Chapter 135: Chapter 206 – The Devious Path

Before heading outside of the town to help the guards and everyone else clean the battlefield up as much as possible, Asterios decided to pay a visit to the Adventurer’s Guild. He and the girls followed Suanori while stopping now and then to exchange a word or two with the townsfolk. People wanted to thank them for their work and protection of Glimmervale.

Soon, they reached the guild’s building and walked into the main hall, filled with the same adventurers they had seen before the battle. Ellie, Truvi, and a few other receptionists were already working on distributing rewards for the emergency quest while the adventurers were starting to celebrate.

The entire lobby went silent after someone noticed their arrival and shushed everyone down. Thankfully, Asterios had slowly been getting used to evoking such reactions, even more now that he had become responsible for an entire town. The people gathered in the spacious chamber started clapping respectfully and made some space for them to walk toward the stairs leading up.

Miria beamed at everyone while Selene waved at them with a ladylike smile. Many adventurers complimented their fights, making the more timid girls blush a little bit. It was true that they had put up an incredible show though, and all that praise was well-earned. Perhaps Asterios would get a few more pats on the back if only someone else than just Silvia had seen his part of the battle. But, his initial attack had earned him quite some recognition too.

After reaching Suanori’s office, they met up with the Spellsong family and the trio belonging to the queen’s delegation. The guildmaster closed the door after them and invited everyone to sit down around a sizable coffee table, bringing out a bottle of wine from one of the glass cabinets. Asterios led Miria, Selene, Tina, Grea, Silvia, and Bryn to one sofa and settled down amongst them while the others spread around the other pieces of furniture.

“Did everything go according to the plan down there after I lured the monster away?” he began as Suanori filled everyone’s glasses.

Fievedem nodded at him alongside her escorts. “We had to remove some debris blocking our path but your companions dealt with it very fast. As we expected, the summoning circle was more or less intact. Since all that energy was going even more haywire, it took us a moment to finish, but we somehow managed to disable the array without making it worse. Your demon friend’s assistance proved to be invaluable there.”

Grea scoffed to the side. “I’m not his friend. I’m his fuck—”

“Mate,” Asterios interrupted her with a glare and she shrugged with an innocent smile.

“Mate,” Fievedem slowly repeated as if she was pondering over the word. “And that brings us to a question I have. What exactly… have we witnessed back then?”

He sighed lightly. “Well, to be frank, I’m a True Dragon.”

“Impossible…” One of the elf men gasped as the entire group’s eyes widened to the brim

“Is it really?” Suanori asked. “You have seen his features and even his Dragon’s Breath with your own eyes.”

“Unfortunately, or fortunately, I don’t seem to be able to go full Dragon yet,” Asterios continued. “Don’t ask me anything about Dragons. I know as much about them as you do. It wasn’t long ago when I discovered that I might be one.”

“We hope that you won’t spread this information openly just as you promised,” Tina added with a serious expression. “There is no need for the public to know, at least until we grow stronger to protect him from any possible threats coming with his lineage and Asterios takes full control of his draconic powers.”

He smiled warmly and rubbed Tina’s side, meeting her gaze. She reciprocated his actions with a caring smile too and leaned more into his shoulder. Suddenly, every person bonded to him was sending Asterios the same intent as Tina had, letting him know that they would keep him safe just as much as he would them.

“You don’t have to worry,” Fievedem interrupted their little moment. “We will not break our word. The oath won’t let us do so.”

“I appreciate that.” He nodded politely. “Now, did we learn anything about the formation or its creators?”

Grea grinned at him from the side. “You bet your ass we did! It was actually a quite smart and innovative array, although designed to leech off contaminated spiritual energy to some extent. In the end, that’s what was the cause of its inevitable failure, and the doom of its designers. Fievie can tell you more about them.”

The elf woman squinted her eyes at the frivolous demon lady and refocused on Asterios. “What she said is correct. A segment of the array was meant to use corrupted mana to enhance the summoned creatures with the power of the Void.”

She brought out three books, including the grimoire John had used, and set them down on the table. Opening all of them at various pages showcasing some parts of different magical arrays, she showed the sketches to Asterios while moving her finger over the paper.

“Unfortunately, while those people were somewhat knowledgeable about Summoning Magic, they completely underestimated the Void. The array wasn’t prepared for its characteristics enough. They only integrated a part of the two responsible for generating, gathering, and channeling the contaminated spiritual energy. I’m not an expert on it either so I can’t go into more details here.”

“What about the identities of those elves? Or their goal?” Silvia asked, a little tense.

Fievedem showed a slightly wry smile. “I can assure you that neither the queen nor anyone of power from the Elf Kingdom was involved in this stunt. We aren’t sure about the exact identities of the culprits, but we found some basic evidence amongst the volumes that points towards a rogue organization that we haven’t heard of yet. Their goal might have been the destabilization of the relations between our two nations, and ultimately, war. At least according to what we have found out so far.”

“I see. It’s possible that they abandoned this idea after the group near Glimmervale failed since I don’t think there were any similar reports from anywhere else. But still, it’s not like Glimmervale notified us about these attacks either,” Silvia pondered out loud.

“I think Void-enhanced beasts would be eye-catching and dangerous enough to warrant a report,” Asterios said, resting a hand on her thigh. “This tactic might have been too risky for them.”

“Possibly,” Fievedem interjected. “But that doesn’t exactly mean they ceased their activities completely. I can promise you to bring this information right to the queen so that we can take proper action against them. We won’t leave this be, not after they threatened not just us but even our neighbors.”

The princess made a respectful bow toward the elves. “I appreciate this greatly. I’ll relay your words to my father. If your queen will require any assistance, let us know immediately. This case concerns us as much as you and we will do whatever we can to help.”

“Naturally.” The elf Summoner mirrored her motion. “No matter their actual goal, if they think they can create tension between our people or rulers, we will show them how much closer their actions can bring us together.”

“So, the formation is now fully deactivated, right?” Asterios asked.

Fievedem nodded. “Yes. It’s now completely safe. You may freely examine it without any risks if you wish to do so. We will first return to report to the queen and she will most likely send us or another team to investigate the array and the cavern further. We should prioritize bringing these encrypted texts to her and our experts. They are currently our best lead on these people.”

“Great. I’ll have Venuzathor keep an eye on its surroundings in the meanwhile,” he replied. “I guess we should try and cover the gaping chasm too. It’s quite noticeable right now.”

“I’ll help with that if you would like,” Suanori suggested. “I’m pretty decent with Nature Magic as you know.”

“That would be nice.” Asterios smiled at her. “Let’s take care of it soon. There’s a lot of things to clean up after the battle.”

Exchanging a few more words about Ast’s fight and the small war in general, they confirmed that the elf trio would stay in the town for a few days, and Asterios left with his girls and Suanori to join the people working around the town. Imadil and Cynthia returned to their smithy, where they were leading the local blacksmiths and metalworkers in repairing the damaged weapons and armor without ruining their enchantments.

Miria took the guildmaster on her back while Asterios picked Silvia up into his arms and they headed for the giant crater. Arriving at their destination, he dove inside the vertical tunnel and examined it in detail, making sure that nothing worrisome remained anywhere in sight.

He spotted the magical formation on the bottom of the chasm and stopped next to it for a moment. Most of the ground near the array had been blown into bits, leaving a slightly raised plateau sitting in the middle of a small funnel. The patterns were even more roughed up but could still be identifiable. He was able to spot the places Fievedem and the others had altered to nullify the formation’s influence.

Returning to the surface, he watched how Suanori used her magic to cover the hole with vines. Multiple branches and thick ropes extended over the chasm, quickly growing thicker and thicker. After about ten minutes, there was no sign of the crater. They tested the durability of the created blanket and confirmed that it should do as long as someone wasn’t specifically looking for the pit and knew its general location.

After securing the place, they moved back to the edge of the town and joined the townsfolk in cleaning up the corpses of hundreds of monsters and various creatures. Since it would be a huge waste to just burn those away or dispose of them in another way, the people chose to gather the most valuable materials and ingredients from the kills. Various merchants and people knowledgeable in matching fields instructed the others while walking all around the battlefield.

The entire clean-up operation moved forward in a quite cheerful and friendly atmosphere. Ignoring the copious amounts of blood and gore, the people chatted happily while doing their job. Asterios was glad to be part of Glimmervale, even though he hadn’t been so sure about it in the past. The girls seemed to be having fun too, and even Silvia dirtied her hands with such filthy activity, working alongside them and other people. He chose to help the princess out and received a gentle smile of appreciation in response as they combined their forces in collecting numerous components.

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Most of the time, Miria bounced all around the battlefield, recounting how insane it had felt to run and stomp on little monsters with her giant, flaming paws while squashing them like tiny bugs. People laughed and cheered at her enthusiasm, letting her relish in their approval and admiration.

Selene’s feat hadn’t gone unnoticed either. People kept mentioning her impressive copy of the moon, which had shone even brighter than the original. Her powerful spiritual techniques had left many deep marks and trenches in the ground, scarring the battlefield greatly. Only Silvia had been able to rival the fox lady in her destructiveness that night.

After a few hours of heavy labor, Asterios gathered all the girls and convinced them to take a short break. It was very noticeable that his mates grew tired much slower than the other women, being able to go on for much longer, but he didn’t want to exclude anyone, taking a short rest with only half of the team. 

Grea led them to a nearby diner and they took a few orders to refill their lost energy with something tasty. They talked amongst themselves while eating, with the topics of their discussion still revolving around the battle and Silvia especially. Miria loved to listen about her and Ast’s joint fight, commenting on how smart it was for them to fly and attack together.

But, they could only talk about so many things before getting to the point where it was a bit hard to come up with another topic. Thus, Silvia suggested that they could perhaps take a peek at John’s memories if they didn’t mind. She had grown very invested in the entire story since the moment they had discovered the contaminated formation and would love to find out more about it.

They all quickly jumped on that idea and Umbra connected them together, letting Asterios lead their watch party of the man’s memories. They obviously didn’t want to spend hours revisiting every single moment of John’s life so they only checked bits of his childhood, learning that both of his parents had been extremely caring and affectionate. Even though they hadn’t been the wealthiest, he had never missed anything and always received whatever he needed or wanted. Perhaps that was the reason behind John’s quite spoiled and rude attitude.

That fact made the next part only so much harder to swallow.

After he had accidentally stumbled on his mother writing a note addressed to him, she decided to explain everything. John was confused at first, then furious about her hiding the truth from him. He cursed her a lot for not taking the chance to live with the lord and instead choosing to stay with some poor commoner. A big argument broke out between them but it didn’t look like it led to anything serious other than both sides getting angry at each other for the words they had said.

And perhaps that was where it all would have ended if not for John’s twisted nature.

Asterios and the others could literally feel and follow the man’s train of thought. Shortly after John’s argument with the woman, gears started turning in his head. A plan was formulated on how to fix the entire situation. But, there was one major obstacle on its path to success. One person who definitely wouldn’t cooperate, and even if she would, she was a thorn in his side anyway.

It was extremely painful to watch how John’s mother constantly apologized to her son for three days straight, hoping to mend her relationship with the only family member she had left. On the fourth day, he acted as if he finally had a change of heart and they sat down together in the kitchen after he prepared some tea for them.

The woman was overtaken with happiness and didn’t think even once about accepting the drink from him. Unfortunately for her, John had used a certain herb in its preparation, one that he knew well that she was heavily allergic to.

And, just like that, thirty minutes later, she started lacking breath while clutching her chest lightly. It didn’t take long for the man’s mother to lose consciousness and her life next, as no one came to her aid. The only comforting part about the entire ordeal was the fact that she hadn’t seemed to realize what was happening, dying without experiencing the grief of understanding that she had been poisoned by her most loved one.

Then, John’s awkward attempts at using his mother's death and the letter she had left him to seek refuge at the lord’s castle followed. Meanwhile, he was being an asshole to pretty much everyone else. He did catch the lord’s attention but that person clearly read through his devious nature and overbearing greed in a flash, deciding to further cut their ties after respecting his mother with a proper burial and even some further financial support for John.

That made John even more frustrated but an opportunity showed up in front of him not that long after. The lord passed away from natural causes. He started doing his best to appeal to the people of Glimmervale, but many also quickly realized what kind of person he actually was. His chances of becoming the next lord were almost non-existent.

By some mischievous stroke of luck, while wandering through the forest in an attempt to hunt an awe-inspiring game to prove himself, using an enchanted sword he had spent his entire family savings on, he stumbled on the entrance to the underground cavern. At first, he completely disregarded the formation and skeletal remains but something drew him back there.

John spent about two weeks going through the old texts, luckily finding the cipher early. As he understood more about that hidden chamber, another plan began forming in his head. Since he knew nothing about Summoning Magic, he wasn’t aware of the risks coming from him interfering with the array, as the books obviously didn’t mention such, not being aimed at someone so uneducated.

Somehow, he managed to add the directions and a simple order to the patterns, damaging them greatly in the process. It was a miracle nothing happened. As a result, the entire magical circle became highly unstable and began rapidly absorbing contaminated spiritual essence and energy from its surroundings.

The rest unfolded exactly as Asterios and the others knew it had. Even after their arrival, John continued to release the monsters, hoping that he could show everyone who the real hero was. But, it didn’t work out.

A few minutes of silence passed from the moment everyone came back to themselves after watching parts of John’s memories. The atmosphere was slightly gloomy but Grea quickly did her best to take everyone’s minds off the past they couldn’t change and her brazen, openly vulgar way of being gradually broke through everyone’s heavy moods. They felt a little better after recounting the man’s death and the torture he had suffered during Umbra’s scan.

Not wanting to mope around for too long, they hastily returned to the battlefield and took their minds off the story they had witnessed by working hard on salvaging the monsters and other creatures. They barely spoke amongst themselves this time, gathering the parts and ingredients mostly in silence and the occasional thanks they shared for helping each other.

They didn’t even realize when evening came. The sky began turning orange and slowly darkening. Most of the artificial plain had been cleared up, leaving just the damaged ground and countless tree stumps in sight. Not to mention bloodstains and such, of course. The people were starting to head back into the town and they joined the crowd.

Shortly after crossing the edge of the furthest buildings, they ran into a familiar figure. An energetic woman with brown hair tied up into a small braid lying on her shoulder launched herself at Asterios and he hugged his mom dearly.

“Finally, I found you.” She giggled adorably. “I feel like we’ve been missing each other since morning. I’m glad to see that you guys are all okay.”

“There is no need to worry, Miss Kindra.” Miria beamed at her from the side. “Master is super strong and did his best to protect us and everyone here. We made sure he was safe too, of course.”

“I know, I know. I saw part of the battle with my own eyes, especially the beginning.” She reciprocated the smile. “It’s just a mother’s thing. You just can’t stop worrying about your children, no matter how strong, dependable, and competent they are. One day, you will understand. I’m sure.”

The panthergirl blushed heavily while looking to the side and everyone chuckled softly. She wouldn’t ever admit that she could technically understand already, and had felt something similar during her vision back in the Demon Continent. Her tail began swishing much faster after she thought about having Ast’s kittens again, and the names they had given to them in that dream.

“We’ll have to speed up the construction of the walls,” Kindra continued. “After this show, I’m sure there will be no one to oppose any suggestions and proposals regarding the project. We need them badly.”

“I can rest easy knowing that you and Tina’s parents are on the case,” Asterios said with a warm smile. “Don’t push yourself too hard, alright? How are you doing right now?”

“I’m great.” She giggled happily. “Most of the shops are done and a few are near finished. We’ll also certainly profit heavily from all those monster materials. Some of the furs and hides are quite rare. There have been some unusual and uncommon creatures amongst the beasts. I’m coordinating the transport of those we have already gathered right now and also going around to secure some deals to purchase more. It’s a lot of talking.”

“I’m pretty sure that the majority of the spoils are going to the town’s warehouses so I think we could try and gain access to some of it with Asterios,” Tina suggested with a mischievous glint in her azure eyes.

Kindra smirked at her and hugged the blue-haired lady. “You are starting to sound like a real Hestizo, you know?”

The two women chuckled together and Ast’s mother stepped back.

“I have to go now. Not much longer before the celebration starts. No one will want to focus on boring business then.”

“So, you are not going to take advantage of all the drunk merchants and businesspeople?” Asterios raised a curious brow at her.

She placed a finger over her lips in a shushing motion and winked. Leaving a fleeting giggle behind herself, Kindra disappeared into the crowd. Asterios shook his head and shared a glance with his companions. They resumed their interrupted journey to the center of the town.

A big party awaited them once more. 

 

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