"So, any clue as to where she might be?" Asher asked as the trio treaded into the city in Neath.
"I don't know. But Coity and that highland province are good starting points." Nova answered.
The three walked towards a large building with the sign, 'Portal Ports' written on the outside, when Asher suddenly asked,
"So, no personal teleporter?" His face was fixed on the road, however Yenn knew he was talking to her.
"Nope. I like to walk." She answered.
"Well, that's new." Asher glanced at her.
"Yeah. There's a lot that's changed about me over the years. Too bad you weren't there to witness any of them."
Asher's steps slowed down, allowing Yenn to walk ahead. He smiled wryly, watching her back. He knows he had messed up leaving the two girls behind, and he could feel that Yenn was a little distant, but it still hurt when she put it like that.
"Hahaha. This is too good to watch." An annoying voice sounded in Asher's head. "He had kept quiet during this entire time, patiently waiting for a dramatic scene like this to happen. "Man, I wish I had popcorn."
But, there were also another reason why he was keeping quiet.
"Suck on screwdriver, you old man." Yenn looked behind her and said.
"Can I get a little respect you brat?!"
"Blehh." Yenn stuck out her pink tongue at Asher, or rather, the other person sharing his body.
"Tch! I'll get you someday." The Old Man swore.
"Old man? Asher isn't that much older than you right?" Nova asked.
"Hehe." Yenn scratched her head. "I was just reminiscing about the times we used to call him, 'Master' because of how he treated us in training sessions."
Nova suddenly remembered their fight when she had gone to get him from Ursalin 5. Even then, the way he treated her in battle was embarrassing. But that was before her ascension. And last time she checked, he was still a level 69 super human.
She scoffed. "Well you don't need to call him that anymore. In fact, he's the one who should treat us like masters."
Yenn glanced back at him with a grin. "Really? Do you still got it, master Ashie?"
"You want me to do a martial arts battle with a level 70 and a 74?" He smiled back. "I think you should tie up my hands to make it a fair fight."
Nova rolled her eyes, while Yenn chuckled knowingly. It seems like the young girl had forgotten that the person they were talking about had gone into the base of one of the eight strongest Animats in the world and stolen their most valuable artifact, the universe shard, when he was still fifteen years old and with an A–rank ability.
Asher was crafty before, but now that he had already seen the world and gained more knowledge on probably all of the weapons, fighting techniques and tactics, she shivered at the thought of what he could do now.
As they got to the main door of the portal ports building however, they realized that the place was locked. "What's up with this?" Asher asked no one in particular.
Yenn took out her phone from the storage bracelet on her wrist and started swiping.
Asher looked at Nova, using his facial expression to ask what the other woman was doing. However Nova just glanced at him and ignored his gaze.
"Tsk." Asher clicked his tongue. 'Something's probably wrong with the portals.' He sighed as he placed his hands behind his head in a lax position.
Yenn smiled. "Something is wrong with the portals, but the Dean will explain it better."
"Come to think of it, I have things I want to speak to him about too."
———
"So you're saying this is the residue of the stuff that destroyed the illusory space barrier?" Yenn asked to be sure if she had heard Lucius' words right.
She, Nova, Asher and Lucius stood below a spinning ball floating eight meters in the air that looked to be made of grey–black fire.
Lucius nodded. "It's messing with the actual spacial barrier of Ansel, and the crazy part is, I can't remove it from the atmosphere 'cause it's a 'Void' type ability."
"Void? But that's impossible." Yenn's eyes opened wide. She had studied abilities and comprehensive books on the different types of them, so she was familiar with the term.
But what she found weird was that 'Void' abilities shouldn't even exist in this timeline. The ancient texts say there was once a group of people who wielded abilities of 'The Void', that is to say, abilities that were antithesis to every other kind of abilities because of their energy absorbing and nullifying traits.
This lost group of people were the only ones with this ability however, and even they found it hard to control them. If the legends about these types of abilities were true, then that clan should have been wiped out long ago trying to control the abilities. This was because Void type abilities only knew one other thing than trying to break free from their users, and that was to eat and devour anything, ability or energy they could reach.
Seeing Yenn act so surprised, Nova tilted her head, looking curiously at the ball of flames above them. 'This couldn't be Asher's could it?' She thought.
However, seeing Asher indifferently leaning against a tree with his eyes closed, and then turning her head back to the fireball, she shook her head, dismissing the thought.
Nova had seen Asher's black flames skill in Ursalin 5 when she was sent by her father to retrieve him. But she thought those flames were probably a product of Asher's illusion skill, Amethyst Spectre. Plus, his were full black, while this ball of fire was mostly grey.
"So, it's because of this that the portals around the island are out of use huh?" Asher asked from behind them.
"Yup. Someone could get sucked into that thing when going through the space tunnels, so all portals have been deactivated for now."
"Are we done here?" Nova suddenly asked, her voice carrying a harsh coolness and a bit of murderous intent in it.
Yenn tiptoed over to the tree Asher was staying at, making a shushing gesture with her finger as they watched the father and daughter argument from the sidelines.
"Do you have something on your mind, darling—"
"Don't call me that!" Nova interrupted Lucius. "Not until you explain exactly what this is!" She pulled out her amulet from her pocket.
"That. That was your mom's." Lucius looked away.
"So... you two did have something to do with it. Why?"
Lucius sighed, dropping his head down. He knew what Nova was talking about, just not how to explain it.
Seeing as he wasn't answering her, Nova pushed. "I know you must have had your reasons so just tell me. I'll try my best to understand."
Lucius gave a weak smiled . "You're a great kid, Nova. But there are things you're better off not knowing for now." 'Mankind and the animats are the only species you need to worry about.'
Nova looked into her father's eyes with a disappointed expression. "Classic line." She scoffed, as she started to walk away.
Before she completely went out of the area, she looked over her shoulder and asked, "But at least, can you tell me with all honesty that whatever you did, was with good intentions?"
"Ye—" Before he could answer his daughter though, Nova raised her hand to stop him.
"You know what? Forget I asked that. Of course it was."
Lucius looked at his daughter's back as she trudged farther into the forest, a sudden feeling rising up in his heart. He smiled at the two onlookers behind him. "Isn't she great?"
Lucius was glad that his daughter was so understanding.
"Yeah. Unlike you." Asher removed his back from the tree as Yenn followed him out of the area.
Lucius shrugged. "I know. But it's part of a parent's joy knowing that I have a child who's better than I am."
Asher waved dismissively. "Go back to your beach house, you baldy."
"Tch." Lucius scoffed, putting his hands in his pockets and then walking towards another direction. "I'll send you that Infected's info later today, okay?"
"Hey boy. Isn't this destiny?"
Asher raised a brow at the Old Man's words. "What are you talking about?"
"Those flames at the back. They're perfect for that thing you're making aren't they? The void flames have condensed so much they've started to turn white. So if you can use your artifact to get the nullifying properties of the flames—"
"It probably won't work. The void flames is more like an anti–ability. If I put my artifact in there, it'll just burn it to dust."
"Look kid, I know what you're saying makes sense but... My guts are telling me that you should try it out.
Thanks to you not having your soul constrictor any more, your abilities only activate spontaneously, in fact, it's uncertain whether you'll even get to use a single one anytime soon. And I know you don't like relying on probability, especially not when the factors are unknown. So having abilities coming and going without your control isn't something you'd want to rely on."
"But your instincts are?"
The Old Man laughed. "When have my instincts ever been wrong?"
Asher also smirked to himself. That was a surprisingly solid point.
"To be honest, I was going to do it anyway. But knowing that you believe it'll work just boosts my faith a little bit."
"So you trust me."
"..."
"Hey!—"
Asher turned his head down to meet the eyes of the woman staring curiously up at him. "You can go on without me. I wanna check something out."
Yenn nodded, still holding her inquisitive gaze as Asher ran back to the direction they came. "Were they talking without me?"
But soon she shrugged her thoughts off and continued forward.
———
Asher's shoes were glowing silver as he floated in the air, beside the grey ball of rolling flame. 'It's all or nothing.' He thought.
A small rectangular black box with the width of his palm appeared in the air. Surrounding this box was a gentle blue glow.
Asher put his fingers in the box and removed a transparent, cylindrical object from inside it. The cylindrical object had engravings on it, but the texts were of a language not even Asher who had been around the world could speak.
Holding the cylindrical object on one end, he pushed the other closed end near the flames.
Asher felt no heat from being near the flames whatsoever, a proof that it really was his void flames, albeit more condensed. There was no heat surrounding the void flames because it devoured that too, it was just a mystery as to why it was floating in this particular spot doing nothing else but interfere with the portals.
But mistake it not for a cool fire, because if a living being were to touch even a flicker of the sphere of grey, they'd experience pain one could only describe as hell.
Without touching the ball, a tiny portion of the flames started to flow into the cylinder. Asher waited till the container was filled before removing it from the fire and descending to the ground.
[Your equipment, The Rish's Blacksmith's Seal has gained a property, Energy nullification.]
Asher smiled, cleaning off the cold sweat from his forehead. "Now for the final step."
From his pouch, he took out two more cylinders of equal sizes, but longer than the first out. One, jet black and the other, translucent black in colour. He attached the open ends of both cylinders to each side of the one containing the flames, clicking them together and then forming a thirty centimeters long and five centimeters in diameter pole.
Black lines suddenly started crawling out of the black cylinders, attaching to the transparent center till it was fully covered. The ancient marking previously on the transparent cylinder appeared on the now fully black pole, mixing with some of Asher's rune engravings that were on the black cylinder. The markings on the pole soon lit up with silver light and then disappeared, along with the engravings themselves.
The pole took an all black colour with a smooth surface and started stretching out till it reached a length of two meters, floating in the air.
Asher placed the small black box on the floor as it started to enlarge. He placed the black pole in it and closed it.
[Your materials have been placed into the Black Box furnace (level 6)
Standby till furnacing has been completed: 23 hours, 59 minutes...]
[Warning: Withdrawing the furnaced tool before the completion time will result in partial or total destruction of the materials.]
Glancing at the messages on his status screen, Asher flew out of the forest. "Lucky me."