Leo spent the next week in recovery. Once he got out of there, he met up with Lucy and Hiro to train his combative abilities ever so often. Also, he finally finished absorbing Preaza's orb's mana into his skin and muscles. At this point, his skin was callous. Also, his hair started to turn light-brown in random areas. His body structure was twice the size it was a year ago.
A single punch from Leo has moved the one-ton punching machine in the training room. His increased strength also allowed him to catch bass the size of an elephant. The raw power of Leo allowed him to beat Hiro in a fight when neither of them was using mana.
Two weeks went by, and Leo was leaning on the rail up on the deck. A hovercraft was speeding in from a distance. Three personnel standing on the craft gave Leo the feeling of warriors.
As soon as they got to the castle, all three headed to the bridge to talk Fleet Admiral Nightengale.
"Misha! We are finally back."
"Welcome back brother. How was the investigation in the old country in India?"
"We found something. Near the mountains, we found a palace relic. Many human mortals were trapped in it when they tried to flee from mermanians. We also found out it only allows those at Mana Fighter and below to enter. The new guy we picked up, Aarav Kumar, touched the palace and disappeared inside."
"Reiner, how could you lose our new knight? What is your plan to get him out?"
Lucy walked onto the bridge and smiled at her uncle. Reiner was standing there in naval uniform and smiled back at her.
"Misha, I was thinking of bringing our local artifact expert." Reiner looked at Lucy again.
"Oh, no brother. You are not taking my daughter to that trap." Rarely did Mr. Nightengale break military bearing, but when his only daughter is involved, he couldn't stay all business.
"Come on, Papa. I can handle myself. Plus Leo can tag along with in case I get trapped inside." Lucy turned around and looked at Leo. She batted her long eyelashes at him as to beg him to agree.
"Yes. Sir. I will accompany her and guard her with my life." Leo told the Fleet Admiral with the utmost confidence he could muster.
Misha Nightengale thought on it for a bit and then said, "Alright brother. Team Blood shall escort Lucy and Panthera Knight to the palace artifact. If Lucy doesn't come back, I will kill you myself, Reiner."
Reiner laughed and said, "Team Blood rest tonight, and we leave tomorrow." Reiner walked out with his other two comrades.
"Sir." Leo saluted the Fleet Admiral and left with Lucy into the hallway. "Lucy can you tell Hiro we are leaving on a mission. I think it will go better if you tell him. I'm going to hop over to Hope and command the ship to follow Hiro's orders until I return." Lucy told Leo about some stuff to pack, and she left to talk to Hiro.
Right before Leo was walking to the side of the ship to move over to Hope, the two other members of Team Blood walked up.
One of them was a dark-skinned man, and the other was a woman. The man was as large as Leo. He had sharp brows and gave off an energetic vibe. The big man wearing a red naval uniform said, "hello knight, I'm Paulus the Dark Knight, and this is my sister Martta, the Sun Knight."
The women next to him smiled at Leo. This older sister was beautiful. Her feminine charm and short dark hair just made her seem confident and calm. "Hello Leo, I'm glad to meet your acquaintance finally. Reiner briefed us. You are pretty impressive to be able to fight a Mana Fighter at the Tempered Body level."
Leo blushed a bit. He wasn't used to being praised especially after being overshadowed by Lucy and Hiro all the time.
"Nice to meet you both." Leo just remembered he needed to talk to Hope, so he bid them goodbye and headed over to the boat.
"Hope, I'm back."
"Welcome back Master."
"Hope, starting tomorrow you shall follow all the commands given by Hiro until I return from my trip."
"Master, how long will you be gone?"
"I don't know Hope, but I will return as quick as possible." Leo hadn't been with Hope for long, but talking with her started to help Leo heal. She reminded him of Sprite, but it was always in a good way.
The next morning Leo packed up a satchel of his stuff. He stuffed his knives into his boot. Leo placed the metal orb into his pocket with his pocket knife. After putting the sphere in his pocket, he took it out. Holding it up, he looked at it and said, "this orb is probably an artifact too, now that I think about it."
He thought back to the message he got and promise that was asked of him. The she-bear god Asdzání Shash Nádleehé asked him to kill the Coyote God. That means if the god ascended then, Leo might run into him one day. If he did, he would have to fulfill the promise he made.
"I wonder what the God did to anger the woman so much to want him dead." Leo sat there in deep thought.
"LEEEEOOOO! Wake up. We need to leave in the next fifteen minutes," Lucy yelled.
"Give me a minute." Leo grabbed his bag and met up with Lucy outside. The two of them headed to the hovercraft. Once there Reiner, Paulus, Martta, Lucy, and Leo got into the vehicle and sped off across the ocean.
It took about twenty hours to arrive in the old country of India. Another hour went by, and the five of them came at the destination.
Leo looked ahead and saw a palace made of white marble and sandstone. The golden metal door had a blue aura on it. In all of Leo's life, he never saw anything so enchanting.
"Lucy, you can observe the palace however you want, but do not touch the main gate. I promised your father that I would keep you safe."
"Oh Uncle, I won't touch it I promise." Leo saw that mischievous smile she gave and knew he was going to be dragged into some trouble.