บท 89: Book 4: Chapter 1 – Little Monster
In a clearing just outside the western entrance to the mountain range of magical beasts, Ace and his group were sat peacefully, waiting for Lauriella to arrive to pick them up.
That in and of itself wouldn't cause any disturbance as people entered and exited the mountain range on a near-daily basis, but beside them was a pride of over a dozen lions, the smallest of which was Leonel, who was no smaller than a horse, and the biggest, Carter, was bigger than most buildings.
As soon as any passers-by saw the group of terrifying lions, they would immediately turn tail and run while counting their blessings that they weren't being chased.
They didn't know Carter was a saint-level magical beast, but the aura he gave off was simply terrifying to all the mortals who saw him.
As soon as Lauriella neared, she transformed into her phoenix form before erupting with her fastest speed, leading Jax – the Hellfire Phoenix – to protect team one, who she assumed were in danger.
"Are you guys alright?" Lauriella asked as she suddenly appeared just in front of Ace, Amira, and Julius whilst cautiously eyeing the Bloody-Eyed Mane Lion before her.
As a saint, she was able to sense that none of the disciples appeared to be injured, but she couldn't wrap her head around why such a powerful beast was with them. Beasts of this level tended to live right in the depths of the mountain range.
When she first entered the range of his spiritual sense, Carter felt her presence, but he wasn't particularly threatened as she was still just an early-stage sense, but when she used her phoenix transformation, he couldn't help but hurry to his feet and stare at the new arrival with caution and a hint of fear.
Like Dragonblood Warriors, when those with the Violetflame bloodline reach the early stages of the saint level, their rank rises to the peak of the saint level when transformed. The only difference being that where the bloodlines of the other supreme warrior clans see an increase in their rank as a warrior, her family sees an increase in realm as a mage.
"We're fine," Ace replied. "You don't need to be on guard with them; they're with us."
"With you?" Lauriella asked, thinking her ears were playing tricks on her. "What do you mean they're with you?"
"I mean, Leo over there is my new beast partner," Ace said, pointing to the black-furred lion whose mane seemed to be developing a reddish tint, standing behind Carter. "That saint in front of you is his father, and the other lions are the rest of their pride. They have agreed to migrate to the Pavilion's domain so they can be near him in the future."
Lauriella was stunned at that point. Ace was just a warrior of the fifth rank; she couldn't imagine a world where Ace was able to convince a saint-level magical beast to not only allow one of its obviously more talented children to follow a human but also convince it to move, so it lived near them.
But her shock only multiplied when she turned to look at the dark-haired teen. "You…
You're a mage?!
Of the third rank?!
How?!
What exactly happened over these last few months?!"
Though the students didn't know, as one of the Pavilion's higher-ups, Lauriella was told about the barrier enveloping Ace's soul.
As far as she knew, Ace wouldn't be able to interact with the laws of nature in any way, shape or form until that barrier was destroyed, meaning, for the foreseeable future, it would be impossible for him to become a mage and yet, she could clearly sense that he had somehow managed to reach the peak of the third realm in six months.
Everyone knew Ace was unbelievably talented, but this was something else!
"It's a long story," Ace replied as he calmly hopped on Jax's back. "I'll explain everything on the way back."
.
.
.
Flying on Jax's back were Lauriella and the members of team one. Beside them was Carter, who carried a pride of 15 lions on his back, including Leonel.
Though he agreed to let his son follow Ace from now on, Carter and the rest of his pride wanted to spend as much time with their long-lost family member as possible.
As a magical beast who'd spent the vast majority of its life alone, he wasn't used to being the centre of attention of so many other creatures. Still, after everything Carter had done for him and Ace already, the least he could do was bear with it. Plus, he would be lying if he said he wasn't interested in getting to know his family.
Whilst Leonel spent his flight to the Yin-Yang interacting with his family, Ace explained in full everything that happened during their time in the wild.
After hearing the narration of events from Ace, Lauriella felt like she was taken on an emotional rollercoaster, and that was just from listening to it – she could only imagine how it felt for them experiencing it.
Living through any one of team one's major incidents would be worth celebrating, yet they overcame tribulation after tribulation, each one seemingly harder than the last.
It was no wonder the auras of Amira and Julius seemed so much more mature than they had six months ago.
Ace may have made the biggest improvement in strength, but as a reincarnated soul, who, in total, had experienced over 30 years of life, the trials he faced during these last six months hadn't actually affected him mentally all that much. But the same couldn't be said for Amira or Julius.
Both of them had matured a lot over the last half a year. Especially Julius. His aura had an edge to it that didn't exist six months ago.
Though it wasn't said in so many words, reading between the lines, Lauriella was able to deduce that during the incident with the Cult of Darkness, Julius was forced to take a life to help save Ace.
She knew this day would come eventually, and whilst she was glad he was able to take a life instead of forfeiting his, she also hated the fact that Julius, who was usually the most cheerful and gentle of all ten of the disciples, had to forgo his innocence.
The more she thought about the Cult's actions, the more her fury grew. She had half a mind to slaughter a path right through the Dark Alliance's territory into their capital.
It had to be remembered that not only was she a warrior of the early stages of the saint realm, but after transforming, she was a peak saint-level mage. The number of saints in the Cult of Darkness that could stand against her could be counted on one hand.
Still, she was fully aware that charging into the territory of one of the two most mysterious forces of the big six on her own was the definition of fool-hardy.
But if the Cult thought this was the end of the matter, they were in for a rude awakening.
Feeling the palpable killing intent coming from Lauriella, Ace could guess what she was thinking, and as strong as the Cult of Darkness was, he didn't think for a second that, in terms of powerhouses, they were stronger than his Yin-Yang Pavilion.
Still, after all the Cult put him and his friends through this time, he didn't want to rely on the pavilion to avenge him.
"Lauriella, I don't want you and the other instructors getting revenge for us," Ace voiced, his tone calm but sombre. "In the future, when I become a saint, I want to crush the Cult of Darkness with my own two hands."
With the evil deeds they'd committed over the years, there were many throughout the Yulan continent who dreamed of destroying the Cult of Darkness, but there were none with Ace's level of talent.
As she looked into Ace's eyes, Lauriella could feel the rage he was suppressing.
As angry as she was on their behalf, how could Lauriella's anger compare to Ace's?
It was him who they kidnapped.
It was he who was almost turned into a puppet.
It was to rescue him that Leonel and Amira were forced to risk their lives.
But most importantly, because of him, Julius, a youth he'd grown to deeply respect, was forced to break a vow that was of the utmost importance to him.
"I give you my word," Ace declared as his forearm suddenly combusted in a blazing scarlet flame. "In the future, I will personally burn the Cult of Darkness out of existence."
She already knew from Ace's narration that after the barrier around his soul broke, he had somehow managed to comprehend part of the law of fires' profound mysteries. Still, hearing about it is one thing; seeing it in the flesh is something else entirely.
Initially, she believed that he had only barely taken that step, but just looking at him, she could sense the profound mysteries infused in Ace's fiery arm were no weaker than her own – a feat that should be impossible considering she was a genius talented enough to be taken as a disciple by Arianna and a Violetflame warrior with an incredibly high affinity to the laws of fire.
All she could do was stare at him as if he were a literal freak of nature as Ace once again continued to defy all common sense proving exactly why it was that he was regarded as the number one talent in an establishment full of absolute geniuses.
"You really are a little monster!" She muttered helplessly as her killing intent all but vanished.
The anger she had felt for the Cult of Darkness was replaced by what almost felt like pity as she could all but see it now – in the not-so-distant future, the Cult of Darkness would be no more!
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Book 5 - Chapter 12
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