s because of our General.”

Mason agreed with Riley and stated, “I was in Naturelle, so I heard rumors that King Tyran did not like knowing that there was a person who was so close to attaining Tier 7 Resonance, so he had people spread rumors that High Tier Resonance is 8.”

“Who is that person?” Glasses asked before the scar face man could.

“He’s the Commanding General of our Zeldovian Military, General Cornelius.” Riley replied.

“General Cornelius…” The three were lost in thought as they heard his name. It wasn’t a name that they’ve never heard of, in fact there were tons of stories of General Cornelius after the war ended. A lot of people said it was thanks to him that the sheer number of enemy forces were routed and killed, where losing battles turned into victories.

However, most of the stories that were spread only mentioned that he was a strategist. It was only now that they’ve heard that our General wasn’t just a master tactician, but an insanely powerful person.

The group finally made it out of Rouge’s territory, there was only two days of walking to make it back to the village across the mountains. However, the group paused in their track as they remembered those scary monstrous people in demonic masks as they chased them out of town.

“Let’s take a detour around the mountain and see if there’s no other way than through that village, if there isn’t we’ll just have to deal with it and walk through, it’ll also be good to lose anybody who is tracking us from Rouge.” Mason stated. The others agreed and changed their course.

Meanwhile, Benjamin and Samuel completely put those five to the back of their minds as they completed their lunch. The waitress returned when they were finished to clean up the table and the meal. Benjamin could still see the desire on her face and decided to cut another kilogram for the workers to share. The waitress was embarrassed and didn’t know what to say, once she returned to herself to thank them the two were already gone.

After their lunch, Samuel decided to search the marketplace once more for other ingredients that’ll compliment the meat and mushroom that they bought. By the time they returned home it was two hours after lunch. The angry look on Angel’s face as they entered the door made Samuel shrunk back in terror while Benjamin calmly escaped to his room.

Luckily the anger immediately subsided when Samuel showed her the ingredients they bought from the central marketplace. Going from anger to excitement Angel gave Samuel a quick kiss on the lips before grabbing the ingredients and disappearing into the kitchen to plan out their dinner.

A nightmarish dream enveloped him in his slumber. “Where am I?” the boy thought to himself. “Where is everyone?” his eyes darted back and forth but all he sees is darkness. Feeling around trying to make his way through the dark haze to find any semblance of light the boy quickened his pace.

The sounds of footsteps echoed ahead as he captured a silhouette of a little girl running away before him. “Sh-shelly? Was that you?” The footsteps paused for a short moment before echoing again, a little further this time “Shelly!” The boy tried to chase after the silhouette but no matter what their distance seems to be increasing.

He continued to chase as the silhouette as it began to split from one to two, to four creating multiple silhouette all running away further and further from him. “Shelly? Boss? Mom? Dad?!” The boy could only make out the vague outlines of them as he continued to chase them.

The ground beneath him started to quake as he continued chasing them. Behind him a familiar Seraphim began to materialize. “Oh no!” Arthur was on a full sprint chasing after the silhouette just slightly out of his grasp. The Seraphim quickened its pace as it was slowly catching up to him.

Ting!

The familiar sound of its last attack could be heard prompting Arthur to immediately hop and roll away from where he once was. However, the target wasn’t him. The silhouette of the little girl ahead was completely enveloped by the enormous Seraphim before another familiar sound rung in his ears.

Boom!

“Shelly!” Arthur cried, the Seraphim before him disappeared leaving only a small one lying on the ground. He ran with all his might eventually catching up to it. However, the moment before he could see her, she vanished. Only three figures were running up ahead, the little girl was gone.

“No! Boss! Mom! Dad!” Arthur cried hysterically; his body was moving of its own command as it chased after the three silhouettes. He continued his chase before the same scene occurred.

A familiar Seraphim materialized its enormous body began to chase him and the three silhouettes ahead.

Ting!

…

Boom!

The sound caused Arthur to instinctively tumble again. However, it still wasn’t him. Another silhouette laid on the ground further ahead. “Boss! No!” Arthur raced towards the silhouette, but it vanished in the same fashion as before.

There was only two silhouette left running. Mom! Dad!” Arthur could only continue to cry and chase, he didn’t know what to do. The Seraphim materialized again and continued to chase behind him.

Ting!

…

Boom!

Arthur didn’t even try to evade this time as both silhouettes before him fell to the ground. The silhouette of his father and mother both disappeared before him. His body came to a halt as he sat in darkness with nothing around. The silhouette of Shelly, Boss, Angel, and Samuel are all gone, there was nothing but soft cries coming from the boy.

The shadow of the Seraphim loomed over his body as it materialized again. Noticing its presence Arthur turned his head around. The life in his eyes were gone.

“What is it that you want?” He weakly asked. However, the Seraphim just stood before him without making any sound.

“What do you want…what do you…” Arthur’s voice got quieter not even able to finish his sentence. The sound of footsteps could be heard echoing behind Arthur again. It was the silhouette of the girl, however this time it was running towards him.

The Angel’s head turned away from Arthur and locked onto the silhouette. Its eyes began to emit a faint glow.

“No!” Arthur shouted before jumping up to his feet and flew in between the Seraphim and Shelly. The beam flew from its eyes directly his back and through his chest. The shadow of the girl finally made it before his very eyes as he looked up at her from the ground. Her familiar face along with that of Boss, his father and mother surrounded him, tears crawling out of their eyes was the last thing he saw before darkness enveloped him.

Gasp!

Arthur gasped awake, heaving heavily. The same four people were surrounding him this time, however there was no tears on their face, only the look of worry. Dazed, Arthur could only just sit there and stare at their faces. The sound of a dog’s bark woke him up completely as he looked down on it. “Barkie…” Arthur weakly reached his hand over to pet it.

Hmph, dumb human couldn’t even tell the difference between a nightmare and reality. Barkie thought to itself while enjoying the pet Arthur was giving.

“Mommy? Daddy? Boss? Shelly?”

“It’s okay sweetie it was just a nightmare.” Angel assured Arthur as he finally collected himself.

“You’ve been asleep for four whole days boy, how’re you feeling?” Boss asked.

“Boss…?”

“Well, shit this kid is still not fully awake.” Boss said before softly slapping Arthur’s face. One slap, two slap, three slaps, four. “I’m awake, I’m awake, stop slapping me.” Arthur held back Boss’ hand that was going in for the fifth slap.

“Well, look at you, as energetic as ever I see.” Boss replied pulling his hand away.

Arthur turned his head towards Shelly. “Glad to see you awake.” Shelly replied.

“Shelly!” Arthur gave her a hug. “I thought you were dead!” The nightmare along with what had transpired at the Church is still revolving around his head.

“I’m okay.”

“Yeah you are!” Arthur replied enthusiastically.

“Mew” Silver slapped Arthur’s face away causing him to reel back from the hug.

Gurgle gurgle

“Ahaha” Arthur laughed embarrassingly, four days of no food or water finally caught up to him.

“Looks like someone’s hungry.” Samuel stated as Arthur’s stomach couldn’t lie.

“Yes, let’s go eat dinner, mommy made you the best food.” Angel quickly remembered.

The adults left the room first, followed by the three kids. Samuel was already sitting at the dinner table waiting for food when they arrived. Before long the aromatic smell from the ingredients wafted around the room as dinner began to get placed on the table.

The moment Angel walked out with the remaining chunk of meat on a silver platter the entire room went silent as everyone eyed the meat making its way towards their table.

“To celebrate Arthur and Shelly’s complete recovery, I’ll let you guys eat as much as you want.” Angel placed the platter at the center of the table, cutting a slice for everyone to eat first.

The moment she sat down and took the first bite everyone else began devouring their plates. Boss was eating the food and examining the energy within everyone’s body that was slowly increasing. While it was an extremely miniscule amount of increase for Exotics, it is more than enough for regular people to pay a hefty price for.

“Shelly, when did you wake up?” Arthur asked while eating. When he woke up Shelly was already leaning over him.

“Mmm, early in the morning, I went back to sleep and woke up again an hour before you did.” Shelly replied as she ate.

“Oh, what happened to us anyways? I thought that Angel statue was gonna kill us.” Arthur continued to ask. Shelly shook her head in reply, since she got knocked unconscious before Arthur did only Boss could explain.

“I saved you two and healed you with my godly powers.” Boss replied as he ate. Arthur completely believed him while Shelly gave him a skeptical look. Her eyes continued to stare down Boss making him feel uncomfortable. “Wh-what? It’s true.” Boss tried to avoid Shelly’s glare as he ate.

“F-fine, it was the Pope, he showed up and defeated the monster and then used his amazing eye powers to completely heal you two.” Boss quickly gave up to Shelly’s pressure while putting emphasis on eye.

The moment Boss mentioned the Pope’s eye powers Arthur recalled what he wanted to do. “Mommy, daddy, I want to go to Naturelle.”