As Willard made his way towards where Ahmed and the other fighters were, Moore subconsciously took a couple of steps backward. He stared at Baya, who was currently holding on to his left arm. “What in the world? Don’t tell me another one of them is at the elemental energy level as well.” The man with the scar on his face said as he gripped his whip even more tightly

It was already tough enough, dealing with Ahmed as it was, the addition of another elemental energy expert would be some trouble for them. “Are you having some trouble, Ahmed?” Willard asked in the same usual nonchalant tone. Ahmed’s eyebrow slightly furrowed. He did not want to admit to Willard that he was indeed having some troubles, but the reality of things was that he really couldn’t best the group in front of him.

Oaklif who was in the background amongst some nearby spectators frowned as he saw Lydia walking beside Baya. “Moore, get rid of her quickly.” He yelled. From the current battle that he had witnessed, he could tell that these people were no push over. He also knew that the most important thing at this point was to cut off the biggest loose end in the entire situation, which meant they had to kill Lydia. Even if they couldn’t successfully kill everyone else, they most definitely had to kill Lydia.

Moore who was subconsciously shrinking away, inwardly cursed at Oaklif. “Stupid *******. Why don’t you kill her yourself.” he silently thought to himself. Although he felt this way, he couldn’t express this inner thought or show its existence. Moore braved himself and faced Willard’s group. Almost as if nothing had happened, Willard continued staring at Ahmed. “Master it will take me quite some time to deal with this.” Ahmed honestly responded.

“I see. Well, we need to get some rest soon.” Willard responded moving his gaze to the three people who were in front of Ahmed.

After hearing Willard’s response, the two warriors, from the Kahn household, and Moore were shocked. They couldn’t believe what they were hearing. For someone as strong as Ahmed to call another person his master, was no small thing. Even if Ahmed was a hired hand, it will take much more than just money to make an elemental energy expert to call another his master. So with that thought process, it could be understood as to why the three men were surprised. After some quick thought, a new found sense of fear gripped Moore’s entire existence. Moore fully remembered the warning Anjara had given Oaklif about the group. Moore instantly used all of his might to gather fire elemental energy to his blade. Before anyone else could do a thing, Willard stretched his right hand in their direction, instantaneously causing three distinct earth spike to shoot up from the ground aiming straight at Ahmed’s three opponents.

Moore who had been somewhat in a prepared state immediately swung his blade, which was currently covered in flames, at the protruding earth spike. The collision was loud and also caused a large amount of dust to fill their surrounding. The force of the impact left Moore’s hands numb, and also sent him flying in the opposite direction. The other two weren’t as lucky as Moore as the earth spike stabbed through their body, directly ripping fist sized holes in their body, impaling and effectively executing them on the spot.

The crowd, which included Oaklif, that had been watching from the sides immediately scattered into a frantic craze as started running in multiple directions. Although this scene was strange to Willard, Ahmed, and Baya, the others present knew why that was the case. Willard had just killed warriors from the Kahn household within the city of Kahn. There could be said to be fewer taboo’s committed by any visitor within the city limits.

Willard had a strange expression on his face as he walked towards where Moore had been sent flying towards. A strange light flickered through Willards eyes as he stared at Moore. Ahmed who was closely monitoring the entire situation immediately recognized that look on Willard’s face. He had previously seen those eyes when Willard had pursued him. Ahmed smiled as he watched the entire thing. “That’s the same look this fiend gave me when he pursued me.” Ahmed thought to himself. Ahmed was quite delighted at the prospect of Willard forcing another elemental energy expert to join him. For some strange reason, the idea of it greatly delighted him. But as Willard approached Moore, he turned to stare at Baya before moving his gaze back to Moore. Willard shook his head before adorning a smile. “Since you were able to survive that attack, you can keep your life,” he said before walking back towards the Rosemary Inn.

The expression on Ahmed’s face changed. “How come you let him go and ask me to follow you?” Ahmed silently thought to himself. Although Ahmed felt slightly wronged at the situation, he did not dare express any of that. Baya, on the other hand, was puzzled as to why Willard had stared at him before finally nodding his head. Lydia, on the other hand, was disappointed. She had hoped Willard would kill Moore, but she wasn’t in a position to ask anything of him. She couldn’t afford to antagonize Willard in any form whatsoever.

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

Over at some remote corner of the Western continent, a man wearing a white outfit was rapidly flying through the skies. His expression was one of anger as he frowned throughout his journey. He passed several terrains with strange and marvelous natural sights. At a certain region riddled with volcanoes of varying sizes, the man flew towards the center of the region, where a giant volcano was passively active, he dropped from the skies and lightly floated on top of the volcano. Little eruptions could be seen as magma bubbled and erupted to the side. After hovering at the top of the volcano for a couple of seconds, the man’s pupils suddenly turned pure white, followed by frost rapidly congealing around the surface of his skin. If Willard was present, he would be able to recognize this man as Svecko.

After his preparations, Svecko dove straight into the volcano. The frost that surrounded his body adequately shielded him from the burning molten magma that covered every inch of the volcano. The deeper Svecko went, the hotter it got, but he was adequately prepared, almost as if he had done it before.

At a certain point within the volcano, the usual sight of magma gave way for a strange cave. Svecko stopped his movement at the outskirts of the cave and stared deeply at the cave. The strange thing about the cave was the fact that it existed within this world of magma. Almost as if there was an invincible force shielding the cave from the magma. Svecko knew that this cave was created by the king of the west, and he knew that this entire region was a seal. Svecko increased the intensity of his gaze as his expression increasingly became even more serious. He nodded his head in dissatisfaction as he slowly sighed. He took some time to adjust his mental state and adequately prepared to enter the cave. More of the frost congealed and covered him, offering even more protection.

“Why must it be him? No good can come from this.” Svecko thought to himself as he sighed deeply.

Svecko took a step, placing him at the entrance of the cave. The first thing that caught Svecko’s gaze, was the sight of a giant tree that looked like it had just been set ablaze within the strange cave. With further inspection, one would realize that the trunk and the roots of the tree weren’t actually burning, just the leaves were on fire. This tree was called the soul lock tree, and this was the second time, Svecko had seen this tree. This tree was specially created by the King of the western continent, the lord of Paisis, and was used to directly trapped the demon of the west.

Although Svecko had seen the tree before, he still wasn’t comfortable with the sight of it. The tree had the unique trait of hypnosis, one that could entrap almost any foe. Apart from hypnosis, it also had the physical trait of malleability, which drastically increased its binding powers. In fact, this tree could be said to exist for one purpose alone, binding a host. Svecko slowly walked towards the tree. The closer he got, the more the features of the tree became more visible.

Usually, saints could see even the most minute of details from a very long distance, but within this cave and in the vicinity of the tree, most saints wouldn’t be able to see over thirty feet. At the center of the tree, one of the protruding branches had a single fruit on it. Svecko reached into a pouch and grabbed a seed. As the seed came out of the pouch, it immediately sprouted to life, growing a small vine-like branch that wrapped around his right palm.

Svecko sighed as he stretched his hand to grab the lone fruit on the tree. As his palm, which was wrapped in the vine-like branch, made contact with the fruit, a sizzling sound came from the fruit. After a couple of seconds, the sizzling sound ended, and the vine on his palm slowly crumbled to dust. Afterwards, the fruit rapidly changed in color from a dull purple to a bright red one. At which point, the fruit finally came off the branch. Svecko gently placed the fruit into the pouch he had gotten the seed from.

One by one, the flames on the tree, which was essentially the Leafs, started going out. After all of the Leafs had gone out, the tree slowly disintegrated, leaving behind a skinny white haired man, who fell to his knees as the tree disappeared into nothingness. The skinny white haired man drudgingly got up. “How long has it been?” The skinny man asked in a husky tone.

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

Over at the southern continent, within the Blue dragon academy, a young man was leisurely seating beside a tree. The young man was reading a book he held with his right hand while he ate an apple he held with his left hand. From a distance, a young lady was standing in front of the young man. The young lady had a sweet smile as she held her hands behind her back. “What do you say, Mailey, would you be interested in attending the banquet with me?” she said with the same gentle smile.

“Not this time Venice,” Mailey said as he shut the book closed with his right hand.

“Very well. Next time you must come with me.” The young lady, Venice, said in response, before walking away. Although she had just been rejected, she still had a smile. After all, this was Mailey, the number genius of the Blue dragon academy. The fight between Willard and Mailey was like a baptism of sorts to Mailey, as it drastically changed his outlook on the world. Every now and then, Mailey would think back to the event at the Minya household and remembered the first time he had ever been outclassed by someone of his age group, which in turn drove him to practice and cultivate even more rigorously.

When suddenly a loud piercing sound came from the sky, which caused Mailey to move his gaze towards the sky. For some strange reason, he felt slightly nervous, almost as if the sound had something to do with him. Before Mailey could get up or react in any other form, something smashed onto the ground, like a meteor hitting the surface of the earth. Multiple cracks appeared on the surface of the earth, around the region where the strange object had landed. After a couple of seconds, the dust that had covered the area of impact settled. Mailey stared in shock as he noticed a man with red fiery hair staring straight at him. The man took just one step and immediately appeared right in front of Mailey. This man was Ladio, who was tasked by the lord of Paisis to come to the Southern continent.

As Ladio appeared right in front of Mailey, a wooden figurine immediately dashed out of his body. The movement of the figurine was so fast, that it even slightly surprised Ladio. The figurine acted like it was sentient, as it flew straight towards Mailey’s chest, before releasing a bright green glow. By the time the glow died out, Mailey had lost all consciousness as he laid perfectly still in Ladio’s arms. Without wasting another second, Ladio flew out of the school heading back to the Western continent.

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