Mystical Journey

"Blood Tower, if it were you, would you be able to escape safely from this harsh environment?"

Within a tall black tower somewhere in East Continent, in a room on one of the middle floors.

Two regal looking young men stood in front of a large sand basin, where one of them was manipulating the geography and settings of the sand within with his right hand.

The contents of the sand basin were black and white, and it appeared to represent the snowy peak on which Garen and Hellfire were under siege. Each little black dot represented an Obscuro Society member, while the two red dots represented Hellfire and Eight Headed Cloud Crow.

The other young man frowned. His face appeared ordinary, the kind that would go unnoticed if you passed him on the streets. At this time, he was watching the sand basin closely with a stoic expression.

Both of them did not look like they were past thirty years old, but the calmness in their eyes was something that one in their thirties could never accomplish.

"General God Cloud is one of the two strongest commanders, hence he was put in charge of the strongest military in East Continent. I wouldn’t know how much power he had allocated to a single clone of his" Blood Tower thought for a moment before he answered carefully.

"How much power was allocated?" the man before him laughed. His skin was slightly tanned and he had bright blue eyes. His face was marked with a black tattoo of the number "4", and his soft white hair glowed in the light.

"I acknowledge that God Cloud is stronger than I am, but you don’t have to rub it in right? In the 30 years I’ve guarded the Secret Services, I’ve clashed with him several times, and each time ended with me in a losing spot. He was one of the three strongest people within Obscuro Academy, after all."

His eyes fell on the sand basin once again.

"You may be unconvinced this time, but God Cloud has definitely unleashed his full power."

Blood Tower did not say anything, awaiting his rebuttal.

"His clone had even brought the demon blade Kunta, how much effort was put into this? Even so, he wasn’t able to restrain the Nine-Headed Demon Dragon." The white haired man said softly.

"If I were against him, I could retreat safely too." Blood Tower replied seriously.

"Even after you’ve been affected by the mixed poison?"

"Er…" Blood Tower was unsure of how to reply to him.

"God Cloud’s power have realistically reached the pinnacle of Form 5. This Garen being able to fight his clone on an equal level means he should at least be a normal Form 5. After all, the difference between each stage of Form 5 is extremely huge, like between the Leader and I." The white-haired youngster explained calmly.

"But Form 5 is already the top. It is then decided by the strength of the heirloom, as well as the comprehension and delivery of power. We are already in unison with the totem and have reached realms previously unimagined. This realm may be the pinnacle, but it is also a shackle. Each Form 5 is searching for a way to break through."

The young white-haired man turned around and walked towards the window, and he gazed towards the golden boundless desert outside.

"Such a pity… I guess God Cloud cracked his head researching on this topic. Even though I cannot beat him, someone else managed to."

A small smile quirked his lips for a moment.

"Heed my order!"

"Yes!" Blood Tower rushed forward.

" By the order of the chief minister, send an announcement to Secret Services: Once spotting the location of God Cloud's clone, he shall personally destroy his clone!"

Blood Tower’s pupils constricted, but it immediately recovered.

"Additionally, summon my personal messenger, tell God Cloud." The white-haired man once had a warm expression again. "Have you lost your bloody mind?"

Blood Tower’s face paled; he then knew the Deputy Minister’s old habits occurred again.

********************************

A few days later…

By the borders of Kovitan, at the upstreams of Red River --- Snowy Mountain Nebulus.

An otherwise quiet and serene snowy mountain had an unimaginably large black bird gliding around it.

This giant bird had some semblance to the Dragonhawk, with similar long, sharp beaks. Its wingspan extended a hundred metres, encompassing the area beneath it within an enormous shadow.

Under the shadow of the giant bird, a knight in black armor was riding a large black horse through the air, as though the sky was solid ground.

The black knight was circled by copious amounts of black smoke, which was diffusing in and out of the crevices of the armor, as though it was alive.

Jii!

The large horse exhaled two streams of white air strongly, before it stopped midair.

The black knight gazed into the distance towards the snowy mountain, raised his hand, and pointed at it.

Jii!!!

In an instant, the weather changed. Countless black clouds swirled from behind him as the sky immediately dimmed, while the land was blanketed by an enormous shadow.

Those were black dragonhawks!

Black dragonhawks that numbered more than thousands! Each had a wingspan of at least twenty metres, and they were cloaked within the black smoke, forming a large area of pitch black cloud. They flocked towards the snowy mountain.

"That… That is the Snowy Mountain branch of Obscuro Society! Blackfield Dragonhawk King…. Has he lost his mind?!"

"Sir?" A few white-clothed subordinates ran over, gasping for air as they questioned the white-robed man. They did not know what was happening, and they could only look at their leader in confusion.

"That is the place where a clone of God Cloud was stationed.." The white-robed man recalled, he looked at the situation at the sky with equal amounts of shock and confusion. " Is Blackfield trying to wage an all-out war with Obscuro?"

In the sky, the black knight upon his giant horse galloped forth. The heavy clip-clop of the horse could be heard from the patrol tower, despite being several hundred kilometres away.

The black knight accelerated, to the point where he appeared to become a streak of black lightning, heading straight for the snowy mountain’s peak.

On the peak of the snowy mountain, a single man bearing chains on both his shoulders slowly appeared. Both men faced each other.

"Dragonhawk King! Are you courting death?!"

The black knight pulled out the giant sword sheathed behind him with a clank. The black smoke surrounding him was concentrated on the black sword.

"In this world, there are things that I must do." His voice echoed from within the helmet.

Gachak!!

A lightning strike rent the sky, illuminating the two men’s imposing figures.

A few hours later…..

Bam!

In a loud strike, the Nebulus Mountain was split into two. The seemingly endless snow tumbled down as an avalanche, morphing into a white tide that swept away everything in its path, levelling the forest.

The black knight was adorned with a full suit of rent armor as he slowly flew off. Countless black dragonhawks twirled in the sky, announcing the victor of the battle.

"Blackfield announcing to the world: Garen, just because you didn’t mention some things doesn’t mean that they’ll be forgotten."

***************

After the Nine-headed Demon Dragon’s earthshaking incident, the royal Three Departments’ Geometry Service was furious, sending out personnel to negotiate for Hellfire’s release and the surrender of the heirloom.

But this wasn’t the big news.

The shocking one involved the Secret Services.

On the third day of the announcement concerning God Cloud, the chief minister of the Secret Service announced that he would personally create a clone to purge any sighting of God Cloud and his location.

The announcement and God Cloud’s content clashed, with neither of them giving in!

On hindsight, everything made sense; the Nine-Headed Demon Dragon was on a mission on behalf of Secret Services, and even though it wasn’t successful, Obscuro actually took the Three Departments lightly, publicly sending out the announcement to get his own clone to kill Garen. This made the elites within the Secret Services extremely aggravated.

When had it ever been others’ turn to hunt one of their own?!

Since the ancient times, it has always been them hunting down people. Now they actually dared to turn around and attack them?

In a series of forces’ influence, the incident involved both the Three Departments’ honor and the elites’ sense of belonging. The chief minister then announced to the world to launch attacks targeted at God Cloud.

The message was clear: You broke the rules first, and if you make a move, we will not hesitate to erase you!

Following that, another huge incident occurred.

Possibly in response to God Cloud’s announcement, the King of Blackfield, Blackfield Dragonhawk King Goth actually made a public appearance at one of the important Obscuro branches, fought hard with God Cloud’s clone,and at the price of a serious injury, he successfully destroyed a strong branch that had a God Cloud clone stationed there. The incident was earth shaking too, as at the same time he announced a similar content involving the Nine-Headed Demon Dragon Garen.

Two incidents, which were supposed to revolve around the Ultimate Heirloom had changed into a bloodbath.

By the time he received the news, he was already on the way to the capital.

He heard about this from the Secret Service member who escorted him, who also happen to be from the Crimson Team.

***********************************************

As Garen sat on the back of a large pale grey rhino-like creature, he carefully studied the latest intel.

These white rhinos that he sat on were the latest creatures bred by the kingdom, which had extreme stamina, being able to last over a fortnight with just one meal, and its speed was pretty decent.

The rhino was only second to the Yellow-eyed Crow, which were hailed as one of the best transportations.

For the aforementioned crow, although it wasn’t considered large by any measure, its wingspan was too eye-catching. With the current train of events, travelling on the crow would make him an easy target for elites, and reinforcements would not be much help either. It was better to move on land where it was covert and safe.

On the right side of Garen’s rhino was Kid’s rhino. This fellow was humming an unknown song, and hadn’t changed much from before.

By reasons unknown to him, Kid always had an odd aura about him which made people pay less attention to him, but they still feel felt his slight eccentricity when they paid closer attention.

After Crimson Team rendezvoused with Garen, everyone except Kid treated Garen with a mixture of fear and respect. Only Kid had the usual attitude as before.

Garen faintly understood some eccentric traits of Kid and he didn’t mind it, what he was most concerned about was the intel brought by Crimson Team.

As he quietly rolled up the intel sheet, he used some force and kneaded the paper, disintegrating it to be carried away by the wind.

"Goth you brat… you’re nothing like before…. And Chief Minister, with these two incidents, it may seem dangerous, but it’s already overwhelmingly safe."

Thinking back to the scenarios that happened in Iron Tank City, and the quartet he’d been in back then, its members had gone missing, been scattered, and had been killed in combat.

But the biggest influencing factor was not these, but the fact that Blackfield attacked Obscuro, which meant that the entire Blackfield had declared war against Obscuro.

There had already been ongoing subjugation missions against Obscuro led by Blackfield. Both sides had their respective wins and losses, though back then it had not escalated to this point. Blackfield Dragonhawk and God Cloud both had some restraint.

Unexpectedly, for Garen’s sake, he’d revealed all his cards.