A week had quickly passed, and nothing special happened. Albedo had been cooped up in his villa’s training room all week, just practicing.
Every day this past week, he had imrsed himself in the Book of Aevarion, learning not only its destructive applications, but the aning behind its design.
He now understood that most techniques weren’t attacks, but reflections of deeper principles, each one a crystallized piece of Aevarion’s legacy.
And from those principles, Albedo had forged new power. Today, he was finishing a test, his final mastery of one such concept.
He snapped his fingers.
Mana surged into his spine, triggering a rush of heat that flooded his limbs, and flas exploded out behind him, condensing into a ten-ter-wide wheel of slashing crescents.
[ Crimson Moon Technique: Eclipse Spiral - Dance of the Twelve Reaving Suns ]
Twelve curved blades of fla spun around him in a perfect orbit, each one representing a different Law: Gravity, Death, Decay, Ti, Fla, Rebirth, Space, Instinct, Blood, Sound, Void, and Ruin.
While Albedo couldn’t manipulate or summon any of the laws due to his low rank, he could invoke them for one ti attacks whenever necessary, thought it would cost him practically all of his mana.
The blades spun tighter. Faster. Until they blurred into a ring of annihilation.
He pointed Havoc forward and pulled the trigger once.
~BOOM!~
The compressed round struck the center of the fla spiral, igniting it, and turning the ring into a drill of rotating laws. The resulting beam tore through six mana-constructs in a row, twisting them into molten splinters before collapsing into a whisper.
Albedo exhaled, lazily collapsing to the ground as he took deep breaths. Invoking the laws like that, even for a 1 ti attack, it took literally everything out of him.
"That’s a nice trump card," He muttered to himself, pulling himself up and sitting near the desk afterwards, sweat soaking his entire body.
The Book hovered beside him, flipping a page of its own volition, revealing more scripts on karma and spiritual debts. He traced the Primordial glyphs slowly, now understanding the language.
"Power is responsibility."
"To wield the Moon is to carry its eclipse."
Albedo’s brows furrowed slightly as he saw those sentences. Aside from the fact it reminded him of Uncle Ben’s speech to Peter, it also made him think of another problem he had been facing.
His little sister Gwen, and Diona.
While they had been safe under the protection of Killian’s n, he was still nervous. The people stalking them hadn’t moved as of yet, but the fact they were there sent shivers down his spine.
Even ignoring those people, there was still the matter of the Abyss, and her identity in the original tiline as Loba.
He had to protect her from threats originating from all sides, and he didn’t trust Killian’s n enough. After all, what if a bigger threat cos by and they need to leave? He had to find a long term solution.
That’s why he had made a decision. He would make a big change to the Plot, and claim soone capable of protecting Gwen.
Located in the Demon Kingdom, he would claim her.
She wasn’t a weapon, she was more like a calamity given physical form. A madwoman who had sealed herself away in ancient tis after accomplishing her goals.
"Duchess Seraphyne Bloodvale," Albedo muttered her na.
A Noble Vampire born long ago to an extrely influential Vampire family alongside her Twin Sister, Selantra.
Seraphyne had been extrely talented, quickly mastering all of her families spells and techniques, her rank improving rapidly.
However, despite being twins, her sister Selantra was not as talented as she was, but Seraphyne loved her all the sa.
Unfortunately for her, their family didn’t see it the sa way, trying to ship Selantra off into an arranged marriage with the Vampire King at the ti.
No-one knows what happened after, but when the dust settled, the Vampire King, his entire family, and the entire Bloodvale House had all gone extinct, with Seraphyne being the sole survivor.
Rumors around the fan community had spread that Selantra was murdered by the King which caused Seraphyne to go crazy, but nothing was confird by the Author.
After that incident, Seraphyne road the world like a living calamity, brutally killing anyone who got on her nerve. Not even Dragons were spared and she quickly gained the titles such as ’The Bloody Requiem’ and ’The Scarlet Calamity’.
Once a long ti had passed, Seraphyne had sealed herself away deep within the Demon Kingdom, and once unsealed, would only acknowledge one master, the one who passed her trials and accepter her karma.
William had used her in the original tiline during his final descent into evil, but she had been defeated by Lucian and his gang.
Even at the height of the villain arc, Seraphyne had never fully obeyed William. She rely tolerated him. Her true loyalty lay buried with her sister... and with the chains of karmic law she had bound herself in, which never got revealed.
However, Albedo knew she would make a good protector for Gwen. The big question he had was what the trials were, and what karma he needed to inherit.
Neither of these things were specifically explained in the Novel, and that made him nervous.
However, he couldn’t think of that long, he needed to get going. The Demon Kingdom was at least a week away. He didn’t have access to any of the teleportation sigils directly into the Kingdom,
And his ti was limited, the Demon Kingdom was incredibly complex in both geography and politics.
Even the Sky-Rails, which spanned nearly the entire continent, rarely entered the Kingdom’s domain. Their isolationist stance was born of centuries of conflict.
There were only a few regulated routes across the Demon borderlands, most of which ended prematurely, where the terrain shifted violently due to unstable mana clusters and old battles.
To even approach Seraphyne’s seal would be dangerous, let alone surviving her trials. He allowed himself a small exhale and stared at the Book of Aevarion one final ti and the placed it in his spatial storage, heading out of the training chamber.
The heavy door hissed open, exposing the bright hallway of the villa to him. Outside the windows, golden sunlight spilled across the marble floors, warm and almost too serene. The illusion of safety.
He walked downstairs slowly, the weight of his decision anchoring each step.
As he rounded the final bend of the spiral staircase, the soft hum of laughter reached his ears, light and innocent. It grounded him, tethered him in a way even battle couldn’t.
In the living room, Gwen and Diona sat side by side on the couch, surrounded by a fortress of pillows. The TV flickered with the colorful chaos of an animated beast show.
Sothing about elental critters and over-the-top transformation battles. Gwen clutched a snack bowl to her chest while Diona leaned forward with shining eyes, completely engrossed.
Ember was curled beside them, sprawled across the living room like an oversized cat. She had shrunk her size in order to fit comfortably in the living rooms, and dimd her celestial flas, her body radiating contentnt as she listened to Gwen’s giggles.
Albedo paused.
For a mont, he didn’t want to break the peace.
But reality didn’t wait for comfort.
"I need to talk to you two," Albedo said, voice even but carrying enough weight to imdiately draw their attention.
Gwen’s head tilted, "Is everything okay?"
"Yeah," Diona chid in, eyes narrowing slightly, sensing the shift in his tone. "You’re doing that serious voice."
Albedo walked in fully, stopping just in front of the TV, "I’ll be going away for a bit. A training trip. Probably a week."
Imdiately, Gwen’s eyes widened, and her ears lowered in worry, "Albedo, you’re leaving again?"
"It’s important," he replied, kneeling in front of her, "I’ll be far, so I won’t be able to talk much during it. But it’s for you, too."
"For ?" she blinked, confused.
Albedo smiled faintly, "I want to make sure that no matter what happens, you’re safe. No matter what the world throws at us, you’ll be protected. Always."
Gwen opened her mouth, then closed it again. Her little hands clenched the pillow tighter. "Will it be dangerous?"
Albedo hesitated for a mont and then responded, "Yes."
He didn’t want to lie. Not to her.
"...Then co back," Gwen finally whispered. "Please. Co back, no matter what."
"I promise," Albedo said, placing a hand gently on her head, "I’ll return probably in a bit over a week."
She nodded, though her green eyes shimred faintly, "Then... good luck, big brother."
Diona rose from her seat, placing the snack bowl aside. She crossed her arms with a slight smirk, though it didn’t quite reach her eyes. "You really love disappearing dramatically, huh?"
"Only when it’s necessary," Albedo quipped.
She sighed, "Alright. Fine. You better co back. Gwen’ll cry if you don’t. And I’m not good with crying children."
"I heard that," Gwen mumbled, cheeks puffed out.
Diona grinned and ruffled her hair.
Albedo straightened, his gaze sweeping over the two girls one last ti. Then, he turned to Ember.
"Ti to rest," he whispered.
Ember’s head lifted. She let out a low, quiet snort, understanding the unspoken call. Her body glowed for a mont as she dissolved into white-blue flas, streaming upward like smoke before vanishing into Albedo’s Beast Space.
The room felt instantly colder.
With that, Albedo made his way toward the front door.
Just before stepping out, Gwen’s voice rang again, a little louder this ti.
"Be careful, okay?"
He didn’t look back.
He simply raised his hand in farewell.
"I will."
And then, the door closed behind him.
The path to the Demon Kingdom had begun.
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