As I rushed to the library, all I could think about were the words that the Imperator of Light told me. “You shall look unto the water and find the answers that you seek” what even is that about? I muttered to myself, getting closer to the Academy. As I opened the door leading into the main corridor, Lady Ashera stood in front of me, looking quite distressed, standing in the middle of the large room, with her arms crossed.
“Morning Hikaru! Did not expect to see you this early.” She said as she once again looked into my eyes, fishing for answers.
“Yeah, about that, I need to go to the library, to study some energy flow fluctuation patterns, I’m not quite sure what some of them mean.” I could not admit to her what happened, she would either think I’m crazy, or this Imperator being a part of some Obscura ploy.
“Is it so?” Her eyes turned pitch black, reaching into my mind. “Are you scared to gaze into the abyss of your own making?”
“Not really, Lady Ashera,” I said as I weaved a light bolt, blinding her for a little moment – not to hurt her, just enough for her to knock off this stealing of thoughts. “With all due respects, I need to leave now. If I were you, I would stop wasting my powers on meaningless conversations.” I said as I made my way into the Grand Library.
“And I would stop keeping secrets from the druid seer, imbecile.” I felt her gazing my way as I walked up the stairs. I did not really think much of our encounters, lady Ashera was never the one to trust, maybe that’s the drawback of her power – never trusting anyone.
…
I came to the library counter, smiling at the Bookkeeper, trying to block out the fact that I’m trying to see something completely out of my clearance level. “Hikaru Baron reporting. I would like to see some documents on the Imperators.”
“Aiya, Mr. Baron, trying to break our clearance level, are we? You know the rules. I can only provide the documents which include general knowledge. Otherwise, you are not permitted to access these things.” The bookkeeper swayed his hand in a circular motion and manifested a book with names and clearances in front of him, just to check, I guess. “You know, I’m not the one trying to snoop into everybody’s business, but if you try to look for something out of your clearance level, it looks really suspicious, just saying.” He swayed his hand and the book levitated in front of my face, with my name being there, and my clearance level precisely stated.
“So, to sum it up, we’re not even allowed to study new stuff at the Academy? Is that some kind of a joke?” I tried to use my words, for him to at least allow me to read up on some books, however unsuccessful.
“You see, Mr. Baron, everyone: students, lecturers, or even the protectors have the access to some basic knowledge, however to gain an access to something more, you have to be eligible, by this I mean – you’re eligible for energy manipulation literature, because you work with it, and are talented at manipulating it, all thanks to your powers, and the efforts of the Academy. If the Overseers don’t see fit to widen your clearance, I cannot do anything about it, I’m sorry.”
“Well, I can’t blame you for doing your job, but is there no other source of information for me to study? I’d really take anything.”
“Hmmm, anything you say?” The Bookkeeper looked around, there wasn’t a soul present, since I made sure to come early in the morning or better said – the Imperator made sure that I woke up so early. “The Academy would not approve this, but the Utopea Coalition is available to you. The leader, Ms. Devan is very open to people who want to study, or so I’ve heard. However, you’re risking that the Academy will find out, and they wouldn’t take that lightly.”
“Thank you, Bookkeeper, I appreciate this.” I was really grateful that the Bookkeeper is not just another mindless pawn of the Academy. “Oh, and also, please don’t talk about this conversation with lady Ashera, we’ve had an unpleasant run-in just a few minutes prior to this meeting.”
“Don’t worry, Mr. Baron, I’ll cover you up as much as I can. May the Harbinger watch over you.”
I wasn’t really sure how to approach the Utopea Coalition. I know that it’s basically a perfect made-up castle from Lady Devan’s mind with perfect security, so I’ll have to be careful not to get incinerated as soon as I set my foot on the front porch.
…
I stepped out of the magitek train and made my way to the Utopea. It wasn’t that far from the station, so it was a perfect daily walk for me. From the outside, the building looked like a normal family house, however when I stepped inside, it started to shift drastically. Two Great towers stood in front of me, connected by a long corridor. I made my way towards the gate of the connecting corridor, amazed by the architecture and plants in the front garden, while two shadow-walkers in Utopea uniforms jumped at me, trying to cut me with their blades. I quickly bathed myself in the light, creating an unpierceable shield.
“State your business!” One of the shadow-walkers said with a confident voice, being ready to attack me.
“Is this how the Utopea greets a scholar?” I tried to act more scholarly than I actually am, even though I’m not a good actor.
“This is how the Utopea greets an Academy personnel stepping onto these protected grounds. Now, will you state your business with the Utopea Coalition, or should we force you to leave?”
“Alright, alright. I need help of the Utopea. To be specific, I’m looking for some knowledge about the Imperators, and also the village Riekyira. The Academy has very limited information sources, so I decided to seek the knowledge in here.” Maybe the honesty will get me more accepted in the Utopea? I’m so terrible with human interactions it’s not even funny, at this point I’m just trying to see what works with these people.
“Hmm, this is out of my power in the Utopea, you’ll have to speak with L-”
“Me?” Suddenly I felt somebody’s presence behind me, chuckling. “Hello, Mr. Baron, we meet again, but in a different territory. Tell me, how can I help you?” I turned around to see lady Devan. She made a few hand gestures to the shadow-walkers, so they fall back into the shadows. They bowed down and returned, looking kind of sad that there was no action.
“Lady Devan, I need Utopea’s knowledge about the Imperators, and the village Riekyira.”
“Riekyira? That’s the protected village of the Water Imperator, I’ve heard it has some trouble of its own nowadays. What business do you have there?” Raksha seemed genuinely interested in this, she had a very serious look, as if she were calculating every reason that could be there for me to go into the village.
“I’m looking for somebody in that village, and it’s connected to the Imperators somehow, I’m just not sure how. That’s why I’m in need of your information sources.”
“I see, let’s go to the Tower of Order, we’ll see what we can think of.” Raksha grabbed my shoulder and suddenly we teleported away. We were in some kind of large room with strange devices on the walls. These devices were hexagon shaped, emitting a blue light, and they had descriptions engraved in the metal next to them. I had no clue what these were, this was the first time in my life I’ve seen something like this. “This is the Cognitia – the Grand Library of Utopea if you will. Here we can find any book that we can think of, manifesting from the hexagon devices you can see all around us.”
“This is amazing! How do these work? Do they have some cool name?” I must’ve looked like a child getting its favourite toy under a christmas tree while asking this. I’ve been genuinely interested in this since it’s basically sci-fi if I compare it to the system of the Academy.
Raksha smiled “There’s a fragment of my power in every of these hexagons, that’s how they manifest these books. I find it more useful than keeping the books in shelves full of dust. You can reach into the hexagon which is attuned to the knowledge you’re looking for and just grab the book. Most of the time the book with the most details is manifested. Once you’re done reading, you can put the book back into the hexagon to demanifest it.” She reached into one of the hexagons and pulled some random book out of it ‘Usage of Dragon Scales in Alchemy’ then she put the book back into the hexagon and it disappeared. “When it comes to the name of these things, well… I’m not really good with names, they have none.”
I smiled at Raksha “We can’t have it all now, can we?”
“I guess so, yes. So, you’re looking for some knowledge about the Imperators, let me see.” Raksha started levitating, making her way to one of the higher hexagons, putting her hand into it and pulling out a large book. She came down and gave the book to me, when suddenly I saw Melody teleporting into Cognitia.
“Raksha!” She was breathing heavily, barely standing on her feet, holding onto her gigantic axe. “The Obscura, they…” Raksha looked shocked, and worried sick about Melody.
“Breathe my dear,” she said, manifesting stars around us, healing Melody, and lessening her pain. This magic was like nothing I’ve ever seen before “breathe…”
“Thank you,” she said, finally catching her breath “the Obscura, they breached the barrier around Subject 11, I couldn’t stop them.”
“Damn it! Why subject 11 though? It’s a lesser entity, unless?” Raksha seemed to be deep in her thoughts. “No matter, I’m taking the shadow-walkers and herbalists, please take your gladiators and meet us there.”
“Wait!” I stopped them from teleporting away without me. “I want to help! You provided me with the knowledge I need, I can pay you back this way!”
“Very well, Hikaru. Melody, meet us near the contamination area, we’ll put an end to this.” Raksha touched my shoulder and suddenly we were near some strange cave. I didn’t know the area, so I just assumed we were far away, where the Academy couldn’t reach with their troops. After our arrival, the shadow-walkers and herbalists were notified by Raksha and soon they teleported close to us. “Shadow-walkers, activate your anti-Obscura pendants, we can’t risk losing you. Herbalists, get ready to heal our wounds, we’re in a forest so you should have plenty of natural energy – if not, just yell at me, The Harbinger provides.” The shadow-walkers activated their pendants, by a simple touch and disappeared into the shadows. The herbalists enchanted their herb pouches and got ready to immediately react, standing behind me and Raksha. Not long after Melody came with a few of her gladiators, she wore an extremely heavy looking piece of armour, her axe that I’ve already seen in Cognitia and a shield. Her arsenal looked extremely old, but also powerful. I can't help but ponder if these are some relics of the past.
…
“Caves first, surrounding area second!” Shouted Raksha, and we started moving forward, being very cautious. As soon as we stepped into the cave I casted out a light ball for us to see. Moving through the cave we encountered some spawns of Obscura – void elves, shadow goblins, or just simple void spawns. The Utopea squad made quick work of them though and we moved quickly to the heart of the caves.
As soon as we stepped into the heart, a terrible shriek was heard. “It’s eleven! Behind me!” Shouted Melody and put her shield forward, her gladiators covering the spots she couldn’t.
“Careful, there’s not only Eleven, I also feel a Herald close by.” I’ve never met a Herald of Obscura, but according to the Academy’s teachings, they are strong and cannot be engaged without a strategy.
“Smart Raksha, smart.” I heard a distorted feminine voice as shadow arrows started flying towards us. I weaved a barrier around, but couldn’t hold out for long because of the lack of light. “Amardeep’s lackey? What do you want to accomplish in this dark corner without the light?”
“She’s right, I’m useless here. I’m sorry.” I said, being disappointed by myself.
“Not on my watch you aren’t.” Said Raksha. Her eyes started to glow, and stars manifested around her. “Harbinger provides!” She shouted as a light source bursted out from the stars, lighting the whole cave, allowing me to use my powers extensively. I immediately weaved a barrier around us all and jumped into the fray. The light revealed the Subject and the Herald of Obscura. The entity looked like a large dog, who spent a little too much time in the void, with various appendages growing out of its body. The Herald was a tall white-haired woman, she looked like a pale grey-ish elf, but I could be wrong, since the void alters the body in many ways. I weaved spears of light and threw them at Eleven. It howled and shadow tentacles started rising out of the walls of the cave.
“You’ll pay for hurting my pet!” Yelled the Herald and took out her bow, unleashing rain of arrows on the whole group in the centre of the cave. My barrier of light barely held out the attack, and I started to feel the toll of the extensive usage of my powers, I felt heavy and weak. The healers noticed and started chanting while a lush green light filled the cave with various herbs swirling around me to support me.
“We need to move!” Shouted Melody as she jumped up onto the rocky platform to me, helping me with the entity while the group tried to repel the might of Herald. Her Axe severed a few of the appendages on the monster, making it back off deeper into the cave. The group of shadow-walkers jumped to the sides, attacking voidspawns threatening us, and some of them engaged the Herald head on.
It seemed as if us hurting the entity stirred something within the Herald: “N-no! You monsters! You’ll regret crossing the path of Sylvarra, you can count on it!” The Herald shrieked as she turned into a cloud of black energy and rushed out of the cave, knocking down the whole group. The shadow-walkers covering our backs tried to stop her, but she overwhelmed them and took one of the group out of the cave. We rushed to his rescue, but when we caught up to the two, we were too late. Sylvarra drained him of his life energy, and tore his body apart in front of us, letting his blood rain down and cover the ground, laughing maniacally. I weaved light shackles and tried to capture her, but my body couldn’t handle the energy I'd already used up in the fight, and I collapsed on the ground, shattering the shackles. “Pathetic!” Sylvarra was moving closer to us, however Melody charged head on into her, knocking her down. She immediately got up from the ground in her cloud form and tried to make her leave. Raksha teleported in front of her, grabbing her under the throat.
“I don’t think so.” She squeezed her neck, choking her with Harbinger’s energy and raising her up from the ground. I could see the magic pouring out of Raksha’s hand. Sylvarra kicked her into the belly, dark energy bashing her heavily. Raksha stumbled, and the Herald was no longer amongst us. “Damn it!” Cursed Raksha, and fell on the ground, blood coming out of her mouth. Healers rushed to her and started the healing process. Melody commanded the shadow-walkers to seal back the contamination area since Raksha was unable to do so. After they sealed the cave and the surrounding area, she casted out teleportation magic and transported us back to the Utopea.
“Hikaru right?” She looked me up and down. “Thank you for your help, you have your access to the Cognitia, I’ll take Raksha to the healing ward, she’ll be fine. Take your time studying while you also recover. Our healers will check up on you.” I nodded and made my way to the Utopea’s library, where I spent the next few days.
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