Legacy of the Dark Sage

"I'll take us inside," Kyran said, pulling Cyneah closer. "You can direct the way."

"I-I— actually, w-we can try something that w-will allow you to see that person's light without m-me by your side," Cyneah stammered slightly. Though she had tried to ignore Kyran's proximity since earlier, it was affecting her concentration. Besides, his abyss-like aura was obstructing her field of vision. If he stayed too close, she could not make out of the scene before her that well.

"I-I can transfer my magic energy to your eyes," she explained before Kyran could ask for more details.

Kyran raised his brows, quite surprised at Cyneah's suggestion. However, he rejected it before she could elaborate.

"Transferring Soul magic energy directly into one's eyes will allow one to possess the ability to see those lights. This will work if it's another person, but I'm sorry. Since the target is me, it will not be a good idea."

"Why is that?"

Kyran inwardly scratched his head. It was normal for Cyneah not to know the relationship between the four Ancient magic. But as much as he wanted to answer her question, he could explain it with a few sentences. In the end, he could only say, "I'll explain it later."

"But—!"

Cyneah's protest was cut short as Kyran jumped, landing directly on the gigantic automaton's right shoulder.

"RAWRGH!"

The moment Kyran and Cyneah landed, the gigantic automaton swiveled its head and opened its mouth. While the construction of the automaton's mouth was not as intricate as a human's or even a beast's, it still consisted of perfectly sturdy teeth.

Of course, when Kyran saw the gigantic automaton open its mouth, he did not think it wanted to bite them to death. Instead, it would release its concentrated magic energy beam at point-blank, incinerating them.

Unfortunately for the gigantic automaton, before it could even open its mouth, Kyran had already caught sight of its neck turning slightly and had already anticipated its move. The moment he and Cyneah landed, he pivoted with one leg raised and delivered a swift roundhouse kick directly at the gigantic automaton's jaw.

BAM!

CRACK!

BOOM!

A resounding impact echoed after Kyran's kick connected, resulting in the gigantic automaton's jaw shattering.

That was not all. Its throat, which was connected to the mechanism that gathered magic energy for its beam attacks, was also destroyed, preventing the gigantic automaton from attacking with its mouth from then on.

Noir and the others nearby were initially startled by the explosion. Worried that something might have happened to Kyran and Cyneah, they looked just to be speechless at what greeted them.

Their knowledge about automatons might be limited, but they knew the materials used to create one would be costly. At the very least, a simple kick would not destroy its exterior.

Yes, they knew Kyran's physical strength was too powerful, but that kick could no longer be defined as simply being such.

"Stay still, won't you?" Kyran grumbled at the gigantic automaton.

As if hearing what he said, whirring sounds could be heard coming from the gigantic automaton's destroyed throat as if to refute him but was unable to. All that came out was pitiful sounds that hardly made sense to anyone present.

Oblivious to what had happened, Cyneah had resigned herself to being carried around by Kyran and focused her attention on their feet. She knew they had landed on the gigantic automaton's shoulder, and luckily, Kyran's abyss-like aura did not obstruct her field of vision under their feet.

"There!"

Cyneah pointed below as she saw the person's light Kyran was searching for.

Kyran also looked down and calculated the spot where Cyneah was pointing at. If he used the human's body to reference the gigantic automaton's internal structure, he gleaned that the place she was pointing at was where the heart was located.

This made Kyran frown.

He used the human body as a reference because the internal structure of the first batch of the automatons he acquired earlier was almost the same. Their energy core was not in the exact location of a human's heart, but it was pretty close.

Since the same group likely created those automatons, Kyran guessed the gigantic automaton's internal structure was the same. If that was the case, Aran was either inside the energy core or close to it, which was not a good thing.

Energy cores store up raw magic energy— an energy that is far more potent than concentrated magic energy beam attacks that have already been filtered. No human can endure such power. One will either end up getting fried on the spot or melt— either option leads to absolute death.

But Aran was clearly still alive. Did that mean the gigantic automaton's energy core was placed in a different location? More importantly, how did Aran even end up inside?

A possible answer to his first question flashed through Kyran's mind, and his expression darkened.

"Looks like it will truly be impossible to negotiate with him," he muttered.

Hearing him speak, Cyneah finally understood what he said earlier.

Who else would Kyran want to negotiate with regarding Armakea's future but its King?

With this realization, Cyneah muttered, "So that light belonged to...?"

Kyran nodded, "Yes."

"There are other lights around him, Kyran. But those lights... are coming from him and being transferred to several spherical-shaped things... Sorry, I am unfamiliar with an automaton's structure and did not know what those things are."

"It's fine," Kyran replied. From her description, he guessed those spherical-shaped things were valves with tubes connected to Aran, which absorbed his internal magic energy and supplied the gigantic automaton.

With the gigantic automaton moving about and using concentrated magic energy attacks, it was not wrong to assume that Aran's life force was also being absorbed. He might have the advantage of a complete being's body wherein they could produce their magic energy through their Divine Armament, but how much and for how long they could do so was still limited.

The gigantic automaton might have had the magic energy that supported it, but that was also limited. After exhausting it, it started to suck Aran's magic energy dry.

Kyran heaved a sigh. He then looked over the side of the battlefield where the puppets were confronting the Armakea Knights.

Kyran wanted to negotiate with Aran because he knew it would be challenging to convince those three to four thousand knights to surrender without the latter.

The pact with their King bound them, and Kyran was afraid they would still fight to the death if he killed Aran, even if they were freed. This was because they would likely feel guilty for failing to protect their King.

Kyran did not want to kill the Armakea Knights and force them into submission. He wanted them to agree to become his Sigils of their own volition as much as possible. Of course, convincing Aran to release the knights was close to impossible. But Kyran more or less knew how to persuade Aran by exploiting his character.

If Kyran had to describe Aran, he was someone afraid of others having more authority and power than him. He wanted to control everything and was fearful of others overpowering him. He kept people who might pose a threat close to him so he could keep an eye on them and exert his authority over them. He would then force them into unfair pacts, preventing them from retaliating.

Knowing this, Kyran planned to grant Aran what he wanted by letting him rule over nations but not be in Somuli. Of course, he would not tell Aran about that. Besides, he had yet to find a suitable plane to take the latter.

Only after Aran agreed would Kyran search for one.

Nonetheless, if Aran refused, Kyran would change his mind as he did with Tritus.

While Kyran could have done this from the start, he admitted not wanting Aran to be part of his pack. So, this option was placed as a last resort.

On the off chance that Aran remained unmoved— especially since changing a human might be different from changing a complete being— Kyran would kill him before the Armakea Knights and make it appear like he was freeing them from Aran's tyranny. But this option posed a lot of risk because of the discipline and loyalty the knights possessed.

Alas, wanting to keep his enemies alive was indeed a troublesome endeavor. If not for wanting to keep the Armakea Knights alive, Kyran would not be experiencing such a huge headache.

"You want to negotiate about releasing the Knights from the pact."

Cyneah's voice snapped Kyran out of his reverie. He looked at her and nodded, "Yes."

Heaving another sigh, he added, "All their lives, they had been under Aran with no way to defy him because of the pact. I wanted to free them from it."

"You say that, but you also want to bind them, right?"

"True, but I won't force them to become my Sigils..." Kyran's voice trailed off as scenes of how he turned every Sigils under him flashed through his mind. With pursed lips, he admitted, "Fine. I did force some of them, but I won't force them to do something they don't want."

Cyneah smiled. She sensed Kyran's apprehension just now and felt relieved. She disapproved of binding others to do one's bidding, but somehow, she found that if it was Kyran, it was not such a bad thing because he would not treat them badly.

"Shall I save Aran, then? I may be able to convince him to release the Knights as well."

Cyneah might be opposed to binding others, but she did not mind doing a little tweaking to fix someone else's evil side.