Chapter 232: Meeting The Sword of Calibre


    Rendy ascended the balloon while the three advisors went down. I watched him moving with his head lowered, standing silently before me, without opening his mouth at all.


    "Don''t be like this, he brought this on himself," I said, trying to console him.


    "I''m not sad for him, I''m angry for what he did."


    "Don''t be angry, he is an adult man, he chose his stand, and whatever happened to him is only his fate, his alone."


    Rendy just looked at me, with a calm face, but broken eyes. I sighed, it seemed I wasn''t able to fix this crack, not for now at least.


    "Anyway, I want you to lead the armies with my advisors. We need to break through thisyer, and enter the fifthyer as fast as possible."


    Rendy didn''t say much, and I couldn''t make him get over this fatal treason of his brother. At least I showed my stance towards him, that I still trusted him.


    He descended, and the five of them, three from my side, Redny and Nina each leading an army, moved in a swift speed towards the front. When the first encounters with demons ended, they sent me the items they salvaged from the demons, but I refused them while instructing to totally ignore the items, and focus more on catching speed.


    I didn''t want my enemies to catch me again. I had been subjected to two attacks so far, since the moment I reached here, and now I didn''t want to experience anymore.


    Wasting my time here would endanger my adventure group, plus my level stagnated here for some bizarre reason, while others kept leveling up back at home.


    We took four days and nights until we reached the borders of the fifthyer. The time we spent here was cut by much, as we didn''t rest a lot, ran and didn''t walk, even the fallen demons didn''t work on them. We were like being chased by the demons, fearing for our lives, trying to escape to safety and in time.


    So, when we reached the border of the fifthyer, every single one of my army was exhausted. During our travels, I kept absorbing demons most of time, leaving some sporadic demons to appear once in a while, to keep the vignce of the army sharp.


    I pushed them until we crossed the fifth border, and thus I dered a period for rest, a whole day. I trusted the five advisors to arrange for everything here, while I took my balloon, ascended into the highest altitude, then started to roam the area.


    The first notable thing here was the presence of cavalry, demons riding strange shaped horses, that were looking strong and intimidating.


    I didn''t dy and started hunting for the cavalry specifically. I had already an excess of the foot demons, and now I missed the cavalry.


    It didn''t take me long until I was spotted by some yers, as they sent their balloons in the air, to monitor me. from their careful movement, it seemed they were waiting for my arrival, or already heard about me.


    I didn''t know what they thought of me, but I didn''t care. all I cared about was to find a suitable fort to capture, regardless of it being under demon or yers control.


    The fort I was looking for had some special conditions to be met. First it must be huge, well equipped, have many defensive towers, and ces to expand the scale of it. I also wanted it to be on higher altitude than the terrain around it, and I wanted the terrain to be in, exposed, without things to hide any army behind.


    I didn''t mind the presence of forests beside it, as I would burn the forest down, or cut the trees to the ground. Whatever it needed, I would do to make the terrain in in sight, clear with no obstacles.


    These conditions were somehow strict, but I knew they could be met easier than I thought. The fifthyer was already massive, so massive that I crossed many parts of it during the day, and felt like I didn''t explore anything of it yet.


    Just as I felt I wouldn''t get what I wanted, I suddenly felt the aura of fighting, somewhere nearby. This aura was so thick, as I felt like being on the verge of a grand battle, watching from far, just passing by.


    The presence of such battle aroused my interest, so I moved my balloon towards the ce I felt the battle was there. Just as I flew for ten minutes in that direction, I was met by a grand explosion on the end of the horizon,ing from the same direction I was heading to.


    That made me more confident in my hunch, there must be a massive battle out there. I pushed my balloon hard, trying to get there just in time, to see what was going on, and what was the source of that explosion.


    In minutes, I was bewildered by the sheer number of balloons in the skying towards me. It seemed like they were running, running for their lives. I felt astonished, as I counted roughly hundreds of balloons in just a simple nce. I was sure, there must be more than them.


    My balloon was going in the opposite direction, and when I just crossed them, I noticed how panicked they were.


    Just as I was at a loss, I felt a sudden threating from far, to look at the distance, seeing a thick line of light ascending into the heavens, like it had no end at all. That pir of light came from a small spot on the ground, where I noticed the presence of a mighty fort, lying on a high hill.


    It was the fort I was looking for!


    Thrilled by this discovery, I lost the feeling of danger I just had moments ago, not until one of the passing by balloons yelled at me like I was suicidal:


    "Go back, where are you heading?! Are you out of your mind! The sword of Calibre is activated, none can stand against it, go back, the campaign to take the heart of the fifthyer is cancelled!"


    The words of this swordsman had awakened me, as I looked at him for a brief moment before he disappeared from my line of sight with the balloon he was at. I was heading fast, with my utmost speed, in the total opposite direction of everyone else.


    I looked again towards that high pir of light, feeling the danger eyeing me again. This time, I didn''t get distracted by the castle on the ground, or by the huge number of yers down there retreating fast, with ferocious looking demons hunting after them.


    I only focused on that light, a sword was it? I felt somehow intimidated by it, and the fact it was defending this castle, the castle that I liked, instigated me more to challenge it.


    It was an artifact, and if it was a sword, then I had my shield ready for him. so, I took out my shield, put it on the side of the balloon, hardly holding it, while moving directly towards the sword.


    I was sure, anyone watching me now would think I had already lost it. somehow I felt this ce carried some challenge, not to me, but to every yer who sat his foot on thisyer.


    It was the first time I heard such a term, the heart ofayer, as I wanted to ask more, knew better info about this ce and such a sword, but from just the scale of its strength I didn''t need to figure out much about it.


    It was an artifact, and regarding artifacts, I was the most suited yer to face it.


    The sword vibrated, like it was agitated by my challenge and the defiance I showed to it. the next second I felt the whole world beamed with a shiny bright light, a light that hurt my body.


    At this moment, I raised my shield high up, and a light radiated from my shield. Two lights wrestled together, fighting each other, but my light was much more focused, much stronger than the light of the sword.


    So, in the end, the battle ended for the favor of my shield. My shield protected me, and didn''t allow even for a minor scratch to befall over my balloons.


    However, that wasn''t the fate of everyone, as once the light subsided, I saw the great devastation that befell over everyone, onnd or on the air, even those balloons which were miles far from me, they didn''t survive this.


    "What a strike!" I muttered, as this massacre, a strike that didn''t differentiate between enemies or allies, was really a groundbreaking strike for me.


    I nced again towards the sword, which started to shrink, returning again to disappear inside the castle at the bottom, and I sighed. It seemed I could move alone against this castle, anyone else with me would end up killed, unless I expanded the shield to protect all.


    However, thinking again about the experience I just had, that made me suspect the efficiency of my shield to protect everyone. The only thing that made my shield able to withstand this mighty attack was the small area it was defending.


    If I expanded it, then it would be risky, and thus I decided not to bring anyone with me here, not at least I nullified the sword.


    So, I started my journey back, to be stopped on my way!