"NOOO!" A loud wailing sound reverberated in the middle of the Brenden family manor as people were gathered at the center of the manor.
The luxurious purple garment worn by the wailing black-haired lady showed that she was one of the 5 main wives of the patriarch of the Brenden family.
Her long black hair was just an accentuation of her incredible beauty.
At this moment though, despite her luxurious purple garment, there was nothing remotely royal about her as sitting on the ground in the middle of the manor, she held 3 bodies while wailing at the top of her voice.
"Noooo…!"
"Who did this?"
"My son...! My babies…!" She wailed loudly in sorrow.
"Paul…, Cheetu, Abel, who did this to you?!" She wailed loudly.
"They must pay!" She stood up and went up to the patriarch who watched with a cold expression on his face as she grabbed him by his brown robe.
"They must pay…!"
"It's this boy! This witch!"
"He killed my sons…, our sons!"
"He must be executed!"
All the while as she wailed and nagged at the patriarch, this middle-aged man had an unreadable expression on his face even as the culprit stood standing tall.
He just clocked 10 today but at this moment, he didn't look like a child at all.
Ramon had a cold look on his face even as he glared at the 3 corpses.
His eyes were no longer blood-red though, perhaps the only reason why most of the people gathered here today were able to look at him safely.
As soon as the patriarch arrived in the night, despite deducing the full sequence of events in his head already, he still asked for explanation.
Before asking for explanation though, he woke up the Brenden family's head astral healer as the old man with white beard came to work on the lady.
She was still breathing even as the 3 assassins already gave up the ghost.
On seeing the lady, the old man's astral energy erupted, invisible to the naked eye as he took Emiliana away to his healing room the next moment.
That night, apart from the aura manifestation that strong astral practitioners like the patriarch and Joel's crew showed while in battle, Ramon finally saw and felt raw astral energy for the first time in his life.
Awakening his dormant astral energy increased his perception.
After the lady was taken away for treatment, Ramon's eyes finally became normal again even as he felt weak all of a sudden but he still answered.
Well, the patriarch knew his son, Ramon was stupidly honest.
Ramon saw no reason in lying as still clouded by his rage, he told everything including how he killed the 3 assassins.
'A small 10-year-old boy killed 3 astral assassins!' The patriarch was quiet but, in his mind, he re-evaluated the potential of this son of his.
Removing the masks that covered their faces, the patriarch saw their faces.
"Paul, Cheetu, Abel…," These were the 3 eldest sons of the patriarch's 4th wife, Agnes.
Paul was the eldest son and was 17 years old this year, Cheetu and Abel were twins and were both 16. All 3 of them were talented astral warriors and were rated highly in the ongoing competition to determine the crowned patriarch of the family.
Yet, Ramon, a 10-year-old boy who just awakened astral energy killed the 3.
Since last night, Ramon already changed.
After awakening astral energy, he felt like his whole being changed including his perception of the world. He could now notice things that he didn't notice before and most important of all, he could now detect astral energy.
He already detected astral energy in most of the guards working in the manor but of them all, the patriarch and the head astral healer's were the thickest.
Their astral energy was like an armor of mist inside their bodies that already overflowed and was now pouring out to encase their body in it.
For the first time since knowing the patriarch, Ramon finally knew how much weaker he was when compared to the family head.
While his own astral energy at this moment was like a single star in a night sky, the patriarch's astral energy was like the bright moon.
With the whole family watching, the patriarch finally spoke for the first time, saying the exact same sentence that he told Ramon in the night.
"They died because they were not strong enough".
"Power is the law of the astral world and they lacked it, their punishment for aiming bigger than they could handle is death".
The patriarch's eyes narrowed after saying this. "Despite this, even in a world of astral warriors and travelers, morals is a thing".
BOOM!
His astral energy erupted, causing a powerful brown aura to surge out of his body even as almost all the people present today shuddered in fear.
"This is my home!"
"This is my family…, assassination among members of my family is something I won't tolerate".
"We kill enemies, not family".
He glared at everyone present. "Next time I hear about something this ridiculous, not only will I kill all the culprits involved, but their mother also who failed to teach them the values of family".
"Dismissed".
"Yes, patriarch!"
The manor instantly reverted to its normal schedule like nothing happened. Agnes was in deep pain but seeing the patriarch like that, she dared not nag again.
The 3 culprits of the assassination were buried and after that, the man at the center of attention, Ramon was taken to the family's training center.
The training center of the Brenden family was massive, spanning 200 square meters, a moderate arena for astral warriors to duck it out in an intense battle.
There was a smaller training center for the guards but this was for the descendants of the Brenden family, a lot of Ramon's older siblings were here.
Seeing him walk in with the patriarch, he attracted a lot of attention.
The patriarch was curious about something since last night and finally, he could no longer wait, he wanted to confirm what it was.
He pointed at a dummy wielding a sword. "Ramon, I heard from your teacher that you majored wielding a sword, take that as your practice target".
"This is a Grade F Dummy Puppet; it has the combat ability to defeat most low rank Legionnaire Stage Warriors and can give mid rank Legionnaire Stage Warriors a good fight".
"Try to defeat it, let's see how powerful you are".
Ramon was still worried about his mother; he had not seen her since the head healer took her away but he knew better than to defy the patriarch now.
Looking to the corner, he saw a random sword and grabbed it.
Instantly after he grabbed it though, it shrank.
HUM!
The sword vibrated intensely even as it seemed to shrink under the oppression of a mighty power acting on it.
Ramon's eyes widened; he remembered something like this happening with the dagger in the night too. "What is this?"
The patriarch's eyes widened.
'What is this?' He was also clueless but he kept his cool.
"This is a well-crafted training sword for Legionnaire Stage Warriors, normally this is enough for most astral warriors to use throughout their academy years".
"But for you…," The patriarch rubbed his chin as thinking for a moment, he opened his storage ring the next moment before bringing another sword.
It was a basic long sword with no special design or effects.
"This is a sword that is designed for Knight Stage Warriors, try using it".
Hum!
Before holding the sword, Ramon already felt it vibrating but unlike the previous sword, it was not out of distress but excitement.
"Is it happy?" He just could not think, always voicing his thoughts out loud.
'Happy? Can he feel the emotions of weapons? Or perhaps just swords?' The patriarch's interest in this son of his grew even more.
Finally grabbing the sword, Ramon felt a rush of emotions come from the sword, a feeling of contentment and excitement.
"It's excited". He muttered as his eyes gleamed.
His fascination with all these new sensations already made him to briefly forget about his mom's condition as he stared at the dummy with shining eyes.
"I'm ready".
The patriarch nodded. "Start".
As soon as it heard the word start, the dummy puppet moved as raising its sword, it entered a defensive stance even as Ramon pushed his right leg against the ground and exploded forward with speed.
As Ramon moved, golden energy briefly appeared beneath his leg, an instinctive application of his astral energy that he didn't even notice.
The patriarch noticed it though. 'He's an enhancer!'
In that moment, wielding the sword, Ramon entered a strange zone state.
Despite the immense speed that he moved at; the puppet read his movements as it slashed the sword horizontally to halt his movement.
Ramon did not stop though.
Whoosh!
From dashing straight ahead, Ramon ducked the next moment, rolling forward on the ground as he smoothly dodged the puppet's sword slash.
While rolling, he stuck his right knee out, hitting the puppet's ankle with it as it cracked, making its stance to wobble.
This spelled the end of this puppet.
Like a veteran hunter, Ramon slashed horizontally with the sword, cleanly slicing off the left leg of the puppet from the knee length.
And as it staggered on one leg, leaning backwards, Ramon saw the opening of its exposed head as he leaped, slashing vertically upwards.
Bam!
The puppet was beheaded.
"…!" Throughout, the patriarch was frozen.
'Such terrifying combat instincts with the sword…, and at such a young age!'
'A gem!'
Clap!
The patriarch clapped for his son…, the patriarch clapped!
All the spectators were going crazy in envy and shock.
"Goodluck," The proud patriarch praised his son. "Keep on working hard, I'll work your documents, get ready to start your training in Hope Academy soon".
Ramon smiled. One of the main reasons why he ignored his worry for his mom to perform for the patriarch was due to this.
It was 5 years ago but he never forgot that moment. Watching Joel's crew kill a Dragon, he birth a motivation to be like them and exceed them in the future.
'I also want to get the power to slay Dragons!'
'Afterall, I will become the next King of astral travelers!'
With that, the patriarch finally left.
"Hey! Ramon, nice to meet you, my name is Kindle, I'm your older brother". Among his siblings who spectated, some of them came to him to cozy up to him but Ramon ignored them all as he rushed to the healer's healing room.
There, Ramon finally saw his mom again, she still looked pale and weak even as white cloth was used to tie up her injuries with healing herbs.
Seeing her, he could not help it as tears flowed down his eyes.
Somehow, despite her grave injuries, the head healer managed to save her, a clear indication of the potential of astral energy.
"I'm proud of you Ramon," She said weakly. "You saved my life".
Tears flowed down Ramon's eyes as he birth a new conviction. "This is the last time that anyone will ever get the nerve to try attacking you".
"I will become so powerful that they won't dare".
"I will become the strongest!"
That day, Ramon vowed to never shed tears anymore, this was his last.
Any more liquid that he would shed would be his enemy's blood.