The Star of Annihilation - Chapter 80 – Surpass (2)

Chapter 80 – Surpass (2)
Written by : eleven

* * *

Short blonde hair that barely reached the shoulders.

Totam had a pale skin color along with mysterious white eyes to boot.

When taking these things into account, plus the fact that Lucius could not feel any kind of ki or mana from them, Totam’s identity now was clear as day.

“A Dryad?”

“Yes.”

Totam replied with their androdynous voice once again.

Dryads were creatures of the forests, and had deeper ties to plants and greenery that even the elves.

They were a race that used a power unknown to any man and had no genders.

“Why would a Dryad be serving the Emperor?”

Lucius couldn’t hold back his curious thoughts as very little was known about the Dryads since their race was believed to be extinct to the public.

Of course only a few Imperial officials that were extremely high up in the monarchy knew that they were in fact real, and Lucius happened to be one of them with such knowledge.

Because Lucius was one of the Seven Swordmasters of the Empire, he was able to find lots of information if he ever desired to look into anything.

Amongst his earlier days when Lucius had just finished serving in the war against the Demons, he had found a lot of interest in traveling the Northern Continent and wished to know more about the origins of it.

The Dryads had a very bloodied and tragic history that was not recorded in any public textbook because of their few numbers, and the tragic story that lay behind their race’s downfall.

In even fewer numbers than the Giant Race, the Dryads were not dangerous creatures and were quite difficult to trace, let alone find.

Unlike most misconceptions that portrayed them as such in storybooks, Dryads were not able to wield charms or suck the life energy of their victims.

The Dryads were a race that were in fact, extremely peaceful and almost always found any way to avoid conflict.

The reason they had such a tragic story was because their entire race was hunted down brutally by the other races that dwelled in the forest due to the gems of their life essence that they held within their chests.

Those life essences were essentially many times more concentrated than any kind of mana stone or other resources that served as a container for energy.

Their had only been one precedented use of those life essences, and that was in the form of a bomb which resulted in a genocide so large, that it gathered the resentment of several species.

But that story was for another time. Lucius was more curious as to why a Dryad was alive and serving the Empire as an escort for this mission.

If anything, it just served as another danger and potential threat to their party in their travel to the central plains.

“Things have been a little complicated so the Emperor has personally asked me to see to the safety of the envoy to the central plains during the tournament and travel period.”

“….?”

Lucius looked at Totam confusedly as he didn’t understand how a Dryad would prove to be helpful in their safety, especially when Lucius was present during the trip. Furthermore, Totam’s words also implied that they would be also responsible for their safety once they reached the tournament.

Not even Lucius could guarantee their safety no matter how strong he was because of the several continental superpowers and their respective envoys coming as well.

If all the other envoys decided to go against Lucius and Roy, there was nothing they would be able to do, though the chances of that happening were slim to none.

Totam, seeing Lucius clear signs of doubt, shook their head and smirked.

“I assure you that I cannot be stronger than yourself, an esteemed Swordmaster, but rather my specialities lie in disguise and hiding our presence in any kind of situation.”

Lucius then realized how foolish and shortsighted he was, but did not show that he was flustered to keep his dignity.

Instead, Lucius turned to look over to Roy who was meditating and pointed with his chin as he spoke.

“I don’t care about my safety, but that little one… He has to live no matter what.”

Lucius turned to look back at Totam once more, this time the look in his eyes was deathly cold.

“I don’t care what the price is, but he needs to stay alive. Not just for himself or me, but for the Empire.”

“I understand. The Emperor himself, has briefed me on what is at stake here and also forewarned me of the more… how should I say it? Dangerous variables if you will.”

Lucius didn’t like Totam’s way of speaking but he tried to focus on the important information he was gathering from them.

It seemed like Totam was being sincere and it was likely that if Emperor Navarro had directly informed the Dryad before him of all the ‘variables’, then it was likely to be true as it was Imperial crime to impersonate or borrow the Emperor’s word without consent or permission.

“I see. I’m sorry for asking so much, I hope you can understand.”

“No worries at all. I’m quite used to it.”

Lucius scratched his hair awkwardly as Totam’s response felt a bit sharp but he decided to focus on the road ahead as they still had a long way to go before they reached the central plains.

* * *

Inside the carriage, Roy was deep in his meditation.

Although Roy constantly used mana and meditated to circulate his demonic energy and mana inside of his mana circuit to improve the speed of his reaction time and spell casting, it was a rare moment for him to explore the inner workings of his own ‘nebula’ or mana core.

For some reason, Roy couldn’t look away from the bright red star that shone so ominously in the distance beyond the wall of his fourth star.

It was a translucent barrier, so looking through it was not a problem, but Roy had been thinking less on how to break past the wall and had rather been staring at the Star of Annihilation deep within the distance.

Before, Roy had felt an eerie and almost dreadful feeling when taking glimpses at it in the past.

He still felt an ominous foreboding every time he looked at it, but the longer he seemed to observe this radiant star emitting energy within the dark corners of his nebula, the more familiar he started to feel with it.

Compared to the four white stars in his core that he had already made his own, this star was emitting a much more powerful energy than anything else.

In fact, it was closer to something like the sun if he were to draw a comparison to something realistic.

‘What have I been doing…?’

Suddenly, as Roy had this weird thought, his concentration fumbled and he immediately opened his eyes back to inside the carriage.

Beads of sweat were rolling down his forehead as he looked outside and wiped the sweat from his body.

It was getting close to dusk and Roy could see the sun setting amongst the tall trees that seemed to protect the path that the carriage was taking.

Roy looked around and noticed everything was fine around him in regards to the party and his mother.

It felt a bit lonely since his friends weren’t with him on this trip, but Roy was starting to put the pieces together from the information he had gotten beforehand.

Based on his master’s words when he woke up, it seemed that the others also had their own agendas and since he was being selected as one of the Empire’s representatives in the Tournament of Young Lions, there was no way his friends did not catch others’ eyes’ when it came to their talents.

“I really have come a long way.”

Roy muttered to himself as he stretched out his aching legs from sitting in the lotus position for too long during his meditation.

It was true.

When he had first regressed, he had the intention of getting revenge and that had never changed.

But compared to before, he was building a network of allies that he would slowly be able to trust.

How far he would trust them with his information, Roy still did not know since even he could not explain his regression by any magical science theory or powers.

Even Gods that reigned over the domain of time could not rewind time for a mortal without having serious consequences as Ifrit had once mentioned to Roy.

Furthermore, Roy had the intention of raiding dungeons and making up for his lack of power with artifacts and knowledge but even that had not exactly gone as planned since he was only able to investigate the Ruins of the Fairies a long time ago and his last plan to visit a dungeon in the Demon Territory had been thrown out the window since him and his master were being fervently chased from the moment they descended.

‘Do I even need to rely on items to get me further along?’

Roy seriously questioned this, as he was no longer just an individual who solely walked the path of magical science.

He now also found a new passion for swordsmanship, something he never had talent for in the past, and now also had an incredible weapon like Deletus by his side.

‘But why is this guy still not waking up?’

Roy tapped his arm where the small tattoo-like mark of his contract with Ifrit was.

Everytime he tried to rouse his mana to get a reaction from the mark, as per usual his method of contacting Ifrit, the mark didn’t even give a response.

Normally this never happened as Ifrit had always responded even when late at night and when Roy would wake up with nightmares about the past.

‘It’s almost as if you’re gone for good…But why am I regretting this only now?

Roy realized he really needed to urgently fix this as soon as possible because of just how valuable Ifrit was to his survival and progression of strength.

But Roy also felt rather conflicted.

Was Ifrit really just a tool or method of survival to him?

It was hard to say, since Roy and Ifrit never really shared deep and meaningful conversations as friends.

Although it seemed like there was some care for each other since Ifrit knew everything about Roy and his mysterious regression to the past and his experiences, it was still a one-way street since Roy really didn’t know much about Ifrit or his life other than the basic history he had learned of.

In fact, there was still a lot of mystery surrounding the Spirit Realm and Ifrit’s origins.

Who exactly was the Great Mother that ruled over the Spirit Realm and why was Ifrit a half-demon?

Roy never had gotten to learn of the answers to these questions.

Regardless of his problems however, Roy felt that items and artifacts would probably have to come later.

If things proved to be more dangerous over time and his strength didn’t amount to what it needed to be, only then would he decide to prioritize raiding the dungeons he had heard of in his past life.

Since the present timeline had changed so much from his previous life already, Roy didn’t even know if these dungeons would still be intact or not. Nothing was for certain and the fact that he had regressed was in actuality not all that impressive when he looked at how many changes had already happened in this timeline.

There were still a lot of things to be done, and still a lot more training to do.

Roy decided to get some rest for the time being and pulled the blanket near himself inside of the carriage and laid down peacefully.

Chapter 80 – Fin