Otherworld Adventure 299 So Close

"We're beastkin, thank you very much!" Lucia replied.

Hearing her words, Rowan immediately began apologizing. It was his first time seeing beastkin so he was similarly surprised, but he didn't show any disgust, just curiosity like the rest of them.

Quinn however was shocked beyond compare. He had been traveling with his two Madams for 4 years, yet this was the first time he knew about their secret. Quinn wasn't familiar with the beastkin culture so he was worried that he had inadvertently offended his two Madams in the past so he hurriedly began apologizing.

"Ah, my two Madams, I...If I have shown any disrespect in the past due to my ignorance I—"

"That's enough, Quinn. You haven't disrespected us in any way. Revealing our true selves isn't going to change your att.i.tude in serving us, no?" Serilla cut him off and said.

"Of course not, my Lady!"

"Then just continue as you have been doing."

Angelia had her arms wrapped around one of Lucia's fluffy tails. Over the past couple of years, Lucia's cultivation in her family's technique had reached the stage where she now had 7 tails. Only 2 more stages before she was able to have 9 tails like her mother.

"Angelia, would you like to transform into one of us?" Lucia asked.

"Transform? You mean I can look like you two as well?!"

"Yup~"

"Then...then... what did my brother transform into when he was on the other continent?!"

"Naturally, he was like me~"

"Then I wanna look like my brother!"

Lucia smiled and cast a transformation spell on Angelia.

Two cute fox ears popped up on top of her head and 3 tails sprouted from her rump. She looked just like the girl version of their husband when he was still 13 and the two women couldn't help but swoon at Angelia's cuteness.

"Huhuhu~ you look just like darling when he was young~"

"Yeah! Except you have long hair!"

"Nahahahaha~" Angelia raised a happy laugh and she began to curiously touch her ears and tails.

"Mom, look! I look cute right?!"

"Yes, you do honey~" Anastasia replied as she curiously began rubbing Angelia's ears.

"Hihihi~ that tickles~"

Kaiser was eyeing the way Lucia had suddenly transformed her youngest daughter. She only lightly waved her hand in the air and snapped her fingers before her daughter suddenly transformed.

"So...is this magic? You can use mana, Lucia?"

"Naturally—eh?"

"Lulu!"

"M-My mana! It's back!"

Her exclamation raised some question marks in the room, but Rowan and Fatima were able to understand her.

"Lucia! Shouldn't you be able to call Cecil now?!" Fatima exclaimed.

"Y-yeah! Wait a sec," Lucia immediately pulled out her MID and called Cecil, but she suddenly sensed Yuna trying to connect with her.

'Master!'

'Yuna!'

'Master, are you okay?! We couldn't contact you these past few weeks! Is something wrong?!' Yuna asked worriedly.

'I'm currently trying to call Cel, we'll talk later!'

'Okay, Master! I'll immediately let Master Cecil know.'

Right after Yuna disconnected her mind connection to Lucia, she immediately informed Cecil. Cecil immediately pulled out his MID and saw Lucia trying to call him and he connected the call.

"LULU!"

Back at Lucia's side, when everyone heard the familiar yet unfamiliar voice that came out of the small device in Lucia's hands, they could all immediately tell that it was the grown Cecil's voice.

"It is him..."

"Big brother!"

"Cel! Where are you?! We need you to get back here quickly!"

"I know! Is Seri with you?! Is she alright?!"

"Seri? Yes, she's alright."

"...Good...nothing bad happened to her...right?"

"Eh? Uhm..."

"I used the Providence and I saw something... she wasn't hurt right?"

Lucia immediately understood what Cecil meant so she quickly replied, "NO! Nothing happened to her. Quinn was able to save Serilla on time!"

"... Is that b.a.s.t.a.r.d still alive?"

"He is!" Serilla answered in Lucia's stead.

Cecil released a relieved breath when he heard Serilla's voice.

"...Wait for me. I'm already close to Regulus."

"Cel, we aren't in Regulus anymore!" Lucia immediately answered.

"Huh?"

"We found your family! And, we're currently staying in their kingdom..."

"Kingdom?"

"Yes, it's located inside the land behind the Sky Piercing Mountains!"

"Okay."

"Do you want to talk to your family?"

"...It's better if I talk to them face-to-face..."

"Oh...okay...by the way. We've landed ourselves in a small problem..."

Lucia immediately began explaining to Cecil the situation she and their family was in, the Regulus Kingdom's treachery and the Merkruz Princ.i.p.ality's army which were now baring their fangs on the Silvaria Kingdom. Kaiser also gave her the current update that the kingdom was in and Lucia informed Cecil all about it

On the other side, Cecil's gaze immediately grew cold when he heard Lucia's recount.

"Give me your location and I'll get there soon."

"We're at—"

The call suddenly disconnected and this caused Cecil to frown. He tried calling Lucia again, but the call wouldn't connect. Yuna was also unable to connect with her master again and Cecil immediately knew that this Merkruz army was already at his family's doorstep.

"Yuna, we need to speed up! Through your connection, were you able to see where she was?"

"I-I'm sorry! I was too frantic that I only asked questions and didn't take a good look around!" Yuna immediately apologized.

"It's alright, even if our connection's cut, we already know the general direction. Lucia said that there was some sort of mountain pa.s.s in the Regulus Kingdom that goes through the Sky Piercing Mountain Range which directly leads to the Silvaria Kingdom. This is the pa.s.s that the Merkruz army has taken. We'll head into this pa.s.s as well and catch them from behind!"

"Time to kill, Master?"

Cecil eyed Silver and looked ahead coldly, "If we must, but I want you and Yuna to send Ren over to my family's side before you guys even think about joining the battle. Remember, these people seem to have some sort of weapon which interferes with mana! If my family has the same bodily const.i.tution as me..."

"Then they won't be able to use mana or aura!" Silver exclaimed.

"Yeah...so I need you 3 to help in the kingdom's defenses. I'll take care of the rear. I alone am enough...I'll crush everything in front of me..."

"Just don't overdo it, Master, we've finally found our family so you should head back home without spilling too much blood..."

"...yeah..." Although he said this, Cecil was inwardly suppressing the roiling and ma.s.sive amount of killing intent he was bottling up. He could feel Corruption reacting to his killing intent, but Cecil suppressed it stubbornly.

"Not yet... not yet... I'll make those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds pay for touching my wives..."

A few days ago, Cecil had once again used Providence and he saw the scene of Lucia, Serilla, and Quinn putting up a desperate fight in the secret mountain path that was outside of the Silvaria Kingdom's valley.

He saw the state that his family was reduced to and the sight of it all angered him to the extreme. The more he thought back on the scene when Serilla began coughing up blood and bleeding, and Lucia's battered and injured body, more and more killing intent kept on piling up.

Cecil was slowly losing his composure, but he didn't outwardly show it. The first vision of seeing his wife nearly raped by some unknown man had triggered him, and then the second vision of seeing them in such a helpless and injured state nearly blew his fuse.

All he wanted to do right now was enact justice and take revenge for all the injustices done to his wives. Serilla didn't deserve to have been nearly raped and injured to the point where Cecil thought she might have died.

Then there was Lucia who had a despairing look as she looked on helplessly as Serilla fell in front of her. Those eyes were the last straw because Cecil thought that Serilla had died in the vision.

Hearing her voice from the MID had eased up his mind and heart by a whole great deal, but his bottled up killing intent hadn't lessened. It only grew and it continued growing with every day he was away from his two wives.

And now, there was the news of the Merkruz Princ.i.p.ality attacking his family. If they attacked, then there was bound to be some casualties. He heard the numbers that Lucia had informed him about. The Merkruz Army had around 200 thousand soldiers while his family only had around 50 thousand.

If the Merkruz Army were able to break into his family's kingdom, then they would most likely ma.s.sacre everyone inside. His family which he hadn't seen for close to 6 years or so would be wiped out if he didn't do something.

Cecil was just so close to meeting with his family, but bad news always had to accompany good news. As if it was sensing his emotions, the Thorns inside Cecil's spatial ring began to stir. The Corruption was already trying to invade Cecil's mind and feed on the killing intent he had kept bottled up in his heart.

Cecil only frowned when he saw his weapons acting up again. He circulated his Ether and began suppressing his weapons as well as his emotions. He tried to remain clear of mind, but the fact that his heart was bottling up all the killing intent and negative emotions couldn't be hidden and the Corruption continued to feed on it.

"d.a.m.ned weapon just wait a little longer!" Cecil cursed under his breath. He couldn't help but begin berating himself inwardly. He was losing control again even though he had promised to himself and his wives that he wouldn't let his anger get the better of him.

The last time he let his anger consumed him, the borders of Anglaria experienced a nightmare, and a district in the Empire had nearly been razed to the ground.

"d.a.m.n... how the h.e.l.l am I supposed to suppress my anger when I know my family's in danger? f.u.c.k... I shouldn't have separated from them... How come I was so stupid?"

Silver could somewhat hear his master's mumblings, but he could feel all the turmoil and negative emotions inside his master's heart through the pact's connection. It had begun affecting him as well since he could feel the madness he felt on the day his master was a.s.saulted back in Anglaria Kingdom and he had first transformed into his black form.

Seeing the slowly graying hair on his head, Yuna came over and hugged him. She was trying to do all she could to soothe her little wolf.

"T-Thanks Yuna..."

"It's okay, I'll try to focus myself on recovery, we just need to teleport one last time before we reach Regulus Kingdom's border."

"Don't push yourself too hard."

Yuna smiled at Silver gently before she kissed him on the forehead and began combing through his hair with her hands. It was immensely soothing for Silver and the grayish hair on his head slowly began to turn back to his original white.

Cecil had seen the state Silver was in and he also tried even harder to reel in his emotions. He didn't want Silver to turn into a mindless monster again.

Silver could keep his mind if he chose to enter his black form, but if he was forced into it like the last time, Silver would just go on a rampage and attack everything around him without regard to whether they were ally or enemy.

******

Back at the Silvaria family's side, Kaiser was overlooking the large army in the distance which was slowly closing in on their kingdom's walls.

No messenger or the like was sent over to negotiate any sort of surrender or a possible cease-fire. Instead the Merkruz forces began setting up camp in the distance and had also started to rea.s.semble their siege weapons.

It was clear as day that the enemy didn't want to negotiate and just wanted to wage war against them.

"b.a.s.t.a.r.ds... we haven't even done anything to you... suits us well, it's not like I'll agree to any form of compromise or surrender when you b.a.s.t.a.r.ds are the ones who came knocking on our door!"

Kaiser waved his hand and the black barrels of their kingdom's cannons began to pop out one by one from the walls and their muzzles began redirecting themselves to the enemy army far ahead.