Rise Of The Celestials

Chapter 14

"I mentioned earlier that the Royal Library is one of this nation's greatest treasures"

King Robert seemed to have not noticed the murmurings as he continued addressing them all like it was just another section of his speech.

"Anyone who reports valuable information gained in the library will not only know of it themselves but will also be rewarded depending on the value of the information provided.

I can guarantee that those who are rewarded on this basis will be the envy of all who know them. You will be protected by the royal family against anyone who would consider attacking you for your findings, that I promise"

Unlike the first instance of crowd reactions, there was a great difference this time. If the murmurs earlier had been a loud cheer, then the reaction now was pin-drop silence. All that was heard and reverberating in the ears of those who were present was the King's promise. Even the nobles turned to King Robert with surprise in their eyes.

"All hail The King!!!", the herald called out.

There was a short silence when brains came back to life.

"All hail The King!"

"All hail The King!!"

"All hail The King!!!"

The crowd went wild as every last one of them chanted. The fact that there was a reward and the fact that not many might end up being entitled to the rewards were hardly the point. It was the fact that King Robert had promised protection in front of everyone without mincing words.

Their cheers were so loud that it was easy to hear them chant from places far away in the city.

"On that note, I declare the library open to all!!"

There was cheering once more. Trumpets, drums, and various other musical instruments began to play as King Robert stood to his feet. He walked down the steps with The Queen, The Princes, The Princesses, and the rest of the Kingdom's nobles following behind him.

He walked up to the library and entered through its open doors with everyone else following behind him.

Inside the library, the old sage was waiting and this time as well, he was in his old man form. He bowed slightly to King Robert and then to Queen Vivienne.

"Your Majesties"

"Old Sage, the library has been opened, we intend to find the best the library has in its stores"

"As I said Your Majesty, in the library's present state, we see only that which we are fated to see but as its keeper, I will lead the way to the library's core sanctuary"

"Your help is greatly appreciated, Old Sage", King Robert said. Right behind was a man with a twinkle in his eyes as he stared at the old sage.

The Old Sage turned around and began leading the way, "this way Your Majesty".

...

"General, we are almost past the safe areas in the wildlands. Two kilometers from here is the territory of the Briwyn.

"No news from the city?"

"None, sir"

Fraser Tarren fell silent with a pondering expression. Reid who had just spoken fell silent as well as he waited for word from Fraser Tarren.

Fraser Tarren found things quite absurd, especially the way he felt the zaltyr was always staring straight at him. It had followed them for days, giving them no time to rest and the expected backup had not shown up.

"We'll be doing a little test. If it is successful, find your way to the city and inform them of the events that happened"

"Stay safe, General"

As soon as he heard this, Fraser Tarren glanced at Reid and nodded to him.

"Shift bearings. We are taking a detour in the city's direction"

Reid gave a command just as Fraser Tarren broke away from the group. They glanced at their general who had begun galloping off to the side for a moment before their expressions hardened at almost the same time before they turned and followed after Reid.

Fraser Tarren rode out for about 500 meters before there was a bizarre event. The Zaltyr had stopped as if it had become indecisive, however, this pause lasted only a few seconds before the aim of the test proved successful. 

The Zaltyr turned to follow after Fraser Tarren who began galloping at high speed. It seemed so effortless but the Zaltyr stayed on his tail at an even distance.

At this speed, it did not take too long for Fraser Tarren and the Zaltyr to open up a huge gap between themselves and the rest of the group.

Fraser Tarren planned to lead the Zaltyr in circles until help arrived, this made him continue to push his mount to its limits as the Zaltyr chased after them. 

Half a day later, they were tens of kilometers away from where they had separated from the Zaltyr. Fraser Tarren was about to make a turn to start the first curve of his running in a circle plan when his back turned cold and he felt his vision darken.

There was no time to think before he jumped off his mount and leaped to the side. 

He landed hard but he managed to roll to his feet fast enough to see his mount fall in two halves. It had been sliced right down the middle.

He got no time to collect his senses when he saw a dark figure coming straight at his face. He hurriedly jumped to the side and he felt it, his skin felt like it was burning when he rolled to his feet and started running.

He dived into another roll the next moment as he pulled his sword from its scabbard.

His vision was being greyed out and was been restricted quickly but his senses fed him some information making him swing his hand to the side hitting the figure with a translucent gemstone he had pulled out at some point.

A burst of bright white light erupted and even though he couldn't see much of it, he got to his feet and swung his sword in a horizontal motion in the same direction. The sound of a sword cutting through flesh had never been more satisfying to hear but the screech that followed was in no way that.

He hurriedly covered his ear as he bowed his head to the ground. 

The screech went on for a few seconds and when it stopped Fraser Tarren removed his hands from his ears and raised his head to see the head of the Zaltyr that had been chasing after him. 

As it was at that moment, none of the specter bodies and the grey cloud that covered it could be found.

The creepy part was its body which was writhing. Fraser looked at the Zaltyr's head and his hair began to billow like there was wind acting on it.

"Spiritus aetherei vocator, solis urere flammis"

The sword Fraser was holding burst into flames as soon as he finished saying these words. He did not hesitate as well, plunging the sword into the heart of the writhing body.

The Zaltyr's body froze as the sword passed through its heart and nailed it to the ground. 

Immediately after, Fraser's hair stopped doing weird things in the air as it fell back to his shoulders. Following this was Fraser who fell to his knees and face-planted, falling unconscious next.

On his leg, he had a large part of his skin cut off. At this spot, there was a purple tint mixed in with his red blood while the skin was already dark purple.

The Zaltyr's body began to melt as it bubbled and turned into black goop that spread across the ground. The same thing happened to the severed head. From the bubbling goop, specter bodies of the Zaltyr's that had been floating around the dark figure emerged and charged flew straight for Fraser Tarren.

They had their arms outstretched and they made howling noises as they flew when a bright white pillar of light fell from the sky onto Fraser's body.

Like a wall of light, the specters got repelled like balls bouncing off of a wall as they shrieked in pain. Following that were literal beams of light that pierced through each of the specter bodies. 

Like chaff in the wind, the specter bodies disintegrated like flakes of burnt paper amidst their painful shrieks.

The pillar of light was simply a shower of light that illuminated the area and a few seconds after the last specter disintegrated, it vanished as if it had never been there. Along with it vanishing, so did Fraser Tarren and the black goop that was the dead Zaltyr.

...

[” Did not expect you to be that dumb. Seriously..."]

Aiden's voice sounded like he was dying and in pain when he replied.

"Do not compare me to yourself. You're a library spirit, I'm not"

["I wasn't comparing you to myself. You don't have one percent of the ability to warrant that comparison. I'm talking about you talking a big game about how you want to do it all yourself. I found you a teacher and then you fail when the tests come"]

"I'm sorry, I tried. You have to know that 3000 plant and animal names, characteristics, and uses is too much for anyone to learn in three days"

["Excuses... You only learned 1400 of them. Not even half of them. This is only the first part, mind you"]

"What did you say?!"

Aiden had his eyes popping out as his jaw dropped.

["What...?! You think the world has only three thousand species. Have you forgotten what I said about every living thing?"]

When Darwyn said this, Aiden remembered it ~ 'every living thing contains aether. It's the reason we try to ingest them'

"I remember", Aiden said in a low voice. Darwyn's point was sound in theory but it was very much impractical.

"I can't learn every plant and animal in existence just to be able to make my potions", he continued.

[” Are you getting dumber or what? When did I say you have to learn them all... Do you just want to get me angry today?"]

”No. Why are you angry?"

There was silence for a few moments before Aiden heard a sigh and then Darwyn spoke.

["That keeper who sent you to the sick bed almost found where my core is. You need to hurry. The library doors are now open and there are enough people in it to cover for you to a certain extent"]

"No wonder you went crazy for a moment there"

["You're calling me crazy, huh?"

"No... But you did go crazy for a moment"

There was no reply for about a minute before the silence was finally broken.

[” You did well, not good enough to my liking but okay. Since this was in your subconscious, everything you learned is somewhere here and if you encounter it, you should remember some part of the information you need to identify it...

You should be able to feel the pull now. It's time to wake up"]

"Thank you. See you soon"

["Hehe... See you being all sweet because I said a few nice things to you"]

"You did say it so I am happy..."

Aiden gradually vanished from the spot and echoing behind him was the statement, ["you've got a lot to do. Enjoy the peace while you can"]

...

Aiden opened his eyes to the walls of the infirmary. He was in a compartment whose boundaries were made with white drapes.

He pushed himself up to a sitting position as his head grew airy. He felt like his head would float up from his neck and a second later the feeling vanished. 

His eyes focused and then he pulled open the drapes as he walked out. 

The infirmary had walls painted white. It was clean, nothing fancy, and almost no one around. He took a lap around the infirmary before he saw a nurse.

"You're awake?", She said in surprise before she pointed to a door not too far away. 

She walked away with the small basket that had medicine bottles in it. Aiden never got to say a word so he turned to the door she pointed to and walked up to it.