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Late Evening - Mid Summer : The Ancient Wreckage, Southwestern Holy Kingdom

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*ffffffwwwwwWWWWOOOOOSH* The noise of the air ripping past me quickly ramped up as the last bit of sunlight disappeared behind the horizon, and I reentered the atmosphere.

It had been several hours since I parted with Ilios at that point, and while I wanted to return to him earlier, I didn't have much of a choice.

When I initially got to the mountaintop, the symptoms of mana exhaustion were already setting in, so I ended up staying there for a bit longer than I needed to try and shake it off before it got too bad.

That gave me a couple hours to kill, but instead of letting that time go to waste, I quickly situated the crawler next to Hera's containment center, did another quick quality check of everything, and eventually did some minor modifications to the fusion cores.

As it turned out, the mythril safety valves on the core's runes were a little loose, and since I didn't want the dungeon core or Hera accidentally setting one off, I had to essentially lock them shut.

For the most part, the modifications were simple and straightforward, but the entire time I was fixing them, Hera was looking over my shoulder and asking an unfathomable amount of questions.

-But I can't say it was all that bad.- It felt nice to feel like I had some true company again, to have someone I could bounce ideas off that could actually correct me.

She was a shockingly quick learner, too, with an unfathomably vast knowledge of magic that, while not as advanced as mine, was filled to the brim with things I didn't know.

It made a part of me want to stay up there and learn from her more, but unfortunately, now was not the time for that. -For now, I need to focus on leaving this place before Myles' group shows up and finally going home...-

Quickly turning my attention back to where I was flying, I blew through the underside of the clouds and immediately started scanning over the forest like a hawk.

I was over the forest about 20 kilometers off the mountainside where Ilios was laying at the time, but my predator-like focus wasn't to figure that out.

It was to hunt, not for food, but for mana.

Scanning over the moonlit forest, I looked for anything big or any sign of a dungeon, but my attention was quickly drawn to a section of the woods a few kilometers away that was lit up by a towering orange flame. -Huh?-

Immediately looking toward it, I saw what looked like the shell of one of the colossal turtle-like creatures I had seen previously, wholly illuminated.

The turtle was a little on the smaller side compared to the ones I saw earlier, but I couldn't care less at that moment.

Not only would something that big certainly have a decent mana core.

. -It's even using magic!- With a dozen rings of glistening water around its head, it actively used a plume of water vapor to protect itself from the fire.

At that moment, my mind stopped seeing it as a creature and more like a ball of mana.

But it was only a moment later, when the flames started to dissipate, that my target changed completely.

Standing just in front of the turtle was a nearly 20-meter-tall creature that looked like a cross between a forest drake and a very bulky wolf.

But what caught my eye wasn't the creature itself; it was its aura that glistened like a beacon while bathed in the fading light of the fire. -What a gem!-

*zip-FWOOOOOOSH* Maintaining all my momentum from reentry, I adjusted my trajectory toward the fighting creatures and closed in like a meteor.

When I first exited below the clouds, I was about 60 kilometers away.

But that distance closed to 0 in about 5 seconds.

*FWO-WO-BAAAANG* The ground exploded as I landed next to the creature, launching a tremendous amount of ejecta kilometers into the air and causing the surrounding kilometer of forest to sink over a dozen meters into the ground instantly.

The sudden, immense change in terrain was too fast even for the monster to keep up, leaving him floating helplessly in the air in front of me.

The next thing I knew, a slightly crazed, instinctual smile had come to my face. -What a lucky find!-

Before escape could even cross the creature's mind, I ripped my right claw out of the molten ground and slashed it through the creature's neck.

*CRRRRRRACK* It instantly killed the massive creature, removing a massive section of its neck like it never existed before the body finally started limply falling to the ground.

*SPLASH-THUD* As the carcass splashed in the pool of molten rock, I leaned down and quickly zeroed in on the mana core in its chest. -There it is...-

*CRRUUUNCH* The creature's ribs shattered as I forced my claws through them before quickly finding the core and pulling it out.

*crackle* The core was glowing a bright sky blue and was about the same size as the one I ate in Kaelallan, but compared to that one, this had substantially more mana.

However, this time, I could actually handle it.

*plop-gulp* Tossing the core into my mouth, I swallowed it like a pill before shattering it the moment it reached my stomach. *CRACKLE-VWOOOOM* Instantly, an immense mana wave erupted from my body before suddenly reversing directions and slamming into my reserve.

But even though I braced myself for a bit of strain and pain, the sensation was like I had just poured a cup of tea into a 5-gallon bucket.

It was tasty, but nowhere near the amount of mana I anticipated. Or maybe it would be better to say that I was just out of touch with how large my reserve had gotten.

-W..what the hell?- At most, my reserve filled by about 2%. -That amount of mana would've ruptured my reserve, even just a couple years ago... What the hell?-

The next thing I knew, I was questioning everything I knew about the efficiency of my spells. -I.. need to rework some of my magic if they consume that much...-

But that was for later. -For now...- I slowly glanced back at the turtle that was still frozen stiff. -Even if his core is the same size as this guy's, it's not enough to let me be liberal with thruster spells...-

Essentially, no matter what I did, I would have to fly without magic for a stretch of the trip.

"Haah..." -Whatever... I might as well just save my energy then...- Quickly spreading my wings, I turned away from the turtle and hurled myself into the air. *FWOOOSH* -If only I didn't have to carry that damn Elder, I could just leave the atmosphere and only use magic to maintain altitude...-

Quickly making my way back to the mountain, I met back up with Ilios and quickly resituated my sword and other belongings behind my wing.

Without much aura to spare, they got jumbled up during my hard mana-less landing.

-But I think that's everything...- Giving one last look around the area, I tried to think of anything I still needed to do here, but nothing came to mind.

-I took everything I need, so Myles or the Holy Kingdom can do what they want to do with the rest.. .-

A part of me hoped that they would be able to learn a thing or two from what was left, but as I took to the sky, I had my doubts. -Maybe I'll give Myles a hint when I get back...-

The flight after that was pretty smooth.

I ended up flying southwest out of the mountains and generally followed the northwestern edge of the Western Continent in case I needed to land and take a break at some point, but thankfully, I managed my mana pretty well and never pushed myself far enough to feel the effects of mana exhaustion again.

That did entail flying about halfway without any magic, but that was better than feeling sick. -It did turn a 30-minute flight into a nearly 3-hour one though...- Even cruising just shy of Mach 2 felt like a snail's pace compared to normal. -But we're finally here...-

Cresting the horizon as I idly thought to myself was the tops of tropical green trees. A truly glorious sight for me, as it meant that I was one step closer to getting home and being able to sleep for a week or two.

*crackle-FWOOSH* Momentarily using magic again, I hastily sped back up and eventually made it to the temple, which had even more cleared area around it than it used to, as well as quite a few more people guarding the perimeter.

It was nice to see. Clearly the settlement was growing, quite quickly might I add, and Captain Lassar was keeping the deal.

-It does make me wonder what Adrian and Emelia are up to these days though.

..- [1] But now wasn't the time for such thoughts.

-Right.. how am I actually going to get to the rune? Father never showed me...-

Momentarily sparing a bit of mana to cloak myself until I dropped into the damaged tower of the temple, I quickly landed and immediately found myself in the exact same situation as when I first came here. -This.. might be troublesome... Should I just dart through it again?-

I didn't want to use the mana, but after looking through the floor where I knew a trap was and didn't find anything, I just gave up. "Haah..." -Well, I'm glad I left the antimatter reactor connector with Hera now... I guess here goes nothing...-

*CRUNCH* Trying to rely mostly on physical strength, I lunged forward with a horrific amount of force, further shattering the ground and launching myself down the hallway, only using one foot to push off the ground and stay in the air or change directions on the corners.

*fwo-FWOOOSH-CRACK* *CRACK-CRUNCH* *CRACK*

Thankfully, it was only a moment later that the final room came into view.

*CR-R-RUNCH* Abruptly coming to a stop, countless cracks ripped across the room, but they all stopped once they met the platform the rune was on.

"Phew..." -Well, the rest of this should be easy, right?- Quickly catching my breath and calming down, I walked over to the space rune and noticed several names around the edge of the pedestal and a few small glowing dots next to each within the black artifact.

The names next to each node were : 'Nouniel' A small kingdom just south of the Kingdom of Deacia.

; 'Siratha' ; 'Ampelos' A city on the southeastern corner of Bahamut.

; 'Nkremó' A city in the western mountains of Bahamut.

; 'Emporio' ; and lastly the northernmost city in Bahamut, nicknamed The Frontier of War, 'Akri'.

The home of Bahamut's main military force.

-After everything that's happened, I think it's a safe bet to say Myles will be there or still at the Elder Hall...- And worst case, if he wasn't at either of those places, I was confident Akri would have people who did know where he was.

-Well, let's not waste any time then! Time to drop this dumbass off with Myles and go home!- *vwoop*

But unfortunately, when I entered that space rune, I failed to think through what exactly the situation really was.

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[1] - Adrian is the captain of the ship that brought Vasilias halfway between the Main and Western Continents, and Emelia was his daughter. Chapter 145 was when Emelia was introduced, and 174 for Adrian if my memory serves.

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