"That place, let's not go near it." Just as I was about to walk forward, Vanyssa grabbed my shoulder and stopped me.
"Eh, why?" I asked with genuine curiosity. Sonya was probably there, so it should not be dangerous.
"I do not know, but..."
It surprised me, not because she did not want to enter, but because I had been with Vanyssa since I was little, and I could tell she was scared right now, really scared, but why?
"It will be fine, come on" I said while taking her arm. If it were something dangerous, then I should be scared too. If only she was feeling it, then it could only be a special effect from some skill or artifact.
Too bad for whoever used it, they ran into someone blessed by the moon.
Of course, finding more than twenty people in the whole world with a blessing as powerful as mine is difficult, but someone strong should still be able to resist an effect like this with willpower alone.
As we approached, we ran into some spirits, all of them completely adorable, happily flying around everywhere.
"Look, spirits are sensitive to emotions, if they are this happy it means the city is not dangerous."
To think she is already an adult but still acts like a child. Honestly, Vanyssa worries too mu...
"W-what is this?" Vanyssa's sudden voice caught my attention.
When we entered the city, for some reason all the people we had seen from outside disappeared. Everything became completely silent, the place lost its colors, and everything felt colder and paler.
"Your highness, stay behind me."
This time I did not argue and obeyed. This place looked dangerous, not in the sense that it seemed like it wanted to harm me, but because it felt completely unfathomable and mysterious.
But that feeling vanished instantly when the space cracked like a mirror and the entire atmosphere disappeared.
In the blink of an eye, everything was lively and full of people again.
"What happened?"
"You entered the mirror dimension, after it identified you as a non enemy you left it."
Someone appeared behind us without us sensing anything. Vanyssa immediately drew her sword and pointed it at the newcomer.
But he ducked to avoid her sword. With one hand he grabbed her wrist and with the other struck her jaw, making her step back and drop her weapon.
Before the sword touched the ground, the man grabbed it with one hand while lowering himself, then swept her legs and knocked her to the floor.
When she tried to get up, her own sword was already pointed at her neck.
In a smooth combo of less than three seconds, the stranger defeated one of the best royal guards in the kingdom.
"Who are you?" I asked, pointing my hands at him. Even though my magic was not very strong during the day, I would still not allow anyone to hurt Vanyssa.
The man smiled at me, flipped the sword, and handed it back to Vanyssa before helping her stand.
"I am Korran, captain of the beastmen. I do not intend to harm you, I only came to guide you."
"You, guide us?" Vanyssa asked cautiously, a new respect already present in her voice.
"You are Lady Sonya's guests, right?" Korran asked. "Because if you are not..."
"We are" I said quickly before he did something dangerous.
How could such a dangerous man exist without the elven kingdom knowing about him? And yet he addressed Sonya with the title Lady, meaning she was above him. And if Sonya served someone else here, then that person was even more dangerous, and might even have an army of people as strong as Korran.
With a city possessing this level of power, what exactly was that person planning?
"In that case, follow me" Korran said, interrupting my thoughts.
"Please." With that, we followed him.
Along the way I tried to get some information out of him.
"This place is pretty amazing, isn't it?"
Korran's serious expression suddenly turned into one of admiration, which surprised me.
"Of course, all of this is thanks to Lord Lucifer" he said proudly.
Lord!
So he really was a Lord, but...
I looked around. From the streets we walked through, to the houses, shops, and buildings, everything seemed far too advanced for someone who had been here only a month.
"It is surprising for someone who has only been here for a month."
"Do not underestimate Lord Lucifer. All of this and more is thanks to his effort. What you see is only a small part of how incredible he is."
Before I could ask more, a fireball shot toward me. Vanyssa stepped in front and cut it with her sword, dispersing it.
Vanyssa glared angrily toward the origin, but her expression changed to surprise once she realized where it truly came from.
"Ah, big sister, I am sorry, are you okay?" a small boy with wolf ears and red hair asked nervously as he approached.
"See? I told you not to do that" a girl with the same hair and ears said, smacking him on the back of the head.
Before I could speak, Korran spoke first.
"Be careful, these are Lady Sonya's personal guests."
"L-Lady Sonya's..." the boy said with fear.
"Sir Korran, please cover for us" the girl said.
"It is fine, I am okay, there is no need to turn this into something serious" I said, hearing something that sounded troublesome. "Anyway, it is amazing that a kid like you can cast a fireball."
Even though fireball is the most basic spell, that does not mean it is easy. In fact, since it is the first one, it requires learning all the basics of manipulating mana, so it could be considered the hardest among the normal spells. Of course, there are difficult spells too, but those are powerful enough to deserve the effort.
The boy, who had been worried, puffed his chest with pride.
"Of course, look at this." He summoned eight fireballs behind his head, spinning like a halo that actually looked pretty cool.
Tsss.
"Hey, what are you doing?" the boy complained as the girl next to him, presumably his sister, extinguished his fireballs with water magic.
"What are you showing off your dumb magic for? Look at mine instead." Proudly, the girl raised columns of water from the ground and fused them above, forming a swirling ball of water spinning over their heads. "How about this?" she asked with pride.
"It is amazing, you must be a magic genius, right?"
"They are not geniuses, they are normal. Leave before I call Sonya" Korran interrupted.
SPLASH.
"My hair..." the boy muttered as the water fell on him.
"Dry it with your incredible magic, bleh" the girl said while running away, and the boy chased her. But before leaving...
"By the way, big sister with the sword, earlier you ran in front of the fireball and then slashed it. If you had drawn the sword from the start and moved diagonally, it would have been faster."
"I just got sword advice from a kid who looks eight." Despite the good advice, Vanyssa seemed completely humiliated.
"It is fine" I tried to comfort her. "Those kids were magic geniuses, maybe he is also a sword genius."
"They are not geniuses" Korran insisted.
"But, they were using magic at eight, right?"
"That is because there is a tower to learn magic. Anyone in the city can go and learn, it is not hard."
"A tower?"
That made sense. Towers were legendary structures that appeared randomly all over the world. They were said to have been built by the gods themselves, each with different functions, some even strange, but all of them incredible.
"It is amazing that this territory has a tower." Even Vanyssa spoke with admiration.
Korran's reply, however, was unexpected.
"It is not one."
"More than one tower?"
"How many?"
"I am not sure" Korran said. "Besides the one to learn magic, there is one where kobolds can evolve into beastmen, and another where you can level up by fighting. You can resurrect in those, so everyone goes, those kids too. Having fought so many battles, it is normal for them to see your attack and give you advice, do not worry about it."
"Evolution, leveling up, resurrection, those are powers limited to gods. Who could have such abilities?"
"Of course, Lord Lucifer" Korran answered proudly.
"But..." Vanyssa spoke. "The level of that fireball was higher than the mana they had, how did they do that?"
"You noticed." A spark of surprise flashed in Korran's eyes. "It is because of this."
We kept walking. He approached a fountain and scooped up some water in his hands.
The moment he held it, even if just slightly, I could feel him growing stronger.
"You can drink, it is clean" he said to me.
Ignoring Vanyssa's warnings, I took a sip.
"This..."
"What is it, your highness?"
"This is a blessing" I said, shocked.
"A blessing, that is impossible." Of course, Vanyssa did not believe me, not even I would have believed myself, but...
"I have been blessed all my life, I can recognize a blessing. This is one."
Vanyssa took some water too.
"This is incredible. I can feel myself becoming stronger. So, the water from this fountain is blessed? Can anyone drink it?"
"That is not it."
"I see, if anyone could access a blessing, it would be..."
"All the water in the city is blessed" Korran interrupted.
"All of it." Incredible. The implications of this were... simply unimaginable.
"Is there any other tower?" I asked, wanting to know more.
"I am not sure, there is one that controls the weather to keep it optimal" he answered.
"Certainly, I felt like the weather was perfect since we arrived" Vanyssa said.
That was true. Unfortunately, because of the moon's blessing, I always felt something similar, so I did not notice it until she mentioned it.
Still...
"Evolution, level ups, resurrection, blessings, weather control, all of that belongs to the domain of gods. A single one would be enough for the holy race to celebrate for years before keeping it only for themselves, but here it is available for everyone in the city. This place is incredible."
"Of course it is, Lord Lucifer is the best Lord there could ever be" Korran answered proudly. And this time, I could not help but agree at least a little. A Lord able to give all this to his people, there was probably no other like him in the world, right?
This place truly seemed built by a god.
I definitely wanted to meet the Lord of this city, the one Sonya served.
"Milady, are you sure we should meet someone so powerful? What if he is dangerous?" my guard whispered in my ear.
"It is fine, if Lord Lucifer wanted to harm you he would not have gone through so much trouble" Korran said, having heard Vanyssa's whisper.
"That is true, and even if he is powerful, he is still a person, not a god, so there is always something we can do."
Although, with everything I had seen, if the Lord was powerful enough to have all of this, he could probably defeat us easily. Still, I could not discourage my own guard.
"Right, as long as he is not a god he can be defeated, and as long as he cannot create life he is not a god" Vanyssa repeated, trying to calm herself.
"Right, there are about four summoning towers that can summon certain species from nothing. Thank you for reminding me" Korran said, patting her shoulder before continuing toward the center of the city.
But Vanyssa's eyes lost all their light.
Damn it, if I had not seen that mocking smile on your face, I would have believed you, but it was clearly just bragging.
Even though I cursed Korran inwardly, outwardly I just followed him until we reached the most elegant place in the entire city.
Soon, I was standing in front of two massive doors separating me from the power behind this city.
I took a deep breath and crossed through.
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+15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
p-atreon.com/IAMME26
(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)