Chapter 124: Determination

‘Is he returning to the Aurelius Family lands? Our mission is incomplete, the Highlord would never stand for such insubordination… But why did he take Probus with him? Is he returning to bury his body? Perhaps to inter it, since he preserved it? Is he fleeing?’ Helena’s thoughts were muddled as she tried to unfold Trajan’s actions.

The Vampire Wizard had simply left, out of the blue.

‘And why did he care about the Ascension Ruins and the Flame Empyrean Turtle?’ She shook her head, unable to make anything of it.

Behind her, she detected movement. Instinctively she looked back, seeing Arial walking down the hallway. The fox girl had her head down and was moving with purpose, seemingly ignoring Helena.

Helena gave her a small nod and stepped to the side, looking out a window in the hallway as she contemplated what to do. She’d also need to figure out what to do with the fox girl that the Shades were hunting.

‘I can’t just let Trajan go off and do something dangerous… I AM in charge of this mission. I can’t lose both of them.’ She rubbed at her eyes, feeling a headache start to creep in from the stress despite her regenerative powers.

‘I just don’t know what to do…’ She was lost in thought.

Arial moved down the hallway, her footsteps controlled and managed. In just a small number of seconds, she was only a few steps away from Helena.

Arial’s eyes flashed with a pale, pallid light.

Out of nowhere, with no warning or telltale signs at all, Arial stabbed forward with her right hand, the dagger of pure light melting forth with almost no signal. An incredibly, incinerating amount of heat was concentrated in the dagger, unable to escape its confines as it cut towards Helena in a split second.

Helena had less than a fraction of a second to react. Her muddled thoughts had made her guard be somewhat lowered, distracted and concerned with both the present and the future.

WHOOSH

Despite that, despite the total surprise and deadliness of the attack, despite her lowered guard, despite everything…

Helena still managed to dodge the attack.

THUD

A loud thump rang out as Helena’s body shivered, pulling backwards at an almost unnatural angle as she moved out of the path of the dagger of light. At the same time, her right leg came forward in a counterbalancing kick, one that slammed into the side of the tufted ear fox girl.

“Huh-ulp!?” Arial let out a surprised grunt as Helena’s counterattack knocked into her side and sent her flying.

BOOM

Arial’s petite body smashed into the side of the hallway and broke through it, sending up shards of wood into the air as she tumbled and slammed into the wall of the next room, an unused storage room.

Helena spun around, catching her balance as she twisted, coming up on guard. Her eyes flashed as the air around her seemed to tremble, a powerful Aura of Might rippling forth.

Arial had underestimated Helena.

In Arial’s view, Helena was naive. She was a sweet girl in charge of her first mission, one she had started to fail. Arial mistook her kindness for weakness and intended to take advantage of that. Helena’s muddled state of mind had not been feigned, something Arial picked up on.

Unfortunately for Arial, Helena was a genius in terms of physical combat. The strongest physical genius among the Vampires in centuries, perhaps millennia.

Helena was not an extremely famous Vampire. She was known to be in the Aurelius Reavers, but had never really come into the public spotlight. She had, instead, chosen to train for decades on her own, putting her every inch into becoming as strong, and as skilled, as possible.

All to one day challenge the being that injured Vampire Highlord Marcus, a Vampire she loved as a father. The man known as Arthur Telmon.

Reacting to a split second surprise attack, things like that had been a normal part of her training for years. Her body had reacted almost automatically, dodging the attack while unleashing one of her own.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Helena’s voice was cold as she stepped forward, tossing her muddled thoughts to the side as she moved through the hole in the wall. Strength dripped off her in waves as she walked, the Aura of Might she held crushing down on Arial with force rivaling that of a King Class Aura.

“You…” Arial sputtered out as she stood up, her body covered in small scratches and bruises. She put a hand on her back, rubbing at an injury.

Before she could finish, however, Helena’s body blurred forward as she crossed the distance in an instant.

She grabbed ahold of Arial by the throat, slamming her down into the ground. The wooden floor of the room exploded, a half dozen planks shooting up into the air, raining down with shards of wooden shrapnel all over the house.

“Ulp!” A dagger of light that Arial had just formed behind her back fell to the ground and dissipated.

Helena looked at the tufted ear fox girl, her eyes showing no mercy. The befuddlement that had been present earlier was nowhere to be seen.

“Lady Helena?! Is everything alrig-” Worried voices from outside rang out as the Grandmaster Blood Wizards in the other parts of the rented courtyard rushed over. They were immediately cut off, however, as Helena responded.

“Everything is fine. Return to the main building.” Helena barked out a command, dismissing the other Vampires before they could reach her.

In the background, the sound of the other Wizards retreating away could be heard.

“What do you think you’re doing, Arial? I could kill you right now, justifiably. You just tried to murder me. Don’t even think about transforming into your fox form.” Helena stared down at the fox girl, her eyes cool.

Arial stared back up at Helena, tears in her eyes from the impact with the ground.

“Just… kill me. Otherwise… I’ll kill you. I won’t let you use me too…” She spat out, venomously. When they’d camped outside a large city, for no apparent reason, it had become obvious to Arial that she was being used as bait, especially after the Shades had attacked. It was also obvious that simply leaving the Vampires wasn’t an option.

Helena simply looked at her.

“You are a fool. I saved you from almost certain death. Yes, I used you, but by doing so I protected you. Without me, you would’ve died. And you repay me by trying to kill me?” Helena shook her head,

“Thankfully, I’m not an idiot that would let my guard down completely just after knowing you for a brief period. Did you really think you could just stab me out of the blue? Who do you think would fall for that?”

Arial glared back at her,

“Kill me, then… you coward.” Her voice was full of irrational hatred.

Helena’s eyes narrowed. She made a rough, jutting motion with her hand, knocking against Arial’s chin.

Instantly, the fox girl fell unconscious. Helena released her, sitting down on the ground with her hands crossed.

“Me… A coward? I think not.” She shook her head, feeling all of a sudden as if she was clearheaded.

“Neither is Trajan. He isn’t fleeing, no… He is going to try something with the Ascension Ruins and Probus’ body. Something stupid, knowing him.” Helena nodded as she spoke aloud, becoming more and more confident in her conclusion.

“I will not fail this time. I will save you, Trajan. I will fix this.” She scratched at her right arm as she spoke, her eyes becoming slightly bloodshot.

” And you…” Helena looked down at the sprawled out body of Arial with a frown. She bent over and scooped up the fox girl, putting her on her shoulder.

“You are coming with me, whether you like it or not.”

.. .. .. .. .. .. ..

“It’s true, flying on Magmor is almost impossible.” Aiden’s voice held a hint of surprise as he landed on the ground, returning to his human form.

Just moments prior, the Golden Flame Dragon had assumed his massive Draconic form, an incredibly intimidating beast of raw power. No one was around them, something Dorian found a little surprising. He figured the World Bridge near Tomo City was one of the safer places to set up shop on Magmor, considering how dangerous most of the ground level area was.

He had seen a few signs of habitation on the World Bridge. Some small houses and shacks, footsteps and trails that had been oft walked upon.

But, for some reason, it seemed the area had been evacuated or abandoned recently.

“We can just run. We aren’t far at all.” Mira broke in, pointing in the direction of Tomo City.

“The signal source is most likely within or near the Ascension Ruins, as we have surmised. If it’s there, we may need to be careful, but I am still determined to check for it.” Mira’s voice carried that determination strongly as she looked around at them.

“I as well.” Aiden supported her.

“We have no problem with that.” Dorian shrugged. Their destination was the same place, after all.

Leader simply nodded without saying anything. What Dorian said went for him. A dangerous fire burned in his eyes as he looked down the path, his eagerness to reach the ruins palpable.

“Alright. Let us go to Tomo City first. We have some period of time till it surfaces, we can prepare there.” Mira said aloud, looking at them all for approval. They all nodded back.

At that exact moment, a low, rumbling growl shook the air. They all turned to the side, towards the source of the noise.

“Grrr…”

A large, glowing tiger, with skin that seemed to be made out of a mixture of magma and stone, had just emerged from the boiling Magma Sea. It was tall, standing about twice Dorian’s height. Lines of fire energy glowed around it in stripes, some type of fierce beast.

(Image – https://i.imgur.com/mSi27pi.jpg )(Doesn’t Open in App)

‘Oh wow, that looks scary.’ Dorian had Ausra scan it.

–

Species: Striped Magma Tiger

Class – Grandmaster (Peak)

Maximum Energy Level: 941

–

‘Hah!’ Dorian mentally heaved a sigh of relief.

‘Right. I’m actually pretty strong right now. I don’t need to worry about creatures of that level anymore.’

“I will handle it.” Leader’s body blurred forth before Dorian or the others could say anything. He slammed into the Striped Magma Tiger, and, with a single blow, blasted it back more than a hundred meters into the Magma Sea.

As it flew through the air, Dorian watched it intensely.

‘Let me test something…’ His eyes zoomed in on the large tiger.

‘Freeze its momentum for a moment and then continue as normal.’ Using the full force of his will, Dorian pulled upon his soul to twist Fate, commanding the tiger to freeze in mid-air.

He felt some amount of energy leave his body.

A moment later, as the tiger was falling down to the Magma Sea, for a brief second, it froze, standing still in the air. At that point in its fall, it was close enough to the lava that it couldn’t be easily seen due to the shimmering waves of heat. Unless one was studying it intensely, they would miss that it was frozen completely.

–

Dorian – Soul Status

Soul Stage: Lord Class (Middle)

Health: Perfect

Energy: 55,320/56,301

–

Dorian checked his energy level right after. His Maximum Energy Level had increased again, thanks to his meditation while on the rest of the journey through Lansc. His soul was passively increasing in strength at a fast pace, all because of the mysterious Law of Wrath.

Dorian found that sitting and focusing on that mystical energy and sensation not only felt wonderful and intriguing, but also made him stronger. A win-win scenario, even if he didn’t quite fully understand how the Law worked.

‘It cost me around 1,000 points to freeze it in the air… Hmm…’ He thought, going over the results.

He’d reached a better understanding of how he could twist Fate. Several factors mattered.

One was the complexity of the actions he was commanding. For example, when he threw 20 knives randomly into the air and ordered them all to hit the first knife he threw, the complexity of such an event was huge. Such a large number of differing factors and moving parts made twisting Fate cost a huge amount.

Another factor that mattered was the Fate he was changing. The Fate of those knives was something minor. Hence, making such a drastic change was possible.

The Fate of this Peak Grandmaster Class tiger was much greater, by comparison. It was a living beast that had a much greater presence and impact on reality than a randomly thrown knife.

However, he wasn’t making a super complex change. The change he made only froze its momentum for a brief moment and then allowed it to return to moving as normal.

Such an action cost roughly 1,000 points of energy. A not insignificant sum.

‘I need to test it more.’ His eyes trailed off, looking at Leader.

‘How much would it cost to change his Fate for something minor?’ He wondered, rubbing his chin.

Meanwhile, the beast fell back into the lava, stunned, but not killed.

‘Leader seems to have a habit of not killing animals or beasts unless they attack him… or he eats them…’ Dorian had noticed this about Leader, the man that dressed as a simple huntsman despite his great King Class strength.

“Grrr…”

“Grrrrr….”

Several more rumbling growls rang out as four more Striped Magma Tiger’s appeared.

‘They aren’t a real threat to me or us… but to those below the Lord Class, such a threat would be extremely dangerous. Yikes. This Exotic World really is something else.’

“Let’s not waste any time with these, let’s get moving.” Leader waved his hand at the tigers dismissively and then turned to look down the path, taking a moment to look at Dorian.

‘No Bloodline for me I guess.’ Dorian mentally sighed. He could come snag it later if he wanted.

“Let’s go.” Dorian nodded and took the first step, his Wrath Vampire form loping forward with grace as he began traveling down the stone path to Tomo. The rest of the group joined him, traveling forward at a fast pace.

They also happened to be going in the direction where Dorian had seen a large pillar of rock and magma shoot up into the air, as if a grand fight had been taking place…

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