HP: The Arcane Thief

"Oh come on! Are you kidding me?!" Kyrin slapped her chair in frustration. There is usually little to no chance of such a situation happening. Are they really unlucky enough to encounter it just when they are not prepared for it?

"Boss, this is an I-told-you-so moment," said Estris, even as she started to prepare counter measures for the situation."

Kyrin gritted her teeth at the unprofessionalism of her assistant. "Not the time, Estris. Willis! Get us out of this!"

"I'm trying." said the old butler.

The aircraft shook vigorously, going completely out of their control as the space to warp around them.

"Alright, this is bad." Kyrin accepted. A space turbulence can dump them anywhere in this place. Usually, it wouldn't be this big of a deal, but this was Axel and Akiko's first time here, and they were not prepared to face the dangers that lay in the depths of this place.

Naturally, Kyrin was frustrated,

"Sigh…" Meanwhile, Axel just sat in his seat in desolation even as the agitation of the rest of the crew increased.

'The fuck is going on, system?' he asked in his head.

[The key you have in your hand is part of a pair. Since the two keys have been separated for long, and the other was destroyed in this location, it is obvious that it is reacting sensitively. Unfortunately, you happened to be in a place where the space where is unstable, causing a space turbulence.]

'Oh? Well that's bloody understandable,' responded Axel sarcastically. 'But, you know, if you already know this then wouldn't a warning be helpful?! And also, what the fuck do I do now?!'

Axel was pissed right now. If it was just him then it was still fine, but he doesn't feel right having the whole crew also be victims of his bad luck.

[It is not recommended to leave the Key anywhere, meaning that this situation was unavoidable. You can only wait and hope to fall in a less dangerous place]

'That's real useful of you, system. Real useful.'

Though Axel was annoyed, he had been in much more screwed up situations, so he just waited patiently even as the rest of the crew made a big fuss.

*BOOOM*

With a huge jerk, they escaped the space turbulence, but due to considerable damage to the system, they ended up crash landing.

"Fuck…" Kyrin shook her head, shaking off the vertigo. "This day is getting worse and worse."

Just losing to Axel in front of Aki was bad enough, and and then getting embroiled into this mess when she has Aki and another first timer with her… this is really…

"We're out!" Suddenly, with a final shake, the aircraft suddenly stopped shaking like a leave in waves, but then they started to go down, hard.

"Willis!"

"Miss, I can't control it! The damage is too much!"

"Prepare for a crash landing!"

"Everyone, seatbelts on!"

With a huge impact, the aircraft made contact with the surface, and then continued to roll forward to break the momentum.

The whole time, Axel just sat in his seat in a deadpan look, knowing that it was all because of him. He moved his head sideways in annoyance as a sharp piece of the broken aircraft lodged itself just where his head used to be.

'Seriously, this is nowhere enough to faze me anymore. You should try harder,' Axel thought to himself, responding to whatever higher power (if any) that was trying to make his life miserable.

"Is everyone alright?" Asked Kyrin while personally checking on Akiko.

The ship was currently upside down, Axel unlocked his seatbelt and dropped to roof of the aircraft with a flip. "Fine."

"Fine too." (Akiko)

"I think these old bones will live." (Willis)

"I'm unharmed as well, boss." (Estris)

After confirming the member's safety, Kyrin sighed. "Alright. This is not so bad, is it? Estris, where are we? Willis, what are the damages?"

"The ships' wrecked. It would take several days to repair," said Willis the butler, delivering the first bad news.

'Well, well, well… there goes my Rewarding Ceremony.' Thought Axel. Not really a surprise. Deep down, he knew he was just day dreaming when he thought he might get a relic as a reward.

But Kyrin, who had still been hoping to salvage the situation, sucked in a deep breath. 'Alright… Alright. It's not too bad. A few days would give them extra training.'

"Estris, where are we?"

Estris was just looking at her screen, as if she had not heard Kyrin at all. She slowly turned to look at Kyrin. "It's the red area."

"MoTHerfuKKer!" It was the moment Kyrin knew, they were fucked.

Kyrin banged her fist, causing more damage to the ship.

"What's the red area?" Asked Akiko.

Kyrin quickly unstrapped herself as well. "No time to explain. We have to leave this place immediately." said Kyrin, opening the hatch door.

*BOOM*

Suddenly, the aircraft shook violently, causing Kyrin to curse. "Come out quick!"

All of them quickly exited the place, only to find tentacles gripping the aircraft.

"Off my ship, you bastard!" Blades of darkness manifested in the air, cutting the tentacles.

"What the hell… is this place?" Muttered Axel in wonder while Kyrin decimated the creature messing with their transport.

Below their feet was solid ground, while the sky seemed to be composed completely of. . .

"Water?"

That's right, the sky seemed to be entirely composed of water. He could see silhouettes of creatures swimming in it. Huge tentacles came out of the water body, heading straight for them.

It's not like he didn't expect there to be water here, hell, he could feel it when they had landed. It also makes perfect sense for there to be water here, what with this place having various entrances at the bottom of the sea, but he didn't expect it to be like this.

"This place is in a separate dimension. It has its own set of natural laws," explained Estris. "For one, the gravitational field here is two-way. So if you go high enough, you will 'fall' into the sky."

"Cool."

"Professor Estris, could you please continue your lesson at a more suitable time? We're in bit of a situation here," said Kyrin, putting the aircraft in her storage space as more tentacles emerged from the sky. "Right now, we're too badly fucked to be wasting time."

She then turned to check on Axel. "You're not hearing the voices yet?"

"What voices?" Asked Axel in confusion.

Kyrin turned her attention back to the creatures. "No time to explain. Just take this and knock yourself out," she said, tossing him a vial as she continued to cut down the tentacles coming to the sky.

"What's this?" Axel looked at the bottle in confusion.

"Simple anesthetic. It'll knock you out."

"??? Uh... No thanks?"

Excuse him, but why would he willingly knock himself out, not mentioned in a place like this? What a weird request to make. Of course, Axel refused straightforwardly.

While dealing with monsters, Kyrin turned to glare at him. "It's not a request. It's an order. Now, are you going to obediently knock yourself out or am I going to have to do it for you?"

Axel was flaggerbasted. 'Bold of you to assume you can take me on in terrain, bish.'

"Well, you can try," he replied, a faint flicker of blue passing through his eyes.

There was a fucking ocean right above them. He really wanted to see her try.

Estris sighed. "That's why explanations are necessary, boss."

"Axel, the boss means you no harm. We're in the middle of the red zone, the most dangerous area, and the area where the creature's influence is at its highest. In the absence of mental blocks, if you don't shut down your mind right now, your mind would quickly be corrupted by the entity."

"Oh…." Axel understood now.

"So say it like that from the beginning, damn it." Axel muttered, as the faint flicked of blue vanished from his eyes. Now the annoying buzzing in his head was making sense. Turns out it's the entity trying to corrupt him. Of course, for him, it was just…

'Too weak.'

He didn't really need to knock himself out. At all. But how does he explain it to them, who think he's not good at Occlumency? Well, he could think of several easy ways, the last of which was simply revealing his occlumency to be strong enough to deal with the creature.

"But the psylocks—" he began, taking out the glasses that Estris had handed them in the beginning, but was cut off.

"—Are too weak to be of use here. They're only useful if we're in the green zone, where we were originally going to take you."

'Alright,'

Now, should he reveal that he also has excellent Occlumency and that he has not bothered to reveal that until now because he doesn't trust them? Well, there's one other option left before he does that.

"Will these make a difference?" He asked, taking out another pair of specs.

Instantly, both Kyrin and Estris widened their eyes, recognizing the item.

"Where did you get those from?"

They were Nerio's annoying glasses which had managed to block his occlumency.

….

"His name is Axel. Axel Hunt. And… it would seem that he is your Nephew."

"Nephew…" the Princess murmured the words, too overwhelmed to even fully grasp the situation.

How… is this possible?

The princess just stood there as a tidal wave of thoughts rushed through her head. Slowly, the puzzles were starting to come together.

Why she felt an odd sense of familiarity with him.

Why she looked at the clip hundreds of times.

And also, why he would have the Royal seal.

It was because he was a Royal, to begin with. He was…

"My Nephew…" She murmured, unable to believe the reality. But the General is not someone who would pull a prank so cruel. This has to be real.

Rewinding the video, she looked at Axel's face carefully.

'This is sister's son,' she thought, as her hand slowly rose up to touch the hologram.

He looked a lot like that hateful Trickster Hunt, but, there was a difference. "He has sister's high cheekbones, and her nose. And also, the way he purses his lips also like her!" Now that she was looking at the orginal, unaltered face, everything was coming together all at once.

That's why she found him familiar. Because even if he had managed to completely alter his face, some things were still reminding her of her sister, making her feel like she had seen him before.

"Also, this incident…" she realized, opening another hologram beside Axel's picture.

It showed the scene of the sea creatures exploding one after another in the artificial sea of the Biopark. The princess got goosebumps. "Is it him? No way… How did he even awaken the Royal Bloodline to this extent?"

It was a scene that could only be explained by the presence of the Royal Bloodline. But even if he has it, how did he awaken in the outside world, and that too to such a high extent, without going to any of the procedures?

"Also…" the Princess's brows wrinkled as she traced her fingers over the scars on Axel's face. Growing up in the Royal castle, she and her sister and not suffered a single scar on their body, provided with the best care possible. It was the norm for any prince or princess, a Royal birthright.

"These scars…? Are they also fake?" She asked hopefully. He has the ability to completely alter his face. Surely, these scars are also…

The General was silent for a moment. "Princess, there is a lot of information readily available about Axel, no, about the crown Prince. And…" the General paused.

"You aren't going to like what we found."