Without much of anything to occupy himself with at this time, at least not until the agreed hour arrives Emrys simply chose to levitate all around the place, he had an idea to go explore the other buildings too but gave up on it and instead flew towards the outskirts only to stop once he got close to the statues.
His gaze lingered on it for quite a bit, not feeling much of anything but also having a nagging feeling that this was exactly where something was wrong, but in the end he gave up on what it was and went on his way.
Now a distance away from the outskirts Emrys could feel it quite clearly, the million combinations of auras greatly suppressed in there and trying their very hardest to make sure that almost nothing affects anything over here, the palpable fear those creatures emanated.
Without a doubt this was one of the greatest acts of suppression he'd ever seen over a multitude of creatures, even in how suppressed they were he could still make out those that would be deemed as super strong and yet this is what they had been reduced to.
"How amusing" he whispered to himself.
The little cub suddenly teleported out of his hands and closer to the forest, near almost stepping into it before Emrys levitated the cub back into his arms amidst it's saddened growls.
"Curiosity killed the cat as they say".
"Well, you can't die but the point stands".
He rubbed his fingers gently along it's fur in a bid to placate him "we'll soon be able to step in there little one".
"Just not yet, but soon".
"For now, you'll have to bear with me".
Emrys smiled as he gave the cub's nose a gentle tap and began flying away to explore some more, an half and half later he was done satisfying his curiosity, except for one place.
'Hm'.
He was now back at the housing facilities, although having been here not long ago with Esme he realized that all they had basically done was look around the the outside and hadn't actually stepped a foot into one of them.
'Although i do not know if I'm allowed in there as it should be for residents only'.
With a light shrug and the idea in mind that he couldn't know until he tried, Emrys ignored the surrounding looks from the residents resting leisurely outside and walked into one of the houses.
[Welcome, your highness].
[I am "E", your personal resident spirit].
Immediately as he had stepped through that door, a feminine voice sounded in his head prompting him to widen his eyes in surprise just to frown a second after as if he had gotten a bad feeling. And it was a bad feeling for a question he already knew the answer to, but not wanting to jump through the hoop yet he calmed himself down.
'Take me to my place of stay'.
He sent a mental command towards the spirit whom obliged and teleported right to a door on of the upper floors, looking from his left to his right it seemed this was the only door in this section, most surely due to more special privileges he didn't doubt, but always welcomed.
Upon opening the door he felt himself walking through a thin veil, a familiar feeling which he instantly recognized even before seeing the inside of it which further confirmed his thoughts.
"Indeed, it is similar to mother's".
Looking around as far as the eye could see, all that could be found were nothing but mountainous rocky plains, luscious plentiful green with a thriving ecosystem and deep valleys with naturally formed bodies of water leading into the great ocean.
But what was most eye catching even from all this were the four luxurious mansions seating high above the clouds and spread out in a semi-circular formation with quite a distance between each of them.
"Hm, a poor man's house huh".
"I wonder if this is an attempt at breeding some form of humility".
"Maybe a little show of equality in the midst of all these privileges".
Emrys mused to himself with a smile tugging at his lips, but things were more than confirmed now at this point concerning the status of his situation, he was to stay.
He flew up into the clouds and picked one of the four without much thought but found himself unable to open it, raising a brow at the little surprise he called for assistance.
"E".
The resident spirit finally appeared before him in a form resembling that of a transparent crystal ball on fire.
[Your highness?].
He pointed towards the door "why can't I go in there?".
[Ah, because that is not the residence registered to you].
[You'd need permission from the ones staying in there later on for free access to it].
[But the one registered to you is the last one to your left].
Emrys levitated himself over to it and sure enough, it opened up for him to enter, he turned towards the spirit with one last question in mind "would I be correct in presuming the other residents are my peers".
[That would be correct your highness].
He heaved a small sigh in response to the confirmation "right, makes a lot more sense now".
The spirit was dismissed and Emrys went along to select his quarters in the mansion, preferably one on the upper floors which was where he flew to.
'Wait a second, if they already organized my stay here'
'Then would it not be the same for my quarters as well?'.
As if on cue, a pentagonal shaped marking appeared on the back of his left hand and instantly established a link between he and his own place of stay which he could feel quite clearly was over to his right.
He moved towards it and felt himself passing through the door into his room, as expected it was an almost an exact replica of his own in the palace, familiarity breeds ease into the mind was most likely the logic they went with in making this, but he wasn't complaining for it either.
Placing the little cub down onto the bed, he changed his clothes into something a bit more casual and came back to law down on the bed staring at the ceiling lost in a world of his thoughts while running a free hand along the cub's fur as a way to soothe both themselves.
A few minutes passed in a silence only occasionally disturbed by low growls until finally, Emrys felt he was done organizing all the thoughts swirling around in his head and heaved a sigh.
"Right then".
Emrys sat up on the bed and pulled the red crystal out of his soul space then proceeded to inject some mana into it as instructed, less than half a second later a projection of Esme surfaced and from the apprehensive look on her face he could tell she already knew what this was about.
"So that is why you looked so jittery when introducing the housing facilities Miss Esme".
He clicked his tongue "I suppose they informed you I wouldn't take the news well huh".
She gave a nod in response which elicited a light chuckle out of him "and they were correct".
"Luckily, I've spent time calming myself quite a bit".
Esme remained unconvinced but chose not to speak up about it and instead give a nod of understanding "would you like me to contact them your highness".
He shook his head "not needed, I can do that myself".
"Goodbye Miss Esme".
She gave a short bow and smiled "take care, your highness".
The projection faded away leaving a dull red crystal in the palm of his hands which he placed back into his soul space.
"Aine" he called out to the young fairy who appeared before him moments later, her mood seemed noticeably even better than the last time he saw her after having just confirmed that Irmir's awakening could be arriving sooner than both expected.
Emrys smiled and gave her head a gentle rub "it's great to see you so happy Aine".
"Ah yes, can you help me contact them please".
The young fairy smiled a toothy grin and clasped her hands together, she stayed that way for a few seconds without moving and once she had received an answer from the other side, the space around Aine visibly distorted and rippled like the surface of the waters before a clear portal spanning more than 2 meters in both breadth and width opened before them.
"So then, at least you're all gathered".
Emrys spoke sarcastically upon seeing his family sitting there in clear view and looking mighty guilty which was to be expected, but contrary to what he had expected of himself, it just looked much too amusing and for this most of the fight had already been taken out of him before it even began leading to sigh once again in defeat.
Meanwhile the young fairy whom had just spotted the little cub in his arms and had something primal click open in her mind had already forgotten about the ongoing drama and was now entirely focused on the new playmate she had just attained out of nowhere, a feeling which she could tell was all too mutual by the way the cub looked at her also.
In an instant both vanished from his presence leaving Emrys all to his lonesome with his all too silent family, but a fake cough from Leah broke the blizzard worthy ice growing by inches every second between them.
"Just so you know, I was adamantly against hiding this from you Raven".
"I am a victim of blackmail" she proclaimed, her voice filled with such profound sadness breaking at the end.
And Emrys nod his head sarcastically at Leah's amusing attempt to shift the blame "why of course, of course I believe you sister".
"I know well that there exists no way you, out of anyone else could have willingly kept quiet about this".
He clicked his tongue in mock sympathy "must have been so scary".
"But"– he leaned a bit forward, his face clad in a mask of seriousness and sympathy as he asked – "you know, just to get an idea of things may I know what they threatened you with perhaps".
She blinked "Huh?".
"Oh I know it can't be easy for you to recall such an experience again sister".
"But, still I have to know what abominable machinations these...monstrous behemoths used to silence my dearest sister" he pleaded with sincerity in his voice.
"Errr..." Leah rolled her lips inwards and cleared her throat before breaking out in a nervous laugh as she tried to find a way out of this very deep hole she had dug for herself "the gods help me".
"Hm? What was that?" Emrys asked even though he and everyone had very clearly heard the words she muttered to herself.
Leah raised her eyes to meet his and was just about to say something in defense but held herself back right at the end, "fine" she heaved a heavy sigh.
"I willingly kept it secret from you too Raven".
At her concession, Emrys smiled "yeah, I know".
"So the plan really was operation kumbaya huh" he spoke, addressing the rest of his family who looked to be mildly confused.
"What is *Kumbaya* exactly?" Rachel asked.
He responded with a light shrug "a little something I picked up from a world over on that side".
"Basically meaning togetherness, or something along those lines I think".
Their eyes widened slightly in realization "Ah".
"Yeah, that would be correct then" Rachel confirmed.
It was quite an amusing thing, that the answer he dismissed and thought of as their go to excuse ended up being the genuine answer in the end– "you people are unbelievable" he scoffed.
Rachel laughed and nod her head in agreement "Yeah, but at least you can come home sometimes".
"At least three times a month, it was supposed to be once every two months but...mother and aunty made sure it wasn't".
Emrys raised a brow in amusement "huh, the perks of having the most powerful entities on my side ey".
"You know it!" Hestia grinned proudly which prompted a playful eye roll from his mother beside her, but he could tell she too was feeling a little elated by the praise which made him smile.
"Ah well, luckily seems fun too".
"Quite–
Before he could continue he heard the sound of the front door swinging wide open and the familiar feeling he had ignored hitting him more strongly this time.
"Hm, my new housemate is in now".
"And I think it's the one who hates me".
Rachel raised a brow "how are you already making enemies with them, and what did you do".
Emrys feigned a look of hurt "okay I have to clear my name here, I didn't do anything but defeat him...his defense actually to be more accurate so maybe.....".
From the blank stare on their faces, Emrys remembered that his family had also watched that fight and recognized exactly whom he was talking about now "ah....".
"Right, I also talked down to him the whole fight and uhh...demeaned his magic and techniques for a bit".
"And then also called him a sponge i expected to be dumb, proceeded also to shoot down his dreams although that wasn't what I meant".
"A whole lot happened, it's no surprise if he's angry at me".
Hestia lightly tapped her chin in thought "you know, I'm no expert per se but I think what he's actually angry at you for, is the part where you shut down his ambitions".
Emrys nearly spoke up again in defense of his actions but held himself back at the last moment to do some reflection for a few moments "right, terrible optics no matter how you spin it huh".
They nod their heads in agreement which elicited a tired sigh out of him "oh dear".....
"Well then, I'm off to annoy my new housemate since my lovelies have left me".
"Probably in their own world now, so I'm going to vent on the little guy first".
"Then apologize later after the fight".
They heaved a sigh of exasperation, but, none were willing to dissuade him either from going ahead with it. In context of everything, this is probably as good as it could get and so all they could offer was – "don't forget".
Emry smiled warmly at them and waved "I won't, don't miss me too much".
With a reciprocated wave of their own and some words of care, the doorway closed leaving Emrys all to his lonesome once more with some thoughts swirling around in his head.
'Hm, I wonder why I feel so lively lately'.
'Ah well, I'll think about it later'.
With a new found clarity and a slightly higher elevated mood, he set out to find Bahu. Lo and behold, the search would be prove to be quite a short one as he found him almost immediately still standing by the entrance as if waiting for something and from the way his eyes snapped towards him, he could tell the wait was over for him too.
"Oh dear".
In moments the dark elf was already close and attempting to grab at him with an outstretched hand, but Emrys was faster. He smacked the outstretched hand away first and grabbed him by the throat with his other before teleporting away from the house to somewhere far away up in the clouds.
"Jeez, we'd be terrible housemates if we wrecked the place on the first day you know".
"At least half a year would suffice for a justifiable boiling point situation".
He let go of the elf and levitated a few meters away "that is not to say I don't want to fight you also".
"But I'll warn you first dark elf".
"As the tournament has come to an end, I no longer have any need to fight in a style I am unsuited for".
"Allow me to demonstrate".
<
Before he could even comprehend what was happening, an irresistible force pulled him downwards from the clouds in what seemed to be in instant from his point of view towards the face of the earth. The process was clean and smooth, no disturbance, destruction or rumble travelling through the ground for such a high drop.
'His intent, it's grown so much in such a short time'.
Bahu though acknowledging the growth of his opponent still had his own pride which transformed into a boiling anger at being forced into this state.
'but so have I'.
His mana flared up to the clouds like an enormous pillar of rising silvery white rising flames stained with a deep hue of orange, Bahu roared out with all his might as he tried to repel the force holding him down, a giant magic circle spanning many miles long covered the skies as the blazing mana around him split itself into smaller hexagonal shapes once more and became his full armor.
The earth shook and trembled violently as the weight of his pressure weighed down heavily upon it, them suddenly it was gone, every ounce of it vanished and bringing with it an eerie silence.
<
<
<
In moments after the spell had taken hold and released him from his prison, he was gone. Or at least he was about approaching Emrys once again before finding himself impaled through the chest by lightning arrow with chains spewed from a small vortex of mana on all sides of him.
But even that could only hold him for a millisecond before the active spells he'd casted took care of it as his armor recovered to it's normal state, not bothering to think hard on why the attack wasn't reflected back onto Emrys in the first place, he clasped his hands together and summoned an encirclement of shields around himself before raising his head up to the skies and shooting out an immensely powerful beam of mana with a roar.
The residual force of it's aftereffects, near instantly atomizing everything around him within a 10 million mile radius as the beam travelled onwards and almost collided with Emrys for a split second before it hit a lightning sphere that had been stealthily casted beforehand. A blinding light shone harshly for a few seconds before the overwhelming power began causing ripples throughout the entire sphere as it fought fiercely to be released, but as time went by Bahu's heart sank a little as he began noticing the sphere growing smaller and smaller.
It didn't take a genius to figure out what Emrys was attempting to do and in moments the flow of power stopped as he opted for a new strategy, rather than just himself this time, the originally casted spells area of effects extended outwards like a pulse in an attempt to break the sphere entrapping him.
But contrary to what he had expected the sphere did not even budge once the pulse hit it, instead it was his own spell that dissolved away to nothing thereby talking away the entirety of his protections. His eyes widened and just then he got a premonition, something bad was coming, something very bad and he had to find a way out of this prison fast or it was over.
His mana flared up and from the seven rotating shields around him, four vanished as his power grew by multiple folds and his body began enlarging as did his armor which also underwent some changes until he became a 50 meter tall giant.
<
It was instant and overwhelming, like a hot knife through butter? No, even that was too weak term to describe it as he did not even need to take step, the activation alone atomized the sphere to bits alongside everything around him within a billion mile radius. And then he vanished, tunneling through space with such an ungodly force that it felt like he could collapse the entire dimension at any moment even though he was nowhere near close enough to achieving such a power yet in this space.
But even then, even through such an intimidating display of power Emrys remained undeterred in his goal, and so he moved.
In moments between moments splintered between even smaller moments and at a speed far surpassing the speed of light–
<
He did not even know what hit him, one minute he was tunneling through space at a speed deemed imperceptible even to his opponent and the next he was tumbling through it being ripped to shreds, torn apart and shocked down to his very soul over and over again.
Agony, intense and unbearable rippled through him unbridled. And though he had no mouth left to carry his screams through the lonely annals of space, the very depths of his soul remained equipped with the tools to do so in its stead.
Soon he was pushed out of the fabric of space and into the world a barely recognizable chunk of mutilated flesh falling freely for minutes on end into the deep abyss caused by his very own power reaching a billion miles deep and wide.
As he fell, bit by bit the intense agony clouding his mind cleared just enough for him to begin formulating a thought once again, just enough to understand the pain he was going through now no longer as a chunk of bloody meat but one who had partially recovered from his head down to the left side of his chest.
And then came impact, loud and heavy as he bounced off the sheer force of it to begin tumbling around in the earth before finally coming to a halt still with his face up as luck would have it.
In the far distance he could hear it, the occasional roars of thunder from something unknown to him, it sounded so close and yet so far away at the same time, each roar carrying with it a power that sent reverberations through his mind.
He groaned, not from the impact but from the remnants of Emrys's power still rampaging across his body as he forcefully expelled it out of his system. And after an excruciating few seconds his body was finally free to recover at it's normal rate, he turned over his side using his newly regenerated arms for support and as the lower half of himself reformed, he stood up with his head raised high.
Bahu could see it, even from so far away it was clear as day to him, moving in and out was the outline of a great serpent taking upon the nature of space itself and occasionally emitting arcs of silvery white lightning that seemed masterfully painted over the canvas of the world itself.
At this point he understood it well that this wasn't enough, it would never be close to enough if he ever to overcome the great wall that was Emrys, he needed more, so much more than this.
"Yeah, it's the fault of no one else's but mine".
"But from now on I will treat you with the required respect as the superior being you are".
He let out a breath of steaming hot air and bit by bit shut out the world around him to sink deep, deep into his own sea of power and even deeper until he felt it, the key to his evolution, the next piece of the puzzle.
<
For a moment, just for the tiniest bit it felt like the light of the world had dimmed but the effect left as quickly as it came. Emrys felt something was off a bit and spread his senses to check for the cause only to find that there was nothing, no that wasn't right. He was still in the world but it felt like he had lost touch with it and was existing as nothing, the feeling was so familiar, an effect almost like...obscurity.
He looked down at the source of all this to find an entirely different entity that whom he formerly knew, Bahu had become a man with no face, his entire form transformed into a finely sculpted humanoid being of pure silvery white mana and floating behind him was a large dark circle radiating a silent but overwhelmingly deadly amount of power.
'Dangerous'.
That was the first thought that came to his mind, the current Bahu was on an entirely different level and almost made him feel like he was facing Noctis all over again.
"So then, what can you do" he asked, his tone laced with amusement and a hint of curiosity.
Not even a second later he got his answers and more, all it took was just two words.
<
It felt like every ounce of connection between he and his own power and sense of self had been slightly separated and shifted by just the slightest millimeter, something that looked and felt like it should be inconsequential on the surface but it's effects were absolutely devastating.
In his current state, Emrys was practically nothing but a vegetable. No, it was even worse than such a state as even his own soul had suffered such an effect and had been so meticulously severed at such a deep level that it's current state could not be described.
But even with such an incredible achievement Bahu felt completely unsatisfied, perhaps even a little bit angry though he had no face to imply anything. That spell should have been powerful enough to entirely sever and randomly distribute all facets of his opponent's very existence into the world itself leading to a perfect neutralization of his natural ability to recover as it tricks that very nature itself by technically achieving no harm in the first place.
It only served more as an unfortunate testament to the power of Emrys, but even more than that, it was a reminder that he was still too weak. Still, he would change that, he would keep growing and even now he wasn't done yet, there still remained on more step to end all this.
<
If he could not do away with him, then the least he could do was make sure that this state would remain eternal and that was what this spell set out on achieving. He would be sealed, not in time time or even physically so, but in this very moment and be fated to fall forever into the realm of obscurity until not even his own existence could be recognized by it anymore.
Now his work was done, Bahu had done it, he had taken the first step into proving the words of Emrys wrong about the hierarchy of power between them, proving that their seats do not define nor hold any power over him, that he could become the absolute being he so wished to be.
Yes. He. Had. Wo–
And then there a sigh accompanied by a light chuckle and a slow clap forcing Bahu to tremble in surprise, Emrys was smiling, looking so happy and content, there was even a hint of pride in his eyes when they looked at him.
..."Huh?". That was the only word he was able to get out.
Soon the applause ended and he heaved another sigh "obscurity, the very nature I try to get away from somehow found it's way back to me".
"Do you hear it?".
"It's calling to me, quite earnestly so in fact".
"But unfortunately, I cannot answer that call just yet".
"Only a little bit more, just quite a bit more before we inevitably meet once again".
He smiled and shook his head lightly in amusement "I guess one cannot ever really escape what they are, not even me".
"Heh, you should thank your stars that I woke up first".
"Things almost became dangerous, so dangerous".
"But, it's time we end our little spar".
At those words every crisis alarm went off blaringly loud at once in his head, something very bad was coming and he had to, no, he needed to act fast or else-
<
Summoning magic -: <
<
<
<
From behind him a giant but obscure figure appeared and spreading it's arms wide as everything just stopped like it had been frozen in time including Emrys, but this wasn't that, instead the world and everything in it had slowed down to such a crawl that for anything to move the distance of a single millimeter would take no less that a million years to accomplish.
And a second after that a greyish white pulse spread out far and wide followed by another and then a visible crack.....no, that shouldn't be.
He looked closer upon the crack and then towards the form of Emrys, observing as his eyes steadily turned a starry crimson red and the cracks growing wider as an intensely dark and overwhelmingly powerful wave of mana washed over everything just to disappear the next moment as an eerie silence took it's place for a few moments only to be broken by the sound of Emrys walking upon something he could not see.
Each step caused a small ripple to travel beneath his feet, growing wider and wider as he approached, the alarms at this point had gotten so loud in his head that it became nothing but white noise instead and just then did it finally dawn on him - "ah"...
[The Records Of Emrys – verse 1:-
"If the world is level with me, then the world shall sink one level lower".
"And if I descend one level lower, so too shall the world descend three levels lower".
"And if no level remains for the world to descend into, then it shall give way to me".
Royal Magic -: <
It wasn't an extravagant display, nor a humble one either. Everything simply just vanished in an instant, wiped out so cleanly from the world like it had just suffered a minor reset making everything that happened here basically a dream.
"What is that?" The gentle voice of Rozaria suddenly called from behind prompting him to turn over to face her
He smiled "a self styled spell I created named –The Records Of Emrys – ".
"Structured in the manner of a collection that you can keep adding to, right now it has only one spell that I also created and it has ten steps".
"The first eight steps are practically normal in comparison, but the ninth and the tenth are something so absurd I locked it away almost immediately after I made them".
"Very rarely will I ever make the choice to undo it, so right now it actually has eight steps".
"The last two can't come into play, especially the ninth".
Rozaria raised a brow in confusion at the logic "the ninth?" She asked with some clear doubts in her voice.
But Emrys nod earnestly just the same "correct, the ninth".
"It is the most dangerous by far".
"Hence me making it possible that you can skip to the tenth before you reach the ninth step".
He chuckled to himself at the end "quite honestly, it was quite a crazy day".
She hummed in response "when is he returning, I noticed his form hasn't been reconstructed yet".
Emrys turned to take a look at the empty space where Bahu formerly was and then back to her "estimated to be about a day or two".
"Enough time for him to cool off i'd imagine".
A small look of realization hit her as things began falling into place now "ah, so that's why he's been so touchy the whole time".
"You made him angry".
He blinked multiple times in succession and feigned a small look of hurt "woah, I– I mean yeah you are correct but at least do not be so blunt in proclaiming the guiltiness of my actions".
She smiled and gave a light shrug "congratulations on creating your very own one-sided rivalry for life, it takes some talent to do so".
There was a pause and then a heavy sigh accompanied by a groan as he dragged his palm across his face "thank you for the gentle reminder of what I also did not want to admit, cheers".
And with a small salute he let himself begin falling to the deep abyss waiting below but with a persistent smile on his face and a low laugh reverberating in his throat as he watched her stick her tongue out at him in light of his small misery before vanishing away herself.
"What an amusing little witch".
EnD.