TS12 had already recovered its erald canopy and could be seen from far away. After they saw the giant tree in the distance, it still took them an hour of riding the undead to reach the wooden city below it.
Seth and the others could have been there a lot earlier riding their own mounts or Puffles, but they stayed with the survivors to keep up the image and give reassurance about the undead under their butts.
The ground surrounding the thriving tree was drenched in blood. Despite the bodies missing, the crimson snow and mud made it clear that they were crossing a battlefield. A caravan of undead crossing an empty battlefield. Soone might get the wrong idea of what happened here.
When they approached the tree station, there was already a crowd of people waiting for them. Refugees who arrived earlier, adventurers, Oathguards, and the rest of the field teams who had stood back at the tree stations in case of an ergency. They had already prepared for their arrival.
“Coralie!” they heard the voice of a woman call out the mont they rode into the city. A crowd of people were already waiting for them. After leaving the city borders, they were able to use com-orbs again.
“Uncle!” they heard a squeaky voice cry out. The little girl let go of her mother's hand, who was standing among the crowd that was ready to welco them. The girl jumped into the arms of her malnourished uncle. The man in question was Mark Baker!
~Baker had a family? ~ Seth asked Evee a little surprised, using telepathy. The Underworld Fairy could only shrug her shoulders. It seed like they had kept their relationship with Mark Baker a secret, or simply nobody asked about it. It was not like anyone in Minas Mar had been looking for a dead man.
“Mark? Mark!” the woman now also ran forward, after recognizing her brother. Tears running from her eyes, she hugged his neck.
“Mike, you guys were okay!” Lydia broke through the mob and hugged her boyfriend, who was still wearing nothing but sweatpants and a wifebeater. It wasn’t that they didn’t manage to recover his items from the prison, the problem was that everything except the helt was either unwearable or broken beyond repair when he was ruthlessly ambushed by the immortals.
Seth had yet to check properly, but it seed like he would be unable to save anything but the Helt of Krios and the gloves. Even Flaming Fury was broken. Seth could have reforged the items, but at this point, it was better to make new items for Mike, especially since he was finally chosen by Maahes. But that would have to wait.
While Mike Baker and the refugees of Y-City were treated to blankets and a warm al, Seth and the others were ushered to the center of TS12, towards the command center where Leana and Mary were waiting for them.
“Seth, I’m glad you brought everyone back,” Leana said, her face marred by the worry of the past day. Mary didn’t look much better when she wordlessly fell into his arms, crying. Despite always keeping up a strong and dependable façade, once it broke, Seth recognized the frightened woman he had saved in the forest, back when he returned to Urth.
It took a while to calm her down, it helped that everyone who went to Y-City had returned alive. When Mary recovered her countenance, the questions began. Of course, they wanted to know everything that happened.
Although everyone was kind of tired, they quickly hyped each other up telling their stories. Mike explained why he looked like he did and how he managed to free himself with the help of Maahes and Seth's prototype jewelry, which earned Seth a bunch of side glances.
Fin colorfully described how she crushed the immortal that attacked her. She really used a lot of sound effects and gestures. Mina described how she managed to beat her attacker in a slightly calr manner and how she went to look for Mike.
Bulko and Lyxiss talked about what happened at the church. Having overco the side effects of her skills, the elf spoke rather proudly of how she managed to save the day, except of course for that little mishap with Samuel dying.
“But Seth is going to revive him, so it doesn't count, right?”
With that, the ball was in Seth's court. So the blacksmith recounted what happened after he was teleported away. The mass fight, the duel, the raising of hell, the only thing he left out was the vision of the little boy and his conversation with his grandpa.
When he got to the point when he returned, everyone had stuff they wanted to talk about and add to his story, despite already having said what happened from their perspective. When he finally finished, it was Mary and Leana's turn to give a report on how the Tree Route had fared during the past few days.
It seed that nobody dared to mount a huge attack on any of the original stations. It was mostly the Tree Stations 8 through 12 which had been built during the recent expansion, that had faced heavy attacks from the scene, with 8, 9, and 12 facing the greatest attacks.
Despite doing their best to recruit reliable guardians, it seed that two of the stations were ultimately saved by unexpected visitors who decided to co to their aid. Genevieve had appeared again, the vampire lady from Sigma and the sister of Vlad. She had saved her brethren from the invaders from Spatia and also seed like she decided to stay at TS9 with the rest of the vampires.
Uno and Tearlach, the most suspicious couple from the ti when gods still road on Urth had been saved by a random bard and a creature that was described as a fairy of decay in the report. The bard was actually one of his Faer and had pleaded to et Seth soone in the near future.
Seth was less inclined to visit the bard, as long as they were loitering in the vicinity where Uno and Tearlach lived. The blacksmith was about 70% sure they were sohow involved with the slumbering realm, and he still tried to keep his connection with them as loose as possible.
“Ask them to co to Delta, I will et them there,” Seth said decisively. This would give him so ti to relax
…
---Beta, Thres---
The sound of a pack of wolves echoed through the darkness beneath Thres. Workers from Little Sigma had reported strange happenings, sounds, and so missing people in the sewers close to the northern water treatnt facility they were trying to repair.
All of them were adventurers around vl.50-60, so they would not just fall to a random weak mob. Following the reports, Adam descended into the underground of Thres to find out what was going on and hopefully end whatever caused it.
The artificial druid had to admit that this sound was disturbing. Even with his strength, he couldn't resist the instinct to feel disconcerted at the sound of over thirty wolves hunting, barking, and yelping
Especially when he was walking down a modern concrete tunnel, lined with rows and rows and rows of water pipes. It was a sound that simply didn't belong in this environnt. It was simply out of place. Still, he followed the sound, suppressing the awkward feeling in his stomach.
“What the fuck is that?” he whispered when he turned around the corner. It was a vast call, filled with subterranean clarifying basins. He didn't expect it to sll like a field of flowers, but the stench that suddenly filled his nose was disgusting.
As offensive as the sll was, his eyes were glued to the beast calmly drinking from one of the basins, quickly draining the rotting water inside. The creature had the head of a snake, the body of a leopard, the tail of a lion, and the legs of a deer.
He didn't need to use a skill to see that it drinking from the water quickly poisoned the basin, similar to how so dragonkin could do. Around the place it was lying, he saw the half-consud corpses and bones of the people that went missing. Cautiously, he used
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