Chapter 330: Dark Ship
Sophia sneered at the genius alchemy aspect holder. She added in a chuckle, "Well, not like I need you to tell me where she went, I will find her on my own."
With a fling of her hand, she threw Vyra to one side. Her body crashed onto the ground, and she was slightly injured as she coughed up a mouthful of blood. Vyra had the urge to attack her, but she managed to control herself. Trying her best to calm her emotions because if she attacked, it would only make things worse. She wouldn’t stand a chance against her and would be beaten even worse.
Sophia, unconcerned by Vyra’s thoughts, used her powerful senses and followed the trail of mana left by Lumina, but the problem was that there were multiple trails left in different directions; she didn’t know which way she actually went. She thought for a moment about the likely place Lumina would go and dashed forward like an immaterial wave of darkness, gliding through the now utterly empty campus area. Since pretty much all the students were in the ballroom.
Sophia soon saw her. Lumina was sitting on a bench in a lone park looking towards the bright moon in the sky. Her beautiful yellow-ish dress was a bit dirty. Her face was that of someone who had been crying for quite a while. But she didn’t have any tears on her face at the moment. But only a hollow expression.
Sophia did not hide her presence and walked calmly towards her. Lumina noticed the new presence near her and her head snapped backwards in caution. But she laughed, seeing the beautiful visage of Sophia. A beauty that far surpassed her own by a high margin. Countless emotions surged within her, a tangled mess of jealousy, hatred, betrayal, and disgust. All came together and created an inferiority complex within her.
She laughed, feeling overwhelmed by the negativity inside of her; a part of her almost wanted Sophia to vanish. She wished that the valkyrie had never been summoned into this world.
Lumina stood and clapped, "That was such a beautiful dance, Sophia, with your boyfriend. I never knew you could dance so beautifully. Truly, you are best at everything."
Her tone was dripping with sarcasm and hatred. But Sophia only smiled, "I wish he were my boyfriend, or maybe even more. But this soul brand that makes me a slave wouldn’t let me, would it?"
Lumina furrowed her eyebrows. That’s right, she obviously knew of that feature of the soul brand, she added in a disgusted tone, "That didn’t stop you from making Axel into your puppet, seducing him with your beauty."
Lumina stepped closer, hatred overflowing in her voice, "Are you feeling proud, sister? You took him away from me? The one I love."
Sophia could see tears gathering in Lumina’s eyes again, utterly broken by the betrayal, "I’m not sure what Axel told you. But I think you’re misunderstanding something. I’m not here to console you. I’m here to warn you, princess."
"Axel was never yours to have; he was always mine. He was born to be mine. He will always be only mine and mine alone."
"Forget about him. I’m sure you can find someone better befitting of your status."
Lumina felt utterly shaken by Sophia’s ruthless statements; she could not help but mutter, "Who are you?"
Sophia did not answer and stared back at her blankly. The princess asked again through gritted teeth, "And what if I don’t stay away from Axel?"
Sophia smiled in a way that wasn’t a genuine smile, "You will only fuel your own disappointment, because he can’t have feelings for anyone but me, but apart from that."
A wave of colossal darkness surged from behind Sophia, almost engulfing the princess in a suffocating embrace of terror, as the valkyrie iterated darkly, "If you don’t stay away from him, you will see what kind of monster I genuinely am. Lumina Suncrest."
Sophia vanished from the spot after saying that piece, not a shred of mercy from her side for the princess who was the most kindhearted of all. Lumina dropped to her knees. The people she was closest to, the ones she called sister, betrayed her. The one she thought to be her friend, even before she had any feelings for him. Axel also betrayed her.
She muttered in a broken voice, "WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY ARE YOU ALL BEING LIKE THIS? WHY WITH ME? WHAT DID I DO? WHAT WAS MY FAULT?"
***
Unconcerned with the pain she caused to the innocent Lumina, Sophia headed back to the ballroom. The feast should have ended by now, and the second dance would begin. As she entered, all eyes landed on her again. She saw that Axel was on that same table with his friends, they had just finished eating, and they seemed to be chatting amongst themselves.
A female staff member approached her and asked if she wished to eat; if not, the second session of the dance would begin. It seems it was postponed for a few minutes for her arrival. She agreed to start the second session of the dance. An announcement was made to start the second session of the dance, and the beautiful melodies began again. The chandeliers sparkle even more brightly, with a mix of different colors. This time, the soundbeats of the melody had a sharper, snappier rhythm.
Because the dance theme was also different this time, everyone paired up with their partners. Axel walked towards Sophia. He extended his hands, and Sophia took his hand without any fanfare this time. The pair of transcendents resumed dancing. Each of their steps is impeccable to the point of absolute perfection.
Sophia, noticing his absent look, asked with a frown, "You’re still thinking about Lumina while I’m right in front of your eyes."
Axel smiled wistfully at that statement, "No, of course, not. Is that even possible?"
Sophia was taken aback. He was actually speaking the truth. She questioned with a deeper frown, "Then why do you have that sad look on your face?"
Axel touched her face, "Senior sister, you shouldn’t make that expression. It doesn’t look good on that angelic face of yours."
Sophia pursed her lips and nodded. It wasn’t only Sophia who knew how to push Axel’s button. Axel also knew what to say to her to bring out a specific reaction from her. The rhythm of the dance continued to accelerate at an increasingly rapid pace. So did the tension grow within Axel. His grip on Sophia’s body tightened more; he embraced her tightly in between the dances. Sophia stared at him in confusion, seeing him being so clingy to her.
***
The principal who had been maintaining the spatial dome for almost a week, with the help of his clones, felt absolutely exhausted and drained. No, it was more than that. His spirit itself felt like it was on the verge of being torn apart.
His main body was hovering directly above the spherical dome; his six clones were positioned within the dome, evenly scattered in all corners. To put it into a more understandable perspective, with his current information processing speed and power, Alric Stragoy could probably process all the public and non-public accumulated data of the entire modern Earth in just 5 to 10 seconds.
Because in this spherical space, he was monitoring, controlling, and predicting the following few seconds’ movements of every single grain of matter. Every single second felt like eternity; it felt like he had aged a thousand years in just a week. Of course, most of the information was being monitored by his subconscious with just one simple command, which would draw his active intervention. That is the detection of any outside force.
And then suddenly, the eyes of the principal’s main body shot wide open. The primary reason his main body was outside the dome was to detect any external threats as well. He slowly turned his head far in a specific direction. His gaze traveled multiple kilometers ahead, ignoring everything on the surface of the raging ocean. There, he finally saw an enormous, dark, and damp wooden ship, but it was so large that it was identical in size to the legendary Titanic itself.
Moss and dirt covered the entire body of it, as if it were a miracle that the ship had not broken down. Wherever it passed, a trail of dark substance would turn the water as deadly as poison. All the sea creatures in its path continued to die and floated on the water’s surface.
And on the front of that large wooden ship was a flag. That symbol of a black skull on a white cloth, a symbol that belonged to none other than the sole force of undead within the entire Eldarion continent.
The shock in his mind was so great that he was visibly struggling to maintain his composure and the spatial dome. Every single cell in his body went into complete alert mode as he stood up; the same went for his six clones. There wasn’t enough time for him to properly alert the other professors. He employed his most potent forms of inspection magic.
But what he saw only increased the bad omen he was feeling; there was not a single thing on the deck of the ship anywhere. Yet with each passing second, the haunting dark ship drew closer and closer to the island at an unimaginable speed, but what or who was operating it, he did not know. Or was there an illusion cast on it? For which he could not see?
One after another, countless possibilities flashed through his mind, one worse than the last, until his gaze reached upwards to the topmost part of the ship. On top of that wooden pillar in the middle of the Ship. A skeletal, dark entity radiating incomparable power stood, wearing magical clothes engraved with powerful spells; the entity’s eyes shone with a blue, deathly fire. In its hand was a mighty scepter and a white, uneven orb placed on top of it.
It was a high lich.
The impending terror in the heart of the principal reached its peak as his eyes met with the dead eyes of the high lich, and from what he could see, it was the only thing on that gigantic dark ship, and yet, it alone was enough. The lich, in a deliberately slow manner, held its scepter forward. A devastating dark beam shot forward, covering a distance of three kilometers in just two seconds.
The principal shouted in desperation, "Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo......."
Every single hair on the body of the principal stood on end. In just a fraction of a second, he halted all the calculations of the spatial dome he was upholding. Transferring it all to his clones, even though they weren’t capable of handling it all. Then, using his now available 50% of the calculation power, and all the mana he could muster, firing a majestic ray of light, almost comparable to the power of the dark ray itself... almost.
As the black and white powers collided into one another, an explosion of binding white brilliance occurred over a three-kilometer area.
And with that single attack, officially for the first time... in more than 10,000 years, the Ghost Empire had made its move on the mainland of the Eldarion continent.