King Of Limbo

Just as Sebastian and Jagu began making their way downstairs, Aron who was still in the basement had learned all he could from the pile of knowledge he found on the desk.

He had already confirmed that the device had to present among the many miscellaneous items present in that very basement so he focused on learning more about the power he would need to make it work.

The answer he found was quite straightforward and was even written down plainly.

[ To power the Tor, one needs a collosal amount of mana in any form or shape so long as it can be absorbed by the device. The minimum required is equal to the amount of mana stored in roughly one million tier one mana crystals. ]

As Aron read this final point he could fell another obstacle grow in his path to return to Limbo.

At first glance one may think a million tier one crystals would be easy to acquire but it was quite the opposite. Mana crystals were rare no matter what their tier, so much so that it was unlikely the combined mineral reserves of Pesia could even amount to that.

'Then what did they use in the past?' This was where Aron was confused, it was clear that they had travelled to Limbo before and even back so how did they manage to accomplish it?

Did they really manage to obtain such a large amount of crystals? Perhaps that was why Pesia's reserves were low?

Just as Aron began delving into the matter further Evanora appeared and tugged him by the shirt softly. "Evanora thinks she found it." She quickly revealed before pointing to the far back of the room.

Aron turned to face her and it was then that he came to a great realization. "It says in any shape or form, which means the amount can be made up by mana beasts… or even humans."

After realizing this Aron turned back to the desk and grabbed a blank piece of parchment and began scribbling on it, making rough conversions of what may be needed.

[ one million tier 1 = one hundred thousand tier 2 = ten thousand tier 3 = one thousand tier 4 = one hundred tier 5 = ten tier 6 = 1 tier 7 ]

This was the rough conversion he made on the spot and didn't just limit it to mana crystals but mana beasts and intelligent races as well.

The fact that the device needed energy or rather mana equal to that contained in a tier seven entity was quite surprising. Even he himself didn't have that amount and this was counting all the wills he held which amounted to thousands.

It was a grand number but it was manageable so Aron remained positive and put away the piece of parchment so he could consult Lady Rose on it for more accurate conversions if any.

"Show me where you found it." With that matter aside he finally responded to Evanora who just looked at him blankly as he scribbled hard to pronounce words in front of her.

She replied with a nod before leading him to the device she found. Contrary to what he was expecting it wasn't that large.

It took the form of semi-circle shaped pillar with a 4 meter long base and 5 meter height. From design alone one could see it wasn't made to allow a large number of people passage or even mana beasts as most surpassed the height it was.

Aron traced his fingers against the material it was made of and felt a sort of suction force coming from it… yearning for his mana. It didn't outright drain him of it as it clearly required one to manually deposit mana into it.

After examining it's mechanism he came to a discovery. "It's a mana crystal with a large capacity but devoid of mana. Meaning for inanimate objects, they have the mana move from the object of lower concentration to that of higher concentration."

"Fascinating." Evanora added as she didn't understand what Aron was talking about.

It's mechanism was rather simple but still genius, it made Aron wonder if the doorway he had used back in Argos's collapsing library worked under the same principle.

"We're done here, let's see what the others managed to find." With the device found he had no reason to linger around any further, now he just needed to see what the others had found then see where to go from there.

…

Meanwhile at that time many kilometers away a vicious battle had broken out in the port city of Hazenloft.

The once prosperous and beautiful city was now in shambles with many of it's area's set ablaze. Numerous screams and the sounds of weapons clashing filled the air as Sayiva's troops confronted Victoria Vonstein's.

Sayiva was yet to act herself and simply watched as Victoria slaughtered all those who dared tried to fight her. The level of augmentation she could use was simply astounding, making her strength rival that of a true mana beast.

With this kind of strength, stamina and speed backing she made quick work of the Aethelians who tried to fight at a distance.

"Sayiva!!" After slaughtering another unfortunate Aethelian Victoria called out to the woman responsible for all this. "Your fight is with me! Let my troops pass and fight me!"

Sayiva looked at her with visible hate, she wanted nothing more than to see her suffer. "Your fight back then was also with me, yet my child was also targeted! Today you will feel my pain!"

She roared angrily before finally making her move and jumping off the airship she watched the battle from.

"I command you all to die!" Whilst still in mid air she aimed her hand towards Sayiva and her men before declaring this, what followed was a sight like no other.

A stream of almost never ending lighting rained down onto the ground, taking the life of any life form unfortunate enough to collide with it not distinguishing between friend or foe.

By the time Sayiva landed she was surrounded by nothing but smoke and charred corpses. With a wave of her hand the smoke cleared and she looked towards the direction Victoria was in before a look of annoyance appeared on her face.

Victoria still lived…

Despite the vicious attack Victoria managed to withstand it using all her power. This left her in a miserable state in which she could clearly no longer fight, a pointless struggle in the eyes of the vengeance driven Sayiva.

"Wether you delay your death or not the result is clear. Do you really want to live so badly." Sayiva mocked as she walked over to land the finishing blow, she saw no reason to delay and waste time speaking but Victoria's next words surprised her.

"I'm sorry…"

A brief moment of silence followed and Sayiva seemed to only get more angry after hearing this. Sorry? Sorry wouldn't bring back all she lost, Sorry wouldn't take away the pain. Even Victoria knew this but she continued, she knew her end was near and saw she wanted to die with less regrets than she already had.

"I'm sorry for your suffering, after experiencing what it's like to lose those you cherish in such a brutal way I can understand your hate…" Victoria spoke softly, referring to the incident at her city in which many of her descendants lost their lives.

"I won't ask you to spare me because I did kill your lover and I do not regret it, however your child was spared and sent away to the current Queen of the Aethelians… Celes." Victoria revealed unapologetically with a look on her face that showed she didn't fear death.

This piece of news took Sayiva aback, from what she could tell Victoria wasn't lying. "But then-"

Rumble!

Before Sayiva could reply the earth beneath them began to shake furiously. This event wasn't limited to just Hazenloft but the entirety of Pesia, one after another regions began to experience powerful earthquakes seemingly out of nowhere.

….

Back in the Aethelian ruin Aron made his way to what used to be the building's lobby where the others had already convened, sharing what they discovered.

Before Aron could join the conversation the rumbling there also began although it wasn't as vicious as it was on the surface.

"Is the ruin collapsing?!" Sebastian asked in panicked manner.

Jin also showed worry and looked up to see if the ceiling would collapse but what he saw was something entirely different. "Uh… what's that?"

Everyone simultaneously turned their attention up to the ceiling and could see glowing blackish runic carvings spreading to all areas of the building.

"I don't know but we should leave now!" Henry didn't know what was happening but he felt his life in danger the longer they stayed, however Evanora's next words quickly dismissed this option.

"Evanora thinks that's a bad idea." A straight face Evanora pointed out while staring out a dusty nearby window.

Curious as to why she said this, the other came forward to take a look and it was then that they discovered the rumbling they felt wasn't from an earthquake….

…but from a horde of creatures rushing out from all directions.