"The annihilation cannon... are you serious?!"
Her red eyes widened as she asked incredulously. Her surprise was only natural after all the 'Annihilation cannon' was a mystical grade artifact. Not just anyone can get their hands on as they were among the rarest artifacts that existed in this world.
Just like magic swords artifacts also has their own rank from lowest to highest. Mystical grade treasures are the most powerful. They are also said to be God tier in power. In fact, the defensive artifact in the Alberta Kingdom was also a mystical grade artifact, as it had the most powerful defensive power of all artifacts.
The 'Annihilation cannon' in particular was a weaponed used purely for the sake of destruction. As it has the highest level of destructive capabilities than any other artifacts out there. The white-haired woman could only stare at Alister in disbelief. 'Why would he entrust our lord Lucifer's favorite artifact to some unknown king' her gaze said.
"I can understand your surprise. After all I was also surprised that old king was able to use it. The annihilation cannon had a large magic consumption after all. Though, it seems he can only fire it two times."
Alister explained.
"Aren't you worried he might use that thing against us?"
She inquired curiously. She had seen its destructive capabilities after all. To say that it was what made Lucifer the most feared demon was no exaggeration.
"No! In order for him to do that his head would have to still be on his body, besides our interest align with the other side for now at least."
Alister said, his lips upturned into a grin.
Because of the protective barrier of the Alberta kingdom, it was also impossible for them to infiltrate that kingdom unnoticed. The energy source empowering the barrier of the heroes is somewhere within the Alberta kingdom. It seems they decided to hide it somewhere in there, Adelio decided to become a noble of that kingdom in order to find that energy source.
Over the long history the energy source has been there hidden without anyone knowing, maybe they thought it would be better if no one knew or maybe over the many decades' humanity had forgotten about it, it was hard to say.
However, for Alister it was much easier this way, they were going to use the commotion of the war between the Zestril kingdom and the Alberta kingdom when its defense is down and destroy that energy source at its roots.
"I see... the plan seems to have changed quite a bit from when I was here last time but, it's still a brilliant plan."
The white-haired woman said impressed.
"I can understand your surprise, it wasn't my plan to begin with Adelio is the brains behind this entire plan."
Alister explained.
"Cough, of course I knew that, like a dunderhead like you could ever come up with a plan."
The white-haired woman said. She fixed her sharp red eyes on the dome shaped barrier before her and sighed. Watching her expression from the corners of his eyes Alister spoke.
"By the way, Monica. Were you able to complete your mission?"
Alister asked. If he remembers correctly her most important mission was to gather an army of powerful monsters. Her specialty was taming monsters through the use of 'Dark magic.' among the magic known to the dark magic users, tamers were extremely rare. In order to tame the monster, the user must be able to dominate their soul this requirement as absolutely necessary. In some cases, the tamer can also be dominated and overwhelmed by the monsters they are trying to tame, and so taming magic is considered to be extremely rare and difficult to use.
Alister couldn't help but raised his evaluation of the woman before him, because even though he was also capable of taming monsters, he was only able to tame the ones he had already killed turning them into his shadow army. Since their souls are no longer present and their nothing but a mere corpse, they had no freewill to struggle against him. All he had to do was control them manually instead of going through the hassle of taming them.
"Sigh, unfortunately I wasn't some unforeseen circumstance had occurred while I was trying to gather them."
Monica replied listlessly. Hearing her words Alister raised an eyebrow in interests.
"What kind of unforeseen circumstance are you talking about?"
He asked curiously. In these peaceful times there was not many things that could ever get his interest so, hearing that something unusual had happened there was no way he wouldn't become curious.
Seeing the curious glint in his eyes Monica couldn't help but smile bitterly in her heart.
(This guy he hasn't change one bit, has he?)
"My operation was going smoothly until, three unknown powerful adventurers went inside the cave. I don't know who they are but, I could easily tell that they were really powerful. In fact, I'm certain that I couldn't face them myself."
She said with a stern expression.
"Oh? Now I'm even more curious about these adventurers. If even your monsters couldn't face them, then doesn't that mean they would be a real pain if they get any more involved?"
"Th-That would certainly be a problem... I didn't think a high-ranking spirit would ever get involved with the matters of the mortal world."
She said, her neatly shaped eyebrow curved into a frown.
"Spirit, you say.... and a high ranking one. Why would a spirit who hasn't shown themselves to humans get involved?"
Alister asked confused. His surprise was only normal after all, spirits never appear before human let alone forming a contract. The spirits were beings who stayed in the spiritual realm, only a few had ever managed to forge a contract with them.
Three hundred years ago spirits were normally common, they lived along with human and all other races but, after the war they all disappeared and never appeared before mankind again. The last records of a spirit appearing the world was 30 years ago when the fifth kingdom of Sami was still around.
The nation that had once worship spirits as their gods. That kingdom was constantly at war with the other nations who worship the elemental goddesses. Outside that kingdom was a large lake and one that was the home for the spirit of water, the never-ending battles between mankind painted that lake blood red, furious, the spirit of water created a tsunami to punish those humans. Consequently, destroying the kingdom of Sami and creating a new lake in its place. The lake of "Misery" as all the lives of the humans of both sides along with the lives of the people of the entire kingdom of Sami was wiped out.
The Kingdom was then sunk deep within the entire lake becoming one of the most tragic events in history since the great war. Since that incident there hasn't been any more sightings of spirit's mention.
"That's not all there was also a silver fox there too, a really powerful one."
She further explained. Alister's red pupils contracted to the size of needles when hearing that. The silver fox was among one of the most powerful demi humans in this world alongside elves who are skilled in the art of magic.
(The heck? Why the hell are those creatures here? Shouldn't they be in the northern parts of this continent?)
Alister's expression turned from astonish to dumfounded in an instant. While demi humans were usually discriminated against and captured by humans, the silver fox race along with the elves were the only two race who had their own freedom. It wasn't because they lived far away, but because the 'Silver foxes' are known to be extremely strong.
Not only do they freely control Ice and lightning they also had the divine protection of the goddess of ice known only in fairy tales. It was also said that she blessed the northern most parts of the continent with her divine aura and thus, that area was bathe in eternal winter.
However, unlike the four elemental goddesses not much is known about her some even believe she's nothing but a made-up fairy tales. However, unlike those ignorant people. Alister knew the truth, that woman wasn't a fairy tale but a real god. The silver fox race was like her own children three hundred years ago during the great war. Lucifer wanted to enslave the silver fox and gave an order to capture them.
Alister can still remember facing one of those silver fox women not only was she extremely beautiful, but she was so strong that she easily slaughtered hundred demons using her ice manipulation. And that ice goddess was also able to easily hold back lord Lucifer herself.
What happened to that goddess was unknown even to them, she faces the goddess of fire and never returned. It was unclear who had won that fight but, Alister didn't want to get involve with that race ever again.
He clenched his fist so hard that his knuckles made cracking noises. The scent of the burnt field and dust entered his nose, as his long white hair swayed by the strong wind.
"And also... there is someone else there who is even more interesting than those two."
Monica said recalling the young black-haired human boy she had saw before leaving. Alister sighed, annoyedly, honestly, he didn't want to hear about any more bad news. Learning that he had to face a high-ranking spirit and a silver fox had extinguish the flames burning in his chest. However, he didn't interrupt Monica and listened to her explanation attentively.
"The black-haired boy with them had an aura even more amazing than the both of them combined, honestly, it was hard to believe he was actually human. I can tell he's even more dangerous."
She explained.
".... I see."
Alister said while tilting his head curiously, black haired boy. Perhaps he was remembering something in the far corners of his mind that he had a faraway look present on his face. Even after thinking for a moment, he couldn't remember what he was trying to remember so he only sighed tiredly before turning his head back to the dome shaped barrier.
"We must quickly break this barrier and free them."
He said in a faint voice. Even though his voice was like that of a cat whispers, Monica heard him well, she nodded her head in such a way that her beautiful long white color hair shook and softly fell over her shoulders.
"We will, isn't that the reason why we have been working hard for so long?"
"Yes, you are right, though, I'm curious how strong Lucifers strength will be after the seal is broken, after all it has been three hundred years."
Alister said narrowing his eyes slightly.
***
Somewhere else in the world a handsome man with a slightly long blue colored hair could be seen sitting down on a beautiful golden throne. The man wore extravagant looking clothing as he clutches a medium size book in his hands.
The cover of the book was written with unknown letters, if Haruto had seen the book, he would have notice that the writing on the book had the same writing as the ones that suddenly appeared on his skin.
The blue haired man softly flips through the pages of the book with a curious expression. It was like he was a reader who was eager to know what happened next in his favorite story.
Soon his expression turned slightly grim as he read through the contents of the book.
".... I see. The day when that darkness begins to approach is much sooner than I originally thought. Sigh, I guess all we can do now is wait patiently for that boy's arrival."
The blue-haired man said as he closed the book in his lap.
"Master, I hope that the future that you feared the most doesn't come."
The blue haired man quietly muttered. Before turning his eyes before him, what reflected in his eyes were three beautiful women who knelt down before him.
They all showed him deep loyalty and reverence.
"My lord the mirror of creation has showed signs of awakening."
The woman with long waist length black colored hair in the middle of the two girls said.