Willard got up from the bed and walked towards the small window at the center of the room. He stood there staring at warriors, who wore the Gerret insignia, and maids who went about their day. His mind was currently filled with questions. He couldn’t quite figure out how he survived and how the entire Gerret household wasn’t purged out of existence. “This shouldn’t be right. That saint should have killed me. Something big must have happened.”

While thinking about all that, the door to the room cracked open breaking Willard out of his train of thoughts. He turned to see the surprised look on the maid that had just walked in. The maid quickly greeted him and ran straight to the main mansion.

In this past couple of months, Sebastian’s popularity and prestige had reached a very high level. He had taken more formal responsibility for running the affairs of the Gerret household. On this day, he was currently going through some books and making some scribbles in another. A maid rushed into the study, breaking Sebastian’s concentration. “Master, he is up.” She said breathing heavily.

“Who is up?” He asked somewhat confused.

“Sir Willard, he is up.” she responded once again.

The look on Sebastian’s face changed as he left the study in a hurry. Over the past couple of months, Sebastian had experienced one the greatest levels of respect from every single person within the city including his father, and he knew all of that was due to the efforts of Willard. Unfortunately, Willard had ended up fighting against a saint and was left in a near death state. In actuality, all of the health experts had warned everyone to not have any high expectation for Willard’s recovery.

As Sebastian rushed out of the main mansion, the words the maid said to him kept reverberating in his mind. As Sebastian got closer to the quarters that housed Willard, he saw a familiar figure surrounded by various people. The strange thing was that this figure seemed perfectly groomed and healthy. Almost as if he had never been in a coma in the first place. “Willard!” Sebastian said as he approached.

Sebastian had been in a state of mild depression after the battle with the Minya forces. This wasn’t entirely because his friend was in a coma, but rather it was a combination of various things. It must be noted, that Willard had fought with a famous saint at the 3rd level, while he was still in the elemental energy level. In the history of the four continents, there had never been such a character to exist. Who wouldn’t be in a depression when such a talent was in a coma, with the odds against them. Now that Willard was up, Sebastian couldn’t help but think of the future. Having someone as talent as Willard on his side was his greatest fortune. If such a character were to break into the ranks of saints, who would dare go against such a foe. Thinking about all this made Sebastian break into an even bigger smile.

**************

Within the Western continent.

A middle aged man with brown curly hair was slowly walking towards mansion secluded in the snowy plains. As the man walked across the snow, a strange scene was unfolding. The snow seemed to mysterious move away from the man. Even the snow that laid still on the floor all made way for the man to walk pass them. As the man got to the gate of the mansion, he stopped and looked directly up into the sky.

“Hurry up and come in.” A voice said, while the man with the curly brown hair smiled and disappeared from the gate. Within a room inside of the mansion, the curly brown haired man appeared beside another man who had strange look to him. If Willard had been there, he would have recognized this man as Svecko.

“What do you want?” Svecko coldly asked.

“The Lord of Paisis has requested your presence.”

Svecko got up and immediately disappeared. “Why are you in such a bad mood?” the brown curly haired man said as he disappeared from the room. They both soared high up in the sky flying towards the direction of the Lord of Paisis. “Why is the Lord requesting my presence Ladio?” Svecko asked him somewhat impatiently. “To be honest, I have no idea. My guess is just as good as yours,” Ladio said in response. Svecko stared at him for a couple of seconds before moving his gaze elsewhere.

Ever since Svecko had gotten back from the battle at Marquis city, he had been in a foul mood. His anger was mainly due to the fact that the Lord of Paisis had chosen to ignore the threat the southern continent represented. Although Svecko had an unyielding fate in the strength of the Lord of Paisis, he was someone that was extremely prudent. He preferred to eliminate threats while they were still in their infancy and eliminate any source of potential trouble. Memories of his time in the southern continent were like sharp knives stabbing at his chest.

***********

Back at the Marquis household, Nana was currently chatting with Willard. Although Willard still had his usual cold demeanor, her mood had greatly brightened up as she was still able to chat with him. After their conversation, Willard went on a walk around the gardens. After his near death experience, Willard had developed a more reflective personality. For some strange reason, whenever he walked around the gardens, he became more attuned with the natural energy and that strange energy he was cultivating. The elements seem to become more discernible as he could clearly feel their forms. While he walked, he remembered something, in particular, Sebastian had told him, which was Sir Bryant’s invitation to the northern border. “What did he mean, by that? How would the northern borders be of any use to me?” While contemplating the message, he caught sight of Baya walking towards him.

“Master Willard,” Baya said as he bowed to greet Willard.

Willard nodded in response to his greetings. They began conversing about some subjects of cultivation, in which Willard enlightened Baya on his confusions, when suddenly Baya asked a question he had been meaning to ask for some time now,”Were you able to use that fire plant root that I brought for you?” Willard frowned and thought back to his time with Auora, and was about to respond when a thought suddenly came to his mind, followed by a strange sigh. “I need to go do something right now. We’ll talk about this another time.” He said walking off and heading in some direction without waiting for Baya to respond. Baya stared with a look of confusion. This was the second time he had asked Willard this question and for some strange reason, Willard had diverted the question. The first time, Willard had strangely brushed it away and this time, Baya could tell that Willard was intentionally not talking about it.

************

Svecko and Lado arrived at a remote corner of the Western continent. There was a single wooden tent that gave off a naturally soothing aura. Surrounding the wooden house were different types of plants growing in a natural form. As arrived they dropped down from the sky and walked towards the house and stood outside the house and bowed. Ladio looked at the plants with a little dread. He could feel the majestic energy the plants were emitting. The door opened up giving way to an old man who strolled out with a smile on his face. The man held some gardening tools and walked towards a vine like plant. The old man was carefully attending to the plant with the same smile.

“Svecko, Ladio. Come closer.” The man said.

“What do you see when you look at this plant?” He asked. Svecko and Ladio thought for some seconds before Svecko said, ” Your highness. What I see is the unity of the boundless elements.”

“How about you Ladio?” the old man asked.

“Your highness, all I see is a plant. Nothing more,” Ladio responded. Hearing Ladio’s response the old man broke into a hearty laughter. “Honest and direct,” he said while he continued tending to the plant. Both Svecko and Ladio had nothing but reverence for this old man. They stood silently and watched as the old man trimmed the plant.

“A huge change is coming to these lands.” The old man softly said as he stared towards the north. “One that could potentially lead to the end of the age of saints.” Both Svecko and Ladio were deeply shocked as they heard those words.

“Svecko go and unseal that person, and tell him his king has demanded his presence.” As Svecko heard what the old man said, a look of dread appeared on his face. “Your highness. Do we really need that man?” The old man sighed and nodded in response.

Many years ago, there was a saint that held the title of the number one saint within the Western continent. His fame was widely spread across all the continents. He was known simply as the demon saint. The demon saint completely terrorized the western continent, in his wake was nothing but share slaughter. It took the intervention of one man to stand in his way and seal the demon saint. That man was the old man in the garden. That revelation had shocked the entire world. Before his intervention, no one had ever seen or heard of this man. After he suppressed the demon knight, he became the king of saints of the western continent. The presence of this king assured that none of the other continents would think of invading the western continent.

“Ladio, go to the southern continent and bring me this child.” The old man said as he pressed his right hand on the ground. Suddenly a plant sprouted and slowly formed the shape of a person. The details of the person increasingly got defined before the wooden figure flew to Ladio. The wooden figure gave off an aura of boundless nature, one that was similar to the old man, but much weaker. If Willard had been present, he would have recognized the image of the wooden person, who was none other than Mailey, the genius he had fought from the blue dragon academy during the banquet at the Minya household. Both Svecko and Ladio gave a deep bow before they flew off.

**********

Within the Northern continent, something quite unusual was occurring.

Thunder was rumbling as a divine will suddenly appear out of nowhere. This divine will was the will of a god. It flew across the northern continent and finally descended at the location of a mountain where a woman sat in a meditative posture as she cultivated. The woman suddenly opened her eyes, she stared at the divine will that hovering around her. Without any hesitation, she reached out with her right hand to grab that will. It only took a couple of minutes for the will to fully assimilate with her. “My Lord, thy will shall be fulfilled. I will exterminate the seed of Thanus.”

Strange scenes similar to this were happening all across the northern continent. Some were occurring across the other lands, but a majority of the descent of the will of gods came to the northern continent. Within a cave, at the center of the northern continent, an old man completely covered in the soil like he was dead, suddenly broke through the soil that covered him. A strange smile emanated from his face as he stared at the will that hovered directly above him. The will slowly descend to the old man and entered his body. After a couple of mins, the old man smiled and said, “Thy will shall be fulfilled. I will exterminate the seed of Thanus.”

The old man got up and stretched his body. With every movement he made, his vitality seemed to shoot up as he appeared younger and younger by the second. “Great changes are coming to these lands. It’s time for the northern continent to unify these lands once again.”

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