Prime Originator

"You and Thessalia just stepped into the Transcendent Realm yesterday. You can come to the meeting, but it'll be too dangerous for you two to join the battle."

"But…"

"No, buts."

Elizabeth refused Faelyn's request with a firm stance, leaving no room for negotiation.

Faelyn could only concede to Leon's mother.

"Yes, mother…"

"Good girl," Elizabeth nodded with a satisfied smile before saying, "Let us head to the great hall first. Dear, you'll call all the elders, right?"

"Who exactly is the king here…" Heinrich uttered with a wry smile.

"You are, of course!" Elizabeth answered before she knitted her brows and asked, "What are you trying to say, dear?"

"Ah, no… It's nothing important…" Heinrich replied meekly.

He was afraid of his wife.

Shortly after sighing, Heinrich left to summon all the Transcendent-level characters in the Grassland Region to the meeting.

…

…

…

Geyser Kingdom

A few dozen miles from the high-rise border wall of earth, a mini airship zipped through the sky at great speed, leaving a trail of flames as it headed towards the west.

Although it was called an airship, it was only the size of a small boat for two people and relied on the power of Fire Transcendents to fly it.

"It's been quite a while since I've returned to the mainland; about five years to be exact. Nevertheless, I must say that the scenery is quite nostalgic, don't you think, junior sister?"

Neron made small talks with Lina as he steered the mini airship with his flames.

"I suppose so, senior brother. It has only been a few months since I left, but it feels like forever," Lina politely replied while enjoying the brushing wind and the surface view.

But as the tall earthen wall that signified the Geyser Kingdom's borders came into view, Lina quickly knitted her brows.

"Senior brother, take a look ahead! There's smoke coming from the Border Wall!" Lina alerted Neron while pointing ahead.

Neron immediately frowned at the discovery.

"There shouldn't be any fire festival going on around this time. So why would there be black smoke rising from the Border Wall? Unless…"

Their noses suddenly pick up the faint scent of blood before Lina quickly concludes, "It was an enemy attack!"

"Senior brother, let us quickly descend and investigate. If we find any survivors in need of saving, we can also learn what happened from them."

"Un." Neron nodded solemnly before saying, "An attack on the Border Wall is a grave matter. It could be a war between kingdoms."

Shortly after, he lowered the power output of flames, causing the airship to lose speed and descend towards the Border Wall not far away.

When Lina and Neron reached close enough to the Border Wall, they hopped off the airship and landed on the wall.

The airship was stored in Neron's interspatial ring shortly after.

"This is terrible."

Lina frowned while staring at the dozens of sentries lying motionless along the wall with blood and traces of blackwater scattered everywhere.

The smell was even more pungent on the scene.

Nevertheless, Lina checked for pulses in hopes of finding a lucky survivor, but unfortunately, she was left disappointed.

"There's no survivor in this area. But these wounds… the assailants were from the Geyser Kingdom. Could the Demon Worshippers have done this?" Lina speculated.

"Perhaps."

Neron vaguely replied without jumping to conclusions while glancing left and right at the sentries' corpses.

"Seems like we won't be having anyone to check and record our passage to the Crawford Kingdom," Neron stated before adding, "But I wonder where the gatekeeper is."

"I heard the gatekeeper was a pretty strong Earth Transcendent who had been guarding the Border Wall for many years."

"Someone like that shouldn't have been killed like the rest of the sentries, right? Senior brother?" Lina presumed.

Unfortunately, they eventually found the gatekeeper's body among the sentry corpses after a few minutes of searching.

The valiant Earth Transcendent died with his eyes open and all his limbs severed.

Neron swiped the gatekeeper's eyes shut to give him peace in the afterlife before studying the traces of battle in detail.

"The battle was very recent, so the killers shouldn't have gone far. And seeing how they killed the gatekeeper and sentries, their destination seems to be one of the four kingdoms outside the Geyser Kingdom."

Neron determined.

"What? We have to stop them, senior brother!" Lina stated with a look of urgency.

Having lived in the Crawford Kingdom for most of her life, she was very familiar with its strength; there shouldn't be anyone capable enough to stop the group who killed the gatekeeper and the border sentries.

"We don't know the group's purpose for leaving the Geyser Kingdom without permission, nor their strengths, but they are renegades now. The kingdom will hunt them down, no matter who they are. We just need to report this incident to the capital, junior sister."

"No, senior brother. There's a border town nearby. The civilians living there should have noticed what happened on the Border Wall and reported the incident to authorities, senior brother. If we return to the capital, we will lose the killers' trails," Lina stressed.

Considering how brutally the gatekeeper and sentries were killed, there was no telling what the group of killers would do if she let them roam the four kingdoms unchecked.

She could not return to the capital worry-free, knowing that her parents were endangered.

Neron stared at Lina's stubborn look before conceding with a helpless shrug, "Fine. You win, junior sister. We follow the killers' trail and track them down."

If he cannot satisfy her wishes, he will never win her heart.

"Thank you, senior brother, for agreeing with my selfish wish."

Lina gave Neron a sincere bow of gratitude, unaware of his thoughts and feelings, simply treating him accordingly to their statuses as martial siblings under the same master.

Nevertheless, Neron waved his hand and said, "However, I have a condition; we will drop the border town for a quick inquiry. Perhaps we can learn the identity of the renegade group."

"That makes sense. Perhaps, we can also learn the renegade group's strength too," Lina paused briefly before agreeing with a nod.