The Star Of Annihilation

The Star of Annihilation

Chapter 45 – Turbulence (2)

Written by : eleven

* * *

The ground shook as nearly half of the entire mountain range suddenly disappeared like a lie.

The Royal Guards who were a bit of a distance away, stopped in their tracks as they came upon the scene.

“Ridiculous.”

Frotus, the lead of the Royal Guard for the Serpentine Family, muttered to himself.

He prided himself in being able to take on at least a single Swordmaster in individual combat, and with the other Royal Guards, he would be able to safely assume the role of being able to take on two of them without much difficulty.

“Stop.”

Frotus raised his hand as the other Royal Guards came to a stop behind him.

The other three Royal Guards had noticed what had happened and narrowed their eyes.

They were trained individuals amongst the Demons, and each Great Family’s Royal Guards were not in those positions by mistake.

“Frotus, this clearly cannot be the work of the boy.”

One of the other Royal Guards uttered as he looked around and found two corpses that were cut cleanly in half.

“You don’t think I know that? Tsk.”

Frotus clicked his tongue as he looked at the corpses of the two Greater Demons that had perished with a single strike.

There were signs of battle on their bodies, but the strike that killed them, was clearly not the same in terms of power.

‘Does that mean the boy was able to contend with two Greater Demons at the same time? If that happened, and his master was the one to step in… it makes some sense. But even with that much into account, this kind of strike is not normal considering the opponent is one of the middle ranking Swordmasters of the Empire.’

This kind of devastation that was wrought, was something that only those monsters of men, the ‘heroes’ of each generation could pull off.

Trent the Sword Saint, Bale, the only Magic Swordsman to achieve the title of a Swordmaster, the Divine Archer of the Tentaheim Council amongst a few to name, were the ones capable of doing this kind of damage.

‘Were they hiding their strength?’

Frotus was skeptical of it.

Two years was by no means a short time, and although they had consistently monitored their growth, it was unlikely the two humans seriously were able to hold back and restrict their strength and even fool their King’s eyes for that long.

‘And if they were able to do that?’

Frotus became worried.

Alar Serpentine, the Demon King of the Serpentine Family, was a Demon that could take on multiple Swordmasters at once, given they were on the lower end of the skill level.

However, if this kind of opponent was able to dish out this kind of attack power, even their King might not be safe from the damage they might encounter.

“Find the Monarch. I need to speak with him as soon as possible.”

“Frotus…?”

The other Royal Guards were a bit concerned at Frotus’ expression.

Frotus was a veteran warrior and was extremely rational. Yet, such a warrior was showing signs of displeasure and even discomfort.

“I shall go right away.”

In the end, Camille, of the Royal Guards, immediately departed to go off in search of their Monarch who was a few kilometers away, following them shortly after he received the news of the human’s departure.

“The rest of us will continue forwards, stay vigilant and do not separate.”

Commanding the rest, Frotus turned around with the 3 others and moved towards the two humans heading South.

* * *

“How long do you think it’ll be until they give up?”

Roy asked Lucius in between breaths as they ran across the red desert plains of the Demon Territory.

It would take them a month at least to traverse across the entire Demon Territory back into the border of the Empire’s lands.

“I’m not sure, but I’ve already contacted the Emperor and he’ll be sending us support once we reach the border if anything goes wrong.”

“You already did? Is it that bad?”

Roy’s words contained confusion.

Although he sensed the Royal Guards of the Serpentine Family approaching them from afar, they weren’t gaining on them, nor were they exactly too dangerous. At least that’s what Roy thought when he took into account Lucius’ newfound strength.

“There’s one more that’s coming. I don’t know why the hell a Demon King is moving out and about across the Demon Territory like it’s some kind of playground, but if he gets support, I’m not sure we’ll be able to make it out unscathed.”

Lucius bit his lip as he prevented himself from replacing his words.

Instead of ‘unscathed’ he was going to say that it would be a miracle if they could even make it out alive, but he knew he couldn’t worry this twelve year-old boy about that.

However, Roy was no idiot as he had seen first-hand, just what kind of strength a Demon King or Queen was capable of unleashing on the battlefield.

“You really think the support at the borders will be of help against one of them? Unless we get someone of equal or similar strength to you, that Demon King might just raze through the entire Imperial Border. We don’t even know why they’re after us!”

Roy felt frustrated.

Was there really some kind of huge secret to the corpse of the mutated Giant they still had in Lucius’ subspace pocket?

The answers would be salvageable if Roy was able to bring the corpse back to the White Magic Tower.

But he had to get to Lazarus alive if he wanted to know the answer from the Magic Towers.

And that in itself, was looking to be difficult now.

“Make sure to ration and pace yourself properly. It’s going to be a long journey home.”

* * *

About a week had passed since Roy and Lucius had first descended down the mountain and were being chased by the Demon King of the Serpentine Family.

Roy naturally had to be carried by Lucius physically when he grew tired and unable to move his legs from the exhaustive chase.

Rest was a commodity that was difficult for Roy to get, but even more difficult for his master Lucius, who was physically and mentally exhausted from staying awake for over seven days straight.

“Master… Are you sure they’re still chasing us?”

Roy felt pity for his master, who was clearly capable and strong, but was holding himself back because of Roy.

Roy was not at his level of a Swordmaster to pull his own weight, and the Demons would not stop giving chase despite running for a week straight.

“Yea, don’t talk. I don’t have much energy to spare.”

The response was blunt, but Roy understood just how exhausted Lucius was.

At that moment, a vibration could be felt coming from Lucius’ chest pocket as a light ringing noise could be heard.

Brrnng! Brrnnng!

Lucius’ eyes didn’t move that much the entire trip, but they wavered at that moment.

Roy, who was riding piggyback, took his hand out from its grip holding himself across Lucius’ shoulders, and grabbed the item out of the chest pocket.

“Your Majesty.”

Roy immediately tapped some of his mana into the small communication crystal and paid his respects to the Emperor to the best of his abilities.

“At ease.”

Emperor Navarro Ismenian quickly skipped the formalities with Roy as he asked immediately for the time table they were on.

“Where are you both right now? How long will it take to get to the border?”

The Emperor was no fool and had heard about the odd movements of the Demons as of late.

If anything, it was difficult to hear of the rumors circulating about a certain Demon King running around chasing two foreigner humans inside their own territory.

The rumors were of course only speculations and nothing concrete, but Navarro was well aware of the situation.

“We are 40 kilometers out from the border, Your Majesty. It should be another week if we can hold on.”

Lucius replied for Roy.

It was a wonder how his brain was even able to function that coherently with no rest, but Navarro frowned behind the communication crystal.

“Just hold on a little longer, I’ve sent a team in advance. We are not about to lose you both before either of you even get back to the Empire.”

‘This is so annoying.’

Roy was frustrated as well. He had originally taken these two years to train and to also explore a certain dungeon on the way back.

But thanks to this annoying Demon King who had some ridiculous vendetta with them, Roy was missing out on a comfortable trip back to the Empire along with his treasures he was trying to find.

“What’s the backup entail? Unless you can mobilize decently strong counterparts, we are literally stuck on an island out here.”

Lucius spoke matter-of-factly. Anybody else would see this as treason for the impertinent way he was speaking to the Emperor, but Navarro didn’t mind it in the slightest.

“Don’t worry, I’ve sent Count Lancer to go and meet up with you beyond the border. He will be part of the extraction, and I’ve called in the Red Tower Master, Aurelia, to standby at the border gates of the Demon Territory just in case.”

‘Count Lancer?’

Roy heard the name before and tried to rack his brains before coming to an answer.

“Ah, the Seventh.”

Roy accidentally spoke up and interrupted, and Navarro just smiled as he saw this.

‘He’s got a lot of growing up to do.’

Navarro thought. Most people knew Count Lancer as the prodigy of the entire Empire. For geniuses like Roy and his friend Nate, it was important to know the geniuses of the generation prior to them.

Count Mateo Lancer, was exactly that, as he was the eighteen year-old Count, and youngest to ever achieve the title of the Swordmaster.

“I’m not sure if that’ll be enough, but I’ll see if we can make it through by then.”

Lucius spoke objectively.

“What if I enhance the speed for the next 5 hours, and cast debuffs on the tails? Would it be enough to gather an hour or two of rest?”

Roy was prepared to empty his mana reserves and much more if it allowed Lucius to gain extra distance for themselves to gain him some rest before the final stretch when they would meet with Count Mateo Lancer.

“Do it.”

Lucius was incredibly short-sounding, but nobody blamed him for it. It wouldn’t be a surprise if anybody else fainted on the spot.

“Alright, get ready. I’m going to stack as many buffs as I can…”

Roy concentrated as he started to rile up his mana and focus his mind.

He needed to have full concentration on both his attackers and his own distance while casting both debuffs and buffs.

[Greater Strengthening]

[Greater Haste]

[Lightweight]

Roy quickly cast buffs that were a tier above normal ones.

They consumed a lot of mana, but if he could gain them 5 hours of rest by focusing on this, it was worth it.

Lucius’ body felt light as a feather and his muscles became less fatigued from these upgraded spells.

Roy didn’t cast them often, even in his previous life due to the nature that higher tiered buff spells were only possible to cast once one reached 4-stars, and weren’t very efficient for those that weren’t at least at the level of an Archmage in terms of the sheer amount of mana quantity necessary.

But now, a lot of that was solved due to having a total abundance of mana due to his abnormally large reserves of mana, as well as his cultivation speed and breathing techniques that were able to gather mana from nature in a matter of seconds.

Roy’s eyes shifted as he imbued them with mana.

Going towards the presences he felt the strongest, he felt the Royal Guards.

He didn’t quite feel the presence of the Demon King yet, but trusted Lucius’ words that he was not far behind the Royal Guards.

Focusing more mana into his eyes, Roy’s eye muscles contracted and bulged as he started to see even further.

“Oh fuck.”

Two words was all that was needed when Roy realized just how nonchalant he had been acting, when he didn’t even know how easy it would be for him to die.

Just half a kilometer away from the Royal Guards on their tail, was a Demon that stood roughly 3 and a half-meters tall.

He adorned a black cape around his slim and scaly body.

He looked like a lizardman more than anything, but the two horns at the top of his head deterred any kind of random thought that one might have about the Demon King of the Serpentine Family, looking like a lizardman.

Demon King Alar noticed a gaze settle on him from afar.

“Hoh? Interesting little brat, I only want you more and more.”

Boom.

Alar smiled cruelly as he was suddenly hit with a wave of mana that weighed down on his body and forced him down a bit.

“You’re gonna have to try harder than that….Hahaha!”

Bang!

Alar, through the debuffs, charged like a madman as he kept his yellow eyes focused on the boy staring at him from afar, concentrating on his spells.

Chapter 45 – Fin