Chapter 240: Kayafe and Alexander (Patreon)

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No Cliff. Tried to include a post chapter POV but was having a hard time writing it. I'll try to have one next chapter.

AN: Got some editing suggestions? Suggest it on the Google Docs here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SNr8mfSKXg56wu_HuH-5bOpq-Nm6R_0ignU0Dutylko/edit?usp=sharing

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Alexander watches the last of the Elves vanish, fury causing his hand to shake. It is clear this was an uncoordinated attack, that the Elves were just being opportunists. They sought to do as much damage as they could, but what was surprising was how ready they were to launch an attack.

Perhaps they were preparing to attack the Erudites all along, and the Dwarves' attack just hastened things. It made sense if he looked at it from their point of view. The Erudites have stationed an army on the border so that if the Elves were to attack his Empire, the Erudites would ravage their lands and burn their forest. They have to deal with the threat first before they can set their full attention on his Empire.

The Elves clearly weren’t looking for a decisive battle since, as soon as he arrived, they immediately retreated, leaving only the rank-and-file conscripts behind to be slaughtered.

“Thank you for coming to our aid so quickly, Your Majesty.” Sonya kneels before Alexander. “We saw the messages and were sure you’d be delayed further.”

Sonya is one of the Erudites' Grand Sorcerers. She has long flowing crimson hair, like her Heirloom Progenitor grandfather. She wears a thin, red and orange dress designed for the White Sand Sea desert that they call home. Sharp, fiery lines flow over her skin like tattoos, except that it is a racial trait she inherited from her progenitor. It helps them cast spells, and having a Fire Bond, it matches her element’s color.

“I am sorry I was not fast enough to save your apprentice.”

“Nonsense, it was his death that alerted you. He would be proud that his sacrifice saved so many lives.”

“Then I will leave his remembrance to you. I must address other business, but tell your grandfather that there have been a lot of developments recently and that he needs to send an envoy to me in a week’s time. Stay vigilant, Sonya; this was just the beginning.” Alexander teleports back to his Palace, checking on his city to make sure it is safe.

It’s strange how the Elves acted so quickly. While some of it can be explained by them being opportunists, and they may have already been preparing something, how did their assassin order know where the battle with the Dwarves was taking place?

Did they sneak a spy into the Oathbound Knights? Impossible, he checked every single one of them, and their Oaths were genuine. The only outsider that knew was Alysara, and there was no way those zealots would work with a descendant of Kayafe. The only other answer must be that they had a spy in the Dwarves' cities. Why not act sooner, then? Probably because he ambushed the attacking army.

The plan must have been to attack the Erudites when the Dwarves attacked his capital, but Alysara finding them threw their plans into disarray. They had to decide quickly whether or not to go with their original plan.

If he hadn’t hired Alysara, he would have had no choice but to summon Fafnir. Using such a priceless gift for that would have been a massive waste.

“We should try to make the Runalymo close allies,” Alexander mutters.

Alysara is too valuable right now to alienate. The present conflicts with the Dwarves and Elves will not allow anything else.

Alexander teleports back to the hole where the main force of his Knights are.

“Emperor!” Oathbound Paul salutes. “There has been no further Elf activity here. Also, I recovered all the monster materials I could.” He presents the Elemental hearts and cores that survived the battle.

“Thank you, Paul. Go help Elizabeth and Jordan.”

“Yes, Emperor!” He vanishes, having teleported away.

“Alysara, may I borrow your airships to transport my Knights back to Starport?” Alexander asks.

“Of course,” she replies.

Alexander teleports his Knights onto one of them and watches it take to the skies. Meanwhile, Kayafe is repairing the ones that can be salvaged. Seeing both her and Alysara, it is obvious that Alysara is her descendant. Legendary beings always have enhanced traits, so Alysara having the same shade of blue hair as Kayafe is a clear sign of their relation.

Alexander waits until Kayafe is done before walking up to her.

“I thought I would never see you again, Kayafe.”

“If it weren't for Alysara, you probably wouldn’t have,” Kayafe replies matter-of-factly.

“Then I suppose I should be very grateful to her. Let's return to my Palace.”

“Don’t you have a runaway Elemental to deal with?” she asks.

“It’s not an immediate threat. I’ll have Ryan keep tabs on it. In the meantime, we must rest.” Alexander teleports them both home, appearing in his personal quarters. “Let me wash up; then we can listen to each other’s stories. In the meantime, make yourself at home; a servant will be outside if you need anything.”

Alexander teleports down to the bathing room. As much as he’d like to sit and soak, to let today's stress bleed away, he is quick and out in less than five minutes. After redressing, he teleports back to Kayafe, who is standing on the balcony watching over the city.

He joins her and shares a silent moment, watching the sunset. Questions whirl around in his mind, but he holds them back just long enough to share this moment.

“What happened, Kayafe? You’ve changed, but your Classes and Bond have barely increased.”

The question he most wanted to know is about her body, which is now made of Vitality, and why she has not grown in over ten thousand years.

“I did what was necessary to give my people a place of their own,” Kayafe says, looking blankly over the railing. “After wandering the sea for a couple of decades, we grew weary of traveling. Many started to doubt my leadership, and unrest was threatening to tear us apart. We needed to find land, and then we found the Nexus.”

“A place more inhospitable than the Forest of Illusions,” Alexander states.

Nexuses are very inhospitable. A place where it sometimes even rained liquid mana. The one they visited in the past had a raging nexus storm and dangerous monsters that spawned from all the mana. That they ended up living there is unthinkable; no wonder he couldn’t find them when he looked.

“Indeed. Even with my help, we could only live on the very edge of it, but that wasn’t the biggest problem.”

“Safyr claimed it as her territory.” Alexander leans on the stone railing.

“That’s right.” Kayafe nods.

It’s obvious something had happened between them, considering Safyr’s current title, but why did the notorious Dragon uncharacteristically accept them in her territory?

“If you had found the Nexus just a few years earlier, you might have beat her to it. Safyr didn’t take too kindly to Verdant’s children and washed away the Elven kingdom. Everything east of her mountainous roost was completely annihilated, and then she left.”

Verdant’s children sprouted shortly after he became Legendary, when they came back to the Elven kingdom. They mostly grew up without their father and were almost adults by the time their journey ended. After that, Verdant was in the Dwarven kingdom, helping Dwohl with his research. His children grew up thinking they were superior and threw their society into turmoil. That must have greatly annoyed Safyr.

He learned from that. When a Human Heirloom Progenitor was born, he made sure the progenitor knew not to make the same mistake.

So, was it luck or fate that brought them to Safyr? Was it only a coincidence they were a little too late in discovering the Nexus? Considering the recent messages concerning Safyr, perhaps the Runalymo wouldn’t have survived without her. But what about Kayafe? Where was she during those events?

“I take it Verdant was with Dwohl at that time?” Kayafe asked.

Surely she saw their death messages; why ask?

“Yes…” Alex says, trailing off as he holds his question for now. He had enough time to grieve for them, but he will never forget the time they spent together.

“They are dead, aren't they?” Kayafe says, continuing to stare blankly into space. A lot like Alysara, now that he thinks about it. She may have a new body, but it looks like she doesn’t know how to give it sight.

“Yes. They tried to cure Dwohl’s cursed Skill and failed,” Alexander answers.

“So, Dwohl turned into a Cursed Being and killed Verdant?” Kayafe asks.

“You expected that?” he asks.

“No.” Kayafe shakes her head. “I now know how to cure cursed Skills, thanks to Alysara, and from that I know that one wrong move would have resulted in Dwohl turning. Considering his past, he wouldn’t have used others as a test subject, so that was the most likely outcome.”

“I see.”

“At least I have closure now, so I can let go of the hope that they did survive.”

“I thought you knew from the world messages,” Alexander says.

“I was in a state between life and death,” Kayafe answers, leaning on the railing like him. “Dwohl’s soul would have reformed, though, since he had a Skill to resist soul damage.”

“His soul would still be drawn into the reincarnation cycle. So after you arrived at the Nexus, what happened?” Alexander asks, eager to know the rest of her story. He gazes down at the city, watching the people go home and close shop after a long day, their lives undisturbed by today’s battle.

“My people wanted to make it work,” Kayafe says with a shrug. “There was practically no food, and with the ambient mana so high, there were no easy fish around. There were monsters, but they mostly hid from the mana storms, so many people starved. It was very difficult to live in, but it was land we could call ours, and we didn’t want to let go of that despite the hardships. We made do with what we could; many women got racial evolutions to produce milk that could sustain us. It’s a little weird, but sacrifices had to be made if we wanted to live in the Nexus, and if we couldn’t farm, fish, or hunt enough to sustain us, then we had to produce our own food. For a time, Safyr didn’t mind us being there; but after a couple of years, she gave us an ultimatum. Either we prove ourselves, or she would kill us if we didn’t leave.”

“I’m surprised she allowed you to stay for that long; it’s uncharacteristic of the Sapphire Tyrant,” Alexander says. The notorious Dragon is known to be very intolerant. The fact she even let them in her territory at all is surprising.

“I think she respected our resolve to stay and live in such a place. People just shouldn’t be able to live in Nexuses, and yet we somehow made it work.”

That made sense. What little he knows of Dragons is that Dragons respect humble and hardy people. She must have been amused and curious to see if one of the lowest-tiered races could actually do it. However, she must have seen enough and then told them to leave, or perhaps it was a test to see if they were worthy of respect.

“How did you get Safyr’s approval?” Alex asks.

“First, I fought her. I really did try to kill her and threw everything I had at her, and I guess she liked my tenacity? I was able to damage her with my Ultimate Class, and she eventually agreed to let us stay if we could truly conquer the Nexus. So I had to make an item that could control all the mana that flows through the Nexus.”

Safyr may have accepted Kayafe then, but if she was to allow an entire race to stay in her territory, she wanted to know if the Runalymo as a whole was worthy, that was why she reiterated the Runalymo proving themselves. As for what item she must have made, there’s only one answer that made sense.

“The Mana Arc,” Alexander says. “Alysara completed it, so does that mean you failed?”

“Yes and no.” Kayafe swishes her tail as if to show the dual nature of her answer. “I couldn’t make one, but as the deadline neared, I grew desperate to make it. Essentially, I needed the Mana Arc to do what I could, and there’s only one way to ensure the creation of a magic item.”

“Sacrifice. I see; it all makes sense now.”

“I used myself as the catalyst of the Mana Arc’s creation since that was the only way to ensure the Mana Arc would be powerful enough, and it worked. After that, it was all blank until Alysara first contacted me a few years ago.”

“I saw the world message saying you completed Safyr’s trial; that must have been it. How did Alysara free you from the Mana Arc?” Alexander asks.

“She made a sacrifice of her own. The Runalymo have a culture where they are presented with a gift for their birth. That item represents their life, and it stays with them for their entire life and is buried with them when they die. Alysara sacrificed her Kyhosa to free me, metaphorically offering up her own life.”

“A life for a life.”

That would be powerful enough to make any item Legendary. Kayafe intentionally tried to make a magic item, so Magic rebelled and only made it incomplete. Alysara probably did it to free Kayafe, not to complete it, allowing Magic to reward her with the Mana Arc’s completion.

Kayafe nods. “My old body was destroyed, so I had to make a new one out of mana. I never studied the anatomy of people, so I don’t know how to make it so I can see, smell, or even feel anything, but we hope an item or ritual will be able to restore me.”

His intuition that Kayafe is blind now is correct, but worry creeps into his chest when he hears Kayafe mention rituals.

“Rituals are very dangerous,” Alexander warns.

“Trust me, I know. I now know even more about the nature of rituals, thanks to Alysara. Our first attempt will be to make an item. Alysara has some ideas that may work, but we haven't had a detailed discussion yet.”

He is glad to hear that Kayafe will try other options first. He will, of course, offer any help she needs to regain her body; but other than materials, there is little he can do.

Silence fills the balcony as Alexander runs out of questions to ask. They watch the city for several minutes before Kayafe breaks the silence.

“So you took a couple of Bond Classes, I see,” Kayafe says, [Analyzing] him.

“Still going on about that, I see,” Alexander sighs but cracks a smile at her old antics. “Normal Classes plateau, Kayafe. Sure, they grow quickly, but most don’t go farther than level two and a half thousand. My level three thousand ones are the result of thousands of years of work and study. In order to even match Dragons, you must have at least two Bond Classes and a high-level Bond.”

“Not you too!” Kayafe pouts, her tail flicking in annoyance.

Alexander laughs heartily and pats Kayafe’s head.

“I’m not saying for you to drop all your Classes, but you can definitely combine your [Mana Conduit] Class into your caster Class. Keep your scrying, caster, and Ultimate Classes; your fourth and fifth Classes can become Bond Classes.”

“Combine Classes? You can do that?” Kayafe asks.

“Not directly. It’s just that, with time, you can reset one Class and slowly work to incorporate the Skills it had into a Class you want to keep.”

“And what if I don’t want to level my Bond or take Bond Classes? I’m a general caster, not a Bond user.”

Still the same old Kayafe.

“You are going to need to level your Bond to five thousand anyway to get your fifth Class. Also, you know very well that general casters fall behind the more specialized casters in power. You will have to take a specialized Class anyway, so you might as well pick a Bond Class. You will have plenty of time, thousands of years, to level your Bond; you might as well build in that direction now and save yourself some effort.”

“Takes too much effort just to level your Bond in the first place!” Kayafe pouts again.

Alexander has to remind himself that Kayafe has spent the last ten thousand years asleep. From her point of view, she is still living as if it were all that time ago. Back then, she needed quick power to save her people, and then she needed quick power to prove herself to Safyr. It’s no wonder she is still of the opinion that leveling the Bond takes too much time.

Alexander pulls Kayafe into a tight hug.

“Kayafe, you can rest now. You don’t need to rush anymore. You already saved your people, and you found them a home. You have all the time in the world now to pursue what you want.”

Kayafe awkwardly reciprocates the embrace, making Alexander realize her current body doesn’t just lack sight. After breaking the hug, they share several minutes of silence.

“I don’t know what I want, at least in the long term. Right now, I just want my body back so I feel and smell and see again.”

“That’s normal, Kayafe. Everything is new to you, so you don’t even know where to begin. Just focus on getting your body back for now. You don’t have to be somebody great; you just have to be yourself.”