Chapter 3: Mission Accomplished
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In the realm of Atilla, the homeworld of the Fair Family and centre of operations of the Confederation’s presence in the Mid-Branches, Blau Fair stood before his men within the control centre appearing stoic and dignified as expected of him. However, his heart is actually in turmoil.
It’s been a fortnight since his daughter was abducted, a blunder on his part when he failed to identify the middle child syndrome of one of her closest aide.
It was well orchestrated that by the time they pieced together what was going on, they’d already made their way out of the Mid-Branches and into the realms under the empire with a fleet ready to intercept them.
Running out of time and with no other alternatives aside from an all-out engagement against the 47th Imperial Fleet, Blau was just about to do that, throwing everything else, to save his daughter when the Head of his Intelligence Division advised him to seek the aid from the 7th Young Master of Clan Fawkes of the Grimlands.
The Grimlands are Outer Branches realms and are at the northernmost clusters of the Galactic Tree. The Clan Fawkes, on the other hand, is ruling body of these realms.
According to the ancient historical records, during the time immemorial when the Omni-King, the creator of the Galactic Tree, was still around, a rift leading to a violent and chaotic universe everyone later labelled as the Voided Reaches had opened at the northernmost part of the Galactic Tree, sending the Unkgoods, foul creatures threatening to feast upon his creations. Initially, he personally dealt with these invaders. However, realizing that the end of the conflict is not in the foreseeable future, he entrusted the task of protecting the north to a handpicked human tribes among his earliest human creations so he can return to his main task which is the ushering of the full growth of the Galactic Tree.
Their fulfilment of the mission started primitively, get hit, hit back harder. But as the invading Unkgoods evolve in strength and power, these protectors had also have to evolve and that brought the discovery of Mana and then the creation of Combat Styles and Cultivation Methods to utilize and cultivate it. These teachings and principles had then spread throughout the Galactic Tree, ushering the creation of countless cultivators either in the form of the Sorcerers or the Martial Artists and Experts.
Eventually, these protectors had also gathered together and unite under one banner and ruler which is now the Clan Fawkes, fulfilling their duties of protecting the Galactic Tree from the Unkgoods to this day even after the passing of the Omni-King.
Hence, their stance in the Galactic Tree, as always ever since the first of wars, had always been neutral and the empire and the Confederation are both completely fine with that. After all, warring with them would be unwise and their destruction would also lead to the destruction of the Galactic Tree.
Their duties made them untouchable.
The Emperor of the One Empire is aiming to become the next Omni-King and the Confederation’s goal is the total restoration of democracy in all the Branches, both which will be pointless if the Galactic Tree is razed into a wasteland.
However, that arrangement is for the Grimlands as a whole. There are individual powers among them that are supporting either the empire or the Confederation or both, determined on who bids higher.
One of the latter is the 7th Young Master of Clan Fawkes, Lugiel Zolrath, only grandson of the current Clan Master, Vincent Zolrath, through his second child of his nine children. He is born a cripple, a blind man, but he grew up as the most ruthless businessman and most talented Alchemist Clan Fawkes had ever produced. He controls not only their alchemy trade and trade routes, he also control a very extensive intelligence network.
So extensive that he can contact the Wandas, the most elusive Martial Experts in the Galactic Tree.
Normally, Blau will not shake hands with people who play for both sides but desperate times call for desperate measures and hence, he heed to the advice.
Contacting him for his service, Lugiel Zolrath simply required two things to seal the deal. First, the p*****t of a million crests (1 crest = $1) for his fee once the commission is accepted by the Wanda and second, is an honest declaration of his non-crest assets. The latter is to help identify which Wanda might likely accept the commission.
The Wanderers, or more commonly addressed as the Wandas, is a cult of nomadic cultivators whose ultimate goal is to rear the ultimate warrior through Combat Styles and armament development and evolution, a principle that aims to prove that race and inborn talent are irrelevant in the path of cultivation.
Due to this, when Wandas accept commissions, they rarely seek crest payments and would instead demand either a precious ore or a rare technique, both which are assumed will be attempted to be incorporated to their existing combat practices and weapons.
Initially, none of his valued belongings could interest the young Zolrath until the mention of the hundred pounds Amylian Steel in his possession, coinciding that one Wanda he’s in contact with is specifically seeking them.
That settled it and a meeting with the Wanda the following day was arranged. He will retrieve Magenta in exchange of all of his Amylian Steel.
It is a rare and precious metal which is a form of currency by itself but his daughter is far more important.
It’s been two days since he accepted the mission where he had also assured that within the same number of days, he will return alongside Magenta.
Wandas are renowned for keeping their words and hence, if they are unable to deliver, it implies that they failed.
He does not want to entertain the worst but he could not help him.
“General!” Suddenly, an officer requested his attention. “We’ve just spotted an aerial presence to have entered into our airspace.”
That’s nothing unusual since dozens of airships would enter Atilla in a daily basis but still, Blau had immediately identified the officer’s concern.
They received no pre-detection of this incoming traveller, both physical or from the back channel.
Given the number of wars which had ignited, big or small, since the development of the hyperjump, people had also equally invested time and resources to develop methods of detecting incoming travellers especially those travelling from the back channels. Unfortunately, there’s one exception which blind all of these detectors: Pure organic travellers such as the Dragons.
They just lack the engines and the energy signatures that the detectors are designed to identify and at the same time, several works had been placed in progress to make ships as untraceable as the organic but to no avail.
“Do you have visuals?” He immediately demanded. “Give me visuals!”
If an organic entity had just entered their airspace, it could possibly be him. The Wanda who received his commission travels through a Dragon.
The officer immediately complied and the audio-visual was flashed on the screen in front of him. When he saw the people reflected on the screen, the weight of worries weighed down on his shoulders these past weeks were lifted.
Mounted to the back of a blue Dragon are his daughter and the Wanda. She looks a little untidy but perfectly well nonetheless.
However, the warm feeling didn’t last long. *Bweeh!* Upon closer visual, Magenta’s face had just paled which was immediately followed by an oral expulsion of whatever she’d just eaten.
“Hey, don’t puke on me!” The Dragon cried. “Boss, help!”
It was not a pretty sight.
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