Page 268

Mid Morning - Mid Winter : Akri, Bahamut

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*Crackle-Crunch* The mythril dust crunched like sand under Commander Méllon's feet as he fearlessly walked toward me before coming to a stop only a few hundred meters away.

He absolutely towered over me, even at a distance, but even though I was far from fearful of him, his presence alone kept me on edge. -Shit, why is he so hard to read?-

His expression was cold, and his eyes were dead.

He truly looked like a man who had given up on living, but his slightly curious tone and glowing aura made things seem like the complete opposite.

"My name is Astrafteró Méllon, the Vice-Commander of Bahamut's main force here in Akri, and the Head of the Artifact and Elixir research divisions. May I request your name?"

-So, he is in charge of research...- I hesitated momentarily before glancing at the other Ancients to try and figure out whose side he was on, but neither of them did anything obvious. "My name is Vasilias Whyte."

"Hm... Are you related to the noble Whyte family?"

"Something like that."

He quickly looked me up and down before looking me in the eye. "I see. In that case, please take out the artifact and look inside it. How many lines intersect?"

Both of the other ancients immediately tensed up, but I tilted my head in confusion. -Lines?- I had looked in the artifact previously and did see several lines, but they looked like divisions between layers of sediment rather than purposefully placed pieces. "Seven?"

"Hoh, to think the humans would have such a leap in progress." His aura immediately sharpened around the artifact, but I used a bit of leftover space mana to shake it off. He noticed it right away. "It seems you don't trust me."

I immediately shook my head. "There is only one person who I can trust with this. I apologize." -Whether this is really a message artifact or not, I should verify it with Myles.-

"May I be so rude to ask who that would be?"

"That would be Myles Kalf-" My voice was abruptly cut off by a streak of light that instantly ripped through the space mana surrounding the artifact before slamming into the side of my broken claw and exploding.

*CRRRRACK* Thankfully, I managed to intercept it with my claw, or else the molten steel marble would have definitely obliterated the jade artifact.

But at that moment, I couldn't have cared less about it.

-This is steel... And that magic...- The air instantly turned heavy as I looked over at the ancient in the sky with enough bloodlust to make the Commander's aura sharpen and turn into a wall of blades.

However, he didn't realize what the situation had become.

My eyes locked onto the ancient in the air like a dragon who found a human in its nest. "Where did you get that marble..." My voice echoed through the area like the voice of death, immediately making the two remaining guards' faces pale and the Commander fully jump up.

"W-What do you care-"

*BANG-FWOOOOSH* Using antimatter to instantly close the distance between us, I forced my half-broken claws into his neck and adjusted my wings to drive him into the ground.

*WH-HAMMMMM-CRUNCH* A ring of scales around his neck shattered like glass as my claws suddenly started to heal, progressively digging further into his flesh.

I was like a feral monster as I looked into his eyes with a bright yellow glow in my scales. "Now, speak."

His face was that of someone who had seen a ghost. "A-Atlas! A professor in Atlas taught me the technique and gave me a bag of those marbles a few months ago!" *clink-clunk-thud* A small pouch immediately fell off his side, spilling out several dozen perfect steel marbles as it hit the ground.

They were marbles I had made for Krystallo. -A professor, huh?- Time paused as I looked back at the other ancient. -To think the Holy Kingdom would be shameless enough to target the next generation as well...-

*Crackle* The ancient's scales shattered between my claws as I clenched my paw.

At that moment, there was nothing that could save him, but the instant before I relocated the atoms in his throat to the mantle of the planet, I eased up. "If you don't give me the information I want, I'm going to throw you into space and let you rot."

*BAAAANG-FWOOOOSH* Commander Méllon instantly appeared next to me before stopping his claws just short of the back of my head. "Young man, I believe you have gone too far."

My anxiousness about him being an enemy eased instantly. "Even if I were to blow a hole through his neck it wouldn't be too far. Traitorous scum like these two deserve to die." *vwoop* Tossing the jade artifact up in front of his face, I looked back and locked onto the other ancient.

He was in the air, darting toward the horizon. -As if...-

But before I could even prepare the magic to catch up to him, a streak of light ripped across the sky and obliterated the base of his right wing. *crackle-BAAAANG*

The ancient immediately lost balance, but while he was not slow to recover, by the time he looked for the source of the attack, Ilios was in his face.

*CRACK* *FWOOOSH-WHAAAM* A massive plume of dust, dirt, and rubble was thrown into the air as the colossal dragon hit the ground before Ilios darted down and slammed into the ancient one more time. *BAAAAANG*

The Commander watched the scene with a blank expression, but he didn't stay like that forever. "To call my men 'traitorous scum' and mercilessly attack them right in front of me." He slowly looked back at me with a stare of intent. "Do you take me for someone weak?"

His aura surrounded me once more before I gave him a distasteful look. "Someone who can say they are friends with Myles still considers trash who turned their back on Bahamut as 'your men'?"

"Turned their back on Bahamut? That is quite the claim." His blank expression slowly morphed to show a hint of anger.

"Yeah, because countless pieces of another jade artifact being in this bastard's pouch isn't enough." I spoke with heavy sarcasm as I tossed the pouch of steel marbles to the Commander. "Since that's the case, why don't you go ask it from the source?"

His expressionless face immediately started to darken as he turned to look at the ancient under my feet.

But I just moved my wing in front of his face. "Oi, I meant the other guard... This fucker is mine..."

Seeing my bloodlust return as I looked back down at the ancient, Commander Méllon finally turned away and got ready to fly over to the guard Ilios incapacitated.

"But before you go, take that bastard too." I pointed to his feet as Ilios darted up next to him and dropped the body of the Elder. "I ran into him at a shelter in the mountains north of the Ancient Wreckage; he was the one I took that jade from."

The Commander's face only became more furious as he saw and eventually picked up the Elder with his aura. "I see." As he spread his wings, he glanced back at me with a threatening look. "If you are wrong, I hope you are prepared for the consequences."

*FWOOOSH* Finally taking to the air, the Commander made his way over to the other ancient with great haste, leaving just Ilios and me with the other ancient.

It made me look like a hawk who had just caught a mouse. "Now, how about you start explaining exactly how you got that pouch of marbles."

The 'interrogation' went smoothly after that.

According to the ancient, the person who gave them both the marbles and the jade was a professor in Atlas who said they managed to create the new set of spells after having an epiphany from watching a student's magic a few months prior.

Thankfully, no matter how I probed him, fear of hearing that something had happened to Krystallo never came to light, but at the same time, the possibility still existed. -There is no way she would just give those to someone, even if a professor asked for them...-

But there was nothing else I could dig out of the ancient himself. -I guess I'll just have to pay the academy a 'visit' when I get home...-

*Shik* Pulling my claws out of the ancient's neck, I finally wrapped up my questions and dragged the guard across the dust and rubble-covered ground before tossing him over next to the Commander. *FWOOSH-CRUNCH*

The whole time I was interrogating the guard, he had been torturing the other ancient in an increasingly brutal manner, with a no longer expressionless look on his face. However, contrary to before, his voice had turned cold. "It seems you have finished with him."

I quickly nodded. "I figured out what I needed to, and since you seem to be on our side, I will just leave him with you. He has a loose jaw, so you should be able to get plenty out of him."

"How convenient." *Crackle* The other guard's ribs cracked as the Commander pulled his paw off his barely conscious body.

"Earlier, you mentioned the one person you trusted to leave the artifact to was Myles Kalfas, correct?

I thought you just said that name to pull me off your trail, but I think I understand now. "

-Hm?- Although I was preparing to leave, I paused when he spoke.

"You are related to the Ragnarok, aren't you..." His tone had once again become curious, but after seeing me nod, he just turned back to the guards. "I see. In that case, I will not poke my nose in any further; however, before you leave, read through this."

He immediately moved a letter out of a small bag under his wing and held it in front of me.

Visually, the paper was completely blank and looked just like the ones I found on the Elder in the mountains, but looking with my aura revealed a complex set of runes, seemingly carved into the paper's surface.

"If you inject mana into the rune on the bottom corner of it, then evenly push mana behind it, the text will appear."

-What?- Immediately questioning how the text would appear since the runes didn't have any obviously useful effects, I followed his instructions and injected a bit of mana into it.

*vwowowowom* The paper immediately started vibrating, and as instructed, I put an even layer of mana behind it, but seemingly nothing happened.

At least, that was the case until I looked at the letter with my aura again and noticed countless patterned channels of mana flowing up through the letter.

It formed a text. A string of draconic letters mentioning what happened at the Elder Hall and detailing a fight I hadn't heard about involving Amphitrite Ouranós before eventually saying something directly regarding Myles.

A part of me couldn't believe what I was seeing. -He entered his dragon sleep?!-

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