"Sorry for dragging you like this, all of a sudden. You see, tomorrow is going to be a busy day for both of us, Azrael. And you don't have the time for leisure."
Azzy heard a deep yet familiar voice as soon as he found himself teleported to a place that looked like the top of a rocky mountain.
He turned around to find the guardian god, who was stroking the mane of a winged pure white lion with a smile on his face.
"Where am I?" asked Azzy.
Continuing to stroke his pet, the guardian god shook his head, "wrong question."
Azzy thought a bit and asked, "Is this about my answer?"
The guardian god shook his head with a smile once again and replied, "Wrong question again. After all, both of us know what your answer going to be. Think again and ask the right question this time."
Not having any clue, Azzy sought the Reaper's help.
About half a minute later, Azzy put his left knee on the ground while cupping his fists. He slightly bowed with his gaze fixed toward the ground and proceeded to ask, "What are your orders, Master?"
It was then the guardian god finally turned his head to look at Azzy. Letting out a pleasant smile, he nodded, "Yup, this is the kind of response I'm looking for, although there's no need to kneel. You may stand up."
As Azzy rose to his feet, the guardian god continued, "I guess Lord Chronos has informed you of my character. I may be more than three million years old but I was born in the modern era (before the apocalypse). These ancient rituals and stuff are bullsh*t in my opinion.
Simply acknowledging me as your master and following every order of mine as a filial disciple would be enough for me.
Anyways, since our master-disciple relationship is already formed, let us not waste time in formalities and get to the matter directly.
Here is your first mission as the disciple. There's someone going through a trial of mine. I need you to be the last boss of the trial and your job is to make sure that she fails. However, you are prohibited from using the power of your hourglass. Apart from that, you can use anything. Can you accomplish this task?"
Well, you can consider it as a test, both of you.
"Eh?" Azzy was slightly taken aback by this new master's first order. But then again, since he already prepared his heart to follow the guardian god, he questioned his master, "who is my enemy?"
"Wrong question," replied the guardian god.
Azzy thought for a bit and changed the question, "how strong is my opponent?"
"That is what you had to find out," replied the guardian god before adding, "Hmm… I'll brief you on the basic details though. She is in the 7-star realm and at the beginner stage just like you but didn't have a deity looking after her.
On the other hand, one of her Arcana spirits is in celestial grade though. As for her talents, she can be considered a master swordsman, can flawlessly handle any kind of weapon, is highly intelligent, a genius battle strategist, and possesses life-saving treasures."
Azzy knows only one person with such a description. "It is Leah Pendragon, isn't it?"
"Well, you can consider it as a test, both of you." The guardian indirectly confirmed Azzy's suspicions before sending him away.
After reappearing at his destination, Azzy immediately observed his surroundings.
He appeared to be in some kind of a large cave but was surrounded by lava. The ground wasn't also safe at all. There were volcanic geysers spread around the place, spitting beams of flames from time to time.
"It feels as if I was standing in the middle of a floating island in Lava Lake while being attacked by Leah's soul skill."
"Okay, it might take for Leah to reach this level considering she was still at 8th level, according to the guardian god… Ugh… somehow, it appeared to be a little bit difficult to acknowledge him as my master… Anyways, let's do something…"
Azzy let out a sigh and use this time to familiarize himself with Ruby, who he had never summoned in battle ever since the latter evolved into celestial grade.
During the past ten days, he only spent his time with the Ruby Crystalline Black Lotus within his mindscape as the summoning of a celestial grade Arcana spirit will not only bring unnecessary attention from the Supreme Commander and the other higher-ups but also put the nearby Arcana spirits in pressure.
He experienced the same with Vajra. The Arcana of his teammates had so much trouble just from the presence of the black lightning wolf.
But, here, there's nothing to be worried about.
Hence, Azzy didn't hesitate to summon the Black lotus, which is now in the form of a humanoid plant but with black lotus petals as its hair.
"Pui… Pui… Pui…" The Black lotus Arcana greeted Azzy with a wide smile on its face before lunging toward his chest for a hug. Since it was still a baby, it doesn't know how to talk like the other Celestial-grade Arcana spirits.
Azzy patted its back and then put it on the ground, "Ruby, we still haven't trained with your new abilities. So, for now, let's use your crystal armor technique for the upcoming battle. And for the practice, let's go with Crystal bestowal."
"Puiiii!!!" The humanoid lotus let out a loud cheer, excited to be back in action since its owner stopped depending on it, lately.
Crystal bestowal is the sixth soul skill of the humanoid lotus that will let the Arcana bestow its crystal attribute to any Arcana master or an Arcana for a limited time.
When it was in platinum grade and Azzy was in the 6-star realm, the skill is limited to 5 minutes and it can be only used on one ally.
But, since its abilities improved drastically, Azzy wanted to check the results, although not against a friend.
It is why he planned to practice before she gets here, trying to add crystal attribute to one of his energy techniques.
Meanwhile, in level 9 of the trial, Leah was in the middle of an intense battle against a demonic three-headed giant hound and its army of hounds.
"Ora…" She was swinging her blade left and right at her peak speed, slashing down every hound that was pouncing upon her while her Arcana was keeping the boss busy.
"Damn, they were still too many. I guess I have no other choice..."
Pouring 30% of her soul energy into Excalibur, she created a giant blade of flames and spun around a couple of times, not only killing more than thirty-six hounds of the 5-star realm instantly but also clearing her 20-meter radius.
Of course, the hounds outside the radius didn't stop by the setback. They rushed forward as Leah's sword turned back to normal.
But that distance gave her enough time to execute her next move.
"Soul skill: Lightning Barrage."
She unleashed her seventh soul skill of Excalibur. Surprisingly, it turned out to be of the lightning attribute. So, this means, so far, she had displayed the attributes of fire, ice, water, and lightning, well, atleast while unleashing the soul skills. What more secrets does she have? Only time will tell.
As she stabbed onto the ground, streams of purple electric currents spread to her 200-meter radius, turning every hound into ash.
In the meantime, the Aquagirl timely collapsed into a massive volume of water covering a wide area, extending the Lightning barrage range.
The three-headed hound with low-rank-9 strength also received the shock and became paralyzed for a few seconds.
Taking advantage of this situation, Leah didn't waste any time pulling the sword back from the ground and charged forward. She poured all of her remaining soul energy into the sword.
At the same time, the Aquagirl, which already attached an activated skill card to each of the enemy's legs, somehow detonated them using Leah's soul energy before disappearing.
Once the skill cards were detonated, they transformed into a countless number of energy worms, sinking into its body and then exploding.
The explosions were small but are too many in number, enough to completely destroy its legs and make it collapse on the ground.
The giant flaming sword reappeared in the three-headed hound's sight and Leah made a giant forward leap, aiming at its neck. "Haa…"
*slash*
With a clean strike, its head was separated from the body, ending its life.
"I did it…" Taking heavy breaths, Leah let out a smile and took out a healing card to tend to her injuries.
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