Tales of Revenants

Chapter 91 – Thunder Iron

The situation's way too risky even for a mechanoid defender who specializes in aerial combat.

Xenon drastically changed altitude below staying away from the threat, and he was right, countless of Nightbeast Vultures appeared from the clouds right after he swerves his wings upward in a falling position.

"Hold tight! We are changing to a safe altitude if ever these Nightbeasts damaged my wings that would cause our fall." Xenon warned Eirisse.

"I will! Don't be reckless!" She knows he would sacrifice everything just so he could save a life. It's evident whenever a fight or a battle ends, his limbs and mechanical armors are always damaged that he always relies on his auto-repair functionality if ever he's broken.

"Close your eyes Eirisse. This going to be tough." Xenon informed her with a serious face, he charged his Stargazer to its utmost performance before he commenced the battle.

Hovering over the air like an eagle freely flying through the skies, Xenon constantly fired his weapon towards the incoming Nightbeast. These Nightbeasts vultures usually travel along finding prey, but sometimes they form as a group if they found a great source of mana.

Specifically, they were attracted presumably because of Xenon's Arcanum Core or Eirisse's progenitor's blood. The Nightbeasts are already monsters that have heightened senses and an incredible span of life.

Despite the influence of sunlight which is their weakness, these atrocious monsters can live for months without eating anything. They appear from the dark, and they return to dusk. They slowly corrode all life in the world of magic.

Xenon continued firing his Stargazer behind while also eluding their sky-dive pouncing since they are originally vulture and it's how they charge and engage. While Eirisse did as what Xenon ordered him, though she slips open her eyes between her index and ring finger seeing how he jerked his arms with the recoil of his weapon.

Not long before two Nightbeast Vulture has reached Xenon aerial vicinity, an aerial combat specialist as himself always distances his range towards the enemy no matter what because if the Nightbeast gets too close, it would turn for worse since their claws are sharp than a refined diamond.

"Two from above... and countless from behind... Eirisse, I just determined we cannot defeat this many, there's just no way we can fight them all." Xenon just realized how much energy he's wasting just randomly firing lasers all over the atmosphere.

The Nightbeast Vultures flocked together and decisively pouncing Xenon left and right, he can't just assault and elude at the same time and it would turn into a battle of attrition, meaning Xenon will lose because he had limited energy capacity.

"You just realized that now?!" Eirisse exclaimed upon revealing her claws.

Upon reaching the atmospheric regions of their target place, everything became a mess when ashfall obstructed on their way, even tarnishing Eirisse's crimson mage garment and blinding Xenon's lenses in grime, although he cannot change his velocity and had to maintain his speed, or else they'll be devoured by Nightbeast Vultures alive.

The Ashfall Plateau got its name because of the harsh weather and detrimental hard rain that lasts for days per week, a phenomenon occurring in these regions since Volcanyon, which is up north of the Balakh Empire, always had constant volcanic eruptions every month.

Ashfall then gets carried away by the strong gust of wind upwards Volcanyon and will fall down towards this plateau because of its extreme atmospheric pressure. That's how it got its name.

"We'll make an emergency landing at the highest point of the plateau. Hold down!" Xenon charged his wings to the maximum output performing a sky-dive landing.

But to his surprise, the Nightbeast behind became faster than before. Xenon with his calculations, the Nightbeast Vultures behind him will catch up within ten seconds according to his all-knowing sensory.

It turns out he was wrong when one of the Nightbeast gravely pounced the outer frame of Xenon's left wings, his flight is no longer stable when he can't control his own sky balance maneuver.

"This is bad... I think..." Of course, Eirisse knows if something severe were to happen, Xenon would gladly sacrifice himself, but there's no way she's going to let it end just like that.

"If you only just landed earlier ago, then we can finish our quest much quicker!" Eirisse grabbed Xenon's right hand and swerved a little bit towards his back, and before any Nightbeast Vulture could do their pouncing assault or reach their dangerous proximity, she gashed everything in a cone in front of him with her extended claws.

At the moment she repelled off the Nightbeast, Eirisse messed up big time by slipping her hold from Xenon's biceps causing her from dropping below, "No you're not falling!"

Before it's too late, he reached his mechanical extending arms and successfully attached them on her waist and arms so she won't feel throwing up after they land.

Xenon forced his Rider Mode to the fullest and cut off at least ten percent of his energy, utilizing his extreme speed with a pumping impact in a full-throttle escape, diving in with air resistance maintaining terminal velocity.

They both immediately escape the clutches of countless Nightbeast Vultures before their limbs get taken away from them.

Of course, there's no way they these flying monster could rival the speed of Xenon's Rider Mode.

While they landed on a higher region of Ashfall Plateau, as they could guess, ashfall covered almost half percent of their entire body. The sultry weather and stifling smell of volcanic ash were enough to make Eirisse spew rainbows on the ground, she ended throwing up.

To top it off, the sticky and sweltering effect whenever ash specked on Eirisse's skin is way too bothersome for her she needed a fast and refreshing bath in a nearby river. Sadly there isn't one in these areas and if there was, surely it ashes will float all over the water's surface.

"That was close!" Xenon immediately performed auto-repair on his damage wings before he retracts it so it's ready-to-use for later if Nightbeasts gets in their way again.

"What close were you talking about, we almost became fodder for them! And all because you decided to kill them since it's your own battlefield but you failed miserably." Eirisse reprimands his reckless behavior. She can't even wipe off the ashes from her eyeglasses using her messy clothes. It's literally raining ashes from all over the place.

Guilt was also at his pocket, Xenon can't deny his pride drove the better of him thinking he could beat anyone at his atmospheric battlefield. Despite the situation, at least they are safe for now.

"Anyways, we should find the thing we needed, thunder iron." Xenon implies and blew off some steam out of his body but it just made the situation worse when the moisture blocked the lenses of his eyes, he might need to clean his body later too.

Curiosity still led Eirisse's enigma about what happened regarding Xenon's short story, "Before we start searching, what does the prince did that he was able to produce a golden apple?" She asked with sincerity, placing her eyeglasses into her pocket because it will get on the way.

"Well... many asked how did he make the apple tree produce golden fruit, but looking at a different and lower spectrum, and instead you can focus on how did the prince convince the princess that golden apples don't even exist." Xenon's stated.

His overly descriptive understanding logic over a tale bewildered Eirisse even further, while at the same time, she's getting the gist of it.

"Are you telling me the princess just shoved the reality that there's no such thing?" Eirisse asked.

Xenon nodded and answered, "The prince then thought why does the princess want something that doesn't exist? It turns out she read on a book that golden apple is true, and upon consuming such fruit, she will meet the love of her life, believing it changed her perception towards life."

The striking realization made Eirisse learn something from it. The golden apples represent the princess's difficulty of closing one's mind about something you knew about, and that idea applies to a person's feeling as well.

"Are you saying..." Eirisse closed her mouth when Xenon interjected.

"The story is pretty confusing, and I'm still studying the cause and effect of such experience over a living person. I just wanted to share the knowledge I learned that you can just accept what I gave and that's it, just how the princess changes her perception about life." Xenon really sounded his true self.

Eirisse's guilt and doubt that she's not worthy of Xenon's Arcanum Core vanished alongside her pride. Their relationship as comrades grows even deeper. She thought Xenon just can say the importance without going through the whole story, though she appreciated the approach.

They decided to move along and search for the thing they need, while Eirisse's raising her crimson hair removing remnants o grimy ashes, she tripped over and dislodged a sturdy rock along the rugged terrain of the plateau.

"Wait, over your feet Eirisse, that is thunder iron!" Xenon clarified the thing that looked like a stone was in fact a real thunder iron, evident from its hard sapphire-like color and rough covering of withered rocks beaming with energy. It's as big as a magic orb and weighs for at least one kilogram so they needed more material of it.

"Then let's finish this right away." Eirisse doesn't want to stay in such a place and ached to get over with.

They searched for more thunder iron so they can return in the Emperor's Domain, finish the quest, and get a proper respite after everything's done and well.