XIX Calm before the storm

 News about a Seven Town Meeting and a possible war against the Briles Kingdom had quickly spread like the wind all over the northern region. In addition, everyone living in the north was scared by this news.

 The Seven Town Meeting or Northern Region Meeting was known as the greatest grade for a meeting possible in the Northern Region of the kingdom. Usually, it would only be done when there was an extremely important subject like threatening the peace of the whole northern region and even the kingdom.

 The last time a Meeting was held in the Northern Region was when the King reached the seven northern territories and decided their positions of power as well as the limits of their dominion. Giving the Cooper Town to the Branches, Miller and Reyes families.

 In addition, it was due to this Division of the Seven Territories of the North Region, that they continued until the present days.

 Cooper Town was one of the smallest territories in the entire region, but it was also one the richest, being located in an area with several veins of copper, silver and gold.

 There were even rumors saying it had magical crystals underground.

 Because of this, the head of the Branches family, Luke Branches, sent his second son, Henry Branches, who at that time was only fifteen years old, along with his attendant Michael and Several Elders Elders.

 Now, the new king, Edmund Grayshine, had suddenly come to the meeting of the seven territories.

 If even the king had to go to the meeting, everyone could imagine how serious the meeting is going to be.

 The meeting was being held in Green Lake City, located in the center of the northern region. The previous northern meeting was also held in this city and therefore this city was the perfect place for this meeting.

 Within the Branches Castle.

 After Elijah awoke from the cocoon, the elemental energy he cultivated in his body was already at the peak of the ninth level, all he had to do was the conceal it the into the energy core in order to be truly reach the first divine realm. The past three years of hibernation gave his body numerous advantages, it was way past the required level for him to contain an energy core.

 Yet, Shadow told him it was best to wait for the right moment and use the next few months to sharpen his skill and control of energy. She said that sometimes having a good grasp of your power and capabilities could make a cultivator raise his battle efficiency to several levels above his cultivation even if in a lower realm.

 Although he wanted to move quickly, no matter what, he knew his master was right. So, he agreed with Shadow's suggestion focus on his skills first as well as enjoying a moment of peace. Otherwise, it would be a problem for him if he does not know how to enjoy life other than meditating and fighting.

 But he would still guard some time while waiting for his father to train in his void steps. Because even though he was in the third level, he discovers it was not truly teleportation, in truth the Void Level was about being invisible while moving and together with the speed it did look like a teleport. But he still hadn't managed to properly control his speed and was working on it.

 Even without the use of elemental energy, he could use the footwork he learned in orders to move silently and without wasting much of his stamina.

 As for the super strength he had used earlier, after a few tests in the dark world he discovered it could only be used once for a month or that his body couln't handdle using it two times a month.

 The first time he used that spell it had a duration of only 10 seconds before he pass out.

 But since his vitality had increased significantly inside the cocoon, Elijah could easily fight for 15 seconds and he no longer fainted after using it.

 This phenomenon also intrigued Shadow. With his increased vitality, it should be easy for Elijah to withstand more than 20 seconds, yet no matter how many times he tried he couldn't sustain more than 15 seconds.

 After thinking for a while and finding no answer, Elijah, who was confused, could only talk with shadow.

 And they realized that the rune which Elijah called that day hasn't accepted his yet.

 "Master, let me try something." Inside the training chamber of the Branches Castle, Elijah closed his eyes and instead of using the little energy he had in order to call forth that power, his eyes lit with a faint golden and pink shine as he summoned the ferocious aura he received within the coccon.

 Thurizas!

 Just like before, his body grew stronger as his muscles ripped through the clothes while his size also grew to about 1,70 m.

 Looking at himself in the mirror, Elijah couldn't see much difference from before other than the fact he felt a precense of a vibrant and positive force. It was really simitar to the vitality those of the mortal path cultivated like his father and grandfather.

 Raising both his hands, traces elemental energy and a white spart of appeared on his right and left hands. It was really weak, but there was certainly a small amount of vitality in his body despite being a little different from the azure vitality he saw on grandfather's body when he fought.

 And like the previous times, the transformation broke up when it made 15 seconds. The only awnser to it was that his cultivation wasn't high enough.

 After identifying the cause, Elijah could only wait before he reached the first realm before attempting again.

 As Elijah relaxed, a dozen days or so passed by.

 During this period, Elijah had split up his time into four parts. One part was for controlling the Third level [Void Steps], another part of cultivating his Elemental Energy, another part of researching on the complex and mysterious Thurisaz Runehe saw in the Giant Gate and the last part was for talking with Shadow or visiting her.

 Shadow was an extremely ancient goddess and was currently in a mental bond with Elijah. Giving the time she was alone, although she tried to hide, he could feel clearly the happiness in her voice every time he asked for advice or even when it was just for a conversation.

 Shadow made Elijah draw the rune on a piece of paper to see if she could make a discovery regarding about the Rune, and luckily, she did found that the shape of the rune was pretty similar to something she had seen before.

 She took a book called [Eternal Void Sealing Arts] and showed to Elijah before storing it once again, it was a old book containing many forms and ways of sealing. Seals for disiases, seals for talent, cultivation and there was even one that was written to be able to seal time.

 Elijah couldn't understand nothing on the book as all those seals and magical symbols were on a too high grade for him. Yet, even without being able to seeing through the runes, he could still find similarities between the lines used to form the seals and the runes in the gate.

 He could not bear the power of this spell's fragment for more than 15 seconds not to mention the full power this rune had.

 "Oken then, there is nothing else to do so I will train my hammer throwing skill." Elijah said to himself as he grabbed his hammer and started throwing in on a training puppet.

 On the next morning, several people could be seen arriving at the town's entrance. Elijah Together with his mother, Catherine and Ophelia walked to welcome his father.

 Elijah together with his mother, Catherine and Ophelia had gone to welcome his father.

 There, Elijah saw his father, Henry, walking with his brother along with the lord of the city with his daughter, Alyssa Rook, who took her mother's surname and his sister Violet, who carried a two year old in his arms and walked beside Theodore and his daughters, Layla and Lucy.

 While Elijah was waiting for his father, he heard than three years ago when his Uncle Michael had traveled to the capital.

 His wife, Violet, had used the body changing potion she had bought at the auction, and slept with Theodore using his wife face.

 A few weeks later the town lord saw his sister was pregnant while her husband was traveling.

 From his investigations he discovered several bottles of body changing potion and he inquired Violet who told everything.

 That Theodore's wife never existed and it was her the entire time. Michael was the one who modified the potions to give her the face she uses as Theodore's wife, and her marriage with Michael was a trick she had made because she didn't want to marry in Theodore's family.

 Now Violet was living with Theodore and their kids while Michael had announced the wedding between him and a Lamia called Nyala. Even Henry who knew both of them since their childhood couldn't see that coming and was shocked for a long time.

 Elijah couldn't suppress his feelings any longer after three years without seeing his father, he using [Void Steps] and suddenly appeared in front of him.

 "Father!"

 Henry was suspicious to see his son who had disappeared three years ago. Suddenly appearing and giving him a hug.

 But this only lasted a short time because it quickly changed to the happiness of seeing his long lost son, and looking for a while and seeing the changes in his son, he could still feel his blood in the veins of his son.

 Besides Henry, all those who had come from the meeting and who did not know about Elijah's return were stunned, but the first to wake up was the Miller sisters.

 When Elijah released his father, they suddenly embraced him as they wept in his arms. This hug lasted a few minutes before they let him go. Layla seemed hesitant about something as she stared at the boy she had thought three years ago when her hesitation turned to determination as she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him on the cheek.