Rise of Legends - DISCONTINUED

Invasion

Arthur POV:

The talk with Rinia ended, leaving me with a rather bad taste in my mouth, like one would get after taking a spoonful of a bitter tonic. Helpful and necessary, but bitter nonetheless.

Rinia woke everyone up soon after, with me pretending to have been asleep with them as well. Rinia made some excuse that she accidentally mixed in some herbs for relaxation that were a lot stronger than she anticipated. No one seemed to mind and we continued on with a light lunch that Rinia prepared out of edible plants and mushrooms. It tasted good despite the lack of meat, but by Sylvie's reaction, I'm sure she would disagree.

It was pretty late in the afternoon by the time we finished eating and had to get on our way. A bigger surprise than the fact that Rinia's home was in the center of a mountainside cliff was the fact that, through a secret door and passage, she had her own teleportation gate.

Since teleportation gates were made in ancient times, supposedly with the help of the deities, or Asuras, as I now know, it wasn't possible to make any more. Virion wasn't as surprised as everyone else, including me, but knowing Rinia's powers, I could only shrug and realise that this was something within her abilities.

After saying our goodbyes, Alistair, Tess, Sylvie, and I went through the gate. Along with the dizzy feeling after crossing, we were welcomed back to the edge of Xyrus City by guards that had their spears pointed at us.

After realizing that the unknown crossers were teenagers who had the Xyrus Academy uniforms on, they quickly lowered their weapons.

"We apologise, the portal you were coming from was read as an unknown gate, so we didn't know who or what would pop out from the other side. It's rare, but there have been times when mana beasts accidentally stumble through a teleportation gate somewhere deep in the Beast Glades," one of the guards, that seemed to be the leader, said, although his eyes still watched us with a studying gaze.

"It's fine. We came from one of the other cities of Elenoir and the guard did mention that he was having troubles with the gate from time to time," I shrugged.

With an understanding nod, the guards let us go and since there was no carriage waiting for us, the three of us walked to the nearest stop and found a carriage to take us. The sun was already setting and I could see the colour distortion in the sky as the Aurora Constellate was soon coming to its peak. It was a lot easier to see it from the floating city than through the dense trees in Elenoir.

'I have a good chance of breaking through to light yellow stage now,' I thought as I clenched my fist.

"Wow, the Aurora Constellate really is beautiful every time you see it," Tess said in awe.

"Kyu~" 'The sky is colourful!' Sylvie also sat at the edge of the carriage, her small head gazed up in appreciation.

When we made it back to the Helstea Manor, Sylvie scurried up the stairs leading to the door and scratched at it. As Tess and I followed her up, the door opened, revealing a person that I didn't expect to see.

"Jasmine?!" I stopped where I stood and gasped alongside Alistair.

"Long time no see," my mentor from my adventurer days replied, with the only visible sign on her expressionless face that she was happy to see me, the slight grin she had.

Before I had the chance to say anything more, the rest of the Twin Horns came, one by one, each with a big grin on their faces as they saw me with a girl they'd never seen before.

"You both have grown," Durden said with a warm smile on his wide, tanned face.

"Look who we have here! Mr. Hotshots bringing home a lady," Adam Krensh, the wild-looking vagabond spear user cooed, leaning on the edge of the doorframe.

"Wow, look how manly you both became." Helen Shard, the archer, still as charismatic as before, winked at me.

While they all stayed at the top of the stairs, waiting for us to come up, Angela hopped down the stairs herself and picked us up in a bear hug.

"Look how cute you've gotten!!" she squealed as she waved Alistair and I around together, our legs dragging helplessly on the cement stairs since she was too short to completely pick us up off the ground.

"Mmmfph mmmh!" Any hopes to articulate words failed as the abyss of her well-endowed bosom absorbed my face.

"I-I think you should let go..." I heard Tess stammer out as she tugged on the side of my uniform.

"Look who we have here! Aren't you the cutest little elf!" Angela Rose put me down like discarded waste and picked up Tess, who let out a squeal in surprise.

My family soon came out and greeted us with open arms with my sister, Eleanor, who already had Sylvie in her arms.

I was eager to catch up with the Twin Horns over dinner since I hadn't seen them in over a year, but I could tell Tess was kind of uncomfortable with all of this. She already felt a bit out of place being in my home, but with the unexpected guests that she'd never seen before, she was feeling all the more tense and awkward.

My mother and sister tried to make her feel more comfortable, but since she was being awkward with Alistair as well for some reason, she couldn't take it, and told everyone, after apologising, that she had to go back to school first for some Student Council work that she was sorely behind on.

"Are you really going back to the academy?" Alistair asked with a slightly disappointed expression.

"I've missed too much school and work has probably piled up by now. Thank you guys for your hospitality and I'm sorry I couldn't stay longer." Tess made a curt bow and followed after the driver that came to get her.

Alistair went outside with her before coming back after seeing her to the carriage.

Lancelot POV:

"It's finally time..." I muttered as I prepared myself for the breakthrough. The Aurora Constellate was close to reaching its peak and I could already feel it's effect on me.

My breathing calmed down as I purified the ambient mana through my yellow mana core before circulating it through my mana core.

After what felt like days, it was finally done.

BOOM!

A mini mana explosion took place inside my room. Luckily, Sylph managed to contain the explosion using a wind barrier.

However, I was in too much of a trance to really care. My yellow core was replaced by a shiny silver one, and I could tell the difference.

Mana felt fast and responsive. Not only that, I could feel the mana around me much more clearly. 

'I finally reached Gary's level,' I thought with a tired but excited expression on my face. 

Unbeknownst to me this day of celebration would instead become a day of massacre.

??? POV:

"It's finally time, sir," Draneeve said as he bowed before me.

"Hah..." I sighed in slight frustration before getting up from my seat. I walked down till I was in front of him before asking him a question, "Do I really need to go?"

"Yes, sir. The strength of the students of Xyrus Academy is far above what I am capable of daeling with, thus we require your help."

"Fine, fine. Let's just get this over with," I shook my head before moving forward.

'Let's at least have a good time burning down Xyrus City while I am at it.'

(A/N: I decided to take the Fall of Xyrus Academy arc and make it a bit longer and more interesting.  Some of you may already know who the mysterious person who joined the raid is, so you have some idea about how interesting this is going to get. I also decided to change the update schedule, it's Tuesday for this fic now. See you guys next week!)