Lucille’s sponsored party had differing expressions on their faces when they heard of Sedric’s kidnapping. Larena and Garthe looked ready to head out and throw fists with the first person they saw at any moment, Marellen was strangely distracted, and Roa’s gaze held a frosty anger that didn’t show on her face.

“Do they have no shame? Choosing to kidnap the weakest of us?” the elf stated coldly.

“Maybe we should be glad that they chose Sedric as their target, otherwise we’d have to assume they were strong enough enemies to hold a stronger person hostage,” Vincent murmured.

“There is no doubt that the Light Tower are enemies we must not underestimate, but…” Lucy tapped her fingers on the armrest of her chair. “Their ties to Citadel have stunted their growth, for lack of a better word. Athenaeum keeps them in check due to their ties and the Citadel doesn’t want a separate light element force growing to powerful, so they’re arguably the weakest Tower in All-Aeon Athenaeum.” She sighed. “That doesn’t stop them from having far more Rank-5s than we’re prepared to deal with. It takes a considerable amount of effort to survive the increasingly lengthy periods of the Mystical and Heavenly Realm Stages, which is why the quantity of higher Ranks drastically drops each rank.”

“How difficult is it?” Annaliese asked curiously.

Lucille glanced at her. “I’m not sure that’s important right now, but if you must know, the first twenty Stages are irregular. Tartarus’s Stages last about a year, the Mystical Realm’s last ten years, and the Heavenly Realm’s lasts a century.”

Annaliese stared at her, then at Jasten. “Does that mean you’re not really thirty-two?!”

“I have few memories of those Stages, Prophetess Verdon,” Sir Albrecht politely refuted. “The Stages passed in somewhat of a dream-like fugue, so only key experiences are retained. It’s still mentally exhausting however, so it takes time for people to arrive at Rank-5. I am fully aware while in the Stages and experience the fugue afterwards.”

Lucille rapped her knuckles on her armrest. “This is not helping us with finding Sedric.”

Annaliese shrunk down, chastised. “Sorry…”

“Just… try to keep on topic now.” After a moment of thinking, Lucy directed her body to face the three from the Citadel of Fate. “Sir Albrecht had a word with me, and while I dislike it, I have accepted that you want to be part of this operation. As such, I need to know why you came here so I can include you if the opportunity arises.”

The Prophetess’s eyes brightened and she quickly turned to look at her brother. “Tell her!”

Raegan sighed and raised a hand. “The… hex is still on Sedric. So I could probably sense him… if we’re on the same plane.”

They all stared at him.

“I don’t know whether I like the implications of that statement, but that’s certainly valuable to know,” Lucy eventually replied.

Raegan clicked his tongue. “Sedric isn’t still being affected by bad luck or anything, that’s all gone. It’s just that…. Maybe it’s a little harder to get rid of my ability than I pretended.”

“So, you can remotely activate your hex,” Lucy stated flatly.

The boy’s lips twitched as if he wanted to hide a smirk, so he quickly avoided eye contact.

“Lucille said we don’t know which plane Sedric is on though, right?” Marellen spoke up for the first time.

Lucille didn’t know what had made him so zoned out, but she sighed and nodded. “If we end up using Raegan’s aid, he would have to come with us to whichever plane we visit.”

They looked at Sir Albrecht. He nodded. “Due to the... orders I received, I’m required to be at the conflict site between the Light Tower and all of you.”

Lucy blinked when she felt a thin strand of spiritual energy touch hers and heard Jasten’s voice.

‘This... royal planted evidence of a Sage abusing their power to hand the Prophetess over to the Tower for a limited time, which is how they will explain her absence. The Citadel needs evidence of me being near the Tower wizards to ensure everything works out.’

It was a risky plan as it meant Jasten’s testimony must correlate exactly with the forces of Radical, even with the Sage attempting all sorts of methods to prove his innocence. But Lucy knew Albrecht was capable of that much, so she nodded, accepting that she’d be bringing the Verdons and their guard to the plane. That didn’t mean she’d allow them to enter the facility where Sedric was being held. If the plane was too large for her to scan with her spiritual perception while remaining undetected, Raegan would be helpful.

“Would the Founder’s inheritance token come in handy in this situation, Lucille?” Vincent asked thoughtfully. “It may be able to help us pinpoint the plane through use of several directional observations.”

“What? How on earth would it… oh.” Lucy realised that Vincent likely didn’t understand how unlikely that would be. “Through triangulation? That’s not possible. Proximity of the Old Era plane to us has no bearing on teleportation arrays needed to get there.”

Vincent frowned as Trisroa gave Lucy a sceptical look. “Did you not state that you had visited a Astrarium? Then if you utilised your pocket watch to identify two directions of which had differing angular-”

“Firstly, you are vastly underestimating the mana cost of locating Sedric when he could be thousands of planes away,” Lucille interrupted by holding a gloved hand up. “Secondly, Astrariums do not show geographical proximity between planes. How could they? We don’t know what planes are closest or farthest to us. Perhaps the navigators of the Old Eras would, when boarding their airships. They could possibly create a true map for skyfaring, but not us.”

“Then what are Astrariums for?” Marellen asked, eyes burning with curiosity.

Lucille glanced at him and resigned herself to demonstrating for them. If they had a better understanding of her dilemma, they might be able to come up with useful suggestions. She spread her palms and indigo mana pooled out of her. Not just because it was illusion mana, but because it was the colour of an Astrarium’s projection.

Composed of violet discs set at perpendicular angles to each other, a gold glowing label marked the centre core of the projection, called ‘Aionios’. At regular intervals along these giant mana-circle look alike were a multitude of many smaller animalistic shapes, all labelled with various mythological titles of those famed in old.

Lucille used her fingers to expand one section of a circle’s perimeter, revealing something that looked a lot like the section of a zodiac circle. Tapping on one ‘animal’ revealed it to be a singular 3-dimensional constellation comprised of thousands of smaller silver and gold cores. Thin webbing of violet lines connected these cores to create the border of the animal.

Lucy pointed at the eye of the beast they were looking at, reminiscent of a lion, and pulled up its label. “Does anyone find this name familiar?”

“…Scoria,” Vincent sounded out. “I can’t quite place…”

“I know! I know!”

Lucy glanced at the excited Marellen and ignored his waving hand. “Does anyone else recognise this name?”

“That appears to be the name of the Gilded Dome plane’s Demistar,” Trisroa announced calmly.

“Correct. Each golden core on this polygonal constellation represents a Demistar, and each silver core represents a moon.” Lucille pulled back from the constellation and returned the projection to its original state.

“Then what are the lines between the stars and moons?” Annaliese piped up. “Are they just to connect the dots?”

“Me! Me!”

Lucille gazed flatly at the navy-haired mage who was almost bouncing in his seat. “Fine. Marellen, would you answer Annaliese’s question?”

“They’re astral pathways. Planar arrays use them when transporting people between planes,” he answered, his words rushing out. “I’ve never seen an Astrarium so I could never visualise the dimensional connections between Demistars, but I see now that an Astrarium is just a visualisation tool! This Astrarium you saw must have been crafted by the School of Myths, a faction of Astrologers that organise the stellar bodies into constellations. This has made me interested in observing the Astrariums of the School of the World Tree and the School of Runic Macroscopy to-”

“Before Marellen continues his tangent,” Lucille interrupted. “Yes, the Violet Order and Space Tower create planar arrays and follow the connections between the Demistars to link planes together. As such, while Astrologers have created this theoretical map of the Mystical Realm, it doesn’t reflect distance. Only ease of teleportation, as a stronger connection between Demistars is depicted as shorter astral pathways.”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

The others sat in confused silence but Lucille snapped her fingers. “We don’t have time to converse on magical topics. Marellen, keep your tangents to yourself. For all we know Sedric might be killed by those Tower wizards after they’re done with him.”

“...Lucy, does Sedric have enough resurrections left?” Scytale spoke up in an uncharacteristically solemn voice.

She looked back and frowned. “I don’t know. Even if he did, he’d be teleported to the nearest Obelisk... so the light wizards could kill him again.”

Larena and Garthe exchanged looks. “Couldn’t you contact him in the same way you asked us four?”

“I could…”

“Huh? Lucille can contact Sedric?” Annaliese interrupted, looking between them with confusion.

“Not important right now.” Lucy pointed at the mercenary siblings. “Yes, I can contact him. Give me a moment.”

Sedric, how many resurrections do you have left?

There was a delay before the young man replied, sounding slightly distracted, ‘…Lucille? Uh, where is this coming from?’

We need to know how many times we can fail before you’ll be gone for good.

‘That doesn’t sound reassuring… I’ve never died before though, so-.’

Alright, thanks. That’s all I need to know. Lucille was going to end the conversation but something caught her attention about Sedric’s surroundings. What are you doing, exactly?

‘I got told to crack this ancient artifact, but nothing I’m doing is making it work. As you said, I’m stalling for time, but it only responds to elemental mana and as an engineer that uses arcane mana I can’t get it to do anything besides glow when I pour potions on it-’

The ‘artifact’ in question gave Lucy pause. She had seen it once before, but after taking a second glance, it was more unique than she first realised. It emitted an aura distinct from any artifact she had seen before. She suspected it wasn’t only an artifact.

Sedric, this doesn’t have any internal mechanisms, does it? The mana lines don’t seem to serve much purpose.

‘You could tell that quickly? Yeah, you’re right. My skills can’t do anything to it. It’s hardly even an accessory.’

What is it supposed to be?

‘I think it’s a brooch? Or a badge of some kind.’

Lucille wasn’t surprised Sedric didn’t know what he had on hand. But she supposed it would be a good learning experience for when he’d eventually create... the ultimate item she had brought him to the Commission for.

Sedric. I think you have a Wonder item on your hands.

‘A Wonder what?’

A Wonder item. Like Ouroboros. I think those mana lines are purely ornamental. This brooch isn’t a true magical item.

‘Wait, what? What is it then? Hello? Hey, explain!’

She disconnected her mind from the Simulacrum, preoccupied with her new discovery. If it was a Wonder item owned by the Light Tower...

She absent mindedly created a replica of it with her mana and studied the projection in the air. The others stared at it, and after a moment Lucy turned to leave the room. “Excuse me. I need to go ask someone to collect a book from the Commission’s library. It appears Sedric got his hands on a Wonder item so I need to check the Empire’s compendiums on the topic to see which one they have-”

“Uh... Lucille...”

The shaky voice of a navy-haired mage called after her, so she turned around to give Marellen a pointed look, warning him not to ask questions about the item right now.

But his wide-eyed look he exchanged with Roa and the Barbosas siblings hinted at something else. Marellen swallowed and pointed at the projection.

“I think we might know what Old Era plane Sedric is on.”

As they explained, the calm smile on Lucy’s face grew wider, but it wasn’t pleasant. Her chilling expression made the group avoid eye contact when they had finished.

...

“So you’re ninety nine percent certain...” Scytale began, “That that brooch or badge that Sedric is working on... looks like the logo of this ‘Institute of Nomological Augmentation’?”

“To be exact, it bears a striking resemblance to the Centre of Dimensional Navigation,” Marellen replied uneasily. “Also... out of all of us, I was the only one who could operate the facility and it was because of these special control units that needed all six essential elements.” The mage scratched his neck. “It looks too small for what I’m thinking, but if it was larger... it could likely be a master key for the entire Institute. That is... if those six gems work how I believe they might.”

The room remained silent. They waited for Lucille to say something... but she hadn’t responded for a while. Her only movement was the rhythmic tapping of her fingers against an armrest.

“This is... good though, right?” Annaliese hesitantly spoke up. “We know what plane Sedric might be on. Marellen and Roa have even been to the building before. That’s a really lucky coincidence!”

She flinched when Lucy’s cold voice sounded.

“Nothing is a coincidence.” Lucy stood up from her chair, expressionless. “The person responsible for this knew I have Marellen and his party’s knowledge of the Institute. They want me to become involved somehow. And then Radical wishes Sir Albrecht to be involved in this too.”

She took another look around. “At this point in time, the Sundown Continent shard is the most likely location for Sedric, if what Marellen says is accurate. Once Ravimoux can confirm for me whether the possibility of him being on that plane shard exists, then...” Lucille paused when she saw Annaliese watching her with a strangely dazed look on the girl’s face. “...we’ll go there.”

As soon as she stopped speaking, Annaliese’s daze disappeared instantly and the light returned to her eyes.

Lucille tilted her head. “Annaliese, is there something you wanted to say?”

“Huh?” The blonde-haired girl blinked, seemingly unaware of her earlier reaction. “N-No, I don’t think so...”

“Would it not be more likely that Sedric is on a plane under the Light Tower’s jurisdiction?” Vincent said with a frown.

Lucy shook her head. “Not if they want to keep Sedric’s existence out of sight of Radica...” Her words trailed off when she caught Annaliese staring at Vincent with a scowl.

“...dumb idea,” the girl muttered.

Lucille walked forward and snapped her fingers in front of the girl’s face. “Annaliese.”

“Wha?” The girl flinched back, returned to alertness. “What’s wrong?”

Lucy put her hands on her hips and observed the Prophetess in their midst. The others gave them odd looks, nobody else noticing the girl’s strange behaviour. Nobody but... Jasten Albrecht, who looked like he wanted to say something, but was keeping quiet.

“...you were saying the Light Tower wanted to hide Sedric from Radical for some reason, right?” Marellen brought up. “If so, then I definitely think it would make sense for Sedric to be on the Sundown Continent shard. The plane shard was afflicted by a death mana related cataclysm so it wouldn’t be unusual for Light Wizards to be there. Especially if they want to steal some of the Black Order’s credit, who went after the vestiges in the spectre-afflicted areas.”

Lucille looked back to see what reaction Annaliese would have to his statement, and lo and behold, she beamed, looking elated. Lucy shook her head and absentmindedly patted the girl on the head before walking back to her seat, ignoring the girl’s stunned state.

It appears our Prophetess hasn’t yet learned to tell when she’s sensing whether someone is making the right choice or not.

“I’ve made a decision. If Ravimoux doesn’t get back to me with news in the next two hours, we’ll go to the Institute of Nomological Augmentation regardless,” Lucille announced. “We need to decide who’s coming.”

There were several surprised glances but the others began to discuss it. Garthe crossed his arms, looking sceptical. “Look, with all those artifacts Marellen gave the head expedition leader for the plane shard, I’m sure he’ll let Marellen back through to the plane, but the three of us again, with a bunch of new additions in tow? No way.”

Lucy dismissed his objection with a wave. “That’s the least of our problems. Marellen’s going to be our chauffeur.”

Marellen blinked and pointed at himself. “Me?”

“Yep. You. So don’t chicken out on me because you’re essential to my plan.” Lucille stood up and walked over to the doorway. “I need to go collect some important... materials before we go, so I’ll be in my room. I trust all of you to make responsible decisions about your own wellbeing. Also...” She looked back. “Sir Albrecht, Annaliese, could I discuss something with you both?”

The Prophetess and her guard glanced at each other.

...

“You said you received a prophecy when I arrived,” Lucille started, her arms crossed as she leaned against a wall. “Was that just a lie to make me let you stay?”

Annaliese quickly shook her head. “No! I did receive a prophecy. I knew something had happened to Sedric.”

Lucy raised an eyebrow. “Maybe I’m wrong, but I believed that true prophecies were rather rare, for all you’re called a ‘Prophetess’. Another prophecy on the level of the Millennium Chapter, about Sedric nonetheless?”

Annaliese wrinkled her nose with slight confusion, but Sir Albrecht stepped forward.

“There is a reason the Prophetess of Fate holds the honorary title of High Oracle, Count Goldcroft,” Jasten said. “Prophesying is the Prophetess’s most famous ability, but much like oracles and seers, she can perceive events occurring during the present and the near future.” He looked down at his ward. “It’s believed to only occur with people the Prophetess has a strong attachment too, however. This passive ability doesn’t interfere with Fate, so the Citadel cannot ‘control’ this element of her powers.”

“It wasn’t like the Demon King Vs Hero War Prophecy at all,” Annaliese informed her. “That prophecy had... a timeline. Like a play, I saw everything happen and couldn’t interact with anything.” She frowned slightly. “This time was like quick flashes and sights. I saw Sedric next to a bunch of wizards, but it was only when I told Sir Albrecht this that he revealed what the light wizards planned.”

Lucille hummed. “Did you see anything else?”

Annaliese thought for a bit. “I think I saw... lightning?” she answered unsurely. “But it wasn’t coming from the sky. It went everywhere and was made of small bolts. And the last thing I saw was this weird glowing cube thing...” She held up her hands to show its rough size, “About this big, and blue. It was translucent and floated above a round black table, but kept folding in on itself.”

That almost sounds like she’s describing the Simulacrum’s tesseract emblem. But blue? The Simulacrum Realm’s is golden.

“Was it an illusion?” Lucy mused aloud.

Surprisingly, Annaliese shook her head. “I saw someone pick it up and carry it away. The vision didn’t show what they looked like though.”

“Ah. So it was a physical object.” Lucille placed a hand on her chin. “I’ll have to keep a look out for this object if you received a vision about it. And lightning that didn’t come from the sky...”

Is she talking about electricity? That’s... not impossible, but if she is, the implications are mildly worrying...

No, it should be fine. The breach is ancient history, and nobody from the Mystical Realm came in contact with those signals before the Cosmic Realm’s assimilation.

Lucille patted Annaliese on the shoulder and turned to leave. “Thanks. I won’t make a habit of relying on you for these ‘visions’ though.”

The blonde-haired girl frowned. “Why?”

Lucy looked back. “One reason is that we’ve already established my ‘dead’ Fate, and...” She shrugged and pulled on the suit jacket she had slung over one arm. “I wouldn’t be much of a friend if I acted like the Sages.”

----------------------------------------

I’m on edge.

Hargrave could feel that something wasn’t right. That was abnormal.

Typically he felt on edge at the Commission when he was supposed to be ‘relaxing’, not when he was doing what he had learnt to do his entire life. Fight.

The scrape of metal against a tree branch alerted him to the location of his last remaining assailant. He whirled around and smacked the tree with the shaft of his spear.

The jolt upset the assailant’s balance and Hargrave leapt off the ground. The short moment he was airborne he appeared behind the bowman and severed the man’s neck in one swift moment. The head flew off as the rest of his body disintegrated into white light. Hargrave dropped to a crouch when he landed and sprang back up. He twisted the knotted muscles in his neck.

Something is definitely wrong.

It was still hard for him to reconcile the fact he was now a magical beast. A draconic beast. Yet the tensing of his neck with even the slightest sound was an obvious indicator of how high strung he was. His newly strengthened instincts suspected whatever was happening would soon involve him.

He fiddled with the heavy chain of the red vampire amulet as he took a moment to consider his current state. Hargrave took a chance when he ventured into the Guild’s hunting territory, but it was essential for him to know much better he could fight against other humans now.

...the occasional reappearance of scales on his limbs whenever he accidentally saw his reflection did annoy him a little, though.

The amulet felt warm as he slipped it back under his shirt and continued venturing deeper into the Guild’s territory. Hargrave was mildly curious to know what impressive treasure they were trying to protect, but most of him didn’t really care.

He was too busy trying to suppress his instincts to find a tall landmark to defend against the invisible threats.

That’s a decent hill. If it had a cliff face or two I could stay there for a while...

He scowled when his instincts surged again and threw a punch at a nearby tree out of anger. The wood dented with a crack that sent the tree toppling over. And it had only just been yesterday that he overcame his urges to defend that cave from the Guilders...

Hargrave sighed and swept his unruly hair out of his face, before setting off once more.

This must be because I’ve spent too much time at the Commission. I’ve grown lax. I should put more distance between myself and the others so I can more locations to strengthen myself...

I’m just a murderer, in the end. I shouldn’t bring anyone else into my self-destructive plans.

Although this amulet was beginning to feel really warm...

Hargrave frowned and pulled out the ominous jewel, glittering with scarlet beauty. He nearly dropped it when he began to see real drops of blood collect on its surface.

He did drop it when the droplets began to levitate but even with his instincts warning him of every threat, he was far too slow to avoid them as they shot into his forehead.

Hargrave opened his eyes to a world of red and spun around, wielding Eolith in preparation for any threat. The slight sigh behind him caused him to swing the demonic spear around and point it at the source.

He gritted his teeth when the tip of his violent weapon was caught between only two pale bloodless fingers of the slim man before him. The spear trembled in his grip and he had to steady himself when the man collapsed into a pool of blood that rippled and fused with the scarlet floor.

More ripples spread out and Hargrave whirled around to stare as a ruby throne rose from the glossy red floor. The unfamiliar man, with long straight hair and eyes of blood red sat on it, one knee over the other and a look of haughty indifference on his face.

“Cease thy antics, child. Thee won't beest killed by me h're the present day,” he announced coolly.

Hargrave only straightened up slightly, but he wasn’t ready to abandon his defences so readily. He could sense nothing about the inhuman being in front of him. “Rivenwyard Cruor.”

“That I am. But prithee, honour mine own queries. Wherefore hath I found thee here, wallowing in thy moral dilemmas rather than assisting mine own lord's newest fascination?”