Chapter 28: Advent Horizon

I walked through the portal and found myself met with the others.

"Oh, you two are still here."

"Yeah, we were going to go to eat together somewhere."

"What's going on with you two?"

"Oh...ummm...nothing much really."

"Sure." I said with sarcasm.

"I forgot...congratulations for winning."

"Thanks."

"Wanna go with us?"

"Umm...I have nothing to do so I might as well."

We walked towards the gates and exited the academy, then proceeded towards a café.

"I'll get an espresso." I said to a waitress as I pulled out a chair of a table.

"We'll get the same." Themis said as they did the same.

"Arthur."

"Yeah." I said turning my attention to Themis.

"If you fought with Levantes in hand to hand combat who would win?"

"Themis, I'm gonna make this clear, Levantes Artrium Volomir is a being who beats me in every aspect."

"He's that strong."

"Yes, he is that strong."

"Arthur, how much do you know about his past, you know Laertes's past?"

"I know most of it, Iris, enough to know that the strength he has now wasn't through talent but true hard work." I sat as I leaned back in my seat looking up to the sky.

"I heard you would need about several hundred thousand legions to stop him or something."

"Oh I remember that, that was when he was six. I don't know how I remember that but I somehow do."

"At that age how many legions would it take to stop you?"

"At most five." I said looking back to Iris.

"Did you even know about magic then?"

"I knew a bit but I wasn't strong back then."

"Here's your espressos."

"Thanks, the money will go through the student council."

"Arthur, so you think he'll be alright after losing his mana?"

"Trust me when I say but even after losing his mana he is still stronger than 99% of people in this academy, I wouldn't worry for him. Enough about Levantes, what's with Pandora?"

"She's gone with father somewhere, father told me and Seth to go back to the house in about a week's time."

"Do you know why?"

"Not in the slightest."

"I see, well tell me if you receive new intelligence."

I left the table and proceeded back to the house.

"Zartaros you seem troubled, what is wrong?"

"..."

"WHAT! That can't be, there's no way."

"It is true my master."

"Look into it Zartaros."

"Yes my master."

There's no way, it can't be.

"Arthur Pendragon."

I whipped my head around with shock and fear written on my face. Standing before me was him.

"Thanatos...Almas...Laurier."

Thanatos started laughing maniacally then stopped, looking at me with absolute anger and rage. His emotions were covered with a smile but you could see his true emotions because he wasn't trying to hide it.

"Arthur, choose your side quickly or it won't benefit you nowhere in the future."

"You shouldn't threaten me, you seem to have underestimated my abilities."

"No. I overestimated your abilities but now I have seen you fight I can clearly see there's room for improvement even of you say you didn't try I could see your potential and true power and I overestimated you, Arthur."

"What are you going to do then?"

"You'll see sooner or later."

I created a portal and started to walk through it but I was stopped by Thanatos.

"4A63R6H91T9."

A shiver ran down my spine but I didn't know why. What Thanatos said clearly had some effect on me but I didn't know why. My body trembled with fear as a cold sweat dripped off from my forehead dropping on the floor.

"You're subconscious knows but you don't, how fascinating." Thanatos said with a psychotic smile on his face. "Continue your walk back to your house, Arthur."

I did as he said and left the academy. I dropped on the red floor of my portal though the floor looked as if it didn't have any end.

What the f*ck was that?

I got up from the floor after being on the floor curled up for about a minute for hearing some code. I continued my walk through what seemed like endless in the portal.

A few minutes ago:

"Lilith I'm coming in." I said as I pushed open the door to see my sister lying in her bed asleep.

Shit. It really did a number on her as well. I'll apologise when she finds out.

I put the tray down on a nightstand next to Lilith's bed. The tray held soup which contained ingredients that I made through pure mana.

"Thanks...Levantes."

I left the room leaving my sister with her thoughts and soup.

As I walked down the stairs I called my mana beast.

"Longwang."

"Yes my lord."

"You find out anything about Thanatos or Cynthia?"

"I have found some information about Cynthia."

"What is it then?"

"She seems to be somewhere of high security."

"They're luring Arthur then."

"Yes...my lord do you think Arthur will fall into their trap?"

"From what manga and series online has taught me is that when something involves love people do stupid things, they do not function logically."

"So Arthur will be lured?"

"It's a possibility worth looking at Longwang."

We reached the coffee table in one of the living rooms and sat down.

"Get the demon lords."

"Yes my lord."

Suddenly, seven beings appeared, they were all standing on either side of Longwang.

"What is it my lord?" A man who looked to be about in his mid twenties with blonde hair and gold eyes.

"Lucifer, Satan, Asmodeus, Mammon, Belghegor, Livyatan and Beelzebub I hope you are familiar with the situation?"

"Yes my lord we are familiar with the situation." A woman who looked about in her early twenties, she had red hair and red eyes with large dark black horns pointing out of her head.

"Asmodeus, I see you are eager to report your findings."

"Yes my lord! I'll give the report to you later then."

"I'm sure you will."

"M-M-My lord...I have some information." A girl wearing rounded lens glasses with red hair and red eyes who looked to be about 16 years old spoke.

"Livyatan, give me a report later, Satan, you haven't said anything during the time we have spoken, is there something you'd like to say?" I said as I took a sip of my tea.

"My lord, I'm terribly sorry that I have nothing to share." A man with red horns sprouting out of a red and black hair with gold eyes looking about in his mid twenties spoke.

"Gather any information about them and report back to me in a week."

"Yes my lord." Lucifer said.

"Go then, we have people in need and get Locus to watch over Pandora for me we don't know what would attack her now because of Thanatos."

"I will my lord."

With that all the seven demon lords disappeared.

"Yo, Levantes." Arthur said as he walked out of a portal.

"You're back Arthur, anything come up?"

"No, just ate with Themis and Iris, they seem to be getting along with each other."

"I believe they started getting along at the start of the tournament."

"Really?"

"Yeah, you didn't notice?"

"I had other things to worry about."

"How you taking Cynthia?"

"Laertes, don't act like you worry."

"I'm trying Arthur but it's not happening."

"Well I'm not blaming you for your lack of expressing emotions, you still have the ability to find what a person's feeling with a 100% accuracy."

"I have high interpersonal intelligence."

"How you taking the fact Pandora's gone?"

"I don't really know."

"Well that's to be expected."

"Are you angry with me?"

"No, Laertes, I'm just angry in general." Arthur said slightly raising his voice but just enough to be noticed.

"She really had a big impact on you then."

"Yeah...yeah she did." Arthur said as his voice lowered. "Levantes, are you hiding anything?"

"Well if you think about it isn't everyone."

"True but what are you hiding?"

"I can't say it now Arthur, you'll find out sooner or later anyways, the others will as well and trust me when I say, it'll probably ruin your past."

"How so?"

"You'll see."

"No..it can't be..."

"Those are just theories Arthur, try not to think about it too much."

"Well now you've said it of course I'm going to think about."

"When you find out it's an advent horizon."

"You can't go back..."

"Yeah, there's no going back."

"My lord, are you sure? There's no going back then." Longwang said to me through telepathy.

"I'm sure Longwang, it's part of my plan."

"If you say so my lord, I'll follow you."

"Laertes?" Arthur said tilting his head to the side in almost confusion.

"Yeah?"

"You blanked out for a moment, you okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine, just thinking about something."

"Okay then, wait where's Lilith? Didn't she come with you?"

"She's ill at the moment."

"How?"

"I don't know, she sort of had a migraine of somesort and just felt weak or something."

"Migraine? Randomly?"

"Yeah I know, considering the circumstances I don't think it's a coincidence."

"Yeah. The fact that it was a match of the tournament and it was mine and it was only a days after Thanatos so I think it's related to him."

"It's a possibility but there's still a chance that it's not."

"How?"

"Statistically there's a chance that she could be affected by something else or she could've just got a migraine randomly, we cannot overlook these factors although they are rare."

"Well you do have a point but the most obvious explanation is Thanatos."

"Yes it is. A lot of happening at the moment with Cynthia missing, Pandora gone and now Thanatos."

"Can't forget the migraines."

"And Pythius."

"Pythius?"

"We saw him as we were getting out he tried provoking us but I handled it with ease."

"I wonder why he's here."

"There's a lot of explanations for that."

"Yeah." Arthur said holding his chin in his hand.

"Then again none of it isn't something we haven't foreseen." I said getting up from the chair with my hands in my pockets.

"Yeah, we foresaw most of these events about a month ago anyways."

"We were prepared from the start."

"Did Pandora know?"

"Of course she did, she told me her plans but I told her I already foresaw them a year ago."

"And when was that?"

"When I joined the school."

"WHAT! THAT LONG AGO!"

"Yeah, we are always prepared for the best and worst case scenarios."

"You two really are something else even among geniuses you two stand out more."

"I wouldn't say that we're the smartest beings in existence."

"I don't know anyone else who'll come to your level of intelligence. You successfully rule a lot of races behind the scenes."

"Speaking of races, when's the fairy vasilias coronation?"

"Oh they haven't even selected their vasilias there's a whole tournament thing for it."

"Tournament? Wait...no...you're saying this whole tournament everyone's risking their lives to participate is for the next vasilias?"

"Yep."

"I should've been more considerate then."

"Your type of considerate? The best thing you would do is at least leave them the remains of their pride."

"I'm still being considerate in my own way."

"I'm gonna leave this conversation."

"Because I won?"

"Sure Levantes."

"Don't hide it Arthur, your embarrassment for losing again."

"I'M NOT EMBARRASSED!"

We both heard small giggles from the door and we both looked confused.

"I can't even hide it" A female voice said with a small laugh.

"Oh, Pandora."

The person was revealed as their invisibility was removed. We found Pandora laughing from our small argument.

"You confused?" Arthur whispered to me.

"On levels you wouldn't be able to fathom." I whispered back.

"Pandora, what're you doing here?" Arthur asked

"I just came to visit."

"You aren't staying?" I asked.

"No, I have family matters to attend to."

"What family matters?" Arthur said.

"You'll see."

"Why does everyone say that now!" Arthur said annoyed.

"I guess there's a lot of mystery now."

"So what do you want?"

"Seriously Levantes? I come back after how many days and your response is "What do you want?"

"So why're you here?"

"As I said before I'm visiting."

"Pandora now you're here I can tell you both."

"What?"

"There's a good chance that some of our memories were either lost or replaced with another when we got reincarnated."

"So what are you trying to say?" Arthur asked.

"There's a possibility that Lilith's reacting to a lost memory."

"WHAT!"

"Yes I know it's shocking but what we need to find out is what memory because there's a chance it's a lost memory for us as well."

"I see."

"So what you need us to do is work out if we've lost the memory as well."

"4A63R6H91T9."

Arthur dropped to the floor holding his head as pain pierced him like needles. Arthur held the pain for about five seconds.

"I knew it."

"Levantes why did you do that to Arthur?"

"It's a code that's been replaying in my head since I lost my magic."

"So it's a lost memory that affects Arthur a lot but not us?"

"Yes, it's likely Arthur had a past relating to labs or somewhere isolated from society."

"You read too many mangas."

"It's a possibility Pandora."

"You okay Arthur?" Pandora said, watching him curl up into a ball on the ground.

"Yeah...I'm alright." Arthur said as he slowly got up still holding his forehead as if he had a headache.

"I'm sorry Arthur, I just needed to check."

"Laertes, if it happened when you lost your mana that means your mana was stopping something."

"A lost memory." Pandora said surprised.

"Well I guess that's enough detective thinking for today, let's just rest now.

"Fine by me." Pandora replied.

I see, so that's how it is. We're progressing.