At dusk, Triton overlooked the city from the castle's terrace.
But unlike the usual, he wasn't admiring the bustling scenery before him.
With the news he'd just recieved; it could only be so.
Earlier…
While going through paperwork like any other day, Bolton, the royal advisor, walked in with haste to deliver him an earful in hush tones.
His eyes widened.
"Where is he now?"
With quick hands, he adorned his robes. "Take him to the parlour, I'll be right with you"
Getting to the parlour, he sees his guest, and is stunned.
As the crown prince, he'd seen the Grandmasters of Niton many times, so they were easily recognizable.
There sat Raven, with his sunken gaze, wrapped in bandages, almost cocooned even.
Moreover, there seemed to be something wrong with his left arm.
He sat with drinks served in front of him.
Such an appearance was alarming.
What must've happened for a grandmaster to end up in such a state?
"Hello Triton"
"Hello, Mr. Raven"
If this was a lower rung person, they'd be disciplined heavily or killed depending on Titon's mood.
But in front of a Grandmaster, Triton dared not be arrogant.
"May I ask why you're in such bad shape?"
"All in due time" Deneris replied. "Your father sent me here to bear a message"
Triton got the message and covertly sent the guards away, leaving them and Bolton in the room.
Taking a sip of the served drinks, Raven kicked off the conversation. "The enemy was stronger than expected, I sustained these injuries when a grandmaster suicided himself when I was about to kill him"
His head dropped. "We lost Getrahan to another suiciding grandmaster as well"
Triton squeezed his fists. "Those damned demons!"
"Thankfully, with the Emperor's support, we triumphed in the end" he said with a smile. "The demon's have been extinguished, Quartez is now ours"
Triton was stunned, and then ecstatic.
"But then, where is his Majesty?" Bolton interrupted.
"That's why I'm here"
"After we cleared up the small forces-we found something" his voice subconsciously went lower. "A manite vein"
The atmosphere cooled as the two reeled in the implications of those words.
The manite vein found in Niton, even though depleted, helped at least ten thousand people advance to the next rank.
"How big is it?" Triton asked.
"It seemed to be in smaller quantities than the one in the mountains, but…" he paused.
"Its at least ten times purer"
Tension creeped in as both men began visibly sweating from excitement.
"But, there's a problem" his gaze turned stern.
"Currently, less than a quarter of the troops remain"
Triton inhaled, imagining the brutal battle that must've been fought.
The mercenaries and troops deployed alongside the Emperor crossed over two hundred thousand, alongside five Grandmasters.
"The Emperor fears that news of manite vein would soon reach the ears of others-
"And they'll come flocking like birds" Triton replied.
"Exactly" said Raven. "As such, he wants you to gather all forces at the Master rank and reinforce him in five days time"
They didn't bother questioning him, because the Emperor could've definitely said so.
As for the Emperor dying, that was even more inconceivable.
Moreover, none of the troops that went along with him had come to report anything.
They had no reason to doubt.
No, Bolton wasn't satisfied.
"But why didn't the Emperor give you a letter? That's how he normally send such messages"
Raven scratched his cheek in irritation, "He said I had no business staying on the battlefield any longer" clenching his fist.
"Besides, with the injuries I saw on him, he's probably recuperating right now"
"Did he say anything else?"
"Nothing of Relevance" Raven was still visibly irritated.
"Will you be accompanying us?"
"Why do you think I was sent here as a damn messenger?" His voice rose a bit.
'Right' Triton looked away.
Anyone could've sent as a messenger, yet Raven came.
Something had probably happened between him and the Emperor, and Triton was interested in finding out what.
"So no?" He still had to confirm.
"No"
So, he simply said "I understand"
"I'll be taking my leave now" Raven said with a muffled huff.
Without another word, he gets up and walks out, leaving the two to their thoughts.
—--------
Bolton had sprung to action since then, Triton came to the terrace to calm his racing heart.
Though, it seemed to do the opposite instead.
His heart beat faster as he imagined himself laying his hands on mana crystals.
A thought struck him.
'Does this mean father will be able to break the wall in front of him?'
The Emperor had stopped advancing after reaching the peak of Grandmaster rank.
With this, he might be able to surpass grandmaster rank.
Triton couldn't stop himself from smiling.
With his mind settled, Triton got to work.
Meanwhile…
Jebas looked around him.
"What are you doing?"
Frederick sat in front of him.
"You need to come with me"
"No thank you. I don't like the company of old men"
Frederick's vein shot out, before exhaling as he tossed him a glowing object.
Catching it with a snap, Jebas' eyes widened.
"This is…
"It's a mana stone"
"How did you-
"So you're interested in talking now?"
Jebas nodded.
With a finger snap from Frederick, Valentine opened a portal behind them.
"Let's go" he said, walking through the portal.
Within a little hesitation, he walks through.
He arrives at an unfamiliar castle, with Frederick awaiting him with his arms folded with Valentine arriving right after.
"Where are we?" Jebas inquires, now on guard.
"The royal academy"
..?
"Follow me"
Frederick heads up a spiral staircase with faster steps.
He opens a door to reveal an attic wider than Frederick's original cottage.
Entering, he finds Raven and Deneris seated at the side, bandaged all over.
"What the heck happened to you guys?" He asked.
"Get in" said Frederick, for Jebas held himself at the doors entrance.
Jebas takes a step back instead.
"That's right, aren't you all supposed to be at Quartez. Why are you here instead?"
"Take a seat and we'll answer all your questions" said Raven.
Jebas' gaze turned icy. "Are you planning to get rid of me?"
"No. On the contrary, we need as many people as can get to face what's coming"
"What's coming?"
The conversation was becoming more unsettling.
Frederick facepalmed. "Are you certain he's going to be of any help?"
"Yes, at least, we can't have him ruining the plan"
"Look" Frederick stared at him, their heads almost touching. "If we wanted to attack you, we already be doing that, so get seated"
Watching for any tricks, Jebas steps in.
Once in, Frederick shuts the door.
"What about that girl?" Jebas asks.
"She's gone off to do something else, so sit"
Once seated, he looked at all three, marvelling at Deneris and Raven specifically.
"What happened to you too and where's the Emperor?"
Raven took charge. "Attacked by a demon. Dead"
Jebas was visibly shaken. "What did you say?"
"The Emperor is dead" Frederick reiterated. "And if we don't act fast, we'll soon be following in his footsteps"
"Hold up. That makes no sense, that monster, dead?" It felt incomprehensible.
"He sacrificed himself to let us escape"
"Escape from what?"
"Calm down and let me explain"
Like such, over the course of an hour, they brought Jebas up to status.
At the end, he couldn't help but gulp in fear.
Afterwards, Frederick took the reins and reiterated the plan to them.
"By the way, Raven. How did it go?"
"They seemed convinced" he said.
"Good" Frederick nodded.
With that, the first big fish had been baited.
Ezra had originally proposed that Frederick should go and convince them.
But the situation would be too unusual, Frederick and the Emperor didn't have a good enough relationship to be sending messages through one another.
It would've been too suspicious.
With permission, Frederick got five mana stones from Ezra and used that to hasten their recovery.
The battle that happened in Quartez was unknown to Nitonians, and they were planning to keep it as such till the reinforcements arrived there.
If Jebas was left in the dark, he could easily scout it out and foil their plans, hence why I pulled him into it.
Besides, as a grandmaster, he was among the main strike units.
As they talked, each person had a mana stone in their palm which they absorbed mana from.
—--------
Frederick work was swift, and having engineered Black Jaws for more than a decade now, the structure had been built to allow automated functioning.
Without his input, Black sky would continue working.
Moreover, he only needed to pass off orders to get things done.
At this time, the order was to spread rumours about a manite vein discovered in Quartez.
And it was being carried out at a scary pace.
With their roots basically entrenched in Traxford-the city of commerce-the dissemination of information did rounds very quickly.
To keep things cool and coded, the information was only given to those identified to have roots in other nations.
Other nation spies from higher places, these were the ones specifically targeted.
It wasn't anything hard too, because most of these people were their clients one way or another.
Such hot news spread like wildfire and in no time, he reached the ears of various leaders, Kings and Emperors alike.
And no matter which of them heard it, the reaction was the same.
The news was too alarming.
A Great war was waged the last a manite vein was found.
During the time, despite fighting the combined might of half of the continent, Niton managed to retain its position and even grow almost a thousand new Master-rank combatants.
A startling number when taken into account just how many must've died.
With another one found so soon, would this nation not advance upon other nations and eventually rule them all?!
All leaders felt their seats heat up, they could not be idle.
The nations were so engrossed in a frenzy to gather combatants that it became a trend as they scrambled into positions.
It was unknown how long it would take them to get moving, but it wouldn't take up to eight days.
Like such, they were moving in the direction planned for them without knowing it.
Sure, more than one ruler would send scouts to Quartez, and sure enough, none would return.
Very few, if any, would sit out such news because of that, there were a thousand and one reasons why such occurred besides a Mythic-rank demon harvesting his soul.
—--------
While the world became more tumultuous, Ezra lay still on his bed, eyes closed.
His consciousness lay in a blank space.
This was the previous trial space where Ezra was tested.
As a legendary weapon made out of the parts of a demon, Skyfall allowed better control the stronger its master became.
At Grandmaster rank, Ezra discovered there were no more tests.
He could now access the blank space at will, to practice his technique, sharpen his mind on various topics, and perhaps meditate if he felt like it.
Right now, he was looking over his battle with Alvarach with a transparent sword shaped like Darkane in hand.
Primarily, he was reviewing the temporal burst of power that allowed him to cleave Alvarach in half, trying to get a hold of that feeling again.
Alas, swinging in his mind only allowed him better comprehension of the technique, he'd need to practice physically to actually improve.
With a sigh, he dissolved the mind space, his consciousness diverted back to his body.
With his eyes still closed, Ezra got in tune with his body.
Watching how Zydrax was shaping it.
'How is it going?'
[Stop asking me that and observe]
The first few times Ezra asked this question, Zydrax replied.
After the twelfth time though, this answer was all he'd been getting.
From the first few answers, he knew a few things.
One, using his 'essence'-whatever that was- Zydrax connected the mana stones from the ring into his body.
Allowing mana to be infused directly.
With it, Zydrax healed the bones and was now configuring his internals to give him a power boost.
That was the gist of it.
Beyond that, Zydrax gave some details.
By constantly filtering out the demon blood from his bloodstream while in Arcadia, Ezra had tremendously weakened its power to corrupt and while breaking through to Grandmaster rank, his body had been substantially strengthened.
Even better, the exaggerated healing power from before was a result of about fifty percent of the remaining blood being integrated.
With Zydrax's help, the remaining fifty percent would be integrated.
Another thing was that his five element orbs had congealed and were now in his heart.
So he could better control them, changing elements without a hitch.
Zydrax's work was delicate, so Ezra wasn't allowed to move until completion.
So he hadn't been able to test his elemental abilities.
Alongside that, Zydrax complained about wasting his essence to save the Grandmasters, else it wouldn't take this long.
Like this, time flew by.
The bait had been set, all that remained was for the prey to get hooked.
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