The Arcane Emperor

Chapter 73 Home

A Divine Presence washed over Rainer as he hastily used his armed [Arcane Presence] to cover Luna. He noticed her sneak into his coat at the last possible second.

Even though Rainer only noted his passing through the Void due to his high Intelligence the millisecond felt like hours as the Divine Power searched and sought all over the Void, seeking the system-empowered intruders.

And, as if neither he nor she existed at all, the Divine did not act in the slightest.

Pretending to writhe and panic as any 16-year-old girl would do when strapped to a table surrounded by scientists, Sarah had other plans than dissection today.

It wasn't the first time she's been "captured" since her Grandfather and Mom disappeared. It was merely the first time the council was willing to risk it.

The very day her grandfather had disappeared without a trace, vultures that were always watching appeared. They decided that the last daughter of the Nvos family was an easy target. And Sarah was happy to go willingly like the "scared" girl she was, pretending to believe their words of polite treatment.

She knew all too well that those were lies. Yet it was also the easiest way to get at the leaders of whoever was after her. After all, no one would waste the bloodline of an Arcanist in the form of a pretty teenager. Mages were men who need not follow the law of the land. And centuries-old leaders often lost their morals over the years. The prospect of furthering their lines with such a powerful bloodline tempted them too much.

Unfortunately for them, she was something they never expected. And every one of them died with the same look on their face when she tore apart magic dampening metal restraints with her bare hands and then magically ripped out their Mana Pools.

Even if they were to somehow subdue her, she had a necklace with a few charges left to teleport her away.

Her grandfather had joked that all the talent his and their mother's bloodline had went into Rainer's ability with Runes and the Arcane, whereas for her it all went into Mana. Even now, after years of grueling training, she only knew a few spells. No matter how quickly her Grandfather helped her learn runes, she never used them well.

But she didn't need them.

Since she understood the precarious state their family was truly in after learning her dad died saving Rainer as a child, she put all her effort into training. Rainer's situation as an adult only pushed her further. The fact that Rainer treated her so well, only increased her desire not to visit his, likely empty, grave years later.

And her grandfather's collection of magical resources, which outdid any known Mage, helped in that.

But nothing made her stronger than her ability to rip out someone's Mana pool and take a minor portion for herself. Permanently. Finding powerful mages in weak positions, however, proved a harder task. Until now.

As these scientists readied to begin experimenting on her, all but undetectable tendrils of Mana extended from her and linked with the Mana pools of the scientists.

One twist with her mind and they'd be disconnected from their magic.

She'd take their power into herself.

And then enchanting herself as the vessel, tear out of the metal restraints. All she was waiting for was a stronger mage to come in and gloat about finally capturing a Nvos. She knew she could easily escape anyone here currently. The magically hidden necklace she wore stood above any other enchanted item she knew of.

But with a flash of Arcane, three souls left this life, never to return.

Sarah stopped her struggling as she stared dumbly at the figure standing above her. Violet runic lines raced across his body, shining through his clothes. A blade of pure arcane energy extended out from a hilt in his hand. His eyes were entirely glowing violet, and yet even with all of this she almost lost herself in how beautiful he was.

She hadn't even fully registered that he had killed three Mages in a single swing. Researchers they were, but in no way defenseless.

Her eyes nearly bulged as she watched him tear off the metal restraints holding her down with no effort. She hadn't heard of a single mage anywhere near as physically strong as her.

To her surprise, he immediately grabbed her into a hug. An alarm soon went off blaring loudly, causing the words he said to be lost. Sensing something off about his eyes, Sarah didn't immediately move a tendril of Mana towards him.

He moved a bit away from her, and she watched him somehow glare the noise into submission as the alarm stopped for seemingly no reason.

"Are you okay? Did they hurt you?"

"N-no, I-I'm. okay. T-thank you s-so much s-saving me," Sarah said with a bright red face as her nose nearly touched with his. She didn't need saving, but she certainly appreciated it.

How can anyone be this beautiful? She found herself thinking.

Rainer stared at her with confusion for a moment as the violet in his eyes died down.

"Sarah? It's me, Rainer."

Before she could respond, he grabbed her in his arms again, and the two vanished.

Rainer void-walked away without pause, but as he reached outside the building, he was knocked down onto the street.

"A barrier?" Rainer asked. He was still a bit lower on Mana than he'd like to be after making the trip here, and accelerating his Void-walk when he felt the Divine Presence. For it to be sweeping, looking for him, it clearly had felt an intruder. And even if Rainer couldn't be seen by Divine Sight, he wasn't sure what else the Divine could do to him.

"You dare assault the Council?" An angry mage leading a group behind him roared out. All of them were dressed in strange blue robes, teeming with enchantment.

Rainer didn't even spare the group of six a glance as his armed [Arcane Lances] tore through them.

Sarah however, spared far more than just a glance. The revelation that the ludicrously attractive mage holding her right now was her brother was one thing, but seeing him kill six executors of the Council without even trying was another. The lances of Arcane tore through their shields like glass.

All around him, pedestrians were staring in shock. But neither Rainer nor the Council executors paid them any mind.

Rainer focused with [Void Detection] as he planned forcefully tearing through the newly erected barrier.

But before he could act, a powerful wave of magic surged from behind him.

Rainer managed to dodge before several spikes of concrete nearly penetrated him from beneath.

He spun around and looked at the figure that attacked him. More and more of the blue robed figures poured out of the building, but the one in front waved them back.

Wearing a casual hoodie and jeans, the white-masked middle-aged Mage stared at Rainer for a long moment, before pointedly looking at the people behind him and then moving to the side.

Setting Sarah down, Rainer did the same.

If this Mage wanted a one on one duel, he'd give him one. And then he'd kill the rest anyways. What did he care of them when these people were about to dissect his sister. He still kept a portion of his mind focused using [Void Detection] on Sarah.

A burst of mind magic that felt gentle to Rainer had all the people on the busy street around them running away as quickly as possible. Any memories of the event were muddled and turned into a raw fear that the mind magic elicited in them. It would be no more than a nightmare.

[Arcane Awakening] still surged on Rainer as he felt the figure release his own magic, the very ground in every direction began teeming with Mana, falling under his control.

The concrete all around him, the metal in the cars all started contorting, becoming more and more deadly spikes. It created a veritable mass of metal and power all poised and ready to kill Rainer.

"I hope you can entertain for longer than a minute, Mage. You'll be a fun one to study afterward…try not to die too horribly."

Looking around, Rainer tried to understand what this mage was trying to accomplish. But soon understanding the magic at play, the [Archon]'s face contorted in shock.

Sarah looked on nervously as she watched Rainer square off with one of the Pillars of the Council. She had no idea what was going on, but even now she readied her power to help Rainer get through the barrier and escape. Her body teemed with Mana as she enchanted it to the brim. A light glow of Mana covered her skin.

Seeing Rainer just letting the mage gather all those materials under his control made her think he was woefully under matched and too shocked to act. She prepared herself to dash at him and use her necklace to get both of them away.

But she froze as she felt a powerful wave of magic erupt all around her and the street. All the controlled spikes of metal and rock fell to the ground. Before she could even blink, Rainer was standing behind the Council Pillar and twisting his head.

Teleporting so closely next to another trained mage wasn't supposed to be possible. Then again, nothing else her brother did should have been either.

The executors were similarly stunned and oppressed by that wave of magic.

They weren't even able to put up resistance as simple bolts of Arcane-Fire tore the dozens of them apart. Sarah lamented a bit at not having the free Mana to steal, as she now had a decent idea that her Brother wouldn't mind the request to capture them for what amounted to purposeful torture.

Ripping out someone's Mana Pool came with a lot of pain.

Rainer suddenly appeared and grabbed her, before opening a hole in the barrier and disappearing once more.

A few disorienting Void-walks later Rainer and Sarah landed in their ruined penthouse in the city.

"Are you okay?"

"Uh, what?"

Rainer raised an eyebrow at his sister, while she finally had the weight of everything that happened fall onto to her.

Hugging him as tight as she could, she had nearly barreled him over onto the floor. Sarah wondered if she ever suffered such a case of whiplash. She went from spending weeks on the run, to her brother saving her from nowhere.

A few minutes of tears and convincing herself that this was real and that he came for her, she finally let go of the hug and sat down on the bed in the room.

Wiping away a tear she laughed a bit at how quickly her life had been doing 180s recently, "Any chance you can forget the fact that your absolutely completely favorite little sister blushed and stuttered when she saw you after you ditched her for months?"

"Oh, sweetie," Rainer gave her a look of honest pity, "I will be teasing you with this for the rest of your life."

Seeing her unaffected both by the recent experience and the fact that he just killed dozens of people, worried him a bit. He chose instead to simply enjoy that she joked with him already.

Sarah could only sigh in defeat. She looked him over, perhaps making sure once again that this was actually her brother. He was always decently good-looking, her friends let her know far too often, but now was something else. Pushing away those unneeded thoughts, she noticed something else about him.

"Did you get taller?"

"A few inches," Rainer responded, enjoying the look on her face.

Another sigh left his little sister. He knew what this one was about. Not only had he gained a method to tease her for all eternity, she had lost one. Her favorite joke whenever around friends and Rainer included was to ask, 'Did you know my brother is less than 6?' and then when asked '6 what?', she'd only wink.

It both lanced into Rainer's sensitivity to be just short of 6 feet tall and made everyone else completely uncomfortable about the other implication.

The little sister of his could ask for nothing more.

"Sarah, enough jokes. Are you okay? What the hell happened?"

Brushing a strand of her disheveled black hair out of her eyes, Sarah started from the beginning.

"They were trying to figure out that mess of a spell you left behind. Nice note by the way," She added with a glare enjoying the well-deserved wince that appeared on his face, "They were using a golem to cast it, but something strange happened and all three of them, golem included, vanished. This was a month ago. Once people realized grandfather was gone and wasn't coming back anytime soon...I lost his protection…"

"And so, they thought his last remaining descendant was free game," Rainer added. He remembered enough to know his mom, his sister, and himself were the only living members still related to Fredrick Nvos.

"Speaking of which, how come you know that? Did the memories…" Sarah asked, looking sheepish.

"I got them all back. Though I still need to sort through them. I've been kind of putting it off."

"Rainer, I…"

"I know. You tried to convince them to tell me. Or to give me a choice in the matter. That was the first memory I saw. I love ya sis."

Sarah hugged him back with relief. After a few moments of silence, Rainer was reminded of his extra passenger.

"Luna, you can come out now."

The Fairy agreed, flying out of his jacket, though maintaining her small size.

"Woah…is that some sort of Fairy?" Sarah asked. Now less worried about where her brother ended up, and more jealous.

"Not some sort, Rainer's Fairy," Luna added, standing proudly on Rainer's head before deflating, and jumping off.

"Luna?" Rainer asked confused, seeing the dejected Fairy flutter out of the room.

"Sarah, wait here for a second, okay?"

Sarah just nodded, not understanding what was going on.

Luna returned to full size, drawing a shocked gasp from Sarah and walked into a different room.

"Luna…what's wrong?"

"You promised."

"Luna what are you-" Rainer paused mid-sentence. He had promised. If he ever went home that he would take Luna with him no matter what.

"Luna I was going to come back. It wasn't like-"

"And you knew for sure? If you were so sure why did you take all that dust? Can you really say you would have been able to come and get Luna?"

Rainer froze. No, he couldn't.

"Luna, I'm sorry. I didn't even think. I was just so worried about Sarah…"

"I will forgive you," She said," but only this once."

"No matter what, I'll take you with me next time I go somewhere. I won't forget you no matter what."

Luna nodded before slipping away from him.

Thinking she was instead still angry with him, Rainer went after her only to see Luna grabbing Sarah in a hug.

"Hello sister-in-law, I'm one of two of Rainer' wives," The Fairy said, before sticking out a tongue back at Rainer.

"There goes easing in the fact I'm dating two women…" Though Rainer wasn't sure if she would care. His memories hadn't been fully sorted and he had no idea how different a society of Mages on Earth could be. She would, however, take every opportunity to tease him about it.

The Fairy started bombarding Sarah with questions and Rainer's sister was more than happy to give the often-embarrassing answers, simply going with the flow of this illogically beautiful Fairy being her brother's girlfriend.

One of his girlfriends.

Hearing Sarah talk about how he couldn't ride a bike without training wheels until 11 made him cringe. Unfortunately, while Luna didn't understand what a bike was in the slightest, she knew it was something embarrassing for him to be that old.

And with her continued questions, Rainer knew.

Yes, she had not fully forgiven him yet.

Several dozen Void-walks later they were checking out another, more hidden property in the city.

Sarah sat on her bed in her ruined room with a long sigh. She knew their properties had been raided, but seeing even this apartment under another name in-person made it all real. Millennia of enchanted items, artifacts, elixirs…

Rainer sat beside her interrupting her wallowing.

"Before we leave, is there anything you need," Rainer asked, a part of him constantly focused on [Void Detection] and [Soul Detection].

Sarah blinked a few times, clearing her thoughts, before she answered, "Leave where…? Speaking of which, where the hell have you been?"

"That's a long story…I can tell it when we get there."

"So is there anything?" he asked again, hoping to avoid explaining everything that had happened just yet. It wasn't that Sarah would disapprove, seeing as him killing didn't even make her blink, but rather he wasn't ready for the questions she'd ask. Such as, 'why didn't you come back earlier.'

She shook her head.

"Everything of value would be gone by now, in the Council's hands…"

Rainer sighed, shoving down anger at them for now. He'd return one day, and he'd make the whole Council a smoldering ruin. Yes, he had killed one of the 72 Pillars, as they were named, but it was a far cry from being able to take them head on. The memory of the Council and their basic structure was known to most mages of Earth, something he now had memories of being.

He wasn't sure if he could or couldn't, but with Sarah here, it wasn't worth the risk when they had nothing else he needed.

"I just have a few things to do so that we can get back here."

Rainer vanished in a Void-walk. He went around picking random people across the city, the youngest usually, and placing [Soul Trace]s on them. He went to bother poorer and richer parts of the city, getting a wide enough variety without overloading himself.

Once he confirmed he had enough to get back here, he returned soon after.

"Sarah, let me borrow a drop of your blood," Rainer said taking out a dagger from nowhere.

To his surprise, Sarah pricked her finger without pause and held it out for him. Rainer was suddenly reminded that the sister he knew from the fake memories wasn't exactly the same as the one here. He would need to talk about everything he missed.

Now thinking of his mother, Rainer used the dagger on himself and then mixed both drops of blood to cast the tracking spell. He could feel the magic reaching out, but even as he tensed and manipulated the Void, nothing happened. He tried again, this time thinking of his grandfather.

He got a general sense that the two of them were together, but he couldn't even reach across the massive gap, let alone use [Void Seer] to see them.

So far?

"Well?" Sarah asked. It wasn't hard to figure out he was using their blood to look for their mother. Such familial tracking spells were often used at estate hearing over on the Mage side of the world. She didn't recognize fully what Rainer did, but she couldn't think of anything else.

"Mom's alive, and Grandfather too...But…I'm going to need more time to try and find her. They're so far away. I don't even know where to start. But they are together. With Grandfather there, I doubt there is any reason to worry. Well then, let's be off…Ah, one last thing," Rainer said placing a hand on Sarah's shoulder and remembering something. While his mom and grandfather being lost was distressing, it calmed him to know they were together. Calm enough to think of other things, "My best friend over there is a skeleton. It would probably crush him if you looked scared or anything."

Sarah gave him an exasperated look. There was too much to process today, and she just wanted to go to sleep at this point. She had been sustaining herself solely with her own Mana Pool and stolen Mana for weeks.

"What exactly have you been doing while your family was worried sick?"

Which wasn't a completely true statement. Their Grandfather had been half-intrigued half-worried at the spell. And they all had a Diviner check if Rainer was alive every week.

"All in due time," He smirked as the trio vanished, using Kara's ring as a location to Void-walk to. But not before whispering a few things about Gunthar to Sarah.

Seeing his sister strapped to a table across the universe had stressed him out a bit too much. And he wasn't sure if Luna was still mad at him. He needed to have a bit a fun.

In but an hour since he left, Rainer returned with Sarah and Luna by his side.

Seeing the happy and relaxed expression on Rainer's face, Kara opted to go through with her idea.

Eliciting Elru's help, Kara immediately enacted her plan to get back at Rainer for the worry he just caused her.

Both Kara and Elru kneeled as Rainer returned and dared not look at his face.

"Your loyal slaves greet Master," they both repeated, counting on Elru's skill so that Rainer's sister could understand them.

Before any sort of embarrassment could even happen, Sarah rushed forward.

"Ah, Rainer you got me a present?" Sarah walked over to the kneeling Wolfkin and used her hand to get a look at her face, "I'm more partial to men, but she's quite beautiful. Can I have her?" She said looking back at Rainer, doing her best to convey with body language what she was saying.

Rainer nodded, "She's all yours."

"Thanks. Who's such a good girl," Sarah said while rubbing Kara's head, who after hearing what Rainer said had managed to piece together what happened. Blushing to her neck, Kara wasn't even sure what to do next.

"I think we can let her off now," Rainer said, laughing.

"Aww, but her hair is so soft," Sarah moved away and went over to the leather armored skeleton. She stored away the thought of his strangely magical but unenchanted clothes for later.

Gunthar was briefly surprised when the young girl looked at his skeletal face with interest instead of fear or disgust.

"Thank you for taking such good care of my brother. I'm Sarah Nvos, a pleasure to meet you," She added, holding out a hand. Given that there was only some strange looking white-haired tentacle addled monstrosity, two stupidly good-looking Fairies plus the even moreso Luna and an equally stunning wolf-eared girl in the room, she guessed this was Gunthar.

Familiar with the concept of a handshake, Gunthar made to shake her hand, quite happy Rainer's sister turned out so polite. And such a good sister too, not assuming the worst of Rainer when Kara tried to tease him. Gunthar, of course, ignored the part where she was more turning the joke back on Kara, rather than being a good sister.

He was quite happy to travel with such a normal person in the future.

"Ah!" Sarah screamed as she pulled herself into Gunthar, "Rainer, he just grabbed me and…" She said with a slightly shaky voice, covering herself with her arms.

"Gunthar, what the hell?" Rainer stomped over.

"What? Ah, S-sorcerer I didn't…" Gunthar's stumbled reply caused both Sarah and Rainer to start laughing.

Immediately understanding he had been played, Gunthar's face would have paled were it able to.

"There's two of him…" He quietly mumbled looking at the floor. A month-long ship ride with both of them sounded almost as dangerous as any dungeon.

"We can talk about what happened later; this is my sister Sarah. She's been through quite a lot, so I'm going to get her to a bed to sleep in ," He said before turning to the younger Nvos, "I'll take you to your temporary room," He left soon after, handing back the Fairy Dust to Laneth on the way.

"I owe you one, even if I didn't use any of it," Rainer added.

They left the room, Kara still kneeling in embarrassment, before she finally got up to follow Luna and Rainer's sister.

"You are right, Gunthar was very fun," Sarah noted, "Maybe I should have flipped my skirt at him. I wonder what he would have done then…" She was still wearing her blue and white private school uniform with long black boots. At the time, she had wanted to appear as ordinary as possible.

"Please spare me from such a sight," Rainer said, now seeing Kara coming up behind him.

"I'm glad you made it back safe Rainer," Kara added, coming up on Rainer's right. Luna had already shrunk and landed on his hair, "And you Luna, what were you thinking?"

"Rainer promised," Luna said with a huff. The fairy made no move to explain.

Kara looked confused, but Rainer's face told her it wasn't the time to ask.

"So, how's the whole two girlfriend thing work?" Sarah asked, a touch jealous at Rainer going to another world and ending up with two girls on his arms. The fact that they seemed to be great people only made her happy for her brother. He was never the same after having his memories sealed. As if he had been a bit lost in life. He seemed purposeful now.

"I'm not even surprised that's the first thing you ask me. No, 'what is this weird status screen,' No 'Why are those skeletons walking and talking,' No 'How did my brother get so handsome and perfect that even I've fallen head over heels for him."

"You're really never letting that one go, are you? And what do you mean 'Status Screen,'?" The blue-eyed Sarah asked.

"Never. And I'll tell you about it in a second."

"Well then, since you won't be letting that go, I'll just have to tell your girlfriends every embarrassing story I can think of."

"Luna can't wait!"

The fairy remarked, enjoying the earlier stories even if she didn't understand large parts of them. She had forgiven Rainer the moment she knew it wasn't on purpose. And not to ruin his reunion with his family, she opted to tell him that tonight. But not before having a bit of fun at his expense.

"That should be fun," Kara said, "Also I'm Kara," The wolfkin said before seeing the confused look on Sarah's face.

"She said her name's Kara," Rainer translated, remembering that he needed to fix this language situation as quickly as he could. It wouldn't do for Sarah to be both homesick and disoriented in a strange world seeing as they couldn't go home. And on top of that…

His sister dealt with her recent kidnapping and disappearance of their mom a bit too well.

"Sarah," His sister returned the favor, wondering how Rainer learned all these languages he was constantly switching between.

"I'll get around to having you magically learn the language soon," Rainer said, as if reading her thoughts.

"Good. Then I can tell her stories as well."

"I can do the same you know?"

"Sure… but no one knows me, and it'll just look like a mean older brother when you do it, instead of a cute, mischievous little sister."

Making a tactical retreat, Rainer decided to speak about where exactly they were and where they were going.

She hummed noncommittally in response. An adventure in a magical land sounded like a nice vacation. And the strange energy in Kara got her very curious. Not that she'd try anything with her. Easy targets to hate were never hard to find where such imbalances of power between people existed.

"So, this system thing is how you got so strong?" Sarah then asked, having mentally questioned 'Status Screen' and suddenly saw her own. Rainer's absurd increase in strength made that easier to believe.

"Basically. Though, it's a bit more complicated…"

Reaching the room, Sarah and Rainer got settled as he began the retelling of his time here. He opted for almost telling her the entire truth. Wanting to impart both the danger of this world while also making her feel safe at his newfound strength, he figured it was the best course of action.

Her Mana pool felt quite small, but when he saw her with [Arcane Revelation] that first time he had received a far different picture. There seemed to be more than meets the eye. But Rainer would let her tell him about it in time.

Luna and Kara listened off to the side, hearing everything that happened from beginning to end wasn't something they heard before.

An hour passed as Rainer finished his story. Over the course of it, Sarah didn't say anything more, the originally bubbly girl became a bit subdued as the adrenaline in her body slowed. But the prospect of having so many Mana-filled mages available as enemy targets made her fill with thoughts of revenge on the Council and everyone else after her.

She recalled Rainer's casual way of killing and knew he'd be okay with it as well. It was just a question how to tell her older brother his younger sister may have killed more people than even him.

After an accepted offer of having Luna cast a sleeping spell on her, Sarah was left on her own to fall asleep, the excitement of the day all but worn away.

With the revelation of the new situation she was in as well as the knowledge that her mom was farther away than even this new world was from earth hitting her, she resisted the foreign magic no longer.

The next morning, before Rainer was going to heal Quera's mother, he stopped by Maya's house again. Sarah accompanied him.

"Maya, instead of working for me as a spy, I have a different favor to ask," Rainer, of course, didn't mention that after spending time with both of the Fae in front of him he had no intention of cashing in that part of their deal. Separating them after what basically amounted to a reunion between them, proved too much.

Maya nodded as she waited for him to speak.

"Could you become my sister's familiar so she can gain the language skill? You won't have to follow her or anything, just share the skill. We can replace this with the favor of scouting for me."

"So long as it is a bond of equals, I do not mind at all," Maya added, more than happy to accept the opportunity to stay with Sasha as much as she could.

"A bond of equals?" Rainer asked, confused.

Maya suddenly grew serious. Even though it would have been an accident, him having a slave bond with the Fairy next to him would be quite terrible. She felt for a moment, sensing the connection traveling between them for a few minutes before sighing in relief. They were equal partners.

"How exactly did you make Luna your familiar?"

"It happened by accident after I healed her with Mana. It was when we first met,"

"You…didn't use a spell or anything?"

"No…?"

Maya merely sighed, a small part of her enjoying that if the former Queen had known how clueless the person who got the better of her was, she'd be rolling in her grave.

"Then let's get started. It's a simple exchange of Mana on top of a spirit magic chant."

Sarah moved forward with excitement and placed her hand on Maya's. With a chant of the Fae and a system message later, Sarah gained a new skill.

"Woah, I don't think I'll get used to this screen stuff…Can you hear me now?" Sarah then turned to Rainer.

"I could hear you from the start…"