With his thought, the bird flew higher and higher, observing the dark spot on the ground.
Suddenly, Celine turned around. A tiny knife he had hidden among his clothes arrived in his hand, which he threw in the direction of the dark shadow and the giant tree.
Craaak!
With a loud sound, the whole tree split apart as the knife passed through, and the separated part of the tree fell to the ground, creating a huge mess in the forest.
Behind the tree, a dark mist was slowly disappearing. Celine's knife had landed on the ground.
"Why did you suddenly use benevolent force?" The pixie flew closer to him and asked.
"There's… something here, watching us." Celine looked at the pixie, hoping for a clue.
The pixie observed the last traces of the dark mist as it faded. She touched it, but it did not stay in her hand for long.
"A concealing aura… someone has been spying on us."
"Us? But why? We haven't done anything."
"That's the problem, We still haven't done anything. They don't know who you really are right now. We just need to show them a bit?"
"Show who?" Celine looked at the pixie, even more confused than before.
The pixie flew around his head, giggling mischievously.
"Who else but my dear opposite?"
. . . . . . . .
In the darkness, on a large bed, Mordred slept comfortably. There was no sound in the room other than the slight sound of his breathing, which could be heard in every corner.
Suddenly, Mordred opened his eyes. Getting up, he looked ahead where a digitized vision appeared before him.
Taking out the gratitude token from his storage, he summoned a dark, shadowy figure. At the moment, the figure seemed injured.
"So, he has grown this much in such a short time."
"I apologize, my lord. It was an unexpected move. The guy somehow managed to see through the eyes of other beings."
"Familiar vision… seems Pixie is really letting herself go in his training. Get some rest. You've done enough."
Mordred recalled the shadow assassin back into the token.
Staying in bed for a few seconds, he then got up after thinking.
"Since they're trying their hardest, I should change the difficulty."
Opening a door, he made his way to his secret lab and started his work.
. . . . . . .
Morning came. Near Mordred's residence, birds sang to each other as they flew around the area. After a round, one bird landed on a carriage placed in front of Mordred's residence.
Mordred was dressed casually, but even in his simple attire, he carried an otherworldly charm.
Standing on the staircase of the mansion, Mordred gazed at the horizon where the bright and colorful sky stretched endlessly.
"It's too bright," he muttered.
"And you're not, apparently," his mother, Isadora, came closer to him with a smile.
"Oh… I am. Just… not on the outside, but on the inside… I'm beaming with joy." Mordred responded with a smile to his mother.
He then closed his eyes, letting the sunlight fall upon him. It felt warm—joyfully warm.
Behind the mother and son duo, Vanessa and Negun waited. Dressed in their maid and butler uniforms, they remained silent.
"Be safe out there, son," Isadora gave her regards as Mordred took a step down the stairs. His maid and butler followed him.
Today was the day Mordred was leaving for the academy, and three more carriages were already waiting for him at the gate of the mansion with guards.
"Farewell, Mother." Getting into the carriage, Mordred waved at his mother.
With the coachman's command, the horses began to move forward, dragging the carriage. Surrounded by the knights of Arclore, the carriage started to move. While traveling, Mordred saw his younger brother, Vandir, standing at the side of the road, watching his carriage.
Vandir gazed at the departing carriage until it disappeared from her sight beyond the main gate.
"Hyah!"
Leaving the residence, the coachman urged the horses, increasing the carriage's speed.
"He's going alone? What about the concubines' children?" Standing in one of the pathways inside the Arclore residence, Vandir asked his maid.
"They still have time to set off. Information says that Lord Mordred is taking a different road from them."
"A different road? What is he up to now?"
"Do you want to send someone to investigate, my lord?"
"....."
"Let's wait and see. And I remember, last time we sent someone to investigate, he never returned—even to this day."
In a different area of the Arclore residence...
"Argahh!"
A young man cried out in pain while lying on a bed. Both of his hands were missing, and the medics and healers were trying their hardest to prevent further blood loss.
Through the window of the room's door, a mature woman observed the scene. A medic stood beside her.
"How is he?"
"We recovered both of his hands, but reattaching them is far more difficult than we thought."
"And why is that?"
"There appears to be some kind of strange fire that prevents the limbs from reattaching. When we tried, the fire would reignite itself, causing further harm to the young master."
"If he can't be healed, you can forget about calling him 'young master' anymore." saying The woman turned around and left.
As she stepped out of the medical area, a butler who had been waiting for her followed closely behind.
The atmosphere around the medical ward was gloomy. The trees growing nearby had no leaves, and even the ones that occasionally sprouted would wither and fall to the ground instantly.
Crunch!
Stepping past dry leaves, the woman moved silently for a certain distance.
"Surpassing that woman was one of my dreams... but now, my hope has been crushed. This cannot go unpunished."
"Mistress, do you mean—?" The butler behind her looked at her with hesitant eyes.
"Contact those thugs—especially the ones who bear hatred for the Arclore family."
"Yes, madam."
After a moment of pondering, the butler finally answered. In the end, he was just a butler—he couldn't change anything.
. . . . . . . .
Huff!
A group of horses exhaled heavily after dragging a luxurious carriage. The knights surrounding the carriage moved to the front, gazing at the horizon, where a giant castle stood in the distance.
The sharp pillars of the castle resembled knives standing tall, as if ready to pierce the sky. The radiant glow it emitted was bright enough to attract attention from miles away.
"Draconian castle, at last we are here"
After the horses had their rest, the carriage started moving again at the coachman's command, heading toward the direction of the castle.
Hyah!
With a scream, a girl spun mid-air, launching a kick toward a man clad in full knight armor. The knight mercilessly struck the young girl's leg, deflecting it elsewhere. At the same time, he delivered a strike to her abdomen, sending her flying a few feet away.
The girl, with disheveled hair and dressed in light, soft clothing, landed on her feet and gazed at the knight. Clenching her fists, she rushed at the man again, grabbing a sword from the ground as she advanced.
Hyah!
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Sharp sounds echoed as her sword repeatedly clashed against the knight's armor, each strike being deflected.
At one point, as the knight parried her sword, the young girl unexpectedly let go of it and swiftly closed the distance between them.
She aimed a kick at the man's leg. The knight quickly looked down and lifted one foot, avoiding the attack. But unexpectedly, the kick never came—instead, the young girl's fist landed directly on the knight's jaw.
Ah!
From the strength of the strike, the man staggered a few steps back.
A few drops of blood dripped from his mouth and nose.
Wiping the blood away, he looked at the girl. With a hint of anger in his eyes He took a step forward, but—
Pang!
A loud clap echoed through the hall, followed by a deep voice.
"Excellent. Still in the Adept stage, yet battling shoulder to shoulder against a Beginner Morphs stage warrior. It seems the believers of the Sun God were right."
The young girl and the knight stood on an open training ground. The floor was made of marble tiles, and surrounding them was a vast hall with an open roof, allowing sunlight to flood the area.
Because of the brightness of the sun, when one stepped into the training ground, everything beyond it appeared drowned in darkness, making it impossible to see anything outside the illuminated space.
At that moment, an old man with a long white beard steps into the light of the training ground from that darkness.
His eyes are closed and had wrinkled eyebrows. Looking at the girl he talked while rubbing his beard.
"A valuable young girl with a great future, I hereby allow you to be blood Awekaning by our great ancestor's blessings... Does anybody have an objection?"
From the surrounding darkness, a few figure's silhouettes could be seen, but none of them showed any movement.
"Good,", the old man said in a loud voice, then he whispered to the young girl.
"Close your eyes"
Obeying the man, the young girl closed her eyes; she felt the old man grabbing her and felt her leg losing the touch of the ground; she felt she was flying, and the wind blew fastly past her. Then she felt like she was falling for a long time.
Thud!
Finney, after a long time, the girl felt the touch of the earth under her feet.
"Open your eyes."
As the old man instructed, the young girl opened her eyes and saw that she was surrounded by darkness, with only a few fire lamps providing just enough light to illuminate the few feet around her.
Looking around, the girl suddenly saw a silhouette of a giant beast. She could tell it was huge because one of its feathers was exposed to the light.
The feather's skin was like rock, and the young girl calculated that even if she struck it with the sharpest sword she knew, there wouldn't be a scratch on it.
"This is the blessing our ancestors left for us. Kneel and pray until you hear the voice of one who judges."
The young girl knelt in front of the giant figure as told. Closing her eyes, she prayed, thinking about her family lineage and the heroic deeds her ancestors had done.
It is said that once upon a time, the founder of the Draconian family defeated a Titan dragon. And with the death of the dragon, the ancestors received powers that would spread through the family lineage, even to this day.
Suddenly, a huge wind blew, and the young girl's hair danced in the wind. Through the wildly blowing wind, she heard something like a whimper.
The old man who stood behind her moved and walked past her. In his hand was a transparent cup.
Through the feathers of the giant being, something red flowed down. The old man held the cup with both hands at the end of the feather, where the red liquid dropped into the glass like a drop of blood.
The old man stood up and bowed to the giant figure. Then he walked toward the young girl.
"The one who judges acknowledges you as worthy. Now... awaken."
With the old man's words, the young girl drank the red liquid from the glass.
A moment passed in silence before the young girl felt her heart beat faster, and she felt as if she were being burned by intense heat.
Ah!
She dropped to her knees, clutching her chest. With the sensation she felt, she knew that something was happening to her body.
Through her pain, she saw something, even though she was closing her eyes because of the pain. The vision she saw felt really real.
In that vision, the fire burned the sky and the earth. Kingdoms were destroyed, and the living land was becoming waste. Through this fire, she saw a closed eyes of a giant flying creature sleeping in the middle of all the destruction and chaos. However, at that moment, the eye twitched and slowly began to open. The girl felt that her pain intensified as it opened. The eye had menacing orange pupils, like the color of the burning fire.
Through the young girl's pain and cries, the eye opened more and more. And at the end, when the eye fully opened, its gaze directly landed on her.
"....."
Silence. Everything was silent in the darkness.
Thud!
After a moment, the young girl fell to the ground with a heavy sound.