CHAPTER 6.4 The Beginning of the End

"Celeste, for how long are you going to keep her to your side? You do know that staying here is not going to help her. She needs to solve things on her own at some point. Coddling her will not help her survive the real world outside the Land of Deimos." In a calm voice, Astrella spoke to my mother. She has a point.

The two of us against my mother is not on purpose, but we want her to understand that this is not the right time for her to be like this. Sometimes letting go is the best thing that could happen to us. It will help us grow to our full potential.

"Astrella, I could protect her. I have been doing that for twenty years. All her life, I only thought of protecting her from everything. The Deviants and their King, I know I can find a way to protect her from them. Just give me time, and I know I can find a way." Seeing her tear up breaks my heart, but I will not let that sway me. I will do this, and that is it.

"Mom! You can't protect me from everything, and you know that. You just don't want to admit it. The Deviant King and his followers, you can't fight them off that easily. You will need help. We all have our role in this, but if none of us actually do our roles, then that won't get us anywhere, and we won't win this fight." As soon as I said that, I turned around and left the place. I need to prepare right away. I can't deal with this right now, and time is of the essence.

Leaving here as soon as possible is what I need to do right now. I don't know how exactly I will do this mission, but I will make it work. It's the only thing that makes sense to me right now, my purpose.

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"Callisto, are you sure you want to follow me? You know that I am not forcing you, right?" Callisto is my trusted Assistant, and I trust him enough to tell him everything that happened. As soon as he got the news, he told me he would come with me and help me through everything.

"I pledged to you. Of course, wherever you go, I go." He said in a matter-of-fact tone. I remember him pledging to me, but at the time, I thought he was only joking. To think he was really serious about that is somehow a surprise to me. After all, this mission is the last thing he wants to be part of.

"So be it then, don't complain to me when you've had enough." I smiled at him. Somehow, him coming along with me reassures me. It's nice to have a friendly face with me in pressuring mission. "Oh yeah, have you told Danielle about me leaving? And how about the boards? Did you tell them that whether they like this decision on not, it's final?"

The boards are not easy to deal with, but with me being who has the highest say on the matter, they have no other choice but to agree.

"Yes and yes. I told Danielle, and apparently, she's having trouble accepting reality, but I hired a good secretary for her to be fine. As for the boards, they hesitantly accepted this decision. They even said it would be your fault if things went wrong in the facility."

Hearing that, I laughed. I can assure those greedy bastards that nothing will ever happen at the facility. I believe in Danielle's ability to lead. Though it might be sudden, and she is not used to it, I know she can do it.

Maybe after this mission, I will make it up to her. Hopefully, by then, she will be someone who is recognized by all and respected.

"So our first stop is the Land of Hearth. That's a tough place to be in right now, especially with what happened over there. Everyone will be suspicious of every outsider that comes in. How are we going to find what we're looking for?" That is a question that I don't have an answer to. My plan hasn't gotten that far, but I am hoping that on our way there, I will be able to come up with a plan, or else it's going to be a problem since time is in essence.

"Since you are coming along with me, you and I have to figure that out because I don't have a complete one at the moment," I said honestly, and Callisto only gave me a disappointed look. Though, I can't blame him for that.

While packing things we needed to bring in our journey, I received a message from Marcus. I guess he had heard the news by now from my mother. He will likely try and stop me from doing this, but he should also know that I won't budge just because of our relationship.