The Star of Annihilation - Chapter 79 – Surpass (1)

Chapter 79 – Surpass (1)
Written by : eleven

* * *

A few days had passed since Mathilde and Roy had talked.

The journey to the central plains had continued and they were roughly a week’s worth of time away from the city where the Tournament of Young Lions would be hosted.

Roy had been practicing diligently each day, sparring against Lucius, meditating and circulating his mana and demonic energy in the break times and reviewed his fights.

If there was one thing that was bothering Roy, was the fact that the guide named Totam would always be watching Roy subtly from afar when he came back to the carriage after the spars with Lucius.

Roy figured his master was no fool and had probably picked up on Totam’s gaze as well, but since his master had not done anything yet since telling Roy to back down with his suspicions, he decided not to take any action unless Lucius did first.

His hatred and anger had not boiled down since that day either.

Roy knew better than anyone that he was no martyr. He also was not some kind of idiot who thought the world revolved around him. His anger was not that the fact that the Dragons had likely murdered his father and sister, but the fact that he had a family he would have never met in both of his lives and that his mother… the only one he had left, was guilt-ridden with this as a result.

‘Just why are they doing this?’

Roy pondered this thought over and over to himself during several occasions and was thinking about it as he circulated the mana in his mana core during meditation in the moving carriage.

If the Dragons had a goal, then what was it? Why were they massacring all of humanity? Was it just limited to this place?

Also the fact that Ifrit had not woken up or spoken to him since that day, only made Roy grow more and more worried.

Due to their contract, Ifrit would only have one more chance to ever manifest in the future before their contract was null and he completely was removed from this world.

Ifrit would not die when the contract ended, but his separate conscious present in Roy’s world would disappear and return to the Spirit Realm.

Roy looked intently inside of his mana core at the expansive wall he found deep within the dark space known as the nebula.

Within his mana core, it was dark like it was at night, and there were four separate stars shining brilliantly.

There was a fifth in sight, but there was a translucent wall in front of Roy that stopped his mana from reaching out to the fifth star.

It was not soft or delicate, neither did the wall have a bottom or top in sight.

It was simply a wall that barred him.

He had seen glimpses of the wall in his past life, but now, he was already at the pinnacle of 4-stars and was stronger than he was in the past.

‘How do I break this wall?’

Roy didn’t quite know how to approach this and the advice he had been given by others was vague.

‘Everyone has their own methods of crossing this wall.’

Some broke it, some were able to climb above it and overcome it and vice versa.

The problem for Roy was that there was no available method for him to break the wall, pass through it, or climb it as there was no limit to this wall.

‘This is the first stage of Transcendence, and I really don’t know much about Transcendence as a whole.’

It was the truth.

Roy had never reached Transcendence, and didn’t know too much about the applications of power that a Transcendent had despite knowing so many individuals who reached Transcendence.

‘Maybe it’s not so much about Transcendence and more about who I am.’

Roy decided to not mull over the concept of Transcendence too much because everyone was different.

The real question was about who he really was. Did Roy even truly know who he was?

‘If my father died, and my sister for that matter… then whose descendant am I exactly? And what powers did they have to bring me back to the past?’

Deep beyond the wall inside of Roy’s nebula, a star brighter than all others and was the origin of his powers these days, stood out to Roy.

He was still far from drawing out any real power from this star, but it was much larger than any other inside of his nebula and on occasion- like the instance when he had a small enlightenment upon reaching 4-stars, was he able to grasp just tiny pieces of information from it.

‘I guess I can call it the Star of Annihilation, seeing that its very essence and origin seem to be practically screaming at me that its power originates from destroying and wiping away everything.’

* * *

As Roy was deep into meditation, Lucius looked over his shoulder from the driver seat as he was sitting next to Totam.

Although Lucius had told Roy to not worry about Totam and trust the Empire, he couldn’t help but feel hypocritical because even he was suspicious of Totam’s constant gaze that had been focused on Roy for most of the trip.

He was quite happy to see his disciple growing in real time, and had a hunch that Roy would soon be able to break through the first stage of Transcendence and reach 5-stars.

It was only a hunch, but Lucius had a strong feeling for some reason it would be something that would happen.

And when it did… it would surely be something incredible to witness.

Considering that Roy had an intense enlightenment on his swordsmanship upon reaching 4-stars, Lucius was excited to see what would happen for Roy soon.

“Hey.”

Lucius suddenly spoke bluntly, getting Totam’s attention.

“…?”

Totam did not show surprise despite Lucius’ sudden words of attention.

Lucius did not miss this, as Totam feigned ignorance. Seeing this, Lucius decided to question Totam a bit now that Roy was focused on his meditation.

“Who exactly of the Empire do you have ties with?”

Lucius was straight to the point. There were many hidden implications from this direct question.

“I don’t understand the question sir.”

Totam did not seem flustered, but his facial expression was hidden by his hooded figure.

The entire trip, Totam had kept their hood on. Lucius was unsure, but there was no way Totam had been able to deliberately avoid his gaze as he was a swordmaster of the Empire. The only way he could have, was either by the use of magic or an artifact.

There were a few other ways he could have done it, but it was certainly not magic since Roy and Lucius would surely have been able to immediately detect the usage of it.

“The agency you are contracted with. It was contracted by the Empire’s royal family for a reason. I’m wondering who you were assigned by.”

“Oh…”

Totam went silent, nodding their head in understanding.

Pausing for a moment in the silence, Totam seemed to be thinking quite deeply about how they would respond.

“Well, I am not supposed to give the details of our customers… under normal circumstances.”

Lucius’ eyebrow perked up at the words and Totam did not miss it.

They were clearly treading carefully and observing Lucius’ response just as Lucius was to them.

“However, I think I can give the esteemed Swordmaster a clue that should be able to satisfy their curiosity.”

Lucius perked up his eyebrow in annoyance, but nodded slightly to signal Totam to continue speaking.

“Well you see, this humble agent was selected after hearing that the guest who is traveling with us is vital to the New Age.”

At the words, Lucius felt shocked but also relieved.

He tried not to show that his facial expression had been played by his emotions, but Totam just chuckled.

“I see.”

Lucius let out a fake cough out of embarrassment and did not pursue the issue any longer.

If Roy was being taken care of behind the scenes by the Emperor himself, then there was no worries to be had.

It was likely then, that Totam may have been selected as an agent for security. That was likely why Lucius could not feel anything special from Totam, but also did not feel anything normal about them.

“Then can I ask you to put down your hood to confirm?”

Lucius turned to Totam with seriousness in his eyes.

It was just a formality of security if anything, but Lucius just wanted to double check.

Totam shook their head, making Lucius think they were about to say no, causing Lucius’ hand to subconsciously reach for his sheathed sword.

But at that moment….

“You should have asked earlier if you were curious. I have no problems with that at all.”

Totam slowly lifted the hood covering their face, and Lucius’ eyes widened.

Chapter 79 – Fin