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Devlin and Leo regained their composure once they heard Jack mention this. Ever since they got to this unusual place, they've always wanted to know where exactly were they at and why everyone was glaring at them as soon as they got in this city. Although Devin knew a little bit about this world through the codex, he still wanted to confirm his suspicions.
"Where are we at?"
"This place is known as the central city in the Interstellar planar, Andromeda. Most of the major events that will happen usually occur in this city. Right now we're in one of the Seven Districts known as the Northern District. I'm only a low-level phantom guardian of the Immortal King Guild in Andromeda so I only know a limited amount of information."
Devlin was stunned as he never heard of the term "phantom guardian" through codex.
"What the hell is a phantom guardian?"
From this question, Jack could distinguish why voyagers drew attention. It seemed as if they've lived under a rock this entire time, he thought.
"Well, a phantom guardian is someone who is a phantom cultivator that keeps a watch around the city. And before you interrupt me and ask 'What's a phantom cultivator?' I'll get to that part in a minute. For now, I want you to look over this edge and over to those two people going up the steps to the citadel."
Devlin and Leo were confused and could only turn their head to the side to see what the big deal was. It was actually two young men disputing about how one of them stole something from them, while the other one kept denying the proof.
"James, hand me my Grade-3 Spectral Blood Crystal otherwise I'll make you forget about even participating in the upcoming Destiny Awakening Ceremony."
This youth had a short blue hair and a dark blue unzipped puffer jacket on over his skin-tight black clothing. On the back of the jacket, it had a Crystal Blue Trident Hieroglyphic. The crowd who overhead this conversation began to circle around them. James, who had brown hair and was wearing about the same identical outfit but instead had a silver unzipped puffer jacket with a
glowing sword hieroglyphic on the back rebuked, "Don't falsely accuse me, Jin, who do you think you are to threaten me, the son of a Division Envoy."
At this rate, Jin couldn't handle the arrogant grin James had written over his face so he shouted with all his might and suddenly his shadow which was behind him shifted into an Ice wyrm about half of Jin's height.
When Jack saw this, he gasped and exclaimed in a solemn voice, " I can't believe it's an Empyrean-level Phantom." Devlin and Leo were shocked to the core as they saw the scene playing out. They couldn't help but rub their eyes a couple of times to make sure they were in the right place.
Once this phantom was summoned, Jin's momentum sprung as he gave off a cold impression. He then yelled out, "Winter's bane!" as he pulled out a longsword from his wristwatch and charged towards James with his Ice Wyrm following behind him.
This outright act caused James to be unprepared as he had no idea that Jin wouldn't care about his status. As Jin neared, he started to spin causing an Ice tornado. James was outraged by how Jin thought he could bully him using his strength and he summoned his phantom too. James's phantom was a silver rapier known as Silverlight, which was best known for its piercing power and was also another Empyrean-level phantom.
"Silver Puncture" James roared as he dashed in front of the ice tornado that Jin was within and pierced out with his rapier that glowed brightly. Suddenly, the rapier which was moving quickly moved at a snail's pace. A clear blue forcefield about ten feet in range was cast around them causing the ground to freeze up. The Ice Wyrm around Jin was unaffected and rushed towards James with its fangs bared. Even though he was shocked to find out about this move, he didn't lose his calm and the next second a silver light flashed in his eyes. A small silver needle appeared and destroyed the Ice Wyrm phantom. The forcefield that was slowing down James momentum disappeared. All that happened within a span of 5 seconds. The Ice tornado finally made contact with the silver rapiers piercing power and was instantly destroyed. You could see Jin fly out with blood spraying out of his mouth. As he landed, his face was pale and his chest felt a burning sensation. James walked up to him with a snobbish grin.
"If you were smart, you would have known better not to overestimate yourself hehe. I'll give you a parting gift so you'll understand the difference in strength."
A loud cry could be heard as a lone hand was sent flying off and onto the pavement within the avenue. Jin was enraged but couldn't do anything except blame himself for his weakness. He then slowly picked himself with great difficulty and limped away into another avenue carrying his hand that had been cut off with resentment and anger towards James.
James saw this and gave an arrogant expression to those surrounding him as he jumped onto his hoverboard and sped off into the citadel.
From this whole fight, Devlin finally understood what it meant by Codex saying he needs to cross the next threshold to unlock what it had inside. This mind-boggling experience didn't make Devlin and Leo fear this world, but instead re-vitalized their broken spirits as they truly felt they had been given a chance to renew their destiny.
At this moment, the waiter soon returned with their drinks and plates full of food. Jack was about to dig in, but before that he said, "That battle earlier explained a little bit about what a phantom cultivator, however, there's more to it then you know."
Leo nodded and asked while taking a sip, " I figured as much now... Wait, is this wine!? You do know I'm a minor, right?"
Although Devlin and Leo had the mentality of a middle-aged man, they still were in the bodies of 15-year-olds. This gave them a bit of a surprise since usually alcoholic beverages weren't given to minors back on Earth.
Jack creased his brows and replied," A minor what now? What's wrong with wine?"
Eventually, the more and more Devlin tried to explain it, the more and more Jack had a confused expression until they finally just gave up and kept the wine.
"Anyways I'm a phantom cultivator as well, however, I'm at the bottom of the food chain with just a lowly mortal phantom."
As he said this, his phantom began to shift into a decent-sized panda. Once Devlin and Leo saw this, their bodies stiffened up and they nearly dashed out of the restaurant. This panda had an identical appearance to the one they saw the other day.
"What's wrong with you guys, are you scared of a Bamboo Pan-Li?" Jack laughed as his shadow shifted back into its original form.
"No, it's not that. We just recently were attacked by a baby panda that transformed into one of those." At first, they believed Jack was the attacker but his phantom had its eyes still in contact. They soon told Jack what happened between them and the panda.
When Jack heard this, his eyes narrowed. "You kids must have run into a grade-2 spectral beast that was born not too long ago. You guys were lucky that it was a baby otherwise it would have been a lot stronger. They're known for being high and mighty and the Lost Sahara is known for being full of strong spectral beasts that can handle those in the blood realm."
Both of the boys suddenly realized that they were really fortunate enough to not meet anything more dangerous along the way here, although they were a bit confused about what he meant about the blood realm.
"Now what we saw earlier were two Empyrean-level phantom cultivators. Basically, in a nutshell, the higher ranking ones phantom is, the more talent you possess to become a supreme existence."
Jack mentioned with an admiring expression. Devlin's eyes glimmered and couldn't help but ask, "So is Empyrean-level the highest?"