Chapter 75: Defection

News From Around The World

United Nations Inspectors Have Confirmed The Decommission Of The Last Nuke

New Aquifers That Formed Under Xearth's Surface Blamed For Rash Of Sinkholes

Billions Around The World Immediately Gained The 'Vaccinated' Title

Anti-Vaxxer Groups Upset They Didn't Gain A Title With Benefits Like 'Vaccinated'

Conflict Between Thomas Everett's Group And Eikoryu Empire Soldiers Occurred In Skysign

Eikoryu Empire's Prince Lays Claim Over Reia Zyer

"We will not be handing Reia Zyer over to the Eikoryu Empire," Says UNDF Spokesperson

VVVVVV

Nari, Eikoryu Empire

The soldiers that attempted to kidnap Reia days earlier were all lined up on their knees in front of the Prince's throne. Prince Uraki's hands gripped the arm rests of the throne to the point that cracks appeared.

"You had one... simple... job," he growled under his breath. "Just pick up Reia Zyer. The easiest task. One I could have entrusted to a couple soldiers and a diplomat, but I wanted to make a show of it. How could you all possibly fail?"

"My liege, we were faced with opposition," the Captain explained. "Not only was Reia Zyer a high level, but she was associated with half a dozen others who were also high level. We didn't stand a chance against them."

"And yet they allowed you to live?"

"They wanted us to deliver two messages. Thomas Everett, a human, has made his claim on Reia Zyer and that we are not to attack or enslave any humans or the UNDF will go to war with the Empire."

"What in the Abyss are humans?"

"They are some new race. They look like elves, but they have round ears and they are big. I mean towering over your average person. I asked around in Skysign about them after I was treated for my injuries but I wasn't able to get much information about them. Only rumours that they come from another world."

"A job for our spies then..." Uraki said under his breath. He returned his attention to the Captain who kneeled before him. "Captain, answer my question, and do not lie to me. How intimate is this human to my Reia?"

"Very, my liege," she truthfully answered.

Several loud cracks echoed through the hall and made the soldiers jump in place. The arm rests of the Prince's throne were shattered. A look of rage came across his face.

"Guards!" the Prince roared.

A couple dozen guards entered the hall at the Prince's calling.

"Yes, my liege?" the Guard Captain said.

"Have the Captain's soldiers stripped of their gear. Have the men fed to the drakes and the women sent to a brothel."

The soldiers went into a panic and tried to get to their feet to defend themselves. The guards were on them before they had a chance to act. The soldiers screamed in terror and protested the action. The guards dragged them away without a second thought. Three guards held the Captain to the ground to stop her from helping her subordinates.

"As for the Captain..." Uraki said. He got off his throne and walked towards her. A sickly smile came to his face. "Prepare the iron dragon."

"No!" the Captain cried out. She reached for a blade on her waist and attempted to stab herself in the neck. One of the guards stopped her and removed the blade from her hand. "Please just kill me!"

"You don't get such a luxury," Uraki growled.

Uraki grabbed the Captain by the end of her tail and dragged her across the floor. The three guards that were used to hold the Captain down ran ahead of the Prince. The Captain clawed at the ground in a vain attempt to escape the Prince's tight grip. Marks appeared in the floor along with blood as her claws peeled off.

Uraki dragged the Captain outside of the building. The guards, that ran ahead of him, had set up a large iron dragon statue. Under the belly of the statue was a pit filled with wood.

"Please don't do this!" the Captain begged.

The Prince ignored her pleas. With the help of three of his guards, the Prince stripped her of her clothes and armour.

"This gear will be given to someone more deserving of it," Uraki announced to her.

He grabbed a lever on the side of the dragon belly and twisted it to open the side. Uraki then tossed the naked Captain inside of the dragon statue. He then slammed the door shut and locked it. The Captain banged on the inside of the statue.

"Light it," Uraki ordered his guard.

One of the guards launched a Fireball at the pile of wood. A fire blazed underneath the dragon statue. The metal started to glow orange as it heat up and the Captain started to scream in pain. Smoke started to spill out of the statue's mouth. The woman's screams echoed inside the dragon and came out of the dragon's mouth as growls and roars.

"Guard Captain," Uraki said. "Send a message to our spymaster and have him look into these humans. I want to strike back at them as soon as possible."

"Yes, my liege," the Guard Captain replied.

VVVVVV

Several civilians stood outside of the town of Baga and were exhausted from their long guard shift. They used their makeshift pikes, made from sticks with sharpened ends, to keep themselves up on their feet. So far they have kept watch for any goblins for the last eighteen hours. Their eyes barely kept open and any time they blinked, they briefly slept before jerking awake.

At this point, the goblins have only stolen a few capars, a goat-like livestock animal, and a crate of food, but goblins rarely steal from a village once and then move on.

A low rumbled echoed through the area which got their attention. The sound got louder and the guards began to worry. In the distance, they saw a large dark green object coming towards them. The object grew larger as it approached them.

"Send word to the villagers!" one of the guards said to the other.

The guard ran back into the village and yelled, "Alarm! Alarm!"

Villagers emerged from their homes with whatever weapons they could muster. Some were armed with wood axes, others could only use a pitch fork or hoes. They all rushed to the entrance and watch with fearful anticipation as the large thing approached their village.

"What is that thing?" Burga, the village chief, thought out loud. "It doesn't look like a creature."

"It kinda looks like a carriage..." one of the guards said as the thing was close enough for them to see more details.

"Prepare for anything!" Burga ordered.

The vehicle got within twenty meters of them before it came to a stop. The side door opened and a man who wore unusual black armour popped out.

"We're Adventurers from the Guild," he yelled out. "We came here to deal with your goblin problem. Can we drive our vehicle into your village so we can get started?"

A wave of relief came across the villagers upon hearing the news.

"Oh, thank the goddess," Burga sighed under his breath. He shifted his voice to yell back, "Oh, thank you for coming. Please come in!"

"Thank you!"

The man disappeared inside his unusual vehicle. The vehicle carefully rolled forward as the villagers returned to normalcy and the guards hurried to their homes so they could finally sleep. The vehicle rolled to the center of the village. The children came out of their homes after the "all clear" was given. Knowing that Adventurers had arrived, they were excited to see them.

The vehicle came to a stop and three doors on it opened. Two were on the sides of the front end and one was a double-door on the back. Seven Adventurers poured out of the vehicle. All of them looked strong to the villagers. The male Adventurer, that briefly came out of the vehicle before, approached the crowd of villagers that gathered near the vehicle. The villagers could now see just how tall he was compared to him.

"I'm Thomas Everett," he introduced himself. His face cover opened so the man could see his face. "This is Yang, Reia Zyer, Vivian Terrabane, Sylmae Lyvan, Amber Everett, and Tala Mau."

"I'm Burga Vul, village chief."

The two shook hands.

"You are certainly tall for an elf. And I've never seen an elf with dark skin."

"Oh, I'm not an elf. I'm a human. We're a new race."

"Really?" Burga sounded incredulous at Thomas' claim.

Tom reach at the base of his helmet and unlatched it. He pulled it off to reveal his whole head. It was immediately obvious that he wasn't an elf when they saw his ears.

"I know, we look a lot like elves. It's a bit of a long story how we're here, and I'll explain later, but we should deal with the goblin problem first."

"Ah, yes, yes. We will help in any way we can."

Yang stepped forward to be next to Tom.

"When did the goblins first attack?" Yang asked.

"A week ago," Burga answered. "A few goblins at first. Then more each passing attack. Knowing goblins, they never raid villages unless they have a good number of them in their group. We immediately sent someone to the Guild to get help. Since then, they've been attacking twice a day."

"From which direction?"

"From the north, mostly, but we watch other directions just in case."

"Are there any caves or ruins nearby?"

"There's a mountain range. It's possible that they have caves. We never had the people to send out to explore."

"It's fine. This is enough information for us to go on. Thomas, if we can?"

"Just one more thing," he said. Tom pulled out a large packet of paper from his Inventory. He handed it to Burga and said, "This packet has all the information about recent events that you may not be aware of and my race. Figure you could have a look at it while we're out."

"I greatly appreciate this, thank you," Burga said.

"Come on, Thomas," Yang said. "I need to have a look at the northern area of the village to check for goblin signs."

"Lead the way," Sylmae said.

Tom's group followed Yang through the village to the northern section. They saw the damage that was done by the goblins. A couple buildings were burnt from fires that were put out before they could be completely destroyed. Some of the fencing was wrecked and there were many footprints from both the villagers and goblins.

"Sloppy, sloppy." Yang shook his head. "Good news is it won't be hard to get a trail."

"And the bad?" Amber asked.

"Being this brazen in their attacks means that they have real backing. Definitely an infestation, maybe even a horde."

"Infestation? Horde?" Tom repeated.

"My terms for groups of goblins," Yang replied. "An infestation is twenty to fifty goblins. A horde is fifty to a hundred. Anything higher than that is an army."

Yang crouched on the ground to get a closer look at the foot prints. He got up and followed them for a small distance. Yang stopped and returned to Tom.

"So usually goblins will use one of two methods of manipulating their tracks when they retreat. They will either walk in columns to disguise how many of them there are, or they will move in zig-zags to make it seem like there's more of them than there actually are. The prior method is used to set-up ambushes for small groups of villagers or Adventurers. The latter method is used to scare off anyone who might try to follow."

"What does it mean when they go regularly?" Reia asked.

"It means they don't care. If anything, they are daring us to come after them."

"We better not disappoint them then," Vivian said.

"They definitely dwell in the mountains," Yang concluded. "The mountain range is at least a several hour walk from here."

"Or a ten minute drive," Tom said.

"I'm not pleased with the idea of the noise it makes."

"Even with the noise, it's best we have the daylight. I doubt the goblins will know that the APCs' noise means that people are coming."

"You make some good points. By vehicle it is."

Unknown to Tom's group, a small creature was watching them as it flew in the sky above. It was an reptilian eyeball with bat-like wings that came out from its side. The eye was crimson red with a black slit pupil. The creature blinked and followed Tom's vehicle.

VVVVVV

Skysign

In the main city courtyard, the gems of the city portal lit up one by one as it activated. As the final gem lit up, the portal's center formed a gate to a different city. Unlike Skysign, the city on the other side was free of snow and the people were dressed in normal weather wear. Tuilene walked through the gateway. While she wore her Liberator outfit, Tuilene did not wear her mask to avoid suspicion.

The sudden change in temperature caught her off-guard. A chill went through her body and she immediate grabbed her arms and rubbed them. She scanned the area for a hint of where to go next. As the soldier said, the humans had an embassy in Skysign.

In her initial scan of the area, she saw one of the humans standing near the portal operator. The two were having an animated conversation that she couldn't hear. Without any other idea of what else to do, Tuilene approached the two.

"So you keep your control pedestal to the side of the portal as a counter-measure against possible invasion forces?" the male human asked. "Prevent the pedestal operator from being the first target to attack."

"That's part of it, but we also have the two pillars on each side of the pedestal here," the female wolf beastkin replied as she gestured to the two pillars. "These pillars create a barrier that blocks all projectile attacks."

"And can these pillars be used to protect a larger area like a city?"

"Yes it can, but it is extraordinarily expensive. The price can range between fifty and four hundred platinum depending on the size of the city. Only places I know that have a barrier like that is the Zokot kingdom, Almawt, and parts of the Eikoryu Empire."

"This is good to know..."

"Excuse me," Tuilene politely interrupted.

The two looked to Tuilene who was standing to the side. The wolf woman's eyes narrowed upon seeing her. Outside of Almawt and the Zokot kingdom, many demons are often viewed with suspicion.

"Can I help you?" the human asked.

"I was told that humanity has an embassy in this city. I was wondering where it is."

"What business do you have there?"

"I'm from the Zokot Kingdom and I wish to defect. I saved one of your soldiers from slavers the other day and was told by him that I should come here."

A look of confusion came to the human's face and then his eyes widen in surprise.

"Wait... You're Liberator?!"

Tuilene nodded. "I am."

The human looked to the wolf girl and asked, "Can we return to this conversation later?"

She smiled and replied, "Of course, but I want to learn more about those things you call airplanes."

"Sure thing." The human turned to Tuilene and said, "Please follow me. I'll take you straight to the embassy."

"Lead the way," Tuilene said.

The human walked at a brisk pace with Tuilene to his side.

"So what is your actual name?"

"Tuilene, I guess. What's yours?"

"I'm Lieutenant Aser of the United Nations Defense Force. So how long have you been the Liberator?"

"Over several years. I was about fifteen when I first started out."

"That's really young. Why did you start?"

"It's... a long story and kind of private one."

"Oh, I see... Well, can I ask why you suddenly decided to defect?"

"I realized that my solo activities could only last so long before the Zokot Kingdom brings its full force down on my head. I'll put my efforts behind a military force that is willing to oppose their slave trade."

"Well, you have come to the right people. There are some procedures that you will have to go through, but we will get through them as soon as possible."

"Procedures?"

"Mostly bureaucratic. Name, occupation, personal history, and so forth. There'll also be an interview with you to ask you about the Zokot Kingdom."

"I see... So where is the human embassy located?"

"We're located next to Skysign's city hall. We just set it up as soon as we established relations with Skysign."

"How many humans are currently in Skysign?"

"We have about a hundred humans with a long-term presence here in Skysign. There are dozens more who are here for research, physical work, business, and news. We are planning to increase personnel here to learn more about Xoth, its culture, and its magic."

The two arrived in front of a building with two armed guards in front of the door. Tuilene eyed the weapons that the guards were equipped with. They resembled a prototype miniature magic cannon weapon blueprint that she took.

"She's a refugee from the Zokot Kingdom," Aser announced.

The guard on the right gestured towards the door to give him the okay to enter. Tuilene and Aser entered inside. They found themselves inside a waiting room. There was a front desk with a receptionist working on her computer. To the side was a dozen chairs with occupants sitting on each of them.

"Good morning, Lieutenant," the receptionist greeted.

"Morning, Audrey. I brought a new refugee from the Zokot Kingdom. Her name is Tuilene."

"Oh! Welcome to the human embassy, Tuilene. I'm Audrey. We'll have someone come meet with you soon."

Aser leaned forward to whisper to Audrey, "This is important. This is that slave liberator that that one American soldier told us about."

Audrey's eyes widened. "Oh... Okay. Right away." Audrey picked up her phone. "Major, we need you up front. It's important."

Merely moments after Audrey hung up, a woman came out of a side room. She was dressed in a formal uniform with bars and insignias. Over her right breast was a black bar with her name in white on it.

MJ. Wayne

"What's wrong?" she asked.

Lieutenant Aser saluted her and then said, "Major, this is the one that saved the American soldier."

"Oh, okay." The Major gave Tuilene a once over before she said, "Lieutenant, can we speak outside for a second?"

"Yes, ma'am," he replied. "Please wait here, Tuilene."

The Major and Lieutenant stepped outside.

"I can't read her stats," the Major said. "Are we sure she's the Liberator?"

"Only a handful of people know about the incident," Aser answered. "I can call for some additional security here just in case."

"Do that, but don't make their presence obvious to guests. Just keep them in the area. Just in case. You may return to your duties."

"Yes, ma'am."

Aser walked over to find some additional security for the embassy.

Major Wayne walked back into the embassy where Tuilene still stood.

"I'm sorry for the wait. Please follow me."

Wayne walked over to a nearby door to open it. Tuilene walked behind her at a steady pace. The door led to a hallway with many doors on both sides.

"You really did a favour for our people," Wayne said to Tuilene. "Thank you."

"It was my pleasure."

As they went down the hall, Tuilene saw a poster with an English phrase in large bold letters.

DO YOU OR SOMEONE YOU KNOW HAVE A "UNKNOWN" TITLE? COME TO ANY HUMAN EMBASSY. WE WANT YOU TO JOIN US.

The two walked to the end of the hallway and entered through the door on the right. The door opened to a small grey room with a table and two chairs across from each other.

"Please take a seat," Wayne said. "Would you like anything to drink?"

"Some tea please."

Wayne pressed a button on an electronic device on the table.

"Audrey, could you have someone bring us two cups of Earl Grey tea? Brings some milk and sugar."

"Yes, ma'am," Audrey replied back.

"I'm Major Tana Wayne of the United Nations Defense Force. I currently oversee the human embassy here in Skysign until we have a more normalized relation with Skysign."

"My birth name is Tuilene Morbus," Tuilene said. "For the past four years, I have taken the moniker of Liberator to free slaves and kill slavers. I must say, I wasn't expecting such... hospitality when I arrived at the human embassy."

"Well, you did rescue one of our soldiers. And honestly, we would benefit from Intel on the Zokot Kingdom."

"If there's anything I can do to help end the reign of the Zokot Kingdom, I'll do it. In fact, I spent the last several years gathering Intelligence on the Kingdom."

"We greatly appreciate, but I must ask. Your name Morbus... Are you related to the royal family?"

"It would reach you eventually," Tuilene sighed. "I am the only daughter of the Morbus family."

"You would turn against your family?"

"They are not my family," Tuilene growled. "I may be related to them through blood, but they are not my family. They saw me nothing more than a political bargaining chip. I have no loyalty to them. I have no love for them. In fact, I poisoned their wine before I left."

The Major's eyes widened at the admission. "We received reports of many of the royal family dying due to poisoning. But one of the sons lived."

"What?!"

"It seems he didn't drink your wine."

"Dammit," Tuilene growled under her breath.

"Regardless, your efforts severely damaged the Zokot Kingdom."

"There's more I can do and offer," she quickly offered.

Tuilene looked to the side and gestured with her hand. A large box dropped out of nowhere on the ground.

"This box contains all of the Intel I stole for the kingdom. I freely offer this in exchange for admission to the UNDF and be given citizenship to one of your countries. Maybe Canada."

Wayne walked over to the box and opened it. A small grin came to her face when she saw all the documents inside.

"I think that can be arranged, Miss Morbus."

"You know, originally I was planning to take this all to Scarlet Night and join them."

"What changed your mind?"

"About a month ago, my family started to receive reports of one of your kind. Thomas Everett. Everyday I listened to tales of his heroic deeds. I've become a great fan of his."

"I could maybe set something up where you can speak with him," the Major said as she dug through the box. "I'm sure he'll have questions about your kingdom."

"I would greatly appreciate that!" Remembering the poster she saw outside, curiosity got the better of Tuilene when she asked, "I saw that poster about the Unknown Title. What's that about?"

The Major, still digging through the box, answered, "Someone who has the Unknown Title means that they're an Elemental and these Elementals are destined to help us in defeating Hastur. All of Thomas' companions are Elementals. They've been working their asses off for the last year, our time, fighting against Hastur's attacks."

"Major Wayne... I have the Unknown Title."