Book 6: Chapter 7 – HIKEN

"What did Mathias mean before?" Ace asked, turning to Wukong as the group of five made their way North. "When he mentioned being unable to take an active role in helping us if things go south in the future."

"Why are you asking this king?" Wukong snorted. "This king hates politics the most!"

"I'll explain," Milianna sighed softly from Leo's back. "I don't know exactly what happened between Master and O'Brien after we fled, but whatever happened, it was enough to scare him enough to form some sort of alliance with Catherine – the High Priest of the Yulan Empire."

Ace didn't have to be there to understand that Arianna's strength would be genuinely frightening to just about any Demi-God. Their decision to form an alliance to protect their empires made sense, but it still didn't answer his original question.

"At the end of the selection, both O'Brien and Catherine made an appearance in an attempt to not only force the pavilion to hand you and me over to O'Brien but also to get their hands on Master's family legacy," Milianna explained calmly. "Fortunately, though both of them returned with all of their saint-level disciples and subordinates, they had underestimated the true power of the Pavilion.

It was only when they appeared that Cesar made his appearance, revealing that not only was he now an official member of the Yin-Yang Pavilion, but also that his strength had also improved significantly.

As soon as Catherine made a move to attack, Cesar instantly beheaded her eldest disciple, who, like Fain, was also a prime saint."

Hearing that, even though he knew everyone was alright, Ace couldn't help but listen with bated breaths as a sense of worry began to creep up inside him.

Although he knew Cesar was strong, he also knew the King of Killers was far from enough to deter two deities in a situation like that. And as powerful as she was, he doubted even Arianna would be able to fight two Demi-Gods on her own.

"Thankfully, Senior Brother had already foreseen a situation like this arising," Milianna continued. "As soon as it looked like Catherine and O'Brien were willing to forsake their subordinates for what they came for, Senior Brother threatened to make a breakthrough right there and then.

I should probably mention that during his fight against O'Brien's disciples, his comprehension finally broke through to the deity level. So had he really broken through as he threatened, he would've leapt straight over the peak and prime saint level and directly become a Demi-God.

Catherine and O'Brien both instantly understood that point, and although Catherine was apparently the stronger of the two Demi-Gods, it wasn't by enough to ignore the presence of a newly promoted Demi-God. Had the two carried on, it would have been a simple matter of Mathias blocking Catherine until Master finished with O'Brien allowing both Mathias and Master to suppress Catherine together.

Still, it was impossible for the two Demi-Gods to leave just like that after making such a public spectacle; as such, Senior Brother promised them that not only would the Pavilion not make any attempts to expand its current territory, should an apostle face any danger from external influences, no active member of the Pavilion will make any attempts to help them.

Unfortunately, O'Brien, recognising the threat you posed to him and his empire, forced Mathias to promote you to the position of an apostle in advance, as your strength had clearly far surpassed that of an expert at the eighth rank.

Mathias didn't want to. He wanted to give you as much time to grow as possible, but I was the one to agree on your behalf," Milianna explained, her face still the picture of serenity, despite her actions effectively throwing her own son to the wolves. "Don't blame Master or Senior Brother for not telling you earlier; I told them that it was best coming from me.

Do you blame me?"

Even though Milianna still looked perfectly calm, Ace could sense a hint of guilt mixed in her otherwise warm and gentle aura.

"Of course not," Ace shook his head decisively. "Had I been present at the time, I would've made the exact same choice. Everyone at the Pavilion has already done more than enough. I can't expect them to protect me for the rest of my life."

A gentle but resolute smile suffused Milianna's otherworldly face as she proudly met her son's gaze. "I'd expect no less from a descendant of our Gol family!"

A knowing smile appeared on Ace's face when he heard that, but he didn't say anything more on the matter. Instead, he brought the topic of conversation back on track. "So was that it, or did anything else happen whilst I was out of it?"

"Well, after Catherine and O'Brien were forced to retreat, the Pavilion's position as one of the continent's major forces was firmly established," Amira shrugged as she flew beside Ace and Wukong. "But the pressure the Pavilion put on the rest of the continent was apparently too much to bear as all the top schools began to emulate the blueprint of the Pavilion, choosing to focus on both paths of cultivation instead of limiting themselves and their students to just one.

The most surprising was the fusion of the Ernst Institute and the War God's Academy. You have to remember that although the Ernst Institute was the only school with a direct pipeline to the Yulan Empire's College of Light, ultimately, it was an institution that was founded and belonged to the Radiant Church.

Apparently, Catherine made some sort of deal with the Church, and although no one knows the details of the deal, judging by how the Church migrated their HQ to the Yulan Empire, it's fair to assume that they too have made some sort of alliance."

Ace calmly nodded, not too bothered by that particular development. He had no particular gripe with the Radiant Church or the Yulan Empire; he was far more interested in the fusion of the War God's Academy and the Ernst Institute.

"The fusion of both institutes is still ongoing, but apparently, their new campus is in the middle of the Anarchic Region, with that Byrius fellow and a number of the saint-level personal disciples of both deities there to preside over it.

It was because of that, that the Anarchic Region entered into its first period of peace in over a millennia, although everyone knows that it will inevitably be short-lived. The only thing that's still unknown is what the Anarchic Lands will look like after the Yulan and O'Brien Empire are done cutting it up between them."

"I guess that is the only way they could hope to have their students even think about competing with us at the Pavilion," Ace replied with a smirk. "But it's still far from en…"

Before Ace could finish his sentence, his eyes constricted into pinholes as he suddenly exploded with his fastest speed, leaving nothing but a trail of flames in his wake as he shot into the distance.

.

.

.

At the same time, a few miles away, a small but seemingly well-organised army stood in despair, watching as seven mortals were forced to face off against a mountain-sized Rainbow Dragon at the early stages of the saint realm.

Scattered around them were the corpses of soldiers and beasts alike, but at that moment, whether it was man or beast, as long as they were alive, they were all focused on the saint-level battle taking place in the sky.

"Why the fuck is there a saint-level beast?!" A young but undeniably imposing teenage girl dressed in leather battle armour shouted unwillingly as she continuously launched spear after spear of the earth at the giant dragon's weak spots. "This was just supposed to be an ordinairy beast tide!"

Her attacks did absolutely nothing to hinder such a beast, but she persisted nonetheless.

"I don't know," An elegant young woman replied as she too continuously bombarded the dragon with cone after cone of ice. "But it looks almost as though it's after Uncle Lance."

"Who cares why it's here," The youngest of the mortals voiced coldly, his tone laced with a thick killing intent as he fired slash after slash of wind at the beast. "All we need to focus on is killing it."

The group of seven were the remainder of Ace's classmates – minus Alissa – along with Cirulus.

The beast tide had been fairly ordinairy in terms of power before that, with the strongest being a blue-eyed tiger mastiff of the ninth rank, which Killian had unsurprisingly made quick work of.

He had previously been reluctant in his ability to take on warriors of the ninth rank, but now after a year, his progress could only be described as blazing!

Not only had he reached the middle of the seventh rank as a warrior and mage, he had even comprehended [Impose]! Unless one had the power of a general, you could forget about fighting Killian.

Still, things took a sudden and completely unforeseen turn for the worst when a saint-level dragon suddenly appeared and made a beeline straight for Lance.

Unfortunately, even with all his training, Lance, who had been easily slaughtering beast after beast, was far from a match for a beast of that level.

The only reason Lance was even still alive right now was because it appeared to be more interested in Lance's spear than the man wielding it.

It was only after sniffing and studying the spear that the colourful rainbow dragon let out an enraged roar and turned its attention back to the man formerly wielding it, whom it had previously sent flying.

Had it not been for the pressure of a saint-level beast attempting to kill the man Killian had grown to see as something of a father figure stimulating him enough to finally comprehend a trace amount of his first Profound Mystery, there would've been no one capable of stopping the beast.

Still, even with his sudden breakthrough, Killian was far from a match for the dragon. It was only with the assistance of his classmates and the presiding city lord of the city of Gol – Cirulus Reacher – that Killian was reluctantly able to hold the dragon off.

Unfortunately, even with the seven of them working together, they were still slowly being suppressed.

"KILLIAN!" Faye roared when she saw Killian sent flying by the beast's gigantic knife-like claws.

The eyes of her and the others went red as each of them watched unwillingly what appeared to be a sure death for their classmate when…

"[HIKEN]!"

A furious yet familiar roar of a young man once again brought the battlefield to a deafening halt as a giant fist-shaped pillar of fire descended from the clouds, engulfing the enormous figure of the dragon.

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Book 12: Part 9 – Left Behind