Hey guys! I'm sort of back [th_093.gif]

Though technically I never left, blame the internet, my laptop and my university schedule.

This is supposed to be Chapter 21 but I'll just upload it now because it is set in the near past. (This is the only chapter I managed to do in between class and assignment time). Part 2 is done and shall be uploaded tomorrow.

Apologies for any mistakes, didn't have time to check.

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Year 330, Inanis Calendar (one week after Thanes' Destruction and one week before Academy test)

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Chatto was a musician, and a very good one at that. Name any musical instrument and he could play it, hum any melody and he would improve it. His goal in life was to compose the best musical piece that would forever resound throughout history, and it still is. Nowadays though, he is no longer a musician. Currently the No. #1 in the Adventurer's Guild combative force, it could be said that he have strayed far from his previous path.

Along the way on his quest for the perfect melody, he started to realise how narrow his perspective had been. Music does not have to be created via man-made instruments, it is present everywhere. The rustling leaves, the tranquil river, the pattering rain and even random conversations between humans. There are even some noises that he could not hear, but feel on his skin. He understood, that in order to create the best he must use the most wonderful sounds in the world.

Henceforth, he must discover everything. In other words, he must acquire knowledge, all of it. Of course, that is an impossible feat to achieve in one's limited lifetime. In the spirit of pursuing knowledge, he decided to join the Adventurer's Guild. The Guild was established to shed light upon the unknown, to acquire all information that exists, so it was in his best interests to be able to tap into their database.

If he could not achieve his goal in his lifetime, then why not extend it? Thus, he is currently focusing on his secondary goal, to achieve immortality. His line of thought happens to be parallel to those residing at the top of the Guild. If there is any similarity between Chatto and the top brass in the Guild, it is the fact that all of them wish to find out everything there is.

Project: Everlasting, that is the name of the Guild's current top priority. Delving deep into every field known to man including Magic and the anatomy of living beings, the Adventurer's Guild had been conducting research on immortality for quite a while. However, only those at the top knows of the existence of this project. Monster hunting tasks, information gathering, lost item retrieval, every single task given out by the Guild had been for the sake of this Project.

Due to the vast, random and seemingly unrelated tasks, no one caught wind of the Guild's hidden objective. Who would have thought monster suppression quests were a cheaper means for the Guild to acquire biological data from monster carcasses instead of preserving peace or acquiring crafting materials?

They have tried various methods to increase their longevity. From simple things such as changing their diets to more drastic measures such as human modifications. Their actions yielded zero or minimal results but they were not discouraged. There are living proof of creatures that have achieved immortality or near immortality hence their goal is still within the realm of possibilities.

Dragons which are said to be capable of living thousands of years for example, are one of those creatures. Capturing one though, would require an elite hunting team or a Legendary individual. Since none of the Legendary individuals are affiliated with the Guild, they only have the former option open to them. Risking the lives of their valuable personnel for uncertain gain is out of the question, so there would not be any dragon specimen for now.

Others which are speculated to be immortal are the Demon Kings and the Sacred White Lion if it exists. Capturing any of these are out of the question for they are leagues above the Guild's or humans' capabilities. Although the Demon Kings die in every cycle, there is a big possibility that he would continue living should the Hero not slay him. The Sacred White Lion's whereabouts are unknown and is considered to be a myth by non-believers hence it is not a reliable specimen.

If the Demon King is immortal, what about the Hero? Throughout history the Hero would either return from the battle with the Demon King or completely disappear without any trace. Even if they do return, they would be gone at the start of a new cycle. It is a mystifying phenomena that has yet to be explained. An incredible amount of attempts to figure out where the Hero vanishes to have been made but no one had managed to find out. Scouts would report that the Hero 'simply vanished into thin air'.

Although it is unknown whether the Hero is immortal or not, it has been proven that they do not seem to age. Their appearance seems to be frozen at a youthful stage, namely where their physical abilities are at the peak. Due to obvious reasons, capturing the Hero is not even an option. However, there is a possibility that the Hero's direct descendants would inherit or have specialised genes that could lead to immortality.

The 107th Hero were one of the Heroes that never returned from their battle with the Demon King and disappeared without leaving any offspring. However, the 106th did leave behind a family. Even though the 106th did not have a family name, his descendants were dubbed the Blackstones after the famous black stone he was first found on. At the present, the Blackstones are the only living bloodline that has relations to any Hero.

The Blackstones are used as war machines against the encroaching forces of darkness coming down from the Cursed Lands. The Kingdom of Hwalren, The Infallible Gate had gathered the Blackstones and put them into a specialised unit named 'Spell Hounds'.They were required to put on masks and operate in tandem with the military to suppress the monsters from descending southwards. Even the weakest of them are on par with elite magicians hence they are a formidable force for humanity.

To commoners and the ignorant, the Spell Hounds are a collection of elite magicians collected from all over the world. They do not know the whole unit is a family descended from the 106th Hero.

One week ago, the Northern Gate was assaulted by a massive wave of monsters which were agitated by the birth of the new Demon King. Hwalren handled the situation skilfully, their army along with the reinforcements from Armitage and Bosco held out as expected. However, things changed when higher tiered monsters joined the fray.

Chaos Hydras, Shadow Stalkers, Hell Apes and even Dragons appeared and changed the tides of the battle. Barriers were ripped apart by dragon breath and fortifications were rammed by the Hydras. The agile Shadow Stalkers and Hell Apes slipped in through the cracks in the defenses and annihilated a good chunk of the allied forces of humanity.

For unknown reasons, the Four Guardians were mobilised late and did not appear until all of the Spell Hounds died. The attacking forces were repelled soon, but the death of the Blackstones is a huge liability to humanity. Whether the high tier monsters had been controlled or simply acted on their whims, they do not know.

There is just one remaining Blackstone residing in Hwalren that they know of. Alcee Blackstone, son of the 106th Hero. He was injured in battle ten years ago and is paralysed from his feet to his neck. He had also gone blind and lost his Mana Manipulation ability. Re-population of the Blackstones is impossible due to his current condition.

The Guild had been keeping their distance from the Mana Manipulators and observed them from afar. However, in light of recent events they had to change their approach to the matter. They sent an emissary together with Chatto to King Rokusho and proposed a plan. A private audience is granted and the Guild presented their case.

"In exchange for handing over Alcee Blackstone, we would reproduce Mana Manipulation" The emissary immediately went to the crux of the topic. He had been informed that the Northern King is not a man that enjoys meaningless pleasantries.

"And why should I believe the Guild?" King Rokusho said with a rough voice. His face looks like it had been carved out of rocks, his eyes stared at the two Guild members as if they were his arch nemesis.

"Here is a written agreement" The emissary unfolds a scroll and presents it to the King.

King Rokusho pulls out a pair of reading spectacles and meticulously scans the content of the contract. After going through it for the tenth time, he gives a satisfied grunt and takes the spectacles off.

"You do understand the implications of this, don't you?" He narrows his eyes and checks for confirmation from the emissary.

"Yes, we do. We even brought along the no. #1 to show our seriousness" The emissary answers earnestly.

Unlike the rest of the Blackstones, Alcee is the only one officially known to be a descendant of the 106th Hero. Alcee's children were national secrets and not known to the public. He is considered to be a national treasure to the people, a legacy left behind by humanity's savior. For that reason, he is still kept and taken care of in the castle even though he had lost his battle capabilities and most of his human functions. Some even changed their family name to Blackstone in honour of the 106th Hero, making it a common family name in the Northern Continent.

Alcee cannot be handed over to the Adventurer's Guild in public, he has to be taken away without anyone noticing. His disappearance must be kept a secret and disguised. Hence the time limit for the Guild to keep him and reproduce the ability is limited to several months at most. If it is leaked out that the Guild had abducted Alcee Blackstone, the possibility of all three Kingdoms waging war against them is high.

Under the guise of rescuing the Hero's descendant, they would ransack and steal every single information that the Guild had saved up. Thus, the Guild are putting their necks on the line for this operation and there does not seem to be much profit for them. King Rokusho is quite skeptical about this but there would be no harm to him in accepting.

"Very well but I want to see results in two months" King Rokusho announces while he stamps his seal of approval on the contract. He decides to limit the Guild's time further to prevent them from trying anything funny.

"Of course, you shall not be disappointed" The emissary bows and rises from his seat along with Chatto. Unlike Chatto, he does not know of the truth and truly believes that the Guild intends to reproduce Mana Manipulation for the sake of knowledge.

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The duo exits the room and proceeds along the hallway outside.

"Tell the squad to split up into three groups. One part would follow me to get Alcee, another would create a diversion to pull away his caretakers and the last one needs to secure a safe route to avoid detection" Chatto says in a melodious voice as if he is singing. His love for music is so strong that he could not speak normally like everyone else.

"Understood" The emissary nods and blends in with the shadow to spread out the orders.

'Now then..' Chatto puts his hands into his pockets and pull out bundles of thin wires. They are so thin that people would not even realise it was there unless they were looking specifically for it. Appearances can be deceiving though, the wires are harder than steel and flexible enough to lift an elephant without snapping.

He loops the wires around his hands and throws them in every direction. The wires writhed like living snakes and stab the walls and ceilings. When they reach a corner, Chatto would move his fingers like a pianist, causing the wires to curve.

Eventually he had the wires extend themselves over half the fortress. He had been careful to choose the locations while setting them up to avoid anyone accidentally running into them and beheading themselves.

'Web complete' Now he would be able to pick up the smallest of sounds from any location near his wires. This way any unexpected and unwanted events could be prevented before they got in his way.

The nearly invisible wire to his left vibrates. He immediately translates the arbitrary message in his head.

'Two people, both male, Guild members approaching' He deduced from the heavy footsteps, rustling clothes and the faintest breath he heard.

His deduction is proven to be correct as two silhouettes emerge from the shadowy corners of the hall.

"Let's go, the caretakers had already been distracted" He had heard it, the quickening heartbeats of the caretakers. He had heard their hasty footsteps leaving the target's room.

They moved as quick as possible without sacrificing their stealth. In a matter of minutes they made it to a room in the west tower where Alcee is residing.

The room had a doorway but no door, perhaps for psychological reasons. They probably thought Alcee who had his bodily freedom taken away from him would appreciate a less confined environment. The presence of a miniature garden and a small artificial pond supports this theory.

Chatto and his two escorts could see the back of a wheelchair and the top of a person's head matted by straight black hair.

Chatto did not immediately move in, he shoots a dozen of his wires into the room and establishes a web first.

'??' It was for a fraction of a fraction of a second but Chatto thought he saw a lag in the movements of his wires when they entered the room.

He does not know why but he had been extremely alert since they received permission from King Rokusho. No, he was uneasy even before that.

'How could all the Blackstones die?' True, the addition of high leveled monsters were a big blow but the kingdom would have prioritized the safety of their battle assets in that sort of situation. In the worst case, at least a few could have made it to safety.

'Why did the Four Guardians not assist earlier?' The Four Guardians refer to the four legendary individuals associated with Hwalren. It did not make sense that they would be late since their very task is protecting the Gate.

'The notes are all wrong' This does not sound right to Chatto. There are far too many strange factors ruining this symphony. Nevertheless, he must carry on with his mission.

After making sure there were no hidden attackers in the room, he ushers his subordinates to enter and carry the target.

'Hm?' Once again, he could have sworn he saw a lag in the movements of his subordinates when they pass through the doorway. He quickly dismisses it as he sees the two men approach Alcee.

However, instead of quickly taking him away they started to converse with the target.

'What the hell are they doing?' This is not part of his mission protocol. They were supposed to get in, grab the target and leave.

'This is.....' He begins to notice something wrong. The vibrations he receive on his wires are strange. To the untrained, they might say there are no differences between the vibrations and voices. Chatto, however, possesses ears that could capture and differentiate the sounds of a thousand different raindrops.

'It's fake!' The vibrations of the wires and voices he hear do not match. Instead of delivering him a live feed of the current situation, his wires are being forced to vibrate in an unnatural manner to send him false messages that imitate the voices.

'...Should I retreat?' Chatto does not like the rhythm of the current situation. This is obviously some sort of trap to lure him in, but the question is should he have more faith in his abilities and spring the trap?

'The project is closing in on a dead end, I have to do this' The Guild had been running out of ideas, acquiring Alcee Blackstone might be the only way for them to make any advancements in the research at this point.

'Here goes!' Flexing his fingers and sharpening his senses to the peak, he jumps through the doorway.

The world shimmers around him as he enters the room. What he saw from outside and what he currently sees are entirely different. Instead of having conversations with the target, his two subordinates are lying unconscious on the floor. Alcee Blackstone's position is still the same where only the back of his wheelchair is visible.

He does not know how, but it is obvious that Alcee is not as harmless as they were led to believe.

"Tch!" Switching from Andante to Vivace, Chatto manipulates his wires and viciously moves them through the air, twining, bending and overlapping each other to create multitudes of airborne shapes.

At the same moment, he fires a few wires at Alcee Blackstone to detain or distract him. The wires fly through the air and encircles the target without making any sound thanks to Chatto's application of Air Magic.

Just before they could closely wrap around the disabled man, a bright orange flash envelops the room.

Chatto shields his eyes from the light and jumps onto one of his wires hanging above, using it as a foothold.

The wires he shot earlier were caught on fire and melt to the floor.

Chatto hurriedly cuts off the burning wires and jumps to another spot, putting more distance between him and Alcee.

He did not remain static and keeps jumping about from wire to wire like a spider. Staying immobile in one spot would make him an easy target for any hostile spells.

At the same time, he injects his Mana through his fingers and let them flow into his web.

He had aptly arranged the wires to resemble magical formations when he entered the room, he simply needed to supply Mana for them to activate.

Sure enough, the dozens of magical diagrams glow and spew forth small cyclones that roars towards the seemingly disabled target.

The leaves on the trees of the miniature garden are blown off their branches, leaving behind only the sturdier wooden parts. The water in the pond ripples and sloshes out onto the surrounding floor in accordance with the raging turbulence.

However, Chatto is not trying to attack with the tornadoes. The main factor that decides a battle of magic is wits and application. Simply using the elements and depending on pure magical power to overwhelm the opponents is akin to the unrefined methods of a caveman.

Against a Mana Manipulator which specializes in Magic, it is ridiculous for Chatto to try a head-on battle involving his opponent's specialty.

He needs to understand the extent of the target's power. How fast can he cast? What elements are he prone to use? Is he more of an offensive or defensive type?

As such, the tornadoes he created are only a means for him to test out his opponent. He wants to see how his target would respond. By gathering data he would be able to set up properly for his real attack.

Without showing any reaction whatsoever, Alcee Blackstone is enveloped by the violent cyclones and flipped up onto the air with his wheelchair. His body flies limply in circles as he is swept up by the air current.

'?? Why didn't he defend?!' Chatto is dumbfounded after encountering this unexpected result.

"Hey, are you someone high-ranked in the Adventurer's Guild?" A youthful voice enters his ears. It seems to be coming in simultaneously from multiple directions, making it impossible for Chatto to determine the speaker.

'Is there someone else?' Chatto decides to pull out his signature move now. He does not understand what is going on anymore so it might be better to try and end the battle now.

Just as his wires could detect sound and produce vibrations, the reverse could be done. Chatto sends his Mana into the wires and vibrates them at different speeds, producing frequencies that would disorient a human being.

The sounds he wanted to create did not come out as he wanted them to. It is as if he is playing a faulty instrument where a discordant note would ruin the musical composition.

Chatto gazes at his wires and sees sparkling beads of water reflecting light on them. Perhaps they were small, but they screwed up his calculations by slightly dampening the sounds.

"Using Air Magic to create an audial attack? Quite good" the voice whispers into Chatto's ears in an amused manner.

"By the way, the name's Alcee Blackstone. Would you mind letting me down on the ground?"

Chatto's eyes widened in surprise. Alcee's limp figure is still being tossed around in a circular motion by the tornado.

"You, what are you trying to do? Why did you fake your condition?" Chatto shouts and demands for answers.

"Sigh.. I told you to let me down.." As Alcee spoke, the cyclone dissipates into a gentle breeze and Alcee lands on his own two feet on the floor.

He runs his hands through his windswept hair to straighten it out. His skin is devoid of any wrinkles and his physique is similar to a man in his twenties. Most notable of all are his silver eyes which contrasts with his black hair.

"I don't really mind answering you, but how long are you going to stare me down?"

A high pitched noise is released as the wires supporting Chatto snaps and curls back. The former musician plummets to the ground and receives the full force of gravity from his suddenly increased weight.

With a tremendous crash, his body hits the floor and sends debris and a dust cloud flying about the room. He is partially embedded inside the cracked stone floor, he could not even breathe properly let alone move around from the intense pressure weighing him down. If this continues his organs would be utterly crushed.

"G..gravity..magic?" He squeezes out a few muffled words.

"Correct" Alcee answers as he dispels the gravity field.

*Cough* *Cough*

Chatto jerkily raised his body out of the cavity on the ground and coughed out mouthfuls of blood. Gravity Magic, one of the branches of Magic considered to be a myth due to its astounding rarity. Just as there is no such thing as Lightning Magic, there should not be Gravity Magic.

"I have reasons of my own to cooperate with the Guild. So let's get going and meet your superiors, shall we?" Alcee leisurely steps forward and approaches Chatto.

'This man is too dangerous.. forget immortality. We would all die before we can even touch him!' Thinking that, Chatto controls the air around Alcee and pulls it away to suffocate the Blackstone.

"Hmmm..... you seem to have a faint idea of how to properly use Magic but you have to get more creative than that" The air Chatto tried to pull away gathers and heavily compresses at the tip of Alcee's fingers and formed five brightly glowing blades extending about ten meters each.

"What is.. that?" Chatto questions in amazement. He no longer cared about his failed attack, he is fascinated by the phenomenon he had never seen before.

"Plasma blades, something I found out a few years back. Discounting spells that do not use Mana, Magic really is just manipulating natural phenomenons. So, would you mind bringing me back to your boss now?" Alcee points his index finger at Chatto's face, putting the tip of the plasma blade an inch away from his forehead.

"Why?" Chatto does not understand this man's objective. Pretending to be blind and paralysed for a whole ten years, for what? Judging from his reactions, he seems to be expecting or even waiting for a visit from the Adventurer's Guild.

"You're really not making things faster, are you?" Alcee cancels the plasma blades and attacks with an unseen force instead.

Chatto's body curls back without his will and is tossed about like a puppet on strings. Rather than having an external force taking control of his movements, his body is being controlled internally.

His hands are twisted to the back of his neck and his legs are sprawled in a perfect 180 degree split. There is nothing he could do against this unknown attack, he could not move a single muscle with his own will.

"How does it feel? Having your blood flow being controlled, I mean" Alcee announces the type of Magic he is currently using.

'Blood Magic??!! Forget mythical fields of Magic, Blood Magic had not even been thought about!' Is what he would have said if he could move his mouth.

"It's not really impossible if you think about it. If Water Magic is controlling the fluids with kinetic energy, blood should also be included" Alcee's voice grows in volume as he treads closer towards the former musician.

Chatto's head is bent backwards to face the ceiling. Chatto did not notice it before, but the ceiling had been painted in imitation of the sky.

"See that? Even though my fellow family members are free to go outside unlike me, they are also placed within an invisible cage much like this room. For us who were blessed or cursed with this ability, we had no say in life. Freedom is a right taken away from us since birth. Fight for humanity or become a guinea pig, those were the only two options given to us" Alcee spoke bitterly of the Blackstone's tragic fate.

Chatto is aware of what Alcee is talking about. For those possessing great power like the Blackstones, they would invite fear and awe from the weak. Humans are weak creatures, they would speak of protection and preservation only when the creatures they are referring to are weaker than them. For things that 'might' or 'could' be harmful, they instantly brand them as evil and try to exterminate them.

As such, the Blackstones had to take on the role of protecting humanity in order to preserve themselves. Otherwise, they would all be hunted down to the edge of the world.

"My family, you see.. they pleaded me to free the family from this curse. All of them committed suicide last week as it was the perfect opportunity. I had no choice but to go along with it.. and I took their powers from their cold, dead, bodies" Alcee reveals the fact as he recalls the heart-rending image of forty-seven younger male and female bodies presented before him recently. His family entrusted him alone with this task, he must not fail them.

"So, help me out and I'll help you out, okay?" Alcee had reached Chatto's side. He bends forward and brings his face close to Chatto.

Chatto stares into Alcee's silver eyes. Rather than a simple coloration, Alcee's eyes look like they are being lighted by millions of separate points of light similar to a sea of stars up in the heavens.

'If it's this man... maybe.. maybe...' Alcee did not cast any spell of any sort but Chatto felt a change in himself. He knows, this man before him could change the world.

Chatto regains control of his body and Alcee brings his head away from the no. #1's visage.

"Please answer three more questions. How did you get the Four Guardians to join in on this plan, how do you intend to help us and what do you need help with?" Chatto had given up all his hostility and only sought answers now.

"I guess it's no joke when people say the Guild was created for the sake of knowledge, haha" Alcee chuckled and a smile flits across his face for a moment.

"The Four Guardians are not with me at all. I just did to them what I did to you just a while ago, I simply controlled them" Alcee explains.

"Wha-?!" Controlling four Legendary individuals at once. The waves of monsters were pushed back by the puppets which meant Alcee had a level of control that could manipulate their bodies and display their full potentials in battle.

"I know the Guild is searching for a means of immortality but sadly I am not the answer you seek. If I stop channeling Mana, my body would age to its real form. However, I can get you the bodies of the creatures you want. Namely the Demon King and the Hero, I would kill them and hand them over to the Guild"

"Kill.. the Hero and the.. Demon King?" Chatto could only repeat the words because he is unable to process the ridiculous sentence he had just heard. It is an impossible feat, much like trying to produce the sounds of a violin using a drum.

"That is what I need help with. I need the Guild's vast network and its plentiful personnel to help me out. I want to end the Cycle once and for all, I want to finish off this meaningless battle and bring an age of peace" If both the Hero and Demon King dies, perhaps the next cycle would never come.

"Even if you could achieve that, you would just be the next object of fear!" By eliminating the two champions, the Blackstones would be seen as a greater threat.

"Not if we conquer the world and unify it under our rule" He finally said it, a line worthy of a villain from a children's storybook.

"Conquer the world.. heh.. haha.." Chatto laughs sarcastically at the thought but then he stops.

'If it's this man, he can do it' He does not know where his faith had come from, but he decides to help Alcee Blackstone in his ridiculous quest.

"Fine, if this works out you would be the first one to hear my greatest piece" He grins and shakes Alcee's outstretched hand.

"Looking forward to it" Alcee gives a warm smile in return.

The sounds he is looking for, he could tell he would discover them if he follows this man.

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The Near Future Armus Tis two black stones

For The Curious Mind