Ch 172 – A House Taken Over

Upon seeing the door open automatically, Nox Aeterna's eyes gleamed with malignant light and he stepped out into the hallway of his family's large manor. Just one glance alone and he saw the comically long hallway and the multiple rooms the house had.

Not only that, but he also saw the family servants ranging from maids to butlers. Their appearance is as close to what you can expect from them, with the butlers wearing black butler outfits and the maids wearing maid outfits.

No, the strange thing about them was their impeccable appearance of grace and beauty. One glance alone and you'd instantly see a hot guy or a hot girl wearing a maid or butler outfit. Heck, some girls wore butler outfits and some men wore maid outfits!

It was a scene of beauty, where one's eyes would feast upon such hot people no matter where they look. From the cute butler with a short stature, to the hot tall butler with raven black hair and black eyes. There were bratty maids, tomboy maids, tomboy butlers, femboy maids, tsundere maids, dommy mommy maids, clumsy butlers, and nearly every aesthetic there was can be seen.

Any guy with a brain would of course not realize this peculiarity because only their lower brain would be functioning at the moment they saw so many beauties, but a guy with two brains would realize how strange the situation was.

Even if the Aeterna family was one of the most powerful families in Europe and even in the entire world, having so many beautiful servants would be a peculiarity… That is if they were actually humans of course.

It's already the year 2055! Humanity has already evolved since the year the apocalypse started. They didn't just evolve their technology nor their magic, no! They made those two branches of development develop rapidly as many brilliant minds changed the world, though not all of them were for the better.

You know what people depicted back then before the apocalypse started about the future? Most likely or not, one would find realistic sex bots!

So putting magic and technology together, humanity was able to produce life-like sex golems, or just life-like golems in general. They can be considered the current pinnacle of humanity's ability to create life-like golems, that was until a certain genius of the Aeterna Family entered the world and created their own golems!

The current golems Nox Aeterna was seeing right now was created by a certain family member of the Aeterna family, and they were considered the greatest golem the world has ever seen in terms of quality and abilities. Any one of them can be considered an elite soldier, with skills in nearly all ranges of combat, survival, economy, and such at an absurd level. Get one of them and life would essentially become a breeze, and the Aeterna family has an entire plethora of them!

They can be called the Perfect Servants, with their price being astronomically high, but people all around the world still want to get one for themselves. But the Aeterna family strictly refuses to let their golems be sold, which was great for Nox.

'These golems, they truly are quite marvelous creations. Sadly, their AI isn't that great and they would have limited abilities outside of their predetermined abilities, but with my current knowledge, I can easily improve their AI and instantly get a terrifying army of high-quality golems at my beck and call… That is if I were to successfully override the system controlling these golems.' Nox Aeterna thought and briskly walked through the hallway and his rainbow eyes were draped in mana.

Instantly, he saw the magic circuits all around the house through the walls. If anyone else was to try and see the magic circuits, they'd get obstructed by the preventive measures put up in the entire house, but due to Nox's superior methods, such boorish methods didn't impose any problems to him at all.

Quickly walking through the hallway, he noticed early on that the source of the golem's intelligence, the 'Mother AI' of the golems that allows his father to easily control so many golems at once, was not inside the house. Controlling so many golems, and such high-quality ones at that would impose a heavy burden even on his father. But if he were to control them through a leader, then it'd be far easier to control them all.

With that in mind, Nox Aeterna stops and walks towards one of the balconies beside him and opened the door to arrive at the balcony. He quickly reached the edge of the balcony, and he wielded the mana inside him and controlled the wind.

Through his masterful control, he slowly floated to the sky as green winds enveloped him which allowed him to fly. Rising higher into the sky, he saw the invisible barrier enveloping the entirety of the family estate in the form of a thin blue barrier. One glance alone and he saw that the source of the barrier is buried deep in the center of the house down underground into a strange room.

Not only that, but he can also see that all of the magical constructs that operate in the entire house seem to all be connected to that strange room, which made him know that the unknown room was the main control room of the entire Aeterna family estate.

Now that he knows where the main control room was, he slowly floated down toward the ground and landed on the soft green grass. The green wind surrounding his body slowly disappeared and his hair stopped fluttering wildly.

To show such masterful flying control at such a young age would entrance any mage who knows how to fly. Flying is such a different thing from walking on two legs which humans got themselves accustomed to their entire life. Instead of walking left, right, forward, backward, and all those directions, flying opens an entirely new world of movement.

One can go up, down, left, right, forward, backward, spin horizontally, spin vertically, and many more. Any human would of course find themselves immensely confused to move in such an unfamiliar way, so to see a young boy like Nox Aeterna move so gracefully in the air would of course shock anyone who knows how to fly.

At his level, it was akin to a beautiful art that was beyond what normal flying is. He wasn't just moving through the air, he was flying through the air!

That was just merely a byproduct of living such a long life. If somebody else was also to become immortal and live for more than a thousand years, their skill would of course be at an outstanding level.

But comprehension of Laws is different. Laws are the mysteries of heaven and earth, and comprehending them is to deepen one's understanding of reality itself. Increasing one's comprehension of Laws would not just bring a boost to one's strength, it would bring a qualitative change comparable to entering another level of strength!

And that's what all paths of development strive towards; to comprehend the laws of heaven and earth!

Science, magic, aura, martial arts, qi, chakra, they were all just tools to understand the mysteries of reality!

And that is what Nicolas Olfen, Isaac Deathwill, and all other scholars also want to achieve! They strive to understand the secrets of not just the arcane path, but the underlying principles of the universe and beyond!

Life, Death, Time, Space, Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, any one of them are simple words that hold the boundless mysteries of laws!

'Hmm, that room is quite well protected.' Nox Aeterna thought as he glanced down at the ground like it was transparent and saw the secret room hidden deep underground.

It was surrounded by multiple countermeasures, from space runes, information runes, etc. At his current level of strength, even Nox Aeterna would have a hard time reaching that room through normal means. He can't teleport into it, he can't dig toward it as it would alert the golems, and many more preventive measures hardened the difficulty of entering that room.

But who was Nox Aeterna? He was the clone of the clone of Isaac Deathwill! He was revered as the Emperor of Death! The Demigod closest to reaching the realm of Gods! He has been alive for more than a millennium and has comprehended the vast secrets of the arcane path!

Divination, Necromancy, Arcane, Runes, Magic Circles, Dreams, nearly every path of magic has been explored thoroughly by him. What can a civilization that only has a few decades of development in the arcane path do to him?

He raised both of his palms into the air and weaved them quickly. Hastily, magical runes formed in the air while a magic circle formed on the ground. It glowed lightly with a dim blue color, and the runes floating in the air slowly fell down to the magic circle on the ground and caused a rapid change in color. From blue, red, purple, green, yellow, and eventually a radiant rainbow color.

Feeling his mana draining quickly, he utilized the last sliver of his mana and slammed both of his palms down to the ground. Bam, a strange sucking force grabbed hold of his soul, and he could feel a connection between him and the secret room form within moments.

Opening his eyes, he found himself in a dark void, and opposite to him, he saw the brilliant will of his father like a rainbow-colored cloud. As if alarmed by the strange intruder wanting to take control of the entire family estate, it roared loudly and charged straight at him.

'The magic circle will obstruct my father from learning what is going on right now for a few minutes, which is more than enough to deal with the puny will of a peak S-Rank mage.' Nox Aeterna grinned, and his soul rapidly sent out its will into the strange room to vie for supremacy.

Using his own unique methods, he could continuously support his will to remain at peak condition while the will left behind by his father was already dying and not recovering due to the effects of his magic circle. It didn't just leave his father in the dark, but his will also lost its source of strength and was left alone.

Facing the onslaught of Nox's attack, the originally mighty rainbow cloud formed by a peak S-Rank mage slowly withered out. From a cloud that can encapsulate cities, to now only a fraction of its original size.

But it still struggled relentlessly, it did not want to let this unknown intruder take control of the entire house and let it be misused.

So it roared, and its cloudy body transformed into two huge fists and charged toward Nox's will. In return, Nox Aeterna remained calm and deftly moved around the dark void. He avoided the rapidly charging fists and went to the side. But that is simply another part of his father's will.

Quickly, the two fists stopped their movement just at two opposite sides with Nox Aeterna's will in the middle. Like an explosion of bubbles, the two fists rapidly expanded into a hollow sphere of clouds and trapped Nox's will inside.

But instead of panicking, Nox's will shined brightly like a rainbow and it charged straight toward the thinnest part of the sphere and pierced through it. Without waiting for his father's will to react, he hastily used that and poured more of his soul into the will, allowing it to expand and quickly devoured more and more of his father's will which has spread thinly into a giant hollow sphere.

Falling into his trap, Nox Aeterna calmly devoured his father's will, and just like that, he found himself opening his eyes back to the real world and felt his will remaining inside the hidden underground room permanently. Unless somebody else were to take over the control room, his will would remain inside it which allowed him to finally have control over the entire family estate and all of its golems, magical constructs, barrier, etc.

Grinning lightly, the magic circle below him lost its brilliant rainbow luster and Nox Aeterna let out a breath of turbid air. With success in hand, Nox Aeterna knew that his meteoric rise would happen soon once he finishes his preparations.

AN: This chapter has 2069 words.

(October 11, 2022 – 321st day of writing)