Azimuth: The Elden Throne

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/Around an hour later…/

""WE GREET THE HOLDER OF THE GREEN STAR!!""

Back in Gyu's cottage… A man arrives while riding a strange, gorgeous beast, a mix of a large hog with long tusks and a slender horse with long hair.

The soldiers saluted him, their hands in their chest, their voices booming across the silent dark forest...

"Where is he?" He asked, his voice deep and low, somewhat raspy, as if he had smoked a dozen packs of cigarettes

"Honored one, reporting!" A soldier said as he approached the man

He bowed deeply, displaying the back of his helmet where a symbol could be seen.

"..."

…

The man, clearly a higher-ranked official, listened to the soldier's report before getting off his mount and entering the wooden cottage, now completely turned over, his expression sharp as he looked around.

He checked room by room, eventually stopping at the room where the secret entrance was located.

"... Is there any other room in this cottage?" He asked as he looked around

"No sir, aside from a small basement, this is all there is…"

/SLAM!/

The man did not hesitate, he punched the wall with immense force, shattering it into pieces, revealing the secret room and the hatch leading into the hidden passage.

The soldiers were shocked, to think there was such a small space hidden between the rooms...

It seemed this high-ranking person wasn't just strong but attentive too.

"Send someone down there, find where he went, my daughter must be delivered to me as soon as possible." He said as he turned around

"Even if this city has to be turned upside down."

He said those words with clear intent, the soldiers were given free rain to act.

Bringing his daughter back was the only thing they had to care about... He would make sure they could focus solely on that.

""UNDERSTOOD!""

With those heavy words, the man left the cottage, ridding his horse as he returned to the city, slowly and steadily, it seemed as if he had no care in the world whatsoever…

Instead of being in a hurry to find his daughter, it seemed this matter was more of an inconvenience to him than anything.

How strange…

…

/Meanwhile…/

"Huff… Huff… I did it."

His face covered in sweat and his lips bleeding slightly, Dale wiped his face with a towel as he checked his body's condition.

After using many of the potions within Gyu's cottage and the extra time he had, Dale took this chance to open Elgur's Heart Gate, not without some problems, of course.

His chest was in extreme pain and he knew it would take a while for it to recover, something these simple potions wouldn't be able to do.

Right now, Elgur's body was like a clogged pipe, he managed to drain some of it, but a lot of muck was still there, preventing water from flowing smoothly.

It didn't help that he didn't even know what half of those potions even did given he was without the system's assistance.

Unfortunately, Gyu's diary wasn't as thorough with what he brought home as he expected, it seemed he would need someone to help him appraise the potions some other time.

"Phew…"

He got up from his seat, getting ready to leave his room and enter his bath, a small tub on the ground full of water, something he ordered previously when he had the time.

Right now, Dale was somewhere in the city inside an Inn quite far from the other end of the smuggler's underground passageway.

"Hmn..."

'Originally, I intended on reading all of the books available to me before maybe trying to sneak inside an area full of documents and steal them for myself… But things have changed now.'

'I don't know exactly what I should be looking for, but I've determined that seeking strength should suffice for now…'

[DING]

"Speaking of it, this must be my confirmation." He mumbled to himself as he checked the notification

[You've created a new Memory: Awakening of the Heart Gate]

[A new variable has been added to Elgur's tale; The future changes…]

[The timer resets, you currently have 94 hours and 26 minutes to achieve a significant change, otherwise, the memory will close on its own]

[Would you like to leave the Memory?]

"As I thought… The timer increased." He said with a small smile as he refused the System

'However… In the short term, this is all I can do. There's little room for me to grow from here without spending some good time training.'

'I could try to awaken Aura, but without my "Vision", it won't happen... And don't even get me started on stimulating my Vitality.'

'It would be best to focus on other efforts… Maybe try and research how the people of these lands grow.'

'If that's not enough, then if I can't alter the future through "me", then maybe changing it through others will suffice?'

'If a big enough event happens… Would I be given more time?'

'It's something to think about… Regardless, four days is more than this memory originally gave me. It's enough time to finish my current books and plan my infiltration into a library to steal their books.'

"Things are progressing smoothly so far, but before anything else, I'll take a bath before moving."

Dale knew that remaining in the Inn for long wasn't wise. It would be best to find an inconspicuous house and stay inside to watch over the movements of his pursuers until the dust settled down.

Adding onto that, if he could deal a blow to their search, maybe it would be enough to alter the future and extend his stay in this world...

But for now… He focused on his bath.

/Splash…/

"... The water's cold… Sigh…"

Tired and worn out, Dale spaced out as he let the dirt on his skin flow away…

…

/Around a day and a half later…/

The night came, and then the moon fell, replaced by the sun before the cycle repeated above everyone's heads.

It was the night of his second day in the memory, and today, Dale wouldn't remain in his room with books before his eyes.

"Time to move."

Over the last day or so, Dale finished reading every single book he had, adding their contents to his "mental library".

He now knew a lot more about the world and its people, and the more he knew, the more confused he was.

'The maps I've found out so far coincide with nothing I've ever seen, it's likely that either the maps are wrong, or I'm on a Continent I've never seen before.'

'It's also hard to conclude this is the past of those land's past, as unless I've returned millions of years into an unknown time, the shores of a continent wouldn't change to such a degree.'

'Now, this doesn't mean I'm not in Azimuth's or Zenith's past. However, it's getting harder to hold onto the possibility.'

"Regardless, I've learned much about this world's people."

'Most importantly, how they grow stronger…'

Dale raised his hand, grasping the air.

/Shine…/

The air began to tremble and an Orange flame began to rise from his palm.

'It wasn't very hard to master this, the principle behind it isn't that complex, but it's confusing for someone who doesn't have an already in-depth understanding of what is Mana… And Primal Force.'

'This is called "Kiton". If I were to translate it… The Grand Principle? It's something along those lines… I'm not exactly proficient with this language, the words just seem to appear in my mind as I think of them.'

'Kiton, for the lack of a better explanation, seems to be something of a mix between Techniques involving Mana and Prime Force, however, it's neither… But I can't say it's a new type of energy either. Mostly because the methods to train and invoke it are simply too similar to what I already know.'

'If I were to give it a shot… Like Qrubin would say… This seems to be a form of energy created through the mixtures of other already known forces, a ratio so perfect it creates something stable.'

'Aura is one such case, it's a mix of Vitality and Mana. For it to manifest, it needs a catalyst, one's mental power, their "Vision" to guide the energies together so they may fuse and explode with power.'

'Aura requires a lot of mental training and enlightenment to be attained... But what about Kiton?'

'Aura is an explosive energy with a lot of innate power to be released, but it's very stable.'

'On the other hand, Kiton seems gentler yet heavier and denser, it can release a lot of energy but under longer periods, being more efficient than Aura.'

'With the Heart Gate opened, I felt the Kiton inside my body grow in strength, but something wasn't quite right… I believe the center of energy that Kiton uses isn't exactly the heart but that it lies somewhere else…'

'Had I read the books more intently I may have known where that is by now, but I was in a hurry to finish these so…'

"Kiton also seems to be a form of power that retains its shape and appearance across all users, Mana is about the same but Aura changes its color and appearance based on the "Vision" of an individual, and the qualities of both their Mana and Prime Origin."

'This could indicate the Kiton is a simple form of power, but it's hard to agree with that without learning more about it first.'

'Of course, this is a preliminary analysis, I have no idea how much of what I've seen so far is true or will remain so as I learn more about it.'

'In its case, I'm not sure what forms it. By following the manuals I invoked Kiton without much trouble, especially given that my control over Mana wasn't that of a Novice.'

'This could mean that Kiton isn't a natural force but a mixture of something else, this fusing of forces being performed so seamlessly that I can't even feel it inside my body.'

'It's quick and maybe even instantaneous.'

'It could also be an effect of the techniques at hand, a thousand years of development all for this singular, relatively simple art.'

'But there's certainly a principle here left to be uncovered, and something to be researched and understood.'

'This alone is a find worthy bringing with me outside of the memory… Just thinking about the repercussions of this makes me shudder.'

'The discovery of a new type of force that is so accessible… Still, for their sake and mine, I need to find out more about it.'

'Even Mana can be toxic, what to say this? I have to figure out more about it before sharing it with others...'

/Shine… Dim…/

Dale shook his hand, as if putting away a fire, he waved it around until the orange flames subsided.

"Although I managed to 'awaken' Kiton, there were no notifications of Elgur's future changing, meaning that somewhere in the short future, he would train in it as well."

"This checks because from my theories, Elgur joined the Gladiators in the main Colosseum, meaning that if he performed well in there, he may have been given a chance to access some of their records regarding these techniques."

"As such, I currently have two… Three objectives:"

"Acess the records of the Gladiators in the Arena, for that, I would be essentially offending the Sovereigns, who are like CEO's of mega corporations in this world."

"They are all influential merchants with so much wealth they can rule entire cities merely by moving their wealth around, seeing a Sovereign can be rare, so seeing one like that during my last few fights was quite the encounter."

That wasn't quite the case as that particular Sovereign was deeply interested in his Arenas, knowing much about each of his warriors and slaves to maximize his profits, he was someone whose wealth was all around this line of business, hence, he was commonly seen around.

"My second objective would be to access the library of this city, there is one but as to be expected, it's heavily guarded as knowledge is valuable in these lands, more so than precious metals and gems, which makes Gyu's donation of the books to me that greater of a deal."

"Lastly, access the records of techniques from the Ooperang and receive the rest of the line of books Gyu gave me."

'If I can return with a complete martial art system in hand, this memory would go from the least useful in the past to the most valuable of them all!'

'Although I'm unsure what I'll find now that I'm aware I can change the future like this.'

"Now… Everything's in order."

Dale checked everything in his person, and with a dark mask over his face, he jumped through the window of his room, dashing across the dark streets of the city…

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Notes