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Chapter 127- A bunch of weak people.

Mana churned around her. Althea looked at the forest before her and found herself wondering where she had landed. There was a difference in mana itself, a…aggressiveness that did not belong.

Where the First Empire did not extend. The First Empire extended on every continent, except…the Southern Continent. So she was still in the right part of the world. The only question was, where in the continent she was.

The Southern Continent extended from where Rome was on Earth, down to ...

Chapter 126- What's terrifying?

Althea looked at the tree, trying to get a feel of whether she should trust the tree. What it was saying was worrying, but only if it was true.

"I can hear it as long as I am touching it." she mentioned, looking at the tree. Oh, she hadn't done that for a while. Not since that horse so long ago. But she could. There was no visible reaction from the tree, but she wasn't exactly an expert on tree body language.

"Is that so?" the tree continued looking at her. "Just touching is it?"<...

Chapter 125

Althea found herself on a beach full of sand. A beach having sand went without saying, but it was important to mention when said sand was in her hair. And eyes. And inside her dress. There didn't seem to be any part of her body that the sand hadn't entered.

Standing up wobbly, she looked around as she shook the sand out of her. Mana was spinning around her, the world spinning as she tried to right herself. And then she promptly fell down. As much as she tried, she had difficulty keeping...

Chapter 124

In a dark room, the same one as before, a creature of light and darkness was fuming.

"What do you mean the Countess has disappeared? This is an immature Druid we are speaking of. This planet literally tells you where they are. How do you lose someone like that?" the Master scoffed.

The young human kneeling before him shivered visibly, his breath fogging as he responded. "There was interference, Master. A Beast Emperor swallowed her whole, even her own kind could not save ...

Chapter 122

Fire was a funny thing. So very destructive, but also strangely hard to peg down. Thankfully for her, she was its friend. And she knew it wanted to burn. To live. There was no way fire would be able to resist a place where it would be able to burn for a long time.

Like that forest Feng had talked about. That was what had given her that idea. Fire made it hard for people to see.

The mana turned into fire mana under her will, transforming slowly as air and fire mixed to evolve into ...

Chapter 122- Althea op?

A vase.

A bloody vase.

That was what was on the pedestal. Althea had to say, she had expected something more...weapon-like. Or perhaps a rare herb. Or beast. But no, a vase. Well, maybe it was valuable. An old artifact, perhaps?

"Don't be surprised by its simple appearance." the Golden Turtle floated down. "This vase contains enough mana to allow a Master," the Golden Turtle paused, probably for the drama, and then continued. "to become a Grandmaster!"

A clap enunciate...

Chapter 121

Althea stared at Feng, smiling slightly as she began. . "A pleasure to meet you, sir..."

Feng simply looked at her, staring at her with a gaze that made her feel uncomfortable. The gaze was filled with scorn and disappointment.

"Feng." he said. Not telling her who he was, huh.

"A pleasure to meet you, Sir Feng. I am Althea Diery, of the-"

"Feng, not sir Feng." the boy growled. "This is the Southern Continent, Althea. There is no nobility here."

"Of cours...

something, something

Dear Readers,

As you've probably noticed by now, the chapter is missing again today. A part of its a spiral delay from before in the week, but really it's just me not wanting to write. The last chapter felt unsatisfactory to me, and even though I tried, I just couldn't figure out how to get the next few chapters there in the emotional spectrum without it seeming forced.

I tried to read sad books and stuff to get there, and even succeeded in getting myself in a melancholy mood (L...

Chapter 120

Althea adjusted her posture, making sure her hair looked fine, as she conjured a little water to check her reflection. The Golden Turtle’s ship made an utterly unnatural stop just a few meters from her ship's edge, almost making her jump in fright. Had it gone on for one second more, it would have torn the fleet in two.

The Golden Turtle just looked sturdier than Althea’s very expensive and advanced ships. The single ship was radiating more mana than her entire fleet. Not to mentio...

Chapter 119

Althea

Althea sat in her bed, staring at the mirror. Mana revolved around her as she narrowed her eyes, trying to focus on her reflection and find something out.

This was her third attempt. The first had been just generally sensing into her body, trying to find some particular way mana moved. That was a success, somewhat. Mana moved through in a particular way every time she tried to cultivate.

The only problem was, this was the only way she could detect mana moving. If meri...

Chapter 118

Nathan

The question, or rather, the idea of devouring the Senesor duchy stumped him.

"That would be cruel." the Princess said. "The Senesor duchy did not devour us when we were weak."

The Minister raised an eyebrow. "What makes you think that? That's exactly what they did. The county became independent less than a year ago. The Senesor duchy jumped at the chance to betray us when they had the chance, seven hundred years ago."

"Betray?" Nathan asked. That was news to hi...

There will be a delay

Well, someone cut the fibre optic near my house and that means the net is dead. Mobile data was dead to begin with. I had to walk to the rode just to send this post out. There shall this be a delay. I will try to release two chapters together to compensate.

On the other hand, my mom has a dvd of Titanic for some reason. And I am gonna be watching that movie for the first time.

Chapter 117

Althea

The voyage was boring.

This was what she had concluded days ago, and had continued to conclude every day since. The voyage had also just begun. The journey from the Northern to Southern continent would take six months. Althea had been on the ship for less than a week. And she was already bored out of her mind.

For once, she missed the paperwork. Missed paperwork. There was something she didn't think she would ever do. But here she was. Missing paperwork because she li...

Chapter 116 related poll.

Imagine you are in Nathan's place at the end of Chapter 116. Will you

Chapter 116

"Are you done?" the Princess asked, her voice dripping with disdain.

Nathan groaned even as he tried to think over the information Pulsie had told him.

The Minister of Defense looked disgruntled at the Princess' disdain, but thankfully didn't provoke her. Perhaps he had some self-preservation after all.

"I find it confounding how you can be so foolish and still have a seat in this council." the Princess continued. Nathan had wasted his groan before, this was the time to groa...

Chapter 115

Nathan

The council room nowadays had far more people than it did when the Countess first took her throne. And it seemed determined to keep expanding. The Princess, the Adept from Senesor, the Village Headman, and the full gaggle of ministers were waiting for him as he stepped into the room.

A smile stretched across his face, so fake that he couldn't even fool himself.

"Are we ready to begin?" he asked.

"Of course, sir." the Village Headman said, the smile on his face s...

Chapter 114

Nathan really, really wanted to let Pulsie know his opinion on that bloody plant hiding information.  But his head was...making it a little...bit...difficult.

sc

Nathan woke up with a jolt. For a second, he thought he was being attacked. But no, it was just a maid sprinkling water on his face.

"I beg our forgiveness, sir." he looked up to see Mira, with a sly smile on her face looking down at him, "I fear that you have rather urgent business to take care of."

Nath...

Chapter 113

What happened after that, he did not know. The world shook for a second, and he lost consciousness. The next thing he knew, he was on his back, outside the seed bank. The box of Silverbirch seeds was beside him.

Nathan looked at the box, realizing that he would have to put that back. Oh, no. No, no, no. The seed nearly took him over the first time he went there. There was no way he was going back. The seeds would have to make do with having to grow. There were plenty of other boxes in t...

Chapter 112

The colors attracted him. Blazing like a second sun, the vibrant green of the plane attracted his hands despite himself. This was not wise. The seeds had remained for centuries, perhaps millennia, and they had been kept hidden for good reason. But it was difficult.

The lost art of alchemy. Magic that predated the Grandmaster Council itself. The secrets of a thousand lost species. What was hidden here, in this oh-so-ancient trove of Druids, blinded him with greed. There was the little is...

Chapter 111

Nathan

The seed vault was dark. So dark that even his Fae vision could not see within, and he needed just the bare minimum of light to see. Magic ran through the walls, humming with a frequency that he could feel within his bones. There was no need to even sense it, there was enough magic here to blind his mana senses.

Nathan was sure that if he did try to sense anything here, he would only sense mana. Like looking at the ocean, you could tell there was water, but not where the se...

Chapter 110

Two Adepts arguing was a disaster, a literal disaster, waiting to happen. Two Adepts arguing while a crowd watched, in the middle of a ten thousand-year-old mansion, perhaps the oldest known heritage of humanity? Nathan had no words for how bad it was.

Oh, the crowd had no idea it was even bad. And it was true, to a point. The two were just arguing. Mana hadn't even been called upon. But there was something they did not know about Adepts. An Adept did not need surrounding mana. Oh, they...

Chapter 109

A ballroom could be magical. The attendees could be powerful.  But a ball was still a ball. And Althea had attended far too many of those to be impressed by them anymore. Oh, it was grand enough. But food was still food, dances were still terribly stiff things with painful small talk, and she was still unwelcome.

Althea sat on a sofa, sipping some overly sweet drink she did not recognize. Why did people add so much sugar to begin with? The other nobles ignored her, watching her out...

Chapter 108

Althea stuck a smile on as she started walking forward. The ballroom was something she hadn't expected. The sheer crowd present, and the way they were separated around it.

Just about every major noble on the continent had arrived, making the crowd expected. That still did little to prepare her for it. At least she wasn't the sole attraction. No, this time she shared attention with a particular person she would have expected to be adversarial.

Duke Zerolain, the closest thing she h...

Chapter 107

Althea kept a smile on her face as maids rushed around her, trying to figure out which of the hundreds of kinds of lipstick would suit her best. How Mira had even got her hands on so many shades of purple, she wasn't sure. But she had. And now they were getting compared.

The guests coming to this party were powerful and esteemed. So esteemed that Althea could not protest this extravagance.

The usual farewell banquet barely had half the royal council. This banquet would have the ro...

Chapter 106

A foreign sensation spread across her body as she got up, muscles relaxing and contracting of their own accord. More than that, she was puzzled. The fact she had broken through was clear. The how, less so. The only thing she remembered from that time was her findings. The rest was...vague, hazy. As if someone had used an eraser on her memory.

Althea had a vague recollection of someone speaking into her mind, but she had no idea who they were. Or what they had said. For all she knew, it ...

Chapter 105- What?

“Empress Elara, are you telling me that this…enemy is from the time of the First Empire?” Sofret asked.

“Not at all. I am just saying that I used an artifact from the First Empire to counter the strange mana. And that Druid mana is a natural counter to this new enemy’s weapon.” Elara was still smiling. Nerusia was starting to frown. Sofret was already frowning.

“Cease your trickery, Elara. This is not the time or place for this-” Sofret began.

Then E...

Chapter 104- Empress Elara makes a move

The room was white. The eight chairs were white, surrounding a white round table that trembled at the power that surrounded it.

Eight half-step Grandmasters, the peak of humanity in the Northern Continent, sat around, ready to decide the future of the continent.

Nerusia looked at the representatives.

Empress Elara of the Elara Empire. The newest among their ranks, both as an Empire and a half-step Grandmaster.

Emperor Zun of the Zun Empire. The oldest here, perhaps the...

Chapter 103- Earth's comrade

"Vader the First is the Diery family's ancestor?" The Empress spluttered. "That-tha-"

"Is great?" Althea prompted.

"Oh, great? Yes, it's great, alright. I don't think you understand what it means-" A wave of mana interrupted her. The Empress grimaced.

“I must go, but we will talk about this. I don’t think you even begin to understand what this means. The First Empire might be gone, but its shadow is what we base our lives on.”

The Empress teleported away...