Heir of Synthesis: The World Mage

It didn’t take long for Flaris to come to Priam with the long-awaited news.

”Cousin, they really sent a formal message, and it spread across the entire planet. And also... knowing that the Crucible Devil doesn’t want to be seen or identified, they announced that the teleportation inscription to this planet is completely open and has no guards at all. That way, the Crucible Devil can enter whenever he wants without being seen.”

She looked Priam in the eyes, full of concern.

”Are you really... sure about this?”

Priam nodded seriously. Shione and Lumiere hadn’t been told anything about this, because Priam didn’t want to worry them or take unnecessary risks.

”Cousin, I need a big favor from you,” he said calmly. ”I want you to give me almost all of your bloodline runes, without holding anything back. I promise I’ll compensate you later.”

That was definitely an excessive request.

After doing that, Flaris would be incapacitated for several days. No one would do something like that without an extremely important reason, like a life-or-death situation.

But there was no hesitation from her.

”Now? You can take them.”

Priam took a deep breath and pointed to the bed. She calmly lay down, and Priam extended his hand right above her forehead.

[Absorb?] [Yes / No]

He accepted, and in one second, small black dots began to come out of Flaris’s body, floating toward Priam’s hand.

Flaris trembled slightly, feeling an intense wave of sickness.

Priam did everything as fast as possible. In mere minutes, he finished the process and stared into her eyes, which were struggling to stay open.

”You can sleep. When you wake up, I’ll have already finished everything,” he murmured. ”Don’t worry, I’ll come back completely unharmed.”

Flaris nodded, though she was still deeply worried. It was like knowing her brother was heading to a deadly battlefield, with minimal chances of returning alive. But... she could only believe his words.

And so, she closed her eyes and passed out.

It was already night. Priam left the room and found Shione and Lumiere waiting silently in the hallway.

”Stay with her. Tonight, I’ll need to go out to do something dangerous. Don’t worry too much. I caused all this, so I’ll personally resolve it somehow.”

The two clenched their fists and nodded in silence.

Unfortunately, they knew they were useless in helping him in that situation, and Priam also couldn’t simply ignore everything, since their mother and the entire clan could suffer in the future.

Priam entered another empty room and closed the door.

As he focused...

[Divine Concealment]

[Use?] [Yes / No]

Priam accepted. Immediately, his eyes turned golden, emitting an intense glow. At the same time, he fully activated the Nexus Seed, and the golden halo appeared above his head.

He had already planned everything, including the power rune he was going to use.

In the past, he had received knowledge from the system about several different types of Power Runes. All of them could be created from many different materials. Because of that, Priam had accumulated several herbs in his spatial ring that he knew would be useful at some point.

Now, he would create one called: Bloodline Mask.

Its function was relatively simple. It was necessary to possess a large amount of a certain race’s bloodline, along with certain natural materials that had synergy with that race’s fluctuations. Then, it would be placed on his body and completely replicate a Bloodline.

Of course, this was absolutely imperfect. Any Mage much stronger than him would notice his humanoid bloodline and the discrepancies in the fluctuations. But...

Divine Concealment would act together with it.

The name said everything. Upon activating it, 100% of Priam’s bloodline and presence would disappear.

Yes, if, theoretically, Priam had a method to hide his body, he would become a completely invisible person.

This was only one of the effects of Divine Concealment. Another important effect was that he could use it in another way, to freely use Synthesis without revealing the golden halo or making people sense anything different.

Everything happened inside the Nexus Seed in his soul, in complete secrecy.

But keeping this technique active the entire time consumed his Ether. It wasn’t much, and Priam calculated that he could keep it up for six hours at most. He could extend it a little by using pills, but it wasn’t eternal.

If he was forced to use his Ether for something else, obviously, the time would be shorter.

In summary, with the Bloodline Mask Power Rune and Divine Concealment working together, Priam wouldn’t be someone trying to disguise himself. He would energetically transform into what he wanted to be.

However, his appearance obviously wouldn’t change, so it wasn’t that extraordinary.

Fortunately, no one knew what the Crucible Devil truly looked like, and his basic physical description was similar to Priam’s. Besides, no one knew his true demon bloodline.

Therefore, Priam only needed to look like a demon and hide his face. After that... he would have to demonstrate his true ”abilities.”

...

Less than an hour later, Priam left the building through the window, shooting forward using the wind element.

Orlaith obviously noticed his departure, but said nothing.

She and her children had no idea what Priam intended to do, but they knew he wouldn’t just sit still.

---

The first thing Priam did was head toward the planet’s teleportation inscription.

After an hour, he carefully approached the location Flaris had mentioned earlier and confirmed that there really was no one there.

He couldn’t get too close, but he sensed that a huge area around the inscription was completely empty.

There were even people protecting the region from a distance, preventing anyone from approaching.

The distance was so great that not even those figures would be able to keep their senses continuously focused on the inscription behind them, in order to discover whether someone had arrived or not. After all, that constantly consumed their Ether.

In other words, the guest could arrive without being noticed and then use some movement Magic Art — which obviously had to be extraordinary, since he was constantly being hunted — to silently infiltrate.

After confirming all of that, Priam turned around and silently departed toward the innermost part of the Aether-Wood Deer race.

***

Almost four hours after Priam left...

Inside the Ylisse clan’s building.

Orlaith’s emergency emblem vibrated violently.

Immersed in meditation, she abruptly opened her eyes, a wave of surprise cracking through her chest as she grabbed the object.

The instant the message decoded itself in her mind, her features collapsed.

Her eyes widened in static shock; immediately after, the blood completely drained from her face, leaving her deathly pale.

”N-No way... no... no... no...”

Her voice came out like a broken breath.

”How?”

Her entire body began trembling violently, as if an invisible force were shaking her.

Burying her hands in her hair, she dug her fingers into her own skull. The pressure was so great, so desperate and disturbing, that it seemed like she wanted to crush her own thoughts.

If her children saw her at that exact second, they wouldn’t recognize their own mother. She had been swallowed by absolute despair, sudden and devastating.

Never, not even in the darkest nightmares or the most insane delusions, would they be capable of conceiving anything in the universe that could leave her in that state.

”No... no...”

The weight of the shock bent her spine. Curled in on herself, she kept stammering the same words over and over, completely catatonic.