Chapter 6: The Immortal of a Thousand Wars

Alice and Cleo spent a lot of their days hanging out with the people, mostly with Sua, as they followed her around. She gave them a tour of the village (even though they'd been there before, they just couldn't say no), and they set off once the documentation of the incident had been completed. The village wasn't very far from Yvrial, so they decided to walk back. As soon as they returned, they planned to take a few days to rest and prepare for the next commission. Alice also planned to buy some more clothes, as she couldn't always walk around in the same set of clothing. The path they were taking led through a forest, which was mostly quite aside from the local wildlife, and Cleo. " What do you think a 'Valued one' is?" Cleo asked, and Alice was partially listening to what she was saying before, but now she was fully listening. She had no idea what it was, but one thing was certain. " This group and the crystal are connected, since they also had one." Alice pulls another Crystal out of her inventory. She hadn't picked it up, so it must've gone into her inventory when the dungeon closed. " But this one's weird, it's only half glowing, unlike the one Arthur found, see?" Alice turns beside her to show Cleo, only to realize she was no longer beside her, but a few steps behind, lying face-first on the ground.

"Cleo, get up," Alice crouches down and shakes her friend. Did she fall asleep? Alice turned her around to see that her eyes were indeed closed; she scrunched her brows. Strange dark lines had formed on the outer edges of Cleo's face and branched inward. For now, they were small, but they seemed like they would grow if left unchecked. Alice quickly threw Cleo onto her back and began running. She needed to get to Clair as fast as she could; whatever the hell this is, it only started when Cleo was exposed to the crystal. Did Ren do something to her? Is that why the one she found was half empty? Her mind was too preoccupied to have noticed the person lying against a tree. She noticed too late, but managed not to run into them. She took one big step, going over the sleeping stranger, but this threw her off. She tumbled to the ground as Cleo rolled not far from her. Alice was a little upset at this moron who was sleeping where an unsuspecting person might accidentally run into him. The cloaked stranger tilted their head up to peek at what happened. She didn't have time for this. Alice got up and picked up Cleo when she made eye contact with the stranger, who had appeared in front of Alice suddenly, causing her to step back rapidly, dragging her friend with her. The strange lady was rather old-looking, but her focus was locked on Cleo. Was this someone she knew? She suddenly reached out and grabbed Cleo by the face, turning her head from side to side, examining the dark lines,

" Can you help her?"

"...I can."

The stranger grabbed Cleo by the collar and pulled her from Alice before slinging her over her shoulder. Alice followed after the strange lady. They began walking through the forest, off the path. They eventually reached a small encampment, which consisted of a small fire pit and a tent. The strange lady set Cleo down inside the tent before sitting down near the unlit fire pit. Alice stood on the other side. They both said nothing for a while,

" Well?"

"Huh?"

The stranger gestured to the pit. She expected Alice to use magic to light the fire, but she didn't have that kind of magic. " I don't do fire," Alice says, shifting from one foot to the other, fidgeting with her hands. The stranger sighs and pulls out a lighter, and crouches over to light the pieces of wood. Once it lights, she sits down, and she gestures for Alice to sit down as well.

"So, who are you?" The lady stared at her for a few seconds before poking at the fire with a stick, " I'm the Immortal of a Thousand Wars." Now it was Alice's turn to stare, this time in confusion. " My name is Katawi Hana, you?"

"Alice. Do you know what's happening to my friend? You seemed to have recognized the weird lines on her face?" Alice redirected the conversation to Cleo, as she needed to fully understand what was happening. Hana stares into the fire for a bit before answering, " Entropy poisoning, it occurs when Entropic essence enters one's body, which can only happen if-" Alice pulls out the crystal, Hana stares at it, mouth still open as she was mid-sentence. Alice hands the crystal to Hana as she inspects it,

" I found it like that, based on its half-full appearance, I can only assume that it was siphoned into my friend?" Had this happened when Cleo was taken? Ren was rushing to complete whatever it is he was doing, but fell short due to my timely arrival. Hana hands back the crystal, " From what it looks like, and from what I can feel, the energy within the crystal was only half emptied into your friend, as you said. Whoever did this wasn't capable of fully transferring the energy into her. Tell me more about where you got that." So Alice told her about the commission and the cultists, Hana let out an annoyed sigh as she slouched forward. " The Disciples of the Valued One." Again, this would be the second time Alice had heard the term "Valued one", but now she knew for certain that it was a god like being, someone who was worshiped. " There is a group of fanatics who worship a being named the Valued One. I've been looking into them recently and felt the crystal's essence, but then it disappeared suddenly, at least now I know where it went," Hana explained. Their conversation ended there. Hana would tell her the rest in the morning. For now, she rested inside the tent so she could keep an eye on Cleo in case something happened, while Alice rested outside. She put the fire out by just freezing the entire thing, dropping her into partial darkness. She lay on the ground, her head resting on her arms as she stared at the night sky. She could see the stars; they were...bright. Alice had some time to reflect. Thinking back to it, her skills with the sword were better than she thought, despite not having wielded one before. But one thing in particular weighed on her, not as heavily as she thought, but it was there, just a single thought in the back of her head. How was she able to kill other humans so...simply? No guilt, no disgust. She had done it as if it were instinct, but it didn't make sense. Whenever she saw murder in a movie or a show, she'd cringe, cringe at the sight of blood, at the sight of death. And yet she cut down three people before going into the dungeon, and two more inside. The only reason she could come up with as to why was that it was the system; it must've done something. Nothing to be done now but get some rest.

Alice awoke, still tired, and Hana was already awake. When she saw that Alice was awake, she handed her a pastry, which was a small fluffy bread; she ripped a piece off to find a red filling, a jam made from some fruit. It wasn't that bad; the jam was sweet, and the soft bread went well with it. Once they finished eating, they continued walking, " I found a potential area where one of the disciples' hideouts might be. If we're lucky, we'll also find the device to extract the Entropy essence," Hana says, walking a few feet ahead of Alice. Not very long later, they find a forest clearing, in the center of which is a building. On the map, it shows that they're pretty far from Yvrial, and for some reason, the building doesn't show up. Hana hands Cleo to Alice as she takes one step forward before suddenly lunging forward, the ground from where she took off was fractured. Alice picks up Cleo, Hana had charged ahead, and was now waving her over. There were three guards stationed outside, all of whom had been knocked out; they made their way inside, which was, for the most part, empty. Alice looked around to see if she could find something, when suddenly a section of the wall not far from her opened, and more disciples walked out. When they saw her, they drew their weapons, guns. If they had pulled sharp weapons, she could've probably dealt with them, but Alice was a little nervous; carrying another person on her back significantly hindered her speed. But fortunately for her, she had the great immortal with her. Just like before, but with a little less intensity, Hana closed the distance instantly, allowing her more than enough time to disarm and knock out the disciples. Hana moves aside her cloak to reveal a blade strapped to her side. She unsheaths it to jab at the two guns, rendering them useless. Before they went down, Alice encased the guard's arms in ice, just to be safe. The passage led deep underground. At the bottom of the stairs was a corridor, a couple of doors on each wall led to rooms with boxes and other things; this place was kind of laid out like a hospital. And like a hospital, it had what Alice could only assume was an experimentation room; it had one of those table things people would lie on when they got surgery, whatever it was called. Alice placed Cleo down on it as Hana examined the files on the far desk. Alice peeked over to see what the files were about, and she immediately stepped back. They were photos of people who had the same lines that Cleo had; these people looked worse, some photos depicted the lines first, and then it was the withered bodies, the entropy essence ate away at the flesh from the inside. Based on the files, they had done this to 17 people already; Cleo was the 18th. They decided it was best to leave Cleo behind, and Alice froze the door shut to prevent anyone else from getting in. Hana walked ahead of Alice just in case, she seemed to know her way around, when they reached a centeral area with branching paths, she took one sweep around before heading down the right hall, they stopped at the door at the end, " I can feel something, someone, be on guard," She says glancing back at Alice, she nods in understanding. Hana shoved the doors open as they stepped into a vast room filled with equipment, people, and the same surgical table, with a person strapped down, who seemed to be affected by entropy poisoning. Standing over the patient was who Alice assumed was the person Hana had been talking about, his name was the same purple as Ren, the only worrying part was his level, which sat at a nice ???. He was dressed almost exactly the same as the others, Black pants, other than that, everything else was different. He wore a short-sleeved black dress shirt, bandages covered his abdomen and arms, he wore glasses over his eyes, and his hair was slicked back with stripes of gold here and there. His dark gold eyes pierced through Alice as he examined both of them, her grip on her blade tightened, even with Hunters Surge, she'd be dead the second he moved. Alice's face tickled, a drop of sweat rolled down her cheek. Hana took a step forward, slightly covering Alice from the weirdos view,

" Archbishop Leo,"

"Hana!"

All the tension in Archbishop Leo's body was gone, his gaze lightened as he threw his arms open in a welcoming gesture,

"It's been so long since we last met, huh? I still remember how our last encounter went." He pulls aside his collar to reveal a scar running along his shoulder, just barely visible due to the bandages. " Do you remember?" He says, casting a grin, Hana grimaces as she rubs her own shoulder, which worries Alice even more. She flinches when Leo claps his hands together; the sound echoes through the room.

" I believe you," He says, pointing to Alice, " Have caused some trouble to my underlings, and have taken something that now belongs to me." Forget taking this guy in; he needs to go. Hana took the first move, closing the distance she managed to put herself next to Leo, she slammed her fist into him, but he had seen that much already, he had his arms crossed against his chest as his feet skids against the ground, a bruise mark was visible on his right forearm from where Hana had hit him, the disciples moved in on Alice, who had drawn her own weapon. She was prepared to do whatever it took for her friend, and so she once again sank her blade into flesh.

                                                                 -MAIN OBJECTIVE-

Reach Level 900

REACH DIAMOND RANK IN 5 MONTHS AND HAVE ARTHUR JOIN YOUR TEAM

PREVENT THE DISCIPLES FROM BRINGING THE VALUED ONE

KILL THE ARCHBISHOP(0/1)

                                                                    -SIDE OBJECTIVES-

FIND AND CURE CLEO OF ENTROPY POISONING

PROFILE: ALICE

LEVEL 20

ATK:118

SPD:102

DEF:130

STAM:120

MANA:100

INT:104

BLESSED:???

(available stat points: 75)