WIEDEGERBURT Act V: Chapter 6

The days passed as they traveled toward Midgard. During this time, I took the role of driving the carriage since Kari and Fay were training with Erica, Karen, and Janet every day.

They only trained in the morning, but the rest of their time was spent teaching the three women what they knew of Spiritualism.

Fay had also taken over my role as their alchemist. After I refined the first batch of pills, she had decided to begin refining the rest from now on. That meant I was more or less out of a job.

Because there were three people to train, Lin was also in charge of helping them, and she had more experience with training than the other two. She was the one who had the biggest hand in training members of the Nevarian Braves. Of course, she could only train them in combat. Spiritualism was another matter entirely.

It was early in the morning on what was our tenth day of travel, and I was sitting on the grass with Siv and Raul. Several dozen meters from our location was Kari and Erica. The two of them were sparring, and it looked like the battle was heating up.

“Erica’s reached her limit,” I said as I glanced at her out of the corner of my eye, though I kept most of my attention on Raul as he tottered over to me. Every time he came over, I would catch him in a hug, he would giggle, and then I’d let him go back over to Siv.

Siv tilted her head. “She has?”

“Yup. She’s about to pass out.”

At that moment, Erica was breathing so heavily her breath came out in raspy pants. Sweat poured down her forehead in rivulets so thick they were like streams, dripping off her jaw, down her neck, and soaking into her shirt. Her claymore was buried in the ground, and she seemed to be struggling to lift it. The way her legs wobbled was further evidence of her exhaustion.

On the other hand, Kari was perfectly fine. She didn’t look the least bit winded. Even her hair remained perfectly in place.

“Are you done?” asked Kari.

“H… hardly,” Erica gasped as the muscles in her arms strained. With a grunt, she lifted her claymore and held it in a two-handed grip. “I still have… still have some fight left in me…”

Everyday they battled, Erica would grow just a little bit stronger and Kari would increase the strength she used to match, fighting at a level that was just above Erica’s. In this way, Erica seemed to never catch up to Kari, whose strength kept seemingly increasing every day. I wondered what our friend would think if she learned that Kari wasn’t even using a quarter of her actual strength?

Knowing Erica, she’d probably laugh it off, but I was sure she’d also be shocked.

“If you still have energy left, then come at me whenever you’re ready.”

After speaking, Kari twirled the ranseur in her hands. The movements were elegant and refined.

Erica took a deep breath, then she took two steps forward, spun on the balls of her feet, and swung her claymore. As she did this, the claymore caught fire. It was like the friction from her swing had caused the blade to become molten orange. A spark ignited and the fire that blazed around her weapon went from a deep orange to a bright blue.

“Pwetty fire,” Raul said, having stopped walking back and forth between Siv and me.

“Oh. She’s using a B-rank Spiritual Fire Technique,” I murmured as Erica completed her swing.

What emerged from Erica’s claymore after she swung it downward like she was chopping firewood was a massive crescent of blue and orange flames. It was shaped like a crescent moon. The fire attack tore through the air and the ground, leaving black burn marks in its wake.

While the distance between me and the flames was several dozen meters, I still felt it was prudent to erect a water barrier around us in case it exploded. A thin wall of semi-transparent blue water appeared. It was several meters long and about two meters high. If something happened, it would be enough to protect us.

Though I was mostly doing this for Raul. Siv and I would never be injured by an attack of this caliber.

The crescent flame reached Kari, who wore a light and beautiful smile as she slid her left foot back, bent her right knee, and thrust the ranseur forward. She didn’t use any fancy moves. Her attack was simple and straightforward. However, the crescent flames, when struck, exploded with a ferocious and bestial roar. They flew everywhere, striking the grass and igniting. Yet not a single flame touched Kari. Her appearance remained as unblemished as before.

When Erica saw this, she sighed and collapsed onto her rear end, then fell further onto her back. She lay on the grass with her arms and legs spread wide, her chest rising and falling with each heavy breath.

“I cannot… get over… how strong you are,” she said as Kari walked over to her.

Kari just smiled. “I’m the weakest one of my family, so if you think I’m strong, you should see the others when they are using all their strength.”

“A part of me shudders at the thought of seeing that,” Erica admitted.

Since it looked like the spar was over, I lifted Raul into my arms and grabbed Siv’s hand to pull the drakvar to her feet. Kari helped Erica stand up and even allowed the woman to lean on her as we made our way back to the wagon.

Fay was already there when we arrived. I could not find Karen, but I saw Fay setting up a small grill, and the bath I had created this morning was already set up, a partition separating the bath from the outside. Splashing sounds echoed from behind the partition. I imagined Karen was already soaking in the nutrients from the Body Forging Pills.

“Mommy! Mommy!” Raul called out to his mother the moment we arrived.

Fay looked at and smiled at us as we walked over to her. “I see Kari and Erica have finished training. All that’s left is to wait for Lin and Janet.”

“Speaking of, do you know where they went to train?” I asked as I handed Raul off to Fay. She took the boy and held him against her hip.

Fay nodded and pointed in the distance. “I believe they are about a kilometer out that way.”

I nodded but didn’t follow my first instinct, which was to travel over and see how the training session was going. I trusted Lin to do a good job.

Since Fay had already set up the grill, I summoned all the ingredients I would need to make breakfast. While meat was, of course, something we always cooked for our meals, I was also planning to grill honeyed bread. We learned in the last town we past that you could grill dough to create a unique type of flatbread. I wanted to try that since it would be different. While Siv and Lin were perfectly content with meat, I could tell Kari, Fay, Erica, Karen, and Janet were getting tired of eating the same thing every day.

While I cooked, Kari helped Erica into the bath. I could hear the splashing sounds grow louder. Then there was their conversation.

“I really am envious of your figure,” Kari said.

“Why? You are far more beautiful than I am. You have flawless skin, gorgeous hair, and the kind of figure I would kill for. You must drive your husband crazy.”

“Hmm. I do indeed drive him crazy, but I’ve always admired women who have both muscles and curves. Fay has a similar body shape to you. No matter how hard I try, I’ve never been able to gain abs like you two.”

“Do you need them?”

“It’s not that I need them. I just admire people who have them.”

I didn’t know how their conversation had turned to abs, but it was always amusing to listen to Kari complain. In my admittedly biased opinion, Kari was perfect. She might not have six pack abs like Fay did, but her stomach was flat and toned from years of exercise, and what’s more, her hips and breasts were bigger than Fay’s. When combine with her thin waist, which was even thinner than Fay’s, it gave her goddess-like proportions that would be the envy of everyone.

I was halfway finished with cooking breakfast when Lin and Janet finally appeared. While Lin looked perfect fine, Janet looked like she had been put through a blender. Her clothes were ruined, her hair was a mess, and she was covered in blood, sweat, and dirt.

She was also glaring at Lin.

“I get the feeling you’re not training me so much as punishing me.”

“This princess does not know what you are talking about. All this princess is doing is helping you become as strong as possible within the shortest amount of time.”

Of course, Lin being Lin, she had absolutely no intention to admit that she’d been bullying the other girl.

“Don’t play dumb with me!” Janet snapped. “Last time I trained with you, I nearly died! And this time, you buried me alive! If that isn’t punishment, then I don’t know what is!”

“If you believe this princess is punishing you, then there is nothing she can do to make you think otherwise. It is such a shame. This princess has been doing her very best to help you grow stronger. She buried you in the ground because you have an earth element like this princess. She wanted you to learn how to use your element more efficiently. It is disheartening that you seem to think she had ulterior motives.”

I had the impression that Lin enjoyed teasing Janet. As the youngest of my wives and Kari’s official “little sister,” she was often the recipient to Kari’s merciless teasing. It must have been nice to finally be the one who did the teasing rather than the one who got teased.

“Be nice, Lin,” I said.

“Darling!” Lin exclaimed jubilantly as she raced over to me while I was cooking. She didn’t pounce, thank the Nine Realms, but she did lean over and began whispering in a loud voice. “Can you believe that girl? This princess has been doing her best to train her, and yet she is constantly complaining. This princess has never met such a rude child in her life.”

“Who are you calling a child?!” Janet screamed.

Now that she was close to me, I could easily see the mischievous glint in Lin’s eyes and knew for a fact that she was teasing Janet. This was definitely Kari’s fault. My poor Lin must have been teased by Kari so much in the past that she’d picked up my first wife’s habits. Whether that was a bad thing or a good thing was something I had yet to determine.

Janet got in the bath while I finished preparing breakfast. She, Karen, and Erica emerged from behind the partition about twenty minutes later, all of them looking refreshed in the new clothes they had donned.

Body Forging Pills didn’t just heal the body and make it stronger than before. The medicinal nutrients within the pill gave people energy and rejuvenated their skin, making them look younger and more beautiful than before. Erica, Karen, and Janet had been taking these medicinal baths for the past ten days, and the effects were finally beginning to show.

They still had a long way to go before they could match up to my wives, but that couldn’t be helped.

Breakfast was a fairly lively affair. We now had nine mouths to feed--two of whom could eat enough for ten people. With that many people, it was inevitable that we would have several different conversations taking place at the same time.

“Those storage rings of yours are marvelous,” Erica was telling Kari. “If you were to sell those on the market, you would make a killing. I judge each ring could be sold for at least 100,000 valis.”

“I have been thinking of selling them,” Kari admitted with a pensive frown. “But there are some issues. My mentor and I are the only ones who can make these, and making them does require forging tools meant for jewelers and craftsmen. It also takes a long time to inscribe the appropriate Runes into the surface.”

“In that case, why not broker a deal with the Craftsmen Guild. They are the undisputed number 1 guild in the Northern Plains when it comes to crafting items and appliances. They also understand Runes better than most. You might not know this, but they are the ones who created the showers we use.”

“It’s definitely something to consider…”

Kari’s expression became sharp and thoughtful. I knew she was considering the idea of brokering a deal with the Craftmen’s Guild. If we sold the rights to create and sell storage rings to the Craftsmen Guild for 40% of all profit made from the storage rings, we could increase our revenue by a lot. That would allow me to increase our guild’s budget for when we expanded our territory into the Northern Plains.

While Erica was discussing the storage rings with Kari, two other conversations were taking place.

“I’m really impressed by how powerful your flames are,” Karen said to Fay. “Even our leader cannot use the fire element like you can.”

Fay had only a slight blush as she smiled at the woman. “Thank you. I am not as talented when it comes to many things like Lin and Kari, so I have trained hard to make sure that I am at least powerful enough to stand beside Eryk when he is in danger.”

“Your love for him must be strong. I’m envious.”

“Of me?”

“Of Eryk. I wish I had such a beautiful woman who was that dedicated to ensuring my safety.”

“…”

On the other side of the long table was the conversation between Lin and Janet.

“This princess is really disappointed in your lack of progress.”

“And who’s fault is it that I haven’t made any progress?!”

“Yours, obviously. This princess has been helping you out every day, and yet you haven’t improved at all. It really makes this princess wonder how someone so untalented managed to join a combat-oriented guild like the Battling Valkyries.”

“Don’t say that like you’ve been doing me a favor! The reason I haven’t improved at all is because you haven’t trained me! All you’re doing is beating me and calling it training!”

“The best way for a Spiritualist to learn how to fight is to fight against people stronger than them. This princess has been fighting you so you can gain experience. That you cannot even understand this princess’ intentions is just sad.”

“!!!!”

I felt like I was going to need to have a conversation with Lin at some point in the future. I understood she didn’t like Janet and Karen because of the conversation about me several days ago, but we had agreed to help them grow stronger. I couldn’t have Janet thinking she was just being bullied.

Breakfast soon ended, and Siv and I began cleaning up since we were the only two people not responsible for training Erica, Karen, and Janet. Actually, I had been adamant on at least doing this much. I felt pretty useless by not being allowed to help out with the women’s training, so I wanted to be somewhat useful. That was also why I had begun driving the wagon. Well, that, and it gave Kari and the others a chance to bond with the Battling Valkyries’ members.

While I was cleaning up, a bird appeared in the distance. I didn’t pay much attention to it. Birds were always flying around, though they normally flew in flocks. However, as I finished washing the grill and stored it away in my storage ring, the bird I had been ignoring flew over to Erica and landed on her outstretched hand.

It was a messenger bird. Tied to its left leg with a steel wire was a scroll.

Karen and Janet crowded around Erica as she undid the steel wire, set the messenger bird free, and unfurled the scroll. Her brow furrowed as she read the contents.

Kari, Fay, Siv, and Lin were busy getting ready to continue our journey (they were taking a bath with Raul), so I was left as the only member of our group present. I walked up to Erica and inferred that something had happened from her expression.

“Is something wrong?” I asked.

Erica looked up, startled, but then she gave me a strained smile. “Yes, there is indeed a problem. It seems there is an A-rank Demon Beast, the Silver Ice Emperor Ape, who has come down from a mountain in the north and is destroying the surrounding villages. Two villages have already fallen. I have been requested to deal with it, but…”

“By the north, do you mean close to Vesperia?” I asked.

I only realized my slip when Erica gave me a strange look. She fortunately did not pursue the matter of me knowing about a city I had no right to know existed.

“Yes. The Silver Ice Emperor Ape’s last known location was in a village located two days from Vesperia. We do not know if it is headed there, but I was asked to deal with it. However, it will take far too long for me to arrive there from my current location…”

I didn’t bother asking why they had decided to send Erica when she was so far away and instead thought about how we could deal with the situation.

“I can help you out,” I said at last.

“You can?” Erica blinked in shock.

Nodding, I turned to look at the partition.”Siv! Can you please get dressed? I need your help!”

Siv emerged from behind the partition, dressed in her regular sundress. Her hair glistened with water. She was barefoot like always as she walked up to me.

“It looks like something has happened north of here. I’d like to travel there with Erica, but she cannot fly.”

Siv’s eyes widened as she realized what I was asking of her. She didn’t hesitate, though, and took several dozen steps away from us before transforming. Her clothing ripped as her body became bigger. The scales covering her arms, feet, and face spread across her body, covering her in glistening silvery green scales. Her face became a reptilian muzzle, the wings on her back grew longer, her legs and arms turned into powerful limbs rippling with muscles, and her torso, neck, and tail elongated. What appeared in front of us no longer resembled anything remotely human.

Siv had transformed into a dragon.

Karen, Janet, and Erica paled as they stared in astonishment at the majestic and powerful creature before them. I didn’t blame them for reacting this way. Siv’s dragon form was impressive. However, we didn’t have time to let them gawk like that.

I turned to Karen. “Erica, Siv, and I are going to deal with the situation in the north. I’d like you to tell Kari, Fay, and Lin to continue traveling toward Midgard. We will meet you all there once we finish our task.”

“Er… yeah, okay,” Karen said, though I felt like she wasn’t listening to me at all. Her eyes had not left Siv.

“Erica, come on.”

“Huh?!”

Erica’s state of mind was no different from her friends, so I didn’t bother with words and lifted the woman into my arms. She was so surprised that she released a shocked squeal. However, she did not have time to struggle as I leapt into the sky and landed on Siv’s back. I placed Erica down and moved to sit close to sit near Siv’s neck, gently patting her scales.

“I’ll give you directions. Just go where I tell you to.”

Siv moved her long neck in a bobbing nod before, with a mighty flap of her wings, she took off.

Erica’s screams were drowned out by the wind howling around us.

***

I think Erica had grown used to riding on the back of a dragon, or maybe she’d just grown tired of screaming. When I looked back, it was to find the woman clinging to the spines protruding from Siv’s back with an abnormally calm look on her face. Maybe she was in shock?

“We’ll be near Vesperia in less than an hour,” I shouted to her.

Erica looked up at me, her face pale. She didn’t say anything. I sighed. Maybe my decision to have her fly on Siv’s back had been a rash one, but it wasn’t like we had time to figure out another method of traveling. This was the fastest travel method I could think of.

I stared down at the ground below, watching as the grassy plains of the Northern Plains began growing more desolate the further north we went. This area was at a much higher elevation than the plains surrounding Midgard. The harsher environment made it hard for plants to grow. Only the hardiest plants could survive at this temperature.

We passed by a mountain pass, and I knew we’d reach Vesperia soon. It was during this period of time that Erica finally seemed to regain her bearings enough to speak. She still had to shout to be heard over the wind.

“I knew Siv was a dragon, but actually seeing her transform like this is still very shocking.”

“You aren’t the only one who was surprised by her transformation,” I shouted back. “Kari, Fay, Lin, and everyone in Nevaria had a similar reaction to you. They might have even been worse.”

I still remembered how everyone had thought she was a Demon Beast when we first flew into Nevaria. We were lucky they hadn’t tried shooting us out of the sky.

Vesperia finally came into view. It was a large city with a size comparable to Vahn. Located at a major cross section between Midgard and several smaller towns meant many people who went up north to trade needed to pass through it. Reaching Vesperia normally meant traveling through a mountainous region, but we simply flew over it and were soon flying high above the city.

The last time I had seen Vesperia was when it had been destroyed by the Sekbeists, but now, all the buildings were back to their pristine condition. Several tall buildings towered into the sky. Among the taller buildings, the largest was the clocktower, which I’d estimate was at least forty meters in height. Of course, Siv was about one hundred meters above the ground, so it still looked tiny to us.

“I’m sure the people are panicking right now,” Erica muttered with a sigh, though I still heard her.

I shrugged. “There’s not much we can do about that. Where did you say the Silver Ice Emperor Ape was last located?”

“It should be at a small village several kilometers north of here, but…”

“Nevermind. I found it.”

Erica didn’t seem to catch my meaning at first, but then she looked at where I was looking, and her face instantly drained of blood.

About two kilometers or so from Vesperia was a massive ape with bristling silver fur, blood red eyes, and a frame so big it towered over the tallest building in the city. That also explained why I could see it from here. This thing was huge. As I watched it, the ape beat its muscular chest and unleashed a roar so loud even I could hear it from so high up.

“That’s not an A-rank Demon Beast,” I said at last.

“No, it is not.” Erica bit her lip. “That is definitely an S-rank.”

The Silver Ice Emperor Ape took a step forward, ice blasting out from beneath its foot and freezing the area around it for several meters. Some of the trees that grew in this harsh climate became frozen solid. The ground turned slick with ice. I realized this creature had a powerful water element. If that thing came close to Vesperia…

“All right,” I said, standing up. “Leave this to me.”

“Huh?” Erica looked shocked. “Leave this to you? Are you going to fight that thing?”

“Of course. I’m the only one present who can fight something that powerful.”

Siv could too, but she hated fighting.

“But…” Erica bit her lip.

“I know what you are thinking, but relax. This isn’t the first S-rank Demon Beast I’ve killed.”

Erica’s eyes bulged. She opened her mouth to say something, only to become stunned when I walked off Siv’s back and began floating beside my wife. Her shock was understandable. I had not shown her my ability to fly yet.

“Siv, please maintain this position. If it looks like Vesperia is about to receive damage, do what you can to defend it.”

Siv could not speak when she was in her dragon form, so she just roared her acknowledgement, which caused Erica to cover her ears with her hands.

I turned away from Siv and shot off toward the Silver Ice Emperor Ape, which was still traveling toward Vesperia. It would reach the city in less than ten minutes if something wasn’t done. Fortunately, I could move pretty fast.

When the Silver Ice Emperor Ape was about half a kilometer from Vesperia, I arrived, though I didn’t stop moving and instead coated my body in lightning and slammed head first into the creature. The Silver Ice Emperor Ape roared in agony as lightning skittered over his body. The Demon Beast stumbled several steps back, though it did not do anything else.

After righting itself, the Silver Ice Emperor Ape roared at me. I was floating right in front of its face, making sure I was the target for its rage and aggression instead of the city. To further antagonize it, I flicked my hand and sent a cyclone of water that slammed into its face.

The Silver Ice Emperor Ape screamed in rage as it threw a punch. From the punch came a large cone-shaped cylinder of ice. Since the city was behind me, I could not dodge. I channeled lightning and water through my arm, causing skittering arcs of energy and water to swirl around it before I threw it out in a punch.

Because I was floating on air and didn’t have any traction, I flew backward as I punched the cone of ice, but at the same time, my attack caused the cone to explode. A lance of lightning and water shot from my fist, pierced through the cone, and struck the Silver Ice Emperor Ape.

The Silver Ice Emperor Ape had a powerful layer of ice covering its body. It acted like armor. To destroy the ice armor, a Spiritualist needed to launch a piercing attack that was stronger than the ice.

While my attack did not use all my power, I had made sure to push enough Spiritual Power into my attack that it pierced the armor. It punched through the armor, the Silver Ice Emperor Ape’s chest, and blew a hole clean through its back.

Now gravely injured, the Silver Ice Emperor Ape stumbled back and placed a hand against its chest. I narrowed my eyes before Spiritual Power surged inside of me like a hurricane. My body suddenly felt lighter, but I knew that was merely an illusion as I transformed from flesh and blood into the lightning element. If someone looked at me now, all they would have seen was a human-shaped lightning bolt. Like this, I flew toward the Silver Ice Emperor Ape.

And then it was over.

My attack had punched a gaping hole clean through the Demon Beast. Unlike the previous hole, which was only about the size of my head, this hole was so big I was certain anyone in Vesperia who was looking at our battle could see through it. My attack had destroyed the Silver Ice Emperor Ape’s heart and monster core as well, which meant it no longer had any life.

The Silver Ice Emperor Ape’s shoulders and body slumped forward, but then it tottered and fell backward. A loud crashing sound echoed around the mountainous region as the massive Demon Beast crashed into the ground. The earth rumbled. When I looked at Vesperia, I saw that the buildings were shaking, though they fortunately did not break.

I sealed the Silver Ice Emperor Ape inside of a storage ring and flew back over to Siv and Erica. This was an S-rank Demon Beast, after all. Every part of its body was valuable, so I planned to harvest it and use whatever I could before selling what I couldn’t.

Erica was staring at me like this was the first time she had seen me as I landed on Siv’s back. I knew she was in shock. I had just handedly defeated an S-rank Demon Beast in less than a minute. Even an army of Spiritualists who had reached the Second State of Spiritualism could not accomplish that.

“Siv, let’s go,” I said, patting Siv’s back.

Siv roared before flapping her wings, turning around, and flying off. Like that, we left Vesperia as quickly as we had come.

***

“Did you see that?”

“I did. So that’s a dragon, huh?”

“Not the dragon! The person who killed the Silver Ice Emperor Ape!”

“Oh. Yeah, I saw that too. Damn, that person was strong. I didn’t know there was anyone in the Northern Plains who was that strong. I bet he’s even stronger than the leaders of the Battling Valkyries and Paladin Sect.”

Standing on a building not far from the border of Vesperia were two people. One of them was a slight woman with a lithe body and delicate appearance. Some people would even say she looked childish, though they would regret it after she beat them to a pulp. Felicia never let any slight against her height or young appearance go. Not ever. The other person was an attractive man with cat ears, green eyes, and a muscular figure.

“That person was so cool! Did you see how he turned into lightning?!” Felicia asked.

“Of course I did.” Axel scratched at his cat ears. “But I’m really curious now. I know people who can transform into their element are those who have reached the Third State of Spiritualism, but he seemed even more powerful than most.”

When the Silver Ice Emperor Ape had suddenly appeared in the distance, it sent the city into a panic. As the guild stationed in Vesperia, the Explorer’s Sect had been in the process of evacuating the civilians, but then the dragon had appeared, and that man had flown down and pulverized the S-rank Demon Beast before it could reach the city.

“Did you get a good look at his features?” asked Felicia. She was a human and had only reached the First State of Spiritualism, so her eyes were nowhere near as good as his.

“Of course I did, but why do you ask?” asked Axel.

“I’d like you to tell me what he looked like so I can write a story about him.”

“… I’m not going to help you write that dirty smut of yours.”

“Stingy.”