The Star Of Annihilation

The Star of Annihilation

Chapter 48 – Turbulence (5)

Written by : eleven

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“Huuuah… Huuuah… Mister… Tubel… huaaa.”

Roy was out of breath as he was panting and groaning by the time he met up with Tubel and Aurelia.

‘Is that the Red Tower Master?!’

Never in Roy’s previous life, did he have the chance to ever meet the Tower Master of his respective Tower.

Despite being in the Red Tower, he was nothing but a lowly war mage only mobilized for war, and never anything important as he was not valued for being a commoner mage that didn’t go to the Imperial Academy.

“Hello there, Roy.”

Tubel smiled bitterly as he offered his hands out to take Lucius from Roy.

“Ah thanks, what about the guy from earlier?”

“Oh, Mateo? He’ll be coming here shortly, you didn’t notice him?”

“Ah!”

Roy turned his head around and saw that the carnage he had been trying to avoid was still right behind them.

About half a kilometer away, violent and rampant Demonic Energy surged up into the air as little scants of silver aura could be seen redirecting the massive and destructive attacks heading its way.

“By the way, have you met Ms. Aurelia yet?”

Tubel asked with a smile as he beckoned to introduce Aurelia to Roy.

“No, I have not. I apologize for my lack of manners, my name is Roy.”

Roy bowed slightly and brought his right hand to his chest, the common greeting used amongst most nobility or respective figures of the Empire.

Aurelia looked at Roy like she was looking at a rare specimen.

“Incredible… How old are you Roy? Oh, and my apologies as well, my name is Aurelia DeFranco, Tower Master of the Red Tower.”

“It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance. Under these circumstances, I’m not sure if we have the leisure to talk much, but I am twelve years-old as of this year, and I’ll be enrolling at the Imperial Academy if- and when we make it back.”

“Hahaha!”

Aurelia cackled as she put her hands over her stomach in a belly laugh.

Such a sight was rare to see, especially for Roy as he felt bewildered at the Tower Master’s mannerisms.

Those who walked the path of magical science were never ‘normal’ in certain areas of their life, but even Tubel was drastically normal in comparison to the Red Tower Master.

“Well then, Roy! I’ll be happy to talk to you once we’re out of this place. Don’t worry about ‘if’ we can get out. That much is certain at this point. After all, we got the White Tower geezer here for a reason!”

Aurelia’s manner of speech was something that even Roy could not understand or comprehend as he looked at Tubel to see his reaction.

However, Tubel was just smiling along as if he were used to such a way of speech by now.

“And maybe- if you haven’t heard much about the Imperial Academy and their internships… Well- feel free to stop by the Red Tower sometime and ask for me! I’d love to get to know you better!”

Aurelia was a rare kind of person that acted completely relaxed around people she felt comfortable with.

Navarro Ismenian, the current Emperor, and the Royal Family, were about the only people she would never act like this around, or in settings with large amounts of nobles.

“Good to see you both getting along so well, but he might be coming to the White Tower instead if he doesn’t have any plans for the future.”

Tubel grinned as he made Aurelia’s expression immediately crumple.

Roy felt embarrassed as he didn’t know what kind of situation he was in, but the sounds of the earth shaking and metal clanging against solid metal, were coming closer to their location.

“Hey! You old geezer, why are you always trying to take away the good ones-!”

“Seems it’s time for us to act.”

Before Aurelia could finish shouting at Tubel for trying to poach a talent she thought she had rightfully deserved, Tubel cut her off to pay attention to the incoming danger.

“Ah shit- really!”

Aurelia freely cursed even while this was happening and Roy felt like he should just turn on a noise cancelling spell at that point, but decided against it.

Skidddddd.

Suddenly a figure from the sky jumped down and skidded towards the location of the 3 mages.

Lucius was still unconscious, making Mateo, the one who had just landed next to them with his bruises and sweat trickling down his neck, the only close-quarters combatant there.

“Well, well… What do we have here? The Empire seems to have brought quite the party for me!”

Alar laughed as he crashed onto the ground with his slimy smile.

Roy shuddered at the incredibly vast reserves of Demonic Energy that were being emanated from the large body of Alar.

“Ugh… what a disgusting lizard.”

Aurelia muttered under her breath. Most people would not have heard what she had said, but every single person present was a being that was incredibly in tune with their senses due to mana or ki.

This was especially true for Alar as he frowned when he heard this.

“It also seems that the Empire still has disgusting and foul-mouthed females like the one here.”

“You..!”

“-We are grateful to meet you, Demon King Alar of the Serpentine Family. I’m afraid we will be needing to go home to the Empire quite soon. Perhaps we could find another time to chat?”

Alar sparked Aurelia’s temper before Tubel deftly cut her off and kept things as diplomatic as possible.

“I don’t see why we can’t chat now?”

Alar smiled suggestively.

Alar knew better than to pick a fight with the Grand Wizard of the Empire, especially when another Archmage and Swordmaster were present.

Alone, he could probably fight off Tubel with a seventy percent chance of victory, but with another Archmage and capable Swordmaster, things were not looking great.

“Well, I would love to as well. But, there are some slight complications as you might be able to see.”

Tubel shrugged off the suggestion as he nodded his head towards Lucius and Roy.

Alar looked at Lucius before turning his head towards Roy.

As he did this, his eyes momentarily flashed with greed, and both parties were fully aware of the brief reaction he had.

“It seems you seem to have much interest in the human boy?”

Roy, who did not catch the glimpse of greed from Alar, as he was not used to catching the most subtle of movements from beings that had transcended common sense, jerked his head as he heard Tubel’s suggestion.

‘Interested in me? But why?’

Roy was very confused as to why Alar was interested in him. He was naturally cautious and very wary that a Demon King, one of the more powerful existences in the world aside from the Dragons, was showing such an interest in himself.

Quite frankly, Roy was a little suspicious. Sure, he was at 4-stars at a very young age, but he didn’t think Alar’s attention was because of this. He couldn’t grasp why he felt this way, but Roy had an intuitive feeling that there was something else that Alar wanted from him.

-He’s no fool. He probably can sense that something is keenly different about you and the fact you can cultivate Demonic Energy; an incredibly pure form at that too.


Ifrit suggested as he popped up suddenly.

‘He can sense my Demonic Energy? But I’ve been keeping it rather subdued especially after you helped set up that barrier for us while we were training.’

The reason not many had been able to see through Lucius and Roy’s level for the past two years was due to this. Ifrit had given Roy a complex spell model that was at least at the level of an Archmage, if not higher, but relied on nature energy as a supplement instead of mana. Therefore, Roy nor Ifrit were the sources of energy, but rather the little bits and pieces of nature energy that were in the Mareot Mountain Range, served for that purpose.

The biggest concern though, was that it seemed that Ifrit had truly given Roy something that not a lot of people were capable of possessing.

-Naturally as my contractor, I had to give you the best of the best when it came to a Demonic Energy cultivation technique. I don’t know why the Demons from the Upper Realms and universes aren’t present in this one, but it’s clear that they left behind some methods to Demonic Energy cultivation; very rudimentary ones.
‘I really don’t know anything about Demons and higher universes or whatever, but if he’s ogling me because of that, I really feel creeped out.’

Roy shuddered in an almost comical way.

Anybody watching the situation unfold with no pretext, would almost find the situation to be like a lover’s quarrel that had gone awry.

“Hmph, humans aren’t too bad at perception these days.”

Alar neither confirmed nor denied the words from Tubel.

However, backing down here was not favorable either. He did want to retrieve the corpse of the mutant he and his master had experimented on, but that was only second to his greed when in thought of reaching a higher plane of existence if he could find a denser and purer way to accumulate his Demonic Energy.

‘Perhaps I could even be stronger than some of my master’s species…!’

The thought of being stronger than some of the ridiculously strong existences known as the Dragons, made Alar’s heart race.

When his master had first come across him, he had been beaten down one-sidedly and realized there was so much of a gap between the strongest in the world and himself.

Latras, the Dragon he had met, was one of the strongest three within his own race however, and Alar was recognized as a Demon King with pursuit of knowledge and experimentation; a true historian of sorts and much more.

“The answer remains the same no matter how we spin it. We need to go back to the Empire.”

Alar looked at Tubel with a look of slight irritation.

It wasn’t just Lucius and Roy who were exhausted to the brink these past few days, as it was Alar who was chasing them relentlessly as well. His stamina was a bit better than Lucius’ because he was a Demon but that didn’t make him invulnerable to fatigue.

Of course, Demons were not just Demons because of their looks.

Alar knew he had to give up here, but that didn’t mean he would merely go quietly.

“I see…. How regretful. Perhaps I shall see the Empire and maybe even that boy as the representative when the Young Lions tournament comes along.”

Roy knew of the tournament as it was the most popular event on the continent every four years. Though… this tournament was also something he remembered for a different reason.

“I’ll see you there.”

Roy spoke up.

Everyone listening, turned to look at Roy with confused expressions. Even Alar did, which was shortly replaced with an insidious smile.

Tubel and Aurelia could not believe that this boy not only had the gall to assume he could become a representative of the Empire, a position that only a few had the chance to receive, and also have the willingness to confront a Demon King for the second time when it was clear that Alar had no intentions of keeping things peaceful.

‘Well he certainly is more than capable enough now that I look at him.’

Tubel examined Roy with a look of reluctance when he noticed that Roy was now probably the youngest person to ever reach 4-stars on the entire continent. Nevertheless, that didn’t make him the strongest person at the tournament, even if he was chosen to become a representative, as there were older and even more skilled representatives from other Kingdoms, Republics and Coalitions.

“That’s a relief to hear. I hope that the Empire doesn’t get in the way of our wishes.”

Alar looked at Tubel with his threatening smile.

Tubel understood what this meant.

“I will make sure that the Emperor knows of this.”

“Good. A dog of the Empire should be able to go back to its master in a proper state. I shall see you in six months then…”

Tubel frowned at Alar’s words but did not react verbally because he knew it would just be playing into the Demon King’s hands.

Tubel raised his hand as he started to circulate his mana into his fingertips.

Wuuuuooooong.

[Warp]

The space started to crack and distort around Tubel’s fingertips before it turned into a small portal.

Unlike the warp portals which were held with mana crystals, a warp spell was reliant on Tubel’s mana and control over space which resulted in it being much more stable albeit a bit smaller than a portal.

“Then we will take our leave.”

Tubel announced to Alar and the others as Mateo and Aurelia turned their heads to give a last glance at Alar before returning through the portal whilst Mateo carried the sleeping Lucius in his arms.

Roy got up to leave as he turned to look at Alar one last time.

Grit.

Roy grit his teeth and aroused his mana and Demonic Energy to the limits as he emitted a killing intent towards Alar.

It was blatant provocation, but Alar just smiled as if it were cute.

Turning around, Tubel put his hand on Roy’s shoulder and guided him through the portal as the two of them looked back at Alar.

The silent standoff ended with the two of them stepping through the portal, leaving Alar to himself in the area of the Demon Territory near the border.

Whoosh.

Chapter 48 – Fin