Chương 29: Is There Someone Else Up There We Can Talk To?

"Look, it's not that I don't think you're strong… All I'm saying is a horse sized duck is a lot bigger than you think."

"Perhaps… but if I don't have my sword in this situation, I'd prefer only having to focus on a single enemy than trying to deal with such a large group of smaller ones. Though I maintain my point that I would never have been caught out in the wilderness without my sword in the first place."

"It's a hypothetical question Alka, not an actual situation. I already told you, they're just silly questions you ask friends to pass the time. It's like me asking if you would rather have an extra eye or an extra ear."

"... Can I see out of-"" Ancient One's sap, you both suck," Shia sighed, glaring at the two of them as they snickered. After the waves of monsters finally began thinning out, Vin had introduced Alka to the concept of would you rather from Earth to pass the time, and the ghost had immediately become enamored with the game.

Of course, she played it from the viewpoint that there was only one correct answer to each of the questions and anyone who argued otherwise was a fool, but at least it made their trek more entertaining. Still recovering from her mana headache, Shia had been less than amused.

"Come on Shia, it's fun!" Alka said, grinning as she floated over to the grimacing elf.

"Give it a try! Would you rather kill a rockhead with a spear, or kill a slenderbelly with a hammer?"

"Uh, that's not really how you play the game," Vin pointed out.

"... and I don't think she knows what those creatures are."

"So? You think I know what a duck is?"" Thank the trees I see something!" Shia shouted, pointing off into the distance, clearly relieved to be done with this conversation. Shia's focus attribute must have still been higher than Vin's, because even with her pointing it out it took another minute before he could make out anything more than a far off white splotch. Off in the distance stood some sort of fortress spanning miles wide.

A huge, white wall topped with ramparts and the occasional guard tower stretched across the horizon, dwarfing the handful of trees growing close to it. Vin could just make out a massive gate set into the wall that would have allowed a pair of eighteen wheelers to enter the fortress side by side with room to spare. Though at the moment, the monstrous gate was clearly sealed shut.

"That's one hell of a wall," Alka whistled, looking surprised.

"Huh, I can still whistle as a ghost? That's kinda strange."

"That wall has to be surrounding an area at least a few times larger than my entire village," Shia said, ignoring Alka's comment as she stared at the fortress in awe. Even from this distance the size of the wall was unnerving.

"How long would it even take to construct such a thing?"

"I think some classes work really well with stone," Vin commented, thinking back to the first allies he'd made on this new world as he felt his teaching artifact bump against his back with every step. He really needed to return that sooner than later; doubly so now that he actually understood how important it was.

"More importantly, that gate looks pretty shut to me. I hope that's only so they can show off to travelers how amazing it must look when they open it."

"I wouldn't get your hopes up," Alka said, squinting at the gate.

"I didn't invest all that many points into focus, but I think I know a group of dead bodies when I see one."

"What?" Following Alka's gaze, Vin pulled his attention from the amazing work of architecture to the land leading up to the gate. Sure enough, he thought he could just barely make out what looked like a handful of crumpled figures scattered around in the grass directly before the sealed gate.

"Well… that can't be good."

"For all we know they were bandits or something, and the people inside the wall were just defending themselves," Shia pointed out, before pausing to glance at the size of the wall once again.

"... Really, really, stupid bandits."

"Well we can't very well come all this way and not introduce ourselves," Vin sighed.

"Especially if they're trigger happy. The whole point of my exploring is to figure out what threats surround us after all. I don't think Spur will be happy if these guys sortie out and attack us from behind while we're distracted building our camp." He paused, looking toward his companions.

"Did I use that word right? Sortie? I met a guy in New Jersey once who was really into LARPing. Pretty much anything I know about castle warfare comes from him."

"I don't know what LARPing is, but yeah that's what a sortie is," Shia confirmed.

"The Sacred Forest has essentially been at a constant war with the surrounding kingdoms for the last few centuries, so I'm pretty familiar with wartime vernacular. The only reason things died down the past couple of years was the dramatic increase in monster attacks. We were all too busy trying to survive to waste time killing each other."

"Man, that sucks," Alka grimaced.

"Yeah, the increase in monsters wasn't great for my people either. But on the other hand, it did cause the nobles to open up the Slayer Guild to us commoners for the first time, which was pretty fantastic for me seeing as that was my dream and all."

"It was also the reason you were murdered, Alka," Vin pointed out.

"Eh, win some and lose some," the ghost shrugged. Agreeing to at least attempt to speak to someone from the fortress, the three of them made their way over to the giant gate. After a quick discussion, they decided to try and appear as harmless as possible, so Alka went back to echoing Vin for the time being. As they approached, Vin was finally able to make out what exactly had befallen the group of bodies lying outside the gate. Arrows. Arrows had befallen them.

While whoever was manning the gate appeared to be lacking in skill based on the sheer number of arrows sticking out of the ground instead of the bodies, they certainly weren't lacking in ammunition. Thanks to his Tracking skill, a quick glance at the field of death was all Vin needed to put together what happened. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

Based on the scuffs in the dirt and the trail of arrows, it looked as though the group of travelers had first pressed up against the gate in the hopes of somehow forcing their way into the fortress, before finally turning tail and running when the guards eventually opened fire on them.

Of the eight people in the group, two of them had almost made it to safety behind a nearby hill, but they too eventually fell, a half dozen arrows in each of their backs and nearly five times that many scattered across the ground around them. Shuddering at the bloody scene before them, Vin tried to ignore the two bodies farthest from the gate as they walked past, but something familiar caught his eye.

"Hey Shia, look at that," he said, pointing at a few bundles of sticks and leathers that had fallen from their hands.

"Look familiar?" Recognition bloomed in the elf's eyes, and she snapped her fingers.

"The tents from the desert fragment! Guess we know what happened to those guys at least."

"I don't know, that camp looked like it had at least a few dozen people, and I only count eight bodies lying here. Maybe a few of them were allowed into the fortress after all?" The mystery would have to wait however as when the two of them got within about fifty feet of the massive gate a voice called out from somewhere high up within the walls.

"Stop right there if you value your lives!" A deep, powerful voice boomed without a face to match. Only now did Vin realize the walls were covered with a seemingly endless number of murder holes, and he shivered at the thought of countless arrows pumping out of them.

"The Holy Citadel of Entais is currently in lockdown. None may enter or leave the citadel until the lockdown is ended!" Immediately, Vin and Shia looked at one another, and he could actually feel Alka shift around inside him at the news.

"Holy Citadel?" Shia whispered to him, unable to hide her sharp-toothed grin.

"Apologies!" Vin cried out, excited at the prospect of a holy anything.

"We did not know we were encroaching upon the… magnificent citadel of Entais! We are but weary travelers hoping for somewhere to rest for a few days. Is there truly no place for us within your walls?" Vin wasn't sure why, but something about the man's tone made him feel like he needed to speak like an 18th century aristocrat or risk getting turned into a pincushion.

His gut seemed to be correct at least, as no sooner had the words left his mouth that an armored head and shoulders poked itself over the wall, looking down at them. The full plate helm hid most of the man's features, but Vin could make out a long brown beard practically bursting out of the bottom of the helmet.

"Oh? At least you folk speak the holy tongue of Trecor!" The man called down, nearly all of the hostility gone from his voice.

"Those barbarians you see down there only spoke some harsh sounding language I'd never heard of before attempting to force their way into the citadel. It's a shame what we had to do, but none may enter the citadel while it is in lockdown, and they refused to heed our warnings."

"I don't suppose you could tell us why it is in lockdown?" Shia called up, careful to keep her hood up over her head to hide her pointed ears. They hadn't discussed it beforehand, but Vin didn't blame the elf for still being wary of unknown humans. Her people had warred with them for literally thousands of years after all.

"Of course," the man shrugged, seemingly unconcerned by the question.

"No rule against chatting with travelers after all. Honestly, you lot are a sight for sore eyes. The first few weeks of lockdown were interesting, but it's been over three months now!" Sighing, the guard shook his head, his brown beard swishing to and fro.

"Whilst we were busy defending the city from wave after wave of horrific monsters, Arch Cleric Jobiah's voice suddenly boomed across the entire citadel, informing the people that the gods were about to change everything and ordering the citadel into lockdown. No idea what he meant by that, but not moments after, some evil entity stripped our levels from us, and the sea of monsters surrounding us on all sides so thick you could practically walk on them vanished without a trace!"

"Jesus, sounds like their world had it pretty bad," Vin muttered, trying to imagine the sheer number of monsters it would take to surround something as large as the citadel to that extent. Tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands? The inhabitants of every fragment he'd interacted with so far shared similar stories of ever-increasing monsters, but nothing that crazy.

"Goodness, that's terrible!" He called up to the guard.

"But if it's been three months and the monsters all vanished… why are you still in lockdown?" As they watched, the guard seemed to squirm slightly, even going so far as to scratch the side of his helmet with a gauntleted hand.

"It's not the place of one such as myself to question the decisions of the Arch Cleric…" he called back.

"After making their announcement, the Arch Cleric retreated within the citadel's inner walls to the central holy district along with the rest of our divine warriors. We are still waiting for them to leave the holy district and give us further orders, but I'm sure they will come out any day now!"

"Wait…" Shia called up, a hint of excitement in her voice.

"You're saying you haven't even seen your Arch Cleric since you lost your levels? Or your other divine classes for that matter?"

"Correct," the guard nodded.

"We can only assume they are working hard on a way to dispel this curse that has drained us of our levels. We owe our divine warriors our lives many times over, so we shall respect the law and wait for them as long as it takes!" Grabbing his arm, Shia pulled Vin closer, turning to shield her pointed grin from the guard watching them.

"Did you hear that? The moment the reset happened, all the citadel's divine classes vanished without a trace! Sound familiar?"

"Your master," Vin muttered, things slowly clicking into place.

"So he didn't go anywhere on his own… the System moved him somewhere else when it took your fragment. And it must have done the same to everyone else with a divine class as well!"

"That's what I'm thinking," Shia nodded, growing more excited by the moment.

"That means my master probably isn't even on this world right now!"

"Oh… you seem oddly happy about this revelation."

"Are you kidding?" Shia grinned.

"This gives me an actual starting point for my search! My master spoke to me a few times about different planes of existence, even going so far as to hint once or twice about times he traveled across the planes in search of magical plants and reagents for his studies. If he could do it, so can I."

"That's certainly a lofty goal," Vin said, wondering what level you even had to hit in order to cross between worlds.

"... but I'm happy to help however I can!" Suddenly, the realization of what all the divine classes across the world vanishing meant for his other companion, and Vin felt his heart sink.

"Crap… Alka…"' It's fine,'the ghost said, her voice void of any emotion.' Even if what that random guard says is true, and you should really work on not taking everything you hear at face value by the way, I'm sure the Gods left behind a divine artifact or two we could use. We need to get into that holy district.'

"True," he muttered. He felt like he should say more, but he got the feeling Alka didn't want to talk about it. At the same time, the guard finally called back down to them.

"I'm not sure what you're whispering about down there," he shouted, shaking his head.

"... but whatever plan you're trying to come up with won't work. You seem like fine folks, but nothing you say would make me go against a direct order from the Arch Cleric. Apologies, but you'll have to find somewhere else to spend the night."

"We understand!" Shia called up, waving her thanks to the guard.

"We appreciate all the information. Good luck with your shift!" Not waiting for a reply, Shia grabbed Vin's hand and led them away from the wall, withdrawing back past the corpses to the surrounding grasslands.

"You sure you don't even want to try convincing him?" Vin asked, surprised the elf had given up so easily.

"I mean, he probably wasn't going to change his mind, but he seemed like a decent enough guy."

"It doesn't matter that he wouldn't let us in," Shia said, her grin sending its usual chills down Vin's back.

"I have an idea."