Around Year 141 to 142

Lausanne paused as she cradled the young toddler girl in her arms. It was a strange time to have a child, but strangely, it is not uncommon. The people she’s met, many others have made babies when a war came. It’s almost as if war and crisis triggered the reproductive desires in the living.

“She really looks like you.” Ardi smiled, and somehow Lausanne felt and remembered her mother’s words. Ardi had aged. They’ve been married for 23 years, and though Lausanne wasn’t rushing things, her husband’s hair had whitened, and two years ago, Ardi proposed to have a child.

The chaos and mess got to him, and to some extent, being human, even if he aged slower than a regular human. Or maybe it’s the whole confined inside a city while demons roamed outside. What else was there to do, but to copulate?

She agreed. 20 years without a child was quite far away from the human norms, and so Arlisa came into the world slightly over a year ago. At times, she wondered whether this was a mistake. The Eastern continent, for the lack of a better word, not the best place to raise a young baby girl. Not at all. Even if the city she lived in was doing well.

She had hoped things would improve when the heroes supposedly arrived, and that she, and her new baby, Arlisa, and Ardi, would be able to leave the Eastern Continent, and head back to the Central Continent.

It didn’t.

The flying drakes continued to destroy huge amounts of land, and Lausanne’s survival depended mostly on underground hideouts and cities. The dwarves, in particular, adapted well to this demon king, their cities often extended into the mountains, and they had ways to prepare their fortified cities for a long siege without exposure to the outside world.

Honestly, it felt very much like being trapped in the Valley again. Except the city was far larger, and all they had to deal with was flying drakes that roamed outside.

“Lausanne, the Lord summoned you.” A messenger came over. She shrugged, and calmed Arlisa down. “Let him know I’ll be there soon.” Lausanne passed the baby to her.

Lausanne changed into her combat attire and walked to the Lord’s subterranean chambers. There was an Aiva priest there and a Hawa priest, and also a group of other warriors. Lausanne met them before, they were part of the defense force.

“Grandmaster Engka once said you were the temple’s secret weapon.” Lausanne wanted to roll her eyes, but she resisted. She internally regretted taking Engka’s bargain. It’s been a decade, and the temple still made requests for her. She wondered whether she should just say no, now that she had a child of her own.

“I’m afraid I’m no such thing.” Lausanne bowed. “I happen to just carry out too many Aivan Triumvir’s requests.”

The Lord smirked. “No matter. You will need to do a task for us. I received a divine quest from both Hawa and Aiva, to rescue the new heroes.”

“New... heroes?” Lausanne paused. ‘What the hell? Why did the gods summon new heroes? Did something happen to the 10 heroes?’

In the Eastern Continent, news was rare. Communication channels were few, and information like the death of the 10 heroes were a massive secret known only to the upper echelons of the priesthood and the kings. Rumors spread, but with every travel in the eastern continent extremely difficult, it was an extremely slow move.

Locals all wondered what took the heroes so long to slay the demon king, and for Lausanne, it suddenly made sense.

Lausanne agreed. Even if the task was difficult, heroes meant a solution to the demon king problem, and a path for her new family. The alternative was a perpetual quarantine in this city that offered nothing much.

They found the heroes hiding in a small cave, with a special compass from the priest of Hawa. Three young heroes, hungry, dirty, and weak, hiding in a cave. There were demon-drakes that flew overhead.

“Come with us.” The young heroes didn’t have much of a choice. It was starve, or take the only opportunity they had.

They had to fight a few demon drakes on the way back, but ultimately, they didn’t encounter any exceptional number of demons, or the more powerful demon-drake champions.

-

“Tough day?” Ardi asked as Lausanne walked back to their home for the past 3 years. They didn’t have much food.

“Yeah.” Lausanne sat. Lexi played with Arlisa in the small room they had. The Playing Swords disbanded 2 years ago when most of the team died during a massive demon drake attack, Ardi, Lexi, and one other swordsman were all that’s left. Ardi, Lexi both decided to call it a day. They were both not young anymore, the years displayed itself on their hair, their skin. Even if Lexi still looked good as her holy powers granted her a slower rate of ageing, she too had grown weary from the fighting and travelling, and wanted a break.

Space was surprisingly abundant. Many of the city’s denizens died when the demon drakes attacked, so there were plenty of uninhabited accommodations.

“I met heroes today. 3 young ones.”

“Eh, what happened to the previous 10?”

“I... don’t know. But if there are 3 new young ones, that can’t be a good sign.”

Lexi paused and nodded. She was a priestess too, and she knew the rules about heroes. The gods only summoned new heroes if the previous generation all died. If there were 3 new ones, it only meant the previous 10 all died. “It’s probably something you should keep to yourself, Lausanne.”

Lausanne paused, and she too realised the implication. “Thanks for the reminder, Lexi.”

Ardi nodded. The demon drakes raided every city on the continent. The cities that survived all relied on their heroic artifacts, but even then, those only granted a short period of protection.

“Lexi, what does the demon king do after it wins?”

“I don’t know. The scriptures all didn’t speak of such an event.”

-

The Dwarven City in the Mountain, Gurdarim, one of the five mining cities on the Eastern Continent, and part of the Dwarven Miner Federation. Each city was ruled by a Lord, but the Lord may as well be the King of each of their own cities.

There was a massive chamber in the middle of the mountain, the rocky ceilings reinforced with magically enhanced pillars and plates. Home to almost a hundred thousand at it’s peak, now it was home to a third of that. Only 30,000.

They purchased one of the abandoned units from the City Hall a few years ago, and it had a small garden. There was no sunlight, but magical stones acted as artificial lights.

“Do you think we’ll be trapped here forever?” Ardi asked Lausanne that night. They sat in the garden, they both had a cup of tea. Lexi and Arlisa had gone to sleep earlier.

“I hope not. If there are new heroes, that is a good sign.” Lausanne said. “Even if they seemed really, really weak.”

Ardi smiled and sipped on his tea.

“We don’t have a way out, sadly.” All the ships in the nearest port city are all on official missions, either to deliver goods, carry men, or just carry critical supplies. They had attempted to buy their way out, but even the merchants rejected. The surviving kingdoms paid top dollar to the merchants to deliver the necessities.

Many more merchants have been essentially ‘nationalised’ during this period of time, and they operated shipping routes that supported the military.

Even if the heroes have died, many cities still chugged along, protected by heroic items so freely given out a few decades ago. Still, they are stressed, as the heroic items had a long recharge time, and if the demons attacked frequently, they would eventually break through the defenses.

Gurdarim too had one heroic item in its treasury. A massive mirror that collected energy and would release a heat ray that destroyed anything in it’s path. Still, it had an extremely long recharge time of 2 month, so the city reserved it’s use for the demon champions. Any lesser attack had to be repelled by the defense force. Some of the surviving cities had more heroic artifacts, and although that meant they had more weapons at their disposal, those cities were attacked more often.

Blasphemy, when Lausanne highlighted that the demon kings can sense the presence of heroes and their star mana.

But what else could it be?

A few days later, Lausanne was summoned again.

“The heroes must leave the Eastern Continent, to somewhere that they can train.” Lausanne immediately thought of the Rottedlands, but she kept her mouth quiet. She knew that the priest would immediately say she is a heretic for even suggesting it.

“And?”

“We want you, along with our elites to escort them to the port city on the western coast. We’re not sure which city will be safe when you get there, so Port Helas, Port Kelah and Port Lawad are all on standy.”

Huh? What did such a statement mean?

“There’s a large pack of drakes spotted. 50 drakes.” The adventurers and veterans next to Lausanne immediately gulped. Some of them quickly said. “Milord, that’s too much for us, even if we are escorting heroes.”

“Couldn’t the heroes handle them?” Lausanne asked.

“It’s... complicated.” The priest sighed. “They are unable to use their powers for the time being.”

Lausanne frowned. That didn’t sound good at all. There must be a catch.

“The demons are looking. If we keep them here in our city, a large army of drakes will soon attack this city. For the good of this city, we must take them away.”

“How could the demons find the heroes? Can’t we teleport them away?” Lausanne asked.

“We’ve recently noticed the presence of some kind of magical interference. We’re not sure what... and we do not dare to risk it. And as strange as it seemed, we must face the evidence that the demons are able to see the heroes... somehow.”

The priests of course shook their heads. “The demons must have found a way to twist the god’s blessings. But regardless, we must escort the heroes of the city. The gods command it.”

Lausanne mentally eye-rolled. “So escorting heroes past a large pack of drakes is your preferred solution?” Lausanne challenged the Lord, and the Lord frowned.

“Alternatively.” A priest said. “If there could be a big enough distraction, a team of adventurers with fast horses can rush the heroes to the port city.”

One of the adventurers present suggested, “Maybe they’ll just go away? The demons may just move away after some time.”

“That’s a possibility. We could wait, but like I said, we’re painting a target on our back.”

“May I speak to the heroes?” Lausanne suddenly asked. She wanted to know how useless, or what level these heroes are.

“Sure.” The priests said. She gave a light nod, and left the discussion.

-

Lausanne found the three heroes in one of the houses provided by the Lord. They were practicing with weapons. “Hello.”

“Hi. Are you one of the Lord’s people?” One of the guys asked. The three heroes were two boys and one girl. The girl immediately smacked the guy.

“She’s one of those who came for us.”

“Oh. Definitely the Lord’s people.”

Lausanne smirked. “May I?”

They nodded, and Lausanne sat on a wooden stool next to them. They continued practicing, at least, one of them. The girl was the first to talk. “Why are you here, lady?”

“I’m Lausanne. I’m one of the independent combatants employed by the Lord. I just wanted to talk to you, and get a sense of why we’re having this issue.”

“Oh.” The three heroes just stopped.

“I’ll be direct. Is there a problem with your powers?” Lausanne wanted to understand what the priest meant by, ‘unable to use their powers’.

The three heroes fumbled a bit. One of the boys was first to answer. “...yes.”

They sat together, and the boy, Alvin, was the one that explained. “Uh... it’s complicated, but when we died in a bus crash, we met this god. He called himself Claude, and he said well, we were summoned under extraordinary circumstances.”

Lausanne nodded. Go on.

“So, he briefed us quickly that the earlier group failed, so we are now tasked to fix the mistakes. But because we are an emergency team, we had a bit more restrictions. One of which is that our powers are locked for one year. We can level in our ordinary classes, but [Hero] is stuck at level 1, and our [Blessing of the Gods] is inactive. It’s also locked for a year.”

Lausanne nodded. They were essentially regular people, then. “Why do you need to leave the continent?”

“Uh... we can’t even fight the drakes. There’s no way we can level.” Alvin repeated. The girl, Kei, then added. “And Claude, that god fellow, said we should get out of the continent, and come back when we’re stronger.”

“I see.”

Hans was the other boy. He just nodded along. Alvin continued. “So, we asked the Lord to help us. We go back to the easy places, farm ourselves to a higher level, then come back and kick the demon’s ass.”

Kei smacked the boy. “Stop talking shit Alvin.”

“Hey I’m just saying we’re gonna kick those demons ass once we have our hero powers. What’s wrong with that! All we gotta do is survive for a year. We’ve already survived a month!”

Lausanne just smiled. “I’ll come over and practice with you kids, alright?” It was weird to refer to them as kids, because they were the heroes, but Lausanne had to admit they were kids. “At least, until you get your ticket out of this place.”

“Alright!”

-

Waiting was a good choice.

About a month after, the flock of demon drakes attacked somewhere else, and there was a small window of opportunity. They quickly rushed the heroes to the port town. Lausanne also took that chance to get her family to the port city.

But there were no ships willing to take them. All seaworthy ships were used for the military and temple affairs.

“We say goodbye here, Lady Lausanne.” Kei bowed. “Thank you for practicing with us, and telling us about the world.”

“It’s fine. Remember, it’s a secret you can tell no one else.” Lausanne spoke of her experience meeting Harris, the other heroes, and of the Freshlands when they practiced. The three heroes nodded. To them, it was a perspective different from what the priests have shared.

“We’ll keep it in mind.” A ship would take them to the Southern continent, where they would grind and practice for at least a year, and get their [hero] levels up. The heroes left that day, as for Lausanne and family, they searched for ships to take them to the Central continent. None was available, even if they were willing to go to the Cursed Continent.

Then, Lausanne stumbled on the old dockyards, where many damaged ships were under repair. Some of the ships were in terrible condition, and so were put up for sale. That was when she had an idea. The ships were made of wood, after all, and her Warden allowed her access to some of Aeon’s rather strange abilities, even if they were ‘weaker’.

“If I buy the ship, can I sail it wherever I want?”

“Uh, well, yes. It’s your ship. But we’re full making ships for the army and the merchant corps.” The Dock Manager said, and she soon confirmed it with everyone else. Lausanne just smiled, and she thanked Aeon for Warden.

So, she bought one of the damaged ships. They were adventurers, naturally they had money. Furthermore, the damaged ships were cheap, since repairs would cost a bomb anyway, so no sane seagoing merchant was going to pay a lot of money.

Ardi returned from the tavern with a crew and a captain. It wasn’t hard to convince sailors to sail with them, all that’s needed is money.

“So... where’s our ship?” They were all gathered before the unrepaired ship, it’s wood some parts rotten and broken.

Lausanne climbed aboard, sat in the middle, and in an instance, a green flash of light. Her body temporarily merged with the wood of the ship, and it’s as if the ship itself returned to life. Rotten wood started to heal, and broken pieces regrew. It took about an hour, but to the crew and captain, it was strange to see a ship heal itself.

[Woodcrafting] and [Wood Magic]. In the same way she and Warden could create wooden spears out of thin air, linking to wooden structures and revitalising them was just an extension of that ability, taken to a larger scale.

“Alright, let’s go, let’s go. This ship will not fail as long as my magic feeds it. We’re getting our asses out of here.”

It was a rocky journey, the oceans were not known for pleasant weather. But with a ship that doesn’t break, and Lausanne could even directly steer the ship by linking Warden to the wooden rudders, it wasn’t that bad. Just a bit of vomiting here and there.

They also fought some monsters along the way, nothing too large or scary. Mostly just common ocean pests. A few of the crew died from sea-monster attacks too, but eventually, after two months of sailing, they finally saw land.