"General, the boy is here." One of the assailants informed the guy who was fighting Izora's blue lightning dragon.
"Then, what are you waiting, for. Go and take his head." Their leader gave the order.
In an instant, three of them left their battles and charged towards Leah and Azzy.
Leah hurriedly took out the Excalibur. She doesn't know who these strangers are why they are aiming for Azzy's life but now that they have brought the battle to her, she didn't stay still.
Raising the sword, she spoke, "Kneel before the Queen."
Followed by her words, Excalibur brightly glowed.
To everyone's surprise, four of their Arcana left their masters and just lay on the ground, paying respects to the Excalibur, which is the king to not just the swords but all the tool type Arcana.
Only those in platinum grade or the ones of the higher realm could resist its authority. Unfortunately for the attackers, only one of them possessed a platinum grade Arcana and another possessed a beast. The others were tool users with three of them being assassins and the last one being a swordsman.
With half of their power gone just like that, they fell into momentary confusion. The Reaper then spoke out loud, "all of you really chose a bad time to ambush. Even more unfortunate thing is that my soul power is running low."
"Hmm?" Leah glanced at him from the corner of her eyes. Why running out of soul power is bad for the attackers? Meanwhile, a few of the attackers tried to pick up their weapons.
It was then the Reaper raised the hand and unleashed one of his most powerful soul skills.
<strong>"Soul skill: Soul Absorption"</strong>
*Thud* Thud* Thud* Thud* Thud*
Five of the six attacks fell on their knees one after another as all of their soul energy was sucked away from their body and absorbed by the Reaper.
Once everything was absorbed, their soul orbs cracked altogether. They weren't destroyed, just damaged. In a way, their cultivation level saved them. As for their leader, General Daniel, he had lost about 30 million of his soul power, which depleted his overall soul power to below 10%.
Fortunately, world suppression only suppresses the strength of an individual, not their overall soul power.
It means that if a rank-7 with 90 million power battles a rank-6 with 9 million soul power at a level-3 region, while both of them have equal strength due to the world suppression, the suppressed rank-7 expert will have more reserves, thereby, having an edge over his opponent.
The same thing happened here too. With higher realm cultivation, General Daniel not only managed to escape the Reaper's soul skill unscathed but due to Azzy's soul power filling up after refining the absorbed soul energy, the leader of the group was also left with enough soul energy to escape from there.
At that moment, General Daniel already made his decision. He abandoned the team and rushed towards the exit at his maximum speed.
Cynthia and Izora chased him from behind.
Leah also wanted to follow but the Reaper's words stopped her, "forget it. There's no use in capturing him."
Leah looked back at him and asked, "Do you know these guys?"
The Reaper didn't answer her right away. He slowly walked for a few steps and stopped at an unconscious body. "Flip him."
Leah followed his order and did it. Her facial expression changed right away, "this man. I have seen this person somewhere."
"He's the child of King Ragron." The Reaper answered her.
Realization dawned upon her. "Now, I remembered. He's Gyllan Varen Eranyl, a senior student from the Dragon Academy. Two years ago, I saw him when they came to our academy for an inter-academy friendly spar with our senior division. Why does he want to harm Azrael?"
"It's Azrael's business. It's best if he's the one who will answer you," replied the Reaper as he continued to walk forward. "After returning, I'll inform Azrael about our deal and I hope you will keep everything that happened in the other dimension, a secret."
The Reaper took his leave without intending to chat with her or the Excalibur. At the same time, he sent a message to Izora that he was heading back to the city, indirectly telling her to meet him there.
For some reason, the Reaper didn't start running and continued to walk at a slow pace even though the distance to the city is over 350 kilometers. It was as if he wasn't in hurry at all.
A shout was heard from behind, halting his footsteps, "wait for a moment."
The Reaper turned around to see Leah rushing towards him. Upon stopping a couple of feet away, she said, "I forgot to inform one thing."
"What is it?" asked the Reaper, despite knowing what she was about to say. He was just playing along to hide his ability to look into all the possible futures.
She then said, "Azrael and I are going to participate in the senior division. Please don't forget to tell him."
"Of course, that's obvious." The Reaper nodded, "With both of your talents, it is a waste of time to battle the other geniuses who are still in their adolescences."
Leah's face glow up brightly when she heard that. The Reaper understood what was in her mind. She gracefully bowed, "I will take my leave and will come to Azrael's home to pick him up, this Saturday."
Leah used a targeted teleportation card to go to her Aunt who was currently chasing after the General of Rivendell.
With no reasons left to stay at the place any longer, the Reaper summoned the Black lotus and mounted on it before ordering it to fly away.
A few hours passed away. The sun is at its peak. Due to the hotter temperatures reaching as high as 90C (194F), the Elite or lower realm Arcana Masters (rank-5 or lower) couldn't help but set up camps and take rest or just use the soul energy barrier to offset the heat and minimize their sweat.
As for the Upper Elite realm experts (rank-6), they didn't feel anything.
But, all that has nothing to do with Azzy for he appeared to be comfortably resting under a huge Ash tree.
He suddenly opened his eyes and sat in the lotus position before looking around at the surroundings. "Where am I?" He wondered. Eventually, he realized that he is in the middle of a park, which means he's returned to the city.
However, Izora was nowhere to be seen. God knows where she had disappeared. He thought of contacting her but before that, there was something that he needed to settle. He closed his eyes.
His spirit reappeared at his mindscape. At the edge of the cliff, the Reaper is standing there with his skeletal hands back and staring into the horizon. Vajra is currently taking a rest. The wolf didn't seem like it sensed Azzy's presence. It didn't wake up.
Azzy walked forward.
Before he was about to call the Reaper, the latter opened up his mouth, "I was waiting for you for a while. I guess you had a comfortable sleep. First, check your storage card. Then, we'll start talking..."
Azzy didn't need to check it. He spent a lot of time with the Reaper. He knew the meaning behind his words right away.
Nevertheless, to confirm his suspicions, he summoned the storage card and looked into it.
"So, you acquired the Jewel of Earth, huh," Azzy commented slowly. After a brief silence, he asked, "at what cost?"
"An inconvenience," answered the Reaper.
"huh?"
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