"Maybe I should let you sleep for a while since you seem grumpy, even though that is normal for people of your age who live only for work," Aion shrugged.
"I can see that Artemisia raised you to be quite disrespectful of your elders…" Arc said, and Aion could imagine him furrowing his eyebrows. "Nevertheless, you can enter this suspicious-looking portal without fear, and I will give you a part of my mana."
"Hmph, I doubt that will help me that much," Aion shrugged. "I will have you know that I can fly using my magic and…"
The class Mage has leveled.
The class Mage has leveled.
The class Mage has leveled.
…
"What is this… my magic energy is being sent to somewhere else… what are you doing?" Arc asked, visibly confused. "I can feel that it is with you, but at the same time…"
Aion was as confused as his grandfather. First of all, he wasn't even using the mage class. Second of all, could the souls of the Millerians give him mana like that?
"You should stop for now, grandpa, until I learn what is happening," Aion said. "I have too many questions for now, and I can't say that you will recover your magic energy… you can recover while you are a spirit?"
"Not as fast as before, but yes…" Arc replied.
"Then inform me later if that doesn't happen, or something usual happens…" Aion said and then sighed. "Here we go…"
Aion jumped into the portal and then readied himself to face anything that might happen. Much to his surprise, nothing did happen, but he couldn't help but frown when he saw himself standing in the middle of the darkness while feeling a stagnant air that was a mix of smoke, dust, and death.
Aion created a fireball to illuminate the area, and then he confirmed that he was in the middle of some ruins. He was supposed to be where the throne room of the fallen castle was, but he couldn't recognize the environment. The walls were too short, and the floor didn't make him recall the lustrous tiles of that. Even after almost twenty years, it still resembled some of its prime after all.
Aion moved his feet and saw a lot of dust being pushed to the side alongside ashes. All of the pillars had vanished as well… Aion was supposed to see the sky since there was no ceiling, but he was unable to see such a thing. Something was blocking his view…
All of a sudden, Aion heard the sound of a door moving, and then he looked in the direction where the dungeon was supposed to be in the throne room. Aion raised his guard and didn't drop it when he saw a woman wearing some rags that barely covered her body. The woman had shoulder-length silver hair that was disheveled. She looked like someone who hadn't had a single decent night of sleep in months. To the point that her green eyes showed a dangerous glint of madness and excitement when she recognized Aion.
"You came! You came! You came! You really came!" Arlana said, and Aion recognized her voice.
"You can stop right there…" Aion said when she began to move toward him, and her excitement felt too dangerous for him. "You didn't tell me that you were a descendant of that guy."
"Oh? But you never asked!" Arlana said and then smiled brightly. "You are right. I am one of the Heradins, the last one, in fact. Also, the last human in this world."
Aion blinked several times… he truly felt that the world of the future seemed kind of dead, but… he didn't think that it would be to that extent. In any case, that would explain why that was the last point in the future that he could go. Now that he thought about it, Aion realized that the points in the future that he could go to were basically something like historical points created by humans. Without humans, there was no history, and in a sense, humans created the notion of time.
"Oh? Where are my manners!" Arlana said, and then the glint in her eyes still was making him feel the creeps. "It isn't much, but please come to my home."
Arlana wasn't joking when she pointed to the dungeon of the castle. It seemed like a decent place to hide but not to live. In any case, Aion decided to follow her. Eventually, he found countless books inside, and the dungeon had also increased in size a fair bit to accommodate a shit ton of them. Aside from the books, there was an old table, chair, and a straw bed. There were some bowls filled with grains, but their amount seemed pretty small for even a single person. If she could use time magic that well, there was no reason for her not to be able to use magic to cultivate food. Even in that darkness, magic could help her with that.
"This is my library. Most of these books are ones that my family copied by using others from different periods of time," Arlana said. "It isn't much suitable for a king, but please, sit on the chair."
"King?" Aion frowned. "Just having royal blood doesn't make me a king. Hell, royal blood isn't that impressive when people do whatever the hell they want without accountability, right Grandpa?"
"You will have to refer to me as dearest Grandfather if you want to hear from me from now on," Arc said.
"So unreasonable… and why the change?" Aion frowned.
Now that Aion thought about it, it wasn't much, but his name was similar to his grandfather. His mother had said those things before, but it was clear that she didn't hate her family.
"Oh, you already can control the souls of the Millerians! As expected of the Sorcerous King," Arlana said without hiding her excitement. "You received that title and some others in different periods of time, but you always ended up with them. The most famous was the Cursed king of the time, Aion."