Blackout Ascension: Return of Primordial Heir-Chapter 46: Restricted Archived

Luna entered into his manor, grappling his combat gear and rushed towards the capital district of Zephyros. Luna walked towards Imperial Coachworks to hire a fastest carriage to start his travelling towards Solaris kingdom.

He hired an elegant carriage, and instantly started right away to Solaris.

****

A few hours later in Royal Hospital Ward of Solaris.

The silence inside the hospital room felt thick and heavy. No one moved. The strange alien words written on it seemed to distorted and crawl across the paper if he stared at them too long.

Ignis was the first to rip the tension, slowly pushing himself up on his bed, ignoring the sharp pain in his bandaged ribs.

"You cracked a Cosmic Lock?" Ignis whispered, his red eyes wide with absolute shock. "Are you insane, Luna? Do you have any idea how many arrogant mages have wiped their bloodlines off the map trying to do that? You may turn into a Mana Aberration, and destroy the Moonspire Hill."

Luna leaned back against the windowsill. He looked exhausted, but his gaze was focused. "It was either crack the seal or let my brain rot. I picked the option that kept me alive. Besides, I only opened a hairline rupture. Just enough to wash the dark magic out of my head."

Terravarous rubbed his heavy jaw, with a worrying look on his face. "A Black Mist Knight. I read about them in the war texts my father says. They were supposed to be extinct. Eradicated during the Dawn War."

"Well, someone forgot to tell them," Luna replied, his throat dry and pale, "and they aren’t just surviving in the shadows. They are organizing. The vision I saw from that knight’s mind was a massive army, and they bow to a king."

Kairos remained quiet. He stared at the parchment. Deep inside his mind, he knocked on the door of his system.

Blackout, Kairos called out silently. You went crazy when you saw these words. You called it the Primordial Dialect.

The interface flickered in his vision.

[ACCESS DENIED.]

[THE REQUESTED LORE FILES DESTROY THE CURRENT ERA. SYSTEM PROTOCOLS STRICTLY FORBID THE DISSEMINATION OF LEVEL-ZERO HISTORICAL DATA TO A MORTAL HOST. YOUR CLEARANCE IS INSUFFICIENT.]

Kairos contorted. Insufficient clearance? I literally killed a God-tier beast. Tell me what we are facing.

[NEGATIVE. PURSUING THIS KNOWLEDGE PREMATURELY WILL RESULT IN PSYCHOLOGICAL CORRUPTION. SUGGESTION: FOCUS ON SURVIVING THE UPCOMING WAR BEFORE INVESTIGATING ANCIENT MYTHS.]

Kairos sighed and closed the interface. The System was hiding something massive, and it wasn’t going to help him read the alien text. If they wanted answers, they had to find them in an old-fashioned way.

"We need to translate this," Kairos said, holding up the parchment. He looked at the royal cousins. "Do you guys know anyone in the capital who can read ancient languages?"

Ignis groaned and fell back onto his pillows. "Don’t look at me. I like burning books, but I don’t read them. Reading gives me a headache."

Terravarous sighed at his cousin’s ignorance. "The regular scholars in the upper city won’t know anything about this. If these Knights are from the Dawn Era, their history is classified. Uncle Raezon keeps all the dangerous, forgotten history locked away."

"Where?" Luna asked, his silver eyes narrowing.

"The Restricted Archives," Terravarous rumbled. "It is located deep beneath the Solaris Royal Library. It is a vault for cursed scrolls and forbidden magic. Only the King, the High Priestess, and the Head Scholars are allowed to step foot down there."

Luna pushed himself off the wall. A faint, arrogant smirk touched his lips. "It is a good thing we aren’t asking for permission."

Ignis instantly sat back up, a wicked grin spreading across his face. "Are we breaking into the Royal Library? Then, I am definitely coming."

"You have three broken ribs," Terravarous pointed out Ignis.

"I don’t care if my legs fall off," Ignis replied back, swinging his feet over the edge of the bed. "I am not staying in this boring room eating boiled vegetable soup while you guys go on a secret mission. Pass me my boots."

Kairos smiled. The dread of the coming war was still there, but having his friends ready to fight by his side made the burden lighter. He tucked the parchment safely into his leather pouch and grabbed Asteria.

"Alright," Kairos said. "Let’s go read some history."

The sun was just beginning to set over the Solaris Kingdom. The sky turned a vibrant shade of crimson and gold, casting long shadows across the capital streets. The four young Generals moved quietly through the alleyways. They wore dark cloaks to hide their faces and avoid drawing attention from the local city guards. Ignis walked with a limp, clutching his ribs under his cloak, while Terravarous kept a watchful eye on their surroundings.

They soon reached the grand plaza of the Solaris Royal Library. It was a magnificent structure, the towering pillars of white marble holding up a domed roof that glimmered with gold enchantments. Huge statues of old scholars and mages lined up on the wide stone steps leading up to the main entrance. Even in the evening, scholars and noble students roaming around the front doors, carrying stacks of scrolls.

"The main floors are public," Terravarous whispered, leaning close to the group. "But the entrance to the Restricted Archives is in the lower basement. There are two elite Royal Guards stationed at the iron door twenty-four hours a day. We cannot fight them. It would trigger the palace alarms."

Luna stepped forward, pulling his dark hood low over his silver hair.

"Nobody is fighting anyone," Luna said. "Just stay close to me and keep your mouths shut. Especially you, Ignis."

Ignis glared at him but kept quiet. Luna raised his hand, his fingertips glowing with a faint, dark purple aura. "Shadow Veil."

The shadows cast by the setting sun suddenly stretched toward them. The darkness crept up their boots, wrapping around their cloaks until they blended perfectly with the dim lighting of the evening. To anyone walking past, they simply looked like a shadow.

They slipped past the oak doors of the main entrance, avoiding the busy librarians. The smell of old paper, dried ink, and candle wax filled the air. They navigated the maze of bookshelves, heading straight for the back of the building where a spiraling stone staircase led downward. The air grew colder as they descended. The chatter of the students faded away, replaced by the echoing drip of water and the hum of old warding magic.

PILP!! PILP!! PILP!!

At the bottom of the stairs, an iron door blocked their path. It was covered in shimmering red runes. Two palace guards stood on either side, holding long halberds. Their eyes scanned the empty hallway, alert and focused.

Luna gestured for the group to press against the stone wall. He closed his eyes, using his new mind manipulation power he had awakened on the mountain. He didn’t need to break their minds; he just needed to gently distort their perception.

Luna sent a faint whisper down the hall.

One of the guards blinked, turning his head toward a dark, empty corridor to the left. "Did you hear that?" the guard muttered.

"Hear what?" his partner asked, gripping his halberd tighter.

"Sounded like a rat in the storage room." The first guard stepped away from the iron door, shining his lantern into the dark hallway. The second guard followed him, eager for a distraction from his boring post.

"Now!" Luna whispered.

Kairos moved fast. He dashed to the iron door. He didn’t have a key, but he had something better. He unsheathed Asteria. Kairos pressed the tip of the sword against the glowing red runes. The magic hissed as Asteria’s light purified the lock. With a soft click, the iron door unsealed.

Kairos pushed it open, and the four of them slipped inside before the guards turned back around. Luna gently pulled the door shut, locking it from the inside. They stood in the dark.

"We are in.." Kairos whispered, sheathing his sword.

Ignis snapped his fingers, creating a tiny, dim flame on his thumb to provide some light. The Restricted Archives did not look like the library upstairs. There were no comfortable reading chairs or warm lamps. It looked like a dungeon designed for books. Endless rows of black iron shelves skewered out into the gloom. The books here were in strange leathers, some locked shut with physical chains. The air was thick with dust and the oppressive weight of cursed magic. Just standing in the room made the hair on Kairos’s arms stand up.

"Spread out," Terravarous suggested softly. "Look for anything related to the Dawn Era, ancient knights, or the Fallen Monarch. Do not open any books that glow or whisper to you."

"Books that whisper?" Ignis muttered, looking disgusted. "I hate this place already."

They separated, walking slowly down the dark aisles. Luna walked down a row filled with fragmenting scrolls. He ran his hand lightly over the dusty spines. Ever since he cracked his Cosmic Lock, his senses have improved. He could feel the residual emotions left behind by the authors of these ancient texts. Some felt sorrow. Some felt like madness.

Suddenly, Luna stopped. A strange prickling sensation suddenly crawled up the back of his neck. His new mind-radar flared to life. Someone else was down here.

It wasn’t a guard or one of his friends. The presence felt old, heavy, and completely unreadable.

"Kairos," Luna hissed into the darkness, stepping back from the shelf.

Before Kairos could answer, a dry, raspy voice echoing from the end of the aisle.

"The library is currently closed to students."

A small lantern flared to life. Standing at the end of the row, there was an old man. He wore a faded grey robe. He had a hunched back, a bald head, and held a simple wooden sweeping broom in his wrinkled hands. He looked like an ordinary person.

But Luna’s instincts screamed in another way. The gravity around the old man felt warped.

"You boys are imprinting mud on my clean floors," the old man grumbled, leaning on his broom, "and you evaded my locking runes. How terribly rude."

Ignis stepped forward, trying to act tough despite his injuries. "We are Royal Generals of Solaris. We have clearance to be down here."

The old man raised a single, bushy eyebrow. He looked at Ignis, then at Terravarous, and finally at Kairos and Luna.

"Generals?" The old man let out a dry, raspy chuckle. "You are children playing with swords. My name is Jovian. I am the Head Librarian, and down here in the dark, I do not care about your shiny little badges."

Jovian tapped his broom against the stone floor. An immense, suffocating pressure instantly filled the aisle, forcing all four boys to their knees.