Chapter 143 Leaving
Aion summoned his weapon and then stabbed his left hand with it. The pain made the wave of sleepiness decrease in power. Thanks to that, he managed to get up, Aion's mind cleared up as well, and he used Inner Force while thinking that perhaps that would counter the effects of whatever the hell the enemy had used. It worked, and then Aion charged toward the wall.
After Aioned opened a hole in the wall, Aion frowned when he saw a dark whirlwind in the middle of the room and one leg crossing it. The Articirius had fallen asleep, and the sleeping gas still was feeling the room; Artemisia was nowhere to be seen…
Aion jumped toward the dark whirlwind, but he only saw himself landing on another wall. The dark whirlwind began to shrink insanely fast when he turned around to try again and then disappeared. Aion felt his insides freezing when that completely disappeared… they did it again.
The former inhabitants of Artemisia's homeland returned, and now they used something that prevented anyone around from getting in their way. The Articirius never noticed anything because of the sleeping gas kept them sleeping, and Artemisia was probably was on the same situation…
"SHIIIITTTTTT!! Aion shouted.
Even with his protection spell, he was unable to stop the enemies the second time… that was really the worst thing that could have happened. Despite his anger, Inner Force, and the pain of the wound in his hand, Aion began to feel the drowsiness returning to his body. In the end, he used wind magic to get rid of the sleeping gas, but that didn't help that much…
"Wait… does that mean…" Aion thought and then began to heal himself to get rid of the gas on his body.
The effect got weaker but still was there… Aion could tell that his mother was still alive, and the effects of Devotion would keep her alive as long as Aion was alive and had mana. He did well in leveling up that skill for months and increasing its rage when he had the chance… Still, it was hard to say for how long that would be possible. He had to move.
"Move to where? I need to think things through in order not to make any mistakes…" Aion thought while moving around. "Since they are from mom's homeland… they couldn't have survived by crossing this kingdom, so they must be in the opposite direction… unless they are using boats, but I can't imagine anyone working for them."
Aion had to head West. Still, for at least a few seconds, he had to consider his territory being moving. He did that while he was packing his things for a long trip. He thought of asking his father to come and manage his land for him, but that wouldn't be possible with the weddings coming so soon. He didn't have anything else aside from his brothers to trust on the task…
Still, Aion decided to say to his father what he was going to do and ask for some clues. He will be leaving a lot on his hands, but it couldn't be helped. Before flying away from his town, Aion helped his monsters wake up and then head to the dungeon. He gained only half of the experience his tamed creatures obtained, but all the experience might help him now…
Aion wanted to fly as fast as possible, but since he couldn't change his class, his flying speed was rather limited. He could only do so for ten minutes before having to stop and run instead. Moreover, his speed decreased tremendously while flying and running… Guardian's purpose was solely to protect his mother, after all.
"I also can't cheat the system and get mana infinitely… shit," Aion thought.
Aside from buying parameters, Aion couldn't do much else to solve those problems, if only a bit. In any case, throughout the night, Aion still felt the effects of sleeping gas. It seemed that his protection wasn't perfect… but at least he didn't suffer any damage. The kidnappers didn't try to hurt his mother yet. Thanks to that, his mana was being drained at a slow rate…
"I always felt that mother was hiding something, but I was never forced to tell, but Father must know the reason behind this…" Aion thought. "I just hope to know that now won't be too late."
Although Aion hurried and he barely took any naps, it still took three days and three days to arrive in the capital… he had never felt so much agony while moving at such a slow speed. In any case, he arrived in the middle of the night in the garden and tried to call his father with his fighting spirit alone. Maybe that was mixed with some of his bloodlust, but Lexus showed up armed with his sword.
"Aion? What are you doing here?" Lexus asked.
"They have mom… I need to know where they might be," Aion said while having a hard time catching his breath.
"... This isn't good… Tell me exactly what happened," Lexus said.
Aion felt like he didn't have time for that, but he needed some time to rest his legs, so he decided to tell everything. There wasn't much to tell, but his words confirmed one of Lexus' suspicions. Artemisia didn't tell everything she knew about her lineage.
"She didn't tell you that… if she had, you wouldn't have let her sleep in another room after the first attack," Lexus said and then facepalmed.
"What she didn't tell me?" Aion asked.
"... For many years, people thought and said that the inhabitants of the Mirelis kingdom had the favor of the goddess, and that was why they were that much good while using magic and had their own way of using the elements," Lexus said. "However, there was another rumor that never died for centuries… it was the possibility that the royal family of the Mirelis kingdom was direct descendants of the goddess."