Rested Sarah sat in one of the chairs of the lobby. The experience had been very similar to what one would expect from an old rpg. She couldn’t remember ever taking a room or sleeping, yet her status had been reset. Well, mostly. Her sanity and status condition remained unfortunately unchanged. Maybe she could develop her soul orrery skill in that direction. Though she also had to fix some of its issues to allow her teammates to learn it and it was hard to judge which of the two options would be more useful in the long run.
Waiting for a few more minutes Nia finally arrived.
There was no trace of her sister, however Sarah had already expected it to some extent. Even this otherworldly town could only keep Sera occupied for so long before she would start to search for something else interesting. That tendency of her had caused her bodyguards a few problems, at least until she started to learn self-defense techniques. Well, that had created a whole slew of other issues, but those were much easier to deal with thanks to the power of her family.
Unfortunately those thoughts didn’t help with the absence of the sword fighter.
“So, you still have your status condition?” …or the fact that without her sister Sarah would have to communicate by herself.
Sighing, she answered. “Yes…”
“Well, it was worth the try.” Nia tried to defend her suggestion, not that the mage cared all that much. The money she got from her sacrifices made the amount spent here irrelevant. The lost time not so much, though the option to use her large sanity pool as emergency mana as well as the absence of her headache would have been worth it. Ignoring the pain thanks to her overmind skill only helped that much.
Nearly losing herself in her thoughts again, she forced herself back into the conversation. “You lost Sera?”
“… I just left her alone for a couple of minutes in a weapon store and then she was gone.” Nia answered reluctantly.
It was as Sarah had expected. With Nia having seemingly also no idea where her sister could have gone and her being outside of the range of the party function, she would need to rely on her bond. Maybe she could figure out a way to make the skill more scientific with her soul sense… But that would have to wait for the moment. “Let’s go.” Assuming it was clear that they would search for her sister, the mage stood up.
Trying to formulate a response, it took Nia multiple attempts to come up with one. Sarah assumed that her guide actually wanted to leave but felt obligated to stay, as it was partially her fault for losing Sera. Though maybe it was something else. “Do you have any idea where she could be?”
Sarah could only shrug to the question. She technically didn’t know where her sister was, didn’t want to reveal her skill and was unsure whether it would work as intended. In the end it was a level 1 skill and while it should have already manifested back on her old world, she had been unaware of it at that point.
Holding her head in exasperation Nia started to question the sanity of the twins. “You want to search your sister without a clue and with only about an hour remaining until the realm will be opened? Why did i even think it was a good idea to join you… Fine, try to concentrate on Sera. Maybe i can find her.”
It was a weirdly convenient development, but as Sarah’s options were limited and two people with skills which could locate her sister were better than one she didn’t mind. Though she wouldn’t have disliked a more accurate method. Too bad her plans of implanting a microchip into her sister never got much traction. The types available had unfortunately a short range and other people could potentially also track them. Developing one herself wasn’t impossible, but lacking time and interest had usually been an issue.
So with a short “sure” the girl focused on her sister. Something she would have done anyway for her own skill. She also used her soul sense in the hopes of leveling it up and to figure out how her bond worked, yet while she could still make out her own soul, if there was anything to see, it was most likely obscured by the numerous souls she had pushed into her body.
Or splitting her focus on two skills just wasn’t optimally. Refocusing now only on her sister she started to get an general idea for the direction her target was in. Probably. Though she hoped that she wouldn’t have to use the skill too often. Its uncertainty felt just wrong to her as a scientist.
“I think i have her, well, at least a direction. Let’s go. The sooner we find her, the sooner we get out of here!” Sarah only nodded to the statement of her guide. She wouldn’t need to expose her skill, if Nia could find her sister.
They quickly left the inn and started to walk at a good pace through the city. Nia seemed a bit twitchy, though they were forced to abstain from running, as neither of the two wanted to deplete the mages resources again this soon.
Scouring the city for the missing girl, the two soon encountered a problem. From one moment to the next it appeared as if Sera was at the other end of the city. While the direction had changed a bit before, signaling that Sera was moving around, such a huge jump didn’t happen in the minutes until then.
“Damn, looks like she somehow managed to get herself into a spatial distorted area. It would also explain why i couldn’t find her earlier… Hey, are you sure we should still continue? Even with my skill it’ll be hard to get to her. I’m sure Sera will get out of wherever she is now once she sees the message about the war…” Trying to reason with Sarah, Nia was unfortunately quickly shut down.
“We continue.” Sarah decided without hesitation. They had still time and even in the Realms, whatever was happening once the realm opened shouldn’t endanger everyone immediately. Not to mention that she had a few tests to run… Though, if no opportunity arose now, she could also wait.
“You two really don’t make it easy for me…” Nia complained, but continued to lead the mage in the new direction.
In the next minutes they continued their journey through the town. They often ended up in narrow alleys away from the majority of the other inhabitants, yet the direction continued to change before they reached whatever location Sera had traveled to.
Nia would have liked to give up multiple times along the search, however Sarah forced them to continue.
And lastly the message Nia had feared appeared.
[The domain of Hannibal of the First Meadow was revoked.
As no heir used their right to inherit the domain, enter and exit privileges have been reset and the selection of the next owner will commence in 32 hours.
Anyone level 110 and below may now enter and exit the First Meadow.]
With the window from Eas in view Nia made an ultimatum. “If we don’t find Sera within the next hour, i’ll leave! Yes, maybe i shouldn’t have taken my eyes off her, but she ran off on her own accord. I’m not going to risk my life for her, when we don’t even know where she could be stuck in!”
Sarah thought about it for a moment and then nodded. Arguing about it now wouldn’t help her and depending on the dangers appearing in the realm, she might be forced to abandon her sister. Though if the dangers were manageable she wouldn’t mind testing out the limits of their contract.
Surprisingly though aside from a short moment of silence as the message was broadcasted and now a much more hectical crowd, not much changed. No panic or any other unreasonable actions, she would have expected to happen, if the same occurred in her old world. Not even opportunistic looters appeared, though maybe those were just hidden away from the bigger streets. Probably a result of over half of the population being regularly in combat and the rest having at least some proficiency in it.
Looking a bit closer without slowing down, it was however clear that something had changed. Shops were closing, houses barricaded and people who had already finished their preparations picked their most important possessions and fled the city. Though from time to time the girl could make out someone running in the opposite direction. Most of them were around level 100, yet a few people with lower level did also join. Whether they wanted to try their luck, were going to meet their parties or simply interested in whatever was about to happen, was impossible to tell.
Ignoring both streams of people, the two girls continued their search and soon closed in on the guild district. Not that guilds were absent in the other areas of the town, but as nearly exclusively guilds – especially the bigger ones – were present in the current area it got the name.
Finally they stood in front of a closed gate. “She should be here, i think…” Nia commented on their arrival before muttering much more quietly to herself, “So she was here earlier and i didn’t mix her up. Damn, why did she have to trespass on other people’s property? We could have saved the whole chase!”
Though a hooded figure jumped over the wall next to the gate, before the two could even decide whether to enter the building through the front door or to search for some other entrance.
“Oh, hi. I guess i’m a bit late. Sorry.” Removing her hood, Sera greeted her sister and Nia.
“A bit late? It’s over an hour and we are now in the middle of the war.” Nia yelled at the girl, letting her anger over the irresponsible actions of the twins run free. As if to underline her current mood a giant explosion could be seen on the other side of the city.
Its shock wave hit them moments later and made the danger they were in clear. Even with their distance from the epicenter and them being somewhat sheltered by the buildings around them, they had to brace themselves for the impact.
It was the first war related action the three had witnessed in the city, however it showed that those present wouldn’t necessarily wait for the official start of the selection before they took care of the competition.
“Looks like they are starting. Let’s get out of here!”
