Isekai: The Eight Soul Fragments

After the group arrived through the hometown, Arlesk had to temporarily stay with his two friends as Amber pulled both him and Hecate to her family who is running an inn. The rest of the group followed along while sightseeing. Draxus ended up wandering off midway and was followed by Olivia, Lily, and Julie. When Arlesk noticed, he let out a retort. "Did he find a shop that piqued his interest?" Eventually, Arlesk and Hecate were introduced to Amber's parents. They talked about their adventures together so far which made them spend the night there. Their group paid for the lodgings without hesitation as they had a huge sum of money for travel expenses. In reality, it's only five platinum coins. The next morning, Amber noticed that the people that the customers looked a little grim. When she asked her parents of the occurrence, she immediately alerted everyone. "The kingdom is at war against the country of Bovoyna! They're being overwhelmed by their forces and the hero of that country is joining them!" Draxus immediately went around and looked for the other members. He woke up Wesley and Audrey who are still asleep which made them panic slightly as they hastily changed their clothes. After finishing the rushed preparations, Arlesk's instruction to save the knight kingdom from invaders had passed through the rest. The carriage they used departed in a rush to head directly south. The invaders seemed to have taken control of a town on the southern parts of the knight kingdom. Seeing as the news just arrived to them, they will be able to catch up to the knights who are trying to retake their town with two more days if they booked out first thing in the morning. Through complete rush, Audrey had used a magic which made the others sleep through the first night of catching up. Arlesk and Draxus allowed the two rotating people to rest during the night by taking control of the horses. With very small hopes of protecting the country they're about to get an alliance, they pressed forward while the two discussed the possible abilities of the hero they're going to face. On the second night, the entire group had to sleep as they're only closer to the knights who are about to make an attempt to retake the town. One day came, they first had breakfast until they were full. The members were preparing their weapons nervously as they waited in the carriage.

Outside the town, towards the southern direction from the capital of Paladia, many swords were clashing. Metal was clanging in every direction while screams resounded throughout the battlefield. "We need to push through the enemy!" The one who yelled that was someone from the knights who are defending their country. However, their situation was one that demands them to retreat. The one who leads them was the hero of their country, but that person is facing against the hero of the enemy country directly and cannot provide sufficient support but protective barriers. He was fairly getting stronger and stronger as the battle went on. "So I will have to kill you here, rotten [Hero of Balance]." The heroic knight spat out words against his enemy. "What do you think you're gonna do? I've killed heroes before. Specially two generations of your heroes." The person who was called the [Hero of Balance] grinned widely. It was then that he dashed forward at incomprehensible speed and started overwhelming the paladin. All strikes were blocked by the large shield but it started to gain some dents. The [Hero of Balance] had two different colored swords which are black and white, the duality of evil and good. Both swords had different effects as they are able to combat against various things. All of the nights were getting pushed back and some were even beginning to take injuries. It was the time for them to lose all hope as the princess was also taken as a hostage during their attempt to retake the town. But, multiple silhouettes appeared right in front of them. Small explosions were discharged and the [Hero of Balance] was suddenly bleeding from his sides. In between them were two people who have battle clothing, both of them hold a weapon that resembles different gun models and the hair colors of white and blonde. The man with the blonde hair immediately notified the other. "Looks like, the princess got kidnapped, you should go for her Drax. The rest of the squad will support on holding the enemies in place until we're able to push them back." Draxus smiled from Arlesk's proposition. "Good thing I already told Olivia about me being placed right in the middle of the enemy base." Draxus brought out a small object that looks like a card. "[Fortune Card VII - Chariot]!" He then pushed through as an illusion of a powerful chariot was brought out. The compensation for that ability was completely non-existent since Draxus drank a lot of liquid mana. Chariot is the only fortune card that has a compensation of enormous mana. Which is why Draxus had overloaded himself before he entered the battlefield. The [Hero of Balance] instinctively avoided Draxus's Chariot which made him turn around to see the damage. Many soldiers were blown away as if Draxus was splitting the army in half like the [Sea of Moses]. He then went towards the town that had been invaded by thousands of soldiers. Arlesk shot the ground next to the hero to catch his attention. "Oi, your opponent will be me. How's that sound?"

Before they had arrived, Draxus and Arlesk provided the vast amount of planning they made. "Draxus, your actions will depend on the situation. If there are people that had been kidnapped, you'll be sent to the middle of the town the enemy had captured alone." Olivia who heard Arlesk made such an absurd plan to make Draxus fight alone in the middle of the enemy base immediately complained. "Are you saying that you'll place Drax in danger immediately?!" Draxus simply gave her a pat on the head while reassuring her. "There's no need to worry since my abilities are best against armies. And because of that can I take two extra vials of liquid mana Arlesk?" Arlesk smiled as he handed over two vials of liquid mana to Draxus. "This is a battle where you have to kill people, if you aren't okay with that, then you can stay behind and support the people that are injured instead. Olivia, you're a princess, so you're going to stay behind with Lily and Julie who will protect you for the time being. Keith, Wesley, both of you will assist the knights directly in the front line. Hecate, Amber, support everyone with magic, make sure to focus on the ones that are struggling to hold the line. I'll face the center of their army, the enemy hero." Draxus let out a comment regarding the alliance. "So the reason of the alliance is to be able to fight against the country on the south huh...?" Arlesk nodded and let out his opinion. "I believe that to be so... But then, to enter war is something worrying, we'll have to report this to Serkyrio afterwards." The group arrived to the warzone and immediately went to perform their side of the plans.

"Who are you?" The [Hero of Balance] let out words of irritation to Arlesk. Arlesk simply smiled and brought out his mithril sword. "I'm just a traveler, and I shall be your opponent." Arlesk saw no reason to tell this person the truth. The [Hero of Balance] then dashed at an incomprehensible speed to slash Arlesk but was parried nicely. Arlesk then redirected the white sword which started glowing a dangerous aura before making a counterattack. The slash made by Arlesk was dodged by the hero by retreating but Arlesk made a follow up using his colt commander. "[Stellar Planetaria N Zodiac], [Scorpio]" Arlesk's necklace grew brightly and allowed him to inflict severe pain from any attacks he makes. Aside from just amplified pain, poison will be administered into the body with each strike he lands. The [Hero of Chivalry] looked at Arlesk suspiciously until he was given an order from him. He was hesitant at first but the presence Arlesk gave out made him comply. "Go assist the other knights, we'll be pushing against the enemies, so let me handle this hero." The hero Arlesk is up against is a hero that had killed other kinds of heroes. So it was pretty much known how vast the gap of experience they had. The [Hero of Balance] dashed forward and tried to overwhelm Arlesk. All the attacks were parried skillfully as the series of attacks ended with a downward slash from both weapons. After blocking the attack overhead, Arlesk covered his eyes with his left arm and made a ball of light to blind the enemy hero. "Guhh!!" Arlesk then dashed to the side and landed a small cut on the hero's torso. The white sword that the hero equipped started glowing and healed up the injury. Immense pain still coursed through the enemy hero but the poison was completely removed and all the damage was healed up. "As expected, you're gonna be troublesome. [Stellar Planetaria N Zodiac], [Terra]!" The hero smiled as he prepared both his swords. "As I am the [Hero of Balance], my physical capabilities will be equalized with my opponents. You have nice capabilities, but you clearly lack experience." Arlesk simply grinned while preparing more abilities. Terra allows him to perform telekinesis over his surroundings, but he has no plans of making use of it yet. "We don't need experience. I just need information, [Stellar Planetaria N Zodiac], [Luna]!" Arlesk used [Luna] to allow him a large boost in his current capabilities. He then tried to dash forward and attacked the hero with nearly incomprehensible speed. Arlesk's weapon was enchanted with a certain ability, it has the ability to take in light and amplify the power to a certain extent. However, with the light that blinded the hero that Arlesk gathered, it was stopped by a single barrier. The black and white swords crossed each other as if forming a floating shield. The [Hero of Balance] then brought out a single card. "[Hero's Card, Balance Breaker]." A surging power covered the [Hero of Balance] entirely with thick monotone armor, a helmet that was designed like a robot, with a visor that looks like he would be allowed to identify his enemies. Arlesk let out a mutter "It's like Issei's [Balance Break]..." as the [Hero of Balance] merged the two swords through the handle and made them grow one size larger. It became the shape of a large glaive. "Speechless?" A voice came out from the large mechanical armor. "Not really, just finally good now that you brought out your full power. [Stellar Planetaria N Zodiac], [Capricorn]!" Two auras, one with monotone colors and the other being golden light, contested each other as the stand face to face.