The Void Wolf

“You’re taking us back the Underground City, Keeper?” Sylvia asked. She had stayed within the Valkyries Hall and would come by from time to time to impart knowledge of childcare to Avery, but Raveria was out of the ordinary especially seeing that she ate fire.

“They’ve found the City-Eater so your mother probably wants to know that you’re safe.” Ira nodded as he looked at the other two birth companions who avoided his gaze with a clear sense of shame.

They provided no real assistance for Avery when she gave birth because they couldn’t withstand the energy being emitted from Raveria. Sylvia managed to stay conscious and even filled in for the other two while doing so. She knew that if she were to fail that Ira’s opinion of the Dark Elves could fall.

“You may want to close your eyes,” Ira said before they vanished without a sound.

When they reappeared it was in the middle of a busy throne room and no matter what they were doing, everyone immediately bowed upon seeing Ira.

“Keeper.” Sylun raised her head and greeted Ira.

Three black circles were present on her forehead, but they seemed to be permanent whereas everyone else used ink that could be washed.

“You’re getting ready to go?” Ira asked as he looked around the room. Black became quite a common color and even Sylun was wearing black robes.

“I’ve chosen to personally lead the mages. Sylvia will manage everything in my stead since she’ll be inheriting the Empire in a hundred years or so.”

Although the rulers of each country were sure to be in attendance, there were none who would personally stand on the battlefield. With a monster known as the City-Eater present, there weren’t many who would willingly want to approach it. The majority of the attack was focused on long-range bombardment and restraint chains attached to harpoons.

“I won’t disappoint, Mother.” Sylvia nodded.

“...Keeper, if you don’t mind me asking...Has the child been born?” Sylun asked with clear anticipation.

“Ah, yeah, I forgot to tell you about it. I’ll bring Raveria around here soon, so you’ll get to see her.” Ira laughed with clear joy.

“It would be my honor, Keeper.” Sylun was aware of the feeling of having children so she could understand Ira’s mood.

Ira seemed to have remembered that there was an ongoing emergency and spoke again, “I have to go, but I’ll see you on the battlefield since you’ll be needing the power from the Red Moon.”

“Fortune be with you, Keeper.” Sylun bowed again, followed by everyone else in the room.

Ira smiled before disappearing once again.

…

Avery equipped the formless armor which turned into a sleek black set of defensive wear shortly after. She then tied her hair before equipping the Godsteel sword and the shield shortly after.

“Mum! Mum!” Raveria ran over to Avery and looked up at her.

“Yes?” Avery answered with a faint smile as she fixed the scabbard to her waist.

“Daa, where?” Raveria inquired with a hint of curiosity and anxiety. She was smart enough to know that Ira left and would be back, but she wanted to know exactly when.

“He’ll be back soon but in the meantime are you hungry?” Avery knelt down to look Raveria in her eyes.

“Yes.” Raveria answered with a slight pout.

Avery raised her palm and produced a ball of flame which Raveria grabbed and ate without much of a reaction. She stroked Raveria’s black hair and continued to feed her flames until the little girl became full.

“Enough.” Raveria shook her head.

“Neither I or your father will be able to stay around for long, Raveria.” Avery said as she stood up and continued to prepare her equipment.

“Leaving?” Raveria questioned with a look of devastation.

“Just for a few hours and we’ll be close by the entire time, but until then my cousins will be watching over you.” Avery explained.

“No! Don’t leave!” Raveria’s lip trembled as her eyes became teary.

“It’s won’t be so bad, Ria.” Ira’s voice resounded causing the toddler to jump up and run over to him.

“Up.” Raveria raised her arms and Ira adhered to her wishes and lifted her into the air.

“Have you figured out a solution?” Avery asked.

“Yup, I’ll just temporarily connect the two spaces,” Ira spoke casually but all the mages on the continent would surely have heart attacks upon realizing what it meant.

Ira’s intentions were to alter space semi-permanently and then revert it back when he was done. He would make so that Avery’s bedroom connected to a space near the conflict zone so he could easily check on Raveria. In order to have a simple assurance of Raveria’s safety Ira disregarded reality and made his own solution.

“...Will that really work?” Avery seemed to be slightly surprised as she had never heard of something other than instant teleportation.

“There’s no reason it shouldn’t, I just have to go there first.” Ira shrugged. In his mind, he was already thinking of making the doorway to his house lead to the Great Forest as a joke but had quickly disregarded the idea.

“Then you should go to the Free City while we’ll wait for you to open the doorway. I’ll inform my Mother and Grandmother of what you plan to do. Avery responded.

“I just got here and you want me to leave already?” Ira kissed his daughter’s cheek eliciting a beautiful smile from her before he put her down.

“The faster we finish this, the longer you can stay.” Avery shook her head.

Ira sighed as he looked at his daughter before preparing to leave again.

“Go?” Raveria asked with disappointment.

“Sadly, yes. I’m a bit busy, Ria.” Ira gave her one last hug which she reciprocated.

“Come back!” Raveria stood on her tiptoes to kiss Ira on the forehead.

“Of course.” Ira smiled brightly before he took a step back and disappeared.

…

Each power was gathered at the Free City, but the biggest surprise was the small group of Airships floating outside of its boundaries. There was one smaller model that was built for sending messages, but five larger ships were floating above it.

Inside the city, thousands of soldiers were being directed toward a certain building that housed the teleportation array to Parv.

Meanwhile, the leaders were speaking inside of a smaller version of the meeting hall used for the Summit.

Oswald, the representative that replaced Lowell after his “mistakes” signaled for the talks to begin and the first one to speak was the Old man who led the House Of Swords.

“The City-Eater is only a few hours away from the teleportation array so there should be no problems.”

High Chancellor Victor Orlov was the next to speak up, “As of right now it’s still contained, correct?”

“Yes.” The Old man answered.

“Then shouldn’t we make use of this chance to study it?” Chancellor Orlov suggested.

“Are you mad? Although it still isn’t free I’ve heard that it’s attempting to free itself while rampaging. Anyone who gets close to it will be ripped apart.” King Windsor instantly rejected the idea.

“Yes, that’s why we will fly out of its range and see if our Mana Cannons are effective.” Orlov smiled.

“Humans.” The Clan Leader of the Elves said with distaste before continuing, “Since we have created the restraint chains with the help of the Dwarves, now would be the best time to use them.”

The Dwarven Clan leader nodded his head in agreement as he stroked his long beard.

“Whatever the case may be, we must take this threat seriously. If the City-Eater frees itself then we will all suffer the consequences.” A member of the Diavol council spoke.

“Are we to follow the original plan? If that’s the case the restrictive-based projectiles are to be fired first and then we attack with long-range, high-powered, magic. Then we fire all other artillery equipment at it until the mages regain their mana before repeating the attack again.” Sylun spoke with a slightly tired expression since she had the most experience out of everyone in the room.

“You’ll be going too?” King Windsor noticed she was wearing black mage robes.

“I’ll be leading the bombardment,” Sylun answered.

The room broke into a brief discussion after seeing that Sylun was willing to put herself in danger.

Suddenly, one of her advisors approached her side and whispered something before her eyes curved in delight.

“The Keeper has arrived and has the support of the Valkyries,” Sylun said.

“If that’s so, I see no reason not to bring him into the discussion since King Windsor was unable to make contact with them.” Chancellor Orlov jabbed.

Oswald gestured to a guard who left the room and came back with Ira a few moments later.

“Keeper.” Sylun and those affiliated with the Dark Elf Empire bowed.

“There’s really no need to do that everytime,” Ira sighed in defeat.

It was clear how much pull he had over the Dark Elves after seeing his entrance, but everyone decided to focus on the matter at hand.

“Sir Ira, we’ve been told that the Valkyries are willing to participate in the attack and with that being so, we would like to ask for more details in order to adjust our plans to accommodate their support,” Oswald spoke gracefully.

“Hmmm…” Ira thought for a few seconds before answering, “I thought the plan was to restrain it and attack with magic, right?”

Sylun nodded indicating he was correct which made him laugh.

“Then nothing should change. After the first attack, the Valkyries will probably follow-up and then I’ll drop in and attack at some point.” Ira smiled as he simplified a battle that would decide the fates of millions or even billions of people.

“J-Just you?” The Clan Leader of the Elves asked with disbelief.

“Why not?” Ira shrugged.

It was known to almost everyone in the room that Ira was ranked SS except for the Elves who stayed out of the loop for most things.

“The Keeper is likely the strongest person on the continent so he has the highest possibility of killing the City-Eater.” Sylun clearly was unable to tolerate the skepticism.

King Windsor’s expression darkened as he realized that she was right and Ira was probably going to immigrate to her country after he killed the monster.

Chancellor Orlov was quite pleased with Ira’s relationship with the Dark Elves since it meant he wouldn’t be in the way of the attacked plan on the Grentian Kingdom, but he didn’t let it show, “Then it seems like the majority of this operation rests on your shoulders...but if I may ask, how long will it take the respected Valkyries to arrive.”

“As soon as I get there they’ll arrive.” Ira gave a non-specific answer while fighting off his building disinterest.

“Then should we guide you to the teleportation array as soon as possible?” Oswald asked.

“Nope, I can get there myself,” Ira answered.

“Would it not be faster to use the array or perhaps the airship?” Oswald showed strong insistence, but Ira just slightly narrowed his eyes in annoyance in response.

“The Keeper is capable of instantaneous long-distance teleportation,” Sylun spoke up after noticing Ira’s growing displeasure. Each time she was given the chance to brag about Ira’s abilities she felt proud.

Of course, further, reveal of Ira’s abilities drew further discussion as everyone agreed that he was an incredible danger to their own countries. One could imagine how much of a problem a being with immense strength and the ability to teleport anywhere would be. Ira was literally the perfect deterrent for war since there weren’t any who could match him.

“Right, so if that’s all then I’ll go set up.” Ira stepped away and vanished from sight leaving a bewildered room.

“No gestures or verbal incantation?!” The Elven Clan leader was even more shocked. He had known of Ira’s short-range teleportation, but long-range was a different field altogether and would require an immense amount of energy.

“What is he…” A man from the Diavol council couldn’t help but ask aloud.

“I’ve been suspecting it, but is he of a higher race?” King Windsor asked Sylun who kept a look of devoutness on her face.

“That would be information I’m not willing to pass on.” Sylun herself was unsure of what Ira was but he showed his Wolf Form so she assumed he was some sort of spirit-like existence that was able to take human form, even if he denied it.

“Ehem...If that’s all, we should make our way to the command post in Parv so we can monitor the situation.” Oswald called for the end of the meeting and brought the leaders back to their senses.