Chapter 367: 367. The Final Expedition

“And thank you very much for your performance,” the organizer said with a bow after she had handed Dallion a large ingot of sea iron, along with the usual basket of water fruit. “May the Moons bring you victory in tomorrow’s round.”

“Thanks.” Dallion forced a smile.

Winning in such fashion didn’t feel satisfying at all, not to mention his thoughts were still lingering on the state of the guardian he had wounded. Getting a noble upset, even if it wasn’t through any real fault of his own, was understandable. Having hurt a guardian in the process made his heart ache. It was as if the vine wrapped around it had tightened and grown thorns.

Eat those, Nil said. You’ll need all the strength you can get.

Potentially, leave the ingot for later, the armadil shield added in an attempt to lighten the mood. It’s never good to munch on iron before bed.

The joke was silly to the extreme, and yet it managed to get a mental chuckle from Dallion. Rather than the humor itself, it was the dryad’s intonation that had pulled it off. Dallion envied how calm and carefree the guardian remained, even after everything he had been through. If Dallion was subjected to the same experience, there’s no telling what he would have turned into.

Sea iron was said to be the least valuable of the seven special metals, which ironically led to it almost never being used for weapons and armor. The people who could afford it, always had a tendency to prefer more durable materials such as sun gold, sky steel, or sky silver. Sea iron was rather used as a construction material sometimes for buildings, but more often for device components. It was a chilling coincidence that Dallion had a “pocket watch” mostly of the same metal among his belongings.

Equipped with his rewards of the day, Dallion left the arena and headed straight for the Icepicker guildhall. No one recognized him as he walked along the streets—most of the crowds familiar with him would remain at the arena, waiting for the follow-up fights. This gave Dallion the perfect opportunity to sneak into the sword realm

Dallion gobbled down the water fruits with no regard to taste. The experience was refreshing, but he didn’t particularly enjoy it. Within his realm, he could hear July sigh. If one could say that the echoes in Dallion’s real were equivalent to personality traits, July was the one who liked to enjoy calm and the finer things in life—mostly sunsets and dawns in Harp’s domain, along with Dallion’s familiars and guardians.

I need to get through this, Dallion thought. It’s the only way forward.

Strictly speaking, this was a lie. There were alternatives that Dallion had chosen to ignore. Even so, he was committed to his path. He had warned his guild—and through them, the countess and the overseer, along with the entire city guard. No doubt they were doing everything in their power to ensure the survival of Nerosal. Even so, Dallion feared it might not be enough. Worse, he was almost certain that cultists had infiltrated their ranks. If a follower of the Star had managed to enter the Order of the Seven Moons, they could pretty much be anywhere, even among the nobility. That was a chilling thought, and it terrified him. It was like the hunt for the copyette all over again.

Once all the water fruit was eaten, Dallion placed the basket on the street and kept on walking. The occasional item would shout out a greeting or two as he did. Apparently, the sign had spread the word a little too well.

Casually, Dallion took out the kaleidervisto and examined his items. There were no echoes in the device the general had given him and none in the prize ingot. The crowd around him was a different matter. A quick glance revealed more echoes than people, which was impressive in itself. Thankfully, there weren’t any chainlings in sight.

I’ll be putting on the ring, Dallion said. See you once this is over.

Good luck, dear boy. Whatever happens, may it be for the best.

It’ll be fine, old man, Dallion added a bit of fake bravado. Don’t burn my realm while I’m gone.

With that, Dallion put on the blocker ring. Silence reigned once more, but a different sort of silence. Dallion could still hear the noises of the street, the chatter of people, the stall owners, yelling to attract customers to their stands. However, there was a deep mental silence that he missed. Taking his breath, Dallion then put on a second ring, given to him by the general. In addition to blocking any and all links to his realm, this made him completely invisible to echoes and guardians. From their perspective, he would be nothing more than air.

Reaching the door of the guild, Dallion paused for a few seconds. Half of him was pulling him back from stepping through the threshold, while another was urging him to do so as quickly as possible. This was the place that had accepted him after he had come to Nerosal. This was where he had received help, good advice, money… he had made more than a few friends here, not to mention learned all he knew about awakening. They had treated him like family, and now he was betraying them, and a day after disappointing them in such a spectacular fashion.

Nil would probably have said something along the lines that everything in life was a choice, but sometimes the good choice was only one.

Here goes. Dallion opened the door and went inside. Spike was the only one visible in the lobby. Fighting to remain awake, he gave Dallion what should pass as a wave, then leaned backwards in his chair.

Dallion focused. There were a number of sounds that echoed throughout the building, although most of them came from outside. The rest seemed to come from the basement. Apparently, guild management didn’t think that Dallion would do something reckless so soon after being warned not to.

On the verge of running, Dallion went up the stairs. On the way, he gripped the device that the general had given him. As he did, it seemed to get warmer. From what the general said, that was normal. The device—which Dallion kept calling a pocket watch—was supposed to create guardian instances. Back on Earth, that would have been classified somewhere in the field of theoretical quantum physics. From what Dallion understood, thanks to it, he would be able to trigger an alternative state of a certain condition. Said in brief, he would be able to unlock a locked door. However, he wouldn’t do so by tampering with the lock, but rather create an instance in which the door wasn’t locked in the first place. The device was quite rare and, as one would expect, incredibly expensive. There was only one catch—it would only work once, and Dallion had to be sure not to tamper with the door before triggering it. Doing so would lock the instance into reality, rendering the use of the device useless.

There wasn’t a soul all the way to the room of the sword. Holding his breath, Dallion activated the device, winding it until there was a loud click. Once done, he counted to five and pressed the handle.

The door opened without issue, as if it had never been locked. Normally, this would have been a time of astonishment, but right now Dallion was low on time. Rushing forward, he grabbed the side of the blade with his bare hand.

WORLD ITEM AWAKENING

The room around him disappeared, replaced by the starting temple of the realm. The major difference was that this time Dallion felt a deep chill as the heat was drawn out of his body. Thankfully, moments later, all his three familiars emerged, and Lux instantly proceeded to wrap him in a layer of warmth.

“I don’t believe it,” Gleam said, fluttering above Dallion’s shoulder. “You risked everything for this?”

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“Just a minor setback,” Dallion thought. In truth, if they hadn’t emerged as soon as they had, this would have been to a very poor start. “I didn’t think it would be winter.”

“Maybe you should have asked.”

That much was true. Dallion made a note to think further ahead in future. He was also extremely thankful to his echoes who undoubtedly told the familiars to emerge as soon as they did. Strictly speaking, that was always part of the original plan—the blocker rings had cut off all links between Dallion and his realm. However, his echoes were still able to know his thoughts.

“Mrrow.” Nox leaped directly onto Dallion’s shoulder. Gone were the times when he would claw his way up like a little kitten. The effect, though, was the same.

“I didn’t know you hated cold, buddy.” Dallion petted the crackling on the head.

“He’s just spoiled,” Gleam grumbled. “That’s what happens when you pamper him.”

Nox’s ears flicked a few times, although the familiar chose not to react.

“So, what’s the plan?” the shardfly asked. “We wait for the whale to show up, or we fly on our own? Mind you, I’m not sure what sailing in this weather would be like. I’m used to the cold, but I don’t think you are.”

“We’ll wait for the whale.” Dallion glanced at the armadil shield. He, too, was supposed to join in his original form, but for some reason he hadn’t done so. Not that it was a big issue, Dallion could have one of the familiars go back to his realm and fetch him at any point. The dryad’s reluctance, however, was somewhat concerning. “Let’s see what it’s like out there.”

The outside seemed even colder than the inside of the temple. Dallion wasn’t able to feel a thing, thankfully, but just witnessing the strength of the blizzard made him shiver. It was outright savage. He doubted that any living creature would dare remain in the open, even cracklings, if Nox was any indication.

You’re using me as a walking oven, aren’t you? Dallion thought, petting the crackling some more. It was also quite noticeable that Lux had extended his flames to cover the cub as well.

“Is it like this in the wilderness?” Dallion asked Gleam.

“Sometimes. Sometimes it’s worse, sometimes it’s better. It all depends. Mind you, I haven’t been in the wilderness in a while, so things might have changed.”

“Will this affect your illusions?”

“If the wind keeps being this strong, it might.”

So, dust had its limitations as well. Not the way Dallion pictured illusions working, but he could understand it.

“Will you be able to mask the whale?”

“Not a chance. Even if the weather was perfect, I’d only be able to cover a small portion of him. Help me advance a few levels and I might, but until you do, this is what you get.”

“It’s fine, Gleam. It’s more than I’ll need.”

Standing at the temple’s entrance, Dallion waited. Soon enough the vine whale appeared. The blizzard made the creature next to impossible to spot, though not the emotions within it. Brightest of all was annoyance, glowing deep blue. The minion didn’t appreciate being asked to do chores below the cloud cover.

“Lux, get us up there,” Dallion ordered.

The firebird thrust him up, causing snow to bombard Dallion’s face and body with such ferocity that red rectangles appeared. The damage was minimal, although it made Dallion move the armadil shield in front of his face. Sensing he had done something wrong, Lux slowed down.

“It’s fine, Lux,” Dallion shouted, his words almost inaudible due to the howl of the wind. “You can heal me later. For now, just get us on the vine whale.”

“You really are soft,” Gleam said, quite amused. “Now I see why they like you so much.”

“I fail to see the logic.” Dallion moved the shield nearer to his face in an effort to prevent drains of flying ice from trickling in from the side.

“For someone this soft to set out to do this, you must have considerable conviction and determination. That counts for a lot. I’m glad I decided to risk it on you.”

“Thanks, Gleam!” Dallion could only hope that once this was over, others would feel the same way.

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