Chapter 77 77 Thunder Chasing

There were not even the signs of protest from the Sosis family regarding such an action. No calls for justice and no slogans or remonstrations to condemn Luther family's cruelty and heartless actions.

Zach knew that Frederick could be as cunning as a snake but even he had never anticipated that Frederick could hold back for so long without taking any action. He had a feeling that either Frederick had no feelings regarding his bastard son and thought of him as disposable in front of the prestige of the clan or there was something seriously disastrous brewing in the midst of this silence. Otherwise Frederick would have come knocking at their door at least once by now.

Bruce had a lot of experience in battles between families since he had gone through a period of intense war while his father was on his deathbed. But that experience was proving to be useless as he couldn't see through Frederick's intentions at all.

Usually Bruce was quite adept at understanding his opponents considering the fact that all he could do was strategizing due to his condition in the past. He had become quite proficient in predicting the actions of his enemies but Frederick seemed to be deviating from logic and reason the more he deliberated about it.

"Maybe his priorities changed once his heir became incapable of continuing the family bloodline. Raisman can't reproduce which means that it is entirely possible that Frederick deemed him useless and didn't want to risk the whole family over a eunuch."

Just when Bruce was approaching the limits of confusion and frustration, Zach told him something that both calmed him down and caused a chill to run down his spine at the same time.

"Don't relax. It's not over yet." Zach's voice left no room for daydreaming as he brought Bruce's attention to the purplish black clouds congregating over the Luther family mansion from far away.

The sun was veiled behind the thick dark canopy that enveloped the bright sky above the Luther family. The scene was nothing less than an apocalyptic scenario that was quite common in movies so Zach was wondering if this was the foreshadowing of the end.

Zach knew that it was some kind of magic that Frederick was responsible for. How he knew that was obviously the Mechanical Dragonflies that he had been using for espionage on the Sosis family.

He had seen Frederick operating some kind of matrix in his house that was hidden behind countless safety measures which was on the verge of being called paranoid.

As soon as Frederick activated the matrix, a sudden feeling of weakness overwhelmed him and the force behind its activation pushed outwards and destroyed some of the mechanical dragonflies that were in its path. Zach confirmed it by checking his dragonflies and found that he was receiving static in place of a few of them.

A booming sound roared across the now dark purple colored sky as flashes of lightning snakes could be found playing around in the sea of purple clouds. The thunder elevated the fear in the hearts of the Luther family guards especially Bruce who felt like the sky itself was about to come down on him.

His face was pale with the horror of the situation that even he hadn't anticipated. He could never have imagined that Frederick loved his son to such an extent.

"Seems like you know something about these clouds; what is it?" Zach asked as he found familiarity and recognition in Bruce's eyes instead of confusion.

"This is bad; catastrophically bad. It's Thunder Chasing." Bruce mumbled robotically upon being asked but his voice was drowned out by the sound of thunder booming across the sky.

"Thunder WHAT?" Zach asked loudly trying to overcome the deafening booms being produced by the lightning flashes that were increasing in intensity.

"Thunder Chasing; it's an S rank magic that solely belonged to the Sosis family. It is a forbidden magic that was left behind by the ancestors of the Sosis family to be used in times when the family was on the verge of destruction. Only the family head is able to activate this kind of magic. I never knew that his love for his son was so great." Bruce explained the kind of magic this Thunder Chasing was with a level of fear that caused his very soul to scream and his voice to quiver like a child suffering in the coldest weather.

"I couldn't care less about the name of the magic. Tell me what it does." Zach asked as he felt existential threat from the magic that was enveloping them. He needed to take precautions for self preservation before the magic was complete.

"Well, as the name suggests, the magic is said to produce countless thunder strikes that lock onto a target specified by the caster and strike it precisely no matter how much obstacles lie in between. It's like a thunder with a soul of its own that seeks only destruction of the target and brings the wrath of the caster onto his enemies. The purple black clouds that are assembling over our house can only mean that the whole estate has been designated as the target by Frederick." Bruce spoke of the horrors that the magic was capable of leaving in its wake.

"I don't understand something. It's an S rank magic so how can Frederick cast it when he isn't even an A rank mage?" Zach was incredulous as he believed in rules and logic. And logically speaking a B rank mage was not capable of producing this much power.

"Of course you are right logically. But there are times when the strength of a mage can surpass the usual standard and achieve incredulous results. First is with the help of supporting artifacts that make the casting requirements a little easier but the mana used in this case still belongs to the caster. Therefore there is a limitation to which a mage can go beyond the limits of his strength. The second is with the help of a magic scroll of the similar rank which is as you know a consumable item. This can produce a huge amount of power since the magic doesn't come from the caster but the scroll itself and there is no risk to the caster usually. The third and the most dangerous of the kind is when a mage decides to sacrifice his own strength and potential to gain a momentary increase in mana and achieves a false magic rank that surpasses his own. In case of Frederick, he used both the first and the third method to achieve the strength to cast an S rank magic of this caliber." This was the moment that Zach found Bruce's exceptional instructional talent. He was quite chatty when he explained something despite the fact that he was shivering in fear just a moment earlier.

"Then that means Frederick is going to suffer some kind of backlash after casting this magic?" Zach spoke in a questioning tone as if he wasn't sure of what he was saying.

Bruce nodded energetically as he began to calm down slightly when he saw how frighteningly calm Zach was and felt that Zach might be able to help them as well.

"He is using the items left behind by the ancestors to forcefully increase his own mana capacity which will overload his body and damage it from the inside. Human body is designed to improve the mana capacity gradually by putting light strains on the body during excessive mana consumption but the use of those artifacts puts all that combined strain needed to stretch the mana capacity in one go; thereby damaging the body and the future potential of the caster excessively. Think of it this way. If Frederick was previously a B rank mage, he will be downgraded to C rank or lower based on the degree of damage to his body. Moreover, he will never be able to get back to his original rank again due to his damaged body. And even if his body heals in the future, his broken mana channels will never return to their original state. In a severe enough condition, his body will leak mana endlessly like a flagon with holes at the bottom and he will end up a cripple."

Zach nodded as he smiled at the silver lining in the dark clouds. At least they wouldn't have to worry about the Sosis family if they managed to survive this disaster somehow. After all, Frederick had prepared for the destruction of his family with his own hands.

The hyenas waiting to profit from the war between the Luther family and the Sosis family would not fail to profit from the weakened Sosis family. Their demise became a fact the moment Frederick decided to sacrifice his own strength in order to get rid of the Luther family.

While Zach's head was spinning at its fastest speed to think of a possible solution to the predicament, everyone else was thinking along the same lines albeit a bit differently.

For example, Luna was someone who wouldn't give a damn even if the world was about to end the next moment. The reason was that there was no one else who was more important to her than her master and her beloved Zach. She couldn't care less about the fate of the world if she could somehow save Zach from suffering any kind of harm. Of course her own life also didn't hold any value in front of Zach's. She was absolutely willing to sacrifice herself if it meant that Zach could survive the incoming attack.