The Prince Of Magic

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How did Hadrian discover such a threat?

It was around the time when he was updating the automaton's system.

Before, he was just fiddling around with the security measures when an idea came to his mind.

He was curious whether there were any entities outside of earth that knew of the Moon Cell's existence, so Hadrian went and checked the automaton's records for any clues as to who and what might be his (and the automaton's) potential enemies.

And lo and behold, Hadrian discovered Velber's existence through a piece of knowledge that the automaton had kept within its near infinite database

Velber, also known as the 'Harvest Star' (courtesy of the automaton), was a hostile alien that apparently appears through the Milky Way every fourteen thousand years.

'It' was a predatory star that travels through galaxy, and whenever it detects sentient life, it creates 'Anti-Cells' and sends them to destroy and devour all lifeforms. It liked to destroy all intelligent civilizations in its path, and in doing so, it would consume all digital data within its reach.

Due to the sparse knowledge that the automaton has on the alien threat, Hadrian lacked great info on Velber, particularly its capabilities and weaknesses.

What he does know about the hostile alien was that it seemed to be a product of the same civilization that made the Moon Cell.

Hadrian would even go as far as to say that, maybe, they (as in Velber and the Moon Cell) were siblings, seeing as they had been created by the same civilization. Although, the latter's appearance and purpose were obviously different from the former.

The Moon Cell managed to get a chance to analyze its structure the last time it had passed through the earth's orbit. That also happened to be the first time that hostile alien had invaded the earth, wreaking havoc and almost annihilating all sentient life on the planet.

If not for a certain Holy Sword wielder's interference, the earth would have been turned into a dead planet and all would have been exterminated.

Now, the hostile alien had become Hadrian's problem, seeing as he was the 'Inheritor of the Moon'.

It had fourteen thousand years since Velber was last detected, and Hadrian would need all the chances he can get to get stronger.

Or at least, become strong enough to face the hostile alien without worry of being killed.

Hopefully, his grandfather had some kind of method to help him with his future problem.

Hadrian snapped out of musing when he heard his grandfather continue with his monologue, some of which he had missed earlier since he was deep in thought.

"Thus, I've devised a method will help you advance drastically with your research." Zelretch grinned, looking a bit pleased with himself.

"And what's that?" Hadrian raised an eyebrow.

"You'll know later on." Zelretch chuckled.

"Again with the suspense…" Hadrian muttered.

He blinked when he noticed the old magician was walking ahead of him.

"Umm... Opa, where are you going?" Hadrian asked, curious.

"I still need to scan your body for any changes, so let us adjourn to my lab and continue our talk there. The next subject we will need to discuss requires utmost privacy, and talking about it here in the open would just be an unintelligent thing for us to do, enkel, regardless of the bounded fields in place." Zelretch said without so much as a backward glance.

Accepting the older magician's reasoning, Hadrian followed his grandfather outside the castle, exiting the gardens where his two familiars appeared from the various flowers and plants and chased after them to accompany their master.

The older man's workshop was settled within a nearby forest that was close to the castle.

It was a large two story building with a modern abstract design. It has a private office, a library, a laboratory and a few other rooms.

It was his grandfather's private space where he can do his research without concern of being interrupted. Due to the tall trees nearby, the building was not so easily seen from observers afar.

Trying to get a view of the building from a high perspective would not be an easy feat since the surrounding area hid the workshop well away from sight.

There surrounding area also layers upon layers of bounded fields, all of which were designed to punish (kill) anyone and anything that intrudes upon the private grounds without his grandfather's permission.

Hadrian himself had only visited the old magician's workshop a couple of times, and it was only after the war did the number rose recently.

He remembered being inside the workshop only two times when he was a lot younger, probably when he was four and six years old. Then, after the Holy Grail war, his grandfather became a lot more lenient into letting him to visit the workshop from time to time.

Not that his grandfather didn't trusted him or anything.

No, the reason was due to his age.

Hadrian may have been nurtured to behave and think like a magus, but he was still the old magician's grandson.

The old magician was quite overprotective of him. Therefore, visiting the magician's workshop was limited when Hadrian had been young, which was understandable.

His grandfather had a lot of things around the workshop, some of which were questionable in nature and not exactly suited to be seen by young children.

For example, the strange tomes regarding lost tantric rituals that were kept somewhere in the library.

Or the severed body parts that was on display by the shelves in the laboratory.

Hadrian didn't know why his grandfather would keep such things, but he didn't question him after being told that the severed parts were precious materials for some of his research.

He didn't even dared to ask about the tantric rituals since the old magician used some of them to punish Hadrian for his cheek when he was a child.

Amusingly enough, he didn't even know that his grandfather had kept such useful but perverted tomes in his private collection for research purposes until recently.

His own ignorance can be quite astounding at times.

As for the severed body parts, Hadrian had the automaton subtly scan the body parts for their origins as he entered the lab after his grandfather, if not to sate his curiosity and concern.

To his slight surprise, he discovered that they once belonged to certain powerful individuals that his grandfather had come across in the past.

Meaning, they belonged from the evil creatures and people that made an enemy out of his grandfather.

Staring at the deathly pale hand with sharp fingernails, Hadrian blinked as revelation hit him.

'Is it just me or is that the hand of a Dead Apostle?' He thought to himself as he observed the hand in question.

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