Chapter 5 - Shadows in pursuit
His parents were taken aback by the sudden hug, but they embraced him back with the light of love and affection shining in their eyes.
When he detached from the embrace, he looked at his father who immediately said, "Son, I won't accept the Staff of Garryshem."
Vhelgarr nodded his head and walked back with his parents to the palace. Now that he had successfully changed his father's mind, he still had a lot of work to do, as this won't be easy as just politely refusing something from the Chadnezzar.
As he accompanied his parents to the Grand Palace Hall, workers, Palace Protectors, and many others who saw the battle, looked at him with awe and respect in their eyes.
They knew his father to be really strong, but they hadn't ever expected Vhelgarr to defeat him in the most dominating way ever, in a way that even they themselves were absolutely scared.
If they had face such an overwhelming attack, only pieces of their bodies would remain, or perhaps nothing, as they would be vaporized away by just the aura and massive destructive intent possessed by the attack.
When they got to the Palace Hall, Nailah who watched the battle as well and had waited for them to arrive in the hall, had to give her big brother more respect. She couldn't believe what she saw.
She walked up to him and said with full admiration in her tone, "Brother, you are getting stronger every day. I wish I can be like that too."
Vhelgarr smiled and brushed her long, silky red hair in a loving manner.
He then said, "Don't worry Nailah, your true strength will surface soon. Just keep training and practicing."
Once he said that, Nailah nodded her head. Then she determined in her heart that she was going to train more.
She was going to train many times harder so that she would become really strong, up to the point that her big brother would be wowed and marvel at her skills and abilities. Then together, they would march out for battles to fight for their kingdom, their dignity, and for the ones they loved.
Placing his right arm across Nailah's shoulder and walking with her to where their parents sat with grace and magnificence on their beautiful and towering golden thrones, he asked with a certain look in his face, "Dad, where is Xanderroth and Valgoroth?"
"You have forgotten, son? They are with their teachers at the academy." Thegarroth said while Vhelgarr nodded his head. He had quickly sieved through his memory after his father said that.
As they engaged in other discussions, faraway in a certain land, a land that was nothing but barren, but had a massive structure at the center of it, but deep within the ground, was an old man with glowing blue eyes.
He looked at the sky from hundreds of feet within the ground and asked with an inexplicable tone in his voice, "What was that feeling that I experienced? It was so strange and terrifying."
With his eyes beaming in the next instant as the glow emitting from them grew more intense, he said with unbounded delight and excitement in his voice, "I have to tell Vastarathes about this. If I can help him find the source of this power and assist him in absorbing it, he would become really strong and unstoppable."
"Yes, yes. This is my only chance to redeem myself. My only chance to be able to permanently leave this place that I was banished to by his great grandfather. Hahaha!"
This old man, who had lived for more than a hundred and twenty million years, cackled loudly, exuding nothing but the aura of darkness, tyranny, and incomparable brutality from his tall, emaciated body.
With joy surging in his heart, he teleported to the solid ground outside.
Looking around and into the far distance with his powerful vision, ensuring that no one was looking at him, he instantly vanished, reappearing in the large, princely room of a massive, extravagantly decorated mansion that was more than six million miles away.
"Zalgron, you are here." A towering and handsome young man who looked thirty five but was actually six million years old, said with indifference in his tone as he looked at an old man in rags who had suddenly appeared in his room.
"Yes, I am here to tell you about a really strange and bewildering power that I felt surface moments ago." Zalgron said, hoping to make Vastarathes really excited.
Vastarathes simply looked at him with a smirk on his face and said, "Zalgron, you will say any and everything to me just so I can find the golden blood keys that will free you from the Artheria Ever-Banishing Curse that my great grandfather placed on you."
"No, I am serious this time. Just give me some time to prove myself." Zalgron said with a really determined voice, refusing to back down.
Vastarathes saw the seriousness on Zalgron's face and decided to take him seriously, "You mean what you said? And that this is not another case of you leading me on with the false intention of massively empowering me and making me absolutely unbeatable?"
"Yes, I meant what I said. And no, this is not another case of leading you on. Actually, I never led you on, to be really sincere."
"I was right about the others, just that I couldn't find them. Either others got them before me, or they were lost to dimensions I couldn't trace them to."
"But I believe that this time, I will find this and offer it to you. You won't believe how incredibly strong and immensely overpowered you will become."
"None will be capable of making an enemy out of you due to the unlimited destructive strength you will possess."
"Hmm." Vastarathes muttered, quickly and deeply analyzing what Zalgron said with total seriousness in his face.
"Tell me about this strange power you speak of?" Vastarathes asked with a certain unexplainable look appearing in his face.
Now, he had taken full interest in the power that Zalgron spoke of and thirsted for it.
"I will start with this. The feeling I first felt when this power first surfaced, was one that made me feel it was one really ancient, mighty, and domineering primordial power."
"Vastarathes, I have felt many things in the past with my inherent ability to perceive things that are otherworldly or unnatural. But this was many times greater than those."
"If those were tiny flames burning on candle wicks, this was the sun—blazing, magnificent, and absolutely powerful. Nothing, I believe, will ever come close to it. Not in this era, and not in countless ones to come." Zalgron said, his eyes shining with a type of light that made Vastarathes immediately seat up and begin to yearn and crave more for this power.
If he could have such, he will become the first and last grand ruler of their world, so he believed.
Zalgron then continued, his smile—after fully convincing Vastarathes, disappearing as it became replaced with total seriousness, "To be honest, Vastarathes, I am sure I am not the only that felt this incredible, abyss-shaking power."
"A million others, scattered across nations and kingdoms in our vast world, would have sensed this awe-striking power and would have begun to search for it."
"We have to move out quickly to make sure we obtain this power first."
"We will do anything and everything possible to be the first to acquire this extradimensional power of limitless destruction."
"We will subdue all and slaughter every being that will dare to oppose us!"