The Star Of Annihilation

The Star of Annihilation

Chapter 66 – Family (3)

Written by : eleven

* * *

A few weeks later…

Clop- Clop- Clop-

As the carriage moved away from the Forest of the Elves, the home to the Tentaheim Council, there was a heavy silence inside of the carriage where Thomas and his family were.

Spera, the new addition to the team, was riding with Verdante’s carriage which was only a few feet ahead of them, as they were following them to the last location Ian, the Arch-mage, was alive, in the memory orb.

Spera was dazzlingly beautiful, as expected of a High Elf, one of the few Council members of the Tentaheim Council, and Mathilde couldn’t help but feel jealous of the woman’s looks.

More than that, it was the fact that Thomas seemed completely devoid of any emotion since they had left.

Mathilde had never seen how Thomas was on an adventure, but Verdante had to reassure her multiple times that this was something Thomas was like as he focused on his survivability above all else on expeditions Verdante had been on with him in the past.

“How long will you be like this?”

Mathilde had ended up feeling guilty as she prodded Thomas.

Her decision had left her husband cold as ever and her anxiety high.

“I’m sorry, but that’s vague and I can’t give you an immediate answer.”

Thomas responded without so much as a movement in his facial muscles as he spoke with a monotone voice.

He truly felt sorry, but he had to almost completely kill his emotions if he wanted to survive on such a dangerous mission.

He knew that emotion clouded his judgement and he wasn’t the best at making use of such things.

Swordmasters and Arch-mages of present and past could channel their emotions while not being lost in them, but he knew his own limitations and so Thomas developed a way for him to survive with maximum efficiency.

“…”

Mathilde fell silent, feeling a plethora of emotions.

Since starting the trip, Mathilde had brought her notebooks and whatever paper she could find.

Even though she had rather poor talents with magic, that did not deter her from her love from learning more about magic and its past.

She had been analyzing the runes that she had seen in the memory orb of Ian, the Arch-mage, and had been making good progress on what exactly the dungeons were trying to hide.

Scratch- Scribble-


Thomas darted his eyes briefly to look at Mathilde who went back to scribbling runes and working on her notes.

He briefly cracked a faint smile at seeing his wife so passionate about magic, but erased the smile as soon as it appeared.

Focusing his eyes on the front of the carriage, Thomas prepared himself mentally for the long journey ahead.

-Pit -Pat -Pit


The sound of rain hitting the ground could be heard throughout the muddied path that the horses were taking.

Thomas looked over to his sleeping daughter that was laying in her little cradle behind him.

Zzz… zzzz…. Zz…
For his child, Thomas was determined to set things right in order to give them a good future.

This would be the last time he would risk his life for something like this, since he did not want to be an absent father in times of Edith’s adolescence.

‘I won’t let this go wrong.’

Thomas tried to reaffirm himself, but he couldn’t help but feel an odd sense of foreboding danger as they continued to travel.

He decided not to ponder on it too much.

Little did he know, as Edith woke up from her nap… A star so small; one that was shining emerald green in the sky, suddenly started to shine brilliantly.

* * *

Another 3 weeks later…
“We’re here.”

Verdante spoke in a low tone as the carriages stopped.

The cold wind of the North howled violently as the party was currently at the very tip of the Northern Continent that they were home to.

“This is weird.”

Spera spoke up, as Thomas and Mathilde hopped off the carriage with Edith wrapped around Mathilde’s back.

“It is…”

Thomas muttered under his breath.

“This is the first time I’ve felt a place so devoid of any kind of energy. Mana, Ki, Demonic Energy, Holy power… none of it is present here.”

“In the memory orb, it wasn’t like this when Ian entered, was it?”

Thomas asked back while the rest of the party shook their heads as they recalled the memories from the memory orb.

When the Archmage of the Palest Kingdom had come here, it was nothing like how it was now.

The blankets of snow covered the valley they were at, nothing but pure white was in front of them and their breaths were visible.

Mathilde, with her rosy cheeks turning red from the cold, hugged Edith closer and shifted the sack she was carrying the baby in, towards the front of her chest to maintain body heat for both of them.

In front of them was the cave that led to the dungeon where Ian’s last moments were.

The fact that Ian was a 6-star Archmage did mean quite a bit, but in retrospect to Spera’s power as a Spirit Archer, she could also use magic along with the power of the spirits from the Spirit Realm on top of being 7-stars.

7-stars was a whole new level when compared to 6-stars. It was still the title of an Archmage in magic when comparing the two, but Archmages and those who had reached the 7-star level in other aspects, knew that the effect of a [Domain Establishment], was paramount to their power.

With these thoughts, Verdante looked to Spera and asked her a question.

“Spera, are you able to declare a domain here?”

Spera closed her eyes and tried to rouse the mana in her core.

“Yes….”

[Domain Establishment]

As soon as she felt that she could, she immediately opened up and released the mana from her core to create a spherical boundary around them that was invisible to the naked eye.

“You want to see if I can expand it to cover the size of the dungeon right?”

Verdante nodded at her question and Spera immediately started to try and expand her domain.

This took a lot of mental pressure for her to handle, but Spera was not a High Elf from the Tentaheim Council for nothing.

However…

Pang!

Spera suddenly felt a sharp headache as she tried to expand the domain. Her hearing went deaf for a moment as all she could hear was a nauseating, high-pitched noise and her vision blurred slightly.

Spera staggered and immediately was caught by Verdante before regaining her composure.

“I..I can’t. There’s something blocking me.”

Spera looked confused as she had never had this happen before.

There were no restrictions on a domain like that unless someone else’s domain clashed with theirs. Even when such rare battles occurred, it was not in severity like the pain she had experienced. It was more of an onslaught of mental interference rather than a defense.

Her domain had been pushed back but had not pursued, however. Meaning, it was not a hostile force… at least from first glance.

“Something?”

“Yes. I think it’s another domain, but I can’t be sure. Normally if it were another domain from another archmage, they would clash with mine but I wouldn’t be feeling such sharp pain immediately… Not only that, but it would be natural for a domain establishment to continue an attack for the rights of the established territory.”

“So you’re saying it might be another person, or it could be a relic?”

Thomas knew that relics and artifacts were things that could not be bound by common sense.

He had encountered a single low-tier relic in the past, but it was given to the Adventurer Guild to be investigated and appraised.

The relic had a power that could open a subspace, but had an infinite amount of storage and did not rely on mana or ki for use.

It used an entirely different energy that was not found in this world apparently, rendering the relic useless.

“It’s possible.”

“Hm…”

Verdante rubbed his stubble that had been growing on his chin, as he hadn’t shaved in the past few days since coming to the North.

Awoooooooosshhh-
The bitter winds did not relent, and the group was hit with a gust of the biting cold once more.

“Let’s head inside for now. We’ll set up camp and discuss our plan of action once we get a look at the interior with our own two eyes.”

“En.”

The rest of the group nodded at Verdante’s words as he took out a couple of pieces of wood from his subspace and handed them out to the group.

[I call upon the children of Fafnir, bless us with your light.]

Spera quickly called upon some fire spirits and had the ends of the wooden stick lit as they entered into the dark dungeon ahead.

The sound of the group’s footsteps were quick as they made out of the snowy plains and moved into the unknown that lay beyond the darkness…

Chapter 66 – Fin

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