”How do I defeat this third piece of the soul?” asked Michael. His mind was still processing everything Elidyr had said. Yet, Michael focused on fixing the imminent problem first. The flame of vengeance was burning like wildfire inside him. He wanted to sacrifice everyone who wronged him in the past, present and future. To achieve his vengeance, he needed to be in his best shape both physically and mentally. The third persona made being sane a difficult task recently. Hence, he wanted the third persona gone.
”You can’t” Elidyr shocked Michael and Gaya with his answer,
”It is a piece of soul but it’s your piece of soul nonetheless. You can’t defeat yourself”
”I assume you have a solution,” asked Michael,
Luckily Elidyr nodded. After seeing the glimpse of the Dark Lord’s power, Elidyr was convinced that the Dark Lord would be able to destroy the Skyhall. Defeating the Dark Lord would be near impossible but if he stuck with the Dark Lord, he might be able to deviate the Dark Lord from destroying the entire world and turn this world into the realm of darkness they saw in the future.
Compared to the Dark Lord, the Skyhall seemed more evil. Over the years, he had seen the Skyhall do all kinds of forbidden acts in the name of the greater good. They were not directly done by Skyhall but their puppets.
Moreover, Elidyr wanted nothing but to see Skyhall destroyed. How would anyone feel if someone imprisoned them for three thousand years?
Over the years, the elders of Skyhall tortured him and exterminated his entire bloodline. They hunted his descendants and family like dogs.
He wanted revenge and the one person who was capable of destroying the Skyhall was the Dark Lord.
”First, we have to extract the piece of the soul out. In the soul state, it can’t be defeated, so we need to cage the soul into a vessel. The vessel needs to be extremely powerful to contain the soul. Finding the perfect vessel and caging the soul into the vessel will be the easy part” Elidyr paused for a moment and went on,
”In physical form, the soul would be manyfold powerful. You need another being strong enough to weaken it. Then, you can absorb the soul piece and it will be merged with the other soul pieces and your soul will become whole once again”
Elidyr couldn’t see the expression on Lucifer’s face through the mask.
After remaining silent for a few moments, Elidry said,
”The question is who is powerful enough to defeat a piece of the dark lord’s soul?”
”We have to find a vessel to contain the soul,” Michael said to Gaya and turned his gaze back to Elidyr
”Tell me how do we extract the soul piece out of me?”
Gaya already guessed who was in his mind to face the soul piece. Surprisingly, Elidyr also knew the person who was in Michael’s mind.
”Thanks to this new body, I can now create an array to help you. But we can’t create the array here, we should do it in the black forest during the full moon night” as he said, Elidyr walked towards where the oak tree was. Elidyr squatted near the tree and grabbed a handful of mud from the ground.
He threw the mud in the air as the dust formed a ring in the air. Soon the circle transformed into a vortex just like the one they used to come to this place.
”After you” Elidyr gestured at Michael to walk into the vortex first. Michael looked around as the black armor disappeared from his body. The green robes of House Alchemists once again covered his body.
When they stepped out of the vortex, they saw Gilrine still lying on the ground unconscious. Elidyr took a deep breath as though he was tasting the air and freedom.
”Tell me what do you know about my mother, Adelia Ashton ” Gaya didn’t even think that he has been imprisoned in the pocket dimension for three thousand years. She couldn’t hold back as she desperately wanted to know what happened to her mother.
The paralyzing agent mixed with the knockout potion would keep Gilrine unconscious for at least 12 hours unless he received the antidote. He was in no rush to wake up Gilrine. Hearing Gaya’s question, Elidyr turned his gaze from the night sky to her.
A few seconds later Elidyr heard Gaya, he frowned. He stared at Gaya from top to bottom. He walked towards her, looking her directly in her eyes,
”You have her eyes” Elidyr’s voice broke as his eyes watered. Michael could see the great pain in his eyes.
”Her? You saw my mother?”
Elidyr shook his head,
”Your ancestor, one of the founders of the order, Edwina Wraith. You have her eyes” Elidyr gently brushed Gaya’s face. She didn’t move or take his hands away because deep down, she too felt a connection with Elidyr.
”Ashton is an alias used by her. I guess her descendants used this alias as their family name” Elidyr smiled slightly,
”Tell me, what do you know about my mother? Where is she? Is she alive?” asked Gaya with the hope of finally getting an answer about her mother.
Michael didn’t interrupt. He remained silent, letting her ask all the questions she wanted while checking out his surroundings. Besides, he himself was in utter shock.
”How is my family related to your order and him?” she pointed at Michael,
”You don’t know?” Elidyr was surprised,
Gaya shook her head,
”Your ancestor Edwina was a founder of the order. She served the order and the Dark Lord. During the last stages of the war, she made sure the elders who were essential to finding the dark lord could escape the guardians and the Sky hall. When everyone was afraid of the Dark Lord, she was the only one who believed that he might be what this world needs.
So together we came up with a rune that would pass the secrets about the Order and the responsibility of the Wraiths to her descendants”
Gaya’s face was blank as she didn’t know how to react. She thought her mother had somehow meddled with the order yet she never expected her entire bloodline would be the servants of the Dark Lord and her ancestor was one of the founders of the Order.
”When a Wraith dies, a piece of their soul would be left behind to pass on the secrets to the next of kin. If you hadn’t seen it, that means your mother is still alive”
”Mom” Gaya’s eyes watered up but this time, it was filled with tears of joy. She couldn’t stop herself from grinning.
”My mother is alive?” asked Gaya, tears rolling on her face.
”That rune was one of my best works. So I am sure”
Gaya leaped at Elidyr and hugged him tightly. He had given her the best news in many many years. She did not even dare to think he might be lying or wrong. Deep down, she always felt as though her mother was still out there somewhere.
”I need to find her. How do I find her?”
She was still hugging him.
”You can’t, no one can”
When she heard Elidyr, her smile froze as she let him go. She took a step back to see Elidyr sigh,
”Your mother is a Wraith. When a Wraith doesn’t want to be found, no one can find them. You can’t hunt a huntress. Wherever she is, she must be hunting someone”
Somewhere else in the black forest, Victoria and Edith were standing among numerous dead mountain trolls. They were in a dark dungeon dimly lit with torches. In addition to mountain trolls, there were countless dried bones and skeletons.
Unlike Victoria who remained calm, Edith was breathing heavily.
”Is it over?”
”I think so but don’t let your guard down”
The sword in Victoria’s hand was not made of any metal. Her sword could not even be compared to the swords in this world. Any blade would be cut in half by her sword because it was made of pure Cosmic energy. The emerald green energy sword radiated frightening power.
At the end of the dungeon was a metal gate with several glowing runes.
Victoria cautiously walked towards the gate expecting a trap to appear any second. They had faced countless traps, skeleton guards and mountain trolls, and undead. Yet, nothing could stop Victoria and Edith. They came prepared and she overwhelmed everything with her cosmic energy.
Edith’s runes enhanced already god-level powerful Victoria to another level. The mountain trolls and the skeletons stood no chance against her.
Unexpectedly they face no more traps or enemies on their way to the gate.
”What do they say?” Looking at the glowing runes, Victoria asked Edith.
”Darkness is not the opposite of light” Edith began to slowly translate the runes,
”It is just the absence of light. The place where light and dark begin to touch is where miracles arise”
”It doesn’t make any sense. Does it say anything about how to open this gate?” Victoria asked, running her hand on the gate.
Creak!
The moment she touched the gate, the gate made a loud creaking noise. They immediately stepped back as the gate slowly opened to reveal what they were looking for, the primordial flame. The hall before them was lit with blue flames on braziers on each corner. In the center of the hall floated two orbs of fire; a pure white flame and a pure black flame.
”Two primordial flames” Victoria and Edith were startled. They never expected to find two primordial flames in one place. Anyone else in Victoria’s place would have gone crazy with excitement. She however had a frown on her face. Edith noticed the dark lines on her forehead and asked,
”Vikki, what’s wrong?”
”This is too easy,” Victoria muttered.