Rushing to the castle, Lucas had placed all his hopes on this supposed Guardian that specialized in space magic. For one, if his build was similar to the one he saw from the portal, yellow and covered in small dark circles, he knew who to interrogate. Even if he was protected by a Rank 5 monster of a Duke, he would figure something out.
Secondly, if he wasn't the cause, perhaps he could bring him to the location where it happened and glean something from it that he himself couldn't. Lucas was a fantastic mage and was able to learn a lot about magic but the fields he specialized in was far removed from space.
Frankly, it was a baseless hope. He tried all the ideas he had, yet none led to Asta. It was his last shot in the dark, hoping it would hit something.
Arriving at the gate of the massive castle of the Duke, his basic disguise he got from Asta was enough to put the guards at ease. Despite them being Rank 2 mages, the guards weren't trained to the point they could point it out.
Showing the medal, he was quickly led through to the right location. Walking to the tower at the eastern part of the castle, Lucas was once again confronted by the luxuriousness of it all.
Clean red carpets led the way forward as the walls were beautifully decorated. Maids and butlers were seen carrying dishes and plates from one end to another. Considering it was extremely early in the morning, preparing hot food might've seemed strange, but knowing that Lucas also tried to avoid sleeping, food was welcome at any time.
Reaching the final corridor before he reached the tower, Lucas instantly noticed how the protective measures shot through the roof. There weren't just two guards hanging about, there were around 15 demons standing at the side being led by 3 Rank 3 demons.
This wasn't just cautious, it was paranoid levels of defense, something Lucas could respect. It only made him more curious as to why the guardian was so protected. He knew spatial magic was extremely hard to learn, but there were plenty of pocket spaces around, so it couldn't be that hard, or so he thought.
As Lucas took the first step towards them, all the mages activated their magic wands, ready to strike at a moments notice. Lucas wasn't going to take things lying down, preparing his own assault of spells in his body.
One of the Rank 3 mages stepped forward, "Excuse me, sir. But could you remove your disguise?"
Under the threat of all the mages around him, Lucas saw no reason to keep up his play, removing his disguise.
The Rank 3 mage nodded, "I see, the human contracted to our Duke's son. My apologies, sir, without proper reasons, I can't allow you to take a step further," calling towards Lucas from afar, there was still plenty of distance before he would even reach the tower's base.
"Lord Alastor gave me permission," taking out a medal, the demons suddenly conjured up shields and weapons due to his sudden movement. The leader looked like a rough man in his forties, he didn't like Lucas' behavior in the slightest.
"Don't make any sudden movements if you don't want to get killed. Place the medal on the ground and step back."
Lucas sighed as he followed the instructions. One of the lesser demons came up and inspected the medal with magic before nodding towards the leader.
"Your identification checks out. You will be accompanied by the three of us while you meet him. Don't do anything reckless," the man released his aura, trying to pressure Lucas into obedience. The aura pushed down on him, but the relaxed manner of which he stepped forward hurt his pride.
"I wouldn't dream of it," Lucas smiled as genuine as he could, but it was only seen as a threat.
'Fighting against three of these fucks would be annoying.'
'Hence my compliance.'
Following the demons into the tower, they met a bunch more guards, each quite a powerful mage considering everything. Lucas couldn't understand it any longer. This was the amount of protective detail for a king, not a Rank 2 mage.
Finally being allowed inside the room, apparently deserving of all these men standing guard, he was intrigued. The room was extremely big with a very high ceiling. All around them stood large boards filled with runes and theories. At certain points they started to overlap.
Like the scribbles of a madman, the runes and writings crossed each other like a whirlpool of lines and circles. Lifting his head, the boards and formulas reached the ceiling. And at the very top, a mage was floating almost lifelessly as he stared at the formulas.
The guards didn't say anything and directed Lucas to stay quiet. "You'll get your chance to talk once he comes down," he whispered into his ears. He wasn't allowed to move around, simply standing there was all that he could do.
Staring at the formulas and runes, Lucas tried to understand them, but it wasn't even close to possible. None of the runes were ones he recognized and the theories displayed so openly were in his language, but that didn't matter since he couldn't understand a single word from it.
He wanted to learn it, to comprehend it, but all he got was a headache. Nothing could be interpreted, there wasn't any point to begin with. Lucas quickly understood why the field was so hastily abandoned. There were dozens of fields to specialize in, many that required a lot of work, but could be accomplished by many. This was one of those fields only a few chosen ones could be in.
After standing around for an hour or two did the mage finally move from one side of the room to the other, but he was still floating in the air.
He looked like a typical researcher. Dressed in a long black coat, he had round glasses on his nose and some serious bags under his eyes. His mouth was slightly agape, but he had the basic composition of a normal demon.
Lucas had researched a bunch on different types of species, but there weren't any recorded with five arms. Then his trail led him to illusions and other forms of trickery, but his lead gave him little to work with.
Waiting for a bit longer, the man that floated above them suddenly fell down. One of the guards in the room stepped forward with a blanket in his hands as he caught the guardian mid air. Landing softly on the ground, Lucas realized this wasn't the first time he had to do this.
Right after the guard placed him in a sofa and wrapped the blanket around him, he went to fetch a bunch of magic crystals to refill his core. The guardian lazily grabbed one and started to circulate the mana into his own body.
"We have guests?", his voice was barely audible as he continued to absorb mana.
"Yes, sir, this man has been let through because he has the medal from Lord Alastor."
"Ah, yes, what do you want?", he wasn't even properly looking at Lucas, focused on gathering more mana, so he could continue with his work. Introductions and small talk didn't seem to be all that welcome.
"I need your help, my friend Astaroph was kidnapped through a portal that opened up behind him. It wasn't an artifact, someone created that portal, nabbed him and left. I need to know where he went or how I can trace it."
The man took a moment to think as he continued to gather energy. "Can't help, sorry."
"What?!", the leisure refusal from the guardian infuriated Lucas enough for him to drop his mask for a second.
"Look, do you know how hard it is to create a portal from one location to another?"
"I've seen it happen quite a few times, so I can't imagine it being that hard."
"That's because they use artifacts, items that will lead you to a single location, but do you know how hard even that is? To open a portal in a certain place, you need to have an anchor that will respond to a certain signal, then you would need to do all the calculations to make sure you don't end up in the ground or in the sky. The artifacts that are in circulation do the calculations for you, but those are very limited. Nothing stays in a single spot."
"So this one was without an artifact. How did they do it?"
"By calculating the exact location of where the portal has to open, the size, width and the power to create a gap in space. If someone did it without an artifact, it's better to give up. Because you'll never find or trace them," the mage wasn't joking or taking Lucas lightly. He was a mage with plenty of experience with mages a higher Rank than his own, so he didn't care for being indirect, he simply said the truth.
"Would you be able to do it?", his question was posed with intrigue, but it also alerted the guards to take a step closer and make sure the guardian would be safe.
"I could do it, sure, if I had the mana to support such a bridge. But I don't have the time to do something like that nor do I have a core that can handle that. I've been here for a few years now trying to solve a single calculation and any distractions will only slow my progress. Now leave, since I can't help you."
Lucas stared at the man for a moment, "What would you do if someone stole all your research through a portal?"
The man stared back, his eyes were half closed before he shut them and scratched his head. "You're a stubborn bastard. I'll give you something, will you then leave?"
"Depends on what it is."
"You're not exactly in a position to talk back, you know. I'm doing this so Lord Alastor won't disturb me if you're going to complain. Here, take it."
Handing over a small orb, Lucas had absolutely no idea what it did. He was considered a genius in many fields, but he denied those allegations whenever he had the chance because situations like this always put him in his place.
"What is it?", the disappointing look from the guardian made him want to punch him in the face. Being forced to admit his weakness and lack of knowledge was already annoying, but for him to look down on him? Lucas didn't have a lot of weak points, sadly, he wasn't perfect.
"If I had the energy to sigh, I would. Spatial magic is special among all the fields of magic. You need to metaphorically create a tunnel in space that won't interfere with anything until it reaches its destination. It's impossible to almost every single mage to do so without an artifact. If you're correct, and a person did it, then his personal magic would have to create that bridge. This tool tracks the mana from the bridge, if it's still around, of course."
Waving him away, the guards quickly took action to push Lucas towards the entrance. Fighting back would only lead to worse outcomes, so he followed along. The tool he had was a last way forward,
'Better than nothing.'
'This shit ain't gonna work, is it?'
'At least wait until we have the results before being negative.'
'I just can't trust that bastard.'