章 15: To Save His Mother
"Why are you guys looking in my direction simultaneously?" Allen raised one brow when his friends turned their heads and gave him a meaningful stare. He scoffed at how obvious the curiosity was written on their faces.
"Is it good news? I believe this answers your problems." Riku's viewpoint and Allen did not take it seriously.
"The what? For me to become immortal?" Allen snorted. "Like we can just acquire it with just a snap of my finger."
The men fell silent and pondered. Allen absolutely is correct. Acquiring something must also giving up something. And it was bizarre that they aimed for nonhuman existence.
Of course, he knew very well that it was the craziest idea to come up with. But frankly speaking, he is interested in it and is willing to offer sacrifices for the ritual to succeed. The question is, what should he sacrifice?
"Allen is correct." Kenny echoed. "I'm sure it requires some offering and sacrifices we could not imagine."
"That's right. It says here that a sorcerer must perform the ritual because it requires his blood as an offering. It also says here, the easiest way and most effective is the sorcerer who will chant the ritual bond."
"Is this some kind of black magic, right? I just imagine it, and all the hair in my body stood up!" Randy grumbled, embracing himself.
Clint ignores his overacting and continues sharing the ancient writings. "Actually, we can gain immortality in two ways. We can achieve it through the shaman performing the ceremony, as long as there is an amount of a sorcerer's blood to start the ritual."
"However… Even though we have this information, the sorcerers are long gone." Duncan Williams Ivanov, Allen's first elder cousin, chimed. "Now the question is, back then, how did that man manage Uncle Shun and Aunt Isabella to become immortals if they needed a sorcerer's blood?"
"We could get the answer if Aunt Isabella did not lose her memories," Allen said glumly.
Silence fell in the room. Their hope gradually decreased when they were constantly slapped with the truth that it was impossible to win against Howard Shen.
"Unless he is a sorcerer himself." Kenny's speculation. Suddenly, an idea pops out in his head. "How about we take Howard's blood? He is going to attend the engagement party next week, right?"
"Even so, how could we get his blood? He has an immortal body. He would not just get injured by a simple knife cut and bleed out." Blaise Lawrence pointed out.
The men fell silent once again. They pondered and raked their heads to come up with a plan.
"How about this? To extract his blood…."
In the next half hour, the men plotted against Howard. Allen was amused listening to his friends' discussions. Their loyalty and dedication touched him. Even the impossible, these men are willing to do it for him. The debate went on until it went in a different direction. He shook his head and just let them come up with foolish ideas.
The men indeed came up with crazy ideas, which lightened the mood, and he could not have the heart to interrupt them.
In the passing years, he carefully planned out his revenge on Howard, and these men witnessed his sufferings, hardships, failures, and partial success. In the eyes of the world, he is one of the successful young billionaires. But the truth is, he is still a failure not to progress anything to save his loved ones trapped somewhere in this parallel universe.
"Unless you kneel to him and be his puppet. He might grant you immortality in an instant." Out of the blue, Riku suggested. Everyone looked in his direction with wide eyes, thinking he was joking, but his facial expression told them he was seriously muttering these words.
"What nonsense are you spouting?! I prefer to be killed than become his puppet!" Randy countered, furious just to imagine he would become Howard's dog.
"Stop being too emotional!" The men teased Randy when the guy continued whining.
"I'll definitely bite him!"
"Only bite him?"
Allen chuckled, listening to another discussion.
Indeed. The matter was no joke at all. They witnessed how Allen struggled all these years. They were also irate to see Howard conquering the world, and they could not stop him yet.
Soon, Allen makes a sound to get their attention.
"Alright, listen up! I have more reasons I am keen to track down the shamans. It is not to gain immortality, but I will ask their help to locate another chronomancer like Aunt Isabella and Madison. I believe there is someone out there who could open the portal to another timeline."
"Are you saying you were looking for another time traveler?" Duncan questioned.
Watching him nod, the men were ecstatic.
"If you could not make the machine work, then you can travel time with the help of a chronomancer!" Kenny chirped.
"But guys, isn't Howard a chronomancer, too?" Kolin Hall queried. He was the silent one among them all. "What if he is already traveling to another timeline? That's why he could take five steps ahead of us?"
"I think it's impossible. Dad told me that Howard closed the portal to another timeline." Allen replied. He looked at Kolin and carried on, "It was why Mama Cassandra could not come back home for almost two decades now. She was stuck and trapped in a life that did not exist anymore. So I am looking for a way to open it again."
"Damn, Allen. Your hands are too full." Kolin commented. He always put himself in Allen's shoes, and he could not imagine how the guy could go on without stopping.
Being abandoned by his mother, Kolin could relate less to a son's love to a mother because he never received a mother's love. And the determination he saw in Allen was something admirable. His love for his mom and every member of his family is incomparable.
He puts so much sweat and blood into finding a way to save his mother, sister, and aunt.
Allen has to go through many sufferings, but he seems not to care even though his love life was put last. He only focuses on bringing everyone back so that they can be advantageous against Howard.
It was frustrating, for they couldn't do much against Howard. He is powerful and has no death. That is why they will grab every means they can use against him.
"Now, our main concern is to locate where the secret civilization is hiding," Clint reflects. "And once we find them, we can gather more information, and that's my mission."
"Yes. Aside from everything we have discussed already, we must focus on three things to achieve our goal." Allen explained, "Firstly, is searching for the secret civilization's whereabouts. The second is locating the sword that killed Madison. According to Uncle Levi, a shaman is keeping it. Once we have it, we proceed to the third goal. We must find a sorcerer to rebuild the sword and revive its power."
"Once we complete these three missions, we can save Aunt Cassandra, and you can visit the other timeline. Then we have a chance to kill Howard using that sword." Randy's analysis.
"Well then, leave these cases to me!" Clint chimed. "I have an educational tour with a group of students funded by LCU. I chose the trip to Central America."
"Exactly at?" Kenny queried.
"I will bring my students to ancient civilizations. But my primary purpose is actually to investigate the Shaman villages in the Amazon. I plan to look around and interview a few locals outside the burnt forests."
"Can they really give you any information? The Alliance had well protected the Shaman villages in the past, so only a few people, most of whom were elderly, knew that the government was hiding a secret civilization inside the Amazon until Howard set fire to the entire rainforests. Still, there is no report or news of the mass massacre by Howard of the whole secret civilization. So, can we really dig some information out of the burnt forests? Not to mention the vastness of it."
Everyone concurs with Randy's viewpoint. Ten years ago, Howard burnt the entire Amazon that trapped the Shamans. Only a few were able to escape, but no one knew where they ran and hid. The incident in Amazon was known as a mystery. Everyone is in disbelief that a rainforest such as the Amazon will be set on fire one day.
The entire world helped to put out the fire, but they failed to do so as to how mysteriously the forest was on fire. The fire lasted for many months, so it was impossible to launch a search and rescue team. By that time, the whole place had become a hell on earth. The surrounding towns and cities evacuated because of the smoke spreading throughout the continent. It also affects the many states across the ocean.
The dreadful incident had a tremendous impact not only on the entire South America, which Howard took advantage of. It took many years for the continent to recover after the economy plummeted. The businesses had to stop their operations, and tourism suffered, losing millions of jobs. Millions of casualties and millions need to abandon their homes as the smoke makes everyone sick.
With the incident, Howard succeeded in putting the entire A countries in such a catastrophic incident. The A continent did not recognize him as the next Emperor of the Alliance. So Howard killed two birds with one stone. He also annihilated the secret civilization because the shamans held too much information about him. They will be his downfall if he lets them live. That's why he haunts each of the shaman villages in the entire world after the Amazon incident.
Regardless, Allen did not lose hope. He believes survivors are only hiding out there, and he will find them soon.
-- 贈り物
が届きました 
-- 推薦
ランキング 
-- 推薦
チケット