Aspiration to the Heavens: Becoming the Supreme Mage Vol 2- Descent of Darkness

Episode 24: Returning Home

*Boukyaku*

"Boukyaku!" Aunt Koukyuu yelled, running toward us. "Eien just informed us, Lei is in Wahkan. Nyima and the others have closed the gates between the universes firmly and destroyed most the creatures. However, some still linger."

"Not for long," Tahoma said as he emerged from the forest, several red cores on hand."

I stood up, glancing at him. "You said that your job was to close the hole to the abyss when we first met back in capital."

Tahoma nodded. "That's correct. It's for that reason that I need you to get away from here. This area still contains a great deal of darkness."

"Do you know of any abyssal creature with white hair and resembles a person?"

His eyes widened. "A creature that takes on the shape of a person? I've heard that there were beings that resembled angels.

I recalled the crescent bow the man wielded against us. The weapon wasn't a normal tool form our world. "The guy had a weapon that was reminiscent of an angel too and a wand."

Aunt crossed her arms as if perturbed. "A weapon that is like those of Zionia and our own?" She closed her eyes and furrowed her brow. "In all my life I've only seen a few fitting that description. Our own Magus Maximus has one. Most who do are extremely dangerous individuals, though the ones I've met didn't come from the abyss. Well, except for one..."

"You never met a white haired man with a bow shaped weapon?" I queried further.

At this my aunt opened her eyes and her mouth. "A bow?"

"Yeah, a black one with a crescent moon on it."

"I once met a person with such a weapon. But the individual who wielded it had black hair, not white. Though... it's possible that whoever this is somehow recovered it after the last war..."

Shivers ran up my spine. "Wait, you're making it sound like you've been to the Abyss before. Have you? If so, how may we get there?"

Aunt nodded. "Felt like I've answered this so many times already. Yes, I have. One of those portals was the one which caused this whole mess. But like I said, Nyima and the others closed all of them up. Why do you ask?"

I curled my hands into tight fists. "Lucette... she fell into that world. Tell me, do you think that she might still be alive?"

"That world is a harsh one," Ms. Key said as she floated down into the meadow. "Lucette is strong, but the chances of her surviving on her own are hard. We barely managed to survive in groups."

I closed my eyes as a faint memory returned. It was of a black winged angel with a shield. They had mentioned something about it. Back then, shadows similar to those that attacked us descended from the skies.

"So that's what those beings from long ago were called."

Aunt nodded. "You should remember them rather well, from the last time the Mahoulympics were held in our lands."

Mayu nodded. "I remember that too. It was you who kept them away, wasn't it?"

Ms. Key smiled bitter-sweetly. "Yeah, us and the heroes from the other realms. Though we lost so many people in the war."

"It was for that reason that we couldn't allow it to expand further this time. I wanted to think that our fight against them was the moment mentioned in the Xianian legends. That somehow we managed to overcome our cruel destiny."