Chapter 153

Chapter 153

When Alice heard that Immortals or near-Immortals from the Society had possibly come for her, she felt like someone had dumped a bucket of ice water on her.

The Society had already attacked her last month, when they had thrown several agents at Ethans manor. However, Alice had hoped that the Society would back off after that. They had stolen several notes from various researchers in Illvaria, and if they acted again, it would only make it easier for the Illvarian government to track the Society down and purge them from the country. Taking overt action would only increase the risks for the Society as a whole.

However, the Society clearly disagreed with Alices hopes for a more peaceful time. It only took Alice a few seconds to figure out why.

Alices actions in the last month had been very eye-catching. She had found a way to control the collapse of the System through enchantments, identified several of the root problems people were facing after the collapse of the System, had used the Church of the System to spread that information, and with the help of the church, had even set up willpower training programs to help people stave off the effects of the collapse of the System.

None of these actions had been private, so tracing everything back to Alice wouldnt be very difficult. There simply wasnt enough time to fully disguise her actions, with every second potentially costing peoples lives or sanity. The Society had obviously figured out that Alice knew a lot more about the current crisis than they did.

But she hadnt expected the Society to throw caution to the wind and launch an attack of this magnitude against her. Even if it was increasingly obvious to the world that Alices research was very important, Alice was also protected by an Immortal, and thanks to the training Ethan insisted she undergo, Alice wasnt a slouch in combat either, even if she wasnt spectacular.

Instead, the Society had invested near-Immortals into this attack.

Her heart thudded in her chest like it wanted to leap out of her body, and her palms felt cold and sweaty.

How many people do you think have come? Are there only Immortals and near-Immortals coming for me, or are there regular people too? asked Alice, hoping that Ethan could dispel some of her mounting nerves.

Thirty people or so, said Ethan. Two near Immortals, I think. At this range, my perception Perks are a little bit iffy, but I think there are two. I dont think either of them are full Immortals theyre probably right on the cusp of Immortality, but they havent taken that final step yet, said Ethan.

Alices heart started beating even more furiously. Two near-Immortal level enemies.

Can you fight them? asked Alice.

I should be able to, at least in theory, said Ethan, although he sounded less certain than usual. If they dont have a build specialized in countering mine, I can definitely fight off two near-Immortals as long as I have some time. But the other people that came with them will definitely be pressuring the [Guards] during that time and if they have specialized builds, it might be much harder. Its hard to say with certainty what might happen on a battlefield, said Ethan.

Alice gritted her teeth, scanning over every single Perk she could find in her status screen that might be useful in a fight.

{Adrenaline Rush}. {Enhanced Senses}. {Extended Tissues}. {Combat Seed}, which Alice hadnt needed to make use of outside of training sessions for a while. {No Mana}. {Reflection}. And various sight and senses-related Perks from [Kinetic Manabinder] that let her track objects moving near her, and {Enchanters Armory} to enhance her enchanted items.

It seemed like a lot of Perks. Alice had accumulated a wide variety of useful abilities since coming to this world, and had also acquired quite a few levels in [Survivor] and [Kinetic Manabinder] to make sure she could defend herself in exactly this kind of situation.

However, it also seemed pitifully inadequate when potentially facing a near-immortal.

When fighting alongside Ethan, Alice had seen Ethan use forty magic tendrils comfortably. With a few of his temporary buff abilities, he could increase that number by one hundred mana tendrils, for a total of one hundred and forty.

Alice had a measly seven mana tendrils. While under the effects of {Adrenaline Rush}, she could make those seven mana tendrils as good as a few dozen from a normal mage- but there was a very, very obvious upper limit to what she could do. Ethan had rather easily crushed her in every single training session the two of them had had. If a near-immortal was only half as strong as Ethan, Alice would still be utterly dominated during a fight, and would find it hard to keep herself safe. And in higher level combat, Alice was still very dependent on Perks like {Adrenaline Rush} to level the playing field and those Perks wore off rather quickly.

How many soldiers are with us? she asked.

About 50 [Guards], including your [Hidden Guard]. Cecilias five Mages, although theyre more geared towards enchanting than actual fighting, and if they die it would be a huge loss to Illvaria right now. We might still need them to join us, though, said Ethan, wincing. We need every bit of help we can get. There are also twenty combat Mages on our side. Ethan frowned. At least in theory, we might have a slight advantage in strength. I dont know if they have some sort of trump card to even the fight though, and our advantage isnt that spectacular.

How long do we have until they reach us?

Ethan laughed bitterly. Maybe ten minutes? Not that long.

Alice resisted the urge to curse. She started digging her enchanted items out of her storage Perk, making sure they were as easy to use as humanly possible. Opening her storage Perk and pulling things out usually wasnt very hard, but in a dangerous and difficult fight even that might be the difference between surviving and dying here today.

She hadnt felt this scared in a long time. The attack on Ethans manor had felt frightening, but at the same time, Alice had known that Ethan would probably be able to control the situation if enough time passed. The attack on the Society base hadnt felt very dangerous to Alice at all although she knew that it was a dangerous conflict, Ethan had been there to keep her from dying the whole time.

If not all of them are Mages, they might have hired mercenaries, said Ethan, as he strode onto the deck of the ship with the other [Guards] he had assembled. Then, Ethan stared more closely at the Society Mages that had come for her.

The non-mages who came with the Society have a certain level of organization that I would expect from the military. They dont look like [Mercenaries]. I wonder who is helping the Society out Ethan trailed off as his frown grew deeper. Its probably the Sigmusi. I cant think of anyone else who would willingly work with the Society, except for a country that has equally disgusting practices.

Ethan turned towards the [Guards] who had been assembled on the deck of the ship, as well as the Mages who were now assembling themselves behind the [Guards].

All right, I want the [Kinetic Mages] to start spacing themselves out between the [Guards] to act as walls against missiles. We need to handle a few barrages of missiles. I plan to clear out the trees theyre using for cover, to make things a bit easier. Also ah, theyre attacking, said Ethan.

All forty of his mana tendrils suddenly sprang out of his body, before a large number of small rocks appeared in front of him.

Every single one of the rocks was enchanted. Alice blinked in surprise as she realized that every single enchantment had five enchantment instructions layered into them. For a consumable missile to have five enchantments in it was a completely absurd display of wealth five-instruction enchanting materials were already in the upper grade of enchanting materials. To use them as consumables was just extravagant.

Ethan didnt seem to care at all. He launched the first wave of rocks towards the Society and the Sigmusi, ripping apart trees and shattering several missiles that had been heading towards the Illvarian troops.

Dont engage yet, unless you have good Perks for long-range attacks, said Ethan, his previously concerned tone starting to evaporate. Instead of concern, his voice started to take on a different quality.

Icy determination.

Alice saw that Ethan hadnt cleared out every missile that was heading towards the Illvarians. She spotted a few arrows, filled with rainbow mana as they flew towards the boat. The Illvarian [Kinetic Mages] responded when the missiles grew close enough, and blocked the wave of arrows with their mana tendrils but a few of the arrows suddenly slipped out of the way, before continuing onwards. Two Illlvarian [Guards] died as arrows sank into their brains.

Ethan grimaced, but Alice also noticed a lot of the trees that the Society had been using for cover had been destroyed by Ethans rocks.

Shots are much clearer now. Shoot, said Ethan.

Then, the Illvarian [Guards] who had bows and useful Perks immediately started releasing arrows at the enemy. Many of them were deflected by the Societys magic tendrils but Alice heard a distant scream, and one of the distant blobs of rainbow mana fizzled out of existence.

Then, some of the distant patches of rainbow mana flickered, and Alice saw four different patches of dimensional mana start to fizzle into existence on the boat.

Alice and the other Illvarian mages started hurriedly purifying the dimensional broken mana, and at the same time, Alice used her own dimensional seed to desperately try to plug up the portals that had just been opened. She had never tried closing a portal before but luckily, it seemed to work.

At least, until she ran out of mana, only a few seconds later. Her dimensional seed just wasnt efficient enough or big enough to handle closing down four portals at once and then keeping them closed.

A few knives and arrows shot out of the portals, but Alice had bought the Illvarians enough time to respond. Several [Archers] shot right back at the Society Mages who were attacking through the portals, and Alice joined in by spraying several of her consumable bracelet beads into the portals. She wasnt sure how successful her attack was, but a few moments later, the Society Mages closed the portals they had opened.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the boat, the waves of missiles and arrows continued to fly back and forth between the Illvarians and the Society. Ethan and the two Immortals seemed locked into a desperate game of pong, except that there were hundreds of balls flying around every second, and every failure meant a soldier or Mage died.

Meanwhile, the Society attackers started to creep closer to the Illvarian boat, using the few remaining trees for cover. Alice distinctly noticed that the [Archers] and non-Mages of the Society were actually covered by their [Kinetic Mages] this time. Clearly, the Society attack wasnt an uncoordinated mess, unlike the time they had attacked a Society base.

A few moments later, Alice identified two people who had incredibly dense mana in their body step forward. One of them had a kinetic and a dimensional magic seed, while the other was a pure [Organic Mage]. Alice frowned.

The two people attacking them werent Immortals, but they were very close. Alice could only see a little bit of non-mana flesh left on their body. It wouldnt be surprising if they became fully fledged Immortals in a decade or two, even if they didnt work particularly hard.

The first near-Immortal was already locked into a projectile battle with Ethan, and was just barely managing to hold off the Illvarian Immortals storm of dangerous missiles and enchanted objects. Meanwhile, the Society [Organic Mage] seemed far more reluctant to engage, and was instead looking for an opportunity.

Alice aimed another bracelet of enchanted beads, and prepared to start peppering the Society lines with her own missiles, when she froze.

Just out of sight, Alice could see a new person appear. And unlike the two near-Immortals that were attacking the boat already, this person looked just like Ethan. They were a walking cloud of solidified mana. They werent a Mage, but that didnt console Alice very much at this point.

The Society hadnt just brought two near-immortals to attack her.

They had brought two near-Immortals and an actual Immortal.