When Jack used his companion token, Arlcard didn't immediately appear. Arlcard even asked if it was an emergency. He'd just come out of his cocoon and was still trying to grasp his improvement. Jack told him that it was a bloody emergency. They were in a war and they could lose if he didn't come.
Jack could hear Arlcard's sigh when he received the notification that his companion had accepted his call.
'Bloody heck. I wonder if others ever experienced such a thing when they called their companions,' Jack complained in his mind.
A dark slit appeared in the air in front of him. Out of this slit, thousands of bats rushed out. These bats hit the zombies Jack was fighting. Upon impact, the bats dissolved into shadows that covered the zombies' bodies. The zombies stopped moving afterward. Damage numbers came up on those zombies every second.
While the zombies were petrified by the shadows, Arlcard walked out of the dark slit in the air. He looked around the place with a relaxed expression. Jack thought Arlcard seemed older than he used to, even when his face was still as smooth as a baby's.
Jack used his Inspect and confirmed that Arlcard had indeed upgraded to the Eternal grade. Not only that, he was categorized as an Ancient Vampire, the same age as Marcus. This was probably the effect of drinking Marcus' blood. Before Arlcard entered his cocoon state, he had increased one level courtesy of the battle with Marcus. He was level 78 and his HP was 3,800,000.
Arlcard finally turned back and glanced at Jack.
"Hey," He greeted Jack with only that one word. He then turned back and looked in the distance. He could see some eternal beings battling outside. Jack thought Arlcard was probably thinking about heading there to test his newly upgraded power.
"Uh… Hey, how are you doing…?" Jack asked.
"Why are we exchanging pleasantry for? We have a war to fight!" Peniel yelled.
"Ugh! You are right! Arlcard, we need to protect this palace. We have to stop this zombie horde from entering the palace," Jack told the vampire.
"These small fries…? If I stop them, can I go outside there?" Arlcard asked.
"Huh? Uh… Yea, sure… If you can stop them," Jack answered.
"All right," Arlcard uttered. He floated into the air. Spell formation started forming.
"Can he get new spells just from upgrading to an eternal grade?" Jack asked Peniel.
"What do you mean, just from? Do you think it's common for someone to become an eternal grade?" Peniel scolded. "Yes, when one becomes an eternal grade, one might receive new inherent skills, but in his case, it can also be because he upgraded to the ancient rank."
Rune after rune kept on forming in Arlcard's spell formation. The spell ended after it formed eight runes. When the spell was cast, a thick fog covered the area.
"Hey, why does this look familiar?" Jack asked.
He found the spell was familiar to Arlcard's six-run spell, Sonata of the Night. Despite thick fog covering the place, he could see just fine. As he had expected, he saw shadows from inside the fog. When he expected to see ghouls come out slowly from the fog, these shadows instead rushed out with surprising speed.
The petrifying shadows that froze the zombies earlier had ended. These zombies started moving again, but they had trouble finding their way inside Arlcard's fog. This was when the shadows from the fog crashed into them. Once they did, Jack had a good look at these shadows. They were draugar.
They looked similar to the deathless draugr Jack encountered when he first met Arlcard, except these draugar wore armor and carried weapons. They hacked the zombies like crazed madmen.
The zombies still outnumbered these draugar. Some ignored them and insisted on advancing. Dark tentacles burst out of the ground and entangled these zombies.
"Is this some kind of an upgrade to the Sonata of the Night?" Jack asked.
"It's a different spell, but yes. It's a stronger version than Sonata of the Night," Peniel answered. "This one is called Orchestra of the Night. Its difference is not only the creatures it conjured inside the fog, you know?"
"Oh? What other differences does this spell have?"
"Try flying up. You will see," Peniel suggested.
Jack called up his gold dragon wings and took to the air. As he flew higher, he found that he was still covered by fog. This fog went all the way into the sky. There were even shadows up here.
Some zombie soldiers had high enough levels and possessed flying ability. The shadows attacked these flying enemies. When Jack approached them, Jack saw the shadows to be werebats. These werebats were slimmer than the World Maker's werebats, and they had darker skin.
Whether it's up here or down there, none of the enemies could advance due to Arlcard's spell. When Jack paid better attention, he noticed that this fog covered an extremely large area. The Orchestra of the Night's AOE was probably six or eight times larger than the area covered by Sonata of the Night.
"How long does this spell last?" Jack asked.
"At its first level, one hour," Peniel answered.
"Wow! That's long!" Jack exclaimed. If the remaining army within the capital worked with the draugar and werebats in slaying the zombies, one hour might be enough to cull them down to a non-threatening number.
"Can I go outside now?" Jack heard Arlcard's voice behind him.
"Jeez!" Jack had a jump. He was not aware Arlcard was behind him.
"You can do mana concealment?!" Jack said in a surprise.
"Mana concealment?" Arlcard looked at himself as if he was trying to understand something. He then said, "I guess I do."
At that time, a huge fireball was seen in the distance. It was where Broidrireg was fighting Suzaki and Uddroth. Jack had read the report about the battle between Suzaki and Uddroth in Palgrost. He had a rough idea of what that fireball was.
"Do you want to test fighting an eternal opponent?" Jack asked.
Arlcard nodded.
"Are you sure? The enemy's level is more than ten levels higher," Jack asked again.
"I will retreat if things get dangerous. Plus, I won't be fighting by myself, will I?"
"In that case. I have a favor to ask. Is there something you can do to save the dragon that is trapped inside that fireball?" Jack asked.
"… Perhaps there is something I can try, but I'm not sure if it will work," Arlcard said.
"Give it a try! That dragon is my friend. Please, help him," Jack said.
Arlcard nodded. A pair of large bat wings sprouted from his back. It was larger than the shadow wings he used to use. He then shot at high speed towards the huge fireball in the sky.
