CHAPTER 76 - THE ACT I
I continued to walk, not towards the closest city from the dungeon. No.
There was no need for me to walk into the city with the lifeless body of a Lance, one of the strongest mages in here Dicathen. If wind were to be caught about Aya's death, an uproar would most certainly occur.
And without fail, the war would come right after that.
I kept pondering about things like these, whether it be Aya, Alea, Bairon, Varay, Olfred, or even Mica. If they were to die in Alea's place or Aya's place, how would things go? Would they stay the same, having Uto kill them? Or perhaps history would change, having another being, a Retainer or a Scythe kill a lance instead.
Too many things to think about and too little answers to even come up with.
No matter…
What matters right now is that Aya is taken to her home without any more wounds to care about. To her Family and friends that hold her dear.
I know that the Royals of the Elves would be infuriated and fearful towards whatever caused this to their most powerful mage.
I would too but that isn't my place to chime on.
I now had a war to participate in but I had other things to settle as well.
The walk was long and deserted with mana beasts ready to lunge towards me with the intent of killing. Yet, none of them dared to step forward. Not a single mana beast was brave enough to walk towards me with bloodshed in their eyes. They just all stayed back but still growled as I passed by.
The mana beast were intelligent enough to know when to attack and when not to. Luckily that instinct kicked in at the right moment. If they were to attack me now… no… they don't know better.
I continued to have these remembered times of when I was under Aya's and Alea's teachings, during my first dungeon raid, during my first control over the Sound deviant.
Now that same person that I was excited over my small little achievements is no longer with us… She said she was proud of what I had become… That I was the next Lance to take her place… To take care of everything while she was away…
My eyes strayed from the path in front of me to the elf's body that I carried, this was the least I could do for her, cold and lifeless.
Nevertheless, she was the sole person who truly understood my actions as a little kid, my determination as to why to get stronger.
I started to realize, more like I began to learn, that Aya's death reinforced to me the idea and how valuable the relationships that I have with my friends, my family are. I wasn't just some dude in college trying to escape reality, that everything I did to succeed and failed to do so was no longer something I was doing alone. I had people around me that treated me as their own.
I may not be the real son of Mia and James Hodges but I made a promise when I decided to not involve that family with whatever delusion I had. I made a promise to the real Luke. That if I had taken over his body, if he had died before and I took his spot, I would take care of them to the end of my days.
Now that things escalated to this point, I need to get stronger, I need some training, some insight of what I can improve on before even heading to war.
That strength I have now is enough to kill a low-ranked Retainer. I was just lucky to kill Scythe Dragoth. If it weren't for his angered actions and sluggish decisions, I would have died that day instead.
Before I knew it, I had reached the tree that Tess, Art, and I used to teleport to Elenoir. When I took out the specific item and placed it near the tree, it opened a gate.
When I stepped inside, I was greeted by the spurring colors of green. The houses in the giant 50 meter trees, and hundreds of elven people walking around happily living their life. I was jealous of them, they didn't know what was to come and I hoped to keep it like that for a while before everything breaks out.
I activated my Sound deviant and began to walk unnoticed towards the castle once more, but this time it wasn't for me but for my master.
***
When I had arrived at the Castle where Virion lived, I just released a bit of my mana to call him out.
Instantly, a group of soldiers leaped out with their weapons in their hands already pointed towards me. I could tell that these soldiers were the same ones that greeted Art and I when we brought back the princess.
"State your business! How did you, a human, get here?"
"Leave him boys, he's a guest here." A voice behind them said. His eyes weren't really on me but rather on the guards, his cool and nice demeanor was instantly covered with fear and confusion upon seeing who I was carrying. "Aya!"
"Luke, Tell me what happened, why can't I feel her–" His desperation was quickly turned off as he called for a healer immediately. "Healers! Call the Healers!"
Waiving his arms to the guards who stood there dumbfounded at the sight of a fallen Lance, went for the healers.
Virion got closer and noticed the calm reaction I had upon watching him. Through his eyes I was able to witness the sole emotion I had read about in the Novel, the same emotions that he let out earlier when he saw Aya in my arms, fear and despair.
"Who could have done this? To a Lance!" He questioned, conjuring a small light of mana above Aya's pale face.
I had cleaned the blood off her when I was on my way there but there was nothing else I could do to erase the battle scars left on her lifeless body.
The old elf instantly looked at me. "Why? Who? Where?"
Before I could answer his questions of grief, I witnessed the healers turn up and swarm me and my master who I had carried for hundreds of feet was taken from me. The sensation of Aya's hand still on my cheek didn't leave me, not in my walk, not now.
Perhaps I was unable to get this feeling off of me but I was scared.
Scared to erase something that she left behind, a memory that I will store for as long as I live.
But I knew that she didn't want that either, she wanted me to be her replacement when the time came. She wanted for me to be a Lance, someone that can protect the very same thing she tried to protect.
"Who was it…"
Virion gave me this look that I haven't seen in so long. He stepped back before looking around as if someone was watching us.
"Let us talk inside, outside is no condition to talk about sensitive matters, Luke. You are in no condition right now to listen to what I am about to say." He swung his arm, pointing to the castle where he had come out of and where they took Aya's body. "And please calm down, even though I am in the Mid-silver stage, I don't think I can keep being able to keep my eyes open for long."
My eyes which were narrowed all this time, not feeling like I wanted to release the certain grip I had on my mana and the Aether which understood my actions, I decided to clog my mana core and replenish on more mana.
What's more, I released the spell I had put on my head. And when I did, Virion's reaction was unreadable. There was a part of me that thought that maybe he knew what I was going through but my other half didn't want to understand that.
Instead, we both walked inside where the King and Queen of Elenoir stood with fear and grief. It would be a lie that the King wasn't fearful towards the being that wounded and killed the strongest mage he had at his disposal but the Queen was crying genuine tears of grief at the sight of Aya's dead corpse.
Then it hit me, they were going to betray Dicathen just to keep Tessia alive, I don't blame them but the deal was done with the wrong devil.
Snapping out of my thoughts, I noticed that their gazes landed on me. Perhaps right now I was in no shape to show myself to the King and Queen of the elves. My clothes had battle marks from killing the Queen Snarler, its alien blood stained the white and gray cloth coat I wore.
Nevertheless, I bowed to them. "I greet the King and Queen of Elenoir." My voice came out a little forced but it was the best I could do now.
The Queen, whose name I had forgotten, put her hand on my shoulder while her other hand held her mouth, not letting the tears flow down to her chin. "I-I am so sorry for your loss, Luke."
No words came out of my mouth, I only nodded, accepting her apologetic and sincere words that she barely mustered to convey with her sobbing. The King on the other hand layed his hand on my other shoulder but instead of saying what his wife said, he only asked the question that his father had asked me earlier.
"Who did this to Aya? To our Lance?"
It sounded more like a demand rather than a question.
Finally, both elves took their hands off my shoulder. Being capable of now standing straight, I answered with the only word I could perhaps convey without letting out too much of the dangerous information that I knew.
"I don't know."
All three elven beings turned to me with confused expressions.
"What do you mean you don't know?" King Alduin said, suspicious of my answer.
I let out a sigh before reaching into my dimension ring and pulling out the only thing I found that could lead to the killer. When the dark fragment appeared in my open palm, all three elders placed their eyes on the object with such uncertainty of what they looked at.
"This is what I found, something that Aya tried to hide from the perpetrator."
Alduin seeing that pure evidence of what I actually found behind Aya's corpse seemed to fall into a rage. "Ha? So you expect me to believe that a Mana Beast was able to kill a Lance?! A powerful white core mage? Are you delusional? Do you really think I will believe such a fantasy?!"
His emerald eyes widened as he continued. "Think Luke! Do you really believe such a thing? A LANCE LOSING TO A MANA BEAST!? You must know something, NO! You do know something but you aren't telling us the truth!"
"Your majesty if I may, I already knew that such a vague answer was going to enrage you. But being as it may be, I doubt that the answer I will give you may satisfy that question you have, that you may all have." My eyes went from one to another, narrowed and unyielding. "You might think that The Lances are the strongest beings here but you are mistaken. There's a bigger world out there and The Lances are nothing compared to what there is outside this continent. So I am sorry if I am being a little too unwilling to give the answers you are looking for but you are not prepared to know.
"I just lost someone who I spent the majority of my life training with, my master, a Lance, someone who is only one of the six strongest beings in the Continent of Dicathen. So don't tell me if I believe such bullshit. I know who did this and trust me, the rest of the Lances are not as strong as he is. If they were to fight, they would all die without much effort."
I paused, my anger already at my limit and I made sure that they all saw that. My grief was already overflowing, I wanted nothing more than to just sit on a corner and ball my eyes out crying the death of my master but that isn't going to stop the attack in Xyrus Academy and neither will it stop the upcoming war.
I had to show them that I wasn't lying. I needed to throw real life evidence that there were stronger beings than the Lances outside of this continent. And so I did show them.
On my dimension ring from my left hand, I took out something I had been saving since my arrival at Alacyra. Something I wanted to show Windsom or Aldir that I was stronger than they anticipated. An act for a declaration of War towards Agrona Vritra and Kezess Indrath when the time came, but now that won't be necessary.
I felt a heavy mass hit the palm of my hand.
All three elves gave me an expression I imagined, fear.
Their eyes laid on the bodiless head of a man, if he were to be put in simpler terms.
"Here's my evidence."