City of Desire [Kingdom Building]

Proofread by Thomas F

The door closed as my last meeting walked out of the door.

I wanted to cancel the appointment and run to the legacy, but I didn’t. I controlled myself and went with the flow of the day.

If I had postponed it, I would have needed to meet him tomorrow. That would have wasted an hour that I could have spent on practice.

I am still not finished and turned to the file that Argis placed on my desk.

Twenty-five minutes later, I finally walked out of the office. I still skipped dinner. It is something I could.

I walked through the city hall, nodding at people greeting me. It is taking all my willpower not to activate the speed skill.

There are eyes on me, and I don’t want to be seen as odd.

Soon, I reached outside the city hall and stepped into the carriage waiting for me.

Usually, I would pass the time by watching outside the window. It brings me great joy, but right now I could think of nothing but the man in the tower.

Minutes passed painfully before the carriage finally stopped in front of the tower.

The door opened, and I stepped out calmly as I could.

“Master Silver,” the girls at the lobby greeted, and I nodded at them before stepping into the elevator. It is the only thing that moved fast, but felt slow.

Seconds felt like hours before; finally, it stopped at the top floor, and I stepped out.

I walked ahead, not looking at any rooms or halls, which I usually do. I like seeing the rooms full of people enjoying themselves.

It gives me validation and motivates me to do better.

Click!

Finally, I reached the door and opened it before stepping inside. There I saw four people and a fifth one on the ground, in the middle of the complex spell.

Bell, Stone, and Caena standing beside him. I was barely looking at them before turning to the man.

A fury couldn’t help but rise in my heart as I looked at him. Limbs cut off, torture marks all over his body, and those crystalline veins of Serathine’s Kiss.

I hate the undead, but I didn’t even think about torturing them to such a degree; but that man did it.

A few seconds later, I took a deep breath and calmed myself.

“Have you been able to talk to him?” I asked. Caena and Stone shook their head. They don’t have enough control over their aura to do it.

Caena might have been able to talk with the spell, but she didn’t use it. She will need all her energy for the spell, which she will use to extract Serathine’s Kiss.

As for Bell, she didn’t even try. She is a secret; she should remain secret.

I walked toward the man and sat down beside him. “So, I will use the single string?” I asked.

“Yes, a strong single string and follow the method I taught you to go as deep as possible, before you meet his aura,” she replied.

Serathine’s Kiss seals the aura and every sense of the body. The man couldn’t even feel the touch.

This is why Serathine’s Kiss is so terrifying. It imprisoned one in one’s body. It is why there is a fear in my heart that this old man might have gone mad.

I would have, if someone had cut off my limbs, tortured me as such that they left marks on every part of my body, and imprisoned me within myself.

I took a deep breath and put my hand on his temple, beside his closed eyes. If I open them, I would find the glass ball in them.

There were empty holes; the glass eyes were courtesy of Thalewin.

A moment passed, and a string of aura came out of me; it is a thin string, but made of concentrated aura. My control had improved a lot since the battle.

So, the string is pretty powerful, but I tried to burrow inside him. I felt the resistance, and a powerful one at that.

I didn’t push. Instead, I used the method that Bell had taught me to find the cracks. Serathine’s Kiss is powerful, but there are cracks.

One could find them if one knows the method.

Bell’s methods are the best, and it didn’t take me long to find one. I didn’t immediately enter and searched for another and found it.

I continued to search until I went over his whole body.

I found seven cracks, and I moved my string toward the larger one, then inserted my string into the crack. There was resistance, but unlike the solid wall before, this was like mud.

Serathine’s Kiss creates a powerful anti-aura field. It will make things harder the deeper I go.

Serathine’s Kiss cracks run deep to the centre; the thing I have to do is follow, but it’s hard. As I pushed my string deeper, I felt increasing resistance.

The mud that my string is passing through rapidly thickened until it began to feel solid.

It stopped the aura string. I pushed and it moved a little further with my efforts, but after that, it could not.

If Bell had been doing this, she wouldn’t have had any problem. Her control is far superior to mine. In the dominion, and even within the region, nobody could be compared to her in aura control.

I sighed, but not with disappointment. I knew from the beginning that I wouldn’t be able to reach deep with my aura, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t.

The next moment, the power of legacy descended, filling the string.

It didn’t cover the body; I made sure it did not happen. Such thinking could trigger Serathine’s Kiss, and that is the last thing I want to happen.

The power only covered the string; the moment it did. It begins to move.

The power of the throne is immense, and we are inside the throne. So, it is already suppressed Serathine’s Kiss without me having to try.

The string moved fast, going deeper and deeper, but as time passed. It started to slow down. The Serathine’s Kiss becomes more and more powerful.

Until I needed to grit my teeth to push it forward.

It moved at snail’s speed, pushing the string forward with every bit of the willpower and strength of my legacy until I reached the limit.

I could not move further. I could suppress the poison with the power of legacy, but I do not want to kill the old man, whom I ransomed at a truly high cost.

Those bastards really demanded too much. If I hadn’t been desperate, I might have postponed it.

So, I pushed, harnessing every bit of willpower I could muster and further concentrating the power of legacy on the single string, which is harder than one realises.

The string moved, little by little. Its speed is slower than a snail’s, but I didn’t think about that. I didn’t think about anything other than moving the string forward.

Suddenly, every pressure I am feeling disappeared. There was no resistance.

It lit joy up on my face, when suddenly terror appeared.

As I sensed the massive storm before me, it was powerful, seeming to be composed of thousands of tiny blades that would shred me apart.

It reached me in an instant and was about to crush me when it stopped, and a strong string of aura, strong as steel, touched mine.

‘You are not, Zalvane,’ said the familiar voice. Hearing that, I felt relieved; I am not sensing any madness. Rage hot enough to burn the world, yes, but not the madness.

‘I am not, Sir Schengen,’ I replied.

‘Lord Silver?’ asked the man, clearly confused, but also alert. ‘Yes, Sir Schengen,’ I replied.

He didn’t seem to believe me, and I felt his string of aura wrapping around me. Trying to feel it, he seemed to have found what he was searching for as a few moments later, his aura string retreating.

‘That sick bastard wasn’t lying when he said your legacy had advanced to the throne.’He said, with a voice full of shock. ‘But even with his tools, he could replicate this feeling of throne and familiar power,’ he added.

He could tell the flavour of my legacy. It had advanced and changed a lot, but the core of it remained the same.

‘I have been lucky,’ I replied.

‘Luck does not advance the legacy, Lord Silver. Only vision does. I knew you had potential, but even I didn’t expect you would progress this fast,’ he replied and seemed shocked by it.

I, on the other hand, am even more relieved seeing him speaking like a normal person.

‘Feeling this power means I am in the legacy. How did you make that bastard hand me over to you?’ asked the old man.

‘He had boasted about you asking for me, and promised me that he would never hand me over, no matter how much essence you would offer to him,’ he added.

The moment I found out where he was, I had been trying to get him, and it was even before I had awakened the aura.

I had offered quite a lot of essence to Zalvane, but the bastard didn’t accept any of my offer.

‘I ransomed you for Thalewin,’ I replied.

‘Thalewin. That bastard did say that Thalewin is making progress toward his territory,’he said. ‘Did that little welp, Thalewin, capture Greymoor?’ he asked.

‘Yes,’ I confirmed.

‘Do you know him?’ he is speaking like he knows him. ‘The welp, no! I know his father. Had fought against him. Seeing that he has captured Greymoor, the welp is definitely better than his father,’ he replied, but a moment later, I felt something.

‘That bastard isn’t dead, right?’ he asked, and my heart shuddered, feeling the emotion in his voice.

He might not be mad, but he is definitely not fine. I thought to myself.

‘No, he is alive.’ I replied.

‘Good, it would have been really regrettable if he were dead,’ he said, and I shuddered visibly. I wouldn’t want to be Zalvane and others who are on this man’s list.

There was a silence, both of us busy in our thoughts.

‘I am grateful that you are able to bring me here, but it’s regrettable that the old cripple I am is no use to you.” He said, his voice full of pain.

The man was one of the strongest in his order, but now he became so weak that even a child could kill him. I can’t imagine how it must be affecting him psychologically.

“They have genuinely made me cripple, and nobody could fix it, unless you have the aid of the archmage?” he asked.

There are very few people who could deal with Serathine’s Kiss, and the archmage is one of them, but even with all the standing and title he bestowed on me, I couldn’t ask him such a favour.

Also, he wouldn’t do it. This man’s identity is too political, and the archmage stays away from such matters.

‘Unfortunately, no,’ I replied.

‘Don’t be disappointed, Lord Silver. The world is filled with hope; it is what kept me sane. I still have hope that I will find a way and take revenge on all those who have wronged me,’ he replied.

I am impressed. Hope would have died down for me if I had suffered what this old man has.

“You misunderstood me, Sir Schengen. I said, I do not have the favour of the Archmage. I didn’t say, I didn’t have a way out of your predicament,” I replied.

His mind seemed to have gone, still hearing my words; it froze for a moment.

‘Serathine’s Kiss is not an easy thing to extract, Lord Silver. To make me regain my senses, not even the movement. You will need to extract over 95% of it,’ he said finally.

‘I know Sir Schengen. I would say we can extract at least 95% of it. We could extract more, but that would depend on your efforts,’ I replied.

‘How?’ he asked after a moment of silence. ‘Did Zalvane tell you how we defeated the undead that came at us with Grand Horde?’ I asked.

‘He just said, you burned them with Alchfire, as you did before, but that is not enough to defeat a grand horde, much less the one that a Grand Mage was leading,’ he replied.

Alchfire is powerful, but a person of his level could easily tell it’s not enough.

‘Aside from it, there was some witchcraft. We are going to use it to extract Serathine’s Kiss out of you,’ I replied, and there was a silence for a couple of seconds.

‘A great spell, cast by a coven, wouldn’t be enough,’ he replied, accurately guessing a great spell, not a grand spell.

If I had a grand witch, dealing with the enemies wouldn’t have been a problem.

‘Yes, the spell itself might not be enough, but it could be very powerful when the power of the throne supports it.’

‘I also have a method in hand that you will have to use. With these three combined, we will be able to extract at least 95% of the Serathine’s Kiss out of you,’ I replied.

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