Chapter 21: Chapter 24

Allan Florin POV

 

Looking through the recording of the last moments of the trial. You really can’t see what happened. I can clearly see Atsumi engaging that sentinel, but after that nothing but smoke. 

No one knew how that cryptid had ended up in there. Normally, this isn’t something beginner and intermediate realms could beat.

“She’s not only reckless, but a magnet for trouble,” I said aloud.

I relaxed into my seat, wondering what might have happened there. Atsumi was most likely alone with no help, so she most likely opened the seal. There was no way she could beat it otherwise. I allowed her to break the first and second ring when necessary, but locked the other six until she could handle the strain it put on her body. 

Still deep in thought, I got up from my chair and looked into the mirror, checking my attire. I had just come from a meeting to resolve some of the logistical issues caused by this trial. I remained in the meeting room after everyone had left, just contemplating the day’s events.

There are about three hundred slots available each year. After the trials, the school usually has between two hundred to two hundred and fifty successful participants. This has been the case every year, but this year only forty-seven students passed. This caused a big commotion within both the administration and failed participants. Where one side feared their department being cut and the other complaining about the unfairness of the trial.

I returned to my desk looking through documents that showed the cryptids that appeared. A hive mind of king slimes, red gorillas, breaker eagles and even wind shrouded wraiths, all are cryptids intermediate explorers would have trouble with, all of which showed varying degrees of intelligence. Atsumi was fortunate enough to have a decent team when she encountered the king slimes.

In the end, the academy hosted another trial, and allowed those who failed another try. As well as giving increased benefits to the forty-seven who passed.

I looked at the watch on my wrist. Today was a totally booked day, and I almost forgot about my next outing. I grabbed my jacket and left the academic meeting hall. 

I made my way down after exiting the room, admiring the many light artifacts that lit up my surroundings. My hurried footsteps taped loudly against the hardwood floors. 

I looked at my watch again as I reached the lift. “Six thirty, more than enough time.”

Realizing I’ve been waiting for longer than I liked, I look at the lift terminal once more only to be interrupted by a gruff voice 

“Allan, my boy, I thought you already left.” 

I turned to meet two merfolk men that approached from the stairway below. The first was a tall, burly man. He was almost six and a half feet tall and was a few skin tones darker than me. A cape draped over his large shoulders and attached to one end by an ornate badge of the Lemuria family insignia. His brown hair has combed into many dreadlocks. He glanced at me for a moment, then to the lift.

“Oh, did I forget to tell you? That lift is out of service for now. The antigravity stone needs to be replaced.”

“Oh principle Lemuria. Thanks for letting me know.”

The Lemuria Family is a noble family in Atlantis that has been the right hand of the royal Poseidónas- family for generations. 

Speaking of that family, the person standing next to him was a man I never expected to see at this administration hall. He sported short aquamarine hair, his dark blue eyes were like the endless abyss that existed below the ocean’s surface. The magical aura he exuded was second only to divinity itself. 

“Hey there, Xander, it’s been a while.”

His stern face quickly softens, and he lets out a wide grin before giving me one of his famous “bro hugs”. “Damn broccoli head, it’s been too long. Great to see again.”

“How are things?” he said, still grinning from ear to ear.

“All good man, been a busy few days though, with that whole domain fiasco.”

“Man, that sucks,” he said while scratching the back of his head.

“Whenever things quiet down, let’s go get some drinks. Maybe we can find a few cuties for you.”

He let out a chuckle and held out his hand for a high five. “You know I like the sound of that.”

Kall simply shook his head and turned around to walk away, “The same old skirt chasers the two of you.”

Xander then nudged my shoulder, a sly grin on his face as he called out to Kall. “You can come if you want.”

“Sorry I have better things to do,” Kall replied as he continued towards his office

“Speaking of which, I actually have a date, a gorgeous elven brunette. So I better run.

“Is that so? Good luck man, don’t mess this one up,” Xander replied.

“Don’t worry about it. I got this.”

I gave Xander a thumbs up, then turned towards the lift.

“Oh, that red-haired girl, you recommended her, correct? How has she been?”

I paused for a moment, thinking of how to answer. The question had taken me by surprise, as I never expected Xander to take an interest in matters at the school. Matter of fact, this guy never even sets foot in this place. He’s an extremely powerful warrior, but the complete opposite of a scholar.

“She’s doing okay, though still recovering from mental fatigue.”

“I see, quite a promising one, though this year there’s a lot of rare talent. So I’m quite excited to see how these sprouts turn out.”

“Same here.” 

We said our goodbyes, and I quickly made my way out. 

The fact that Xander Poseidónas, the grand general, is here of all places means that something big enough to gain the attention of the royal guard has happened at the academy. Was it related to the trial and the appearance of the sentinel? If that was the case, they could be monitoring Atsumi as well. I mean, why else would he have brought her up so randomly?

Realizing that I was probably just overthinking things, I exited the administration hall and curbed these torrents of thoughts. 

A cool nighttime breeze caressed my skin as I walked down the many steps. Trying my best not to agitate the fresh rainwater that flowed over them. I held my hands out to test for any falling droplets of water, and considered if I should return to grab an umbrella. 

It was then I felt another oppressive presence similar to Xander’s. I squinted my eyes to look ahead at two figures that walked up the stairs towards me. 

Another person I never expected to meet here. Long aquamarine hair flowed down to her buttocks. Partially visible behind her bangs, pristine silver eyes locked with mine, and the smile that soon followed was intoxicating enough to bring even the strongest men to their knees. The wind tugged on her cloak, giving me glimpses of her figure. Her retainer, who stood next to her, was glaring daggers at me. 

I’m sorry I can’t help it.

“Oh? If it isn’t little Allan.”

“Neri, this is a …… pleasant surprise.” I said as I stumbled backwards. “It’s rare to see you outside of the watchtower,” I said.

“Well, Xander asked to meet with him here, don’t know why, though. I am basically here in my free time, so I hope what he has to say is worth it.” 

Neri, the lightkeeper of Procyon’s watchtower, is here as well. Two of the three royal siblings are here for whatever reason. in

Now I’m really curious about what the hell is going on. I wouldn’t be surprised if the queen herself had showed up. 

“Anyway, I won’t keep you long. Enjoy the rest of your evening.” She said as she left.

After she disappeared into the hall, I made a detour into the front and then circled around the block to the back of the building. I needed to know what these three are here for.

A pulled out small pieces of paper, and my trusty mana conductive pen. 

 I hid in a large bush not too far away from the main building and started scribbling down some runes. 

My intention was to input one rune as the motherboard and leave three slots open for three others. One was to allow the papers to fly, one was to pick up and record sound waves, the other was to convert the sound into a frequency only I could pick up and transmit. I did the same on 5 other pieces and imbued them with my mana. Then folded the paper into tiny paper birds and then held onto them.

I jogged over to the building itself and attached another piece of paper onto it. This one being the main controller and the main router. I threw each of the paper birds towards the front entrance, which I guided towards the office Kall and the two siblings were in.

I then left the academy grounds, placing a rune every quarter mile, which allowed the signal to travel a long distance without weakening. I then sat on a bench about a mile away from the academy and created one last rune that would convert the information to sound and receive the signals. Imbuing the entire array with mana, I sat and waited.

Sound soon filtered out of the rune. The first voice I heard was Kall’s. I had hastily set up the runes so there was not only static but echoes as well.

“So what about the domain given to us? Was that requested by her majesty as well?”

“Yes, the domain was handpicked by my sister.” Xander’s voice echoed through the rune.

“Why, you may ask, she was simply trying to verify something.”

“Wait, you guys dragged me all the way here for something Ella did?” Neri said, clear irritation in her voice.

“Yes, she was supposed to meet us here, but got held up.” 

“You said she gave us that domain to verify something,” Kall said. “What exactly is she trying to verify?”

“One reason is she wanted to test the strength of the candidates, the other reason-”

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I heard a brief grunt, then the shifting of furniture, and then the shuffling of what I assumed was paper.

“Have a look at this.” 

A long silence enveloped the room. For a moment, I thought the artifact had stopped working and checked my connection with the array to make sure.

“Xander, are you sure about this?”

“Yes, I’ve already identified three likely spies.”

“This has to be a coincidence, right?” Kall replied.

“Maybe, but their actions are too specific to be a coincidence. For now, keep an eye out for those cultists. I will tighten security on both the capital and the other islands. As for the Nephilim knowing them, they will probably pay us a visit soon.”

“Have we verified the identities of the two souls?”

“No, but judging by the search patterns of the cultist, they seem to be most active on the eastern continent, Sagittaria, and on this very continent Perseus, with the most recent cases being a raid on a very large hideout in Surimitra and a gate breach at a remote temple in Haakuni.”

Two souls? Cultist? A gate breach in Haakuni? The Nephilim.

Those scum were aware of Atsumi’s existence, but it seems they don’t know her identity. Even if they seemed to have a way to figure out the location. If that is true, there may be another person similar to Atsumi on the Sagittarian continent. 

Just saying this sounded wrong, two Celestial fate souls existing within the same era. Not a single one had been born throughout our ten-thousand-year long history. Some even thought it was a myth or something that only existed in the lost ages. Now two of them have appeared.

I could see why that cultist group had become active again. They call themselves Children of the Crimson Dawn, a radical cultist group that believe in an unknown outer god. They suddenly appeared nine hundred years ago and have been wreaking havoc ever since. 

“That’s not all.” Xander said, 

“The elder god Sol has awakened and has chosen a mortal Aspect.”

……..

I sat on the lonely bench beneath the streetlight. If Neptune had alerted Thyella of Sol, then the other nations definitely know about this as well. 

“When he in all his bountiful light descends from the clouds above, to share his wisdom and endless delights, he does not come without reason, but to guide us in our age of great prosperity or great calamity.”

A passage taken from the scriptures of the ancient Solari. One of three elder gods, Sol, is the most powerful and usually never interacts with us. He has appeared a few times after the lost ages when we, the netizens of Gaia and Theia, reached a turning point in our evolution. But never has he chosen a vessel. The passage read from Solari's text was not a prophecy, but a guide. They were obvious in their choice of wording.

If Sol had just done like he always done throughout history and created an avatar of earth and water, I wouldn’t have cared, but this time he sought it necessary to choose a vessel.

So many things are happening at once, Gaia is about to go through a lot of changes. 

Shino thought that this period of peace would allow Atsumi to experience this world if she at least didn’t stick out. 

“Maybe I should tell Thyella,” I whispered.

I knew Thyella the least out of the three. She’s terrifyingly powerful, but usually very gentle and respects everyone regardless of race. She was even a big player in the abolishing slavery of the lower races.

It would be much better if she knew about Atsumi rather than the Nephilim or worse, the Children of Crimson Dawn. 

Looking at my watch again, I was now running late and decided it would be best to leave. I commanded all the paper birds to return and set all the paper runes to burn up. I could use these paper birds later. 

I waited for them while they each returned one by one, but after five minutes, only four had returned.

“Strange. Did it get caught in a tree or something? “

“Are you looking for this?” a feminine voice whispered into my ear and a hand appeared from over my shoulder.

“AAHHH…. Fuck.”

I fell to the ground as an overwhelming force washed over me and the cool metal of a blade staff rested against the skin of my neck. 

It was Neri. Her usually bright smile was nowhere to be seen. Her silver eyes had changed to a light purple as celestial mana flowed through it. A blessing in the shape of a cloud shone above her right eyebrow.

“You know it’s a crime to spy on the royal family, right? I could kill you right here if I really wanted.” 

Even though she spoke in a soft tone, it was still enough to make my blood run cold. 

“Answer me now and don’t bother lying. Did someone send you here?”

“No, I did it on my accord.”

“What is your reason for spying?”

“I was just curious. I swear I have no ill intentions.”

“So you have no affiliations with any outside groups‌?”

“No.”

“I see.”

The oppressive mana that held me down quickly faded, and her eyes soon returned to their silver color. Still gasping for air, I struggled to get back onto my feet. She reached out her hand and I instinctively held onto it.

“Damn Neri, at least warn me first.”

“Sorry about that. I hope I didn’t frighten you too much.”

She gestured for me to sit on the bench and stood next to me, making sure I was alright.

“I’ve known you for most of my life. You really think I would betray you guys?”

“I know, but I must treat all potential threats with the same level of urgency. I hope you can understand.”

“Yeah, I understand.”

“I can have the guards escort you home if you-”

“Don’t worry, I’m fine.”

“If you say so.”

She reluctantly left the bench and walked toward the Administration hall.

“If you can, keep an eye out as well. If you notice any suspicious activity anywhere on the island, report it to us. Also, please don’t go around discussing this with anyone.”

“Alright, understood.”

“Thank you. I’ll be heading back now.”

With a flash of light, she was now gone; the rustling leaves now my only companion.

I half expected to get caught, but her reaction caught me off guard. Even after being friends for so long, I often forgot that these two have reached the Empyrean realm. 

One last time, I looked at my wristwatch. Going out was the last thing I wanted to do after all that happened, but it just didn’t feel right to cancel. 

In the end, my date was a no show, which was actually a big relief.

On my way back home, I glanced over at the horizon as I climbed a small hill. Flashes of lightning revealed distant storm clouds. I sat on the soft, damp grass and enjoyed the spectacle. 

“A great age of prosperity……. or calamity.” 

My thoughts were still in disarray. I Knew things were going to change soon and didn’t know what I should do. 

“Maybe I should start training again.”

 

 

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