A Journey Unwanted

Chapter 534 522: Bust

[Realm: Uhorus]

[Location: Verdantis]

[Western Outskirts]

"...Whoops." The word left Alyssia with a distinctly sheepish smile. It was quiet and sounded almost apologetic. Though not nearly apologetic enough considering what now stretched before them.

Lucinda stared silently at the scene.

Her expression had settled into complete deadpan.

Besides her, Aerinon looked exactly as he had several minutes earlier. If the destruction before them surprised him in the slightest, his face refused to acknowledge it.

Where an entire gathering of Abyssal Creatures had stood only moments ago, there was now a crater. Not just a depression in the earth, a vast space carved violently into the snow-covered landscape. Nearly two hundred metres across, its edges had been vitrified by unbearable heat, the snow having long since vanished without leaving so much as steam behind.

The earth had melted into black glass before splitting apart; the crater plunged so deeply into the frozen ground that the bottom disappeared into darkness. Only thin veins of red light clung stubbornly to the walls, glowing from rock that had been heated to impossible temperatures before rapidly cooling beneath Verdantis' endless winter.

Nothing remained of the Abyssal Creatures.

Everything within the blast radius had simply ceased to exist; because of that, silence settled over the snowfield.

Lucinda slowly turned towards Alyssia, very slowly.

She smiled, a remarkably strained smile.

"Alyssia..." Her voice remained impressively calm. "So..." She gestured towards the enormous crater. "Would you say you perhaps missed the part where I specifically suggested avoiding enormous mana explosions?"

Her eyes drifted back towards the devastation.

"Because..." Another pause followed. "...this looks remarkably similar to an enormous mana explosion."

Alyssia offered another awkward smile.

"Well..." She lightly rubbed the back of her neck. "I did hear everything you said," she answered honestly. "It just so happens..." The smile became increasingly uncertain. "...I may have slightly lost my grip on my mana."

Lucinda slowly repeated the words.

"May have?" There was enough strain in those two words to carry an entire conversation.

Alyssia visibly reconsidered her phrasing.

"…Alright," she sighed. "I absolutely did." She folded her arms rather loosely as her gaze wandered elsewhere.

Whether from embarrassment or simply an unwillingness to meet Lucinda's eyes was difficult to determine.

"I really was trying." There was genuine sincerity in her voice. "I followed what you demonstrated." She frowned slightly. "I began creating multiple outlets so I could transmute my mana instead of endlessly compressing it."

For a brief moment she looked back towards the crater.

"It actually worked..." Her expression became increasingly conflicted. "...for approximately half a second." She let out a defeated sigh. "Then everything escalated far faster than I anticipated."

Lucinda continued looking at her; the silence somehow became accusatory.

("Is her control genuinely this poor?") The thought came almost reluctantly; she disliked thinking it. ("She's a spawn of Octavia.")

Natural mana manipulation should have bordered on instinct, and efficiency should have been one of her greatest strengths.

Yet, as Lucinda slowly turned back towards the crater, the evidence lay directly before her.

("No...") Her brows drew together. ("This goes beyond simple inexperience.")

She quietly glanced towards the broken skies.

Expecting them, surely the Abyssal tears would react. A blast of that magnitude with a release of mana so overwhelming, an Abyssal Warden should already be descending. She continued watching, but the tears remained exactly as they had been. Black liquid continued pouring from them in slow streams. Nothing accelerated or even shifted.

Lucinda frowned; that wasn't right.

"There won't be an Abyssal Warden." Aerinon's voice quietly interrupted her thoughts; both Lucinda and Alyssia turned towards him.

Lucinda raised an eyebrow, waiting, and Aerinon answered before she needed to ask.

"Lyra explained the circumstances surrounding the Wardens' appearances." His tone remained perfectly the same. "As well as the reason they target particular individuals." He glanced briefly towards Alyssia. "She anticipated something very similar occurring."

Alyssia narrowed her eyes.

"So I employed my Familiar Arts." Aerinon continued. "I concealed her mana signature before we arrived." His gaze shifted towards the sky. "As far as the Abyssal tears are concerned, that explosion never belonged to anyone."

Lucinda looked upward once again; the tears remained undisturbed, and understanding slowly settled across her face.

"I see..." A breath escaped her. "So that was your doing." She couldn't hide the admiration in her voice. "Lady Lyra truly anticipated all the possibilities."

Alyssia, however, reacted very differently.

"Hold on." She took several steps towards Aerinon, her narrowed red eyes settled directly upon him. "What exactly do you mean..." Her voice became increasingly suspicious. "...by saying Lyra anticipated something like this?"

Aerinon met her gaze without hesitation.

"She anticipated that you might fail." His answer arrived immediately without hesitation. "Horribly."

Alyssia's eye twitched very noticeably, and for several seconds she simply stared at him. She honestly couldn't decide which part irritated her more. The effortless way Aerinon had delivered the statement or the deeply unsettling realisation that Lyra had apparently possessed so little confidence in her first attempt that she had prepared countermeasures in advance.

"You..." Alyssia inhaled slowly. "...really ought to learn a measure of tact."

She lifted her chin with all the dignity she could still manage, then promptly turned her nose upward.

"It is considered extraordinarily poor manners to point out a lady's failures with such... enthusiasm." She folded her arms. "There are considerably more graceful ways to communicate those sorts of things."

A tiny huff escaped her.

"I may have made a rather embarrassing mistake..." She stressed the word rather as though it somehow diminished the existence of the enormous crater behind her. "...but that hardly gives you permission to announce it so bluntly. " Her eyes drifted away. "It is terribly uncouth."

Aerinon listened quietly; his expression never changed.

"I see."

That was all he said.

Whether he understood her point or simply had no intention of changing remained entirely impossible to tell.

"You say that," Alyssia replied, narrowing her red eyes at him, "but your expression hasn't changed even once since we met. You say 'I see,' yet your face says something entirely different. To be perfectly honest, I don't think you care in the slightest about how blunt you are."

Aerinon regarded her with the same unreadable eye; not a muscle shifted.

"You would be correct." The answer arrived with exactly the same emotion as every sentence before it.

Alyssia's eye twitched again; she was beginning to suspect it might become permanent.

("Lyra was entirely right about this one.") She folded her arms tighter. ("He really does have a remarkable talent for irritating people. Every sentence somehow manages to sound like a criticism without him even trying. For someone speaking to a spawn of Octavia, he certainly isn't cautious.") Her gaze lingered on him. ("Or perhaps he simply doesn't care.")

That possibility somehow annoyed her even more.

("Lyra was right about her,") Aerinon observed, looking at Alyssia without reacting outwardly. ("For a spawn of Octavia, she's surprisingly easy to provoke.")

His thoughts remained the same.

("A single sentence is enough to make her visibly bristle.") A brief pause followed. ("Easier to irritate than I expected.") His gaze drifted briefly toward the crater before returning. ("Should someone with such a temperament truly become someone the future relies upon?")

Lucinda watched the exchange unfold between them; she noticed Alyssia inhale ever so slightly as her lips parted.

No doubt preparing another complaint about Aerinon's complete lack of tact, Lucinda decided it was probably best not to let the conversation continue in that direction.

"Well..." she smiled gently. "I don't think one unsuccessful attempt is really something we need to dwell on."

Her words immediately drew Alyssia's attention away from Aerinon; the irritation on her face softened slightly.

"I think 'unsuccessful' is still a rather severe choice of wording." Alyssia looked mildly unconvinced. "I'd argue things worked..." Her eyes drifted toward the enormous crater. "...just not in the intended direction."

She quietly cleared her throat.

"But... fine."

Lucinda chose not to pursue that particular argument; instead, she continued. "The important part is that we've learned something from it." She looked toward the scar carved into the landscape. "Now we know exactly where the problem lies." Her attention returned to Alyssia. "So rather than worrying about one failed attempt..." Her smile became encouraging. "...I think it'd be better if we simply found more Abyssal Creatures and continued practicing."

She folded one arm beneath the other thoughtfully.

"Your mana efficiency won't improve unless you have opportunities to keep adjusting it." Her eyes wandered across the snowy plains surrounding them; only silence greeted them now.

Not a single Abyssal Creature remained nearby.

She frowned slightly.

"Although..." Her gaze swept farther into the distance. "...I do wonder how long we'll have to search before another group appears."

"That won't be necessary," Aerinon interrupted. Both Lucinda and Alyssia turned toward him. He spoke as though the matter were incredibly ordinary. "I can simply draw more of them here."

Silence followed; the two spawns of Octavia blinked almost simultaneously.

Their confusion was immediate, and Aerinon noticed.

Before either of them could ask, he offered a brief explanation.

"My abilities possess a certain connection to the Abyss." His wording remained intentionally vague. "I can attract nearby Abyssal Creatures." He neither elaborated nor attempted to dramatize the statement.

Alyssia frowned.

"You mean to tell me..." She studied him much more carefully now. "...that you willingly make use of power connected to something as abhorrent as the Abyss?" There was less accusation in her voice than genuine disbelief. Her expression had become thoughtful as well as suspicious.

Lucinda, meanwhile, found herself quietly reflecting on what she had just heard.

("...I never knew that.") Her eyes settled on Aerinon; pieces quietly began fitting together. ("That explains far more than I realized.") She remembered every failed attempt she'd made to imitate aspects of his abilities. ("So that's why.")

A small realization settled within her.

("No matter how carefully I studied his techniques, they were never purely simple.") Her gaze remained on the Inheritor. ("They were tied to the Abyss.")

She slowly nodded to herself; the explanation made perfect sense now.

After a moment she looked back toward him.

"I suppose if it helps us continue training, then whatever works."