Chapter 297: Four Days...
Late Morning - Mid Winter : Rematra, The Forgotten Islands
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- Amphitrite Ouranós (Three Days Later) ~
*FWOOOSH-BANG-SPLASH* The face of a huge wave exploded into mist as I slammed my massive body through it and disappeared beneath the choppy water's surface.
*Blub-Rumble* The noise of my impact echoed off the bottom as I dove down before promptly spreading my wings just over the top of a cloud of sand.
It almost looked like the sea floor, but that wasn't the case.
*Fwowoom* The moment I spread my wings, the sand settled to reveal countless creatures hiding among the rock and coral.
But rather than darting back into cover and hiding in fear, they all swam out as if to greet me, carefreely swimming into the open water beneath my wings and circling around, knowing no predator would dare hunt them in my presence.
But the longer I swam, the closer I got to the edge of the reef, and the more creatures returned to cover until, eventually, there wasn't a single fish still with me.
*Vwoom* The reef's edge was simply a cliff into the abyss, going from about 75 meters to 75 kilometers in an instant, but rather than simply swimming down and into the cave just below me, I floated and looked out into the dark, black water.
It was like I was staring into a void, but somehow, it felt less empty that day. -Even the night sky has more color than the deep ocean.. but somehow.. today it feels more lively...-
Just a few days prior, before I left for the auction, the ocean felt still and dead, but somehow that had changed. -Maybe that kid really can work out a miracle...-
*Fwoom* Finally hopping out over the edge of the reef, I dove down a few hundred meters and came into a cave that descended even further before suddenly rising up.
*blub-Splash* *Crackle* The flat, cut stones around the surface of the water cracked as I swam up and stepped out into a massive open space.
"Welcome back, Your Highness!" I was immediately greeted by a young merfolk girl with white horns, and light blue scales and webbing.
Quickly looking around the several-kilometer-wide, grassy courtyard lit by bright artifacts, I noticed there were far fewer people than normal. "Has something happened? I don't see many knights."
The young girl quickly looked up at me. "The Ragnarok's have declared a military summoning, but I am unsure about much beyond that."
-A Ragnarok military summons?- To put it simply, it was an order that would summon all knights under the any said noble family. -But with the Ragnaroks, that's nearly 80% of all knights in Bahamut...-
In short, it was a summons that affected all of Bahamut. -And to go north and west... Are they being summoned to 'rune cities'?- [1]
After giving it a second of thought, I finally turned back to the maid and blasted the water off my scales. *Vwoomf* "Is Zafeíri still here?"
She nodded immediately. "She is in the Restricted Library."
"Haah..." -I should speak with her first...- "Alright, tell Yannis to prepare the treasury while I'm at the library."
"Right away!"
As she bowed, I stepped over her and started walking down a stone pathway adjacent to the estate that led to a large building resembling an old temple.
It was our restricted records storage, more commonly called the restricted library. -Zafeíri is probably still looking for records on the Eye of Bahamut...- But the Eye was no longer something I needed to worry about.
*thump* *thump* *vwoom* Stepping up the wide, mythril-plated steps, I changed to my humanoid form and walked into what looked like a stone wall without hesitation before coming into a long, dimly lit hallway.
*tap* *tap* *tap* My footsteps echoed down the long chamber, but after just a moment, the light at the end of the tunnel grew wider and wider, eventually revealing a colossal room filled with tall, tightly packed bookshelves.
But unlike what I expected, I found countless scrolls, books, and other papers spread across the ground in many areas.
"You have been busy." My voice ripped through the silence in the room instantly.
"Of course. You think I'm going to let you, of all people, handle such a dangerous artifact?"
Hearing the voice several shelves over, I walked down one of the many pathways until I found where she was. "You say that like I'm your child."
She immediately looked up at me with an unamused expression. "If something goes wrong, you could accidentally get your body possessed or soul controlled. With Myles essentially dead, who the hell would be able to stop you if you went on a rampage?"
I wanted to scoff but held it in before walking toward her. "There are many other dragons in the league of Myles and I. Even one of the young Ragnaroks could probably do it."
She immediately set down several papers, sorting them into a few different piles. "This isn't something you should joke about."
"Hoho, but I'm not joking."
"A dragon barely 150 years old is as strong as you? Give me a break."
A smile slowly started coming to my face as I got closer to her. "Myles and I had that same thought until we met him; the only difference is that he's 15 rather than 150."
"Ha-ha, very funny." With a sarcastic laugh, she turned back to the book she was holding up with her aura.
She clearly had no intention of believing me. -But it's not like I can blame her...- "In any case, you don't need to research it any more."
Her eyes shot open in an instant. "What do you mean? That wasn't enough gold?!"
I quickly shook my head. "I would have lost no matter how much I brought, though, so there is no need to stress over it."
She hopped up in a bit of a panic. "What do you mean 'not stress over it'? Are you just leaving Myles to die?"
"Of course not. I am simply entrusting it to someone else."
A look of shock washed over her face in an instant. "You trusted someone else with that? Did you finally go crazy?"
"Once you meet him, you won't think I'm crazy."
"Bullshit."
Picking up every book, scroll, and paper off the ground of each and every hallway with my aura, I glanced over their contents before putting them back into their respective places on the shelves.
"You really.. didn't get it..."
I nodded seeing her look of disbelief. "I'm taking another gamble."
She stared at me in silence before finally speaking bluntly. "Was it that manipulative bitch whispering in your ear again?"
I wanted to laugh seeing her disdain. "It was all me this time."
"Haah.. of course it was... I just hope you really understand what is on the line this time."
"Sweetie, if I wasn't good at weighing risks, I would have never made it to this point."
She continued staring at me with an unamused look before letting out a sigh. "Haah.. whatever... If you are that confident, I will simply follow your lead..." Finally standing up to leave, she cleaned herself off, and we started walking out of the library.
"When was the last time I led you astray?"
"Two hundred years ago when you led me into that forsaken deep sea dungeon."
"That was for your own good. You can't deny that one."
"Uh-huh..."
Keeping up the more light-hearted banter as we walked, we quickly found our way back outside and started making our way toward the estate, but while we were walking, an older butler came running up to us.
"Madam, missus." He gave us a deep bow the moment he got close. "A messenger is waiting on the surface with an urgent message for Lady Zafeíri."
Zafeíri and I immediately looked at each other before Zafeíri turned back to the butler. "What is the messenger's origin?"
"The lady of the Chalastís family."
Zafeíri's face quickly morphed with confusion before she ran over to the center of the courtyard and silently slipped into the pool of water. *slip-blub*
-How odd...- Slowly turning back to the butler, I had to ask, "Do you know what their purpose here was?"
Poniriá was one of Zafeíri's closest friends; it was more than just slightly odd for her to send a messenger.
But the butler just reinforced the confusion with a nod. "I believe it was as a summons. A summons to Atlas."
I was instantly taken aback. "A summons involving Zafeíri?" -Just.. what would call for that?-
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- Vasilias ~
*Vwoom-crackle* *tink* -Hmm... I wonder if that's enough...- *click* *click*
Quickly turning it off and on again, the screen flickered before revealing a red warning. "Tampering detected." *click*
Letting one of the many emergency switches tick over, I watched as electricity coursed through a damaged module's circuits, causing it to faintly glow and vibrate as it tried to turn on before suddenly stopping and closing the emergency switch once again. *click* -Damn...-
It had been just over three days since I nearly destroyed the Acardi artifact, and while I still hadn't fully repaired it, I had made some good progress, along with several fascinating discoveries.
*Beep-Beep* "Booting into safe mode. Some functionalities may be disabled."
*vwoom* Quickly injecting some mana into the device, the screen turned green and updated with a huge menu. *Beep* I pressed 'Area Scan' without hesitation and was immediately shown a prompt.
"Mana communications tether system not detected. Server connection not detected. Beginning local scan."
-Damn.. its not even being detected...- *vwoom* The whole device lit up like a lightbulb in an instant before a bright hologram appeared in the air, showing a perfect 3d model of the front of my body along with the visible half of my room. -But I wonder if it auto-synced with the other scans without a satellite connection...-
Quickly backing out to the main menu again, I moved over to a tab labeled 'local area map, and zoomed into a small dot on the hologram until eventually being presented with not only the rendering of my room, but also part of the estate, courtyard, and buildings surrounding it. -Hey, it worked!-
Although not much, it was the culmination of several other scans from when I was still trying to figure out how the module worked. -But to think it really knew where this scan was taken in relation to the others despite not being connected to anything... The module that records motion must be pretty damn accurate...-
But in all honesty, that wasn't too surprising.
Known as a Sector 3 Extraterrestrial Surface Support device, the artifact could do just about anything you could imagine with an unbelievable amount of precision, from simple tasks like functioning as a nearly infinite energy bank, to far more complex things like advanced calculations, global communications, satellite communications and even laser mapping.
But while it was an unbelievably powerful device with hundreds of individual modules and functionalities that each made humanity on Earth look like it was in the Stone Age on its own, with the help of some satellites, its capabilities compounded.
The issue was the functionalities of the satellites.
Having been floating through space for several millennia, it came as no surprise to see that they were heavily damaged, but over the last few days, I had pinged well over a thousand 'satellites' and only received a signal from about 25, only half of which were even usable.
But at the end of the day, something was better than nothing. Receiving a signal meant the satellite was still powered and functioning, if only barely, but that also meant it was repairable. -But unfortunately, just like with checking out 'The Relay', such adventurous trips for repairs will need to wait.-
*knock-knock* "My lord, Miss Poniriá has requested for you."
-Right on time...- Glancing back at the door, I saw Chloe giving a deep bow and moved the artifact just under my wing without turning it off. "Tell her I will be out in a moment."
The main part of the auction had finally finished, and as promised, it was time for us to discuss some more pressing matters.
It was time for us to discuss The Cleanse.
It was time for us to start the countdown.
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[1] - Rune cities are cities with space runes.
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