Tales of Revenants

Chapter 32 – Gratitude

The party departed out of Redshore's north-east entrance. They traveled for miles to reach the Groundbeak Plateau's greenery. The party exterminates any kind of Nightbeast that is attracted to the carriage.

“Salamander's Flame!” Lena voiced out her spell. A circling spiral of flames slowly engulfed the Nightbeast that had the form of a vulture.

“Those are Nightbeast Greenland Vulture. Be careful when they spit something. Its saliva had a strong acid that burns away anything it touches,” Laken reminded them.

He strikes the Nightbeasts away protecting Xenon on the relentless assault.

Luna can't just accept to be defended when she's a Heavenly Hero, “Fatal Zero!” She chanted ice magic. With her single gesture and magic words, all the Nightbeast Vultures that's hovering the carriage turned into a pile of ice.

“These pesky Nightbeasts began to appear during the daytime, do you have any idea Laken?” Lena asked while continually repelling the random Nightbeast from behind together with Eirisse and Luciella.

“We also had no idea why. Why don't you ask your fellow Heavenly Heroes?” Laken answered back with another question.

“It was years when we had the last meeting. I guess they were just perplexed as you are,” she responded burning the last of the Nightbeast Vultures.

They traveled for hours across the Groundbeak Plateau north-west in order for them to reach the boundary of Dethrim. Xenon continually scourged his mechanical horses towards the ends of the plateau only to sense another malefic flow of magic.

He gradually slowed down the progress of their movement. Xenon activated his sensory on the vast greenery. The grasses dance together with the winds. He couldn't sense physical objects that might harm them but his scanner certainly is catching up the malefic magic signature.

“I can feel it...” Luna muttered to herself. She held herself as if trying to hear her surroundings.

“I can also sense malice, is it a Dark Entity?” Laken asked a rhetorical question.

“Hmm...” Xenon doubled his senses and used an infrared vision on the plains but to no avail.

“Wait... from above us!” Luciella told to everyone. They all entered into a defensive stance while looking to the sky up high.

The moment Xenon's scanner crosses the clouds, his eyes displayed his shocked. He stopped the carriage and instinctively force himself to change mode.

“Accelerating Combustion Buster: Defender Mode!” Xenon entered into a bulky tank paladin.

He flew right above the carriage and what revealed in the clouds was an enormous Nightbeast in the form of a wyvern that's accumulating a downward force gravity for a sky-dive assault.

Xenon reckoned the power and time it will take a hit. He geared up his Stargazer that transformed into a fortified shield together with the metallic sword.

“Maximum Energy Discharge: Iron Stronghold!” Xenon shouted.

He created a three-layer barrier made out of photons to protect everyone who's inside the carriage.

Xenon chose to defend instead to attack because he knows more than anyone how strong an atmospheric sky-dive onslaught as an aerial combat specialist.

He also thinks only a fool could dodge a wyvern's assault for their accuracy is of the highest level and thus no one can escape from their claws.

It's not just a normal monster, but a Nightbeast Wyvern that is powered by the darkness.

Xenon thought he calculated everything but he was wrong. He saw the four eyes of the Nightbeast only when its overwhelming pounce shattered the first layer of the photon barrier.

“It's a Dark Entity! Run everyone before the barrier breaks!” Xenon shouted reminding them to get out of the vicinity as soon as possible while he fends off the Nightbeast.

He leveled up the force of the thrusters in his back to the maximum output. His wings also fired a force of energy on each of the tips of the mechanical feathers to help up his posterior propel back the force of the Nightbeast Wyvern's pouncing assault.

Laken sat on the coachman seat to take over the control of the carriage, doing exactly what Xenon reminded them. They also can't counter-attack because they might inadvertently knock him on the process.

The second photon barrier was breached. Only Xenon's arm and his shield are halting the strong force of the Nightbeast an estimated weight of a thousand tons on his shoulder all alone on the brink of a breakdown.

Luna couldn't accept that her supposed enemy is sacrificing himself just so everyone could be guarded. She hates the fact that she's always being protected the most.

She recklessly went out of the carriage and promptly ran towards the epicenter posthaste where Xenon will allegedly be thrust downwards.

“Get out of there Luna!” Xenon's trying to prevent the party and the sisters to sustain any kind of damage during the impact but Luna stubbornly shook her head.

Xenon's last stronghold is cracking and is about to be destroyed when Luna raised both her hands with open palms. She chanted the words of her ice magic.

“The snow is my cage. The world is my ground. Bring forth the might of northlands, and be trapped into the eternal cold: Absolute Freeze!” Luna chanted her mystical spell.

The fortified shield of Xenon began to freeze together with his arm to make up with the cracks.

Good thing the ice permeation continued to encroach on the Nightbeast Wyvern claws up to its skeletal frame.

Until the monster totally turned frozen solid. Before the weight could break the immobilize armor of Xenon, Laken leaped up to the air splitting the Dark Entity in half with his sword while it's frozen. Nightbeast Wyvern vanished like a shattered crystalized obsidian glass.

Laken catches up before Xenon hits the ground by leaping through the falling ice debris while Lena seizes her sister. Had not Luna intervened in the fight, maybe Xenon will be forced into hibernation that would last for hours.

“Setting structural configuration, Recovery Mode.” Xenon speaks in a monotonic tone. Laken ushered Xenon to the carriage.

“Light Blessing, Light Blessing...!” Luciella immediately showered Luna of her Light Blessing to heal her physical form. Xenon promptly came back to the coachman's seat to continue their journey.

“Are you okay metal guy?” Lena asked about his condition.

She's watching the small extending arms that being controlled from his core as it fixes the damage of his physical structure.

“I'm fine considering a mechanoid's design is flexible. I thank your sister for her assistance,” Xenon responded.

“She's fine too. Luna used too much mana but it's been a long time since she exerted herself on invoking grand magic,” Lena let her sister rest on her lap.

“I'm amazed. She single-handedly froze a Dark Entity. No wonder she's a Heavenly Hero,” Eirisse praised her magnificent display of bravery.

“As long as my sister is okay...” Luna whispered before completely falling asleep.

“I thank you too Luciella. It's so handy to have a healer around,” Lena told with a cheerful smile.

“No, it's nothing, really...” Luciella compelled a smile.

Everyone knows she's still not fine. They are all waiting for a certain someone to console her, which is Laken. They can't blame him because they don't have any personal space to talk it out.

Eirisse sat near Xenon to give him energy. She placed her hands on his chest, “Mana Spring,” she uttered the words of her spell. The Arcanum Core of Xenon absorbed the flow of mana she gave.

He geared up his chest even though he hasn't finished repairing; he immediately changes personality, “Changing attribute: sentimental.”

Laken and Eirisse sighed knowing it's one of his attributes where he talks too much stuff.

“First of all. I should show my gratitude by giving sweets. Look at my arms, it's already fixed. There's no telling what would happen from now on so make sure to check the window when you're doing nothing,” Laken speaks as an introduction to his verbal dissertation regarding his gratitude.

“Does mechanoids are really noisy like him?” Lena simply covered her ears as she's sure of herself Xenon's telling something that doesn't make any sense.

Laken and Eirisse kind of groaned since Xenon and Lena's talkative energy are alike. Once the gear of his tongue takes a revolution, there's no pause over his words. They just listened to his constant mumbling during their trip.

The sky above began to darken before they realize it. They have finally entered the frontier of the Dethrim Kingdom, the Ravina City.

The guards are not much examining those who enter the city. The party directly went to the inn for them to plan their next objective and gather information.