Rossi Household, Imperium Capital City.
The servants prudently worked around the area. Some of the guards patrolled the perimeter while the rest stationed themselves in places with a clear view of the surroundings.
A transparent fog permeated around the surroundings. Not one of the guards noticed it even though they were platinum-level fighters.
A servant swept the floor when he noticed something amiss.
His nose twitched and sniffed the air.
“What’s with this smell? Why do I feel… slee..py…”
Thud!
He collapsed on the ground.
“S***! An… att..”
The guards and everyone else followed soon after.
The sleeping effect was so potent that they couldn’t do anything after having one single sniff of this mysterious fog.
Soft footsteps resounded nearby.
Two figures walked out of the fog, with the one on the left grabbing his robe and letting it out wide.
It sucked the entirety of the mysterious fog and went inside.
The person who absorbed the fog wore an elegant dark-brown mage robe. A symbol was strapped on each of his arms.
The symbol had a skull of a demon beast with long thin jaws and chin, with its horns curved and extended to the sides. Such an image formed somewhat a resemblance of the letter T.
The other one was naked on his top wearing ragged shorts and walked barefooted.
His muscles were big and sturdy, coupled with small and wide scratches imprinted in his rough tanned body.
Both of them wore masks with similar designs.
It covered their entire face imprinted with intricate lines on the cheeks. One could see red glows emanating out of the holes in the mask’s eyes, making one feel a creeping sensation in their spine.
“Damn, why are we tasked on this boring job? Aren’t we Templars? Shouldn’t we publicize ourselves and let chaos out? What’s with this subversive mission all of a sudden?”, the naked man complained.
His muffled voice echoed as he kicked each unconscious person they walked over in their path.
The other masked figure ignored his complaints.
“Shut up and do your job. Furthermore, why are you not wearing a templar robe? Are you…”
The burly man immediately snorted and cut off his acquaintance.
“Enough with your formalities. What’s there to worry about here? It’s not like Executioner Maganti would be keeping an eye on us all the time, will he?”, he argued.
His accomplice didn’t bother to reply and focused on the path ahead.
The small argument died out and they continued towards the second floor.
The elegant masked figure looked towards his left side and calmly spoke.
“In the third room, near that end of the hallway.”
Solus’s red light pierced through the large windows on the second floor. They were evenly spaced out from one another.
It shone on their masks and vividly displayed the mysteriousness their aura brought.
The two tread carefully towards the third room.
“Go! Go! Go! Beat her up! Beat her up!!”, a childish voice echoed from inside the room.
`A small girl? How convenient.`, the naked man smirked.
He strutted towards the door without a care.
Meanwhile, his acquaintance was alerted because of the voice that came out of the room.
`Impossible! My Fog of Slumber should’ve put everyone asleep! There’s no way someone could resist its potency!`
“Wait-!”, he reached out his hands to stop his acquaintance but it was too late.
“What’s there to worry about? It’s just a f****** child. No need to be so-“
The man’s hands were about to reach the door handle when a slight ripple in the wind went past the both of them.
`Eh?! An attack-!`
His eyes widened before he felt that he lost connection with his left hand.
Blood spurted and went to his eyes, blinding him for a brief moment.
Then, another ripple in the wind passed through and the two figures became minced meat, evenly cut in cubic shapes.
They cursed themselves for being too careless. And that was the last thought they had before a soft voice blew in the wind.
`I-Impossible… A divined… being… guards this place?!`
The elegant masked figure widened his eyes and saw a human dressed in glowing red-colored light armor walking out of the shadows with a smile on his face.
He noticed the emblem of the Tower on the man’s left chest which displayed a tower with a pyramidical shape of its roof.
`A Knight… f***…`
He closed his eyes and died with extreme hatred.
They were only master-level fighters at most. There was no need for such an overpowered watcher tasked to guard a young girl.
The middle-aged man lightly stepped on the carpeted hallway. His narrow eyes calmly gazed at the position where the two Templars were just a second ago.
“To think that Captain Emil saw this through. I wonder what makes that young boy so special for him to be treated highly by Captain.”
He smiled before stepping back on the shadows.
‘Creak!’
The door was opened.
A small head poked out of the door and curiously watched the empty hallway.
It was Anastasia.
“Hmm? What happened here? I heard some gust of wind outside earlier.”
She stepped out and went over to view the other side as well.
“Maybe it was just my imagination all along.”
She dismissed it and went back inside.
“Where were we? Oh yeah, about that angel and that human boy! Let me see, let me see.”
She messed with the controls for the magic screen and played the public broadcast.
The screen lit up and it displayed the scene on the platform.
“Oh, there it is! I wonder what happened earlier. It felt scary.”, she huddled on her teddy bear.
“Eh, isn’t that… brother Zachariel?”
She felt emotional in her heart.
The little girl had yet to see this big brother of hers coming over to play with her. Unfortunately, it never came.
Anabella’s fate was already unknown, leaning closer to her untimely death. With no one to look out for her, Anastasia tried to find ways to cope up with her depressing mood.
Sabrina was her first choice but she was too busy with her training. This led to Anastasia sulking inside her bedroom all day long, cursing at Zachariel for every second she didn’t see him.
After days of Zachariel not visiting her, she hated him and tried to forget him in her mind.
Now, however, she was having second thoughts about her decision with regards to forgetting Zachariel.
`Brother… why?`, gripping the white blanket in her bed.
Tears fell on her eyes as she stared at the muscular figure of her brother.
…
Zachariel tightly gripped Althea’s fists while he pushed Jeremias away.
“Althea, calm down.”
Althea widened her eyes in shock.
“You-!”
The consciousness that clouded her mind vanished and her normal self returned.
Zachariel smiled.
“You bastard! How dare you interrupt the fight between us two?!”, an angry shout called out to Zachariel.
He turned his face around and saw Jeremias with knitted eyebrows looking at him with hate.
“Hahaha! What an idiot!”, a childish voice mocked Jeremias.
Everyone looked over and saw Veidora smugly facing the platform.
“Idiot human, don’t you know how lucky you are for that brave man over there to save you from death?”, Veidora pointed his finger at Jeremias.
“What death are you talking about? This angel, you think her punch could kill me?!”, Jeremias retorted.
“Not her punch, but her curse, you brainless monkey!”, Veidora held out the laughter inside his stomach.
“Veidora, stop it!”, Elder Gorfo reprimanded.
He jumped out of his seat and hurried towards Zachariel.
This sudden turn of events bewildered the audiences, particularly the deans and instructors.
“What’s going on?”
“What curse is that elden child talking about?”
Emperor Marcus narrowed his eyes, observing for now. Since an elder from the Elden Conglomerate interfered, things might be serious and the curse could be true.
It didn’t really matter if Zachariel was out of the Imperium Dungeon if that was the case.
“Stop it! What are you doing? What’s with this curse thing?! And why is this guy out of the Imperium Dungeon? Don’t you think you should be someplace right now, Zachariel Strom?”, Jeremias didn’t waver and continued to argue.
“It doesn’t matter if he’s out of the Imperium Dungeon, young one. What’s important is that this young boy’s life is in danger.”, Elder Gorfo ignored him and went over to Zachariel.
`Althea’s curse is deadly and acts quickly. If someone touches him, that curse could spread over and kill them too. I need to be careful. The others are not here and it looks like His Highness doesn’t have any intentions of helping either.`
He scrutinized Zachariel.
`Did His Highness give up after what this young boy did?`
“Young boy, are you feeling-“
“He’s okay, Elder Gorfo.”, Althea interrupted. Her eyes were already closed.
Elder Gorfo was dumbfounded.
`When did this girl learn to talk against her elders? And she said he’s okay? Are you kidding me?!`
The last time someone touched Althea accidentally, it almost killed that person.
Now, she was saying these ridiculous things like Zachariel was fine after touching her.
Elder Gorfo ignored her and asked Zachariel again.
Before he could speak out, Zachariel let go of Althea’s fist and dismissed Elder Gorfo’s questions.
“Elder, I am fine. Thank you for looking out for me.”, he bowed and was grateful for Elder Gorfo’s kindness.
Observing Zachariel’s still lively skin and normal breathing, Elder Gorfo was shocked.
`The curse isn’t working on this young boy! How is this possible?!`
This made the humans question Zachariel’s action and Veidora’s previous statement.
“They said that girl was about to curse Jeremias but why is nothing happening to that Zachariel until now?”, Dean James blurted out.
“I think they might be purposefully lying, Dean James?”, Instructor Jaylen added.
“Lying?-“
“Impossible, the curse should be affecting you now!”, Veidora shouted.
The deans and instructors noticed the exasperated face Veidora showed.
This made them confused as well.
If the curse was real and Zachariel remained unaffected…
They didn’t dare to think about it. That would be otherworldly defiance for Zachariel to remain unharmed after contacting a deathly curse.
`Can Althea already control her curse, or is that young boy’s primal grade the root cause of it?`, Thalanil mused.
He already knew that Zachariel bypassed her curse during the incident on Emperor Marcus’s birthday. The only thing that was left was how Zachariel did it.
`Bypassing the rules of compound manalytic restriction. Now, he bypasses this deadly curse as well. I don’t care what the Great Human Imperium, nor do those idiots think about it. I’m going to get him today no matter the cost.`, Thalanil resolved his decision.
Zachariel’s mystery has far surpassed his expectations. If he could have him enroll back at their home, he would be able to observe Zachariel close enough and conduct ‘tests’ to further validate his assumptions on the young human.
Thalanil suddenly stood up, catching the attention of the people nearby.
`What’s this elden going to do now?`, Emperor Marcus was alarmed.
“Zachariel Strom.”, his loud voice resonated in the huge coliseum.
“We meet again, sir.”, Zachariel bowed.
Thalanil nodded at him and asked, “You should’ve remembered my offer. Tell me what is on your mind now.”, touching his long beard with his wrinkled hands.
“I-“
Zachariel was about to speak when a large rift above the coliseum opened.
“The Tower shouldn’t be left off of this discussion, Thalanil.”, a cold woman voice originated from the rift above.
It was 3.5 meters wide with space rippling on the sides like sea waves on a rough rainy day.
Zachariel could hear the vibrating space as his eyes observed above.
The rift’s hole was all black inside. He could not see what mystery lied behind the rift.
A group of people suddenly came out of the rift.
Many of them were humans while only four were eldens. All of them were dressed in exquisite scholar robes with the emblem of the tower embedded in their left chests.
The humans wore red and golden-colored robes while the Eldens wore light-green robes with white stripes.
Zachariel noticed a middle-aged woman elden warily looking at him.
She had long black hair and her figure was tall and chubby.
`Strange. Why is this person a bit familiar to me?`
He didn’t know that he was the one responsible for shocking the elden woman named Elder Sylvia who checked upon him during the wraith assault a few months ago.
`That human boy! I won’t be able to forget what happened that day! Damn it, I’ll have him pay for it sooner or later.`
She turned her face and followed after Supreme Elder Wyngella.
“Look! It’s the Higher Elders from the Tower!”, an elden student shouted.
“Higher Elders?!”, the rest were shocked.
Most people in Pandragea had yet to catch a glimpse of any of the Higher Elders from the Tower. To think that today was their lucky day.
This started a heated discussion in the coliseum.
“It’s rumored that they are all divined beings right? Nobody in Pandragea could best them in terms of power level! So powerful!”, Kaela gasped.
She had read the books in the Imperium Library and knew of the existence of the Higher Elders.
“Wow! Their aura isn’t any different from a normal person! Is this because of their statuses as divined beings?!”, Luiz noticed.
“Yeah.”, Luka nodded, “It’s said that a divined being is starting to merge its aura with the world. As such, most of the time, nobody would determine a divined being just by looking at them. Probably those who are grandmaster-levels could do it but not us.”
He looked back and noticed the seriousness planted in Iria’s face.
“Iria, what’s wrong? Is the arrival of the Higher Elders not to your liking?”, Luka asked, in which everyone looked over to her as well.
Iria sighed, wondering how could these people easily forget the reason why the Higher Elders were here.
“Guys, don’t tell me you have forgotten that today is Zachariel’s fight with Prince Kane, right? We were there in the Imperium Court at that time!”
Her classmates were then dumbstricken.
“Ah! Right, damn! I forgot about that!”, Luiz and the rest scratched their head in embarrassment.
They then realized the gravity of the situation.
“Do you think… Zachariel will win?”, Kaela gulped nervously.
Kane showcased his skills earlier and they had to think twice if Zachariel could fight against him now.
“He will. Trust in him.”, Luka faithfully devoted his trust to his classmate.
After all, he noticed earlier how Zachariel sneaked up on the stands before arriving at the platform to stop Althea from cursing Jeremias.
`That was quick and silent. Most of the audiences here didn’t notice him move for quite a while.`
That sort of skill far surpassed any ordinary freshman student. This made gave him confidence that Zachariel would really win his match.
Meanwhile, on the eldens’ side.
“Ah, Wyngella. You’re here.”, Thalanil smiled.
