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663. The Empire's Age of Exploration: Fatima Fatesh's Hope
🕑 Added 2025-04-18 05:12:26 +0000 UTCFatima looked at the data. By using the [Holy Matter] discovered on this planet, she managed to nourish Rana’s soul flame and alleviate her symptoms. ‘The data is comparable to a month ago, but that is still good news.’ Her daughter’s case was almost hopeless, so an increase of a month of lifespan is excellent news for her
Fatima sighed before finishing for the day. She showered, changed into pajamas, and took a few minutes to answer emails. After answering the last email, Fatima’s mind could not help but wander. She opened a small breach to take out a locket with a picture.
Fatima caressed the picture, and without knowing it, a single tear trailed down her cheeks: “Hassan, why did you have to leave us?” Many memories flashed in her mind, including their first meeting, their marriage, the terror of the Dementor Invasion, the rise of the Empire, and finally, Hassan’s last moment.
Her husband, Hassan Sadek, was a talented Arcanist. Despite his parents' strong rejection, Hassan signed up to become an Arcanist once the Empress created the method of artificially creating the Mana Core. Hassan soon proved to be exceptionally talented in magizoology and the study of extraordinary species. He was on track to be one of the earliest Tower before the Empire even started their first journey to the cosmos.
However, everything changed when Hassan was invited to a secret government project located under the sea. After that, Hassan essentially disappeared from the public eye, with many people even believing he was dead.
At first, Hassan’s job posed no problem to their relationship. Although he could not divulge a single sentence about his work, everything else was normal. However, as time passed by, the strictness involved dramatically increased. Hassan had to spend days, weeks, and eventually, months at work. And when he returned, a security detail would accompany him.
Fatima hated dealing with these people. Every month, she had to answer a detailed questionnaire that even involved information about their love life. They would also perform a detailed scan of her body and soul, checking for something. In fact, these people almost prevented her and Hassan from having children. In hindsight, it may not have been the worst thing if Hassan and Fatima had listened to them.
Fatima still remembered that day. Hassan had returned home after a severe 9-month absence. Fatima was unhappy, but she understood the importance of his job. As soon as she saw him, she felt something was wrong, but she could not place what it was. She convinced herself it was nothing.
After all, she was only a Tier 0 Arcanist back then, and only achieved that level by entering the [Awakening Dimension]. Fatima believed all lives were precious, so she refused to hunt the creatures in that dimension to improve her mana or Tier.
Everything started to derail from the security detail. During one of their checks, Fatima lied about whether she felt something was wrong, but the details included people who could use [Lie Detection Spells] and even Seers. So, she had to tell them about the strange feeling she sensed from Hassan.
On that same night, she learned the truth. Her husband was studying an Eldritch Creature, similar to Cthulhu, in the myths the Empire discovered sealed at the bottom of the ocean. Anyone working on that project was under strict surveillance for fear of being corrupted.
Unfortunately, Hassan failed to resist the creature’s temptation during his research. On that day, the security detail tried to apprehend Hassan, but he resisted. Fatima still hasn’t forgotten the coldness and indifference in his eyes when he looked at him. In the confrontation, Hassan died (true death), but worse of all, he released a dark power before his death, infecting their eight-year-old daughter. The agent tried to protect everyone and isolate the area, but it was useless.
The Empire tried everything to save Rana, but their knowledge was insufficient at the time. Fatima cried and pleaded for them to do something, and after being moved by a mother’s helplessness, Edward ordered Bellatrix to use the Death Staff to put Rana in a suspended state so they could save her when they had the technology.
After that night, Fatima knew she could not rely on others. She entered the [Awakening Dimension] to hunt monsters and become a Tier 3 Arcanist in record time. She signed up for school to study soul magic and used the Empire’s compensation for Hassan’s accident to buy resources to improve her talent and advance her Arcane Career.
After years of research and world-changing breakthroughs in the study of souls, Fatima should have been able to save Rana. At least, she was capable of saving the Rana who had first suffered that accident. Unfortunately, Rana’s situation has been deteriorating for years. Although she looked eight, that was not her actual age.
Fatima has successfully created a method of saving her daughter, but she needs one thing: divine energy. Unfortunately, divine energy is the primary key to breaking the Soul Limit, making it invaluable. And it did not help that the amount she needed was something the entire Empire’s reserve might not possess.
Fatima woke up from her remembrance and slowly put the locket away. “It’s only seven days. I hope the Divination Department won’t let me down,” she muttered. She suddenly lost the urge to sleep, so she started writing her paper about today’s operations, hoping to get more funds for this expedition.
Time passed, and the Divination Department contacted her three days later instead of the seven days. She rushed over and met a beautiful woman with white hair and cloudy gray pupils. “This coordinate should contain what you seek. I almost died trying to divine this thing.”
“I apologize,” Fatima quickly said as she received the coordination.
“You’re lucky you saved Koa Ulilanu,” the Seer said. “Otherwise, your case would not have been promoted to first-class priority.”
“I was only doing my job.”
“They say good things happen to good people. I guess that’s true in your case,” the Seer said before leaving. Fatima did not waste another second as she returned to the hospital to facilitate her early departure. Chief Sharma was not happy since he wanted Fatima to take care of Koa’s postcare in case a complication arose, but Fatima did not have any of that.
Fatima had only a few last minutes of preparation. After saying goodbye to Marie, she entered the Astral Realm and headed directly to the plane’s coordinates. Upon arrival, Fatima did not let her excitement cloud her judgment. Instead, she followed protocol.
“Khadija, what’s the current situation?” Fatima asked.
“There is no response to the Plane Will,” said a gentle voice.
“No response? That’s odd,” Fatima muttered. According to the class on Planar Expedition she took, there could be several reasons for this situation, most of which are bad news.
“Try for an additional hour, and if the situation remains the same, prepare for a forced descent,” Fatima ordered. An hour later, the magic tower trembled as it forcefully penetrated the protective shield of this plane. Fatima’s brow immediately furrowed as she watched the tower's outdoor situation.
The sun above the sky was bright red, the clouds were dark and ominous, and the land was dead, with no vegetation in sight. In fact, this entire plane looks dead. “Did the Seer make a mistake?” Fatima muttered, but she immediately removed such a negative thought from her mind.
“Khadija, give me an environmental report.”
“As you command.”
It only took a few seconds, but Fatima soon knew how terrible this plane’s situation was. The gravity was twenty times that of Earth, the heat could kill ordinary Tier 4 Aura Masters, there was no energy in the air, but there was some kind of curse on the soil.
“What the hell is wrong with this plan? Was it always like that, or did something happen to it?” Fatima muttered. “Have you detected the Plane Will’s interference?”
“Negative.”
“Can you even detect the Plane Will itself?”
“Still negative,” Khadija answered, making Fatima grunt. “Any signs of life?”
“I have scanned 20 kilometers in diameter of our tower, but there are no signs of life.”
“Send the Sorcerer Eyes and expand the scanning scope until you find anything worth reporting.”
“As you wish.”
Comments
hector lyng
Thank you very much for your effort, and thank you for posting more often, thank you very much.
Jdotbenzo
Tftc💯
