Chapter 33

Daedalus and His Twin

There were many different names bestowed upon the silvery kordova - the queen of queens, the silver empress, the Kordoza’Pareo. As she was the epitome of Kordovan strength, she commanded over the seven Kordozas that ruled over the seven kordovan nests across the Celure Island. She was the proud empress and yet, her power fell short to a mere human. The empress who once reigned with pride now flew in the sky with her head turned down as the same man and his twin stood atop her head. Of course, none of the kordozas were aware of it. They simply thought that the man was a foreign ally, as she had told them. She feared that she might lose her authority if they found out how the man easily best her in battle. But more than anything else, for the first time, the empress feared for her life. She couldn't do anything but do his bidding and do as she was told - infiltrate a human dwelling in the east.

The red-haired man who called himself Daedalus Harkin trampled his right foot as though mocking her further. “Are your pawns that weak, your imperial highness?” He uttered with a condescending laugh. “They can't even get rid of such fragile weeds… How are we supposed to land-”

“Stop taunting her, Daedalus,” Pasifae Harkin, his twin who stood beside him, intervened. She raised a brow and gave him a wry smile. “I don’t think that even you can get rid of that annoying barrier in one fast sweep.”

“You bet?” Daedalus also raised a brow, beaming a confident smile.

“A hundred gold-”

“Make that two hundred…”

“Two hundred gold, it is…” The lady let out an amused laugh. “Now, I wonder how you’ll recover from embarrassing yourself this time.”

Daedalus ignored her remark and pulled out his platinum sword. Using his gift, he began his voiceless chant and raised the sword in the air, pointing directly at the sun. Several more seconds and a large red fireball began to form in the middle of the sky. He lowered his sword and pointed it towards the very center of the spherical aviary that’s protecting the house. The fireball then hurled towards the same direction at tremendous speed. Once in contact, a deafening explosion echoed across the Eastern Celure Forest, followed by a strong gust of wind. When dust and smoke subsided, a large hole appeared at the very center of the barrier. However, the fire immediately began to fade and the vines grew again, prompting the kordozas to start breathing fire at the same hole simultaneously.

“You owe me two hundred gold,” Pasifae said matter-of-factly. “That isn’t even a fair bet. As always, you’re underestimating Katarina too much. Remember Daedalus, I’m here because you couldn’t-”

“Shhh…” Daedalus put his point finger between his lips, wearing neither a smile nor a grimace. He could barely contain his composure, all his body hair standing at full length. “Look…”

Her eyes squinted for a moment, following her twin’s line of sight. “Is that the boy? No...” Her head shook slowly, slightly. “It truly is a boy… and that appearance. He looked like a replica of his father.”

“That’s what I reported to the king,” Daedalus said with a sharp tone, his usual condensing attitude vanishing for a moment as though a mask he unconsciously shed off. Then a few seconds later, he straightened his body and looked at his twin with narrowed eyes. “You must have thought that I was lying, don’t you?”

“Who doesn’t?” A smile crept up to her lips. “Everyone knew of his origin and how the house of de Florencio worked. Everyone in the court thinks that you’re lying and yet the king believes you.” She shook her head again, visibly amused. “No wonder the king is in clear distress.”

Pasifae then carefully watched the boy who looked at their direction with awe. “It seems like he's like his father too. Looked at his eyes…” She glanced at Daedalus. “It’s shining. He’s not even fazed that a massive beast is trying to infiltrate his home.”

“Or maybe he just doesn’t understand-”

“Wait!” Her amused expression suddenly faded as she closed her eyes. “Is the boy awakened?”

Daedalus grimaced and was about to close his eyes when the empress interrupted the conversation. “He is,” she said robotically as though the words automatically escaped before she even realized. She too had been watching the boy from the same distance as the kordovan queens tried to get rid of the vines. Unlike the pesky humans standing atop her head, it was not the boy’s appearance nor reaction that caught her interest. Instead, she sensed a strange warmth of mana emanating from the boy. It was similar to the flow of mana she felt from any other human that she encountered, and yet, it was also entirely different. It was unmistakably human and yet, it was not.

“Interesting…” Pasifae whispered under her breath. “Isn’t the boy only four years old?”

Before Daedalus could react, his twin leaped backward and immediately disappeared in the thick layers of trees below. “Take the boy, but do not harm him, Pasifae,” he told her through telepathy. “He’s an important piece of the negotiation!”

“Of course, brother,” she replied almost immediately. “I certainly don’t want to anger Katarina, but more than anything, I won’t provoke the ancient dragon. I only wanted to play with the boy for just a little bit.”

“You never change,” Daedalus scoffed. “You’re still as childish as ever.”

“Back at you… You may act all high and mighty all the time, but that facade won’t work on me.” She laughed. “You never change, Daedalus… still naive and foolish. I’m only in this plan since it’s such a delight to see your useless struggle, but I told you many times, this won’t work. You can’t change the inevitable.”

And then there was just laughter behind his ears, followed by brief searing silence before another explosion echoed below. He saw the boy leaped on the floating staff. Then he looked at the towering Arisen, pulling a massive double-edge greatsword from a pocket in space-time.

An insentient arisen using space magic? he thought, though he didn't show any surprise, for he longed acknowledged Katarina's talents. The former duchess wasn't known for her enormous mana. In fact, she was far from having a large reserve of it. Instead, her powers relied on her quick wits, outstanding mana control, and most of all, her vast knowledge in magical arts. Enchantment in itself has a pretty limited application with little use without other branches of magic. But Katarina came from the family of de Florencio, a house that mastered the ways of magical configuration over the centuries. And she too had applied the magical knowledge she accumulated over the years with her enchantment gift to polish her strengths.

Daedalus let out a humorless laugh as he sensed a great amount of mana coursing through the massive armor, directly coming from the distant western part of the forest. The flow of mana was so dense that even the kordovan queens and empress felt it even without them paying it much attention. As the vines reverted to normal and the boy went back inside the house, the armor stood proudly in front of the house, it's chin slightly lifted.

“Very well!” Daedalus said with a smile, looking down at it with narrowed eyes. He stomped his right foot and gave the Empress a commanding stare before glancing back at the combined armors. “Command the Kordoza to overwhelm that Arisen… Waste no time Kordoza’Pareo. Lady Allegia must be coming back. And the stage shall be prepared before she arrives.”