Chương 254: Vance and Anise

As Anise headed to school the next day, she felt a tight pit in her stomach. In her backpack, she carried the newspaper that had caused so much panic yesterday. Her mother had been terrified when the 'evil monsters' from the pocket dimension reappeared in the newspaper. Anise didn't feel much better about the situation. Anise took a deep breath, and tried to calm herself down. She hated seeing her mother and father so nervous, but there was nothing Anise could do about it.

She could only hope that Miria and Felix had a solution to the situation. Because if nobody had a good idea how to handle the Worldstriders, Anise was very aware of the fact that they might track her down and kill her. Of course, that was the worst case scenario. Even if the Worldstriders had appeared outside of their pocket dimension, they might not find her. The worldstriders had reappeared in the middle of the mountains, and they were nowhere near Damilius. But relying on luck felt foolish.

Even if Anise wished that the worldstriders would just go away. But Anise's wishes wouldn't change reality. Anise walked into the classroom as if she were sleepwalking. She realized, with some surprise, that Vance was already sitting down. Normally, Anise would have talked about books with him, but today, her greeting died in her lips. She just… couldn't focus on Vance right now. Even starting a conversation with him felt hard. The reappearance of the worldstriders had rattled her more than she thought.

Anise's silence didn't stop Vance from noticing her, though.

"Anise?" said Vance, as he carefully scanned Anise.

"Yes?" she asked, trying to shake the swirling thoughts and emotions out of her head.

"Are you all right?" asked Vance. Anise saw worry and concern in his eyes.

"I'm… I'm sorry, there's… a lot going on right now," said Anise. She hesitated for a moment, wondering if it was a good idea to keep talking at all. If she spoke too much about her fears, Vance might notice something. But saying nothing alsoe felt wrong. She considered Vance a friend, and lying to him wouldn't feel good. Eventually, she decided to share a few details, but not many.

"I learned something scary yesterday, and I haven't been able to get it out of my head since then," she finally said.

"Something scary?" asked Vance, frowning.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He cleared his throat and glanced away.

"I mean… if you want to. If you don't want to tell me, that's fine too. But I thought I would offer." Anise hesitated. Was it… a good idea to talk about the past with Vance? Thus far, the group had kept quiet about their encounters with the worldstriders. Anise's parents and Old Mo had never wanted to bring Sallia's death back up. And it was still a sore subject for the three of them. But now, the worldstriders had reappeared. Telling others about them might help the rest of the world prepare.

Or at least, it would make Anise feel better. <Miria, Felix… do you mind if I talk a bit about the worldstriders with Vance? > She asked. <If it will help you feel better, do whatever you need to, > said Miria. Anise felt as if Miria's words were bathing her in warm sunshine. She realized that Miria was intentionally packing as many positive feelings as she could into her message for Anise. <We'll handle the consequences later as a team. > <I don't mind. Just don't talk about the Market, > said Felix.

<And make sure to tell us what you've told Vance, so that our stories line up. > Anise nodded, and turned back towards Vance. Then, Anise showed Vance the newspaper. Vance scanned it, before giving Anise a curious look.

"Why is this so frightening? I mean… I know that a lot of Zelyrian experiments can be scary, but not all of them are harmful. Plenty of Zelyrian artifacts provide useful or helpful services. And if it turns out that these are dangerous, they're nowhere near Damilius. Verne will deal with it if these things are dangerous." Anise shook her head, and shuddered.

"They're definitely not friendly," said Anise.

"When we were fleeing to Damilius, we ended up traveling through a lot of different areas. One of those areas was the mountain range mentioned in this newspaper. There, we met some creatures that called themselves worldstriders…" Anise began to narrate everything the group had gone through. She cut out a few parts - specifically, those that pertained to the Market. In her narration, she didn't mention {Phoenix's Last Stand} at all, or any of Miria's non-healing related abilities.

Most of the 'combat' portions of the story were also assigned to Sallia, who Anise pretended had access to a very special sword ability. But she kept the narrative as close to reality as possible. She also mentioned the unnatural hatred the creatures had towards her. Anise's story ended with Sallia's death. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

"After that... we managed to escape," said Anise.

"It was a really close call, but we lived. Most of us, anyway." Anise felt sad as she thought about Sallia's current state. Sallia, who loved moving her body and training her swordsmanship, was stuck floating in the void. She couldn't hold a sword, or talk to people, or do anything at all. Sallia would eventually return, of course... but that might be years or decades from now. And the group couldn't afford to commit suicide and return to the Market together.

They didn't have the lives to spare for a mass return to the Market. Vance's expression became sad, and he gently reached out to Anise. Then, to her surprise, he hugged her. He patted her back a few times, before he released her.

"I'm sorry you had to go through something like that," he said.

"I… the three of you never talked about it, and so I… never knew. I can't imagine losing a friend like that." He paused.

"Your friend's name was Sallia, right? The one that didn't make it?" Anise nodded.

"She was an amazing swordsman," said Anise.

"You… I think you would have gotten along well with her. She loves… I mean, loved melee combat more than anything else in the world. She would have definitely helped you get a lot better at fencing, too." Vance nodded.

"Do you three do anything special to remember her?" We talk to her on a daily basis and try to make her feel better about being stuck, thought Anise. Then, she winced. The weird Market mentality towards death would definitely strike other people as weird. Anise shook her head.

"We don't do anything like that," said Anise.

"It's still a sore subject. Especially for Miria." Vance sighed, and then patted Anise's shoulder a few times.

"Well, I won't intrude on how you three want to treat her death, but... I'm sorry. I guess you don't need me to tell you this, since it's already been almost a decade. But it sounds like Sallia was a lovely girl. I wish I could have met her." Anise nodded.

"As for the newspaper.... The creatures described here definitely sound like the creatures mentioned in your story. That being said, they might be less scary than you think they are." Anise blinked.

"How so? I remember them being almost immune to physical attacks. It almost felt like they existed in a different layer of reality, or something," said Anise. Of course, she knew for a fact that they existed on a different layer of reality. But she didn't know how to explain that to Vance. Vance nodded.

"Even if that's the case, maybe there's some kind of solution in modern alchemy? As a group of refugees, you guys would have had very limited resources back then. While guns might not be able to hurt the worldstriders, Sallia's attacks mean there are definitely ways to hurt them. There are a lot of different ability potions that each nation produces annually. There must be a few abilities that interact with the worldstriders. Not to mention, alchemical creations.

Alchemy has two major branches, but most people focus on transmutation today. But that doesn't mean we've lost knowledge of how to do affixation. It's just not an effective use of resources. But affixation can let people create the solutions to new problems if transmutation fails. I seriously doubt that alchemists are incapable of making weapons to hurt worldstriders. It's just a matter of figuring out how they avoid physical damage, and then countering it.

The worldstriders might be almost invincible right now - but I bet that will disappear quickly. The worldstriders might manage a few exceptional battles... and then every single nation on the continent will start researching how to counter them. I give them maybe five years of superiority before modern alchemy strips away their biggest advantage." Vance frowned.

"Of course, I might be too optimistic. I might even be totally wrong about how long it would take to counter the worldstriders. But historically, our ancestors excel at creating new items to solve new problems. I don't see why this would be any different." Anise felt a little comforted by that. She had mostly been thinking about the current capabilities of nations, and thinking that the worldstriders could bulldoze everything. But she had overlooked the fact that no nation remained stagnant.

Of course, Anise was still afraid. Even if the worldstriders would eventually fall, that didn't help her now. If the worldstriders came for her, there was still nothing Anise could do yet. A minute later, Miria and Felix entered the classroom, before they sat down next to Anise. Then, Anise felt herself pulled into a much stronger hug.

"You're going to be all right. I won't let them hurt you," Miria whispered, so quietly that Anise could barely hear it.

"If they try to take away another one of my friends, I'll make their species extinct." Before the group could talk more, Mr. Delmont entered the classroom and started his next lesson.