Chapter 52

The Ancient Blessing

“The Guardian won’t be pleased, Daedalus,” Katarina warned sharply as she massaged Daedalus’s back, her fingers pressing hard on his spine.

“He’ll be outraged. I overstepped my boundaries,” Daedalus replied as Katarina’s magic continued to penetrate his skin. He could feel it sapping his, as though trying to subjugate him on the inside. “But I’ll be gone before he arrives.”

“Doesn’t mean he won’t come after you in Mondragon.” Her magic sunk further into his muscles. “It would be ugly if he does.”

“Better for me.” He scoffed and rolled his eyes as he tried his best not to twitch from the pain. “He can rampage all he wants. Better. Easier.”

“Easy for you to say…” Katarina pressed harder, causing Daedalus to let out a suppressed groan. “But how many would die?”

“Not my concerns anymore. I told you before...” He slightly rotated his neck and looked at Katarina in the corner of his eyes. “I’m willing to throw everything for Leon. If I am to take on the entire Kingdom of Mondragon, I will need as much power as I could take. Doesn’t matter if I have to steal it.”

“But your family has already amassed so many Ancient Blessings, couldn’t you just steal some from them?”

“I did.” Daedalus raised his trousers and showed different markings on his lower legs. “A unicorn and a centaur’s Blessings. But I can only take two, or it might raise some suspicion.”

Katarina laughed in disbelief. “You sly fox.”

“Why don’t we work together? I see that you already recreated the Lost Magic of Eternal-”

“You already know the answer.”

“But I’m sure you could recreate the Ancient Enchantment too, or a similar permanent enchantment that could boost one’s power without any risk. It doesn’t even need to be inheritable or passable* like the Ancient Enchantments.”

“And how would I achieve that?” Katarina asked with a hard tone, fully aware of the answer.

“I could supply all the specimen you need-”

“Specimen?” Katarina blurted out, her magic almost reaching Daedalus’s heart. “We are talking about lives here, Daedalus, just how many will die in my hands to achieve-”

“Think about how many you will save instead, Katarina. If you truly recreate such magic, just how many do you think will go on our side? You can sway so much of the nobility, not just in Mondragon. Another civil war need not to happen.”

“I could, Daedalus, but I wouldn’t,”

“So is your virtue more important than the boy?”

“Arthur’s the most precious person to me, but I’m different from you. I have my own way of protecting him.”

“For how long?”

Katarina didn’t answer as her concentration doubled. Soon enough, her magic reached his heart. Cautiously, she tried to envelop his magical core with her own magic.

“Be ready,” the elderly woman warned with a deep breath. “It’ll be very very painful. So excruciating, in fact, you could lose your sanity.”

A smug smirk bent Daedalus’s lips, yet the same smile immediately vanished. He let out a beastly howl as Katarina tried to recapture his heart. His legs stiffened. His fingers sink deep into the ground. While she continued to pierce it more aggressively, he twitched from his seat and cocked his head upward. It was only his enormous self-control keeping him in place.

Daedalus bit his lips as his breathing became more heavy, deep, and erratic. They began to bleed. But the pain from it was nothing compared to the sensation that Katarina’s spell caused. He could feel every fiber of her magic sipping his own from every single corner of his body - from every fingertip, up to his scalp, down to both his soles.

Gradually, she was pulling the mana inside his body back to his core. If she was to put an effective seal on him, she first needed to concentrate his mana into a single point - his heart. Easier said than done. Pulling it away would be like grinding him in a meat grinder very slowly. With every pull, he could see Daedalus twitching.

It wasn’t only terribly agonizing. Daedalus sensed an absurd need to push Katarina away. Like a crawling spider on his neck - how badly did he want to shoo it away. It was like an unimaginable itch that he so desperately wanted to scratch. He just wanted to get out. Yet he couldn’t.

His hands clenched into fists, so hard that his fingernail dug deep into his palms. And even if he fought the urge so desperately, he occasionally groaned in pure agony.

The Queens, who had been trying their hardest to neutralize the boy, glanced over his direction whenever he did so. For good reasons, his misery sent the utmost delight to the Kordovan royalties. They would love to watch the whole spectacle if not for the boy who kept attacking them without pause or reservation.

“Shit— ” “What the— ” Katarina and Daedalus suddenly muttered under their breaths.

“We need to pull out,” the older woman whispered, shaking her head. “How could I forget?”

“Just go on!” He replied sharply while barely keeping his consciousness intact. “We’ve wasted too much time.”

“But you might go him into a rampage or fall into depravity, Daedalus. Worse, you might die.”

“What now? Concerned about my well-being?” He chuckled mockingly. “Don’t forget that you might suffer the same fate, Katarina. With your magic invading mine, our fates are essentially one and the same.”

She shook her head. “I can’t control those mana…”

“Just leave them be, the mana I got from Segure aren’t truly part of me…”

Now, it’s Katarina’s turn to scoff. “Don’t tell me later I didn’t warn you.”

Thus, the ritual and his torture recommenced. Soon, the dusk became night. The larger of the moons, Titus, showered the clearing in a faint lunar light. Daedalus’s power grew weaker and weaker, not only from the pain but also from his mana being slowly sealed inside his core. Finally, the pain subsided, and he felt the little mana in his body dissipating.

The red-haired man was so ready to drop on the ground, but he kept his stance. He wouldn’t lose any more of his dignity today. “Is it over?” He asked hoarsely in between heavy breathing. His voice had become raspy from all the occasional screaming.

“Almost,” Katarina answered. “I just need to link the Sealing Enchantment with the Dragon’s Blessing inscribed on your back, and we’ll be done.”

“Heras, I thought you’d never finish.”

Silence.

Katarina didn’t entertain the taunt. Instead, she focused on her task. A few minutes later, she finally let out a sigh of relief. “It’s over.” She breathed deeply, and heavily. Her hands trembled as soon as they left his back.

“Los’Seijis!” Daedalus declared as he stood up. Viola, seven deformed ice sticks slowly formed before him and they started to melt as soon as they appeared. Daedalus could only laugh in disbelief. One of his proudest signature spells had turned into a cold mess.

“Los’Seijis!” he declared once more, “Los’Seijis,” again, “Los’Seijis,” and again, “Los’Seijis,” and again until he was satisfied. His invocations produced slightly different results with the same conclusion - he had become an elementary magician who could barely produce any magic.

Once he stopped, Katarina appeared a few meters away from him. Even from a distance, he could vividly see the trembling of her hands and lips. The boy now laid on the ground in front of her, a gravity spell pinning the boy in place. Daedalus swallowed a mouthful of saliva down his parched throat. Arthur’s great semblance to his father was no more. What laid before Katarina almost looked like a burning corpse - small, dark, burnt. If not for his pulsating magic, anyone on the clearing would have thought he’s dead.

“It’s time to save him,” Katarina said, her voice quivering greatly.

Daedalus sucked a breath and didn’t waste any more time. “Arthurio de Florencio Mondragon,” he said, his voice sounding very rough. “In the name of the Primordial Guardian of this archipelago, I acknowledge thee as the cardinal sovereign of all Kordovas. Rise, my supreme liege—”

Daedalus didn’t waste a breath. He teleported away to escape from Kapeha, Kabera, and Kaleva. They had leaped towards him as soon as the Ancient Blessing left his body. He then appeared behind Vlanca, who had been guarding Pasifae, and snatched both of them. He used Segure a second time and fled from the remaining queens who attacked his twin.

“Stay where you are!” Daedalus declared coldly. “Hasudna—”

He abruptly stopped, unable to invoke his spell. Even the queens stopped on their tracks. An entity that didn’t even dare to shroud his enormous mana loomed ahead.

“Shit…” Daedalus whispered, a creeping sense of doom running down his spine for the first time in years since Leon’s death. “He’s here...”