Guild Wars

1306  Interlude - The Origin of Misery 2

In this time, Adelaide also gave birth to a lovely baby girl who inherited Nicholas' naughty streak in her eyes, containing endless mischief. Scathach took one look and fell in love with her great-great-granddaughter, who looked a lot like her and Adelaide mixed together, rather than Nicholas himself.

In a few months, the war with the Lineages occurred since Draco, Eva, and Shuangtian had been born, and the Pangu Lineage had only just finished butchering Shuangtian to create Shangtian. As such, they immediately reached out to their lower lineages and began to mobilize them for war.

Nicholas, Hector, Edward, and Walter were naturally mobilized, and so were the women too, excluding the now pregnant Genevieve. Adelaide was also left behind since she was nursing a child and could only tearfully see Nicholas off, continually pleading with him to be safe.

After becoming a mother, she had completely become free of her burdens and loved her family more than anything, especially Nicholas. Nicholas understood this, and as a man with a loving wife and darling daughter to come home to, he was definitely simultaneously motivated to make a mark to make them proud while also making sure he definitely came back to see them.

The lineages went to fight. The Pangu Lineage took the majority of their forces to face off against the Lucifer lineage, and we already knew the events that occurred on that side.

The other lineages of the Pangu Alliance collectively sent their people to blockade the Amaterasu lineage, preventing them from going to support the Lucifer Lineage in this final battle-like scenario.

Standing in front of the opulent Japanese estate along with his fellow Merlin lineage warriors, who numbered around 30, Nicholas felt lost. Under the Pangu Lineage propaganda, it was made to seem as if the two lineages had cooked up some plot to kill and enslave them all, ending the war once and for all.

However, the truth was soon revealed during the tense stalemate as both sides questioned each other and tested their bottom line. It was then that many of them found that the reason this was happening was because of prodigies born into the three main lineages, and their side was trying to kill one.

Now it must be said, not even the Pangu Lineage was as evil as the Pangu lineage. Yeah, every lineage had its bad apples and might sometimes do some evil, but it was not as all-encompassing as the Pangu lineage, where you would struggle to find one genuinely good act.

So naturally, most of those who came here were not pleased to learn that they were about to take part in infanticide. Hector directly spat and also left the battlefield, but was held back by his group since there would be hell to pay later if the Pangu lineage won.

And that was the big question, wasn't it? The Merlin, Buddha, Zeus, and Ilah lineages were not in the mood for this, but they also did not dare to leave because if things went well for their side overall, the cruel Pangu lineage would make them pay a bloody price.

So no matter how the Amaterasu lineage cajoled and wheedled, they did not leave their post. Even when the Amaterasu lineage tried to sow discord against the Pangu lineage, it had little effect because, obviously, after so many years since the ancestors left, the Pangu lineage had shown their true colors and accumulated extreme consternation from their people.

If they had a choice, do you really think they wanted to stay as subordinates to such fellows?

Well, there was one.

"Wretched beasts, be silent!" The leader of the forces from the Morrigan lineage's side roared with utter hatred in their eyes.

The Morrigan lineage had inherited their ancestors' mad obsession with being Pangu's bitch, to the point where they deployed every man, woman, and child with even 0.1% bloodline concentration to this battlefield to show their loyalty.

The other lineages sent between 20 to 30 people at most, but the Morrigan Lineage alone fielded nearly 300 people!

If something were to happen, their entire lineage could be wiped out once and for all!

Seeing this, the eyes of Akihito, Eva's dad, flashed with a hint of cunning maliciousness. While he was a soft-spoken otaku gamer, he had spent his youth being dragged around by the two hooligans of Dante and Dominic, so he also had a ruthless streak.

He continued to escalate the conflict with the Morrigan lineage separately and initiated small-scale skirmishes with them, sending about 20 of their best fighters to face their 300. It was in the ensuing battle that everyone understood why the lineages were split into three ranks, with the Amaterasu, Lucifer, and Pangu at the top. n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

In a matter of minutes, half of the Morrigan lineage's people were either dead or severely wounded, with the rest crazily charging forward to fight. The Amaterasu lineage fighters cursed as they retreated crazily, especially since the Morrigan lineage revealed suicide bombs strapped to their chests as they chased after.

The other lineages hesitated to help, but they were forced to make a choice by the prodding of the Morrigan lineage, who threatened to report everything to the Pangu lineage. In the end, both sides fielded out most of their fighters, and a grand battle occurred that caused the sky to change color.

Nicholas, Walter, Hector, and Edward fought together, covering each other's backs. They initially fought lightly, not really aiming to do anything, but one thing about the Amaterasu lineage was that once their switch was turned on, they could be crazier than the enemies they were fighting.

Don't forget which country they were from.

Soon, the four young men were put into dire straits continually, watching as a few of their elders and peers were seared into charred flesh by the light energy of the Amaterasu lineage, among the various void-related attacks and psychic manipulation.

Nicholas was the only Mage Inheritance among them, so he was working overtime to maintain their barriers against physical and mental attacks with magic while the other three protected him. They retreated slowly until they were out of the range of the battle and began to recuperate.

At this time, they happened to witness a Kamikaze attack on a Morrigan lineage member, who screamed as he became akin to a full-body Harvey Dent, with burn scars everywhere. Nicholas, feeling sympathetic, healed the person so that they could survive and then pulled them aside.

Eventually, the order came down. Draco had been crippled by his own people and the two lineages had suffered severe losses, so it was time for everyone to retreat as the battle was over.

Surveying the battlefield, Nicholas felt desolation in his heart because the Morrigan lineage had all but been wiped out, and the various other lineages were weakened by more than 40%. The Amaterasu lineage had suffered some losses as well, but only around the same 40% as them, so they also retreated.

On their way back to the lineage, the four young men were silent, their horizons forcibly broadened and a question festering in their hearts.

What… what was the point of all this?

Why did they have to fight and die with the few people in the world who were special like them? Their numbers were already pitifully small compared to the world's population, and yet rather than make peace and grow together, they were constantly squabbling over petty disagreements their ancestors had years ago.

Yet those same ancestors were gone now. Not only did they leave, but they specifically told them to maintain the peace and refrain from upsetting the balance of the world, otherwise, human society would not have made it past the Renaissance era with the lineages out of control.

Even a pastor's daughter would become a wild party girl when she finally left her strict home, so how could the usually hidden and unobtrusive lineages remain backstage now that their ancestors had gone?

But even with all that, the peace was only maintained for a short while before squabbles came along, then came skirmishes. The world wars were the worst trigger for conflicts since the lineages attached themselves to various countries over the millennia and often got involved in such things for their own benefits.

And now, here they were. At their weakest already after the generations of inbreeding with no new bloodline source, their power dramatically withdrawn after the events of World War II and yet, still going head to head.

Nicholas felt lost. Today, he had witnessed blood kin die in front of him, unable to do anything. He might not have the best relationship with them, but no one actually bullied or troubled him, given his heritage and his ability, so he had passable relationships with everyone.

He had watched these family members die, often screaming in agony while calling out for their family in desperation for salvation.

And yet, they hadn't even seen the swaddling cloth of the very babies they were supposedly fighting over.

For all he knew, this might have been a farce that the Pangu Lineage used to initiate an attack on their foes, or some method to whittle down the other lineages' forces to prevent an inevitable rebellion.

Nicholas was not sure, feeling completely lost.

Eventually, they got home and everyone dispersed to their abodes to lick their wounds, the oppressive atmosphere in the lineage building up day by day, especially from those who had lost sons or fathers in this fight.

Resentment towards the Lucifer and Amaterasu lineages built up wantonly, especially under the propaganda of the Pangu lineage, who made it seem like they had been heftily bullied but managed to eke out a heroic victory with them in mind.

Many in the lineage did not even have the power to deal with some armed weaponry of this era, much less have the guts to go to the Lucifer Lineage to cause trouble. Usually, they could only swallow their grievance and bear with it in silence, but even if they couldn't bully the tough one from afar, couldn't they take their anger out on the weak one nearby?

And so, those in the Merlin Lineage with other roots began to suffer under the hands of oppressors, causing their lives to become miserable.

Adelaide was fine because Scathach was an all-encompassing net that prevented even the craziest Merlin lineage member from acting out of line, so she simply refrained from going out often, focusing on raising her daughter.

Nicholas and Scathach were also vigilant, guarding against any threat from the outside with hawk-like caution.

But it was precisely this that caused the inevitable tragedy to occur.

A month later, the man Nicholas rescued from the Morrigan lineage woke up and found that Adelaide and Nicholas' daughter, Mary, were seated in the ward with him, nursing him back to health. When he woke up and saw the two playing together while gently asking him if he was feeling okay, he felt heartened and asked what happened.

Hearing that his lineage had been wiped out, he cried bitterly, cursing the Amaterasu and Lucifer lineages drastically. Adelaide felt sympathy for him, understanding what it was like to be alone, so her guard wasn't up.

She used her psychic ability inherited from the Dark Angel inheritance to carry over a cup of water for the fellow to drink, which sparked him off as he realized his savior was from the lineage that prepared his family's massacre and were their hated enemies.

However, even if he wanted to, he couldn't beat Adelaide even if he returned to full power because she was not a weak woman but a lineage member with bloodline power, while he was a barely functioning cripple.

So he began to plot how to exact his revenge before he took his own life, unwilling to remain in this world like this, crippled and deformed.

Luckily for him, his chance soon came.