"Not worth it at all."
The first thing that came to his mind was: Daphne is going to kill me.
He had promised to call every few days to report. And he would have, too. Even if the communications are blocked, he could have easily asked Kyrin for help. Hell, he could have directly walked upto the technomancy department. Could anyone really stop him?
But they ended up getting stranded here, and then he almost died for 6 fucking months. So, he really didn't get the chance.
By now, Daphne would have been worried sick.
As for Martina, well, she must have been panicking, but not as much as Daphne.
The problem is, 6 months really is a long time. There's no way they wouldn't think of the worst conclusions for not contacting.
Then there was Akiko. She must still think he's missing. No, the explosion! She must have seen that too. And if the relics were found…
"Damn it."
This really wasn't worth it at all. Daphne, Martina and Akiko. All three must have done something desperate after him going MIA for so long.
'Well, hope things haven't changed much.' he thought. Of course, he had no fucking idea how wrong he was.
The first thing he had to do was to get some clothes. Since even his body couldn't escape, of course there'd be no clothes either.
'Storage space too?' Axel sighed as he realized he had lost all of his belongings. There were a lot of important things in there, including his food, clothing, and a lot of other valuable stuff.
"So, just like the old days, huh?" It just like the old days, when he had nothing. Of course, that wasn't exactly the case, was it?
[Magic Hands]
Clothes were conjured out of thin air which Axel quickly put on. As for the food, well, he will have to manage with water.
Axel tried moving his body, and felt uncomfortable all over, which, should be the case after it had to be reconstructed.
Checking the condition, he found that it had been reconstructed as good as new. 'What about the soul?'
Surprisingly, he found that even his soul had recovered, and even becoming stronger than before. 'Perks of the new bloodline, maybe.'
Of course, the price was 6 months. And he did almost die too. That explosion would have definitely killed him.
Then, how did he survive?
They were both going to be blown up, and Aslot had the Royal Trident, which could protect him.
But, what Aslot did not know was that Axel had an overpowered skill: [Unshackle], which he had been using on the Royal Trident, slowly removing Aslot's control over it.
When Aslot brought out the dimensional bombs, it suddenly led to a Eureka moment as amidst the thought of 'I'm to die', Axel realized, 'I can use that too!'
So, in the last moment, borrowing the power of the dimensional bombs, Axel Unshackled the Royal Relic from the Entity's and Aslot's control.
Once that happened, Aslot lost the protection of the Royal Relic. And the Royal Relic, which had been calling out to Axel throughout the fight, quickly bonded with him, thus saving him from the explosion.
In simple terms, take it as Aslot strapping himself with a parachute and dragging Axel with him to jump from a plane. But at the last moment, Axel snatched away the parachute, using it to save himself and letting Aslot die from his own plan.
That's how Axel is still alive while Aslot is finally gone. It was a fucking close call. Axel almost got burnt to death, but at the last moment, he gained [Water Body], and the Relic's protection, getting the power to regenerate his physical body.
"Let's never do that again," he thought.
Really, fighting Aslot was a big mistake. He thought he could take him, and he almost had too. He was winning! But never in his wildest dreams had he imagined that Aslot would have something as dangerous as the Soul Extinguisher, much less he'd use it on a 13 year old. And if he hadn't used the Soul Extinguisher, Axel could have easily stopped him from using that last move.
The thing with Aslot was, he had a really good battle sense. Axel tried to keep baiting him into thinking he was winning all the time in order to control the fight's tempo, but Aslot understood that after a while and went full power mode, not even caring about his own losses.
Like, how many people as strong as Aslot would use the [Soul Extinguisher] without hesitation at that moment, when they are clearly the one winning? Axel was so badly injured and had no magical or physical energy left. And he was 13!
The logical conclusion was to keep on attacking till the kid depletes his mental energy and get an easy win.
But Aslot saw more. Somehow, through intuition or through calculations, he knew that if the fight went on like this, he'd lose. And so, without hesitation, he used a spell so painful and damaging to his own soul rather than taking his chances to ensure his victory.
And even when that didn't work, the old man didn't give Axel any chance. Not letting Axel recover, he quickly launched an even more powerful attack, which Axel would have otherwise stopped had he been in a better condition.
And this attack really would have killed him, had Axel not have his own card up his sleeve. So, with an opponent as batshit crazy as that… there's a high chance Axel could have really died in that fight.
'Anyways, it did pay off,' he muttered, raising the Royal Trident.
'System, Where am I right now?" Asked Axel finally. He thought it was just because he still hadn't recovered, but he was experiencing some serious discomfort right now. His head felt like it would explode any time.
[You are currently in the deepest layer of the Abyss, the Mind layer. No Atlantian has ever stepped into this layer without serious mental protection tools.]
'Well, fuck me. How did I get here?'
"Thou art awake, my prince!"
At this moment, he heard another voice in his head, different from the system's. This one sounded real, with emotions, rather the system's emotionless mechanical voice.
"Who the fuck?!" Exclaimed Axel, looking around.
"'tis I, the mighty Trident Nerinthos, Royal Sovereign of the Deep, my Prince! Thou hast unshackled me from my bonds. Thy bravery hath loosened my chains, and for this, my thanks shall echo through the ages!"
'...The heck?' It was only then that Axel found the mental link with the Trident in the corner of his mind. It was similar to the one he had with his wand.
But he was still surprised. He knew the Royal Trident had a consciousness of its own. That's how he knew it was asking him to free it. But that was through emotions and mental signals, not full-fledged old-fashioned Atlantian language.
"...You can speak?"
"Verily, I can speak, and speak with wisdom! For I am Trident Nerinthos, the sage counselor of monarchs! Alas, 'tis a long time since last I was permitted to utter a word. The accursed infidels hath subjected me to torments most foul and unspeakable, silencing my voice and stifling my counsel! For this freedom, I shall be forever in thy debt, and my gratitude shall know no bounds!"
Axel shrugged. "Well, I had to free you. You'd have killed me otherwise."
"Nay, good sir! Thou art a warrior of unyielding valor, an immortal champion beyond compare! That dastardly brute, with all his might, could never vanquish thee, even had I lent them the full measure of my mystical powers!"
'Yep, this guy thinks I'm a god.' Thought Axel in confirmation. Though thinking about it, Axel did free it from restrictions that were supposed to be unbreakable after going through a fight that was unwinnable. How else to explain that?
No matter who watches that fight, not even in their wildest dreams would they think he could have the ability to unshackle the Royal Relic, let alone that he'd manage to do it at the last moment.
"Alright, I don't have time for flattery. Do you know which way is the exit? I need to go to the Kingdom." Axel has priorities. First of all, he needs to go back and tell people he's still alive. He might have bonded to the most powerful weapon in the world, but he can't really test it out right now.
"Certes, I know the path well! Forsooth, I have traversed these realms for ages past, and their twists and turns are etched in my mind like the lines on a well-worn map."
"The kingdom lieth in yonder direction, my prince!" said the shining silver Trident, pointing itself opposite the way Axel had been drifted all these months.
Axel sighed. "Seriously?"
If the kingdom is that way then it's really going to take a long time to go back. "Guess it time to see if I've become any faster." he muttered, tapping into the tremendous power he had been feeling for a while.
Suddenly, blue energy flared up around Axel as the oppression he had been feeling from the surroundings vanished into thin air. Water gathered around him and Axel suddenly felt… different. He felt as if he was free… boundless. He felt like he was the ocean itself. He felt his body getting lighter and lighter.
When he looked down, his body was slowly turning into water.
"The [Water Body]... so, that's what it is…" he murmured, studying the mysterious state he was in. This state was the reason why Axel couldn't cut Aslot down right when the fight started. This is the reason why almost all of Aslot's injuries were self-inflicted and, this is also the reason why Axel didn't die from the explosion.
The state of near-invincibility. He had tried so hard to achieve this during his fight against Aslot, and he thought he had come pretty close too. But now, experiencing the real thing, he felt that the gap between the two was as big as the depth of the sea.
Of course, even now, he hadn't exactly learned this skill, it just came naturally when tapping into the relic's powers. It's like copy-pasting a computer program. Just because the code is working does mean you learnt the coding behind it.
"Now, how did he travel?" Wondered Axel, recalling just how fast the bastard was.
[Skill Steal]
Axel suddenly found himself around a kilometer ahead, and it didn't even feel like he moved! Rather, it felt like the world had moved while he remained stationary.
"Sweet!"
With this, it should take no time to reach the Kingdom. The sooner he's there, the sooner he can call Daphne and Martina and get scolded for worrying them. As for Akiko, well, with this power, he can easily take revenge for her. That should make up for it for her.
"By the depths, thou dost take to my controls like a duck to water! And, I must confess, I didst think thy mother would be the most adept sorceress I hadst encountered in a long while, but thy own aptitude doth outshine hers!" Commented the Royal Trident as Axel began mastering control over the relic while traveling using Aslot's technique.
Axel's speed suddenly slowed down as he came to an obvious realization: "You knew my mother."
Atlana Regius Ignis. The crown Princess. Since it's the Royal Relic, that means that it's previous legitimate owner was his mother.
Axel didn't know how he felt about that. He didn't even know how he felt about his mother. He didn't blame her for leaving him. He didn't blame her for not caring about him. If there was anything he blamed her for, it was for leaving him at a muggle orphanage.
From what he knows about the Kingdom's situation, it's not so dangerous here. And Antilla and the General seem good enough people. If she really had to leave him, she could have at least left him here at Atlantis. At least it would have been much better than growing up in the company of sewer rats.
"Ah, aye! Thy mother Atlana. She was a warrior of unparalleled prowess, and a monarch of unimpeachable wisdom! She would have brought peace and prosperity back to the kingdom… had not that treacherous Astrot dealt us a blow most foul and unexpected!"
'Nothing new.' Axel kept flying, ignoring the Trident's babblings as background noise. That's what everyone says. The Crown Princess was great, the crown princess was powerful, and the crown princess would have won, had she not been betrayed by—
"Wait. Astrot?" Axel frowned.
That didn't make sense at all. It was Aslot who helped defeat his mother. Astrot is the name of—
"Aye, Atasis! Her father, and thy grandfather, who didst forsake all honor and loyalty, to succumb to the Entity's corrupting influence! I didst rescue him from the jaws of death, and this is the thanks I receive? That he doth spit in my face, and join forces with the very darkness that didst seek to claim his soul?"
{Didst means did. Doth= do, singular}
Axel stopped moving, digesting what he had just heard.
The previous king, or his grandfather, who is terminally sick after his fight against Aslot. From what the Relic say, it seems that, he actually gave in to the Kraken's power.
So, the betrayer Tronis was talking about. The one who managed to stop Atlana, who had been wielding the Royal Trident…
"It was… the previous king? How is that possible?"
"How canst thou doubt the truth of it? He was afflicted with pain every moment, and his behavior grew stranger by the day! He didst impose harsh restrictions, his temper growing short, lashing out at her with unprovoked ire! We didst suspect that some dark influence hadst taken hold of him, and that suspicion didst drive Atlana to flee the kingdom, to conceive thee in secret, and to keep thee safe from his grasp!"
Axel just stood there, stunned as the words slowly sunk in.
Suddenly, everything was making sense.
The real reason why his mother fled the Kingdom, why she conceived him in secret, and why she didn't left him at the Orphanage. It's because she suspected that the previous king was succumbing to the power of the Entity.
And her suspicions did turn out to be true. Only, she wouldn't have expected to find the King right at the Kraken's headquarters, waiting to ambush her.
Aslot AND her own father. Yep, that explains why his parents lost even when one had the Royal Trident and other had 2 relics of his own.
"Fuck… fuckfuckfuck!" Axel suddenly increased his speed. If the King has already been compromised, then the kingdom is not safe!
That means... Akiko is in danger too!
As for Kyrin and his Aunt, well he'd rather they not die too.
"Wait, my prince! There is something you must know!"
"What is it now?!" Asked Axel, not stopping.
"They have been corrupting the Royal Throne as well."
"The Royal Throne…too?"
.....
A.N.: Powerstones! For today and tomorrow
Next: A New Opponent
Nextnext: Someone from Aetherworld
Nextnextnext: Battle of Giants
Come read ahead! for reunion!
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The trident's English with be regular English from the next chapter. I just wrote it like in one chapter for fun