The Regressed Heir of Ravencrest

Chapter 50: Eclipse Conclave

The frigid northern wind howled across the endless skies as two figures streaked through the air with astonishing speed.

Snow-capped mountains disappeared beneath them in the blink of an eye. Frozen rivers, ancient forests, and towering cliffs blurred together as they traveled deeper into the Ancient Wildlands.

Adrian gradually increased his pace.

Aura surged beneath his feet as he stepped through the air, each movement carrying him several thousand meters forward. Even so, he remained half a step behind the man ahead of him.

For the first time in many years, Adrian found himself exerting genuine effort simply to keep pace with another swordsman.

Meanwhile, the Sword Saint appeared completely relaxed.

His white robes fluttered gently in the icy wind, long silver hair drifting behind him as though unaffected by the tremendous speed they traveled. Every step he took seemed casual, yet each covered an astonishing distance without wasting the slightest movement.

"Even though they call me the Sword of the North I can’t match the strongest Swordsman in the Empire." Adrian smiled bitterly to himself.

Nearly two hours passed before the familiar outline of Ice Valley appeared on the horizon. Towering glaciers surrounded the valley like ancient walls while countless frozen peaks stretched into the clouds. Even from this distance, Adrian could feel the bone-piercing cold unique to this place.

The cave lay only a hundred kilometers ahead.

Just as Adrian prepared to accelerate once more, the Sword Saint suddenly stopped.

His figure remained suspended high above the valley. Blue eyes quietly overlooked the endless forest below before slowly settling upon a distant mountain.

Adrian halted beside him. "Sir Reiner?"

Reiner remained silent. His gaze never left the mountain.

Several moments passed before he finally spoke. "Adrian."

"Yes, Sir Reiner."

"You sealed the cave right?"

"I did." Adrian answered without hesitation. "After confirming the Calamity Beast corpse and the corrupted energy, I personally sealed the entrance and we reinforced it with multiple sealing magic circles. No one should have been able to enter without breaking them."

Reiner remained silent. His eyes continued observing the distant mountain.

A quiet sigh escaped him. "It seems... we’re already late."

Adrian frowned. "Late?"

Reiner didn’t answer. "Let’s go."

The two figures shot forward.

Within less than a minute they arrived before the mountain. Everything appeared exactly as Adrian remembered. The enormous boulder still blocked the entrance. The sealing magic formations glowed faintly across its surface, untouched by time or outside interference. Not a single crack had formed.

Adrian stepped toward the entrance. "If the seals remain intact..."

He placed one hand against the massive boulder and gave it a light push. The several-hundred-ton stone rumbled before sliding aside as though it weighed nothing at all.

Before the boulder had completely moved, Adrian’s instincts stirred.

Something was wrong. He couldn’t explain it. The cave felt...wrong.

His aura instinctively began circulating as he prepared to extend his senses into the darkness.

Before he could — a hand rested gently upon his shoulder.

"Don’t."

The single word carried a seriousness Adrian had rarely heard from the Sword Saint. He immediately stopped and dispersed the aura gathering in his hand without another question.

The two men exchanged a brief glance before stepping into the darkness together.

The cave was eerily silent. Even the frigid wind that usually swept through the valley seemed reluctant to enter. Only the rhythmic sound of melting ice striking stone broke the unnatural silence, each drop echoing throughout the cavern like the ticking of a clock counting toward something inevitable.

The tunnel finally opened.

Adrian stopped in place. His pupils slowly contracted.

"...Impossible."

The enormous corpse of the Calamity Beast had disappeared.

Only strands of black mist drifted quietly through the cavern where the creature had once lain. At the very center, a faint crimson glow pulsed within the darkness like the dying heartbeat of something ancient.

"Sir Reiner... is it?" Adrian turned.

Reiner’s eyes had already changed.

The familiar blue irises gradually faded, replaced by a brilliant purple radiance. Ancient runes surfaced within his pupils one after another, revolving slowly like celestial stars.

An indescribable pressure filled the cavern. Even Adrian instinctively stepped back.

Divine Eyes — Celestial Eyes of Truth.

Brilliant purple light spread throughout the cavern as countless ancient runes revolved within Reiner’s pupils. The frozen world around him gradually lost its color. Space blurred. Time itself no longer flowed forward. Past and present intertwined before his eyes as the authority bestowed upon the Celestial Eyes peeled away the layers of history. Every trace left behind by living beings, every lingering fluctuation of energy, every fragment of the past slowly reconstructed itself before him.

He watched Adrian leave the cave after placing the massive boulder over the entrance. The sealing formations activated one after another before silence reclaimed the cavern.

Hours flowed past in the blink of an eye.

Hours became days.

Then...

Space inside the cavern distorted ever so slightly.

Several figures wearing black robes silently appeared. Not a single fluctuation of mana accompanied their arrival. Not a single footprint remained beneath them. Their faces were hidden beneath the flowing darkness of their hoods, as though an unseen force refused to allow them to be recognized.

One by one, they approached where the corpse had lain. The black mist drifting around it began moving toward them. The enormous corpse slowly disappeared. Not a single trace remained behind.

Then one of the figures stopped.

He slowly turned his head.

Although his face remained completely hidden, Reiner felt it. Those eyes were looking directly at him. A mocking smile slowly formed beneath the hood. The aura emanating from that single individual instantly eclipsed everyone else. It rivaled Reiner’s own...

Perhaps... it was even stronger.

Reiner’s pupils contracted.

"Adriannnn!"

His voice exploded throughout the cavern. "Release your Domain!"

The vision shattered and reality returned.

Just before the words had fully left Reiner’s mouth—

Adrian’s hand shot toward the hilt of his sword.

Then...

Sound disappeared.

For a single impossible instant, the world was consumed by blinding crimson light.

Then the shockwave arrived.

Space itself seemed to bend beneath the overwhelming force as walls of compressed air swept across the Ancient Wildlands. Thousands of tons of ice were hurled into the heavens before being vaporized moments later. Even hundreds of kilometers away, mountains trembled violently, sending avalanches crashing down their slopes.

Before even a fraction of a second passed, a massive blast ranging across dozens of miles bombarded everything in its range. Every trace of life within its reach vanished in an instant.

The explosion swallowed everything.

Towering glaciers shattered into countless fragments. Entire mountains collapsed beneath the overwhelming force while rivers of ice vaporized into clouds of white mist. Dire Beasts hidden deep underground were erased before they even realized death had arrived. The crimson blast swept across the valley with unstoppable force, leaving nothing standing in its wake. The earth split apart beneath the overwhelming force as enormous fissures spread across the valley, while the frozen landscape simply ceased to exist.

From hundreds of kilometers away, the explosion looked like a second crimson sun rising within the Ancient Wildlands.

A few seconds earlier—

Before the words had fully left Reiner’s mouth, Adrian raised his sword. The silver blade gleamed once in the darkness.

"Domain of the Eternal North."

An endless frozen world descended upon Ice Valley.

Frost spread across the shattered landscape with terrifying speed, swallowing mountains, forests, and sky alike beneath the authority of absolute winter.

A domain stretching as far as the naked eye could see instantly covered the valley. Then it compressed —hundreds of miles becoming dozens, dozens becoming only the battlefield itself. Every ounce of frost concentrated into a single region. The air froze. Time itself seemed to slow.

The raging crimson inferno collided head-on with an ocean of absolute frost, and for the briefest instant, the entire valley seemed suspended between destruction and absolute stillness.

For several long minutes, absolute frost and crimson destruction struggled for dominance. Adrian compressed every ounce of power within his Domain into the battlefield, freezing wave after wave of annihilation. Even so, the scarlet flames refused to yield, continuing their relentless assault until, little by little, the frozen world consumed the final remnants of destruction.

Only after several long minutes did silence finally return.

The once-pristine Ice Valley no longer existed. In its place remained only a scar upon the Northern Frontier that would endure for generations.

Two figures slowly emerged from the devastation.

Sword Saint Reiner and Adrian Ravencrest.

"Cough..."

Adrian coughed violently. Fresh blood dripped onto the frozen ground. Several burn marks covered his arms and shoulders despite the protection of his Domain. His breathing had grown heavier.

Reiner appeared no better. Several shallow cuts covered his body, already healing at a speed visible to the naked eye. Only the injuries around his eyes healed far more slowly. A thin trail of blood ran from the corner of one eye. An internal injury lingered beneath his otherwise composed expression which would take at least several weeks to fully heal.

Yet his expression remained calm. As though something of this scale was nothing more than a minor inconvenience.

His thoughts revolved around a single point.

So... they already knew.

They waited for the exact instant the Celestial Eyes revealed the past.

The moment my consciousness entered the flow of time...

...they struck.

Someone understood the weakness of my Divine Ability.

His thoughts returned to the hooded figure, to that mocking smile.

To the pair of eyes that had looked back at him through the flow of time without the slightest hint of fear.

His gaze drifted slowly across the ruined valley.

Black robes embroidered with the symbol of a dark eclipse.

The unmistakable insignia of the Eclipse Conclave—one of the Four Great Evils and that person with the same corrupted energy flowing in his eyes.

"Sir Reiner?" Adrian’s voice pulled him back. "Is it the Four Great Evils?"

Reiner nodded once.

He remained silent for several minutes before finally speaking.

"It’s the Eclipse Conclave... of the Four Great Evils." A pause "And them."

"Them?" Adrian’s fingers tightened around his sword.

Reiner slowly shook his head. "That’s all I can say for now, Adrian." His voice became noticeably quieter. "The Emperor will summon you soon. You... along with the Dukes."

A brief silence.

"They have crossed the line this time." A rare tinge of anger entered Reiner’s voice. "The rats who once feared the Empire are finally showing their claws."

Several moments passed. Reiner reached into his spatial ring. A neatly folded parchment appeared in his hand, bearing a golden seal — not the Imperial Seal used for royal decrees, but the Emperor’s own personal seal, reserved only for the rarest of occasions.

He handed it to Adrian. "Until then... take care of the Northern Frontier."

Adrian accepted it solemnly. "I understand."

A faint smile appeared on Reiner’s face. "See you again, Adrian."

He took a single step.

Space rippled.

Before Adrian could respond, the Sword Saint disappeared without a trace, leaving only the cold northern wind sweeping across what remained of Ice Valley.

Adrian stood alone amidst the ruins.

Ice Valley, once a frozen sanctuary hidden deep within the Ancient Wildlands, had become little more than a wasteland of shattered mountains and scorched ice.

His fingers slowly tightened around the parchment bearing the Emperor’s personal seal.

Above him, the northern sky remained impossibly calm.

It was as though the world itself had yet to realize...

...that a war hidden in the shadows for centuries had finally begun.