Even in Milena were to pull out, choosing to become strong herself, Arthur wouldn't give it too much thought.
All he needed to do was find a way to violently kill her, and then show the results of said killing to the other three.
He could spin whatever tale he wanted after the fact, so long as there weren't any witnesses to said event.
It would only make the other three more sure that their path to strength was through Arthur. If they could replicate half, no, even a quarter of his strength, then they firmly believed that they could become powerhouses of the Clan.
However.... when that time actually came, all that would be left, is their loyalty to Arthur. Out of respect, fear, love, or affection, none of it really mattered.
Trusting subordinates was something that no demonic path Fae Master had ever actually done, even when it came to their wives or children. The path of the demon was a lonesome one indeed....
"For the time being, I'll give them a little bit of space. I'll give them the illusion of freedom until the time actually comes.....".
Arthur glanced at a large pasture, growing with vibrant greens, reds, oranges and yellows. There were countless numbers of spirit plants growing in the fields; Summer Snow Peas.... Yin Pumpkins.... Yang Sunflowers.... Electric Tomatoes and many more variations of spirit plants.
Spirit plants were.... different to both spirit beasts and Humans, despite awakening their origin essence seas in the same fashion. Unlike humans, their lifespan and perception was far below them, even lower than the average spirit beasts.
However, out of the three, their lifespans were the longest, easily exceeding a thousand years, even for the most useless of spirit plants.
Unlike Humans, they possessed innate Attributes like spirit beasts did, however until they reached the same level in terms of spirituality as a Beast King, most didn't even know how to use their Fae, if they had any.
The only good thing about spirit plants, is that they usually created Fae materials and spiritual produce which Fae could eat. They didn't need to worry about having to find food for their Fae themselves, as they could just produce it over time.
Arthur activated his Affection Tree Fae, and gently patted the patch of Yin Pumpkins in front of him. They were all large, much larger than the average Pumpkin, and they possessed strangely purplish dots on them. From a distance, it might seem as thought they were all rotting, but up close they produced a fragrant scent which distracted the Fae Master from the fact that they were grown over were corpses were buried.
Any types of corpses, not just human ones.
Arthur sprinkled a tiny amount of green coloured powder on top of the Yin Pumpkins before removing his Affection Tree Fae and walking away.
"This will be a pretty good test", he muttered.
Arthur threw any thoughts of the green powder to the back of his mind and quickly returned back to his river-top home before entering the closed cultivation room in his house.
It was the only room in the house where it could be locked from the inside. Any other time the door was closed, it could still be opened from the outside.
This particular cultivation room was actually normally supposed to be above water, but with Arthur's assistance in the building process it was partially submerged. The design of the room was curved as well, so as to let the water flow around it, instead of being impeded.
Sitting down on the mat in the centre of the room, Arthur observed the Fae in his origin essence sea, nodding slightly.
"The Silver Waning Moon is not too bad but uses too many Rank 1 Fae. As much as I'd like to keep using it, as a Rank 2 Fae Master it is a little lacklustre. Falling Autumn Maple is pretty good as a wide ranged attack, but lacks the killing power to be used against Rank 2 and higher Fae Masters".
Against the defences of four Rank 1 Fae Masters, it was fine, but against the defences of four, Rank 2 Fae Masters, it would fall a little short.
"The core Fae of the Falling Autumn Maple is the Rank 2 Leafsword Fae. Other than the connection Fae and the Link Fae which allows for the flow of power to occur, I used the Rank 1 blood leaf fae, Rank 2 leaf slice fae, Rank 2 leaf storm fae, Rank 1 blood gathering fae, Rank 1 blood concentration fae, rank 1 leaf gathering fae, rank 2 leaf edge fae, rank 2 leaf mantis fae....".
There were quite the number of Rank 2 Fae involved in the usage of this Attribute Control Skill.
Increasing the need for connection fae and link fae, but also increasing the complication of origin essence flow from one fae to the next.
Arthur had a wide ranged offensive Attribute Control Skill, but now needed a single target offensive Attribute Control Skill. One whose killing power far exceeded the Falling Autumn Maple.
If Elder Vova or Elder Anatol could hear Arthur's thoughts right now, they would turn red in the face and try to beat this ungrateful descendent of theirs.
They had spent the entirety of their lives, building their foundations from nothing in order to create their Attribute Control Skills, and yet here Arthur was, only sixteen years old and trying to create this third Attribute Control Skill!
What a monster!
.... Of course, having a thousand years worth of memories to build around was Arthur's greatest advantage.
The Kovacs Clan only had a history of about a thousand years, and yet Arthur's foundations alone exceeded theirs!
A single person exceeded the entirety of the Kovacs Clan!
This wasn't exactly uncommon amongst Fae Immortals, but considering that most of the Kovacs Clan had yet to even come into contact with Fae Immortals, such a thing was inconsequential.
The Myriad Races, from the other Thirty Three Heavens, had much deeper foundations than what most of the Humans in Human Heaven possessed. Their heritages, were to the uninitiated, unfathomable.
In terms of offense, Arthur could probably defeat most Rank 2 Fae Masters one-on-one. That was taking into account the entirety of Human Heaven.
In terms of defense, Arthur had the Rank 2 Winter Conifer Fae and the Rank 2 Wisteria Fae. In addition to that, he also had the Rank 3 Verdant Root Fae and the Rank 3 Flowering Shield Fae. He could take blows from weaker Rank 3 Fae Masters.
Supportive effects, he had the Affection Tree Fae which needed time, and some healing Fae which could heal injuries but nothing else. Arthur didn't have any blood replenishing fae or any disease healing fae or mental illness healing fae so that was technically a weakness.
Investigative type Fae, Alchemy type Fae, Blacksmithing type Fae, Inscription type Fae, and even speed type Fae were all things that Arthur needed to consider.
He had the remnants of an ancient Fae Weapon, one that could pierce through Rank 3, perhaps even a Rank 4 Fae Masters defences. If he could completely restore it, perhaps it could even kill a Rank 5 Fae Master.
But that chances of that happening in the short term was completely impossible. From what he knew, the nearest Rank 4 Blacksmith was at least several thousand kilometres away.
Getting side-tracked, only for a measly ancient weapon was not a good deal either.
If it was something that once belonged to a Fae Immortal, Arthur would undoubtably start running towards the nearest Fae Blacksmith. Although, since he wasn't an idiot, he would never do such a thing.
If someone saw that Arthur of all people was holding on a Immortal Fae Weapon.... they could kill him, dump his body and then completely forget about him, taking everything he had on him before keeping the weapon for themselves.
Arthur let out a small sigh before shaking his head.
"At any rate, let me see if I can discern another Attribute Control Skill from the Fae I have on hand....".
In just a couple days, the next Fae Master Tournament would happen in Parachenko Village.
Even if Arthur already knew the outcome of said event, seeing his cute little toys battle against each other under his influence always brought a smile to his face.
And even if the exemption of heavenly laws had already worked against him somewhat, it would be slightly interesting to see the affect of his presence on the future.
He never once claimed to be infallible, and could only rely in himself, and his experience in order to reach the apex.