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Chapter 278: Four Days to Jeremiah

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“Th-This bastard…!!”

“I really want to punch that guy more and more…”

“….”

Again, Siva was unusually calm. Though the two couldn’t discern the source of Siva’s calmness at this moment, Siva himself was thinking of the few implications that were portrayed in this letter.

And just as he was thinking about it as well, when the last bit of the pink scented paper had burned in his fingers the next instant, a resounding DING rung on his ears.

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[Mission]

“The Letter From Jeremiah”

Rank “D” Mission

Grand Elder Mage Pistareen, the mysterious and aloof existence that exists as the head and pillar of The Enchantment Temples’ Enchanters, had sent a summons. There may be more meaning to this letter than just the physical message.

Rewards: UNKNOWN

Time Limit: 4 Days

You cannot decline the mission.

Failure: Bounty Mission will be issued against you

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“Shit.”

This was the second time he’d experienced this kind of forced scenario where his own opinion did not matter one bit.

He could only curse and read the content of the quest and while it was simple as it was concise, it also spoke a lot about the attitude of the one who had issued this mission.

“What?”

“You okay, man?”

Thorn and Volt of course couldn’t see the pop up window on his vision because it was a summons specifically intended only for Siva.

As far as the world is concerned, Thorn and Volt are but his two companions. The name of “Siva” meant a lot more in Terroa right now.

Likewise, since he was already named that day in Port City Dragona, there were many organizations in the world who’s informed of him by name. And since he had revealed his identity here in Walled City of Alexandria and even been proactively seeking a talk with The Mansion, organizations all around the world had easy access on where they could find him.

“I’m fine.” He laughed and sighed with bitterness on his shoulders, “It’s just that I’ve received a forced mission regarding a summons.”

“Summons?” Thorn and Volt exchanged looks.

“It seems this Pistareen is a Grand Elder of The Mansion. It says his title is a ‘Grand Elder Mage’ and just reading this name makes me think of the mysterious Council of Elders in Jeremiah.”[1]

“And you’re saying that ‘Pistareen’ had issued an official summons?” (Volt)

Siva sighed again, heavily, while looking up, “It’s not a normal summons. It was actually a threat. He will issue a bounty mission against me if I don’t go to Jeremiah within four days.”

““Four days?!””

The two exclaimed with their eyes balling wide.

“Yep. Four days.”

Siva assented with a nod that seemed tired.

“Grand Elder Mage…” Thorn tapped his chin as he began to submerge into deep thought.

Volt leaned on the edge of the billiard table and put the cue stick on his shoulders, making him look like a convict in a guillotine.

“A bounty huh…” Volt eyed him sideways. “With your fame, it wouldn’t even be a mystery if you’re at least in the top of the S-Ranked bounty list.”

Siva scratched his head, smiling bitterly, although it was almost invisible with the color of his skin.

“It’s not even a funny thought.” He said and then summoned a panel to pull out a scroll, The Record, and looking at it with solemnity. “But I can’t help feeling uncomfortable as he did not even say anything regarding taking back this thing…. and to think I even told Eleanor to wait for two or three days…”

“Isn’t it just a partial copy?” said Volt, “Well, maybe because the Portable Nano-Furnace that you have is an unlicensed one so it can’t be traced and the fact that nobody else knows about the fact that you own one is the reason why they were positive that you can’t use it even if you have it.”

Siva couldn’t help but agree to it. Aside from that, he can’t even think of any other reason why that Grand Elder Mage wouldn’t mention a thing about a Record being stolen.

While the two of them fell on a silent moment, Thorn who was silent all these time, spoke in a low voice.

“I see. Thanks, as always.” After that, he pressed a button and ended a call to see the two’s gazes locked on him. “Ah? Ahehehe… that’s Fuma. I asked him to look up the ‘Grand Elder Mages’ of Jeremiah and although there was not much any information about them, or him, floating in the net, there was something else connected to the search name.”

“What was it?” (Siva)

“The Search for the King of Jeremiah.”

““….””

“It’s an open mission. And a high ranked at that.”

Volt blinked and lowered the cue stick, “Wait, did you just say search for the king… of Jeremiah?”

Thorn nodded and checked the information on his panel window, scrolling the content, “Apparently, it was said here… that the King of Jeremiah has been missing for over ten years now… blah blah blah… in the night of his disappearance, he left a note on his throne… blah blah blah… he’s willing to give the throne to someone that passes his test. Well, that’s the general gist of it.”

Siva: “….”

“And how’s that connected to Piss-a-green or an elder something grand mage?”

“That’s Grand Elder Mage. Anyways, how it’s connected is not actually exactly like that. But it’s because throughout the years that Jeremiah had conducted the test, no one had yet to succeed and it just so happens that in this year… it was decided that a Council Elder will preside over the test of the applicants that succeeded their strict screening.”

Volt, who’s been stiff in anticipation, lowered his shoulders in disappointment.

“So your keyword there is Elder.”

Thorn: “Well…”

Siva: “….”

Volt cut him and retorted, hammering a fist on top of his palm, “No wait. I get it. Maybe because that elder is a Grand Father? Or maybe he’s an Elderly Mage? Or maybe both… a Grand Father Mage?”

“Pfffft…”

While Siva was laughing at Volt’s witty remark, Thorn almost threw him a ball but resolved himself on just gnashing his teeth and yelling.

“Of course not. It’s because that Council Elder is said to be one of the heads of the Wall of Jeremiah that has close ties with The Temple.”

Siva: “Ooooh?”

Volt: “Ah. I see. I see.”

“But that’s just the half of it. The other half of the reason why I told you these things is the fact that in seven days’ time, starting today, will be the end of the this year’s testees’ screening.”

Volt: “Now that’s a useful and related inf—grugh!”

Siva: “Grugh?”

The ball finally flew.

Although there was no actual damage since they are in a safe zone, the impact of the ball on his face and his sudden change of balance prompted a psychological ‘ouch’ from Volt thus prompting the two to start pulling each other’s cheeks.

“Why you….” (Volt)

Siva only smiled and thought that not even long before the latest incidents, these guys weren’t in the same league and treated each other as rivals.

Now, they were already to the point that, while still treating each other as rivals, has also treated each other as equals.

Else, how can they pull each other’s cheeks so viciously like that?

“Hah! Zat za besh ya can do?!”

“Ishtay ishtill and wash me dishmantle yo feysh…”

And here I thought Thorn was older to us by 3 or four years…

Well at least they’re close friends now….

While Siva was smiling and chose to ignore the noise in the ‘meeting room’, he sat down on a couch and pondered on the things that happened.

He got a commission from The Oracle…

He received information about the Blood Dragon God and had a chance to dispel it sooner…

Pistareen’s summons…

The threat of a bounty on his head…

Zeta’s location…

“Haaaaaah…”

Siva couldn’t help moaning long. He really has so much to ponder over and work for. It’s like he was bestowed the blessings of the God of Labor and is forced to work as long as he was breathing.

“Well, now… seems like the world is headed to a different direction starting from this side of the worlds…”

Whether he intended to imply something that his unconscious mind was telling from the information he had heard from the Genesis Chamber, or have seen in the world outside, or the things he knew from the [memories], it all pointed on the fact that this world has a unique significance to the world outside or else, why would he get this bugging notion that he knew that it was Pegasus who were aiming to kill him because of this world?

Siva had a bugging feeling that he, as Rex and Siva, knew a secret and is, and MUST, hide it at all costs from Pegasus.

“And when I close my eyes, I could remember seeing mom and dad in a white room with two doors and a map of this world floating above our heads…”

Siva now knew that he could trust the [memories] that he newly discovered and for some reason, he also trusts the images of him being hugged by his mom and dad.

What more, he also trusts the words he could recall being spoken by father.

Even his voice was echoing loudly in his mind.

“Save Baron… protect the Genesis Chamber… protect this world… stop Mefisto… stop Pegasus at all cost!”

It was this bugging notion that he trusted. It’s like a dream but not since he was awake and could clearly still feel the fleeting warmth of his parents embrace on him.

“My goal is set.” Siva finally sighed. “I just have to work on the road and pave my way to have it…!!”

Having decided on this, he stood up and fixed his clothes, stopping the two on their cheek pulling mini-war, and then looking at him while letting out ‘ahems’ when they realize their uncontrolled and embarrassing display of force.

“I don’t want to be hunted by bounty hunters so I plan to visit Jeremiah in four days. But before that, I have to visit Alexandria and meet with City Lord Billion.”

Thorn, shaving waited for this, cleared his throat again and said with an assured tone: “He’s online right now and if you wanted to, we can just call him from here.”

Siva shook his head, “No. we must meet with him to show our trust and confidence on his word. We are not going to cause him trouble if he won’t seek for it.”

Thorn and Volt blinked and exchanged glances.

“Is this still Siva?”

“Dunno.”

“But he just implied it as a threat, right?”

“Ah, he does seem like another person in a way.”

Siva only smiled (eerily) and didn’t care about how they are looking at Siva as the two only gave it a thought and the three of them were already teleported outside, into the wall of Apus Epirus.

They were still located in the southern side of the city and in front of them was the decimated land and aftermath of the Colossi’s rampage.

Seeing it, a small sense of fear for Baron’s safety assaulted Siva’s mind but there was also this tiny voice in his heart telling him that Baron is safe… somehow, somewhere.

He trusted the latter thought and went to equip a hover board on his feet.

He held the edge of the board, one foot on the other edge, and he smiled as he savoured this calming feeling.

The strong winds battering the wall of the giant floating castle behind the silent and unmoving figure of the giant golden idol were gently playing with the hems of their clothes and the appearance of his hover board was triggering something else on the two behind Siva.

“Oh? You don’t want to fly there?” Volt asked.

“My flight armor is broken and I am also planning to invent something else close to its performance so I don’t plan on buying one from anywhere.”

Thorn shrugged and Volt became silent. The two equipped their own flight armors and followed Siva who dived down with the hover board on his feet.

WHOOOOOOSH!

In the midst of their fall, Siva changed gears into his skull mask gunner set and the white cloak hid the red-eyed mask as his black-gloved hands fluttered along with the falling wind.

He didn’t even have any parachute on and since Akhenaton was floating 20km away from the edge of the city wall, it means that his feet are floating 2km above ground.

It was a height enough for a good air diving.

Siva doesn’t have his guns anymore and the thought of not having them was also weighing on him in some way in his mind.

“I will invent something else later. I will revive my Eibon and Steve one of these days…”

On Siva’s ear, Thorn’s voice rung, “We’re going ahead and set the meeting place with Billion.”

Siva turned and twisted, back towards the ground as he gave them a thumb’s up, “I’ll see you there later. I’m just going to take my time pondering on some things while on my way there. Give me a bit around twenty or thirty minutes”

Volt nodded at Thorn and the two kicked the air as they sped up and went on a straight line right after changing their falling trajectory towards the city. Siva turned his body against the wind and saw them off then he looked down at the flat brown lands that were once a forest —the aftermath of two 1km large objects dueling to each other’s destructions in the last moments of the Crisis of Alexandria.

“Thinking about it, this is indeed a very brilliant and wonderful world. My wrath… my anger… I can’t even deem to think what could trigger this boiling rage in my heart. The thing that’s keeping it in-check and controlled gives a truly mysterious feeling. Perhaps only the presence of those at the level of Sefirah could really bring this demon out in me…”

If Thorn and Volt hears these words, they’d feel crept out from Siva’s sudden mysteriousness. His words feel normal but the manner he spoke of them and his bearing, his presence, and even his very aura itself… it all felt really… melancholic.

Like an old man in a park looking at the children playing and then remembering the bygone days with only the nannies and mommies around to listen to his mumblings.

Or just simply put, it was that Forest Gump vibe…

—that kind of ancient feeling was coming directly from his shoulders!

And while Siva seem to not care about it at all on how the people around him would see him right now, his view and treatment of the world had indeed changed from a fundamental level as soon as he had emerged from the Genesis Chamber.

Yet, above all, Siva himself is not aware of these changes in his personality.

Siva was just carelessly going with the flow.

“This feeling… I wonder how Janus had made his students feel this sense of joy in them…”

Unwittingly, in a time both recent and gone in the eons that had passed, Siva was right on the fact that the kind old man with a mysterious yet also annoying laugh, Janus, never missed to teach his students on how to appreciate the world…

…especially this world, Terroa.

While falling, Siva spread his arms wide and then turned to face the sky.

Since he was the one who owned the Akhenaton Warship, he was not affected by the Eternal Night Curse and could clearly see the sky beyond the shadow of the floating castle, Apus Epirus.

Having had his fill of gravity and the winds that’s lashing on his back, he closed his eyes behind the skull mask and inhaled deep, flipped his body to face the ground and moved the hover board to face it.

Using the flat side, he controlled his fall to make an arching line if seen from below, and the trail of white he made as he made an arc in midair was a pretty sight just on its own.

XIUUUUUUUU….!!!

From the originally projected straight fall from the Apus Epirus, Siva’s arched fall headed straight to the shattered wall of Alexandria and when the 10m space on his fall touched the sensors below his hover board, the engine that emitted its anti-gravity function kicked-in as it received, countered, and minimized the weight of his fall until half a meter above the ground where he went on and made a bee line towards the walled city of Alexandria, leaving behind only brown dust clouds that silently dissipated on the barren lands.

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Now is the time to demand a reward…!!!

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