Spring sunshine bathed the western hills with its golden warmth. The back mountains behind the manor was silent and still, occasionally the peace was disturbed by the flapping wings of a few passing birds.
The unnerving tension in this beautiful setting could be cut with a knife, Hartley sat in the patch of grass quietly and waited.
Loose leaves continually fell to the floor, rocking from side to side as they floated down from the canopy.
Bursts of colourful blossoms were blooming around the area, producing refreshing fragrances from the varied trees and shrubbery, attracting a golden butterfly that meandered around in flight.
All of a sudden, the solitary butterfly that was basking in the sun, erratically veered to the left, scared away by something emerging from the shadows.
It was a person shedding the darkness of the shadows, like discarding a camoflaged cloak.
A flamboyant figure appeared next to the tree, Hartley had never seen this person before, her slender figure was dressed in a pristine white brocade robe, contrasting jet black hair flowing down to her shoulders.
She was young and refined, moving with the arrogant and distinguished demeanour of a noble.
The young woman with an ivory scabbard attached to her waist, stepped out into the open, clutching a purple rose in her dainty right hand.
She eyed the only other person in the vicinity, sniffing the beautiful purple rose deeply, then her voice broke the silence, chiming out like musical notes.
"You have some potential, I've shadowed many better men than you, for far longer, yet they only noticed me in their dying throes. "
The beautiful young woman gave a back handed compliment.
Hartley eyed the beautiful features of the intruder from his crossed legged position.
The most astounding thing about her wasn't her beauty, it was her age. Hartley hadn't seen a high level young female saint in Aidonia before, all of the top experts were usually men with full heads of white hair.
Meeting this capable young woman was a culture shock.
A pair of golden wings flittered lazily through the sunshine, the butterfly returned, darting about randomly behind the woman in white, flying in a chaotic pattern around the shrubs and trees.
Hartley rose to his feet, taking a few seconds to brush his simple black robe clean of the dirt and grass clinging to it.
"First let's start with the obvious, who are you and who sent you?" Hartley asked in a normal tone.
"You are quite an intriguing little target," the young lady ignored Hartley's questions without any decorum, speaking unhurriedly as if she was in her own back yard.
She strode to her left like she had no cares in the world, bent and closely inspected a budding white blossom.
The ever present golden butterfly flitted across the scene, moving from branch to branch, landing on an orange blossom a few meters away from the lady in white.
After a moment, the woman in white straightened her posture and faced Hartley.
"You've got a certain mystique to you, I imagine the secrets you hold are very precious.
Research shows us that last year you were an insignificant xiantian. Now look at you. Vying for power with the likes of royal princes."
Hartley kept his calm and replied, "You, my lady are dangerously delusional, stropping around like you own the place, you've got an extremely abrasive personality. You tend to prattle annoyingly without getting to the point.
What is your purpose? "
She flashed a smile, exposing her flawlessly white teeth to the sunlight.
"Since you are so interested, my first purpose is to pry the secrets of your quick rise from you, my second purpose is to discard of you quietly. Preferably making it look like you had an accident with black energy."
Hartley stayed quiet for a moment, as if coming to terms with what she had said. He then asked confidently with his chest out.
"Can you achieve these things all by yourself?"
"Brave! But stupid." She said, her eyes began sparkling with a bright glow, shining like dark smouldering obsidian orbs.
The atmosphere changed subtly, the colours in the surroundings brightened like a filter was applied to the scene.
Must be a domain, Hartley thought inwardly, ready to counter. Nothing happened, they stood in a psychedelic scene saturated with colour.
The woman in white smiled seeing the perplexed look on Hartley's face.
Her delicate fingers released their grip on the purple rose, it slid from her hand, with heightened alertness Hartley watched the rose falling to the ground, its stem pointing upward and the petals flapping.
When the rose was an inch away from hitting the ground, the woman in white made her move.
Shing!
Her glowing silver sword came free from its ivory scabbard, there was a sonic boom, the wind whirred around in a frenzy, kicking up dust and leaves behind her like a jet engine.
She was already upon Hartley when the rose hit the ground, layers of its vivid purple petals unravelled and swirled across the scene in circles, carried with the chaotic wind.
A faint shadowy outline of a dragon rose up two metres behind her silhouette.
Hartley was stunned, he reacted with state of focus to buy himself more time. Shockingly nothing happened.
A half of a heartbeat passed.
Hartley tried to trigger monochrome, his time domain.
Even more shockingly, nothing happened. His heart began racing with panic. This woman was no joke.
From one stride away the silver sword slashed out with a diagonal strike, the trajectory of a blinding radiant silver arc flowed from high-right, headed low-left.
Panic stricken, Hartley saw the golden butterfly flutter into his periphery, it flittered around the chaotic greenery as if nothing was happening, unconcerned with fleeing the turbulence from the humans' conflicts, it was more like the excited butterfly was being entertained.
"The elements are still the building blocks of power, fundamentals are key, everything has to follow the natural order."
Hartley's eyes bulged like golf balls. He was in utter disbelief. The danger must be twisting his mind. Did he just hear the sage-like voice of a butterfly?
He was dragged back to reality by the words of the mysterious woman in white.
"You are the most unworthy man to ever see my face, I will take those eyes before you die."
Cold emotionless words fell from the mouth of this beautiful assassin, her radiant sword falling like an executioner's guillotine.
By reflex Hartley resorted to his blue star elemental power, it was the fundamental reason for his rise to prominence. The building block of his success.
He surrounded himself with a bright blue elemental armour from head to toe, dropping into a low defensive stance to gain a split second more.
Akin to a star wars light sabre, he summoned his long sword into his right hand.
The elemental sword extended from his palm with a bright blue flash, the colour even more pronounced in this saturated state of environment.
Thinking clearly again, he moved to the left simultaneously, his footsteps sunk into the soft earth under the pressure of the incoming attack.
He managed to raise the glowing sword just in time, pushing it upwards horizontally while locking his elbow in place.
Radiant silver collided with Brilliant blue.
Bang!
Blue and silver sparks gushed out so far into the sky, it seemed like a million stars were twinkling in the middle day.
The ground cracked like fallen plates, fissures spreading out across the ground like shattered glass.
A blurry blue human figure rifled back like a shooting star, clattering through a dozen trees that disintegrated into plumes of powder and rag dolling across the floor like a toy.
Hartley's bouncing body created a trench that cut a trail through the back mountains like a skilled surgeon, spewing up all types of debris that came raining back down seconds later.
The resulting shockwave from the clash left a spectacular trail of destruction, flattening a circular piece of the back mountains with so much force, it caused a torrent of black energy to flare out, scarring the area with scorch marks.
Hartley finally came to a rolling stop twenty meters away, battered like a loose vegetable being transported cross country.
Tap, tap, tap. There was to be no respite, steady steps came his way.
The elegant woman stalked forward with her robe flowing neatly around her figure, the shadowy dragon behind her fading away.
She hadn't broken a sweat. Her silver long sword was pointed forward parallel to the ground, moving with the stance of an experienced master.
Groggy!
Hartley's vision went dark for a second, the world swirled around him a couple times, he shook his head like a rattle, trying to get recalibrated.
A saint's body was like steel, yet he was aching and bleeding from multiple places.
It was safe to say that this young woman was beyond the second layer of the saint realm, plus the projection of that beast behind her seemed to be an innate ability that strengthened her more.
Hartley hadn't been on the end of a beating like this in a long while. It was like he was caught stealing.
It was unusual that such a commotion didn't cause the entire western hills to come flocking to the back mountains. It was obvious the battle was being shielded in some way. She was not only powerful but also prepared.
Hartley staggered to his feet, replaying the short exchange in his head, mind racing as he searched for answers.
"Don't make things hard on yourself, tell me what I want to know." she urged again, slowly closing the distance over the shattered ground like a beast stalking prey.
"We're not sure if you're using a speed domain, or a time domain, what ever it is, it won't do you much good now. Confess your methods and I promise you will receive a quick and painless ending."
Hartley smiled at her, his teeth stained red with his blood, he had regained a steady footing in the 10 metre crater he had created with his flesh and bones.
A second elemental sword extended from his left hand, producing another pronounced flash of blue that lit up the destruction around him, this time the sparkling blue blade was modelled after a curved short sword.
He stood his ground, dual swords at the ready. It was a blatant act of defiance.
Hartley was slowly starting to make sense of the situation, her domain was some sort of anti-domain, the real question was, did it suppress every domain in the vicinity or did it target one?
She specifically mentioned his time domain meaning she had come prepared for that domain.
Seeing Hartley's stubborn resistance, the woman in white flared with anger.
"I gave you a chance to die with dignity and you refused. Ungrateful scum!"
The projection of the mythical dragon appeared behind her again. Its shadowy wings spread wide, it looked down with arrogance like a king of all things.
She lunged forward, sending sprays of loose dirt flying, her pristine and spotless white robe rippling against her body, she hacked out angrily with four quick strikes.
High-right slash.
Clang!
Mid-left swipe.
Clang!
Centre stab.
Clang!
Overhead chop.
Clang!
Hartley riposted with four dazzling defensive parries, his swords faster than light with zero gravity applied to each blade, resulting in four booming explosions of blue and silver sparks around the two combatants.
The three swords moved so fast that the strikes would be invisible to anyone below the saint realm.
Hartley was thrown back five paces, the woman in white took two steps back with an incredulous expression.
"You have a second domain!" She almost screamed the words.
Hartley flashed his bloody smile at her once more.