"That was some powerful attack, Leah," commented Azzy as he started walking alongside her to the exit amid the cheers from hundreds of thousands of spectators.
Leah bitterly smiled in response, "It takes a lot of time and needs all the soul energy needed to unleash it. It's almost impossible to invoke the great seal of lightning in a battle."
"I see…" Azzy can understand why she took this risk. It's because she doesn't want the people to think that Azzy was contributing too much to the team's victory. And of course, there's also her competitive side that doesn't want to lose to her partner either.
Soon, both of them joined the audience to watch the next semifinal. The winning team was a pair of sisters who are in their late 80s. They were nothing special when compared to the opponents Azzy and Leah fought until now.
From top-16 to semifinals, these sisters of 7-star-realm (low-rank-7) only depended on earth-grade armor to defend themselves and use powerful illusions to trap the opponents before dealing the finishing blow with offensive-type skill cards. Rather than skilled Arcana Masters, they gave the impression of a pair of rich girls to the audience. Even Azzy was no different. He too thought the same. And so were the Reaper and the Excalibur.
Being confident in winning, Azzy and Leah didn't strategize on how to defeat them but instead, enjoyed the battles like normal spectators.
Once all the battles are concluded, Azzy and Leah met with their respective families directly at the hotel they were all staying in.
The King of Camelot appeared to be very satisfied with the results of the world league.
As soon as they met, he grabbed his daughter's shoulders with a big smile on his face, "Congratulations, Leah. Today, you made us proud. I never imagined that you would actually complete one of the Ancient Elemental Seals left behind by our ancestor."
Leah felt embarrassed as she was praised by her father in the presence of others. She tried to be modest, giving the entire credit to Azzy who was standing beside her, "if not for Azrael, it wouldn't have been possible to execute at all. Not only did he give me enough time but he also provided me enough soul power to complete the seal."
"Of course, Azrael also did a commendable job." The King nodded in agreement as he turned toward Azzy and then showered praise on him too, "I don't want to admit but I might have to depend on my divine treasures to defeat you if we ever battle against each other. At the present stage, that is. You are just 14 years old and will only become stronger in the future. In fact, if for your young age, I would have already talked to your family about making you my son-in-law but I guess, that's a thing for the far future. Hmm, maybe, after you turn 18, we can talk about the engagement."
"Wait, What!" Azzy continuously blinked at him in silence, being taken aback by his last sentence. The others around were just as shocked as him, especially Leah.
Before anyone else butted into the conversation and makes a mess, she quickly responded to it. Dragging her dad to the side, not far away but just a few feet away from others, "Dad, what the hell are you talking about? I already told you that he has a girlfriend and we were already been through with this matter, long ago. Don't embarrass me in front of everyone."
Lucas Pendragon didn't look like he realized his mistake. Instead, he said with a look of surprise on his face as if he was taken aback by his daughter's reaction, "What if he has a girlfriend? It's not a big deal. Camelot is a polygyny society. The gender ratio in our kingdom might have been reduced to 0.67 (608 males per 1000 females) but still, the law hasn't been amended yet. A man can still marry up to three wives."
While his voice was barely a whisper, Azzy and others were Arcana Masters with enough listening prowess to hear things from more than 100 meters away, much less a couple of meters. Naturally, everyone heard his words clearly.
Leah's mother, Zinnia Arbutus apologized to Affea right away, "I'm sorry. My husband tends to be eccentric sometimes. Don't take his words seriously."
"Ah, it's alright." Affea didn't have any words to comment on this. She couldn't help but glance at Claire who was standing beside Avia. Surprisingly, her face appeared to be a lot calmer than she expected. Claire was simply staring at Leah and Lucas.
Meanwhile, Leah was scolding her father, "Dad, even if it was true, you don't have to speak it like this in public. Did you think about my position for once? I still have to participate in finals alongside him. Now, apologize to Azrael and also to Claire. Or else, I will abandon my next battle."
"Ah, is that so?" Lucas Pendragon still didn't think that he was wrong, but keeping his daughter's battle into consideration, he apologized to Azzy as well as Claire for making statements without thinking too much.
Claire waved her hands and forced out a smile, "I don't blame you, King Pendragon. My boyfriend is strong enough to get all the attention from the world."
Keeping Lucas' position in mind, she didn't speak as she will never hand over Azzy to anyone else or something along the lines. However, she stressed the word 'boyfriend' to remind Leah that Azzy is hers.
And she wasn't also worried by Lucas' words now that her mother, the Queen of Triastal even gave her permission to move into Azzy's house and live with him. So, she was cool about the matter, displaying her maturity.
However, Azzy wasn't as cool as was. By staying silent, he doesn't want to let them misunderstand that he was comfortable with the arrangement that Lucas spoke of.
Instead of a direct reply, Azzy gave a simple statement, "If someone asks who built the Tower of Abel, people would say that it is King Cain, not the architect or the laborers."
"huh?" The majority of the people around didn't understand the meaning behind Azzy's unrelated statement but Leah and her father understood what he was trying to say. Azzy clearly indicated that he is nothing more than a hired guy and might not hold any relations to the Camelot once the final is over. Lucas felt like all the earlier talk about possible son-in-law and polygyny has now, gone to the gutter.
Leah was the one who was saddened the most. She thought they became close friends lately but only to realize that Azzy was only keeping his end of the deal she made with the Reaper. She doesn't know how to react for a while.
Fortunately, Izora came to her rescue by reminding everyone that they are standing outside of the hotel for a while.
Soon, everyone left to their own rooms to take a rest.
Being embarrassed by the whole situation, Leah didn't eat dinner with Azzy and his family and friends that evening. She went out with her parents to eat elsewhere.
As two days passed away, things became normal between them.
It is the afternoon of the day before the finals, and Azzy was in Leah's room, both of them were discussing the battle strategy for the finals.
While both of them decided that a strategy is not needed against those weak opponents, two days ago, but still, there's always an element of surprise and Leah wants to make sure that the gold medal falls in her hands.
Both of them were now arguing about the way of approach.
"No, our Soul Amalgamation needed our soul realms to be in sync for the maximum benefit." Leah disagreed with Azzy's suggestion of letting him reveal his real strength to the public. She further added, "Don't you want to showcase the ultimate beast to everyone?"
Azzy nodded, "Of course, I want to see it too but it just isn't possible anymore. I told you that Ruby has evolved and is still in the stage of controlling her prowess. The opponents will die if she goes out of control. You know that I cannot display the Death Scythe in front of the public unless it is absolutely necessary. So, if I can only summon Vajra, then, I don't see the point of using merge."
"What if we merge the three of them? Your wolf, and my Excalibur and Izarok." Leah's eyes suddenly lit up with a thought in her mind. "I will be the one who will control the merged beast anyway. Not to mention, you could just use Soul Absorption in your suppressed state and no harm will be done to the opponents' soul orbs.
And you should also think about the complications that will arise from the reveal. You are just 14 years old and have necromancy abilities. The stronger you are, the more assassinations you will face from hostile forces. At the moment, you aren't a threat to those strong organizations as they have Supreme Realm experts at the top.
Revealing your 7-star soul realm is the same as giving them a strong reason to remove you. WAMO might have your back for now but note that the organization isn't controlled by a single person. And in case, WAMO decided to deeply protect you from everyone, you might have to compromise your own freedom.
Why take such unnecessary risks when you have the power to defeat our opponents using the rank-6 soul realm. You can always use natural energy anyways. Think about it for a moment."
"Hmm…" Azzy briefly fell into thoughts and realized that Leah wasn't wrong. But, the biggest question here is whether Leah was convincing him for his own sake, or was she doing all this to prevent him from gaining all the attention?
Azzy was thinking of all the possible scenarios. And before he made the decision, the door was knocked on continuously.
*knock* knock* knock*
"Hmm?"
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