The Beginning After The End novel Chapter 131

Chapter 131

Chapter 131: Reunion

Seeing the familiar face of Helen Shard, leader of the Twin Horns that Art’s father had once led, I excitedly waved at her and the rest of the Twin Horns behind her. “Hi Guys!”

I gave the leader of the Twin Horns a large hug before greeting the rest of her party.

“Guys, I’d like you to meet Helen Shard, Durden Walker, Jasmine Flamesworth, Adam Krensh and Angela Rose of the Twin Horns. I’ve told you about them before, right?” I pointed at my teammates, introducing them as well. “This here is Caria Rede, Darvus Clarell, and Stannard Berwick.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Madam.” Darvus rushed over to shake hands with Angela, the Twin Horn’s conjurer. “Darvus Clarell, fourth son of Darius Clarell, and I must say that you are a sight for these sore eyes of mine.”

“Ugh, typical,” Caria whispered. He goes straight to the one with the large...” She didn’t finish her sentence as she merely cupped the space in front of her chest exaggeratingly.

I looked down at my own breasts. I had never really cared about my figure, but looking at the two boys practically drooling over Angela’s womanly figure, I couldn’t help but wonder if even Art preferred...

“How long have you been here, Princess?” Helen’s voice snapped me back to reality.

“Huh? Oh, we’ve been here for about three months now, I think,” I replied. “And please, just call me Tessia.

“Sorry. We’ve only met a few times and they were all brief so I thought it’d be rude,” she chuckled.

“Did you just get here?” I asked, my eyes shifting toward the sight of both Stannard and Darvus trying to flirt with Angela.

“This afternoon. We were at The Wall for about four months before our party was sent here to help out with the scouting,” she explained as I motioned for her to have a seat beside me around our crackling fire.

The Wall was what everyone called the stretch of forts built along the the Grand Mountains to make sure the battle didn’t reach the other side. While I knew that the Alacryan forces might be invading from the western coast, Grandpa told everyone, including myself, to explicitly keep it a secret until proper preparations had been made.

Fortunately, communications with the dwarves had been going well over these past few months and they’ve agreed to let the humans and elves take shelter in their underground kingdom if needed.

No one was hoping it would get to that stage, especially the elves, because the distance between the Kingdom of Darv and Kingdom of Elenoir made it so only teleportations could be used. For now, many of the tribes along the southern half of Elenoir had migrated across the Elshire Forest and Grand Mountains near the central cities of Sapin. For now, Grampa’s, as well as the rest of the Council’s, plan was to get as many civilians as possible out of the western coast and away from the Beast Glades.

“What is it like fighting along the Wall, Helen?” I asked, curious about where a lot of the main fighting occurred. “Have you actually fought against Alacryan mages?”

“Yes,” she answered grimly. “The Alacryan forces are strong. Out at the Wall, it’s not just the Alacryan soldiers that we have to fight against but the mana beasts that they somehow put under their control as well.”

“I see.” I looked at my sword, dissatisfied that the only fighting I’ve done ever since I had joined the war was against the mana beasts under the control of the Alacryan forces.

Noticing the look on my face, Helen added, “But the battles going on here are just as important, maybe even more—trust me. The more mana beasts we kill here, the less there are up at the surface. And if we find and kill a mutant, the Alacryan forces lose hundreds of puppets fighting for them.”

I nodded silently in reply. I knew that winning the fights down here were crucial to this war. The main task of the soldiers gathered here were to find the mutant in the depths of the dungeon. Mutants were mana beasts, mostly leaders of their own dungeon, that were controlled by the Alacryans. They used the mutant to control the hundreds of mana beasts that served it. As long as these mutants existed, mana beasts of their species followed them, fighting alongside the Alacryan soldiers.

There were dozens of squads out there, deep inside various dungeons, trying to find and kill the mutants before they gathered enough mana beasts and advanced toward the Wall.

Usually, there wouldn’t be this many soldiers inside one dungeon, but one of our scouts had found signs that a S class mana beast had been turned into a mutant.

“Anyway. Because the mutant hiding inside here is supposedly a S class mana beast, your grandfather had sent more mages here, which is why we’re here,” the large man named Durden chimed in, overhearing our conversation.

“Thank the heavens for that. And for dear grandfather for bringing such a fair angel into my arms,” Darvus added, inching an arm across Angela’s back.

Angela just giggled, regarding Darvus as a cute puppy, as Caria smacked Darvus upside the head and dragged him away where he could keep his hands to himself.

Stannard, who had been ridiculed by Angela when she cooed and pet his head like some pet, moved next to Durden, fiddling with his crossbow-like weapon with a scowl on his face.

“Tell me more about the fights happening in front of the Wall, Helen.” I turned back to the leader of the Twin Horns.

“Look, Princess,” Adam Krensh spat. “Fights that happen at the Wall aren’t bedtime stories that your nanny reads to you inside your fancy canopy bed. It’s war! People die—on both sides.”

The spear wielder with a head of red hair that looked like the burning fire we were huddled around glared at me as if he was scolding a child. I was about to say something when Durden got in between us. “You can’t take Adam’s words to heart or we’d have all killed him more than once in his sleep.”

Unknowingly, I was already standing up as Durden intervened. His words quelled my anger enough for me to sit back down, but I was still glaring at the lanky emberhead. Arthur had mentioned how Adam could be when he described the Twin Horns, but I didn’t realize how much of an understatement his words were.

“Adam, go set up our tents around one of the empty fire pits,” Helen ordered with a surprising amount of authority in her voice that wasn’t there when she was talking to me. “Angela, can you go help him out?”

With a cheery salute, she herded the grumbling Adam away from our camp, leaving only Helen, Durden and Jasmine—who had been silent since they had first arrived.

“Adam, despite how his words came out from that defective muscle he calls a tongue, only said that because he didn’t want you to know,” Helen sighed. “You think you’re over here fighting beasts, but in actuality, the Alacryan soldiers are much more monstrous than any mana beasts here. At least the creatures you battle here fight for survival and instinct. They fight to kill, and to some extent, that’s mercy.”

“What do you mean by that?” Stannard asked, his face pryed away from the weapon he had been cleaning once again.

There was hesitation on Helen’s face as she tried her best to sugarcoat whatever she was about to say until Jasmine had stepped up and explained for her.

“Information is the most important in a war,” she said evenly. “Both sides, they’re trying to get information out of each other. That means kidnapping... torturing.”

We were all silent for a moment as even Darvus’ usually aloof expression had hardened.

“Battles here are black and white—beasts are bad, you are good. When you’re fighting other humans, elves and dwarves that can all talk, scream in pain and beg for mercy... things become more gray and it becomes hard to distinguish what is right and wrong,” Jasmine continued, her face a stone mask despite the horrors she was describing.

The once lively atmosphere of a reunion had turned tense as I exchanged glances with my teammates.

Suddenly, a series of loud smashes made us all turn our heads toward one of the gated entrances that led deeper into the dungeon.

“Get me a medic!” the sentry roared, hoisting the bloody scout on his shoulders. There weren’t any emitters stationed here since most were at the Wall, healing the wounded there. However, there were always a few people well-adept at medical treatment. _{freewebnσvel.cøm}