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C1595

Two pitch black pods camouflaged their presence under the dark sky as they rapidly descended from space. As the pod was about to reach the planet's surface, its sides opened and slowed its speed significantly, allowing it to fall in a much lighter crash.

The small crater formed by the pod's landing was filled with white smoke as the pod diffused a chemical extinguisher that quickly consumed all the flames and heat surrounding the pod before its hatch opened.

As soon as he stepped out of the pod, Emery immediately looked around to see where he was.

The pod seemed to have landed on a hillside filled with lush trees. His eyes quickly caught the crater filled white smoke where the other pod containing Annara had fallen. Immediately, he headed over to help the bat girl out.

"Aarrghh, what a primitive technology!" the red-haired girl shouted in frustration as Emery helped her out of the pod.

After they figured out where they had landed with Annara's knowledge of the planet, the two immediately departed south, making their way where the Darkness Institute was located.

To ensure there was no chance of an unwanted situations occurring, the two decided to hurry up as fast as they could. Annara had her magus body and Emery used his [Light Wings] spell, both of them streaking across the landscape at incredible speed.

After flying for a few minutes, Emery suddenly came to a stop.

"What are you doing?" Annara asked, puzzled by his unexpected action.

Emery did not answer her question. His eyes silently looked in a certain direction, where a simple looking house could be seen nestled near a cliff. Without turning to look at her, he said, "Let's go there first."

Because his action was so sudden and outside of their plans, Annara was of course annoyed. But once she realized where Emery was going, she swallowed her words because she understood the reason why.

The wooden house that was Emery's master, Xion's residence.

Emery entered the house and as he looked around, bittersweet memories of the time he had spent with his master here slowly surfaced in his mind. He needed to take a moment to recollect himself.

His heart couldn't help but ache seeing the current state of the house. The whole place was full of dust. There were even some signs indicating it had been ransacked, but most of it was still the same as his memory.

Emery walked towards the table when his eyes caught sight of the tea pots and cups his master used. Wiping the dust off their surface, Emery looked at them fondly before deciding to take them for safekeeping.

After that, he looked around the place once again, smiling at the memory of the figure that used to live here. A few minutes later he turned around to find Annara who was waiting outside. Taking one last look, he closed the door behind him.

"Let's go."

***

Xion's place was only a few miles away from their destination. It didn't take long for the two of them to finally see the towering cliff where the Darkness Institute was located.

Their objective, however, was the massive mansion that lay above it. Zenonia's residence.

Unfortunately, as they drew closer to the place, the two realized the majestic dark mansion was no more. It had been destroyed, reduced to a pile of rocks – a mere husk of its former splendor.

Standing in front of the ruins, Emery asked the red-haired girl. "Is it inside this place? Which area? I will pull out every rock if I have to!"

Looking at Emery's antics, Annara couldn't hold herself back from chuckling. Waving her hand, she said, "Don't worry. There is another entrance from the institute building."

Annara then explained the secret tunnel was also her former master's way of getting to the institute at a time when she wanted no one to be able to know of her whereabouts, hence the entrance was two-way.

With that, the two of them quickly jumped down and landed on the side of the cliff, making their way through the huge cave opening that would lead them straight to the Darkness Institute building.

As expected of a place that had been abandoned years ago, there was nothing to be seen when they arrived. It was empty and desolate.

Memories of the vast hall in front of him filled with dozens of acolytes came back to him, clashing with the completely different scenery he was looking at. There was no one still in this place.

While Emery felt various complicated emotions overwhelm him, Annara's voice rang through the air.

"Do you remember that our first encounter was here?"

Searching through his memories, it took Emery a second to remember that Annara, who at that time was the top acolyte of the Darkness Institute, helped him enter the institute when he tried to find Magus Xion during his second year. He nodded his head at her.

Annara smiled and told him to follow her inside.

The Darkness Institute was built under a stone mountain, its walls were covered by a special kind of rocks that could affect one's Spirit Reading. Coupled with its intricate network of tunnels, the place felt like a maze.

If Annara didn't come with him, Emery was sure that he would have a hard time finding his way around this place.

After several minutes of going deeper into the tunnel, Annara finally stopped walking and the two of them faced an empty room.

"It's supposed to be here…"

A frown appeared on her face. She seemed to have trouble remembering the exact location of the place since all the items had been cleared away, causing everything to differ from her memory.

Emery watched as Annara started walking around, feeling the wall in several places, before one of them suddenly folded open, revealing a passage shrouded in darkness. Turning her head around, she excitedly said, "I found it! This way!"

The passage they entered brought them to a moderate size hall that still had decorations and various furniture. From how damp the air inside felt, they both agreed it had been a long time since anyone had entered this place.

After looking around, Annara was certain that this was the secret room of the late Grand Magus Zenonia. The reason for her confidence was because she had been invited here before, to talk about the plans to attack the Magus Academy. Hence, she knew of its existence.

The red-haired girl turned to Emery and said, "If you can't find what you're looking for here, I really can't help you anymore."

Hearing these words, Emery immediately moved and quickly looked for the Khaos Gate he came here for. But as he searched every corner of the room, he was interrupted by Annara's surprised voice.

"Shit, looks like we have company. A ship just landed outside."

Annara had stationed her tiny familiar outside the Darkness Institute just in case and it seemed her caution had paid off. She started to get irritated as she said, "It won't be easy for them to find this place, but still, you better hurry"

Emery heaved a sigh at her words. He was actually not sure where to start. He was supposedly looking for traces of the Darkness Primordial Wisp, but he couldn't seem to sense any Khaos energy in this place.

He couldn't help but start to doubt whether Zenonia really put the gate here. Another thought that plagued his mind was what if the reason he couldn't sense it was because he no longer had a darkness core.

Regarding the latter possibility, Emery couldn't help but feel regretful. "I should have brought Morgana here too."

But then, he caught a glimpse of the subtle markings on the wall at the far end of the room. His eyes widened as he recognized the pattern.

"Earth rune formation!"

It was similar to the one he had made for the Khaos Gate near Britain's Fey Forest. One used to strengthen the gate and create a door.

Emery immediately investigates the rune on the wall. The moment his hand touched the markings, a deep voice echoed in his mind.

"It's you… you are the one who killed my champion"

Before he could react, a Spatial Gate opened and Emery found his body being forcefully sucked in.

***

At the same time, at the entrance of the Darkness Institute, a group of five magus enforcers – the renowned Violet Flame – could be seen standing facing the slightly illuminated entrance. They were all wearing dark enforcer uniforms, with their respective weapons at their sides.

"Captain, I have confirmed two pods crashed a few miles north."

"Good work." The young captain who was exuding an arrogant demeanor smiled as he said to his team. "There are only two of them, we don't need to call for reinforcements."

He then looked at one of his men who was wearing a mask and said, "It's really lucky that you know this place well. Please lead the way."

To be continued