"Royal Ancestor, welcome back." The King welcomed Aethon with a huge smile on his face. The heads of the noble families were also standing behind him. Some are pleasant while some are tense.
He was originally prepared to attack the Aclein Academy three days ago just like he planned.
Several nobles who decided to stick with him also sent their Elites to help the royal family after they heard the Church sent two peak-rank-7 experts from the headquarters.
However, to their surprise, the King suddenly announced that they will wait for a few more days and dismissed them. Back then, everyone thought he wasn't being confident and probably looking for more support.
Now, after seeing the old man on the flying giant stingray, they realized why he did that. It's because the royal ancestor has broken through to the nine-star realm and is in the state of stabilizing his soul energy. So, he wanted to wait.
The ones who lent support back then were pleased to know that they did the right thing. However, the ones who didn't send the support were now sweating bullets inside.
As everyone except for the king greeted the old man with a deep bow, the latter glanced at everyone and frowned, "Where is Aegis?"
"I guess he's a bit busy at the moment." Brian slowly replied to him. Both of the brothers don't see eye to eye. So, he didn't invite him to the palace.
"Alright." After asking about the Grand Prince, Aethon proceeded to walk through the entrance of the palace.
Everyone followed him to the courtroom.
"Brian, I heard everything from Timothy and I intend to punish those who obstructed my dreams of reviving the Qudour kingdom."
When the King heard those words, he was elated to know that his son's death will be avenged.
But, then, his next sentence surprised him.
"However, I don't intend to go against WAMO when there's no enmity. We'll wait until the tournament."
Brian remembered his father-in-law said the same.
He didn't understand why a rank-9 expert like his ancestor would fear that organization. Sure, it is a global organization with a few rank-9 experts and probably stronger ones. But, they will only make move when it an international incident.
Why would they confront Aethon over such a simple matter… Brian didn't understand what's going on in the old man's mind but he can't wait for several weeks without any proper sleep.
He fell into deep thoughts to think of a solution to convince this old man sitting beside him.
After a brief silence, the King spoke, "If Royal Ancestor orders to wait, then, we'll wait. But, we don't need to clash with WAMO. There's a simple way of doing that.
If Royal Ancestor gives permission, I wish to send an envoy to the academy with a letter stating that the royal ancestor wishes to meet Azrael and Barton Everglade over the matter with Leo's death.
If they surrender silently, then, our job is done. If they refuse, then, we have every right to attack. I wonder what the Royal Ancestor thinks of this."
Despite being sitting on the throne, the King behaved so politely that even the nobles present in the courtroom had a hard time believing that this was the same short-tempered fatty they have known all along.
But then again, the old man before them isn't a normal person either. Even the king's father-in-law was afraid to speak in his presence.
After the King received Aethon's permission, he sent a letter to the church for the need of an envoy.
He wanted to let Barton and the others know that the church is supporting them in this matter. With their assassination failed, the Church was also furious and deployed more experts from the headquarters. So, they too agreed to ally with the royal family.
***
<strong>Training grounds, Aclein Academy;</strong>
Within the forest habitat, Mia was practicing her Archery against Claire while Snivy and Gideon were training together. As for Azzy, he was sitting in one corner and meditating. No skeletons, no Vajra, just him alone.
His teammates didn't understand what he was doing but they made sure not to disturb him.
In the meantime, Azzy was concentrating on creating runes around his soul orb and successfully combine the seven of them to form the seal.
Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpius…
Eight symbols were formed around the soul orb, one after another, making a seal before latching on the soul orb.
They dissolved without any resistance. Energy chains appeared over the soul orb.
"Hmm? That was fast… Chronos, what's going on? I thought it was luck that I happen to perform the seventh seal in one try. Now, the eighth seal too?"
An unexpected result happening is luck and coincidence but happening twice in a row isn't a coincidence. He wondered whether there is something that he didn't know.
The Reaper chuckled, "it's because you don't have a sixth planet and higher planets in your soul to resist the effect. That's why the seal is successful. Now, continue with the next two and finish the seal."
"Oh!" Upon understanding the truth, Azzy almost felt like slapping himself for not realizing such a simple issue. He continued with the ninth and then, the tenth.
Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpius, Sagittarius, and Capricornus…
As the tenth seal successfully formed, suddenly, solar energy started to absorb into Azzy's body. His soul energy refined the absorbed solar energy and increased its capacity by a small amount while his bones also got strengthened further.
When Azzy realized it, he continued to absorb the soul energy for a few hours until the Reaper warned to stop it as absorbing solar energy during the noon is dangerous for the body unless one is rank-7.
He also warned to only absorb the solar energy at a forest or a place where there is a shade or physical protection from the sun rays.
Listening to his warning, Azzy stopped absorbing the solar energy and opened his eyes before summoning his soul card to see the improvement.
After hours of absorbing the solar energy, his soul power increased from 264331 to 266875, roughly 2500 has been increased, which is of course not worthy to mention but still, something is better than nothing.
Azzy's next goal is to passively absorb the soul energy all morning while being busy with other duties.
If he were able to do that, even if he doesn't go hunting, Azzy believed that he might be able to break through to the next realm by next January.
By the time, he reunited with the team, they were busy in training and none of them seemed to notice his presence.
Not intending to disturb their concentration, he quietly returned to the edge of the forest to train on his own.
"Okay, let's focus on the current problems.
First: My control isn't perfect and my physical attacks imbued in soul energy are still life-threatening to my opponents.
Second: My control over the skeletons is perfect as long as their numbers are less than 30.
Third: Except for the Decarune seal, I only mastered basic two trap seals in the past few months. One is an energy-draining seal and the other is a binding seal that can only be activated when the target walks into the hidden trap and that too, only work on those who are 3-star realm and below. Both of them are basic seals and are useless.
Fourth and final: I haven't progressed much with the Death Scythe and Hourglass because of very few opportunities."
He thought for a while regarding these four problems that are bothering him.
After comparing every option with pros and cons in the current situation, Azzy decided to go with improving his sealing capabilities rather than waste his time on the other three.
When he decided on it, he suddenly remembered the advanced seal that the Reaper used on Vann to end the match.
He asked the Reaper to teach him the move.
"No, you aren't ready for it." However, the latter rejected to teach him that move telling him that he needs to strengthen his foundations before learning higher-level techniques.
It made him go back into memory lane where he was forced to climb the gravity stairs to refine his physical body. Maybe, it's because of her absence from the home. Azzy suddenly missed Avia. He decided to talk to the clan head in his dream.
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