Ch154-Dark Horizon

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Ch154-Dark Horizon

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Sylver looked down at his hands and wasn’t the least bit surprised to see they were both still wildly shaking.

The grimoires were safely hidden away inside Sylver’s robe, and he made a conscious decision to ignore and forget about them for the time being.

Because if he did allow himself to focus on the fact that his master’s grimoires had been dangled in front of him, like fucking bait on a fishhook, he was so furious he couldn’t think straight.

In a certain sense, nothing had changed.

He still needed to destroy the book, he needed to save Chrys, and he needed to find a way home.

The presence of these grimoires didn’t mean that Sylver was going to drop everything else and focus solely on them. 

On a rational level, he knew all of this. 

But it was like watching a feral animal pacing around the inside of its cage while being the animal and the watcher simultaneously. The observer was well aware that releasing this beast would mean senseless carnage, and would be of no benefit to anyone, even the beast itself.

But the snarling foaming at the mouth animal didn’t care about any of that, it didn’t have the capacity to think 2 steps ahead, it was angry, and that was all it was, and that was all it could, and would, do.

Sylver drummed his fingers against the wooden box as he held his metaphorical hand over the lock keeping the cage closed and the mindless animal confined.

He knew where Poppy and Lily lived.

Just run in, no plan, no consideration or care for the future, and do what meager damage he can while burning himself to a crisp in the process of using 2nd tier magic.

Despite the suicidal nature of the thought, there was something appealing about the idea.

Sadly, Sylver wasn’t actually insane. He didn’t have that luxury.

Revenge wasn’t on the table.

Edmund came first.

Above everything else, Sylver had to save him. 

If someone from the Ibis really had come here, and for some reason pretended to be Nyx, it didn’t mean it was Sylver’s responsibility to save or help them in any way.

There was the possibility that it was all a ruse by Poppy or Rose, but Sylver didn’t get the feeling they’d ever admit it, even if that were the case. And he was equally certain he wouldn’t be able to force them to admit it either. 

The box opened because Sylver’s ring touched it…

And Sylver did get the ring from Rose.

Sylver stopped trying to crush the box with his hand and mentally took another step away from the situation.

Sylver was in a different realm, and his objective was to destroy a book titled “The Story Of The Seven Suns”. That hadn’t changed, that was still the “deal” he and Rose had.

Sylver needed to find a way to return home. [Xander’s Waystone] was the current plan, but Sylver had alternatives if that didn’t work.

Sylver had promised to either save or kill Chrys, that was his tertiary goal.

The presence of Nyx’s 21 grimoires didn’t change anything.

Sylver looked down at the tabletop and saw that his fingers had punched through the wooden board, and he gently pulled them out and used magic to force the splintered wood back into place.

Is this my life now?

Losing my mind every time someone presents me with something from mine or the Ibis’ past?

Give the lich a piece of rubble from his destroyed home, and buy a favor from him? Like some sort of dog begging for a treat?

Sylver could feel Ria preparing to say something, but Spring persuaded her against it.

A part of Sylver felt downright pathetic because of the situation. That he had to suppress a part of himself because it was the “smart” thing to do.

Even if it was genuinely the smart thing to do, it didn’t mean Sylver was happy about it.

It all boiled down to a simple question.

Do I need the help of the dark elves to get the book and save Chrys?

If I destroy the book, I can…

Steal a Dandy-Lyon, have Ria pilot it and fly away somewhere, and hide in a dungeon while I prepare a way to get back to Eira.

If I have Chrys with me, I’ll need to find a way to make a gate that she would survive passing through. Difficult, but not impossible…

I could probably trade one of the grimoires for help from a demon… Assuming I can summon one…

Alternatively, the dark elves have those underwater boats, I would have all the time in the world to test and tinker with a gate. It wouldn’t need to be perfect, just good enough for her to still be alive enough for me to heal when we got to the other side.

I really should have asked Zelvash a few more questions before leaving, but I barely had enough patience to get home, I probably would have ripped his head off in anger if I stayed.

Helping the dark elves wouldn’t be that difficult. Zelvash clearly knew about the fact that an Eldar tree required a sacrifice to become “alive”, it wasn’t a coincidence that he had less HP and MP than Sylver did, despite having over 200 more levels than him.

It would take a couple of days, but assuming they had all the components ready, Sylver wouldn’t even need a full week to do it.

Not to mention, he doubted they would object if he used the Eldar tree to give himself the body of a high elf. Sylver could even just lie to them about it and could say that it was a necessary part of the ritual. 

A mage didn’t need to be powerful to perform it, it was a relatively speaking simple ritual to conduct. Which meant that either they didn’t have everything they needed to do it, or more likely, they didn’t know the specifics.

If they don’t have all the components… Sylver could start the process, and then show them how to maintain the spell. It would take them a couple of years, but once it was started, the maintenance was dead simple.

If they don’t know how to perform the spell, but had all the components, Sylver could either do the whole thing himself, or he could just show them what to do.

This is pointless, I need to meet with Zelvash again to get the specifics from him.

Sylver stood up from the stool and looked around his kitchen for a while. Just about every visible surface was covered by what appeared to be some sort of soot substance that quickly slid off the walls and ceiling and slithered it's way back into Sylver’s robe.

Sylver smiled to himself slightly as he realized that the only 2 people who knew about what had happened, either understood well enough not to comment on it or didn’t know just how shameful it was for a mage to lose his composure in such a way. If Nyx had seen him leak out mana in such a way, he never would have heard the end of it.

“I’m fine now, what did you want to say?” Sylver asked Ria and did his best to put his head back into a positive and productive space.

“Why did your heart rate double when you heard the words “a man like no other?” I tried to ask Spring, but he said it’s better to ask you,” Ria explained, as Sylver adjusted his robe, and stretched his legs while he walked towards the bathroom to clean his face up.

“It uh… It doesn’t work in Elvish or English, it’s a play on words sort of. “A man like no other” can be kind of translated as “not a man.” Undead are a separate race from humans, so technically speaking, I am not a man,” Sylver tapped out, and did his best to think of how to explain something that required knowing 2 other languages to understand properly.

It also didn’t help that he never had to think about it before, it was just an inside joke between Nyx and Sylver. The dialect Zelvash used was the reason Sylver instantly made the connection.

“I see… I would like it if you agreed to the deal you almost made with that man,” Ria said, with less hesitation than she herself was expecting. She continued before Sylver had a chance to respond.

“If you help them, they’ll give you a safe place to stay once you’ve freed Chrys. They clearly respect you, and unlike the Garden they seem to know something about why this planet is the way it is. You shouldn’t throw all of that away, just because they somehow insulted you,” Ria explained carefully, and with more confidence the longer she spoke.

Sylver’s next words felt like he had splashed her in the face with cold water, and at the same time slapped her.

“One of those jars had Doctor Abel’s ashes, didn’t it?” Sylver asked, and felt Ria tighten around his arm, even as he felt Spring react in a similar manner.

“Yes,” Ria answered.

“Imagine if someone came up to you, and handed you his jar and ashes. And then had the gall to ask you for help, while the ice-cold jar is still in your hands,” Sylver explained and was surprised that Ria spoke as calmly as she did.

“It’s still a good idea to help them,” Ria countered gently.

“I never said it wasn’t. Just because I’m furious doesn’t mean it’s a bad deal,” Sylver said.

“So you’ll-”

“I’m going to wait until I’ve fully calmed down before coming to any kind of decision. I am not used to being like this, and I will not be pressured into doing anything while I’m vulnerable,” Sylver interrupted, as he turned the tap and started to wash his face to make it a little less red.

“I wasn’t trying to pressure you. I’m sorry,” Ria said, and Sylver rolled his eyes behind his eyelids, while he continued to wash away the sleep, or lack of sleep, in this case.

“Don’t apologize, you did everything right. You made a request, you were specific in what you wanted, and backed it up with a solid argument. But as I said, I am far too livid to make a proper decision right at this moment, so I am going to wait until I at least can think clearly. I don’t… I do trust you, but I can’t trust your decision-making skills yet,” Sylver argued, as he wiped his face off, and with a slightly glowing hand, burned away all the wisps of hair that attempted to grow out from the skin of his chin.

“What do you mean?” Ria asked.

Sylver checked to make sure he hadn’t missed a spot in the mirror and then did the same for his bald scalp. It was a little chilly at the top of his head, but at the same time, kind of nice to not have any hair.

“There have been times where I put my trust in other people and accepted whatever decision they made. I did this because I either didn’t trust myself to make the correct decision, or I believed that they knew better than me. Now, I know better than you,” Sylver said and was relieved that Ria just nodded along and didn’t take it the wrong way.

“It’s also possible that you’re doing this because you feel sorry for them, and finding a rationalization afterward, so I can’t trust that you haven’t found some kind of downside and decided not to tell me to make your argument stronger,” Sylver continued.

This got a reaction out of Ria, more than the previous reason had.

“I wouldn’t do that to you!” Ria almost screamed into Sylver’s ear.

“I didn’t think you did, it's why I used the words “it’s possible.” It’s much more likely you aren’t even aware of the fact that your decision to save them came before your reasoning for saving them. But that isn’t good enough, you have to think with your head first, and your heart second,” Sylver explained.

“Like how you’re doing now?” Ria asked with a tone in her voice that Sylver didn’t appreciate, but chose to not address.

“Yes. If I went with my heart, I would be… doing something stupid. Instead, I’m doing the responsible thing and thinking everything over before coming to a decision. This is a setup, but how much of it is? How long have they been planning this? Are they alone, or are-”

“You don’t know it’s a setup. If they wanted your help, they would have just asked,” Ria interrupted, and Sylver suppressed a sigh.

“Do you remember how you said that the explosion that brought down our Lyon should have vaporized us? Are you sure your calculations were off or is it possible someone stopped the Lyon from getting vaporized? Or that they set off the explosion differently than how you prepared it, and simply timed it so it looked as if you were the one who set it off?” Sylver asked, mostly rhetorically, given that the system had confirmed that he was responsible for the deaths of multiple monsters.

But it had the intended effect, as Ria just quietly thought about it, and didn’t say anything.

In the meantime, Sylver prepared himself breakfast and did some of his own thinking.

Emotions aside, the dark elves were clearly the better choice. Aside from the fact that Sylver didn’t like the feeling he got when he considered working with the “high-elves” there was also the fact that someone from the Ibis was at least partially involved.

Unless this was simply Poppy or Rose playing him like a fiddle.

Other than the fact that it would hurt his pride to just go along with their plans, like some sort of braindead moron, what alternative did he have?

He was already doing everything that Rose wanted, what difference did it make if he did what Poppy wanted while he was at it?

The question was “does working with the dark elves help or hinder saving Edmund?”

It simplified things to a much more manageable level.

And made it easier to decide.

Without the dark elves, Sylver would have to fight his way through guards, and presumably a ton of metal golems, including those magic interfering drones, and then he would be stranded outside on the ice, with no real direction to go to.

With the dark elves, Sylver would have help, non-magical help, not to mention help that knew how to deal with everything the Garden had, and then he would at the very least have space in one of their underwater boats.

The main downside to working with them was that Sylver hated the thought of Rose holding so much power over him.

But that was his pride getting in the way.

Sylver made himself some tea and just stared out of his window.

He hadn’t checked which grimoires exactly he now owned, and had to wait until it was night before he could look.

Sylver was calm enough, relatively calm, by the time he finished his fifth cup of tea.

*

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Sylver held the sealed envelope in his hand and almost couldn’t believe it.

“There’s a 93.8% chance you’ll find it there. With the second location included, the probability sits at a very comfortable 97.9%,” Kass explained, as Sylver kept looking at the envelope, and found that there was some sort of magic embedded into the paper that made it difficult to see the contents using mana.

“So there’s a 2.1% chance it isn’t there?” Sylver asked as he stored the envelope away within the folds of his robe.

“I don’t think you understand just how great 97.9% is. That’s getting heads on a coin 4 times in a row- oh shit,” Kass said, and nearly fell over his chair as he realized his mistake.

Sylver stared at the small man, who up until this moment had been grinning like an idiot.

“Tell me how you see the future,” Sylver asked, as he sat down and gestured for the clairvoyant to do the same. Kass locked his fingers together and did his best to keep his tone friendly as he maintained eye contact with Sylver.

“That’s not something I can-” 

“Please. Tell me how you see the future,” Sylver repeated with an as polite and friendly smile as his current state of mind could afford him.

For his part, Kass gave himself a couple of seconds to think through his options. Even with Sylver stopping him from peeking into the future, there was little doubt in his mind as to what was going on right now.

“Imagine, if you will, a giant staircase. With each step being so tall, that you can’t climb to the next step,” Kass explained, as Sylver nodded along.

“Each step represents a full day. Well, 19 and a bit hours, but basically a day. Now, I can’t go up the stairs, but the me of tomorrow can give me something down the stairs,” Kass explained, with a fair amount of hand gesturing.

“Alright,” Sylver said.

“The more hands the notes have to pass through, the less readable they become. The ink gets smudged or something. The farther in the future I look, the less accurate it becomes,” Kass continued, as Sylver nodded along. 

“Sure,” Sylver said.

“But because there are other clairvoyants around, I have to simultaneously hide my clairvoyancy, while making it as accurate as possible. To put it simply, I have a friendly clairvoyant, ask the me in his prediction, what my prediction is. I have a number system to simplify things, but anyway, after I’m told the predictions the other clairvoyant saw in his prediction, I use that to narrow down where to search,” Kass explained.

“What?”

“Basically I used a different clairvoyant to figure out if the thing is in the Flower area, Leaf area, and so on, and then checked which segment, in the south, north, east or west. Do you remember that device I had you place within a fuse box?” Kass asked. 

“I do,” Sylver answered, with both brows still furrowed.

“As I said back then, it trips an alarm, nothing more, nothing less. But what that does is force every single clairvoyant working for the Garden to focus on finding whatever tripped the aforementioned alarm. During this chaos, a team of mine went and searched, one by one, every house and facility within the area I got from my friend’s predictions,” Kass explained.

“Why is it a percentage if you know where it is?” Sylver asked.

“Because I’m looking ahead almost a year from now. Because that’s how long it takes my team to gain entry into the place to search it. Listen… If I keep explaining, and you manage to guess where it is, you’ll set off every single clairvoyant working for the Garden, and they will double and triple down on security. It’s a percentage because of the smudging, even if there’s only 1 location, there’s a limit to how certain I can be,” Kass explained.

“I see…”

So much for breaking into someone’s house and stealing it from their discarded pile of books.

“If you want a better percentage, I would need roughly 2 more months. But 97.9% is almost my personal best, unless something exceptionally drastic occurs between now and you opening the envelope, it will almost certainly be there,” Kass explained, as he did his best to bring the conversation back into a warm and cheerful tone. 

Sylver reached into his robe and pulled out the envelope and looked at it again.

It was a little vague, and as stupid sounding as all clairvoyants tended to sound.

About 99.99% of all clairvoyants essentially took an extremely educated guess at what will occur in the future. Which was a good thing, because the few clairvoyants that could truly peak into the future, all without fail went insane, and either killed themselves or died very shortly after using their magic.

Sylver had seen it happen exactly once in his life. It felt like someone slashed a hole in the world’s primal energy field and then shoved their hand into the gaping wound. By the time Sylver managed to get to the source of the disturbance, the child had already torn through her chest and ripped up her heart with a blunt metal ruler.

What made it all the weirder was that Sylver couldn’t find her soul, no matter how hard he looked for it. He nearly killed the other apprentices when he pushed too hard while searching, and only stopped when the arch-clairvoyant snapped him out of it.

Sylver spent a literal decade looking for clues in the girl’s corpse, but couldn’t find anything out of place, even with Nyx and Noire helping him.

Nyx had described a very similar feeling when she’d witnessed a similar thing happen. Once inside the Ibis, before she had taken Sylver in as an apprentice, and once more when she was staying at a nobleman’s home and their son saw the future in his sleep.

Both times the children were dead before anyone had reached them.

Sylver stood up from his seat, and Kass all but jumped out of his. Sylver put the envelope back into his pocket and reached out a hand towards the man.

“Thank you for the hard work,” Sylver said, as Kass waited for a moment, and then reached out to shake his hand.

“Thank you for the help. I’ll let you know when we’re done with Lady Demor, and when your money will be ready,” Kass said.

Sylver almost asked what he meant about the money, when he remembered that he had given Kass and his employer a small loan of 22 million cuts.

Sylver started to leave and stopped as he had one foot out of the door.

He turned around and looked at the nervous clairvoyant, and was about to say something, but the slight movement from Ria on his arm reminded him he wasn’t completely alone.

Sylver decided against saying something that he would have to spend time explaining, and simply nodded at Kass and left.

*

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The last person Sylver wanted to see and talk to was Grant.

He had expected to be directed to a cemetery, but instead, he found the mustached man sitting around with a group of men that Spring recognized as all being part of the Deadmen.

It turned out that Grant had formed something of a gang himself, except unlike Chen, he was a lot smarter and much more ruthless. No one said it out loud, but that was the feeling Sylver got from all of the terrified formerly one-eyed men.

The way they practically tripped over themselves when Grant asked them to get Sylver a chair, all but confirmed it.

Sylver didn’t need to ask what brought about Grant’s change of heart, because his missing left eye, missing left arm, and missing left leg told him all he needed to know.

As did the metallic arm and leg that had replaced it, that crackled with power even while Grant used it to drink tea.

Sylver stayed around for a few hours while he waited for it to turn dark and actually felt a whole lot better about everything as he left Grant’s house.

He wasn’t happy it took something incredibly violent to change Grant’s outlook on life, but Sylver would be lying to himself if he said he didn’t like the result.

In the dark of the night, Sylver used [Fog Form] and found a good spot near one of the walls. He checked 10 times that there weren’t any cameras watching him, had Ria wrap herself around the bracelet on his hand, and then cast as much interference as he could manage.

The grimoires were indeed Nyx’s. And apart from some low-level 8th tier necromancy that Sylver already knew, and had improved centuries ago, there were 4 grimoires of interest.

The first, III, involved a spell that was supposedly capable of forcing an Eldar tree to perform an Eldar rite on someone who wasn’t an elf. Nyx mentioned that some of the corpses she tried the spell on, developed very strange tumors. She ended the grimoire with notes that the spell was a failure, and would require a word that had been scratched out to function properly. 

The second, VII, had a framework that looked identical to the one Sylver saw when Yeva was pregnant and was kidnapped and nearly sacrificed by Poppy. 

Except it had nothing to do with demons or [Hero]s, Nyx had found a grimoire in an undisclosed location, and this grimoire was her attempt at deciphering it. Her last note read that she would ask someone called Theo Leona, but there was nothing after that, just blank pages.

The third, XX, was extremely fortunate and involved creating gates to travel to other realms, as well as spells to make the journey as safe and stable as possible.

And the last, XXI, involved creating and binding a death lord.

This grimoire was particularly interesting because one of Nyx’s notes mentioned that she couldn’t figure out a way to stop it from constantly absorbing and condensing negative energy.

She described it as an ever-growing cloud of darkness.

Sylver very quietly closed the book shut, put it back into the wooden chest, shrunk it, and then went to meet with the dark elves.

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