Emery broke out in a cold sweat the moment when he returned to his reverie.
He looked toward the glowing orb with a mixed feeling. Emery was fully aware that what he had just seen was not an illusion, but it was what was currently going on in the sacred mountain.
Given these circumstances, Emery only had one thing in mind: it was only a matter of time before the powerful stage 7 creatures would arrive at the base.
Emery could not help but tremble. It was undeniable that this impending threat could kill all the acolytes in the blink of an eye if they were unable to find a way to survive.
At the time being, he had a bunch of questions that raced through his head.
Would the monster be able to be defeated by an army of three hundreds acolytes?
How many people would be killed because of this?
What about the 3 million survivors?
In the midst of his worries, Emery had the sudden thought about immediately calling out all of his captains, but before he did so, he took a moment to stare at the orb glowing in front of him and questioned it.
“If you are the offspring of the wisp, then why did you warn me? What do you want from me?”
There was a slight pause, but soon enough another intent came into his mind. The message had the words “Help” and “You”, but it wasn’t really clear.
Emery was left in a state of bewilderment as a result of this, since he was not able to understand what was the meaning of the message sent to him.
“Me… help me? Why me? What do you want from me?”
The orb was glowing and rotating, but it didn’t give any answer. Ever since the vision, the orb also no longer fluctuated with any spirit energy. Instead, it just floated in stationary, appearing as though it was either waiting or preparing for something.
In the hope he could get some answers or solutions from his friends, Emery called Julian, Roran, Anas and Magus Bellaine into the tower.
One by one, everyone made their way to the palace. When they saw the floating orb, none of them were able to hide a surprise on their face.
“This… this is the spirit creature?” Magus Bellaine asked.
“Yes, but this is not really why I called you all,” Emery replied.
Emery explained to the four about what just happened the last few hours, including how more golden butterflies came together to form the orb, as well as the vision he had seen.
After hearing Emery’s explanation, everyone was too stunned to speak. This was especially the case when they heard about the news regarding Magus Hyokai. Without a doubt, they were shocked to know about his defeat.
“Are you sure it’s not an illusion?” Asked Anas as if he still could not believe what he had just heard at the time being.
“I am sure. I am telling you all, it’s coming here,” said Emery with a more serious expression.
After that, Roran began to inquire, “You two have seen the creature’s power, is there any chance we can stop it? With our number?”
Roran was silent for a moment before he continued, “Then… are we retreating? We may be able to run, but what about these survivors?”
This was the question that had been heavy on Emery’s mind from the very beginning. The acolytes might be able to escape this threatening situation, but not for all the survivors.
While thinking about the survivors, Emery checked his device and the countdown as well.
[18 hours 5 minutes]
After taking into account the time they had left, Emery then turned to magus Bellaine and asked as to whether there was any way to allow the survivors to enter the transports and leave the planet earlier than expected.
“Yes! That will be ideal!” said Anas.
Unfortunately, the magus shook her head, “No, it was programmed to stay at a designated location and can only be accessed 6 hours prior to the countdown.”
Emery heaved a sigh, as he wondered about the inflexibility of the transport’s situation and pondered why it was designed that way. This kind of setting would only put the acolytes in danger. In point of fact, it was sort of the opposite of how the academy goes in such distance with the combat suits. It was a little strange.
Nevertheless, that was the fact.
The magus insisted it was not possible and seeing how magus Bellaine was trying to pay for her mistakes by saving the survivors, Emery had a tendency to believe her.
As the first initiation was not possible to be taken into action, Emery was forced to come up with a different plan to save the survivors as soon as they possibly could. He once again checked on the amount of time that was left and remarked,
“12 hours, we must protect the base for that long! Then we move the people to the transport!” Emery gave a suggestion while raising the tone of his voice.
“Do we have a better plan?”
Emery actually had another idea, but he wasn’t sure whether it would work or not. As a result of this, he decided to keep it to himself until he was sure and focused the discussion on adding a new layer of defense and tactics to welcome the huge creature.
In the midst of the discussion, Emery had an abrupt realization that the situation outside was significantly quieter than earlier.
Two girls, Klea and Annara, suddenly barged into the meeting.
“What is it, Klea?” Emery asked anxiously.
“You… you must see outside,” said the girl with a panting breath.
Hearing this, the group quickly flew out into the walls. At first they thought that something even worse was happening outside, but surprisingly, what actually happened was quite different from what they had anticipated.
To their surprise, the previous endless horde they had seen previously was no more.
The yellow plains were emptied and Emery was able to sense with his spirit reading that all abyss creatures were retreating back north.
Emery saw the acolytes who had been fighting previously cheered as if they had successfully pushed back the abyss hordes. Although this was something that brought relief to the acolytes, Emery, on the other hand, felt an even bad premonition about this.
“What the hell is going on!”