HYORN CLAN

If the exterior of the Tower warranted a massive shock, then the interior nearly made Lynne and others comatose. The bottom sprawled outward to no end, filled to brim with shelves upon shelves, all filled with books. At the very center was a spiraling staircase leading upward; however, instead of walking, it acted more like a viechel in and of itself, as one simply had to stand on one of the steps and they would be carried up.

Lynne and others stared in wonder at the ever-encompassing mass of books large enough to fill the ocean from bottoms up. Books of all shapes, sizes, colors and age, and titles sprawling from something ordinary like ‘History of Dawned King’ to titles such as ‘Dragons and Where to Find Them’ and ‘Imperial War Chronicles’.

“Ha ha,” the elderly man leading them suddenly laughed as he saw their faces. “Most others have the exact same reaction when they first visit.”

“Others have visited?” Gru asked subconsciously.

“Of course!” the old man confirmed. “There’s this myth that we repel all the visitors, but it’s actually quite the opposite: we love sharing knowledge with others. That’s why we gather so much of it; not to rot endlessly, but for others to know just as much as we do.”

“J-just how many books are here?!” Lynne exclaimed as they slowly began climbing through second, third, fourth and upward floors, where the number of books barely decreased.

“The exact count?” the old man thought for a moment. “I believe, as of last week, the library contains 2,321,362,111 books.”

“… what the fuck?” everyone else mumbled in unison.

“Ha ha, don’t be so surprised,” the old man kept laughing, seemingly enjoying their reaction. “You need to remember that this is the effort lasting millions of years, sprawling countless generations. We’re actually thinking about expanding since the room is sparse nowadays.”

“Wow… just how much knowledge is stored here?” Lynne mumbled into his jaw, unable to stare at one spot too long for fear of missing out seeing everything else.

“Nearly everything,” the old man said. “We even have some records from Primordial Era, to say nothing of Desolate Era and Magus Era. Figures, wars, kingdoms, clans, sects, realms, spell arts, research… whatever you can fathom, it’s most-likely here. Ah, here is good.” the stairs suddenly came to a halt as a bridge sprawled out from them to the other side. Save from the mass of books on the floor, there was a small clearing, just large enough to fit a few people. “We are lacking free space elsewhere, so please make yourself at home here. Our Ruler should take a few days to arrive, so, meanwhile, feel free to read any book you want. Here,” he then handed three, palm-sized silver talismans to Lynne, Thalia and Gru. “Ho ho, our great ancestor Kylie invented this talisman. Because of the sheer number of books, it became impossible to inspect them by hand. So, he found a few spirits in the outside world and domesticated them and then put them in these talismans. As long as you say what sort of a book you want, the spirit within the talisman will bring it to you. I, on the other hand, have to get back to work. Good luck everyone and see you soon!”

Leaving them – still shocked – on the other side, the old man waved lightly as the stairs kept carrying them up. It took Lynne and others a few moments to recover and inspect the talisman a bit more closely. Outside of its silver, plainly decorated design, the talisman had strange runes atop its surface which exuded odd, azure sheen.

“Alright, we’ll do as that guy said,” Thalia was the first to break the silence. “Uh, spirit? Find me information on Regol Clan.”

“There are currently: 26,213 books containing phrase ‘Regol Clan’. Do you wish to narrow the search?”

“I-it fucking spoke!” Gru exclaimed as he backed away a bit, startled. Lynne, on the other hand, was more astonished than startled.

“Uh, yes,” Thalia, similarly to Lynne, was taken aback for a moment before recovering. “Compendium directly related to its history. The most comprehensive one.”

“Understood. Wait a moment.”

A silver light shimmered for a moment as azure sheen shone excitedly for a moment. A second later, a transparent creature appeared above the talisman and slowly made its way up. It was a featureless creatures, palm-sized like talisman, with insect-like wings.

“Amazing…” Lynne muttered. “Alright, uh, spirit,” he then turned to his own talisman. “How many books are there on Hyorn clan?”

“There are currently: 7,263,214 books containing phrase ‘Hyorn Clan’. Do you wish to narrow the search?”

“Seven-fucking-million?!” Lynne exclaimed, shocked. “Uh… compendium directly related to its history. The most comprehensive one.” he then copied Thalia’s words.

“Understood. Wait a moment.” similarly to Thalia, the spirit went up the Tower, leaving behind the astounded group.

Shortly after, the group settled as each sat down onto the stone floor and leaned against the book shelves that acted like walls. Gru searched for a book about strongest Mages that took the path of an Empyrean throughout the history, while the monkey left on his own as he didn’t receive the talisman, cursing the old man under his breath.

About five minutes later, Thalia’s spirit returned, bringing back a massive book that was at least two thousand pages long. Lynne wondered for a moment as to how such a tiny creature was able to carry such a massive book, but he decided to not ask.

“Who are Regols?” Lynne asked, curious.

“My ancestors.” Thalia replied as she took the book, inspecting it.

“Oh.”

Lynne’s spirit returned only ten minutes later, shocking him even more; the spirit carried a book that was three times as large as Thalia’s and had at least five thousand pages. When Lynne lifted it up, he realized that the book weighed at least fifty kilograms. Who the hell could write book this long?! He asked inwardly, but spoke no more. The spirit returned to the talisman, awaiting its next order.

Thalia was already engrossed in her own book, so Lynne shifted onto his own. The cover of the book was plain blue in color with golden letters reading ‘The Great History of Hyorn Clan’. Nowhere on the page did it list the author, so Lynne quickly opened the first page of the book and began reading slowly.

Some pages were plain text with information, some contained family trees, some contained pictures and some even contained the secret arts that the Clan is known for. Lynne even eventually found a whole sixty pages describing the Clan’s Bloodline in great detail.

He read for twelve hours straight before he attained some basic understanding of the Clan’s history. It was founded roughly 16 million years ago by a famous Divine Magus Ottero Hyorn. According to the records, he was an offspring of a human and a pure, noble vampire, which resulted in the Clan’s famous Bloodline.

The Clan itself was established directly in one of the Seven Divine Realms known as ‘Divine Byrrus’. For the good while, it struggled to establish itself properly, but with the expanding generations of strong Mages because of the Bloodline, within two hundred thousand years, it has established itself as a leading Clan of the realm, and its power since then has been undisputed.

The Clan had eventually sprawled out into the sect where they accepted outside disciples, but only direct descendants were given right to study Clan’s heritage arts and techniques. The Clan was also very selective in terms of who their descendants can marry, and all children born – if proven to have Bloodline – would stay within the Clan.

In total, they participated in 3 Great Wars, the recent one being five million years ago that had put a large dent in their forces. According to records, even though they are famed as the strongest force throughout all Realms, they are actually on par with some other, even older Clans. In addition, during the past several hundred generations, the Bloodline has been quite diluted, leading to weakened Mages.

The Bloodline itself is famed as a ‘sociopath’s perfect weapon’ due to its innate nature; once the Bloodline is activated, one becomes Blood Count/Countess, and, when they kill another Magus of equivalent or higher rank, they can absorb their blood directly for increased power. Bloodline also increases regenerative properties, affects physical strength and even aptitudes toward certain elements.

Although the exact number of direct descendants currently alive is unknown, it is theorized that there is somewhere between five to six thousands direct descendants and roughly twenty thousand ‘branch descendants’, which where Lynne also belongs to. The Clan’s current strongest Magus is its Patriarch Yul, who had ascended to Divine Realm one hundred thousand years ago.

Because the Clan doesn’t have any preferred element, every descendant chooses one based on their aptitude, leading to extremely varied forces. The Clan is also renowned for Weapon Enchanting, mainly ones dealing with stagnating wound recovery, while also having a decent number of Godly Alchemists and above.

Within the numerous pages containing family trees, Lynne even managed to find himself as the part of the ‘Late Magus Generation’. However, he wasn’t directly linked to the Clan, and past his mention, there was no more information about him. However, there was a lot of information about his mother: Yunchi Hyorn.

She’s renowned as one of the most talented Mages of the past generation, having entered Grand Realm at the age of sixteen, with her prime element being Space. Although her current rank is unknown, seven years ago she fought a Lunar Emperor and won, so most predict she’s at least Spatium God.

In addition, her Blood is also among the least diluted in the past million years, making it so that the Clan had put a lot of resources into her. She’s also known for her master-level swordsmanship, and even her sword – known as ‘Cold Death’ - is renowned for the master craftsmanship and Enchantment. Wow, she really is a big shot… how the hell did dad woo her? Damn, he’s got some game…

What surprised him the most, though, was that the Clan is well-known for its brutal ways of upbringing, oftentimes leaving children barely aged 10 in dangerous areas, sometimes for years, to grow on their own.

Days slowly passed, and Lynne learned more and more, both about the Clan itself and its members, making it seemingly more and more impossible that his father somehow managed to captivate a member long enough to get a kid. On the fourth day, he barely covered tenth of a book, but still hadn’t lost interest. At this point, he slowly began skipping pages of uninteresting things, and read about the Clan’s war efforts in the past and their best-known figures.

As he slowly flipped a page, he briefly heard a footstep and lifted his head slowly, thinking it was the old man. Instead, what he saw was a beautiful, young woman with silver hair running past her back, and eyes that could seemingly see through all things. The moment their eyes met, Lynne felt his blood suddenly boil and resonate, and his entire being inch toward the woman. He was certain this was the first time he’d seen her, yet he felt as if he had known her since the day he was born – perhaps even before that, in a way. The woman suddenly smiled at him – a smile so warm and genuine it caused Lynne’s entire body to relax, and his heart to feel more tranquil than ever before. She slowly walked over toward him and crouched down in front, still smiling as her eyes shone in recognition. Then, she suddenly hugged him and placed her head gently onto his chest, stunning both him and Thalia.

“Brother…” she suddenly muttered, startling him. “We meet at last…”