The Rise of the Black Plain

After seeing that item materializing in front of him, Minos continued with Abby on his lap and approached that.

The map looked like a black, metallic sheet of paper with several shiny outlines, indicating landmarks, cities, and the location of something marked with an 'X.'

As the thing floated in the air, strangely giving off a tranquil yet powerful feeling, Abby was curious and moved her hands to pick the thing up for Minos.

"Ouch!" As she made that movement, she gave a slight cry of pain, feeling the tip of one of her fingers cut by that thing, already with a small drop of blood dripping down there.

Seeing this, Minos frowned and saw that map suddenly quiver with Abby's blood on one of its edges.

After it began to glow, losing its dark color, Minos felt fear in his heart and immediately used the ring of the Spatial Kingdom, rushing away from that place.

Zum!

The space around him shook as he quickly disappeared from there, followed by a light flesh.

...

After appearing in the large forest within the Spatial Kingdom, Minos fell to the ground with Abby in his arms, looking at her worriedly.

"Abby, are you okay? Are you feeling anything strange?" He asked as he looked into her blue eyes, with a nervous tone in his voice, worried about what that might mean.

But Abby was just as before, only feeling slight pain in the finger that had been cut. She looked at that hand, saw that the cut had already regenerated, and looked back at Minos with a comforting countenance.

"My love, don't worry, I'm fine..." Abby was saying that when suddenly, the same map as before appeared in the air between Minos' face and her chest.

"What? How can that be?" Minos said in surprise, seeing that thing that had now turned into an ordinary sheet map, yellowish like many others he had seen before.

'How did it enter the Spatial Kingdom? Don't tell me it followed us?' He wondered fearfully.

But while he worried, Abby felt a strange feeling and decided to pick up that map.

"Abby!"

"My love, don't worry. I don't think that's a bad thing. On the contrary, I feel strangely connected to it now and think that map will bring good things for us." She said this in a loving tone, feeling that this was not a bad omen but a great fortune for them.

"Abby... How can you say that? That thing is after you!" Minos said worriedly as Henricus Longus had never seen anything of the sort in his time.

And since the unfamiliar always had immense potential for danger, he could not help but be apprehensive!

"My love, I know this is strange, but I feel nothing bad will happen. That map, I think it wants us to find that location." She pointed in the direction of the 'X' on that yellowish piece of paper.

Minos kept looking at her with his eyes full of uncertainty and fear. 'No matter what happens, I just have to protect Abby until I become a God!'

'When that happens, not even something strange like that will be able to stand in my way!'

'I will not allow anyone to threaten you, Abby, not even Gods!' He then brought her into his embrace before kissing her with zeal, showing his love for her.

"Mmmmmmm~"

'Minos...' Abby felt how decisive he was towards her and felt happiness in her heart. But at the same time, she could not help but find her man funny.

Abby was not feeling anything wrong in her body, just a sensation of familiarity with that map, as if the wish of someone dear to her had been left on it.

And she felt such a place would be an excellent opportunity for them as if such a thing could help Minos and her.

Anyway, as some of the soldiers training in the Spatial Kingdom next to Virtus watched that couple on their knees on the ground, the two finally stopped kissing.

"My love, I feel that this map will be good for us. But if you want, we will leave to follow it only when you think best."

Hearing that, Minos brought her back into his embrace, holding her head on his chest.

He then looked at that floating map and made a point of taking the thing in his hands.

As he touched it, the map seemed to want to oppose Minos. However, immediately after their touch, the inscriptions on the Spatial Kingdom ring began to glow while creating an invisible mist that only Minos and Abby could see.

After that, the map seemed to tremble with fear as that mist surrounded it until it stopped opposing Minos and fell into this man's hands.

"Uh?" He and Abby made the exact sound of surprise at seeing all that.

"What just happened here?" Abby asked as she saw the mist from before come back to one of Minos' fingers as if that was a technique of his.

She obviously could not see the Spatial Kingdom ring. Hell, if it were not for her gaining a connection to that map, she would not even have seen the mist from before!

As such, Abby could not help but ask that thing because she already knew pretty much everything about Minos but had no idea what that thing was.

"That map made the Spatial Kingdom ring react. I think it had bad intentions against me, and the ring decided to act." Minos said as he put his hands on that map.

'Hmmm?' He immediately felt something strange as he touched that map as if the thing had lost much of its mystery. 'Never mind, that's probably because of the Spatial Kingdom ring threatening this thing...'

He then checked that out until his eyes widened in surprise, as he had immediately identified the location represented there. 'That...'

'Blackbournee Empire...' He remembered the map of the Central Continent in the time of Henricus Longus, this state which was adjacent to the west of Antias, the home state of the first human God.

'That region must be in the Kingdom of the Waves.' Minos quickly associated the old regional map and the current one.

'Could it be that there are still some ruins in this region? How can that be? So much time has passed since the end of the Exploration Period. But are there still traces of things from that time?'

'Is that just a historical reminder?' He wondered how that map would probably lead to nothing, just a bit more history.

In any case, even if it most likely would lead to nothing, he decided not to say anything to Abby because he did not want to deal with this now.

'I'll see that when I get stronger.' He made up his mind as Abby took that paper from his hands to observe the outlines of that map.

"Those names are all weird. I have no idea where that is." She looked at him with a sad expression on her face. "How will we do to find it in the future?"

"When I am strong enough, I will take you there." He said to her without lying.

"Oh?" A gleam appeared in Abby's eyes as she put her powerful feminine intuition into practice. "Speaking like that, it sounds like you already know where to look... Do you, my love?"

Minos closed his eyes and smiled, realizing that Abby had already learned a lot about him after nearly a decade together. "I know where it is, but for now, I don't want to talk about it."

"Okay?"

She chuckled, not being angry that he wanted to keep that information. "Of course, my love. We will go when you feel ready, so it makes no difference whether or not I know where that is."

"You and our future baby are my priorities." She then brought his face closer to hers and kissed him again.

...