Chapter 243: Final Answer

-

-

-

-

-

Sorry for the long delay. I Suffered from Balder's Gate three-itis. It's a serious addicting game but I'm pretty much over it now. Was a little hard to get back into the swing of things, and that is a little reflected in the first half of this chapter. As I have been doing so, I'll post public so if you felt a cheated last month, you don't have to subscribe for this or next month to still get chapters.

AN: Got some editing suggestions? Suggest it on the Google Docs here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KLixOENCrfL_npge5nePGL52L114T2mrsUB7kUksg14/edit?usp=sharing

________________________________________________________________________________

Shortly after Alexander explained the Bond stages, he was alerted that the escaped Earth Elemental was approaching a city. He gathered several Oathbound and left with Kayafe, leaving me to my thoughts.

What is my Beauty? I ask myself.

I walk and move with grace and elegance, but that’s something I trained myself to do to help me connect with my Bond, or rather, I ‘listened’ to what my Bond wanted me to do. However, that was earlier in my growth, so maybe my beauty is not that? I have a feeling my most fitting specialty of beauty has to take into account more than that.

But what could it be? Awe? Now we are getting into gray areas since awe could be from other essences. I need to be open to the possibility that my specialty could be just about anything and that I can’t limit myself to what is conventionally considered beauty.

Maybe I should start somewhere else. How would I sum myself up in one statement? Well… I guess my title does that. Okay, so something involving mana? Maybe. Sacrifice? No, even if that is the case, I don’t want a specialty involving sacrifice. I can forge my specialty into what I want, and I refuse to forge it into something self-harmful like that.

So, removing the sacrificial part, I’m left with mana. This makes sense, considering how far I've taken my mana-based skills, but there’s just one problem: I don’t see mana as beauty. I mean, it’s kind of hard when there’s literally beauty mana. I can see beauty in how it works, though.

Yes, this is definitely closer; I am on the right track. I can see my specialty being the beauty in how mana works, but maybe there’s something more fundamental than that? What drove my desire to keep discovering mana? It wasn’t the beauty in it; it was something else.

At first, I needed [Sense Mana] to see after getting my cursed skills, but soon after that, I became more interested in how mana works. Perhaps my specialty is discovery related? But, I haven’t really felt any wanderlust or desire to explore, but then again, I haven’t really tried exploring out of the Nexus, minus the dungeon and recent events.

There are too many possibilities, and I don’t know how to narrow it down. I guess for now, I’ll just set this aside; I didn’t expect to find an answer immediately anyway.

I still have one more thing to do for the humans, and that is to spy on the Dwarven Kingdom. But, we are resting for a few more days so I can return my focus to other events. Things back in the Nexus are progressing steadily, and in Lunaley, we’ll be flying off to Luna to meet Klaman and trade in a few hours.

I’d say goodbye to Lanya, but she’s busy with government work right now, so instead, I tour the city one last time before we set off on the airship. The trip doesn’t last long since Helikan and Luna are neighboring countries, but the differences couldn’t be more apparent. Helikan is prospering, while Luna is in rough shape. There is an army camped right outside the capital, Luna City. Honestly, I’m glad I chose not to get into this mess.

It may sound callous to ignore the plight of these people, but I don’t know who’s in the right, and I don’t want to be forced to pick. The army doesn’t look to be professionally armed, so they might be a rebellion army or something.

With an ongoing siege, I’m starting to think we shouldn’t stay for the full trade session. Anything can happen, and we don’t want things to take a turn for the worse while we are still here.

We land in the river harbor and greet the awaiting delegation. We greet each other formally, but I can tell they are mostly here for the trade. After introductions, the delegation lead turns toward me.

“Klaman is eagerly waiting for you at the palace. As you may have noticed, the situation is dire for us.”

“I will meet with him right away then,” I reply.

It’s better to get this over with anyway, and we may not be able to stay for the full length we planned, so waiting wasn’t even an option to begin with.

I teleport a clone directly to the meeting room, startling the guards. They draw their weapons, but Klaman quickly diffuses the situation.

“Stand down, I invited her.” Once the weapons are sheathed, Klaman continues, “A little brazen, but I suppose you came as a clone and would have been safe anyway.”

I nod.

“I wish we had more time for formalities, but with an army at our gates, I must press you for an answer to my offer.”

“I cannot accept, Klaman.” I shake my head. “I have no idea how to rule, let alone lead armies. I would just make things worse.”

Klaman doesn’t look surprised and even anticipated this answer.

“I’ve lived a long time and seen both good and bad rulers. You have the talent; you just need to nurture it. I can help you bring prosperity to both of our people. I can help you get more Legendary feats and bring you and your people powerful monster materials.” Klaman makes a large box appear on the granite table with a flick of his hand and opens it, revealing what looks to be a stone the size of a head. “I will even give you this, a Timeless and Exalted tier meteorite, if you agree.”

I shake my head again, causing Klaman to frown.

“I cannot become the ruler of a nation that is under siege. No one will trust me, someone wholly unknown to the citizens, to get them out of this situation,” I argue.

“That is not a problem,” Klaman replies with a half-hearted smile. “I can single-handedly defeat them, and I am sure you can display your own power to win the faith of the citizens. Your name is known to the world now, thrice over. People will support you, especially when you get them out of this mess.”

“You make good points, but even if I can get the faith of the people, I don’t have their hearts. I am an outsider, and that makes me hard to trust.”

“Not a problem. You bear the trait of royalty; no one can deny that. Besides, you will slowly earn the love of the people over time so long as you rebuild Luna into a prosperous empire, which is not hard to do with how far it has fallen.”

Getting annoyed, I stop giving excuses.

“Klaman, I don’t want to rule. We can argue all day about whether or not I’m a good fit, but if I don’t want to, then I will never be able to give my all to the prosperity of this nation. I hold no love for Luna, its history, or its culture. No matter how talented I am, I can never be better than someone who simply wants what’s best for the people.”

I see desperation wash over Klaman as he begins to plead for me to accept.

“Alysara, please, you can learn to love this country, and they can learn to love you—”

“No! You don’t get it, do you? I can’t upend my life for the sake of your Empire. I have my own goals in life, and they don’t include ruling someone else's country.”

A cloud of despair hangs over Klaman as silence fills the room. Taking advantage of the silence, I switch the topic to another issue.

“If there’s going to be trouble in this city, then my people can’t stay. Either make peace or drive them away.”

“Luna is doomed. We needed someone like the founder, like you. If not you, then who? Who else can pull Luna from the brink of collapse?” Klaman asks, a spark of hope still in his eyes.

“I don’t know, but no Empire falls quietly,” I say, the history lessons from my past life flitting through my mind.

Rome would not have been completely destroyed had they let go of their territories and consolidated. They would still be drastically weakened, but they would have stayed alive.

“I’ll give you some advice. Consolidate your Empire. It can’t support its own weight, so you must shed everything you can afford. Cede land to the rebels, a place of their own will also give them a reason to pursue peace, not your total destruction. Once you do that, you can rebuild with a stronger foundation and do things right this time. If you do things right, you can even form a stronger nation than before.”

“Thank you. I’ll see to it that the siege ends today.” The glimmer of hope returning to his eyes.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

All is not lost. He failed to crown Alysara, but he can still ask for her advice. She’s right that Luna can’t support itself anymore, and as long as Luna survives, he will keep his promise to his friend.

Alysara leaves, vanishing from the meeting room. Klaman stands and walks to the window, staring out at the morning sun.

“It’s time to step out into the light and reveal myself. The world will once again know of me and know that Luna will survive.”

There will be a bloodbath this morning. If he opens up with offers for peace, the rebels will not take his power seriously and think they can demand everything, so he must first show them that he can end them all if he wishes.

However, before he does this, he must inform the Steward of this plan. It is precisely because of his rash actions that are in this situation.

He calls the Steward and the other advisors to the meeting room and informs them of the plan.

“So what you are saying is that we should cede Bastion City and all lands of the western island?” the Steward asks.

“Yes. We’ll keep Shield City, of course; it is an important defensive location.”

“I don’t think that will be enough. Thamel Port is completely taken by rebel forces, and I doubt they’ll give it up. They’ll want everything east of the Thamel Mountains too. Are you sure this is the best course of action? We’ll be ceding half the Empire. You can crush any resistance, so why give up any land at all?” the Steward asks.

“Because it’s too much,” the Treasurer explains. “We’re out of money, and trying to rebuild the entire Empire is impossible. It’s more advantageous to make them tributaries to help restore the glory of Luna.”

“That is a much better plan,” the Grand General agrees. “We can enforce a favorable deal. We can make it seem like we don’t have to give up land but will on the agreement that they pledge loyalties to us.”

“I see,” the Steward nods. “That does sound like a fantastic course of action. Klaman, if you wipe out a good percentage of the rebel forces, that will scare them further and make negotiation easier.”

“That was the plan. I cannot remain in hiding any longer if Luna is to survive.”

“Typically, a decisive loss is twenty percent casualties in war. However, I would suggest thirty or even forty percent to really drive in the message that they have no chance of winning and should accept our ‘kind offer,’” the Grand General says.

After a couple of hours of ironing out the details and drafting a peace offer, Klaman teleports into the middle of the siege camp. After four hundred years, he finds himself fighting another army single-handedly.

He activates his title powers and appears behind the unfortunate soul that sensed him. In an instant, his victim’s head fell, the first casualty of thousands.

Channeling his Bond, Klaman throws void daggers at nearby men, piercing cleanly through them; armor and flesh vanish, leaving a bleeding hole through them. With a wave of his hand, he conjures a crescent blade of void that ripples outward for hundreds of meters, cleaving countless people in two.

It was all too easy. He can cast more powerful spells and make the entire siege camp disappear, but he needs survivors to spread word of him.

The camp is in chaos. Men yell and scream, not knowing what to do. A few brave souls run to the siege weapons, thinking retaliation would help them, but Klaman appears in front of them and, with a touch, disintegrates the catapult. He stares the terrified men in the eye before vanishing from their sight.

He knows Alysara is watching. This is what a true Legendary being is capable of and far more. Hopefully, she will see what she is turning down and change her mind.

He can’t track her, he can’t even feel her perception, yet he somehow knows that she is watching. He can’t explain it. Perhaps he is on the verge of another breakthrough, but whatever it is, he just knows.

It doesn’t take him long to wipe out forty percent of the rebel forces. He appears in the middle of the commanders' tent, and with a touch, he disintegrates the guards before he places the peace offer on the war table, all the while looking the commanders in the eyes.

“I am the Eyeblight Assassin, Sentaro Klaman, Legendary tier. This is your chance to surrender.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Clone Pov:

I stare at the raging superstorm sweeping through the sky above the Leviathan Sea. A constant whirlwind of spells disturbs the air in a dazzling display of flames, snow, light, and other elements. The storm’s core grows in size with a thin accretion disk, almost imperceptible as it feeds into the core.

I am now as strong as the Mana Arc, but even at my current power, I will not be able to totally defeat the storm. Last time, the Mana Arc could only weaken the storm, but unlike last time, I am much stronger, and together with the Mana Arc, I should be able to shield the Nexus. However, there is also an opportunity. The storm’s core will make for a very powerful material, Legendary tier if its capabilities are anything to go by. Considering the amount of mana it influences, it may even be key to the creation of another Mana Arc.

There will, however, be difficulties in storing the core. It will continue to make a storm around it; however, I think that can be negated with [Manipulate Magic] to calm mana that gets too close to it.

The next thing to consider is what to make with it. Given that it can attract mana from thousands of kilometers away, turning it into a generator of sorts is feasible. I can make a truly powerful and massive airship out of it… or even a flying city. That would be very cool! Plus, the Nexus is very limited in land, so this could be a way of gaining more. This will also make the airships more important, helping me succeed at my trial.

I envision a future Nexus where hundreds of flying islands float above. It would be a fantastic sight to behold, but that’s still decades away. For now, I should focus on what to make of the first island.

The obvious would be a place of government, but given the decentralized nature of the Nexus, that may make things worse for our way of life. So, if not that, then maybe something that fits Runalymo culture, like a place of learning or creativity?

An academy would be a great fit, especially since there are none in the Nexus. Yes, I think that will work, but it will need places of nature and beauty to stimulate creativity and art.

I add another clone to the table of origami researchers, but this one is making three-dimensional drafts of the academy.

Now that’s being worked on, I really should inform Kayafe of the storm. It will help her understand them, and she needs to be there just in case I can’t isolate the storm core.



________________________________________________________________________________

AN: This should be the end of Klaman's plotline, I won't drag it out. The end goal for it changed multiple times over the course of writing it and I will definitely improve it in the rewrite. Klaman himself will probably return later in the story, but I have nothing planned yet, just a few ideas floating in my mind.