"Claire, it's your song." "Claire" "Claire?"
"Ah! Yes?"
As the group of three was busy singing the songs, on the other hand, Claire kept on glancing at the door for a while.
"You are getting distracted for a while," Gideon asked her to concentrate on the song before her.
"It's been an hour since Azrael had gone." She appeared worried. "Shouldn't he return by now?"
"I already told you long ago. He ditched us and escaped from here." Snivy commented in a disapproving tone.
"Maybe, he had another appointment." Glancing at Claire, Mia let out a mischievous smile and tried to tease her a bit. "Like maybe that girl from the Moon Academy or this princess of Heavenly Academy. Who knows, Azrael is popular among the girls from foreign academies."
To her disappointment, Claire didn't fall for it as she was worried for his life. "Our academy is getting attention these days. You never know who might go for our life for the sake of eliminating us from the tournament."
"C'mon, you think of us too much. There are a lot of prodigies in the tournament. There's no reason someone targets us." while Snivy didn't take it seriously, Gideon's face turned serious. "Not us, but Azzy. He defeated prince Vann in front of everyone and he also displayed powerful Necromancy abilities. There are a number of reasons to target him."
Everyone's face changed immediately upon listening to Gideon. They couldn't help but think of the worse possibilities now.
"I'm leaving…" Claire immediately put the mic away and walked towards the door.
Just as she was about to push it, the door was pulled from the other side and Azzy walked in to halt his steps before her in surprise.
With both of them staying just a few inches apart from each other, Claire appeared stunned for a second to see Azzy at the close range. Her cheeks turned rosy and she quickly backed away before shouting at him. "Why are you late?"
"Um…" While Azzy didn't expect such a reaction from her, he slowly raised the plush toy, "On the way, I saw this Arcade place. So, I lost in time… Sorry…"
As for his intention of taking them back to the road and erase his captured skeleton beast, he didn't talk about it after realizing that it was dead and returned to his mindscape.
Azzy thought it was probably the function of that seal that aimed at him or whoever the target is.
"Here…" As he handed the plush toy that she wanted and apologized to her, Mia and Gideon let out a stifle of laughter, looking at the situation.
Meanwhile, Claire was touched realizing Azzy's efforts. Not knowing what else to do, she slowly replied with a thank you and shyly took the plush toy.
They stayed for another hour before returning to the academy. Meanwhile, Azzy returned home while being followed by that mysterious girl and her clones from far away without alerting him.
Upon reaching the home, he sneaked into his bedroom without waking up his foster parents from sleep and only greeted them in the morning only to leave for the academy to train once again.
***
Somewhere in the borders of the nation, there is a large area comprised of hills.
Until half a year ago, this place was comprised of a forest that was home to some indigenous tribes, a variety of species of animals, birds, and one of the largest rivers in the country.
But, everything changed upon the arrival of a peak-rank-8 expert of the royal ancestor of the Light family.
With a technique that he acquired from someone, he started to absorb the natural energy in the surroundings to aid his breakthrough to the next realm, instead of going to the Arcana world and face a rank-9 platinum grade beast.
Soon, it turned into a barren land with a lack of vegetation. The forest disappeared and turned into dried trees. The river dried up. The animals and birds migrated to another region.
The tribal people, who thought that their god is punishing them for their sins, also left the forest in search of another home.
After six months, aside from the man meditating in the temple and the predecessor of the current King, there was no presence of any human, animal, or even an insect in the region.
***
A few mysterious Arcana masters are flying towards the temple.
They were the Royal legion Elites from the Southern Qudour who came here only for one purpose.
"Are you sure we are doing the right thing?" One of them spoke out his worries. "We are going into the lion's den to kill the lion itself. What will we fail?"
The leader of the unit, Sebastos, scolded him, "Don't be a spineless coward. The enemy is nothing but a peak-rank-8 whose age limit is near and is only surviving because of some treasure that is providing him life force. His battle capabilities must have deteriorated a long time ago. If we work together, we can easily take him down."
He is the General of the Southern Qudour's royal family, which shares the same surname of Light as the nations were divided between the two brothers so that they don't kill each other.
Unlike the Northern Qudour, the Southern nation's government heavily depends on the royal family with every member working in the government and high nobles serving as ministers.
Although the King doesn't have any direct power, he still dictates the prime minister and the parliament from behind the scenes. So, it's indirect monarchism over there. With the presence of a couple of rank-8 and several rank-7 experts, neither the military nor the citizens dare to revolt.
Back to the present, after confirming the Royal ancestor's location, a team of elite warriors was sent by the king to assassinate him before he makes a breakthrough to rank-9.
Upon hearing his words, the youngest of them all, Argeia Light, a 500-year-old seven-star summoner, and the disciple of Sebastos, licked her lips in excitement, "if he lived for more than four thousand years, he must have several treasures in his soul card right?"
"That goes without saying, but don't forget our main objective." Sebastos reminded me not to focus on such material things.
After all, their ultimate goal is to bring Northern Qudour to its knees. Since colonialism is being abolished by the Union of Xynnar, they can only go to war and forcefully occupy the territory.
And the only one that is standing in the way is the Royal ancestor top both of the royal families. As long as he is alive, neither the nations can go to war nor can Southern Qudour accomplish its ambitions.
Intending to kill him when he's the most vulnerable, the team of six members continued to fly through the barren hills until they reached the temple.
On the way, they also sensed another presence outside of the temple. However, upon sensing the other party was only a high-rank-7, they didn't feel any threat and continued their flight.
To their surprise, as soon as they reached the temple, this seemingly rank-7 was none other than Timothy Light, who is no doubt their mortal enemy.
Timothy also sensed their presence, but he was completely calm even after they landed a few meters away from him.
"Well, well… Look who is here. Timothy Light…" Argeia Light snickered as he stepped forward. Being at the peak level at the seven-star realm, she wasn't a bit afraid of the old man before him.
"Who are you?" In response to Kreon, Timothy calmly asked about their identities.
"Why bother when you are going to die, anyway." An old man who was silent throughout their journey commented in a cold tone. "General, please give me the order. I wish to take his head to our family graveyard…" Anyone with a little brain could realize that he seems to have a personal vendetta against Timothy.
Kreon Bay bore a deep resentment for the royal family of the Northern nation who sentenced their entire family to death, more than two thousand years ago because one of their ancestors had an affair with the Queen. Not even babies were spared alive.
The survivors took asylum at Southern Qudour and settled there.
Sebastos knew how much hatred his teammate had for the northern royal family members. So, he gave permission.
"I'm Kreon Bay. This is the name of the person who will kill you and your descendants." Kreon summoned a staff soul weapon to signal the start of the battle.
However, just then, quite an unexpected thing happened before them. `
*pfft* "hahaha…" To their surprise, Timothy broke out into laughter instead. "I see… you are from the south. With your meager strengths, you are hoping to kill our royal ancestor? Forget about killing me and my descendants, none of you would even live alive from here."
His mocking made Kreon angrier and he unleashed a soul skill, right away.
A giant magic seal appeared between Timothy and Kreon. However, to his surprise, nothing happened.
"Huh!" Kreon was taken aback.
Timothy folds his hands to the chest, "C'mon, go on…"
Kreon tried once again. His staff glowed and the magic seal appeared once again but before it gets to complete, it disappeared once again.
"What did you do?" Kreon asked in disbelief.
"You lot really came here too late. Did you really forget what beast the royal ancestor commands?" As Timothy smirked, everyone's eyes widened in realization.
All of a sudden, a giant stingray jumped from beneath them. Before they get to move, it swallowed them in one swoop as it jumped a hundred meters in the air before diving back into the soil. What strange is that it passed through the soil rather than forcefully digging through.
After a couple of hours, a tall and well-built old man that seemed to be brimming with life force emerged from the temple.
"Congratulations, your grace," Timothy spoke politely while keeping his eyes down as he was afraid to look at his ancestor's eyes.
"Timothy, how long have been waiting here?" The royal ancestor Aethon Light asked him. "I sensed you after my breakthrough three days ago. It looked like you are waiting here long before that."
"Not for long, your grace. It's only been 12 days."
Right then, the giant stingray that was hiding in the earth jumped up once again and greeted the old man.
Rubbing its head, he asked, "So, what's the matter?"
Timothy explained everything from how Leo was killed to how an Elite team from the south tried to disturb his breakthrough and kill the both of them.
Obviously, upon listening to everyone, the royal ancestor was misled into thinking that Azzy is indeed a spy from the south who came to the north to disrupt his plans for the unification. Leo's death made him angrier as the chance to unify without bloodshed is now gone.
Jumping on top of the stingray, Aethon spoke, "we are returning to the royal palace."
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