“You’re no match for me, human!”, Raffila mocked.
“Our great leader’s wrong about you! There’s nothing good about you! You wanted to fight against our princess, yet you can’t even deal with me easily!”
Raffila laughed evilly. Pockets of saliva would fly out of her mouth every time she spoke loudly.
“You talk too much.”, Zachariel calmly replied.
“Oh, you’re going to beat me up now?”, Raffila licked her lips.
Raffila suddenly felt a fist on her stomach that hit it hard. Two slaps then hit her face on both sides.
She wanted to counterattack but Zachariel was too fast for her to catch up.
“You’re… slow…”, Zachariel said as he pointed his left index finger on her left cheek.
Raffila was angered by this and sent out a kick backward, but Zachariel was no longer there.
“There are two primary ways to deal with people like you. Being faster, or…”
Several fireballs, darkness beams, and water serpents were simultaneously casted behind Zachariel.
“Overwhelm you.”
Zachariel wanted to send them out but the captain guard was faster.
He felt the threat of Zachariel’s spells and stepped up, “Halt! The winner is Sentinel!”
Raffila slumped on the floor, sweating profusely. Her horror-stricken eyes were visible for everyone to see.
The captain guard cautiously stared at Zachariel, `This brat! How can he conjure multiple spells of different elements simultaneously?!`
Thalanil was entertained and intrigued, “What now, my dear child? Do you still think he’s not worthy of your match?”, chuckling and extended his palms, pointing it to Zachariel.
In his mind, however, he was racking his brains on how could Zachariel bypass the compound manalytic restriction.
`No being, even divined, could bypass such a rule. Although I could achieve the same visuals like this brat, the process would be a step-by-step casting of fireballs, darkness beams, and water serpents.`
`All of the different mana essences were gathered at once. Not a single one of them contradicted nor mixed up with one another. Very mysterious indeed.`
The humans were as shocked as the eldens were.
“Senior Edward, Za-Zachariel won!”, Rainald stuttered.
He looked at Edward who had a stupefied expression on his face.
If only he knew what Edward was thinking right now, Rainald would’ve spanked this senior of his very hard.
`F*** yes! That brat won the duel! Now my dad’s not going to kill me!`
Luna was fervent after seeing Zachariel’s prowess, “Look at that Lina! He could cast multiple spells at once! He’s at my level. Hey bitch, get off there! I need to-!”
Lina covered Luna’s mouth.
“Sister, you’re overly excited today! Stop it, please!”
Victoria sighed on the sides, `Oh, thank the Elders. He’s safe.`
She was worried that Zachariel was going to be beaten to a pulp like Helena.
“Tsk!”, Helena was annoyed and gripped her fists.
On the platform, Zachariel had already withdrawn all his spells and was walking towards his polearm when Raffila called out to him.
“Zachariel Strom! This isn’t over! You’re still no match for our princess even if you beat me, or any other Prospect from the eldens!”
Zachariel didn’t bother to reply and left.
The guards tried to stop him, “Sir, your money from the bets…”
Zachariel stopped walking.
`Now that I think about it, Lena wouldn’t really end up the alliance.`
“Give it to the Summer Household.”, he said while walking away.
“Come, everyone. We should go over Zachariel now.”, Iria stood up and ordered the rest of her classmates.
…
“Wow, Zachariel. How are you able to do that?”, Luiz asked.
“Its practice, Luiz.”, Zachariel replied.
“Practice? But I’ve been basically practicing all day?”
Zachariel only smiled mysteriously, intriguing his classmates.
“Ah!”, Iria tripped over.
“Iria, are you okay?”, Luiz helped her out.
“Yeah, I just don’t feel good today.”, she weakly said, holding over her head.
Her classmates were worried.
“Zachariel.”, Edward called out.
He tossed a small pouch full of gold coins.
“Senior Edward.”, Zachariel bowed.
“No need for formalities. We’re friends, aren’t we?”, Edward laughed.
`Wai-wai-wait!`, Luiz was dumbstruck.
“Senior Exalted Monarch! I’m pleased to meet you!”, he stuttered.
Edward laughed again, “These juniors. Why are you looking like fools right now? Am I that intimidating?”
“Eh, no, senior. It’s our first-time meeting you in person so…”
“Bah, you think you are demon beasts that I would hunt you down? Come on, forget about my name on the battlefield. Treat me like any other human outside of it, alright?”, Edward told them.
He then laid one of his arms over Zachariel’s shoulders, “What about it, brat? Want to have a rematch with me?”
Zachariel subconsciously nodded.
Edward smirked, pointing his grin towards Luna who had a dark expression on her face.
`That punk, I’m going to f*** him over! How dare you mess with this sister?!`
She charged over Zachariel, scaring all of his classmates as her cold demeanor ran over them.
She patted Zachariel’s shoulders, “Brat, you wouldn’t forget to duel against this big sister, don’t you?”
“Senior Luna, your hands are a bit heavy.”, Zachariel commented.
“I’m not asking you whether my hands are heavy or not. I want you to fight me!”
Zachariel weakly nodded to her request. He then realized that his upper body was entirely naked.
“I’m sorry everyone. I have somewhere to be right now.”, Zachariel hurriedly left the area.
On his way out, countless whistles entered his ears. Some of it even came from the male ones.
He became known again as people spread the results of his match against Raffila.
‘Thump!’
Emperor Marcus hit the armrest of his throne.
“That boy could already use complicated spells like it’s nothing?!”
“Yes, Your Imperial Majesty.”, the hooded figure spoke.
Emperor Marcus felt threatened.
`Even if that brat flees to the eldens, he will come back here again once he knows what truly happened to his parents!`
“What about those assassins?! Why can’t they deal against that brat!”
“They didn’t say anything, Your Imperial Majesty. The assassins backed down once they heard his name.”
“What?!”
…
Zachariel entered his dormitory room and placed his polearm on the sides.
“Come out now, nether wraiths.”
A dark-greenish aura emanated from his body, which transformed into smoke and then into humanoid figures.
“We greet the marked one.”, the nether wraiths spoke ethereally.
They were the wraiths that haunted Lena a month before, during the incident of Kane releasing a swathe of wraiths in the Imperium Capital City.
Because of the upgrade his body had undergone, the wraiths were able to put themselves inside his body.
They didn’t dare to communicate with Zachariel when he was inside the Summer Household in case Von noticed them and he would start questioning Zachariel more about the matter.
“What happened earlier? I felt that one of you wraiths was released from my body and entered my classmate’s body.”, Zachariel asked.
“Marked one, my fragmented memories recall that it is your ability to select people as your servants.”, the wraith honestly replied, “We thought that you were in the process of selecting one so we sent out one of us.”
“Servants?”
“We don’t know the reasons as to why you have this ability.”, the wraith added, “Your servants, however, could help you out on your adventures. Their talents and skills would be upgraded. Though how far it extends, that depends.”
“Is it that necessary to select my servants?”
“It depends on you, and it also depends on how many you would like them to be.”
“Will this have repercussions on my side?”
The wraith shook its ‘head’, “No, as far as my… or their fragmented memories could recall.”
A question then appeared on Zachariel’s head, “It shouldn’t be a problem if I choose Victoria, your, mistress, as a servant of mine, then?”
It was a daring proposal in the first place.
“No, it shouldn’t be. You being a marked one does not restrict you in selecting her as your servant. Those two are not related things.”, the wraith cleared out.
“Though you should be careful of who and when to select your servant. My fragmented memories recall that an excruciating pain would befall upon them for days or maybe weeks.”
“I see. You should go back now, we’ll talk more in another day.”, Zachariel said.
The wraiths smoked their way back to Zachariel’s body.
He looked at the clock.
`It’s almost nighttime. The eldens will surely challenge me now and then. The next 2 weeks are going to be busy.`
“Stop it right over there! What are you doing inside the dormitory rooms, huh?!”
A shout right outside Zachariel’s room resounded.
“F***!”
Sounds of thumping entered his ears. Zachariel became curious.
“Hold him, and tie him up!”
Zachariel opened the door and saw three Imperium guards tying down a middle-aged man in front of his room’s door.
“Student, stay back. This man is dangerous!”, one of them advised.
“There! Now, get the f*** up! We’re taking you to the jail.”
A lot of students were watching the scene play out. They were murmuring things like dangerous, fear, and the similar.
“Student, be careful out there. There are dangerous people like that man now and then in the streets. If you see one, call out for the guards immediately, okay?”
“Sir, may I know what that guy was after?”
“We saw him lockpicking your door. Those guys have been known to kidnap young students like you lately.”
`Lockpicking my door?`, Zachariel was confused, `In broad daylight?`
“We’ll be going now.”
The guards left the area. Zachariel observed them and returned to his room.
`Now that I think about it, I forgot to visit Anastasia today.`
Unfortunately, it was raining outside hard.
In the small mansion of the Rossi Household inside the Noble Area.
Anastasia sat at the closed window, looking at the falling raindrops from the sky.
“Why is brother not coming… He said that he would come over and play with me…”, she said sullenly.
Sabrina heard it and went over to her side.
“Anastasia, your brother might be busy today. That’s why he can’t come over.”, Sabrina tried to comfort her.
“No! Why is he always busy?! Why can’t he give time to me, his little sister?! Or does he think that I’m no longer her little sister, right?! Because he was just adopted, right?!”
“No, Anastasia. It’s not like that.”, Sabrina was afraid.
Tears fell on Anastasia’s eyes.
“Father is already dead. Grandfather is also dead. Mother can’t take care of me now because the healers said she was injured too badly. Only my brother remains yet he didn’t even go over and play with me.”, Anastasia cried.
“He is a bad brother! I don’t like him anymore!”, Anastasia threw a fit and left the area.
Sabrina sighed a long sigh.
“Are you worried about her?”, Leonardo’s voice echoed behind her.
Sabrina turned around, “Grandfather.”
“Sabrina, you should refrain from seeing Zachariel starting today. And when Anastasia leaves our house, you should do the same thing to her.”, Leonardo said emotionlessly.
“But grandfather, why? Shouldn’t we help them instead?”
“Sabrina, you’re naïve. Zachariel has attracted a lot of attention lately, and his enemies are numerous. I do not want to implicate our family’s future just to save a lonely brat and a cry-baby girl.”
The tone in Leonardo’s voice shattered the kindness inside Sabrina’s heart.
Leonardo waved his hands, “Go on now, and train. You still are too weak compared to the elden Prospects.”
Sabrina was left alone. She didn’t notice it but tears streamed down her face as well. Under the cold and heavy rain, all of her grief and sadness were slowly washed away.
…
The next day arrived and Zachariel went to the public training area.
His classmates were talking with one another, discussing an incident that was too familiar to him.
“Hey, did you hear? The rebels infiltrated one of the dormitories in our school! Luckily, the guards were there and they captured the man before anything bad happened!”, Luiz told them.
“Rebels?”, Zachariel interjected.
“Oh, Zachariel, you’re here. The rebels I’m talking about are those people responsible for the missing students lately. They are working against the Royal Family and has been in a lot of incidents recently.”, Luka explained.
“So, these rebels want to take over the throne?”
“Possibly. The Imperium guards haven’t said anything else instead of us keeping watch and careful.”
Hurried steps drew near their group. It was Kaela and Ksenia.
“Kaela, what happened?”, Luka felt bad premonition dawn upon him.
“It’s Iria, she has a high fever!”
…
In the Imperium ward.
Iria’s eyebrows were knitted together. Beads of sweat rolled over her entire body.
`This must be the side effect, huh?`, the culprit, Zachariel, stood behind the group, looking at Iria calmly.
“Kaela, what happened to her? Why is she having a fever all of a sudden?”, Luka asked.
Cultivators like them were highly immune to common colds like these. Unless it was a curse, a poison, or a very potent illness, it was almost impossible for a cultivator to be sick.
“I don’t know. We were about to return to our dormitories yesterday when Iria fell on the ground unconscious. We asked for some help and only found out she was feverish when we took her here.”
“The healers said that they can’t help much about Iria’s situation right now. The circumstances surrounding her symptoms are mysterious. They said it was something they haven’t seen before.”, Kaela explained.
Luiz gulped and felt afraid for the first time.
Iria suddenly groaned. The nerves inside her body enlarged to the point that it was visibly seen outside.
Blood poured out of her mouth in large quantities and her muscles were spasming all over.
“Woah, we should get out! Someone should call the healers now! This is not looking good!”, Luka shouted.
Zachariel narrowed his eyes, `Will she die?`
The wraith replied, `It depends on her will and her body.`
Zachariel started getting nervous when he heard that.
`I’m sorry, Iria. I didn’t intend to do it yesterday.`
What happened yesterday was a pure incident on his part.
His body acted strangely and out of his control, grabbing Iria out of nowhere and selecting her as his servant without consent between the two.
The healers rushed towards Iria’s room, closing the door after they went in.
Zachariel noticed Luiz shaking badly. The look in his eyes was a hint of fear. Fear of losing someone dear to him.
`Oh, so this guy’s interested in Iria, huh?`, Zachariel instantly connected the dots.
He tapped Luiz’s shoulders, “Don’t worry, Luiz. Iria will be fine. If you keep that expression up, she’ll mock you.”
Luiz’s heart lightened after hearing Zachariel’s words. His shaking lessened and his heart calmed down.
He didn’t know that Zachariel was as anxious as he was.
`He’s right. Iria will be okay. Nothing will happen to her.`
Zachariel smiled after seeing the change in Luiz’s mood.
Hours passed.
The healers went out of the room.
Luka and the rest approached them.
“Ma’am, how is our classmate doing?”
“Luckily, she is still alive. Her condition is stable for now. We will continue monitoring her until she is good to go out.”, the healer explained.
The mood in the hallway lightened.
“Is she awake now?”, Luiz asked.
“No, she’s still asleep. It’s best if you leave her for a while. The essence around her is acting strangely. It must’ve been disturbed by your sudden appearance that’s why she was convulsing earlier.”, the healer then left.
