Hope rose from Ara's heart when he saw the man. His brain wanted to think he is safe right now, as the man is fighting against the Were. But he crushed this thought immediately as he still doesn't know if this man is an enemy or not. Moreover, he said this temple is his home, so this man could think that Vera and him as intruders too.
'Let's observe for a bit.'
Ara decided to not do anything and observe what would happen from now.
Surprisingly, he could see the Were who just a moment before stood tall in front of him now trembling hard in fear.
"W-W-Who are you! I-I am Fendar! The chief commander of the Were pack! I-If you kill me, we would be your enemy! The Musia Kingdom is also on our side! We would- AAAAARRRGHH!"
The man slashed the Were's other hand before the Were could finish whatever it wanted to say.
"For a puppy who will die, you talk too much. I asked again, why are you here?" The man glared coldly at the Were who couldn't answer properly due to the fear and the pain of having both of his hands getting cut.
"So, you won't say anything, huh? Then you can say goodbye to your head."
"WAIT WAIT WAIT! I AM HERE FOR THE KIDS! I DON'T NEED THEM NOW, YOU CAN HAVE THEM! I-"
*Slash!*
Before the Were could finish what he said, the man has already killed him, separating the head from the Were's body.
"What a waste." The man sighed as he put his sword back into its sheath. Then, he turned around to see Ara who have his eyes widened in shock at the event earlier.
Killing a Were is not a small matter, considering how they could harden their body to an extent that not any ordinary sword could penetrate their skin. Ara knows that this Were has already activated his hardened body when Ara failed to hit the Were's heart. So, to see this man butcher the Were as if it is nothing shocked Ara to his core.
'This man is ridiculously strong. I have to be careful.'
That is his last thought before his world turned black, and he lost consciousness.
-----------------------------------------
Argo is many things.
To his heart, he was the citizen of Meteor City who vowed to bring his hometown to the pinnacle of the world. A dream that every people would scoff at, considering the condition of Meteor City. This city is basically the place where all kingdoms would throw away their worst criminal. So, let alone bring this city to glory, controlling its own citizen is basically an impossible task.
Well, not that he cares about the other's opinion, of course.
However, for everyone, he is not a citizen of the Meteor City. He is way more than that.
He was once dubbed as the best swordsman in the world, Even the strongest general knight from the Musia Kingdom would crumble like paper in front of his sword. He is also the third grandmaster mage in the world and the only one who can control any elements with ease. Everyone who aspired to be a mage would know his name, as they have to learn the basic of controlling elements from his past work. And the most amazing thing is he did all of that even before he turned 30 years old.
To put it simply, he is the biggest genius in this world.
That's why it was such a huge commotion when he disappeared a long time ago. Nobody believes that a strong person like him would end up getting assassinated easily.
What everyone doesn't know is he didn't disappear by his own choice. Well.. No, per se. He was getting sucked by a vortex in the sky after he experimented with his new space magic. He was transported into the mana-less world called Earth which turned out to be quite… Interesting…
There, he began his new life, learning everything from A to Z on how to survive without mana, absorbing all knowledge available in this world, jumping from one job to another to learn how to be a good ruler, and the most important thing, keep experimenting on the natural mana in the earth, trying to find a way back to his home.
For the first forty years, his attempts were futile as he couldn't feel any mana around him. However, when he noticed how his appearance doesn't seem to get older, he checked the mana core inside his body and noticed that because of the interdimensional travel, his mana core was locked up forcefully. He could only gain the passive benefit from his mana such as ageless appearance and superb health.
Realizing that, he unlocked his core immediately, and after that, his mana that accumulate from his failed experiment in the past suddenly leaked into the air, shaking the world for a few seconds.
'I still feel bad for people in Japan. That sudden outburst managed to create 9 magnitude scale earthquake. Fortunately, I was rich in that world, so I could just donate all my money to the victim. Even though I cannot bring back the dead, I just hope 50 million dollars is enough to help them set their new lives.'
That was his thought after witnessing the effect of his outburst.
However, his somber mood didn't last long as he noticed that he could feel his mana again, which means the chance of him getting back to his world would increase astronomically.
Long story short, after almost ten years of another experiment, he finally managed to get back to his world, to his home in Meteor City to be exact, just to see a Were and a knight chasing down two little children. Not knowing what to do, he decided to eavesdrop on their conversation to see the situation.
However, his face darkened after he heard the conversation between the chasers.
'Slave traders from Musia are coming here? They really have guts.'
While Meteor City is a lawless place where the worst criminal lives, he could still remember the agreement between the Musia Kingdom of human, the Jade Forest of the elven, and the Hell Empire of the demon when they all decided to turn Meteor City into this shit hole.
Recruiting ex-criminals from those three kingdoms to be their citizen; either be a fighter, a mage, or to be a slave is prohibited. Not only because they are criminals, but they also possessed intelligence from their respective kingdoms that could be dangerous if they turned out to be enemies.
That's why that point was enacted.
But now, seeing the slave trader from the Musia Kingdom dare to cross the rule, Argo couldn't help but wonder what is it that makes them have the confidence to do that. You must know that if the other kingdoms know what Musia Kingdom do, they have the right to team up and invade Musia Kingdom which could make things difficult for the human race.
Argo decided to follow them from behind, observing what would happen inside his home. He couldn't help but saw the boy in admiration as he possessed incredible calmness and tenacity, especially when after he killed the knight, he didn't lose his focus and changed his target to the Were.
It is just unfortunate for the boy to meet the Were race that is rumored to be ten times stronger than normal humans.
When he saw the situation change drastically and heard what the Were would do for the kids, Argo decided to ask. He uses his ghost step to close the distance between him and the Were and makes a quick slash even before the Were could grasp the situation, chopping off one of his arms.
When Argo put his attention into the crap the Were muttered again and again about how the Musia Kingdom and the Were Pack would come for him, he rolled his eyes slightly before chopping off his other arms with a clean cut, and when the arrogance in the Were's eyes turned into despair, Argo slashes his head, disconnecting it from the rest of his body.
When he turned around, he could see the boy has his mouth gape wide, astonishment and admiration could be seen in his eyes. Yet Argo still could see the wariness in the boy's expression, making him nod in approval.
'The boy is good. He knows even though I killed both his chasers, that doesn't mean I am his ally. Let's see what he would say.'
However, before he could say anything, without any warning, the boy collapsed. Argo rushed forward with his reflex to not let the boy fall to the floor while checking about the boy's condition.
'He didn't have any wound, and only fell into unconsciousness due to tiredness and hunger. A day or two full of rest would help him recover. Good for him.'
Yet before he could do anything to the boy, he felt a spike of mana come from under the bed, gaining his full attention.
'A strong earth magic? Elf?'
When Argo checked under the bed, to his surprise, he found a little girl who is in the same situation as the boy, losing her consciousness probably due to adrenaline and fear of their chasers. But what piqued his interest is how strong the mana concentration inside the girl's body was, stronger than even the standard fifth-tier mage he knows.
'She is what? Four? Five? This amount of mana is ridiculous! What a talent. If she is the one who managed to breach my wards and find out about this temple, Vanda probably would freak out. Let's wait for them to wake up first.'
He moves both the children to his room, letting them take a rest for now. Then, he goes to the other room and started muttering something under his breath.
"Gavin, my loyal servant. Come!"
Suddenly, something emerged from Argo's shadow to the surface. Within a second, Argo could see an old man surrounded by a very dark and powerful aura appear in front of him, kneeling.
"My lord! You are finally back! Your humble servant has already waited for this moment! What is your order, my lord!"
Argo sighed at this old man's weird and dramatic antics. The old man in front of him is Gavin, the shadow demon that he saved during the race war about fifty years ago. Even though Gavin's appearance is way older than Argo, the demon is younger than him, as he took the Demon under his wing when he was already eighteen. At that time, Gavin was only 10.
"Yes, Gavin, I am back. Can you go to the Jade Forest for me? Just show yourself to Vanda and she will understand the situation. But do it discreetly. Understand?"
"Yes, my lord!"
Then, the demon embraced himself into the shadow once again, leaving Argo alone with the children on the bed.
'Now, what should I do?'