XENON BLACKWOOD
The halls appeared busier than usual. Even after the reassessment of individual schedules, the workload only went down by one or two percent. This was because of the increased appearance of gates.
For the past few years, this increase was on a rise. This is why the news that a single gate wasn't discovered a week ago came as a surprise.
"Morning sir,"
"Good day sir,"
"Please, my request for…"
The constant barrage of greetings was an annoyance. The smell of damp clothes irritated my nose. The mages around me were soaked in sweat from head to toe.
"Ugh," it seems a new washroom was needed. The combat wing had only two washrooms. These reeking goofs were a byproduct of it.
"Xenon!" A baritone male voice bellowed.
"Shit!"
Igniting my muscles, I ran between all the people present. "Agh!" These rag dolls were slowing me down. Knowing that guy, he'd have moved them aside by now. "Hey! I'm calling you!" He roared, his voice sounding closer than before. With no other option, I shot into the air, tunneling through the ceiling.
"Dumb ass chair—" as the earth now sealed beneath me, cut off anything he was saying. Looking around, it appeared I was in a storage room. Axes, swords, staffs, maces, mallets, the list went on. Lifting the sword from its place, I took a few swings while alternating my stance.
"Nope."
It was too heavy and poorly balanced, making me lean more to one side. Picking a long sword next, I swung it around. Normally, this wouldn't be much of a chore, but it seems my physical strength alone wouldn't suffice. I relaxed my muscles and let the veyth do the lifting.
Like magic, it became almost weightless. This much wasn't difficult. How else could people lift weapon and objects many times their size? Then again, most people can only influence the veyth around them and not within them.
Clang!
A loud metallic noise echoed through the room. It appeared to be, a stick? Upon closer inspection, the stick was actually a rapier. Rapier! The same weapon Zane uses. Using physical strength alone, the sword was almost weightless. From the brief moment I grabbed Zane's rapier, I could tell it was much heavier than this.
Despite this, the boy swung it around like nothing. Strength wise, he was comparable to the asshole chasing me earlier. His technique was clean and wasted little movement. It was difficult to believe a slum boy was capable of such. He must've received some form of formal education.
He claims he crafted his sword himself, which I find outrageous.
Bang!
"There you are!" Tina screamed as she kicked the door open. "You call for me yet you weren't in your office," she said, dusting her boot. "Sorry, that self-obsessed maniac was chasing me," I replied. Her face paled instantly, like a corpse flower in dry sand.
"I saw him on the way here. He said he was looking for you so…"
"So what?!"
"When I find him I'll tell you… that's what I told him,"
"Shit! You think he'll listen to that? He probably followed you here—" I paused as the the air shifted. "He's here," Tina whispered, running to me and pulling me into a hug.
"What the—"
"Shh."
In a blink, we appeared in a much larger storage room filled with weapons and artifacts of different kinds. It was a storage room in the artifacts wing. She somehow pulled us into this space… how? … "You can let go now," she said, her voice muffled as her face was pressed against my chest.
"Since when?" I asked stupefied. This was obviously beyond her ability of gravity manipulation. It appears she's been perfecting her craft behind closed doors.
"Now's not the time," she replied.
"Plus, didn't you call me for something?"
"Call you?"
"..."
"Ha Ha. Just kidding, loosen up a little. I want us to check out nameless," I finished.
Her face twisted into a mixture of feelings. One brow up, and her mouth ajar. Slowly, her lips came together till they met at the center. "It's about the boy, isn't it?" she asked rhetorically.
"Are you a mind reader per chance?" I teased.
"No… you're just a book."
"For fifty shils, what am I thinking now?"
"How I brought us here,"
"Shit!" I bellowed, reaching into my pocket and flicking her a hundred shil coin.
"I don't have change," I said feeling my pocket to confirm.
"Good," she replied walking towards the door.
Bitch! I know she can read minds… I just can't prove it yet. The door opened before her and we left the room, walking down an empty passage. This place is very different from the combat wing. It's the association headquarters after all. Each door knob we passed had this lustre and was smooth to the touch.
Whoever Jerry hired to get this place clean might just get a raise—
Columns suddenly emerged from the ground forming a cage that surrounded us.
"The hell?" Tina said, stretching out her hand and clenching her fist. The 'cell' caved in on itself till it was a chunk of rock. "Who's there?!" she demanded. Two men immediately sprung from the next turn in a daze.
"F …F …Forgive us!" they pleaded in unison falling to their knees. "W …W …We thought someone was breaking in so we—"
"Agh!" They screamed, falling back as I appeared before them in a flash.
"It's alright," I said, squatting to their level.
"Just be more intentional next time. If we were real criminals, what's a cell going to do? You guys should be more creative with your magic. If this was the second chron, you would be considered gods, seriously."
Leaving them behind we walked around for a while before reaching the reception. "Sir! Miss!" the receptionists said in unison. Looking around, the people here couldn't care less about us. The receptionist with dark blonde hair jittered, staring at them dumbfounded.
"Please forgive these imbeciles, they're new so—"
"It's okay," I interrupted.
"Quite the line of people," Tina said, looking at the people present.
"They're getting—"
"Their artifacts approved, I know," She added cutting off the receptionist. "It's a surprise seeing this many recruits already trying to acquire artifacts…"
"Leave them be, aren't we meant to be somewhere?" Tina said annoyed, flying out of the room. "Wait for me!" I yelled running after her. Taking to the sky, she flew in the direction of the nameless forest.
The hell? She prefers to fly rather than use a teleportation gate? She wasn't even looking back… huh. There were a few ways I could join her in the air. I could manipulate veyth by moving the fire veyth in a way it collided with the air veyth generating enough wind speed to fly. That'd be way too much for something as simple as flight though.
I could also form wings of fire and take into the air with those. But they'd need to be large enough to carry my weight and flap constantly. It'd look majestic, but I prefer something fast and cool. So my only option would be…
Converting all the air veyth around me to fire in an instant, I bombarded myself with these invisible particles. In a burst of flames, I laumched into the air at high speed. Catching up to Tina in an instant, I flicked a finger as I overtook her.
I hadn't gone much farther when the air suddenly became heavy, like a ten tonne therion hopped on my back.
"The hell?!" I roared. She responded with a middle finger as she overtook me. I can't let it end like this. The weight she dumped on me wouldn't normally be a problem, but the amount of focus needed for the constant movement of veyth was not letting me go faster.
"Wait!"
Am I dumb or do I just find the sharpest scissors to cut cake? Letting my vaelstrom take control, the veyth movement became automatic, letting me tank the hyperbolic gravity easily.
In a matter of moments, I was ahead of Tina, so she pumped up the pressure but I wasn't letting this be a one-sided conflict. Reaching out, my senses covered about a ten kilometer radius.
"How about I get it real hot!"
"Wait! Wait!"
Converting the air veyth around me instantly to fire, the temperature went on an upward spiral. The pressure on me was gone, she couldn't hold it anymore. The extreme temperatures caused a heat haze, going as far as the eyes could see. Knowing there were people below us, I limited the range of this large scale veyth harmonization.
"It's okay, I'm… I'm going to stop," Tina said, barely getting the words out of her mouth. Immediately I released my hold on the environment.
"Don't think I'm going easy on you. I stopped so the people below don't get affected too much," I said facing forward.
"Now, let's keep going."
***
After a long journey, we were finally in Gourd airspace. The people looked like ants from above, though some looked larger than others; They were giants. Gourd had the highest concentration of them, and the few elves that remained.
Most giants were on their continent, Gigas. The ones that remained here were either part human, or part elf. Ahead of us was Gourd academy; The most prestigious of them all. I never went there though, it was too much for me back then.
That aside, don't they have some flight rule or something? "You know they have a flight ban right?" Tina said, confirming my earlier suspicion.
"Let's go around," she added.
"No, I'm going through. Watch."
Feeling for the vaelstrom on my arms, I felt a lava pit boiling within me. Going deeper, I searched for something much more hidden. I always had trouble, doing this. Sub-categories are attainable at the valor stage. Few attain it before. I on the other hand wasn't gifted.
Even after passing valor, I still struggle with it. I always find a way to avoid using it, but today… I'm giving myself a challenge.
"Found it!" I exclaimed.
"Wha—"
Booom!
With an explosive thunderclap, I cleared Gourd academy and the remainder of the city . I was now in the nameless…
***
Tina finally arrived by my side after almost thirty minutes.
"The hell Xenon?! Why would you suddenly…" she paused in realisation.
This chunk of the forest was… was frozen solid. While descending, we looked around for signs of life. I couldn't feel any therions around here which was a crazy surprise.
"It's… void," Tina said perplexed.
That was one way to describe the sight before us. A few paces ahead of us, veyth was dead. Normally, veyth particles are in constant motion. Vibrating on a spot, moving around or both. The ones in the ice forest though, were still—unmoving.
Taking a step into the frozen terrain, we were greeted with a blast of freezing air. Tina hovered a few centimeters above the ground, unable to fly properly due to the static veyth. It reminded me of time control; an ability that could freeze moments in place.
Walking through the shivering cold forest we passed therions frozen in place.
"Veyth harmonization," Tina whispered looking around in awe.
Such was an understatement. Veyth harmonization was a temporary environmental condition, this was permanent. How was such a high level spell cast by… Zane. Clenching my pocket, I knew only the item within could answer this question
***
"Here," I said, looking back to Tina.
"What?"
"This is where they surfaced from. The realm gate, it was here," I finished.
"How—"
"The veyth here is slightly different, I'm sure you can't feel it," she flashed her palm in my face, annoyed.
"What now?" she asked.
The answer was in my pocket. Reaching in, I pulled out a clear container with a jade stone floating within. Tina stared at the item then at me in dismay.
"Sometimes I forget who you are," she said in a breath.
Her fear was warranted. The item I had in my hand was category four on the XK-artifact classification system—FLETCHER'S STONE. An object that absorbed a large amount of veyth to temporarily reverse time in a large area. The user's act as observers, unable to interact with the people or objects.
Channeling a specific sequence of veyth, I opened the clear case and the jade stone floated out. Putting it in my left hand, vines spread around my arm, squeezing it. It forcefully absorbed my veyth though our surroundings stayed the same.
After some time, people could be seen moving around the frozen wasteland with a white haired boy. As the time went backwards, the boy and the person he carried walked backwards into the realm gate.
Restricting the flow of veyth, time began moving forward again.
Before us was a massive gate. From size alone, it was at least rank two. People surrounded this gate, like they were waiting for someone. Their countenance was fearful and their expressions showed uncertainty.
"Now what?" Tina asked.
"We wait," I replied.
The mages appeared to be low-rank voidseekers. Each one seemed to take a random position around the gate. The forest still buzzed with life which was strange. A few moments from now, it was all going to freeze.
While I still thought of this a foot emerged from the gate…
In the next instant, everywhere was ice. Then the next foot, and all the veyth died.
It was… immediate. No conflict or clashes. Just two steps was all it took. The figure that emerged from the gate was neither boy nor man.
He was dressed in dark-blue silk attire. Each fibre cautiously woven perfectly to fit his figure. Glistening silver specs were scattered around it, creating the illusion of a starry night sky.
His platinum blond hair reached just beneath his shoulders, shimmering faintly as though soaked in Flaker's dust. His metallic silver eyes conveyed no feeling, like they had seen all there was in this world.
His skin was smooth and pale, as though his presence blocked all warmth from reaching him. In his arms was a brown-haired boy. It couldn't be Tristan because his hair was streaked with white while the boy's hair was all brown.
In his left hand was a silver rapier. In all manner like Zane's though the way he held it was different.
Zane held his like a trained swordsman. Though not versed in combat, accustomed to the way of the sword.
The entity before me though, carried the boy in his hands with utmost caution. His weapon holding no meaning besides decorating his otherwise empty left hand.
His facial features were sharp, and well thought out. Zane appeared… like something done in a hurry in comparison.
He blinked once, then…
He faced me. His eyes locked with mine, his gaze peering into the depths of my soul. Immediately, I cut off the veyth in my arm. The vines died and time sped-up till we were in the present again.
I hurriedly sealed the stone and fell to the ice cold floor while panting. I wasn't breathing all this while. Turning back, I faced Tina who was also on the floor.
No words were exchanged, but one thing was certain.
That person wasn't Zane.