Who's stronger

As the pair straddled down the stairs to the reception they found themselves perplexed "Hello!" Ariel voiced only to be met with her echo

"why are you shouting it's too early for this" Lotus sighed while dragging one foot in front of the other on the way to the kitchen. He was consumed with lethargy for some reason he found it odd it was unlike himself but he gathered it was from fighting countless hordes of beasts and using his teleporting ability.

"Are you ok? you look really exhausted"

"I don't want to hear that from you, you dragged me out here"

"you can go back after but get some food first please!", in a pleading tone she walked up behind Lotus and pushed him in towards the kitchen. to their surprise again it was empty there was no one there, however, there was a sign of life since there were pulled-out chairs on the table, but what caught their attention was the array of delicacies on the table from uniquely looking bread to delicious looking fruits.

"Just sit down and eat they probably ate and went back to bed, that could be you as well Lotus"

he sighed even heavier than before he didn't have it in him to respond to her increasingly his head felt heavier and tighter

'honestly, he looks in pain' Ariel could notice something was off

just while Lotus was chewing into this new bread, he, just like last time could feel a few auras present around him, "alright can whoever's there come out, I can't enjoy the food like this", almost unconfidently he voiced while still focusing on the food. "who are you talking to?" with nothing but silence Ariel's confusion only triggered some of Lotus' anger

"I'm serious right now come out" As he said that the same scary weighted aura emitted from Lotus causing Christophe, the assassin and Isabella to appear from seemingly nothingness around the table with visible nervous sweats on all of them except the little assassin who's face couldn't be seen in the silk face mask as they revealed themselves the weighted aura finally lifted as if it was never there

"remarkable skills you have I'm continuously in awe," Christophe said enthusiastically while letting off a breath of release

'can't he be in awe without annoying me' groaning internally he continued with his current mission of filling his stomach while Ariel lifted the shock off her face and came to sit beside Lotus she looked at Christophe still with confusion "How Are you all doing that?".

"It's simple no?", Ariel looked at him with a flat face in response.

"We are simply limiting our mana within to mask our presence, as a fellow practitioner you should be able to do it too"

"We wouldn't know how to and we don't know what a 'practitioner' unfortunately" Ariel stated for both Lotus and her sake. except at that moment while Christophe was explaining, Lotus thought about the feeling of limiting the power he felt coursing through him and so after Ariel's response he began testing the theory and in response… Lotus' presence completely disappeared without a trace but it was not as if he teleported since he was still nonchalantly digging into the food

"wow! quick learner aren't you Lotus" Christophe said in amazement, Lotus curved his eyebrows consumed with confusion "I don't remember telling you my name?" he said while releasing the limit within himself and reappearing.

"ahh Ariel was rather peckish last night, so we had a lovely time last night snacking and talking so we are all acquainted now"

"Are we now!" Lotus said while giving Ariel a look that made her feel a big headache coming on

"Anyways Isabelle what do you think of our new tenants"

Isabelle gave Lotus a complicated look, this was the first time Lotus even recognised the girl in the other corner since he already was a-tuned to the assassin and her quiet temperament, he did feel something was off with Isabelle aside from her otherworldly beauty but alas he didn't give her more than a second glance before continuing with the rest of the fruits in front of him

"still don't like her, I guess he has some potential to not be a waste of space" she criticised in response, however, her answer seemed to have rubbed Lotus who was already in a poor mood the wrong way "Yo who are talking about like that the only waste here are snobby people like you" Lotus looked at Ariel asking who she was but all she could do was roll her eyes and whisper the events of last night

but what didn't expect was for a certain someone's anger at being called snobby to boil up to the point where out of nowhere, before Ariel or anyone else could realise a violet fireball could be seen heading straight towards Lotus' head.

However after only being inches away from devouring his face the fireball seemed to dissipate as if it was nothing, and before she could express her astonishment with his eyes glowing bright gold he instantly appeared right behind Isabelle, but for the first time he was not the one with the upper hand as he was about to put her in his hold, preemptively she kicked back her right leg but to be immediately checked by Lotus,

With a fierce strike backed by her firepower she swung a left hook towards Lotus' ribs but again Lotus showed no signs of weakness in combat as while he swayed the momentum of her hook away from him he instinctively was about the counter with the same type of ferocity that was used to kill a dragon,

"Lotus!!!" Ariel finally comes to her senses and screams at Lotus

it was just before striking her chest he immediately held the punch back however the feedback from the near attack could still be felt reverberating throughout the kitchen

… leaving nothing but silence.

"I'm done with my food I'm going back to sleep now" With displease written all over his face he dragged himself out of the kitchen and back into the bedroom

left in the kitchen, Ariel, Christoph, the assassin and Isabelle standing with nervous sweat down their cheeks and shocked expressions, however Ariel's shock was for a different reason.

'I can't believe he ate almost half of everything ugh' Since she already witnessed Lotus doing many impossible's at this point she wasn't surprised at his strength