Chapter 190: The Walls of Virilya (1/2)
“The Shadow returns. Now how many people have you saved?” Falken asked in a mocking tone as he looked at her sideways. His attitude reminded her of her time in Kindergarden. She was long past caring about provocations of that manner. Who hurt you spoiled noble boy? She asked herself but assumed his every word part of a deliberate game, a master assassin poking at her for a reaction to find her weak spots and possible ways to manipulate her. Ilea didn’t know which interpretation was the right one but she knew that she preferred facing monsters of non human nature compared to an environment like this.
“I’ve killed one hundred and forty two soldiers having murdered or raped civilians. Should I pile the ears on your desk?” she asked in a naive tone.
“An impressive number. How many of those were imperial?” the man asked in turn, a sly smile on his face that Ilea mimicked under her helmet.
“None of course master Falken.” she said.
The man stared at her before he laughed. “Perhaps I don’t dislike you as much as I thought. You’re a Shadow after all. You’ve got a storage item I assume? Pile them in there.” he said and motioned to a metal bin next to the massive desk showing a map of the city.
“I don’t, I hid them outside. Let me get them.” Ilea said in a completely serious tone.
The man just grunted and continued his word while she took the bin and walked outside again, dumping the ears when she thought to be far enough away from the guards.
“What a gory fucking mess.” Ilea murmured to herself and looked at the bin. The ears looked freshly cut off, basically telling anybody with an ounce of knowledge on the subject that she had a storage item. Ah who cares. They should come and get it if they want. She thought and walked back, thinking that most influential people probably had one anyway. There were easier ways for someone capable of stealing from her or killing her to get to money or such an item.
Looking at the ears made her look through her notifications quickly. The fact that hardly any of the soldiers even noticed her, let alone put up a reasonable defense meant her level gains were rather unimpressive. Still, they were all human and fitted with two classes. At least better than hunting level one hundred birds.
‘ding’ ‘Hunter’s Sight reaches 2nd lvl 9’
‘ding’ ‘Embered Body Heat reaches 2nd lvl 1’
And the last one at second stage. Took me long enough. She thought, checking out the added description.
Active: Embered Body Heat - 2nd lvl 1
Regulate the heat in your body to protect yourself against harsh climates or even blend in with your environment.
2nd stage: The Embers run deep. Your blood boils and the ash around you singes, should you will it.
Category: Body Enhancement – Ashen Magic
So I can heat the ash and my blood is hot? She thought but decided to simply test it later. Intervening in this war was certainly not gonna help her advance much in personal power. That much was sure and Ilea wasn’t going to try and seek out the higher leveled enemies on her own. They were people, cunning bastards likely with good ways to flee and recover as well and most of them teamed up too. The thought of even facing herself in combat was pretty terrifying. Exciting, yes but incredibly dangerous too. And as much as she liked to believe herself to be a special snowflake, there must be people or creatures out there similar enough in their classes and skills.
Well let’s see if this was worth it. Ilea had of course saved more than a bunch of people but neither did she care much about their lives, nor did she believe she did much more than postpone their ends for a couple hours, maybe a day or two. At least some were spared immediate pain and tragedy.
“That’s one ugly bin.” One of the guards said when she entered again, winking at the man before she ascended the stairs to reach Falken.
“Here you go.” She said and waited. The man just put his hand into the basket and Ilea watched as the ears quickly vanished.
“A hundred and forty two. At least not a liar then. Well what do you want for your services?” The man asked, seeming a bit annoyed at the interruption to his work.
“I’d like to discuss that somewhere a little more, private.” Ilea answered.
“Oh I’m not going to service you Shadow. I’m asking if you are looking for information on a country, an organization, a person, a beast, an item or something of the like. I don’t have a library of knowledge in my head but there IS a library where I can send you.” The man told her.
“A person.” Ilea said and Falken quickly snapped his fingers, an armored rogue appearing next to him immediately.
“Take this Shadow to the Library of Souls.” Major Falken said and the man nodded. “Your contract.” he demanded of Ilea before he wrote the number eight on it and pushed some mana into the paper, at least that was what Ilea thought happened. Perhaps he had activated a spell of some sort as well.
“Follow me Shadow.” The rogue said before he vanished and reappeared on the roof, Ilea appearing next to him nearly instantly.
“Good.” He said and sped off, Ilea following behind. The man was far below her level but his graceful movement and speed were similar to hers, perhaps even higher if her really tried. Then again, she doubted he could take a bunch of her punches without flinching. The two of them ran through the central district, Ilea getting her first view at the architecture around here. While a lot of the places she had seen in the capital were filled with houses meant to be inhabited, the central district was a collection of more and more impressive government buildings reaching higher and higher, their intricate detail and near reckless architecture probably wouldn’t be possible on earth. Not with magic and runes, stabilizing everything. The streets and stairways were broader here, a massive wall surrounding the district itself, not rivaling the outer wall in size but definitely as impressive, its stone nearly humming with the powerful enchantments laying within.
Ilea checked out the different structures and when she focused found every single one of them having military machinery, patrolling mages and archers in near unreachable positions with great vantage points. She understood why the empire wasn’t too eager on defending the whole city against an attack and instead would focus on this central district. Still a large area, rivaling at least the size of Dawntree itself. She even glanced another wall further in the center, surrounding likely the core military buildings and the palace.
So Falken isn’t quite as important as I thought…, she thought but maybe that was part of his game as well. Or he feared a massive strike at the central most buildings, avoiding the same fate all the other occupants would be exposed to. The rogue stopped in front of a massive building, somewhat high level guards standing in front of it.
“The Library of Souls.” He stated and vanished again. Ilea saw him appearing in a blind spot through her Sphere. The man apparently liked to be mysterious. She had no issue with that, after all, vanishing is a pretty cool skill to have.
“Shadow? May I see your badge if my assumption is correct?” One of the guards asked. Ilea handed him her badge before he opened the massive gates and let her in. Ilea’s Sphere couldn’t reach past a certain point in the building, neither downwards nor upwards. Entering, she found herself inside a hall, two guards sitting in a corner talking about the progression of the Baralia attack, ignoring Ilea other than a quick glance.
At the end of the somewhat small hall was a massive steel wall, only one small window like opening at the end of it. The air seemed distorted and Ilea couldn’t see through it with her Sphere either. Her eyes told her that there was in fact a person sitting on the other end of the window. A woman looking to be in her forties with a kind face, brown hair to her shoulders and wearing white horn glasses.
“Greetings.” Ilea said, waking the woman from her concentrated stare at what Ilea could only assume was a book. This was a library after all.
“Oh hello dear. Wait are you with the Hand?” The woman asked.
“I am. Looking for a person, I have this.” Ilea said and showed the woman the contract from Falken.
“Working for Falken heh? Well that fits. Hand me that will you?” The woman said.