169 Chapter 169: Mission with father

Since Jing Tian Academy had been devastated during the attack, the students were pretty much given a long, extended holiday. Vincent Violet, the academy director, had returned, but it was clear that his daughter's death had affected him. Even so, he didn't allow his grief to affect him and he returned to his usual efficient and calculated manner, ordering the repair of Jing Tian Academy. Until the school was restored, students were told to wait and recover from the entire ordeal. It would take a while, but until then we had nothing to do.

So I saw this as an opportunity to follow my dad on an extended mission overseas. Shortly after cleaning up our house, we took a flight to one of the Southeast Asian countries, in hopes of locating elements of the Dark Church.

The Violet family held a private funeral for Alicia, and disallowed any of the students or friends from attending. It was family only, and everyone respected their decision. Before I had left, I had participated in the Black Roses' memorial for Alicia, where we chose to meet up in a relatively undamaged place and paid our respects. Though we didn't get to approach Alicia's coffin or witness her cremation, we substituted it with a holographic photograph of her. Alicia was so popular that everyone agreed unanimously to commemorate her memory, something we didn't do for any of the other students killed in previous missions or during the invasion.

Then I left my friends behind temporarily to follow my dad on this mission. My purpose was to grow stronger, and I hoped I could learn and benefit from watching him operate and fight firsthand.

"We heard that this city might be their target," Dad was telling me as we trekked through the woods. "If we aren't careful, it might end up like another Jing Tian City."

"Isn't the Dark Church trying to hit multiple places at once?" I asked. Even though Jing Tian City was the only city in the Middle Kingdom to suffer an invasion, I had heard that several nations under the aegis of the Global Federation had also been attacked. The Dark Church had struck in several nations, targeting a relatively small city in each.

From what Dad's sources told us, it appeared that this was just an experiment. Most of them were attacked in the same manner as the first invasion, where three thousand monsters marched across the forest and into the city, destroying a garrison on the way. Even so, the various cities had ample warning and were able to muster up armies to defend against the monsters. There were many casualties and a lot of damage caused by the clash, as expected when armies of humans and monsters fought fiercely in the deathtrap that was urban warfare, but the humans won in the end.

Somehow I was sure that everything had been within the calculations of the Dark Church. They never sought to destroy the cities, but were testing both the extent of control over their monsters, as well as probing the Global Federation's defenses.

"You're right," Dad agreed. "But we can only be in one place at a time. We are not gods. Just do the best that you can, and save as many people as you can. That's all that is expected of us."

I chewed on my lip and clenched my fists. This stupid Dark Church was making things so difficult for us. If only life was simpler and I could just spend the rest of my days hunting monsters, earning prestige and money. I wouldn't have to worry about backstabbing human enemies and apocalyptic conspiracies.

Alicia wouldn't have to die.

"The idiots also provoked the Amazerian Empire, but…I don't think they succeeded." Dad chuckled. "The Empire is more ruthless than us. None of the Dark Church agents survived."

While the Global Federation was technically the ruler of the world, it was but one of three superpowers that shared the current Earth. The Amazerian Empire presently occupied the South American continent and what was formerly Mexico. Then there was the Zurium Empire that ruled over the African continent. The empires were powerful and militaristic, ruled over by royal families and Warrior-Empires who had united the disparate nations in their respective continents through strength and magic. The Global Federation had an edge in terms of technology, but no combat mage in the Federation would ever dare to proclaim himself superior to the fanatical and stalwart warriors of either empires. Obviously, they didn't operate on that bullshit "strong rule the weak" logic, but their empires were heavily militarized out of necessity – massive areas of their continents had been overrun by forests and jungles, which were in turn inhabited by monsters.

The soldiers protected the farmers, artisans and other vocations who lived inside fortified cities that sported miles-long walls and shimmering magical barriers generated by defensive runes and powerful enchantments. The population usually stayed behind the walls and rarely ventured outward because of the uncontrollable wilderness that surrounded them, and their skies were ruled by flying monsters and rank A dragons, which made flights into the Empires difficult and hazardous. Consequently, the populations of the two empires remained closed off and isolated from the citizens of the Global Federation.

Ironically, the large amount of deforestation had somehow allowed the Global Federation to loosely maintain contact with each other and form an alliance. That alliance was weakening year by year as forests and wild habitats continued to grow and overrun human territory, but for now our cities held strong through a combination of magic and technology.

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"The people in the empires fight monsters everyday, and their walls are impenetrable," I remarked with a scoff. "Did the Dark Church really think their tactics would work against them?"

"Probably not, but they should have known that. Which is why their seemingly suicidal behavior makes no sense." Dad scratched his head. "We don't understand what goes on in the minds of these zealots. They probably operate on different wavelengths."

He raised a hand and a torrent of flames erupted to casually incinerate a Striped Tiger that lunged at us. The rank D monster was reduced to ash instantly. I watched its remains get blown away by the wind, and relaxed for a second, realizing that my hands had gone to Gan Jiang and Mo Ye on reflex.

Then I spun around and sliced am Amber Leopard in half with my swords, the weapons leaving the scabbards for half a second before returning to their sheaths. If any normal human had seen that, they probably wouldn't be able to follow the movement of my swords with their eyes.

"Oh, not bad. You have certainly improved." Dad clapped his hands. Then he glanced at my swords. "Speaking of which, those weapons are new, aren't they? I don't remember having seen them before. When did you get them?"

"While you were away on a mission," I replied with a shrug. "A few things happened, and the Stuart family sent them to me as a gift. Apparently President Lionel Stuart was impressed with my display of swordsmanship and arranged for the renowned swordsmith couple, Gan Jiang and Mo Ye, to forge a couple of swords for me."

"The Stuart family?!" Dad did a double take at my revelation. "What the hell?! How?! What the hell happened while I was away?!"

"Uh, it's a long story…"

As I elaborated, I realized that so much had happened while my dad was away on a mission. We hadn't talked like this in a while, and I was relieved to be able to speak to Dad without restraint. After the ominous battle where Jing Tian City almost fell, I began to learn to appreciate the things that I still had.

Now that I thought about it, I would never be able to speak to Alicia again…

A sudden flutter in Corvus's peripheral vision caught my attention. I had sent a flock of Corvus to scout ahead in a hundred meter radius (as I said, they couldn't move too far out away from me or they would cease to exist because I couldn't maintain their existence).

"I see a village, about three hundred meters…in this direction." I vaguely gestured somewhere to my right, where Corvus spotted the village. After all, I didn't have a compass, so I didn't know where east or north was. I could take my smartphone out and check, but honestly, it would be pointless. Dad wouldn't understand where exactly I was referring to if I just said "three hundred meters east of us" unless he checked his compass as well. It would be much simpler and clearer to point in the exact direction. "Pretty small village, from the looks of it. A farming community."

"Cool." Dad nodded and glanced upward. The sky had darkened, and we heard a howl somewhere in the distance. My Corvus couldn't see the source, but I wasn't worried. I had Ursa Major watching our rear in case any monsters snuck up on us, and a ring of Canis Minor foraging ahead to check for ambushes and traps. Even so, neither of us was enthusiastic about camping out in the wilderness at night. "Let's stop over there for the night. I hope they have an inn or someplace where we can stay."

"Yeah."

A growl drew my attention, and I hurried forward, only to see my pack of Canis Minor pouncing on a Horned Antelope in unison. Despite its gentle appearance, the Horned Antelope was an aggressive monster that gored anything it saw with its monstrous horns. It was certainly not herbivorous, and enjoyed preying on poor humans. Fortunately, it was rank F at best, and was no match for my Canis Minor. Behind, I heard a thunderous bellow as Ursa Major struck something that looked like Striped Tiger that tried to pounce on him. With a single blow, he stunned the monster, and he proceeded to lumber forward to finish it off. The Striped Tiger slashed at him, but Ursa Major wisely evaded the first blow, and then caught it in the flank with his claws. As the Striped Tiger thrashed about, Ursa Major began to tear the poor thing apart.

"How reliable." Dad grinned, amused. "At this rate, I don't need to call upon Angelica."

"Please don't." the last time he summoned Angelica, he ended up setting Jing Tian City ablaze. And that was just last week. "Speaking of which, how is she? I haven't seen her…not even last week, when you summoned her."

"Same as usual." Dad shrugged. "She's a summoned spirit, so I'm not sure how I'm supposed to answer your question. Hey, you should be concerned more about your old man. If I bite the dust, Angelica vanishes along with me!"

"There's nothing in this world that can kill you, Dad," I replied dismissively. Dad turned serious and shook his head.

"Oh, you'll be surprised. There exists monsters in this world that are beyond our imagination. There will always be a taller mountain. The same goes for me."

"Oi, don't go setting up death flags already, Dad."

"Ha ha, yeah. True. I'm still too young to die." Dad chuckled and slapped my shoulder. "Anyway, lead the way! Let's reach the village before it gets completely dark!"

I followed the route my Corvus helped me spot earlier and we covered the remaining three hundred meters in about thirty minutes. The forest terrain was pretty hard to traverse, and we had to fight off a couple more monsters, but we managed to reach our destination unscathed.

"My, my. How rare…I wasn't expecting visitors."

There was an elderly lady who had just finished harvesting something and was pushing a cart of crops toward a shed. I stepped forward and offered to help.

"Thank you, young man." The elderly lady stepped back as I took over, and then stretched her back. "Ah…my spine hurts. I wouldn't know what to do without you."

"I'm sure you will manage just fine. You still look very strong and healthy." Dad offered her a smile. The elderly lady laughed at that.

"My, what a flatterer! But my age is taking a toll on this frail body. I'm afraid I won't last much longer." She patted the small of her back. "What brings the both of you here?" she glanced at the ceremonial rope that stretched across the perimeter of the forest, its enchanted runes forming some sort of barrier. "Monster hunting? There hasn't been any monsters capable of breaking through our barrier for years now."

"We're investigating some uh…bandits." Dad scratched his head. "Their trail led us here."

The elderly lady's expression stiffened for a moment, and she narrowed her eyes.

"…bandits?"

"I guess you can call them that." Dad shrugged. "A criminal organization, to be more precise. Conducting illegal experiments."

He didn't elaborate, but the elderly lady fell into thoughtful silence for a moment.

"There has been a few newcomers recently, but they often pass through our village and head straight to the mountains." She turned and gestured toward the mountains beyond the village. "I don't know where exactly they go, but there was a huge convoy a few days ago." She fumed. "Ran through Thaksin's field and smashed all of his vegetables to pulp. Those bastards…Thaksin raged and demanded for compensation, but they just blasted him with a spell. We contacted the authorities, but by the time they arrived, those bastards were gone."

Dad and I exchanged a glance. Seemed like we were on the right track. If anything, we headed toward this direction precisely because we received a tipoff from the authorities regarding a bunch of suspicious dudes showing up and making a mess of someone's field in some village in this area.

"They had all these trucks and heavy vehicles. I bet those illegal experiments you're talking about are stored inside those trucks. They have to be! Otherwise they wouldn't be rushing through our village like that."

"We'll check them out," Dad promised. "But for now, do you mind if you point us toward an inn where we can stay for the night?"