Chapter 936 The next steps

Chapter 936 The next steps

Ilea spent most of the afternoon beating up the students of the Sentinel Corps, new and old. Verillion helped here and there but she found that many of the older students were more than capable of showing the next generation how powerful humans could get, in a both painful and inspirational manner.

She watched with a sigh as the new arcane healers of the Sentinels took care of each other. “There’s more newcomers this time around, or am I wrong?” Ilea sent to Trian. The man had arrived for the festivities, otherwise busy with his own participation in fighting the remaining void, coupled with his management of the Medic Sentinel Corps.

“The elixir and subsequent arcane healers make for easier prolonged resistance training. And with everything that happened, we’ve had far more applications,” Trian said. “Wish I could take the elixir at this point.” He sighed and shook his head. “Plenty of them have rushed past me in mere years, it’s embarrassing.”

“You’re not primarily a fighter though,” Ilea said. She saw he had gained quite a few levels as well from his recent efforts.

[Lightning Mage – lvl 285]

“I’m not particularly bothered, Ilea. I know it’s a reality of my position, especially teaching Sentinels. If they don’t shoot past me, something’s gone wrong,” he sent and laughed. “Though yeah, I don’t want to disappoint them either. Hoping to get to three hundred at least this year.”

“Good luck with that,” Ilea sent and smiled, remembering her fights against the undead knights of Tremor that helped her reach that milestone. I hope you don’t lose a head, she thought when one of Aki’s machines joined them.

“Enjoying yourself?” he asked.

Ilea watched three of the younger Sentinels rush Chana, the woman weaving through them like a frenzied battering ram through weightless crash test dummies.

She nodded. “Yeah.”

“The festivities will continue but we have a meeting planned with the Accords, this one I thought you might want to join. It’s about the source recovered from Ravana.”

Ilea looked at the silver machine with raised brows, then summoned a meal. “Finally decided what to do with it?”

“Further study mostly but there are some suggestions that will need approval. You’ll hear about them in the meeting. Or I can inform you now, if you do not wish to join.”

“I’ll be there,” Ilea said. “Just let me know when it starts and I’ll pop in. Meadow’s domain?”

“Yes,” Aki said. “I’ll let you know when we start. Verillion, I encourage you to join as well.”

The vampire glanced over with inquisitive eyes. “Interesting. I shall do so, with Ilea.”

“Personal teleporter?” Ilea asked.

“Personnel teleporter, if you will. For important foreign guests,” Verillion said.

Trian breathed some air out of his nose.

“I’m glad we have the gates, I’ll be honest,” Ilea said. “Wouldn’t want to become a one woman teleportation network for the Accords.”

“Be glad I’m still around,” Aki said, in a dry tone.

“Yeah,” Ilea said, perfectly aware that without him, his machines, and his ability to set up gates and connect them, the Accords may very well not have remained. They wouldn’t have rebounded as fast as they had, that was for sure. Organizing all the remaining fighters to protect the survivors, connecting settlements again after the Extraction, and providing much of the grunt work required for the foundations of the new human cities in the south, all of it was done by Aki. Him and the legions of guardians he controlled.

She looked at the Executioner and smiled to herself, eating another bite before she turned to watch the Sentinels beat the absolute living shit out of each other. The whole Io bit sucked but in a weird way, the Taleen ended up winning what they thought of as a war against the Ascended. They created the One without Form, the One without Form created millions of machines and thousands of production facilities, and Aki took over to now use it all for the Accords.

Didn’t expect that one, eh, Ker Velor?

Aki nudged her some time later, informing both her and Verillion that the meeting would soon start. Trian had already left by that time.

Ilea stretched and rolled her shoulders. She still wore her dragon scale armor, none of the Sentinels able to leave as much as a scratch on the heavy and enchanted material.

She turned to look at Verillion, the man wearing his blood covered armor, the leather bits still wet. “Ready to go? Or do you need to change your dress to something more appropriate?”

“I have a reputation to uphold,” he said with a slight grin and gestured for her to open a portal.

“Maybe some deodorant at least?”

“It is part of the charm,” he smiled, showing his canine teeth.

Ilea rolled her eyes and opened a gate to the domain of the Meadow, stepping through and onto the black grass that reached far into the cavern.

Only the section closer to the Meadow remained mostly natural, its mana density too much to handle for most members of the Accords, only a select few able to get close, let alone remain there for extended periods of time.

The circular stands previously used to discuss the Architect and the threat of an Extraction had been extended and decorated, more colorful than before, metals and flags added to represent the different settlements, governments, and peoples part of the Accords. Carved pillars had been added around the structure, with a massive roof placed on top. Ilea cringed a tiny bit when she saw a chiseled depiction of herself and a few choice allies depicted on the ceiling, frozen in their fight against a horde of void creatures. She was glad Ravana herself wasn’t shown, not giving her any weight in the history of this place.

It fit too. Just another monster added to the pile.

At least I’m not front and center. Just one of many, she thought. Could be any one of the Sentinels with those horns and ashen wings.

“Hey, how’ve you been?” she sent through her connection with the Meadow. “Looks like a proper alliance headquarters by now.”

“Expectations were high,” the Meadow replied. “I do personally prefer something a little more plain and natural but I understand the notion. I kept it as grounded as I could.”

Ilea found a seat near one of the pillars, smiling when she found that none of it even strained under her weight.

“I’ve been as well as the circumstances allow. Much of the void remains but I’m confident now that Elos will not meet a fate similar to Erendar. Much in thanks to you, and everyone here today,” the Meadow sent.

Ilea allowed herself a slight smile. The being wasn’t wrong of course. She was just glad she had taken it with her. Things would’ve been very different without its help. Perhaps the Architect’s plans would’ve not even been uncovered in the first place, and a few centuries from now, the entire planet would’ve just been wrecked without warning.

Could I have survived that? Ilea wondered with a slight grin. A morbid thought but Vor and Nes did mention some kind of advanced Extraction that Ker Velor was planning.

She saw the two Ascended in question standing at the center of the circular amphitheater, discussing with an Executioner and a few other representatives of the Accords.

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“Found your way back,” Catelyn said as she walked up to Ilea, the fox relaxing onto one of the seats next to her. “I hear you’ve gotten a bit of a vacation.”

“For a time,” Ilea said. “Why the smirk?”

“Oh, do not worry about that, child,” Catelyn said and yawned.

“You’ve been busy too, I see. Many changes for Hallowfort?”