35 Determination of a Princess

Roland was jolted with the sudden influx of mental energy he directly received from Linneia.

[Great grandfather Immortal King. I am Linneia. Everyone is dead. However, I will persist. Do not open the portal artifact regardless of anything at the moment. The inhabitants of this planet are hostile towards outsiders. Believe in me and give me some time. I will find a way. I will not fail our people.]

Sadness loomed over his ageless feature as the images of Frieda, Raksha, Solstis and Melati fleeted over his mind one after another. He understood that since Linneia directly contacted him, it meant that Frieda was already dead. Only Frieda could transcend through time and space to contact him via telepathy. Her gift was the strongest. She would've been the most ideal aide to assist her great granddaughter in the future through these perilous times. She must have forcefully passed her gift to Linneia before her death. Knowing his great granddaughter, he knew she would never trigger her absorption ability even in desperate times.

Roland habitually tapped his study with his index finger while organizing his thoughts.

He then linked up his VIRCOFF to relay information towards the group waiting at the ancient artifact and to cancel their rescue operation. He has full confidence that his great granddaughter will pull this through.

...

Linneia had finally returned to her own body after sending that string of messages. Her mind felt sluggish and a deep fatigue as her whole body felt sore and drained. She can't even lift her hands. That short moment of contact had nearly sapped her out totally.However, for once, she felt positive after all that she had gone through.

Unknown to her, her out-of-body experience took more than two days. She felt like she had just close her eyes and reopened them again after a few short moments. It was currently night time and the giant who guided her was not around.

She closed her eyes again hurriedly and tried to reach out to Melati. Try as she may, she couldn't detect any 'flame' at all. Even the tiny silver flame representing her great grandfather was gone. She knew, without identifying the 'flame', she won't be able to find Melati. Even Frieda wasn't able to teleport without the help of aura detection.

After contemplating for some time, Linneia decided to spread her mental energy in the form of a net. If she could contact her great grandfather a few galaxies away before, supposedly she should've been able to contact Melati. The invisible net slowly formed after a number of tries. She then extended it forward cautiously and added layers after layers so that she could cover all locations. She could only do that since she was unfamiliar with Melati's personal aura. Her mental energy slowly spread to cover one meter... two meter.. five meter.. ten meter.. one hundred meter..a thousand meter..

At this point, suddenly she felt extreme pain coursing through her mind. Her head felt like splitting and blood oozed out through her nostrils.

"Stop it! Stop it right now!!" Grandmistress Olfalfas shouted shrilly at its new disciple. "You're not strong enough yet! What are you doing?!"

Linneia ignored the giant's shout and continued pushing herself. Blood started to drip out from her ears.

Grandmistress Olfalfas dashed forward and held Linneia's head. "Sleep!" It sent a forceful command to shut down Linneia's mind. Its disciple was in the verge of destroying herself.

Linneia blacked out.

...

Linneia opened her eyes groggily as she heard a loud noise mixed with a loud ringing sound. Her head felt heavy. Once the ringing dissipated, she could finally identify the loud noises to originate from outside her room. She pushed herself up from the stone platform serving as her bed. Her limbs felt weak, but she persisted forward.

As she slowly approached the doorway to her room and peered out, she saw the giant in its bald form sitting on its chair in the middle of the hall, facing another smaller giant. The smaller giant was reporting to Grandmaster Olfalfas, "The alien outside is surrounded at the moment! Grandmaster, this humble one couldn't stop them from attacking the alien!"

"I have said not to hurt her! Is my words have no meaning anymore?" Grandmaster Olfalfas was in its rare moments of anger.

"This humble one didn't mean it that way, Grandmaster. It is so strong as it keeps on retaliating. At the moment it had killed six of the hunters! The hunters had already lost their minds."

Linneia barged forward and pleaded with everything she got, "Grandmaster! Please, help my friend! Please! I beseech you!" She went down on her knees and banged her forehead on the floor while shedding tears. "Grandmaster, she's the only one left. Please help me. I will follow whatever you command in the future!"

A large hand pulled her up from the side. Grandmaster Olfalfas observed the little human's face. In her eyes, it could see deep sorrow and fiery determination. It knew if it didn't assent to her request, she would run out to help her friend. "Child, let's go."

Linneia nodded while crying.

The giant who relayed the message to Grandmaster Olfalfas watched the duo with a baffled expression. For as long as it remembered, the Grandmaster had refused to take a single step outside of the mountain sanctuary, distancing itself from worldly matters. It had placed its duty as the Guardian of the Land at top priority, knowing that with a slight inattentiveness, their defense could be breached by the foreign forces. Through its current action of willingly interfering with the apprehending of the last and most dangerous alien, it was very clear that the Grandmaster showed high favor for the alien under its protection.

It seemed that it needed to bring this up in front of the Patriarch.

...

Presently, nobody knew that Linneia has been officially accepted as the Grandmaster's sole disciple. It was within Olfalfas intention to groom Linneia to be its next successor after confirming her ownership to one of the heavenly ink brushes. It had no choice; thousands of years of waiting was finally rewarded with this tiny yet talented human. She only took less than a week to comprehend the immense spiritual power within her. It had not seen this kind of talent for the longest time. Besides that, her compatibility with the heavenly cloud ink brush had made her able to perform her own power-writing. Only, she herself hadn't realize it. Thus, Olfalfas was reluctant to let her go.

They hurriedly moved towards the location mentioned by the attendant to save Melati. Shouts and screams filled the bare lands, as the assassin-witch countered each attack she received with the most gruesome manner. The dead giants lying around were without eyeballs, as if they have been wrenched out forcefully from their sockets. In the middle of it all, the witch stood her ground stubbornly. Squashed internal organs piled around her, knee deep, as the faint smell of death permeated around her. She looked as if she was going to fall with just a passing soft breeze.

However, once Linneia came close enough to see her comrade, the witch was already too weak, bordering on unconsciousness. Linneia ran forward and hugged the seriously injured Melati without bothering about the hunters encircling them, knowing that the Grandmaster would help protect the both of them. Melati's taut body finally slackened once she felt the familiar scent of the princess.

A booming voice in Kohiten reverberated around the hunters, "Stand down!" The appearance of Grandmaster Olfalfas had made all giants within the area prostrated in deference. They didn't dare to lift their faces though their hearts were unhappy with the matter. This was the first time the Grandmaster appeared in the military base after the war.

Melati fell to the ground once all the tension in her body left her. Linneia quickly supported her and placed her on the ground. Weakly, she inquired, "Are you alright, Princess?"

Linneia nodded with anguish. The wounds on Melati's body was too severe. She had no chance to survive this ordeal.

"How about the others?" The action of looking around for their other comrades made Linneia's eyes turned red with sadness. She didn't answer, but only shook her head bitterly.

"Even Frieda?"

"Yes."

Melati took out the Rabbit from her bosom with trembling fingers. Her grim expression was gone, replaced with sadness and helplessness. "Princess, don't forget our mission. Our lives are tied to the lives of countless people at home." She placed Frieda's Rabbit in Linneia's palm, closed it, and held it tight. Slowly she pulled the palm to her head with determination.

Melati's words hardened Linneia's resolve yet again. From what she saw until now, she knew that the Giants won't be able to tolerate outsider's existence. This had made her stop and think whether the notion was possible with the current horrible sentiments she felt from the giant's race. She would only hurt the Grandmaster's standing in the process once she requested for a place on this land. Moreover, she was indebted to the old giant for saving her life. What she needed now was power. Only power could help her to find a way out of this predicament. After all, power is law, wherever they are.

This time she accepted Melati's ability with determination. She initiated her gift.

Sensing the change in the crown princess' demeanor, Melati smiled from the depth of her heart for once. She knew, the princess had finally shed off her naïve thinking and had metamorphosed into a competent leader. She could finally rest now.

...

The death of Melati had made the Grandmaster felt guilty. Due to that, it had used all its powers to fend off the attacks from the elders and even the Patriarch of the land to protect its disciple. The more protective the Grandmaster was towards the outsider, the stronger the verbal attacks came pouring down on the head of the Patriarch, urging it to relieve the unconditional independent power the Grandmaster had in his grasp. These people were feeling threatened by the outsider's presence. They felt that the previous calamity was looming close. Bombardments of elders asking for the execution of the alien coupled with incarcerating the Grandmaster for treason were getting louder.

The Grandmaster ignored all retaliation as it knew its importance towards the nation. It was the only entity who could control and harness the power of the purple crystal to form a barrier between the heavens and the lands. Truthfully, the only other person who could harness the purple crystal's power in the future would be its disciple. However, from how the masses reacted, it will never divulge the truth to them all. If not, Linneia could be targeted for this.

After Melati's death, Linneia was like a different person.

She worked extremely hard to understand the Grandmaster's teachings to deepen her knowledge on harnessing the power-writings. The Grandmaster was satisfied with this exemplary disciple. She always posed profound questions after questions in the bid to grasp the new knowledge. Linneia contacted her great grandfather once a month to update him of her current condition and to receive additional guidance. Together, they formed a plan centering on her as she worked hard to master her new ability and the power writings.

A year passed by just like that.

On the reddish stone platform, Linneia's floating consciousness was weaving a comprehension net. Once she understood a small section, she wrote with her mind. She had repeated the actions again and again, under the supervision of the Grandmaster and her great grandpa from afar. The plumed pen released elegant Kohiten writings, enforcing her consciousness' to the comprehension net. This was the final three thousandth node.

Once the writings were done, Linneia mind burst into fragments. A suction force from the purple crystal pulled back the scattered fragment and slowly her consciousness reformed. This time, the crown princess of Graycastle had finally experienced a major breakthrough and comprehended the "Law of Space and Displacement".

...

Flashes of purple lighting struck the middle of a rainforest as the clouds darkened ominously. The scent of rain pervaded the air. It was the smell of negative and positive charges in the air clashing against each other. Surprisingly, the lightning strikes converged on the largest tree, burning it down to cinders.

Nothing was left. The majestic tree collapsed into a heap of black ashes. Some of the cinders were still glowing slightly yellow, indicating the high temperature of the stricken location.

In the middle of it, Linneia Wimbledon stood up from a half-kneeling position. With a dazzling confident smile on her face, she observed the unfamiliar surroundings. It seemed like a success. She had finally managed to cross between worlds.She could move to the next phase of her plan now.