Chapter 107: Another Eye - II

Kuvie was currently staring at me with narrowed eyes filled with suspicion.

She chose her words carefully. "Are you sure you didn’t ask... or tell them about anything?"

I looked back at her, reflecting her suspicions with a look of pure innocence.

"Well, I can’t say I didn’t tell them anything. I just... asked Clementine if anything was wrong back home." I shrugged and continued, "The moment I did, her expression turned somewhat... frantic? I’m not sure."

Kuvie was still looking at me with that same look.

She wasn’t buying my bullshit.

"Alright, alright. I just reminded Clementine and Lillie about the upcoming Snakespawn conference. Our dear Clementine forgot about something so important, simply because her Vielour Family has long fallen from grace. I gave her a bit of what I knew, so she left early to make various preparations."

Now that one of the Vielour Legacy Chambers had been opened up, Clementine had a chance to reawaken the glory of her clan—completely unaware of Vastha von Vielour’s existence. She was also unaware that her branch of the Vielour Family was simply one of many.

’Actually, judging by this situation, it should be one of Vastha’s moves.’

Perhaps the revitalization of Clementine’s branch was a process Vastha needed, and thus she manipulated the poor young Snakespawn’s surroundings to set her on the path of clan resurgence.

Or, it could be something else entirely.

Too much mana was needed to parse through and identify what that something was. Vastha had hidden her intentions within the threads of <Fate> itself.

That same <Fate> was now manipulating Vastha to do its bidding—becoming another pillar of its machinations. Because of her, Taylor and Lillie had been dragged along with Clementine’s summons.

And because of her branch of the Vielour Family, I was bought into playing the tool that <Fate> wanted.

I wasn’t sure if this was going to lead to a good outcome.

—Whoosh!

The sound of leathery wings rang in my ears.

"Oh, you’re both here? How long have you two been waiting?" Reazue tucked his wings and stepped into the pavilion.

I looked at my empty teacup. Only a few droplets were left, sliding down to the bottom.

"Not long," I smiled and glanced at Kuvie. "Let’s go. Time is paramount for this trip of ours."

A scent of unease settled in my stomach, mixing with the butterflies already fluttering about.

This time, I wasn’t certain of the possible dangers—in fact, I wasn’t even certain if I was excited or anxious.

Perhaps this was the price of becoming entangled by <Fate>.

"We must catch up with Clementine and the others. I have a feeling that something’s gonna happen during that Snakespawn conference."

***

The Primordial Dragon Empress lay above an infinite abyss, sleeping peacefully. To any unknowing onlooker, her silver body was nothing more than a continent floating in absolute darkness—like a planet in space.

The spikes on her back were mountains of impossible steepness. Her scales were vast plains the size of cities.

Whenever she breathed, a vast cosmic stream of particles would swirl around her, devouring the void.

Every breath lasted a year. Six months inhaling the vast invisible energies of the world and another six months exhaling high-density mana and ionized particles.

This time, her nap was relatively short—lasting only four hundred and eighty years.

When she stirred, the void churned as if angered.

It took her a few days to raise her head, seemingly groggy and muddled-headed.

When she did, a pair of blank, white eyes gazed upon the world of Fleim above her.

A giant planet of green, blue, red, and gold.

Somewhere on that planet was a gigantic splotch of white and grey, carved into the world in her likeness. Where its eyes would have been, a snow-capped capital lay in all its timeless grandeur.

It was the Walvaskaz Empire—a true-to-life sculpture of the Primordial Dragon Empress.

Gazing upon her empire, she admired her image for a vain moment before understanding why she’d awoken.

"Hmph,"

With a huff, she went back to sleep, ignoring the world’s machinations.

Invisible to any mortal eye—even the Empress herself—trillions upon trillions of <Fate’s> threads churned, as if to pull Walvaskaz’s owner back down to Fleim.

To force her to participate in its plans.

The <Gods> tried to move her, looking out into the night sky where a lonely silver existence orbited, untethered by the world.

With great indignation and much of their energy, these slaves of <Fate> were silenced upon seeing the Empress remain motionless.

The Primordial Dragon Empress wanted to sleep for a few hundred millennia more.

Had Aventine stood at the pinnacle of mortality, he would’ve perceived this scene despite the mess of tangled fates. The strained movement of so many of <Fate’s> threads would have pinged his senses.

Then, he would’ve given the Primordial Dragon Empress a name.

** *

Elsewhere.

Deep beneath the surface of planet Fleim.

Within the layers beneath the Walvaskaz Empire.

The Prince of the Underworld paused in his routine of management. The ivory typewriter on his desk stopped clacking and clicking. The finger bones that printed letters onto the slotted leather ledger wiggled in surprise.

They seemingly didn’t expect the prince to stop in the middle of his hectic schedule.

"...Did Her Majesty awaken?"

A mutter escaped the prince’s pale purple lips.

The Prince of the Underworld commanded his swiftest spirits to rise into the endless heavens and peer through the Crystal Barrier. Wailing souls thus seeped through the underground and remained undetectable until they shot into the sky.

After a few hours, they returned, on the verge of total annihilation. Having been so close to the winds of Cosmic Mana

"...Her Majesty defied <Fate> to resume her holy slumber?"

The Prince of the Underworld sighed in relief.

He was not ready for the Game of Walvaskaz to end just yet. He needed at least a few more years to finalize the seeds he planned on planting.

Recalling the current state of Necromancy in the world, he sighed again—but this time in resignation.

It wasn’t doing so well.

The soil he needed to farm was still a long way off from being tilled.

’What a struggle,’ he lamented.