At the training grounds, Ren was sparring with William again. While trying to recover from Ren's attack he struggled to find a counter to her strength. One of the reasons William strived to become stronger was to protect his sister, but deep down dwelled a strong desire for revenge.
Realizing his strength wasn't improving William felt that goal slowly slipping away. The thought of his father not being avenged drove him into a rage. William began lashing out viciously, and relentlessly. Ren was attempting to dodge his attacks, but it didn't last long. His speed was rapidly increasing along with his size, and Ren was slowly being forced into the corner.
The beast rampaging in the barrier was being driven on pure instinct and viewed everything as its enemy. William swung one claw down in a horizontal swipe, but Ren caught him by the forearm. William growled, and swung the other one for the neck.
With Ren's instincts, it was easy to read, but keeping William in place was difficult. The more Ren pushed back the angrier the beast became. Slowly the claws were being pushed down getting ready to puncture her skin.
Ren was forced to get serious as her transformation began, and she forced William off long enough to punch him in the chest. He went sliding back but dug his claws into the dirt halting him in place. A mighty howl was unleashed, and the shockwave was enough to cause blood to drip from Ren's ears.
Ren was still disoriented by the howl as William charged forward. Shen came dashing in, and with a wave of his hand, the earth shifted pushing Ren out of the barrier. William didn't care who it was and just continued attacking. Shen held his ground dodging the barrage of swipes carefully.
'Putting him to sleep wouldn't be an issue, but this rage would only resurface later.'
"Can you lock the barrier?" Shen relayed to Zack.
Zack could sense his intentions, and called forth one of his holy orbs to lock them inside. While dodging Shen rapidly formed a set of prayer beads in his right hand. Shen was chanting, and rubbing the beads between his fingers. He sidestepped around Williams's pounce and tossed the beads into the air. Glyphs appeared on each bead as they broke apart lodging into the earth.
William was only enraged more by Shen's antics letting out another fearsome roar, but Shen remained calm as the wave hit him. Even with his sight, and hearing disoriented Shen could sense William's life force. This was all Shen needed to detect his direction and predict the attack. William dashed in as series of lights filled the barrier.
Shen rapidly stepped forward morphing the earth into quicksand as William sank into the ground. He placed his hand on William's forehead freezing him as the growling rapidly ceased. The ground hardened as the array set by the beads shined brightly. It was then Holly managed to make it to the scene seeing her brother being restrained.
"Did he hurt someone?" Holly asked immediately.
"No, and it will all be okay now," Zack replied.
"What did he do?" Ren asked.
"He's trying to find the source of the rage, and help him overcome it. We should go it might take a while." Vannessa replied.
"I'll stay here with Holly," Ren told Zack giving him a kiss.
"I'm gonna finish showing Vanessa around," Zack replied.
"Come back here when you're done. The students will start the next round of training." Kaya smiled up at Zack while embracing him.
Zack looked back watching the students pairing together as they slowly walked away. It took an hour but he finished showing Vanessa around the grounds. The entire time she said nothing, and anytime someone would introduce themselves she would only timidly wave. Zack thought it was kind of cute, but didn't understand how someone so timid could be on the circle.
'Is she quiet during their meetings too?'
"Only one more place to show you, but It comes with one rule that can't be broken okay?" Zack told Vanessa.
Vanessa nodded as they entered his estate. They wandered towards the library, and the minute they stepped through the door Vanessa was enchanted. She felt a pulse of magic when entering the door, and glancing around it was a library.
At first, Vanessa didn't pay much attention to it since the library at home covered numerous floors. Then she looked at a shelf out of curiosity, and to her surprise the collection was impressive. Once she started seeing new books Vanessa began trembling with excitement.
'Which one should I grab first? I need to get started on the fields today so it has to be a good one.' Vannesa pulled her hand back glancing for the chosen one.
Vanessa began rushing to the next aisle and immediately found the perfect book. It was a text written by the progenitor of the elves about alchemy and was the largest book Zack had seen yet. Glancing around it was the first time he ever noticed this section.
'With so many books around it's not too surprising. The way she's smiling is really cute.' Zack smiled.
"Can I really read this? How many books are here? Where did they come from? I see no one around but there's not a speck of dust to be seen. Who upkeeps their conditions?" Vanessa investigated.
"Yes, but keep it in the library, please. This place was my mother's and I don't wanna lose anything. She traveled a lot so I'm assuming it was a little bit of everywhere. I would say Olivia cleans it but now that I think about it they have always been maintained." Zack replied pondering the possibilities.
This was only the start of the interrogation. The number of questions firing Zack's way was overwhelming, but he tried his best to answer them all. During their conversation, it was the first time Vanessa wasn't hiding under her hood.
Vanessa had already talked more in two minutes than in both their meetings. Once Zack was done fielding questions Vanessa found a table to start reading, but before she could start a frown appeared.
"I still have to prepare the fields." Vanessa sulked.
"I can assign a few dolls to get started if you give me a list," Zack stated.
"Really?" Vannesa stood up quickly with a twinkle in her eye.
Zack nodded as Vanessa retrieved a ring with everything needed, and handed him the one with the new equipment. Then she quickly sat down zoning out the world around her. Zack smiled seeing how excited she was to get started and quietly left the library.
Out of all the people who visited the library, no one was as happy as Vanessa. It was his mother's favorite place and she dedicated so much time gathering the collection. Seeing Vanessa's passion for books he knew she could appreciate the collection more than anyone.
Zack called over some idle dolls and approached the fields. Valan showed Zack the basics of altering simple commands on the workers, and in no time they were sowing the new fields. On the ramparts, the sentries felt someone with powerful magic, and hostile intentions so they jumped down from the wall brandishing their weapons.
Standing before them was a dark elf clad in leather armor brandishing a gladius in one hand, and with magic swirling in the other. She has grey skin, a black ponytail, and violet eyes glaring down the sentries.
One of the sentries launched several arrows meant to bind the women on impact, but they were canceled by her sword aura. With the mana gathered her in hand, the earth erupted beneath them scattering their formation as she dashed forward.
The guards on the ramparts were preparing to take aim when several dark elves stopped them. They watched the women struggled to fight off the sentries and were all amazed by her resilience. Feeling the alarm being raised Zack appeared on the ramparts to see the cause of the commotion.
"Where is he?!" Octavia shouted struggling to break free from her bindings.
"Stand down, and remain on the wall no matter what," Zack ordered the sentries as he appeared before Octavia.