Blademaster Ascension

[37]- Volume One - Epilogue

Darren examined the piece of paper that had fallen rather conveniently off Rowan's pockets while he and Marius were fighting. Although Marius had noticed it at that time, the heat of the battle didn't allow him to collect it. But now Rowan was possibly dead. Isa, Turio and Rhea had vanished mysteriously. Isa's parents had escaped as well. Fallspark was captured but what was the point of capturing him when he didn't know where his disciples had run off to?

Although Darren did have the ability to venture inside the ravine, he knew it would be impossible for him to find Rowan in that vast, misty abyss.

Thinking back, perhaps Rowan was innocent. This piece of paper that was written by him like an will of a dying man, stated so. He had a legacy, but it wasn't from the bunker. However, no one would have believed him since he had been embroiled so seriously into this incident. If he had gotten caught, his legacy would have been counted as one from the bunker itself.

The piece of paper also mentioned several other incidents, as well as pointing it out that Turio was the mastermind behind everything. There was even a line stating if they wanted to catch Turio, they'd have to look for him either at his home in the empire of the Triumvirate or the Rath island.

Closing his eyes, Darren sighed and seemed to age a lot suddenly.

...... ....... ........

The gates of the Rath's capital were huge, giving off a formidable impression. At this moment, a young man with a rather sneaky air about him was walk in towards the gates calmly. He was, of course, Turio.

As Turio walked closer to the gates, the armoured guards' gaze fell on him. Seconds later, he was surrounded by a dozen powerful guards with the strength of at least a rank one mage.

"Halt! You are a criminal from the Holy kingdom! Do not resist arrest!" The guards yelled ferociously. Turio was dumbstruck by the sudden change.
"Wh-what?"

The leader of the guards came closer to him and opened a piece of paper in his hand that showed a Turio's face. He matched Turio's face with the picture and nodded in affirmation.

"Take him to the cells."

Turio thoughtfully followed them, his eyes downcast yet bright.

"Ah, Rowan, well played, my friend."

.... .......... ........ .......

The immaculately dressed man sat on a bench and chewed on a fake bar of gold which a swindler had tried to sell to him.
"Very tasty, but this is going to give me food poisoning." He spat out the molten gold from his mouth and gazed at the horizon while the swindler stood as if thunderstruck.

"Two people who awakened their innate ability before they should have... heretics.
Those old fogies must be betting their asses off right now," the man muttered before sliding out of the bench and walking away, leaving a very frightened swindler behind him.

"Better to go and check. It seems to be related to the seedling I met not long ago."

...... ....... .........

Rhea sat inside a spacious carriage, facing a large, rotund boy around her age, who looked terribly nervous.

"Stop sweating like that, Isa. It's not as if you're facing an army. It's just an examination. I already faced many like this back in the empire. And the experts of this place is only slightly more poweful than there. Since you can already use spells related to the concept of sound, it should be simple for you to pass," she said calmly while gazing outside.

"I know. But it's still scary facing those old mages at the peak of rank two."
Isa answered her tersely.

"Who knows what happened to Turio and Rowan... why didn't Rowan's escape pod reach the same destination as us?"

"I don't know," Rhea snapped impatiently. Isa had already asked the same question a dozen times in the last two days. Rhea herself was worried. But she knew worrying about them wouldn't solve anything.

Her hands clutched a single paper card, showing the countless stars in the dark sky.

"Infinite Possibilities..."

........ ......... .........

The room was filled with old men and women, all of whom had their eyes glued to the huge table in front of them that showed three dimensional moving pictures of a ravine, an island, a bustling city, a dark jungle, the floorbed of a sea, a gigantic metropolis underground, and many other scenes that had only one thing common in them.

Each of these pictures was focused on a different person. Most of them were young and virile.

The old audiences were brimming with energy as they focused on those young people in the moving pictures.

"Old fart Li, I bet a thousand pound of grade seven elixir that that girl in the city is going to defeat her opponent and break through to rank one against all odds!"

"Old devil Jakarri, I bet a divine legacy that she won't, she'll definitely fail!"

"You two fogies shut it! She isn't stupid enough to break through right now. She'll definitely wait for a better opportunity. I bet a rank three life-essence treasure, hmph!"

Shouts like these were heard everywhere. At the corner of the table sat a pair of old men who gazed at a ravine with a complicated expression.

"Ai~ that boy should have surrendered..." one of the kind looking grandpa sighed.

"Could he survive the fall?" His grim looking companion wondered aloud.

"Probably not. Even if he did, how long could he live down there? Not to mention the situation underground isn't the best right now. Those "people" are not a friendly bunch," the other man spoke dispiritedly.

"Don't you think it's abnormal how he awakened his ability? Although it goes against natural order, he didn't receive any backlash. What's more, he seems to talk to invisible people when he's in trouble. It's very strange."

"I don't know. But does it matter now? What a waste of a talent..."

"He was just too unlucky. Could anyone even survive as long as he did it that situation? And there was also that creepy heretic boy who still gives me the shivers."

"Even though we made the bunker explode earlier to distract his enemies and help him, he still fell..."

"But you'll have to admit, that boy went down in style. That leap almost gave my poor heart a shock. How thrilling that second was!"

"Your blatant disregard for life is getting really disgusting every day. You need to go interact with normal humans for a few years again."

The two old men glumly argued back and forth as their fellow companions focused on other lively scenes in the huge table.

........ .......... ........