Divine Avatar 2

For 24 hours after making the Divine Avatar, Raizel discovered some new abilities. One of them was that he could split his attention into two parts. This means he could control both his own body and the Divine Avatar's body at once.

In Yggdrasil, each spell the Player had learned had a specific position on their console, and the Players needed to go to a particular position to cast a specific spell. So, Raizel, back in Yggdrasil, had many spells unlocked and spent an entire year remembering all the positions of spells so that he could quickly cast spells in combat.

This was a crucial skill for magic casters to master because if they didn't remember the position of their spell in the console, their cast time would increase. Thus, their enemy could kill them while they searched for the spell in their console.

However, after transferring to the new world, the process of spell-casting changed. Now, to invoke a spell, he needed to concentrate on it within his memories. 

Subsequently, details such as the spell's casting time, MP consumption, cooldown, and other pertinent information would come to his mind. Only after this process could he successfully cast the desired spell.

In short, he needed to focus to cast a spell. So, when he tried to cast 2 spells simultaneously, one from his main body and one from his avatar, he felt his consciousness split into two streams. 

One controlled his main body, while the other controlled his avatar. After a bit more experimentation, he could now split his consciousness on command; although he needed to concentrate for a bit before the activation. He could now control both his body and his avatar at the same time. He then named this new ability Split Consciousness.

'So I can create new skills if I try. Which was not possible in Yggdrasil.'

Raizel contemplated while leaning against the cave's wall, and he observed his avatar doing some exercises. Even though he had created a new ability, he was still not adept at it. So, he was experimenting with how long he could keep it active, and the current best time was 17 hours.

'It's good that everything else functions like it did in Yggdrasil. I can activate all my skills, with the sole exception being the Soul Weapon skill. To trigger it, the avatar must have its unique weapon designated as its personal weapon.'

Raizel stopped leaning and moved toward the room entrance. However, he felt the familiar tug of one of his summons trying to contact him.

He shut his eyes and employed the skill to perceive the world through the Gazerwing's eyes. He 'saw' a massacre occurring in the village. Knights wearing shining armor were going around killing the inhabitants while some searched the houses.

'Humans? Although this might be dangerous, I must gather information and test their power level. This is an excellent opportunity- I can make the villagers indebted to me. Then I can extort information from them. With my Divine Avatar, this plan shouldn't have a problem. Surely, the villagers would know more about the town than those goblins.'

Although he could use magic to forcefully read their memories, the uncertainty surrounding their power levels and the desire to avoid offending another Player restrained him from taking such a brash approach.

"Yare yare, I am really going blind here."

Speaking to himself, he opened his Item Box and retrieved a set of Relic-Class armor for his avatar.

The avatar stopped exercising, moved toward Raizel's main body, took the armor, and proceeded to wear it. He then took out some accessories for the avatar, which included rings, wristbands, and a necklace.

The armor was like simple knight armor and was a gift he had received from the Amanomahitotsu, the craftsmen of the guild.

"Back in Yggdrasil, he called it the Sleeper Hit Armor."

He again closed his eyes to observe the situation of the village. 

'Let's see, where should I make my appearance.'

He continued his observation, and after a few moments, he noticed a young girl with blonde hair hurriedly fleeing the village alongside a child, evading the pursuit of three approaching knights.

'This is perfect,' he thought. As he opened his eyes, he activated his Soul Weapon skill, and the Billion Blades materialized in his hand.

The reason for this was that even if his avatar was going instead of his main body, there was a chance that the enemy might have a World Item. If the avatar was attacked by it, it would be destroyed. The attack would harm Raizel's main body.

To mitigate this, Raizel took out his own World Item- because only a World Item can protect one from the effects of another World Item.

He cast a 9th-tier spell, <Gate >, the most potent teleportation spell at his disposal. 

Despite the convenience of teleportation spells, there lingered a risk of malfunctions, and certain spells imposed limitations on the distance one could traverse.

However, <Gate > didn't have these weaknesses, and thus, Raizel opted to use it despite its high MP cost.

"Let's get this show on the road."

He spoke while the avatar entered the portal.

~A few hours back~

A small regiment of soldiers traveled across the lands near the Great Forest of Tob. Leading this regiment was Gazef Stronoff, the chief warrior of the kingdom of Re-Estize.

While leading his regiment, his expression progressively turned ashen. The cause was evident: black smoke billowed in the distance. To him, this represented the worst possibility, as it heightened the likelihood that the bandits had ravaged another village.

They had already found the ruins of another village yesterday. The bandits had mercilessly slain every inhabitant, plundered all valuables, and then set the entire village ablaze. Only the charred remains of its inhabitants could be found there.

Several minutes later, they reached the vicinity of another village reduced to charred ruins. Thankfully, some of the residents had managed to survive, albeit with severe injuries.

"Soldiers! Search the houses for any survivors!"

Dismounting from his mount, Gazef issued the command as he walked towards a ravaged house. Following his lead, all the soldiers dismounted and commenced searching through the houses, hoping to find any signs of survivors.

Gazef's second-in-command and the vice-chief warrior walked toward him.

"Chief."

Gazef turned to him and sternly spoke.

"Vice-chief. Take a few men and guide the survivors back to E-Rantel."

Vice-chief- Hart Thistle- had a contemplative look on his face- and after a few seconds- he spoke.

"Chief warrior."

"What is it?" Replied Gazef.

"It doesn't seem wise to divide our forces, Chief. We don't even know whether the group destroying the villages is a bandit group. In my opinion, the group is of the Baharuth's knights. And we only have 50 soldiers for this mission. Even with us all, it would be difficult to eliminate all the knights."

"As you know, this mission is of utmost secrecy, so dispatching more men would have been difficult," Gazef replied in the same stern tone.

"You know that the Nobles are behind this. Even in the king's inner circle, there are those who believe that if they take out his most trusted men, they will have firepower against him. So Shallow."

He spoke the last part with utter disgust.

"That's enough."

Gazef yet again sternly replied.

"You know this is a trap, chief warrior! Instead of splitting our forces here, we should all head back to E-Rantel immediately!"

He then looked toward the destroyed village and spoke with a regretful tone.

"Even if we have to sacrifice a few villages, the loss of the strongest swordsman in the country would be far more grave! Please, captain, try to understand."

As he spoke, he turned his head to look back at Gazef. To this, Gazef turned his head and looked toward the soldiers helping out the few survivors.

"I am of common birth."

"So am I."

Gazef continued, "Living in a village is living next to death. It's not uncommon for us to be attacked by monsters."

"That's right," Hart replied.

"Then haven't you ever hoped... that the powerful nobles or adventurers would save us?"

Hart had a contemplative expression and replied to Gazef after a few seconds.

"Saying I have never hoped would be a lie, but no one ever appeared."

Gazef, listening to his reply, turned to look at him and spoke.

"Then, let us be the ones to appear before them."

He turned his head toward the survivors and continued.

"Let us show those people who know the dangers but put their lives on the line. Let us show them the strong, which protects the weak!"

Hart didn't reply, but he already knew what to do. He moved away from Gazef and commanded a few soldiers to guide the survivors back to E-Rantel.

In the outskirts of the Great Forest of Tob lay the village of Carne, now enveloped in the grips of a horrifying massacre. Villagers ran to avoid the attacks of the mounted assailants, who struck them down with their swords.

The attackers didn't care about their gender or age. They struck the villagers down without any hesitation and with great precision.

None of them noted a flying football-sized monster from the forest canopy. It observed the massacre through its big yellow pupil.

~Scene Change~

Enri Emmot of the Carne village ran as she clenched her little sister's hand. She ran, trying desperately to get away from the massacre occurring in her village.

Enri heard the sound of clanking metal from behind her as she ran. It was a rhythmic sound. She looked behind with a prayer in her heart - as expected, it was the worst-case scenario.

Three fully armored knights were chasing the Emmot sisters. Her heart dropped at their imposing sight- as blood was still fresh on their swords.

Enri took a deep breath and forced herself to soldier on. 

She had no energy to waste on anything else. Her breathing was rapid, her heart beating hard enough that she felt it would burst, and her legs were shaking mightily.

Soon enough, she would be completely exhausted- collapse and not get up. She might have lost the strength to run and given up if she were alone.

However, she was holding her little sister's hand. It gave her the energy to run away. The truth was that Enri's powerful desire to save her sister had kept her going until now.

As she ran, she glanced behind again. The distance between herself and her pursuer had not changed. Even in armor, their speed had not decreased. This was the difference between a trained warrior and a village girl.

Sweat ran down Enri's back as her body went cold. If this kept up... she would not be able to escape with her sister.

'Let her go.'

'Perhaps you could escape by yourself.'

'Do you want to die here?'

Such words echoed through her head.

"Shut up, shut up, shut up!"

Enri shouted at herself for those thoughts through her clenched teeth.

She was the worst sister imaginable.

Why was her little sister holding her tears back? It was because she believed in her big sister. She believed her big sister would save her.

"Ah!"

Enri's younger sister, Nemu, was as tired as Enri herself. Therefore, she suddenly stumbled, yelped, and fell.

"Faster!"

"Ah, yes!"

The knights chasing her shouted and increased their speed. Although Enri wanted to run, her little sister was starting to cramp up, and she could not move fast.

Enri wanted to pick up Nemu and run, but before she could do that, the sounds of metal drawing up beside her filled Enri with fear.

The knight beside her held a bloodstained sword. In addition, his armor and helm were covered in traces of spattered blood.

Enri pushed Nemu behind herself and glared angrily at the knight.

"It's pointless to struggle."

There was no compassion in those words. Instead, there was only mockery.

He raised his bloodied sword, and before Enri could respond, he slashed her back. Suddenly, she felt a line of scorching heat bloom on her back.

"Argh!"

The pain was spreading throughout her body, and she felt power leaving her body. The knight didn't wait and raised his long sword again, ready to finish Enri in one sweep.

Enri looked at the longsword raised high before her. Panic was written all over her face as she watched the malevolent gleaming of the terrible swift sword, and she realized two things.

The first was that her life would be over in a few seconds. The second was that an ordinary village girl like herself had no way of fighting that fate.

The tip of the sword was stained with some of her blood. As her heart beat faster, she felt true helplessness at that moment.

In the face of her own blood staining the blade, a cascade of thoughts inundated her mind.

"If only I were stronger. If only I possessed the power to safeguard Nemu. If only I had the strength to protect my parents."

These contemplations swirled within her as she witnessed her blood dripping from the extended sword—a tangible representation of her plight.

At this moment, a distant memory resurfaced. It transported her back to a time when her uncle met his demise at the hands of goblins. However, those very goblins, once assailants, were effortlessly vanquished by adventurers.

It was a revelation that etched in her mind: the weak, she realized, have little control over their fate, while the strong possess the ability to alter theirs.

'Truly, the weak are at the mercy of the strong. There is no point in struggling anymore.'

Resigned to her destiny, she closed her eyes and tenderly embraced her younger sister. Moments stretched into eternity, yet the anticipated strike failed to materialize.

She opened her eyes and witnessed a purple hole in the space before her.

To be continued...

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