BXBX NOVEL Chapter 979: Arriving
Naturally our popularity skyrocketed once they learned we slayed the White Dragon, we became living legends, though I barely cared about any of that myself. We spent the week leisurely, visiting dungeons every day to help my friends level up some more, preparing ourselves to come here.
And once the week was finally over, we took the airship without further delay, after a day of traveling through the skies, we arrived in the Elven Continent. From the distance, the Spirit World Tree, Yggdrasil, could be seen, withered, and slowly burning.
Half of its body was withered and burning, while the other half remained alive, it was fighting, trying to survive. Although we were thousands of kilometers away from it, the tree was so big we could see it all the way here.
And with my eyes, I also noticed something more. Giant flocks of flying Demons. Or well, demonic dragon monsters. There were millions of them spread across the skies, glaring everywhere. I noticed a barrier set in the city the airship was beginning to descend. The barrier connected to another two smaller cities to the west, and everything else was unprotected, already taken over.
Roughly 60% of the Elven Continent has already fallen, the capital where the tree was located was overtaken some time ago, and all the royalty had run away. They were in a terrible situation, and they were not recovering from it yet. I noticed Erika\'s mother looking at the scene with a slight amount of guilt.
She wasn\'t someone that lived in the continent here, after all, she was only half-elf, born in our continent instead, yet she felt guilty nonetheless, as if her own elven lineage was telling her she hadn\'t done what was possible, despite her amazing strength and magic power.
"J-Just how much has the demon army overtaken this continent?" I wondered. "And why has nobody in the alliance done a single thing to help? I believe there are enough experts out there, right? It can\'t be possible that all the Eight Stars and above users are all the people we\'ve already met, right?"
"That\'s… Well, I am not sure myself." Cattalina lamented. "I\'m sorry. Despite my strength, I\'ve been prioritizing the safety of our continent instead. And I think it is the same thing for the rest of the continents. The elves, however, are very strong, and they had many Eight Star and above Experts themselves, those that had already gone through several Trials and Awakened further."
"But why haven\'t they helped?" I asked.
"Well, they have." Elfriedden spoke. "My father, my mother, one of my uncles, a cousin, and a few other distant relatives. They are all constantly fighting. But it seems that their magic powers, spirits, and abilities are simply not enough. The sheer speed in which new monsters are created is ridiculous.
Probably no other continent would hold back as good as ours with their amount of fighters and experts. I believe the reason why the army is so relentless here is because of that… And well, because they\'re led by that being, the young Divine Dragon, Fafnir."
"I\'ve heard some have died already," Cattalina sighed. "Three out of the eight experts…"
"Yeah." Elfriedden tightly gripped his fists. "One of them was my cousin. The other two were admirable wizards. They perished when they attempted to fight Fafnir, he took them all down."
"…" I remained in silence as I looked at the distance through the window.
The airship swiftly and safely landed on the airport.
"It\'s always a thing of numbers, huh?" I sighed. "Despite the power Spirit Masters possess, and our ability to summon spirits, there\'s always a large lack of numbers. The Archdemons can summon a near endless supply of demons and demonic beasts from Hell too. Indeed, this feels like a losing battle."
"And this is why the Class of "Summoner" is so important to the world. It has been a savior that has defied whole armies of millions, if not billions of monstrous demons and beasts." Elfriedden said. "You\'re probably a much bigger deal than that useless Hero, Blake."
"Hmph. Well, aren\'t you happy you managed to bring the legendary summoner to your continent?" I smiled. "Now, let\'s go. I want to assess my surroundings, see the city, and learn what\'s happening right now before making a move."
"I agree, let\'s go." Cattalina nodded, she was the "responsible adult" leading our party, which Stronghold had designated to our Party.
We were all fifteen years old already, Elfriedden was sixteen, but even then they still decided to assign her. I think it\'s mostly because she\'s Erika Mother and would come no matter what anyways. Yeah, I can tell Hasan would simply be unable to convince her to stay on Stronghold.
We descended the stairs of the airship as my friends were left shocked by the beautiful view of the city, white stone houses nicely blending with the giant trees growing everywhere, a rather peculiar and unique sight.
Elves, which were very rare, were a common sight at every corner of the surrounding airport. They had much more colorful eyes and hair colors than humans and were often much taller as well.
"Wow, so many elves!" Erika looked everywhere. "Are they our family, mommy?"
"I-I wouldn\'t say so, Erika." Laughed Cattalina. "But technically you might be like a quarter elf."
"Despite the war happening outside, the city looks pristine and beautiful, and the people seem calm?" Wondered Elizabeth. "Elves are very good at enduring."
"Yes, we live long lives, so we are naturally capable of enduring much better through tougher times than humans are." Elfriedden was proud of his race. "Unlike humans, we don\'t fall into despair even as our tree is burning, we trust our leaders and we pray every day to Yggdrasil to recover, while fighting every other day to protect our homeland."
"Huh, that\'s pretty cool and all, but I\'m starving man, can\'t we go eat something?" Chris asked, looking all tired.
"You inept little…!" Elfriedden groaned. "I was talking something very serious, and you speak your stupid mind! Can\'t you read the mood?!"
"But I\'m hungry!" Chris groaned.
These two never change.