Hector and the troops cut through the castle forces like a hot knife through butter. Those branded fought with the steadfastness of veterans. The Altea soldiers who were enthralled found themselves growing stronger at a rapid pace. Considering they had an actual commander who fought so thick in the fights while healing them, they found themselves following his orders more and more with little resistance.
Even Elice had taken an interest in Hector. He fought like a monster, no weapons, just the use of his arms and legs. This was shocking as he tore through armor and broke weapons upon his flesh. His magic was also a sight to see, as it was not as warm and comforting as her own but firm and faster in its process.
'It happened again.' Elice watched with rapt attention as the dead soldiers were enveloped in Dark Magic and sank into the ground. A few of the Gra soldiers she saw drop later came back in different armor that matched those first seen by Hector. With a keen eye, she gathered intel, the best she could on the situation. 'Are they planted soldiers he placed to secure the castle or are they sleeper agents meant to get him into the Archives somehow?'
*Tink!* An archer fired an arrow that caught Hector in the breastplate. Right as another arrow was knocked to fire, Hector raised his hand and fired a small dart of pure black magic out.
*Splurt!* The small dart of black magic ripped through the archer's head, creating a thumb-sized hole through and through.
"We surrender!" An Altean traitor threw his weapons down while crying. "We just want to live!"
Another Altean soldier, however, saw red seeing the bloody bodies of fresh recruits scattered about. With a lunge of the spear, the soldier stabbed the surrendering soldier in the gut. Lifting him up into the air, he threw him backwards towards a wall.
"Oh no!" Princess Elice ran to the man quickly, as a surrender soldier was a helpless soldier in her book. "If they surrender, do not harm them!" She shouted toward the others. Turning back down, she tried to close up the gaping wound. "Please.. hold on!"
The loyal Altean soldiers bit back, retorts of anger and shame. Anger that she cared for traitors who got their people killed, and even caused such a situation to escalate this fast. Shame that for a brief moment they thought of killing her, simply for the fact she would be saving enemy soldiers and getting them all killed.
"Hmm.." Hector shook his head while looking at the soldier who just did that. That was an emotionally charged attack if he ever saw one. "Even with tears down his face, he still continues to fight. I wonder who was lost?"
Another archer let loose an arrow. It was aimed at Elice this time, but Hector reached out, putting his hand in the way. The arrowhead actually pierced his flesh and contained poison.
"Tch!" Yanking it out, Hector removed a vial of Antitoxin from his pocket. "Assassins, they really want to take you people out. Hopefully, this drives home that this isn't some kind of joke or misunderstanding. Assassins are very serious. Did Altea not have any counter-surveillance?"
*Dash!* Charging through like a freight train, Hector shoulder checked two soldiers and grabbed one mage by the throat. The Assassin pulled back to get to a better position, but was pelted by body parts thrown at him.
Hector ripped the arms off the mage and chucked them at the Assassin once more. The shock did nothing to the hired killer, but the copious amounts of blood caused him to trip up when fighting.
"Dammit!" The assassin quickly recovered and got up in a crawling run. Just not fast enough. "Urk!" Grabbed by the cuff of the neck, the man dropped his bow and reached to his waist for a melee weapon. "Let go of me!"
*Schlick! Schlick!* Two daggers were jammed into Hector's arm at an awkward angle. Not enough to really do damage despite getting around the armguards.
With a tense of muscles, Hector kept them in place. The weapons were of great quality after all. And the poison coated in them were quite potent. Two different types, as it caused a cold sensation on one hand and burning on the other.
"So, can you tell me who hired you? Or to be specific, why they hired you. Keep in mind I don't feel like doing the whole interrogation thing, so don't test me." Hector tightened his grip to emphasize his point. "Time is of the essence."
"I am a professional, I won't.." The assassin stopped as his throat tightened, then he felt extraordinary pain in his midriff. "Kuk!" Hector's hand protruded from out of the man. He even gave a wave for him to see it clearly. "You.."
"So, tell me what I want to know."
"I.. will.."
"Shame for you." Hector used the spell Nosferatu. With the connection so deeply, he absorbed every bit of the man's life force in one go. His wounds were healing, and the damage caused by the poison was already fading away while increasing his body's natural antibodies. "What a waste of great potential."
The armor and clothes fell to the floor before vanishing into the dark shadows. The force of the spell was so strong that it robbed even the bones of flesh in an instant before zapping them of vitality as well.
"You filthy Altean scum!" Seeing his other Gra soldiers getting cut down the sergeant of the group was beyond furious. Ignoring the fact he was an attacker and partially to blame for their deaths the man directed his anger toward the Alteans. "I will take you down, no matter what it takes!"
"Woah, pretty intense!" Hector had moved toward the man since the yelling started, as this seemed like another good adversary. "You must have really cared for those soldiers?"
*Clang!* Gauntlet fist hit against sword in a brutal clash. Hector's greater strength flicked the man away towards the wall before he pressed on him.
"They were my best men! And my brothers in arms!" The soldier struggled to get out of the wall, but he was underestimating the damage caused by Hector. "Kuff!" Looking down, his eyes locked on the broken piece of his armor. "Who the hell are you!? Which Altean bastard are you!?"
"You don't look to be anyone special, so for them to be this skilled makes me happy for the future. Your Country has done well in raising its people." Hector was actually impressed with a no-name guy, relatively speaking, of course. His face and overall appearance didn't trigger anything he knew about the series, and yet the man survived a blow into the wall from him. "For that I won't Reap you!"
"Huh?" Confused, the soldier raised his hand to strike back, but found no strength in his arm. "What is going on?!" Fear gripped him as he lost all feeling in his body and could see it break off into dark light.
"You were good enough to tried this on, I must thank you once more." Hector held a glowing ball of light in his hands as it gather the other motes of light. "Your Essence is strong, well, I was good enough to hold onto a bit of your Quintessence!"
The body of the soldier fell into darkness the same as others, and was dropped into the Primordial Sea.
"To hold the very Lifeforce of a person in my hands, this is beyond addicting!" Hector could understand why Nergal went so far in his studies. The longer he held the lifeforce in his hands, the more it shrank. The very essence of the soldier he killed was leaking into the surroundings as per the course of life in this Magic-heavy Dimension. "I cannot use it myself, but just maybe I can do something special with this eventually."
Removing an Energy Ring produced by the Primordial Sea, he used it with his Dark Magic to bind it in place. The theory was that whoever used the ring would have their stats raised along with their proficiency.
But then something happened that he did not expect to.
*Shine!* The Energy Ring that was just capable of increasing one's strength, changed in power and purpose. It became a Class Change item as well with additional stat increasement to it. At least that is what his magic was telling him and what he could read from the spells crafted into it.
'I will have to converse with Tiamat later to figure out the full changes.' Hector surmised as he stopped gawking at the item and stashed it away. The gathered enthralled soldiers didn't care what he did but the Princess definitely had a questioning look on her face. "No wonder Altia was on the losing end. The situation will only get dire from here. Hope you folks are ready."
"We will previal!" The soldiers shouted in unison. Their morale had only been increasing since fighting with Hector. At least the Princess took notice of that.
"Then let's move to save the Queen!" The voices of the unifed soldiers were quite something just then.
Oh, did Hector have fun fighting against the Gra soldiers. Several turncoats who surrendered from the Altean forces were handed over to Elica for now. He would wait to see what the young girl did before stepping in himself, as the growing discontent from the Altean survivors started to build when seeing more of their people dead.
It hit even harder when they came across dead servants.
Having made it to a gathered Safe Haven that was meant to be guarded by several soldiers, the Princess could barely hold back her tears. The few guards around the door were dead, and by the looks of the dried blood, they had been dead for a while.
Elice's hands trembled as she moved to a wall near the door and tapped on it in a few places. With a few shifts of some type of mechanism, several locks disengage by the looks of a draft of pressure releasing by the door.
*Bam!* Doors slammed open as a woman in royal clothing dashed out with injured knights. It was Queen Liza. Beautiful by all accounts with dark raven hair and a waistline barely hidden in her dress. The speed she moved was both graceful and a cause for concern as she moved toward her daughter.
'This woman is not the dainty type, I am pretty sure her bloodline was nothing of importance so that is something to look into on how she is so... well appears to be something anyway. It would be great if she has something special about her that was just overcrowded by Altea and just being Marth's mother.' Hector looked to the soldiers and gauged the changes in them. 'Small bits of guilt that is going away, taken over by anger most likely. But enough loyalty to no longer lash out just yet. How promising. This Subsidiary Realm is giving all types of chances to grow and learn my power changes. If only I had the material to experiment n Morphs here.'
Getting lost in his thoughts, Hector focused on how Quintessence could be used. If he took that instead of just killing them he didn't get the effect of Reaping. But his trying in Dark Magic further should help him develop a way to help increase his people more through that method. With his current skills and stats steadily growing, he needed to branch out in abilities and support in terms of the growth of others.
Another thing that was getting to Hector was that the Primordial Sea was churning something fierce. As if it was trying to unlock something inside of him. Stretching and molding his very essence. At first he thought it was due to the Class Change, but that should have settled by now, and Tiamat just smirked instead of answering directly in a way he would like.
Stating that it was himself causing the change and until he resolved the issue, the feeling will keep going and most likely grow bigger.