Synthetic Survivor: Machine Age - Chapter 137

Nobody dared to come near the man in black. Nobody dared to even check on him after the lights from the torches afar shined no more and even if the screams and yelps of the enemies they were supposed to fight ceased all so suddenly.

The last scream was a desperate cry for help that was cut short. As if his neck was twisted before uttering the last of his words.

The night was a tense one. The man in black never returned, he seemingly disappeared but when they saw the shimmer of those red eyes in the distance from where the enemy army once stood, a shiver went down all those who witnessed it.

Patricia, being the concerned elf she was, wanted to check on One. But Stacy said otherwise.

“We can’t just go there! Look, I know you’re worried about him but you have to understand that the person you once knew a few hours ago is different from the person he is now,” Stacy said.

“But, we need to help him!” Patricia pleaded.

“How!? You saw what everyone else saw, his eyes turned red, blood red. A clear transformation from his peaceful blue eyes that you got used to. He ran across the fields as if he was some sort of magic cheetah and he took on an entire army by himself, an imperial army!” Stacy said.

“We can’t help him, yet,” William suddenly joined the conversation.

The trio were still on the western wall along with the garrison. They were restless, they were both anxious as to what had happened to the man in black they had looked up to and what if he were to redirect his violence to the city?

But still, inside the hearts of those he had known personally, even for just a week or a couple of days, there was still a glimmer of hope that he’d return.

“It’s best that we wait a couple days, let him rest there before we send out any expedition to retrieve him,” William said.

Patricia, not withstanding her own tears, hugged Stacy tightly and cried.

William then looked at his men, they all had worried expressions on their faces. Some have removed their helmets in honor of the dead, yes, they were honoring the deaths of their enemies.

It would have been a different story of the siege itself took place and lives on each side were lost.

But last night was different. The enemy army that they were supposed to fight and hate, eliminated in less than an hour by a single, mysterious man.

A few mounted their passing. Thinking that they died a dishonorable death.

They all died in vain.

When the morning sun finally rose from the east, there was silence. Nobody returned to the fields to tend the crops, all were nervous and all were weary.

A debate among the men suddenly sprung up about the total number of groops the enemy army had. According to the watchers, they estimated the enemy army to be at least ten thousand strong forming five ranks.

The watchers themselves weren’t sure because they based their ȧssumption on the number of torches that were lit up by the enemy army but they were certain that a few ranks did not light up their torches to create an illusion of a smaller army under the cover of darkness.

Maybe it’s the main army? Some suggested.

But wouldn’t that mean that the famed Archmage Lecter was present? If so, then he should’nt have sent one of his underlings to deal with the man in black himself knowing full well of his destructive potential.

Before anyone could raise the point that the mage that One fought last night was Lecter, several mages accompanied by a battalion of knights retrieved the battered body of the mage that was just outside of the western wall.

He wasn’t even recognizable anymore.

His face was, to put it mildly, a disaster.

But his build was way too skinny to be Lecter, Toby pointed out. Toby was the one who lead the recovery team and he, along with the other mages who knew or had an idea of who archmage Lecter was, confirmed that he was, in fact, not Lecter.

Stacy was the only person who knew Lecter personally. Although she outranked him by a couple numbers, Lecter was a skillful and tactical general and mage who could beat a ten thousand man army with only a thousand men as long as he was the one leading it.

But her identity as the Archmage Quintessa was a secret she had vowed to bring to her grave.

Or so she thought.

Stacy had the uncomfortable thought that once the metal man caught wind of Quintessa’s existence, she’d very much be exposed almost immediately.

With Lecter out of the equation, it could be ȧssumed that this was just the first army sent our against them, a scouting group perhaps meant to strike fear into the hearts of the defenders.

But the watchers were seeing no trace of another army behind them even from the farthest distance they could see with their magic.

Instead, it was relatively peaceful.

The ȧssumption that Archmage Lecter’s appearance with half a hundred thousand man army was merely a farce quickly spread like wildfire among the peasantry.

There were no celebrations, however.

As the day progressed, a sense of normalcy returned. Stacy accompanied Patricia back to the castle while William lead some forces to carry out one of King Wog’s edicts.

Jorn and Toby, however, went inside the barracks to discuss something privately.

Although most of the leadership within the city have voiced opposition against retrieving the man in black too early, the two of them had other ideas.

As they entered the barracks, they looked at each hall to see if anyone was inside with them. After making sure that there weren’t any other knights in the barracks, they went inside Jorn’s room and locked the door.

“Alright, so, how are we going to save the man in black from his frenzied state?” Jorn asked.