Book 6 – Crossroads of the Dragon Prince (1)
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Plot: Leaves are pushed aside as an exploring Goibhniu finally makes it to an ancient opening in the forest. The tattoos on his body give off a glow as he is in a battle-ready state for anything and the blood within him is boiling in excitement. Finally, Goibhniu works his way upwards towards the nearby Altar and offers a gift of rare metals as he speaks out to the altar that he would like to forge using the all-father forge. The metals Goibhniu put down are then floated above him as a portal forms in front of Goibhniu that he promptly steps into and vanishes from. Meanwhile, Novus is attempting to climb the monastery stairs that lead upwards to the monastery top and is haunted by pressures of his past and of this life that ultimately propel him off the stair steps and can only look towards some kids playing on the first few steps of the monastery path. Sighing, Novus looks upwards as a status window alerts him to a call from Adrianne. Picking up the call, Adrianne tells Novus to quickly meet at Yggdrasil to experience Sherlock’s most recent successful attempt at Circe’s letter of origin. To which, Novus quickly vanishes from the spot as he teleports and arrives in moments at Yggdrasil and is before the group of Circe, Adrianne, and Sherlock.

 

Plot: Sherlock quickly has everyone put in a hand as he directly links his memories to everyone and filters through fragments of what he has concluded to everyone. The destination ends up being near the last Capital that Novus has yet to experience, the human capital of Scutum. Whooshing away in a magical teleportation via. Novus now who is strong enough for that, the group heads towards Scutum, where Sherlock has many contacts as the head investigator for the human king. Meanwhile, A stumbling Goibhniu is portal led to an ancient forest space that has a center forge of the elements there with an out sprout of ancient volcanic fire, radiant spring cooling water, natural meteorite metal smithing equipment and tools laying alongside a sturdy wooden table big enough for making an entire set of leather armor on. Goibhniu, with his eyes shining in anticipation, lets out a little squeal excitement as he runs his way up to the forge.

 

Plot: Novus and crew are brought to the capital city and Adrianne exclaims at the awe she feels at the walls of the city that glow with various enchantments and can already feel the strength of the city from them. Novus explains that the city defends the harbor and inland from the fierce monsters that inhabit the south-western forests and mountains of the continent, which is exactly where they expect Gaius to most likely be. Novus explains that they must enter the city normally to avoid being detected during teleportation into the city and Sherlock uses his connections to help sneak them in as Circe puts on a conflicted look, looking at the city. Upon entering the city, Sherlock leaves the party briefly as he wishes to meet with the city lord to ask for his help in finding the trail that Gaius would have taken in the city. As Sherlock leaves, Circe tugs on Novus’ clothing to follow her as they head deeper into the city towards where Circe is leading them.

 

Plot: Circe stops the party as they have entered the ghetto of the city and there are hardened criminals that begin to hush and whisper as the group moves through the streets and alleyways. Eventually, the group is stopped by a young group of men who look as if they are going to jump the group and try to steal from them. Novus and Adrianne ready their weapons but are shocked as an old man appears from nowhere as he greets Circe and whacks the head of the leader of the hooligans. Circe rushes to the old man and gives him a hug. The man is revealed by Circe to be one of the leaders of the ghetto and a man who helped raise her in her youth when her parents had died and as Gaius wasn’t always around. Circe tells the old man that she has some questions for him, and the old man escorts them towards his and Circe’s old home. Meanwhile, a meditating Goibhniu is touching and swinging all the tools as he gets used to all the tools he will be using to create his life’s masterpiece.

 

Plot: Circe is standing in front of a beat-up old house as she reminisces about scenes of her and Edna running around the old house or playing games with the other neighborhood children. It isn’t until Adrianne holds her hand and tells her that she is here that Circe thanks her and moves inside alongside Novus and her old caretaker. The house is exactly how Circe remembers it and the old man lights the fire with magic in the center area as he puts on some water to boil. The group begin to ask the old man questions, but the old man evades the questions like a guilty man. Eventually, when Circe asks him to tell her the truth now that she has already lost almost all the family she had and the old man caves as he admits to meeting with Gaius before he left for the mountain range out in the south-west. A tear-stricken thank you is enough to settle the old man’s discomfort as Circe cries a little but resolves herself towards finding Gaius.

 

Plot: The scene ends with Circe waving goodbye towards the old caretaker as he waves back to the group and the group goes to meet up with a hysteric Sherlock. Adrianne asks towards the identity of the old man and Novus drops a bomb by saying it’s the old underworld king that used to specialize in assassination and most likely taught Circe what she knows about fighting. Adrianne is shocked, but Circe catches up and innocently replies that he doesn’t work that kind of business since he took in Circe and Edna. Meanwhile, Novus’ hand crumples a note that he finds in his pocket from the old man caretaker. A hysteric Sherlock finally meets the group again as he is shocked by only just having entered the city and they already know exactly where to find Gaius. The group shrugs as they trample upon Sherlock’s skill as a detective and his pride is blown. Finally, Sherlock weakly tells them to just teleport them out of here and Novus laughingly leads the group out of the city once more. Meanwhile, Goibhniu is sitting in front of many different metals as he surveys which metals to use in his ultimate masterpiece as the base metal. It isn’t until a mischievous idea forms in Goibhniu’s mind that clouds begin to tumble in the air above the forge. However, Goibhniu does it anyway by saying that it was the only way and throws in the meteorite tools that he doesn’t require into the fiery pool of volcano flames and quickly melts them while lightning strikes beside him as he wishes to take more.

 

Plot: Novus and party manage to teleport out of the area but are halted when the group abruptly stops due to Novus’ teleporting not working with the unstable space that surrounds the Rift Mountains. However, not all is lost as Sherlock did find out something about the mountains that are geographically beneath Scutum. Apparently, the mountains have unstable space due to the number of portal/rifts that connect this world with other worlds like the demon world, the abyss, etc. usually the rifts are random, however, there are some areas that hold a more stable space and rift such as the devil king’s rift that most likely stole Gaius’ left arm. Circe connects the dots after Sherlock tells of the rifts and the group decides to head towards the Devil King’s Territory to at least get back Gaius arm or try to wring out some information of Gaius’ whereabouts. Meanwhile, rough pounding is seen as Goibhniu is solely focused on pounding away at the dark metal that is being shaped and then reinforced along the forge. However, the forging wasn’t even near done as only the basic forging was being done skillfully and with the addition of other special metals.

 

Plot: Novus and party head through territories as they finally begin to see signs of devils appear before them, however, they are only common devils that are still strong enough to force Novus to act alongside Adrianne and Circe and Sherlock. After a period of slaying devils, the group happens upon a particular devil captain who specializes in illusion magic that is quickly wiped out by Sherlock’s unique expertise in wiping mind magic. The devil quickly cowers and tells the group it will lead them to the devil king if the devil captain is spared and the group lets the devil lead them towards the devil king. Meanwhile, Goibhniu is seen unleashing a strike that elegantly curves the metal into its final shape of a grand crown. This unleashes a great amount of strength as the crown incites thunder to rumble above the forge, but afterwards only fully lights the fires in Goibhniu’s heart to forge.

 

Plot: Novus gets a message from Percival but silences it as he is preoccupied with an increasing amount of devil slaying the closer the group gets to the devil king, and it isn’t until a short respite is shown that Novus finally grabs the devil captain by the scruffs and threatens with his blade that the devil quickly begins to open a portal straight to the devil king. The group throw the devil inside and the devil king roars as the illusion of a grand and majestic fiery demon is seen. However, a short incantation from Sherlock dispels the weak illusion and the devil king is seen being on his deathbed as he weakly tried to stem the bleeding from all four of its limbs. The devil captain runs to the devil king and proclaims ‘father’ as it is shaken by its father’s lowly figure. The group takes brief pity on the king as it explains that the cursed swordsman riding on a wolf took the limbs from him and retrieved his arm once more. However, the devil king then eats his supposed son in one gulf as it thanks him for bringing such great sustenance for it to regenerate its wounds with and the group must prepare for battle once more as the devil king grows weak arms out of its torso once more.

 

Plot: Novus and crew fight off the devil king that specializes in mind magic and is eventually defeated as Sherlock disables its powers and buys enough time for Novus, Adrianne, and Circe to kill it off with a triple attack that splits the devil king in half, destroys one side with destructive purple flames and burns the other with acidic holy poison that kills off any remaining body part. However, the spirit takes route in Circe as she begins to fall into one of her episodes soon after.

 

Plot: The scene shifts to Circe who is trapped within her own dark space as she soullessly looks towards the only memento of her dead parents, which is respectively a broken teacup and glasses, with tears streaking down her eyes. From behind, a demonic figure appears with the same appearance as Circe and throws something at her face as she is knocked backwards without emotion. However, when she sits back up and is verbally assaulted by the shadow version of herself, she sees the memento of Edna, and something changes in Circe. Her eyes finally reveal a sense of loss as she feels a hand touch upon her shoulder. Circe doesn’t look up, but the shadowy figure across from her is visually confused and scared at the approach of the character and begins to try and degrade even more things in her life and ends up revealing that Gaius was too afraid of her to give her the powers of a Soul Predator and intentionally refused her, but Circe is reminded of her path that she strove to take and gradually gains courage in her own mental world. Eventually, Circe can let go as she shatters the shadow version of herself apart with her words alone and she awakens to a concerned group of people all standing around her.

 

Plot: The scene begins with Goibhniu flashing his eyes in shock as he looks in an unspecified direction as he mumbles to himself ‘Circe…’ However, in the next moment, his worries seem to vanish as his gaze relaxes and he resumes his meditation before a shimmering crown. Goibhniu reveals that he is ‘almost done’ and that only a few more things remain before his masterpiece will be accomplished. Meanwhile, the awakened Circe is being thoroughly checked upon by Novus as he must make 100% sure that she is ok before they use the tracking method the devil king left to finally track down Gaius’ whereabouts. The group initiates travel as Novus looks over his shoulder towards the east for unknown reasons to him and the readers.

 

Plot: Novus’ party continues along as they arrive at a massive hand holding a globe in the air and Sherlock gasps in amazement at the unexpected sight of such perfection. The party eagerly heads towards the base of the monstrous hand and globe, and they see a meditating old man with bandages around one arm and a sleeping Fenrir wrapped around him. Fenrir looks up and notices Circe and her party and sweeps his tail across the old man’s body as he falls to the ground and gasps awake while shouting that he ‘wasn’t sleeping.’ However, he comes face to face with a blankly blinking Circe who he jumps back from before realizing who it was as she begins to tear up. Finally, a heartwarming reunion is shown as Circe finally reunites with Gaius. Soon after the reunion, Gaius mentions the hand behind and Gaius explains that this is what Gaius was trying to find this entire time he had left Circe and only recently had he found it: The Akashic Record, where all the knowledge in the universe was stored. Sherlock scoffs, but Gaius merely snuffs out his pride with an emotionless stare while stating that he isn’t allowed in, but someone from there party can still go and he points to a bewildered Novus.

 

Plot: Novus isn’t initially willing but is convinced as Gaius insists/ kicks Novus in and before long, the party watches as Novus flies towards the orb in the giant stone hand’s grasp and slowly enters/melds with the globe before disappearing while Gaius emphasizes on only searching for the answer to one question. The group watches with shock while they continuously ask Gaius questions, and he answers them one by one. Gaius reveals that he already used his one chance to track the young Edna and Circe and other sister as his chosen disciples, therefore disallowing him from entering again because if two or more questions are answered, then the person will be trapped in the records for eternity. The scene’s peace is broken as the globe shakes and begins to collapse, and the party worriedly evades the falling rubble as they soon witness a pile of common stones on the ground and a questioned Gaius explains that Novus will be taken to where his questions may all be answered and will reappear before them when ready. Meanwhile, we see an awakening Novus surrounded by different motes of light that seem to captivate him, but his soul partners and his own will steer him towards a faintly pulsing light dot that Novus begins to chase after and plops down in front of a set of stairs that Novus recognizes straight away as the Monastery staircase that he couldn’t previously climb. A voice speaks out that hints towards knowledge of the akashic records and using it to gain entry to the sacred area is ‘like cheating, but smarter and only with enough luck and will.’

 

Plot: The scene of Goibhniu refining the four elements of nature and calling upon numerous other powers of nature are observed as he sends a spiralling chain of dust-like particles to float into the air towards the ascending crown that Goibhniu had been crafting. The enchanting is completed in an amazing spectacle of lightning descending from the heavens and being eaten by the crown as it sparks and sizzles with electricity from the blast. The crown makes an even more amazing spectacle by forcefully consuming the cloud layer up above and disintegrating the nearby nature elements around the forge before sending a blast that blows away Goibhniu and leaves him unconscious. Meanwhile, the monk that Novus originally saw in book 3 is seen once more as he is reintroduced as the originator of the Soul Predator Art and Novus learns a few more things of earthshattering news: The area at the top of the monastery is actually a graveyard of all Soul Predators, the steps are a preventative measure to ensure the safety of their secret and that the prime soul predator had a particular disciple he was sure would lead their path towards an even more powerful direction, but ended up as an evil powerhouse trying to gain eternal freedom over life through the absorption of all life on Angrea. The name of the Hidden Shadow is finally revealed at this time as Pandora. The twin swords are also revealed to be originally the first Soul Predator’s swords.

 

Plot: Pandora is revealed by the prime soul predator to be the Hidden Shadow herself and the story of her past in being corrupted by the potential powers of accepting the sins of her citizens in a benevolent attempt to purge the sins of the city caused her to experience the whitening effect of the Soul Predators that changed her forever after that. Her power of being able to give away and take the powers of others that she has given to is revealed to be the ultimate link that ensures the Soul Partner link is always in her command and that she corrupted all the heads of the El Dorado Empire. At the very end of the entire explanation, the prime Soul predator says he can finally rest having passed on this knowledge to the only one capable of defeating the Hidden Shadow and a hasty Novus attempts to pry more answers, but only gets a riddle from the Prime Soul Predator that tells of how he must eat the crown and fulfill its duties and that that was the thing that he learned from the Akashic Records. Finally, the wisps of the Prime Soul Predator’s soul vanish away, and a grasping Novus finds himself questioning a great deal. However, before he leaves, he walks to the graves of all the soul predators, makes the prime Soul Predator a grave, and finds Edna’s grave and kneels before it for an ending scene.

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