Desolate World

"Anything wrong?" Ace asked with a worried expression.

He could hear panicked heartbeats from the elf. Even his face showed a panicked expression.

"Sir… I'm sorry," The elf said while panting for air.

"Calm yourself. Took a deep breath," Aprilia said. She also seemed to find the situation wasn't right.

After taking deep breaths a few times, the elf looked to be calmer. 

He then said, "Sir! I'm sorry for being late for almost 10 minutes. We were preoccupied with cleaning the birdhouses. So we forgot that the time for reporting was coming.

A new hourly update. No abnormalities were found."

"...," Ace and the others were speechless.

Then Ace asked, "So, no monster attack, or undead's appearance, or something like that?"

The elf seemed to be flabbergasted at the reactions of all people. He then answered, "No. Well, there's news that we just received, that there's a high-level monster that appeared in the South. But, the town guards were able to drive it away. So, we believe that it's not too urgent to be reported."

Ace had gotten back his composure. He then shook his head, with a bitter smile. He said, "Okay, you come back to your post. Just be more attentive from now on."

"Y-yes sir," The elf said. He then hurriedly left the rooftop.

"Seems we are too tense, these days," Jordan said with an amused tone.

"You are right. But, we will get a complete picture of the situation soon. And I need you to look at the situation in the Iron Gate Fortress this evening, like we agreed yesterday. I want to know the situation there," Ace said.

"Yeah, I know. I have prepared everything," Jordan then said.

***

10 minutes later, Ace saw Mars and Aria arrived in front of the town hall. Mars then seemed to give some speech. Ace's hearing was extraordinary. But, it was not so perverted as he could hear the dragon's speech more than five hundred meters clearly. After waiting for 10 minutes of speech, he heard the cheer of the townsmen. 

After that, Mars turned his body to humanoid form and entered the town hall with Aria, and the elders.

Ace didn't know what the two did in the town hall. But 5 minutes later, eight small towers of light were formed and erected to the sky. Each tower had its own color: gold, yellow, brown, dark green, pale green, silver, white, and grey. Then most of the colors disappeared, and he could only see white color.

Examining the white tower of light, Ace instinctively knew that the white color was the tower that represented the humans. As for the disappeared towers, he guested that the seven of them were the tower that represented the other races. 

He didn't know how, but a piece of knowledge as if was imprinted to his mind. He then understood what the colors represented.

The golden tower of light represented the Dragons.

The yellow tower of light represented the Gnomes.

The brown tower of light represented the Dwarves.

The dark green tower of light represented the Elves.

The pale green tower of light represented the Goblins.

The silver tower of light represented the Angels.

The White tower of light represented the Humans.

And the grey tower of light represented the Shadows. 

Ace then turned his head to Jordan and asked, "What do you see?"

Jordan looked back at Ace. He said, "A saw 8 towers of light. But then the other seven towers of light disappeared. Now, I can only see the grey tower of light."

Ace nodded. He then asked Aprilia, "Aprilia, what do you see?"

Aprilia, who was preoccupied looking at the tower, was surprised. She then looked at Ace with an expression full of questions.

"Did you say something, director?" She asked.

Ace smiled and then asked, "What did you see above the town hall?"

She then looked again in the direction of the tower of light. She then said, "I see the green light. Well, previously I saw 7 other colors. But they then disappeared."

Aske also asked the same questions to Eric, Erica, and Uriel. Eric and Erica also saw the eight towers of light. But in the end, they only saw the golden tower of light.

As for Uriel. He saw the eight towers of light, and then the others disappeared. Only the silver tower of light remained.

Ace then concluded that only eight races could see the towers of light, and then each of them could only see the tower of light that represented their own race.

As he said his conclusion to the rest, almost all of them nodded, expressing their agreement. They also had that conclusion. However, Jordan seemed to have a doubt.

"What is it, Jordan? Give us your view," Ace then said.

"It's like this," Jordan said as he looked at Ace.

"I think we can not be sure if the other race such as Undead saw the 8 towers of light or not. Although it was just a few seconds, they were really clear. I think, even if it is maybe just my worry, we can't just disregard the possibility," Jordan then said.

Ace thought Jordan's worry was not entirely groundless. As the towers of light were really conspicuous, there was a possibility, the undead really noticed that.

"You are right. We will remain at our plans. As we have prepared everything, we will lose nothing to adhere to them till the end," Ace decided.

"Yes, after all, The restaurant's meals are delicious. It will be my loss to not try every meal that is available here," Aprilia said.

"Hahaha. Of course, you can. They are inexpensive after all. You can come anytime you want," Ace said while smiling.

"No. I'm sorry to say it, director. I prefer to eat them for free," Aprilia then said.

"...," Ace was speechless.

After that, They continued to watch the unfinished ceremony. A few minutes after the appearance of the tower of light, a thin layer of light spread from the middle of the tower making a half-sphere form. 

Ace believed that was the town barrier. A barrier that could defend against any attack from outside, except if the city core was deactivated from inside.

"The barrier!" Ace could hear Uriel's exclamation from a little afar from him.

"Yes, having this protection, we can be relieved. Even if a level 100 creature attacks the town, as long as the city core is still operating, he can stay inside without fear," This time was Eric's voice.

"It seems you have forgotten the moment the undead attacked our valley, a few months ago. Some of them that had stealth ability could ignore the barrier of our valley and tried to deactivate our valley's city core.

If not because they were found out by a dragon that could see through their stealth, they would succeed with their mission. 

Well, we could still smash their bones, and would still be victorious even if they succeeded," Erica said.

After hearing their conversation, he asked Jordan, " Hey, could you sneak in the barrier?"

Jordan nodded and smiled.

"Of course. We are the best to perform infiltration missions. But, don't be too happy. As far as I know, no one could sneak into the town hall. 

I have tried before, when I tried to get information from the ghouls. I tried to be careful along the way, but as I was outside their city hall. Somehow, I knew that I couldn't enter the building without quitting from the shadow. 

So, we should prepare a strong stealth force that can break into the city hall, if we want to conquer a city of certain undead," He said.

Ace knew it was such a long way for them to invade another race's settlement. He was more interested in another topic. 

He then asked, "City? How many inhabitants for a town to be called a city?"

"It should be around 20 thousand. But, we must also increase other aspects as well. Like military strength and facilities. Although, I can say that we are strong. We are still a long way from there," Jordan said.

The barrier was finally stable after 15 minutes. Then it became transparent. It meant it entered a standby state. Even if it was in the standby state, no stranger could enter the barrier, without the authorization of town guards that guarded the town gate.

The next process should be summoning the guardians. In fact, the place to summon the guardians could be chosen beforehand. While most settlements would use the plaza for the guardian resurrection spot. Aria had a different thought about it.

She built a big building with stone materials. Ace found its shape similar to a temple. With many ornaments, sculptures, and carvings on its walls. It appeared elegant. He could realize how Aria put the guardians' presence important from her deliberation of the building's design.

That building was placed beside a small town guard's barrack just across the plaza. It was called 'guardian temple' by Aria.

Ace then saw Mars, Aria, and the other elders except Noah and himself exited the town hall. They then crossed the plaza, which was full of townsmen. Of course, their advance was slow, as they faced the enthusiasm of the people. 

And Mars also seemed not to hurry to arrive at the guardian temple. As he had time to grab some snacks and eat them while walking. 

Ace could see that Aria and the elders had a hard time following Mars that did whatever he wanted. Finally, after an 'arduous' journey, they arrived in front of the guardian temple.

***