Inertia: Beneath The Starlit Veil Chapter 88: Chapter 88

Read chapter 88 of Inertia: Beneath The Starlit Veil by Ken Kaizen on NovelPedia.

Chapter 88 (Theron POV) After the last meeting with the generals, my original plans needed to be altered. I'm going to have to accelerate my timetable in raising my resonance with the Eclipse Serpent constellation. I also need to figure out how I'm going to potentially deal with Zaire without help from the other generals. I couldn't tell if this setback was because I acted on my own in regard to Kael, or if this was another test he was giving me. Two Astral Knights would be a death sentence, even if the other one is old and retired. I knew I still had three to four weeks to get everything in motion before I ambushed them. "But is that enough time for me to pass this resonance test and take my next Astral Trial?" I muttered to myself as I left my deep meditative state and climbed into bed. The past few days, I have felt my anxiety rise. This situation was similar to when I was getting ready to take my Astral Trial, to reach the Astral Knight stage for the solaris constellation. My anxiety then was caused by something different. Deep in my heart, I knew the constellation wouldn't accept my ascension to the next stage. My philosophy and actions at that point went against everything that the clan and the constellation guided us to be. I was losing faith in our clan, and I felt more should have been done. So, the constellation deemed me unworthy, and I became a failure to the clan. But the anxiety I feel now is not caused by the fear of backlash or failure. It's because I will have to face someone, I held dear to me. Not my brother or my father. But my little nephew. Even though he was young, he didn't seem brainwashed like the others. Like his father. He saw things the way I saw them, and we bonded over that. It's shocking that out of all the people who were in the clan, the person I connected to the most was my little nephew. That's why on that day, when I did what I did—I spared him. I knew I should have killed him too. I could have broken through that barrier his mother put up to protect him. But I couldn't bring myself to do it. Now I have to deal with the consequences of that and face the guilt I pushed down. I ruined his life, and I killed his mother in front of him. There was no forgiveness for that. I understood that, but when our plan is finished, I'm sure he will see that it was the right thing to do. Before I started to fall asleep, an alert went off on my phone. It was breaking news: several rifts had just appeared in the middle of the oceanic trade route from Xhatl and Gavelon—that's what flashed on my phone. At first, I didn't care, but then I remembered I had received intel regarding my father and his dealings with other nations across the sea. He was seen boarding a ship that took the same route. "That should keep the old man busy for quite a while." _______ (Cyrus POV) My father and I traversed the astral realm for what seemed like a couple of weeks, based on the number of celestial cores I had absorbed. Our time traveling was relatively peaceful, aside from the occasional low-stage Astral Behemoth that would approach us. My father let me handle them, mainly because I wanted live reps of using Gravity Well: Minor. Even though I was starting to like the progress I made, my father still hounded me on my technique and reckless battle style. In the back of my head, I understood what he was saying—I was being reckless and overly aggressive still. Probably more now than I had been before since I had the Scale of the Eternal Hydra. But I didn't see it as a bad thing. I needed to force growth, and having this in my back pocket was perfect. I wasn't falling to strikes and blows that should have crippled or ended me. I was learning to become numb to the pain and damage caused. Something I felt would make me a better fighter. Someone who didn't fear anything, no matter what came my way. The only downside was that the relic ate away at my already rapidly depleting reserves every time it happened. We walked for about another h