faes sat down circulating her cultivation technique in full force and sucking the mana around her. faes was not sure if this was right time to break through but it wasn't something she can control. faes can only finish fast and fight shawn who was ready to kill her. faes knew that aiden was dying and getting weaker each day and using his mana will only speed it up thus she have to get ready before he needs to do something serious.
aiden saw what was happening and grew concerned. he vanished from his seat and appeared in front of the mana storm that was surrounding faes. shawn was already attacking faes with intention of killing her which he wont allow to happen. faes was his child and she was in danger. aiden created a thick earth wall around shawn and his lion to buy time for faes and also to not use much of his mana which might speed up his last time.
shawn who was blocked by the wall along with his lion were fuming but calmed down as their attacks didn't affect the wall much. it was made by a mythical dragon after all though not in prime condition, it was still strong enough to stop him in his tracks. shawn knew faes was breaking through and he wanted to attack her while in her most vulnerable state but aiden came to rescue her in time. he sighed and sat down petting his lion which came to sit beside him. shawn was not like his brother he was clever and calm most of the time while john was short tempered and did not think much before doing things.
shawn was going to wait for faes to break through as he didn't had another choice he cant break free without using his mana and if he uses it to break free he wont have much mana left to fight faes. he didn't saw what was happening outside but he can sense the amount of mana which was depleting and got nervous. it was just faes a little child who was breaking through yet the amount of mana in the surrounding was deplititng at a rate as if someone of high cultivation was breaking through.
shawn suddenly thought of an absurd thought. faes said she was aiden's child and she can already change in her human form does that means that she was really his child which was hidden away all those years? if yes then what kind of freak cultivation she was born with to be this powerful at such a young age?
'am i capable of fighting her?' shawn asked himself not sure if he was a match for faes before and now that she is breaking through this means she will get more powerful than before. his brother lost his arm by a single arrow and he also suffered injuries from them then john was not able to hurt her even with his powerful technique and got killed with a bomb and single arrow. shawn was also amazed now that he was calmer from before, that purple blue bomb was so powerful that he suspected that even noble establishment stage cultivators stood no chance of not getting hurt without protection.
as shawn was thinking and his imagination was running wild he got more and more terrified of faes.
faes who was breaking through in between the mana storm didn't know that without her using the full potential of her spells she had terrified a knight Establishment cultivator. when faes finished breaking through she sighed. killing knight establishment cultivator gave her lots of exp making her breakthrough two stages consecutively taking her to core strengthening stage 3.
faes was not sure what happened but she saw aiden standing nearby smiling at her and behind him was a wall probably blocking shawn from attacking her. aiden didn't looked like he had used lots of his mana which made her relieved. faes went to aiden and stood in front of him
"why is there a storm of mana whenever i broke through? its happening ever sing i broke through core strengthening stage is it normal?" faes asked aiden who sighed
"no normally there is no mana storm but sometimes it appears when someone with great potential broke through or someone strong broke through. i heard that kailial also had strong mana stroms around him when he broke through but after him i haven't heard of many people who can call a mana storm before you and you gave me a surprise by calling this strong mana storm. it shows you have great potential just like kailial" aiden replied smiling. he haven't seen faes broke through as she was in her space at that time and didn't knew that she called such strong mana storms but this just made him proud, this not only shows faes had great potential but also created a link between her and kailial making his assumption more strong.
he was right there have to be some kind of connection between faes and kailial, and if he was correct then faes needs to be kept safe for the better future of lore.
'again kailial! it seems like i have some weird connection to him.' faes through. when she heard his name faes had hard time forgetting it and it kept surfacing in her mind now she again heard about him it ticked something in her. the more she was learning about this kailial the more she thought they were similar.
"hey get me out!" a muffled voice came breaking both aiden and faes out of their thoughts. they forgot that they were in the middle of a fight.
"you ready?" aiden asked and faes nodded taking a stance.
aiden undid the wall revealing a pale and trembling shawn who stared at faes. after breaking through her hide zero that was working to hide her cultivation was turned off and now shawn can detect her cultivation which just startled him more.
if faes was core strengthen stage 3 currently then she must be weaker when fighting his brother yet they cant hurt her. he thought that she was of a higher cultivation as his brother cant hurt her but now that he knew he was not sure if he should be frightened or not anymore.
"you- you are just core strengthen stage? then why did you absorb that much amount of mana?" shawn asked pointing a trembling finger at faes who shrugged. what can she do her cultivation method requires for her to absorb lots of mana.
shawn didn't saw the mana storm as he was inside the earth wall otherwise he wouldn't have been standing there.
"that's it i am leaving i don't want to fight or stay anymore" shawn announced and then began to run away with his fire lion in tow. faes thought he was angry that she killed his brother and would at least fight her but he ran away making her angry. if he runs away then he might inform their higher ups about aiden and her which will just bring more problems for them.
"who told you that you can leave" aiden asked appearing in front of shawn who was forced to stop.
"what do you want i don't want to fight anymore and i don't want to kill you or that girl let me go" shawn said
"tsk! tsk! ever since you came here your fate was fixed and that wont change either you fight her and let her practice her skills or i kill you choice is yours" aiden shrugged as if he didn't just threaten to kill someone.
"this is not fare" shawn gritted his teeth. he knew that he would die if he didn't completed his mission either by aiden's hands or his higher ups but if he can at least give information to the higher ups then he had a chance to stay alive which aiden just crushed.
"fine i will kill that girl" shawn's anger returned along with his brothers death. if he cant kill faes he was going to at least hurt her seriously.
"good then go one i am watching" aiden went back to his chair where he was initially sitting.
"faes get ready" aiden informed faes as shawn turned back angry.
"you get ready i am coming" shawn yelled then came back running he was going to go all out not giving a chance to faes to attack him at all. this was his only way to save himself. if he managed to deplete all of faes mana in defence then he can kill her easily.
"fiery attack her and make her use all her mana and don't let her hit you" shawn told his lion who roared in understanding
"fire style fist attack!" shawn then activated his technique running along with fiery the fire lion and attacked faes with fist and paws covered by fire.
faes saw their techniques and sighed. she had trained in close combat but she didn't knew if she can take on both of them together she either needs to separate them or defend until their mana gets depleted or she gets an opening to attack. faes took out her sword and took a defensive form blocking the paw of fire lion with it but she got hit by shawn's fist on her arm.
they separated while shawn and lion barely moved faes was forced back few steps making her realise the difference between them. faes was still not as strong in close combat as she thought. faes can easily dodge their attack but she wanted to know the difference in their strength which she realised was not as great as she though. faes only got a slight burn in her arm while shawn and the lion's limbs became numb just from one exchange.
"hmm now that i know what i want i will get serious" faes nodded as she said that taking another form. shawn and the fire lion attacked her again but when they got to where faes was they directly passed through her body and hit nothing but air.
the faes they attacked was just an afterimage left by faes when she activated her void steps. faes was long gone from her position and shawn and the lion hit her afterimage dissipating it into nothing. shawn got to know that faes was not only a dual cultivator of fire and water but she also had an affinity with qi!
"where are you stop hiding!" shawn said when he turned around trying to pinpoint faes location. he can follow the trail of qi faes left behind but she was so fast that he cant even see her movements.
"alright then here you go!" faes said appearing behind him and attacking him with her qi infused sword. shawn barely turned around when he saw faes attacking him using her sword. he blocked the attack to lat to dodge using his hands but before he knew his hands were now numb. he moved and jumped back putting distance between both of them and glanced at his hands. there was nothing not even a cut on his hands making him confused as to why they were not responding to him then. he tried to move them only to see both his hands separating from where they contacted faes sword and then fall to the ground just as his arms began to bleed heavily.
he finally realised why they didn't responded to him they were no longer attached and the pain finally registered to him making him scream.
"ahhhh! fiery go kill her!" shawn was now kneeling on the ground tears of pain and anger flowing from his eyes as he glared at faes.
"you were the one who wanted to kill my father and take away my sibling now that i took the hands which were going to take away my future sibling from me you are angry?" shawn heard faes behind him just as his fire lion again attacked her afterimage.
shawn gritted his teeth and his eyes widened. the movement technique faes used had no match. he slowly turned his head around only to be met by faes sword again and this time he lost his legs on which he was kneeling making him scream again.
faes moved away before the fire lion attacked her and again vanished from the sight. faes have not forgotten the talk of brothers in which they were planning to kill aiden and take his child away for their benefit. she was no saint neither was she a devil but when she heard the twins talk about aiden and his child like they were nothing she was enraged and cant let her bloodlust stop from leaving her body.
she wont let anyone hurt the only people who gave her a feeling of being loved and her first family she had in both her lives.
"you can go die now your beast will join you soon" faes said again from above shawn after the fire lion moved away from shawn's body which was now lying on the ground. she swung her qi enfused sword behedding shawn directly and just as she got the notification of exp gained she turned to the fire lion. faes created another concentrated firebomb and sent it to the fire lion charging at her. they both collided and faes heard the notification of the fire lion being killed.
just as faes was thinking the mana storm came again as she leveled up to core strengthening stage 5.