Advent of the Three Calamities - Chapter 318

Chapter 318: The Second Round [1]
“Haa… Haa…”

Amell ran around the entire Grimspire. His thoughts were in a jumbled mess and all he did was run around, his eyes scanning the crowd as he navigated through the crowd at speeds at which they couldn’t fathom.

Swoosh!

With a gust of wind, some of the people even found themselves looking up toward the raging ball of white that hung in the greying sky with confused expressions.

“…It’s a little windy today, isn’t it?”

“What are you talking about?”

Wind…? What wind? We’re in the Mirror Dimension.

Of course, there were a few that did notice Amell. Grimspire was a place that was filled with powerful superhumans.

While Amell was strong, there were many that were stronger.

But he didn’t care.

He continued to run around the entire city looking for one specific individual.

There were obviously better ways to go about this, but his thoughts were in such a mess that he found himself unable to think properly. It was only when he found himself stopping to catch his breath that he realized how stupid his actions were.

“Haa… What… am I… even… doing?”

He wiped the sweat from his forehead with the top of his shirt.

Amell took a deep breath and calmly recovered his breath. Once he did so, his thoughts returned to normal as he took out a communication device and spoke into it.

“Find me all the information possible regarding Leon Ellert who is participating in the Summit.”

His voice was cold, laced with an authority that befitted someone of his status. His entire demeanor shifted as he surveyed his surroundings.

He stood in a grim alley, hemmed in by two thick walls on either side. Colorful graffiti marred the surfaces, and he cast a brief, disdainful glance at them.

“Tsk.”

He clicked his tongue at the sight of them.

—Understood.

It was only after he heard a voice coming from the communication device that he put it away.

He took a deep breath after that and calmed his unsteady heart.

‘Right, I shouldn’t jump to conclusions. Just because he’s got Grey eyes and looks a little like father doesn’t mean that it’s him…’

But what if he actually is him?

How should he approach him?

Amell gripped his chest as he leaned against the side of the wall. His thoughts were complicated, but in all those thoughts he realized something.

‘We searched all over the entire Empire before father and mother gave up. But what if…’

He took a deep breath, forcefully suppressing his raging emotions.

‘…What if he had left the Empire long ago?’

***

Bremmer.

Royal Estate.

Aoife strolled through the quiet, expansive halls of the estate, her steps muffled by the thin red carpet beneath her.

As she walked her gaze drifted over to the paintings that lined the walls. Each one depicted a chapter in the story of the Megrail family, from its humble beginnings to its rise as the powerful behemoth it had become today.

“Aoife.”

Aoife’s steps came to a pause as she turned around.

There, she spotted a familiar figure and her cheeks twitched. I just saw you like an hour ago… Aoife held her tongue back before smiling.

“Brother.”

“Haha, fancy seeing you here Aoife.”

Aoife stopped herself from rolling her eyes and kept the smile on her face. She loved her brother, but at the same time, he was really exhausting to be with. He had always been attached to her, but ever since the incident a while back, his level of attachment increased by a lot.

It was to the point where Aoife felt helpless.

Yet, seeing the sickly complexion on her brother’s face, she couldn’t bring herself to refuse him. He was suffering so much…

As Gael approached, he glanced at the paintings with a smile.

“You usually are so indifferent to the paintings. It’s the first time that I’ve seen you show some interest.”

“Well… you can say so.”

No, not really.

She had merely just given them a fleeting glance.

Aoife knew about the entire history of the Megrail family by heart. It was something that had been engrained into her brain since young. For that reason, even though she never looked at the paintings properly, she knew exactly what each scene represented.

“Ho, that’s great.”

Gael looked quite happy by Aoife’s words.

Aoife used to show her disdain for anything that was related to their family in the past. She had some pride for it, but she never really cared for their history.

This was a nice change.

Especially since their history was so important.

“There’s a lot of great things that you can learn by going through the history—”

In the midst of his speech, Aoife stopped paying attention as she felt her pocket vibrate. Frowning, she took out her communication device and looked at the message.

Seeing the message, her brows furrowed tightly.

‘Angel. Sorrow. Possession?’

Was Kiera drunk?

Aoife bit her lips. She really thought that was the case, but at the same time, felt the irregularity in the message to be quite concerning. Especially since Kiera wasn’t the type to send messages like this.

In fact, besides the occasional, ‘fuck you’, she’d send on occasion, Kiera usually never messaged her.

‘….Something is up.’

Glancing up and noticing her brother still engrossed in talking about their family history, Aoife saw her opportunity. She quietly slipped out of the room and made her way directly out of the estate, heading toward where Kiera was supposed to be.

“…Dorset, the great founding Emperor was a man of great achievements, and—uh?”

It was only after a couple of minutes had passed that Gael realized that his sister had disappeared. He looked around frantically before bitterly smiling.

“I guess she left.”

He turned his head to look at one of the paintings.

The painting depicted a lone man standing tall as he confronted over a thousand hollow-eyed figures as they charged at him from all sides. The sky was a murky gray, and tall, grand buildings connected by bridges stood in the background. It was an imposing image, capturing the brilliance and indomitable spirit of their founding Emperor.

As Gael’s eyes traced over the painting, they eventually settled on the words written beneath it.

[The Battle of the Custody of Nothing — In a brutal and relentless fight, the founding Emperor, Dorset, waged war day and night against the remnants of the Empire of Nothing. For several nights, he battled…]

Gael stared at the description for a few seconds before covering his mouth.

“Heh.”

In what almost seemed to be a scoff, he leaned his hand against the wall before suddenly coughing.

“Cough…! Cough!”

The coughing fit lasted several seconds, leaving his face pale. When he finally moved his hand away and saw the blood staining his palm, he turned back to face the painting.

He stared at it for a good second before leaving.

As he left, he mumbled,

“….Not a bad painting.”

***

The next day.

It had been a while since I’d slept so soundly. Exhaustion combined with the events of the previous day with Delilah allowed me to rest without any issues.

In fact, I felt extremely refreshed.

“….What time is it?”

Lying in bed, I checked my watch to see the time.

“It’s still morning.”

It was around 7 a.m., still early in the day. The second round was scheduled to begin in the afternoon, at around 5 p.m.

With plenty of time to spare before the upcoming matches, I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and let myself drift into the familiar world of darkness. It was then that six orbs appeared before me.

Late last night, I pushed myself further.

There were now three more orbs within my consciousness. Each orb had its own distinctive color, and words beneath it.

Red — ‖RAGE‖

Green — ‖JOY‖

Blue — ‖SORROW‖

Pink — ‖AFFECTION‖

Purple — ‖FEAR‖

Azure —‖SHOCK‖

I looked at the words and colors with a mix of different emotions.

“It’s weird…”

There was something about the colors and names that felt a little odd to me. Instead of seeing the standard six emotions, I saw three new emotions. Shock, affection, and Sorrow.

In a sense, each word belonged to one of the standard emotions that was present.

But what was the reason for their appearance…?

I was left confused by this point, and the more I dwelled on it, the more confused I became. I realized that unless I figured this out, then I wouldn’t be able to develop my domain further.

And that would be a little problematic.

“Haa.”

I opened my eyes and let out a long and exhausted sigh.

My mind was a little drained, but I wasn’t too worried. So long as I didn’t continue expanding my ‘concept’ then I wouldn’t need to worry about recuperating before my match in the afternoon.

“Thinking about the match, I wonder who my opponent is…”

They said it’d be announced right before the matches started, leaving everyone with no proper time to analyze our opponent. This was probably what the top brass wanted, and I could only resign myself to their decision as I got dressed and left the apartment.

*

The streets of Grimspire were paved with cobblestones, a common feature of the architecture in the Mirror Dimension.

Overall, the architecture of the supply stations and cities in the Mirror Dimension differed significantly from that of cities on the outside, displaying a more gothic style compared to the more contemporary design of Bremmer.

This was perhaps due to the gray sky above, which cast a dark gloom over the entire surroundings, making it a more fitting design.

‘Could be a game design thing…’

“…If this was even still a game.”

As I walked along the cobblestone street, city lamps flickered intermittently. I glanced at the gothic-style buildings with their slender spires reaching toward the sky and French windows draped with thin veils.

With the location of the Inn, I found it somewhat near to the main Plaza, there were quite a lot of people walking about.

If not for the gloomy sky and the harsh, scorching sun overhead, the place might have seemed much more lively.

Eventually, I stopped at a small coffee shop to take a break.

The shop was modest in design, featuring planters arranged outside to create a small, secluded area with metal chairs and tables where one could sit and relax.

I found a comfortable spot, located near the corner and sat down.

“How may I help you?”

“….Standard please.”

I pointed at the waiter who took my order without showing much of a reaction to me before leaving. It was only then that I sighed in relief.

‘Good thing he hasn’t seen through the illusion.’

With the Four Empire Summit broadcasted to all four Empires, the participants were in a sense celebrities. It’d be difficult to do anything unless one went undercover.

That was exactly why I had to cast an illusion over my features. It was so that I wouldn’t be recognized. Especially when my face was easy to recognize.

In the midst of my thoughts, I felt a shadow cast over my area.

Thinking that it was the waiter I raised my head, lifting my hand to receive my coffee, when I stopped.

A figure I didn’t recognize stood directly opposite me. With brown hair and brown eyes, his features seemed rather ordinary. He wore a white shirt tucked neatly into his pants.

At first glance, he looked completely normal.

In fact, he gave off a nice feeling with a warm smile on his face.

“May I sit here?”

And yet, every hair on my body stood.

“….”

Taking my silence as silent confirmation, the young man pulled the chair back and sat down. With the same smile as before, he prepared to open his mouth when I cut him off.

“So—”

“First it was the theatre performance, and then this…”

I narrowed my eyes, silently staring at the person in front of me who appeared completely foreign to me, but at the same time knew who he was.

“….Are you purposely trying to annoy me?”