Chapter 84
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His deep rest lasted until the complete dark of night arrived. In the midst of eerie silence, sudden shrieks and screams echoed throughout the Iris City. Bolting upright, Greyson blocked his ears and fought the disorientation after just waking up. Bewildered, he quickly walked towards the nearest window to take a look at the situation. Instincts acting up, he dove backwards away from the window right before a loud explosion blew apart that side of the wall. Eyes adjusting to the dark, Greyson's eyes darted around to find any traces of an enemy, however, he could not react until he saw the cold gleam of a blade slicing towards his neck. Hairs standing on end, Greyson rolled backwards to dodge. A cold trickle of blood ran down his neck as Greyson pulled his hand up to run his fingers across the spot. His face immediately turned ugly, however, when he felt the quick paralyzing of his neck. Poison! A sinking thought ran through his mind thinking through the entire scenario. Almost on cue, the echoing screams grew closer and a horrifyingly deformed flying creature with no eyes approached and allowed a dark cloaked man to hop onto its back.
"Midnight... Order..." Revolving his light element, Greyson struggled to get his words out of his restricted throat. Blood red eyes stared back at him before flying off. Even Greyson was shocked that his first encounter with this group would be so random. Sweetbow spoke to him about the most dangerous group around the world. The Midnight Order did not belong to any specific country and instead had thousands of branches all around since their power could not be used in an aboveboard manner. They specialized in forbidden death spells and extremely bloody magic experiments. Sweetbow explained to Greyson that although the Midnight Order was demonized throughout the world, every country and powerful family had shady dealings with them. Assassinations, hard to obtain goods, slaves, even new experimental equipment. As they are not bound by any moral constructs, although unsavory, the Order truly makes remarkable discoveries. They also have fatal attraction for people with weak to no talent as there are spells which include killing others to steal talent or use their mana to boost your own. Many wanted criminals were these exact people who continued to kill in order to increase their level.
Pushing the poison out of his system, Greyson quickly grabbed the still sleeping Lucius from the bed and jumped out of the building through the new hole in the wall. He could see many black flying figures twirling around the city with eerie shrieks continuing to echo around. Multiple places in the city were on fire and he could see the blood staining the ground. Spells lit up the sky as the soldiers and families all worked together to defend their home. Pausing in thought, Greyson hesitated to get involved. After all this was not his home and he did not understand the level of the opponents. Would he be running to his death to defend a random city? His morals fought against his rational thinking. Slowly hopping around the city, Greyson saw the corpses on the ground and the crying families. Feeling sicker and sicker, he could not prevent his face from turning pale. Nausea hit him in waves as he could smell the burning flesh and the metallic stench of blood. Knowing he could not ignore the attack with his conscience intact, he hardened his expression before shooting towards the middle of the city.
Finding the open city square, Greyson sat down in the middle and created a metal dome around himself. Trying his best to mentally flip through the spells he learned recently, he finally opened eyes thinking of the correct one. Biting his finger, he started tracing out a mana gathering array to help boost the power of his spell. After he finished the array, Greyson could feel the intense mana flowing towards him. Flipping his hand, Mesmer appeared in his palm. The gentle sound of flute starting to ring out from the square. A beautiful golden light spread out as far as Greyson could push it. Underneath the warm light, the fighting citizens could feel their exhaustion fade, injuries close, and their mana slowly recover. It continued to spread until around half the city was covered by this light. Although he wished he could cover the entire city, even now sweat beaded down his forehead. Without becoming a magister, this area was the limit of his support. Large concentrations of light element radiated from inside the metal dome. Even Greyson could not believe that the support spells he learned would come in handy so quickly. He was worried before that he wasted his time learning them.
As he expected, attacks soon began to bombard the shield he put up earlier. Trying his best to keep his concentration, Greyson continued to play to try to lengthen the time people could run under the light to heal. He knew he could not keep the spell up for long, but just this amount of time could make the world of difference. Dent after dent appeared on the shield as the ground shook. Feeling the weakness in the shield, Greyson finally pulled the flute from his lips and the gold light began to recede from all parts of the city. Putting away his flute, he pulled out Genesis. Allow the shield to fall away, he spun and sent wind blades in all directions. Only a couple of the group fell to the ground from the attack, however, Greyson still counted around 10 surrounding him. Preparing himself, he could not help but inwardly sigh. The mana gathering array definitely assisted him greatly, but his mana stores were still half gone. Pushing any thoughts of regret from his mind, sharp fighting intent radiated from his eyes. Before he could attack, though, a horn sounded. Almost immediately, all the attackers broke the charm on their necks and their bodies faded into the shadows disappearing. The fighting came to a dead stop.
Confused, Greyson could not understand what just occurred yet. They came suddenly and left just as quickly. As he reflected on this to himself, a bunch of flying figures came towards him. Landing on the ground, Greyson finally looked up due to the noise. He recognized the Greentree family head as one of the people. He stood behind the man in the lead and with three other figures. The one in front was surprisingly a middle-aged, average-looking woman with deep red hair and brown eyes. Not an ounce of warmth could be seen from her expression as anger pulsated off her person. Greyson glanced at the three other people. One was a decrepit old man, the other a good-looking young man, and lastly a beautiful woman. Put together with the Greentree family head and leading lady, they made an oddly mismatching group.
"Ahem, uh, Greyson, we would like to know if you saw who cast the light spell earlier." Stepping forward and breaking the silence, the Greentree head coughed awkwardly before questioning Greyson.
Raising an eyebrow, Greyson looked at them with slight irony in his eyes.
"Well I would not say I saw him per se, but I definitely know who it was."
"You know him?! Great, could you tell us?"
"Of course, you are looking at him." Finally, unable to continue in this play, Greyson just honestly told them. He was curious as to why they were looking for him instead of the Midnight Order that just came and attacked. All five of the group's eyes widened as they looked Greyson up and down. Feeling slightly peeved by the obvious disbelief in their eyes, Greyson's brows furrowed.
"Greentree Family Head..." Greyson began.
"Please, just call me Rollin."
"Mr. Greentree, I believe you witnessed me using light magic before. I don't see why this comes as such a surprise." Feeling that they were not on a first name basis, Greyson kept the address simple. Looking slightly embarrassed by Greyson obviously drawing a line, Rollin just laughed to break up the atmosphere.
"Ah, yes, however, your level was not high enough for such a large and sustained output of mana for that kind of large spell."
"Oh, well, I guess that is true. I used a mana gathering array to boost the power and range of my spell." Seeing the man's point, Greyson just shrugged and explained simply. Understanding dawned on the group's faces as appreciation filled their eyes. Suddenly, the cold-looking woman at the front walked in front of Greyson and bowed deeply. The rest of the group looked shocked as if they wanted to stop her, but, after thinking for a moment, they followed her lead and also bowed towards Greyson. Not sure how to react, Greyson quickly motioned with his hand. Supported by a gust of wind, all of their bodies once again straightened.
"There is no need for this. I just could not stand by and watch all this happen with a peaceful conscious." Scratching his head, Greyson glanced in a different direction. Noticing Greyson's embarrassment, the beautiful lady in the group covered her mouth and began to giggle.
"A real cute kid, aren't you? Auntie, here, really appreciates your efforts. Our City Lord and us, Family Heads, are thanking you from the bottom of our hearts. A lot of lives in this city and a large portion of our fighting forces were saved through your spell. The results of today's surprise attack would have been much grimmer without your help." Although she began speaking in a light-hearted tone, the further she spoke, the heavier and heavier her tone got. By the end, her beautiful face showed signs of uncontrollable rage. The rest of the group also grit their teeth and clenched their fists angrily. Noticing their outrage, Greyson could not hold in his curiosity.
"Why did the Midnight Order attack?" After he spoke, all their faces turned ugly.
"They wanted to steal the heart of our city: the seven-petaled Rainbow Flower. The faction of the Order that attacked was the Poison Corps. We think they must have lusted after the flower for some type of powerful poison, or maybe a medicine that they received a request to make. They distracted everyone by attacking the civilians first and some people sneaked into the City Lord's mansion and dug out the flower. If you try, you could feel the mana density of our city has dropped dramatically. The original founder of Iris City found the seed to this flower and grew the city with the flower as its foundation. A rare and long-living flower like this one blesses the city with high mana density and even the beautiful rainbow-like colors all over the city." Rollin was the one who ended up answering Greyson after a long pause. His eyes widening in surprise, Greyson did as Rollin suggested and tried to meditate. A couple seconds later, his eyes shot back open as disbelief filled them. Rollin was correct, the city itself felt much more barren of mana than before. There was still much more mana here than say Edysa Kingdom, but it was nowhere near what it was before. Greyson could even feel that the mana was continually decreasing without getting replenished. Sweetbow had taught him about such situations. The entire Elf Empire was an example. They were extremely close with the Fey race. Young Fey cannot transform out of their plant form and require a lot of time and mana to be able to mature. Therefore, they usually request their friends, the elves, to allocate their young to different cities. These young Fey would help the cities create dense mana environments while the city would protect that plant with their lives to allow it to eventually mature. The cycle has continued for centuries. A lot of other kingdoms just use large advanced mana gathering arrays to make their cities dense with mana since these kinds of plants which create such a naturally amazing environment are extremely rare and coveted.
"The Poison Corps..." Tracing his hand against his neck where the old wound was, Greyson definitely believed this assessment. Although they were not the most powerful Corps of the Order, they were still extremely dangerous because as long there were not skilled light magicians or physicians present, entire cities could fall to their poison. Thinking up to this point, Greyson realized another issue.
"Why did they actually attack? Don't the Poison Corps specialize in large scale sneak attacks where they just release their poison into the city and kill off everyone silently. Plus, those Terrors are usually used by the Nocte Corps." Shivering slightly listening to his own words, Greyson remembered how frightening it sounded when Sweetbow told him of the Poison Corps modus operandi.
"We were shocked by this, as well. They used their poison to sneak into the mansion to steal the flower which is why we were not notified by anyone of their attack. Almost all the guards in the City Lord's mansion are dead. We were misled by the screeches of the Terrors that it was the Nocte Corps attacking who specialize in just straightforward killing. We thought we would have to battle with them and did not think to defend the mansion. The Poison Corps must have pulled in a favor with the Nocte Corps to be allowed to use the precious Terrors." Helplessness filled Rollin's eyes as he continued explaining. Everyone's faces turned grim, especially the City Lord's. On mention of her mansion's guards, glistening tears could be seen to appear on her eyes. However, the minute they appeared she forced them back down.
"Hello, Greyson, I am the City Lord of Iris, Brynn Fenmyar. I am eternally grateful for the assistance you provided to our city. I would normally award you in this type of situation, however, our city's condition is too serious for any celebrations as of yet. I can, though, still afford to give you an award for your help. To just send you away without anything does not sit well with me." The red-haired woman soon spoke up and introduced herself. Flipping her hand, a sack appeared in her hand. Opening the strings, the City Lord soon pulled out an object. Looking closely, Greyson saw a beautiful flower petal in her hand. Shocked, Greyson could see that the petal glowed a rainbow of colors allowing him to quickly associate this petal with a shocking name in his head.
"This is an old petal that dropped off the Seven-Petaled Rainbow Flower. It has amazing healing properties and also works wonders if you are in need of a sudden refill of mana." Confirming his thoughts, City Lord Fenmyar introduced the petal before handing it off to Greyson. At first, Greyson thought about denying the flower since he did not help them for a reward, however, after hearing the effects, he could not help but look down at the still sleeping Lucius on his chest. Annoying as he felt this cat could be awake, without his constant presence and advice, Greyson felt slightly lost. Not that he could not make decisions on his own, it just felt good to consult with someone he could completely trust. This petal would probably be able to expedite Lucius waking up by a lot. Greyson was in the dungeon for close to five months and Lucius only woke up around the last month of that time which could mean that Greyson would have to keep waiting for a couple months under normal circumstances for Lucius to wake up.
Sorting his thoughts, he decided to reach out and accept the petal. The rest of the group's expressions also relaxed seeing Greyson accept the gift. They were worried he would be too adamant about not taking a gift as they were happier to give Greyson a gift then to have to owe him some kind of favor. As ungrateful as their thoughts might be, too many cities have fallen into difficult situations due to vague promises of owing someone a favor. Greyson did not happen to notice their expressions so he had no idea of the complicated thoughts in their minds.
"Mr. Greentree, I actually would like to take this moment to inform you that I am going to head out today. Since I have already received what I was searching for and battled your son, I accomplished all my goals for staying in this city." I also do not want to stay in such a chaotic and half destroyed city. Greyson decidedly swallowed these last words and hid his real reason for leaving now. "Thank you for your great hospitality over these past few days."
Seemingly exhausted after such a crazy night, the Greentree family head just nodded and smiled.
"I am glad that we could host such a talented magician as yourself. It seems I also did the city a favor by keeping you around. Hopefully, we can meet again at better times."
Not making any effort to keep Greyson, Rollin just waved and walked off with the rest of the group. They all nodded and waved goodbye to Greyson, as well. Too much of the city was damaged with their citizens scared and in shock. They could not split their attention to other matters at this point. Understanding their situation, Greyson just smiled and nodded his head back before flying through the city and jumping past the crumbling gate. After looking through multiple maps during his time in Iris, Greyson already planned out the rest of his journey. Heading towards the southwest direction, Greyson looked back at the destroyed city. In the shine of the dawning sun, the beautiful city of yesteryear that he saw upon his arrival was already gone. A slightly depressed expression appeared on his face. He could not understand quite how he felt about the Midnight Order. Not all of them were crazy murderers, some were genius creators or outcasts that other races and kingdoms did not accept. His teacher did not seem to actually hate the Order as much as other people did. In effect, Greyson was also not completely against their existence either. Only, after actually experiencing this attack, he became unsure of his earlier acceptance.
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His deep rest lasted until the complete dark of night arrived. In the midst of eerie silence, sudden shrieks and screams echoed throughout the Iris City. Bolting upright, Greyson blocked his ears and fought the disorientation after just waking up. Bewildered, he quickly walked towards the nearest window to take a look at the situation. Instincts acting up, he dove backwards away from the window right before a loud explosion blew apart that side of the wall. Eyes adjusting to the dark, Greyson's eyes darted around to find any traces of an enemy, however, he could not react until he saw the cold gleam of a blade slicing towards his neck. Hairs standing on end, Greyson rolled backwards to dodge. A cold trickle of blood ran down his neck as Greyson pulled his hand up to run his fingers across the spot. His face immediately turned ugly, however, when he felt the quick paralyzing of his neck. Poison! A sinking thought ran through his mind thinking through the entire scenario. Almost on cue, the echoing screams grew closer and a horrifyingly deformed flying creature with no eyes approached and allowed a dark cloaked man to hop onto its back.
"Midnight... Order..." Revolving his light element, Greyson struggled to get his words out of his restricted throat. Blood red eyes stared back at him before flying off. Even Greyson was shocked that his first encounter with this group would be so random. Sweetbow spoke to him about the most dangerous group around the world. The Midnight Order did not belong to any specific country and instead had thousands of branches all around since their power could not be used in an aboveboard manner. They specialized in forbidden death spells and extremely bloody magic experiments. Sweetbow explained to Greyson that although the Midnight Order was demonized throughout the world, every country and powerful family had shady dealings with them. Assassinations, hard to obtain goods, slaves, even new experimental equipment. As they are not bound by any moral constructs, although unsavory, the Order truly makes remarkable discoveries. They also have fatal attraction for people with weak to no talent as there are spells which include killing others to steal talent or use their mana to boost your own. Many wanted criminals were these exact people who continued to kill in order to increase their level.
Pushing the poison out of his system, Greyson quickly grabbed the still sleeping Lucius from the bed and jumped out of the building through the new hole in the wall. He could see many black flying figures twirling around the city with eerie shrieks continuing to echo around. Multiple places in the city were on fire and he could see the blood staining the ground. Spells lit up the sky as the soldiers and families all worked together to defend their home. Pausing in thought, Greyson hesitated to get involved. After all this was not his home and he did not understand the level of the opponents. Would he be running to his death to defend a random city? His morals fought against his rational thinking. Slowly hopping around the city, Greyson saw the corpses on the ground and the crying families. Feeling sicker and sicker, he could not prevent his face from turning pale. Nausea hit him in waves as he could smell the burning flesh and the metallic stench of blood. Knowing he could not ignore the attack with his conscience intact, he hardened his expression before shooting towards the middle of the city.
Finding the open city square, Greyson sat down in the middle and created a metal dome around himself. Trying his best to mentally flip through the spells he learned recently, he finally opened eyes thinking of the correct one. Biting his finger, he started tracing out a mana gathering array to help boost the power of his spell. After he finished the array, Greyson could feel the intense mana flowing towards him. Flipping his hand, Mesmer appeared in his palm. The gentle sound of flute starting to ring out from the square. A beautiful golden light spread out as far as Greyson could push it. Underneath the warm light, the fighting citizens could feel their exhaustion fade, injuries close, and their mana slowly recover. It continued to spread until around half the city was covered by this light. Although he wished he could cover the entire city, even now sweat beaded down his forehead. Without becoming a magister, this area was the limit of his support. Large concentrations of light element radiated from inside the metal dome. Even Greyson could not believe that the support spells he learned would come in handy so quickly. He was worried before that he wasted his time learning them.
As he expected, attacks soon began to bombard the shield he put up earlier. Trying his best to keep his concentration, Greyson continued to play to try to lengthen the time people could run under the light to heal. He knew he could not keep the spell up for long, but just this amount of time could make the world of difference. Dent after dent appeared on the shield as the ground shook. Feeling the weakness in the shield, Greyson finally pulled the flute from his lips and the gold light began to recede from all parts of the city. Putting away his flute, he pulled out Genesis. Allow the shield to fall away, he spun and sent wind blades in all directions. Only a couple of the group fell to the ground from the attack, however, Greyson still counted around 10 surrounding him. Preparing himself, he could not help but inwardly sigh. The mana gathering array definitely assisted him greatly, but his mana stores were still half gone. Pushing any thoughts of regret from his mind, sharp fighting intent radiated from his eyes. Before he could attack, though, a horn sounded. Almost immediately, all the attackers broke the charm on their necks and their bodies faded into the shadows disappearing. The fighting came to a dead stop.
Confused, Greyson could not understand what just occurred yet. They came suddenly and left just as quickly. As he reflected on this to himself, a bunch of flying figures came towards him. Landing on the ground, Greyson finally looked up due to the noise. He recognized the Greentree family head as one of the people. He stood behind the man in the lead and with three other figures. The one in front was surprisingly a middle-aged, average-looking woman with deep red hair and brown eyes. Not an ounce of warmth could be seen from her expression as anger pulsated off her person. Greyson glanced at the three other people. One was a decrepit old man, the other a good-looking young man, and lastly a beautiful woman. Put together with the Greentree family head and leading lady, they made an oddly mismatching group.
"Ahem, uh, Greyson, we would like to know if you saw who cast the light spell earlier." Stepping forward and breaking the silence, the Greentree head coughed awkwardly before questioning Greyson.
Raising an eyebrow, Greyson looked at them with slight irony in his eyes.
"Well I would not say I saw him per se, but I definitely know who it was."
"You know him?! Great, could you tell us?"
"Of course, you are looking at him." Finally, unable to continue in this play, Greyson just honestly told them. He was curious as to why they were looking for him instead of the Midnight Order that just came and attacked. All five of the group's eyes widened as they looked Greyson up and down. Feeling slightly peeved by the obvious disbelief in their eyes, Greyson's brows furrowed.
"Greentree Family Head..." Greyson began.
"Please, just call me Rollin."
"Mr. Greentree, I believe you witnessed me using light magic before. I don't see why this comes as such a surprise." Feeling that they were not on a first name basis, Greyson kept the address simple. Looking slightly embarrassed by Greyson obviously drawing a line, Rollin just laughed to break up the atmosphere.
"Ah, yes, however, your level was not high enough for such a large and sustained output of mana for that kind of large spell."
"Oh, well, I guess that is true. I used a mana gathering array to boost the power and range of my spell." Seeing the man's point, Greyson just shrugged and explained simply. Understanding dawned on the group's faces as appreciation filled their eyes. Suddenly, the cold-looking woman at the front walked in front of Greyson and bowed deeply. The rest of the group looked shocked as if they wanted to stop her, but, after thinking for a moment, they followed her lead and also bowed towards Greyson. Not sure how to react, Greyson quickly motioned with his hand. Supported by a gust of wind, all of their bodies once again straightened.
"There is no need for this. I just could not stand by and watch all this happen with a peaceful conscious." Scratching his head, Greyson glanced in a different direction. Noticing Greyson's embarrassment, the beautiful lady in the group covered her mouth and began to giggle.
"A real cute kid, aren't you? Auntie, here, really appreciates your efforts. Our City Lord and us, Family Heads, are thanking you from the bottom of our hearts. A lot of lives in this city and a large portion of our fighting forces were saved through your spell. The results of today's surprise attack would have been much grimmer without your help." Although she began speaking in a light-hearted tone, the further she spoke, the heavier and heavier her tone got. By the end, her beautiful face showed signs of uncontrollable rage. The rest of the group also grit their teeth and clenched their fists angrily. Noticing their outrage, Greyson could not hold in his curiosity.
"Why did the Midnight Order attack?" After he spoke, all their faces turned ugly.
"They wanted to steal the heart of our city: the seven-petaled Rainbow Flower. The faction of the Order that attacked was the Poison Corps. We think they must have lusted after the flower for some type of powerful poison, or maybe a medicine that they received a request to make. They distracted everyone by attacking the civilians first and some people sneaked into the City Lord's mansion and dug out the flower. If you try, you could feel the mana density of our city has dropped dramatically. The original founder of Iris City found the seed to this flower and grew the city with the flower as its foundation. A rare and long-living flower like this one blesses the city with high mana density and even the beautiful rainbow-like colors all over the city." Rollin was the one who ended up answering Greyson after a long pause. His eyes widening in surprise, Greyson did as Rollin suggested and tried to meditate. A couple seconds later, his eyes shot back open as disbelief filled them. Rollin was correct, the city itself felt much more barren of mana than before. There was still much more mana here than say Edysa Kingdom, but it was nowhere near what it was before. Greyson could even feel that the mana was continually decreasing without getting replenished. Sweetbow had taught him about such situations. The entire Elf Empire was an example. They were extremely close with the Fey race. Young Fey cannot transform out of their plant form and require a lot of time and mana to be able to mature. Therefore, they usually request their friends, the elves, to allocate their young to different cities. These young Fey would help the cities create dense mana environments while the city would protect that plant with their lives to allow it to eventually mature. The cycle has continued for centuries. A lot of other kingdoms just use large advanced mana gathering arrays to make their cities dense with mana since these kinds of plants which create such a naturally amazing environment are extremely rare and coveted.
"The Poison Corps..." Tracing his hand against his neck where the old wound was, Greyson definitely believed this assessment. Although they were not the most powerful Corps of the Order, they were still extremely dangerous because as long there were not skilled light magicians or physicians present, entire cities could fall to their poison. Thinking up to this point, Greyson realized another issue.
"Why did they actually attack? Don't the Poison Corps specialize in large scale sneak attacks where they just release their poison into the city and kill off everyone silently. Plus, those Terrors are usually used by the Nocte Corps." Shivering slightly listening to his own words, Greyson remembered how frightening it sounded when Sweetbow told him of the Poison Corps modus operandi.
"We were shocked by this, as well. They used their poison to sneak into the mansion to steal the flower which is why we were not notified by anyone of their attack. Almost all the guards in the City Lord's mansion are dead. We were misled by the screeches of the Terrors that it was the Nocte Corps attacking who specialize in just straightforward killing. We thought we would have to battle with them and did not think to defend the mansion. The Poison Corps must have pulled in a favor with the Nocte Corps to be allowed to use the precious Terrors." Helplessness filled Rollin's eyes as he continued explaining. Everyone's faces turned grim, especially the City Lord's. On mention of her mansion's guards, glistening tears could be seen to appear on her eyes. However, the minute they appeared she forced them back down.
"Hello, Greyson, I am the City Lord of Iris, Brynn Fenmyar. I am eternally grateful for the assistance you provided to our city. I would normally award you in this type of situation, however, our city's condition is too serious for any celebrations as of yet. I can, though, still afford to give you an award for your help. To just send you away without anything does not sit well with me." The red-haired woman soon spoke up and introduced herself. Flipping her hand, a sack appeared in her hand. Opening the strings, the City Lord soon pulled out an object. Looking closely, Greyson saw a beautiful flower petal in her hand. Shocked, Greyson could see that the petal glowed a rainbow of colors allowing him to quickly associate this petal with a shocking name in his head.
"This is an old petal that dropped off the Seven-Petaled Rainbow Flower. It has amazing healing properties and also works wonders if you are in need of a sudden refill of mana." Confirming his thoughts, City Lord Fenmyar introduced the petal before handing it off to Greyson. At first, Greyson thought about denying the flower since he did not help them for a reward, however, after hearing the effects, he could not help but look down at the still sleeping Lucius on his chest. Annoying as he felt this cat could be awake, without his constant presence and advice, Greyson felt slightly lost. Not that he could not make decisions on his own, it just felt good to consult with someone he could completely trust. This petal would probably be able to expedite Lucius waking up by a lot. Greyson was in the dungeon for close to five months and Lucius only woke up around the last month of that time which could mean that Greyson would have to keep waiting for a couple months under normal circumstances for Lucius to wake up.
Sorting his thoughts, he decided to reach out and accept the petal. The rest of the group's expressions also relaxed seeing Greyson accept the gift. They were worried he would be too adamant about not taking a gift as they were happier to give Greyson a gift then to have to owe him some kind of favor. As ungrateful as their thoughts might be, too many cities have fallen into difficult situations due to vague promises of owing someone a favor. Greyson did not happen to notice their expressions so he had no idea of the complicated thoughts in their minds.
"Mr. Greentree, I actually would like to take this moment to inform you that I am going to head out today. Since I have already received what I was searching for and battled your son, I accomplished all my goals for staying in this city." I also do not want to stay in such a chaotic and half destroyed city. Greyson decidedly swallowed these last words and hid his real reason for leaving now. "Thank you for your great hospitality over these past few days."
Seemingly exhausted after such a crazy night, the Greentree family head just nodded and smiled.
"I am glad that we could host such a talented magician as yourself. It seems I also did the city a favor by keeping you around. Hopefully, we can meet again at better times."
Not making any effort to keep Greyson, Rollin just waved and walked off with the rest of the group. They all nodded and waved goodbye to Greyson, as well. Too much of the city was damaged with their citizens scared and in shock. They could not split their attention to other matters at this point. Understanding their situation, Greyson just smiled and nodded his head back before flying through the city and jumping past the crumbling gate. After looking through multiple maps during his time in Iris, Greyson already planned out the rest of his journey. Heading towards the southwest direction, Greyson looked back at the destroyed city. In the shine of the dawning sun, the beautiful city of yesteryear that he saw upon his arrival was already gone. A slightly depressed expression appeared on his face. He could not understand quite how he felt about the Midnight Order. Not all of them were crazy murderers, some were genius creators or outcasts that other races and kingdoms did not accept. His teacher did not seem to actually hate the Order as much as other people did. In effect, Greyson was also not completely against their existence either. Only, after actually experiencing this attack, he became unsure of his earlier acceptance.
His deep rest lasted until the complete dark of night arrived. In the midst of eerie silence, sudden shrieks and screams echoed throughout the Iris City. Bolting upright, Greyson blocked his ears and fought the disorientation after just waking up. Bewildered, he quickly walked towards the nearest window to take a look at the situation. Instincts acting up, he dove backwards away from the window right before a loud explosion blew apart that side of the wall. Eyes adjusting to the dark, Greyson's eyes darted around to find any traces of an enemy, however, he could not react until he saw the cold gleam of a blade slicing towards his neck. Hairs standing on end, Greyson rolled backwards to dodge. A cold trickle of blood ran down his neck as Greyson pulled his hand up to run his fingers across the spot. His face immediately turned ugly, however, when he felt the quick paralyzing of his neck. Poison! A sinking thought ran through his mind thinking through the entire scenario. Almost on cue, the echoing screams grew closer and a horrifyingly deformed flying creature with no eyes approached and allowed a dark cloaked man to hop onto its back."Midnight... Order..." Revolving his light element, Greyson struggled to get his words out of his restricted throat. Blood red eyes stared back at him before flying off. Even Greyson was shocked that his first encounter with this group would be so random. Sweetbow spoke to him about the most dangerous group around the world. The Midnight Order did not belong to any specific country and instead had thousands of branches all around since their power could not be used in an aboveboard manner. They specialized in forbidden death spells and extremely bloody magic experiments. Sweetbow explained to Greyson that although the Midnight Order was demonized throughout the world, every country and powerful family had shady dealings with them. Assassinations, hard to obtain goods, slaves, even new experimental equipment. As they are not bound by any moral constructs, although unsavory, the Order truly makes remarkable discoveries. They also have fatal attraction for people with weak to no talent as there are spells which include killing others to steal talent or use their mana to boost your own. Many wanted criminals were these exact people who continued to kill in order to increase their level.Pushing the poison out of his system, Greyson quickly grabbed the still sleeping Lucius from the bed and jumped out of the building through the new hole in the wall. He could see many black flying figures twirling around the city with eerie shrieks continuing to echo around. Multiple places in the city were on fire and he could see the blood staining the ground. Spells lit up the sky as the soldiers and families all worked together to defend their home. Pausing in thought, Greyson hesitated to get involved. After all this was not his home and he did not understand the level of the opponents. Would he be running to his death to defend a random city? His morals fought against his rational thinking. Slowly hopping around the city, Greyson saw the corpses on the ground and the crying families. Feeling sicker and sicker, he could not prevent his face from turning pale. Nausea hit him in waves as he could smell the burning flesh and the metallic stench of blood. Knowing he could not ignore the attack with his conscience intact, he hardened his expression before shooting towards the middle of the city.Finding the open city square, Greyson sat down in the middle and created a metal dome around himself. Trying his best to mentally flip through the spells he learned recently, he finally opened eyes thinking of the correct one. Biting his finger, he started tracing out a mana gathering array to help boost the power of his spell. After he finished the array, Greyson could feel the intense mana flowing towards him. Flipping his hand, Mesmer appeared in his palm. The gentle sound of flute starting to ring out from the square. A beautiful golden light spread out as far as Greyson could push it. Underneath the warm light, the fighting citizens could feel their exhaustion fade, injuries close, and their mana slowly recover. It continued to spread until around half the city was covered by this light. Although he wished he could cover the entire city, even now sweat beaded down his forehead. Without becoming a magister, this area was the limit of his support. Large concentrations of light element radiated from inside the metal dome. Even Greyson could not believe that the support spells he learned would come in handy so quickly. He was worried before that he wasted his time learning them.As he expected, attacks soon began to bombard the shield he put up earlier. Trying his best to keep his concentration, Greyson continued to play to try to lengthen the time people could run under the light to heal. He knew he could not keep the spell up for long, but just this amount of time could make the world of difference. Dent after dent appeared on the shield as the ground shook. Feeling the weakness in the shield, Greyson finally pulled the flute from his lips and the gold light began to recede from all parts of the city. Putting away his flute, he pulled out Genesis. Allow the shield to fall away, he spun and sent wind blades in all directions. Only a couple of the group fell to the ground from the attack, however, Greyson still counted around 10 surrounding him. Preparing himself, he could not help but inwardly sigh. The mana gathering array definitely assisted him greatly, but his mana stores were still half gone. Pushing any thoughts of regret from his mind, sharp fighting intent radiated from his eyes. Before he could attack, though, a horn sounded. Almost immediately, all the attackers broke the charm on their necks and their bodies faded into the shadows disappearing. The fighting came to a dead stop.Confused, Greyson could not understand what just occurred yet. They came suddenly and left just as quickly. As he reflected on this to himself, a bunch of flying figures came towards him. Landing on the ground, Greyson finally looked up due to the noise. He recognized the Greentree family head as one of the people. He stood behind the man in the lead and with three other figures. The one in front was surprisingly a middle-aged, average-looking woman with deep red hair and brown eyes. Not an ounce of warmth could be seen from her expression as anger pulsated off her person. Greyson glanced at the three other people. One was a decrepit old man, the other a good-looking young man, and lastly a beautiful woman. Put together with the Greentree family head and leading lady, they made an oddly mismatching group."Ahem, uh, Greyson, we would like to know if you saw who cast the light spell earlier." Stepping forward and breaking the silence, the Greentree head coughed awkwardly before questioning Greyson.Raising an eyebrow, Greyson looked at them with slight irony in his eyes."Well I would not say I saw him per se, but I definitely know who it was.""You know him?! Great, could you tell us?""Of course, you are looking at him." Finally, unable to continue in this play, Greyson just honestly told them. He was curious as to why they were looking for him instead of the Midnight Order that just came and attacked. All five of the group's eyes widened as they looked Greyson up and down. Feeling slightly peeved by the obvious disbelief in their eyes, Greyson's brows furrowed."Greentree Family Head..." Greyson began."Please, just call me Rollin.""Mr. Greentree, I believe you witnessed me using light magic before. I don't see why this comes as such a surprise." Feeling that they were not on a first name basis, Greyson kept the address simple. Looking slightly embarrassed by Greyson obviously drawing a line, Rollin just laughed to break up the atmosphere."Ah, yes, however, your level was not high enough for such a large and sustained output of mana for that kind of large spell.""Oh, well, I guess that is true. I used a mana gathering array to boost the power and range of my spell." Seeing the man's point, Greyson just shrugged and explained simply. Understanding dawned on the group's faces as appreciation filled their eyes. Suddenly, the cold-looking woman at the front walked in front of Greyson and bowed deeply. The rest of the group looked shocked as if they wanted to stop her, but, after thinking for a moment, they followed her lead and also bowed towards Greyson. Not sure how to react, Greyson quickly motioned with his hand. Supported by a gust of wind, all of their bodies once again straightened."There is no need for this. I just could not stand by and watch all this happen with a peaceful conscious." Scratching his head, Greyson glanced in a different direction. Noticing Greyson's embarrassment, the beautiful lady in the group covered her mouth and began to giggle."A real cute kid, aren't you? Auntie, here, really appreciates your efforts. Our City Lord and us, Family Heads, are thanking you from the bottom of our hearts. A lot of lives in this city and a large portion of our fighting forces were saved through your spell. The results of today's surprise attack would have been much grimmer without your help." Although she began speaking in a light-hearted tone, the further she spoke, the heavier and heavier her tone got. By the end, her beautiful face showed signs of uncontrollable rage. The rest of the group also grit their teeth and clenched their fists angrily. Noticing their outrage, Greyson could not hold in his curiosity."Why did the Midnight Order attack?" After he spoke, all their faces turned ugly."They wanted to steal the heart of our city: the seven-petaled Rainbow Flower. The faction of the Order that attacked was the Poison Corps. We think they must have lusted after the flower for some type of powerful poison, or maybe a medicine that they received a request to make. They distracted everyone by attacking the civilians first and some people sneaked into the City Lord's mansion and dug out the flower. If you try, you could feel the mana density of our city has dropped dramatically. The original founder of Iris City found the seed to this flower and grew the city with the flower as its foundation. A rare and long-living flower like this one blesses the city with high mana density and even the beautiful rainbow-like colors all over the city." Rollin was the one who ended up answering Greyson after a long pause. His eyes widening in surprise, Greyson did as Rollin suggested and tried to meditate. A couple seconds later, his eyes shot back open as disbelief filled them. Rollin was correct, the city itself felt much more barren of mana than before. There was still much more mana here than say Edysa Kingdom, but it was nowhere near what it was before. Greyson could even feel that the mana was continually decreasing without getting replenished. Sweetbow had taught him about such situations. The entire Elf Empire was an example. They were extremely close with the Fey race. Young Fey cannot transform out of their plant form and require a lot of time and mana to be able to mature. Therefore, they usually request their friends, the elves, to allocate their young to different cities. These young Fey would help the cities create dense mana environments while the city would protect that plant with their lives to allow it to eventually mature. The cycle has continued for centuries. A lot of other kingdoms just use large advanced mana gathering arrays to make their cities dense with mana since these kinds of plants which create such a naturally amazing environment are extremely rare and coveted."The Poison Corps..." Tracing his hand against his neck where the old wound was, Greyson definitely believed this assessment. Although they were not the most powerful Corps of the Order, they were still extremely dangerous because as long there were not skilled light magicians or physicians present, entire cities could fall to their poison. Thinking up to this point, Greyson realized another issue."Why did they actually attack? Don't the Poison Corps specialize in large scale sneak attacks where they just release their poison into the city and kill off everyone silently. Plus, those Terrors are usually used by the Nocte Corps." Shivering slightly listening to his own words, Greyson remembered how frightening it sounded when Sweetbow told him of the Poison Corps modus operandi."We were shocked by this, as well. They used their poison to sneak into the mansion to steal the flower which is why we were not notified by anyone of their attack. Almost all the guards in the City Lord's mansion are dead. We were misled by the screeches of the Terrors that it was the Nocte Corps attacking who specialize in just straightforward killing. We thought we would have to battle with them and did not think to defend the mansion. The Poison Corps must have pulled in a favor with the Nocte Corps to be allowed to use the precious Terrors." Helplessness filled Rollin's eyes as he continued explaining. Everyone's faces turned grim, especially the City Lord's. On mention of her mansion's guards, glistening tears could be seen to appear on her eyes. However, the minute they appeared she forced them back down."Hello, Greyson, I am the City Lord of Iris, Brynn Fenmyar. I am eternally grateful for the assistance you provided to our city. I would normally award you in this type of situation, however, our city's condition is too serious for any celebrations as of yet. I can, though, still afford to give you an award for your help. To just send you away without anything does not sit well with me." The red-haired woman soon spoke up and introduced herself. Flipping her hand, a sack appeared in her hand. Opening the strings, the City Lord soon pulled out an object. Looking closely, Greyson saw a beautiful flower petal in her hand. Shocked, Greyson could see that the petal glowed a rainbow of colors allowing him to quickly associate this petal with a shocking name in his head."This is an old petal that dropped off the Seven-Petaled Rainbow Flower. It has amazing healing properties and also works wonders if you are in need of a sudden refill of mana." Confirming his thoughts, City Lord Fenmyar introduced the petal before handing it off to Greyson. At first, Greyson thought about denying the flower since he did not help them for a reward, however, after hearing the effects, he could not help but look down at the still sleeping Lucius on his chest. Annoying as he felt this cat could be awake, without his constant presence and advice, Greyson felt slightly lost. Not that he could not make decisions on his own, it just felt good to consult with someone he could completely trust. This petal would probably be able to expedite Lucius waking up by a lot. Greyson was in the dungeon for close to five months and Lucius only woke up around the last month of that time which could mean that Greyson would have to keep waiting for a couple months under normal circumstances for Lucius to wake up.Sorting his thoughts, he decided to reach out and accept the petal. The rest of the group's expressions also relaxed seeing Greyson accept the gift. They were worried he would be too adamant about not taking a gift as they were happier to give Greyson a gift then to have to owe him some kind of favor. As ungrateful as their thoughts might be, too many cities have fallen into difficult situations due to vague promises of owing someone a favor. Greyson did not happen to notice their expressions so he had no idea of the complicated thoughts in their minds."Mr. Greentree, I actually would like to take this moment to inform you that I am going to head out today. Since I have already received what I was searching for and battled your son, I accomplished all my goals for staying in this city." I also do not want to stay in such a chaotic and half destroyed city. Greyson decidedly swallowed these last words and hid his real reason for leaving now. "Thank you for your great hospitality over these past few days."Seemingly exhausted after such a crazy night, the Greentree family head just nodded and smiled."I am glad that we could host such a talented magician as yourself. It seems I also did the city a favor by keeping you around. Hopefully, we can meet again at better times."Not making any effort to keep Greyson, Rollin just waved and walked off with the rest of the group. They all nodded and waved goodbye to Greyson, as well. Too much of the city was damaged with their citizens scared and in shock. They could not split their attention to other matters at this point. Understanding their situation, Greyson just smiled and nodded his head back before flying through the city and jumping past the crumbling gate. After looking through multiple maps during his time in Iris, Greyson already planned out the rest of his journey. Heading towards the southwest direction, Greyson looked back at the destroyed city. In the shine of the dawning sun, the beautiful city of yesteryear that he saw upon his arrival was already gone. A slightly depressed expression appeared on his face. He could not understand quite how he felt about the Midnight Order. Not all of them were crazy murderers, some were genius creators or outcasts that other races and kingdoms did not accept. His teacher did not seem to actually hate the Order as much as other people did. In effect, Greyson was also not completely against their existence either. Only, after actually experiencing this attack, he became unsure of his earlier acceptance.
