Horizon's Edge

by TurtleMe

  “It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that, although you were hailed as a prodigy in the field of magic and have been pampered with elixirs and strengthening methods since your awakening, you aren’t a match for the child, Arthur Leywin,” he shrugged, holding his hand up.

  I could feel my fists whiten in frustration, but he cut me off before I was able to refute.

  “The sad thing is, he was never even trying. I bet even you always had a nagging suspicion that he had always been holding back, hahahaha!” He erupted into a fit of laughter as he clutched his stomach, legs kicking in the air.

  “Who do you think you are?” I growled.

  My body was already glowing as mana spilled out from my mana core, ready to fire at him, but I never did. This throbbing sense told me to not mess with him, like it was… hopeless.

  No! I’m Lucas Wykes of the Wykes family!

  But who the hell was he and why did he talk like he was here the whole time, watching over us?

  “I told you. I am but a mere benefactor that came here for the betterment of this land.” As he said this, he got up and gave an exaggerated bow with his arms spread out.

  Sitting back down on his crude throne, he continued, “Mr. Wykes, I believe that, even if our views aren’t the same, we could have some sort of mutual benefits in this.”

  “Go on,” I said through gritted teeth.

  He ignored the fact that I was still completely surrounded by fire attribute mana, dangerously close to releasing it.

  “Soon, I will be able to personally take part in this and when I do, I want to completely shatter the frail glue holding the three races together. However, until that time comes, I need your strength to help run things smoothly,” he explained.

  “How do you personally plan on splitting up the three races and why would you think that doing this would even benefit me in any way? Besides, you think the Council and the Lances were made just for decoration?” I argued.

  “The Council is tied up with various things at the moment, and I’ve taken extra precautions to make sure that your Director is held up and out of reach. The field is set, Mr. Wykes, so let me ask you this - how would you like to have the ever so cautious Arthur Leywin fight you at his full strength, and for you to obtain the necessary power to defeat him even then?” He lifted his hand up, beckoning me toward him.

  “Obtain the power to defeat Arthur?” I asked, controlling my expression to not look as dumbfounded as I felt.

  “As long as you agree, I promise that you will get your hands on a level of power that you never thought was possible.”

  I looked at the hooded figures and could tell that they were interested as well, but stayed quiet due to the fear of being the next victim of the masked man’s ‘discipline’.

  This was all too good to be true.

  “If what you say is true and he has been cautiously hiding his powers to the extent that he has, how are you going to get him to fight me at his most?” I scoffed, unwilling to believe.

  “Quite simple, actually, and it is also a task that I need to get done as well so it works out. Arthur is only human and he holds great importance to his family and his friends, but particularly more so to one person,” he says as he lifts his index finger up, the smile on the mask most likely matching the sinister expression he had as well.

  “Tessia Eralith…” I whisper, unable to hide the smirk on my face.

  “Yes! Tessia Eralith! An elf! On this sacred Xyrus academy, an elf is the leader of the students! Do all of you think this is right?” he bellowed at everyone so his voice echoed in the small dungeon.

  “““““““““““““““““““ NO! ””””””””””””””””””””””” the hooded figures all roared in unison.

  “She may not be here yet but I reckon she will soon, and most likely with Arthur. Don’t you think that maybe a bit of elf princess blood being shed ought to get your buddy ‘ol pal, Arthur, riled up?” he sneered as his hands ignited in flames.

  I never cared for the elf princess besides thinking that she suited my tastes. I let her be since her body hadn’t even matured yet but it did seem like something was going on between her and Arthur. Who does he think he is anyways to think that he deserved someone like the princess of the elven kingdom?

  He was just a lowly peasant.

  As I began playing through the possible scenario in my head, I couldn’t help my lips from slowly curling upwards as I imagined his precious little lover’s life in my grasp as Arthur begs me to stop. The brat who always thought he was better than I was...on his knees.

  I wonder if he’d lose his sanity if I were to slowly bleed her in front of him?

  “Pfft!” I couldn’t hold back my laughter any longer. “Why the hell not!”

  It was so simple! Why didn’t I think of that? All we needed to do was to kill the elf princess!

  Maybe I could have a little fun before killing her…

  I began licking my lips in anticipation.

  Chapter 83: A Greater Scale

  ARTHUR LEYWIN’S POV:

  “At last, we finally have a bit of privacy to peacefully converse,” a voice rang in my ear.

  As soon as it spoke, the space around us began warping. Sylvie’s trembling became so severe that I couldn’t keep her perched on my head and had to hold her firmly in my arms.

  Suddenly, in the midst of the chaos that was forming around us, we were in a blank white room.

  I could feel myself gape, but even the words to express my confusion couldn’t come out.

  Without being able to muster up even a voice to curse in surprise, I just idly waited.

  In this white cube, it was only me, a quivering Sylvie, and the source of the all too familiar speckled pair of eyes.

  By the time my eyes were able to adjust to the sudden brightness, I could make out the cat taking in a deep breath.

  “Haa…”

  Did it just sigh at me?

  As I continued to kneel while clutching my bond, the cat I had seen at ‘Windsom’s Potions and Elixirs’ started shaking its head at me after a little while.

  It really was the same cat I saw back then…

  The peculiarly eye-catching cat was sitting in a poise manner, its tail swaying hypnotically as its eyes locked onto mine. As the cat’s gaze bore deeper into me, I began feeling like some sort of raw material being appraised by a veteran merchant who was deciding whether to buy me out or not.

  I snapped out of my daze and began looking for the old man to pop out. As I was about to say something aloud, the cat started glowing in a golden white light that spread over its entire body.

  Interrupted, I just kept my mouth shut and waited for the surprises to end. For some reason, I felt like no matter what I did at this point, I couldn’t stop whatever was about to happen. It was an instinctual reaction that for some reason I just couldn’t ignore.

  While the aura and demeanor of this cat was heavy and oppressive, I knew that it didn’t want to hurt me; otherwise I would’ve been dead already.

  The golden-white light began to change its shape and enlarge, changing from the form of a cat to that of a human.

  *Kiiiing*

  As if it was made of glass, the sparkling human-shaped glow shattered into fragments of light, revealing someone I couldn’t recognize.

  “Greetings. I go by Windsom,” The man sniffed deprecatingly.

  The man that had transformed from a cat spoke with an elegance that matched his appearance. On the top of his sculpted face was a bed of short platinum blond hair that was neatly swept to the side. His deep-set eyes, that had not changed from when he was a cat, almost seemed to touch his permanently furrowed brows. There was a sense of nobility in his gaze as he continued to lock onto me.

  While neither burly nor muscular, his square shoulders, underneath a military-like uniform he somehow had conjured on after transforming, told me he was a warrior... a fighter like myself.

  His thin lips tight
ened as he let out another sigh of disapproval through his sharp nose. Peering down at Sylvie and I, he spoke again.

  “I felt this form would be more appropriate for our conversation,” the man announced matter-of-factly.

  I opened my mouth to say something but I held back. If he just disclosed he was Windsom, then what about the old man who stole my money? I thought was originally the owner of the elixir store was just my own incorrect assumption. Then who was the old man? Windsom’s attendant?

  Composing myself, I let Sylvie down and stood up.

  Dusting my clothes off I responded, “Before, we continue, I’d like to confirm a few things.”

  “…”

  Windsom tilted his head to the side, thrown off by my sudden sharp and incisive tone.

  “Since you lured me here for a reason and with Tessia as bait, is it safe to assume that she’s alright?” I asked, taking the glittering marble ball out from my dimension ring.

  After a slight pause, he replied, nodding, “Yes, your little elf princess is fine. I had already taken the precautionary measures before you made your way here. She should be recuperating to a certain extent with her grandfather back at the elf kingdom.”

  “That, on the other hand”—Windsom pointed at the marble in my hand— “is for you to keep.”

  It was my turn to be surprised at his unexpected reply.

  “For me?” I asked.

  “Yes. Do you know how hard it is to acquire an elixir pearl of that quality? Yet it went to waste on your little lover. In fact, it was too strong for her, which was why I had to waste another precious elixir to keep her body from...well, exploding.” He let out another deep breath as he regarded me with the arrogance of a noble discussing politics with an ignorant bumpkin.

  “Excuse me? Explode?” I sputtered, about to refute-

  While taking a couple of steps toward me, he interrupted, “Well, I suppose without it, she would’ve been dead by now so it wasn’t a complete waste. Still, don’t give that one away and take the time to absorb the elixir pearl with your bond. It’ll help with your training quite a bit.”

  Sylvie tilts her head in confusion while taking a look at the marble in my hand. Her shivering seemed to stop after Windsom controlled the pressure he was releasing.

  I shook my head at this. “Shouldn’t it be common courtesy to tell me exactly what is going on? Who or what exactly are you? Why did you bring me here?”

  “Patience really isn’t a strong suit of yours, now is it? Very well, if I were to introduce myself in a way that would be easy for you to comprehend it’d sound a little something like this; I come from the land of Asuras and am what you lesser races call ‘a deity’.” Windsom’s eyes remain unwavering as he said this.

  “Deities? The deities that supposedly blessed the three races with artifacts that basically allowed them to eventually use magic?”

  “Yes yes,” he nodded impatiently. “Keep in mind that what I’m about to tell you dates back centuries ago, with any form of records or accounts having been destroyed or possibly having never been written in the first place. It is in our best interest that we keep it this way.

  The extent of knowledge that you have lies in what the former elf king had told you. A deity blessing the three races with an artifact that eventually allowed future generations to learn what you now call ‘magic’. That was just the outcome of what had happened prior; something that no one on this land knows about,” Windsom continued narrating with his back ramrod straight, like he was lecturing a class.

  I stayed silent, letting him continue.

  “As you guys have recently discovered, there exists another continent in this world. The only two bodies of land that makes up the two ends of this world have always existed and have been protected and watched over by us. We Asuras are and have been governed by a doctrine, a noblesse oblige of sort if you put it simply, since the beginning of our existence. We are not to lay a hand on the lesser races inhabiting the land below, making sure only to act in times when either of the two continents fall out of balance,” he let out a sigh as he turned his back toward us. “That was until we found out that this sacred rule had been broken.”

  The look I had on my face must’ve given my thoughts away because Windsom replied, “I can imagine the multitude of questions you may have but the information that I’m sharing with you currently is only what you will need to know at this point. We have time, although not much of it, and telling you too much now will only distract you.”

  Not much time?

  It will only distract me?

  Him telling me this only flooded my mind with even more questions, but I just took a deep breath and signaled for him to carry on as Sylvie kept looking back and forth between the two of us in confusion.

  He gives a nod back and continues, saying, “Despite how you may refer to us as deities, we are far from gods… or rather, we’re far closer to you than you think. Much of the economy in Dicathen and Alacrya was originally mimicked after the systems of my land Epheotus, the land of Asuras.”

  Epheotus and Alacrya...

  “Of course, while Epheotus isn’t nearly as large as either of the surface continents, much of how the gears of society work is comparable. Epheotus was once divided into three factions that were made up of multiple clans in each of them. Boiling it down quite a bit, the ruling clan of each faction had their own nuance in ideals, which congregated the other clans to join either of the three factions. While ideals may have been different, every clan of Asuras still kept to the paramount creed that we were not to lay a hand against the lesser races. However, after Agrona, the successor of the Vritra Clan, came into power, things quickly changed.

  The name Vritra rang in my mind like thunder. Vritra wasn’t the name of the black horned demon but the name of its clan?

  “What was this Agrona like and what happened to the Vritra Clan?” I leaned forward in anticipation.

  I could tell Windsom had to pause for a bit to gather his thoughts. “The Vritra Clan had always been an anomaly. It’s simplest to imagine them as scientists of sorts. While their innate magic is unique and versatile, it was never as powerful as the other clans’ mana arts. However, coupled with their genius minds and insatiable curiosity, they were always one of the central clans.”

  “If they’d always been one of the stronger clans, how come things became so different once the Vritra Clan came into power?” I queried.

  “A clan being strong and a clan becoming a leader of a faction are two different things. Again, think of the Vritra Clan as scientists, as researchers. The clan had very little interest in anything other than gaining knowledge and insight on utilizing mana. Like ivory tower residents, they were secluded knowledge seekers that only pursued what they could not yet comprehend; the previous head of the clan was even more so fervent in his quest to overcome the impossible. However, Agrona… he was different. While charismatic and intelligent, he was arrogant and power hungry. He believed that the Asuras were never meant to watch over the lesser races but rather rule over them as their gods,” he clarified.

  Windsom’s face tensed as continued speaking. “After Agrona began leading the Vritra Clan, however, their strength abruptly increased unnaturally. No one could figure out how Agrona could advance the Vritra Clan’s mana power in such a short time. Eventually, through their rise in power, they were able to rally up more clans to share his ideals and the Vritra Clan soon led a faction on par with either of the other three factions.”

  “It was only later that we found out that Agrona and a few other of the Vritra Clan had secretly been making trips to the Continent of Alacrya. While it wasn’t forbidden for us to go down to Dicathen or Alacrya as long as we concealed ourselves, their movements and behaviors were eerily suspicious. After the other two factions found out about this, they sent out scouts to figure out what they were up to.” I could see Windsom’s knuckles whiten by how hard he was clenching his fists.

  “Agrona and the Vritra Clan had been inh
umanely torturing the lesser races by experimenting on their bodies to find different ways to enhance their own abilities...”

  Scenes from my past flashed in my mind at this. The different dungeons becoming corrupted, signs of traces of the black horned demons that kept appearing all clicked together at Windsom’s last statement.

  “Being brutally honest, this information was enlightening and all, but what does this have to do with me? Why tell me all of this? I can’t imagine what could make a deity or asura or whatever single me out to reveal something as important as this.”

  “You’re right, besides your own abilities, which is barely noteworthy by our standards, there really shouldn’t be a reason to tell you all of this. The only reason I do so is because of your ties to us,” he answered, pointing down.

  “Kyu?” I subconsciously stepped in front of Sylvie to protect her.

  “We’ve been searching for Lady Sylvia for years with no success, yet after finally finding traces of her mana, it led me to a little boy with her exact mana signature; what’s even more shocking is that, after watching over him, he held in his hands a deity. Arthur, you are currently bonded with the child of my master’s only daughter, the daughter of the highest level of power in the leading faction in Epheotus.”

  Chapter 84: Lineage

  The fact that all of this was somehow connected to Sylvia didn’t surprise me. If anything, it just confirmed everything that I had presumed until now.

  But…

  Lady Sylvia…

  The daughter of the highest position of power in a land of deities…

  Even with my status as a king in my previous life, a figure of such stature would be someone I could only kneel down in submission to.

  I felt a dry lump caught in my throat as I stared down at my bond. Of course, the possibility of Sylvie being the actual child of Sylvia was always there, but due to the circumstances of her being chased by the black horned demons… the Vritra clan, I could never confirm. The fact that Sylvie’s appearance looked vastly different from her mother also didn’t help.