43 Chapter 43 - What to do?

From time to time, Liam still thought about Blythe.

3 years flashed by. He worked on a lot of stuff during this time and managed to upgrade his repertoire of spells.

At this point, they could be truly called a magical system of its own. Outside the norm.

The power and efficiency still had to be discussed...

Over the course of three years, he managed to piece out more puzzles and a faint picture had began to form.

Although it couldn't do anything for now. He felt like when it hit some kind of tipping point, it would become a period of massive growth for him.

He also got a new hobby. In order to remember his comrades and friends, he made on his journey.

Liam took a special day out of the year. There, he wouldn't be thinking about experiments.

Instead, he chose to dive into his memories to never forget about the people that once helped him.

Perhaps some would call it a useless method that wasted time, but it gave him some solace, at least.

Underneath the ground where their bones and ashes remain, he shall remember them till he dies.

And today came the exact day. He didn't do anything and sat around his garden for hours.

One single lily sat amongst the myriad blades of grass.

Liam sat up at one point and called Akand and Talia. Together, they had a commemoration and a peaceful tea party.

Those invisible wounds still gnawed at them. They might not say it out loud, however Blythe had a profound impact on both Akand and Talia.

She shaped them. Turned them from cynics to something more and added laughter to their lives.

And in her honour, they decided to not bury such a gift. Otherwise, they would be spitting at one of the last things she left behind.

They hung around for the rest of the day, talking about their time here.

Under the influence of alcohol. Talia and Akand loosened up and showed their vulnerable sides.

Liam began to understand why people bonded the best with a bottle of beer or other alcoholic beverages.

Humans that drank chose to let their defences down. A sign of trust.

Sometimes, he wished to join them and drink himself numb just to wake up the next morning with a huge hangover and a headache.

Gradually, they opened up their stories. Underneath the moonlight, Talia talked about her family.

The Lake family. Experts in the water element with a hearsay that it descended from one of the saints.

That gave them an invisible pressure. Not going to the frontlines would be an insult to their ancestors and thus would become fugitives worthy of being hunted down.

Talia herself almost became one. During her younger years, her parents and her brother attained the legendary awakened rank.

The silly brother of hers even managed to get in the top twenty-five ranking, and some called him a rare genius.

Contrary to the thoughts of the people. He hated it.

Talia kept admiring him for years and made a goal for herself to become like her brother.

She didn't know about her brother's disdain for it until he spilled it out one day in anger and pain.

Not everyone knew. However, his rare element boosted his natural mental defences to a very powerful level.

He couldn't control it, and thus, the Inn of Dreams held a limited effect.

Many times he saw his comrades die before his eyes and so he climbed higher and higher in order to stop such things from happening again.

Only to fail again and again. That very day, Talia's vision shattered.

The next day, her brother vanished, leaving her as the only one with any kind of message.

A very long one. He told her to apologise to their parents on his behalf and that he couldn't hold on anymore.

With some clever thinking. Her brother told them that they wouldn't be able to find him unless he showed himself.

The teen Talia began to blame the frontlines. It took away her role model, or rather, it did something more terrible.

The frontlines managed to break her hero. Her shining light that would come to the rescue at any time.

Since then, Talia began to learn many things about the psyche and came across a newly born thought.

Stoicism. Calm like an untouched lake. Without ever breaking and succumbing to stress.

In it, she saw the future where she would one day surpass his brother.

And after Talia adopted this train of thought. Her journey began.

The days where she cried after being hurt during training gone, her whining and smile when she ate her favourite dessert.

All gone. In exchange, she believed that she would surpass her brother.

She had to, otherwise she wouldn't be able to complete her goal. The one mission she decided to be so stubborn about.

Drag her stupid brother home. Make him apologise to their parents instead of forcing that task upon her.

She never told anyone what the letter contained. Not Akand or Liam.

The details of the letter would the world know only when her brother himself decided to publish it out of shame.

Liam didn't know what to feel. A question lingered inside his mind.

Why did she stop? It became clear as day that she seemed to abandon that thought to drag her brother back if she spent so much time here.

He didn't ask. Talia wouldn't make such a mistake if she wanted to tell the entire tale, drunk or not.

One day, she might open up. He just hoped that it wouldn't be during their last exchange.

To repeat the same thing he experienced with Blythe. He would rather force her to stay.

The powerful family didn't matter. So many experts on the frontlines died every day, including the occasional awakened elder.

Unless a dozen or more awakened elders accompanied her, then she would never be truly safe.

He knew that his train of thought resembled a child.

Liam didn't know what he would do if he lost two people in quick succession like that.

Something might break, or his views could change. Nonetheless, he hated the thought of it.

He wanted to be selfish at least for once. Talia herself didn't seem quite determined to leave yet, so he had a lot of time.

Or so he thought. The very next day, he felt one of his connection bridges grow faint.

Talia, that foolish woman, left. No goodbye and no letter to tell them where she had gone.

Both Akand and Liam knew. Neither liked it, and the place grew quieter.

Liam remembered the great days where he first met them through Terran.

Walks through the forest with everyone. Picnics and things they shared.

Those innocent times. They had an invisible guard against each other, however it melted under their very eyes.

Incredible growth and things they accomplished during those years.

For others, the city looked majestic. Liam saw endless memories.

Akand ever since Talia left. Inherited both of their pies and had to share the burden alone.

Liam felt bursts of anger through his connections at times and tried to help.

He knew that it wouldn't be of use. Instead, he turned his attention to a place where he could do something.

The one thing that brought him to his current point and which he wanted to bring to even higher realms.

Mana grains laid around in weird shapes and patterns combined with one larger mana grain in the middle.

All except the middle one held the ratio of one hundred eighty at least and the one in the middle held.

One hundred and ninety-nine.

Under his careful actions, the largest grain began to float into the air as winds howled.

Different elements came to life as well. A trained eye could see that those elements got carefully chosen by Liam.

Their goal is simple. To pursue and give the one in the middle enough power to breakthrough.

The surrounding mana grains began to melt in those patterns as they formed lines that interconnected with each other.

Moments later. A sonic boom knocked Liam away as he lost control near the end.

He got up and grinned.

The luck shone on him this time. A transparent mana crystal triple the size of the usual mana grain floated in the air.

All types of mana mist floated and got absorbed into the crystal as it created a small whirlpool inside his space.

Liam used his much more powerful eyes. Nevertheless, he couldn't see the layer of the surface.

Something quite mysterious, like divine patterns, encased the stone and gave it this divine power to attract mana.

He tested things with the mana crystal, giving it a lot of certain type of mana.

It didn't change colour. Rather, it stopped absorbing that type of mana before it gathered enough others.

In a way. It became the perfect null attribute mana crystal. Available for anyone to use.

His eyes gleamed as he saw the future inside this palm sized mana crystal.

Time for him to truly change the war landscape.