The Star of Annihilation
Chapter 76 – Wall (5)
Written by : Eleven

* * *

In the back of the traveling company building, there was a secluded area where some of the carriages were parked.


“My name is Totam, I will be the escort provided with making sure the Empire’s Seventh Envoy successfully reaches the Central Plains of the continent.”


The escort with the androgonyous voice that Roy had felt off about, bowed as he gave his greetings.

Roy felt the chills as he received the greeting with a light nod.

There was no killing intent, and Roy didn’t feel threatened by the person by any means, but he felt like the escort named Totam was observing him quietly.

Almost like he was being judged or evaluated for some reason.

Roy couldn’t see the eyes behind the hooded figure, but he was certain they were watching him.


Smack!


Lucius came up behind Roy and smacked him upside the head suddenly.

Roy turned around with a venomous look, but quickly subdued his expression when he saw his master’s eyes that seemed to scream ‘shut up before I give you a punishment’.

Meekly lowering his head, Roy turned back around and looked to see his mother taking the hand of Totam to climb into the carriage.

As Roy got situated along with Lucius coming up into the carriage as well, Totem hopped into the driver seat and cracked the whip to the horses to pull the carriage.

It seemed that they truly were leaving quickly.

“Did you think that this company wouldn’t be cross checked by everybody in the Empire and by the Emperor himself?”


Lucius spoke to Roy after a little while.

Roy opened his closed eyes and took his senses away from the meditation and reflection he was doing of the last fight.

Roy hesitated but then nodded in understanding.


“I was shortsighted.”

“It’s good to be careful, but it’s also important to realize where you also assume things out of habit.”


Lucius chuckled and tapped on his sword.


“It helps in more things than just determining your future. Even in swordsmanship, erasing tendencies of your swordsmanship and personal habits is a very difficult task to do.”

“I understand.”


Roy took the advice to heart.

Although it was his master and they were much closer than before, a swordmaster’s advice could never be taken lightly.

Amidst the words being exchanged from student to master, Mathilde looked at Roy subtly and nodded her head.

Roy understood what she wanted.

Eventually, Mathilde would want to talk to her son one-on-one during the trip.

It seemed like she had something on her mind from what Roy could pick up in her facial expressions.

* * *

The carriage quickly made its way towards the southern border of the southern area of the Empire.

The ride itself wasn’t too bad for Roy, but there was a lot of traffic down the main roads.

When they passed through the gates to the edge of the border, Roy swore that he could have seen the entire road filled with carriages all departing in the same direction they were.

The Tournament of Young Lions was indeed a rather large event for not just the nobles.

Even the commoners would try and make their way to the site of the tournament because of just how well talked about and popular it was.

The continent’s younger generation would come together to compete against one another.

The craziest part about the tournament was that each fight was filled to the brim with action and superhuman displays of strength despite the competitors only being at most seventeen years of age.

Roy hadn’t been able to go in his past life because he was busy with practicing for the entrance exam to the Red Tower and was not deemed as some kind of genius to even take part.

There was no need for him to go even if he had the time because Roy wasn’t worried with worldly affairs at the time.


‘Were they even active at this point in time?’


Roy wondered when exactly the Dragons had made their appearance known in his previous life. It was shortly after the tournament he remembered, as the wars for survival had just started a few years after.


‘I don’t think they made their appearance like this before.’

Roy didn’t have the best view on the world in terms of political movements and he also was never in an important position in the Red Tower to even care.

That being said, Roy was still pretty sure this development was far from the intended course in terms of his previous life.

Closing his eyes back to meditate again, Roy focused on the movement of his demonic energy and mana.

Inside his body, the two powers flowed in opposite directions at first when he first started to circulate Demonic Energy.

But now, because of the reverse flow of his own mana circuit, along with the demonic energy flowing, he was able to choose which direction his energy flowed.

His circuit was like an oiled machine. Everything flowed properly and efficiently.

Compared to his previous life, Roy’s mana core and internal circuitry were much more complex and intricate than before.

His circuitry was rather simple, and if anything… served as a crutch against him surpassing the wall to the fifth stage.


‘I need to somehow find a way to break through this time.’


Roy, although moving fast through his progression of reaching 4-stars, was worried about hitting the 5-star stage.

For one that walked the path of magical science, it was the stage where one graduated from just being a mage to being a wizard.

It was also something that was entirely reliant on two factors.

Up until the fourth star, one could reach the four star level with hard work alone.

However, talent and luck was what separated those who were qualified 4-star mages and those who could become wizards.

Not only that, but Roy was actually confident in reaching it this time due to his swordsmanship.

The 5-star stage was also where one crossed the first wall to Transcendence.

The 6-star and 7-star levels were getting acclimated to that first wall of Transcendence and was divided by those who could master the power of their own Transcendence.

Deep within the confines of his mana core, Roy examined the mysterious phenomenon that was occurring inside of him.

A mana core was scientifically known as a “nebula”, because of how wide, mysterious and unexplored the inside of a mana core really was.

Inside of Roy’s mana core, he could see the 4 stars that symbolized his level within. Beyond them, there was a wall of white light amidst the darkness.

There was no way he knew what to do with this wall.

Crush it? Climb it? Destroy it?

Each person had different ways to go about dealing with this wall. But each person who was able to reach this wall had different ways to go about it.

Lucius, Roy’s master, had told Roy about his own experience in the past when they were training in the Demon Territory.

Lucius had one day after an intense fight with his life on the line before the last Demon-Empire War, noticed footholds on the wall in his ki core.

This allowed him to climb up this imaginary wall inside of his core and achieve Transcendence.

Although ki and mana were different energies, their cores were fundamentally the same; this was why a lot of people were confused as to why ki, mana and other energies could not mix despite being similar in foundation.

Staying silent, Roy listened to his surroundings while in meditation.

Lucius had gone to the front and started to discuss with Totam about the arrival time in the front of the carriage, while Roy was sitting next to his mother meditating.

Mathilde was knitting- something she had picked up recently that Roy had noticed when he had come to visit her during his breaks from school once a week.

It was rather peaceful.

Although things were hectic, Roy took his time to admire the scenery as he opened his eyes again.

The luscious trees and greenery that surrounded the barren path was quite a refreshing sight to have as he had started to become used to the busy atmosphere inside the Capital, Lazarus.


* * *

Later that night, the carriage eventually stopped when the sun started to show signs of going down.

The forestry was rather undeveloped and a lot of the carriages that had been at the southern border had taken their own paths to get to the central plains.

At the crackling bonfire, Roy sat on a wooden log next to his mother Mathilde while Totam and Lucius were discussing details of the trip and setting up camp.

The sound of the fire and chatter on the side seemed to be like a blur as Roy looked to his mother while eating the warm soup she had cooked for the group.

Roy was no fool and knew his mother had something to say to him.

Creating this atmosphere that was private was the only thing he could do. The rest was up to Mathilde in regards to bringing up what was on her mind.

Feeling an unknown sense of anxiety, Roy noticed his hands were shaking.


‘It’s not that cold out is it?’


Thinking it might be the cold, Roy tried to settle his hands from continuing to shake.

He didn’t even notice that they were shaking most of the day as well on the carriage.


“….”


Roy sat in awkward silence while Mathilde finished up her last few sips of soup.

Turning her head away from the spoon in her hand, Mathilde looked at Roy with sunken eyes before hesitating to open her mouth.


“You must have a lot of questions about your father…”

“….!?”


Roy visibly shook when Mathilde spoke the words.

Of all things to be talking about that his mother might have wanted to bring up, Roy had never expected her to bring up his father of all topics.


Mathilde took a pause before looking back at Roy to continue what she needed to say.



Chapter 76 – Fin