Ascension of the elder

Chapter 71: Right turn Clyde

"Kyle you little bugger when did you decide to get a life?"

Looking over to the new voice Kyle saw 2 young men, the one who spoke out was the older of the 2. He was a robust young man of around 20years old while the younger looked to be around 16. These were his cousins; the older cousin called Neil was the son of his older uncle while the younger cousin called Clyde was the son of his second uncle.

Clyde was still living with his family while Neil had just returned from his national service. While it wasn't necessary for the children of noble lineage to partake in national service Neil had volunteered but as the son of a noble family he was allowed to serve relatively close to New Grange City. He had been on station as a member of the border force who patrolled past the current outer territory of the empire in the hopes of preventing a beast horde from forming or attacking without warning.

While this sounded like a favour for the noble family, the fact he had been placed in a force with the highest attrition rate made Kyle suspect a hidden hand was involved in his placement. While Kyle didn't have much contact with Clyde as he was generally a quiet young man Neil always sought him out. He didn't mistreat Kyle but he was always trying to get him involved, he was like an extrovert friend who was trying to get his introvert buddy to participate.

Kyle responded to Neil while a small smile played on his face. He didn't have a bad impression of these two from Kyle's memories as they never seemed to look down on him unlike their fathers.

"Hello Neil, Clyde how are you doing?"

"Not bad little cuz just came to have a look at the weapons for Clyde."

Clyde didn't seem to want to participate and was just looking away while Neil was speaking loudly about their purpose.

"Oh so Clyde is here for a weapon. I spoke to Uncle Mike just a little while ago and he has better stocks coming in soon so you may want to wait until they arrive."

"Really cool, you hear that Clyde you may find something you can use ha-ha."

While Neil wasn't a bad guy he was still a little full on. As they were talking the rest of Kyle's group arrived, when Clara and Miranda saw Kyle they moved closer to him and stood on either side of him. When Neil saw this he smiled before a glint appeared in his eye before he spoke loudly to Clyde again.

"Hey Clyde it looks like our little cuz is a ladies' man. Better step up your game or he'll become a man before you."

Neil always pushed Clyde, not trying to be horrible but he felt Clyde was too passive so with a little confrontation he may begin to respond. Clyde, Clara and Miranda became red from Neil's provocation which made him grin even more. Kyle decided Neil needed to be knocked down a peg so while he was still enjoying messing with these people Kyle spoke up.

"Oh really Neil you've already become a man? So you finally made some progress with the little miss from the Tor family?"

While the previous Kyle didn't spend much time with other people he did know that his older cousin was deeply in love and devoted to the oldest daughter of the Tor family. She was an early stage sorcerer specialising in taming so she did some work in the city. While she was interested in Neil she still held back looking like she wanted to find Neil's intentions.

Hearing what Kyle said Neil became shocked before turning slightly red before he began spluttering his response.

"Well no but she I like maybe soon she'll might kinda date if."

Neil had become completely flustered at the mention of his lifetime crush. He didn't know how to respond, it would have been easy to lie and say yes he had got some liberties but he did love her and didn't want to even risk tarnishing her reputation. Kyle suspected the reason he asked to do national service was in some way connected to her.

Clyde looked at the stumped Neil before flashing Kyle a grateful smile while Miranda and Clara were giggling seeing Neil mental meltdown and Bruno was just laughing at his kinsman. Clyde finally took pity on his cousin and spoke to him.

"Come on Neil why don't we get some lunch I'm paying."

Neil latched onto this statement like a lifeline.

"Oh great I know a perfect place we can grab some food. Do you guys want to join us?"

Kyle responded as he had some other things to sort as he still had some time.

"No you guys carry on we've still got a couple of stops to make."

With this Neil and Clyde headed out, Kyle felt these pair had a really good relationship and he had a good impression of the so he hoped they would eventually help support his family. As they reached the entrance he heard Neil directing Clyde.

"Ok Clyde we're heading this way. No not that way right turn Clyde."

With them moving out of sight Kyle began to lead the way out but as they were going he noticed some grey hooded cloaks which may be a good idea to wear while they headed to the next destination. Taking four cloaks one for each of the youngsters of the group Kyle paid at the counter.

"Bruno will we be okay to leave our steeds here for now."

The shop had a small stable to the side for customers and it would be better if they didn't ride expensive steeds around the slum district.

"Yeah no problem I'll just let the stable master know."

Before Bruno left Kyle gave him a robe and passed the rest out. Before he gave a new directive to One.

"Okay One from now on walk in front of us like your leading. We are heading for the ruins in the eighth district, do you know the way?"

One merely nodded as he knew the ruins Kyle was speaking about as the locals including him and his men avoided this area. Bruno came back shortly and they began to make their way to the slums.

While the location wasn't too far it still took them over 30 minutes to reach. Once they got there One slowed down and was looking at the stones with a little fear. Regardless of what Kyle told him it was still embedded in his mind this was a cursed location.

As Kyle made his way further in the rest of the youngsters followed his path before One followed. He didn't want to be the only one afraid plus how could he show fear when these kids didn't. Kyle navigated his way through the maze of broken stone occasionally stopping to inspect an array.

Finally they reached the broken staircase which concealed the entrance to the lower levels. Kyle remembered the order to place the items he was shown by his mana crystal and as Kyle didn't know what to expect he chose to follow the instructions as they were shown.

This meant his first stop was the lower altar where he had claimed the 2 metal spheres. He had inspected the spheres full now and both appeared identical. He still couldn't see what their purpose was as the etchings on them were definitely not arrays or formations he knew.

Reaching the altar Kyle placed the sphere in the depression located in the top of the altar and waited for something to happen. After a few minutes with no reaction Kyle decided it would be best to place the new mana crystal he had received from his one and see if there was any change.

Returning to the formation chamber Kyle moved towards the centre and began to collect the broken pieces of the control ring which were scattered around the room. The rest of the team helped with this and brought over the various pieces of the control ring they found around the room.

Kyle began to try and piece the ring back together the best he could by laying the ring out. It was a slow process as some of the metal was brutally twisted from whatever had caused it to shatter in the first place but gradually Kyle had it in some semblance of order.

Happy with what he had done Kyle placed the mana crystal in the centre of the metal and waited. For a moment nothing happened and the others began to think there must have been a mistake, but Kyle began to feel mana fluctuations and he could see some of the arrays on the ring began to pulse.

This was slow at the start and the others couldn't even perceive it but gradually light began to come from the crystal and the ring. As they watched the ring began to slowly fuse back together and turn around the crystal. When the ring was fully fused it and the crystal started to levitate and moved to the centre of the room.

The damage on the ring was still present but as they were watching the damage was becoming less and less. Slowly the formation in the chamber began to show signs of recovery with lights flickering within it from time to time.

Kyle could perceive that the local mana was gradually but inextricably moving to the crystal increasing the amount of mana within. As the mana increased the size of the crystal increased until the crystal began producing more mana than it was absorbing until it stopped absorbing mana altogether and only released it.

This was the first time Kyle had seen a mana crystal grow so he wondered if this is how all mana crystals formed and if possibly this was the source of all mana. Once the crystal had reached this breakeven point the speed at which the formation within the room began to recover increased incredibly until it was active and stable. Kyle was so happy seeing this ruin was healing couldn't help but shout out to show his joy.

"IT'S ALIVE!"