The Star Of Annihilation

The Star of Annihilation

Chapter 60 – Royal Ties (3)

Written by : eleven

* * *

Clang!

Sistine grew frustrated as her sword bounced off the shield in Hallen’s hands.

‘What knight uses a shield that big?’

Sistine couldn’t understand how someone could possibly use a shield that large.

The shield was 2 meters tall and 1 meter wide.

It was large enough to cover all of Hallen’s body, and looked incredibly heavy, yet Hallen used a large two-handed sword in a single hand while wielding the large shield in the other.

Both of his weapons were ones that required at least two hands to operate, but the boy wielded them both freely like an extension of his own limbs.

“Hehe… sorry about that Sistine, you’ll have to try harder than that!”

Hallen, when wielding the shield and sword, was a completely different individual than the timid and shy boy he was when he first approached Sistine.

Everybody in the class seemed to know her identity as the Princess, yet this boy was outright taunting her!

But for some reason, Sistine just smiled and swung her sword with even more vigor.

She would rather stay like this with Hallen than deal with those other idiots who walked around her carefully taking looks of lust or calculation.

Swordsmanship of the Silver Flash, 8th Series : Titan Walk

Sistine unleashed the swordsmanship she had been learning from Count Lancer.

Of the lower series, there were strikes that allowed for the sword to focus the tips of its speed into a singular thrust, that was the effect of Titan Walk.

Looking for the gap in Hallen’s defenses, Sistine thrust as soon as she saw one.

“Hmmmm!”

Hallen exclaimed silently as he focused his eyes on the incoming sword.

Suddenly, the tip of Sistine’s sword moved.

Bang!

For the first time in their sparring, Hallen was forced to take a step back from the pressure of Sistine’s sword when it hit his shield.

‘What…?! My sword moved for some reason?’

Sistine’s thrust had missed its mark as it was blocked with the shield again.

As if the sword was attracted to the shield by some unknown force, Sistine focused ki into her eyes as she examined the problem.

“…what kind of technique is that?”

“Wow! You even figured that out?”

“I’d be a fool not to.”

“Well nobody else has been able to figure out why their swords kept missing their marks….hahahah!”

Hallen laughed as Sistine had immediately realized what was going on.

Waves of ki were being emitted from Hallen’s shield in an irregular pattern as if they were like sonar waves.

“That’s a really interesting technique.”

Sistine meant her words. Not everyone was capable of using their ki uniquely like that. In fact, most people who did, tended to have their own techniques that they had developed, which was incredibly rare to come by as one had to be monstrously talented to do so.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the training area….


Ba-bang!


Hazan fell flat on his butt with an embarrassed look.

“You know I’m a magic swordsman, but I don’t think I even need to use any spells against you.”

Roy spoke coldly.

Hazan looked at Roy like he was looking at a bug.

“I-Impossible.”

“Get up then.”

Hazan tried to stand up, but the second that he did…

Bumph!

He was immediately kicked square in the chest, unable to even find his balance.

Roy had enough of these idiots flocking over to him, thinking he was some kind of ugly duckling that needed its wings clipped.

“How many times do you think I’ll have to beat it into you? Three-Four? No… I might as well just continue and see how long it takes.”

Roy looked at hazan with a look of pity as he said this and continued.

At that moment, Hazan and some of the other third-years watching their spar out of the corner of their eyes, thought they had seen the devil.

* * *

<So… Argenta was not directly killed by the owner of the star.>

This news was a bit relieving to hear for Mazre, of the Great Three.

He was already more of the cautious and calculative type; completely contradictory to the nature of most Dragons.

That being said, there were certain individuals that even they, the Dragons could not help but be wary of.

Roy’s father, a man wrapped in mystery, was one of these individuals.

If Roy, the owner of the star that was known as a unique ‘aspect’, was strong enough to kill one of their kind already with his own power, it would have been dangerous.

<Yes, but we need to be careful. It was the Fifth Spirit King, the mutant named ifrit, who killed him.>

Hanu replied as he looked around the busy streets of Lazarus from the alley they were in.

Maze and Hanu were in their human forms and hidden with cloaks for extra security.

It hurt their pride to do so, but there were some incredibly powerful humans in this land that could potentially threaten them if they weren’t careful.

<Ifrit?! How was he able to kill Argenta here? This is a lower universe and not even the Spirit Realm! How would he even be able to manifest his entire powers…>

Maze paused as he suddenly realized that the possibilities that he was starting to think of, were already quite feasible.

<Don’t tell me… he signed a contract with the owner of the annihilation star.>

<It is likely.>

Hanu replied coldly as their voices remained hushed in the alley.

<That’s why your father sent us both then.>

Maze understood finally why both he and Hanu had been sent to find Roy.

<Yes, if he, who already has a transcendent bloodline in his body, gains the powers of the Demons and the Spirits, along with our powers, he could be much more dangerous than his predecessor.>

<But we don’t know if he’s already taken our blood, do we?>

<Yes, but remember that our blood is not the only way he can gain our powers.>

<He’s a human. There’s no way he would be able to replicate a mana core like a Dragon heart.>

Maze firmly stated this.

It was impossible for a human to imitate the heart of a dragon if they already had established a mana core.

But…there was a possibility. It was one so seemingly small that Mazre had overlooked it.

<There is a way, but it’s not likely to happen. We need to focus on the mission. My father wants his capture if possible, but our safety is our utmost priority.>

Mazre’s eyes narrowed as he heard Hanu’s words.

Hanu was as prideful as they came within their race, but even he was wary of the dangers in the Empire.

<That man known as the First Swordmaster…. Trent Freeman was it?>

<Yes, but it’s not just him and you should be able to feel it as well.>

Mazre nodded as he could also inwardly sense the presences of strong humans within the Empire that could give them trouble.

<He’s much stronger than we expected. He’s probably right below your level Mazre, and if he was to work together with those other two mages that I can sense, along with the Second Swordmaster who is near his level, we could be in danger.>

Hanu felt a total of five presences that made him worried about their plans.

He, as the son of the Lord, was as strong as the Great Three in terms of magical prowess and combat ability. But these five presences were something he could not overlook.

The First and Second Swordmasters of the Empire. One of them clearly used mana instead of ki, meaning it was a magic swordsman- a very high level one at that.

There were two presences of 8-star mages, or Grand Wizards as the humans liked to call them.

And one more.

This one was not as strong as Trent or the Second Swordmaster, but it was a being that had monstrous amounts of ki.

‘From the information father gave me, it can’t be the Third Swordmaster. They aren’t even close to the Second or First in terms of skill. Who could it be?’

Hanu felt troubled. The fifth presence clearly had to be one of the Swordmasters of the Empire, but they were much stronger than the information suggested.

<So where and when is our first move?>

Mazre asked with a tense voice.

<The target is at the Academy here right now, his classes end in an hour. I want to observe tonight and decide our next plan after determining his patterns and security of the Academy itself. One of the mages we need to watch out for is on site there twice a week as he also has other duties the rest of the week.>

Hanu had taken note that Tubel was only at the academy a few days a week.

He had duties as the Tower Master of the White Magic Tower that held importance to him.

That being said, Hanu wanted to make sure that there were as few possibilities of interference as possible.

* * *

After the swordsmanship class with the third years, Roy had an odd feeling about the class in general.

‘It’s true they don’t look down on me… well probably not anymore.’

While thrashing Hazan around like a ragdoll in the class during the sparring session, Lady Valentina just laughed in the back while watching the pride of her students get trampled on like a bunch of weak flowers.

Not only that, but Roy had noticed Sistine’s sparring a bit further when he had time in between beating up on Hazan.

‘That guy looked familiar.’

The sparring partner of Sistine’s had felt familiar to Roy. His techniques were similar to that of the Indomitable Shield in the future, Hallen Tiberius, but Roy didn’t think it was him because he had only been at the Academy for a few months now and knew nothing about Hallen Tiberius as a person.

Nevertheless, it still felt weird for Roy.

He felt his body growing hot for some reason as he walked towards the remote training areas of the Academy that were on the outskirts.

He was going to meet with Lucius, his master, for their practical lessons and sparring like they did every night.

“What is this feeling…?”

Roy felt weird as he muttered to himself out loud.

Examining his surroundings, he looked around at the dark night sky.

It was a peaceful night. the trees and greenery that decorated the walkways of the exterior of the academy, swaying in the moonlight.

Roy felt like his chest was getting oddly warm though.

Ba-dump. Ba-dump.
Roy started to feel a cold sweat trickle down his neck.

His mana core started to pulsate and fluctuate greatly as if it was going berserk.

‘Ifrit, what’s going on with me?!’

At this point, Roy knew something was up, so he asked Ifrit as he slipped some of his mana into the tattoo on his arm.

-….Get ready.
Ifrit left those odd words before forcefully rousing the Demonic Energy inside Roy’s body.

Roy didn’t know how Ifrit did this, but it seemed the contract allowed Ifrit to be able to do things like this.

Roy didn’t stay panicked, and decided to follow Ifrit’s words.

[Manifestation]

Roy’s figure started to change into the form he always used when getting most serious in battle.

Whooooooosh.

His fingernails extended and his skin blackened, while his hair started to turn crimson red at the long tips that were brushing against his waist.

Roy moved his hands towards Deletus, as he still did not feel any presence yet, but looked around in the surroundings to look for any flaws, or lack of flaws.

Sure enough…

<How dare you brat.>

Suddenly a cold voice, thick with bloodlust and murderous intent leaked out.

<You dare to imitate our powers and copy our Heart.>

Hanu, whose short red hair and pale skin contrasted greatly with his dark robe, stepped out in the air as if he had been there the entire time along with another obed individual who was emitting just as thick of a bloodlust.

Roy felt his blood run cold at that moment.

Chapter 60 – Fin

Hey guys, back to once a week in terms of uploads, but I’m currently at chapter 65 ;p

That being said, I’m thinking of creating patreon or something for this series so we’ll see as time comes along ????

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(Monthly Goal progress : 8%)