HP: The Arcane Thief
chapter-192

Axel slowly digested the information he had gotten just now. So, to sum things up with the intel he already had, there's a super powerful entity behind the Kraken whose purpose is destruction. The entity is sealed in the trench and there is currently a war for reaching the place.

But, that doesn't really explain much. He still has so many questions!

Axel shook his head. "I don't understand. What is this entity? How did this entity end up sealed here? If this entity is strong enough to control an entire army of monsters on its own then why the hell is it only doing that now? Why did it—"

"Alright, alright," Kyrin raised his hand tiredly. "Estris, explain everything in detail," she muttered as he went to rest at the side.

Estris looked at Kyrin with some doubt. "Everything?"

"Yup, all that origin bullshit," Kyrin agreed, wincing as she healed her injuries. "Fuck you, Axel."

Estris shook her head, wondering why she was even surprised. The information is top secret and revealing it is against the law, but… seriously? Kyrin following the law? That's like whales flying.

Estris, Akiko and Axel also went to sit beside Kyrin as Estris launched into her explanation.

"The origin of Atlantis is actually not Earth at all."

The starting line of Estris was already a banger. Atlantis's origin was not Earth?

"I know this might be disorienting, but we're originally from a world which we called the Aether."

"Aether?" Axel had to pretend to be shocked. But inwardly, his reaction was one of realization. 'Why am I not surprised?'

The mysterious Aetherworld. It finally comes. He knows a bit about the Netherworld, as it is the place where Voldemort currently is, but he knows next to nothing about Aetherworld.

Estris nodded. "Yes. Aether. The true land of magic. I will keep things brief. Aether was a peaceful and prosperous place, where different races lived in harmony. People pursued the secrets of magic, many obtaining powers beyond our imagination.

But it was threatened by an Entity that even their magic could not destroy. They realized that as long as there was magic in the world, the entity was unstoppable."

"At this point, they already knew about the existence of the Netherworld, from where they could summon dark magic, and… the "barren" planet called Earth, with negligible magic in its surroundings. Among them, Earth just happened to be the perfect place for their plan."

So they decided to seal the monster on Earth. But… there was a problem. How are they going to power the seal? Since there was little magic on Earth, they couldn't supply it with power. And with the absence of magic in the surroundings, even the more powerful sorcerers couldn't really exert their powers."

"So, they came up with an idea. Why not give our people the ability to draw magic from Aether, even when they are on Earth? Almost nothing is impossible with their deep knowledge of magic. After a lot of tries, they managed to connect several of their people's souls to the Aether and Nether," explained Estris.

"And that… is how the very first wizards came into existence," Kyrin revealed .

"Fuck…"

"Fuck indeed. These people were used as the mediums for powering the seal. They were called the Atlantians, which in Aether language, means the "guardians"."

"Holy fuck." Axel's and Akiko's brains were bursting at this moment.

So, the very first wizards turned out to be people from the Aether world, modified to be able to use magic on Earth.

This had so many implications!

"So… these wizards outside Atlantis are…" Asked Akiko.

Estris nodded. "Yes, they are mostly the descendants of Atlantians who deserted Atlantis."

As it turns out, the wizarding population throughout the world has originated from Atlantis. This solved the most common question among the wizards, where did wizards come to have magic?

"Of course, you would also understand why leaving Atlantis is forbidden. The seal is no longer effective if you escape the range, and the less people there are, the weaker the seal," Estris explained.

"So, that moronic motto of Destruction… now it makes sense!" murmured Axel in realization.

Kraken's motto has always been quite nonsensical to Axel. If they really want destruction, why the hell are they trying to only destroy Atlantis? There is a whole fucking world out there above the sea, which happens to be much easier to destroy. Why go for only Atlantians, who are protected by the failsafe measures of the all-power magical means of Aether itself?

"Indeed. The seal is connected to the people of Atlantis. Even their emotions can weaken the seal, let alone their deaths. That's why the lives of Atlantians are valued immensely. We try to avoid any and all situations which might result in mass destruction. That's why even our usual weaponry is not too strong. In case someone under kraken's influence goes rogue with them."

"Oh? And pretty well that's working out for you," muttered Axel sarcastically.

Due to their weak weaponry, they couldn't even take out the animal hoard. And avoiding deaths? From what he knows, there was bombing the very day he arrived.

They're just letting Kraken walk all over them.

"Yep," Kyrin didn't disagree with him at all. "The kingdom is becoming more and more pathetic. It's about time we hit back."

"So, do you two have any more questions?"

Axel thought about it. "Yeah. It's about the Altina Trench. What kind of place is it? Why is it that both parties can't reach it?"

"That… is a place too complicated to explain. But the reason why both the parties can't reach the seal is because that's the way it was designed by the Aetherians."

"What? Why?" Axel's brows furrowed in confusion.

"The Entity is able to take over people's minds. That's why they have made the seal extremely difficult to reach, so that people under the Creature's control can't reach it in order to free it."

Well, that makes sense. Even if, say, they made it so that only those who aren't under the Entity's influence can reach the seal. Well, now that you're so close, it would be that much easier for the Entity to take control over you. So, the people designing the seal decided it would be best if no one approached the seal.

But the disadvantage is that, now that it has weakened, the Atlantians can't even reach it in order to fix it.

"Well, that will be it for the Q and A," said Kyrin as she stood up. "We've already told you almost everything. The rest, you'll learn by directly going into the Trench. Let's go."

?? "What? Right now? I thought we were first going to go through the Black Ops training?" Asked Axel.

Kyrin rolled her eyes. "That, I only said for YOU. I've already trained Aki. And SHE, had the foresight of teaching everything to you. So, what's the point of training now?" She said, glaring at Akiko with eyes of betrayal.

"Besides, if a monster like you can still be called unprepared then I don't know what to teach you," she said, swatting Axel's back with considerable force.

Axel was even able to go toe-to-toe with Kyrin, one of most monstrous existences in Atlantis. Even though Kyrin was still holding back a lot, but so was Axel, and he beat her.

It is clear who is the bigger freak among the two, considering Axel's age.

"Go get ready. We won't be going deep, since we have to come back soon for your rewarding ceremony."

"Rewarding ceremony?" Asked Axel in surprise, rubbing his back where Kyrin had slapped him.

Kyrin clicked her tongue. "Don't pretend to be surprised. I bet you were aiming for this, you sleazy bastard."

Axel smiled bitterly, already regretting revealing his true thought process about saving the day. In actuality, he had not thought the Royal family would make such a big deal out of it, even enough to have an emergency meeting. But now, after knowing everything, it makes perfect sense.

He had saved a lot of lives, and that was extremely important, not because those lives mattered, but because he prevented the seal from weakening further while Kraken wasted a lot of energy for nothing. Of course it was a big deal.

Sighing, he got up and went to change.

Within a few minutes, Axel, Akiko, Kyrin, Estris, and the old butler boarded the jet to leave for the trench.

It was Axel's first time flying in an Atlantian aircraft, so it was a unique experience. Due to space expansion magic, it was quite spacious from the inside, and the controls seemed a bit complicated.

"When will be my Reward ceremony?" Asked Axel as he sat strapped to a seat, already unable to wait.

Kyrin shrugged. "No idea. It could be tomorrow, or it could take a few days. Really depends on the Princess's mood really."

"Tomorrow? Will we come back by then?"

"Of course. Most likely."

"... Most likely? What does that mean?"

"It means that the Trench is an unpredictable place. There are… factors which may delay our return," explained Estris.

Kyrin rolled her eyes. "Don't listen to her. Those things rarely happen. We'll be back in a few hours max."

…

Meanwhile, deep in the main castle, the princess sat in her room, looking at the same video for the umpteenth time.

There were dark circles under her eyes since she had not slept the whole night, but her eyes still sharply looked at the holographic projection of Axel riding the dragon.

"Just what is it?!"

The princess was at her wits end now. She didn't know why, but she just couldn't stop looking at the video.

There were strange things, which were leading her to strange conclusions. And some things weren't adding up.

"Princess."

At this moment, the general knocked on her door, making her pause the video.

"As you asked, I had the Technomancy Department do a background search on the boy."

"What did you find?" Asked the princess eagerly.

The General pursed his lips. "We found no match for any boy named Chris Martin."

The Princess closed her eyes, letting out a small sigh of disappointment. "So, he was lying."

The princess just wanted to know more about Chris in order to find out why she felt such discrepancies with him. So, upon finding out that he had lied about his identity, she felt disappointed not only because he had broken her trust, but also because she couldn't find out the answer to the questions she had.

"Why?"

Why did he lie? He could have at least told her his real name.

Looks like she'll have to ask him herself.

But… the general wasn't done with his report yet.

"Princess, have a look at this," he said, replacing the paused projection of Chris Martin riding dragons with another image.

The princess was a bit perturbed, but when she saw the image, all thoughts vanished as she instantly recognised the person in the projection.

"Tristan Hunt…" She muttered, her voice containing venom. But soon, she frowned. This isn't right. The person in the image looks much younger than the Tristan she knew. So, a childhood photo? That wasn't it either. This person's face was fairly different from Tristan's, and he had a scar of over one of his eyes and one over his cheek.

"Who… is this person?" The princess was clearly lost now. The topic was about Chris Martin. Then, why the hell is the General showing her an edited image of Tristan?

The General played a video next. In this video, the same person suddenly teleported into the frame. Since it was a 3-d video, the person's complete surroundings were also visible.

"This is… Atlanopolis?" The princess recognised the city built above the ocean.

The General nodded. "Yes, but please watch what happens next carefully."

Suddenly, the air seemed to ripple with magic as the person knelt down to the ground while wincing. Behind him, the sea churned, huge waves rising which even shook the island.

"What?!"

Then, the person, slowly opened his eyes.

And at this moment, they were glowing a royal blue.

!!!

The Princess's eyes, whose color matched with the person in the video, widened to the highest degree.

"No… Way…"

But the video wasn't finished yet. Shaking his head, the person closed his eyes once again. Within a few seconds, his face began morphing.

!!!!!!!!!

Soon, the princess found herself looking at the very familiar face of Chris Martin.