I fiddled around with the silver blade in my hand, drawing a slither of red from my index as I stared at the walls of darkness, only a few plants to keep me company and a small gap in the ceiling to let light in.
"Annette..." I mumbled under my breath. I had run away from home when I was younger, being saved by my now master: Maximilian Dali, principal of the Academy of Magisters. (A/N: If you're wondering who Annette refers to, you could either wait or re-read the first chapter.)
I was a rank five magister, having shot through the ranks at a speed 'never seen before' as my master put it.
Despite my apparent talent, I was currently confined. Punished. Because of my identity, I couldn't head home to see my little sister, Annette. However, my master had sent people to protect her, giving me peace of mind. As for my deadbeat parents, I couldn't care less.
However, my master had informed me that she was captured by unknown assailants and her whereabouts were uncertain. Hearing this, I went a little berserk and having nearly destroyed the academy and severely injuring several teachers and students. My master stepped in with the might of a rank 7 and immediately subdued me, promising he would personally find my sister but that he couldn't risk me going about wantonly destroying everything and thus, confined me to this room.
It had been a over a month spent in absolute silence until—
The door creaked open, the familiar face of my master greeting me with a plate of food as he led me out.
"My sister?"
"Worry about her later. Eat."
"I can't—"
"Eat. That is an order." He commanded, the pressure of a rank 7 boring down on me.
Begrudgingly, I bit down on a freshly baked bun with red bean filling. Normally, I would've savoured it. But today was not such a day.
He led me to his study and made me sit,"I have good news and bad news regarding your sister. Pick."
"Good news."
"She's alive." A wave of relief rushed over me as that burden that had weighed heavily on me was lifted off my chest.
"Bad news?"
"We can't locate her. I got my old friend Darcy from the Darleen kingdom, your good friend Yue's master, to try and divine her location but he received a powerful backlash.
I raised a surprised brow,"Lord Darcy? Even he couldn't? How can this be?"
He put up three fingers,"I can only think of three possible solutions: One, she is stronger than Darcy. To rise from a mortal to outshine a rank 5 magister in the span of about five weeks is impossible so we can rule this out."
"Two, she is located in some place that is heavily fortified against divining magics and precognition magics. The only place I can think of is Skyfall Castle, where Sir Xavier Alexander resides. But this option is even more unlikely."
"Lastly, the most likely of the options, she has probably come into contact with someone like me. A master of sorts which has taken her under his or her wing. If this is so, we can only wait and see how things play out."
"How do you know she was alive?"
"We found her tattered clothing in the forest of quietus amongst some corpses including one viciously killed rank 1 magister. No traces of magic by me were detected so the expert was definitely at the same rank or above me being able to hide their tracks like this."
I knitted my brows,"Then that disturbance in Juniper City my juniors have been telling me about?"
"No one managed to capture the fight but what I could gather from descriptions and reports of the fight a white-haired woman descended from the skies with a wall of corpses behind her and killed off Blood Devil with two strikes. Then, she proceeded to face Lilith's Sanguine Battlefield and came out uninjured. Transforming into a beast-like creature that partially resembled a beastial and proceeded to gouge out the her eyes before killing her. Afterwards, she disappeared from Juniper City. Her name is Artemis Blythe, from what Julius Barshiek told me."
It was something worth celebration, the death of two rank fives. Even on this continent, the third strongest was rank 8 Remi Irving, a close friend of Xavier Alexander and just behind Demonic Faction head Lorentio Knave. As for rank 6 and 7s, they were no more than a hundred strong. Rank 5s, while more abundant, were no more than three hundred. Injuring two rank 5s was a heavy blow, killing two even more so.
"The individual at hand is a sort of vagrant, travelling the world. From what Julius has said, she is heading towards the Ypogeios tundra."
"What? Is she suicidal?!" I shouted,"A rank 6 magister going to a place even a rank 10 daren't, she's courting death! We need to save such a valuable ally! For a rank six like her to openly fight against demonic m—"
Master revealed a trouble look,"That's the issue, see? She's not part of the righteous faction."
"Then why would she—"
"Self-interest. Julius had given her a few valuable items and she, in turn joined his side temporarily. While she isn't righteous, she isn't demonic either so getting her on our side could be a double-edged sword. The Ypogeois tundra isn't a place of fun and games and we can't afford to send people there on a suicidal mission to save people whom we don't even know will repay their gratitude or not. The Ypogeios tundra isn't a place you can fool around—"
———
Artemis' POV.
"Rock paper scissors—Shoot!" He played rock, I played paper,"Haha! It's my win."
"It's only luck." Lucy sulked as I walked on. I was sitting on his shoulders, currently enjoying the breeze and not having to walk,"Luck can't make you lose ten times in a row." I retorted contentedly as we continued to banter.
Having swept the treasures from the kosmimarians, I saw no use in having them live and killed them, ending a race like promised. The tundra was barren, devoid of any life. They were definitely going to die anyway and that was a fact, not an opinion.
The newfound strength of six blue triangles was more than enough for me so I put the 433 into speed. Investing the 270 lives yielded from killing them leaving me with 2 more extra for a rainy day, I had 460 in speed.
Despite this, I had a new goal in mind: To become a rank 6 magister. I had now understood the might a rank 6 magister commanded. Had it not been for it having glaring flaws which aided me in success, death was the only thing which would have awaited me. Despite me originally looking down on magisters as a whole, this experience had brought back the curiosity.
We were now treading the tundra for one reason: To slay one of the three beasts. Within the treasury of kosmimarians, I had come across a powerful one-time use weapon. Unfortunately for the king, it required elemental magic, not blood or spirit magic he was proficient in. Fortunately for me, the machine was intact.
I looked down at the thing in my hand. It was a golden rapier, magical runes in carved into every part of its hilt. The shape of the weapon was purposefully simplistic, as if in stark contrast to the intricate carvings. Tom knew of my plan and had already told me two things:
This method of killing will not award any reward in the form of lives. Simply put, a kill only counts if it is using your power in some way. This rapier is an external item. Nonetheless, if you do manage to kill one of the three Twilight Roamers, I will grant a reward.
Reward. This was the only word that resonated in my head. Upon hearing that, I had come to a decision.
"Hey, are you sure about this?" Lucy asked once more for the umpteenth time,"We've arrived."
"I'm 100% certain that I'll be able to pull it off." I spoke with confidence as I got down.
Staring at my target, I held the sword in my hand and turned to Lucius,"I'll be back in an hour."
"Don't you die on me."
"Have a little faith." I rolled my eyes as I slowly descended the hill. Twilight was approaching fast and I had to get into position before the beast arrived.