After Senior Maya left, the City Center humd around .
'The amulet should address parts of her problem,' I thought, heading toward the teleportation center tucked within the square.
I'd designed it with her dual nature in mind, hoping it might help bridge the ever-present chasm between her vampiric instincts and human discipline.
These two sides of her—one refined and controlled, the other primal and unrestrained—were locked in a near-constant struggle, and her attempts to suppress the latter wouldn't end well.
'Typical suppression of sothing so innate rarely does,' I mused, weaving between the throng of people. I'd seen the signs—the way she leaned on , her dependency growing dangerously close to addiction. It was a reliance I couldn't afford to encourage.
My path was my own, and hers, ultimately, would have to be hers.
The urge to dampen that darkness within herself was strong, but darkness resisted suppression. I'd ordered the amulet as a reminder of that, hoping she'd find a way to face her nature with balance instead of denial.
It was strange, perhaps, to think of such things as I walked through a crowd of strangers, faces blurring past in monts.
But the irony wasn't lost on . The life we lived was a balancing act—instincts, intellect, strength, and restraint. She needed to find her own balance, or that very dependency would beco her undoing.
The teleportation center lood ahead, the steel archways catching the morning light, and I let my pace quicken. I had little ti to linger on Maya's path; I'd set her on it and give her what she needed. It was up to her now.
'She'll be stronger for it if she achieves the state….If not, then we need to find sothing else.' I reminded myself.
I had no interest in being anyone's anchor, or rather it was not sothing that I could afford at that mont. Letting soone else dictate one's strength or stability was a gamble, and in a world like ours, gambles like that cost too much.
As the entrance to the teleportation center ca into view, I kept my pace steady, weaving through the thinning crowd until I reached the counter. A middle-aged man with a clipboard greeted with a brief glance before slipping into the standard, detached custor service mode.
"Identification, please," he said, his tone efficient but indifferent.
I slipped my Arcadia Hunter Academy student ID from my coat and handed it to him. As his eyes scanned the card, a subtle shift washed over his face. His expression softened, brows lifting slightly as he registered the insignia—prestige had its perks, even here.
"Oh, an Arcadia student," he said, voice edged with a newfound respect. "Welco. Let's get you taken care of quickly."
With sudden enthusiasm, he turned to his terminal, fingers moving rapidly over the keyboard. "Destination?"
"Jarken City," I replied evenly. The sixth largest in the Federation and the heart of the western sector—exactly where I needed to be.
The man nodded, casting a glance at my ID again, perhaps to confirm what he was seeing before handing it back with a small, polite nod. "Gate J29," he said, now fully committed to his role of accommodating the Academy's reputation. He held out a printed ticket, his attitude a little more deferential than before. "Your portal is just down the left hallway, follow the signs. Safe travels."
I took the ticket, giving him a curt nod in return, then turned and made my way down the corridor. Gate J29 was within sight, an archway of glistening tal that humd with the energy of portals activated for long-distance travel.
Stepping up to Gate J29, I handed my ticket to the attendant stationed beside the arch. The man, with practiced efficiency, scanned the ticket and gave a nod before activating the gate's controls. The portal humd, the glow intensifying until the archway shimred with rippling energy.
With a final glance back, I stepped forward. The familiar pull of spatial displacent took hold, but to , it was no more disorienting than walking down a hallway. In an instant, I was through, stepping out on the other side into Jarken City's teleportation hall.
I barely paused, letting the flow of people carry toward the exit. The familiarity of spatial travel had long dulled its effect on , leaving no trace of the slight nausea or dizziness I'd once felt. I moved with purpose, reaching the hall's exit and stepping out into the heart of Jarken City Center.
The city sprawled around , an impressive forest of skyscrapers gleaming beneath the midday sun. Streets bustled with energy, a constant stream of pedestrians, vendors, and the hum of distant engines. Jarken had the sa imposing architecture as Ardmont, its towering buildings reaching skyward, each structure vying for dominance in the city's skyline.
I took in the scene, noting the efficiency and order of the bustling city—much like any other Federation tropolis.
Each face, every rushing figure.
I took in the cityscape for a brief mont, then began walking. Jarken City's towering structures and bustling streets faded into the background as my focus shifted to the task at hand. I reached into my coat, feeling the cold weight of the necklace I'd taken from Zharokath.
This was the key, the piece that would grant access to the dungeon where the Void Dragon lay dormant. But finding the necklace was only the first step.
The real challenge would be locating the spatially sealed gate hidden sowhere in this vast western region. The Void Dragon's lair was locked away, concealed by ancient magic, and likely still guarded by defenses left by the Void Clan. I could almost feel the tension in my shoulders as I recalled the mory—the ga's events flashing through my mind.
In the ga's tiline, the ergence of the Void Dragon was nothing short of catastrophic. The Western Region was left in ruins, transford into a desolate war zone.
I could still picture the endless waves of demonic humans flooding into the sixth-largest city, twisting the land with corruption and leaving the Federation's defenses shattered. The once-thriving cities had fallen one by one, turning into battlegrounds of chaos and bloodshed.
The sheer destruction the Void Dragon had brought to the region wasn't easily erased from mory. This creature wasn't rely another monster—it was a force capable of bending space and void energy to its will, leaving entire cities as re rubble in its wake. But in this tiline, I aid to intercept it, to claim the Voidborne trait before the world had a chance to crumble under its presence.
'And that is why, it is precisely harder for to just pinpoint the location where the monster had appeared.'
I thought to myself. Even if I had a photographic mory and I had never forgotten sothing that I had once seen, I would still need to look around the city to find the exact location where the gate of the dungeon had appeared.
'It is also possible that the place where the dungeon appeared may not be where it is located.'
That was why, I was also considering not killing Zharokath, but knowing the kind of conviction he had, I knew for a fact that it would be nearly impossible to get sothing from him anyway.
I let my hand close around the necklace, feeling the cold weight of it as I moved through the crowded streets of Jarken City. This wasn't just so trinket from Zharokath—it was a key, holding faint traces of the sa magic concealing the Void Dragon's gate.
Since I could tap into its mana signature, I might just be able to trace it back, and narrow down the gate's location sowhere within this endless city.
'This is where it starts,' I reminded myself, slipping into the mindset of a tracker. This wouldn't be as simple as spotting so physical landmark.
No, magic like this operated on a subtler level, and I'd have to rely on resonance, matching my own mana with the remnants within the necklace to feel any trace it left behind.
Around , the city continued on—people rushing by, horns blaring in the distance. It was as if everything was just slightly off in my perception, my focus is drawn away from the busy scene and back toward the intricate threads of mana, I could feel pulsing from the necklace.
With the city's hum fading behind , I began my search for a vantage point, a place to focus and sense the delicate web of mana woven into the necklace. Every passing block brought closer to a quieter part of Jarken City, where the din of crowds softened, replaced by the faint echoes of distant engines and the occasional footsteps of lone passersby.
It was here, in a less-traveled valley between towering buildings, that I spotted my target—a quiet, unassuming skyscraper standing at about forty floors.
I slipped into the shadow of the alley, activating [Shadowborne]. My form lded with the darkness, shrouding in near invisibility as I approached the building. A quick glance confird the coast was clear, and I began my ascent, hands and feet finding silent purchase on the building's ledges and structural seams. The shadows hugged , masking my movents as I rose higher, floor by floor, until the city's noise dwindled beneath , leaving only the faint whistle of the wind.
At the rooftop, I crouched low, still cloaked in shadow. The city stretched out below, sprawling and alive, yet insignificant from this height. I took a deep breath, letting my mind hone in on the faint mana signature pulsing from the necklace in my hand.
Carefully, I reached inward, syncing my own mana with the lingering essence embedded in the necklace. The resonance began a subtle thrum in my senses, delicate yet unmistakable.
I could feel it—traces of that ancient magic trailing through the city like a network of threads, weaving and twisting through the cityscape. Sowhere within this expanse lay the entrance to the Void Dragon's lair.
Or at least that was what I hoped would happen.
'Let's hope things won't get harder than it is supposed to be. I don't have much ti to waste.'
Since the ti promised to et with Irina was approaching after all.
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