--An) Another one on the way. I am late with getting these chapters out today.--
Currently, Lillia and her sisters all had their heads turned up towards the ceiling taking in the view of the nice smoothness of the stone while whistling their favorite songs. One may ask why they were doing such a thing. Especially since they were all whistling different songs while sitting together and staring at the ceiling like it was the greatest thing in the world.
That would be because of a certain question a certain person asked while sitting across from the with his arms crossed in front of him. This person had an eyebrow raised as the group of girls tried to pretend he did not ask any questions. "So…." He had originally planned not to bring it up, but since then, he had been getting more reports from Little White that the number of refugees was still increasing, and the number of reglios turning to ash as they entered the city had started to become more numerous. This meant that things were starting to get out of hand.
"Which one of you will tell me why you never said anything? Why did I need to hear this from Little White, who was asked by Bret and Mike to contact me?" Blake's gaze was so piercing that the girls began to feel a little uncomfortable. They all tried their best to act like they knew nothing.
"Forget it. It's not like you were not taking care of things. Without the barrier that Ishtar put up, we might be in bigger trouble." Blake gave in and sighed. "But next time, let me know. Then we can plan together. Remember, even without Ishtar's magic, I can contact Little White at any time."
"We understand." Lillia and the girls replied.
"So, how will we deal with this?" Lillia asked. "If this keeps going, things might really get to the point that we will not be able to sustain any more refugees. It's like they are begin hearsed to our city."
"This is exactly what is happening," Blake said. "My guess is that the reglios are determined to infiltrate the city. They probably do not even know that many of their kin have already died. They probably want to overwhelm the city with numbers and destroy us since we pose the biggest threat to them.
"And this I do not like. The reglios are looking down on us, but at the same item, we do not know how powerful they have gotten. But it seems the barrier that Gemini put up was able to ward off any direct attack. So my guess is they are not powerful enough to take Someone as strong as Gemini on, even with numbers.
"And because of this, it only proves that the reglios are getting smarter and smarter. This is not good because if they are already able to come up with infiltration tactics, then that means they have been learning quite a bit from other sources or figuring it out on their own.
"Now the thing we need to figure out is how we were going to deal with this. What do you all think? The city will be protected for the time being, but if they are spreading like wildfire, we might not have a chance to strike back if we are too slow." Blake was worried about the reglios numbers rising even higher while he was here trying to power up.
"I think you will be alright for the time being. If they are trying to amass forces within your city, then they will not attack until they are sure they got the barrier down. Since the forces they are sneaking in are all being killed, they will probably continue to try to sneak more in until the job is done, or if they realize there is something wrong, they will back off and plan a new course of action." Ishtar gave her thoughts on what to do. As the goddess of war, she knew much about tactics, so she was hoping to be of some use in this situation.
"So you are saying we can continue training and should knot have to worry?" Blake asked.
"Mm… I would restrict all outside excursions for the time being to protect your troops. If your outposts are shielded like the city, then they can still keep an eye on things. Otherwise, I would seal off any passages that might lead to the city from the outside." Ishtar explained.
"Gemini did put up barriers around all outposts as well, so they are safe. Alright, I will give a heads up to Bret through Little White. This way, we can continue to work on using our astral powers." Blake felt a little better. Ishtar was not only the goddess of love but also the goddess of war. Although Blake was wondering if her goddess of love title was fake since she couldn't last long in bed. She always ended up begging to be let off.
After asking Little White to relay his message, Blake went back to training. He still had to memorize every rune to even be able to cast the simplest of spells with astral energy. Each rune was very different from the magic runes he knew and did different things, which made it seem like he was learning a different language. Luckily he had cheat sheets thanks to Nanaya, who went out of her way to make a bunch, as well as the book he got from her.
It wasn't just him having a hard time, either. Even Lillia and Gemini were finding things difficult. Mina and Noa were not doing any better either. The only ones out learning them all were Joy and Destiny. He did not understand how they were so easily learning these runes.
"Is it joist me, or does the next generation become smarter while the previous generation gets dumber?" Blake sighed as he looked at the runes in front of him.
Joy sat down next to Blake and pointed at the runes he was drawing on the ground. "Papa, you can't try to formulate them like you would with magic runes. They do not work that way. Try it like this."
