Stage II, Chapter XXIV: The Returners

Meanwhile, at the same time the assault on the Kuman airship was being held, Aurelia was heading towards the crashed pods she saw earlier.

As she drifted and dashed through all the fallen debris, Aurelia found it hard to breathe. Everything was on fire. What wasn't had either burned down already, or was out of the flames' reach. Yet many of the buildings in the portal's radius had been felled.

It was night. Perhaps the glowing orange color of Fahndra could be seen from space. The fiery flames only added to the overall brightness that spread all around the city. Almost like it was day, but not at the same time.

With flames, there is smoke. And the burning death brought with it darkened fumes that seemed to block the moon. The gas began to rise and gathered in the atmosphere, making the surrounding air hard to breathe, and the level of visibility at an all time low.

Maybe if one had a vision enhancing spell would they be able to penetrate the dense smoke and see the destruction that was caused by the invasion of the Karman. Aurelia knew she couldn't find out much from her position, so she sent out a bird, and requested it scout the area.

Trudging through the broken down remains of the buildings, Aurelia slowly navigated her way towards the pods that she had spotted earlier.

Squawk. The bird had come back. Perching on Aurelia's shoulder, it cried an excited tone, possibly to signal its confirmed sighting of the pods. Giving thanks to both the bird and Krodoa, Aurelia headed once again into the smoke as she continued her way in the general direction the bird pointed her in.

Walking through deep darkness must've done a toll on Aurelia's mind. She wasn't armed with a mind like Kenneth's, but she still considered herself to be calm and rational most of the time. The long walk soon began to chip away at her sanity, as time went by and Aurelia could not find anything remotely similar to the pods she had gone to look for in the first place.

Having had enough of the smoke, Aurelia dug her hand deep inside her satchel, one that she had purchased quite a while ago. She had since then used this as a storage area for her various seeds and plants, which, oddly enough, seemed to be perfectly healthy, and were in no danger of drying out. Even without water or soil, let alone sunlight. They were kept inside twenty-four hours each day, seven days each week.

Reaching her hands in, Aurelia soon felt that distinct feeling she was looking for- its shape and texture oddly similar to a melon seed. Taking the dark-colored seed out, she threw it hastily onto the ground, and casted Overgrowth on it.

Within seconds the seed sprouted into life as it grew leaves. Its structure began to form, molding its walls and body to look like an windmill. A miniature one, at least. It was about the size of a fridge, perhaps a bit larger.

A steady motion began to happen as the "turbine blades", which were, of course, leaves, began to move in a clockwise direction. Not only that, the plant itself began to twist in perfect timing with the blades, completely turning into an electric fan that could turn all three hundred and sixty degrees. A "Leaf Blower", that was what Aurelia called it.

And this Leaf Blower did its job well. Soon the dense smoke began to clear up, and the win around it was becoming easier and somehow even more better to breathe than normal air.

Anyway, this soon pushed back the smoke, and soon Aurelia dug her hand inside her satchel and took out more of the seeds.

Soon the area was littered with Leaf Blowers, all standing around forty meter from each other. Each one could clear that distance easily, from what Aurelia had checked. It could go longer, yes, but the power would be drastically weakened.

And there it was, the pods, revealed.

"There it is. Its ominous, alright." The buildings seem to have been brought down in a particularly special way, such that it formed a circular field, surrounding the pods on all sides. Yet there was a large area open all around, with nothing in it. No smoke whatsoever,

This open area separated the pods from the buildings, and seemed like their job was to prevent anything from getting closer.

And this confirmed Aurelia's theory. The moment she tried to enter the open area or tried to get close to the pod, she was stopped by an invisible wall. Completely blocked her and stopped her in her tracks.

Looking closer at the "crash site", Aurelia noticed multiple people sprawled out on the ground, unconscious. She was worried that they were Karman, but from the looks of it, they seemed fairly human looking.

If one were to count the business suits that were charred and burned, barely distinguishable, then these people could be mistaken for some rich entrepreneurs who had come back from a trip to space.

Feeling through the forcefield, Aurelia had no choice but to feel herself through as she circled the area, trying to find any holes in the invisible wall. Alas, there was none.

She hadn't gone anywhere in the past ten minutes. Sitting on the floor, she thought of various ideas on how to possibly get the attention of the unconscious individuals, if they were alive.

The first thing she tried was asking for the aid of a nearby bird who had flown down and perched nearby a Leaf Blower.

The bird agreed; it careful ascended to the dark sky, then flew inside. That's odd. The bird seemed to be going farther than she could. Maybe animals can go through, but not humans?

Her suspicions were answered, and no. The reason the bird could go slightly further was due to the invisible wall actually being the size of a dome.

Another thing Aurelia tried was to use her magic. She took some seeds and spread them on the ground. They grew to expand all over the floor, not rising up like most plants do. Thorns, they were.

This particular plant had spikes, thorns, all over its body. Probably as a defense mechanism, like the ones cactuses have.

Aurelia wasn't fazed by this though. Perhaps the plant, recognizing the person who grew it was the Nature Goddess' Apostle, had retracted its thorns or possibly made it so that it wouldn't hurt.

Except for the end part. The thorn had figured it would be used as a whip, with the way Aurelia was holding it.

"So this is how it feels like to use a whip like Catalyn does. I wonder if she uses this for anything else other than for enemies. Oh, what am I thinking? Surely she's not a sadist." Aurelia said as she swung the whip around.

She brandished her new weapon, and with great strength she unleashed the thorny edge on the wall.

Unfortunately, no difference could be found. The invisible wall still stood strong, like a steady fortress that had resisted hordes of attacks from its aggressors.

Aurelia had almost given up. She thought of other ways to hopefully, at leat cause a noticeable crack in the seemingly impenetrable obstacle.

Her last ditch effort involved her trust bow, a gift from her lord himself. This time, she did not pick an arrow with a seee embedded inside. Instead she opted to go with a normal arrow.

Drawing the bow, Aurelia then fired the arrow with all her strength.

Her hard work proved to be fruitful, as the moment the arrow was released from her grasp, it flew faster than originally intended. The bow zoomed past the point the bird couldn't pass and sped all the way through.

"That's it. Perhaps organisms without a heart can pass through the wall. In that case, I know just what I need to get it going." Aurelia smiled to herself, finally proving to be of use to her lord, she thought.

Once again she dug deep inside her satchel, the bag still feeling slightly heavy, and looking overfilled. The sides bulged out slightly.

Anyway, Aurelia took in her hands, a metallic seed, one that was shaped like a bell. A "Ringer's Tone." For first time's sake, she took one of the spikes from the thorn plant.

Carefully she took the spikes that at least resembled the shape of a snowman's nose. These carrot-spikes were then slammed onto the Ringer's Tone, creating a *ring* sound.

Perfect, Aurelia thought. Taking the spike, she embedded one onto the edge of the arrow, making the pointed surface somewhat metallic. She propped up her bow, and using her dominant hand, threw the seed in an almost forty-five degree angle, launching it farther than expected.

Then, drawing the bow's string, she loaded the specially made metallic arrow, and fired it.

It was a perfect shot. Just as the seed began to lose momentum and started to fall, the arrow only continued flying, and the two met, and collided just above the unconscious' people's heads, causing a tense and loud noise.

Anybody would've woken up from that. The almost deafening ring had even reached Aurelia, loud and clear.

"It worked! Hello?! Can you hear me?!" Aurelia shouted in a loud voice.

"We can hear ya, goddamit. What an alarm clock that was. My ears still fucking hurt." The first to awaken was a red haired individual. Grumpy, which was of course understandble.

The rest of the people who were passed out had already awaken by now, too. Confused, they looked around at the destroyed city.

"I can't get pass this barrier. You all will have to walk through it yourselves!" (Aurelia)

Despite the people being clearly concussed, they quickly calmed down and made their move, slowly moving towards Aurelia.

"Bad. You all have to move faster. Enemies are approaching." (Aurelia)

"Gah, fuck. I just woke up. Everybody MOVE!" The red haired individual screamed at the others.

Looking around, the injured group saw multiple groups of Karman appearing from the broken buildings, slowly gathering around them. Eventually they were surrounded, the only safe direction devoid of Karman being Aurelia's direction.

"My lord. I have a situation." Aurelia called to Kenneth in her mind.

"Oh. What's up?" Kenneth's voice replied immediately.

"I've succesfully awoken the returners. But we're surrounded by Karman, and they've started firing at them." Aurelia briefed Kenneth on the situation.

"That sounds bad, alright. Don't worry, we'll head over there at once. Try to hold them off as much as you can." (Kenneth)

"Of course. Though I doubt that I can hold off hundreds of them by myself, I will try." (Aurelia)

"The situation really is dire. Don't worry, we're on our way." Kenneth's voice trailed off.