Chapter 250 - Travel Is Such A Pain

Riding Jasper on their way back after the successful negotiations the two were curiously inspecting their gains, with Subrina looking at her suit of armor and YuJu gazing toward the changed king before him while inspecting the stats of this newly recruited soul-servant

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Name: Zadok

Race: Living Armor

Gender: N/A

Level: 143

Class: Battle Armor-Reaper King

Second Class: Unholy Judge 

STR: 103

AG: 175

VIT: 190

INT: 109

INS: 115

AP Available: 0

Titles:

Noble: Only those esteemed enough shall lord over territory

Crowned: So long as you remain a ruler you gain authority over your people's actions

High Judge: Perception heavily influenced by Insight

Olden One: One of the few to remain alive in the ebbing flow of change

Special Status: Contracted Master: Yuju

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"It's safe to say that everything changed except your titles after that evolution"

"It seems so"

The battle armor before him answered in a much deeper tone than before, his appearance altered after YuJu contracted him and used synthesis to evolve him with the burial gem, now boasting a dark gold body and flames as well as a platinum crown inlaid with that dread inducing gem atop his head

"You're going to need a lot of time to adjust to this body and the new set of skills since they contradict your old ones and all"

Zadok nodded in agreement, his previous second class was Holy Judge before it was switched to the exact opposite due to the nature of the burial gem, even his Battle Armor-Holy King was turned into the deadly Reaper King, something that more than awed him since that was his race's Exclusive Class that got changed, something he didn't even think achievable before to the point he couldn't help but comment on the matter

"Master, could it be possible to change the exclusive class of the rest of battle armors as well?"

"Change the exclusive class? I did no such thing"

Zadok was puzzled over YuJu's answer, before he could ask YuJu proceeded to explain things on his own accord

"Your exclusive class allows you to take on a much stronger battle form depending on your original, so in the chance your original form is altered then it is natural that the battle form follows suit"

"Hmm, how does Master know this?"

Zadok asked since he himself did not know of this, thinking that it depended on the military rank of the armor

"Unlike you, I do my research on not only my race but every race I see benefit in, which is why I also know that upon successful binding to a human the exclusive class of the armor would actually change, from Battle Armor to Battle Armament, a form that you take when you're not active"

The dark gold flames flickered after realizing something from these words

"Does that mean we could no longer take our strengthened forms?"

"No, it is the price for longer life, not that you would have used it anyway since it's too exhausting for you"

That was true but he was looking forward to regaining his full glory as the immovable king he once was

"Don't look so down, the armament form is also powerful in its own way, though it might look like you're taking a passive state you are actually affecting the human equipping you with the skill granting them powerful buffs"

"I see"

That didn't make him any happier since it wasn't the armor that was growing stronger but the human, alas this would be the fate of their race from now on, forever living in the shadows of another

As he sulked the journey back grew quiet, Subrina and Aapkashaa not uttering a word from beginning to end and YuJu wondering what Aminta's choice was, would she believe Ephai's words or must he expose the secret tunnels and ruin part of his follow up plans

He had a lot of time to think about it all, another two weeks was how long the journey would take and he surely wouldn't waste it all playing I spy with Subrina again, especially since at the speed they were going they would pass whatever she'd seen already, not to mention it's all been a blur to her

He tried to organize all the plans he had made but found himself recalling most of them were scrapped due to one thing or another, in the end all that was left of his grand schemes was a rough structure of inevitable future events tied loosely to the human race and Vincula Hortus 

"When did it all go wrong..."

"What went wrong Master?"

Asked the ever caring maid which he replied to with a dismissive shake, not wanting to give her more burdens to worry about

Her words however brought him back to thinking about the present where he gained so much more than he could have hoped to acquire, sure not everything had gone according to plan, but the benefits stood out more than the difficulties, more ways to contract, the speed up of power leveling the human race, and a hopefully successful rushed alliance

"My king"

Kasha's voice suddenly came as she manifested on Jasper's back midway through their journey, just in time to remind YuJu that thinking about the bright side was never good

"The reinforcements shall arrive within half a day, what are our orders"

That put a huge frown on his face, a half day alert of arrival was not much of an alert

"Go back and send a distress signal requesting immediate backup, let it be known that it was the humans who are sieging you"

"But..If I may speak, that would only cause them to quicken their pace"

"Yes, and rush to an empty base that was slaughtered in less than half a day, that should give them something to think about before attacking us, when you're done I need you to have Anput call back the Witnesse's tagging shadow so it could know it's needed back at our lands, surely they should be done subduing their target by now"

"As my King commands"

Kasha disappeared from their view and the trip continued on without any further interruptions till they finally reached the terrace

"You two continue on to the house, I shall deal with things here and quickly catch up later"

He split up from them and rushed stealthily into the tower, there was no movement from the enemy but that only meant they could have sent more troops on the way, or were scouting the situation and would attack at any moment

When he entered the tower however he was astounded to see hundreds of creatures filling the streets just beyond the gate, and thousands more clustered together further inside, just this sight alone was more than enough for him to know what had happened