32 Promises after Promises

Authors' Announcement (again):

Guys, so sorry for the long break due to RL issues + writing the chapter. After discussing with Mr Mooncat, we decided to break this chapter to two or three parts tentatively. It's because, as an editor, he found it too taxing due to the solemness of the storyline and the high amount of content (we release about 4.5k right now, which was 3/4 of total written material. However, the arc is only 1/2 in and is still being continuously written). For chapter 32 (current chapter), 33, and 34 will focus on Linneia's arc. The size of this arc is simply too big, we couldn't squeeze them more without affecting the storyline greatly. Before this, the final chapter was supposed to be 35 correct? There's supposed to be 3 more chapters to go before the end of GW. So, currently, we decided to add 2 more to it to 37.

No worries. GW will end most probably by the end of this year if possible. If not, the slowest will be January 2019. The next one will be release on a Tuesday, 0900, as usual. Thanks

Oh, a special shout out to our loyal reader, YouOnlyLiveOnce! Thank you for pledging with us! This chapter is dedicated to you.

Happy reading.

Mrs Mooncat

https://www.patreon.com/MrandMrsMooncat

http://ko-fi.com/mrandmrsmooncat

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Chapter 32: Promises after Promises

Linneia didn't dare to close her eyes although it was dark as she vigilantly walked through the highly viscos liquid-like suspended substance. She could feel a strong resistance akin to walking through quicksand.Although she was pushing forth, a repelling energy was continuously bombarding her from the front. Each step taken consumed a lot of her mind and body energy. The one minute needed to go through the gate felt like hours has passed. However. she was glad it was not that bad; the readings on her recombinant suit showed that even a normal human body without a suit could go through albeit taking a longer time. While crossing through the 'gate', she noticed that the connection between the Cerebral Connector on her person to the main receptors in the artifact-containing hall was disconnected.

Once she passed through, a glimmer of red temporarily blinded her vision. The first thing she noticed even before she reopened her eyes was the abrupt change in temperature of the surrounding. Although they have been staying for quite a while inside the cave housing the ancient artifact, the cold from outside still seeped in. As long as they didn't stay inside the Rabbit, the extreme chill could be felt until to the bones. Hence, once they put on the recombinant suit, the internal suit temperature had been increased to moderate the best condition for the host's body. The heat radiated from outside coupled with the additional internal heat had nearly cooked them inside their suit. After an agonizing ten seconds for the auto setting to kick in, she finally felt much better.

Afterwards, Linneia took the time to survey her surroundings. She found that she and her team were in a wide enclosure made out of white bones carelessly being placed around the ancient artifact. After requesting the others to secure the perimeters, Linneia squatted down to touch the red sand below her as she looked again at the surroundings. Currently, it was very dim, signifying dusk or dawn. However, they powered up the artifact around noon on the other side. The sky was reddish and harsh wind carrying reddish particles were blowing hard on their face. The sparse trees were brownish red in color and a little further ahead with not even a speck of green leaves. Reddish mountainous regions occupied the horizon. The world they were currently in were dominated in a multitudinous shade of red everywhere. It felt taxing to the eyes.

Linneia frowned with dislike at the arid environment. It seemed that the local environment was less than ideal for human habituation. However, she kept her own opinion and waited for the recombinant suit to perform its analysis. The recombinant suit was busy analyzing the air properties of the foreign location while her personal Cerebral Connector was continuously sending all the information through the gate.

She was quite surprised with the upgraded version of the Cerebral Connector sent over by Frieda for them from her great grandpa. It has a lot of new features and integrated with excellent high definition life streaming capabilities. Once they have gone through the ancient artifact, the connection was suddenly re-established again. Hence, Linneia and co. together with the experts and researchers from the other side simultaneously felt extremely relieved. On Linneia's side, they could obtain all the needed technical advice and support in real-time, while on the researchers' side, they could analyze the environment and gauge the threat level of the new world for in depth research on the spot. All information were then relayed to Neverwinter Research Institute and Sanctuary 3 simultaneously.

Linneia moved forward with caution once she got the green light from Prof Rogers. Prof Rogers reported that the air quality had passed the minimum needed for a human to survive. He told all of the explorers that they could remove their helmet if they wanted to but advised them not to since the threat level of the surrounding was still under scrutiny. Prof Rogers became Linneia's personal neural assistant to give her customized technical support. After all, only Anya, who possessed the gift of mechanical mind had a personal automated assistant to support her when she was working with machines.

As they cautiously moved through the sparsely placed bone 'cage', they stood in a formation where Linneia and little Frieda were placed in the middle, while being flanked by General Raksha and Adjutant Solstis. Melati stayed at the rear with five other elite soldiers while another five moved at the front, acting as the first layer of defense.

After discussing for a while, they decided to move towards the east as suggested by Rogers since the upgraded Neural Connector had detected a body of water around twelve kilometers towards the east. They needed to get a sample to analyze the safety level.

Looking at the uneven land with jutted red trees ahead, Linneia made the decision to move on foot first before reaching a suitable location to use their triphibian vehicles. Currently, the surrounding was less than ideal. However, if they travel by air, they won't be able to collect proper data on the vegetation and geography.

" How is it, Frieda? Can you detect anyone's aura from home?" As they moved along, Linneia asked the little loli seriously.

"Yes and no, Sister Princess." After scrunching her cute brow a few times, Frieda answered with difficulty. She knew she was permitted to join the exploration team for the sole purpose of determining the usage of her ability in this new place. If she could, she could teleport a number of people to and fro without the usage of the Ancient Artifact as long as there was a single person she knew on the other side! "I feel that I can teleport if I want to, but Grandpa Roger's aura is too wispy for me to lock on. It feels like there was something preventing me from properly locking on to it. It's like an interference signal in place." She could observe the faint emerald-green aura of the vigorous Grandpa Professor fluctuating and disappearing in her mind. She couldn't make heads or tails on why it was so.

Seeing the distraught expression of the hardworking little lass, Linneia smiled, "It alright, sweetie. We'll try again later, okay? Try resting your mind a little. Once we reach the body of water, probably you can take your time readjusting your body condition and try again?" Linneia patted the sweet little girl's head with her gloved hand.

The explorer team moved rapidly towards the east while putting their weaponries on standby. As they went deeper into the shade of red gnarly forest with an arid environment, they didn't come across any life forms along the way. Not even a chirp of bird, or a hoot of animal were heard. It was eerily silent until it felt uncomfortable. Only the muffled sounds of their boots were heard in the silent forest.

Linneia could feel something was very wrong. Her sixth sense was blaring loudly in her mind as she quietly relayed a short command, "Everyone be more alert. Something is not right."

Suddenly, the first soldier at the very front fell down and disappeared from their eyes!

"Halt!" Linneia strictly shouted into her comms to stop everyone's movement.

They have triggered a trap!

Linneia's expression turned ugly as she saw the camouflage trap hole covered by itself once another soldier placed his foot on a small inconspicuous boulder after he stopped moving as per Linneia's command. If he continued jumping down from the boulder, he would've fall through the automated hole on the spot just like the first soldier. The trap hole was extremely large; with a diameter of ten meters or so. Looking at the size of the trap, it was meant for extremely large animals!

A soldier at the front tapped the stone again and shouted, "Ramsay! Are you alright?!"

A very faint sound came over, "Yeah!" From the sound, Linneia deducted that the soldier was very deep inside. She was glad he managed to activate the flying function of the recombinant suit.

Linneia moved forward and tapped the surrounding using a long tree branch to check. It turned out a number of triggers were placed at the perimeter of the trap hole.

"Someone please find some leverage to stop the trap from closing. Get ready to lodge it in once the trap is open again. Soldier press the trigger again. We need to get him out before the person placing the trap returns." Linneia gave her command as the four soldiers at the front moved efficiently as per her instruction.

When the soldiers manage to lodge a few branches at the gap, a fierce growl accompanied by a loud shout and ammunition being fired were heard from inside.

"Ramsay, come on up, now!" Another soldier shouted as the repeated firing of guns; all of them were sweating.

General Raksha suddenly lunged forward into the trap hole while pulling out a high frequency saber with her left hand and activated a gun on her right. Solstis was so exasperated as he followed suit. Once inside, she saw a gigantic creature with a height of a two storey building snugly stuck inside the hole attacking the soldier with its free left paw. Its right paw was lodged in between the wall and its huge body rendering it useless. The soldier was trying his best to reignite the malfunctioned blasters of his suit while dodging the attack from the huge beast. Once a while, he would shoot the creature, but the skin was so tough, it didn't produce any result. The shootings only aggravated the beast more as it started to twist itself in ferocious anger while swiping the soldier continuously with its paw in a random motion, in a bid to retaliate.

Raksha somersaulted down stealthily without activating the flying function of her suit and held her saber down. Like a lightning strike, it directly pierced the top part of the creature's head at the very top deeply, leaving only the handle of the saber. Red blood with white brain matter gushed out drenching Raksha's grim disposition, making her appearance to shadow a death goddess. Her action made the creature stop attacking the soldier and trashed its head. Its final death throes were extremely ferocious; a faint tremor could be felt on the surface where everyone stood. Solstis expertly cut off its flailing limb to stop it from continuing to attack anyone.

A few minutes later, the large creature finally stop trashing and slumped to the side.

Solstis heaved a relieved sigh, "Raksha, can you stop being so reckless? Things could get really bad, you know."

The beautiful general only snorted and didn't answer her adjutant's admonition. She pulled off the saber and wiped it at the side of the creature's head. She then expertly twirled the saber and kept it on her hips before jumping down to help the starry-eyed soldier.

...

"Report! There was a strong energy undulation coming from the Portal! The scanner had detected a number of foreign creatures crossing through successfully. They are moving to the east." A low, yet urgent sound reverberated inside a spacious hall. The hall was actually carved within a hollowed out mountain as the sleek polished walls were faintly red, resembling the color of the mountain ranges outside.

The hall was silent for a moment until another booming voice in ancient Kohiten language resounded in response, " Send intel to the Hunter Team since they were already en route to the hunting grounds nearby. Hunt each of them down and eliminate. I don't want a repeat of the last invasion to happen again."

"Yes, Great Grandmaster."

Once the hurried footsteps diminished, the owner of the booming voice breathed deeply, "Do not blame us, o foreign ones. We have learnt our lesson for being too accommodating. Without enough deterrence, you people will come again and again to invade us." As the owner of the voice took a few steps towards an altar with a suspended purple crystal in the middle, its face was lit up by the glow.

It was a face of an ashen faced humanoid with wizened disposition but without a single hair on its face or head. Its eyes were full of wisdom. The difference of this person to a normal human was its overall size. It was five meters in height; double the height of a human.It gazed into the purple crystal and shook its head wearily. "It has been too long. When will this life of mine expires?"

...

"The organism is carnivorous with a reptile descend. Its DNA is 85 % similar to a prehistoric beast from our continent which dated back to more than five thousand years ago." Rogers reported the data interpreted from the sample brought back by Solstis after a short discussion with a biologist in his team through Linneia's Cerebral Connector.

"Which means, this beast's ancestor came from our planet. Surprisingly, the large beast may be treated as food source for the locals in the area. If not, why would they brought the beasts through the artifact in the first place? Most probably these beasts could not be domesticated. Hence, once a sufficient number were brought in, they were left to adapt to the new environment. The ones that survived evolved and repopulated with time and produced a steady source of food for the people staying here." The intelligent princess immediately could read the rest.

Linneia had a slight anticipation to meet up with the Kohiten Giant Race she had heard and learnt from her great grandfather. She really wanted to hear from their side of story since they were the only race who was loss during the earlier Divine War period but survived.

The whole team started moving again, albeit with an added caution. This time they focused more on the surface of the forest floor to check for traps. As their hurried steps got closer to their destination, they had managed to evade more than twenty traps along the way.

Suddenly, Raksha called out to Linneia with a grim look and spoke quietly, "My senses detected we've been surrounded slowly. However, the encirclement is not yet complete. Either we push forth and break through or retaliate on the spot. What do you think, Princess?"

Everyone on the team kept their own pace moving forward without any disturbances, however, everyone was focusing on Linneia at the moment. They will act accordingly following the princess' decision.

After a short silence, Linneia replied, "Let's not be hasty. We don't have bad intention. We should try diplomacy."

Raksha scrunched her brow, "Are you sure it's a good move, Princess?"

"Believe me." Linneia nodded with confidence.

She signaled everyone to halt their movement and took three steps forward. Speaking in a somewhat broken Kohiten ancient language, she tried her best to sound nonthreatening, "We come in peace. We're humans who come from Kohiten's ancestral planet..." Before Linneia could finish her sentence, a large metallic lance the size of a whale harpoon shot through from between the gnarled trees ahead at lightning speed.

Linneia was so shocked she forgot to evade. Raksha flashed forward by using her powers and pulled Linneia to the side as fast as possible. However, the gigantic lance which permeated with a sharp wind energy grazed through Raksha's waist making a large fist sized hole and went forward to impale three of the soldiers standing behind them. The general puked a lot of blood on Linneia's face while shielding her from harm.

In between her gritted teeth, she spat out the rest of the blood coagulating from her internal injury to the side and whispered harshly, "You are too naive, Princess! We must leave their encirclement now! If not, everyone here will die!" She shook Linneia's shoulder.

Linneia's shock was not unfounded. For a scholar who had studied the ancient Kohiten giant race, she knew they were intellectual beings with high level of empathy. They have in them the ability to empower words and writings into energy. Hence, their way was unique compared to others. They were also known as gentle beings who loved peace.

Solstis quickly went in front of the two ladies while a unique halberd agglomerated on his left hand. This showed that the adjutant was being serious this time. It was a secret between the two that he was an undying servant exclusively placed beside Raksha until his Highness the Immortal King had lightly shadowed out his awareness of the secret. His life depended on Raksha's well-being. If the witch general died, he would too, as his life was bounded with Raksha. Between them, they had built a very strong rapport and acted more like siblings rather than master-servant relationship. Raksha was someone who's overbearing, more fiery and reckless, while Solstis was the one who remained grounded and calm most of the time. It helped the duo achieved a balance and made them live longer until now.

Solstis' grim face observed his surroundings with concentration. Until now, not even a shadow of the attacker was seen. They have been very careful not to expose themselves. Melati stood at the back; protecting them from the rear. She couldn't employ her powers because there was simply no target in sight just yet. The only person who could detect them was the heavily wounded Raksha, however, she was in a really bad shape. The shock from losing so much blood had made her drifting between consciousness and unconsciousness.

"Big Sisters, let me guide you. I can detect their aura too." Little Frieda sounded timidly behind Linneia. "The enclosure is fast approaching! Move towards 10 o'clock for about 300 meters now!" Linneia hesitated for a split second and carried the little girl on her back and started running towards the direction. "Come on!"

"Princess! We're going further away from the Ancient Artifact!" Solstis argued. He dashed about and deflected three other incoming lance attacks from the left and the front sides.

"Big brother! The auras on our backs were extremely thick! We can't go that way!" Frieda explained in fear.

While running on the path shown by Frieda, Solstis exhorted, "Why don't we fight back!? We're not weak. Raksha needs immediate medical attention now!" He glanced at the general worriedly. She was being carried by a soldier on his back while they were on the move. A few lance attacks from their back was intercepted by Melati as she used her power to snatch the gigantic lance with precision every time she saw one was hurtled towards them. The incoming lances disappeared from view and reappeared again on her left and right hands. But she couldn't return back the attack since she couldn't see the enemy.

"Can you fight a few hundred of them at one time? Frieda is right. She said that there is around three hundred of auras nearby with each location bearing a group of ten each. Half of them clustered at the Artifact's location. We need to break through the encirclement first and gather our strength and figure out what to do next. Returning to the portal was not the right decision." Linneia had manage to return to a calm state as she analyzed the next steps. She had asked for Prof Rogers to cut off the connection of the two worlds for safety. Once the connection was cut, the technical support was terminated. Now they needed to depend on themselves first. Right now, on the other side, the technical team could only pray without being able to connect to them via the Cerebral Connectors.

Once they leave the three hundred meter mark mentioned by Frieda, the lance attacks significantly reduced.

"Brother adjutant! In front there's five auras! If we pass through here, we can leave the encirclement. The other place got too many." Frieda spoke worriedly.

"Leave them to us, little one."

Five lance attacks were launched from their front. Solstis parried three of them while Melati took over the other two. For once, five humanoid figures as tall as one storey building appeared in front of their eyes. They wore light leather armor with a faint grayish skin. Other than that, they appeared to be very human-like with a heroic spirit in between their brows.

"Stop attacking if you don't want us to retaliate! This is the final warning! We come in peace!" Linneia overbearingly spoke in the Kohiten's language. At the same time, she secretly asked all of her team members to prep the blasters in order to fly away from there once they break away from the encirclement. She told them her plan to meet at the top of the mountain far ahead.

The giants paused slightly after hearing Linneia's cry, but then a set of lances appeared again in their hands as they throw towards them in close range.

Linneia was extremely enraged with their actions! It showed that they did understand her words but choose to ignore. "Exterminate them now before the others reach our location."

Solstis engaged the incoming attacks head on with Melati side by side while the other soldiers fired at them from the rear to disorient them from focusing on their two main combatants. Three of the lances were parried by Solstis while the other two was deflected on two of the giants' chests by Melati. She then started with clenching her hands upfront with a serious expression and harvested the eyes of one giant directly in front of her while Solstis jumped forward and beheaded the sightless giant in a flash before he retreated again. In less than five minutes, three giants were dead.

The last two giants were shock for a short moment before their expressions turned savage. They started making a combined soundwave attacks by writing in mid-air just like a wizard!

Four soldiers on their side hurriedly activated the shield function of their recombinant suits and make a large scale levitating shield to appear in front of them. The others started shooting at the incoming enemies. As the soundwave attacks bombarded the energy shield with pieces of recombinant suits attached, the power gauge reduced slowly. Cracks faintly appeared as the shield's ability reduced bit by bit only after a short ten minutes. The scales were tipping to the giants' side.

"Sister Princess, the other auras are gaining on us! Tens of them!" Frieda's face was drained of color.

Melati launched her powers again towards both of the giants again and again, desperate to end them before the power of the shields were gone. However, it was repelled by an invisible force.

The commotion awakened the seriously injured Raksha. She observed their predicament in a helpless manner. "Princess, you must harvest my gift later. Solstis and I might need to leave earlier than expected. All of you, take care." Both her gaze and Solstis' met. In them were a mixture of emotions; a reluctance to leave, guilt, helplessness and worry.

"So sorry for all the trouble I caused all this while, Solstis." Raksha spoke with guilt.

Solstis smiled warmly, "It is my pleasure to serve you, Lady Raksha."

Linneia had a bad premonition although she couldn't make heads or tail over the conversation. "What are you going to do.."

Raksha closed her eyes to focus as her third eye opened!

She teleported towards the back of the assailants and made a series of complicated handseals before she moved them forward with difficulty; as if the action used all of her energy. One hand aimed at one giant's head while the other aimed at the other giant's head from the back. A blinding white light emitted out of her hands at close range as it reduced both giants into ashes.

Raksha fell to the ground but was caught in a timely manner by Solstis. He had a serene expression on his face.

"Princess, it's over. Fly away as soon as possible once you harvest my gift." She pulled Linneia's hand and placed it on top of her head. "Quickly, before I fade away."

Tears streamed out of Linneia's eyes. She closed her eyes and focused. "I promised to take good care of your clan, Sister Raksha Tempesta."

Both of them shone brightly as the others could see a fiery red light moved from within Raksha's heart into their crown princess' heart. Once the light assimilated into their princess heart, it slowly diminished. If one could see the magic cyclone of Linneia's, one would notice that the core cyclone had been mutated into a different shade and shape. Previously, Linneia's magical core was wispy without an intangible shape with a slight blue color. Right now, a tinge of red appeared as the wispy shape turned slightly spirally. Linneia had been blessed with the power to assimilate another witches' gift into her own. However, she had never used them because it will cause the death of the witch once she absorbed her gifts. Hence, she had always depended on her intelligence and charisma all this while.

Once the process was done, the dying general became illusory and disappeared with a smile, "I believe you can succeed, Princess."

Not long later, the crowd were shocked with Adjutant Solstis turning illusory. He sighed, "Princess, I'll be going now. Do your best. Please protect everyone from home for us. You owe us big time."

He turned towards Melati and smiled with a heartache. "Be happy and live long. Maybe it was not meant to be." He murmured quietly before disappearing.

Nothing was left of the beautiful general and her loyal adjutant.

A streak of tear leaked silently from Melati's eyes.

...

"Princess, the four of us didn't have our suits anymore, hence we can't follow you. Please escape from here. Leave the pursuers to us. We will act as a decoy and lead them elsewhere. You must survive. Our home planet's survival depends on you." Ramsay, the first soldier who was in a peril at the beginning knew even if his suit wasn't broken, he still couldn't fly due to the malfunctioned blasters. Hence, his resolve had solidified a long time ago.

Before the sorrow of losing Raksha and Solstis was over, Linneia had been harshly awakened by the hard facts that the elite soldiers who helped them defend the attacks of the giants didn't have their recombinant suits anymore. At the moment, only her, Melati, little Frieda, and three soldiers were left with intact recombinant suits.

"But we could carry the three of you." She tried her hardest to find a way to help them. Leaving them to act as decoy meant that abandoning them to their deaths. These giants were extremely strong and intelligent.

"Please don't, your Highness. You'll be extremely slow. Easy to be targeted. Let us be useful this time." The other soldier exhorted with sincere eyes.

Linneia's calm facade finally broke as she wept. She pushed the tears away and answered solemnly, "Thank you everyone. We will do our best. I will definitely find a way to let everyone back home survive the incoming calamity."

As the Crown Princess of Graycastle flew away, her tears couldn't stop as she was burdened with yet another promise. Promises after promises filled her hearts. They slowly turned into a fiery determination to push her forward to succeed.