Chương 60: Interlude: Just Doing My Job

Yuri PoV / About Two Months Ago"Sir Hero," My steward says with a grim look on her face, "we have detected incursion energy signatures all across the realm. The nearest one is in a minor city not far from here, Itolas, as it is known. Millions will die if you do not intervene." I sigh and rise from my chair, meal forgotten.

"Well then, guess it is time for me to do my job. Was wondering when the goddess would make good on that whole threat thing." She nods her head, "It would appear so indeed. I shall prepare an airship at your leave, sire." With a slight bow, she leaves the room and heads off to who knows where to arrange such a thing. As for me, well I start getting ready. It takes a lot of mental preparation to be a hero, after all. Especially when wielding the power of Wrath.

As if sensing my thoughts, a message from the handy dandy system appears. It really is a neat extermination tool, one that I have quickly grown fond of.

'Ding', New Quest Chain: The Hero's Purpose'Ding', New Quest: The Hero's Mandate'Ding', New Quest: Itolas Incursion'Ding', Corestone activation conditions met. Now awakening zero-star abilities related to: Hero of Wrath.

'Ding', New corestone ability awakened, [Wrath Hero's Divine Aura (Divine)]'Ding', New corestone ability awakened, [Wrath Hero's Divine Command (Divine)] Neat, some sort of special skills. I gloss over the descriptions and they seem quite powerful. With such cool skills, the details tend to work themselves out, or so I have found out. Somehow this incursion business just gets even more interesting the more I learn about it. Like seriously, the world itself turning into a massive three dimensional battleground?

That is so rad. Guess I can only thank Lady Astrea for giving me access to such information. I imagine this would be completely different if I lacked access to her resources. Some of the tales I read even mentioned that heroes can stumble around aimlessly for years without doing anything actually meaningful. Sure, I lost a bit of my autonomy, but Lady Astrea is fairly generous. Her only real conditions were that I stay in contact and help defend her territories first.

Oh and that she can use my likeness for merchandise. Which is just totally awesome, though strange. Like seriously, who would've thunk little old me would get an action figure some day? Guess all those years of collecting those things really did pay off. I leave my little home and head out into the open air. The sun beats mercilessly against my skin, even at such an early hour. But as I take in a deep breath, the scent of salt and ocean makes it all worth it. There truly isn't anything like being near an ocean.

Sure, this ocean might be called the Archipelago of Despair, but it is far more pleasant than the name implies. Heck, so long as you stay away from the dangerous parts, it is quite pleasant. There are tons of perfect sunny beaches with smoking hot people after all–just gotta avoid the horrific creatures that lurk in the waters. Yet another good thing about this new world is that everyone is ripped. Like seriously, even your random housewife has a six pack.

With the system giving everyone superhuman strength, one has to actively wish to be ugly. Not to say that everyone is perfectly attractive, it does vary of course, and attractiveness is always subjective, naturally. It just means there are more than enough options to pick from. Not that I have time to find some company today. I do have a world to save or whatever. Pulling out my map, I check to see where Itolas is, and find it a few thousand kilometers to the south, nearer to the Snarq Mountains.

Unfortunately, it is quite far from the ocean. Well, at least there are bound to be lots of monsters to slay. Powerful ones too, hopefully. I have been meaning to crack level eighty sooner rather than later. But somehow I just find myself dragged into so much boring shit. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. Like, why the fuck was I summoned to this awesome world, just to be relegated to doing a bunch of reading? Stabbing things is much more fun.

Alas, reading and gaining knowledge is important. Having better skills makes me able to stab stronger things. Which is very important, given the whole hero thing I have going on. With that in mind, I hum a nice tune as I stroll along the beach towards the city proper. Where an airship awaits to take me wherever I should wish to go. Having a powerful benefactor sure is nice. — Carla PoV / The Day Blackharbor Fell Attention all inhabitants of Blackharbor and the area surrounding it.

My name is Cltqwtzapqti, Grand elemental of the fifth order. The incursion has grown out of control, and local forces have been insufficient to put a stop to it. As a favor to the now deceased heads of the city and to protect this realm, I will put a stop to the incursion. However, to do so I must teleport all residents away from the area, for your own safety. I will not force you to leave, of course. But do know that if you choose not to accept the teleportation, you will most certainly die.

You have four hours to get your affairs sorted and get together with the people you wish to be teleported with. Most of you will likely get moved to Loder, the nearest great city. Though I expect a couple will also end up in various nearby cities. I wish I could control it more, but I am no mage and thus only have limited control over master tier spells. I assure you that it is completely safe, though. Officials across the region have already been notified and are preparing measures to accept you all as refugees.

I sigh as the message is projected into my mind, and that of everyone in the region. What a damn good way of preventing me from getting any sleep for the next week. Guess the sender of the message is the elemental that the hero mentioned. I knew they were powerful… but mass teleportation of an entire region full of tens of millions of people? Not to mention the casual information projection over such a vast distance. Once again, I am humbled by just how weak I am in the grand scheme of things.

I may be a respectable commander, and one of the strongest natives to this realm. But I must never mistake that for being truly strong. On another note, mass teleportation does simplify a few things. In fact, it was one of the options we were considering when deciding on the evacuation method. But we determined that we did not have enough strong mages nor materials for another master tier ritual. Unfortunately, all of the resources were used up in attempts to kill the dragon.

Damn warriors and their lack of foresight. The dumb meatheads just charge at the nearest thing with a higher level and start hitting it. They never have regard for logistics or whether they can sustain such a battle in the long term. Then again, part of me should be grateful for that fact. Otherwise I wouldn't be useful. Heck, I would've probably ended up as some random warrior. But, I am needed. So as I exit my tent, I head out into the camp we have set up a few klicks out from the current border of the surge.

To call it a nice camp would be a lie. Nothing can be nice when you are forced to make temporary accommodations and infrastructure for millions of now homeless people. Not to mention the thousands of pyres that burn corpses all day and night. Guess that won't be an issue anymore, at least. As common as it may be, none like the sight of a pyre. We are a strong sort of people though, and we will simply make do until the teleportation.

After all, we have plenty of life mages for food, water mages for sanitation and hydration, and stone mages for shelter. Plus all the other types can help with various things, or simply keep the monsters away. Still, as I walk around, I can only be thankful for that hero and his elemental friend. For without that teleportation, I can guarantee that not many of these people would make it to safety. The warriors would be fine, but city types are quite squishy.

The next several hours I spend trying to find people and gain at least some measure of order. The populace is somehow in a state of both panic and celebration. Most are rightfully fearful of a strange entity of ridiculous power teleporting them. But at the same time, they are glad that they will be moved somewhere safe where they can rebuild their lives. Luckily it seems none are making that much of a fuss about not wanting to leave. I think that any of the stragglers would have already stayed behind at this point.

All of which are certainly dead. When the time for the teleportation finally comes, it is sort of awkward. Everyone kinda just stands around. Everything is all packed away into storages, so it really is a bizarre sight to see. Just millions of people standing around in a field, waiting for a strange power to wash over them. Attention all, I will now commence the teleportation. You may experience a few moments of intense displeasure. I recommend that any healers cast as large of healing spells as they can manage.

The effect is instant, one moment I am perfectly fine. But the next I am doubled over coughing repeatedly. It feels like the air has suddenly turned liquid, and is trying to erase me completely. The sheer amount of energy in the air is too much, far too much. Is this the true power of an elemental? Part of me is terrified, horrified even, that a being of such overwhelming power can exist. But another is relieved, knowing that sort of power exists and might protect us–even if it might also kill us in the process.

The moment a message appears asking me if I consent to be teleported, I agree to it. All at once, the energy that was once oppressive turns in my favor and wraps around me like a tight blanket. Then I am dragged off into unconsciousness, and presumably safety.