Asher walked out of the prison with Aquilia beside him. A maidservant pushed her wheelchair.
“I heard you are done with the grand teleportation channel.”
“I am. You can now move 500 individuals at once from this city to any city with teleportation channels but I don’t think any city allows that or people might have teleported troops into the heart of their city.”
“True. But I need the grand teleportation to be able to move troops between Ashkelon and Nineveh. On the part of Ashkelon, we await the response of the Great Jackal Clan but Nineveh’s matters are more pressing. There is a town ruled by an old race and a settlement of abyssal creatures. Most of them might be knights so I have to move with a good number of soldiers.”
Aquilia lifted up her eyebrows.
“Abyssal creatures!”
“There are 10,000 warrior orcs southward. Our total population should be 149,000 and the troops are just increasing to meet the security standards. It’s human to orc. Although we have the advantage in our weapon and armor technology, it’s not going to be a landslide victory.”
Aquilia’s eyes flickered.
She could feel the burden on Asher’s shoulders. Just mentioning the threat to the southern wasteland nobles would cause an upheaval, one that would gather all of them together and even include the count.
Yet one lord wanted to handle it.
“Do you need my help?”
Asher turned to her. free𝑤ebnovel.com
“You shall join field battles in the future. For now, I want you to select candidates worthy of mastering the magi force. I need more mages.”
“I shall do as you have asked.” Aquilia responded amicably.
Asher patted her shoulder.
“Asher…”
A soft whisper. A gentle breeze caressed his left ear, like a lip grazing his earlobe. His eyes sharpened, and he snapped toward the gates of the prisonhold.
The smile on his lips vanished as he was bewildered by the strange occurrence.
“Asher…”
His eyes narrowed.
The voice was clever this time but he felt it came from afar.
Something prompted him to look up and he saw a wolf-like creature with kind emerald eyes lying atop the highest mountain looking straight at him.
He could only see it’s head and half of its body, as the other part was hidden by thick fog that came from nowhere.
It was the same wolf he saw before Mary got her wolf.
Subconsciously, he smiled but it seemed like at that moment, he was absorbed into a trance.
………
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The ground trembled thunderously. The clouds were dark but the faint moonlight made it possible to see for a good distance. Asher found himself in the middle of a vast plain landscape. The ground was without grass nor trees, neither hills nor mountains.
As the thunderous sounds increased, he turned.
His eyes widened to the limits.
A long line of people. The line was extremely long and all of them had white, glowing eyes. At first they were squatting but they began to rise, one after the other. They were Ashbourne Lords, commanders, generals, warlords, and so on.
As they began to rise, hills began to develop, and at the top of the hill sat an Ashbourne lord, on a dark throne with his twin heavy swords plunged into the ground while he looked straight at him.
The man’s eyes were like burning golden flames, piercing through the darkness. Despite the distance, which was thousands of yards away, Asher still felt his eyes itch.
On this hill were three other figures, two men and one woman. Asher could recognize two. One was Atticus, and the other was Ariel.
This led him to guess that the one on the throne was Zenas and the one that he couldn’t recognize was Torah. But there was a thicker shadow, right behind Zenas’s throne.
While the Ashbourne Generals, Commanders, Lords, and Centurions were connected to the Great Four, this last figure was disconnected.
He only had a direct link to the first ancestor, Zenas, and no other person.
This shadow also had piercing golden eyes, even brighter than Zenas and in his hands was a weapon. This shape was just too familiar to Asher.
It was a weapon he had dreamt about and fought with for a while now without drawing it out of the sheath.
It was Euodias, the mortal blade!
There was another blade, similar to Euodias but had a more unique shape in the shadow’s other hand. Something told Asher that was Euodias’ twin.
Aprt from Zena, the shadow, and the three great lords; the others had white ghostly eyes and solemn expressions. The visual impact made Asher stagger backward.
In the process of staggering, he looked higher and saw a large pair of green eyes in the clouds. The vague figure of a behemoth could be seen on the horizon, though a bit faint, like it was an illusion.
Something told Asher that beast was the beginning of the Ashbourne Bloodline. It was their core.
But what he didn’t understand was that shadow.
Who was he?
Was he an Ashbourne?
“Asher…”
He lifted up his head to look right into the eyes of the beast.
“What are you?” He couldn’t help but question.
“Many things. You do not have a need for my name because, at my rank, names are more than just words. You’re a strange one. Even stranger than your first ancestor.”
Asher’s eyes flickered.
“Why am I here?”
“To warn you to drop that weapon. You might be the last hope for your family; do not thread lightly with death.”
“Why should I drop the weapon?”
“Because… It was made with the blood of one of my children and it will never cease to kill for the betrayal during Zenas’ time.”
“Children?”
Asher furrowed his brows. All of a sudden, his eyes widened as he suddenly realized something.
Euodias was made with the blood of an Ashbourne pet beast!
The discovery made him almost explode in rage, as he knew what pet beasts meant to them. They were supposed to be given the last respect of a proper burial but this one ended up becoming a weapon.
“You are more connected to the realm of the spirits than any other living being or race that had or is existing. Such sensitivity might be positive in some ways but it has its negative parts.”
“What do you mean?”
The behemoth leaned down, causing its head to burst through the clouds, and Asher discovered it was actually made of plants, trees, and vines!
Yet she looked strangely beautiful.
“Your talent makes you a vessel. That is what you have become. A medium in between the mortal and the spirit realm. Do you know who controls your mortal body now?”
It chuckled.
Asher’s eyes grew wide.
