The Last Bastion of Mana

Unless the military ships were actively hunting pirates they were always on patrol. Alsian guided them to a more silent part of the western docks, where mostly fishing ships lay anchored.

But there was also a ship of a more unusual design, it looked like a mixture of a ship made for combat and trade. A few people were busy stocking supplies and from time to time people boarded the ship.

Alsian tilted his head and motioned for them to follow him onto the ship, he quickly walked up the gangplank unto the ship with the other two following shortly.

Samuel used his mana vision when he got on board and he saw that every person on the ship had a large quantity of mana, every single person on the ship was probably a child of mana.

"Three more passengers hmm hmm!" An older looking human man approached them, he was clearly wearing something akin to a uniform he reached his hand forward and Samuel saw Alsian hand him some kind of token.

The older man looked at him with greater interest the moment he saw the token, silently the older gentleman scratched his well kept beard and adjusted his hat before returning the token with a nod.

Then just like that he walked back to his job, Alsian walked to the front of the ship and the other two followed, not knowing what else to do.

When they reached the front Alsian turned to them, "Some people that arrive early prefer to stay in cabins, but we will only be sailing for about two hours before we arrive!"

"Two hours? Is it really that close?" Vazmarx quietly asked as he thought it odd that it was that close.

Alsian laughed, "Just you wait and you'll see!" Was his reply. They waited close to another hour before the ship finally cast away. Vazmarx looked bored out of his mind while Samuel was looking at everything with great interest.

But he couldn't help but feel like he was being watched by someone, there had been a few more passengers arriving during the last hour. For some reason ever since one of those people had boarded he couldn't get rid of this dangerous feeling.

But no matter where he tried to figure out where it came from he couldn't pinpoint the exact location, not unless he casted spells to narrow down the search, but Alsian had advised against anything like that as it was considered quite rude.

The few sailors that worked the ship didn't do much except for the cast off, that was until the ship had travelled what seemed like close to those two hours.

Vazmarx had sat down out of boredom while Samuel kept watching the water to ignore the bad feeling while Alsian just stood there patiently. But then the sailors moved in sync all ten of them walking to the sides of the ship, standing so they faced the one on the other side.

Then they all started pulling in waves of mana and almost like a dance of perfect coreography they moved their arms like a slow wave that they then pulled back.

A small rumble was heard and Samuel could see in front of the ship a portal was slowly opening, on the other side there was more sea but also an island...

He couldn't help but watch in awe as the ship passed through the portal without issue, just like that they were on the other side as it slowly closed behind the ship.

Samuel had no idea just how far the portal had taken them, but it certainly didn't look like Rejuan waters anymore. But what confused him next was the fact that there was no port or city anywhere in sight.

They were sailing towards a large cliffside on the island, there was nothing there but a large waterfall.

A waterfall that poured down water, "I'm no expert but that is too much water for a ship to handle isn't it?" Vazmarx beat Samuel to the punch. But both of them stood there staring at the slowly approaching waterfall.

But Samuel once again looked to the sailors and saw them all calm as if this was their hundredth time doing this, and in syncronization like before they all raised their hands and a magical barrier appeared over the ship.

The ship easily passed through the waterfall without a single drop except from the ocean touching the ship, straight into the ancient water caverns they passed.

The dark cavers were quickly lit up by sparkling ores and what looked like lines of mana, which was all reflected on the watery surface which allowed them to see everything almost perfectly.

Samuel saw some quick movement in the water, rainbow colored fish... He quickly realized it wasn't rainbow colored fish, they were mermaids swimming into the cavern under the ship.

Most of the sails were packed down as the cavern path started narrowing, but at the end of the tunnel they arrived at a larger cavern that was completely lit up from the water beneath.

Crystal clear water, with hundreds of shining rocks and coral along the bottom. The mermaids quickly spread out and started swimming deeper into the cavern, but one of them noticed Samuel staring and swam upside down while perking her lips into a curl.

But just as quick as she was there she was gone into the deeper water again. "Holy eleven hells..." Vazmarx whispered next to him which caused Samuel to look at what he was looking at.

Samuel couldn't help but stare wide eyed at the sight before him. A huge glowing cavern city started appearing in front of him. There were buildings to support at least a hundred thousand.

But the weirdest part were how tall some of the buildings were, not only that but they were weirdly metallic and there were crystal lights all over the place, giving the entire city great lighting.

"Welcome to one of the last cities of the firstborn!" Alsian said with a half impressed tone. "You've been here before?" Vazmarx instantly asked him.

"One time ten years ago!" Alsian replied. But he seemed quite sad all of a sudden. "It was when I accepted the burden of becoming leader of the Chronos family!"

"As fate would have it, there are still a few people belonging to the Chronos family alive and well, some are directly related to me while others are basically completely distant."

"But are they not related to you still?" Vazmarx asked and Alsian nodded, "Yes if you go back a few thousand years. But when that much time passes it becomes different lineages, however you are at the same time correct!" Alsian smiled.

"The bloodlines of children of mana remain so strong through the ages, so what they carry are different paths of the Chronos bloodline that are different yet also the same as mine."

Alsian turned around and yawned while giving the two a shrug. "It's... Complicated to say the least!"

"Ahhh you're just making it sound too confusing!" Vazmarx groaned loudly while grabbing his head, then all of a sudden as if with a blink Vazmarx had transformed out of his human visage into his true form.

Now standing at least two meters tall was his ten tailed fox human form which was his true form. All black fur and he quickly twirled his tails together into one large tail.

Samuel realized he was actually quite simillar to a werewolf full form, the differences lay in the sizes and shapes of paws and head. Wolf shifters looked more like a wolf head while Vazmarx definitely resembled a fox, although he looked like quite the angry and large fox.

"You definitely stand out compared to other fox kin don't you?" Surprisingly Alsian asked him, both him and Samuel had been thinking the same thing. Although Samuel had only seen one other fox kin it seemed like Alsian had some more experience.

Vazmarx snorted, "We look more beastly than refined like normal fox kin... I admit that much, but that is because my lineage is that of warriors and beasts alike." He spoke while making sure to hang his three swords at his side.

Samuel saw the swords he had used again, those more curve like and thing swords... Vazmarx had called them Katan swords, but there were ancient books that had referred to them as Katanas.

As far as Vazmarx knew you could only find them in the northern cities of the Nornian Oligarchy. The Nornian Oligarchy was known as the civilization of progress, technological wonders and knowledge progressing much faster than anywhere else.

But that was mostly true for the southern cities in the land of cold. The northern ones were much more traditional, current history among the mortal races did not know a lot about what had happened because of the event known as the great cataclysm.

But children of mana knew that the culture of an old empire had partially survived, they were the ones that made Katanas among other traditional things.

It was during a time where the Empire of Zemayla had ruled most of the world, about six hundred years ago. But the great cataclysm ruined most records of history and killed many.

Even Samuel had learned a bit about it during the college lessons. The history of the world extended much further than the other mortal races knew though, through the ages the children of mana that had survived had stayed hidden or just blended in with the other races.

They had recorded a lot about history because of that reason. History that many would give a lot to get their hands on, but there were good reasons for the children of mana to not give any of it up.

Samuel pondered upon it all the way until he realized that she ship suddenly came to a slow stop and that they had reached the city. The buildings stretched on much further than he could see.

Now that he was closer he could make out more details, the roads were designed out of some smooth material while the sidewalks looked like the same material but sometimes in slabs.

The houses had large windows amid the weird metal they were made out off, but the weirdest thing of all was the fact that there looked like many weird poles attached to buildings or lights, with many wires attatched.

One look with Mana eyes and he could see that they were transporting great deals of concentrated magic, or was it mana... He couldn't quite make out exactly what it was.

"Alright, come one let's go kiddos!" Alsian snapped them out of their thoughts and started walking, to which they followed closely.

Much to Samuels liking there were all kinds of races here, Dragonkin, Devilkin, Birdfolk, Lizardfolk, Elves, Half elves, Humans, Dwarves, Halflings, Gnomes, Half Celestials even among many more.

One look with mana sense and he could tell that every single person was also in fact very obviously a child of mana. It put Samuels mind at ease, he had never been among so many of his own people at the same time.

It felt weird not having to hide any fact about being a child of mana, but of course like Alsian had told him... Not every person here was bound to be good or bad, but instead they were just people - with their own agendas, plans and ideas about the world.