A beautiful golden dome. That's what Arthur's barrier looked like from the outside. Even in the middle of the night, it was shining brighter than the sun during the day. Inside the shield, the tired knights and villagers gathered up together in one place and enjoyed their dinner together. Although they were in the middle of a vicious battle with the monsters, the momentary peace and quiet calmed their soul.Arthur came back after putting up the shield and was quietly standing guard a few feet away from Ian and the kids. The people from Arthur's party all stood quietly behind him since they didn't know what else to do."Brother..""They keep staring.."Ash and Louid whispered one after the other as they took a peak at Arthur. Ian was currently busy preparing their dinner and avoiding the intruders. The intruders being Arthur and his party, and Miss Rianne and her people. Just on the opposite side from Arthur, Rianne was also quietly helping her people make dinner while frequently ta
'Why is your soul in such a unsteady state? You okay?'The Phoenix asked as it felt the tremor in Ian's soul. He was worried since Ian was blocking him from reading his mind so he didn't know what Ian was thinking.It wasn't exactly Ian's doing either. Whenever he thought about the novel, an invisible barrier would appear automatically over his thoughts and block everyone out. Ian assumed that it probably had something to do with the change in dimensions and didn't pry further. But at times like these, he'd feel a stronger connection to Noah than Ian, the person he was compared to the one he is now. 'I'm fine. Just a little overwhelmed I guess?'Ian wondered to himself as he answered the Phoenix. After Ian was done serving food for Arthur, that guy started helping Ian serve food to everyone using his wind. Everything was over in a second before Ian even realized what was happening."Thanks..."Ian plopped down near the kids since he had nothing more to do and started eating his dinn
"There. Please enjoy."Ian stepped back after handing over a huge amount of food to Rianne and wished her a nice dinner before he returned back to his seat."Is that a space ring?""Hm? Oh yes."Erza asked, curious. She had never seen one before in her life. The only time she heard about them was when reading a history book. They were pretty hard to find and could be counted with one's fingers. "The food stored remained hot?"She asked, naturally curious."Yes. Hot remains hot and Ice never melts."Ian answered as he took out a bowl of shaved ice and a bowl of hot soup both at the same time. One was steaming hot while the other was freezing cold. "Would you like to try some?""Can I?!"She came closer and took a closer look at the food, easily getting distracted from the ring that she was initially curious about. "Sure."Ian handed her the two bowls and patted her head before moving on to his own food. As Erza stood there a little dumbfounded, Ian failed to notice her reaction as h
As Arthur strictly refused the help of his teammates and asked them to go back, they could no longer voice any complains and decided to went back to their station. Although they didn't like how stubborn Arthur was, they also had some amount of self awareness. At least, they knew they wouldn't be able to hold the fort for too long, it wasn't their specialty. As a result, even when they were frustrated after feeling so useless, the only thing they could do was follow Arthur's advice. "I'll do it."Just when everyone had decided to go back, someone unexpected stepped forward and took the initiative. The voice was calm and lacked a sense of tension which was weird considering their situation, but it also gave people a feel of fresh air.As they looked back, they could see Ian standing a few steps away from Arthur, hands in his pocket and shoulder relaxed. Seeing Ian offering the same help that they offered moments ago, that too with such confidence and nonchalance, they all couldn't he
"Idiots.."Sierra, the Queen of elves, one of the oldest beings in Arthur's party, also the one who could actually see the situation clearly from the beginning, clicked her tongue as she looked at the other members of her party.She knew from the moment she saw Ian that he wasn't normal. A guy who reeked of death and yet had the purest aura and mana, a mutation that weird was bound to be unnatural, unique. 'Mana never lies.'That's the beliefl of the elves. The purer your mana is, the greater you are. Even when you're killing people or committing atrocious acts, if your mana remains pure, it means your heart isn't tainted. They interpret it as the person doing bad things in the face of an adverse situation and thus, consider him innocent. Elves also has a tradition of choosing their leader by the purity of their mana. And to Sierra, Ian was nothing but a saint, no matter what the other facts said about him. A saint with unmatched power as well. She just couldn't look away. It was t
"Aren't they taking too long?"Ash asked, glancing towards the barrier. He was already done with the book that Ian had given him to pass time, yet none of the people that went outside was back yet.Ian, who was seemingly in a daze, snapped out of it hearing Ash's words. When he looked around, a lot of time had indeed passed. Most of the people inside were either asleep, taking naps to recover their mana, or preparing food for the next morning. Considering the position of the stars and the moon, it was past midnight already, meaning the night was almost over. Ian wondered what happened outside during this whole time as he slowly stood up."Should we go take a look?"Ian asked Ash as the boy gave back the book to Ian for safekeeping. He wanted to re-read it sometimes in the future since he enjoyed the story quite a bit so he placed a small trace of his mana inside it. "Do you want me to go out and take a look, brother?"Ash offered, but Ian simply shook his head and headed towards th
'A monster that can defeat the main character? Now that's interesting..'Ian was thinking to himself while trying to remember the monsters and demons mentioned in the novel.He thought that it might've been possible for Arthur to make a mistake and confuse a demon with a monster. It was a possible scenario for a strong demon to temporarily defeat Arthur. But for a monster to do that, it sounded ridiculous even to Ian. While Arthur's teammates were freaked out and worrying about Arthur, who was practically covered in blood, Ian could only watch from the side and wonder what he should do next. He wanted to go out and take a look, but being in charge of the barrier was turning out to be more restrictive than he imagined. "You alright now?"Ian thought up an idea immediately though. He approached Arthur and stretched out an arm to help him stand up. After drinking the highest grade potion that Ian handed him a while ago, most of Arthur's injuries were almost healed. From the look of i
"Rio?"As Ian stood there speechless at the arrival of this unexpected presence, the party on the receiving end of his confusion smiled the sweetest smile when they net eyes with Ian. "Hey.. Long time no see."But before that person could even properly greet Ian, someone came and blocked Ian's view completely. As the smell of blood reached Ian's nose, he recognised the red that he saw in front of him as the bloodied back of Arthur's. "Young master.. Please get away.. That guy is dangerous.""Brother..""Who is it?"While Arthur was busy warning Ian about the danger of the unknown that stood before them, Ash, Louis and the rest had also arrived and stood by Ian's side before he knew it.Although not as panicked as the rest, even some of Ian's teammates looked fairly creeped out by the presence of something so abominable. Ian couldn't sense it before, but the aura and presence Rio was giving off was indeed those of a monsters. That twisted mana, and those blood red eyes, it should've