"I'd think that you would be popular in whatever circle you moved with..." Dina looked at Ikaris surprised at her confession, hours after they had moved on.
"I never had any circle to begin with, I have always been alone." Ikaris sighed stretching her legs as she rode on Sol's horse alongside Dina who was using someone else's.
"They've been talking for hours." Han had his cheek resting on his fist.
"They became friends after two and a half months of being at each other's throats, I think it's cute." Eris smiled at him, but he only scoffed and sighed.
"Eris, do you want to spar later?" He looked to her after a few minutes of elapsed silence between the two of them, who were the only ones in the carriage after Usami had disappeared into the ranks of the army and Bruce had gone ahead with Arla's group.
"Spar?" She raised a brow. "With you?"
"I mean, yeah, you want to get stronger, and I've been thinking of how we can improve our teamwork as a whole party," He looked at her through his peripheral, staring at her exposed legs with obvious intent while she didn't even look up at his face to see his gaze while she was thinking over his proposal. "We should grow closer as a party, don't you think?"
"I don't know, if it's a spar to grow closer as a party then shouldn't all of us be present, why ask just me?" She asked, and he swallowed and looked around at her, playing innocent. "?"
"I'm saying I want to have one one-on-one sessions with everyone to get to know them better, so I can be a better leader-"
"You have excellent leadership skills though, even Arla has praised you for them." Eris smiled at him, straightening her coat over her legs and tapping her knees in thought. "Besides...
my job is simplified to healing my party, I'm not a fighter like the rest of you are, most of my fragility from earth carried over, making me much more of a mascot than anything else; not to mention I train with lady Idria every day, did you know she has kids? Seven at that, I was so shocked that-"
"Jeez, forget it," Han raised his hand when the topic started straying. "A simple NO would have sufficed."
"I'm simply letting you know where my priorities lie, Han," Eris's tone became more stern. "I sure come off as naive, hell I even fool myself sometimes, but I can't simply be taken advantage of like any of the poor fools you've already slept with, have you forgotten that we have been in the same classes for two years now?" She crossed her legs and righted her glasses.
"I love it here, in Arkadia, if I wanted to sleep around it sure as hell wouldn't be with the class playboy, because frankly speaking; I never liked you very much, why be with you when I have so many suitors, beastmen with crazy libidos and elves who want me to bare their beautiful children?" She stared down her nose at him.
"Wh... Huh, where did that come from?" Han's eyes slightly widened as he was told off.
"From the bottom of my kind heart, Han, you need help, stop chasing every skirt you come close to and find someone nice, otherwise even the hero will become lonely over time." She leaned her head with a smile.
"Or I can just be a bachelor here and keep at it until I die." Han shamelessly countered and Eris smiled at his honesty.
"Now there's a good boy," She grinned mischievously at him and he looked away.
"I thought I knew you..."
"Nobody has the pleasure." Eris pressed her hands on her knees and slowly spread her legs, arching forward and lowering her head to block his view as their eyes made four. "Nobody's had the pleasure~"
"Then I-"
"-Will never get the chance." She shook her head and reassumed her innocent persona. "My body is my treasure, it can't allow myself to be corrupted by the likes of a man-whore."
"Fuck you Eris." Han flipped her off, visibly upset at being constantly insulted and then rejected on top of it.
"Hehe, you wish you could." She laughed at him before going passive again and looking out the window on her side. "We're here!"
All evidence of her teasing had vanished in a flash when she saw a stone obelisk marking their destination, and on that queue, the sun took its final bow and dipped below the horizon.
"This is the landmark?" Bruce stared at the elongated oval-shaped stone structure, held by three legs that were bedded into the ground, and at the small stone altar beneath it. "It looks like the top of an underground sacrificial tomb." He chuckled and looked at Kris, and the tanker stared at him and then looked at Idria on his other side.
"Did someone tell him?"
"Huh, is it truly?" Bruce asked shocked.
"A hundred years ago, many thousands sacrificed their lives to create the conjoined barriers as a last effort to prevent the demon army from advancing to Argom, which was the only standing defence against them, it was the peak of the war until date," Kris answered.
"It is more accurate to say they were sacrificed instead of saying they gave their lives, the ten obelisks had already been built, and with the hasty retreat of the remainder of the continent toward Argom it took no time at all to trap those poor souls, back then, Arkadia was a much darker place; hope was nowhere near as pronounced as it is today." She adjusted her glasses when Arla fired off a green mana flare into the air announcing their arrival.
"How exactly does it work then, won't it require live sacrifices to reactivate it a second time?" Bruce furrowed his brows. "Are we going to-"
"Heavens no," Arla replied, waving her hand as the entire mage corps came forward. "Leave the restoration of the barrier to us mages, it will be a day at most before we can move on again, so in the meantime the army will be on guard.
"How exactly does it even work?" Eris approached, staring up at the fifty-foot structure that held an eerie aura at the top almost as if it was watching them.
"The barrier was designed with every creature on Arkadia in mind, Humans, Beastfolk, Elves, the Dwarven and so on, monsters are not allowed through, and demons are automatically repelled, it has a strong detection system, and anything that has even the slightest chance of getting through will be exterminated using a portion of the mana that holds it intact...
it has a range of over a mile." Arla gestured toward the far west where they could see the silhouette of a skeleton with a portion of the skull missing.
"So how was it broken?" Bruce stared.
"It supplies its own mana through passive absorption, but one or two things can cause th barriers to shatter, the first is complete depletion; where the enemy forces are so plentiful that the obelisk expends all of its power trying to exterminate them, and the second is through direct attack by a foe which it could not destroy." She explained gesturing at Ikaris and Dina who were still conversing away from everyone else.
"The Minotaur they killed was such an enemy, overbearing and overpowered beyond the capabilities of the obelisk, judging by how the land is scarred, the obeliskust have been depleted of its mana and shut down on its own."
"So you're saying Ikaris and Dina have the firepower to destroy the barrier?" Han asked surprised.
"I am saying, with your exponential growth heroes, it will not be long before you are all capable of breaking these barriers, at that point you will be ready to match to the north and kill the instigator." Arla tapped her staff, and her followers formed up and went after her.
"But yes, with their current power, Dina with her cosmic magic and Ikaris with her ever-growing cataclysmic magic, either of them would be enough to break the barrier with a bit of effort.
"Dina, we will begin in another hour after the sun has set," Arla called to her student, and the latter nodded and waved at her. "Let's start preparations."
"I will go now," Ikaris gave Dina a small nod. "How is your mana, will it be enough?"
"Maxed out." Dina flexed her arms with a nervous chuckle.
"They used live sacrifices the first time because of the lack of preparation and the urgency of an attack, but with the combined efforts of the Mages it'll be reactivated without casualties this time, but Arla said it's going to take a lot of effort and shifts lasting as long as a day with the constant threat of an attack looming over our heads..."
"Which leads to the responsibility of the advance, and why I am here," Ikaris nodded and saw her off with a wave. "Do not worry, nothing, absolutely nothing will get by me, I swear it."