Chapter 42: Chapter 118 – Second Visit

“Ughhhh… My head…”

Asterios groaned, moving his hand to rub his forehead. It proved to be a little bit difficult and he soon realized that he was lying on the ground, chest down and face-first in irritating dust. That explained his slight trouble with breathing.

The recent events flashed in his mind and everything came back to him. His current position wasn’t unexpected. He remembered falling forward after the weird sensation and burst of power overwhelmed his body. 

Only one thing surprised him. The headache was normal after what he had gone through but the lack of physical pain after he had pushed himself over his limits, and even a few steps further with the last stunt, was slightly unexpected and disturbing.

After the migraine lessened a little, Asterios began raising himself up and opened his eyes.

“Ghhnnn… How long was I ou—”

He froze midway. An obsidian bedrock covered in dark grey dust entered his sight instead of the soft brown tiles that were laid over the arena he had fought in.

“So… I’m back here…” He realized where he was in a flash.

Asterios finished standing up and looked around. The familiar landscape spanned in front of his eyes, riddled with countless volcanoes of various sizes, both active and inactive. The colossal one was still present in what he had assumed last time was the center of this weird realm. Rivers of fiery lava still flowed between the ominous mountains.

He glanced down and rolled his eyes. “And, of course, I’m naked again…” Asterios brushed the dark powder off his chest while sighing. “Can’t I at least get some nice clothes when I’m thrown in here?”

Just as the last word left his mouth, crimson flames erupted from under his feet and enveloped his whole body in a flash, spooking Asterios greatly. He managed to take a single step back before they died down and revealed a complete set of gear covering his figure.

His feet were now comfortably resting in quite heavy-looking obsidian boots; his legs got wrapped in tough and sturdy black leather pants;  his chest was now covered by a black shirt with a dark crimson leather coat on top of it, with the front open. 

Just as in his own adventuring set, black fingerless leather gloves protected his hands. The magical circles he had inscribed in them were present, but he was sure these weren’t the same gloves. They looked way more ominous.

“That’s… a little bit edgy…” He smiled wryly at his new attire. “I really hope this isn’t the inner desire of my heart or something.”

Finished with examining the unexpected change, he started looking around again. In just a moment, he located the volcano he was looking for. The same volcano he had entered the last time. It looked to be even bigger than he remembered.

And, as he expected, it was now active, spitting out dark scarlet flames and bits of magma at irregular intervals. He could spot the edge of a crimson river behind it, running off somewhere into the center of this place.

“I’m fairly sure it’s now connected to the big one if I remember correctly. Walking around all those streams of lava to check that will take ages. Too bad Selene or Umbra isn’t here. Wish I had wing—NGHNNNNNN?!”

A sudden piercing pain assaulted his back and interrupted Asterios. He fell onto one knee while grabbing his sides. After five seconds of agony, the suffering ended and the aching receded. Something made a flapping sound behind him and kicked the ashes around Asterios off the ground, prompting him to quickly cover his mouth and close his eyes.

After waving the grey dust away while coughing, Asterios froze again. A pair of sinister-looking bat-like wings sprouted from his back. An onyx structure with spiky edges surrounded the dark crimson membranes. He could easily cover his whole body with them if he wanted. They flapped by his side slowly.

“Alriiiiiiiiiight… I better watch my words then…” He chuckled awkwardly while bringing the right wing closer to touch it.

It looked real. It felt real. And it seemed to be an actual part of his body since he could clearly feel the sensation of his fingers grazing over the warm and smooth membrane. It was extremely trippy.

“Well, I better not waste my time here. Maybe I will find some answers this time.”

Asterios expected to have trouble using his newly formed wings since he had no physical experience with such things, but the moment he crouched to prepare for takeoff, every single motion flowed naturally like it was his second nature and he bolted into the air with no issues.

Gaining enough altitude, he stopped. His wings flapped softly to hold him in place. He had no problems controlling them either with his will or subconsciously. Asterios marveled over them for a brief moment and turned his gaze to the obsidian ground riddled with volcanoes and rivers of lava.

“And I was right. My volcano is connected directly to the giant one. And it does seem to be the center of everything. If I’m not mistaken, some of the smaller ones were still active when I last came here. Now they are dead. Interesting. Mine still has no other trenches beside the long river flowing from the central one. I wonder what this means.”

Asterios flapped his wings and soared through the sky, scanning this mysterious landscape with his gaze. He recalled his vision getting much sharper during the duel and tried to direct his scorching hot mana into his eyes again.

It worked. He could now boast hawk-like sight with unimaginable precision.

In five minutes of flying, he noticed a few things. Firstly, not all volcanoes had thrones in them like in his own mountain. He couldn’t check the active ones because they kept fending him off with their eruptions, but he visited enough inactive ones to confirm that.

Secondly, amongst the inactive volcanoes, only the first in line from the colossal one had a guaranteed throne. Again, it was impossible to verify the flaming ones but all the dead hills in the first position in the chain always had them. Crumbled and destroyed, but still present. The second connection and further didn’t show any obvious rule as some had and some hadn’t.

There was not much else he could gather. He couldn’t enter the active ones and nothing happened when he strolled through the extinguished volcanoes. Asterios tried interacting with the collapsed thrones in various ways but there was no response.

So, he headed to the only place he felt like he could somehow influence—his own volcano. Even without looking its way he could sense a connection between him and the flaming mountain of pure obsidian with scarlet insides, lively spewing out intimidating crimson flames.

Another thing he noted. All active volcanoes burst out with fire in various shades of red. The closer their position on the chain of mountains leading towards the main one the stronger and more vibrant the color. 

He also assumed that those with thrones in them had a deeper hue than those without. But, in the end, not a single hill in his sight strayed off the reddish palette. And his own volcano boasted one of the most prominent dark scarlet shades in this weird realm, comparable only to a few other ones, and of course, unable to compete with the colossus in the middle.

Asterios finally reached his destination and hung in the air above the opening. Exactly the same as with the other active volcanoes, he couldn’t see the throne inside, covered in liquid lava, but he knew it was there.

He didn’t feel an aggressive aura and uncomfortable heat that the other peaks emitted. This one was calming and pleasant. It lured him in. Invited into its pool like it wasn’t filled with a bone-melting soup of death but comfortable hot-spring water.

In the end, Asterios decided against diving into the scarlet fluid since that had been the trigger behind his escape the last time and flew towards the actual entrance. He dropped onto the ground in front of the huge obsidian maw shaped after some oppressive monster or a beast with sharp teeth.

Seeing it again after everything that had happened since his last visit prompted him to start believing more in a certain possibility of what entity this cavern resembled. It had always been hard to accept due to his knowledge about beasts and monsters, but he wasn’t blind to all the signs.

For some time already, he had been deeply considering his connection with Phoenixes due to the effect his bloodline had on his abilities, like reshaping one of his formations he had placed on Miria’s back into one resembling exactly that entity and causing her to burst in flames. All the other fire-related things matched too.

He had first assumed that he had gotten his slitted eyes after Kaguya since they showed up during something similar to her Awakening if she truly was his mother, but the shape of this entrance, the stylization of his wings, and some other minor details they had come across in the past began bringing forth another possibility which had always been there but was pushed aside by the other ones. Miria would surely love to hear it.

Asterios shook his head and walked inside. He could think about those things back in his realm. For now, he had to focus on gathering as much information from this opportunity as he could. He still didn’t know if he would be able to start coming here out of his own will at some point.

Just traversing through the natural cavern was a mysterious thing. How did the lava not flood this system when its level was clearly higher? His question was soon answered after he reached the other end and stopped in front of an exit that had previously led to the platform with the throne.

An invisible barrier kept the scarlet liquid at bay. It was such an unbelievable sight.

Asterios picked up a rock and threw it at the solid-looking liquid. To his surprise, it went through and dove into the lava with a quiet plop, splashing a bit of it onto the ground. It looked like a wall of force held back the contents of this volcano.

“It didn’t work with the other ones, but…” He walked closer and waved his hand. “Split!”

The lava parted immediately, withdrawing to the sides like a curtain. Asterios watched how it revealed the chamber inside, uncovering only the space over the platform and the paths leading to it. The invisible force pushed the crimson liquid aside and held it back, creating walls of moving slag.

He stepped inside while eyeing his surroundings. The entrance was sealed off shortly after he passed through it. Asterios tried to ignore the prospect of taking another bath in lava when all those nonexistent walls would collapse and arrived in front of the scarlet throne. It remained unchanged since his last visit.

“All will kneel before the true overlords…” he read the ominous script out loud. “I guess you don’t have any new hints for me, hm?”

Closely examining the fancy chair revealed nothing. Without any other options, Asterios folded his wings and sat down after returning to its front. The moment he was fully seated, the familiar sensation of going through his memories pushed through his brain. It stopped at the same point, causing him a short spike of pain.

But, shortly afterward, a pair of sharp giant crimson red eyes with vertical pupils flashed in his mind for a split second, followed by a deep and powerful chuckle. He knew those weren’t his. They were incomparably more overbearing.

Nothing else happened and Asterios sighed. “We need to get in touch with Grea’s father as soon as possible. Even if this is starting to get quite obvious, I would like an actual confirmation for once. I feel like coming here with it unlocked is the right thing.”

He tried standing up and nothing held him down this time. The lava didn’t suddenly crash into him from all sides either.

“Alright. How do I leave? Do I need to jump into the lava? Worth a try, I guess.”

Asterios crouched down and tensed his muscles, preparing his wings too. The moment he lunged forward, he realized what had happened the last time in the real world and his eyes widened to the brim. 

He did his best but didn’t manage to stop and his body plunged into the crimson liquid as he prayed in his mind for no one to be around him whenever he was in his realm. But, after a few short seconds, he realized that he was still there. Surrounded by extremely pleasant warmth but still there, nevertheless.

“I’m kind of glad but at the same time disappointed.” He glanced over his body, embraced tightly by the blazing water. “So, the exit? Hmmm…”

He swam through the lava for a few moments while pondering over his options. Recalling how a lot of things seemed to follow his wishes, he asked in his mind to leave this place, and soon after, felt a strong pull.

 

※ ※ ※

 

When Asterios opened his eyes again, orange canopies greeted him. Judging by the four wooden poles upholding them and the softness surrounding his body, he seemed to be in bed. A quick glance around confirmed that he was in fact lying on one, albeit the furnishing and overall style didn’t match the bedroom they had stayed the night at the last time.

His eyes landed on Selene, sitting by the bed on a chair. She smiled softly after their gazes met.

“Welcome back, my Lord.”

He smiled back at her and groaned. Contrary to the time when he had been inside that weird place, his body ached all over in the real world. He felt slight pain with every small movement. There was no doubt it was all aftereffects of the duel.

“Nghnn… I did go a little bit overboard, didn’t I?”

Hearing Selene chuckle quietly, he smiled at her wryly and tried to raise himself up. But, his attempt was interrupted at a very early stage. Unable to do so, he noticed something tightly latched onto his chest from the side. Sliding the covers down a bit revealed a certain panthergirl closely snuggled to his naked torso and sleeping peacefully. Fortunately, she did have clothes on.

“She stayed by your side without a single moment lost,” Selene said.

He brushed affectionately through Miria’s hair while smiling to himself. “I would have expected nothing less. How long—”

Before Asterios could finish his question, he spotted something else anchoring him down from the other side. A red-haired girl was sitting on a low stool by his bed and resting her head on her arms placed on the sheets, pinning them down. 

“Uhhh… Care to tell me what the princess is doing here?” he asked Selene, slightly confused.

You are reading story Rise of the Weakest Summoner at novel35.com

“Sleeping, of course.” She chuckled again.

“I can see this much.” Asterios rolled his eyes.

“She felt responsible for you collapsing and kept coming here to check on you from time to time. She too was tired after the spar and fell asleep on your bed during her last visit in the evening. The king said to leave her be.”

He sighed. “How much time has passed since then?”

“Around a day, I guess? It’s six in the morning currently, according to that clock over there.”

“Thank you.”

“It’s nothing, my Lord.” She smiled sweetly. “I’m glad you are fine. Everyone was worried when you weren’t waking up.”

“Sorry. Not much I could have done there. It felt only like a few hours at best in that place.”

Selene raised her brow. “That place?”

“The realm with volcanoes from the last time.”

“Ah. I see. That explains it now.” She nodded.

“Yeah. Fortunately, it doesn’t look like I exploded in a fire this time.”

“Ummmm… Actually…”

Asterios immediately broke out in cold sweat after hearing Selene’s uncertain tone. Countless images of maids and servants losing their lives in violent flames that originated from him flashed through his mind.

“Don’t worry, Master. You didn’t hurt anyone.”

His head snapped to the side and he met Miria’s gaze, who had woken up after sensing his distress. She pulled herself up and hugged Asterios tightly. He let her embrace him for as long as she wanted and they separated after a brief but loving kiss.

“Only we were by your side when that happened. The flames didn’t hurt us. They were… pleasant. But our room got scorched, unfortunately,” she explained.

He sighed in relief and pecked her forehead. With Miria’s help, he finally sat up. At that moment, the door to their room opened and the king walked inside.

“Your Majesty…”

“At ease.”

Asterios started lowering his head but Welrond stopped him.

“I sensed you waking up so I came by to check on you. And on my daughter.”

All that movement woke Silvia up and she raised herself while rubbing her eyes. After a few seconds, her absent-minded gaze cleared up and she sat straight, realizing her position.

“I’m sorry for not returning for the night, Father. And I apologize for falling asleep on your bed, Asterios.” She bowed her head with a dignified expression, tainted just a little by a faint blush on her cheeks.

Asterios smiled at her. “Don’t be. I should be the one apologizing for worrying all of you and even putting everyone around me in danger.”

“Looks like you already know,” the king said.

“Yes. I suspected it. It wasn’t the first time. The trigger was a little different that time though since I wasn’t unconscious then. I don’t really know what—… No, I do have a few ideas. It’s possible that this explosion happens when I unlock something related to my bloodline. Or just visit that weird place.”

“Weird place?” Welrond raised his brow.

After quickly discussing it with his companions mentally, Asterios decided to share some of his experiences with the king and his daughter since their bloodlines did seem to somehow relate to each other. Welrond and Silvia willingly suggested swearing an oath to keep it to themselves.

“That’s the first time I hear about something like that…” The king rubbed his chin. “And it doesn’t sound like your Soulscape. You would have perfect control of most things inside, then. But, it seems that this spar did help you learn something new so I’m glad.”

Asterios nodded. “Yes, it actually helped a lot. It pointed me towards a certain possibility regarding my ancestry. A lot of it was and still is very muddled, but the details are starting to slowly overlap.”

“I can’t believe Master grew wings! I’m so sad I couldn’t be there to see it,” Miria complained adorably. “Then, what do you think about this, Master?”

He smiled at her and scratched behind Miria’s ear. “I feel like you will love what I have in mind.” Her eyes sparkled with excitement and Asterios chuckled. “But, before that. Silvia, did our fight help you in any way?”

Ast’s words brought the princess out of her thoughts and she met his gaze. “Ummm… I feel like it was a great spar. No one could keep up with me at full power besides Father and it certainly was great to exchange moves with someone else. Your Aura Flame completely overpowered mine, and, in the end, you even blew my strongest attack like it was nothing.”

“So, it didn’t allow you to reach some new enlightenment and breakthrough, hmm…” He pondered. “As for what you call Aura Flame, I was actually cheating.”

“Eh? Cheating? How?” She tilted her head.

“When I went all out, I focused on different parts of my body. My eyes became sharper, my vision turned into grayscale, and I could see the flow of spiritual energy, both inside and outside of your body.”

Ast’s words shocked Silvia greatly while the king raised his brow curiously.

“I literally observed what you were doing and tried to imitate the flow of your mana. It was my first time coating my armblade in flames. Then, I could also see how you formed your spells.”

“Ah. That’s why it looked like you knew exactly what I was going to do,” Silvia mumbled in awe.

“Yes. And next, the stronger Aura Flame. As I told you earlier, my artifact sword kind of does it by itself. I tried to apply my own condensation over it and it worked, amplifying its power.”

“Impressive,” the king commented. “Even if you say it was your weapon, the fact that you were able to control Aura Flame after seeing it just once is praiseworthy.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty.” Asterios bowed his head. “As for the last part of our duel, the moment I saw that Lesser Dragon, something reacted in me, and overwhelming energy and emotions overcame me, urging me to do and say exactly what I did. It’s not something I can consciously do, so don’t feel like it was me who extinguished your spell. I personally wouldn’t say that.”

Silvia listened to his explanation attentively and nodded. “I see. But, I don’t think it matters if it was you or just your energy acting on its own or something. You have still bested my strongest technique. I was completely spent after casting that spell so you won fairly.”

Asterios smiled. “If I remember it correctly, it was me who slammed face-first into the ground, losing consciousness. So, no, you are the rightful winner of that duel, Princess.”

“Let’s just agree that it was a tie,” the king suggested. “Both of you were unable to continue. Yes, if it was a real fight, Silvia would most likely have recovered first and finished you off with her staff or a dagger, but this was a competition and not war.”

“I agree,” Selene said.

“Yeah,” Miria added too.

~If it was a real fight, she would have been dead the moment the three of us jumped in to save our master, with all due respect,~ Umbra spoke in everyone’s minds and Asterios smiled wryly.

“Anyway, I feel bad being the only one gaining actual benefits from this spar.” Asterios turned his gaze to Silvia, who met it curiously. “If you don’t mind, Silvia, I think I should be able to use my eyes to help you point out the areas that might be lacking or could use some improvement. I know a thing or two about spiritual energy and essence, and I believe this new sight of mine could be of use.”

Silvia’s eyes widened. “Really?”

Asterios nodded. “Of course. Maybe not instantly and every day, but I could always drop by from time to time. And it’s not like this is completely selfless. There’s always a chance that training with you will affect me too, considering how compatible our bloodlines seem to be, both revolving around fire.”

She showed a dazzling smile and bowed her head. “I would be delighted to practice with you more. I feel the same. It definitely would let both of us grow.”

Smiling too, he glanced at the king to check if the man was fine with it and shivered faintly after their gazes met. Welrond stared at Asterios with a slightly absent look, faint smile on his lips, and while rubbing his chin, clearly pondering over something.

「Crap… That might have been a huge mistake...」Asterios chuckled awkwardly.

“Ummm… Master…” Miria brought him back and he turned to her.

“Yes?”

“You mentioned Lesser Dragons… What are they?”

Asterios petted her adorable ears. “And that brings us to what I had to say. You see, the spell Silvia used resembled a Dragon with its form. But, as I assume, it didn’t feel like the Dragons you know of, right?”

Miria nodded. “I’ve never seen one resembling a serpent so much in the books I read.”

“Neither did I in the temple’s archives,” Selene added.

“Understandable. There are actually two types of Dragons that have lived in my realm and some other ones. What you saw is called a Lesser Dragon. They could be found mostly in the homeland of elves so other races rarely remember them. And they were much less aggressive than their cousins. That’s also why I was really surprised to see their depiction from a human mage.”

“That spell actually does come from elves,” Silvia added with a nod.

“Right. Besides those serpent-like creatures, there was one more type of Dragons. And I’m sure you know how they looked. Magnificent four-legged giants covered in incredible scales and with breath-taking wings sprouting from their backs. Some would say they resembled lizards, but you better avoid even thinking about such comparisons.”

Miria nodded energetically. “I see! And what was the name of their kind?”

“They were called… True Dragons.”

 

You can find story with these keywords: Rise of the Weakest Summoner, Read Rise of the Weakest Summoner, Rise of the Weakest Summoner novel, Rise of the Weakest Summoner book, Rise of the Weakest Summoner story, Rise of the Weakest Summoner full, Rise of the Weakest Summoner Latest Chapter