HP: The Arcane Thief
chapter-232

"A few days?! I don't have that much time!" Axel exclaimed, standing over the seal.

He had no idea what was going on at Atlantis, but he definitely knew that whatever it was, it would be over 'in a few days'.

[Reinforcing the Seal is not an easy task. And near impossible for a single individual. The seal has a self-repairing mechanism, which can only be triggered once it has stored enough power.

And please do not forget that it is currently holding the Entity that threatens the whole Aetherworld, a place with a far larger power scale than Earth.

Considering everything, you cannot expect the reinforcing the seal to be an easy task.] the system explained.

"Damn it."

Even though the system made sense, Axel did not like this. But, what choice did he have?

Sighing, his closed his eyes and concentrated. When he opened them, they were burning in ember light.

Through the markings, he used his soul connection to draw power from the Entity. Suddenly, the blue markings on his skin lit up, becoming extremely bright. Power flooded through his soul, filling his whole being, making him feel a similar rush as the one he get upon using [Limit Break]

"Limit Break… for free. Fuck those lucky bastards."

Now feeling the power for real, Axel really envied those guys from Kraken. And more importantly, there were no harmful side effects of this power, like damaging his very soul.

Too bad, he could only use a minor amount compared to what the other overseers were snorting. Why? Because it's simply not possible to use a large amount of power and not end up losing control over yourself to the Entity. After all, the connection was coming from the soul itself.

Axel raised his trident and channeled the formless energy through the seal, starting the process. All the while, he kept thinking of a way to accelerate the process.

'System, how much more?' He asked after a few minutes.

[About 0.127%. Keep going.]

'Fuck, this won't work.' He muttered, giving up in frustration. Axel didn't know what to do. [Limit Break] wasn't an option. His soul is not some clay figure that can be broken and repaired whenever he wants.

"I can help." At this moment, he heard an unwilling sigh come from his wand. Who else could it be other than Zeta.

"You can?" Axel raised eyebrows, looking suspiciously at the wand. "How can you even do that?"

"I can. You have no idea about the amount of magic I had stored up in the world tree. If I knew how to use it properly, I could have killed you multiple times. And now that you've absorbed the core, all that magic is now just dispersing into the surroundings with nothing to store or control it," replied Zeta.

It was indeed true that Zeta had no idea how to use her light element properly. And it was also true that the amount of magic was ginocerosourrrrmous.

But.

"Even if that's true, your asking me for what? Letting you have control over it again? So that what? You can kill me for real this time?"

"I've already thought of that," said Zeta in frustration. "But that won't work. In actuality, I cannot be free from this wood through ordinary means. My lifeforce is bound to the core, and the core has been completely bound by your wand. It's not going to release me even if you ask it to."

"So what? You're stuck with me for forever?" Axel did not like this. He did not like this at all. He was actually hoping to eventually get rid of her, since he didn't want an enemy staying with him 24/7, but that does not seem possible anymore.

"I say I can help you and give you the reason why I can't betray you, and THAT's what you're focusing on?" Asked Zeta. "Young man, I've noticed this for a while, but you have issues."

Axel clenched his molars, controlling his temper. "You're very lucky that a friend of mine is also a nature lover. Or I'd have had a lot to say about YOUR issues."

Daphne also likes nature, but she claims there are other things she likes way more though, so she has never been too annoying in that field. The most she'd do would be to also try enlightening him to be a man of nature.

So, respecting her passion, he is not using the great roasts he has on this woman's extreme love for nature.

"But I would say that you definitely had the small breasts issue. It's good that I destroyed your body."

"You—!"

"Anyways, why would you even want to help me? You clearly hate me more than anything in the world."

"To be honest, you're not the person I hate the most. It's actually my younger brother."

"Your brother?" Axel narrowed in eyes in confusion. "Wait, do you actually—?"

Zeta was silent for a while.

"Yes. Not only are my thoughts no longer being influenced, but my memories are also returning. They have been since you helped me get rid of the Entity's control," she said. "My brother is the reason I lost my memories and ended up here. Why? Just because of inheritance. And, he has also become a vile person. So, I definitely hate him more than you."

'It's the brother again,' thought Axel as he shook his head. Those with Royal Bloodline should just stop having siblings. He was curious about the life of an Aetherian Royalty and exactly how managed to arrive here from the Aetherworld, but right now, the seal definitely took priority.

"Anyways, what I mean to say is that I can think rationally now. I'm really grateful to you for stopping my life of ignorance. And the trees and plants had to go anyway since they were slowly weakening the seal's power, so I can't blame you too much for that."

"And despite what you might think, I'm actually not a bad person. I do not want your Kingdom to be destroyed."

Zeta seemed to go on and on, but Axel stopped her.

"Alright, alright… I'll give you a chance," Axel decided at last. Did he even have a choice? He was in a hurry. Besides, this woman couldn't kill him when free, let alone now that she was under his control.

With much convincing, he got the wand to enable Zeta and the core to wield their power.

He was fully expecting an attack. but surprisingly, Zeta didn't. Rather, the huge amount of light magic in the surroundings began to gather around, before it started pouring into the seal.

'System, Is it working?'

[It is. Progress: 2%…. 3%… 4%]

'Fuck... I can finally return...?'

Axel couldn't believe it. Knowing his luck, he was 100% sure Zeta was going to pull something. But so far, she seems to be really doing exactly what she said.

'Is she waiting for me to drop my guard?' Axel stayed vigilant, not willing to believe that for once, everything was going smoothly. He was curious just how Zeta was going to try and fuck him over.

Though, when he was focused on the wand, ready to shut it down at the first sign of abnormality, he received a red alert from the system.

[Axel, you need to leave quickly. The First Overseer is being awakened from his slumber. He will arrive here within one minute.]

'Knew it! Fuckkking KNEW IT!'

Axel cursed the bitch named lady luck a thousand times in an instant.

It's not that his luck had improved, it's just that he was expecting it to fucking him over the wrong way. The seal is currently being reinforced, of course the entity would try to prevent it.

"Zeta, hurry up!"

"That's no way to speak, young man. I am already doing you a favor by volunteering to help!" Said Zeta, sounding annoyed since she had no idea about the conversation between Axel and the system.

"The First overseer is coming, damn it!"

That got her attention. "What? That's not possible! He should be currently in the synchronization process!"

"What's synchroniz— Damnit, there's no time! We only have one minute!"

"What—How would you even know that?"

"I have my sources! Now hurry up! I'm not in the mood to fight the strongest overseer on the Entity's turf."

Now Zeta panicked too. "If you're serious, then we can't fight at all, whichever turf! Run right now!"

Axel shook his head. "No way. Complete the seal first!"

"You are a mad man! I don't care if you die, but I can't die yet! I have to stop my brother from destroying his family, if there's any left!"

"Then you better hurry up," said Axel calmly.

"You—! You're so annoying!"

The energy in the surrounding turned violent, starting to gather up at a fast pace. "If I find out you're lying… I'm going turn you into plant fertilizer!" Said Zeta, her voice straining.

The huge amount of energy was gathering into a massive ball, which slowly began to descend.

[10%...15%...20%...]

"Faster!" Said Axel, checking the time and progress.

"F-Fuck you!"

"You shouldn't. I'm 14..."

"I really… do… hate you.., the most!" Screamed Zeta, pushing the energy down with each word.

[60%... 70%...]

The pressure on the entity increased further, causing Axel to sink to the ground, his skin tearing up and mind in a mess. The whole place began to shake as the Entity seemed to be trying its best to stop Axel.

But pain was the last thing he was afraid of, and even if his mind took damage, his will was unshakable no matter how much the Entity tried.

But at this moment, an external force came and locked onto Axel, shaking his very soul. 'What the—?'

Axel was caught off guard with the sudden power, finding it impossibly hard to contend against the power.

[90%... 100%]

But the seal was activated right then and the magic circle lit up, causing the force to be cut off.

Axel gasped, sinking to his knees. 'What… What the hell WAS that?!'

"GO! HE REALLY IS COMING!" Zeta screamed, completely horrified.

Despite his drained mind, Axel forced himself to turn into water and use [Water Travel]

"You're too slow!" Suddenly, last bit of light Zeta had left surrounded Axel and then blasted him away at an incredibly high speed. Very soon, they were out of the area of restricted teleportation and Axel immediately activated [Arcane Travel], his destination, the Kingdom!

….

On the other hand, back at the Kingdom, as the blue light coming from the Entity suddenly started to fade dramatically.

Even though he couldn't comprehend exactly how it happened, the Third Overseer Scitius was the first person to realize exactly what was going on.

Indivisible energy started to revolve around as a third eye opened in the center of his forehead. And then a wave of mental energy was released, affecting every member of the Kraken.

And, it contained only one instruction: Kill through any means!

!!!

Suddenly there was a dramatic rise in the power of the Kraken warriors as everyone was compelled into using every last bit of power they could gather on the Kingdom's forces.

Sciutius had figured it out. Somehow, someone had managed to reset the seal! Which should have been impossible considering the fact that the Second herself is guarding it. The woman might not be a fighter, but there's basically no way to defeat her.

But Sciutius had no time to think about the 'how' of the matter. What matters is that, the reset process has begun. And now they only have a window of a few seconds to minutes till the seal is completely reset, thus decreasing their power by a huge margin.

This is why, he gave the order to the soldiers to not conserve anything, and use up remaining power to its limits, before they're no longer able to use it.

But it created chaos, with Atlantians falling one after another.

The Kingdom's forces were confused as fuck. One moment, they thought the war was as good as lost with the Giant foot about to cause a huge earthquake, then it stopped, and the glow of the blue markings started to diminish. And before they could figure out why or be happy, the Kraken forces suddenly seemed to go berserk, attacking them with reckless abandon.

Another reason they started to lose was that the key figures who had fought at the forefront of the war were until now falling one after another in a matter of seconds, completely breaking the morale.

Taking advantage of the momentary weakness, the General managed to free himself.

'Too late, my friend."

But the King's veins suddenly started to emit blue light, a sign that he was burning his bloodline itself.

The General's eyes widened. The water's strength increased by a huge margin and while the General defended against that, the Trident cleanly pierced through his armor, stabbing him in the chest.

"NO!" Antilla used water travel to appear in front of the General, but the King was too strong, And fighting her own father was too painful, causing her to be easily blown away after just a few attacks from the King.

The slowly approached his daughter, raising his Trident. "You have suffered, Tilla. Let me end it for you."

Not far away, Cravix also received the same orders. He grinned at Kyrin. "Looks like it's the end," he said, creating a space blade and taking it to her neck.

But, as he swung the blade down, Kyrin spat out black blood on his face at the last moment, causing him to miss.

"What the—?!" Cravix backed away. "You're asking for it!" Wiping away the blood that had begun burning his skin, Cravix approached Akiko instead.

"I'm first going to kill her in front of you."

Martina had just crawled out of the emergency ejection box, feeling extremely weak. Stopping that giant foot that even relic wielders couldn't stop had drained her completely.

"There you are."

But, when she looked up, standing right in front of her was Karlock, grinning at her with malicious intent. "You are a unique specimen," he said, picking her up with one of his bionic arms. "Just like that boy. I'm going to have fun studying you."

"I'd sooner kill myself." said Martina, taking out her sword. RIght now, she really didn't mind dying either. In the past few months, she had learnt a lot more about life than she ever had in her past life. She realized there's more to it than just being locked up in a room.

That kind of life won't matter much even if you live a long life.

Life should be lived… at max. By experiencing things, by constantly pushing yourself, by being scared of nothing, and by following your convictions. If you've lived that kind of life, only then, when you finally die, even if you don't live long, you'd regret nothing.

'Just like him.' She thought, feeling bittersweet.

If there's any regret, it's the sorrow of people we leave behind.

So, even if it was not what she wanted, Martina faced the moment boldly. 'If there's another reincarnation. I want it to be where he is.' She prayed, closing her eyes.

But, at this moment, a blade plunged down at an unimaginable speed, piercing through Karlock's head cleanly. The same thing happened with Cravix and Atasis, saving Akiko and Antilla.

"Not too late to the party, I hope."

Then, she heard a voice that made her feel like she was dreaming.

...