King Of Limbo

Upon hearing Aron's answer Celes couldn't help but widen her eyes and cause the chains blinding her hands to crackle around. "Are you serious?"

"Do I look like the type to jest?" Aron knew she didn't trust him but what he said just now more than caught her interest.

However this was far from being enough for the calculating Queen who had Aron make an oath that he wouldn't kill her or allow her human enemies to do the same. Only by agreeing to this would she cooperate.

Aron hesitated in response to this to show that it wasn't something easy to do, if he agreed to leisurely then she would usually demand more, such was the way of negotiating.

After forming the simple oath between one another, Celes began to reveal what Aron wanted to know.

"First and foremost, Sayiva is my sister… older sister to be exact. I won't bore you with my family's drama with humans but in summary due to the war only I and Sayiva were left."

"She was supposed to ascend to the throne after our mother but her affair with the then Lachestrian King Aiden lead to her being hunted down by both parties. Aiden was killed by the now pillars and I thought the same fate befell my sister since they told us nothing and never provided a body."

"All we were given was a small child who they claimed was her daughter, as her sister I of course took her in until she one day just up and vanished, Sayiva's rage stems from this. As for how she came to posses one of those entities I do not know, if I did I myself would've taken one and wouldn't be kneeling in a human city today."

She ended her words while glaring at the room she was being kept in. The Aethelians loved to be close to nature and more natural environments rich in mana, Galos Academy despite being an institution that trained mages had very weak surrounding mana which absolutely disgusted her.

"Is that all? You've merely explained a history that holds no importance to me, I want to better understand the entity you mentioned not Sayiva herself." Aron found her explanation void and unhelpful so he asked more accurately.

Hearing this Celes chuckled and crossed her legs as if to sit more comfortably on the marble floor she was on.

"They are a mystery to us, all records we had of them were long destroyed. I'm unsure of how Sayiva found one but seeing one live for the first time was with her and it truly was powerful. With one phrase one of my best was killed, devoid of mana… such an ugly way to die."

"Phrase? What phrase?" Aron's attention settled on this one part of her explanation.

Celes smirked towards him as she thought he was worried if the same phrase was used against him he would die so knowing it beforehand hand would help him avoid it.

"I believe she asked him "Do you find us alluring?" I'm sure the phrase itself held no real power as the poor fool couldn't even answer before his mana was drained beautifully." Celes described as if talking about some sort of twisted work of art, she really was sadistic Aron thought.

' "Do you find us alluring?" "Do you fear us?" ' Aron compared the phrase Sayiva had mentioned to the one Evanora's mana demon mutters to it's victims.

He was sure answering wasn't what determined their fate but emotion since the one in Evanora asked the same questions to beasts and animals that couldn't respond yet the result was the same.

He was onto something but still found too many differences between the two.

"Interesting, such a power is enviable. Anyway that's all I wished to ask you, Oh before I go what was the name of Sayiva's child?"

"Her name is Zunkuft, given by her father, however we didn't call her by this human name and instead used little Sayiva." Celes added nonchalantly.

Aron gave her a nod seemingly satisfied with the little information he gained as he walked out of the room while she remained smiling and looking at the chains on her hands like they were jewelry. "What an interesting creature, a shame you made me your enemy. Sayiva will seek vengeance no matter what, at that time even your freakish power will pale in comparison."

….

Aron walked out and met the gaze of Jagu who was standing outside guarding the door. "Move her to my residence for now, she's definitely made things far easier for us. Here."

Aron tossed over a strange looking circular medal with runic patterns on it and received and odd glance from Jagu.

"Use it to enter my residence, without that on you well… just don't lose it." He advised before walking away.

Jagu took Aron's words to heart and went into the room with the purpose of taking Celes whereas Aron just left the scene entirely, no one saw him again for the rest of that day.

…

While Aron had seemingly vanished, the activity within Galos City as a whole was at an all time high.

Right now nearly all the airships were setting off at once to retrieve mana crystals and mana beasts from their respective territories.

The pillars themselves chose to stay behind so as not to be fooled by Aron and the others once they left or betrayed them in some way.

They could only stay vigilant and take turns watching the door to the room that the device was being kept in which just so happened to belong to the arch mage.

This would at the very least deter them from having funny thoughts even if only a little.

Aron understood all too well that the current partnership he had with them was extremely fickle and could collapse at a moment's notice.

The whole reason he lied about their being three steps to get the device to work was because of this. He betted on the fact that they wouldn't be so brash as to act only on the first step knowing they were two more ahead.

…

A month's time would soon pass and the situation only grew dire with more and more regions losing mana. If it weren't for some forces being sent out at intervals to slow down the horde by using runic formations and barriers provided by Lady Rose then the territories would have long since been drained.

Around two weeks prior the Komi had also arrived in Galos City and provided help getting mana crystals and beasts.

One would think they hold a sort of connection to mana beasts since they shared a sort of relation but one would be wrong. To them most mana beasts were inferior and just prey to them so using them to save their home wasn't much to think about.

As the resources for the device continued piling up, Aron spent his days setting up a gigantic runic formation that would cover the entirety of the city.

He didn't need to hide this and simply covered it by saying it was the second step needed for the device that only he could do since only he memorized the formation, a clear lie but no one could prove otherwise.

Since Aron had never shown any talent for runes publicly, they could only assume this was true especially since he had Yohan and other capable scholars help from time to time and purposefully made his own runes look rather crude.

'Even if runes are crude, so long as the will and mana behind their creation are solid then the function shall remain.'

Aron currently stood at the Galos City square where he had finished drawing the final rune.

"Truly a work from the old era, I can't even begin to understand the function." Yohan who was alongside Aron couldn't help but praise the work the two had spearheaded for an entire month.

In this time Yohan grew fond of Aron's company and recognized his intellect so he treated him with well earned respect.

"Thankfully we'll get to witness it soon enough." Aron replied with a small smile while seemingly admiring his work.

However their conversation was cut short when loud noise resembling a horn could be heard from afar.

The two turned around at the same time and looked to the skies where a frightening number of airships could be seen coming towards Galos City.

"They're finally here."

"Who?" Yohan asked with slight worry due to the sheer number of large airships he saw.

"The Koliens."