CHAPTER 1157: HEAVY FEELINGS

Aesa’s gaze swept once more over the sealed golden cocoon the soldiers were pushing away. Her expression didn’t change, but a small breath escaped her lips.

"But it seems you all don’t need my help," she said, her tone calm and expression cold, unreadable.

Adrius shook his head lightly. "Yeah... we were able to stop the creature." Then his brows pulled together, concern tightening his face. "But... what happened? You look like something far worse took place."

There were too many things burning in his mind at once. The presence she emitted, the stiffness in her shoulders, the slight dullness in her aura he sensed even without touching Magic. None of those belonged to someone returning from victory.

Adrius had seen enough battles and losses to recognize when someone carried the weight of catastrophe. And Aesa was carrying far more than she allowed to show. Even with her cold attitude.

Aesa’s icy eyes settled on him and Lysander. In their depths, there was nothing but cold stillness, but beneath that calm she hid a storm of fear and dread.

She didn’t let it surface, but Adrius could sense something deeply wrong.

"Things did not go as we planned," she said at last, her voice low.

Adrius and Lysander exchanged a heavy look. Both men felt the drop in temperature from her words alone.

"Let’s go inside," Adrius said, straightening. "We’ll talk in my chamber."

He didn’t want any soldier overhearing. News like this could shatter morale, especially after everything they had just survived.

Aesa nodded silently.

Adrius and Lysander led the way through the ramparts.

Adrius stopped briefly to instruct the soldiers, "Take the sealed creature to the underground hold. Reinforce the barrier and keep a rotation of guards. No one is to approach it without my command."

"Yes, Archmage!" the soldiers answered, though their eyes flicked nervously toward Aesa. Suspicion, fear, and worry passed through their gazes but they kept moving, pushing the cart deeper into the city.

A few minutes later, Adrius opened the heavy oak door to his tower chamber.

Books stacked in uneven towers lined the walls, maps unfurled across tables, and glowing crystals hovered over nodes of inked diagrams.

A single large window overlooked the city, the rain still dripping softly against the glass.

"Please, sit," Adrius said.

Aesa took a seat without a word.

"Something to drink? Tea? Wine?" he offered.

"Just water," she murmured.

Lysander moved swiftly, filling a cup and setting it before her.

Adrius sat across from her, while Lysander took the third chair, leaning forward slightly, tension tightening his posture.

"Tell me what happened," Adrius said. Then he frowned, remembering something important. "Before that, my name is Adrius. This is my apprentice, Lysander. We’re close with Erend. We also built the tracker he used to locate the entity."

Aesa studied them in silence for a few seconds before nodding once.

"We want to understand everything," Adrius continued. "What truly happened out there?"

Aesa’s fingers tightened slightly around the cup. She inhaled once, steady and cold.

"We went to a ruined world after we found that entity’s place," she began. "That world was destroyed long before we arrived. Our goal was to strike the entity directly together. We found him there. And we fought him with everything we had."

Lysander swallowed. "And...?"

Aesa’s eyes darkened. "It was a mistake. The entity wanted us to come. He set the stage. Everything was planned so we would go straight to him."

Adrius leaned back, shock tightening his grip on the armrest. "He planned for you to come to him... willingly?"

"Yes." Aesa’s voice was thin with controlled anger. "We fought him. Him and his twisted minions. But that being is beyond powerful. Even together, we were struggling."

She paused. Pain flickered across her face for the first time.

"And eventually... one of us was absorbed."

Lysander blinked. "Absorbed? Who—who could even—"

Aesa closed her eyes briefly, then forced the words out.

"The Time Dragon," she said. "Krono. He was absorbed by that being."

Lysander shot from his chair. "WHAT?!"

Even Adrius went pale. The room fell into a suffocating silence as the enormity of her words settled over them.

Aesa didn’t move.

Her silence confirmed everything.

One of the Dragonborn was gone. Absorbed. Consumed by the very enemy they thought they finally cornered.

But Adrius somehow felt that the nightmare had only just begun.

"Honestly, I don’t know much about this Time Dragon," Adrius admitted quietly. "I only know Erend and Eccar. I thought everything would be under control when all of you fought together."

Aesa took another sip of water, the motion slow, weighted, as if even swallowing carried a burden.

Lysander stood up from his chair and began pacing in the corner of the room, his breathing uneven. Panic crept into every step he took.

"So what happens now?" Adrius asked.

"We still don’t know," Aesa replied honestly. "We don’t even know what we’re supposed to feel after losing Krono. The first thing Erend said was that we had to come to you all to make sure you were safe."

Adrius nodded, understanding, though his eyes drifted toward the rain-streaked window. His expression hardened and heavy, as if he could already foresee a grim future forming at the horizon.

After a few seconds of silence, he finally exhaled. "First, we’ll try to study that being we are just sealed. That thing must be connected to the entity, right?"

"Yes," Aesa said. "The entity told Erend that he awakened an ancient being and sent them to three places. Erend’s original world, the kingdom where his sister is, and here."

Adrius ran a hand through his beard and sighed again. "I had a feeling the creature that attacked us was ancient. Alright... we need to learn what we can from him first. Only then can we form any proper plan."

Aesa nodded slowly.

But her expression shifted, draining into something blank, heavy, as if a silent weight pressed on her chest.

There was something she carried alone.

Something she knew she had to say.

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