“Her trail ends here,” an investigator in the employ of the king said, pointing to the shoreline. Isana Belgrave had just escaped to the ocean under everyone’s noses and no one knew how. You’d think she’d try to take her sister along, but they clearly weren’t on good terms for whatever reason.

The person who looked to be the leader of the squadron I was with kicked some sand up in anger. “Are you serious?! Are you sure that fancy tracking magic is working properly?!”

“My ‘nose’,” the tracker quoted, “is never wrong. Your target escaped to the seas. I suggest you find a mage versed in water magic to check and see if there were any signs of a ship passing by.”

The leader growled, clearly agitated, but helpless nonetheless. I got the feeling he lost someone to Ulanos as well. Well, that’s that. It’s not like we were getting any information from her anyway. The only problem is, with their ‘asset’ no longer in our hands, they can attack with reckless abandon.

So foreseen, so done. Over the next couple weeks, we were hit by wave after wave of enemies, swarming in from all around the continent. There was no time to rest, and businesses were closing up left, right, and centre. The alliance with neighbouring countries was already completed, but it wasn’t like they could lift a finger in our defence at this point. At least two days a week, a wave of Ulanos attackers would strike. Bianca had warned Farron’s interrogators and I about this exact thing, and it was becoming a reality. They were effectively stopping our day-to-day, crippling us slowly. Frankly, Ulanos wanted us to wave that white flag. This way, they could salvage as much as possible from us without resistance instead of swarming in and immediately destroying us, and in turn, destroying the people with the knowledge that they wanted.

Unfortunately for me, my training had to be stopped to defend us. I was able to manage eight clones, and ten with enchanted items boosting my mana. Two stayed in Aquan. One for August’s, Dawn’s, and my family and one to defend people in general and ward off enemy attacks. Two remained in Endathal, one for general defence and one specifically for Anjali. Another kept Silverport safe, and another kept Ingen safe.

I had two more expendable clones to use should the need arise. The real me was flying all over Methelia, all over Ingen and sometimes, through the deceased Virai tribe’s lands. So, yeah, I was kept busy.

However, I at least convinced August to never stop his quint training, but he re-convinced me that using it in battle would be better no matter what. I couldn’t dispute that claim. Mages of the Order were spread thin throughout. Even Aerellis set countless traps and killed many enemies that came into the Withering Forest. Moken was busy as well. Despite the tasteless way his tribe went out, he still sought to protect their lands. But there was absolutely no way he could do it on his lonesome. He was simply too outnumbered. At first, he was quite stubborn about leaving and coming back to me, but after the second attack he got an idea of what we were up against. He decided on temporarily allying with the Ingen, not quite trusting that humans would see past the stereotype of a Virai orc.

I learnt that the standard training for Ulanos were fire spells for fast and widespread destruction. Their physical enhancement was still a mystery to me, one Bianca wasn’t too keen on disclosing. According to August, it definitely wasn’t quintessential energy. Melissa also confirmed this to be true.

There weren’t that many deaths, but with these constant attacks, our men were sure to grow tired and slip up. I guess the king succumbed to that reality as he called for another meeting. And yes, I had to gather the others. My parents and August’s mom were asked to attend as well.

“My deepest apologies, to both families. But please understand, my hand is being forced.”

August’s mom was furious, and made it clear that she didn’t want her son involved in any of this. Flynn took a similar stance, but Mary was a bit more passive.

“Mother,” August placed a hand on her shoulder to calm her, “Mr and Mrs Archibald as well,” he included, “you should know that there are two things you’re misreading.”

I rubbed my neck, “What the king speaks of is nothing as tame as underage children fighting off an enemy in a war. What His Majesty speaks of is sending August and I to Ulanos to cripple them at the source.”

“And before you kick up a fuss,” August stopped them, “know that he wasn’t asking for your permission. This is happening. So, I don’t want some teary send-off. I just want a good home-cooked meal before I leave.”

“Yeah,” I agreed, “that sounds pretty good.”

They didn’t like it, and some silence passed whilst the thoughts of what could happen rummaged through their minds.

“You may not like it, but these boys have proven to be the strongest our entire country has to offer. I’ve had reports of their success flood in day after day.” Farron closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “As king, I should not tell citizens this, but the situation we’re in is a lot bleaker than it appears. These boys’ efforts have made it look easy for us to brush Ulanos off, but in reality, defending alone will end in Methelia’s demise.”

“W-well are they going alone?” Mary asked, her worry only now showing.

Just as we said “yes” the king said “no”. Quite the confusion. Farron eyes glowered me at the sides and I returned the favour.

“I don’t even need to explain it, you know what that does for us.”

There was yet another period of a stare-down. August snickered, his hand skilfully blocking his mouth as if to ensure no one hears. “Other people won’t just understand what you’re thinking like I would; explain it, bro,” the blacksmith enlightened me.

Volt, Pyro, a few other mages from the Order and a couple top-tiered battlemages as well as the Garrans were present. “I’m sorry, my intentions here wasn’t to be some pretentious brat who’s too full of himself to acknowledge the help of others. It’s just that, we’ve got limited time, so the spells I plan to use are a little less discriminatory than the usual. I’m afraid those spells will kill my allies if I use them.”

“What?” Pyro questioned. “How strong can that spell be? How strong can your friend be to not die by it?”

“I have over ninety percent magic resistance,” August immediately cleared up, “and only his lightning spells are fast enough to hit me.”

“Sheesh, sorry I asked. So then,” the red-headed devil summoner looked right at me, “Incinerate?”

I shook my head negatively, “That’s too destructive and takes too long to start up. My idea is t–”

Just as I was about to spill my strategy, my clone at Ingen reported Ulanos attackers. I rolled my eyes in a bit of exhaustion. “There’s a bigger than usual attack at the Ingen, can we wrap this up? Yeah? Great.” I said, not waiting for them to answer and flew right out the walls in Voidwalk. Beelining to Sek’hana and Neth in said Voidwalk was rather quick. I’d learnt not to fly without using it; the flights were much shorter.

The minute I reached the chieftain, a sword was passing through her. Yes, she used Voidwalk, she wasn’t cut down. The man attacking her felt only her hand touching his back and he quite literally froze from the inside-out. Glacial Embrace if I remember correctly.

The Ingen tribe seemed to be taking it easy. They were simply a bad matchup for Ulanos. Ulanosians specialised in close combat, and the main ranged combat were fire spells. The Ingen tribe on the other hand could simply fly on their gliders to avoid close combat and use their many ice spells to render the enemy’s fire useless. Children and elderly alike utilised the gliders. A kid skilled enough in dodging with the glider could take on a few trained Ulanos soldiers. It’s no wonder the Ingen orcs were mostly left alone.

I wasted time coming here… My arms drooped a little. “Hey,” I greeted Sek’hana and she impaled me with Ice Shards in reflex. It was alacritous and easily aimed, which made it an almost irreplaceable spell as a filler. Most of them deflected off my body, not able to pierce through Avatar of Earth and the durability enchantment, but a few of the dozen shards stuck in softer places. You know, like my neck. No biggie, I’ll just try to not die. I yanked them out and hit Renew immediately.

Sek’hana’s eyes opened wide and her lips kept departing from each other as if to say something, but words wouldn’t come out.

“Well then, I guess you’re doing just fine,” I commented.

“E-Eric! When did you… No, never mind. Weren’t you defending the mystics?”

“Huh? No. That must’ve been my clone.”

“Ah,” she walked forward, “so then you’re the real thing?” then embraced me. Yes, those mountains were directly absorbing the shape of my face. Her longer than usual hug made me remember that Donna said she had a thing for me. And as far as I could remember, their tribe wasn’t the hugging kind.

I, uh, I think Donna was right. Whilst we were catching up, someone interrupted us and requested her presence. Life of a chieftain, huh? We said our goodbyes and I headed back to Endathal to get my buddy. By then, the meeting had just finished.

They were just walking out of the room. August’s mom had a face that already told me what happened. My parents hadn’t a very approving look on their faces either. I released Voidwalk. “So, are we getting that meal?” I asked, all in attempts to lighten the mood. In hindsight, it definitely was the wrong thing to say. But oh well, I was never good at conversing. Made me wonder how I ever scored Dawn.

We returned to Aquan to spend a couple days together. August’s mom was quiet the entire way, and I knew she was really worried. So, when we got back to Aquan I decided to show her just how little she had to worry about. Did I stack Purist a bunch of times and impale August right through the chest just to show that he can be healed back from mortal wounds by Eden? Yes. Yes, I did. Did he make a deep gash in his stomach to show how effective the health regeneration enchantment was? Yes. Yes, he did. We inflicted a bunch of other fatal injuries on each other. Didn’t feel good, but it certainly made his mom less concerned. After losing her husband, it was only logical for her to try and cocoon her only child. We nicely omitted the part where we knew nothing of what would happen if one of us were decapitated.

I knew Eden could adjust the brain greatly, putting the target in an optimal state of functioning, but I wasn’t sure how it fared in reviving a dead brain. Thankfully it gave August an idea to craft a couple gorgets­ – that’s neck armour – for us. Didn’t want our heads to go flying. Yes, he still did blacksmithing to keep his skills sharp.

Getting all the ingredients our moms wanted was almost impossible. I knew farmers were important, but geez. The markets looked barren. It didn’t seem like anyone in the countryside with really big farms were affected that much, as Ulanos targeted more densely populated areas.

I had six of my eight possible clones deployed at the time. Should I create one to help out with miscellaneous stuff? Food and shelter are some serious shit. I sighed, simply thinking of the ramifications of business with that idea. Whilst walking around, picking up what I could get from the market, I wondered how to create food without messing with the farmers’ livelihood. As things were right now, there was hardly any food, and what was available had a price spike. The southern district must be fuming. Hell, don’t want to even imagine what’s going on in Gassity.

I didn’t truly comprehend how large the issue was until the next day. Conversing with Calla, I realised her business had slowed to a crawl. She mostly did custom and luxury clothing, which was exactly what it sounded like­ – a luxury. People were more concerned with the food part more than shelter or clothing. August’s mom and Melissa were speaking with my parents about how hard stuff had gotten for them, like everyone else. I only overheard bits and pieces whilst Aug and I chatted. Widespread hunger, and a hell of a lot of requests for my potions. It was amazing how oblivious I was to it; my gaze was almost only focused on training and Ulanos.

Around noon, more and more people poured in. Volt and Pyro managed to sneak away from their responsibilities, at least for a drink. Donna did as well, and my clone brought Anjali. The Garrans and Aldis were a bit late, but they came. Dawn’s parents, as well as May joined in. I wished a bit that Emily was here as well because I knew she got along splendidly with May. It then made me think of the goddess’ proposal, to replace the witch. Hmm, I gave August a looked that was probably questionable, hence his raised eyebrow. I’ma ask what he thinks ‘bout it later.

The event went well, until more and more friends of friends began pouring in. It was obvious at that point that we didn’t have enough food. “Should I cheat?”

Mom groaned, “Fine. But only because we won’t have time to cook more stuff.”

After an hour of endless food that made people wonder just what kind of kitchen we had, the event somehow turned into a charity event. Literally, people from all over Aquan lined up outside our house. I only noticed when we stepped out the kitchen. Well, might as well, I shrugged at Flynn and Mary.

That day – or night rather – ended in a hot meal and huge baskets filled with produce for everyone. Also, a simple trolley for people living far or too weak to carry their stuff. I suddenly respected charity workers after that ‘sending off party’. It also convinced me to make just one more clone to support our agriculture industry.

Tomorrow morning, we would begin our travels after waking to the sounds of yet another Ulanosian attack.