It was only an unknown amount of time later that Liam awoke. Opening his eyes and looking around, he realized he was in a room he didn’t recognize. Turning his perception inwards, Liam checked his condition.

‘The damage to my soul has increased.’

This was the first thing he noticed. It was likely to be the consequence of using Chaos and Order so much without having mastered them. His lifespan had probably also been reduced even further. He was running out of time.

Apart from that, his body was in surprisingly good condition. The flow of Aura was smooth and quick. His regeneration had been perfect. Using Aura Sight, Liam identified the humans outside his room, in front of the door.

‘Did they insist on guarding my room?’

With a grin, Liam stood up. He frowned. The pain had grown once more, but that was far from surprising, given the additional damage to his soul. The problem was the intensity. It hurt almost twice as much as before.

‘Do I only have five years now?’

He didn’t know just by how much his lifespan had been reduced, but things weren’t looking good. Wiping the frown off his face, Liam put on his best confident smile and left the room.

Immediately, the two humans at each side of the door turned to him, looking up at his face with surprised expressions. Liam belatedly noticed how much taller he was compared to the two men as they were still in shock. Ethereal Body had truly changed him.

“Savior!”

“Sir!”

The two grabbed his arms, then hurriedly pulled away, as if they were afraid to hurt him but couldn’t contain their emotions.

Liam inspected the two men’s faces. Complex emotions could be seen, but they only ranged from admiration to worry. There was no sign of malice. Relaxing, he widened his smile and started to speak.

“Hello. There’s no need to worry, I have completely recovered. Can you two tell me how long it has been?”

The two spoke at the same time, creating an incomprehensible cacophony. As Liam slowly raised his hand, they glanced at each other, coming to a silent agreement. The shorter man spoke first.

“It has only been three days, sir. That is why we were so worried. We heard you were almost killed.”

Were they concerned that it hadn’t been long enough for Liam to recover? In a way, it would be true for everyone else. Three days wasn’t nearly enough to recover from the amount of damage Liam had suffered while escaping the Fortress’ grounds. It wouldn’t have been surprising in the least if he had suffered some form of permanent damage or died outright.

‘I guess I have indeed taken some permanent damage.’

The damage to his soul wasn’t something he could recover, at the moment. While the humans didn’t know this, he had paid a heavy price for breaking Cinzolia’s shield. Their concern was warranted, even if they were more worried over the state of his physical body. Trying not to show his true thoughts, Liam confidently waved his hand.

“I’m fine, see? There’s nothing wrong with my body.”

The two men inspected him from head to toe, hesitatingly nodding one after the other. Liam continued to speak.

“Now, does any of you know where I can find my Elite Squad? I have a few questions for them.”

“We heard that the Elite Squads that returned from the battle went to their own ships to rest and plan out the next stage of the siege. Yours might be there too, sir.”

Thanking the two men as they bowed, Liam left in the direction of the hangar where his Squad’s ship could be found. On the way, he couldn’t help but notice the stares from the Drakkhan. Using Aura Sight, he read their lips, understanding their whispers to one another.

“Did you hear? That’s the human that broke through the forcefield.”

“I was there. He did it alone…”

“His body was completely destroyed in one second, and then reappeared in the next. There’s no way he’s human.”

As expected, they were discussing his actions. A slight frown made its way to Liam’s face. While he initially didn’t wish to draw this much attention to himself, his short remaining lifespan had given him no choice. Before he died, he needed to secure a stable spot for humanity within the Convergence. That was the only way to avoid his species’ annihilation.

Liam made his way to the hangar, easily finding his squad’s ship. As he approached, the hull opened and allowed him to pass. With experienced steps, he walked inside the ship until the path opened up into a big meeting room. Eight Drakkhan stared at him as he entered, including One. His brow furrowed as he noticed the Captain was still obviously seriously injured.

“…Where are the others?”

Liam asked a question that he already knew the answer to. One was the one to reply.

“Dead. Have a seat.”

The youth hesitated before sitting down. It was uncomfortable to know that a third of his squad had perished while trying to save him, even though he wasn’t close to them at all.

“There’s no need for you to concern yourself over their deaths. They died a warrior’s death while upholding the priority order. They died with dignity.”

One spoke to him, attempting to calm his feelings. Of course, Liam wasn’t that affected to begin with. He wasn’t close to anyone in the Squad and their treatment had only ranged from open hostility to silent wariness, but he still didn’t like knowing that creatures had died for him. The air in the room turned heavier. Liam opened his mouth.

“I understand. What were you all discussing?”

“In short, we were talking about what we’ll do from now on. Now that the forcefield is down and you’ve been rescued, all troops have withdrawn from the field and are preparing for the next offensive. They have lost their only layer of defense while we still have ours, but their numbers are higher. If they decide to attack, they’ll break down our forcefield faster than we could have broken theirs down… If it weren’t for you, that is.”

“How many have we lost so far?”

“Around 300 million of ours have died. They’ve lost only two million, since they hid behind the forcefield for all this time.”

Liam frowned at the great disparity. It was expected, but Cinzolia already had more troops, to begin with. The disproportionate number of dead Drakkhan was sure to make the siege even harder.

“What about Arimiar?”

“The Commander is still fighting their leader. There’s no estimate as to how long it will take.”

Liam leaned back in his seat, looking at the ceiling with pensive eyes. One continued to speak.

“As I said, we were discussing what we’re going to do from now on. Our real mission has only just started, but we’ve unexpectedly lost a third of our squad’s forces. However…”

One stared at Liam with eyes filled with complex emotions.

“…I suppose the current you more than makes up for the power we’ve lost. Take this.”

The Drakkhan took a small black pyramid out of his Inventory and threw it at Liam, who caught it and opened its information.

----------------------------------------Equipment----------------------------------------

Drakkhan Elite Captain Armor

Rank: S

* Standard armor provided to the Elite Squad Captains of every Division of the Drakkhan Empire. Possessing a good balance between defense, flexibility, and tenacity, it is a marvel of Drakkhan technology, made possible by the System. It is a direct improvement of the Drakkhan Elite Armor, made for ordinary Elite troops.

* Adjusts its size and dimensions to fit the user.

* Possesses thermal regulation systems.

* Possesses self-repairing capabilities.

* Possesses a large Inventory.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Equipment window was very similar to the one of his old armor, which had been destroyed alongside his body by the enemy commander. Nevertheless, its rank was higher for a reason. Liam could sense that its durability was much greater. He looked up as he heard One’s voice.

“This should protect you a bit more. It’s the same as mine.”

With everything out of the way, the group focused on what they would do from now on. Liam distinctly remembered what One had told him before. Their mission once the forcefield was down was to assassinate the enemy leaders, sowing chaos and confusion in the enemy army. The plan still confused him, however. How were they supposed to sneak in undetected and assassinate a target when virtually every enemy was capable of using Aura Sight?