Tag: Version 2

The next day Stella buckled down again and started engraving the formation array on an actual beast core. While her sister was doing this, Lunam went out and bought a small storage ring specifically for the black Axis replica. She didn’t want it to start absorbing the items she had stored in her other rings. For the same reason, she didn’t much care for the idea of carrying it around in person either.

Surprisingly it only took Stella 3 tries to successfully engrave a poison resistance formation array on a mid-ranked beast core – which was the highest ranked core they currently had in their possession. With this being the case, the two sisters decided to meet Aria after a good night’s rest, which was still an entire day earlier than they’d originally estimated.

They’d only entered Imber 8 days previously, and they had initially thought they’d be cutting it down to the wire and meeting Aria on the 10th day.

“Do you think Master will be surprised when she finds out that I engraved this formation myself?” Stella asked her sister while they were lying down on their respective beds in the dark.

Unfortunately Lunam was already asleep so nothing but a light snore answered her sister. Rolling her eyes with a small smile, Stella shut her eyes and was soon letting her own snores drown out those of her sister’s.

* * *

After a hearty breakfast, Stella and Lunam made their way out of the inn and headed towards Aria’s current home. Hera told them where they could find her, since every time they made it to Imber their master was always living somewhere different. So far, she had never stayed in one place for more than 3 months, and she had yet to ever revisit a place as well. This had started even before she was hiding from the Royal Guard, so from this it could be seen that she was a rather ‘unique’ person.

Knocking on a tired and worn down wooden door, the two sisters took a step back and took in the whole building. The walls were painted white about 20 years previously with no care taken to preserve the colour. The roof slats were almost completely covered in moss, and the windows seemed to only be single glazed. The guttering was the only part of the entire building that seemed to be even remotely new. That being said, nothing was actually broken so instead of looking dreary, it actually gave the impression of being well loved.

When the doors opened, the inside seemed to be a lot newer and in much better condition, but neither Stella nor Lunam were paying much attention to that as they happily hugged their master who was also a kind of second mother to them.

“So you girls do know how to come home.” Aria jokingly scolded them. “It’s been long enough for me to move house three times.”

“Haha, well, you know how far away Kuk is. Personally I think we made pretty good time actually.” Stella replied with a cheeky smile.

“Well, come inside. We should catch up over a warm cup of cocoa.” Aria gestured as she welcomed them inside.

While waiting for the kettle to boil she made small talk with the girls in the kitchen and, once the large mugs were filled with hot chocolate and whipped cream, the group moved to the small conservatory. The glass walls looked out over a surprisingly well maintained and vibrant garden. There were several bright splashes of colour from the flower beds and the gravel pathways drew the eyes to each section before finally reaching a swing attached to an overhanging branch of the big plum tree in full blossom at the top of the garden.

“Master, we got you something since we haven’t seen you in a while.” Stella started, choosing not to mention that she had been the one to make it.

Handing over a small jewellery box to Aria, Stella nervously waited for the woman’s response. Lunam smiled encouragingly at her sister. She knew that their master would love it.

“Thank you girls. You didn’t have to get me anything though.” Aria blushed as she opened the case.

Seeing the enchanted beast core, she pulled it out for a closer look at the array.

“It’s a poison resistance formation? It seems to be a passive one at that.” She commented happily. “The one I had before has finally given out on me, so this is perfect timing.”

She stood up and pulled her two daughters in for another tight squeeze.

“You should thank Stella more than me. I only provided moral support.” Lunam replied with a mischievous smile.

“You made this Stella?” She was understandably surprised. “While the theory was sound, no one had actually managed to execute it!”

While this was true, a big part of it was that not many people had even tried. After all, the types of people who chose to cultivate their bodies normally wouldn’t be all that interested in sitting hunched over a desk for long periods of time. Furthermore, the few people that had actually tried were usually northmanni that hadn’t quite given up on at least being involved in the world of cultors. This being the case, they usually could only heal minor scrapes and bruises – let alone adequately activate the vast quantities of magic stored in beast cores.

“It’s not something I’ll focus on, but it’s nice to know that I can if I ever need to.” Stella replied, deflecting some of the praise.

After the atmosphere had calmed down again, the trio started talking about what had happened in their lives since they last saw each other. Stella and Lunam talked about their adventures in Kuk and about the two newcomers to Diei Noctis. They didn’t notice Aria’s slight twitch at the mention of Nihil’s name, though. Their master spoke about the different places she’d lived in, and about some of her close calls with the Royal Guard.

“It sounds like I have these boys to thank for the Royal Guard not actively trying to hunt me down recently.”Aria commented with a bright smile. “Though I’m not sure they would be all too happy to hear that.”

Once there was nothing left to say they naturally moved their conversation into the basement training area, where Aria proceed to test how much they’d improved during their time apart. Naturally she handily thrashed the two – even when they had attacked her together.

“Did you two even work on the basics at all while travelling?” Their master asked in disappointment. “No matter how powerful you get, if you fail to work on the basics every day then you will still reveal openings to your enemies. You won’t always be lucky enough to only face dumb magic beasts as your opponents. Having your body seize up or fumble in the middle of a battle could prove to be fatal. That risk can only be slightly mitigated by allies.

“Do you think those two boys you just met successfully evaded the Royal Guard for as long as they have just by sheer, dumb luck? Trust me, if they were that easy to fool then I would have long been able to leave Imber and get into contact with the inter-species council.”

Finally done with her lecture, Aria looked over to see her two students hanging their heads and blushing deeply. It seemed like her message had gotten through so she decided to let up on them and continue with some light sparring. As the fights continued, she would point out some of the girls’ flaws so they could adjust their movements accordingly.

Soon enough the sky was completely dark, save for the giant white orb that was desperately trying to drown out the surrounding stars. Only noticing this after they exited the training room, Aria invited the two girls to stay the night before leaving in the morning.

Since they already had all of their belongings with them the two girls readily agreed and Aria quickly cooked up a humble, but delicious, dinner for everyone to enjoy.

* * *

The next morning the girls said goodbye to their master before leaving to meet up with Paul, Carl, and Clark at Hera’s inn. There was a light sprinkling of rain, but it barely affected their travel through the city and they soon arrived at the inn.

The men were sitting in the dining area having breakfast by the time Stella and Lunam reached them.

“Miss Stella! Miss Lunam! How was Master Aria?” Carl asked eagerly. Though the members of Diei Noctis hadn’t actually met Aria, they had heard a lot about her from their two leaders.

“She was well enough to chew us out for slacking off in our training.” Stella laughed. “She did like our gift though, so thank you for letting me be selfish with the distribution of cores.”

At those words everyone hurried to assure their leader that it wasn’t a big deal and that all of Diei Noctis would have been in agreement with their decision as well. Smiling guiltily, Stella chose to let the subject drop and instead asked how it had gone when selling off the magic beast materials. From their smiles it could be seen that they had done better than they’d predicted, so everyone said goodbye to Hera and then headed towards the gates.

Splitting up just before the gates – just like when they had entered Imber – Stella and Lunam went slightly ahead of their party members and braced themselves for another bout of verbal assault from the guards. Surprisingly they managed to find the only non-racist member of the Royal Guards, so they were let through without any problems.

“I guess they weren’t all brainwashed upon entry into the Royal Guard.” Stella commented dryly.

“Haha, yeah it’s definitely a miracle alright.” Lunam agreed with a somewhat helpless laugh.

Soon enough the three guys were beyond the gates too and everyone met up again. After brief greetings, the group of five started heading south-east towards Flumen.

* * *

Meanwhile, Nihil and Ignis were currently in Agartha. The furthest place from Avalon’s reach that Nihil could currently remember was in a certain cave on the surface of the country mainly populated by Dwarves.

The main area of this cave had a rough stone platform with a shallow dip in the centre, and a charred dent in the centre of the floor that looked to be the remains of a fire pit. Towards the back there were the broken remains of what looked to be a stone chair, and a doorway that led into a completely bare room. Perhaps there used to be a wooden door, but it had long since crumbled away into nothing.

Currently the only source of light and warmth in this cave was Nihil’s magical flame in the ready made fire pit. There were already air vents drilled through the thick walls – plus magical fire didn’t give off any smoke – so the two wouldn’t have any problems for breathable air.

“Where is this place?” Ignis finally asked his friend.

After they had left Flumen the two fugitives ran all over Avalon, deliberately getting spotted by the Royal Guard with a different number of people every time. After each sighting, Nihil infiltrated their camps again to make sure the news got passed on to the higher ups. He had used his shikigami to make up the varying numbers and, from a distance, they looked very convincing.

Eventually Nihil had opened a gate into this cave, so Ignis was understandably confused. He’d figured out which country they were in when he had looked outside and seen a seemingly endless mountain range surrounding them. What had actually confused him, was how they were there in the first place. As far as he knew, Nihil currently didn’t remember anywhere outside of Avalon in order to transport them this far.

“We’re in Agartha. We’re not in the Dwarves’ Metropolis though, as we can still be considered to be on the surface.” Nihil replied, clearly dodging the true question that Ignis was trying to ask.

“You know that’s not what I was actually asking.” Ignis refused to back down, so he decided to cut to the chase. “What is this cave to you? Did you used to live here?”

Sighing in surrender, Nihil then took a deep breath to gather his courage before properly explaining. “Even I’m not exactly sure why I was here at the time, but this is where I was living when I got taken to that facility.

“I get the feeling that I had been sleeping for a long time when Callum showed up. To make matters worse, it seems like I had already sealed the majority of my memories just before going to sleep, so I was fairly confused when they barged in and forcibly placed their Azoth Shackles on me. I still don’t know how they managed to find me here.”

What he didn’t mention was that when he said he’d been sleeping for a ‘long time’, he literally meant for a few centuries at least. If he told Ignis this, then the obvious question would be asked – ‘what made him feel the need to sleep that long?’ And that was something Nihil just wasn’t ready to discuss yet.

Besides, it wasn’t as if Nihil clearly understood why he had been there either. One thing he did know for certain, though, was that he’d wanted to remain undisturbed for much longer than he had managed to be. Nihil also worried that if he ever undid the seals blocking his memories, then he wouldn’t be the same person any more. After all, he had clearly sealed them for a reason.

“If they know about this place, isn’t it dangerous to stay here, then?” Ignis pointed out worriedly.

“It should be fine for a while.” Nihil started. “For one thing, they don’t know that I’ve regained any of my memories from before I had already been at the facility for a while. Furthermore, even if they do somehow guess where we are, they won’t be able to reach us this quickly.”

“That’s true.” Ignis agreed easily. “But we still can’t stay here for long. We should head towards the coast. There’s no point in delaying any more.”

“Sounds good. We should go through Abraxium though as it will be easier than making our way through this mountain range.” Nihil replied. “Besides, there’s a hidden entrance just beyond the back of this cave.”

“There is!?” Ignis asked, surprised. “Wouldn’t that be classed as illegal entry, though?”

“We don’t have to worry about that apparently.” Nihil shrugged. “It seems that I have Queen Hephaestia’s signet ring in my storage ring.”

This was a storage ring that was filled with all his belongings that he had recovered along with Ignis’ void-space ring because Callum had put it to one side to look into closer once he’d completed his current project. Callum was the type of man to be overly confident in his eventual success. It made him an excellent researcher, and allowed him to persuade people that investing in him was a good plan. However, it also meant that he had a tendency to put off certain things for too long. It was also exactly this personality trait that allowed Nihil and Ignis to finally escape.

“How do you have something like that?” Ignis asked, shocked. “It won’t actually help us if it was stolen, you know.”

Ignis laughed, but he was only half joking.

“I didn’t steal it, don’t worry.” Nihil reassured his friend with an amused smile. “I only remembered this once we got here, but I was actually friends with her. I was staying here with her permission, and the entrance was made so that I could easily visit her if I woke up. However, I don’t know if the story might have changed if the monarch has changed.”

Because succession to the throne wasn’t hereditary, and instead based on suitability and achievements, it wasn’t guaranteed that a new monarch would be as friendly with Nihil. Depending on the circumstances, they might have even misunderstood the situation to believe that Nihil had stolen it. As such, this was a risky move since neither of them knew much about current affairs. They had picked up some of the bigger events happening in Avalon while on the run and while talking to the members of Diei Noctis, but they hadn’t had much time to find out about other countries.

“Would they even be able to change the monarch without their signet ring?” Ignis pointed out, effectively stumping his friend.

“Well, it shouldn’t be a problem anyway.” Nihil answered eventually. “Unless something drastic happened, she should still be alive at the very least. Plus, I don’t think she was the type to abdicate.”

The queen had only been just over 300 when he had known her and, given her realm, she still had several centuries left to live. An average Northmanni could manage to live until around 150 years old. However, a cultor that could reach the ‘Expert’ realm could live to be around 1000 years old, and the upper limits were around 2000 years old if they could reach the ‘Ancestor’ realm.

As for Queen Hephaestia, she had reached the 13th stage [Magus Expert] realm. Given that her talent was only slightly better than Lunam’s, and that she was bound to be busy with her duties as a queen, it was unlikely that she would have been able to reach the [Magus Master] realm yet. But that still meant that she could live up to the age of 1000, and even though a lot of time had passed she should still only be around 800 years old.

While thinking of all this, Nihil guided Ignis to the back of the cave, and found the mechanism to reveal the entrance. Turning round to his friend, Nihil made sure Ignis was following him before ducking through the dark hole, and emerged into a long, brightly lit tunnel. While the entrance was pretty small, the tunnel was more than tall enough to stand up straight in.

Despite Abraxium being built by dwarves, their tunnels were usually almost excessively tall enough for the other species to stand straight in as well. They may be the among the shorter species on Axis, but they also still liked open areas and high ceilings just as much as (if not more than) humans. Additionally, Abraxium had many tourists and residents that weren’t dwarves, so it wouldn’t make sense for their structures to be any smaller.

The pathway sloped down in a steady decline that gradually led deeper and deeper into Axis’ crust. Eventually they reached a security checkpoint. This would be where most people would hand over their papers (which should have been stamped at the entrance to the tunnel). However, Nihil and Ignis didn’t have anything like that, so Nihil took out the signet ring to present to the guard instead.

This guardsman happened to be a young cat-type mysterious beast that couldn’t transform into a humanoid yet. His form was that of a pure black, domestic house cat with bright green eyes, and he had been curled up on the desk as he waited for someone to come along to relieve his shift. This path was one that was rarely used, so his shifts were usually pretty relaxed. That being said, he hadn’t yet lost enough integrity that he would ever fall asleep on the job.

“Oh? Someone actually came? Will it be a blue moon tonight?” The guard joked in a strangely deep voice for his tiny body. “Well anyway, papers please.”

The guard held out his paw, so Nihil just dropped the ring onto it and calmly waited for his response.

“Huh? I asked for your papers, not this ri-“ He stopped mid word as he figured out just what he was holding. “Why do you have this!? Since when was it ever let out of the palace!?”

“Uh …” Of all things, Ignis hadn’t expected that people wouldn’t even know that the queen didn’t have it any more.

“Queen Hephaestia gave it to me a long time ago.” Nihil started to explain, but the guard wouldn’t even hear it and had already pressed a button to request for back-up.

“Save it!” He interrupted excitedly, then proceeded to shout the line he’d been wanting to say ever since he first signed up for this job. “You’re under arrest!”

This was the first incident to happen since he had become a guard. As a result, he was a bit more gung-ho than most other guards would have been in his position. He had already come to the conclusion that these two were thieves, and didn’t even bother to listen to Nihil’s explanation – let alone question why the two might have come back and flaunted the ring so blatantly.

Needless to say, this guardsman was a bit of an idiot.

Exchanging a look, the two men decided to just surrender for now until they could deal with someone slightly more intelligent.

Several days later and Stella had finally memorised the placement of all the lines in the poison resist formation array.

“OK, now it’s time to try actually engraving it.” Stella muttered to herself.

Just then, Lunam opened the door carrying a tray with lunch and a couple of drinks on top.

“How’s your studying going?” Lunam asked while she handed over Stella’s food and sat down on her bed.

“Good. I’m about ready to start practising on real beast cores.” Stella answered.

Instead of ruining countless beast cores, the general practice when trying to learn a new array, was to use normal gem stones. They had the same hardness, but they weren’t as valuable unless they had some of the world’s energy inside. Bule’s onyx had veins that also contained the world’s energy inside. The buildings were made out of the normal onyx, while the ones they sold to be base materials for formations contained their own energy.

Using this method, Stella was confident in engraving the actual pattern. However, stimulating the energy inside while keeping the engraving accurate would be a different hurdle.

“Great, you’re in the home stretch then.” Lunam congratulated her sister warmly. “You should take the rest of the day off. Come out shopping with me and celebrate a little, won’t you.”

“That sounds fun.” Stella agreed eagerly. “I’ve been cooped up behind this desk for too long now. It feels like my muscles are starting to seize up – not that that should be possible for cultivators.”

Laughing, Stella put her empty tray to one side before standing up and stretching with a muffled groan. Clear popping sounds could be heard as she moved.

“It seems like you should train more if just a few days are enough to cause you discomfort.” Lunam replied with a teasing smile.

Despite their conversation, Lunam and Stella’s cultivation’s were both quite a bit above average for their ages. Stella was a 10th Stage [Martial Manipulation]* cultivator, and she was in the process of trying to refine her inner energy to reach [Soul Expert]. As for Lunam, she was actually a 12th Stage [Soul Expert]. Her talent was one notch above her sister’s, and coupled with being 1 year older meant that her realm was quite a bit higher.

Since the average was around 7th Stage [Martial Manipulation] realm, it could be seen that they were better than they let on. That being said, neither of them could exactly be called geniuses in the world of Cultors either. In comparison, Scarlet Blade was at the 15th Stage [Soul Expert] realm while being 21 – the same age as Lunam.

Since everyone in Diei Noctis was at about the same level of talent as Stella and Lunam, Scarlet had called Diei Noctis’ members ‘low levelled’ in her report to her sergeant. However the older members Klaus and Paul, would probably only be step below her in terms of pure power, since they were both further along in the [Soul Expert] realm than the assassin, just with fewer cycles of repetition.

“You might be right about that.” Stella replied lightly. “So what were you planning on buying?”

“I was thinking we could get souvenirs for the others.” Lunam explained. “Plus, I’d like to get our clothes and supplies sorted for our trip through Sheol.”

“That makes sense. Most towns wouldn’t have the stuff we need – except much closer to the border, and they usually charge hiked up prices.” Stella agreed seriously. “Though I’m not sure how much difference it will make for us. Maybe we should leave getting the supplies to Carl, Clark and Paul.”

“You might be right, but it won’t hurt anything to just have a look. Besides, we might come across some more reasonable stores while we’re walking around town.” Lunam responded optimistically. “Most people are only doing as Prince Pravus says because they’re scared.”

“Even if that’s true, it doesn’t exactly change our current situation.” Stella pointed out as they left Hera’s Inn.

“Well … You’re not wrong …” Lunam replied slowly. “That isn’t to say that you’re entirely correct either, though.”

Stella didn’t answer her sister, but she did understand what Lunam was trying to say.

“This seems like a good place – they’re not asking for identification at least.” Lunam gestured at a large clothing store on their left.

* * *

After a few hours of wandering around town and entering every store they came across that didn’t discriminate against non-human species, the two women finally had everything they needed. Currently they were sitting outside a cafe, enjoying the pleasant early evening weather while snacking on some cakes.

“I’m not really sure what Ignis even likes – besides Nihil, that is.” Stella commented, surprised. “I never really noticed before because he always seemed to fit in with the group much better than Nihil, but he usually managed to dodge any questions about the two of them. In fact, I think the only time he ever gave us personal information was when he was trying to get the group to open up more to Nihil.”

“You’re right, now that I think about it. We only know that Nihil likes history and languages because Ignis got annoyed at you picking fights with him.” Lunam agreed thoughtfully, causing her sister to blush in embarrassment. “Otherwise we’d only have known that he often read big and complicated books, without actually knowing the subjects. Even when the two were killing time together, Ignis usually just kept Nihil company while he read, and didn’t seem to be doing anything himself.”

What neither of them knew was that Ignis was usually combing through his ancestral memories at those times. He was hoping to find a clue as to what had erased his memories from before he was 10 years old. The only reason his ancestral memories hadn’t been wiped too, was because his species was special and had them literally engraved on their bones. Furthermore, since the memories weren’t truly his yet, he had to relive each one individually until he had fully assimilated them all. Naturally this would take more than even the 15 years since his current memories began – never mind the fact that he’d only awakened then 2 years previously.

Luckily his ancestral memories weren’t fully comprehensive. They mainly consisted of key moments in his ancestors’ lives. He had plenty of memories of giving birth, falling in love, mating, and every single one of his ancestors’ deaths. There were a few battles as well, but not as many since it was rare for them to leave their clan and participate in other people’s wars.

“So, although we somehow managed to find a rare history book for Nihil, we still have nothing for Ignis.” Stella complained.

Everyone else had been sorted for over an hour by this point, and the redhead was the only reason they were even still shopping.

“At this point I’m seriously considering just making him a Nihil figurine.” Stella exclaimed after swallowing her last mouthful of chocolate mousse cake, only half joking.

Looking regretfully at her empty plate, she started eying up Lunam’s remaining vanilla and caramel cheesecake. Softly chuckling, Lunam pushed her plate towards her sister with an obvious eye roll.

“If you want two slices, you should just order two from the beginning.” She teased.

“But you never finish yours – so really I’m just helping you.” Stella cheekily replied, sticking her tongue out.

“Oh! How about a firestone?” Lunam suddenly suggested. “I think Nihil once said that ‘ignis’ roughly translates to ‘flame’, and it’s colour often happens to be the same shade as his hair and eyes.”

“Ah! That’s a good idea! We can get a pendant made. The material may be useless, but it’s definitely one of the prettiest stones.” Stella quickly agreed. “Wait. It can only be formed in the heart of a volcano, and only occasionally reaches the surface due to an eruption. Won’t it be rather difficult to find any just because we want to?”

“Actually, I think I remember Hera vaguely mentioning in passing that Master received one as payment for something. She might be able to tell us if her client has any more …” Lunam mused. “I think that’s why I suddenly remembered it now.”

“That’s a good idea. Should we still check jewellers in the area? Just in case we happen to get lucky.” Stella suggested.

“OK, but it will be dark soon so we shouldn’t spend too long.” Lunam agreed after some thought.

* * *

Several jewellery stores later, and it was just approaching dusk.

“One more and then we should head back to the inn.” Lunam stated firmly as they approached a jewellers near Hera’s inn.

The store, Orbis Lapillum, was well known and trusted throughout Axis despite being a relatively young franchise.

“Welcome! Is there anything I can help you with?” An old man greeted the sisters as they stepped inside the shop. From the pin on his chest, it could be seen that his name was Taegall, and that he was the branch manager for this location.

There were quite a few customers, but it was still very quiet with everyone talking in low voices to their attendant. It looked like all the store’s employees were busy serving the other customers, which was why the branch manager had personally come to greet Stella and Lunam.

“Oh, yes. We were wondering if you have any firestone in stock. We’d like to commission a necklace with a piece as a pendant.” Lunam explained, not very hopeful by this time.

“Actually we do. I recently gave one piece to an acquaintance, but we still have one more.” Taegall answered, surprising the two sisters. “What kind of pendant were you hoping for?”

“We’re not exactly sure, but the colour absolutely has to be right.” Stella jumped in firmly. They were hoping the firestone would match Ignis’ eyes and hair.

“Would you like to see the raw material first before deciding, if you’re not certain?” The old man suggested.

“That would be great, thank you.” Lunam agreed after a brief glance outside.

The two girls then proceeded to follow the branch manager into the back of the store. On their way, they passed by several counters filled with all kinds of jewellery, each one made out of a different type of precious stone. There were even several high grade storage rings – though their prices were well above the two girls’ budget. Actually, now that they had finally reached this point, the two girls were suddenly worried if they’d even be able to afford the firestone. It had turned out that the gem was even more rare than they’d thought, so – despite it being functionally useless – the price could well be much higher than they’d originally estimated.

Finally they reached the back area of the store, and the old man led them into his office. Sitting behind his desk, he reached down and unlocked one of the drawers before opening it and pulling out a small box.

“Here it is.” He said as he opened it to reveal a glistening stone that gave the illusion of it being on fire with a deep red strontium flame. “Every firestone has its own unique shape and this one happens to have the figure of a dragon. It is marred slightly with a deep scratch down it’s back, which is why I haven’t been able to sell it yet. Unfortunately the scratch is too deep to buff out, so if it doesn’t fit your needs then the only other one I know of in the capital, is the one I gave to your master a while ago. Maybe she might be willing to give it to you?”

“Our master? Do you mean Aria?” Stella asked, confused.

“That’s her. She had some pictures up of you two as children in her house. I wasn’t certain it was you two, but mint green eyes are uncommon so I thought that it was pretty likely.” Taegall explained warmly.

“That explains a few things then.” Lunam muttered with a smile, drawing the attention of the other two people in the room, but she couldn’t be bothered to explain herself. Nihil might have rubbed off on her a little more than anyone had realised before.

“Can I take a closer look, please?” Lunam instead requested. The colour was perfect, so she wanted to see the stone properly.

“Of course.” The branch manager responded, handing the box over.

After turning the gem over and having a closer look at the small dragon, Lunam revealed something that shocked the other two. “We’ll take this one after all. The scratch looks remarkably similar to a large scar I accidentally saw on Ignis’ back.”

“Just when did you see his back?” Stella asked, both curious and just wanting to tease her older sister.

“When we were switching watch shifts during the evening there was one time that I had to wake him up, but when I entered his shirt had ridden up and he was sleeping on his front. So I just naturally saw it. Despite there not being much light, it still stood out very clearly in the dark. It didn’t look at all comfortable even though it’s healed.” Lunam’s voice clearly showed her worry over the matter. “Come to think of it, it was around then that Nihil started taking the shift before Ignis’ instead.”

Hearing this, Stella felt bad for teasing her sister. “So you want to get this one for him? Since he never brought it up, it seems he doesn’t like talking about it, so are you sure that he’ll like it?”

“I’m not, but for some reason I think this one is perfect for him.” Lunam answered, just as confused as to why she’d have such a feeling.

“OK, we’ll get it for him then.” Stella quickly agreed with Lunam’s feeling. In these sorts of situations, her sister was rarely ever wrong – even when neither of them entirely understood it.

“How much would you like for it?” Stella turned to the old man resolutely.

“Don’t worry about it. This is a personal item and you two are Aria’s precious daughters. What’s more, it sounds like you know the gem’s destined owner. How could I possibly take payment after considering all that?” The man replied stubbornly.

The jeweller was a firm believer that each gem had a person out there that was a perfect fit to be the owner. Wherever possible, he tried to sell his jewels to people who could truly appreciate them even if they weren’t quite a perfect fit for each other. Suddenly he seemed to remember something and got a thoughtful look on his face.

“Actually, I have another gem in my possession that seems to compliment this firestone.” He started. “I’m not sure if you’d be interested though – this one’s a bit … difficult.”

Intrigued by his words, the two women exchanged looks and Stella answered the old man. “That sounds interesting, can we see it?”

“By all means.” The man smiled. “This one is in its own vault though, so if you could wait here while I go and get it. It seems to have settled down a bit in recent months so it should be fine, right?”

The last comment was muttered under his breath, but Stella and Lunam still managed to hear it. Sharing a confused look with each other, they decided to wait for the man to come back with the gem before asking anything.

Several minutes later, and Taegall re-entered his office, this time laden down with a metal canister. It had a bulky latch on the front, and almost looked like it would open with a hiss and release dry ice smoke.

Contrary to expectation, it actually opened with a ‘pop’ and then two quiet ‘thud’ sounds. There was also no smoke. Instead, it seemed that inside was actually enchanted to be a perfect vacuum with additional antigravity magic incorporated as well. The thuds were actually the gems inside as they fell to the soft bottom of the container.

Reaching down into the case, the old man gently picked the two gems up and handed them to the two people in front of him. They were made of a black material that seemed to absorb all the light in their surroundings. If Claude had been there, he would have been shocked because that material looked remarkably similar to Nihil horns.

“By the time I found this gem it was already in two pieces, so I have no idea if they were originally one which then split, or if they were two separate gems that were carved to fit together perfectly.” The man started explaining. “It’s also a type of rock that we’ve never come across before or since, so we’ve decided to call it ‘lapis inanis’ – meaning ‘empty stone’ – based on the unique qualities it has shown us since we picked it up.”

“Wow, it looks like an exact replica of Axis. Even the outside looks like Tartarus.” Lunam exclaimed in surprise, holding one half.

“If that’s the case, does it mean that this is the other half?” Stella asked, just as shocked.

“That’s also our best guess. We spent a lot of time tracking down maps of the other side, but were only able to find vague mentions – even in the oldest records we could find. The little information we do have seems to match up, though.” The branch manager answered uncertainly. “Then again, it could just be someone’s imagination of what the other side would look like.”

“Neither half has any borders marked, so it’s not even clear when it was made. How long ago did you find it, and where abouts?” Lunam asked the manager.

“I found it roughly 200 years ago, in a hidden cave on the surface of Agartha. It looked like the place had been thoroughly ransacked a short while before I arrived, but these two were left unnoticed in a back corner.” The man then continued to describe the circumstances with a small chuckle as he remembered. “In fact, I only noticed them because I managed to place my sleeping bag directly on top of them. At first I was worried that I’d broken it by laying on top, but after examining it it soon became obvious that it would require a force much stronger to break it.”

“If the cave was hidden, then how did you manage to find it in the first place?” Lunam asked at the same time as her sister asked a question of her own.

“Why would a simple cave be ransacked in the first place? They also missed these two on top of that?” Stella was clearly unconvinced by this explanation.

“I’m not sure why the place had been raided like that, but it could just be that whoever it was took all the stuff that would have given us that very answer.” He explained, just as uncertain before turning to face Lunam. “And I only managed to find the cave because I was mining for some precious gems to get the initial stock for opening this store.”

“You’re the owner of Orbis Lapillum?” Lunam asked, surprised. His name tag only said ‘Branch Manager’ and the franchise was the go-to jeweller all over Axis, so it was understandable that she would be confused.

“Haha, yes.” Taegall replied with a light chuckle. “I normally prefer to only go by ‘branch manager’, since this way I can avoid any unnecessary annoyances. That being said, I like to actually interact with the gems and customers, rather than just sit in an office all day.”

“That actually answers a few of my questions.” Lunam responded with a small laugh. Suddenly the old man in front of her seemed a bit less reliable and a lot more mischievous.

“So why do you want us to take these two as well?” Stella piped up at that moment. “Also, what did you mean before when you said that they had been ‘quiet’ recently?”

“The reason these are kept in such a case is more than it just being a precious, unknown type of material.” He started explaining. “Pretty soon after I picked it up it started behaving strangely.

“At first, I just thought that I was careless and misplaced a few things. But then I happened to witness something disappearing right in front of my eyes. It looked like it had been sucked into the orb just like with a storage ring. However when I tried to probe my mental energy into the orb, I just felt an endless void that started to devour even my mental energy. It seemed to stop after we separated the two halves, but just to be on the safe side, we decided to store it in this container.

“Every so often, we would take it out and run a few tests. We couldn’t pin down a material, but the closest we could get was that it was similar in composition to a demon’s horns – just many times denser than any ever recorded. We would also check to see if it would always act the same way when the two halves were fitted together. Up until very recently or so, they would invariably act in the same manner. However, over the past few months they’ve remained inactive no matter what we do to them. We aren’t quite sure why their behaviour’s changed, so we decided that we should still keep them inside this container.”

“That still doesn’t explain why you want us to have them, though.” Stella pointed out.

“Actually, since the dragon firestone in your possession now is damaged, we decided to test if it would also get absorbed. However, that was the only thing it left undisturbed. We tried another firestone we had on hand, but that one was absorbed with no issues. Given that it clearly wasn’t the type of material, I thought that it might have been something along the lines of ‘the destined owner of that specific firestone being someone close to the owner of the orb’. It may sound silly to you two though – the gods know that the other researchers mocked me enough for that opinion.”

“I kinda like that reasoning, though.” Lunam spoke up with a gentle voice. “There’s something romantic about the idea.”

“Plus Ignis and Nihil are practically inseparable.” Stella pointed out.

“The person you’re getting the firestone for has a close friend that might suit the orb?” The old man asked excitedly.

“Yep. They joined our group together, and they definitely had history between them.” Stella affirmed with a nod. “Your theory might not be entirely wrong after all.”

This made the old man smile happily as he insisted on giving them the two halves of the orb completely free of charge. The women, for their part, were somewhat hesitant to take something so dangerous. However they decided to take it in the end, as they both agreed that it probably did actually belong with Nihil. It somehow seemed to give off the same air as the mysterious newcomer to their group.

Thanking the owner, they took the three gems (and their respective cases) and returned back to Hera’s inn. They sneakily left a storage ring on the owner’s desk with a couple of dwarven crafting tools inside. They didn’t feel right taking the gems for free so Lunam had distracted the man while Stella rapidly wrote a note and left the ring behind.

---

* A/N: The Cultor stages aren’t all that important in this series, but if you’d like to know how the names work, you can find the explanation on my blog at: Axis Cultor Realms

“I’m back.” Lucas greeted the man sitting and leaning against a tree while reading a giant book.

“Great, you good to go then?” Nihil replied as the book in his hands disappeared into his void ring.

“Actually, there was something I wanted to talk to you about first – if that’s OK with you, of course.” Lucas started tentatively.

“Is this about the ‘Caretaker’ thing I said earlier?” Nihil asked as if he’d expected this conversation to happen at some point. In fact despite his earlier words, he hadn’t actually stood up when he’d put his book away.

“Y-yeah.” Lucas replied nervously. “How do you know that term? It was supposed to be a closely guarded secret that only the elven royalty knew – and, of course the Caretakers themselves.”

“I knew a Caretaker a long time ago.” Nihil answered with a distant expression. “But that person must be long gone by now.”

“You talk as if you’re much older than you look …” Seeing Nihil’s warning look, Lucas quickly trailed off and changed the subject slightly. “Does that mean you know what we’re tasked with.”

“So you admit you are one, huh?” Nihil teased. “Yes I do. It’s the very important duty of guarding and taking care of the world tree.”

“So you are aware then.”

“What I don’t know is why you were allowed to leave your post. As far as I’m aware, that’s never happened before. They were too paranoid that the secret of the tree would be leaked. Never mind the fact that it used to be common knowledge.”

“Really!? It used to be that widely known?” Lucas asked incredulously. He just couldn’t imagine that. “It’s not even something people know by word of mouth these days, how did they erase the knowledge that cleanly?”

“Memory wiping magic.” Nihil replied curtly. “Before the inter-species council was formed, they destroyed all the books that even vaguely mentioned the world tree in passing. They then performed a wide-range memory wipe at their own discretion. They basically scuppered themselves though, because they hadn’t realised in time that the tree was sick, so they no longer had any way of fully curing it.”

“You know even that much!?” Lucas exclaimed in shock. “Your friend must have trusted you a great deal to tell you all this. If you don’t mind me asking, what was their name?”

“It’s fine, I don’t mind. Their name was Shusaura and they were very kind to me.” Nihil started remembering some sad things as he said the elf’s name.

“Were you very close?” Lucas asked, while also trying to remember why that name would sound so familiar to him.

“We lived together for a while, but that’s about it.” Nihil replied more to try to convince himself than Lucas. “Anyway, you never did answer my question about how you were able to leave your village.”

“Ah! Well if you already know that the tree is sick, then I guess there’s no harm in telling you.” Lucas started explaining. “Recently the tree has taken a sudden turn for the worse and, due to some special circumstances, the elders deemed that I could be trusted to keep the secret. As such, it was decided that I should be the one to leave the village and research rare botany to see if the world tree’s disease was one that was known to the outside world. The hope is that I can find a way to completely cure it.”

“I’m sorry to say this, but that’s going to prove very difficult due to your ancestors’ own actions.” Nihil calmly stated. “The disease the world tree has is unique to it’s own kind. This is the first time something like this has happened, but the research on the world tree was previously much more in-depth and advanced than it is now.

“Without a genius, or hints from someone who still remembers, the research would take another century or two to get back to where it was before.”

“Hints from someone? Is there anyone who would still remember something from that long ago? Putting aside the memory wipe, is there anyone who could live that long in the first place?” Lucas asked dubiously.

“It’s precisely because the spell was so wide-reaching, that someone who was able to live for that long would have been able to resist it.” Nihil replied simply, refusing to acknowledge the real question in Lucas’ words.

Noticing the obvious dodge, Lucas decided not to pursue the subject for now. He was starting to have his own suspicions, so thought that it was probably best not to aggravate the person in front of him even more.

“I guess that make sense.”

“Well, I doubt the spell would have been able to pierce the crust and affect the dragons …” Nihil decided to give a small hint in the end. He appreciated Lucas’ understanding in not asking any more questions.

Nihil made a mental note to drop by the world tree with Ignis after their business was sorted out. If Lucas still hadn’t figured out a solution by then, he would take a look himself. That was the most he was willing to help after what had happened back then.

* * *

Back at the camp, a dark slit appeared in the air. This time Ignis had chosen not to alert the adventurers since no one was in the area of effect. Nihil and Lucas stepped through the gate and reunited with the group. Neither of them mentioned their recent conversation, but Nihil was going to let Ignis know of the updated plan once they transported Diei Noctis to the prepared cave.

“Is everyone ready to leave?” Nihil asked the group, wanting to get going as soon as possible. He wanted to get back to Regan’s inn and sleep for a full night. Naturally Ignis would also rent a room there as well.

“Yep, we guessed you’d probably be coming back at around this time.” Ignis replied for everyone.

Slashing his hand down, an even darker slit materialised before the group. Nihil’s gates would get darker according to the distance between points A and B. The greater the distance he compressed, the closer the gate’s colour would get to the colour of the void. When Nihil was fighting Scarlet, the gate he created actually extended the distance between the two ends, so it only looked like a faint shimmer in the air that could easily have been mistaken for heat haze. However now that he was crossing the distance of an entire country, it’s colour would naturally become much darker and more obvious.

Seeing it appear, Nihil was the first to step through into the cave. The members of Diei Noctis quickly followed, with Ignis bringing up the rear. After Nihil showed everyone the layout of the cave, and warned them not to light a fire, he handed over some heat gems to everyone. These could store heat, but they wouldn’t get hot enough to cook food. They purely acted as heat packs for a slow and gentle warmth. They could also be used on the water to allow for warm baths.

“The desert gets cold at night, so these are a definite necessity since you can’t light a fire just yet.” Nihil explained just before he and Ignis stepped back through the still open gate connecting the place to the camp site.

Nihil had tried his best to account for everything since he felt responsible for their current situation. Lunam and Stella’s group would get the supplies on their way to meeting up at this spot, but until then, Nihil thought that he shouldn’t hold back his own supplies if they would help the group be more comfortable as they waited. He even gave them some of his books for them to read – though he only had history and language books on hand, so he wasn’t sure if they would actually read them.

“You know, I think he’s more of a mother hen than he tries to let on.” Merry commented with a warm smile after the portal disappeared, causing the rest of the group to laugh in agreement.

“Why can’t we light a fire yet, though?” Archer asked in confusion. As far as the Royal Guard would be concerned, surely they would just be normal adventurers or travellers?

“Normal travellers wouldn’t bother to build a cave like this, so smoke rising from the top of this hill would be suspicious. They would wonder why such a permanent camp was set up so close to the border.” Alexis explained.

“Not to mention our track record with fires. We’d somehow manage to burn down this stone cave.” Lucas joked with a teasing look towards Claude and Clark. “We should probably invest time in actually getting better at cooking – or at least good enough to not almost start a forrest fire.”

“Should we set up patrols?” Claude suggested mainly to change the subject. “We need to keep an eye on both our surroundings, and the bridges across the canyon. After all we didn’t put any co-ordinates in our message.”

“Nihil even has us covered for that.” Merry spoke up at this point, before leading the group into a previously unnoticed room in the caves. “These mirrors only take mental energy to activate – just like storage rings.”

She then proceeded to inject her own into each one. Suddenly they flickered and several images appeared in front of them. One showed a birds eye view of the hill they were currently inside, and all the others showed a different bridge so that they could keep an eye on them all at once. This way it wouldn’t matter which bridge Lunam and Stella’s group decided to use.

“He really though of everything, didn’t he?” Alexis muttered under her breath.

“Isn’t this equipment super expensive and only available to Arcadia’s government?” Clark pointed out. “ Just who is he?”

“He’s a space attributed mage, maybe he made it himself?” Archer suggested.

“It’s not that simple. Only a two people can even perform maintenance on Arcadia’s surveillance. Let alone making them from scratch. Also, not even Arcadia have real time footage. The images have a delay depending on how far away the crystal captures are to Bule.” Alexis explained. “But the daylight and shadows clearly indicate that it’s at least much closer to real time than Arcadia’s systems.”

What she didn’t know was that these mirrors worked in a completely different way to Arcadia’s systems. While the latter’s used crystal captures as an intermediary to capture the images, Nihil’s system used his spacial magic as a medium and compressed space and then returned it to being invisible. This made the mirrors act more like windows that magnified distant objects, rather than having to transfer image data across vast distances.

* * *

Back at the campsite again, Nihil and Ignis set about laying a false trail to hopefully distract the Royal Guard into thinking that the group was going in the direction of Arcadia instead of Sheol. The shift in direction also shouldn’t alert the Royal Guard, since most travellers did the same in order to avoid the mountains anyway.

Leaving traces of 9 travellers was easier said than done. Not only that, but Diei Noctis was a party of adventurers, so they also had to leave evidence of fights with magic beasts as well. In order to do this, Nihil enchanted seven beast cores to create some shikigami to at as the remaining members. Shikigami were a kind of ‘doll’ that would be under the control of whoever created them. They would normally act as servants and weren’t especially useful in most situations, but Nihil chose to use them now since the members of Diei Noctis were far too slow to keep up with him and Ignis at full speed. The last thing Nihil wanted was to have to spend more time than necessary on a trail that wouldn’t hold up against an expert tracker anyway.

In this way, the two fugitives were done just before dusk. Nihil opened another portal to the spot outside Flumen’s walls and Ignis stepped through. As for Nihil, he transported himself directly into his room at Regan’s inn. After all, he hadn’t officially ever left it in the first place.

Arriving in the room, Nihil deactivated his belt again before opening his door and putting on a show as if he was just waking up due to being hungry. Heading down to the dining room, Nihil found Regan sending Aki off for his shift at the gates.

“Are you heading out already?” Nihil greeted groggily.

“Oh! You’re awake?” Aki responded. “Yep, it’s better to show up early than leave a gap in the patrol.”

“Have fun then.” Nihil smiled warmly before leaving them alone to say goodbye to each other for the night.

“Would you prefer something light since you’ve just woken up? Or would you rather a more substantial meal since you haven’t eaten anything since this morning?” Regan asked Nihil after Aki had left.

Just then Nihil’s stomachs let out a loud grumble as if it was answering the question for him.

“A more substantial meal it is, then.” Regan laughed.

“Thank you.” Nihil replied simply while blushing deeply.

“It’s not a problem.” Regan replied while handing over a basket with bread rolls and butter inside. “Feel free to snack on these while waiting for dinner. You can take them into the library if you’d like, too.”

“Library? Do you have any interesting books on history?” Nihil asked, his eyes practically sparkling in the dusk light.

Giving a small chuckle at Nihil’s eagerness, Regan teasingly replied. “Well I’m not sure if they’re interesting, but I do have several in that genre. Aki is a big history nut, not that I can say that understand it.”

“Oh? Seems like we have that in common then.” Nihil smiled.

“He actually got his hands on some rare books, but then we realised that neither of us could read them.” Regan commented with a small smile and a fake sigh. “The language shares our alphabet so we thought it would either be a known language, or a variant of ours. However, it might as well be written in code since no one recognises it, and there are many words that should be impossible to pronounce.”

“That sounds interesting. I think I will have a look around the library then. Which way should I go?”

“It’s just down that hall and through the double doors on the right. Despite what the door would suggest, it’s just a small library – more of a study really. But Aki wanted to make the entrance more dramatic just to confuse people.”

“I wouldn’t have pegged him for that sort of person when I first met him.” Nihil replied while laughing.

“I know, he does a good job of hiding it.” Regan agreed jokingly.

Leaving Regan to his job, Nihil made his way to the library and immediately noticed the books that the couple said they couldn’t read. They were gilded in gold leaf, so they easily stood out even when properly placed on the bookshelves.

Pulling them off the shelves, Nihil opened the cover to reveal a language that he’d never seen before. Strangely though, Nihil found that he could actually read it perfectly well. Spotting an armchair in the corner with a book stand in front, Nihil walked over and sat down, using the stand while he munched on a roll.

When Regan came in later to let his guest know that dinner was ready, he found the man curled up comfortably on the armchair. The huge book was in his arms as he read with an enraptured expression.

Just then a shadow emerged from behind Regan’s figure.

“We should leave him be. When he gets like this it’s impossible to shake him out of it.” Ignis’ helpless voice explained.

“I was hoping to surprise him during dinner. It’s an amazing coincidence that you chose this inn to stay at while you were searching for him.” Regan replied, disappointed.

“Well, you’re inn was highly recommended by someone I met in the street. He was dressed as a guard, so I guess he was heading to work.” Ignis shrugged.

While this was also true, Ignis was always heading in this direction since Nihil had already caught his friend up on where he was planning to stay and the story he’d told the owner. As such, Ignis was now posing as a guard from the merchant caravan, tasked with locating and bringing back his charge.

“Well, it looks like he ate all the bread in the basket at least, so he shouldn’t be starving anymore.” Regan commented, relieved. “I’ll leave some food in the kitchen, so if he’s hungry later there’s some ready. We should eat now, though – I’m sure you’re also tired after searching for Nihil for so long.”

“That sounds like a good idea. The smell of your food is already making my stomach rumble.” Ignis commented truthfully.

“You guys are more similar than I first thought.” Regan replied with a laugh while he was setting the table for 3 people – just in case Nihil came out before they finished eating. “You must have spent a lot of time together.”

“I’ve known him since I was little, so yes we’ve been together for a while.” Ignis answered, carefully avoiding lying about his friend’s age.

He’d noticed the pendant around Regan’s neck, so he felt that it would be better to lie a little as possible. As much as Nihil had insisted that the ring had no value, Ignis knew that his friend had actually greatly treasured it. From what he could gather, it was supposed to be a gift to someone but he’d never had a chance to give it to them.

Of course most of this was inferred from what Nihil had told him the previous night, when he’d been describing the memories he’d managed to recall. Naturally Nihil hadn’t gone in to much detail – nor did he have the time to do so – but Ignis knew him well enough to be able to read between the lines. He’d even mentioned the necklace specifically which would have been unusual if it actually meant nothing to him like he’d claimed.

Just as the two people were settling down to eat, Nihil appeared at the door leading into the dining room.

“It smells super good.” He commented happily. Seeing Ignis, he then put on an act for Regan’s benefit. “Ignis! You’re here?”

“Haha, yep. I’ve been looking for you ever since you disappeared, but staying at the same inn was a stroke of luck.” Ignis joined the act.

“We should head back to the caravan tomorrow morning then. I miss everyone.” Nihil replied.

This overly expressive Nihil is a little disconcerting – if I’m being perfectly honest. Ignis thought to himself wryly. He wasn’t used to seeing Nihil act like this so it threw him for a second.

Nihil had deliberately chosen to be more open with his emotions while he was in Flumen. This was because he knew how much his tail revealed anyway, and there was no point in a poker face if he had such an obvious tell. It also helped that Regan and Aki had been so welcoming and made Nihil much more comfortable than he had been in a while.

“We looked into the library earlier, but you seemed really into the book you were reading so we decided not to disturb you.“ Regan commented after the two men had ‘caught up’ with each other.

“Ah, yeah that would be my bad habit. I don’t think even a fire would distract me from reading when I’m that into it.” Nihil gave an embarrassed laugh. “I actually only smelled the food once I finished the book.”

“Haha, I’m glad you enjoyed it. Which book were you reading? Your expression made it look really interesting.”

“Actually, it was the one titled ‘Discidium’.” Nihil answered frankly.

“You could actually read it!? More than that, you already finished it?” Regan exclaimed unsurprisingly. Not only was it written in an ancient language that no-one had even seen, let alone understood it; but tit was also massive with tiny writing. Completely reading it within a couple of hours was very impressive.

“What was it about?” Ignis asked, curious.

“It wrote about the time period surrounding when Axis split. I’m not sure how much was actually accurate, but it was well written and brought up a lot of questions.” Nihil explained with a conflicted expression. On one hand, he really enjoyed reading the book, but there was also a rising dread welling up within him. He felt like he was about to remember something he really didn’t want to.

“You can have the book if you’d like. In fact, you can have all of the books written in the same language.” Regan offered. “They’re basically useless to us, and it could be considered a ‘thank you gift’ for this necklace.”

He clasped the pendant on top of his clothes as he said the last sentence. Nihil wasn’t sure whether or not to accept the offer, but ultimately decided to allow the man to express his gratitude in this way.

“Thank you, that would be great.” Nihil replied simply with a grateful smile.

By the time they finished, both Nihil and Ignis were ready to pass out on their beds so they headed up to their rooms. Ignis was directly across the hall from Nihil’s room, so they said goodnight to each other there.