18 Chapter 18. Finding Reon

Leo arrived at the village entrance once again and his attention was immediately caught by Aurora who was bitterly crying as crystal tears fell from her eyes mixed with hard-effort sweat.

As he walked at a faster pace and got closer, he saw that all the people that they dragged out of the fire were all dead, they were no longer breathing at all. Realizing that something wrong was going on, Leo used his heavenly eyes to carefully inspect the dead bodies and found out that each body carried a dark poison aura which was impossible for Aurora to dispel.

Seeing Leo come this way, Aurora rushed ran into his arms and started sobbing endlessly as she cried, "I couldn't save them. They had something inside them that I couldn't get rid of."

Leo comfortingly patted her small head as he consoled her saying, "It's ok, you tried your best. I'm sure that they won't blame you for it."

"Aurora, I need you to be a strong girl for me and take care of Lex for a while. My mom said that our dads and the others went to fight off the attackers. I want to go and have a look, you should go to my house. It's full of rubble right now but there's a small wooden trapdoor with a small room where you and Lex can comfortably sit in. I'll be back as fast as I can," Leo suddenly spoke as he took Lex down from his arms and placed them into the smooth comfortable little arms of Aurora.

"Can't I come with you?" Aurora asked as she did not want to be left alone again.

"I'm afraid not, if I run into attackers then I can't fight them with Lex on my back. So I need you to keep Lex safe for now," Leo explained. Suddenly realizing why Aurora asked this, he looked at Aurora and gave her a confident reassuring smile as he promised, "I'll make sure I'll come back, don't worry!"

Hearing Leo make this promise this, all of Aurora's doubts were answered as she nodded and took Lexus who was sleeping from Leo's arms and she said goodbye to Leo with a statement.

"You promised that! You better stay alive!"

Leo nodded and sped away straight towards the direction of the large explosion.

...

A large grassy field was hidden among the thick dense forest in the hills near the village. And out of the dense trees dashed out a cultivator and right behind him, a sword rapidly flew stabbing him right through his stomach, causing the man to fall down on the grass, slowly dying the ground red as he coughed up numerous mouthfuls of blood. If Aurora had seen this man then she would've recognized him as her father. His current appearance was extremely terrible as his clothes had multiple holes and rips and there were multiple cuts on his body as blood slowly leaked out from them.

"Village Elder! Are you ok? Village Elder stay with me!" screamed Reon as he also dashed out from the field straight towards the old man who was on the ground with a sword stabbed in his abdomen.

"Agh" a mouthful of blood flew out of his mouth as Reon slowly propped him up.

"These people are too powerful. Reon! Get away from here. We stand no chance! Take surviving villagers and flee from this place!" the village elder weakly spoke as he hurried Reon to retreat.

"Hahahaha, you think running away will help you now? I tell you, our boss had released a poison at the village from the moment that you decided to attack us. And by now, the whole village should be affected by it and they should die in the next hour or so," a haughty male voice spoke out as a hundred soldiers appeared from the trees surrounding the two villagers.

"Nooo! How dare you kill them! They were all innocent!" screamed Reon as anger and rage instantly filled his head and he started madly charging at the man who had just spoken out.

However, before he could reach him and land a punch, the man used an Art and instead punched Reon in the face, sent him back flying into the think tree trunks.

"Pathetic… If you guys had only just given us what we wanted then your village probably would not have been destroyed," said the man as an evil grin appeared on his face as he looked at the badly injured village elder.

"Never! We could never allow you! We would never give you the girls from this village, they have a life as well and they are living beings! We would never force them to do what they don't want to do," responded the Village Elder as he glared at the man.

"Haha! What rubbish! Women are merely playthings for us! If not for caring for our needs then what purpose do they have? We, men, are able to do anything we want," the man arrogantly rebuked and a ball of fire began forming on his hand as he prepared to strike the village elder with an Art, "with this attack, I shall end you."

"Go for it. I have nothing now. If I am to die today then I will take you with me," said the village elder as he began to ignite his life energy and making his energy go berserk as prepared to self destruct.

However, before he could finish, "Halt!" a voice rang out and a mighty looking man came out dressed in red armor.

"General!" the surrounding men shouted in unison as they all saluted him and bowed.

"Puny village elder, who do you think you are? You dare injure my men?" roared the general angrily as he grabbed his sword handle and unsheathed it, revealing a shiny, slick, smooth, sharp blade.

"I don't have any reason to live. If you guys keep going then more girls from the Lapis kingdom will be affected, so I will give my all in this attack," said the village elder as he gave up all hope of living and put his all into his self-destruction.

"Let me help you!" Reon's voice rang out as he ran next to the village elder and both started gathering energy and prepared to self destruct.

"Tch! Frogs at the bottom of a well," the general mocked as an evil grin appeared on his face.

Just before the two men could complete gathering energy, the general suddenly disappeared from their sight and appeared behind them as he used a sword art that slashed through both of their necks.

"E-emission realm. You were...at emission realm!" cried the village elder in amazement as his head fell off from his body, still having a shocked expression on his face.

"I am indeed at emission realm. Oh my, it seems like I missed one of them," spoke the general as he gave off a clumsy look as he turned his face around.

Splurt! Splurt!

Reon had fresh rosy red blood spewing from his neck and he began coughing continuous large mouthful of blood. The Art had slashed his neck but did not cut through it so due to Reon making a small adjustment before he got attacked, buying him a little more time.

As this bloody scene was happening, a small silhouette of a child could be seen quickly rushing towards the field. There were multiple guards placed around the site so Leo had been forced to take a stealthy approach which made the search take a lot longer than it was originally supposed to. Leo had made his way to the explosion site and found that there was nothing left there, no guards were around. There was only a fifty-meter large crater with countless rocks and branches scattered around the site. While Leo was quietly searching the crater for any signs of his father, he suddenly felt a sudden energy wave of an emission realm cultivator coming from deep inside the forest. This sudden wave gave him hope as it told him that the villagers must still be alive but then filled him with fear as the appearance of a emission realm was extremely devastating news. The violent energy wave meant that there was a battle going on and that meant that his father might still be alive but then he recalled that the village only had cultivators of gathering realm which brought up the possibility that his father could possibly have been killed by that sword attack earlier.

'Oh no! Please no! I've lost mom! I can't lose my father too! Wait, dad, Stay alive! I'm coming…' Leo shouted in his mind as he desperately ran towards the direction of the energy wave as his speed soared again as he now did not hold back his speed, not caring if he was spotted by the guards.