Chapter 133: Inheritance of the Lord of the Stars (Part 7)
After leaving the second chamber of the Star Lord’s inheritance, Kael, Michel, and Elizabeth, who was unconscious, headed to the next room.
Moving quickly down the corridor made of stars, their shadows moved rapidly across the walls.
Kael had already decided that he would not delay, that Aiden and the others should have already found the peak and entered the magical inheritance.
So the time for them to explore at their leisure was completely over, and he still could not find the magic of the stars that would accelerate his strengthening.
What Kael didn’t know was that Aiden and Natalia had long since entered the inheritance and were relatively close to them, closer than he thought.
He continued advancing at high speed, and his breathing began to become irregular. Soon they arrived at a large room, which looked more like an alchemy laboratory, and where there was a corpse dressed in a robe made of stars with a note in its skeletal hand.
"It seems we’ve reached the end of the inheritance," Michel commented, looking at the place that resembled an alchemist’s room.
"Find something to tie Elizabeth up with and then come," Kael ordered as he approached the corpse dressed in the robe made of stars.
Without ceremony, he removed the robe from the corpse and stored it in one of the space rune rings. Then he took the note and read its contents.
As he read, Kael’s eyes lit up slightly when he saw that what he had been searching for was right in his hands, but it was not magic as mentioned in Elizabeth’s biography; it was much different.
"This is a refinement formula that uses both Zu and Magic," Kael murmured after reading the entire contents of the note.
And the corpse whose robe he had just removed was probably the lord of the stars, but that was the least of his concerns; Kael had in his hands what would help him grow even stronger, even faster.
And without delay, he began to move around the room, searching for the ingredients and Zu required to perform the magic that would come out of this refinement, which was unique compared to those he had seen before his rebirth.
Heh... despite being a Mage of the Tower of Babel, this method is quite demonic.
Kael couldn’t help but feel a hint of regret in his heart. The lord of the stars, to create magic like this, must have descended into thoughts as demonic as they were unfathomable.
However, that didn’t scare him. On the contrary, it fascinated him. The truth of the world was simple: all power came at a price, all ambition had to be paid for with sacrifice. How could magic like this exist without any cost? That would be nothing more than a childish illusion.
Precisely for this reason, the Path of the Zu had captivated him from the very beginning. On this path, each step upward meant giving something up, surrendering an increasingly heavy price.
The naive sought free power; the wise accepted the cruel truth of equivalent exchange. Kael knew this, and so he did not hesitate to delve deeper into that path.
Firmly pushing those thoughts aside, he turned his attention to the task at hand. One by one, he searched for the missing ingredients and Zu in the room. His movements were meticulous and calculated.
At that moment, he noticed Michel approaching. Without hesitation, he calmly said:
"Put Elizabeth nearby."
His voice was calm, without any change in tone, but within that serenity lay a silent expectation, almost impossible to perceive for anyone who did not know him.
Michel, perceptive, understood instantly. He positioned Elizabeth as close as possible and, containing his impatience, waited. He asked no questions; he simply watched intently, intrigued by what Kael planned to do with all the ingredients and Zu gathered together.
Finally, when everyone was seated at the table, Kael closed his eyes. The silence became profound. Like a frozen lake without a single ripple, it dispelled any unnecessary thoughts.
Refinement was no ordinary task: it was a dance with perfection and risk. A single mistake meant utter failure. And on this occasion, with so few ingredients, there was no room for error. Every fragment of energy, every Zu, every ingredient had to be used precisely.
Kael understood this reality clearly: the world does not forgive the careless.
Refinement was like life itself: a path where those who failed were mercilessly eliminated. And for that very reason, the harder the price, the sweeter the power gained.
"Let’s begin."
...
Aiden and Natalia, upon seeing the appearance of the wolf with fur as black as the void, felt the pressure in the air become suffocating. Their faces hardened instantly.
"Grrr!" Its growl reverberated like thunder, and in the blink of an eye, its body disappeared, leaving behind a residual trail that seemed to disintegrate into the air.
When he reappeared, he was already in front of Natalia. The speed was so brutal that her eyes could barely register it. She barely had time to raise her hand; flowers sprouted around her in a thorny wall that enveloped her.
The impact was devastating. The wolf’s claws tore through the roses as if they were dry leaves.
Crack!
A deep cut marked her chest. The dress was torn, blood spurted out, and Natalia immediately backed away, gasping. If she had stayed one step closer, her heart would now be on the ground.
The wolf spun around with a sharp movement, leaving a trail of shadows behind it, and launched a second attack. This time, Aiden was ready. A river of greenish smoke poured from his hands, spreading like a living swamp and covering the air with a dense, toxic fog.
The beast crossed the cloud without hesitation, but its legs instantly stiffened; its agility began to lose sharpness.
The poison was acting fast.
Aiden, without giving him a moment’s respite, drew his arm back in an arc; the mist fragmented into sharp blades that spun like knives, cutting the monster’s skin in multiple directions.
The wolf howled furiously, a bone-shaking sound, and shook its body violently, scattering some of the poison in gusts of wind. With one leap, it propelled itself toward the ceiling and fell like a meteor straight onto Aiden.
A heartbeat.
Thick, fast-growing green stems sprouted from the ground, coiling like snakes around their legs. Natalia, still bleeding, had spread her hands firmly. Crimson flowers burst forth among the vines, reinforcing them with beauty.
The wolf’s body stopped dead in its tracks, suspended in midair. The creature tore several stalks with its claws, but every moment of resistance was enough for the poison to continue spreading through its veins. Its red eyes began to lose their intensity, and its breathing became heavy.
Aiden advanced without stopping, the poison swirling around his body. The mist condensed into translucent spikes that floated like spears suspended in the air. With a sudden gesture, they all shot out at once.
A hundred green needles pierced the wolf’s dark flesh. Blood spurted out in black threads that sizzled on the ground.
The beast roared, trying to break free, but Natalia hardened her magic: the flowers burst open, transforming the stems into floral blades that pierced it from multiple angles.
The collision was brutal.
Poison and flowers immobilized him in a deadly prison. The wolf thrashed violently; the walls of the room shook, but little by little his strength faded. The final roar broke into a harsh whimper.
With one last shudder, the great wolf fell to the ground. Its black fur cracked like glass, crumbling into stardust particles that scattered in the air.
Aiden stood, the poisonous mist still swirling around him like a suffocating whirlwind. Natalia, gasping for breath, fell to her knees as the withered flowers crumbled to dust.
The room fell silent, filled with the metallic smell of blood and the bitterness of poison.
The great wolf was dead.
"Honey!" Aiden rushed to his wife, his eyes fixed on the cut on her chest; concern was written all over his face. "Are you okay? You need some kind of treatment."
Breathing heavily, Natalia replied in a low voice, "I’m fine... the cut isn’t as deep as it looks, thankfully."
Aiden breathed a sigh of relief, grateful that it wasn’t worse. He took off his shirt and pressed it carefully onto the wound, improvising a bandage. "Let’s rest for a few minutes before continuing."
"We don’t have to continue, dear." Natalia tried to sit up, but a sharp pain shot through her body, forcing her to stop. "Your daughter is still in the hands of those two."
Inside, the last thing she wanted was to become an obstacle, not now, when Aiden’s daughter’s life was in danger. And worse still, being under the shadow of Kael, a man who was an enigma to her, and whose nature made him even more dangerous.
Aiden looked at her tenderly, gently caressing her face, as if he wanted to engrave that moment in his memory.
"Natalia, my love... You are just as important to me as my daughter. I can’t selfishly move forward knowing how you feel; doing so would make me a terrible husband."
Natalia’s eyes sparkled as she listened, moved by his words. For a moment, her heart filled with warmth, but then her expression hardened. "Aiden, now is not the time to get sentimental. Your daughter could die! These wounds are no obstacle to me! So let’s get moving!"
With fierce determination, Natalia got up from the ground and began to walk with firm steps, ignoring the pain that still burned inside her.
"Let’s continue."
Aiden could only smile. That strength, that courage... that was what he admired and loved most about his wife.
And so, together, they advanced down the starry corridor toward the final chamber.