19 Pieces Everywhere (2/2)

”Spill it” Yu responded with a forceful tone

”Ye-Yes! I-it's just a speculation but I th-think it was the darkness, when it swallowed up that cloud the Elar's summoned I saw some sort of dark thunder streak through the sky, after some time I regained my power!”

The fatty gulped, he didn't want to throw in uncertain information but that was better than saying nothing at all

'Darkness? The Elar's cloud? What the heck is this guy talking about'

”Hmm I was playing in the South all along, tell me what happened in the other regions”

As Yu was talking he shifted his body so the fatty could look into the room, he didn't want to cause any doubts that gave Gongon any funny ideas

Gongon's sight fell behind Yu as he peered into the room he didn't pay much heed, once his eyes adjusted to the dim light they suddenly delated as he saw bodies sprawled in the ruins, a sour taste found its way to his mouth before he pushed it down and calmed himself, people couldn't die here but it seems the devil before him found a way around that, now he had to play his cards right or he might end up just like them

”Alright, I will explain everything from the beginning, when I first started I was-”

”Keep it short!”

Gulp!

The fatty lost all his cool as he stuttered trying to summarize as much as he could

”W-w-when I was looking for someone I can defeat I found out the West was already united by the Elar family y-young masters and they even invited me, bu-but when I heard that I had to sacrifice my beast for a ritual I r-refuse and ran, after that when the war was waged between them and the Shenai's in the East I saw darkness approaching form the North, th-then…”

The fatty continued to explain for a whole minute, although his story lacked many details but its continent shocked Yu to the core for it was enough for him to piece together the puzzle, the Elar Family's cloud, the removal of restrictions, and lastly his own dilemma, the Life Negation Lock

”Argh! Get out of here fatso! Go to the woods if you want to hide! Don't show yourself in front of me”

”Y-y-y-yesss!”

Even though he didn't know why ”Mous” was suddenly so angry he decided to run while he had the chance, so he urged his mount to pump everything it ad into its feet as it he headed to the woods at the back

A few seconds after the buffalo's figure couldn't be seen anymore Yu called out into the woods. A white snake then made it way to his side, he patted its head before it climbed to his shoulder and started flipping its tongue probing the surroundings, it would do its best to alert him when anyone came

Yu on the other hand sunk into deep thought, he started thinking about the newly uncovered conspiracy, he was sure his siblings hadn't managed to uncover it as well, for they were missing an important piece of information, the Life Negation Lock!

The reason he thought this was a conspiracy was because the restrictions put in this Dimension could only collapse if a Rune as powerful as the one in effect was introduced into it, for even if a powerful entity entered the Dimension then it would only trigger self-destruction while the everyone inside would be booted out, the fact that he and Gongon were still here and that the Life Negation Lock was in fact a Rune, just an advanced Rune meant that it was the former explanation

'Of course they wouldn't tell Zuku and the rest about it or else they would rush here to protect me, we are, after all, family'

The management had used the Rune directly on him, while they gave it to the Elar's to conspire against his siblings, it seemed like the management had it in for the Shenai family

'Runes… I need to recall everything about them'

He focused his mind on the memories the former owner, if he wanted to get out of this tricky situation then he needed information, and what better source than the heap of knowledge forced onto the young Yu, while one would be hard pressed to recall everything he learned form childhood the former owner's memories were actually like an open vault of record to Yu, all he had to do was know what he was looking for, so it only took him a fast minute to gather everything he needed about the situation

Runes, as a representation of the world's laws, were divided into 9 Sets: Fire, Water, Earth Wind, Yin, Yang, Void, Chaos, Order. Each set contained the basic Runes that corresponded to the set's law, the number of Runes yet to be unidentified for it is said no one can learn all the Runes of even one set in a whole lifetime. The people who use Runes are called Runeists, they are divided into three categories: Basic Runeist, Intermediate Runeist, Advanced Runeist

A Basic Runeist is one who know how to conjure a Rune form the nine sets, thus they are divided into nine ranks, each rank representing the mastery of a Rune from a different set

An Intermediate Runeist is one who knows how to ”Use” the Runes together to achieve a magnified affect, why his teacher emphasized the word, use, Yu didn't know, in any case, Intermediate Runeists are further divided into nine ranks, each rank represents how many Runes he can use together, thus they use up to nine Runes together

An Advanced Runeist is one that can use from ten to ninety-nine Runes together, an unfathomable existence even in the Southern Paradise

'Hmmm, so how did you come to be'

Said Yu as he looked at the Castle Core

'An advanced Rune like the Life Negation Lock couldn't have been made by the Elar family, if they were that capable then they wouldn't have settled with their current position as the third strongest, they must have someone helping them, but why?'

Yu racked his brains but couldn't recall anything important, to begin with the Elar family were very secretive, thus not much information was known about their strength, the only thing he knew was that even as nobles they never fought head on and always resorted to tricks, they were despised even though they were the third strongest

'But can I really only wait for the darkness to devour me?'

Such a thought didn't sit right with Yu, but his siblings knew even less than him, and it appeared as though the disaster from the North had nothing to do with the Elar family, as Gongon told him he saw with his own eyes how the second young master, Elar Vracdous, get swallowed up by the darkness. So with none of the people coming having a better idea of the situation the only thing they would accomplish would be prolonging their demise

'Maybe the management wanted to erase all evidence?'

Yu thought, but soon he shook the thought away

'Why would they go through all this trouble, if they wanted to do so that much they had no need to put the Life Negation lock in my Core, nor help the Elar family'

Sigh

Yu breathed out in frustration, he didn't understand why they would employ such a multi-step…. multi-step?

”Ah!”

Everything suddenly fell into place in Yu's mind

”Hehehe, what a smart plan, if I didn't have all the pieces together I would have never figured it out”

A wild cackle escaped Yu's mouth, with the hood covering his head and the snake hissing at his side he seemed like a true devil

'Hissing?'

Hissss-

”They came already? How many”

Hissssssss!

”Oh a lot I see, well then I guess we gotta move it, but before that…”

Yu looks toward the Core room with a playful gaze

”We can't welcome our guests like this now can we.”

He then walks into the room with a spring in his step, even though it's still painful to walk that fast