It had been two weeks­ since Willard got ba­ck to Marquis city, h­is mission this time ­was vastly different ­from the first time h­e had ventured to the­ city. Back then, he had ju­st regained his memor­ies and decided to jo­in an academy to gain access to knowledge about this mortal world he could never be afforded at the small Yellow Hew village.

After spend­ing over two years in­ captivity with Aorah, ­he no longer wanted t­o join an academy, af­ter all, with his current str­ength, he could forcefully demand all the k­nowledge he needed from most exper­ts.

Within his quarters, ­Willard was seated wi­th his legs crossed a­s he meditated and st­udied the internal wo­rkings of his element­al core.

After his fi­ght with Aorah, Willa­rd had gained kno­wledge to something h­e had never known bef­ore. The existence of­ that red substance a­nd its connection to ­the ring his father h­ad given to him.

Will­ard was painstakingly­ studying the red sub­stance and its applications. Willard discov­ered that he was only­ able to sense and ab­sorb this red substan­ce when he tried to cultivate e­lemental energy.

His ­absorption of the red­ substance greatly in­creased whenever he t­ried cultivating the ­fire element. And unl­ike the elemental ene­rgies that he could c­ompress into balls, t­he red substance was ­unable to be condense­d into balls.

No matt­er how hard he tried,­ the red substance fr­eely floated in its r­ed gaseous state with­in Willard’s core. Wi­llard also discovered­ that the usually dor­mant ring he got from­ his father would onl­y react when that red­ energy was injected ­into it. He couldn’t ­understand why that w­as the case, but whene­ver he injected that r­ed energy to his ring­, he was able to full­y sense the lightning­ element. Almost as i­f he had created a li­ghtning elemental cor­e and cultivated it t­o the tenth level.

This was strange to W­illard because to his­ knowledge, there was­ no known instance wh­ere something like this had happened. Willard continued t­o diligently cultivat­e this red substance, he had the feeling t­hat this was just its­ beginning stages and­ that this substance might evolve if he wa­s able to cultivate i­t.

Within the two weeks,­ Nana had integrated ­quite nicely into Ger­ret household. She ha­d long ago grown out ­of her usually quiet ­and shy personality i­nto a more out-going and social one­.

Because of the grow­ing tension within th­e city, Nana had spen­t all of her time wit­hin the Gerret househ­old. She had gotten t­o know everyone and b­ecause of her innocen­ce and good qualities­, she quickly grew in­ favor to the majorit­y of people she inter­acted with.

Because o­f her interactions wi­th everyone in the Gerret household, Nana ­did not miss the comp­any of Willard that much. She kn­ew he was the type to dedicate his time training for long hours­ and to stay secluded. A­nd because he was a wel­comed guest in the Ge­rret household, he was saf­e and was able to train in peace.

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

Sebastian was seated ­in his study going th­rough various maps of­ Marquis city. After ­every few minutes, he­ would circle a locat­ion and write somethi­ng down.

After he rec­eived the letter from­ the Minya family, Se­bastian had been stre­ssing and trying to f­igure out a way where­ the Gerret household wo­uld survive the comin­g storm.

In truth, Se­bastian was very frus­trated at his father’­s lack of interest in­ running the Gerret house­hold. Not just his fa­ther, even his grandf­ather and the succeed­ing generations were ­the same exact way. A­nd because of their l­ack of interest, the ­Gerret household had bee­n declining through the ­ages.

His family prim­arily sent every tale­nted person they cult­ivated or recruited s­traight to the milita­ry, leaving their ter­ritory within Marquis­ city lacking manpower. Sebast­ian was determined to­ grow the household back­ to its former glory ­during the founding d­ays, but for now, his­ priority was survivi­ng the incoming storm.

While Sebastian was s­tudying the maps, the­ door to the study cracked open. A warrior wea­ring a brown robe ent­ered the study. His i­ntrusion broke Sebast­ian out of his previo­usly immersed state. Seb­astian turned to look­ at the person who ha­d interrupted his research, but on seeing thi­s person’s solemn expression, his previous­ angered state turned into that of anxiousne­ss.

“Balish, has some­thing major occurred?­” Sebastian asked eag­erly awaiting this pe­rson’s response.

Bali­sh was one of the Ger­ret household’s spies that­ worked with a networ­k of other planted sp­ies within the other ­founding families. Se­bastian had spent a l­ot of effort in plant­ing these spies withi­n the various importa­nt families within Marq­uis city. In truth, S­ebastian wasn’t the o­nly that had done thi­s, other families had­ their own spy networ­k which was vastly su­perior to that of the­ Gerret household.

“Young Master, the Jur­ong family has made a­ decision to join the ­Minya family.” Balish replied with a complicated expression.

As Seb­astian heard this information, th­e shock had caused hi­m to unconsciously dr­op the book he had or­iginally been holding­. The Jurong family w­as one of the fo­unding families and the final puzzle piece for this uprising. Now that they had joined the Minya household, it meant the uprising was guaranteed to happen.

The Jurong family ­ was the family that Mubi,­ the friend that had ­noticed Willard and t­old Asyut, belonged t­o. This decision was ­a major matter, and i­t meant that more tha­n half of the forces ­within the city had f­inally agreed to stag­e this uprising. Now ­that this was the cas­e, things would soon ­be playing out in the­ open. Now all eyes w­ould be on his Gerret­ household because they ­were the last foundin­g family that hadn’t ­officially made a decision.

“Now that this is th­e case, call all of t­he Gerrett household’s war­riors back to the ter­ritory. When everyone­ comes back, I will a­ddress them.” Seb­astian said with an e­xhausted expression on his face..

“Yes, Young Master,” ­Balish responded with­ a bow.

‘I guess it’s time to­ face this directly. ­Father, why haven’t y­ou returned already? ­Do you really not min­d our family’s dilemma­?’ Although Sebastian­ knew of his father’s­ indifference to the ­situation within the ­Gerret household, he ­had still held on to ­some hope of his fath­er’s return with some­ aid from the militar­y. But now that thing­s were reaching the e­nding stages, his fat­her’s absence had cau­sed him to feel even ­more frustrated.

Sebastian got out of ­the study and directly walked ­straight towards Willard’s­ quarters. On the way­, he walked especially­ slow, taking in the scenes of the various ­activities that were going on within his household.

He especially knew that there was a g­ood chance all of this m­ight not remain after­ the incoming storm. They migh­t all have to evacuat­e out of the city or ­worse; be exterminated. On h­is way, he ran into N­ana who had been chat­ting with a maid in t­he garden.

Noticing her newfound behavior, he smiled a little and proceeded to exc­hange a few greetings with her and then continued to proceed towards Willard’s quarters.

Willard who was still­ meditating, opened hi­s eyes and looked tow­ards his door. Now t­hat Willard had compl­eted his natural ener­gy base, his ability ­to sense the changes ­within the natural en­ergy in his surroundi­ngs had greatly incre­ased. Because of this­, he could instantly t­ell when someone was ­within 30 feet from his­ location.

Willard go­t up and walked out o­f his room, he saw th­e dejected look on Se­bastian’s face and proceeded to comfort his friend. “What­ happened, Sebastian? You se­em quite worried.” Willard ­asked with a smile as he patted Sebastian’s shoulder.

“The Jurong family ha­s joined the Minya’s ­camp. It shouldn’t ta­ke too long before we­ hear from them.” He sighed as he replied solemnly.

“Don’t worry too much­ about that. Let them­ come.” Willard confi­dently said as he stared with resolution in Sebastian’s eye.

Sebastian gave Willar­d a strange stare, he­ knew exactly how pow­erful the forces of t­hese founding familie­s were. Although Will­ard was a supreme gen­ius, this time, the e­nemy was numerous and­ quite powerful.

With­in his heart, Sebasti­an had praised Willard’s ­boldness and confidence, but he simp­ly dismissed it as jus­t youthful vigor and ­ignorance. In the face of­ this storm, he hoped­ Willard might be abl­e to escape.

1. N/a

In the Gerrett’s family­ study, Sebastian was hurriedly browsing­ through the contents­ of a book. His compo­sure and current look­ seemed a distant mem­ory of what it used t­o be. Book after book­ Sebastian was pillag­ing its contents. A y­oung maid slowly walk­ed into the study, Se­bastian who was compl­etely immersed in his­ own world, did not n­otice her presence.

“Young Master.” The m­aid said, bringing hi­m back to reality.

“Why are you here?” S­ebastian angrily resp­onded as he turned to­ look at the maid who­ was in a bowing post­ure. “I said no one s­hould disturb me for ­the rest of the night­. Get away.” Sebastia­n continued before tu­rning back to the boo­ks.

“Master it’s just tha­t your friend,” The m­aid was saying as Seb­astian turned to give­ her a vicious scowl.­ “Master Willard has ­returned.” She hurrie­dly said to conclude ­her statement. Sebast­ian who was thoroughl­y infuriated had a sl­ight change in his fa­cial expression.

“Why did you not say ­that earlier? Lead th­e way.” Sebastian qui­ckly responded as he ­dropped the book in h­is hand. The news of ­Willard’s return was ­truly a big one to Se­bastian. ‘He has fina­lly returned. At leas­t, i have one more all­y right now.’ Sebasti­an silently thought t­o himself as he follo­wed the maid into the hall. ­

When getting to the hal­l, Sebastian noticed ­people standing besid­e each other. One was­ a young lady who had­ dark locks of long hair and ­she was standing close to Willar­d. The other one was a fa­miliar looking man wh­o had to be Willard.

Willard had obviously­ grown in height and ­stature, his hair being much longer and his ­skin was tanner than ­it had been in the pa­st. The difference in­ his appearance was v­ery apparent, as Willa­rd had a more mature ­look and feel to him.­ Sebastian waved his ­hand instructing the ­maids out of the hall­.

“Brother, you made it­ back alive,” Sebasti­an said with a smile ­as he approached Will­ard.

“That day you left, I­ had thought the wors­t had happened. Only ­through the intervent­ion of Ade was I able­ to find out that you­ were taken away by s­ome expert.” Sebastia­n said recounting mem­ories of the past.

“Trivial matters of t­he past,” Willard res­ponded with a smile.

Sebastian called in A­rilis, who was instru­cted to quickly prepa­re a nice banquet for­ Willard and to arrange ­a comfortable place for him to st­ay. Willard introduce­d Nana to Sebastian a­s an acquaintance.

Wi­llard passively recou­nted what had happene­d to him during the t­wo years he was missi­ng. Willard purposefu­lly avoided giving Se­bastian detailed info­rmation about Aorah a­nd Nana. From Willard­’s point of view, the­re was no point in Se­bastian knowing and i­t was better for Will­ard since he truly di­d not understand the ­depth of Aorah’s past­.

After the meals were ­made, Willard, Sebast­ian, and Nana ate and­ conversed some more.­ They mostly talked a­bout small matters wi­th regards to what ha­d happened with Willa­rd. From their conver­sations, Willard coul­d tell there was some­thing greatly botheri­ng Sebastian, who pur­posefully was avoidin­g talking about it be­cause of Nana. He kne­w Sebastian was waiti­ng to have a one on o­ne conversation with ­him. Willard also fou­nd it weird that Baya­ wasn’t present or th­at Sebastian hadn’t m­entioned anything abo­ut him.

“Brother, it’s been a­ long journey here. C­an someone take my fr­iend to her quarters ­to rest up?” Willard ­asked after they fini­shed their meals. Nan­a got the hint that t­hey needed some priva­cy to converse, so sh­e bowed slightly to h­er host Sebastian.

“Oh yes, where are my­ manners? Arilis take­ young miss Nana to h­er quarters.” Arilis ­called some maids to ­clear out the place a­nd personally lead Na­na away. Sebastian le­ad Willard to his stu­dy, where he made sur­e the doors were firm­ly shut before turning around to face Willard.

“Brother go ahead and­ speak. What is going ­on?” Willard immediat­ely asked.

“A lot has happened s­ince you went missing­. Let me start from t­hat point to tell you­ what had happened.” ­Sebastian said in an ­obviously rattled man­ner.

“You killing Asyut br­ought about a huge st­orm in this city. The­ Helden family poured­ in all their resourc­es to find you. After­ a year of searching ­with no results, the ­head of Helden househ­old personally tried ­to get the Marquis to­ help in their search­ for you and your abd­uctor, of which the h­ead of the Marquis ho­usehold turned down h­is request. After the­ Heldens had spent ov­er a year searching, ­the head of the Marqu­is family did not wan­t to waste their reso­urces. This was the s­park that set everyth­ing into motion.”

“You might not know t­his, but the Minya fa­mily had always covet­ed the Marquis househ­olds prestige and con­trol. Seeing the appa­rent dissatisfaction ­the Heldens had, the ­Minya reached out to ­them. Of course, all ­of this had happened ­without anyone’s noti­ce of their secret meetings.­ The following months­ were slow and stale,­ with one exception being that t­he Minya and Heldens families ­had started heavily r­ecruiting warriors. A­t first, no one thoug­ht anything of it bec­ause there was no rul­e against recruiting ­warriors.”

“But less than a month ag­o the Minya family ha­d sent a message to a­ll the founding and m­ajor families within ­Marquis city. They st­ated that they had joined ­with the Helden house­hold and were going t­o take the city over ­from the Marquis and ­that they already had­ the support of more ­than half the forces ­within the city. They­ said they were openi­ng their doors to any­one who wanted to joi­n them. They also war­ned that anyone who s­upports the Marquis w­ill be killed off as ­well.”

With Sebastian’s word­s, Willard finally un­derstood what was goi­ng on. Things started­ falling in place for­ Willard, as he thoug­ht about the strange ­atmosphere of the cit­y in contrast to the ­usually busy and live­ly place Willard reme­mbered. “So what deci­sion have you made?” ­Willard asked.

“What decision is the­re to make? My Gerret­ family has always be­en on the side of the­ Marquis. I only sent­ word to my father in­forming him of all th­at had happened. I gu­ess the Minya found a­ better party to join­ them than my Gerret ­family.”

Willard nodd­ed listening to Sebas­tian’s response. He w­as secretly glad that­ Sebastian hadn’t act­ed out of cowardice. ­He also couldn’t help­ thinking of one person,­ the person that most­ intrigued him during­ his stay at Marquis ­city, the head of the­ Gerret family, Lord ­Jayesh.

“One thing at a time.­ Let’s see how the Ma­rquis family reacts t­o all this.” Willard ­gently laughed. “One ­thing is certain, no ­harm could possibly c­ome to your Garret fa­mily.” Sebastian was ­surprised that Willar­d had spoken with so ­much surety, he co­uldn’t quite understa­nd where his confiden­ce was coming from.

“At least one of us i­s hopeful,” Sebastian­ said as he sighed.

“Don’t think too much­ about it. Tell me, d­o you know where i mi­ght find a Saint?” Wi­llard asked Sebastian­, who had a shocked e­xpression. Who were s­aints?

That Willard w­as casually asking to­ find one. These were­ existence on the lev­el of deities. They l­ived secluded lives a­way from mortal being­s. How was it that hi­m Sebastian would kno­w where to find one? ­Sebastian stared at W­illard for a bit, not­icing the conviction ­in his eyes.

“You would have to go­ to the Blue Dragon acad­emy to even find some­one knowledgeable on ­that. As for this cit­y, I can assure you t­hat no one would have­ even met one.” Sebas­tian responded. They ­both conversed some m­ore before Willard le­ft Sebastian to himse­lf at the study.

1. N/a

Seeing Nana cover up Aorah in a protective manner, made Willard a little reminiscent of the past two years they had lived in the cave. Her innocence and unfettered devotion to her teacher was something he really couldn’t quite understand. “Nana quick go back into the cave.” Aorah said with a little difficulty.

“No, I refuse.” Nana said as her tears kept pouring. “No more deaths please. No more.”

Willard had a contemplative gesture in his face, giving the impression he was seriously thinking of something. His mind was already made up on what he was going to do, but the only thing he could think of at the moment was Nana. Willard had grown to actually care for this girl with the time they spent together. He was never particularly nice to Nana, but she had persevered and insisted on staying by his side. Slowly he had started to care for her like a senior would care for his junior. Willard dropped the dagger in his hands and walked closer to Nana.

“Nana get up.” Willard said as he reached down to help her up.

“I beg of you, please don’t kill teacher. Show mercy”

Willard thought about the phrase “show mercy.” When had he ever contemplated such a thing as mercy? In his world that word never existed. All his enemies must meet one fate, and one fate only, his total retribution. But for some strange reason, when Nana cried for mercy, he couldn’t help but be moved by her actions. He certainly did not like the sight of Nana crying for reasons he couldn’t quite figure out.

“I will show mercy.” Willard said as he walked Nana towards the cave. His words had created a relative sense of optimism in Nana who seemed mentally exhausted.

When suddenly, dark clouds once more gathered around Aorah. Heavy torrential fall of lightning poured down on Aorah. Each strike increasing in magnitude as it continuously harassed her entire being. “No!” Nana screamed trying to get away from Willards grip as the lightning mercilessly attacked Aorah. Willard held her place as the lightning continued to attack every inch of Aorah’s body. When suddenly, the lightning destroyed a pendant on Aorah’s neck, releasing a gray mist that quickly surrounded Aorah’s body. Willard was shocked when he noticed that gray mist suddenly appear. Before he could even react, a seemingly benign old man holding a large staff appeared within the gray mist. The old man raised his staff, and left it floating in the air, blocking the descending lightning. The old man carried Aorah’s unconscious body and then completely disappeared with his staff without saying a single word.

This completely shocked Willard who was dumbfounded at what had just happened. He couldn’t quite figure out how and why this old man had suddenly appeared. Nana who had also witnessed the entire ordeal was briefly shocked before her cries stopped.

“Who was that?” Willard asked Nana noticing the changes in her actions.

Nana purposefully looked away trying to avoid Willard’s gaze as he questioned her. “Nana, who was that?” Willard asked again in an obviously agitated manner.

“That was teachers senior.” She simply responded avoiding prolonged conversation with WIllard.

“How did he know to rescue her?” Willard asked Nana, who tried walking away from him again.

“Nana!” Willard yelled again.

“I don’t know.” Nana responded as she fell to the floor and resumed her cries.

Willard was at a lost for his current situation, he knew he couldn’t blame Nana for anything, but he had really wanted to kill Aorah. All he could do right now was blame himself for his own curiosity and also thank his curiosity. It was exactly because of his curiosity that he decided to use the lightning to kill Aorah. On the other hand, he wouldn’t be able to tell what the old man would have done if he had met an already dead Aorah, especially since he wasn’t in a condition to fight a new opponent.

As the opacus clouds all dissipated, shimmers of brilliant sun rays dazzled the entire floating mountain range. Willard looked to the very heavily destroyed mountain sights. In its splendor, most of the mountains had greenery surrounding them, little micro communities for birds and specially winged creatures, which gave a tranquil and serene feel to them. But now, most of the mountains paths had been destroyed in the fight between Willard and Aorah. Broken up pieces of earth from the mountains were falling nonstop.

“Nana, what do you want to do now?” Nana turned to Willard wiping her tears off and stared at him speechlessly.

Willard looked to Nana deciding what to do with her. Since he really had no idea if or when Aorah will return, he couldn’t really live her to stay on the floating mountains by herself or bring her on his trips. After a couple of minutes deciding what to do with her, he finally reached a conclusion. “Do you want to take a trip with me back to the Amber Kingdom?” Nana nodded her head agreeing to Willard’s suggestion.

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

Within a dark room, an old man stood watching over a young unconscious lady. “Little Aorah, why did you not call for my help earlier?” The man asked in a sad manner.

“I told you to never use two of those orbs. Now the damage to your core will be severe. It will take you a long while to repair if at all possible.”

“I told you to either kill that child or let him go, and now you have suffered the consequences.”

“Etimoah, I have failed in my promise to protect the little princess. Please forgive me.” The old man sorrowfully said as he watched the unconscious Aorah struggle for life. The damages from the lightning wasn’t the most dangerous thing to Aorah’s life at the moment, it was the rebound effect of the green orbs. The adverse effects of the orbs were its ability to fracture one’s core and internally workings of natural energy when taken in excess. The natural energy within one’s body were the basic entities for life. The heart, lungs and other organs were connected to the one’s core and were all supported by natural energy. Although Aorah’s body had been transformed to that of a saint, it still bore an internally similar marking to that of the average person, with the differences of being a thousand times more durable and connected to natural energy.

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

It had been a whole month since the fight between Willard and Aorah. Within the gates of Marquis City, the guards stood looking frantic as the gates and city walls were vibrating. They couldn’t quite understand what was causing the vibrations, until suddenly from afar a silhouette of what seemed like a carriage was moving rapidly towards them.

From afar, Willard stood in front of a carriage that wasn’t connected to a single horse. Both Willard and the carriage seemed to be standing on an earthen slab that elevated them both from the ground. The interesting thing about the slab was that it was moving both the carriage and Willard whilst creating large dust trails to the side. Willard through his enlightenment, while he fought Aorah, had gotten a better understanding of the earth surfing law. As Willard and the carriage both arrived at the gate of Marquis city, the vibrations that had increased greatly in magnitude all stopped. Willard opened the door to the carriage and helped Nana of the carriage. They both proceeded to walk towards the guards and gave them the usual toll. The guards stared at each other before they gave way for Willard and Nana to walk pass them. The entire thing had happened without any of the guards even saying a word. The shock front what they had just witnessed was just too unprecedented to them.

1. N/a

It wasn’t enough that Aorah had used one of those strange green orbs, but now she had used another. Who was to say just how many she might have on her. Willard had a bad premonition of what was to inevitably happen, if things continued the same exact way. He never could had have imagined that Aorah had such an object on her. At this point, Willard knew he had to think of something else to escape this fight alive.

Willard had an idea, but wasn’t entirely sure of it’s success given his current situation. His idea was to control the flow of the battle guiding it back towards the mountain where Nana was, and possibly using her as a hostage. Although he wasn’t sure if using Nana as a hostage would work against Aorah or if he was going to survive the fight all the way there, but for the moment, that was the only Idea he could think of.

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

At the closest town to the floating mountains, people stood staring at the sky as the heard sounds of an ongoing battle. This was the first time most of them had ever seen any activity coming from those floating mountains, and today they were witnessing something they could not comprehend. “Father what is going on?” A young boy asked his father as he tugged the fathers clothing.

“Seiyu. Run to the house and stay with your mother.” The father coldly responded.

All around the village, scenes similar to this were happening in some form or fashion. Some people took to praying to their various gods, while some others just stayed in doors with their families. Either way the day would remain a historic one within that village.

“Elder. What is going on?” One of the men asked the asked the elder that had just walked out of his home in an obviously panicked tone. The elder’s facial expression did not change as he watched everyone gathered around him awaiting his response.

“You all might not know this, but their are legendary existence that transcend mortal life. These existence are called saints. When I was a boy, I was told that only those saints were capable of flying and reaching those floating mountains.” The chief said as he noticed the looks on everyone’s face.

“I am certain that what is happening now has something to do with those saints.”

“Elder, what should we do now?” Another man asked.

“There is nothing we can do. We are mere ants in the eyes of these saints. If they plan to kill us, we will definitely be killed. Everyone go back to your families and stay with them, if we are all lucky nothing bad shall happen to us.” The elder said before walking back to his house.

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

As Aorah’s energy was swelling back up, the look in her eyes seemed to get a little more deranged. Her eyes increasingly got inflamed until her energy level had stabilized. With that sinister look, Aorah dashed towards Willard. Her attacks were unrelenting as it flooded Willard with nonstop dagger barrages. She attacked while simultaneously reducing Willard’s full fighting capacity with her sound domain. It did not take too long, before she cut off Willard’s path sending soaring back up in the skies. Aorah’s plan remained the same, she was aiming to cut off his mobility by fighting him on the air, where she had the overwhelming advantage of a saint.

The fight persisted for a couple more bouts. By this point in time, Willard’s body had cut and stab wounds all around. His outfit was completely covered in his blood as fatigue was slowly kicking in. At this point, Willard had give up on the idea of heading back to where Nana was. He was just giving it his best to survive the next attack. ‘Is this it for me?’ Willard thought to himself. Willard slowly started getting light headed with his vision increasingly getting blurry. ‘I refuse. I will not die here. My enemies must burn before me.’ He said to himself as he watched Aorah walk towards him. An all too familiar sensation seemed to grip Willard at that moment. He couldn’t quite put his fingers on what was happening but knew something must have happened within him. His vision increasingly got blurry as he was about to lose his balance and pass out, when he suddenly noticed the ring around his neck start glowing. Willard grabbed the ring that was tied to his neck with his right hand before he put all his concentration to his core. He noticed that red energy moving erratically within his core. ‘What is this energy? Why is my ring reacting to it?’ He thought to himself.

Suddenly, the clouds started getting thicker as it gradually covered the sun light. Aorah look somewhat surprised at the gathering clouds before a strange thought came to her head. She moved her gaze from the clouds to Willard who was currently finding it hard to stay upright. Willard opened up his eyes noticing the strange event that was currently happening before he caught a glimpse of Aorah’s strange stare. At that moment both Willard and Aorah both reacted simultaneously. Aorah dashed towards Willard with the greatest speed she could muster while Willard tried directing that red energy to the ring he held. As Aorah got within three feets of Willard’s position, massive lightning descended from the clouds bathing Willard and his surrounding. A minute portion of the lightning struck Aorah, who quickly managed to escape the onslaught of the lightning. She moved a couple of feet’s away from Willard watching the scene as it unfolded.

Within the lightning, Willard stood as he was trying to understand what was happening. “The lightning doesn’t harm me.” Willard said somewhat surprised. “This must be the power of that red energy.” A determined look appeared on Willard’s face, as the lightning died down. Aorah had a shocked expression as she saw Willard, who stood there just fine. ‘This is trouble.’ She thought to herself before she turned hill to run away. WIllard noticing Aorah run, stood in place watching her leave. When suddenly, he noticed Aorah’s energy drastically fall. Aorah who was mid flight suddenly descended from the air landing on a different floating mountain.

This was the opportunity Willard needed. He did not go after Aorah while she was fleeing because he did not really know how to control the lightning. All he wanted at that moment was to survive, but now Aorah had presented him with a gift. She was out of energy, out of breath as she slumped to ground lifelessly. “This must be the cost of using that strange pill” Willard said with a smile. Using the last bit of earth elemental energy within his body, Willard controlled the earth beneath his feet pushing him soaring into the skies. As Willard landed on that floating mountain, he noticed several things familiar with it. This was the mountain where he had lived and trained in for the past two years. That was his prison and was also his home all that while. Willard walked towards Aorah who was breathing heavily on the floor.

“Hahaha” Aorah laughed before she coughed up some blood.

“Isn’t it funny? You warned me that the moment you grow strong enough to face me, will be my last in this world.”

“To think it would only take two years. Go ahead, I have no regrets.” Aorah said with a strange smile on her face.

Willard had an indifferent look to him. He did not respond to a single remark Aorah had made, but instead picked up one of Aorah’s daggers laying on the floor. Before he could get close to Aorah, Nana had rushed out of the cave. “Please don’t kill my teacher.” She said as she dived in front of Aorah, covering Aorah with her body.

1. N/a

Aorah was surprised when she realized that Willard had broken her initial domain. “Incredible. This must be the power of that devine energy.” Aorah chugged it up to that mystifying energy she sorted. Her gaze immediately turned serious as she disappeared from her original spot and appeared right behind Willard. This move of hers was done a few seconds after Willard had broken the domain. She wanted to strike as fast as possible to not give him any opportunity to react.

As her hand extended in a grabbing motion aiming for the back of Willard’s neck, Aorah felt the weight of her body increase exponentially. Her originally fast motion had decreased over fifty percent giving Willard the time to adequately react. Willard moved away from the reach of her hands and stood firmly with a smile. ‘Impossible. How can his domain be at such a level?’ Aorah silently thought to herself. Willard breaking her domain could be overlooked because that was the most basic of domains she could cast. The fact that he could react in time and create a domain of his own, capable of affecting a saint, meant that he was at the threshold of a saints power level. This especially surprised Aorah, who was a saint herself, because in her lifetime she had never seen or heard of anyone who had the combat ability of a saint at the age of twenty.

“It seems I really cant hold back against you,” Aorah said as the focus in her eyes changes. Suddenly, the air around the cliff started moving in an irregular manner, which easily broke the gravitational domain Willard had created.

“Teacher!” Nana called in a panicked voice as she noticed what was about to happen.

“Nana go back to the cave.”

Dust slowly started swirling around Willard followed closely by cracks to the ground. Willard had already activated the earth energy to strengthen his body. The entire floating mountain was vibrating as all this was happening. Standing in the same position, the broken up rocks and dust started from the cracks all flew towards willard, forming a complete protective earth armor around his body. The earth armor covered every inch of his body including his face, which had two openings for his eyes. Without a moment to waste, Aorah charged towards Willard, with the greatest speed she could muster, holding her short dagger. Her speed, this time around, was much faster than when she had tried to subdue Willard, who in turn was adequately prepared for her attack. Aorah attacked with her dagger aiming to score a fatal hit to the neck but was met with an equally powerful punch of the earth armored Willard. Both their attacks canceled each other’s with Aorah having a slight advantage. Her dagger had broken through most of the earth armor surrounding Willard’s fist and also pushed him back a couple of steps.

Willard had been pushed closer to the end of the cliff from that attack. Aorah continued her offense as she rushed to engage him once again in close quarters exchange. This time, as Aorah got close to Willard, she willed the wind element to form a torrential flow of wind pressure, pushing Willard entirely off the floating mountain they had been fighting on. As Willard was floating on the air, the crumbled up pieces of earth from that mountain formed a trail in pursuit of Willard. Each earth peice kept adding itself to a different position along Willard’s body. While soaring the air, Willard caught a glimpse of a closeby floating mountain. By controlling the weight of the earth armor, Willard was able to change his trajectory and land on that floating mountain. Following closely in his path was Aorah who was coming in great speed as she was descending. Willard controlled the earth on the mountain to form long conical protrusions with a sharply pointed ends in anticipation of her landing. As Aorah was descending she also willed the wind to form wind blades that smoothly cut those spikes that littered the surface of thee mountain. Just like always, the broken up pieces of earth all flew towards Willard reinforcing his earth armor.

Nana who was at the distant mountain could only watch as they both fought. All she could see were dust particle surrounding the both of them as their exchange continued. For one of the first times, since she had started living with Aorah, she was truly conflicted internally. Although she had a love interest in Willard she couldn’t possibly hope he was the victor ahead of Aorah who was her teacher and had been with her since she was an orphan. She was truly grief stricken as she watched them fight. “Please stop.” She yelled as tears began pouring from her eyes. She knew nothing she said or did was going to change anything, but all she could do at this point was hope.

“To think you would be this strong. I truly must admit, you are a peerless genius. Unfortunately for you, I have had years to prepare for this battle.” Aorah said to Willard as she swallowed a green pill in the form of an orb. Within seconds of ingesting the pill, a wild burst of wind energy emanated from Aorah’s body. “Get ready Willard. Things will get very difficult from now on.”

Aorah charged towards Willard again. Although Willard had activated a gravitational domain around Aorah, it did not do much in mitigating the speed at which she had gotten to him. Aorah stabbed aiming for Willard’s heart. Willard was able to move his left hand just in time to defend against the attack, but to his complete surprise, that attack had blown off the entire earth armor surrounding his entire arm. Droplets of blood splattered across the floor as the dust settled. “Interesting,” Willard said as his entire being seemed to enter a trance. Unlike what Aorah had expected, a look of panic, Willard had a smile on his face. Aorah was shocked to see Willard’s reaction, but quickly decided it was false bravado. Willard immediately blew away the earth armor that had been covering his entire body. This also greatly surprised Aorah as it further served to solidify her original thought of Willard’s false bravery.

Aorah continued her attack as she rushed in with a methodological dagger play that was both flawless and extreme. The entire scenario was like a play from Willard’s past. Willard was like an animal as his instincts for battle took over. As he could no longer match Aorah in pure speed, his instinct automatically switch his fighting pattern from raw strength and speed to mainly focus on his only possible strength, his agility aided by the earth element, within the situation. Willard’s control of the earth element for his movement seemed to have had an instant breakthrough. He no longer wasted any energy moving his legs, as all his leg movements were controlled by the earth beneath his foot. When ever he needed to move, the earth simply just dragged him along the path he wanted. It was as if the earth had just taken control over Willard’s movement. The earth sunked downwards and raised him upwards when ever he needed it. This simple breakthrough had a significant impact on the fight. Although Willard was still at a disadvantage, he was faring much better than earlier.

Aorah quickly realized that her original advantage had been greatly nullified. She was astonished at what she was currently experiencing. ‘How can he keep improving this fast. This child is a true monster.’ Aorah thought to herself as she furiously attacked Willard. At this point, Willard’s mind was blank as all he could think off was surviving the next attack. Aorah noticed the exchange was taking her nowhere, so she quickly change tactics. She willed the wind element to forcefully try and eject Willard from and the floating mountain, but to her surprise found out that he was firmly in place. She continued attacking Willard, but this time she was control the fight and forcing Willard backwards towards one end of the mountain. At the edge, she willed a wind blade to slice off the portion of the earth Willard stood at from the mountain, and quickly used her wind pressure to push him soaring away that floating mountain. Aorah immediately took to the air in pursuit of Willard. On the air, she had greatly reduced Willards mobility. She fiercely attacked with an unrelenting assault from her daggers embedded with the wind element. After a couple of exchanges with Aorah in the air, Willard was finally able to borrow the pressure from one of her attacks to send himself flying towards another floating mountain. As he landed, Aorah followed suite. Willard already had some stab wounds and slashes all over his body, but he was happy with his results, because Aorah’s rampaging energy quickly began to drop drastically.

“I can’t believe this child is forcing me to this extent.” Aorah thought to herself in disbelief before she popped another green orb and swallowed it. A look of dread appeared on Willard’s face as he noticed Aorah previously depleting energy soar back up.

1. N/a

“By this point in time, our population had started to grow slowly. The surviving men had brought in wives from other wandering people and even my father had done the same. I told the tribesmen, I was going to spy on on the Kochet tribe and if the opportunity presented itself, I would stage an instant attack. I was strictly warned by my father to abandon revenge and live on, but I wasn’t willing to do that. At the fifth stage of wind elemental energy, I had reached the same level of power my father had attained. There was no one within the tribe who could stop me. So I continued with my defiance in pursuit of revenge.” Aorah said before taking a slight pause.

“Who would have thought that by the time I got to the fringes of what used to be the Kochet tribe, I would see the complete destruction and massacre of the Kochet tribe. I did not feel a sense of joy, but rather the exact opposite feeling. It was my dreams of revenge that kept me going all those years, but now the scene before me made that impossible. In my anger, I decided not to return back to the mountain and instead continue on my path to finding the other tribes that assisted the Kochet tribe. It took me three years in my journey to find a remnant of that battle.”

“During my search, I found out that both the Kochet tribe and the weaker of the two tribes that had joined the Kochet in massacring my tribe were betrayed by the Maidu tribe who worked hand in hand with both tribes. It turned out the Maidu tribe had used them both to easily eliminate most of the smaller tribes within their region, before betraying and eliminating the leaders and warriors of both tribes while assimilating their population. The Maidu tribe were in the process of growing to become a mid-sized tribe, so they used their enemies to kill themselves.”

“I watched the Maidu tribe for over six months before I infiltrated the tribe as an ordinary tribeswoman. It did not take long before what seemed like an opportunity to kill some senior warrior presented itself. At the first opportunity, I took the chance I got only to find out halfway it was a deliberate ploy used by the Maidu tribe to fish out traitors. There quite a few others who had the same idea as I did. In the midst of all the commotion, I managed to get escape while some unlucky others were caught, or at least that was what I thought at the time. I stupidly decided to head back to the mountain where the remaining surviving members of my tribe were situated. Unbeknown to me, a squad of the Maidu warriors was tailing me. As I rushed back to the mountain side, I had brought with me the complete destruction of my people. The moment I made contact with my tribesmen, the Maidu warrior squad descended on us all. They completely killed every single person within the mountain only sparing me to be brought back to the Maidu tribe.”

“In the end, I had brought the true end to my people. In search of revenge, I had killed everyone I loved and to top it off, I was now a slave of the Maidu tribe. From that point, I would remain a slave in the Maidu tribe for twenty-three more years before I had my breakthrough and became a saint.” Aorah said before she stopped speaking. There was a long moment of silence before Willard decided to ask a question.

“I am guessing with the power of a saint, you should have had enough power to wipe out the Maidu tribe or cause serious damage to them. So what did you end up doing?” Aorah only stared at Willard for a second before she completely ignored him and walked back into the cave. Willard, on the other hand, sat where he was and continued stargazing.

The next morning, Willard resumed his normal training. The only difference this time around was that Aorah watched as he trained. “Interesting. His usage of the earth element is very profound. This child is truly talented. It is just a pity.” Aorah lamented as she watched Willard train. Willard who in his previous life had trained for millions of years felt right at home with his current schedule. He would train for most of the day, only take breaks to eat, clean himself and sleep. Aorah, just like before would go missing for some days before coming back to the cave. One thing remained constant, which was Nana’s presence in the cave. All she had to look forward to was cooking and watching Willard train.

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Within a blink of an eye, time flew by and two years had passed. Willard was already twenty years, while Nana was sixteen years of age. She had grown a little, increasing just a couple of inches in height. She was no longer the little antisocial girl who sat off in the corner. She had grown to a young teen of sixteen. She had also started pursuing the path of a mage like her teacher. She was currently at the sixth level of natural energy, which was a stage higher than Willard was in for his village’s annual graduation ceremony.

As Willard trained, Nana watched every motion he took. Over time, her disposition to Willard had naturally changed. She had grown very accustomed to his presence and started developing a little bit of an interest in him. Although in the beginning Aorah sometimes took Nana to a nearby town to alleviate Nana’s boredom, but as the months passed, Nana opted not to leave the cave more and more, before she finally decided to just permanently stay in the floating mountain.

Willard’s training had been progressing at tremendous speed. In two years, he had reached the eighth level of earth elemental energy. His growth was nothing short of astonishing, one has to remember the higher one went in the elemental energy level, the longer it took to advance and also the earth element wasn’t Willards strongest attribute in his former life, it was the only element he currently had some knowledge of. But Willard’s speed had been utterly world shattering. Aorah, who had previously thought Willard was a genius had to look for other words to describe the level of his growth.

As Willard finished his training for the day, he proceeded to descend the mountain to wash up. Before he got back to the cave, Nana dished out their meal in anticipation of him. Willard ate with a gratified smile. Spending two years on the mountain with Nana had caused him to see the girl in a different light. Although he hated her teacher, Willard found no fault in the innocent girl that always watched him train. Willard wasn’t a fool, he had a semblance of an idea as to what was going on in Nana’s mind. For someone who had lived much longer than any mortal, Willard was clueless on how to deal with her interest. He had grown to like her, but his feelings couldn’t be categorized as anything more than kinship.

After his meal, Willard started cultivating for the night. He sat with his legs crossed as he meditated. Willard’s core was like endless abyss as it sucked in earth elemental energy in great proportions. The flow of the earth elemental energy within the cave gave the entire place a slight chilling effect. Time flowed as usual as night slowly turned to day. Early the next morning, a huge earth elemental pulse emanated from Willard. Willard broke into a huge smile as he knew he had just broken through to the ninth level of elemental energy.

Within a nearby village, Aorah who had been sitting and drinking wine turned and looked towards the floating mountain. “How can he advance this fast? This is a little troubling.” Aorah said to herself with a frown on her face as she immediately disappeared from the village. Willard noticed a change in the surrounding natural energy and turned to look at the location. “So you came? I am guessing you can no longer take your chances in waiting.” Willard said as he slowly walked out of the cave.

“You are truly gifted. I am afraid you are correct, I can no longer watch you grow. Tell me how you cultivate that devine energy and I promise to let you live.”

“Hahahaha.” Willard laughed loudly. His laughter echoed within the cave, waking Nana from her slumber. Aorah gave Willard a side glance before she released her sound domain. This time around, as Willard noticed the descending energy on his body, he willed his elemental energy from his core, releasing in short pulses. For the first time since he encountered Aorah, he was able to break the domain she tried placing on him. Willard thought back to how many times this domain had caused him to immediately pass out without his control. Now the situation was different, he finally had enough strength to retain his consciousness.

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