The night passed away with everyone but Avia sleeping comfortably in their respective rooms.
At around 6 o'clock in the morning, when it is still dawn outside but has enough light for people to go to their work, Azzy was sleeping peacefully in his room.
*Knock* knock* knock*
The knocks on the door disturbed his sleep and he was forced to wake up. As he opened the door, Avia was standing outside.
Letting out a yawn, Azzy greeted her, "morning."
"Young master, we are getting late. Everyone must be waiting for us," replied Avia in her usual tone.
Without opening his eyes completely, Azzy then said, "No need to worry. You can just use an excuse that there is a long line at the portal points."
"But, we have yet to finish the spar either." Avia reminded him about the challenge he spoke about, during the last evening. She was curious about his strength in order to estimate his growth rate. So, she doesn't want to skip this.
Azzy stretched his body casually as he spoke, "For a high-rank-7 expert like you, it shouldn't take long to analyze my strength anyway."
"Eh?" A trace of surprise appeared on her usual stoic-looking face. "How do you know that?"
She had a minor breakthrough a while ago but continued to suppress her strength to mid-rank-7 and didn't tell anyone about it. Clearly, it is impossible in her eyes that Azzy could become a Supreme realm expert. So, she wondered how he knows.
In response, Azzy continued to speak casually as if it is not a matter of concern, "I have developed a wide variety of skills. Anyway, let's go to the courtyard and be done with it."
Azzy spent a lot more time with her older self compared to her younger self. Hence, he was comfortable with her. However, it wasn't the same case for Avia. In her eyes, Azzy's behavior changed a lot.
And as if that wasn't enough, as the both of them went downstairs, Oakley, who was waiting for them, asked Azzy to go easy on her. What's more, Azzy even nodded to it.
Avia didn't know how to react to it. But, at the very least, he knew the characteristics of the Death Energy and she wouldn't underestimate him too much.
Soon, Azzy and Avia were standing a few meters away, facing each other while Oakley had a look of worry on his face.
Oakley then spoke, "Okay, if both of you are ready, we will start in 3, 2, 1… go."
However, neither of them moved from their spot, staring at each other. "hmm? What happened? Attack," said Avia.
Azzy answered without bothering to go into any battle stance, "First, you can test my defense, Avia. We can go to offense, next. You win if I fall down." He didn't remove the seal on his soul orb and intended to battle with pure strength.
Avia nodded and charged forward. Since she wasn't battling him but testing his strength, she suppressed her soul realm to rank 4. But then again, they were standing apart for only ten meters. Even in such a state, she only needed a second to cover the distance.
Upon reaching him, she threw a fist at his abdomen. However, before she hit the spot, Azzy's arm blocked it. Within that contact, she felt the toughness of his skin. It was as if she had punched a wall. She continued her attacks, this time, including another fist.
She launched about 12 attacks within a few seconds but all of them are blocked by his left arm while Azzy hasn't moved an inch from his spot. At the same time, Avia is starting to feel subtle pain in her wrist.
As she jumped back and stared at him, Azzy commented, "Too weak."
Avia raised her soul realm to 5-star and attacked him the same. The result isn't that different. No matter from which direction she attacked him, he calmly blocked it with his arm. And some attacks from the blindspot managed to hit him but couldn't move him from his spot. It is as if he glued his foot onto the floor.
Adding on top of that, his tough body only caused her more pain in her arms and legs.
"Too weak." He commented again, hurting Avia's ego a little bit.
She raised her strength to rank 6 and attacked once again in seriousness. She no longer tried to test him but intended to defeat him. Alas, the result was exactly the same.
"Not strong enough," Azzy commented once again, forcing Avia to stop suppressing her strength and attack him in full strength. She was furious in her heart and wanted to beat up the kid standing before her. At that moment, Avia didn't even think about the logic of Azzy's displayed strength that far surpassed her imagination.
She turned into a blurry figure in Oakley's eyes and then threw a powerful punch in Azzy's chest. When it was blocked, she poured soul energy into her fist, increasing its might.
This time, he didn't block it. Instead, he perfectly caught her fist with his same left arm and finally stepped forward a bit, giving a knee strike in her stomach.
With her arm tightly grabbed by Azzy, she just fly vertically into mid-air before falling near his feet as he freed her. Oakley knew that his daughter will be defeated but watching it in person is really different from the imagination. He was stupefied like a rock.
As Avia has a stunned look on her face, Azzy calmly stepped back and looked at the woman who trained him when he was a kid, "Now, you must understand the reason behind my confidence, right? If you didn't, then, we can proceed with the offense test where I will start attacking."
"No need." Avia closed her eyes and let her arm slide over her face, covering it in shame, "I admit defeat. Young Master, tell me one thing. What realm you are in?"
"The same as you, 7-star," replied Azzy as he crouched down. He further said, "But, that isn't the source of my confidence. I trained my physique to the extent that all the attacks below the legendary realm will be useless against me whether you use soul energy or not. In a way, I should thank you for that. If you hadn't trained me three years at that Gravity stairs, I wouldn't have learned the importance of tempering one's body."
Avia felt that the training she gave to Azzy to slow down his growth had come down to bite him in the end. She let out a deep sigh and said, "8-star physique, eh? With such strength, it makes sense that you managed to reach the 7-star realm in just two years. After all, you are born without limiters. I'm so foolish to ignore it."
"Hmm, limiters?" This time, Azzy was the one who had questions. "What are you talking about?"
Slowing getting on her feet, Avia explained, "Every person in this world has maximum limits to their strength. Usually, people call it potential. We can only find out our potential based on the Arcana that we awakened.
When you were in your mother's womb, Lord Qridus was assigned to protect Lady Crescent. It was probably on the 22nd or 23rd week; your parents visited a tarot master. He said that their kid would be born without a limiter, a once an Epoch (10,000 years) genius who doesn't have any walls in his way of soul realm development.
At first, no one took it seriously as tarot masters sometimes exaggerate things. But, Lord Qridus believed it for some reason. Maybe, it is because he hoped that a descendant of his would no longer awaken light attribute like him.
When we finally learned that you have awakened the Death Scythe and the Hourglass, Lord Qridus was under a strong impression that you are the reincarnation of the founder. And he was also the one who was most disappointed by your disappearance.
Honestly, even if you don't showcase your strength, he would have made you the clan heir once but I think you did the right move. Now, I'm starting to believe that you really had the potential to become a demigod. All that is left is to convince the others that you can replace Velez as the clan heir through strength alone."
Azzy patiently listened to her explanation and contacted the Reaper to confirm whether it is true. The Reaper answered with a statement, indirectly admitting that it is true, "It isn't a coincidence that you were chosen by me and Vajra. Never in history, has there been an Arcana Master who was chosen by both of us."
"Then, what about this reincarnation?" Azzy asked the second question, which he actually wondered when he was reading the Book of Death for the first time. Due to the similarities of the Arcana, he thought the same.
And now that Avia was saying that even Qridus had the same thoughts as his, he couldn't help but ask the Reaper.
To which, the Reaper calmly answered, cleanly dodging the question, "only the cosmic souls, which were formed after the death of the cosmic beings who were born at the beginning of the time, no soul is special. It is the physical body that is more special compared to those eternal living things that don't have any identity by themselves.
This body of yours is the one that is born from Izora Crescent, making you her child. This body of yours is the one that contained the soul energy worth more than 10 million SP, making you the Exalt realm expert.
So, you should stop worrying about pointless things like past lives, which has nothing to do with you, and just focus on the relationships that were formed by this body of yours."
The Reaper didn't say it clearly but how difficult it is for Azzy to read between the lines, understanding that his suspicions were true.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l