Chapter 352

Jacob had waited as long as he could. He needed the portal to get back home. But King Blade had been putting off telling him how to go back to the Sacred Grounds of the Valemont family. And more importantly, it appeared that King Blade wanted to forever seal Taya away.

Jacob had used the Grimoire to copy the Primordial Spell that King Blade had used to access her prison. It had been very easy, thanks to the Primordial Grimoire.

But the problem was that now Jacob had saved Taya, breaking the curse that kept her locked in time — and didn’t have a way to go back.

- - -

A Few Hours Prior

Jacob entered Taya’s prison and looked at the Primordial Spell that had locked her in time. Even the Grimoire struggled to explain what the spell was. And Jacob had no doubt that he would not be able to copy it. Not now, at least. Maybe in a few decades, if his power grew strong enough.

“Doesn’t matter,” Jacob mutters.

He found a flaw. Spells this big were almost guaranteed to have flaws. He jammed a big piece of Mana into it, and Heartfire, and the entire thing collapsed. The light was just snuffed out, as if the sun had been turned off.

And then the girl screamed.

Jacob lit the place with his Heartfire and went to kneel beside the screaming, suffering girl. He could feel that a great deal of Mana was traveling around her body. And then she suddenly stood still.

He had not even yet used the Grimoire on her. He moved a hand to her shoulder to shake her gently.

She suddenly opened her eyes. She had deep brown hair and hazel eyes.

And then she punched Jacob right in the mouth.

“What the hell?” Jacob spat some blood and recoiled.

“Who are you? Where am I? Uncle Gornyakov, where are you?”

Jacob held his bloody mouth, feeling all the strength behind that blow. This girl — her power was around Imperium Rank, just like his. Jacob scratched his head as his wounds closed.

And the girl summoned a bow and drew an arrow, pointing it at him.

“Who are you? Where’s Grandpa Gornyakov? And where’s Uncle Lukyan? What’s happening? They were fighting. They were having a big fight. And Uncle Gornyakov said he had found this Skill that he wanted to teach me. And I don’t remember what happened after. One moment I was there, and—”

“So,” Jacob says, wiping the blood off his mouth. “I’m Lukyan’s son, I believe. And my grandfather used a Primordial Spell to transplant a Primordial God’s power inside of you. And then later used a Primordial Spell — the one that kept you here — to freeze the time you were in, so that the first Primordial Spell wouldn’t fully take root.”

“What?” Taya suddenly looked down at herself. “What Primordial Spell? What are you talking about?”

Jacob started explaining the full story. And her face grew paler and paler until it was white as a sheet.

“I thought it was a nightmare. It felt like a never-ending nightmare. I was in so much pain. So all that time, I was here. For thousands of years. And my family. My mother, my brothers—”

Jacob cringed at that.

“Yes. I fear they’re all gone.”

“This can’t be. Bring me back. I want to see them.” She shouts right in Jacob’s face, tossing her bow on the ground and grabbing his armor. “I want to go back. I need to go back. I have nobody here.”

And suddenly she took a few steps back.

“Wait. Are you with them? Are you with the people who want me imprisoned in here? I didn’t do anything. I don’t feel any different. I don’t have any more power.”

“No, I’m not with them,” Jacob says, looking at Taya. “I… when I heard from King Blade what happened to you, I decided to help you out. I lied to him after he showed me how to access this place, saying that I was fine with you being here — but, well, I had a way to fool his truth spell. And we should go, by the way. It’s not safe for us to stay here.”

Taya looks at Jacob, distraught, but he urges her to pick up the bow, and they soon leave.

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Jacob casts a Primordial Spell to disguise them both, and they take to the streets of Zamorye. As they blend into the crowd and enter a tavern, ordering some food, Taya keeps looking around.

“You look too suspicious like that,” Jacob sighs. “The capital is probably going to be teeming with guards soon. We need to keep a low profile until I figure out how to get the hell out of here.”

And that’s when Taya asks a question that has been on her mind for the past hour.

“Why did you free me?” she asks Jacob, looking straight at him.

“Because I’m not a psycho?” Jacob replies with a shrug.

“What?” Taya’s confused. “What do you mean?”

“Why wouldn’t I? What are you talking about?”

Taya just stares at the camouflage that Jacob is wearing and says nothing for now.

She was royalty, and she’s been trained since she was a child. Grandpa Gornyakov took advantage of her naivete and her trust in him, but she’s no fool. And yet, this young man is claiming to have saved her just out of the goodness of his heart? After being imprisoned for so long, Taya just can’t bring herself to believe him.

But looking into his eyes, Taya feels something. It’s the first time she has felt a weird sensation in her body since Jacob told her that she has the power of a Primordial God of Chaos.

Taya feels Karma. The word appears in her mind before she can even think it.

And suddenly, she believes Jacob Cloud. She smiles at him now, grateful.

“You just saw someone suffering and thought to destroy a spell that had imprisoned me for so long. A spell your father — one of the most talented descendants of Rafnov — couldn’t break.”

“I, I kinda cheated.” Jacob brushes her off. “And any knight would do this. Oh, I’m a knight. Well, apprentice, by the way. That’s why I’ve done it. Just trying to keep up the code.”

But Taya can read through the shyness of the response that Jacob has not done it because of the code. He’s done it because he himself found it unbearable to see her like that. In all her life, despite the great figures that she has met — including Grandpa Rafnov himself — she has rarely seen a man with a heart so pure.

“And what’s your plan now?” Taya asks. “If you come from another planet, how are we going back? You said you don’t know how to create the portal, right? And I have no idea either.”

“Well, there are a few options,” Jacob says. “The most likely way is to get in touch with Liuthkrav. Um, well, that is—”

“You know Liuthkrav?” Taya’s eyes went wide. “Oh my goodness.”

“What? You know Liuth— You?” Jacob says, stunned. “You know Liuthkrav as well?”

“Of course I do. I grew up with him. He was my guard.”

Jacob is stunned.

“What? That’s… He went missing right before I was frozen in time by Grandpa Gornyakov.”

“Oh, maybe they sent him to our world so that he wouldn’t be able to help you,” Jacob frowns. “I guess that that makes sense. Senior Brother Liuthkrav is pretty strong.”

“He recognized you as his junior brother?” Taya couldn’t believe her ears.

Liuthkrav, the Mithril Golem, was one of the most aloof creatures that Grandpa Rafnov had ever created. One of the first, and one of the most formidable.

“It was hard,” Jacob nods, “and fragments of Rafnov’s spirit had to scold Liuthkrav several times. But yeah.”

“I can believe it,” Taya muttered. “I— I want to see Liuthkrav again.”

“I mean, I think that I can build an array to communicate with him. We have a way to be in touch. He was scouting for more Rafnov Trials on that world, and he probably knows how to access Zamorye, I would guess. Or at least how to reopen the portal. He probably doesn’t know that the Sacred Grounds of my family were connected to it.”

“Yes. He was probably banished to your world. But if you tell him where the portal is, he could go there and find the coordinates that we need on our end, and we could finally open the portal, and—”

Taya goes silent. She doesn’t know what comes after that and.

And what? What will she do?

“I have nobody,” Taya realizes. “Everyone I know is dead.”

“I mean, I don’t really wanna speak to the man that much, considering that apparently I am the son of an extremely talented warrior and whatever, and my talent was crap. But I think that I can bring you to my— to my father.”

“Lukyan is still alive?” Taya says with wide eyes.

“Yeah. And I guess he’ll know, uh, what to do.”

Taya nods. “This is the perfect plan. We just have to escape.”

“Yeah. And also, the kind of resources I need for this Primordial Spell are, like — how can I put this? I think we need to accumulate, like, an entire treasury worth of materials that will be consumed for this spell to open a channel of communication with Senior Brother Liuthkrav.”

“Whatever you need,” Taya says. “I have access to—”

And then she stops.

“Well, I guess that that’s not true anymore. But the market in Zamorye is the most prolific on the entire planet. The amount of riches that flow through here has always been unparalleled. And if there is a war that we are now winning against Apocalypse, there must be more resources than ever, thanks to Rafnov’s Bounty.”

“I see,” Jacob says, scratching his chin. “This is going to take a while, though, isn’t it? And we have to hide from the guards.”

“Yes, but we can do it, Jacob,” Taya says.

Jacob growls and puts his hand on his face.

“I bet that that bastard Lancelot is stuffing his face on the beach, doing nothing, eating away all my money.”

“Who’s Lancelot?” Taya asks.

“My Squire,” Jacob sighs. “And he’s probably going to be taking a long holiday while I slave my way here, probably just to finish in time for when the next semester of the Academy starts.”

“Oh, you are an Academy member? Of what?”

“Oh, it’s just— Never mind. It’s fine. So, where’s the market?”

“Follow me. It’s—”

But right as Taya was speaking, two guards entered the place, scanning all the guests and then stopping to look at both of them.

The guards approached Taya and Jacob, and Jacob could see that they were both Early Adamantite Rank. He got ready to fight for his life in case he needed to, and glanced at Taya so that she would know she might have to do the same.

But as soon as the guards arrived in front of them, they smiled at the girl and said, bringing up a large bag, “Miss, we found this bag. I believe you might have lost it.”

The two pushed the bag into Taya’s hands and then just walked out of the tavern, like that.

Taya opened the bag and found many, many Adamantite coins. A small fortune.

Jacob looked at that, completely confused, and then said, “Holy— wait a second. Is this part of your Primordial God power or something? Chaos, I guess? Or luck? Maybe luck is chaos?”

“I don’t know.” Taya put that bag away in her Interspatial Ring and said, “Well, we will need some luck.”