Jared looked at Kyran when he said the last bit. He roughly knew about Zephyr, but Kyran had not told them the specifics.
Aron, too. But after their conversation in the Regis Terram with Ames, he knew more about how Kyran and Zephyr met.
But Kyran was only half paying attention to them. He was not worried about the situation in Noser because most of his trusted people were there— Anette, the Solum Tribe, Ezra, Zephyr, and the rest of his beast Sigils.
Most significantly, True Void. With the latter's perverse ability to absorb magic energies, it would be impossible for anyone to gain the advantage against him.
The real reason Kyran was distracted was mainly that many things had happened within the time he had stayed inside the Regis Terram. And he had only been away for more than an hour!
He then understood that although the Regis Terram was in the Human plane, it was still properly connected to the Dragon plane. Which meant it still followed the time flow of that place.
If he had known about this, he would not have stayed and listened to Ames's story. Though it only took her a few minutes to tell them about Layla being alive, it was equivalent to almost an hour in the Human plane.
Kyran thought he had already learned from his past mistakes, but to think he had overlooked such basic knowledge about planes was very frustrating!
"... the situation in Noser is better than the other locations," Jared continued.
Aron nodded in agreement, "With this information, we can better mobilize our people and assist our allies as soon as possible."
"Yes."
The two paused when they noticed Kyran's lack of response. They looked at him and noticed he still had a grim expression.
His expression made Aron think he was still thinking about Ames's story because he had been lost in thought since then.
For the record, Ames had told them what she knew about Layla's supposed death.
Ames explained that during the last battle between the Dragon Lord, Void Master, and Soul Emperor, the latter had used some trick that made the Void Master block the Dragon Lord from piercing his claws into her heart.
It would have been fine if the Void Master had blocked the Dragon Lord's claws using magic, but he did so using his physical body.
Still, when the Dragon Lord's claws pierced the Void Master's chest, they passed through to the Soul Emperor's chest.
That was the scene witnessed by many people, especially the Winfrey Family.
They also used that scene to twist the truth of what happened. They made it appear like the Soul Emperor grabbed the Void Master from behind, sacrificing herself to let the Dragon Lord kill him.
When Ames told Aron and Kyran the truth, her expression turned sad. Apparently, that battle nearly drove Zane to insanity. He was devastated for killing Caelan, who was not only his best friend, but also his sworn brother.
If not for Caelan's last words, which somehow lessened the blow of what had happened, Zane would have likely destroyed the whole Human plane after losing his mind.
"This is the most desirable outcome. Thank you for going along with my selfishness, and I'm sorry for making you live through all this."
After that battle, Zane took Caelan's body back to White Lily while he burned Layla's body. However, he soon discovered that Layla's soul had long left her body before he 'killed' her. It was Stella who discovered this, which prompted the two to meet with White Lily.
Ames did not know what happened after that. She only knew that the three had done 'preparatory work' before Layla found a suitable body to return to.
Aron felt mixed emotions from this revelation. He was already aware of how their ancestor, Zane, killed the Void Master. It was written on the piece of broken tablet they had discovered before. But he did not expect there was more to the story than what was on the tablet.
Honestly, they failed to uncover the whole story because the tablet was broken, and they had not completely translated the piece they possessed.
On the other hand, after hearing Ames's story, Kyran pieced together most of the things he already knew and could finally see the whole picture, especially when he combined it with what Stella had said.
Although Ames's story made it seem that only Stella, White Lily, and Zane were involved in the 'preparatory work' against Layla's return, Kyran saw differently. He was convinced that Caelan still had a big role in its completion.
How big it was, well... let's say he had a role in how the Conclave came to be.
The so-called founder of the Conclave— Kyran, had an inkling it was Caelan.
Going back to the present, from all this information, Kyran could somehow guess what Caelan had planned before. But if adding how Stella said Kyran seemed to change things from how they were supposed to happen into the equation, Kyran felt that Layla getting hold of the Macabre Glacier, which led to the situation in Ravenpass, was not part of his original scenario.
If that was the case, Kyran had to prepare for the worst-case scenario: the return of a 'complete' Soul Emperor.
"Kyran?"
"Don't go to Ravenpass," Kyran suddenly said before Aron or Jared could ask him what was on his mind. "At least, not yet."
Jared furtively looked at Aron while the latter looked at Kyran in silence.
In such a situation, Jared was not good at reading far ahead. So he did not want to say what was on his mind. Jared might disagree with Kyran, but what if the latter said that because he saw something, the former could not? It was better to wait for Aron, who had far more experience dealing with such situations, to handle the rest.
"I do understand why you think that way," Aron said after a short pause. "While White Lily is keeping the Soul Emperor busy, we can focus on saving as many of our allies as possible. After that, we can gather all our forces and deal with her once and for all in Ravenpass."
Kyran nodded.
"If that is the case, we have to decide where to go first."
Aron did not suggest splitting their forces because they were outnumbered. No matter how capable one or two squads of their Special Forces were, faced with an army of mages, which consisted mainly of High Masters and Grand Masters, they would be killed. At most, one member could take out fifty or so enemies before they kicked the bucket. Aron would not subject his people to such a fate.
pAn,D a-ɴᴏᴠ ᴇ1,c-o-m The best course of action was to attack one location with full force, rescue their allies, and regroup before moving to the next location.
Aron was not worried about wasting too much time traveling either. With Kyran's warp, they could easily warp thousands of their people to their next destination.
"Let's go to Starhorn, first," Kyran suggested at once.
He could more or less follow his grandfather's train of thought. However, he believed his grandfather likely planned to go to Noser first. Based on the current situation, with their side having the upper hand, if they joined in from the rear, forming a pincer attack, they could end the battle faster. After that, they could regroup and assist their allies in Starhorn.
But Kyran did not think this way. The time they spent in Noser would likely result in the situation in Starhorn escalating.
If an Archmagus led the attack, it would be different, but the one leading it was Osric. He was a top Legendary mage. Hugh was not enough to hold him down. If Malek was there, then maybe they had a chance. And it would be better if that guy was in his 'crazy' mode because he would be more ruthless.
Alas, they did not know what happened to him or even Euan.
They had too few high-level mages, and their number was reduced with just one wrong move.
Although the Tower of Conclave's defensive array could withstand powerful attacks, Kyran never considered it a last line of defense.
There were quite a few ways to destroy a powerful defensive array without using powerful attacks. The most effective way was to destroy the array's core. The second would be to dig underground and destroy one of its key points. If one of its key points were destroyed, and Osric focused fire on that spot, then the array would crumble in a matter of minutes.
Aron looked at Kyran thoughtfully. At first, he wanted to point out the advantage of going to Noser first, but in the end, he thought it best to ask Kyran's reasoning.
"Why do you think we have to start in Starhorn? While its true that the Courtenay and Lumley families are already hanging by a thread, the Lumley Family Ancestral Hall's defenses can still hold for another hour or two."
Kyran shook his head and looked at Aron.
Now that he thought of it, this might be the first time he would stand up against his grandfather.
"I get what you're trying to tell me, grandfather. But I am not that worried about their situation. The Courtenay Family have a few unregistered Array Specialists, and they can reinforce the ancestral hall's defensive array as long as they have the required materials. Besides, the Archmagus leading that attack has already retreated, he probably is on his way to the Courtenay Residence, but since it is situated near the city, he won't attack at once.
"I am worried about the situation in the Conclave, grandfather," Kyran's voice dropped suddenly as he looked at them solemnly. "There is someone... in the Tower of Conclave right now that can prevent Layla from being complete."
Aron's brow furrowed. He knew among the forbidden magic users, the Royal Family only allowed one to live: the one with Time magic.
Thinking about it now, Time magic might be the answer to stop Layla.
Jared also thought the same, "Are you talking about the current Time Keeper?"
Kyran shook his head, "No."
"No?"
"She can prevent Layla not because her magic can counter Soul magic."
While listening to Kyran, Aron and Jared could not help but note how Kyran confirmed that person's gender.
"She is the reason why Layla remains incomplete."
"Huh?"
"What do you mean?"
"I'll explain on the way," Kyran hurriedly told them and made his way back to the estate.
Aron and Jared could not help but exchange wry smiles. They noticed it when they met at last after so many months of no contact, but Kyran had changed.
He was no longer the innocent boy that was forced to leave the confines and safety of the Regis Estate. Come to think of it, the day when the army raided the estate was Kyran's coming-of-age.
Alas, that incident might have happened a few months, but in Kyran's time, it had been years. Because of this, Aron and Jared felt Kyran's transformation was too sudden.
But it was a good transformation.
At least, that was what they wanted to believe.
Hopefully, Kyran did not develop any strange quirks after training in different planes and meeting different kinds of people.
Pushing their thoughts aside, Aron and Jared followed Kyran back inside the estate.
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