CHAPTER 138

  HOME—TROUBLED—HOME

  Before home, there was another place. A place that had give him foundation and served him well. His dungeon. The Mystic Glades.

  But a troubled presence was going haywire. Unearthing everything.

  Zwoom!

  As the beam fell, the troubled presence came running. “We’ve been robbed—ROBBED! Some bastard stole our everything—even our golems—”

  “Yes, I’m that bastard. Yo moron.”

  “Ooh! That’s okay then. For a minute I thought. My hard work was gone without even showing it off—you saw the big bad thing. It’s a walking disaster, right?”

  “Ha…about that, Monoceros, I’ve gifted it to someone.”

  “Gifted?” Vanir thought his ears rang for a minute, and when Hans didn’t correct himself. He cried, “Have you lost your goddamn mind? Did Knight convention hit you bad at head?”

  “No, but you are—Do you need some beating to set the hierarchy again?” Hans showed his knuckle raised high. But it released the two golems, holding in his knapbinder.

  However, Vanir’s whining had no end. “I’d prefer a beating if you can bring it back. It was my most powerful creation—you don’t even know how strong it was. I haven’t tested but I can bet my head it can take on a sovereign beast or break a fortress alone. It’s far stronger than what we have here—no offence to you two.” He looked at the sulking Hydra’s heads.

  “Leave it, Vanir. Do I look like some petty scoundrel who’d take what I’ve given away—”

  “Yes, that’s exactly who you are.”

  “Haa—I said leave it. End of discussion—”

  “Then what about our haul?” Vanir interrupted. “It’s gone too.”

  “Oh, that. I used it for the afterlife journey of Martys.” Hans was reminded how his Undying army was torn by Martys’s Ablaze skill. And the rest he had planted outside the colosseum on his evening run. Contingency for his escape if his initial plans failed, which surprisingly didn’t this time.

  “It was a waste. But they did serve their purpose.”

  “Yeah, you reached the Eighth rank. You had wings, and the owl was something else.” Vanir was crazy for the phenomena Hans caused, but something else made him hype even more. An artefact which defied logic. “What’s with your sword—it revitalised you in an instant as if time turned back.”

  Stunned on his words, Hans thought how close Vanir hit the mark but before he could say the non stop chatting machine continued.

  “You did Dijkstra dirty. That was fun to watch too.”

  Hans spoke fast. “Yeah, that was the Monoceros gifted for, junior.”

  “Whatever, but your every duel was awesome, boss.” Vanir showed great excitement as if it was him who had achieved that. Hans liked that about Vanir. This elf treated his every achievement as his own and treated him such.

  “But what’s with ‘Boss’?” He questioned Vanir.

  “I can’t always say senior to you—I’m in my fourth year, you know. You are due to graduate in a few months.”

  “Yeah.” Hans agreed, “I heard them say. Glory Wars was cancelled this year?”

  “They do this every time the Knight convention happens.” Vanir reasoned.

  “Anything latest in Concordia?”

  “Not much—if you are asking about your friends. They aren’t back from their apprenticeship.”

  “Why? It should have ended after the convention?” Hans was puzzled, not knowing his friends were engulfed in the fire that he had caused.

  And Vanir came with the reason.

  “They say Parv and Clandor are doing some joint exercise for god knows what.” He responded, as it was the most secretive thing currently happening around the world, but Hans realised what it was.

  Well, if they succeed in harassing Xandor, he will give in. Everything is working as I planned. Don’t betray me, my bad luck. Just contniue, keep going as I wish.

  Hans prayed, asking, “What about the elven princess? Is she back too?”

  “No, but why are you asking—oh, you were together with her for a lot of time— man, you screwed her family for good— but wait…Delimira…I mean, Miss Winters won’t like you asking about her.” He said, teasing.

  “So this punk also knew—damn, was I only the fool?” He let those words remain in his head. “Be nice to her, you idiot. That’s it.”

  “I don’t have to be—everyone likes me— I’m a genius mage—I also won the Glory Wars, unlike someone.”

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  “I ought to beat some sense into you.” Hans was ready to show his tough love towards his dear junior, but Vanir instinctually took several steps back before that happened.

  “I was saying, boss. It’s not me but you. You should treat others better. Every time she sees you. She just escapes. We sort of became friends in the Glory Wars, you know. You’d have known if you took an interest in your subordinates’ lives.”

  “Fine, fine. Let’s get the hell out of here. Open the portal.” Hans commanded, and Vanir followed. The space connected to the Man-Eating Forest opened.

  And when they appeared, someone whom he wanted to say a lot of things was waiting for them. He gestured for Vanir to go back to the mainland and he proceeded deeper with the chairman.

  “Eighth rank—impressive, foolish descendant.” Dietrich, for once, had an amused smile. There was so much that could put a smile on his face, and this was one of those moments. “You played Dijkstra well. Rudolf, well lets say you impressed him enough to make him give a free pass, and then you sent Martys to hell. Killing the spirit first to reduce their power even weakening them. The same tactic your father used to defeat Reina. Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree indeed.”

  Seeing him praise, Hans blushed like a girl in love. A compliment from Dietrich had a significant effect on him. After all, he looked up to him the most since childhood.

  “Hehe. Nothing major, ancestor. I’m just getting started.” Hans said shamelessly. But soon his expression turned confusing. “There is something I need your help with.” He explained to him his birth—the half-elf.

  Looking confused between what to believe and what to hate. At once, Reina looked really hostile and hateful, but at the second, her every action was to keep him out of her life to protect herself and him too. She purposefully took Martys’s place to ambush him in Deadlands to make sure he survives.

  She knew Theodred as him yet showed real care.. no matter what that can’t be faked—maybe there was some scheming involved, but he felt her every ounce of emotion, encouragement to become able to do whatever he wanted.

  Her worry when he was ejected from the spirit world, his bad luck with Solunox. She even didn’t want him to take part in the Knight convention, ready to drop her plan. That was the genuine feelings of hers.

  But maybe she did know that he would not follow her words and, being the Parvian, he had a way to cross any obstacle—or maybe she believed that.

  Hans relayed his every thought to his wise ancestor, anticipating some wisdom.

  “Sometimes truth don’t make sense and might even be something that you don’t want to hear. What can you do then? Nothing. You can’t change the past, but you can always write the next chapter—that’s on your hands. Stop rejecting the truth, accept it, embrace it, and move on.”

  “But it’s not working—I keep thinking—”

  “As far as I know, Samson,” Dietrich said, “he was a man of integrity, whatever he did, or if he did it. There might not be a justifiable reason, but there should be a very big reason. Believe this, and as I’ve said, move on. You worrying over their past will do nothing but hurt you.”

  His hand came to his shoulder. “You are doing well—keep going, little Parvian.” He paused a bit before continuing, “But your origin explains a lot of questions, why your elf form looks like someone I detest so much—”

  “Detest?” Hans doubted his hearing.

  “It’s the mage king of stories.”

  “You don’t say.”

  “Yes, it’s the truth. I was so surprised as to why you looked like that, but if that blood flows through the veins—it’s possible. Guard that identity with your life. Because not only do I, but one of the ancients also knows that face very well. He is the real deal. The powerful ones from Madaruka can’t really escape, but their projections can.”

  “Projections?”

  “Yes, it’s the perk of being one with mana, being an ancient. Your consciousness can come to life like this.”

  In a flash, Dietrich cloned himself. “It’s not as powerful as I am, but it barely passes the filters of the Madaruka restriction. There are also levels among ancients. The stronger they are, the harder it is to come out of that.”

  He paused again.

  “Ateliers are dead, and they should remain like that. Now show me that elf form, let’s see how much you have progressed.”

  Hans did as was told. Kindness in one hand while the light sword in the other.

  “So you prefer dual-swords offence and defence at the same time. It reduces power and compensates for more range and speed. Good choice for your build.”

  Dietrich praised, and being in the higher grade became effective as Hans was not as helpless as before, but it was evident that Dietrich was only playing along. He had felt Homar’s killing arrow, while Adrian’s power to deflect it as it was nothing.

  Now he felt how ballsy he was, teasing Kansas, the fifth-ranked knight, and Norwin. They were entirely in their own realm, and Dietrich and Ancients were supposed to surpass them. “Man, I’ve a lot of work cut out for me.”

  He swung both swords as his wings of freedom unfurled.

  Their sparring continued for a long time, Dietrich pointing out several areas where he could use aura more efficiently. And getting pointers from the first knight was really useful.

  The sun was hugging the horizon. The dusk grazing them.

  They sat in the ground, their legs sprawled.

  “Have you met Solunox, ancestor?” He asked.

  “Yes.” Dietrich opened his palm to show Hans. A crystal feather that he was familiar with. “I had three of them. One I gave it to your father. Another to Hera and the last one was for you—but you have no need it seems. You got the whole bird.”

  “What is it? I only succeeded twice in summoning it.”

  “That is the gatekeeper of spirit worlds. An entity born when day and night clashed. An existence tasked to keep spirits and this realm apart. Its not something that can be controlled.”

  “Why did he chose me?”

  “What is a gatekeeper, foolish descendant?”

  “Something that stops the entry and exit.” Hans answered crudely.

  “Yes, and what does elf do— they offer the spirits to appear in the realm which is not theirs. If a spirit is used to harm life, it gets corrupted and when it reaches peak, it cause disturbance in Spirit world breaking the boundary between realms.”

  Hans listened as Dietrich showed him the remaining feather. “This little thing, it was massive and now shrunken. But it can kill a spirit in an instant. You don’t need me to explain where Samson used his, don’t you?”

  “On Reina Clandor.”

  “Yes, foolish descendant. And for your earlier query— you can easily summon Solunox if you are facing a spirit drenched in a lot of killings and for the rest, your desperate pleas might earn some pity from the god of the spirit world.”

  A lot of things were getting clear. Even Aadya didn’t had this information. And even she flinched on the appearance of Solunox when he summoned it first in Frostspire.

  “How come you have the feathers, ancestor?” He asked, genuinely curious.

  “Solunox and I go way back foolish descendant.” He gently pushed him forward. “Now go back. Rudolf must be waiting.”

  “Yeah, he found me in an instant as Theodred.” Hans chuckled as he turned back.

  “That is a parent’s heart Hans. Cherish it for as long as you could.” Dietrich disappeared but there was a longing in his words. A regret of some sort that Hans felt in his heart.

  “Yes, I’ll do that. Ancestor.” He also stepped towards the SpaceDoor to the midlands. His home was waiting and he was too.