Arthur and Adara’s Shock

"W-What…"

Adara couldn't speak properly as she saw the ever so familiar magic casted by Zen.

She looked at Arthur to ask for an explanation, but she only saw the shock in his eyes as he stayed silent.

That's right, even Arthur himself lost a little bit of his composure this time.

"I've done it, Teacher. Can I get my rewards now?" Zen's confident voice sounded as he peeked at the side of the fireball.

"Hahaha!"

It was Zen and Adara's turn to be shocked as they both looked towards the laughing Arthur.

"W-What the hell… what is he doing, Aunt Ada?"

"I don't know either… but, I'm scared…"

Zen and Adara huddled together as they looked at Arthur with fear apparent in their faces.

Seeing them act so closely despite meeting less than a minute ago, Arthur's lips twitched.

"It seems like both of you need to be taught a lesson…" He muttered as he cracked his fists while walking towards them.

"Pope, you know we're just joking, right?"

"That's right, Teacher! Aunt Ada was the one who convinced me to do this!!"

"You brat!"

At this moment, Arthur performed a hand chop on empty air.

[Fire Weapon Art, First Style: Ember]

WOOV—

"Let's see how many Contain you can cast and how fast you can cast them."

Seeing the wave of fire that was rapidly closing in towards him, Zen immediately tried to escape in fear.

Unfortunately, to his horror, he found out that he couldn't move even by a centimeter.

"Nephew! It's useless!! The mana in the surroundings are controlled by the Pope!!! Just try to do what he asks of you while asking for forgiveness!!!!"

Adara shouted from the sidelines as he watched the wave of fire about to consume her "nephew".

"Contain!"

However, just as the wave of fire was about to hit him, Zen concentrated with all he had and once again, casted Contain.

WOOV— WOOV— WOOV— WOOV—

The first wave of fire was succeeded by numerous waves of flames.

"Conta— Ow! Contain! Ow! Ow! Con- Ow! Contain!" Zen did his best in order to cast Contain even though he had just learned it.

Unfortunately for him, Arthur continued performing hand chops and sending out waves of flames towards him.

This lasted for about half an hour before Arthur finally vented all his pent up frustrations.

"U-Ummm Pope, do you think he's okay?" Adara fiddled her fingers as she asked in a low voice.

Arthur realized what she was asking about and shook his head with a smile, "Oh you don't need to worry about him dying. He's quite special, you see. Besides, I held back a lot."

Adara then turned her head and looked towards the smoke that was rapidly dissipating.

Not long after, Zen's figure was revealed to the two of them. 

Most of his body had been charred black by his teacher's flames. But one could also see that his body was healing at a rate visible to the naked eye.

Seeing this, Adara's eyes widened in shock as he looked at Arthur, "This… is he really human?"

"That's what I asked myself too when I first saw him. And besides, you asked earlier who casted that magic, right?"

"Don't tell me that…"

"That's right, it's him. My one and only apprentice."

Shock and doubt intertwined in Adara's heart upon witnessing what had happened. 

As someone who had been by Arthur's side for hundreds of years, she was well aware of his prowess.

Just the fact that his apprentice was able to remain standing was worth an applause.

However, Adara also witnessed how Zen didn't even seem fazed. There was also the fact that he had an unreal rate of regeneration.

"Did you face some annoying people on your journey, Teacher?"

Zen asked with a wronged look on his charred face. 'Tsk, if only I had more time to practice… then his flames wouldn't have touched me.'

'Still, I can't help but be amazed at Teacher's magic.'

Upon learning Contain, Zen felt that it was kind of lackluster at first. But it quickly changed since he used it earlier.

The reason for this being the fact that Contain, like its name implies, can contain any spell.

The more outrageous thing about this was the fact that the consumption of mana when using that magic remained the same no matter the magic you wanted to contain.

This meant that whether it was a nuclear-like magic spell, or something as simple as a rock being thrown to him, the mana expended was the same.

Zens surmised that it was because of the fact that Contain had the higher elements of soace and time.

"Hey my precious apprentice."

"Yes, Teacher?"

"You might want to cover yourself first before you get immersed in your thoughts…"

Zen subconsciously looked down and saw his naked body in all its glory before looking at Adara who was peeking through the hands that she used to cover her face.

"Ahhhh!"

Zen immediately covered his precious jewels and turned around.

"Ohhh, you have nothing to worry about, Nephew. You're quite blessed if I must say so~"

"She's right, you don't need to worry about anything since she's just an old hag."

"That's mean!" 

Adara pouted as she looked at Arthur.

"Just shut up, please! Give me some clothes, Teacher!!" 

Zen felt his whole face heating up as he couldn't help but feel their gazes towards his back.

"Here." 

Arthur casually tossed a new set of clothes towards his exhibishionist of an apprentice.

He then started to walk towards the dilapidated building, "Follow me, we need to talk about our next courses of action after I've properly introduced the two of you to each other."

"Okay, teehee~" Adara giggled as she quickly followed behind him, "Nephew, you can just go in like that if you'd like~"

Zen blushed even more as he quickly donned the clothes given by his teacher.

However, as he looked down, he noticed something different. It wasn't the black training clothes he used to wear.

Instead, it was like the one that Arthur wore.

It was a white priest robe that looked to be more in the style of a trench coat.

Majestic orange patterns also adorned it, giving it a feeling of nobleness and authority.