The heavens shook as a shrill, bestial cry reverberated in everybody's ears.
…Well, almost everybody.
"Be careful. Though he's a commoner, Aries is still a candidate. He's strong."
"Ha! Yeah, sure. There's no way a commoner would have such power. I bet that stupid wannabe seer of the main house is just being stupid. As always!"
"True. No need to concur; it's just a basic, irrevocable fact. That seer child is nothing but a stupid hoax made by the main family to try and salvage their already questionable reputation."
"Exactly! A seer already exists, and so, another could not be born. That's just facts. The main house is nothing but a den of ravenous lairs! They're evil incarnate!"
"We, the Mocný family, shall rise above and beyond them! It's a piece of cake!"
"Surely, by now, master Scorpio would have already killed the poor idiot! Master Scorpio would never lose to a lowly commoner like tha—"
Before the man could finish his words, a striking blade was already inches to his throat. Nor even a hurried spell could save him.
"…!"
The next second, the blade passed him, and crimson liquid poured from his cut throat.
Only then did the group finally realize their mistake.
"He's here! He's here!"
"Everybody alert! Don't let him get away!"
"Where's master Scorpio?!"
"He killed Ven!"
"Kill him now!"
As the group found themselves in sudden disarray with the unexpected fall of one of their comrades, the blinking shadow moved with liquid fluidity dodging strike after strike, predicting and countering their strikes with explosive ripostes.
The shadow was very small, at best half the height of an ordinary man. Though his mana signature and presence was covered by a remarkable stealth artifact, the reflective blade of his dagger constantly gave away his position, rendering his stealth utterly useless.
"Get him! Surround the bastard!"
One of the men knelt on the ground, put both palms down onto the earth and muttered a simple incantation.
"Rise, O great earth."
"…!" Immediately catching wind of the intent behind the spell, the shadow slipped past the approximated range of the spell and dashed forth to another one of their comrades with his striking blade.
For a second, they even saw recognized the figure.
As the man was surprised, having not expected the sudden shift in targets at all, his mind froze and his body stiffened. But his training kicked in a mere second later, his weapon at the ready.
But it was already too late.
"…Huh?"
His throat suddenly welled up his heat, and his breathing suddenly unexpectedly stopped.
The man's throat had been cut.
*SMASH!*
Behind the shadow, the ground suddenly flew up in a cylinder shape, almost crushing another one of the platoon's ally.
Their organization and teamwork was falling apart.
◇◆◇◆◇
Lieren's entire body felt like it was being broken apart bit by bit, then made again with a sickening and mind-numbing process. His lung were on fire, his breathing coming on short, quick bursts, never enough but ever so efficient. It was like his body was working to make itself known and strengthen itself even further, tearing and gnawing at himself, then processing that bits of flesh and bone to make himself even better.
It was such a disgusting and painful process. His body, his mind, and his entire being was on the verge of total failure, his consciousness coming in short bursts of light as he siphoned Aries's blessing from the intricate amulet. Taurus's pendant was still inactive, apparently lacking the "charges" Scorpio had spoken of. As for the angst teenager's own proof of participation, his was still too worn down and risky to use.
Not only did he not fully know what it will do, he also knew that the gauntlet had long been exhausted. Unlike Taurus's pendant, however, the masterfully-made gauntlet was recovering itself, siphoning mana from the atmosphere. With the recent exposure and his own image and physical training by the three masters; Feng Xing Liu, Selen Votum, and Vesta having honed both his mind and body to the extreme, his ability to sense, detect, and recognize magical phenomena had increased, as well.
And so, he knew that the masterful gauntlet was capable of recharging itself passively without the user's need to activate its automatic recovery enchantment. The Taurus's pendant, however, was clearly not of the same boat.
What use was a weapon if you can't even use it? That thought only lasted for less than a second before Lieren inevitably had to look back on the fight with blinking consciousness.
Even now, his mind blinked in and out of the realm of consciousness and dreams and nightmares. Even still, the pull of his inner abyss became stronger each time.
And the King ordered to be let out.
Willing his Resistance and become denser, the translucent milky-white aura clung even more to his body — his soul. The saturation of the aura became more pure, too, almost pure white. Almost.
He also willed for his Resistance to travel through the soulsteel chains connecting to his Aegis, as well. He didn't know how much of a help his mysterious power had been, but he figured that if Harita wad still alive by now, then his power should have helped him more than a few times. His intuition didn't have any concerns, as well. The biting feeling at the back of his neck was nowhere to be seen… or well, felt, in his case.
Dashing forth and passing through a barrage of rising cylinders, Lieren cut through the small squad of reinforcements brought here by Scorpio's mana crystal the angst teenager had crushed in a time where he saw the smallest chance of losing.
Despite his Scorpio's rather feisty temperament, the angst teenager was much smarter and cautious than he had thought. Truly worthy of being the representative of the Mocný house, second only to the Exousia, while still being in the same factions.
Scorpio could be considered a genius in the eyes of others, while some would see him more as a prodigy.
Though small and insignificant, there was a deciding factor between the two that separated both from the other pretty concisely.
Slipping under a powerful swing of his great sword, one of Scorpio's reinforcement group's members quickly reoriented his strike and cut down to the middle, losing his footing and balance, but before that, the reinforcement backup resolutely brought his great sword first…
And tried to cut Lieren in twain!
But it was all for naught.
Stepping lightly to the side in anticipation of the resolute slash, Lieren used the man's own momentum against him and closed his fist instead of bringing his blade up… and punched the man straight in the face. Before he could stumble back from the small yet mighty blow, Lieren immediately brought his blade up next, and pierced straight through the man's underbelly.
Pulling his dagger back with a spurt of blood, Lieren kept the obfuscating mist hiding any and all senses of his vitality. With the help of his Resistance's ability to hide his mana signature from prying eyes, he was all but invisible.
…Well, not really. He still possessed a body and soul, and mind. With those three anchors as his proof of existence, Lieren was certain that he wouldn't just disappear.
Which meant that he was still alive.
Turning to the other squad members, Lieren readied his blade and prepared for the rest of the bloody battle.
◇◆◇◆◇
Up above, higher than the highest cloud, Harita gritted his teeth as a green flame emitted from his watersteel dagger: Silent Reverie. Imbued with the power of a fragment of his soul, the water blade enchantment's property changed to match his.
Indescribable power flowed through Harita's veins, filling his body with untold strength. At the same time, he felt his soul empty, losing his inner vigor and stalwart senses.
It was like a part of him died. Almost literally and figuratively.
As the tactile feeling of touch left his fingertips, Harita brought his blade down with a scream that tore the heavens.
His eyes flashed bright green.
◇◆◇◆◇
A deep, primal scream shook the heavens, making the tempestuous winds howl and stagger. For a second, Bian even considered using that moment to escape her current predicament.
But her eyes remained stuck on the man in front of him.
Leo sucked in a deep breath, as if it was his last.
It was definitely not his last.
A cold and creeping feeling ran up Bian's spine, making her grip the handle of Weeping Maiden tighter.
"How…" She said to no one in particular. Her voice was weak and full of curiosity, as if there was some mystical force binding it to the ground.
And after further inspection, she noticed something…
Something was muffling sound around Leo, preventing anybody outside from hearing both his grunts and pained moans, as well as her own voice.
Then it hit her…
It was another summoned creature! One capable of creating a sound vacuum!
Gritting her teeth, she summoned gale-force winds to surround her, to at least dilute any adverse affects the sound vacuum, or rather the sound-muffling barrier, and debilitating her.
There was another piece of bad news.
Getting up with a deep groan, Leo's eyes landed on Bian's rapier. He rolled his eyes exaggeratedly.
"Not the first time I woke up with a blade to my throat."
A vein popped in her temple.
'This guy really annoys me for some reason.'
Pressing the point of her silver rapier to the renowned mage's throat, she kept her cool even when crimson liquid began seeping out his lightly punctured throat.
Unflinching, Leo looked up, his golden eyes seemingly glimmering in the raging tempestuous winds.
"It's… beautiful, isn't it?"
She pressed the rapier more to his throat.
"To a psychopath, yeah. You would think that." Her voice was cold and mellow, ready to strike at any second.
A long silence passed, or perhaps it was just a second? Who knows. Nevertheless, the two stayed idle, both sides waiting for the other to make a move.
Leo was the first to initiate.
"Hey, why don't you and I join forces? With your prevalent and fantastic fencing skills, the two of us would make a great team!"
Her eyes narrowed into slits, her aura — the manifestation of her presence, identity, and various privileges mixing together — becoming more prominent and insidious.
Bian became a little bit more deadly.
"How so?"
Leo smiled crookedly, the edges of his lips not quite reaching where its supposed to.
"With my expertise in summoning, as you have witnessed for yourself, I can provide you with as much reinforcements as you want, each equipped with an ability unique to its species.
"Ah! But don't expect ones like the Legend of the Dead Sea. That one is of a very special variety. You wouldn't imagine the kinds of heavy restrictions I had to place on myself just to even be able to create a suitable vessel and summon forth its soul here, let alone direct it into its prepared vessel.
"The fact that it's even reincarnating itself is a surprise to me, too.
"Even still, the number of creatures and the quality of them… I figure that you'll find them particularly appealing."
The ground shook ever so slightly under Leo, and Bian by proxy of location. The sudden rumbling bothered her, but Leo's words struck a chord within her, tugging at several strings — all of them rather dark and bleak.
Lowering her voice and adopting a domineering attitude, she said with very subtle curiosity:
"Do tell more."
◇◆◇◆◇
Leo picked up on the familiar scent of avarice quickly.
"Well, for starters, you'll never have to worry about having your back turned away anymore. With a simple mind link with one creature of your choice, you can — after some training — learn to harness the senses of your familiar, and maybe even use it with your own vision at the same time. It'll also allow for a deeper understanding of yourself and other creatures, which may lead to a breakthrough. Who knows.
"Of course, you can also use it for scouting and reconnaissance. Heck, if you so wanted, I can even arrange for a flock of them to make a contract with you. You may call it a miniature Covenant, if you will. And that's not all!
"But then again, that may not be your cup of tea. If that's the case, may I suggest a more vicious and ferocious partner? Like an C-grade monster or above, for example? Though, training and bonding, never mind the process of making a contract will be quite the enormous task in and of itself.
"Still, maybe you would like a more definite approach. Like a long-term plan, for example? If so, then I can arrange for the summoning, even the acquisition of a high-potential low-risk infantile monster to train and bond with over time! Then again, I doubt that to be the choice that you'd want to make. Call it a Beast Tamer's instinct, if you will. Though, I doubt that you would…
"Though, there is the last and rather lame service that I can provide you… the deal with a devil. Not a figurative one, but a rather real and rather dangerous kind of tradeoff. You may choose to obtain and sacrifice whatever you want, without my interruption, of course. I'm only going to provide the necessary services to make a contract.
"…So, what do you think? How about that deal?"
Bian's eyes, for the entirety of the renowned mage's speech, progressively became more and more filled with doubt and suspicion. There was this vile and creepy sensation overwhelming her, as if there was a millipede crawling about beneath her.
All of the renowned mage's suggestion had once very, very off-putting point. If not for that, then she would have agreed immediately.
It was that his entire "offer" was based around the obfuscated fact that she would have to rely and trust her back to Leo during the whole processing of obtaining, making a contract and bonding with the selected creature. That or offering her soul, which was nowhere near acceptable.
His offer were actually quite interesting and delectable, considering the circumstances.
If it wasn't for that one thing; if she had known the man long enough to witness him make do or dodge his promises and vows, then she wouldn't have hesitated ad much as she did now.
However, there was one sure-fire way to make the renowned Beast tamer; Leo, make true to his promises.
Wetting her lips, Bian asked casually, as if she was on a morning walk:
"Hey, will you make a Vow with me?"