The Star Of Annihilation

The Star of Annihilation

Chapter 40 – Flaws (6)

Written by : eleven

* * *

Lines.

That was what Roy thought he saw when he started to look at the world for the first time after gaining his third star.

In his past life, he had not had such a quantitative and qualitative breakthrough like the one he had just had.

He raised his right hand slowly into the air and tried to grasp these lines that he was seeing.

They were like strings.

As if the entirety of the world in front of him was nothing but a puppet show, Roy felt like he could see these lines and how they interacted with the world.

How the air moved through the breeze in the cave, why the rocks were shaped the way they were, there were so many things that he had not seen the way he was seeing them now.

“It seems you’ve started to notice something.”

Roy heard a voice suddenly in the quiet and picturesque cave.

Lucius spoke to him, and Roy turned his head to see his master.

‘….!’

Roy felt a weird sensation as he looked at his master.

He had never noticed this before, but as he looked at Lucius, his master, he saw reality.

Or what he thought to be reality at least.

The lines that made up the world around him started to warp and distort around his master until Roy could not see a single line in sight.

“Trying to measure your master now? I might as well beat you up with a bit more training then I see huhuhu!”

Lucius chuckled as he looked at Roy who was staring at him like a deer caught in headlights.

“….What is this?”

“Well, I’m not too sure why you were able to make an advancement in swordsmanship while cultivating more mana and simply breaking through to the level of 3-stars, but nevertheless, congratulations.”

“….”

Roy remained silent as he tried to gather his thoughts from Lucius’ words.

Lucius’ words were like something that had sprayed cold water all over his conception of swordsmanship until now, and Roy felt as if he were seeing a completely new side to walking the path of the sword.

He still thought of swordsmanship as nothing but a means to reaching an end, but it felt… interesting.

Like when Roy had seen magic for the first time in his life, he felt as if he were witnessing something inexplicably amazing in front of him.

Lucius stood up and raised his seated body to face Roy as he drew his sword.

“It’s time to test your comprehension.”

Those were the only words Lucius spoke before moving.

Buuuuuoooooong.

Roy saw his master move towards him with the same speed as he always did during their sparring, the movement his master used without ki.

Roy didn’t even use an ounce of mana during these spars in the past and was never able to understand why his master could so easily crush him.

Yet as he saw the sword moving forward towards him inside the cave, Roy reflexively looked at the lines in the surrounding and moved.

He didn’t know why he was making the actions he was, but he nevertheless carried on with them.

Roy seemingly swung at a line above his head that was moving ever so slightly towards his head. It was a line that was moving subtly unlike the distorting ones around his master, but Roy felt somewhat afraid and nervous of this line for some reason.

Swi-Clang!

Roy moved his saber through the air at the line and as the saber was seemingly cleaving through nothing but empty space, suddenly a collision was heard and he felt pain in his wrist.

“…?!”

Roy jumped back in surprise as Lucius smirked.

Lucius’ blade had moved in an odd trajectory, following the lines like a fishing line that was being hooked to a fish. The line moved subtly like the bobber one attached to notice when a fish was taking on the bait.

Cla-cla-cla-cang!

The sword Lucius weided, moved at the same speed it always did, yet for some reason, Roy was keeping up. It wasn’t that he didn’t feel pressure; in fact he felt a lot of it and that he might collapse his form at any moment. But, he was lasting much longer than any of the times he had one-sidedly been beaten down in the past.

He felt something changing fundamentally within his own mind.

Every single day they had been out in the Mareot Mountain Range with nothing but the two of them, Lucius had been helping Roy find a style of swordsmanship that Roy felt comfortable using by teaching him the fundamentals of other styles.

Roy would only be able to create his own style of swordsmanship through moments of enlightenment or extreme inspiration. Lucius had made that abundantly clear.

Roy had to look for traits in his very character and existence to find what would bring forth the best results of his own style to fruition.

Roy felt that this was a serene moment of grace as Lucius could have ended his attacks a while ago.

The swords danced in the moonlit cave as Roy drew the pictures in his mind of how to move his sword.

Coming from nothing but pure instinct; his soul, he was able to create the very beginnings and foundation of a style of swordsmanship that only could be brought from the deepest of corners within Roy’s subconscious.

Swaddeuk!

The lines in the world were being drawn, cut, erased, re-created, and then brought back to life behind Roy’s sword.

Everything had a beginning and an end.

Roy felt this as he moved through the air with his blade.

There was a fleeting feeling as if he were just starting to grasp something that was so basic and yet complex. There was something he felt as if he was truly starting to grasp even further than basic enlightenment of the moment, until it all washed away like a lie.

“Huuuuaaa…Huaaaaa…”

Roy started to slowly come back to his senses, as his moment of breakthrough started to finish the climax.

His breathing was rugged, and his vision started to clear up. Looking at the scene in front of him, Roy didn’t know what to rhink.

:Lucius stood, No- it was more accurate to say he was barely standing with a wide grin on his face.

His master, Lucius, the Fourth Swordmaster of the Empire, was barely standing as he used his sword like a crutch.

“Haaaaaah….haaaaaah…. You did it.”

Lucius spoke in between exasperated breaths.

In his voice, there was clear admiration, respect and even reverence.

Roy tried to recall just how the movements of his sword felt.

As he tried to recall what had happened, Ifrit happened to also speak.

– Incredible indeed. You are… yea- you’re definitely _____ ______.


Ifrit’s voice started to sound like static at the end. It was a sign that the laws of causality were interfering, but Roy just felt weirded out as he had recognized the same thing happens every time transcendent beings like the Gods, the Spirit Kings, and most of all… the mysterious voice he had heard when he died.

As he recalled the movements that he had just performed, Roy shuddered.

There was a reason that the man that was his master, in front of him, had been pushed so far back.

Ruthless, destructive, eloquent, fundamental, complex, yet simple.

All of these traits were part of the moves in the swordsmanship style that was imprinted into Roy’s mind.

Roy stood still and felt his knees go weak once more.

“Fuck, you gotta be kidding me…”

Roy cursed in a sarcastic tone as he felt his feet buckle under himself once again for the second time in two days.

* * *

Fwoosh-
In the Eastern side of the Northern Continent, a large tree, thousands of meters tall, stood tall as it pierced through the clouds.

In the air surrounding it, wyverns and bird races of all kinds flew about in a comfortable manner as the natural energy and presence of the Spirits was abundant.

The World Tree was currently standing far out in the distance while two figures stared at the sight with calm eyes.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?”

“,,,,Yes.”

The rather blunt and monotone response was not something one would expect when looking at such a large and beautiful sight, but Dante just shrugged it off as the boy who responded to his question, Nate, was not a normal kid.

Dante was a rather free-spirited individual and had made friends with a certain High Elf that was a part of the Tentaheim Council and asked if he could visit with a rather interesting boy that was interested in learning spearmanship from him.

His friend, Paora, had been understanding and made accommodations to make sure they would have a place to train and cultivate for the next two years, given that they did not cause any harm to the members of the Elven Tribe.

“Are you all ready?”

“I am.”

Nate replied as he twirled his spear.

Electricity started to crackle around his body and he dashed forth with Dante.

The powers as an Apostle of the God of Thunder were starting to become more and more apparent as time passed.

Just as Roy was inheriting the techniques, energies and powers of Ifrit, so was Nate in regards to Varpulis.

* * *

As Nate and Dante entered the vicinity of the Elven Tribe that made up the Tentaheim Council, the forestry around them only seemed to grow more in color and complexity while they moved through the path they were taking.

Rustle- Rustle-


As they got closer to the large tree, Nate felt something change in the very atmosphere around them.

He recognized it as something that was manipulating the surroundings with ambient mana in some sort of array; a technique that was often difficult to use that magicians could pull off when they reached higher levels, that Roy had told him about.

“Wait.”

Dante raised his hand up as he spoke with a subdued voice for Nate to stop his movements.

“You need to be careful to follow my every step exactly as you see me move. If you don’t, you can practically say goodbye to your sanity for a while.”

“When will I know to stop?”

“I’ll let you know when we get there.”

Nate tilted his head with a perplexed expression, but nonetheless decided to follow instruction as Dante started to move slowly but carefully.

Following each and every step Dante took, was quite the task, but Nate intuitively felt the mana around him shifting and distorting everytime they moved forwards.

The array was shifting.

As Nate and Dante trekked further into the surroundings of the array, Nate started to feel true inspiration and respect for whomever made such a delicate and complex array.

He could start to see the patterns of the mana fluctuations in the surroundings and identified some of the spell models as some of the higher level spells he had checked out from Ferneth’s laboratory back in the Ruins of the Fairies.

‘Just how high of a level would I have to reach as a magician in order to be able to do something like this?’

Nate truly wondered how amazing the person who cast such a complex array, really was.

His mind raced with excitement as he thought of the prospect of possibly being able to meet such a person like Ferneth, or even greater.

“Welcome to the Forest of the Elves. It’s good to see you, Dante.”

Nate and Dante finally stopped and the surroundings around them started to clear up.

As they had been walking through the array, Nate and Dante’s surroundings had been covered in a fog, yet all of it was becoming cleared up.

The owner of the voice stepped forwards and Dante smiled.

Green hair and skin so delicate it looked like pearls. Her ears were pointy and her beauty was unmatched. Nate looked at the elven woman who stepped forwards and shuddered subconsciously.

He didn’t know if she was the creator of the array or someone else, but she was incredibly powerful and he could feel it from the fluctuations of mana around her.

“Heya Eria, it’s good to see you too.”

Dante just smiled as he and Nate both removed the hoods off their cloaks.

Chapter 40 – Fin