God From The Abyss

Chapter 28: Chapter 028: All You Hosts Of Heaven.....

"Dear, it seems Isabella would love to go school at the Silver Arcane. Do you think we can do it?"

Selena asked, brows furrowed with concern. They had been here a couple of hours going over the finances of the House and it was anything but pleasant to look at.

The Duke rubbed his temples, deeply distraught.

The Silver Arcane Mage Academy was the top academy for both mage and knight aspirants alike, and it was the best institution in all of Tenor (Human Realm) and two other realms.

Established by one of the Saint families closely related to the Imperial Family a few hundred years ago, it boasted centuries of history, superb learning facilities and top-notch professors. Rumors even had it that an elf professor once taught there! Graduates were treated as pseudo nobility, and were always highly sought after. The academy had Counts, Marquesses, Ministers, amongst other noble professors as its graduates. Some rumors place the Emperor himself there as a former student!

Then again, the cost of sending someone there could buy a barony with the balance enough to keep a family of five well fed and dressed for a long while, let alone having three children there! Evander, his first child, was nineteen and was in his final year. And Isabella, just fifteen had finished homeschool and also desired to enrol there! And he wouldn’t be a good father if he couldn’t make the wishes of his children a reality. Lucius, ever the most insightful, had chosen another mage academy as his way of being considerate for the family! For Mikael’s case, Duke Alan was still unsure about the authenticity of his statement so for now, he left the matter aside.

But still, sending two was a difficult matter. The House of Limnor, as it is, could go bankrupt at any moment!

Compared to the other Families, it ranked just above one, one of the reasons being that it was situated at the border with Khyron (Demon Race).

As such, trade was not particularly favourable to merchants and traders.

Not to mention the possibility of another war with the demons.

The Greenwood Forest just a couple hundred miles away was seen as sacred and untouchable. Therefore, harvesting resources from there was not an option, no matter how rich it was. This left agriculture as the region’s main source of revenue.

The Duke pinched the bridge of his nose as countless thoughts ran through his mind. Saying no to Mikael or any of his children was not an option.

He sighed. "We’ll send all of them, Selena. We will think of something before it is time to pay for the tuition."

He turned to Clinton. "My good man, write a recommendation letter for the kids, seal it with the family stamp and send it to the academy before sundown. Also, when Mikael comes back, summon him to the study. I believe the two of us could think up something. Dismissed."

Clinton bowed. "Very well, sir."

The door creaked as he left.

Duke Alan turned to see his wife staring at him, her confusion as visible as her worry.

He held her by the cheek.

"Have I ever told you how lovely you look in a red dress, dear?"

Selena chuckled.

"Spare me the flattery, Your Grace. You never cease to surprise me, and here I thought I had seen it all. Pray, your plans actually work."

"There is none, though," Alan muttered, looking away.

"...What did you say?"

" There is no plan, dear."

+ + + + + + + +

Just before he could take another step, a flicker surged through the back of Mikael’s mind. He staggered, losing his balance.

Then it hit him.

Like a raging bull.

A river of forgotten knowledge surged through him, unfiltered.

Cosmic secrets, arcane structures, ancient laws and philosophies, histories of civilizations—hundreds of millions of them, lost to time. Concepts no mortal words could ever define, that no mortal mind could ever comprehend, crashed against his consciousness like waves filled with rock against a wall. A consequence of touching the Gate!

Mikael’s breath hitched.

A pain throbbed behind his temples, white-hot and sharp, mental, heavy and fast.

He fell to a knee, hands gripping his skull.

"Guess I was a bit too much...cough...in a hurry-." He never completed that statement.

His body convulsed!

Veins, dark green and thick, bulged across his face, down his arms as his eyes rolled white.

Blood seeped out from his nose, and ears as well as from the corners of his mouth. The world spun as he felt his consciousness slipping again, this time, from a more intense pain.

"Such a weak frame," he muttered, gritting his teeth as hard as he could.

’It will be over soon,’ he thought.

But he was in for a major surprise!

Suddenly, his spine arched and shattered. Mikael screamed at the top of his voice, tears involuntarily forming at the tip of his eyes. His spine suddenly began realigning itself after the shock.

However, just when he thought that struggle was over, his muscles tore and his bones cracked, while his organs churned like they were being cooked. By now his eyes were also bleeding.

Mikael’s mind was being overrun and crushed with billions of years worth of knowledge while his body tore itself up on the inside, trying to evolve, to adjust to it! And doing that requires celestial essence, which resulted in the profuse bleeding.

He’d known that reconnecting to the Cosmic Gate, the source of celestial essence, was dangerous for him, possibly fatal. But to get things done, he needed the power. That was the conclusion he reached after he’d woken up earlier in the day, but the pain was a bit unbearable.

Moments later, to his relief, he felt his muscles begin healing and the bones knit even stronger!

In his mind, he discovered he could note the flow of mana around him more clearly. Although all the memories he had received, they settled into his soul as his brain could not process the sheer amount of information it was provided with. A mechanism Mikael wasn’t sure how it ended up in him. Nevertheless, he paid it no heed.

When it finally passed, he rose slowly, a bloodied mess. His posture was the same. Firmer, stronger even. His abilities, the strength, the speed , all of it remained. But something in his gaze had shifted. The look in his eyes was like that of one who had seen and known a thousand things. Like he could understand everything and sundry.

"Well," he said. "Seems we’re done. Completely."

He raised his hand. "Come forth Void Guardian, Ragnarok."

Slowly dark clouds gathered and purple lightning ran across the sky and struck all around the forest causing little fires here and there, and the accompanying thunder boomed non stop.

Reality slit, tore and groaned as the black scythe slipped through the rift and into Mikael’s hand.

"It would be a shame to let this pure mana site go unharvested." Saying so, he drove the scythe into the ground, blade pointing toward the sky, deep enough that its shaft punctured a mana vein.

"Now, Ragnarok, absorb as much as you need. Don’t overdo it, though."

The scythe pulsed, raw and unadulterated mana seeping into it at great speed.

The forest protested and struggled. Gusts of wind rushed through the trees toward its center, toward its ’enemies,’ draining its life force. Slowly, it was losing its precious, green brilliance as the scythe continued to eat away at its reserves of its life.

Here and there, centuries-old trees withered and dried up. Bioluminescent mushrooms died instantly and packs and hordes of Ravagers rampaged and stampeded around.

Yet, despite all the chaos, Mikael calmly looked on, his eyes half-lidded with the boredom of a long-lived being.

The gusts of wind had greatly reduced as the forest slowly gave up its futile struggle.

It was a while before Mikael moved again.

"That should do, Ragnarok. Any more will kill off the rest of the fauna." He drew it out of the ground. " Now, awake! Keeper of the Abysmal Void. Ragnarok!"

The scythe pulsed in response.

Then...

It released a massive pulse of some energy, one different from the mana it just absorbed and that spread for a long way in a large radius! The pulse fell all the dead trees that stood

People in nearby towns felt the pulse as small gusts of coming autumns and they shuddered, believing only that the seasons were once again in flux, while a few who deemed themselves soothsayers and prophets thought that something troublesome had appeared somewhere.

The pulse used up almost everything the scythe had just taken as its dark brilliance from moments earlier slowly dimmed.

" It still hasn’t unlocked?!" Mikael clicked his tongue in pure frustration as he drove it back into the ground as he sat down.

Part of the reason he was here in the first place was to get as much of this ’mana’ so as to unlock Ragnarok. But it would seem he had not truly understood the mechanics of the Old Gods material. One thing was certain though, for himself and the weapon, the mortal mana was nowhere near enough for what they needed! It was just a washed, watered down, inferior version of celestial essence.

The malevolent energy of the scythe still pulsed, albeit weakened. Mikael picked it up, pointing it up at the sky in defiance

" All you Hosts of Heaven that do toy with fate, Aurora," he muttered with a voice that sounded tired and half asleep. "I look forward to seeing you all again."