The Runic Alchemist - Chapter 955 955: Nation At War 7

Midnight, atop the North-West Runic wall, Tower 27, Yomi.

Pulling the coat more closely, Yomi walked slowly along the wide walkway of the ridiculously large wall. At every half a kilometer, she came across men of her guild holding onto the metal runic weapons Sanctuary had given them. A person can only use the weapon assigned to them and none other, they said. And it was true.

Each weapon recognized the first person who channeled mana inside as its owner. Even Yomi had a handy, cool metal piece strapped to her waist. But the thing was, the mana it had inside could only last for a dozen activations. That will never be enough.

‘Why would the greatest rune smith to ever live not make good weapons for his own people?’

If Damian had given his sister a bunch of weapons, she might have survived long enough to use her waygate. It was unfair of her to blame him, Yomi knew. Damian had delayed the exploration project for months when her sister and her ship went missing. The entire fleet searched day and night and found nothing.

No waygates reached her, and they never found anything belonging to her ship or herself, even deep underwater. It was like she vanished into thin air.

She was not alone. Yomi thought of many a time to tell that to the dark runesmith, but every time, she just could not go through with it. Why say it just to hurt him more? Her sister’s disappearance was not his fault.

Yomi had come to respect her guild leader, Elias, and Lumi. Staying with them, she had seen sides of the annoyingly beautiful Void King her sister once spoke of.

“There you are,” Yomi heard the familiar voice from afar. She knew who it would be before turning back.

Kora was with her. So were all of her guild members. The Tower 27 was given to their guild for command. Elias and Lumi were checking and manning its defenses for hours now. Yomi was an archer; her duty was to lead the wall guards and the Tower entrance. The caution against their own people, controlled by the gods, was on the same level as that for the Empire and the Faerunian army soldiers.

One wrong person being controlled, working against them at a crucial point, could take hundreds of thousands of lives. Their guild, however, fortunately, had five times as many mundanes as pathfinders. All were armed to deal with anyone acting suspiciously.

That wasn’t the only thing. Her blessings were not from Sun God or Astraea, it was from the last one, the hidden one. The God of Chaos. She had confided that in Damian Sunblade and then her guild companions. All of whom told her to ignore it. There were a few runic tools Damian had given her, which operated on intent. If her body ever lost control, she could use those to restrain herself at least.

“This place is a maze,” Kora said in that boyish voice of his. Even a man grown, a tall and muscled one at that, he still held onto his childish side.

At times, Yomi was glad he had not changed much, even though it sometimes annoyed her. It was a good annoyance, though.

“Why are you here, alone?” Kora asked, falling beside her as she continued walking under the moonlight.

“We are supposed to guard this place,” Yomi replied.

“If you want to make a round, flying would have been easier and much faster, I believe.” The pugilist said.

She wanted to walk alone; they had been surrounded by people since the very morning. Someone like her, who barely interacted with people, it was too much. She needed peace. Of course, explaining that to Kora was like hitting her head on the wall.

“Will Sanctuary still remain after everything is over?” She changed the subject.

“If it were just us against the mainland, I wouldn’t doubt for a second. Addition of Eldoris wouldn’t change much.”

“But..?” She urged.

“After hearing everything about the gods, I don’t know. A fourth ranker is already a monstrous thing; a fifth ranker has to be unreasonably powerful.”

“They are bullies,” Yomi stated.

“Aye, but bullies with godly powers. But don’t you worry, we can easily escape to any dungeon. Travelling dungeon to dungeon is fast enough with that Dungeon Lord runic tool.”

Yes. But the tool works on mana. And it depends if they will survive long enough outside dungeons to change dungeons for continued survival. There was a reason why Sanctum dismissed that strategy for the mass evacuation of their people.

Yomi felt a sudden chill. She turned around with Kora. The men were doing their duty as ordered; there was no need to check anymore. She still needed to see some things done as part of her preparation for the third line of wall defence.

“What’s that?” Kora’s words drew her attention, and she followed his gaze. In the far distance, where deep forest rested in shadows, a large purple waterfall of glowing lights made her squint.

What the hell was that? It wasn’t there a few seconds ago. The very next moment, loud alarms startled her very soul out of her body. The entire wall and Highland Reach were blasting the loud alarm as bright runic lights began to shine one after another, chasing darkness away from the wall.

Yomi immediately activated her receiver and saw the source of the purple waterfall much more clearly now.

A rift in the space-time. It stretched for kilometers, and knights clad in ruby red armor and dark swords were marching out of it, accompanied by giant fire-breathing ugly monsters and red priests without any armor or weapons riding atop some of them. The scene shifted to show the men from two armies, who they had been keeping an eye on for the better part of the day, following the blood-red army.

The entire land shook beneath the rhythmic charge of the giant army and hundreds of giant scaled monsters.

No! This can’t be! They were not supposed to be here for four more days!