The Conquerors Path

Not being able to give Aria the perfect picture I wanted, I just made it such that she kept the 'monsters' in their place while I sent the orders to the rest of my people and family. They were the ones to deal with the final blow to the ones that are not too useful, while the ones of use were left maimed or crippled.

The cries of death and pain filled the entire manor. All of them being family and friends of the Hillclowd family, and now, standing in this room, I can see the final embers of despair setting in the faces of the people here. Now they knew they had lost.

All this while, Shira's eyes kept looking at me. Those eyes, now completely black, looked at me with an extreme amount of hate. The hate she has for me increasing by the seconds, as the cries and failures of this family kept being heard.

"You really thought everything through...." Mira spoke as she looked at Aria, who now sat on my lap while I kept giving her light pats on her head. The 'little' girl melted at my touch, a very unique scene to say the least, with me having a little girl on my lap surrounded by these monsters.

"What can I say? I take all of your safety very seriously...." I spoke, which earned me a chuckle from Mira. But then her expression turned much more serious as she looked at Shira and Trigon.

"This power..."

She murmured, and I finished her words.

"...is very dangerous..."

The very prospect of blasting through such levels of power, even to the Imperial realm without taking years to master a law, is just pure nonsense. Such power would definitely throw the world into chaos.

'And now I can understand more why that side keeps getting more and more people.'

There are several powerful origin level 10s in the world, people at the end of the line, their talents dried up, with no way to enter the fabled Imperial realm. The mysteries of the laws are too much for many as they fail in their endeavor, and one day, their lifeline would end if they didn't enter the Imperial realm.

And the presence of such powers will tempt many at the end of their lifespan. Of course, it won't be easy to change the hearts of the powerful, as the prospect of joining hands with the powers that almost ended the world isn't an easy choice. But at the end of your lifespan, the line between good and bad can quickly become blurred.

"We need to get this to the War Council, and we need to purify this place....." As Mira said her last words, her face moved into disgust, and I nodded my head at her words. The entire manor was now filled with a heavy sense of corrupting energy, enough to corrupt normal people out of their minds. And if it keeps getting denser like this, it won't be long before the energy can come to corrupt the Origins.

Of course, a humongous amount of density is needed for it, but if this keeps up, things will get worse. For you see, the moment Trigon activated whatever he did, a subtle situation arose: the corruption energy in this place is increasing at an unnatural pace, coming from a crack deep within the manor. Getting close to it for now is extremely dangerous.

"Tell us, how do we stop this?" I asked after finally giving them the time to sink in the thoughts of defeat in their minds. As I said this, I made Aria give Trigon some freedom to talk, his mouth now moving as he looked at me with dead eyes, a smile of defiance filling his face as he started to say.

"Heheheh...even I don't know how to stop it! Soon the whole place and later the entire ci-"

"Yeah, that's enough," I interrupted him, and along with it, Aria closed up the guy's mouth. She was happy to do so as the corruption energy in the guy was annoying the hell out of her, but my gentle touches kept her at bay.

"Austin, this is not good," Mira spoke, worry filling her voice as the veil she wore covered her face. To this, a frown came to my face. The prospect of a crack, even one so small, is enough to affect this world in a dangerous manner. Other than that huge crack existing in that place, there has never been another confirmed crack in the world. The presence of another will throw this world into a huge alert.

If not taken proper care of, then this energy might be released toward the city, spreading far and perhaps soon changing the life of this entire region. The other humongous crack is in a situation keeping it spread toward all regions and, at the same time, keeping the danger level small. But this minuscule crack changes the entire game.

'Sigh....just what kind of difficulty does your quest have?'

[Hey, I don't dictate fate....]

'Right.....'

Scoffing at the system, I turned to focus on the problem at hand. Right now, the energy is kept at bay by Aria, and Mira is also keeping an eye on it, but we can't keep this going for long.

"I might be able to close it," I suddenly spoke, gaining the attention of everyone in the room. Mira's eyes narrowed at me as she asked.

"What's the price?"

"I might fall unconscious for a few days...." I responded, to which Mira directly replied.

"Absolutely not."

To this, I looked into Mira's eyes, my 'happiness' and 'care' toward her flowing to her, which slowly brought a tremble to her eyes.

"I have to try..." I responded.

"Not if it's going to hurt you....." Mira directly spoke to me, her eyes staying concrete as she continued.

"First, you are to talk this over with all of us, then are we to even think about this..."

Seeing that this was her final stance, I stayed quiet, my feelings of 'happiness' at her care and 'disappointment' at not helping and saving lives going toward her.

'So the first part is set.'

I mused as I kept patting Aria's hair. The truth is, it's quite easy for me to seal the thing if I take the power level of Orpheus and use the special energy I have due to my bloodline and the special bow. But I can't directly jump to that, for I need to lead the thoughts of my family in a specific direction, one where I will have a few days alone with my dear aunt Mira, to finally settle some things between us.

'You have been running away from me for too long.....'

I thought, looking at Mira before turning my eyes toward Shira, who still had her eyes on me. The sheer rage and anger in her still fill her eyes, the pain of betrayal bringing in tears as I can see small pools of tears still falling from her eyes turning blood red.

'Sigh....it's time I settle this....'

Turning toward Mira, I spoke.

"Aunt, can you place me and Shira outside the range in a quite isolated place and leave us there?"

My words brought a frown to Mira's eyes, her gaze turning toward Shira, who still keeps giving me a death stare.

"I want to end this, aunt," I spoke, to which she sighed out as she spoke.

"Are you sure?"

To this, I nodded my head, leaving her to finally agree. Seeing so, I coaxed Aria to pass the control of Shira toward Mira, which she did happily. But the hardest part was to just keep her here, but the prospects of some promises and a disappointed father look were more than enough to mold Aria as she finally relented.

And thus, soon both Shira and I appeared in a somewhat lush area, the control over Shira leaving as she got back her control. But unlike what I thought, Shira didn't just jump at me with anger. She took deep breaths to seemingly try to calm herself down, but that only kept increasing her anger. Finally, she turned to look at me, her words containing raw pure hate as she spoke.

"I...WILL...KILL....YOU...."

And just as she finished, she appeared in front of me, her hand aiming to punch me, but before she could even react, I punched her in the face, letting her fly across the entire region, her body leaving a hole in the ground.

"Ouch...that might hurt," I spoke with a smile.