Alacryan Arthur

Chapter 33

Seris Vritra POV

My fist hit the table.

How unlucky were we? Apparently a stray arrow of an adventurer hit one of our nightstalkers, a small bird like mana beast, which had the specialty of turning invisible.

One of my spies had just informed me that it was brought to the adventurers hall, which informed the royal family. Apparently the queen brought the corpse to a well known artificer to learn about the device on its back.

If the artificer was even half decent he would be able to crack the secret sooner rather than later, which would mean that Dicathean might discover us a lot earlier than anticipated.

I exhaled and looked out of the window. The sun began to set in the distance, coloring Sehz-Clar in an orange tone, the sunlight reflected by the still wet vegetation.

I loved this sight, it was so calming. I remembered back to simpler times, when I was just a little girl.

My foster father always looked so serious, and rushed from one meeting to another, usually gone for days before I saw him again, not that he cared for me anyways.

My mother was different, she always watched me, but not in the caring kind, but more like I was a ticking bomb, that she had to observe all the time. She always exploded when I made the smallest mistake and sent me to my room and sent a servant after me, to make sure the mistake would never happen again. Then I would have to spend the whole day repeating the thing I did, but right this time.

And exactly this attention was the thing my adoptive sister envied me for. Even if she was the biological daughter of the two they never really looked out for her, as my mothers attention was always focused on our outward appearance and dedicated all her time to form me into a 'presentable' girl.

I always had the feeling like my mentor was the only person to care for me and not just because I had Vritra blood.

While those times weren't easy, I had nothing to worry about. The worst thing that could happen was being sent to my room, and having to spend the next few days learning etiquette, while I dont even want to think about what could happen anytime nowadays.

Anyways, the first thing to do would be to inform Agrona. I walked over to the wall and grabbed the communication scroll.

"Agrona Vritra" I said to activate the scroll.

"Seris. How nice to hear from you" the baritone voice of the high sovereign greeted me after a second.

"High Sovereign. I have just been informed that one of the nightstalkers sent to Dicathean was found by coincidence. They have sent the artifact to be studied. I am positive that they will discover the function and will be able to connect the dots.

If you wish I will send a team to regain control over the artifact and cover all traces."

It was quiet for a moment, I could practically see Agrona sitting in his office and staring out the window, thinking about the next steps.

I heard a small giggle. "That won't be necessary. It's about time they know anyway."

I was confused. "But I thought you planned to stay unnoticed for some more time." The plan was to reincarnate Ceicillia and train her properly before revealing ourselves to Dicathean. Of course this plan didn't go so well, and so I figured that we would wait for Arthur to be properly trained.

"The way Arthur developed gave me a few ideas and made me change my plans. It wouldn't hurt to ally with Dicathean. With Arthur as the bridge we might have a chance to secretly ally with at least some of the kingdoms, and prevent unnecessary losses on both sides. We just have to prolong the war, without really harming Dicathean, until we find a way to be able to hold our own against the other asuras."

I understood what he was getting at. Arthurs explosive development was a glimmer of hope, if the average human could even be a tenth as powerful as he will be, we might actually have a chance against the asuras, as we could win with sheer numbers.

While I doubt that Arthur will ever be able to defeat any asura on his own, together with the wraiths or in an ambush I wouldnt deem it impossible. And with the millions of Alacryans and Dicatheans against the few thousands asuras I would even say the chances were in our favor.

"So you want to send Arthur to negotiate with the human kingdom?"

"It's about time he reunites with his parents, don't you think?"

Arthur Leywin POV (Erith flashback)

As I reached the town hall square I saw the figure descending from heaven, his white hair waving weightless, like there was wind blowing it backwards and his golden runes illuminating his pale skin.

"I must say, your accomplishments controlling aether aren't half bad. If you agree to teach me all of this will be much more pleasant " He said in a condescending tone, like he didn't just ask for tuition, but offered mere bugs a chance to live.

"Knowledge of Aether isn't something that can be taught." One of our elders answered his request. "It has to be earned by studying the aether arts and gaining insight."

Suddenly the elder disappeared and reappeared in the air next to the intruder, his hand grabbing the elders head.

The intruder closed his hand and the elders skull shattered, sending his blood, brain and skull fragments flying all over the square.

"Anyone else who wants to lie?" he asked with his emotionless voice, looking around.

All of us stood there like a deer in a spotlight, alternating between looking at him and the remains of our elder.

"Doesn't seem like it" he concluded and snapped his finger. This sound was amplified and the sound mana washed over the square, bursting eardrums left and right, as mine only survived because I had my whole body imbued with mana.

He let himself fall from the sky and cast a firespell that disintegrated the whole town hall, with everyone and everything standing in his way.

The crowd was still confused, it was my job to help evacuate everyone, but at this moment I could only think about two people, who I had to save at all cost.

I used the confusion and used a vivum mana art to camouflage with the environment, hoping it might be enough to get away unnoticed and ran down the street I had come from, back to our house.

"Iana" I screamed as I got closer. The door opened and she came out, with our baby in her arms.

"What happened?" she asked, confused, noticing my expression and the blood splatters on my coat.

"We have to run, they don't plan on taking hostages." I answered as I reached her, not wanting to have to tell her of the gruesome death I had witnessed.

"The barrier will probably prevent us from escaping, so we have to find another way." I thought out loud.

"What about the ascension gate?" Iana asked.

"The old one is outside of the barrier and this maniac is right next to the new one."

Iana's face went pale.

"There's one other way. But it's risky." She said. "We can encase ourselves."

It took me a second, before realizing this was the only way to escape this situation. I nodded.

"Follow me." Iana said and started to run toward the laboratory.

***

1.3k words

Sorry for the long wait, I had a lot of work to do, as well as Uni and a (false) accusation of plagiarism to deal with.

Additionally I had problems with the Flashbag, as I wasn't able to decide how I wanted to write it, so the few times where I had the time to write I just couldn't find the right tone and so I had to rewrite this part a couple of times.

I will try to get Chapter 34 out before February, but can't promise it.