28 – Captain Dynasty

“Current bearing 3315 and velocity is…” the woman at the helm said. “433.8c sir.”

“Compression factor is 45, decrease.” Dynasty said.

“Understood sir.” The woman said.

The Soaring Dragon’s engines roared mutely in the empty vastness of space. Ahead of them the nothingness of the dark and cold void between the stars, but space was not all there was. Dynasty, the ship’s captain, was holding a tight grip on the reality that surrounded the ship. Distances were compressed and relaxed, changed according to his will. Just as he instructed his navigator, the compression factor was about to decrease. With a slight frow in his brows he concentrated for a moment, and space was suddenly more.

“Compression is 44. Prepare to flip and burn.” He said.

“Understood.”

Right as the view in the front window changed and went from the field of blurry and impossibly bright stars, their light compressed by the warping of space, to an empty void, a woman entered the bridge. She was stunningly beautiful, with golden curls that fell over her toned body, crowning her deep amber scaled face and her fiery orange eyes.

“The report, sir.” She said.

“Thank you Equinox.” Dynasty said. “You can stay. Why don’t you tell me the mission?”

Equinox blushed, but her smile was mischievous and captivating. Dynasty’s eyes feasted on her body, her face, her fangs, and eventually their eyes met. The rest of the bridge crew pretended not to notice.

“Of course, sir.” Her voice was honey. “We are on our way to Prima Luce. I see that we have just flipped. Are we yet burning?”

“Yes, sir.” The woman at the helm was quick to respond.

“Good, as expected of a captain of your skill and power.” Equinox gushed. “We will arrive at the planet in 53 hours. Sir.”

Dynasty responded to the smile with a grin. “And?”

“You are invited to a gala by the planet’s Overseer, sir.” She paused, letting the emotions she could feel from him every time she said sir wash over her. She needed to push it. “I could come with you. The Overseer will be more than happy to provide us with the best suite.”

Dynasty smiled. But it was a grotesque smile, lascivious and predatory. Equinox inhaled, the nails of her left hand digging into her palm behind her back.

“There has been a last-minute addition.” She added. “The Guild received a ping from the GM stationed at Noctis. A realm has opened. You are the closest Dynasty.”

Dynasty inhaled. Equinox tensed.

“Fine,” he barked. “I will go. After the gala, and after I am satisfied with the…” he looked at her, and she did her best to meet his eyes and smile. “…sights of the city. Understand?”

“Of course,” she fought back her urge to reel away from his lust. “Sir.”

A wave of nausea hit her.

“Now go Equinox.” Dynasty said. “Make yourself beautiful for tonight.”

“Sir,” she cooed. “Why don’t we wait until the gala? The wait makes the lust even more powerful. And then… at the climax of it all…” she whispered in his ears.

Dynasty’s lips thinned into a line. Equinox wished she could just turn off her Psionic Empathy. She could smell the reek and sweat of this man on her skin, on her lips, on her body. Not once had they laid together still, and yet. She held her breath. A series of emotions came and went, and for a moment, a dark thought invaded Dynasty’s mind. Darker than usual. Equinox felt nauseous, but she knew that if she didn’t do something, she was as good as dead. She grabbed his hand and let him feel that she was not wearing anything under her skirt.

“Of course.” Dynasty said, overcome with lust. “It will be worth the wait.”

***

Melina watched with interest as Ishrin prepared himself for yet another ritual. He was holding a small booklet in his hands, and sat cross legged at the center of a perfect circle drawn with quartz and enriched with diamonds and pearls. Lisette had gone to the guild back in Noctis to deliver their report about what they found inside the realm they visited, and to turn the quest in and receive the rewards. Her secondary objective was finding any information regarding the commissioner who issued the quest in the first place, for something about the whole thing wasn’t sitting right with Melina, and Ishrin shared her concerns.

You are reading story Isekai of the Ultimate Ritualist at novel35.com

“Here’s the written report. Give it to the boy at the front desk.” Melina told her, still acting as the leader of the party but not without feeling like utter shit about it.

Lisette’s reaction didn’t help. She simply eyed the envelope in her hands: tt was sealed with wax, and it was addressed at Syrma directly, signed Melina T. Bartholomew.

“It’s just a normal report, nothing strange.” Ishrin said, seeing that Lisette was waiting for his approval. “It doesn’t say much, actually. It’s just a recounting of the events that happened in the realm, minus the… you know, professional secrets. We did withhold any sort of information about rituals and multiversal travel from it.”

Lisette nodded. “I do not understand the reason behind this report.”

“We need to warn the guild.” Melina said.

Lisette’s stare was penetrating. “The realm is destroyed, Melina.” She said.

“But old dangers are coming back to haunt this place.” Ishrin said. “Dangers once thought to have been put to rest forever. That’s not usually a good sign.”

“Will the new guild master act good on that information?” Melina said dramatically. “Probably not. But it wouldn’t sit well with me to just do nothing.”

“See?” Ishrin said. “She’s a good person. And this time it costs us nothing to do the right thing, so why not do it? Syrma knows we went in there, after all. And he also probably knows that the realm has collapsed. I can’t imagine such an event going undetected by a Tier 15 master.”

Lisette nodded. “Okay. I will go and return with the quest bounty.”

After she left, Ishrin returned to his ritual circle. He looked at the book in his hands for a long time, sighing and muttering something about having become the very thing he hated, before shaking his head. He inhaled, held his breath the suddenly his eyes shot open and he turned his head, closing the book.

“Why don’t you want me to go to town, Melina?” he asked.

Melina hummed in surprise, uttering the first word that came to mind. “Syrma.”

“I will have to go, sooner or later. I have stuff to do there.” Ishrin said.

“You know that if he sees you, he will drag you in for an extensive evaluation, right? He might revoke your S-tier token.”

“Yeah, I get it, but my S-token is nothing more than a paper weight if I can’t go near the guild!” Ishrin exhaled. “Well, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

He closed his eyes again and opened the book to a specific page that depicted something like a breathing pattern. He nodded.

“This won’t take long.” He said.

“What is it that you’re doing, exactly?” Melina asked. She couldn’t resist doing it.

“…cultivating.” Ishrin said.

Before Melina could say anything, he held up a finger and cut her off.

“Ah, don’t say it. I know, and I don’t want to hear it. I am very aware. However, this is not normal cultivation. No, no. I have devised a little hack that will turn cultivating from a grueling task into something manageable. See, if this goes as planned, I will have done in a couple of minutes what cultivators take months to do. That won’t even be cultivation anymore, the two can’t be compared!”

Melina shrugged. “Okay, forget I asked. You do you.”

Suddenly the air felt empty. It was as if someone had removed all oxygen from it, and even breathing was like breathing nothing at all. All smells were gone, all thickness and substance disappeared. It was thin, imperceptible. Melina gasped for air, heaving, and forcing her lungs to draw deep breaths that did nothing to make the sensation of drowning go away. It didn’t make any sense, she knew that at Tier 13 she should be able to survive a long time without breathing, then why was she feeling so weak? She kept gasping and struggling until eventually, slowly the world seemed to return to normal. The muffled sounds and smells reacquired their old color and taste, and she felt lightheaded, but fine.

To explain what happened to her later, Ishrin had to show her what he did. When he closed his eyes and finally activated the ritual circle he was sitting in, after much procrastination, all magic in a radius of ten kilometers was suddenly sucked into it. It was only supposed to be the magic in the air, but he had to admit that he overdid it a little, and especially close to the center of the zone the ritual had been a little too overzealous in its absorption. As such, in a ring of a few meters around him, all was dead. The grass was yellow and wilted, the trees were dry, and the very earth was lifeless and cracked. Melina too had been affected, but only her outer layer of magic had been stripped from her. Her magic protected her from any further damage, and in fact at her feet a ring of life 1.3 meters in radius was the only thing that survived, protected by her aura.

Ritual successful. Albadazur Singularity of Collection: all magic in a radius of 10km has been gathered inside the containment field.