BXBX NOVEL Chapter 402 401: In Depth Investigation
Jahi PoV
Leone stood up from the clean contact point, her brow furrowed as she began to walk around the circle, staring straight down at the rippling rainbow marble.
"It\'s... odd. The mana is ancient, yet new. It shifts between elements on a whim, following no set pattern whatsoever, and it is much stronger than the prior contact points... Why?"
She walked behind Kolia, who was still crouched atop the blood and staring at the marble, her eyes narrowed as she tentatively stroked the flickering marble.
"Perhaps it\'s due to prolonged exposure? A Gate that lasted longer than it should have? Or maybe it was a different variant of Gate? No, that wouldn\'t make sense... prior Gates that were opened within the Empire\'s borders were investigated heavily as well, but no one reported things like this... So what..?"
"But those were truly random Gates, both in location and in time spent open... Besides, this was created by something; something that rent open space itself and connected point a to point b... That\'s a different level of power. Perhaps it leaves behind a different trace due to it being different in nature?"
We all looked between the crouching Snakekin Arch Mage and Vampiric Princess, trying to understand where their minds were heading on our own, but...
"Yes, I guess that would work? See this here; how this reacts to my own mana? What do you think of that?"
A thin strand of azure mana arced from Kolia\'s finger, and Leone let out a gasp as Kolia\'s Lightning Mana collided with the mana on the ground, seeing... something happen.
To me, it looked like the rainbow mana absorbed the Lightning Mana, as the azure strand simply dissipated when it reached the floor.
"Wow... So the Ritual Circles here are different as well... Not only is it nullifying your attempt to use your mana to stop the flow, but it is absorbing and adding your mana to the flow... Why though..? What could adding more mana do for it..?"
Mom rolled out her shoulders before moving towards one of the empty seats, her mana flaring as she cleaned it off and took a seat, resting her claymore beside her.
I mirrored her and sat down as well, understanding that we would be here for a while, and there was certainly no way I would leave Leone alone near some weird \'ancient yet new\' mana pool that was the residuals of a Gate.
Yeah... no, so I sat down and watched as my adorable Vampire made the hundreds, if not thousands of gears in her mind turn at rapid speeds, her and Kolia bouncing words off of one another that made little sense to me the longer they observed the contact point.
Anput sighed as well, moving to sit on my knee before stretching and leaning back to lounge on my chest, yawning tiredly as she began to nap.
Nirinia had a similar idea, taking one of the free seats on the other side of the room and lounging down, her Dadao resting across her knees as she watched the two women in the center.
Adelina stood beside the door, her body turned so that she could watch both us and the hallway, where the troops of the Legion scurried back and forth, searching the Palace for anything useful.
The rest of my squad was out there as well, alongside Mom\'s squad and Nirinia\'s squad, aiding in the task of securing and combing through the Palace before they would begin to cleanse the Palace of blood and corpses, beginning to clean the place up for future use.
Most likely, this would be our new home for a few more days, so none of us wanted to reside in filth.
While the two smart mages in the middle of the room began their investigation in earnest, Mom rested her chin on her hand and looked over at me, asking "Did you tell them what I told you?"
Turning towards her, I nodded while stroking Anput\'s hair, finding it soothing to have her warmth washing over my body.
"I did. We\'ve... come to an agreement on what we need to do, and how we should do it. A healthy mix of 60% to 70% of our time being spent in Zhu\'Rong Caverns and other dungeons to strengthen ourselves while the rest would be spent at the Academy in classes that would allow us to both learn and still have large amounts of free time...
Maybe look towards the Hunting Grounds that the Academy has access to, though I don\'t know how valuable they would be compared to dungeons. Each of us knows roughly what we need to improve, and I think we might be capable of reaching the level you want us to in that time frame... but it\'ll be close."
Mom chuckled softly as she nodded, her horned head turning towards the center as she said "Of you three, the one I would say has the highest ceiling would certainly be a tie between you and Leone. Anput is strong, no doubt about that, but your Light Magic and her blood simply offer too much of an advantage later in your lives. There are ways for Anput to grow, and I hope she\'ll look for them in the future... But for now, she might be the most ready of you three."
We both looked down at the dozing Jackalkin that snored quietly on my chest, her cheek nestled against my chest as she hummed contentedly as my fingers ran through her soft hair.
"Of course, I\'m speaking of decades in the future regarding your ceiling and Leone\'s. That\'s also no slight to Anput, since her ceiling is just as high as the Sultana\'s, if not higher; which is already incredibly powerful. After all, she falls just below the Empress in terms of strength... and still slightly above me too..."
She smiled wistfully as she stared at the ceiling, before her - and my - head snapped down as we heard a tear echo throughout the throne room.