History Doomed To Repeat Itself

As an ally of the Clockwork Kingdom, the North Blossom Kingdom had also received footage of the recent phenomena. In fact, the North Blossom Kingdom had not been spared of these Leyline Geysers either. The term "Leyline Geyser" had been coined by an expert of Myria-Rune who was the first to put forward the theory that the black light originated from an excess of worldly energy spurting out from underground.

The concept of leylines was actually pretty new to the majority of people on Heralldia. This was because the study of geology was very new. It could be considered a 'cutting-edge science,' and only the top researchers of Myria-Rune were capable of conducting experiments on the earth.

The organization led by Black Deer could be said to have conducted geological experiments as their hideout was literally underground. According to these experts, leylines could be described as an underground network of natural veins of energy. The energy that traveled through this network was actually the worldly energy which permeated Heralldia's atmosphere.

Black Deer and his group had discovered that leylines originated from a finite number of 'sources,' which he coined as 'World Cores.' This is because the worldly energy of Heralldia was naturally generated from these cores, shaped like rainbow colored spheres.

The scholars of Myria-Rune, however, had not matched the scope of knowledge empirically gathered by Black Deer's team. In fact nobody on the surface knew about the fact there was a small contingent of people underground who was deliberately triggering the Leyline Geyser phenomena. Nobody on the surface except for one person who had the suspicion that history was going to repeat itself once more.

This was none other than King Ren, whose North Blossom Kingdom had been at odds with the evil god worshiping cult Abyss Temple for centuries until it was supposedly eliminated under Queen Yagyu's reign. The feud between the North Blossom Kingdom and the Abyssal Temple started due to a very simple, yet loud incident. Operatives from the Abyssal Temple attempted to kidnap the 23rd Princess of the North Blossom Kingdom (Late Queen Yagyu's grandmother).

They planned to kidnap her and use her as a sacrifice to serve as a vessel for their evil god, Absalom. Fortunately, as the cult had underestimated the kingdom and the might of the 22nd King of the North Blossom Kingdom, Cardes, the kidnapping was a failure. Since then, they had sworn to destroy the Abyssal Temple and foil their nefarious plot to bring chaos to the lands.

This feud was also what allowed the North Blossom Kingdom to form an alliance with the Clockwork Kingdom, as their technology was coveted by many, especially those zealots from the Abyssal Temple. They formed a mutual cooperation and forged a timeless bond. Under Queen Yagyu's rule a couple of hundreds of years later, they had successfully managed to destroy almost all of the Abyssal Temple.

It cost Queen Yagyu her life, but a successor took her place, [Swallow Lily Dancer] Duke. He attempted to wipe out the remnants of the Abyssal Temple as revenge for the valiant death of his mother. Nobody knew if he truly succeeded or not, but centuries since then King Ren had the feeling that Duke did not succeed.

King Ren himself arranged a private meeting between him and his top operatives from the Dark Moon Guild including Yun who was overseeing a majority of the main operation to get information about the man who claimed to have been rebuilding the Abyssal Temple.

They were inside the so-called Secret Grounds of the North Blossom Kingdom, a hidden chambers under the castle that housed superior training facilities and a command room that housed Clockwork Kingdom technology in order to gain information far from the Kingdom. Yun looked incredibly serious as he had some things to report. King Ren himself began to worry about the future.

"Reporting to His Majesty," Yun bowed politely and respectfully. "I can confirm the information released by Myria-Rune's top scholars. I need some more time to verify the theory, but I can confidently say that there are remnants of the Abyssal Temple who have formed their own group and are making use of the leylines in order to power up something terrible."

Yun was accompanied by three other people - two of them confident looking women and the remainder a shy looking man. The man nodded in agreement as he opened his mouth to speak. "There's only so much I can analyze from video footage," he said. "However, if I could get a first-hand look of a Leyline Geyser erupting, I could try to infer the composition of the black light."

King Ren looked skeptical. "But, Doctor, how can you do that without the equipment from Myria-Rune? They still have not allowed us to borrow their equipment for analysis."

The shy looking man referred to as 'Doctor' shook his head and took out a stack of documents on parchment. "I've convened with some contacts from Myria-Rune who have agreed to help me collate some empirical research conducted on Leyline Geysers that have erupted over there." King Ren nodded in approval.

"Then, I give you permission to go with Yun to find one of these Leyline Geysers and try to observe its behavior." King Ren gave out his orders to the two men, leaving the two women alone as Yun and Doctor left in the blink of an eye.

The two women were actually twins, you could only tell them apart by the direction their ponytail was tied in. "Shrike and Woodpecker," King Ren coughed. "Did you find any traces?"

Though King Ren was very vague, the two women were highly intelligent and knew what he was referring to. "Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find anything." the woman named Shrike, with her ponytail tied to the left side of her head, frowned.

Woodpecker interjected. "We must be careful. If we couldn't find anything, but those two fellas find something to indicate that the Abyssal Temple is behind this... Then we must guard Lady Hokuto very carefully. It is highly possible that she is at risk. She is undergoing training with the [Rose Sword Saint], thus making her a very appealing choice to become the Vessel of Absalom."

King Ren nodded. "I leave it up to the two of you to arrange security measures for Hokuto! She must be protected at all costs."

"As you command!"

The two women clad in black ninja attire put on their balaclavas and disappeared into the shadows, leaving King Ren alone to his musings in the command room they were meeting in.

"What is going on in the world...? Why now? ...My dear Hokuto, I have to keep you safe!" King Ren looked down at the ground, his voice no longer possessing his usual brand of confidence. For once in his life, he was beginning to show genuine amounts of... concern.

The worst part of all this was that the [Rose Sword Saint] and Hokuto were too engrossed in their training to know anything about the storm brewing in the shadows...