Angry Heartsbane

Vivian's morning was plain and simple. She had woken up in Elder Clearmoon's house. Since Ray had been pretty busy with his training and she and her sisters didn't want to disturb him, they had opted to spend the night in the Elder's house.

She still felt it surreal to be back among her people and that too spending a night in Elder Clearmoon's house like she used to do in the past. Whenever her grandpa had to leave the Inner Sanctum for work, he would leave Vivian and Celestia under the Elder's care.

Vivian was busy honing her spear-wielding skill and meditating while Jasmine was practising the spells she had received from Elder Clearmoon. As for Lyla, she was cultivating diligently in order to reach the next realm as soon as possible.

Lyla seemed to be in a rush to advance her cultivation base. Vivian had even noticed her leaving the house in the middle of the night. She didn't know what Lyla was up to, but there was a sense of urgency in her movements recently.

Although Vivian was curious about Lyla's urgency, she refrained from asking. She was yet to fully know her and being nosy would only worsen their budding sisterhood.

And seeing Lyla being so diligent encouraged Vivian to focus more on her progress. It had been quite a while since she had any kind of breakthrough. Even with gaining a new element by a stroke of luck, Vivian was still a Martial King.

She was not just an abandoned elf from the WindGod tribe anymore. She was Ray's Apostle and her every success and failure was linked to him forever. She wanted to make him proud and prove that she deserved to be his Apostle.

Even if Ray didn't demand anything in return for granting her the element of Flesh and significantly boosting her strength, Vivian wouldn't be able to digest her food if she didn't repay him somehow.

By the time Vivian finished her meditation and had breakfast, the sun was already over her head, indicating that the afternoon was fast approaching.

Elder Clearmoon had left the house early in the morning in a hurry, stating that she had to join the search party that was looking for her grandfather's nemesis.

When Vivian came outside to breathe in fresh air, she was surprised to find the whole area around her empty. During this time of the day, the place would be bustling with people going about their business.

"Is there a curfew or something?" Vivian wondered.

"Vivi, get back inside!"

Suddenly, Vivian heard Lyla's worried shout. She entered the house again and found that Jasmine and Lyla were vigilantly looking around.

"What happened?" She asked.

"Don't you feel it?" Lyla raised her eyebrows. "The air seems a bit off."

"Huh?" Vivian started and took a deep breath. "Ye…yeah…"

With the World Tree rooted in the centre, the Inner Sanctum was always full of fresh air that filled everyone with new vigour and energy.

However, as Vivian breathed in she didn't feel energised. Her lungs felt frowsty and heavy. She couldn't help but exhale quickly.

Lyla stretched her ears and boosted her hearing with her mana. "There is a crowd gathered at the World Tree." She observed from a great distance and could hear some indistinct murmurs from the mob.

"Don't go out. Master is there. We will be getting in his way if a fight breaks out." Jasmine warned them. She was not as sensitive as Lyla and Vivian due to her low cultivation and after trying to sniff the air for a while, she couldn't feel much of a difference.

Now that she heard from Lyla about the crowd gathered outside the Sacred Chamber, she thought the elves were there to cause trouble for her master.

Previously, Jasmine would've rushed head first to confront those that were scheming against her master, but now that she had realised that her master didn't need anyone's help in defending himself, she was reluctant to become a hindrance to him.

"Mmm." Lyla nodded to show her agreement and stood in front of Jasmine and Vivian protectively as the sky darkened all of a sudden and the incessant shouting from the people stopped abruptly.

Something was wrong! She opened the window and poked her head outside to take a look.

"It feels like evening…" Lyla thought strangely and looked up to find the dark clouds gathering above the Inner Sanctum. "What? What's that?"

A hole appeared in the sky with a crimson glow along the edges.

[It's a portal!] Heartsbane exclaimed. As an ancient entity, she instantly recognised what it was.

"What's a portal?" Lyla asked.

[I will explain it later. Look up!] Heartsbane warned as a humongous pyramid descended from the portal.

Lyla had a bad feeling and sure enough, the pyramid started to absorb mana from everywhere. Even Lyla, who was staying in a home at the far end of the Inner Sanctum, could feel the slight tugging at her core.

"Argh!" Jasmine was the first to fall, followed by Vivian whose legs slowly buckled under the pressure. Only Lyla was relatively safe for now.

After making sure that her sisters were having difficulty standing up and not in any life-threatening condition, Lyla walked out of the house and gazed at the World Tree.

She had to squint her eyes as the wind picked up and pricked her eyes. Through her blurry vision, Lyla saw an auburn-haired man in a dark robe casually strolling the place, seemingly looking for someone or something.

She instantly made the connection. Vivian had mentioned a man targeting her and described his features as stated by Ronan, the old scammer.

[Quick! He has an Innate Spirit!] Heartsbane said urgently, though her voice sounded a bit angry. [That fucker! He has enslaved the Phantom forcefully!]

Although Heartsbane was apathetic towards the humans and elves, the same was not the case for her kin. All the 72 Innate Spirits considered themselves siblings and rarely met each other throughout their host's lifetime.

As a powerful Innate Spirit, even without her sentience achieved through a series of accidents, she could recognize another of her brethren.

Her eyes reddened as she saw the Phantom Shifter being painfully shackled to the wicked man's core and forced to obey his commands.

[Lyla, take me to him! I want to burn him!] Heartsbane choked.

'Don't be a fool! I can't see his cultivation base. There is too much risk in confronting him by ourselves.' Lyla analysed the situation. 'He is most likely here for Vivian. We need to get her close to Ray.'

'Why hasn't he noticed the commotion outside?' Lyla thought it was strange for someone like Ray with superior sensing to miss such an obvious noise made by the pyramid.

Lyla entered the house and carried both Jasmine and Vivian on her small shoulders. Since they were not directly under the pyramid, the pressure on them would increase the closer they got to the pyramid.

However, Lyla didn't fancy the thought of running out of the Inner Sanctum with her sisters. Surely, someone who could boldly attack the elves must have left traps for the escapees.

Even if the chances were low, she didn't want any fight while her sisters were incapable of defending themselves. Her best bet was to get close to Ray as much as possible before she too succumbed to the pressure exerted by the pyramid.

Making up her mind, Lyla leaped through the back window and ran in the opposite direction with the house as her cover to avoid being spotted by Eldric.

She had to circle the precipice of the Inner Sanctum to reach the World Tree from the other direction.

~~~

"Clever girl!" Eldric smirked. He had masked his cultivation to lure in passionate elves who would be foolish enough to attack him while he searched for Vivian. He didn't expect a human Martial Emperor to be hidden in a faraway house.

He was surprised to find the green-headed girl he was looking for with the human girl. His Innate Spirit was behaving weirdly and kept turning him tangible from time to time as he closed in on their house.

The girl was smart enough to avoid the fight and fled from the spot.

Eldric closed his eyes. As the summoner of the pyramid, he could see everything that came under its pressure, in this case, the whole Inner Sanctum, with his inner eye.

"There!" Eldric pinpointed the location of the human's location that was swiftly moving along the borders of the Sanctum.

"Hmmm?" Eldric paused just as he was about to run after her. As the summoner, he was immune to the pressure and could move around freely. "Is she stupid?"

How come the girl was approaching the World Tree? Wasn't she asking for death?

"Sigh, I am not good at judging people." Eldric scratched his chin, feeling quite foolish for calling her clever.

Not thinking too much as to why the girl was rushing to her death, Eldric flew towards the World Tree to begin the ritual to create his biggest Puppet Maker.