[LitF] 57. Progress on all Fronts (Patreon)

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[A/N: Sorry for the delay.

Notice: There will be no chapters from 12/26 to 01/08. In other words, I'll take two weeks off. I was initially compelled to do so by my wife, but I'm feeling more tired each passing day and believe it's the right thing to do. It's been forever since I took a real vacation to decompress.

I acknowledge the notice is a bit sudden, so if you want a refund this month, just comment below or DM me. No questions asked, no hard feelings.]

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The radio that was playing music suddenly released ten long, thin beeps. It was a well-known sign because the seven customers and three workers in the café became silent to listen to what came after.

A female reported, "Breaking news only for the listeners of Station Three-Two-Two." Arthur had learned those numbers had been slang for a form of sex in the city a few decades ago. Only Fate knew why anyone would name their business such. "The Head of High House Vasconden has just released a statement declaring the League of the Fated Races a corrupt institution. According to him, Blaze Terrell is controlling the Human Commanders and causing the League to break apart. He urges the Human Commanders to stop being cowards and rise to the occasion, or the world will devolve into war the likes of which it has never seen before.

"The Human Commanders have already replied, stating such based words are senseless warmongering and virtue signaling from people who support a villain. Specialists have pointed out that this is the first time an official League note has not called Arthur Boria a 'terrorist' ever since his attacks started two weeks ago. Most agree the League is growing worried about the support High House Boria is amassing.

"The Vascondens are the seventh human High House to denounce Blaze Terrell and the League of the Fated Races. They are also the oldest human High House to survive the test of time, dating back to over two thousand years ago. Of the other twelve High Houses, three have defended the League, and nine have kept silent, though sources suggest at least half will follow the Vasconden's lead, a behemoth in House politics.

"In related news, rumors are still spreading about the civil war among the dwarves. The apparent cause: a Dwarven Commander supported Arthur Boria without his peers' approval.

"The elves are still removing all troops from human and dwarven lands after the shocking announcement a week ago that they would listen to Arthur Boria's side of the story. They haven't officially announced they are leaving the League, but the elves leaving external lands are also abandoning their posts in the League and have refused to heed any of its calls. After the declaration, the elves have yet to release another statement.

"Over seventy percent of human countries have denounced Arthur Boria, and tensions are rising between the nations supporting different sides. Multiple countries have mobilized their troops and are prepared for armed conflict.

"Tensions are also high at the human-elven borders. Seven minor skirmishes have been officially reported, and there are rumors of countless others happening in the dark.

"You heard it first here, in Station Three-Two-Two."

After she finished speaking, a modified male voice repeated "Breaking news" a few times, and the words echoed. Then, the radio returned to playing songs.

Things were dire, and Terrell wasn't the only one interested in creating chaos. The Free Fate Movement was holding nothing back as it pushed the world into war. There were clear signs that the target would ultimately be non-humans and awakeners, which was one reason some awakener Houses denounced the League. They hoped to detach themselves from bad publicity, but anyone with a brain knew it would only matter after the war, depending on who won.

Sadly, some denounced the League to feed the propaganda that awakeners were the source of all things wrong in the world. Calling it corrupt and incapable of doing its job was the same as stating it had no reason to exist. It was one step away from concluding it should be destroyed. Any High House knew better than to directly express such things unless they were willing to go to war with the other party. Even Arthur had only publicly accused the League of being in cohorts with Terrell and acting against House Boria, not being useless or corrupt in its own accord. High House Vasconden's words showed what their actual goal was.

Such Houses had standing deals with the powers in the shadows to guarantee they would withstand the incoming commotion untouched. However, Arthur doubted that would hold when the world realized awakeners weren't easily disposed of. Betrayal would be rampant from both sides.

The prince listened to everything while reading his newspaper in the cozy little café in Silvero, a city in Avaria. Despite its name, Silvero had nothing to do with silver. Instead, it was named such because of the weather. Magitech towers all over the city forced the skies to always be either sunny or snowy. It brought the anger of many an environmentalist because it supposedly affected the weather in all of Avaria and maybe the world. Neither the League nor Silvero's inhabitants had ever cared, though.

Arthur found Silvero the most interesting city he had visited until now, but not because of any great wonders. The place had a rustic feel, with a lot of wood and little magic in its architecture. It was the largest city in Avaria, spanning miles upon miles, as no building was allowed to have more than three floors above ground and two "living being friendly" ones underground. Any underground floor below the second could only be used for storage or parking.

"More tea?" a waitress offered as she approached Arthur.

He looked at her. Luna, according to her name tag, was a comely woman in her early twenties. Her silky long brown hair and green eyes fitted her symmetrical face. Her slightly plump body seemed to fit her personality somehow. Her kind smile was genuine, one of those that made you instinctively smile back.

She was a terrible waitress, though. He had asked her not to interrupt him again, but she was enamored with the dark circles under his eyes, his glasses, and his pale skin for some reason. He was "her type," as people nowadays would say.

"Miss Luna, please do not come again unless I call you," he replied rudely.

As much as he wanted to be polite, it hadn't worked the four other times she came to offer more tea despite his cup being full. Complaining to her boss, her father, who was giving her the "stinky eye" from behind the counter, would be less than ideal. Then again, anything he did except leave would cause trouble sooner or later.

She opened her mouth to reply, and he suddenly stood up. The quick movement surprised the girl. Arthur approached the counter to pay for his tea and leave.

In times like these, the prince couldn't help but miss Tamara. Having a personal maid at his back and call was much more convenient than he had ever realized. Or a suitress beside him, he reckoned. He and Sophie had visited many places during their time together, and both had attracted admiration from others, but he had never had to deal with something like this.

Luna's dad didn't hide how much he disliked Arthur as the latter paid and left the store.

The prince sighed. Such a shame. He had liked that place.

It was currently snow season in Silvero. Most flakes barely touched the ground before melting, but it had been going for long enough that most rooftops and yards had accumulations of white.

As much as Silvero's inhabitants liked a city without visible magic—weather towers notwithstanding—their patience only went so far when dealing with the snow on their sidewalks. Those, and the paths leading to buildings, were built on top of thin, enchanted metal strips that melted ice and snow without heating the ground. Water puddles formed here and there, though, and despite hearing people complain about it, most were vocal against the lack of sidewalk maintenance rather than the simple fact that those were a consequence of their lifestyle.

Paradoxically, the city dealt with the snow on the roads in the most ineffective way possible: clearing it with machines and salting it. Every eight hours, before the snow became a serious hazard, a tractor plowed the road and salted it again. Arthur had learned the city controlled how much salt they used each time to prevent environmental issues, which he found quite amusing, considering the complaints against the weather towers.

Arthur grabbed his hat before leaving the café, raised the collar of his overcoat, hid the newspaper inside his clothes, put his hands in his pockets, and braved the weather. Before he arrived at the next café, a few blocks away, he had already become the ugliest man he could imagine, without being deformed. He also made himself stink.

There were no troubles with enamored waitresses in that place.

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Two weeks had passed since the start of the war. Arthur had hit five cities and destroyed dozens of business ventures owned by Terrell, partially or otherwise.

It was his third visit to Silvero. Not only did he enjoy its architecture and even the weather, but its inhabitants were also keen on keeping to themselves, and the streets lacked surveillance that could pierce the snowfalls. The weather was enough to discourage crimes in plain sight when it snowed, and the cameras sufficed when it was sunny.

Unfortunately, that was likely his last visit for a while. Revisiting the same cities to get information was a security risk. Doing it three times was already unadvised, but he was missing Sophie dearly and seeking some base comforts where he could.

The day was bound to be uneventful after the little episode with Luna, but suddenly, it wasn't.

Arthur had just sipped his coffee—he never ordered the same thing twice in a row—when he became aware that many things he believed to be true or false were the opposite.

It wasn't like his entire base of knowledge was upended, but enormous chunks of it were affected. Everything he had once used his Knowledge is Power trait on to ascertain whether it was true or false was suddenly matched against everything he had experienced during his ascension. Four months had passed, and the trait could now use that experience to give him an answer. Any wrong answer he had previously received from the trait was automatically corrected in his mind.

That had the potential to make him dazed for a time, which would be lethal in a fight. Even the tiny distraction he received was enough to cause issues, but fortunately, he wasn't in combat and the rate at which the false assumptions were corrected respected some limits. One wrong belief after another was fixed for a total of twelve corrections every second.

That brought its own consequences. Often, one fixed assumption caused another to be wrong. After all, when ascertaining whether something was true, Arthur and the trait used other pieces of knowledge as the basis. For instance, asking whether water was a liquid included his understanding of what water and liquids were. If any piece were incorrect, the resulting knowledge might also be affected.

Arthur drank a lot of coffee and ate a lot of pastries in the ensuing hours.

After that, he finished collecting Tamara's reports and returned to the hotel where he had left Graham and Emily. The knight was awake, but the prince ignored him and sat down to meditate. He had many other considerations in his mind and decided now was the perfect time to pursue them. Most came from his experiences killing people and destroying things in the past weeks, plus his encounter with the victims he had rescued from slavery.

Although Arthur couldn't use those experiences on the trait, he pushed every stat point he received for improving his elemental understanding into intelligence. As it increased, his Knowledge is Power trait leveled up, lowering the period he had to wait after experiencing something so the trait could be used. Eventually, at 10,000 intelligence points, the max allowed to any stat, the trait reached 3-1, and the waiting period became a single day.

Three days later, an entirely different Arthur opened his eyes and saw the world through a different lens. The messages Fate sent him were evidence of how much he had changed.

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| Metal: +10% → 62%

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The gains in his understanding of metal were enormous. Many things he had learned during his ascension but not absorbed well were now clearer, partly because of everything he had witnessed in the current world. Technological progress, some of the things he had learned about metallurgy, and his experience using metal to destroy metal served as the basis for his considerable progress with the element.

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| Life: +6% → 67%

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His gains with the life element were more muted because it was the most advanced he had, and his affinity for it wasn't as high as with metal. Still, he had learned a lot, which he would soon use to help grow his power and assist Graham.

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| Death: +15% → 60%

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Arthur's death element had benefited the most from everything he had experienced since he entered the level 100 dungeon for the last time. Feeling all the deaths in those words, attacking the core, and the war had given him many insights, which now proved correct or wrong when based on everything he had lived during his ascension.

All those improvements could be accomplished by him alone, without the trait. However, it demanded one of his most precious resources: time. Arthur had thought of some things but had yet to stop and truly focus on his magic progress. The trait was amazingly convenient to deal with that difficulty.

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「Achievement: Inevitable Ascension

Tier: EX

Reward: +384 stat points

You reached 50% comprehension of your third element!

Merely existing is not enough for you; you thirst for more—and find it. To you, the secrets of all that is are but pieces of information to be uncovered to fuel your ascension. The physical and metaphysical are just concepts, categorizations to ease the perception of reality by those with lesser minds, and you have pierced the veil. Is it a desire for truth that drives your pursuit, or do you seek power unbound? Whichever the answer may be, you know you will find it ahead. There is no stopping your ascension; nothing can bar your way; you are inevitable. Or are you? You're your greatest enemy, for only you can prevent yourself from reaching further. Will you continue or become yet another failure forgotten by the annals of history? You're one step away from the grander fate awaiting you at the end of the road.」

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The achievement's description perfectly defined how he felt. Indeed, Arthur had just understood enough to pierce the veil of the metaphysical. He could touch on souls now. He couldn't analyze them, but even detecting them was enough for him to feel like the world was bare to him and no one could block his path.

The challenge at the end was also fitting. Indeed, Arthur knew a lot already. He could achieve his goals by progressing his elemental comprehension, but he didn't need to reach 100% on all three elements. For instance, he was sure that, at most, he would require 100% comprehension of life and death to make himself and Sophie immortal—if death was even needed. What would drive him to also improve his metal comprehension?

He did want to investigate magitech, but that was more of a hobby. He did want to understand his domain and prepare against the dangers of the devourers, but were they a real danger if he controlled the dungeons in the world? Could he afford to bet on his world being beyond their reach?

Fate wanted Arthur to complete his ascension, but did he want it?

Something to consider in the future.

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「 Achievement: Boundless Intelligence VI

Tier: S

Reward: +192 stat points

You reached ten thousand points in intelligence!

You have learned the most valuable secret of all: the world was made to be understood one fragment of knowledge at a time. You know better than anyone the importance of investing in the ability to accumulate data and information in the best database ever made: your own mind. You also understand that stockpiles are useless by themselves; resources are only as valuable if you use them. And you have used yours to build a personal system to comprehend everything you've encountered. You know everything is connected, and you use those connections to quickly discern which data is helpful from which is waste—what is true from what is false. Such is your experience and skill that you've learned to discern truth in its most raw form. Should you have the barest of hints of the truth, no falsehood shall be able to ever fool your eyes again.」

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「 Trait: Truth Seeker

Stat: Intelligence

Grade: 3

Level: 1 — MAX

You can ascertain the truth of the world.」

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The Truth Seeker trait awaiting at the peak of the intelligence stat made Arthur feel inhuman. He no longer needed to ask himself anything. Any nugget of information he acquired was automatically matched against everything he knew to determine how likely it was to be true—as far as he could tell. That included anything he might notice with his senses, like a speaker's posture or heartbeat. The trait had been the most significant contributor to his elemental comprehension gains.

Arthur could deactivate the trait and would do so when interacting with people he cared about. Instantly judging everything they did or said would not be healthy. It was already too much that he could perceive signs others couldn't. Some things were better left unknown, or interacting with a loved one might become a nightmare.

Surprisingly, that trait helped explain elven society. An elven awakener had likely reached peak intelligence in the past and changed their entire culture to become anathema to lying. Unlike Arthur, that person had not believed ignorance could be bliss.

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「Stat Disconnection Warning

Do you want to disconnect your magnitude stat?」

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| Stat disconnected: Magnitude

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Arthur's current understanding of life had assisted him greatly in improving stats without fate. He could now push any stat up to 3,800 points instead of 1,725. That was already the new value of his three body stats and magnitude stat. He had about twice as much mana in his mana pool than before—in all three mana pools.

Overall, he had received 3,676 points between improving his elemental comprehension and his achievements. Most of it was added to intelligence to reach the peak, and he pushed the remaining 442 into perception. He was still unwilling to touch any mind stat, as it was too dangerous. Also, his perception seemed to be the stat that would assist his Truth Seeker trait the most.

In theory, touching mana stats was also dangerous to the soul, but he was less worried about that because Graham had improved with extra mana stats. Arthur noticed nothing wrong with either the man or himself. He would keep at it.

He opened his stats window to better visualize how his numbers had improved compared to the Arthur from three days ago.

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「 Stats

Level: 100

Domains:

- Metal: 52 → 62%

- Life: 61 → 67%

- Death: 45 → 60%

Available points: 0

Body:

* Strength: 1,725 → 3,800

* Agility: 1,725 → 3,800

* Vitality: 1,725 → 3,800

Mind:

- Perception: 1,000 → 1,442

- Intelligence: 6,766 → 10,000 — MAX

- Wisdom: 10,000 — MAX

Mana:

- Absorption: 5,000

* Magnitude: 2,100 → 3,800

- Efflux: 4,100」‎

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One word could describe how Arthur felt: powerful. His stats were only part of the tale. His elemental comprehension and the Truth Seeker trait truly changed how he perceived the world. Anything metal, alive, dead, or dying, now revealed a different tale to him. He knew, saw, and felt more.

Feeling souls was the ultimate evidence of his progress. It was akin to seeing a vague shape on the corner of his eye, feeling the weak flame of a slightly distant candle, or moving your hand and finding resistance where there should have been none. He knew there was something there, and he could infer it was a soul, but he couldn't tell its shape or how healthy it was.

And, well, that would hopefully change now.

Graham was asleep, but Arthur woke the man up. The knight on the cheap bed took a few moments to center himself but eventually came back to him. "Sir? Did something happen?"

"Good news," Arthur replied with a smile. "I can improve your mana stats again. Do I have your permission?"

Hope filled his body. "Of course, sir."

Arthur nodded and got to it. He did it one stat point at a time, hoping to feel something that might help him better sense the man's soul. It more or less worked. The prince confirmed that his previous vague sense of the knight's soul getting healthier was real, but he could still not link it to the "physical" feel of the man's soul. He also couldn't pinpoint exactly how he was getting the impression that Graham's soul was getting better. It felt like something on the tip of his tongue, but he still lacked some critical piece of the puzzle.

Each of Graham's mana stats went from 1,725 to 3,800 points. The man immediately started breathing more easily. Arthur also almost had the vague impression of something stirring in the man's soul, which he took to mean some of the healing would take time, just like the last time he increased Graham's mana stats.

"I can also improve your body stats again," Arthur said after he was done. "Every one of them. May I?"

The knight considered it for a moment this time. Eventually, he nodded slightly. He didn't grow exhausted after such a motion, showing how he had already significantly improved. His breathing got more labored, though.

"Strength and agility, sir. Do vitality slowly. If it's not a bother." Graham still had trouble speaking, but he had just said all those sentences without a huge consequence. He was only breathing very haggardly now.

Arthur waited for the man to calm down before replying, "It doesn't inconvenience me, no. In fact, I would suggest it myself. Glad to see we're on the same page."

The grand knight struggled with his increased vitality. More than doubling it again so soon after his last episode would cause more issues than it was worth.

Arthur improved the man's stats much the same way as his mana stats, one at a time. His strength started at 3,000 points, and his agility at 2,000. Both reached 3,800. Arthur then increased the knight's vitality from 1,725 to 2,000.

The prince observed a few interesting things while improving Graham's stats. Those observations were immediately matched against everything he knew because of the Truth Seeker trait. It improved his life comprehension a little, but not enough to net him another percentage.

"It's done," he informed. "How do you feel?"

"Better, sir," Graham said. "Stronger. Sleepy."

Arthur guessed soul healing also took a toll on people, just like physical healing. He nodded. "I'll put you to sleep and secure you before leaving."

"Yes, sir," the knight said, slightly unwilling but knowing it was for the best.

This hotel's bedrooms had no bathtubs, so Arthur left Graham and Emily in a metal box under the bed. It was less comfortable and not as safe, but it was still better than any alternative.

He then left to check the news and Tamara's reports in Silvaro.

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Pasilia City was one of the high-mana regions in the world, though the energy density was considerably lower than Avaria. The League had only a token presence there, a five-story building in the city center. Still, three hovercars, exclusive to the League, flew beside it, watching out for anything wrong, its floodlights further illuminating the streets in the night. They were a mere statement of support, though.

The actual sentry job was carried out by thousands of low-level awakeners in low-quality enchanted plate armor on the streets and in the air. A few flew by themselves, but most used hoverboards that could move faster than a running unawakened and efficiently maneuver anywhere. Half of them used powerful magitech flashlights, while others had enchanted googles to see in the dark.

The place's security forces were expecting an unwanted visitor. Arthur hadn't announced he would come, but there was no need to. Tamara had found a minor House that had grown very rich and powerful by specializing in divination. Their primary client: Blaze Terrell. Some clues even suggested they had been involved in divining when Arthur would leave the dungeon so Terrell would drop a nuclear warhead on him.

Focusing on divination was a high-risk, high-reward business. The hazard of the occupation was one of the reasons behind chronomancers' scarcity, behind only how rare it was for anyone to have an affinity with the time element. Diviners were the first to die whenever someone they were known to associate with was targeted by an enemy. They were too dangerous and considered part of the enemy's forces by default.

Therefore, the first thing they always had to do when dealing with a client was to determine if it would bring issues in the future. They were uniquely suited for that task. Yet, some diviners messed up either because they grew too greedy or had misinterpreted some visions. House Paixi was one such case. They should not have worked for Terrell.

The Paixis owned Pasilia and had likely seen the prince coming, hence the security scheme...

...or so they wanted him to think.

Arthur wasn't buying it. Diviners set cunning traps against their enemies; they didn't try to prevent the enemy from approaching unseen. The prince was also confident this wasn't a ploy to make him lower his guard because a diviner would also know that wouldn't work on him. There was no justification for such expenditure. He would still keep his guard up, but something smelled fishy.

The prince flew invisible and unhindered through the skies. He had gone around the Unseen Presence brooch's weakness in the most straightforward manner possible: surrounding himself with metal. The thin plate covered his entire body, leaving no direct line of sight between anyone and himself, not even for his eyes, therefore making it impossible for them to see him through Fate's inspection. He sensed the world through his domains, Mana Sight, and Sage's Eyes.

He saw multiple spells thrown around to detect invisible intruders, but those could also be bypassed in a simple way: dodging them. He was faster than any of those weak awakeners' magic.

Mana radars were the only thing he couldn't avoid, which he solved by stealing. Every awakener belonging to the city's forces had a magitech ID chip under their skin so the radar's signals could be checked, and he cut one off without issue using his life domain. He also brought an inch of the guy's flesh because the chip-like object was enchanted to only work when in contact with suitable DNA. The awakener never felt anything wrong. Arthur then kept the thing alive with magic.

Still, that only gave him a small window before the man wasn't identified and caught as an "intruder." The mana radars on the city followed a pattern he could see. Getting straight to his destination unnoticed was impossible, but he timed it perfectly to be as deep into the city as possible when he stole the ID and then approached his target, one of House Paixi's manors in Pasilia's suburbs.

The three-story mansion covered a lot of ground, but its surroundings were even vaster, filled with amenities like a massive swimming pool and sports courts. Still, it was like a sore thumb, a pearl of modern architecture amid a sea of ancient houses. House Paixi had only recently reached its peak, thanks to Terrell's patronage, and it showed.

Arthur frowned as he approached the place. It was their main house but had only a few low-level awakeners serving as servants to the unawakened there. If he hadn't known better, he'd think the Paixi could circumvent his Sage's Eyes and pass up as unawakened. While possible, that ranked pretty low on his list of possible scenarios.

What kind of twisted scheme was this? That, more than anything, put him on high alert. Those were diviners. They had prepared this scenario with privileged information about the future. Which wrong reaction would he have that would trigger the unexpected trap?

He could only hope they had messed up on that, too.

The prince's time in Pasilia was never meant to be calm, and he fell into the mansion like a meteor. A hypersonic one, made of pure, unbreakable metal. He crushed into and through dozens of magic barriers and went straight for the largest bedroom, which had the oldest couple lying on the bed.

Alarms immediately activated, and the prince grabbed all unenchanted metal in the round to prepare for battle. He opened his sphere and used a life intent string to confirm once and for all that the couple was unawakened. They were. If the Paixi could fool even that sense, they deserved to live.

Even as he entered the room, he used the metal from his sphere to collect all the dust and debris that had come with him in a thin net and pushed it back into the hole, which he firmly closed. That much dust might kill the frail unawakened in the room. He was then about to put them to sleep while he killed the awakeners when he felt their souls.

They felt unnatural. Twisted. Sick. The feeling was so powerful that it overwhelmed his inferior soul sense. Whatever had happened to those two people was wrong.

The male had been lying on the bed, reading a book, while the female wrote a book, of all things, on a writing table. Both jumped in fright at the sudden explosion and intrusion but calmed quickly. The man sighed, closed his book, and sat up while the woman glanced at Arthur and started writing faster.

The bald ninety-year-old man, with more wrinkles than straight skin, stood up with difficulty—only to then throw himself on the ground, prostrating before Arthur without consideration for his health. He banged his head hard against the wooden floor, though the carpet helped ease his injury.

"House Paixi begs mercy from High House Boria," he said with a heavy accent. He had come from the East and evidently hadn't bothered to remove the signs from his speech. "We offer information in exchange for safety of descendants."

Arthur couldn't believe what he was hearing. That unawakened belonged to House Paixi? And he even had the gall to speak in the name of the entire House?

The strangest part was that Arthur's Truth Seeker trait let him instantly determine that the man at least didn't think he was lying. He prehended the man's body again and combed through his brain. There were no visible signs of modified memory.

Could House Paixi have long raised these people to believe themselves to be part of House Paixi just for a situation like this? Unlikely but possible; they were diviners. It was certainly more believable than whatever this was.

The manor's alarms stopped sounding after a few seconds, and Arthur noticed no one from the city forces was coming to investigate. Not quickly, anyway. The awakeners were loosely approaching the area and setting up a perimeter seemingly meant to keep others away. In fact, they were painfully slow, as if to ensure he wouldn't find them a menace.

The prince triple-checked his surroundings, especially the underground and the skies. Were warheads coming this way? Would voidsteel suddenly surround him Fate-knows out of nowhere?

After nothing happened for a few seconds, Arthur turned to the man and demanded, "Explain."

Listening to this unawakened was dangerous. House Paixi could've seen which words would poison Arthur and affect his future. Again, it was unlikely but possible. Still, he would have to parse through these people's information, be it from the man's spoken words, the book the woman was writing, or other documents in the house. And he did have this trait to help him here—which, of course, the Paixis might have foreseen how to bypass.

Dealing with diviners was annoying.

Arthur's training insisted he consider the possibilities but act as directly as possible. Anything else was more likely to cause him to be manipulated. There would be traps anywhere he went, anyway, so he should act in the areas he felt more confident, and that meant facing his foe head-on.

The old man bashed his head against the carpet again, this time with enough force to grow slightly dazed for a moment, then yelled, "House Paixi sinned against you and Fate. Our visions entered forbidden territory. Fate punished us. No blood of mine will be awakener ever again. We beg mercy. We offer information in exchange for safety of descendants."

The woman was writing even faster now. Arthur frowned as he looked at the man. Was he claiming what Arthur thought he was?

"Are you implying that you're the Head of House Paixi? That you were an awakener, a chronomancer, a diviner until you looked at a future Fate would rather keep hidden? That crossing the line caused you to lose your powers and blocked your descendants from ever becoming awakeners again?"

"Yes," the man replied before repeating his plead for mercy.

Arthur's frown deepened. That was in line with the high elves losing access to chronomancy but a considerably more stringent punishment. The prince inferred it would make sense if the forbidden things House Paixi had seen, supposedly related to Arthur, were much closer and more likely to happen than when the elven guy, the Last Whisperer, had seen them. It did not, however, explain why House Paixi had still informed Terrell about it.

He looked coldly at the man and asked, "Why did you still try to get me killed after being punished by Fate?"

The question caused the woman's body to tremble as her heartbeats accelerated. The man swallowed as his body tensed. They knew he wouldn't like the answer to that—but also that anything other than the truth would be much worse for them.

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