Making their way from the mansion, they avoided the guards like the plague and found an open place somewhat further to move.
"Lucas, I know I haven't exactly settled my debt to you yet, but I will do so in due time. For now, I would like to ask you for that favor."
"Finally, I've been dying to know what you could possibly ask of me," Lucas felt relaxed around Asta, making him a bit more loose than normal.
Asta, on the other hand, kept his serious demeanor. "In the near future, I need to win a succession battle against my brothers and sisters. In order to do so, I need to beat them in a fair battle, making my entire family acknowledge my powers."
Hearing about the requirements to be legible for the seat, beating others was a show of power, but that could always be influenced by external factors. "So it all comes down to acknowledgement."
"Correct. Even if I beat them all, if I'm not acknowledged as a possible head of a family, there was no point in my participation."
"So either we play to their interest and impress them, or we need to instill enough fear into the hearts of your brothers and sisters that the idea of going up against you would freak them out."
Asta stayed silent as he looked away for a moment.
'You're going to traumatize some kids to help him out?'
'What? I'm quite proud of my ideas, do you have anything else?'
'Could just break their legs and pull their core out. Then this entire thing is easily solved.'
'I hadn't thought of that, although I don't know if Asta would be willing to brutalize his family like so.'
'Who cares?'
'Asta, most likely.'
Nodding to himself, he was about to explain his alternative solution, but Asta shot him down before he even had a chance to say it.
"We can't... hurt them," Asta spoke slower, unlike his usual proud self, he looked like he was dancing around a topic. Lucas thought he didn't hear it correctly. When it came down to the decision to kill a few villages of innocent villagers, he cared little to nothing. Yet now, he didn't want to hurt them?
It made Lucas think there was something else going on. "Physically or mentally?"
"Preferably both."
"So you accept one of the two?"
"No, Lucas, listen. These people are my family by blood, while I despise some, I love others. I have to prove my worth not by killing the competition, but by beating them fair and square."
Asta determination was more than visible, his words and pride shone through them. Lucas felt it as well. "You're making this a lot harder than it has to be."
"That's why I want to ask for your help. Despite your emotional use of elemental magic, and your strange personality, you are the only person I can truly rely on."
Hearing that, Lucas didn't even register the critiques since he had grown numb to them. In fact, he felt complimented hearing that, but part of him saw the darker side of that statement as well.
"Are you saying you have no support from your own family?"
"Of course not, I have a few people, but they are worthless in the competition. I need someone with your strength, and more importantly, your brain. You always figure out some ridiculous plan despite the adversities. I need that ability."
Lucas stared right into's Asta's eyes and felt a heavy responsibility being put on his shoulders. Normally, he would shove away any feeling of attachment or responsibility, since he could always run away. The fact that he felt obligated to help him out despite there being no reason to made him chuckle.
"Fine, I'll help you out, but I'll be expecting a great reward when I'm done."
Seeing Lucas smile, Asta joined him, "That can be arranged. Now, I suppose it's time to take off the mask, and show you where I came from."
"How far do we need to go? I've done my research, but I couldn't exactly find a place where blue hair is seen as the norm."
Hearing that, Asta grinned, knowing Lucas would've never found it through such a link.
"We need to travel an inhuman amount of distance, so I'll use an artifact I got from my family. I despise elements, but since this is the only way forward, I'll open a portal with this," pulling out a hexagonal disk, he placed it on the ground before sending magic to it. In the middle of the disk a strange marble was lodged in it. From the pearl-like object, a small light appeared before growing to form a rounded door.
"This thing uses space magic, I would've studied it to death if it wasn't elemental," it was an off-handed comment, but Lucas picked up on the underlying words.
Waiting for some time, the light turned a bit darker, signifying it had made the connection. "Let's go, I'll show you my home," there was almost a strange sadness to his voice, but Lucas gave it little thought as he saw Asta disappear into the light.
Taking a step forward, his instincts suddenly screamed out, jumping to the side, he barely avoided a lightning bolt.
'Who the fuck dares!? Wait! Don't tell me...'
'Yes, it's them. Looks like Karma caught up.'
'Karma can go fuck itself.'
"Conrad!", from high up in the sky, a man with a long gray beard shouted out. "I am Godfried! Messenger of The Bailey family!"
With his booming voice, Lucas felt his eardrums almost burst. Looking for a way out, he noticed two mages had revealed themselves around him.
'Rank 3?'
'This fucking family brought 3 of them? Assholes!'
There was no way out, no matter what Lucas thought of, without Asta's help, he was doomed to fail. It was Asta's arrays that blocked the aura, now absent, he had no way to deal with the most basic of attacks. Perhaps if he used all his cards, he might push back a single one, but against three, his options were limited.
"Killer of one of our bloodline! You have committed a crime worthy of death! You shall hereby be ordered to obediently come with us or suffer the consequences of disobedience!"
While Godfried spoke loudly with clear anger in his voice, Lucas' options were death on the spot or a delayed one. Frankly, if they were Rank 2, he would've slaughtered them, but standing there now, Lucas didn't know what to do. His anger gave him plenty of energy, without a way to vent, he had to suppress it.
Godfried slowly lowered himself towards the ground. "You have done great at hiding yourself. It took us no small amount of effort to figure out where you went. Too bad you had to hang out with your only friend from the academy. Otherwise, we would still be looking."
"Hahaha. You guys are real stalkers, huh? Wasn't expecting to be so famous already," Lucas laughed it off, not ever realizing that was a possible way to find him in the first place. He thought without the beacon and a change of name would be enough to keep him safe for some time. Sadly, that clearly didn't work out.
"Oh, we know you well, Conrad. Last time you were lucky to have that teacher protecting you, but now there's no way for you to escape us. It's time for you to repent!"
Hearing Elam had encountered this Godfried person, Lucas felt anxious. Elam was a lazy teacher, certainly, but he was powerful in the end. "Hah! I'm sure Elam put you in your place," trying to hide his fear, he let his other side come up with answers as he sought a solution.
"Say that to his ashes, if you can still find it."
Hearing that both sides of Lucas suddenly stopped in place. He knew this would be the obvious result of going against someone above your standing. That didn't diminish the impact for Lucas, as he didn't know what to say.
"Hmm? Cat got your tongue? Hahaha! I admit, he was a strong opponent, but against me, he never stood a chance. The same holds true for you, so stand down and obediently come with us. Our Patriarch wants to see you, but he never specified the state you had to be in."
The threat never arrived at its recipient as Lucas' mind was filled with images of Elam. His laziness, his mysterious and sometimes mischievous nature. The man was half the father Lucas never had. He felt his heart being clutched by a cold claw, shredding it.
The mages next to him stepped forward as one took out a scroll. Feeling a hand touch his back, Lucas jumped from surprise as he lost track of his surroundings. Pressure appeared, pushing him into the ground.
The hand pressed on his back and the scroll lit up. Lucas felt an array being burned into his skin, the pain was immense, serving as a distraction. Seeing no way to fight, the best he could do was run, perhaps Kasto could help him out, despite being in a massive disadvantage.
Lucas summoned his magic to strengthen his body and stood up, he waved his hands towards the mage on his left, planning on throwing forward a Dark Blade, yet nothing came out. "Huh?"
"Hahaha! Fool! We have locked your gateways. You can't use magic anymore. It's time to give up."
The mages next to him grabbed his arms, put them behind his back and forced him on the ground. "Eat dirt, you scumbag," one of them said as his anger for Lucas made him twist Lucas' arm just a bit further.
For once, Lucas had no way out. He was stunned by the revelation about Elam, giving his opponents room to lock him down. Lucas felt his heart race, his emotions were starting to grow out of control as his dome was filled with images of Elam laughing, taking care of him.
Both sides of Lucas lost complete control over his bodily control, hyperventilation started to set in. His body became hyperaware, as the sweat on his back, head and legs felt so powerful. The dirt on his face, the blades of grass being pushed against his face. His eyes trembled as they lost focus of what was in front of him due to tears that welled up.
The mages pulled him up, barely standing on his feet, Lucas felt the urge to throw up from all the stress and pain he felt. Both sides lost sight of what was important and control was thrown to the wind. Lucas body fell limp. The mages were shocked to see their captive suddenly collapse.
Godfried in the sky smiled, foreseeing the trial back home filled him with glee, unaware of the turmoil Lucas was in.
While his body lay limp, his mental sphere was absolute chaos as thousands of memories overlapped one another. Mostly ones involving Elam, but Marie and Asta were there as well. A scene of Asta boasting turned into the corpses he tried to forget. A beautiful green pasture changed into a sea of blood and bones.
Scenes of his family overlapped with Elam, Asta, Eleven, Liam, Venion.. a whirlwind of emotion brought his mind to the point of insanity as the moon high in his dome tinted everything scarlet.
Out of nowhere, everything froze in place. The storm of emotions and feelings calmed down as a strange apathy took over. Slowly opening his eyes, Lucas felt nothing. The two mages holding him up were about to fly away as they noticed their prisoner awoke.
"Hope you're ready for the final flight of your life."
"You blocked my gateways?", it was an almost rhetorical question, voice without any concern, as if he wasn't the one in danger.
"Hah! Have you gone senile at your age?", the mage felt cocky since they were now basically dealing with a normal human. Grabbing him by the shoulders, Lucas posed absolutely no threat, and that was exactly the reason for their downfall.
Lucas couldn't use magic outside his body, but there were no restrictions inside. In quick succession, Lucas grabbed the throat of the mage left of him. Grasping his neck tight, while he swung his arm in the direction of the other mage. Both didn't feel intimidated in the slightest until the mage felt something wrong.
Looking down, sharp pieces of white material punctured his chest and stomach. It was a superficial wound, worthless in front of a mage, but the moment he inspected it with his willpower, his face changed drastically as he suddenly blew up.
Blood splattered everywhere as Lucas let go of the other mage, his neck crushed to bits and filled with holes. Lucas hand was covered in spikes. They came from under his skin, tearing it apart. Blood poured out like he had an infinite amount.
His other arm was completely sliced in half as a blade appeared from within his skin.
Godfried who floated in the air watched on with a strange feeling. It wasn't fear, nor was it anger. "Yes. You had to be at least powerful for you to kill Simon. How did you circumvent the array?", his booming voice was gone as it was replaced by a serious one.
"Would you like to know?", Lucas spoke so neutral it threw Godfried off. He expected an arrogant or boastful response. Shaking his head, he ignored the eerie feeling he got from him.
"You grew your bones and used them as a weapon. Since those two idiots forgot to put up their shields, you succeeded in ambushing them. So instead of using gateways, you simply circumvented it. Either way, you can't do anything to me as long as I float here."
"No. You just blocked the gateways on my skin," Lucas spoke with little interest as if all of this was just a normal conversation.
Godfried barely grasped what the young man meant before he realized Lucas was standing in a pool of his own blood, a perfect medium to conjure magic, at the cost of ones own life of course.
"Hahaha! Seems your teacher taught you well," he was all smiles before he turned that smile upside down and released his aura. "But you're beneath me, Conrad. Give up and you'll get a respectful death."