CHAPTER 43: CHAPTER 43 - AMBER VON ASTIR

Back at the Royal Palace, in a room meant for training, Crystal could be found out of breath, sweating as if she had run a marathon. Her face was red and her hair was a mess, but that didn’t stop her and her tired body from continuing to fire spells at the training dummies scattered all over the room.

"Princess, please take a break." Zia pleaded.

It had been three days since Crystal returned from the dungeon mission and since that day, she had locked herself in her personal training room. She felt powerless, weak, and useless when she fought against the monsters in the dungeon.

Sure she helped, but only by killing the weakest of monsters. She couldn’t even do anything when Zion battled against Rupert and Lordrick, and coming face to face with a demon was able to shatter any confidence she had left for herself.

"Leave me alone, Zia. I’m not leaving this place until I’m stronger!" She readied her next spell, but since she used too much mana, her body suffered backlash and she threw up blood instead.

"Princess!" Zia rushed over to Crystal with a healing potion already prepared. She helped her drink the soothing liquid, watching as Crystal’s face relaxed.

"You weren’t there, Zia. You didn’t see how they all outclassed me, how they didn’t need me."

"What has gotten into you Princess? You weren’t like this before you left."

"Of course I wasn’t! I had hoped that I could bring people to my side! Hoped that I could gain support or allies! But everyone turned me down! Every last one of them! Then that bastard Rupert brought up how my brother, Lapis, wanted me to step down from the line of succession. Told me how I was stupid for even trying to compete with my siblings, and how I had nothing! He even called my mother a whore!"

Zia comforted her friend, holding her in her arms as she let out her emotions.

"Do you know what that does to a person, how it makes me feel? Growing up, I heard everyone tell me how little I was worth, how my mother seduced my father, and how I was nothing. For years that’s all I heard. I tried to stay strong, look the other way, and forge my own path. But that shit builds up, just waiting to explode. I hate that I’m feeling this way but I can’t help it!"

She sobbed hard, harder than she had ever cried before. The smart, stoic, and prideful princess was nothing more than a sobbing mess, feeling the weight of her helplessness and weakness.

"Pfft, you truly are pitiful." A voice called out from the door.

Turning around, Crystal and Zia both spotted a woman with curly brown hair. She adorned herself in elegant attire that accentuated her already breathtaking beauty, carefully choosing garments that subtly enhanced her modest allure.

"What are you doing here, Amber!" Crystal sneered

"What? I can’t say hello to my favorite little sister?"

Crystal didn’t answer

"Hmph, you’re no fun. Well, I guess this is for the best. Pretending to like you leaves a bad taste in my mouth—blegh." She scrunched her nose and stuck out her tongue, dramatically gagging as she held a finger near her lips.

"What do you want?" Crystal asked, her hands freezing with ice magic.

"Oh nothing, just wanted to see you wallow in your sadness. Have you finally come to the realization that you’re nothing? I mean, not only do you lack the talent Royalty is expected to have, but you also have no one to support you. I mean, you gotta be stupid to face off against us? Oh wait, you are."

"Don’t insult me!"

"Is it an insult if it’s the truth?" Amber asked as she sat down on a stool, crossing her legs with an arrogant smile.

"I don’t have time for this." Crystal stood up to leave the training room, clearly irritated by her older sister’s antics.

"Aww, look at you go, running away from your problems. If only you were this smart to leave the line of succession. Then again, our idiot father got seduced by that whore you call a mother. I guess idiocy runs in the family. I hope I didn’t get any of that."

*BOOM*

A massive ice storm consumed the entire room, sealing it in a frozen prison. Jagged icicles sprouted from every surface, dozens of them aimed at Amber, their razor-sharp tips hovering just a breath away from her neck.

"Don’t you dare insult my mother!" The rage Crystal felt right now was through the roof. She could take insults directed at her, but she would never let anyone insult her mother, the one person who made her grow up happy and not miserable.

Amber, however, wasn’t phased one but at Crystal’s little showing of her strength.

"Oh Crystal, you’re really cute, you know that." With a snap of her fingers, a surge of lightning erupted, shattering the ice in an instant. The intense heat didn’t just melt it—it vaporized every last shard, leaving nothing but a crackle of electricity in the air.

Crystal knew her sister was strong, way stronger than her, but being on the receiving end of it, even indirectly, overwhelmed her to the core.

With a slow walk, Amber approached Crystal, her presence overbearing and suffocating.

"Let me give you a piece of advice, sister to sister." She leaned into her ear, "Stay put like a good dog and know your place. You and you’re mother bring the Royal Family’s name to shame. Back out while you still can, if not, well, I don’t mind having one less of a sibling. Not that I saw you as one in the first place."

After patting Crystal’s cheek, an arrogant smile plastered across her face, Amber took her leave.

The rage Crystal felt was almost unbearing. Her fists were white from how hard she was clenching them, but she sighed, drooping her shoulders, and looked toward the ceiling.

"Princess?" Zia asked

"We’re going to Zion. He’s my last hope. If anyone can help me, it’s him."

"Are you sure?"

"No, but it’s not like I have another choice."

"I’ll prepare the carriage."

---

"Hmmmmm. That doesn’t make any sense." Zion said as he examined Lordrick’s dead body.

He decided to keep him to research and understand how he used demonic energy and holy power together without dying, incurring Arion’s wrath, or being outed by his fellow members.

Sure his aunt had to lie about it, but he was sure she could handle it.

"What doesn’t make any sense, young master?" Lacey asked as she also examined Lordricks body.

"His mana pathways are all filled with holy power. That’s normal since his mana was replaced with it. However, it’s the demonic energy that’s making me confused. See look here, the demonic energy is underneath the holy power and there’s like a thin barrier that’s separating the two from merging with each other."

"I see it. Could it be like your cultivation method? Like how you made a core and mana field?" She asked

"No, it’s different from that. My method involves connecting my mana pathways to my core allowing for myself to use both aura and magic since I have the means to do so in my core. In his body, it’s as if the energy doesn’t exist on the same plane yet can be used together."

"That is confusing."

"Rebecca, scan his body and pull it up on the screen."

"Got it." The machine Lordrick was strapped to scanned his body, and once it was complete, a holographic image of him appeared on a large screen in the laboratory.

"The yellow represents holy power and the purple represents demonic energy," Rebecca informed him.

Looking at the 3D hologram of Lordrick didn’t help one bit, only adding more confusion.

"Young master. The purple energy is concentrating around his belly area."

"Yeah, I see that. But why? Mana is supposed to concentrate around the heart, not the abdomen." Zion then turned to Rebecca. "Do you know if demons cultivate demonic energy differently?"

"I’m not sure. I’m not familiar with their methods."

"Hmm." Zion concentrated his own holy power into his index finger and touched Lordricks head.

"No reaction. Demonic energy hates holy power and would instantly try to counteract it. Even if he’s dead, that should still be the case. Lacey, bring me project V-1 please."

She left for about 2 minutes before coming back with a metal briefcase.

Opening it, Zion pulled out a syringe filled with red liquid alongside a severed head.

"Let’s see." He touched the head with holy power and as he expected, the head reacted and tried to fight it off. "Even the head of a dead vampire reacts to holy power."

He then turned back to Lordrick and injected him with the vampire’s blood. In theory, the demonic energy should eat away at his body while fighting against the holy power. Instead, the blood’s demonic energy was just absorbed and didn’t trigger a reaction at all.

"Is this shit broken or something?" He injected some of the blood within himself and loe and behold, his body started reacting to it. Even his holy power fought it off, destroying the demonic energy in its entirety.

"That’s insane! How can two opposing energies exist within the same body?! It’s not like aura and magic since both of them are mana, but this should be possible at all." Although Rebecca was shocked and confused, her inner scientist wanted to run more tests.

Zion scratched his head whilst looking over his notes. He had no clue what was going on but that wasn’t going to stop him from figuring it out. After all, this could be a breakthrough in understanding how to utilize foreign energies without them conflicting with one another.

"Ohhh baby brother!"

"Oh god!" Zion felt chills once he heard Hanna’s voice

"Oh don’t worry, I’m not here to bully you this time. I came here to tell you that your little fiance is here along with some girl with glasses and the fifth princess." She punched his arm. "I didn’t know you were smooth like that." She grinned

"You’ll see how smooth I am eventually." He smiled, rubbing his arm.