41 A moment full of heat!

Arc repeatedly moved fast within the air as she danced, surrounding the old man. Her body was surrounded by a white aura that slowly flared upwards. She launched attacks towards the old man's barrier using an ordinary sword, and after each strike, she instantly flash away.

The old man however, had his face calm, but with a tinge of blush on his face. His eyes repeatedly looked all over Arc as her curves gave firm movements that emitted waves here and there.

As he continuously gave Arc his longing gaze, golden light was charging within his red staff as his barrer stood, and on his other hand a green spoon-like object somehow appeared out of nowhere.

The upper tip of the staff glowed and flashed a brilliant light that illuminated the surroundings, but the light only enveloped the area within a radius of a hundred meters.

Included within the bright light, Arc closed her eyes in reflex as the light reached her, and opened them slightly with difficulty.

The bright light only lasted for a full three seconds before it dispersed.

"What is this?"

After the light disappeared, a net that emitted green smoke encased her. She willed a sword light streak towards the net and it passed through, but after the sword went past it got out of her control and vanished.

Seeing as the enemy set up the net within three seconds, it was possible that the net was also easy to destroy.

However as she thought about that, the old man already finished casting another spell and his staff fully glowed golden.

The light that came from it somehow merged towards the net, supressing the smoke along the lines and made the net look more sturdy.

After she heard a few murmurs from the old man, Arc closed her eyes and within seconds, over a hundred swords made of light formed all over around her, and launched themselves towards the net, only for it to bounce off.

"Unless you have some kind of artifact, I don't think you could break my Angler's Feast." The old man flew near towards the edge of the net, and mused to himself as he observed more of Arc.

"I'm just getting started!"

This time, Arc's eyes glinted a silvery white for an instant. The swords split themselves and spun as if they were drills and slowly bore through the net's entanglement.

Cold sweat ran on the old man's back as he felt his head sting, yet the damage done to the net wasn't powerful enough to destroy it.

Slowly but surely, each of the swords continued to drill towards the golden layer before it finally dimmed and finally struck the net---only for it to instantly retract towards Arc like a rubber band.

"Gotcha!" The old man exclaimed in joy as Arc's whole body got caught in the net like a bug. All of her swords vanished and her aura also disappeared, making her accelerate towards the ground.

The old man followed over her direction and caught her, groping her butt in the process. Doing so made him more fervently breathe faster in excitement and flew away in a streak of light towards somewhere west.

Without his notice though, Arc's eyes glinted once more in a streak of silver light, before the he felt a sharp pain on his head, making him release her from grasp.

Instead of falling, Arc rose into the air instead, and the net that covered her whole body fell in shreds.

"I hate perverts the most."

Her sword came out of nowhere and flew towards her hand that readily caught it, before a streak of silver light went towards the old man's neck.

No special skills were used, and the old man's head fell off before his body followed. Screams of people below alerted the nearby guards but there was no one in the air anymore when they finally checked above.

"I could've stole the rope as a tool for Kaff but he just had to put his hands on me!" Arc flew towards where she left Kaff and the other guy before she saw a red streak of light dashing towards where she was supposed to go.

"A demon? Or is it... oh no."

With a staff tied to her back, she put more speed into her flight as she rushed towards the red streak of light on the distance.

***

Why do I keep having bad premonitions? Gut feels?

Considering everything I've felt since earlier, I can only assume that that gem that he broke only brought trouble.

Not even a minute had passed, and I could see a red dot from the distance that became larger by the second.

A demon?

"You should run." The guy in front smirked as he fixed his hair that became slightly tangled from the frantic attacks he made against me.

One of the things Yona taught me, if someone keeps antagonizing me, I should just kill him right away.

"You, should run." I returned back what he said and executed another movement technique I learned from Aunt, dashing straight towards him in pure speed as I stab towards his chest using the Origin blade.

*fzzsshwp*

Another strange sound occurred and the sound of glass breaking followed, before I felt a force blow me away from him for at least twenty meters.

"Not only did you destroy my day. You even destroyed two of my protective charms! Hah... Hahahha...."

He let out a few strange yet frantic laughs as if he was a maniac and the red light finally came---a Vermilion Flame Beast.

"How's Virol?" I asked.

The man who just reverted back to his half human form slightly jolted from my words, before his eyes finally started to carefully observe me.

"You're Kaff Eric?" He was about to initiate an attack but cancelled his stance instead before he asked with wide opened eyes.

"What are you doing? KILL HIM!" The red-haired guy shouted at the recently arrived half-beast as he pointed at me.

"Hmph." The half-beast only snorted and slowly floated towards me. Seeing he's not an enemy, I showed him the feather the Beast God gave to me.

"That's strange. I don't feel the mark of the Beast God from you."

"This still serves as proof of my friendship with the Beast God, right?" I showed him the feather the Beast God bestowed to me, before I returned it and continued.

"I heard everything from Y-----the Endless Empress. As you guys hate demons, she only fights back when you retaliate against her. What should I call you by the way?"

"Herov. Where is the Endless Empress?" There was a slight twitch on his eye as I mentioned Yona, but he managed to retain his mind calm.

As we have suspected two years ago, they've assumed that Yona brought us with her. They probably even thought that I'd come back here because of revenge, but that's not all.

"I actually don't know. She left us before we reached Phione."

"Why are you having a conversation!? I told you to-----" The red-haired guy got smacked by an enlarged fist squarely on the face and crashed towards the intact platform below.

"The Beast God actually has a message for you. A lot of us beasts held on to that message from Virol, and all we want is one thing." He went closer and knelt one leg in midair which was looking strange seeing we were at flight.

"Eh?"

"The Beast God doesn't want you as an enemy."

It seems like the Beast God is... afraid of me?

What's with the kneel?

Does he see me as a threat? Thinking about it, Virol always only tested the waters with me and didn't really show any hostile intent. He also didn't touch me that time at the mountains, but...he did took part in killing Dad. He considered him 'colluding with the demons' at that point and outright cooperated with the other two Grandmasters.

Thinking about all of this, the Beast God probably fears me retaliating towards all the beasts and even kill them.

"That's it?"

I thought he'd say more, but he just kept kneeling as if he hadn't heard me or if he wants to get some kind of message from me.

"Does the Beast God wants me to be still friends with Virol?"

He raised his head and I gave smirk that made his expression darken.

"What if I was already a god? Would those guys even attempt to kill my father back then?"

I can see sweat starting to form on his temples and lowered his head once more.

"Aih. I'll just decide on that when I meet with him. Aunt, let's go."

The guy turned around and saw Aunt instantly appearing on sight.

"I thought it was that William that came."

I can already see a lot more Vates incoming by the various golden lights from the distance. With this guy taking so long to come back, they probably got worried and sent more reinforcements.

Why were these two in here anyway?

Curious got ahead of me and I entered the black box room below which was still sturdy even after all of those attacks earlier.

There were four miniature black pillars inside that looked like the ones that stood outside.

Within it, a ceramic bottle was contained. Further in, there was a black curtain and behind it laid a white bed that can probably fit four people in it. Above the bed was a glowing crystal that provided enough light just to see dimly in here.

There was a desk with an oil lamp, and there were also heavy chains placed underneath.

Just what the heck are they planning?

"I thought this was supposed to be some kind of wedding?"

"Kaff..."

I heard Aunt and looked behind. The bottle within the barrier was now on her hands with the lid already opened.

Her skin was slightly turning red, and her eyes looked dazed.

Am I an idiot? Don't tell me that's an infamous... amative?

Her body started to sway and she zoomed in towards me instantly like a ghost.

"Keep this stuff, quick!" I formed a similar looking miniature barrier before placing the bottle inside as she looked all around as if searching for something inside the room. I don't think there are more things to find in here.

"Could I... rely on you?"

"Rely why?"

Her eyes were becoming teary, she went above the bed and then suddenly undressed her upper vest.

The vest flew towards the edge of the bed before I heard a loud thud. I couldn't describe why the vest was so heavy, but it didn't look that thick.

Also, what I only saw right now was Aunt's chest covered by only her arms. Of course, I saw what drooped and bounced earlier, but from the size and look of those bountiful peaks stunned me before I could even process my thoughts.

"What are you doing? Turn around! Guard the entrance!"

With that I gathered every light that I could and formed a triple layered barrier outside the black box. All of those barriers were guaranteed to resist a force that was comparable to Yona's slap that could send me flying for three kilometers above the sky.

I wasn't really happy or sad that I saw Aunt's upper body without cover, but I felt my heart drop.

She's my Aunt!

She looks like Sharl!

Why did this kind of coincidence happened!?

It pains me because... I won't be able to have her even in this world.

She'll also one day belong to another person, guy or not, human or not, I don't even know.

As I stood behind the curtains, I could hear her panting wildly, and my heart rate also rose. If I was some ordinary guy that didn't have any kind of restraint during this golden opportunity, I've probably sank into her arms right now.

I could hear all sorts of attacks outside and it distracted me from Aunt's voice as she did something I can't even start to imagine.

The sounds got louder, and the barrier might break if I don't do something so I got out and distracted myself instead.

"This is a good sparring session."

I swiped my hand and flung three balls of light that came towards me towards the other Vates around, hearing a few screams of pain from the direction.

"Focus! He's only one!"

Only one?

"What about the other?"

I glanced towards the skies and saw that there were probably about thirty of them floating up the barrier while they attempted to destroy it.

"Forget the woman! She's probably recovering from killing the Rolf's Master-level Vates!"

Shut up. I don't want to hear anything about Aunt right now.

I flew upwards and my white orb orbited around me as it showed up in an instant.

"D-demon child!"

"Finally, a fight NOT with Yona."

I brandished the Origin Blade from my back and went towards the three who launched their attacks toward me earlier. I can't really copy every technique that Aunt had as it required Natural Energy, but the way she used it made me comprehend a few of the attacks if I did them in high speeds.

"You're all slow."

Dodging their magical light attacks, I stabbed all of their hearts with the Origin Blade, and the three dropped down like dead birds shot.

"Yieehhh!!" One of them ran away frantically and used all of his source power to increase his speed while the others stopped attacking.

"Let him be. His retreat will serve as a report instead." One of them slowly floated in front of me as they surrounded me with a particular formation.

The three falling Vates were caught by two more that rushed as they descended, before they checked their status and joined the formation.

"Are the rumors really true? That you singlehandedly defeated a thousand soldiers within a day?"

"Weren't you drafted for war at the time?"

"I wasn't as capable back then so I was stationed to guard here instead."

I can feel a few Vates moving towards my back as we spoke.

Without any delay, a flash of golden light formed between every Vates, and I felt something struck my stomach. There were chains connecting them all, like a network formed.

"This is the H-----"

"You don't have to explain what kind of attack this is."

I stroke my belly which received damage and poured Origin until it felt better, before I sent a slash to break a nearby chain using the Origin Blade.

*clang*

Collective power? It didn't break at all. But as the case with every magical power, everything has an end.

They launched these chains made of golden light once more but as I've seen how it was done, I can dodge every single attack even from behind with the help of Soul Control.

Of course, I didn't forget to counterattack whenever the chance arose.

It didn't take long before I made one last slash and finally broke every chain as the whole network dimmed and vanished.