King Of Limbo

Cries of panic and fear resounded through out the city of Vonstein as the sudden turn of events left many struggling for their lives. Some people were gravely injured and begging for assistance whilst others were desperately looking for their loved ones and friends.

Although the damage delt by the explosions was great it didn't take long for adept mages within the city to act and start putting out the fire where they could.

Those efficient in manipulating the element of water used the nearby sources of water and had them put out the flames in that given radius. The struggle with this method was that water was currently limited and unfortunately one couldn't simply summon water out of the blue.

In fact the more helpful mages were pro efficient in the element of fire and directly worked to extinguish the flames. This process proved to be slow however as the majority weren't used to applying it in that manner.

...

Meanwhile back within Castle Vonstein Aron was currently making his way down to the ground floor of the castle although very slowly due the injuries on his body that he currently wasn't healing.

Despite this it didn't take much time for him to reach the lower floor where a familiar voice could be heard shouting. "Is anyone still alive! Call to me!" Victoria's voice echoed through castle as she prioritized trying to find individuals who were still alive rather than checking every single body completely. 'Dammit, why is this happening!' She thought as she was still unable to fully comprehend what exactly caused this and why.

As someone who had experienced the grueling nature of the battlefield Victoria was someone who wasn't foreign to the loss of those precious to her and so to some extent she still tried to go about this the most logical way she could despite feeling great heartache.

Although not all her children and grand children were present in the city, some still were and as far she was concerned they had already died.

"Here!" Aron called out as he walked out from a large debris filled passageway that had a few bodies crushed under the bloody burning rubble.

Hearing the voice Victoria didn't even take time to try and assess who it belonged and instead immediately began to go in that direction despite the pain she felt. However now since she could augment once more, she speed up the rate at which her body was recovering and this at least stopped the bleeding but for the most part her injuries were still quite severe.

Although magic and augmentation were useful, they didn't make one invulnerable or capable of everything. The biggest deciding factor was always one's mastery over a certain area or areas of it.

A great example of this was how some mages could only manipulate water if it is present in the areas while others were so skilled that they would extract it from other sources within the surrounding such as the ground itself or even flora.

What Aron truly found interesting however was according to Argos some even reached a stage where they could create it seemingly out of nothing but in reality they simply built it up from its most basic of components, atoms. Something Argos described to him as the building blocks of life.

They were of course exceptions as not all beings followed the same principles given the uniqueness of their bodies or perhaps natural affinity to mana control.

Victoria who could be said to be quite skilled was still clearly injured and was only working through the pain, something Aron noticed immediately she appeared from another pathway and entered the passageway he was lingering in.

"You..." Upon seeing Aron it was like the hope Victoria once had simply deflated and left her body. Of all the people to survive, why did it have to be him? Wasn't this simply adding salt to injury?

In that moment the first thought she had was to perhaps kill Aron there and then to avenge the previous humiliation and death he indirectly caused for her grandson.

However looking at the state he was in it was clear he could still somewhat defend himself. If she really did attempt to fight now she would only worsen her injuries and so she concluded it wasn't worth it. Not to mention Lady Rose and Lady Uva still knew too much to risk it."What happened?" Victoria inquired of him as it was no secret that his presence in the building was known beforehand.

What Victoria didn't know was what exactly he had come to discuss with Ursula before this disaster occurred.

"That's what I'd like to know. I came here trying to reach a compromise as Galos and Vonstein need not be enemies when suddenly Ursula and I heard explosions in the distance."

"As the sounds drew closer we became alert but in that moment I realized I couldn't manipulate my mana. At first I assumed it was another scheme against me but Ursula was the same. Before I could question it the ceiling above us exploded and the rubble fell down upon us...." Aron continued to explain what happened on his end while clearly showing he was suspicious of Victoria, as if the event had something to do with the Vonsteins.

This piece of body language Aron displayed coupled with the grave injuries he had made it possible for him to make his story more believable to Victoria, at least for now.

"Tsk. Let's leave first, can you manage?" Victoria still found the events hard to digest but she quickly concluded it was best they retreat as the castle continued to collapse in certain areas.

The odd pair made their way towards the exit without countering much trouble aside from the need to avoid rubble and flames in certain parts.

Once outside however rather than the sense of relief, Victoria only felt grief. Before her eyes was the smoky skies of her city as the flames from some of the buildings reflected in her eyes.

"What is this?" Aron muttered as if genuinely shocked by the site before him, a reaction Victoria could currently relate with. No matter how strong her mental fortitude even she would be at a loss for words upon seeing just how big of a disaster this was.

"Milady!"

Unsurprisingly it wasn't long for the soldiers and guards who were still alive or stationed outside the city gates to make it inside.

According to military procedures they needed to ensure the situation was under control before directly rushing to the castle.

Most of them would never have imagined the great Victoria Vonstein, a pillar of Ettenheim would be reduced to such a sorry state.

"Quickly put out he flames and check for survivors!" She ordered without hesitation and immediately a group rushed passed her to enter the building while a few remained to tend to her injuries and fill her in on what the overall situation was.

Aron was obviously out of place in such a situation so he decided to leave as the performance he had orchestrated seemed to be enough. "I'll be going to see if Rose is okay." Aron used a fake worry for Rose as an excuse to leave the scene which didn't seem at all odd.

In that moment a soldier tending to some of Victoria's wounds spoke up. "We met the Grand Mage on our way here and she's responsible for putting out quite a good number of the the fires before we arrived. She helped organize things more quickly so we could rush here faster." The soldier explained which only seemed to further make Aron and Rose seem like victims.

For now he had a solid story and had eliminated an enemy that would have likely tried to make things extremely difficult for him.

As for the wether or not this event would be enough to spark a war, only time could tell. It was because of this unsure nature that he initially wanted to go about this in a more indirect approach that depended on actively working with the family through Ursula.

This current situation held no guarantee that a war would actually begin due to how many factors could contribute to this variable.

"Elves." Victoria muttered hatefully towards Aron as he was getting ready to walk away. "Excuse me?" Aron inquired in a perplexed manner.

"After the explosion within the hall an elven woman appeared and began to slaughter my people, she likely wasn't working alone either. Report this directly to Lady Uva when you return to Galos Academy." Victoria instructed but received no answer from Aron who just turned and began to walk away without uttering a word.

...

After leaving castle Vonstein Aron went directly towards the docking area where he found Lady Rose waiting for him below the boarding platform of the airship without a single scratch on herself.

"Well you look rather pitiful, I could almost belief you're a victim." She commented upon seeing Aron limping towards her.

Aron didn't entertain her snarky remark and proceeded to just board the airship. 'To be this cruel even to oneself.' She thought before following right behind him.