Otherworld Adventure

The golden shower of mana bolts was indeed from Cecil.

From afar, Cecil had long since detected Angelia, Gabriel, and Kira. He also found his apprentice with them as well as a few other people, but the monsters moving to attack them ruined his chance of directly heading their way to reunite with them.

The monsters were attacking any human within their immediate vicinity and with a few from his group still being unconscious due to exhaustion from being affected by the illusion array.

He had to stop these monsters from hurting any more of his people so Cecil gathered his mana, used Hypersensitivity, and locked onto every monster within his Mana Sense's effective range.

Before, he was limited from adding the homing attribute onto too many of his mana bolts due to his mind's capacity, but after his recent upgrade, his brain's processing ability was enhanced and this kind of massive targeting ability was made possible.

All he needed to do was add it to his Skyfall technique and this was the result, a massive-scale golden apocalypse that obliterated all of the enemies that he targeted. The only flaw of Skyfall had been corrected thanks to Cecil's new built-in homing system.

Now, he no longer needed to worry about accidentally injuring his allies which were within close proximity to his attack. Of course, it would be too much to ask them not to be affected by the shockwaves which were the by-product of the explosions caused by his skill, but at least now, no one would be directly hurt by his Skyfall.

The previous incident when he and his team first subdued the Hydragon, Nessie, where his allies had to evacuate the area in fear of being hit by his powerful attack, no longer had to be repeated.

"...This should clear most of them out, but I can't be sure that I saved everyone since Skyfall's range is limited and it can't encompass this whole place..."

Cecil spread out his Mana Sense once more to check on the situation before he flew towards his brother and sister's location.

"I can't sense Kira... did something happen to him?" Cecil mumbled with a frown.

*****

As Cecil approached their location, the automata immediately detected him from afar. The absurd quality of mana and other sources of energy circulating within his body alerted them of his presence and they became wary.

They, the automata, were actually afraid of someone right now. Even Hana couldn't help but break her poker face and frown when she noticed Cecil approaching.

All of the automata gathered together around Gabriel and waited for orders. If the person coming towards them showed any hostility, they all agreed to immediately evacuate their commander and attack without any hesitation.

Gabriel noticed the odd actions of his automata but he didn't feel like questioning them. He already knew that the massive golden shower from earlier that obliterated all of the monsters attacking them was from his younger brother, Cecil.

"Hah, I can't believe it took him this long just to find us..." Gabriel mumbled before sitting down on a block of concrete in exhaustion.

The fighting from earlier although short, still took some stamina away from him. It had been so long since he actually had a good meal so he was thinking about maybe trying to fry those insect-type monsters. However, he had to shelve the idea because after he looked around, Gabriel finally noticed that there weren't any intact monsters left for him to harvest their meat.

"He sure did it pretty thoroughly. Did Cecil get stronger maybe? I remember that attack from before and it shouldn't normally be able to do this..."

Gabriel couldn't find a better explanation for it, but his brother probably got stronger in the period of time that they were separated. He just couldn't understand the power leaps that his brother would show from time to time within a short time period.

It hadn't even been a year since their family had reunited, but he still remembered the first time Cecil came back and drove away the Merkruz Army that was bearing down on them and saved them from a hopeless situation.

Now, after nearly a year had passed, his brother's strength had exceeded anything a human being could imagine. In fact, Gabriel felt like his brother was becoming more of a god than a human. Cecil's power, if he chose to, was enough to change the landscape of any terrain that he struck with any one of his ultimate skills.

It was dangerous but also a reassurance since Gabriel knew that his brother would always be on his family's side and wouldn't ever become an enemy. His brother's power also doubled as protection against anyone that would eye their family or their kingdom in a malicious way.

When Gabriel looked up in the sky at the fast approaching human that was flying straight in his direction at high speeds, his lips perked up into a smile and he stood up and waved at Cecil.

Seeing the friendly gesture, the automata surrounding Gabriel relaxed a little. However, they remained vigilant. The person who had just landed nearby gave off a very dangerous aura and the vibe the automata were feeling from him faintly reminded them of their creators, the ancients.

They weren't loyal to their creators nor were they thankful. They only felt indifference towards them, but due to their strength they also subtly feared them. Hana was still clenching her fists hard as Cecil slowly approached them, or rather, their commander.

"Gabe, it's great to see you're fine," Cecil said and quickly pulled his brother into a hug.

"Who do you think I am? I'm not that weak that you need to worry about me," Gabriel replied and patted Cecil on the back.

"Hehe, that's true. Where's Angie? Also, how come I don't sense Kira anywhere?"

"Angie is near the power station I think. As for Kira...I think it's because he's hiding behind a barrier."

"Oh...is that so?"

Kira was indeed hiding behind Desmond's barrier back at the power station and he had been sniping down monsters from his vantage point. Cecil didn't know about the barrier Kira was hiding behind so he was a little amazed that it was powerful enough to block his Mana Sense.

He turned to look at the new faces around him and noticed the strained and tense atmosphere.

"Who're these people, big bro?" Cecil asked.

He was rather intrigued by them. He felt that they were different in some way, but the thing he found most intriguing were the armor that the automata were wearing. He was able to recognize that adamantium was the basic material composition of the armor, but he knew at a glance that adamantium only made up one of the many materials that forged this peculiar armor.

"Big bro, I'm guessing that these people are under you, right? That's some nifty looking armor they've got!"

"Eh? Well, yeah, I guess. I'll tell you who they are later. For now, I think we should go to the top of that spire? The transfer gate to the next floor is up there according to the guide," Gabriel replied.

"Yeah, okay. I'll go round up everyone else who are scattered around this place."

Cecil shelved his curiosity for now. There were more important things that he had to attend to. He quickly shot up into the air and spread his Mana Sense. After picking up on some people, he quickly flew towards their direction.

"Agenor, Pollux, Helen, and Desmond, you 4 follow my brother and help with the retrieval of all humans within this... city," Gabriel turned around and ordered.

The 4 nodded their heads before taking to the skies and chasing after Cecil who was already quite far away.

"The rest of you, head back to the power station," Gabriel ordered the remaining automata before turning towards Hana and said, "Hana, walk with me."

"Yes, Commander."

Gabriel walked back in the direction of the power station. Angelia's monsters, Mao, the triple-headed golden snake, and Nessie all began to retreat back to the station as well once they saw that there were no more enemies around.

On their way back, Gabriel began asking Hana what was up with her and the other automata's earlier behavior.

"Why did you act so cautiously around, my little brother earlier? You already saw that he was a friendly."

"Due to 'fear', Commander," Hana flatly replied.

"Fear? I thought you said that you aren't programmed to feel fear?"

Hana didn't immediately reply but she thought about it for a moment before asking, "That person was Commander's brother, yes?"

"Yes."

"The data from my scanning indicated that Commander and your, little sister, are both High Humans."

"High Humans?"

"Yes, High Humans. However, when I tried scanning the young man earlier who is your brother...I couldn't do it."

"You couldn't scan him?"

"Yes, and the only race of people I can't scan are the ancients who according to the database, should all be dead by now."

"..."

"Also, the aura that your 'brother' was giving off greatly resembled that of the ancients. I won't say much about how cruel that race was, but I'm sure you can be the judge of that, Commander."

Gabriel listened to her words before shaking his head and firmly replying, "It's impossible that my brother is a part of that cruel race. We aren't even originally from this planet to begin with so there's no way that we have any sort of connection to those ancients!"

"Not from this planet?" Hana questioned. Her poker face nearly broke when she heard this piece of news from her commander.

Gabriel was able to understand that the automaton was curious about his origins but he shook his head and replied, "Once we get out of the trials, I'll explain it to you. In return, you'll have to tell me all about those ancients, what high humans are, and what this war and those Fallen that you were created to combat against are."

"Yes, Commander, as you wish."

"Let's just focus on getting out of here. We should be near the last stages of the entire trial and with Cecil's help, I'm sure we can complete the remaining stages easily."