Chapter 198 - Sour taste

“What the?” Shindo yelled out in shock as he jumped back, swiveling his head around to look for the enemies that were approaching just a second ago.

“I think we teleported,” Adion said, looking down at the formation beneath his feet curiously. It was dark around him, so Adion conjured a flame to see more clearly.

This feels familiar. 

Adion closed his eyes and tried to grasp the vague impressions floating around in his head.

“Teleported? Did you teleport us? Where? I don’t feel anyone around,” Shindo asked, still looking around cautiously.

“No, it was a teleportation formation,” Adion answered.

“There are teleportation formations?” Shindo asked, a little less agitated and more curious.

Why is it so hard to remember?

Adion also took a look around, spreading his space mana to see the situation they were in.

This place looks pretty abandoned. It should be another Ruin.

It isn’t as well preserved, though.

Adion wasn’t in a grand hall with smooth walls anymore. It looked more like a regular cave. The only sign that this had been used by people was the intricately carved doorway at the end of the cave. 

Beyond the doorway, there was some light coming through. Adion hurried over to take a look.

“Adion?” Shindo said and followed him out.

Adion arrived in a long hallway. He could see that the wall had caved in further up ahead, and light was spilling in from outside.

Adion walked over to take a look, with Shindo close behind him.

“Where are we? The Endless Forest?” Shindo asked as the two looked out over the trees down below. 

Damn. I hope I’m not too far away from home.

Adion turned his head back in the direction of the formation.

Is there any way I can teleport us back? But we’d probably get captured or killed as soon as we get there.

“Adion?” Shindo asked, waving his hand in front of his eyes to get his attention.

“I don’t know where we are,” Adion said, pushing Shindo’s hand away, “We appear to be in some kind of mountain chain. It could be the Kuwa Mountains, the Silver Peaks, or anywhere else really. For all I know, we might not even be on Shiora anymore.”

“That…” Shindo hesitated as he looked out over the forest in front of them with no signs of civilization. 

But this is really familiar. 

“I need to paint,” Adion said, taking off his backpack.

“Paint? Now?” Shindo asked.

“Yeah. I need to clear my head,” Adion said, taking out his painting material.

“But…Shouldn’t we, you know, see where we are? Look for danger? Or food and water?” Shindo asked.

“Later,” Adion said, “Just let me paint for a while. I feel like it will help us.”

“How would…Whatever,” Shindo said with a sigh, “Paint if you want. I’ll take a look around.”

Adion knew he was acting strange, but he felt like there was something in his mind close to surfacing, and the only way he could get a clear image of it was through painting. 

I’ll paint the teleportation formation. 

Adion decided his motive and started mixing his colors. He was a little worried that he was too agitated to get a good result.

But luckily, his mind soon relaxed, and something inside him took over as he fell deeper and deeper into himself with every stroke. 

Before he knew it, he was back in a similar but slightly different cave. He was only 12 years old, and he was full of grief and confusion over his recently killed family. 

But no matter how much he wanted to crawl into a ball and disappear, there was something in front of him that demanded his attention. A being that seemed out of this world stood before him. A young phoenix with old and wise eyes. 

But its feathers weren’t alight in flames of fire like the stories said. They were dark and deep as the night sky. And when it took flight, it didn’t rely on the wind. It manipulated space itself to lift off and start its journey to no one knows where.

Adion came back to the present and looked at the painting in front of him. 

The Celestial Phoenix. I remember now. Heavenly Light killed my family, and I escaped through a teleportation formation.

Our enmity goes way further back than my recent kidnapping.

Adion couldn’t help but clench his fists as he thought about all the things those people had put him through.

“Haah,” Adion sighed and shook his head. 

In time, I’ll make things right.

After going through the newly surfaced information he had in his head, Adion looked around and found that Shindo still hadn’t returned from wherever he had gone off earlier. 

I guess it’s good he didn’t see what I painted. It would be hard to explain. 

Adion put away the painting of the Celestial Phoenix and got up on his feet. His Will was a little tired, but he still felt he would be able to paint another painting right away if he wanted to.

Am I getting better at this? It would be great if I could paint several times a day.

Adion spread his sphere of space mana but couldn’t sense Shindo. He walked back to the room with the teleportation formation, but it was empty.

Is there a chance that people will follow us? Maybe I should destroy it.

It would be a shame, though. There can’t be many of these left. 

Adion walked up to the formation and tried to imprint the patterns he saw into his mind.

I can’t understand these patterns now, but I might do in the future if I learn more about runes.

He crouched down to feel the inscriptions with his hand. 

Is this what Heavenly Light wanted from me? That makes sense. They have the teleportation formation in the Remori manor under their control. Being able to replicate this would make any large organization go crazy. 

Adion tried to release some space mana into the formation to try to feel how his space mana moved through it. But it was hard. If Adion let go of his control of the space mana and let it travel through the runes under him, he couldn’t sense it anymore. 

Feeling how the space around him started showing signs of teleporting him away, Adion hurriedly stopped feeding his space mana into the formation. 

I need to be careful. I don’t want to accidentally end up back in the Ruin, surrounded by enemies. 

Adion put the thought of figuring out the formation out of his mind for the moment and walked back into the hallway.

Where could Shindo have gone?

The direction where the wall of the hallway had caved in was covered in large rocks. Adion didn’t feel like Shindo would push through in that direction. He turned to the right and walked the other way.

As he left the cave-in behind him, the hallway got darker and darker. Adion conjured a flame to see where he was walking. 

What is this place? 

That place I teleported to from the Remori manor seemed to belong to the Celestial Phoenix Sect. Could this be one of their branches? Or were teleportation formations so common back in the Age of Wonder that every organization had them?

But it should take a space mage to construct those things, right? And how do they activate without a space mage? 

Adion turned to look back the hallway with furrowed brows. 

Do those guys from the Empire have a way to activate it?

There should be a way to do it. It doesn’t make sense that a space mage had to help every time someone wanted to teleport. 

Maybe they’ll figure out a way. If that’s the case, we could be in danger. 

Perhaps I’d better destroy the formation just to be safe. 

Adion stood still, hesitating. 

No. It’s not worth it. I still want to study it and see if I can replicate it in the future.

If they really do show up, I can just escape. I don’t think even a Soul mage can catch me if I use all my Will to teleport away.

Adion continued walking down the dark hallway. 

After a few minutes, Adion felt Shindo’s presence in a room deep into the mountain. 

“Did the painting turn out well?” Shindo asked in a slightly annoyed tone as Adion stepped inside the room.

Adion looked around the room that appeared to be an old living area. He could see a metal bed frame in a small room to the side. 

“Sorry about that,” Adion said, “Anyway. Have you found anything?”

“Nothing interesting, just old everyday stuff,” Shindo answered as he examined a small metal box in his hands.

Adion spread his space mana into the box and noticed there were only a few coins inside, so he wasn’t interested enough to argue over the box with Shindo.

“Anyway, let’s go deeper,” Shindo said with a small smile, putting the small box in his pocket.

“Alright,” Adion said with a nod.

As they stepped out into the hallway, Shindo looked at Adion and asked, “So, mind telling me what’s going on now? What’s the deal with those teleportation formations? Have you seen them before?”

“Yeah,” Adion said with a nod. Heavenly Light should already know about his experience with the teleportation formation in the Remori manor, so Adion didn’t see the need to keep it a secret. 

I hope they don’t figure out how to use it. If that place I got teleported to was the headquarters of the Celestial Phoenix Sect, I’m sure there are some buried treasures around.

I remember a few books that I couldn’t move back then. I don’t want Heavenly Light to get their hands on them. 

“At the Academy?” Shindo asked, “Have they hidden something like that? Do they have space mages other than you there?”

“Not that I know of,” Adion answered with a small smile, “I found a teleportation formation by accident several years ago. It’s under Heavenly Light’s control now.”

“Do they know how to use it? Can they replicate it?” Shindo asked.

“I don’t think so. I hope not,” Adion answered, “Anyway, it’s my turn to ask a few questions. Just who are you, Shindo?”

Adion stopped walking and stared closely at Shindo’s face. He hadn’t forgotten how Shindo had hidden how he was a powerful Gold mage.

“Well,” Shindo hesitated, smiling slightly to himself, “What to say…I guess I am who I am. I haven’t faked anything. I just needed to hide my background for various reasons.”

“Not going to tell me the reason?” Adion asked.

“I’m afraid powerful people will know about me, and then they’ll hunt me down,” Shindo said with a straight face.

“Right,” Adion said hesitantly, “So you’re on the run?”

“You could say that,” Shindo said, his eyes shifting slightly.

“From who?” Adion asked.

“Powerful people on Quemer, you wouldn’t know them,” Shindo answered.

“So you’re from Quemer? Is that why you’re so powerful? Is that normal over there?” Adion asked.

“I got here from Pollonti, if you’ve ever heard of it. And no, my level of power is not normal,” Shindo said.

“How did you get so strong?” Adion asked.

“The same way everyone gets strong,” Shindo said with a laugh, “I just do it better than most.”

Adion felt a sour taste in his mouth. Damn. Why do I find that so annoying?

Adion turned his head away from Shindo and started walking again. 

I’ll start each day meditating from now on. I’ll still have the Will to do a painting in the evening. 

“So you’re a what? A thunder mage?” Adion asked.

“I would say I’m a lightning mage with thunder concepts,” Shindo said, “I don’t know how to explain it in Shiorin.”

“I speak Quemerian, you know,” Adion said, switching language.

“Right,” Shindo said slowly, also switching to Quemerian, “I guess I still can’t explain it. But it’s like a mixture of lightning and thunder. Lightning comes easily; it was the spark I was born with. But thunder is more of a concept I slowly have to incorporate into my core.”

Adion remembered how the ground had shaken from that bolt of lightning Shindo had conjured. 

It seems he has come a long way, not only with his advancement but his concepts as well.

What a freak.

“So that’s why you’re such a bad wind mage,” Adion said in realization.

“Yeah. Well, I’m quite good at wind magic, actually. At least considering I’m a lightning mage. You can imagine my frustration at getting ridiculed for it when I don’t even have a wind core,” Shindo said with irritation.

“I’ve never heard of any mages with the lightning mages before,” Adion said in contemplation.

Is Shindo like me? One of a kind?

“Is the lightning element common on Quemer?” Adion asked.

“Not really,” Shindo said, “But my family is a family of lightning mages.”

How come I’ve never heard about that? Or have I just forgotten about it?

But it really feels like I’ve never heard about lightning as an element before. Surely, it would have been mentioned at the Academy if this was well-known. Is Shindo from a hidden family or something?

“Wait,” Adion said, “Is your name even Shindo? You’re not Sabamin, so why would you have a Shiorin name?”

Shindo just smiled awkwardly and said, “There’s a room up ahead. Let’s check it out.”

Adion watched him sprint ahead without giving an answer and couldn’t help but frown.

What’s with the secrets? And his aura control is too good for me to see through if he’s lying or not. 

I’ll practice my aura sense more going forward.