169 Chapter 169: Mission with father (1/2)
Since Jing Tian Academy had been devastated during the attack, the students were pretty much given a long, extended holiday. Vincent Violet, the academy director, had returned, but it was clear that his daughter's death had affected him. Even so, he didn't allow his grief to affect him and he returned to his usual efficient and calculated manner, ordering the repair of Jing Tian Academy. Until the school was restored, students were told to wait and recover from the entire ordeal. It would take a while, but until then we had nothing to do.
So I saw this as an opportunity to follow my dad on an extended mission overseas. Shortly after cleaning up our house, we took a flight to one of the Southeast Asian countries, in hopes of locating elements of the Dark Church.
The Violet family held a private funeral for Alicia, and disallowed any of the students or friends from attending. It was family only, and everyone respected their decision. Before I had left, I had participated in the Black Roses' memorial for Alicia, where we chose to meet up in a relatively undamaged place and paid our respects. Though we didn't get to approach Alicia's coffin or witness her cremation, we substituted it with a holographic photograph of her. Alicia was so popular that everyone agreed unanimously to commemorate her memory, something we didn't do for any of the other students killed in previous missions or during the invasion.
Then I left my friends behind temporarily to follow my dad on this mission. My purpose was to grow stronger, and I hoped I could learn and benefit from watching him operate and fight firsthand.
”We heard that this city might be their target,” Dad was telling me as we trekked through the woods. ”If we aren't careful, it might end up like another Jing Tian City.”
”Isn't the Dark Church trying to hit multiple places at once?” I asked. Even though Jing Tian City was the only city in the Middle Kingdom to suffer an invasion, I had heard that several nations under the aegis of the Global Federation had also been attacked. The Dark Church had struck in several nations, targeting a relatively small city in each.
From what Dad's sources told us, it appeared that this was just an experiment. Most of them were attacked in the same manner as the first invasion, where three thousand monsters marched across the forest and into the city, destroying a garrison on the way. Even so, the various cities had ample warning and were able to muster up armies to defend against the monsters. There were many casualties and a lot of damage caused by the clash, as expected when armies of humans and monsters fought fiercely in the deathtrap that was urban warfare, but the humans won in the end.
Somehow I was sure that everything had been within the calculations of the Dark Church. They never sought to destroy the cities, but were testing both the extent of control over their monsters, as well as probing the Global Federation's defenses.
”You're right,” Dad agreed. ”But we can only be in one place at a time. We are not gods. Just do the best that you can, and save as many people as you can. That's all that is expected of us.”
I chewed on my lip and clenched my fists. This stupid Dark Church was making things so difficult for us. If only life was simpler and I could just spend the rest of my days hunting monsters, earning prestige and money. I wouldn't have to worry about backstabbing human enemies and apocalyptic conspiracies.
Alicia wouldn't have to die.
”The idiots also provoked the Amazerian Empire, but…I don't think they succeeded.” Dad chuckled. ”The Empire is more ruthless than us. None of the Dark Church agents survived.”
While the Global Federation was technically the ruler of the world, it was but one of three superpowers that shared the current Earth. The Amazerian Empire presently occupied the South American continent and what was formerly Mexico. Then there was the Zurium Empire that ruled over the African continent. The empires were powerful and militaristic, ruled over by royal families and Warrior-Empires who had united the disparate nations in their respective continents through strength and magic. The Global Federation had an edge in terms of technology, but no combat mage in the Federation would ever dare to proclaim himself superior to the fanatical and stalwart warriors of either empires. Obviously, they didn't operate on that bullshit ”strong rule the weak” logic, but their empires were heavily militarized out of necessity – massive areas of their continents had been overrun by forests and jungles, which were in turn inhabited by monsters.
The soldiers protected the farmers, artisans and other vocations who lived inside fortified cities that sported miles-long walls and shimmering magical barriers generated by defensive runes and powerful enchantments. The population usually stayed behind the walls and rarely ventured outward because of the uncontrollable wilderness that surrounded them, and their skies were ruled by flying monsters and rank A dragons, which made flights into the Empires difficult and hazardous. Consequently, the populations of the two empires remained closed off and isolated from the citizens of the Global Federation.
Ironically, the large amount of deforestation had somehow allowed the Global Federation to loosely maintain contact with each other and form an alliance. That alliance was weakening year by year as forests and wild habitats continued to grow and overrun human territory, but for now our cities held strong through a combination of magic and technology.
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”The people in the empires fight monsters everyday, and their walls are impenetrable,” I remarked with a scoff. ”Did the Dark Church really think their tactics would work against them?”
”Probably not, but they should have known that. Which is why their seemingly suicidal behavior makes no sense.” Dad scratched his head. ”We don't understand what goes on in the minds of these zealots. They probably operate on different wavelengths.”
He raised a hand and a torrent of flames erupted to casually incinerate a Striped Tiger that lunged at us. The rank D monster was reduced to ash instantly. I watched its remains get blown away by the wind, and relaxed for a second, realizing that my hands had gone to Gan Jiang and Mo Ye on reflex.
Then I spun around and sliced am Amber Leopard in half with my swords, the weapons leaving the scabbards for half a second before returning to their sheaths. If any normal human had seen that, they probably wouldn't be able to follow the movement of my swords with their eyes.
”Oh, not bad. You have certainly improved.” Dad clapped his hands. Then he glanced at my swords. ”Speaking of which, those weapons are new, aren't they? I don't remember having seen them before. When did you get them?”
”While you were away on a mission,” I replied with a shrug. ”A few things happened, and the Stuart family sent them to me as a gift. Apparently President Lionel Stuart was impressed with my display of swordsmanship and arranged for the renowned swordsmith couple, Gan Jiang and Mo Ye, to forge a couple of swords for me.”
”The Stuart family?!” Dad did a double take at my revelation. ”What the hell?! How?! What the hell happened while I was away?!”
”Uh, it's a long story…”
As I elaborated, I realized that so much had happened while my dad was away on a mission. We hadn't talked like this in a while, and I was relieved to be able to speak to Dad without restraint. After the ominous battle where Jing Tian City almost fell, I began to learn to appreciate the things that I still had.
Now that I thought about it, I would never be able to speak to Alicia again…
A sudden flutter in Corvus's peripheral vision caught my attention. I had sent a flock of Corvus to scout ahead in a hundred meter radius (as I said, they couldn't move too far out away from me or they would cease to exist because I couldn't maintain their existence).