Chapter 6: 4 – Glynn and the train [4]

'Shit! I can't dodge it!'

As the tentacle was about to end her life there, Glynn suddenly heard a whooshing sound coming from behind her. Soon, an arrow grazed her left cheek and dug itself into the tentacle, making it fall without any further resistance.

"F-Fuck..." 2419 cursed with his punctured throat, "...I was so close. S-Still, see you in hell soon. Heh, I'll say hi to 712 for you."

Then, his body turned limp once more.

Glynn calmed her wildly beating heart down and walked forward, pulling a shadow weapon out of a tentacle and stabbing it multiple times in 2419's head to make sure that he was really dead. When his head turned into what was basically a bloodied mush of flesh and bones, she heaved a sigh of relief and fell to her knees.

"Thanks, Ava," she muttered.

Ava - the one who fired the arrow - nocked another arrow on her bow and shot at 2419 again just to be sure. Then, she walked up to Glynn and patted her on the head. "I can't believe you messed it up that badly. Don't you remember dad's lessons? Never let your guard down until you confirm that your enemies are dead."

"..."

Seeing that Glynn was still staying silent, Ava spoke again with a concerned tone. "You okay?"

"Yes." Glynn sighed as she finally answered. "I don't mind almost dying there but... that guy reminded me of some very unpleasant memories."

Ava glanced over at the tentacles and nodded her head in understanding. "I get it. He's like the Octopern we struggled to defeat in the forest, huh?"

"Well, I can't deny that he was basically an Octopern with intelligence... but no, it's not that. It's something that happened before I met you."

"...And let me guess, there's no chance you're telling me?"

"You're correct." Glynn nodded with an apologetic look on her face. "I won't tell you or dad... at least not for now. I still haven't gotten over it."

"Alright then. I'll be waiting." Ava smiled. "By the way..." Her lips then curved up into a mischievous smirk. "You looked really cool when you exited our compartment. 'They're weak', 'the compartment being safe is exactly the reason why I can leave without worrying since you'll be safe'. But look at you now, you're pathet—"

"I-I get it! Stop making fun of me!" Glynn quickly got up and covered Ava's mouth.

Giggling, Ava moved Glynn's hand away and spoke, "Then don't go alone next time. I can fight too, you know? Even if I don't like getting into battles, I'm still a hunter like dad."

"O-Okay..." Glynn's face flushed red in embarrassment.

Seeing this, Ava squealed and pulled Glynn into her embrace. She then ruffled her hair and chuckled, "This is why I like Glynn more. Your personality becomes so soft! But Glenn still feels more reliable."

Hearing the names getting mentioned, Glynn's eyes widened in realization. "Right! The fight's over."

Due to the stress and excitement of battle, she had forgotten about how much she hated this form. Thus, now that everything was over, she cheered loudly. "Finally! I can escape this disgusting form and turn back to Glen—"

But before she could finish her sentence, the door of the next compartment was burst open. Glynn instinctively pushed Ava behind her and pulled out a shadow spear from the floor. As the dust settled, she saw a man in black robes ominously walking out from the doorway.

"You!" Glynn widened her eyes in disbelief. "H-How? That compartment is the locomotive! How did you kill the Water mages?!"

"I should be the one asking questions, little girl," spoke the man in a hoarse voice as he crossed his arms together. "How did you kill 2419? Although he's one of the weaker homunculi, Sciencer said that he alone would be enough to kill the princess and finish this mission... It seems like I shouldn't have trusted that bastard's words blindly.

Glynn gulped a mouthful of saliva in nervousness. 'So it is the Chasm of the Abyss!' 

And like everything related to these insane bastards that worshipped the God of the Abyss, Theodris, the man in dark robes was immensely powerful.

'He's a 5th-tier awakened at the very least, and a mage at that!'

Glynn instinctively knew that she couldn't defeat nor run away from him no matter how hard she tried. As such, she only had one option left.

"Ava!" She whispered. "Run away as soon as possible."

"Wh-what are you saying? Do you want to stay behind and hold him back or something?!"

Glynn flinched.

Seeing this, Ava frowned. "So you were planning it after all. I won't leave without you—"

"Ava," Glynn spoke up again. This time, her voice was more serious than ever. "Do I look like an idiot to you? Remember my motto? 'I won't fight the fights I can't win'."

"I've never heard you say that before! B-But if you do, then that means!"

"Yes." She grinned. "I have a plan that ensures our victory. However, it requires me to be alone. Go group up with Hugh and Annie, and hide with them in a secured compartment. Everything will be over before you know it."

Although reluctant, Ava had to listen to Glynn's words. She couldn't come up with any plan after all.

"A- Alright then. Just... be safe, okay."

"Heh, don't worry. I won't die before paying dad back his money."

Ava giggled at the joke Glynn made in such a dire situation and left the compartment. 

With the two of them now alone in the compartment, the robed man uncrossed his arms and laughed. "Pffffft! How amusing! There's no plan, is there? I commend you for your courage, but it's futile. A 6th-tier mage like me can tear this train apart like paper with a snap of my finger, let alone a mere 2nd-tier like you."

"Then why didn't you do so from the beginning? Why waste resources sending all those men here in the first place?"

"Trying to buy time, huh?"

Glynn flinched.

Seeing this, the man laughed again. "Haha, I guess I'll have to fall for your plans and humor you then. You see, our organization doesn't want weaklings in our ranks. We constantly send new recruits on dangerous missions way beyond their level to pick out the strongest, wittiest, and luckiest recruits. Of course, senior members like me are also assigned to those missions to make sure that they still succeed."

'Sounds exactly like the Chasm, alright.'

After all, they were the same bastards that forced Lilith and her to join the Bloody night.

"If you want strong members then... can I join you? I'd be more than happy to do so as long as you spare my sister of course. I don't care about the princess or whoever you're after."

Hearing this, the man stared straight into Glynn's bright-red eyes and shook his head.

"No. Your eyes... they're not filled with excitement, nor are they filled with fear. Instead, only disgust. You're going to backstab us sooner or later if you joined, so it's better to kill you. Anyhow, I've wasted too much time now. Time to kill you and focus back on finishing the job."

"...Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Not working, kid," said the man as he reached into his robes and took out a magic staff. As he was about to point it toward Glynn, however, he suddenly felt an ominous aura emitting from the same girl that he claimed to have been able to kill in a split second.

"Oh." Glynn smirked as she saw the man's expressions harden. "Only realizing it now?"

Tendrils of pure black Mana rose out of her body. Before long, a powerful black geyser descended upon her, painting her surroundings in absolute darkness.

The man... he was scared, so much so that he subconsciously took a step back. Forcibly calming his ragged breathing and wildly beating heart down, he stuttered in absolute shock and horror, "D-Dragon mana?"

"That's correct." Glynn grinned as she slammed the shaft of her spear on the ground. "As you can see, I can tap into all this unrivaled power whenever I want. One flick of my finger and you're gone. Now, I'll be generous and give you a chance. Leave this train now and you may live."

The man frowned as he was about to seriously contemplate Glynn's words. However, he suddenly noticed that Glynn's hands were trembling. Upon closer inspection, he also saw that her eyes were shaking and cold sweats were running down her face. Seeing this, he smirked.

"Unrivaled power, you say?"

"Yes. Now begone or—"

"Bullshit!" He roared as he dashed toward Glynn.

'SHIT! HE FOUND OUT!' Glynn cursed inwardly as she recoiled in surprise.

"You can barely control your power! HAHAHAHAHAHA! For lying bitches like you, I don't even need to use magic! My fists shall be enough!" The man swung his fist at Glynn, his arm wrapped in a thin membrane of blue mana. Dust rose as his attack hit the wall of the compartment instead of Glynn, who had just dashed back.

'That was close! One hit and I'm dead!'

Cold sweat trickled down Glynn's forehead as she looked at the wall, which had just been pulverized, with her mouth agape. Calming herself down, she quickly came up with a plan and muttered.

[Hardshadow]

A faint bluish-black magic circle spread through the floor of the compartment before disappearing. Getting into a fighting stance, Glynn waited as the man pulled his hand out from the wall. 

The man retracted his hand from the pulverized wall and snickered, "Heh, I thought you'd be stupid enough to attack me while I was recovering from my attack."

"You're underestimating me quite a bit," said Glynn as she pointed her shadow spear toward the man. "Come. I'll take your attack head-on this time."

"As you wish!"

The man agglomerated Mana and threw a heavy jab straight at Glynn's face. The shadow made by his big fist grew larger and larger on her face as certain death was flying fast toward her. Staring at his approaching attack with a battle-crazed smile, Glynn raised her spear up and thrust toward his fist. However, it broke into pieces as soon as it made contact, failing to even slow him down a bit.

"Useless! Your life ends here!" The man laughed.

But Glynn merely stayed silent as she quickly willed Shadow mana to make the broken bits of her spear stick to the man's fist. 

Unaware of the Shadow mana that was agglomerating on his fist, the man stuck to his attack and hit Glynn's face. Unlike what he had expected, her head wasn't the thing that turned into a bloodied mush. Instead, it was the hand he used to attack her.

"AHHHHH!" He screamed in agony as he clutched his hand. "HOW?!"

But of course, Glynn wasn't going to blabber about her technique to him. Quickly picking up another shadow spear nearby, she stabbed it into his left eye. Blood gushed out in streams, but Glynn wasn't letting it blind her this time. Despite the damage she had done to his eye, she still couldn't pierce his skull due to the sheer difference in power. As such, she hurriedly pulled the spear out and thrust it into his other eye.

However, the man managed to cast a spell before she could do so.

[Mana chains]

Chains made of pure mana shot out from the magic circles that formed on the floor and tied Glynn's body up. Now suspended in the air, she could do nothing but try to break free of her restraints before the man could recover from his pain.

Of course, she couldn't break free from a 2nd-circle spell that was cast by a 5th-tier mage that quickly and thus, could only watch in horror as the man slowly lifted his head up and gave her a death glare with his remaining eye.

"YOU BITCH! I'LL KILL YOU!"

[Fire b—

But he couldn't finish his chant.

Because as soon as he tried to agglomerate Mana, a bright flash of bright golden light flew through a window, splitting him as well as a part of the train compartment in half. A similarly colored line was drawn vertically on his body, and soon, his flesh split apart and fell to both sides.

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Glynn's eyes drifted downward, where she saw the line only a couple of inches away from her body. As a part of the train compartment also split apart like the man's body, Glynn broke down into cold sweat and scrambled to pick up a shadow weapon to defend herself. Before she could do so, however, she saw a shadow looming over her.

Quickly snapping her head toward the caster of the shadow, she saw a knight wearing bright golden armor staring down at her with his sword drawn.

Unaware of Glynn's fear, the knight pointed his sword at her and asked in a rough voice.

"Who are you?"

Before the knight's authoritative voice, Glynn could only gulp a mouthful of saliva in nervousness and stutter, "I-I'm a passenger on this train. A-And a 2nd-tier awakened aspiring to be a D-Delver."

Hearing this, the knight sheathed his sword and laughed. "Oh, and here I thought you were part of the Chasm."

He then extended his hand out to her. 

"Worry not, citizen, for the Ilumdir knight order is here."

As if on cue, several more similarly armored knights walked out from behind him. Alternating her gaze between the first knight's golden metal glove and the other knights, Glynn inadvertently heaved a big sigh of relief and fell unconscious on the spot.

***

The knight who extended his hand out to Glynn stared down at her in confusion. “Oh, she passed out.”

“Of course she would.” A knight behind him patted his shoulder. “Harry, it’s your fault for using [Sunlight slash] that recklessly, you almost killed her there. She was probably scared shitless.”

“Jake you bastard, you know that it’s not my fault! That skill was the only way I could stop the man from that far away!” Harry slapped Jake’s hand away. “You also saw her fight, right? That burst of power we felt earlier definitely came from her. And to severely injure a 6th-tier mage despite only being a 2nd-tier... Even if he was underestimating her, that was still quite a feat. She must've overexerted herself. It’s no wonder that she fainted. Furthermore…”

Harry continued as he lightly kicked a shadow weapon embedded in the floor. “...She uses some weird magic. It’s like Darkness magic, but at the same time, it isn’t."

"You're saying that she was the one who made all these weapons here?"

"Exactly." Harry sighed. "If it wasn't for the fact that tiny bits of the Gyerdash range suddenly disappeared and left behind weapon-like holes, we wouldn't have known what had happened here."

"Are you saying that she was the one who did that?"

"I am. But... it's nothing concrete. Don't worry though, don't we have a pretty reliable way to find that out?" Said Harry as he picked up a shadow sword. "Let's compare these to the missing parts of the mountain range. Then, let's take them to the Church of Darkness and have them inspe—”

But before Harry could finish his sentence, he suddenly noticed the weapons disappearing into thin air. He hurriedly grabbed as many weapons as possible and cast protection magic on them, but they still disappeared regardless of what he did.

“Well, that was something.” Harry sighed. “No use worrying about it now. Let’s just report what we saw then.”

“But captain! What about the girl?” A knight suddenly spoke up.

Harry alternated his gaze between Glynn and the robed man’s corpse before giving out his order. “Don’t report anything about her and just say that some mysterious awakened intervened. I’m tired of seeing nobles forcing talented people to slave away under them. Did you all understand?”

“”YES SIR!””

“That’s good.” Harry then chuckled. “I feel bad for Rika though. She would definitely want to meet someone as strong as this girl. Sucks that the other Hero’s keeping her behind just to stroke his ego.”

Harry frowned as he thought of the Hero, who was an incorrigible womanizer and leecher. Even now, he still couldn’t believe that the Gods gave him the title of Hero just like they did with Lumi, whose sense of justice and inflexible personality perfectly fit that of Heroes in children's books. 

Before he could get angrier, however, he suddenly heard a commotion behind him. Turning around, he saw his knights blocking the way of a girl with violet eyes and curly brown hair.

“Let me in!” The girl shouted. “Someone I know is in there!”

Harry pushed the knights aside and took it upon himself to block the girl’s way. With his arms crossed, he spoke, “Who are you looking for?”

Unlike what he had expected, however, the girl didn’t speak. Instead, she stood frozen on her spot, her eyes shaking in fear and nervousness.

As he was still figuring out what to do, Jake suddenly whispered in his ear, “Harry, you should show her your face. That’ll definitely calm her down.”

“I have no time for your jokes, Jake.” Harry scowled.

“I’m being serious! Do you remember how infatuated the bartenders were with you the other day? Erika had to physically stop them from throwing themselves onto you! Heh, who would’ve thought that she of all people doesn’t want a nephew that soon?”

“Hey! You promised her to forget about it! I- no, forget it, I won’t snitch on you. Anyway, you’re right.”

Sighing, Harry removed his helmet and smiled at the brown-haired girl. “Now tell me, who are you looking for?”

The girl’s face was flushed red. It was understandable, as Harry was impossibly handsome. With blue eyes, blonde hair, and a well-defined jawline, he looked just like how one would imagine the angels mentioned in the Sacred texts of Storms and Light. 

But the girl soon recovered from whatever that was and hurriedly spoke up again, this time not scared of Harry anymore. “M-My name’s Ava. My brot- I mean sister is in there!”

“...And what does she look like?”

“She has green hair, red eyes, and—"

Before Ava could finish her sentence, Harry took a step aside to let her see what was inside the compartment.

Ava gazed at the space that Harry was blocking, only to see Glynn’s blood-covered body. Rushing toward her, Ava shouted as she hugged Glynn's bloodied body. "A-AH! GLYNN! A-ARE YOU...!"

Seeing Ava hugging Glynn’s body while sobbing uncontrollably, Harry walked up to her with light steps. Placing his hand on her shoulder, he spoke with a soft voice, “Don’t worry, the blood isn’t hers. Mostly, anyways. She’s still alive if that’s what you’re worried about. Well… she’d have died if we had been a second late though.”

Ava meekly nodded and checked Glynn’s pulse for herself. Upon seeing that she was still alive, she heaved a sigh of relief and lowered her head in gratefulness. “Thank you for saving my sister. But may I ask what happened?”

“Sure, we don’t know much anyway. All we saw was that she was tied up by [Mana chains] and was about to die. Luckily, we intervened in time.”

“So you lied to me after all…” Ava muttered. “Stupid. Idiot. What if you had died?”

Despite Glynn clearly not being able to hear her right now, Ava continued rebuking her regardless. 

After a while, Harry spoke up again, “Now now, I’m sure that you’re shaken up by this incident. Go back to your compartment and rest. We’ll handle the aftermath.”

Standing up with Glynn on her back, Ava bowed once more. “Thank you.”

“No problem. I’m just doing my job as a member of the Ilumdir knight order.”

After watching Ava exit the compartment, Harry’s face turned serious once more. “Okay, now that the civilians are out of the way, let’s see what happened.”

With his knights following right behind him, Harry marched toward the locomotive. Walking through the crushed doorway, he entered the dark locomotive. 

“Jake.”

On Harry’s command, Jake chanted.

[Light]

A small sphere of light manifested on the tip of Jake’s finger and floated toward the center of the locomotive. There, it expanded to the size of about 2 human heads. With the room now fully illuminated, Harry could see the full extent of the horror that happened there.

Dead bodies strewn around the room, most of them were Water mages, and one corpse donned train conductor attires. Harry came closer and inspected the train conductor’s face. Upon recalling that the man split in half outside was wearing train conductor clothes under his robes, Harry’s face turned serious. 

“Jake, make sure to report what I say. The Chasm... They might have planted some spies in the alliance.”

"Again?" Jake raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Haven't you already told them this last time? And didn't they insult you for daring to question the reliability of the alliance?"

"Yes, I know. But this incident involves Arline's princess. Someone's bound to take my words seriously eventually."

"Alright fine. I'll—"

"Shhhhhhh!" Harry suddenly interrupted Jake. "You hear that?"

As the locomotive turned silent once more and the only sound they could hear was the engines slowly but surely stopping, Harry could now make out the sound that he had heard before.

"Sobbing?" He raised an eyebrow in confusion. He then shouted, "Who's there?! Come out!"

But the person didn't come out, and the sobbing only got louder. Focusing on his hearing for a few seconds, he snapped his head toward one of the engines. Unsheathing his sword and slashing it open, he saw some sort of... cocoon made of ice submerged in the boiling water of the engine.

'Someone must be maining that cocoon through Ice magic!'

As such, he stepped into the engine, not really minding the boiling hot water since it couldn't harm him anyway, and slashed at the cocoon. As the cocoon of Ice was split in half, he could see a silver-haired and similarly colored eyes woman donning military attire hugging her own knees and sobbing. However, she wasn't wearing just any military uniform.

"An Ice mage?"

It was then that the boiling water finally reached the woman. Screaming in pain, she jumped up and latched onto the nearest high place right now... which happened to be Harry's body.

Harry, dumbfounded by the situation, stood still for a few seconds. Before long, he recovered from his shock and threw her away from the engine. With his knights now surrounding the woman who was still rolling on the ground and trying to recover from the throw, Harry stepped out of the engine and pointed his sword at the woman.

"Who are you?"

Hearing Harry's authoritative voice, the woman immediately stopped rolling around and reached into her pocket. Taking out some card-like object, she threw it toward Harry. As Harry was inspecting the card, she spoke, "I-I'm Lyla Stelwall, a new instructor of K-Kevlas academy! Y-You must be the Ilumdir knight order! Th-Thank God!"

Harry merely gave Lyla's words a nod of acknowledgment and continued inspecting the card.

"ID card, huh?" He muttered. "So you're really an instructor. Tell me, what is a Kevlas instructor doing here?"

"W-Well, I figured that I should take up the role of being a train engine operator on my way to Kevlas s-since I'm short on money."

"I see... do you happen to also be the one to conjure up the Ice wall right outside the train?"

"Y-Yes!"

Hearing this, Harry sheathed his sword and gave her a salute. "Thank you for your service! Thanks to your quick wit, hundreds of lives were saved."

Lyla flailed her arms around, flustered by Harry's sudden actions. "W-Wait! You got it all wrong! I don't d-deserve the salute! I only did it for fear of falling down the cliff!"

"Still, you prevented a bigger disaster from happening. But regardless of your contribution, you will still have to listen to my order in this emergency. Keep this train running until the next station."

"B-But the Fire mages are all dead! How can we—"

"Don't worry." Harry smiled. "All of us can use Light magic. Heating up some Ice is child's play to us."

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