"Impeccable." Eva spoke with what seemed a proud look on her face. But from what Aldritch had experienced, the concept of perfection has never existed anywhere. It wasn't perfection,it was the reduction of flaws that made it seemed perfect but there would still be some flaws present. "Really? Well then how about a little duel then." He spoke in a teasing manner as he manipulated the water to form targets to form humanoid shapes. "If you win this duel then I'll grant whatever you want but if I win then..." He then proceeded to make a bow of his own and for Eva,well her sword took the form of well decorated bow befitting a queen like her. As for Aldritch he chose a normal looking bow. "How did you do that?" Eva similar to the knights were perplexed with how Aldritch did that. From the water manipulation without an artifact or the change of Eva's sword. "The water thing shouldn't concerned you too much and as for the sword,it could always do this. I'm assuming you haven't tested the full limits of it then other than it's storage and piercing." He chuckled before resuming ,"You ready." Taking his stance holding the bow in his hands while Eva tooks her's and they began. The water targets once hit would dissipate back to the lake and the start of the duel was pretty easy as the knights proceeded to cheer for the two.
But Aldritch wasn't planning on going easy on Eva quickly increasing the difficulty. The distance was increased but this didn't affect Eva so taking another approach he made the lake absorbant to mana. Eva coated her arrows with mana to remove the air resistance and increasing the damage and speed of the arrows and the change slowly started to present itself. Eva's arrows now started failing to reach their targets not to mention injure the targets ,"Why aren't they dissipating?" She asked with a small frown on her adorable face. "I increased the damage required to take them down and removed mana in your arrows to actually see how high your proficiency in archery is." Instead of one arrow it was now four not to mention the distance only increased overtime making it harder to the point Eva was unable to take down any targets while Aldritch on the other hand didn't have that much of a struggle. He removed his automatic aim he had not to mention he was using skill without will but it didn't prove to be a bother to him. He usually trained without them inorder to avoid over reliance on manipulating his will though it was the way it increased. He proceeded till he too was unable to hit the targets himself as the targets were now the size of small wooden blocks. "1831 meters huh." Aldritch said gauging Eva's farthest shot commending it that it was rather decent as he had reached to 7893 meters with his system keeping track of the progress. He withdrew his bow as Eva's bow reverted back to forming a sword before vanishing into her inventory.
There was one thing Aldritch did want to test but he wasn't sure if this world was ready for it so he pushed it to the back of his mind. "I hope you learnt something from this.Well that's one way of working up an appetite." Aldritch said as he walked off the shore heading back to the small village. It was surprising that he could get rid of his ability to get hungry but he liked to stay as a human though there were emotions he had trimmed off like his ability to feel fear or pain long ago. Looking around he saw a middle aged woman who appeared to be in rags but he ignored this fact before proceeding to ask her a question ,"Excuse me, but can you show me where the local restaurant is?" The woman who had a wrinkled face looked at Aldritch before making a full bow with her forehead touching the ground ,"Um,excuse me your highness for this lowly commoner's inconsiderate welcome. This town is called Ceshole and as for your question about the restaurant,I would gladly show you the way." She then started to walk towards the center of the town before they knew it they appeared before a surprisingly well built structure compared to the rest of the other houses.
But Aldritch tilted his head slightly before proceeding inwards with Eva busting the restaurant doors open. They attracted a lot of attention with their entry as the two accompanied with the rest of the guards seemed out of place. Unlike the locals who mostly wore rather plain clothing they wore expensive and brightly colored garments before taking a seat at the farthest table from the counter. Eva was clearly standing out the most as she had a dazzling and majestic aura not to mention that she has already surpassed the SSS rank level and as for the knights their armor dazzled and gleamed making Aldritch seem out of place. His choice of wear seemed to crass to fit in with the group but seeing how everyone addressed him with the utmost care and respect they treated him with great caution. Shortly after their arrival the owner of the restaurant made his approach towards their table. He appeared rather handsome and his aura seemed rather unique but the only Aldritch saw this with his shimmering jade green eyes whereas everyone else saw him as a regular normal human. Before he reached Aldritch's table, Natalie stopped him ,"Any form of communication with the royal queen of Darwarke will have to..." "Natalie what are you doing?" Aldritch tauntingly asked ,"Or do you plan on taking my order. If that's the case then you could be the kingdom's top chef then." Natalie not wanting to compromise her status quickly apologized ,"My mistake my king." Then withdrawing her sword off the owner's neck allowing him to proceed before making it to their table making a fully fledged bow ,"I greet my majesties. What would you like this servant to serve you?" As he handed a small piece of paper to Aldritch. Judging from it's loos it clearly wasn't the fanciest thing he'd ever seen but it had to do. Aldritch quickly scanned through the menu before throwing the menu at the owner's face with disregard. "What's your name anyway?" Aldritch asked in a smiling manner at the man kneeling on the bare ground. Gritting his teeth he replied ,"My name is Murray, your highness." Pondering something Aldritch continued ,"Well Murray do you have a wife?" Murray paused for a second before respectfully responding ,"Yes your highness. She helps me around the restaurant running it." He then excused himself before shortly returning with a woman who seemed in her early twenties with a rather stunning appearance which seemed put of place considering the background. She made a respectful bow then spoke ,"My name is Lorna,your highness."
Aldritch then let out a small laugh before asking ,"It seems that you have encountered a bottleneck in your cultivation." The handsome young man along with the beautiful miss wore startled expressions. This world only had ranks not cultivations so they were a little surprised with what Aldritch said. "My majesty, we're simply humans trying to live a normal life with no ranking whatsoever as we haven't awakened our mana pools yet." Murray said fervently but Aldritch summoned a small weapon with a small handle,long chamber and most importantly it's appearance was pitch black with golden traces running across it and his index finger on the trigger. For everyone here present,they didn't have the slightest clue what was in his right hand but he knew what it was. A gun that he made with his will and corked it,checked the magazine and aimed it without purpose and manifested with his left hand a small glimmering ball. "Do you know what this is?" Aldritch asked Murray whose faced changed from a peaceful look to something more uncomfortable. "I'm sorry my majesty but I am unable to discern what that is?" Looking at Lorna Aldritch aimed the muzzle at her and pressing the trigger a small buzzing sound was heard as the gun had a silencer to it.
"As expected." Aldritch said looking at the small barrier around Lorna protecting her from the bullet just a couple if inches of her face. It wasn't a mana barrier rather it was a qi barrier. Making a mana barrier would have taken a little longer to manifest but qi being better was able to stop it coupled with the fact that qi users had amplified senses compared to mana users. "So do you know what this is then?" Aldritch asked with his left hand playing with the glowing orb rotating on his index finger. "Yes,it's a qi strengthening pill." Murray said in a defeated mood looking down. "How did you know that we weren't mana users though?" He then asked but Aldritch responded stepping on his face as Murray was still kneeling ,"Who gave you the authority to question me? But don't worry,this should answer your question." He smiled maniacally handing the pill to Murray who was still beneath his feet. Murray could feel that things weren't going in a very favourable direction so he quickly teleported using a qi skill. The knights quickly cast a mana void barrier but Murray and Lorna were still able to slip past it by making a tear through it and flying off bursting the roof open. Aldritch watched the scene unfold but he didn't give chase rather he he sent someone else to do it ,"Track Murray and bring him back here." He instructed Natalie and her crew of knights before making their departure. Looking at the now tumbling down restaurant he gave a short sigh but Eva pointed out ,"I can prepare your lunch for you Aldritch if you wish." Aldritch simply waved his hand allowing Eva to proceed ignoring the screams of those who had collapsed under the rubble.
Aldritch snapped his fingers making the restaurant teleport from it's central position and modified it making it appear at the shore of the lake with a part of it above the lake similar to a pier. He walked to the pier section which was empty where he summoned two chairs and a grand looking table. Eva on the other hand manifested her mana to form equipment and started cooking with perfect accuracy and total control over her mana. "Herbal tea will do." Aldritch said as he looked at the horizon and after a few minutes,she was done. "Your herbal tea, master." She said as she served him before taking a seat herself and shortly after Natalie along with the rest of her squad reappeared ,"I'm apologize deeply my Lord but we were unsuccessful in capturing him." Bowing on one knee but Aldritch simply scoffed ,"Why did you fail?" Natalie with a small drop of sweat trickling down her face ,"He was using what seemed like space artifacts to cover a lot of ground and he used numerous illusion." Aldritch crossed his right leg over his left before looking at Natalie ,"That's all? Mmm. Looks like all of you need more training." He stood up before standing at the guard rail of the pier. "I hope you learnt something this." Natalie in unison with her squad shouted ,"We shall reflect on our faults and train more earnestly than before." Aldritch faced the audience behind him before a thought ran his mind and surprisingly Murray and Lorna appeared infront of them all. "How did you do that?" Murray asked as they had already traversed a long distance to get away from him but here they were. "That shouldn't concern you." Murray heard Aldrich's sarcastic remark but he chose to flee once more but the moment he jumped off the pier,his head along with Lorna burst into a thousand pieces. "Let's take it from the top shall we." Aldritch said as he made a counter clockwise motion with his index reversing time much to everyone's surprise reversing the moment when Murray and Lorna died bringing them back to the pier.
"Start talking but if you won't then resorting to other means is still on the table." Aldritch said with a devilish smile on his face.