The Chronicles Chapter 38: To the light, through the night, to the morning light
Series Title: The Chronicles
Chapter number: 38
Chapter Title: To the light, through the night, to the morning light
Beta: jheili
Author: Biohazard Geeky Nutcracker coolohoh
Length: Series (1359 words for this chapter)
Rating: G
Pairing: OT5
Summary: The land of Vihar has been thrown into chaos. Is there anyone with the bravery and skills to save the world?
Please refer to the [Masterpost] to navigate between chapters. Join nutty_arashi if you wish to be notified of new chapters.
“Yeah so… What’s the plan now?” Aiba asked, looking extremely pale in Jun’s flickering dim light.
“No, what was the plan in the first place anyway…” Nino quipped.
Jun sighed as he surveyed the mess around them.
“I’m so sorry… I cannot sense auras well underground… There’s too much lingering mana from the earth so I can’t sense additional auras properly… Initially I was going to bring you to the guild hideout in Shiso but now… Heck… I don’t know anything anymore…” Jun said, his voice quivering at the thought.
“Where did these guys come from? They came from separate tunnels didn’t they?” Nino questioned.
“How did they know we’ll be here…” Nino pondered.
“Could it be that the harbour guards informed them?” Aiba wondered, thinking back on the incident when Nino disguised his name as Sannomiya.
“But if that was the case, they would have been search for Ohno too right?” Sho commented.
“Wait… So that is why they wanted you! Because you have the blood magic of the Eremes!” Sho gasped in realisation.
“Eh…! But how did they know when I didn’t even know myself…?” Ohno muttered.
Jun merely looked at them confused. Sho quickly gave Jun a rundown on what happened on the boat ride to Dragas.
“Right… So that’s what happened… Hmm… Maybe I should tell you what happened to me before we met…” Jun sighed. He spent some time pondering just how much of himself he should reveal before finally starting to recount his story.
“So… Well… I was saying that I’m a Kaiser right… And we have the bloodline magic that enables us to sense and see auras… Recently we detected swarms of black auras, the Enlightened, over flowing with ill-intent, heading towards Dragas. Considering the recent events, we guessed that they must be either after us, or our magical artefacts… And so we began to move them towards our second base in the neighbouring town of Shiso. I came back later to check on what happened to the guild, and all I saw were the ruins, and the four of you.” Jun quickly summarised. It wasn’t the whole story, but Jun wasn’t ready to share that yet.
“Well if Akanishi swept through this cave like that, he probably came from there?” Nino asked. “Or some other place? Where do all these tunnels lead to anyway? Wait… let’s…”
Nino walked over to Akanishi’s dead body and started searching, seemingly unaffected by the corpses and carnage around him.
“No idea… I only know the path between Shiso and Dragas… We have no idea where the other tunnels lead to…” Jun started saying.
Suddenly, he stopped mid tracks and his eyes looked like he was about topop out.
“The pendent!” Jun screamed in anguish as he spotted a familiar pendant on the dead man’s neck.
“The Pendent of Truth… How the hell did it get here!” Jun yelled, anger rising.
“Erm, what is it?” Ohno ventured.
“It belongs to my father… The pendent is said to contain the true Vihar histories…” Jun muttered.
“Wait… The Pendent of Truth… Your father… Is the magician warlord…? The head of the magic guild?” Sho inferred.
Jun froze. He’d let it slip without realising. He bit his lip and gave a slight nod. In his shock, he’d revealed his family line without meaning to. The family line that his parents had tried so hard to hide.
“Yeah... The Pendent of Truth is the symbol of the magic guild headmaster, also known as the magician warlord…” Jun sighed.
Then again, perhaps revealing his identity wasn’t such a detrimental thing after all, considering the crowd he’s in.
Just before Jun was born, a huge catastrophe befell the magician world - the entire family of illusionists, the Ninomiyas, had been eliminated. Fearing for their own bloodline, his parents declined to give him the surname Kaiser, and gave him to his uncle to raise. Except for the few confidents who knew the truth, to the outside world, the magician warlord did not have an heir. To Jun though, his parents were very much a part of his life. His mum came to live with the uncles in the outskirts of Dragas, citing the want to be closer to nature. So Jun was let in on the dirty secret from a young age. Most dear to him were the times his warlord would bring him and his cousins to the magic guild. Although all the children went along, his dad would only spend time alone with him, hidden in the deep parts of the guild, away from prying eyes. His dad would show him the hidden traps and secret passageways, the magnificent scrolls and books in the library, the enchanted weapons in the armoury, and the magic artefacts in the stronghold. He would talk about the history of the magic guild, about the Ninomiyas and the Eremes that were eliminated by the Necromancer… And finally about how they were only trying to protect him, to prevent him from getting targetted by the Necromancer. And as far as Jun could tell, Nino and Ohno were probably way higher up on the Necromancer’s wanted list than he was.
“Jun? Are you ok?”
Jun snapped out of his daze to find Nino waving his hands in front of him.
“Oh yeah yeah… Sorry, I was just recalling something…” Jun said apologetically.
He took a deep breath when he noticed the pendent on Nino’s hands.
“Can I see that…?” Jun asked.
“Sure,” Nino said casually as he handed the pendent over. “You should probably hang on to it anyway, since its your dad’s and all…”
“But say… Any idea how it ended up here?” Nino asked, frowning.
“I don’t know…” Jun shook his head.
“All the Kaisers were in Shiso when I left, including erm, my dad and therefore this pendant… And my dad would protect the pendant at all costs… And well… He’s always wearing it? So…” Jun frowned, images of a raze Shiso appearing in his mind.
“Eh? That means this Akanishi person and his troops swept through and kill everyone in Shiso and then came here after us?” Aiba asked.
Jun shook his head again. “I don’t know… The Kaiser bloodline magic isn’t really useful in combat but still… We aren’t that weak you know?” Jun suggested. Part of him was filled with a sense of dread, part of him refused to believe that they would let Shiso fall to the Enlightened.
“Then either this is a fake… Or you dad is holding on to a fake?” Nino suggested, thinking about all the magic tricks he used to do in taverns.
Jun held up the pendant and examined it under the flickering light from the ceiling of the cavern. The light shone through the giant gemstone, enabling various patterns in the gemstone to be seen. It looked real, the patterns seems to match with his memory.
“Let’s try this…” Jun muttered as he held in pendent in both palm, close to his chest. Jun concentrated and willed for his mana to flow into the pendent. A symbol of the eagle showed up.
“Wow!” The other boys gushed, astonished.
“Ok… I think this is the real thing… I don’t think you can make such a sophisticated imitation…” Jun sighed. “So either the magician warlord got his pendant nicked right in front of him, or Shiso has been razed.” Jun concluded.
“So now… What should we do? Where can we head to…?” Sho questioned.
“I don’t know… But then again, we don’t have much of a choice. Either we head back to Dragas where we came from, or we push on to Shiso. In spite of all our exploring, us Kaisers still don’t know where the rest of these tunnels lead to… ” Jun informed.
“In that case… We don’t have much of a choice… We have to check out the situation in Shiso.” Sho shrugged as he prodded back to where he’d left his pack and gathered up his supplies.
“Lead the way Jun,” Sho commanded.
“Sure… It’ll take us through the night if we hurry. Let’s hope the tunnels are Enlightened free…” Jun nodded in resignation.
Chapter number: 38
Chapter Title: To the light, through the night, to the morning light
Beta: jheili
Author: Biohazard Geeky Nutcracker coolohoh
Length: Series (1359 words for this chapter)
Rating: G
Pairing: OT5
Summary: The land of Vihar has been thrown into chaos. Is there anyone with the bravery and skills to save the world?
Please refer to the [Masterpost] to navigate between chapters. Join nutty_arashi if you wish to be notified of new chapters.
“Yeah so… What’s the plan now?” Aiba asked, looking extremely pale in Jun’s flickering dim light.
“No, what was the plan in the first place anyway…” Nino quipped.
Jun sighed as he surveyed the mess around them.
“I’m so sorry… I cannot sense auras well underground… There’s too much lingering mana from the earth so I can’t sense additional auras properly… Initially I was going to bring you to the guild hideout in Shiso but now… Heck… I don’t know anything anymore…” Jun said, his voice quivering at the thought.
“Where did these guys come from? They came from separate tunnels didn’t they?” Nino questioned.
“How did they know we’ll be here…” Nino pondered.
“Could it be that the harbour guards informed them?” Aiba wondered, thinking back on the incident when Nino disguised his name as Sannomiya.
“But if that was the case, they would have been search for Ohno too right?” Sho commented.
“Wait… So that is why they wanted you! Because you have the blood magic of the Eremes!” Sho gasped in realisation.
“Eh…! But how did they know when I didn’t even know myself…?” Ohno muttered.
Jun merely looked at them confused. Sho quickly gave Jun a rundown on what happened on the boat ride to Dragas.
“Right… So that’s what happened… Hmm… Maybe I should tell you what happened to me before we met…” Jun sighed. He spent some time pondering just how much of himself he should reveal before finally starting to recount his story.
“So… Well… I was saying that I’m a Kaiser right… And we have the bloodline magic that enables us to sense and see auras… Recently we detected swarms of black auras, the Enlightened, over flowing with ill-intent, heading towards Dragas. Considering the recent events, we guessed that they must be either after us, or our magical artefacts… And so we began to move them towards our second base in the neighbouring town of Shiso. I came back later to check on what happened to the guild, and all I saw were the ruins, and the four of you.” Jun quickly summarised. It wasn’t the whole story, but Jun wasn’t ready to share that yet.
“Well if Akanishi swept through this cave like that, he probably came from there?” Nino asked. “Or some other place? Where do all these tunnels lead to anyway? Wait… let’s…”
Nino walked over to Akanishi’s dead body and started searching, seemingly unaffected by the corpses and carnage around him.
“No idea… I only know the path between Shiso and Dragas… We have no idea where the other tunnels lead to…” Jun started saying.
Suddenly, he stopped mid tracks and his eyes looked like he was about topop out.
“The pendent!” Jun screamed in anguish as he spotted a familiar pendant on the dead man’s neck.
“The Pendent of Truth… How the hell did it get here!” Jun yelled, anger rising.
“Erm, what is it?” Ohno ventured.
“It belongs to my father… The pendent is said to contain the true Vihar histories…” Jun muttered.
“Wait… The Pendent of Truth… Your father… Is the magician warlord…? The head of the magic guild?” Sho inferred.
Jun froze. He’d let it slip without realising. He bit his lip and gave a slight nod. In his shock, he’d revealed his family line without meaning to. The family line that his parents had tried so hard to hide.
“Yeah... The Pendent of Truth is the symbol of the magic guild headmaster, also known as the magician warlord…” Jun sighed.
Then again, perhaps revealing his identity wasn’t such a detrimental thing after all, considering the crowd he’s in.
Just before Jun was born, a huge catastrophe befell the magician world - the entire family of illusionists, the Ninomiyas, had been eliminated. Fearing for their own bloodline, his parents declined to give him the surname Kaiser, and gave him to his uncle to raise. Except for the few confidents who knew the truth, to the outside world, the magician warlord did not have an heir. To Jun though, his parents were very much a part of his life. His mum came to live with the uncles in the outskirts of Dragas, citing the want to be closer to nature. So Jun was let in on the dirty secret from a young age. Most dear to him were the times his warlord would bring him and his cousins to the magic guild. Although all the children went along, his dad would only spend time alone with him, hidden in the deep parts of the guild, away from prying eyes. His dad would show him the hidden traps and secret passageways, the magnificent scrolls and books in the library, the enchanted weapons in the armoury, and the magic artefacts in the stronghold. He would talk about the history of the magic guild, about the Ninomiyas and the Eremes that were eliminated by the Necromancer… And finally about how they were only trying to protect him, to prevent him from getting targetted by the Necromancer. And as far as Jun could tell, Nino and Ohno were probably way higher up on the Necromancer’s wanted list than he was.
“Jun? Are you ok?”
Jun snapped out of his daze to find Nino waving his hands in front of him.
“Oh yeah yeah… Sorry, I was just recalling something…” Jun said apologetically.
He took a deep breath when he noticed the pendent on Nino’s hands.
“Can I see that…?” Jun asked.
“Sure,” Nino said casually as he handed the pendent over. “You should probably hang on to it anyway, since its your dad’s and all…”
“But say… Any idea how it ended up here?” Nino asked, frowning.
“I don’t know…” Jun shook his head.
“All the Kaisers were in Shiso when I left, including erm, my dad and therefore this pendant… And my dad would protect the pendant at all costs… And well… He’s always wearing it? So…” Jun frowned, images of a raze Shiso appearing in his mind.
“Eh? That means this Akanishi person and his troops swept through and kill everyone in Shiso and then came here after us?” Aiba asked.
Jun shook his head again. “I don’t know… The Kaiser bloodline magic isn’t really useful in combat but still… We aren’t that weak you know?” Jun suggested. Part of him was filled with a sense of dread, part of him refused to believe that they would let Shiso fall to the Enlightened.
“Then either this is a fake… Or you dad is holding on to a fake?” Nino suggested, thinking about all the magic tricks he used to do in taverns.
Jun held up the pendant and examined it under the flickering light from the ceiling of the cavern. The light shone through the giant gemstone, enabling various patterns in the gemstone to be seen. It looked real, the patterns seems to match with his memory.
“Let’s try this…” Jun muttered as he held in pendent in both palm, close to his chest. Jun concentrated and willed for his mana to flow into the pendent. A symbol of the eagle showed up.
“Wow!” The other boys gushed, astonished.
“Ok… I think this is the real thing… I don’t think you can make such a sophisticated imitation…” Jun sighed. “So either the magician warlord got his pendant nicked right in front of him, or Shiso has been razed.” Jun concluded.
“So now… What should we do? Where can we head to…?” Sho questioned.
“I don’t know… But then again, we don’t have much of a choice. Either we head back to Dragas where we came from, or we push on to Shiso. In spite of all our exploring, us Kaisers still don’t know where the rest of these tunnels lead to… ” Jun informed.
“In that case… We don’t have much of a choice… We have to check out the situation in Shiso.” Sho shrugged as he prodded back to where he’d left his pack and gathered up his supplies.
“Lead the way Jun,” Sho commanded.
“Sure… It’ll take us through the night if we hurry. Let’s hope the tunnels are Enlightened free…” Jun nodded in resignation.