Chapter 392 - 391: Responsibilities
'I must leave this place as soon as possible.'
That was the only thing that was circling around Van's head as he continued to watch as King Uther lifted Arthur and threw him in the air like he was a baby; considering that Arthur seems to be even taller than the King, it definitely looked… weird.
He couldn't help but imagine what would happen if he tried to do that with Vanya; true, Vanya was smaller than most giants, but she was still a lot taller than the average human-- Van would surely be squished since he was… shorter than the average human.
"...How long do you think this is going to take?" Van then let out a short but deep sigh as he walked towards Emrys, who moved away from Arthur as soon as Uther approached him. And like everyone else in the vicinity, he had a confused expression on his face.
"I do not know, Sir Van," Emrys whispered, "But I think this is the best chance to escape for us while the King and his men are occupied."
"Escape? Why would I do that? If you want to go, you can go; since you're actually a mage, it would be bad for you to stay here."
"...You're really not a mage, Sir Van?"
Even with Van's suggestion, Emrys did not even take a single step away from the scene and just stood there, looking at Van from head to toe, "My… tribe has a prophecy. They said that one day, a light would fall from the sky in the shape of man; bringing along with him incredible change."
"Hm," Van only raised his eyebrow as he returned Emrys's gaze, "And who brought you that prophecy, a winged woman?" Van then let out a small chuckle before looking away. As soon as he heard the word prophecy, the first person that resurfaced in his mind was the face of Evangeline… who was hopefully already lying dead somewhere.
[That truly hurts my feelings, son.]
"!!!"
Crimson streaks of lightning instantly emerged from Van's eyes as he crouched on the floor, quickly summoning his shield and hammer as his eyes scanned the surrounding area. The floor beneath him started to slowly form webs of crack as all of the veins in his body started to etch on his skin.
His eyes were like that of a hawk's, carefully scanning every corner of space that was within his vision. But no matter how hard he looked, there truly was nothing out of the ordinary.
Emrys, who was beside him, was completely still-- his eyelids slowly closing.
Van also started checking the soldier's one by one, the ground beneath his feet slightly cracking with each of his steps. He slowly took off their helmets one by one, careful not to accidentally kill anyone as he tried to search if Evangeline was hiding within the hundreds of soldiers surrounding them.
But alas, even with all of them unmasked, there was no sign of Evangeline.
"..."
Van did not give up, however, as he ran through the air to search for anything even a little bit amiss; but alas, there was nothing.
"Where are you!?" Van then roared, "You… are you still controlling me even now!? Am I here only because of you!?"
Van continued to shout, causing the air around him to vibrate and slightly raise in temperature. The last time he ever had a semblance of Evangeline's existence was when an [Objective] suddenly popped up in front of him only a few weeks after he was sent to this somewhat dystopian future.
But after it asked him to go to Vanaheim, which Van had failed to do, it did not show anything else-- even the penalty that it promised did not appear. The System had always seemed… mechanical. But when he got to this future, there was something about it that seemed life-like.
And now, with the sudden message popping out in front of Van, a message that did not even have a semblance of the System's monotonous messages-- Van had finally realized something.
Evangeline could contact him through his System; and not only that, she was watching him.
She was watching everything.
"You fucker!" Van then once again screamed, "What the fuck am I to you!? I'm trying my best to gather people that would fight the World Eaters from your universe just like you and Hermes wanted…
...The least you could do is give me a life without you!
What about the other one!? What about the blood of the other god that I carry inside me, do you know about that!?
Where the fuck are you!?"
You could at least answer my questions, I know you can hear me!"
But alas, no matter how many times Van screams his lungs out, not another letter floated in front of him. But after a few seconds, Van started to calm down.
If Evangeline was the one that was sending him messages using the System, then wouldn't that mean that she actually did know the existence of the other god? That was the only explanation that Van could think of; since when the god sent him to Arachnaea, it was the System's message that told him so.
Does that mean… not only do they know each other-- they were also in contact with each other? But Angela said Evangeline shouldn't know of the other god's existence.
Is… Angela hiding something from him again, or was she truly not aware of it?
"Fuck… Fuck!" Van then once again let out a thunderous roar as he allowed himself to fall from the sky, the trickles of lightning emerging from his eyes slowly dissipating as soon as his feet landed on the ground.
And as soon as he turned off all of his skills, chaos ensued.
The soldiers, who had their helmets suddenly taken off, let out winces and groans of pain as the bones on their neck were slightly stretched; creating a cracking noise that whispered in the air.
The cracking noises of their neck, however, were overwhelmed as soon as parts of the ground started to erupt due to Van running on them at an incredibly high speed; even the air itself started to distort with the sudden rise in temperature.
Watching all of this happen, Van could only take in a long and deep breath. Whenever Evangeline was involved, he always seemed to lose his cool. He thought that now that he was in his early 20s, he would start moving on from what Evangeline had done to him-- but it would seem it would take a hundred years before he could even think of forgetting it.
The chaos that he made, however, seemed to have finally made King Uther stop waving poor Arthur in the air. Instead, he finally had his hand on his sword as his eyes seemed to tremble as he glared at Van.
"You…" King Uther then breathed out, his voice also reflecting the tremble of his eyes, "...What are you?"
Unlike the rest of the people in the vicinity, King Uther had actually somewhat seen Van doing what he was doing earlier; it was just a glimpse; blurs and pieces, but he knew that Van was moving at an abnormal speed-- far from whatever he could achieve.
"...I'm no longer in the mood to fight," Van could only sigh as he looked at King Uther, "I already told you, I came from beyond the skies."
"That's not--"
"It's possible," Van then let out another sigh before looking at Emrys, "Your prophecy, how does it end?"
"Eh?" Emrys could not help but slightly take a step back as Van interrupted the King to talk to him, "It… It says that the man from the skies would free everyone."
"I… see," Van then nodded, "As much as I want to know how that ends, I want to leave this place as soon as possible, so I'll just tell you what's going to happen from now on-- it is up to you… and you if you wish to believe me."
King Uther tightened his grip on his sword as Van glanced at him. He did not, however, choose to attack.
"When I said that I came from a place far away from here, I wasn't referring to another country-- but another world somewhat similar to this one."
"Another… world?"
"Yes," Van quickly nodded, "And this is only the first world I have visited-- and I plan to visit more."
"Are you… an angel?" King Uther then whispered as he removed his hand from his sword.
"Fuck no," Van scoffed, "I'm a Messenger...
...I came here to warn and gather forces in order to fight a threat that is about to come at any moment-- the World Eaters."
The tone of Van's voice was somewhat monotonous as if he was reading from a script. And perhaps that was exactly that, as he continued to explain to King Uther about the World Eaters,
"Do you… expect me to believe all of that?"
Still hearing the doubts in King Uther's voice, Van was starting to wish that he had brought Athena with him-- without a doubt, she would have a strategy on how to make these people believe him.
"Whether you believe it or not is up to you," Van then said as he slowly took a few steps into the air, "Since you seem to be the strongest creature in this world, then we will come to find you when the time comes, King Uther…
...and stop killing mages, they might prove to be useful in the future, especially that one."
"M… me?" Emrys could only point at himself as Van slowly made his way further and further into the air, "Wait, you're leaving, Sir Van!?"
"I am," Van breathed out,
"Lots more worlds to save."-- and with those words, Van truly did leave the first alien planet he had ever visited, anticlimactically.
The inhabitants of Uther's planet could only watch as a bright golden streak of lightning erupted in their sky.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"I… I feel like I have been forgotten," Prince Aurelius then quickly said as soon as he was able to free his mouth from its confines.
***
And so, once again.
Days,
Weeks,
Months,
A year. Since Van had already visited a planet with living, breathing, and talking civilization; he did not really take a detour and just ran towards the opposite direction where he came from. If he was right, then there should be another invisible wall separating this… solar system from another.
If that wasn't the case and Van would just be returned to his own world, then that would truly be disappointing-- to know that there are only two civilizations in his universe… not to mention they were probably doomed if the World Eaters arrived.
Van knew that he was growing stronger and stronger, almost exponentially; and with him absorbing the Aesir prisoners when he went back to the 10th Realm for a few days, his growth was nothing short of monstrous.
But even then, he did not allow himself to become arrogant, not with the threat of the World Eaters looming around. He has no idea what the World Eaters are truly capable of, but if someone like Evangeline was scared of them, then they were probably monsters with no equal.
And so, with him focused on a goal, Van arrived at another invisible ocean wall; producing a drumming hum that truly resonated through his person as he passed his hand through it. And unlike his previous encounter with the wall, he did not even lean his head to check what was on the other side and just… entered without care.
"..."
And perhaps that was a mistake.
Because as soon as he opened his eyes; dozens of what Van could only assume to be a type of flying vehicle were already waiting for him on the other side.
"Identify yourself, visitor. Can you understand our language?"
"Do not engage! I repeat, do not engage!"