Chapter 68: Omen
"Calm down, Brandon. What happened to little Remy and Fran?"
With just one glance, Joshua immediately discerned the crux of the matter. Unlike the Order Twin Blades the blonde swordsman had mentioned, the reason this man was panicking like this was entirely because his two daughters were unconscious. For this swordsman, who had fought against orcs and cultists and was renowned for his bravery, even if the Sage's Twin Blades suddenly vanished one day, it would at most shock him for a moment before he calmed down to think of a solution. But since it involved his daughters, he instinctively became anxious.
"I don't know... It seems like they're just asleep, but no matter how I call them, they won't wake up."
Nearby, Verdani wasn't as flustered as Brandon, but her face still carried worry: "Although there's no immediate danger, just letting them sleep like this isn't a solution. Brandon figured out that it happened because Remy and Fran were curious and took his twin swords to play with. After thinking it over, we could only come to you to ask if you've seen anything similar."
Beside them, Brandon nodded. He drew the Order Twin Blades from his waist. The unadorned, ancient relic blades now emitted a pure radiance of silver and white. From these two lights, a faint, almost imperceptible 'thread' connected to the cute girls in their arms, which seemed to be the reason for their unconsciousness.
Joshua nodded: "I roughly understand the situation."
Then, he looked at Brandon and asked with confusion: "But how could two little kids touch your weapons? You should have the Order Twin Blades on you at all times. You said last time that you even sleep holding them."
Although outsiders couldn't tell, Joshua actually had a close personal relationship with Brandon and Verdani's family. The two families often held private gatherings to pass the time.
"Sleeping alone, that's true, but..." Brandon blinked, and Verdani blushed as she kicked him. The blonde swordsman immediately changed his tone: "Joshua, your Sage relic awakened much earlier than mine. You should already know how to control these creations from the previous era. Can you tell what's going on?"
"I've actually figured it out already."
In response to Brandon's question, Joshua nodded slightly. He wasn't lying; it was the truth. Although, unlike Brandon, the Azure Orb in his heart had long since transformed into part of the Rekindled Flame during his last trip to the Grandia World, the core authority of the 'Soulflame Crown' still remained in his body. Through this power granted by the Sage, he saw through the truth of the coma that had left Brandon and his wife helpless at a single glance: Clearly, Remy and Fran, like him back then, had fallen into the memories left by the Sage. But since they weren't Brandon, the successor of this generation, they couldn't trigger the subsequent reactions and couldn't wake up.
"They should be playing in a dream right now."
Looking at the expressions of the two sleeping girls, they didn't seem uncomfortable; instead, they occasionally smiled, which didn't look like they were suffering in the dream. After thinking for a moment, Joshua offered a few suggestions: "There are a few solutions. One, I cut off their connection to the Order Twin Blades, which should guarantee they wake up immediately. But the cost is that they might feel a bit uncomfortable when they wake up, about the same as being startled awake from a nightmare. Two, you try to communicate with the Order Twin Blades. After all, it's your Sage relic. Your daughters were only accidentally pulled in because of your bloodline. Once you, the true owner, arrive, it will definitely ignore your daughters and pull you into the dream instead."
"Don't worry. This is just a necessary step in the inheritance. There's no harm."
After hearing Joshua's suggestions, Brandon picked up the Order Twin Blades again without hesitation. He frowned, gripping the hilt tightly, seemingly trying to communicate with his weapon. For someone who valued his family as much as he did, even letting his daughters have a nightmare was absolutely unacceptable. Refusing was unnecessary. Verdani watched her husband, probably believing he could handle this smoothly, so she didn't look too worried.
Love makes one anxious. Joshua watched this scene. Clearly, there was nothing left for him to do. In truth, if Brandon could analyze things a bit more calmly, with his ability, he would surely notice how fragile the connection between the Order Twin Blades and his two daughters was. Whether forcibly severing it or replacing them himself would be extremely simple. But precisely because he was Brandon, he couldn't accomplish this 'simple' task.
On another note, since the mission of the Azure Orb vanished after rekindling the flame, leaving only the authority of the Soulflame King, what missions did the other Sage relics have?
In the Grandia World, the half-dragon girl Hylia's robe had transformed into a massive array matching the flame, carrying the flame back to the Mycroft World. It should have completely dissipated by now. But the Order Twin Blades and the Pure White Staff hadn't, which definitely meant they still had unfinished tasks. From the perspective of the previous life, Brandon, who awakened during the Abyss invasion, never triggered the mission of the Order Twin Blades in the end. As for the Pure White Staff, it seemed to have gone missing from the Church of the Seven Gods. It couldn't be ruled out that Loranda had taken it in the previous life, or that it had already completed its mission.
—Perhaps I can ask him after Brandon is done.
Thinking this, Joshua signaled Verdani to enter the Lord's Manor with the blonde swordsman. If Brandon succeeded in communicating, he would fall into an illusion for a while. It would be too unsightly to leave him lying outside.
After settling Brandon and the others, Joshua paced alone on the second floor of the Lord's Manor. He had been quite idle lately, doing almost nothing. After all, there wasn't much in the territory that required his personal attention as the lord. At the grassroots level, village and town heads handled daily management. As for magical beasts, the tax collectors and the knight order dealt with them. Now, due to the Great Magic Tide, even if a Gold-rank magical beast appeared, Moldavia's knight order could eliminate it. Unless it was an Ultimate-rank great monster, Joshua basically had no chance to act.
As for Ultimate-rank monsters, even during the Great Magic Tide, they were extremely rare. They were the leaders of their kind, second only to Legendary-rank magical beasts. Even among dragons, they could be considered elders. In the past, there might have been one or two Ultimate-rank monsters deep in the Great Aias Mountains. But now, they should have migrated long ago. After all, monsters of that level had intelligence comparable to humans, or even greater. They wouldn't be stupid enough to live next door to a Legendary expert.
Just as he reached the stairway between the second and first floors, a wave of peaceful Order Force suddenly emanated from the guest room. Joshua nodded slightly. Brandon's communication speed was faster than he had expected. It seemed that with the motivation of his daughters, he should awaken a decade or so earlier. Thinking about it, the Sage wasn't some demon. This will to protect someone was certainly more suitable for triggering the relic's awakening than any negative emotion. In the previous life, it was probably his desire to protect this world during the Abyss invasion that resonated with the Order Twin Blades.
But just as Joshua was about to head to the first floor, unexpectedly, after that wave of peaceful Order Force, an unusually sinister and vile aura suddenly came from the guest room. This aura felt evil and filthy, as if condensed from the sins of the entire world. The moment he sensed this vile aura, Joshua immediately turned around and, with teleportation-like speed, directly arrived at the guest room where Brandon and the others were, then crashed through the door and wall.
Grabbing Verdani, who was about to cast a spell to counter, by the collar with one hand and the two soundly sleeping little girls with the other, Joshua brought all three of them to the street outside the Lord's Manor wall in a single breath. In the next instant, he went back and forth several times, throwing out the bewildered Dragon Girl, the Light Orb, the confused Ying and Lin, and all the maids and servants from the Lord's Manor. All of this took only three seconds for the warrior. Then, he returned to the guest room on the second floor of the Lord's Manor and decisively kicked Brandon, who was holding the Order Twin Blades and radiating two completely different auras—one righteous and one evil—straight through the roof, sending him hundreds of meters into the air.
"What the hell is going on?"
Only then did Joshua have the spare time to think about what had happened to the blonde swordsman. Brandon, even after receiving his protective kick, showed no reaction. But he didn't fall either. Instead, he floated in the air as if gravity had no effect on him. A powerful force protected his body, isolating him from all external influences. Joshua could sense that something was sealed within the Order Twin Blades. This thing was gradually being unsealed due to Brandon falling into the Sage's illusion and the fluctuation of Order Force, hence releasing that decaying and vile aura.
"Not very strong." Joshua thought in that brief moment. "But I can't just let it be released like this."
So, he decisively made a decision that killed three birds with one stone.
With a muffled roar, the snow clouds above the Lord's Manor were dispersed by a ring-shaped shockwave. At the very center of this ring, Brandon's body was punched by Joshua almost twenty kilometers away, disappearing beyond the horizon. Having controlled his strength, ensuring the punch wouldn't hurt the other party but would be enough to temporarily disperse that decaying aura, and since the source had been knocked away, it wouldn't affect the Lord's Manor. Joshua also accelerated, flying in the direction where Brandon's body had gone.
On the ground, in the arms of the dumbfounded Verdani, the two little girls, who had just groggily opened their eyes, instinctively looked up at the sky. They both blinked, then asked in soft, puzzled voices: "Huh?"
"Daddy... flew?"