Free Web NovelChapter 23: Aeliana, A New Hero...
Fenna was staring at the distant smoking crater with her jaw completely slacked.
She looked down at her own mythril recurve bow, suddenly feeling incredibly inadequate.
"My Lord... you just leveled monsters from such a distance away."
"The range is incredible..." Silas agreed. He turned his attention to his lead scout. "Tamsin. Step up."
Tamsin blinked with her eyes widening as she pointed to herself.
"Me? My Lord, I track things in the mud. I stab beasts with iron. I have zero experience operating a magical siege engine."
"It’s intuitive," Silas promised, gesturing to the heavy iron handles. "We need more than one gunner if a horde actually breaches the treeline. Come here. I’ll show you the exact calibration."
Tamsin swallowed hard with her heart suddenly hammering against her ribs.
She sheathed her twin daggers and stepped up to the heavy ballista, hesitantly wrapping her calloused hands around the iron grips.
Silas stepped up right behind her.
He didn’t stand off to the side.
To properly guide her line of sight, he stepped entirely into her personal space.
His chest pressed lightly against her back, his tall frame naturally caging her against the heavy iron weapon.
He reached forward, placing his warm, incredibly steady hands directly over hers on the grips.
Tamsin’s breath hitched with her entire body rigidly locking up.
’U... uh...’
She was a hardened Wilderness Huntress.
Tasmin was used to the stench of rotting blood, the suffocating miasma of the basin, and the grime of a survival camp but standing this close to Silas, her senses were completely overwhelmed by something different from what she was used to.
He smelled incredible.
His warmth completely bled through her leather armor, entirely chasing away the biting cold of the high-altitude wind.
’Gods...’ Tamsin thought frantically, a furious, burning red blush violently exploding across her cheeks and spreading all the way to the tips of her ears. ’I can feel his heartbeat. Why is he this close? I can’t even think straight.’
"Breathe, Tamsin," Silas commanded softly, his voice a low rumble right next to her ear. "Don’t force it. Just let your mana flow naturally into the iron. Let the marrow handle the resistance."
Tamsin gritted her teeth, desperately trying to focus on the weapon instead of the highly intoxicating presence of her sovereign Lord.
She pushed her Level 8 mana into the handles...
A glowing blue magic circle materialized over her right eye. It was slightly dimmer than the one Silas had generated, adapting to her specific mana density, but the targeting UI flawlessly highlighted the ruined treeline.
"There," Silas murmured, gently adjusting her grip and aiming the heavy barrel slightly to the east of the smoking crater. "Scavengers coming to investigate the noise so squeeze the trigger."
Tamsin held her breath and pulled the mechanism.
KRA-THOOM!
The ballista fired again.
The heavy recoil tried to push Tamsin backward, but Silas’s solid chest acted as a perfect anchor, holding her entirely steady.
Another hyper-compressed bolt of mana tore across the Umbral Basin, slamming into the secondary pack of scavengers and blowing them into a shower of ruined earth and dark blood.
[Vassal Tamsin has slain a Tier 1 Scavenger. +0.5 UP]
[Vassal Tamsin has slain a Tier 1 Scavenger. +0.5 UP]
"Flawless execution..." Silas praised warmly, stepping back and releasing her hands.
Tamsin let go of the ballista as if it had burned her, spinning around to face him.
Her face was flushed a brilliant, undeniable crimson, and she deliberately avoided looking directly into his blue eyes.
"Th-thank you, my Lord," Tamsin stammered while awkwardly saluting.
Silas smiled, leaning against the stone parapet.
"If you want it, the command of the Watchtower is yours, Tamsin. You have the best eyes in the Territory after all."
Tamsin quickly shook her head, forcing her tactical mind to override her flustered state.
"No, my Lord," Tamsin declined respectfully. "I belong on the ground... My skills are wasted sitting in a tower waiting for targets to appear... I need to be in the brush, tracking the migrations and finding the nests... Fenna and the archer division are already trained for elevated combat. They should manage the artillery."
Silas nodded slowly, deeply appreciating her humility. A lesser vassal would have eagerly claimed the safest, most powerful position in the territory just for the status but Tamsin knew exactly where she was most lethal.
"You’re right," Silas agreed.
He looked at Fenna. "The observation deck is officially under the Bow-Splitters’ jurisdiction so keep a rotating watch of four girls up here at all times."
"Understood, my Lord!" Fenna grinned, eagerly stepping up to the weapon.
Tamsin cleared her throat, finally regaining her normal composure.
"My Lord, the artillery strikes just left over two dozen fresh corpses in the mud. If we leave them there, they will rot and attract worse predators. Requesting permission to take the new recruits out to haul the meat back to the Vault."
"Granted," Silas said. "Take Brida with you and do not wander past the craters."
Tamsin bowed deeply and quickly descended the spiral stone stairs, leaving Silas alone with the archers on the deck.
Silas walked to the edge of the parapet, looking down at the bustling courtyard of the Blessed Land. It was time to reinforce the foundation.
The artillery tests had proven they could project power, but an empire couldn’t survive if its walls were weak...
He opened his command interface, swiping to the architectural tab.
[Current Balance: 149 UP]
He had the capital.
Silas briefly considered spending the points to forcefully upgrade the new Watchtower to Tier 3, but his tactical mind quickly vetoed the idea.
The tower was already heavily armed but the Ironwood Palisade surrounding the base was still just wood.
It was highly durable, magically dense wood, but against a concentrated, heavy-hitting horde, it would eventually splinter and fail.
Silas descended the towering stone structure with his boots echoing down the spiral staircase until he stepped back out into the freezing courtyard.
He walked directly toward the towering northern wall.
He placed his hand flat against the rough, dark bark of the Ironwood Palisade and triggered the system prompt.
[Would you like to upgrade Tier 2 Ironwood Palisade to Tier 3 Steel-Weave Palisade?]
[Cost: 100 UP]
"Confirm..." Silas stated clearly.
The response was magnificent.
A blinding, towering pillar of radiant golden evolution violently erupted from the ground, entirely consuming the perimeter walls of the Blessed Land.
The upgrade didn’t just alter the structure... it aggressively and forcefully rewrote reality.
The heavy Ironwood logs began to transmute.
The organic bark hissed and darkened, the cellular structure rapidly compressing and hardening until the wood was completely replaced by towering, incredibly thick and interlocking plates of heavy black steel.
Massive, iron-wrought rivets violently hammered themselves into the metal, fusing the plates together into an unyielding, seamless barrier but it wasn’t just basic steel.
Woven directly into the dark metal were sprawling, highly complex geometric defensive runes.
The runes pulsed with a deep, highly intimidating blue light, actively drawing in ambient mana to reinforce the physical durability of the wall against heavy kinetic impacts.
The golden light faded.
The fifty-foot-tall wooden fence was gone. In its place stood a terrifying, heavily fortified, brutalist steel fortress wall that looked capable of stopping a charging behemoth dead in its tracks.
Up on the elevated scaffolding, Hilda and Alys... who had been actively standing on the wooden platforms when the upgrade hit stared at the thick steel grating beneath their boots in shock.
"It’s steel..." Hilda breathed out, running her gauntlet along the freezing, unyielding black metal of the parapet.
She looked down into the courtyard, her eyes locking onto Silas.
"All hail the Lord!" Hilda roared, raising her broadsword into the gray sky.
The rest of the garrison instantly joined in as their voices echoing over the massive steel walls in a unified cheer.
The morale boost was palpable.
Silas smiled, swiping away the [Current Balance: 49 UP] notification. The fortress was ready so now, he needed to solidify his commanding roster.
’I need to go check on Eluned... and that Elven woman.’ He thought, he would like to keep her as a hero after all.
He turned away from the cheering troops and walked toward the heavy timber doors of the Reinforced Stone Keep.
The interior of the Keep was quiet, smelling of the soothing fresh-pine aroma Eluned had left behind.
Silas bypassed the main hall and walked down the stone corridor to the guest quarters.
He pushed the heavy wooden door open and sitting upright on the edge of the simple wooden cot was the rescued Elf.
She was wearing a clean, oversized linen tunic that Eluned had provided.
The horrific, jagged scars still covered her arms and neck which were physical reminders of a century of torment but the terrifying madness that had consumed her eyes was completely gone.
Her irises were a clear brilliant green. She looked exhausted, deeply hollowed out by grief, but her mind was finally lucid.
The moment Silas stepped into the room, she immediately stood up.
She ignored the pain radiating from her healing muscles and dropped gracefully to one knee, bowing her head deeply toward the cold stone floor.
"Lord..." She spoke. "I am Aeliana... Former Sentinel of Kal, and a Royal Elven Arcanist of the High Canopy... I owe you a debt that a thousand lifetimes of servitude could never repay as you as well as Miss Elu pulled me from the dark."
Silas closed the door behind him with his expression remaining entirely neutral.
’Where the hell is Eluned?’
"Stand up, Aeliana," Silas instructed.
Aeliana slowly rose to her feet, her green eyes finally meeting his.
"I am Silas Graves," he introduced himself, leaning against the stone wall. "Lord of the Blessed Land and you are fully healed. The feral corruption in your veins has been burned out by my resident Hero so you are safe here."
"I... I can feel the sanctity of this place," Aeliana murmured, looking around the simple stone room as if it were a royal palace.
She swallowed hard with her hands trembling slightly as she clasped them in front of her. "Lord Graves... I have a request. A deeply selfish one."
Silas crossed his arms. "Speak."
"I need to return to the ruins," Aeliana pleaded, her green eyes shining with unshed tears. "I need to find Lord Kal’s body. I need to bury him properly... He was a good man... He promised us an empire, and he died trying to hold the line so we could flee so I cannot leave him rotting in the mud."
Aeliana did not love Kal but it was her job... Her job as a hero.
Silas didn’t flinch.
He didn’t offer a soft comforting smile.
"There is no body to bury, Aeliana..." Silas stated coldly.
Aeliana froze.
"What?"
"When we found you, Kal was nothing but a skeleton leaning against the dead core," Silas explained. "When I touched his armor, the bones instantly crumbled into gray dust. A century of Umbral decay had already consumed him so he is gone. The wind has already scattered his ashes across the basin."
Aeliana stared at him, the horrifying weight of his words crashing into her newly mended mind.
She trembled violently, her legs giving out as she collapsed back onto the edge of the cot.
Aeliana buried her scarred face in her hands, her shoulders shaking as silent, devastating tears spilled through her fingers.
She had held onto the desperate hope of honoring her fallen Lord, only to realize time had stolen even that small closure from her...
The door to the room clicked open.
Eluned stepped inside, her emerald eyes filled with deep sorrow.
The Goddess walked past Silas without a word, sitting on the cot beside Aeliana and gently wrapping her arm around the grieving Elf’s trembling shoulders.
Silas waited for a long moment, letting the silence hang in the air.
"I do not mean to force your hand while you grieve, Aeliana," Silas finally said. "But this is not a sanctuary for bystanders... A catastrophic storm front is moving toward this territory so I am preparing for a heavy siege if it happens... I need soldiers, and I need firepower." freewēbnoveℓ.com
He looked down at her, his blue eyes piercing.
"You are a free entity now. You can leave these walls and walk back into the basin if you choose," Silas offered the ultimatum. "Or, you can stay. You can fight for this core and you can ensure that what happened to Kal never happens to the girls standing outside those doors. The choice is yours."
Aeliana slowly lowered her hands.
She looked at Eluned, who gave her a soft, encouraging nod, and then she looked up at Silas.
The overwhelming grief in her green eyes slowly began to harden, transmuting into a grim resolve.
She wiped the tears from her scarred cheeks and stood up with her spine perfectly straight.
"I will not run into the dark again," Aeliana vowed, her voice steadying. "May I join your Territory, Lord Graves? I wish to honor Lord Kal’s legacy by ensuring this territory does not fall."
Silas nodded once. "You may."
He pulled the [Beginner Lord’s Manual] from his inventory, mentally reviewing the specific clause regarding ’Spoils of War’ and ’Rogue Heroes’.
To take command of a hero who had lost their original Lord, the new Sovereign had to forcefully overwrite the dormant spiritual connection with an infusion of their own foundational energy.
Silas walked up to the Elf.
’It’s all like I wanted.’ Silas thought, Elven summons were not only beautiful but they were strong but they had powerful magic too.
He ignited his Mythic Gold Core, channeling a warm highly concentrated pulse of sovereign, golden energy directly into his right hand.
He raised his hand and firmly pressed his palm flat against the center of Aeliana’s forehead.
Aeliana gasped, her eyes widening as the overwhelming, terrifyingly dense power of the Gold Core flooded her spiritual pathways.
It was a completely different sensation than Kal’s magic... It felt like standing directly beneath a blazing sun...
A brilliant, glowing golden crest briefly illuminated her pale skin before sinking deeply into her mind, locking her soul directly to the Blessed Land’s core.
Silas stepped back, swiping his hand to pull up the newly generated interface.
[Notice: You have successfully claimed a Rogue Hero... You can now view Aeliana’s status!]
[Hero]: Aeliana
[Title]: Royal Elven Arcanist
[Rank]: A-Rank (Epic)
[Level]: 15 (EXP: 450/12000)
[Loyalty]: 20 (Wary / Grateful)
[Vitality]: 65
[Mana]: 1200 / 1200
Silas scanned the numbers with rapid, highly calculated focus.
At Level 15, her Vitality sitting at 65 made her incredibly resilient compared to his mortal Vanguard.
She could likely take a heavy kinetic blow from a Tier 2 beast and remain standing but it was her Mana pool that caught his primary attention.
1200 points was an immense reservoir for an A-Rank, but it wasn’t the ocean of 5000 that Eluned possessed.
Aeliana was an artillery piece, not a perpetual battery.
She would have to carefully, intelligently manage her output during a prolonged fight, or she would burn out and leave herself completely defenseless.
He scrolled down to review her combat capabilities.
[Active Skills]:
[Arcane Piercer]: Fires a hyper-compressed, high-velocity beam of destructive starlight mana. Highly effective against heavy armor plating. (Cost: 150 Mana/cast).
[Elven Swiftness]: Passively boosts evasion and repositioning speed by utilizing ambient wind currents.
[Astral Detection Net]: Weaves a wide-radius, highly sensitive web of invisible starlight mana over a designated perimeter. Instantly alerts the caster to any unauthorized enemy breaches, reads their exact mana signatures, and forcibly illuminates stealthed or camouflaged targets. (Cost: 50 Mana/hour).
[Starfall Barrage]: Channels ambient arcane energy to summon a devastating shower of highly volatile starlight orbs from above. Blankets a wide area in explosive arcane damage, designed specifically to shatter tightly packed enemy infantry formations and break wooden siege defenses. (Cost: 400 Mana/cast).
[Royal Arcane Aegis]: Projects a highly condensed, multi-layered barrier of pure starlight around the caster or a designated ally. Capable of absorbing catastrophic kinetic impacts and cleanly deflecting high-tier magical projectiles without shattering. (Cost: 250 Mana/cast).
’Wow... good skills.’
Silas noted the [Loyalty: 20] metric at the bottom of the tab.
He didn’t care... He knew exactly why it was so low... Aeliana was grateful he had saved her, and she needed a safe harbor, but she didn’t know him.
She didn’t have the diehard, fanatical devotion that his own summoned people possessed.
This was a purely transactional military alliance and right now, a transaction was all Silas needed.
"Welcome to the crew, Aeliana," Silas stated, swiping the system tab away. He turned toward the heavy wooden door. "Get your boots on."
