“True,” Sylvie agreed. She got up, and stretched her human limbs before shooting me a glance. “So. What are we waiting for, then?”
I raised a brow. “What?”
“Please, Arthur. I could read your thoughts even without our link.” She rolled her eyes. “I know you’ve already decided to leave.”
Again, I found myself with an open mouth but with no words spilling out of them. Shaking my head, I gave my bond a smile and tousled her wheat-colored hair. “Then don’t say I didn’t warn you. We’re technically committing treason by disobeying orders and leaving during a battle.”
Sylvie’s body began glowing until her form shifted into that of a towering black dragon. “Meh. This isn’t the first time we’re committing treason, and it probably won’t be the last.”
“I raised you so well,” I chuckled, hopping onto my bond, my spirits lifted. I had lost a lot, but I still had those I dearly cherished.
We shot up into the sky, clearing the hills that stretched out from the Etistin Bay.
‘Did you want to stop by Etistin City before making our way to the castle?’ Sylvie asked.
There’s no point. Bairon isn’t the type to listen—especially to me—and the Castle severed all links to the other teleportation gates. The only way to get inside is by flying directly there, so we don’t have any time to lose.
I had almost expected General Varay to come after us, but after the first thirty minutes had passed, I knew we were in the clear. In the meantime, I nodded on and off, struggling to stay awake as the peaceful and quiet journey continued.
Scenes of my previous life began resurfacing like a vivid dream. Emotions that I had felt back then surfaced alongside the old memories.
I remembered the feelings of confusion I had towards Lady Vera when I heard her talking about the rigged matches to that man in the uniform. A part of me had been angry at her for not trusting that I’d be able to win the matches by my own strength.
Even as I had continued competing in the matches where my opponents withdrew immediately, I never confronted Lady Vera or asked any questions. Who was I to question my mentor’s decisions? She had practically given me a new life, training me to the extent where not only could I make up for my impaired ki center, I had the opportunity to become king.
While my pride had been hurt that Lady Vera hadn’t trusted in my abilities enough to let me fight squarely, I had accepted the hollow victories until the day of the final rounds. I, along with every other contestant that had won their state’s tournament, had traveled all the way to the capital of our country, Etharia, for the chance to become the next king.
There was no consistent schedule for when the King’s Crown competition would be held, though. It was purely at the discretion of the Council, who would come to a vote when they thought the current king wasn’t performing to their expectations. Some frequent reasons may be when the reigning king lost a Paragon Duel against another country, incurred a debilitating injury, of if he or she was simply getting too old.
Our current king had lost an arm from the last Paragon Duel, which incited the current King’s Crown competition. The victor would gain the opportunity to fight the current king, and if the challenger won, he or she would become the next king. If the king won, he would remain in his position until the winner of the next King’s Crown would challenge him. It was a vicious cycle that the Council would put a king through if they deemed him unfit.
Memories of Lady Vera and the group of trainers and doctors responsible for keeping me in top condition for the duration of this tournament flashed in my mind. I remembered all of us pushing through the crowds of spectators as everyone tried to make their way into the stadium. Once we had arrived at our assigned waiting area, I could feel the difference in atmosphere.
I vividly remembered the palpable tension in our waiting area as some contestants stretched or warmed up while others meditated their ki centers. The lingering pressure in the room had stemmed from the fact that, during the last stage of the King’s Crown, it was legal for contestants to deal lethal blows to their opponents.
All of the contestants, including myself, had known that they could die today. Lady Vera and the other trainers had done their best to keep me from thinking about that, keeping me focused through various exercises.
I still remembered all of the contestants I had fought against, both young and old, small and large, every fighter at the top of their class. Most importantly to me, none of them had been bribed by Lady Vera to forfeit the match.
I remembered trying to convince myself how great Lady Vera was. I had reasoned that she had purposely cleared the road of obstacles for me not because she didn’t trust in my abilities, but because she wanted me to be at my best for the final rounds.
If only I had known then, what that day would entail. I still thought to this day, what I would’ve done differently if I had gone back to the past on that very day, if I had known the truth about Lady Vera.
‘Arthur!’ Sylvie’s voice pierced through my head, snapping me awake, just moments before she jerked her body to dodge a giant arc of lightning. Another arc of lightning soon shot at us from below, piercing through the clouds.
By this time, both Sylvie and I knew who was responsible for this.
“Bairon!” I roared, amplifying my voice with mana as I jumped off of Sylvie. “What is the meaning of this?”
A figure rose from the layer of clouds below us, along with several soldiers mounted on giant armored birds.
“You disobey direct orders and run away from battle, then ask the meaning of what I’m doing?” Bairon boomed, his voice emanating mana as well. “While my orders remain verbal, I advise you to return to your post, Arthur.”
“Verbal?” It was Sylvie that replied, her husky voice laced with anger in her draconic form. “You fire spells capable of destroying buildings at a lance and an asura?”
There was a moment of hesitation before Bairon answered. “We are at war, and your human bond has chosen to take orders rather than give them. I’m merely enforcing my duty to my subordinates.”
“Enough!” I snapped. “You’ve received the updates from General Varay as well. The enemy forces that we’re engaged with at the bay are all prisoners of Alacrya. We need to reorganize our troops and scout for the enemy’s main force before—”
“Those decisions are up to me and the Council to make,” Bairon interrupted, drawing in closer with his soldiers surrounding him. “You were the one that forfeited the burden of responsibility.”
I gritted my teeth, frustrated more at myself than at Bairon for all of this. It was true that I was the one to run away. Even now, I would hesitate to take a position of leadership, but I couldn’t just stand by while I watched as we played right into Agrona’s hand.
“Please stand aside. Don’t waste your energy on this and let us go to the Castle. I’ll get Commander Virion’s approval as soon as I arrive if that’s what you want,” I said, calming myself. “Let’s go, Sylv.”
The mounted soldiers fanned out, preparing their spells as Bairon floated, aiming a lightning-clad hand directly at us.
“I assure you that this one won’t miss, General Arthur. This is the last warning to get back to your post.”
“What is with you and your brother always resorting to violence?” I spat out, annoyed.
With a rage-filled roar, Bairon charged, his entire body engulfed in lightning.
Bringing up Lucas might not have been the smartest choice, but it was too obvious that this show of power had less to do with me leaving my post, and more to do with proving he was superior to me.
Cladding myself in mana as well, I utilized the moisture from the clouds below and conjured an arsenal of ice lances.
Sylvie unleashed a beam of pure mana from her maw direc
tly at Bairon while I launched the ice-spears at the mounted soldiers.
The formation broke easily as Bairon’s soldiers swerved to avoid my spell. Bairon himself had to stop to defend against the wide cone of pure energy, giving us the brief window we were looking for.
Sylvie. Let’s go! I sent to my bond. I grabbed ahold of her leg as she flew past me and in a mere second, we flew past Bairon and his soldiers.
Just when I thought we would get away, Bairon launched his cape at us. It was a magic artifact, no doubt, because the cape soon dispersed into a large net composed of metal wires which he was able to control with his lightning.
Human form, now! I ordered.
My bond’s body shrunk to that of a little girl just as the net encompassed us.
Sylvie immediately formed a barrier of mana around us, but that gave the other soldiers enough time to regroup.
It was growing more and more frustrating trying to deal with them without actually hurting them.
‘Are we allowed to hurt them, yet?’ Sylvie asked impatiently while keeping the lightning net from closing in on us.
The mounted soldiers released their spells as well, and their combined power was enough to put cracks in my bond’s mana barrier.
I nodded. Just don’t kill them.
Sylvie responded by conjuring dozens of mana arrows outside of her barrier and launching them at the soldiers while I manipulated the clouds below us.
With a wave an arm, I withdrew Dawn’s Ballad and sliced through the lightning-charged metal net. With Bairon distracted by the mana arrows, his artifact didn’t stand a chance, and the two of us were free.
As Sylvie toyed with the soldiers by launching a never-ending assault of mana arrows at them, I conjured a little present for Bairon himself.
Fashioning a compressed sphere of wind in my hand, I combined it with fire and lightning, creating a swirling blue fireball the size of Sylvie in her dragon form that crackled with trails of electricity.
Bairon retracted his net and was already preparing to defend against my attack when an unusual glitter of light in the distance attracted my attention.
Everyone stopped what they were doing as we stared at the source of the red and black blaze miles away. We looked at one another in search of someone who knew what was going on, until a wave of shock and realization leaked onto me from my bond.
I turned to Sylvie to see her eyes wide in horror. She turned to me and spoke aloud for everyone to hear. “That’s… the Castle.”
Chapter 234: Remembrance
“Seth, report back to General Varay. She’ll be in charge of the battle,” Bairon ordered, gesturing the soldier away.
He turned to me and we locked gazes for a second before he nodded, saying to me, “The rest of us will head straight to the Castle.”
I nodded back and Sylvie transformed back into her dragon form before we immediately took off.
Taking deep breaths, I tried to remain level-headed. Trusting that Elder Hester, Elder Buhnd, and Virion were enough to deal with whoever had intruded.
Those black and red flames billowing in the distance were an ominous sign that it was what I had feared—either a retainer or even a scythe. I steered my mind clear of the ‘what ifs’ by thinking up of a strategy upon entering. I tried not to think about my mom and sister, as well as Tess, who were supposed to be safe there.
‘It’ll be okay,’ Sylvie conveyed to me, but even she couldn’t keep her worry from leaking onto me.
I didn’t respond, and instead, manipulated the wind around us, lessening the air resistance pulling Sylvie back. Whatever I needed to do to get us there even a second faster.
I continued manipulating the wind, cycling mana through my body as well, preparing for battle as soon as possible. Taking a peek back, I could see Bairon and the other mounted soldiers slowly trailing behind, but we didn’t slow down.
Please, everyone, be okay, I prayed, until the Castle was almost upon us.
The barrier protecting the flying fortress from the sky had been destroyed, allowing the raging winds to fan the dark flames.
Sylvie easily blasted a hole in the closed loading dock and we landed inside. Thankfully, the layer of mana I had enveloped myself in kept the harmful smoke from entering my lungs. Still, there was a thick blanket of black all throughout the loading dock.
“Let’s go,” I said to Sylvie, who had turned back to her human form.
Taking no chances, I ignited the dragon will inside me. Under Realmheart, my vision became monochrome, highlighting the ambient mana around me. With my enhanced vision and unparalleled mana acuity, it would be impossible for any enemies to sneak up on us even under the heavy smoke and fierce winds shrieking through the openings of the damaged castle.
We spread out about five yards apart, our teamwork seamless through our bond, as we searched collapsed rooms and dark hallways of the lower floors.
We inched through the fractured floors, sidestepping any debris that had been either dislodged from the walls or fallen from the ceiling.
Crashes echoed from above and even around us while the howling winds filling in the gaps of silence made it almost impossible to find any sign of live battle that we could assist in. The only thing we could do was search the premise carefully, taking it a step at a time.
‘Over here,’ my bond conveyed from an adjacent room.
Inside, I could see Sylvie on the ground, hunched over what seemed to be a person partly buried underneath a mountain of rubble. My chest immediately clenched and a wave of panic rose from my stomach until Sylvie reassured me that it wasn’t anyone we knew.
By the fine garment interwoven through thin layers of chain-mail on the corpse’s body, along with the wand just a few feet away, it was easy to deduce that this unfortunate victim was one of the few guards left here.
I rubbed the bridge of my nose, embarrassed and frustrated at how fragile I was, mentally. After taking a moment to compose myself, I inspected the corpse. Through Realmheart, I was able to tell that the fallen mage had died by fire.
With a flick of a wrist, I blew the rubble away to get a closer look at the corpse.
“What the…” I muttered, lifting his clothes.
‘What is it?’
I continued searching but couldn’t find anything. “There aren’t any burn marks.”
“He died from fire?” she said aloud, surprised.
Hearing another crash in the distance, I got up. “Come on, let’s keep moving.”
The two of us continued down the hall, scouring every room in the lower floors, searching for anyone that might still be alive. All we had found were corpses, all burned to death with no apparent wounds to show for it.
‘I don’t understand. Perhaps it’s a fire that burns from the inside?’ Sylvie suggested.
It doesn’t matter at this point. All we need to know is that our opponent uses a fire that doesn’t actually burn the victims physically, I sent back, lifting a fallen wall in search of anyone that I might know.
With the stairs nearly unusable from the destruction, the two of us climbed the levels of the Castle through the various holes in the ceilings. Even with my Realmheart Physique able to spot nearly anything that normal eyes would miss, we were tense. Every corpse we came across, my chest squeezed in angst until we were able to verify it wasn’t anyone we knew.
After searching for several floors, Sylvie and I came across signs of a large battle. Intricate spears of stone jutted from the floor and walls while earthen golems lay scattered on the ground like petrified knights.
‘This…’
Yeah, I know, I interrupted, signalling for her to keep close.
Because of the mana coalesced into the rock spears and conjured soldie
rs, it took a while to finally find the source responsible for all of this.
I knelt down in front of the elderly dwarf, trying to find a pulse when he suddenly coughed.
“Elder Buhnd!” I exclaimed. I fashioned the ground beneath him into a chair, sitting him up so he didn’t choke on his own blood.
I turned to my bond. “Sylv!”
“On it.” My bond hunched down, laying her hands on my mentor’s chest. A soft light emitted from her palms, absorbing through the dwarf’s clothes and skin.
After ten painstaking minutes of life aether being transmitted into Elder Buhnd, we finally got another reaction.
“Elder Buhnd—hey, come on, stay with me,” I roused, patting his cheek as the dwarf furrowed his brows.
“Arth…ur?” His eyes opened but shut back after a few seconds.
“Yes! It’s Arthur. What happened? Who did this to you?”
He let out a pained groan. “You gotta… get out of here, kid.”
“Don’t spout heroic crap like that, Buhnd!” I snapped impatiently. “Tell me the situation. I need to know what we’re going up against.”
Buhnd, tugged on my mantle, pulling me close. “Listen. The Castle, the Council—it’s finished. If you want to do something for Dicathen, you do so by staying alive.”
“Okay, okay. I’ll be careful, but to do that, I need to know what happened. Was it a retainer? A scythe? What sort of magic was used to put you in this state?”
Feeling the strength in Buhnd’s hand loosening, I turned to my bond. “Sylvie, what’s happening? Why isn’t he getting better?”
Sylvie’s arms trembled as beads of sweat dripped down from her face. “I-I don’t know, but I can’t keep this up.”
I took a step back, inspecting the injured dwarf. Like all of the other corpses we had passed, his body was riddled with motes of red. The wisps of purple that had been emitted into his body by Sylvie were currently combating whatever fire spell that was eating away at his life, but the aether wasn’t healing him. No, it was keeping the spell under control, but the fire spell looked like cancer cells, multiplying and spreading fast.
TBATE Volume 7 Page 31
