Chapter 8

Syphid sighed as she looked at the true seal in her hands.

Normally when some got contracted to a spirit, especially one of such great strengths like a high ranking spirit or a spirit king, they had to pay a price. Such power didn't come without a cost, but with a spirit's true seal made with their true name, the one entering into a contract with the spirit pays no price, instead the price is born completely by the spirit.

Spirits had always been whimsical beings, so Sylphid knew Raiden had made his decision and nothing could change it. She could return back to the human realm with the seal and implant it in Alex.

She opened her eyes back at the spirit pond and placed the seal over Alex's heart, initiating the contract process between him and the spirit king of lightning, Raiden. During the process, she hid the spirit king's unique energy signature from the senses of Aricia and placed a seal of hers that prevented others from being aware of the existence of the spirit king's energy signature and mark.

While she did this so Alex wouldn't be aware of Raiden's existence, the added seal was also to hide the existence of their contract from any prying eyes the kid might fall under in the future. It wasn't exactly a good thing to expose the relationship he had with a spirit king without having enough power to stand his ground.

'Phew, all done'

Sylphid wiped her brows even though she had no sweat on her skin, it was a human habit she had picked up in the time she spent with the Irlst clan. She then moved her hands over Alex's chest and took over the function of circulating the energy across his channels and spoke to Aricia.

"I'm done with my part, so go ahead and impart the art to him now when his defenses are down.

It would be too much of a strain for both of you to go through the process again if you don't do it now, both your bodies and souls are weak after all"

Aricia nodded at her words, she took no offense at the words of the spirit king as she knew it was just a way of expressing her goodwill towards them.

She closed her eyes and caused the bit of pure energy she could still circulate without agitating the corrupted mass of energy that lay in her body to dive into her mindscape.

Unlike the rest of the world, the irlst clan stored the arts, skills and techniques in the form of memories, passed down from one elf to another. Each elf had her own technique which she passed on to her disciple and that cycle continued till they got wiped out.

However, a record of all techniques that were present in the clan dwelled in the mindscapes of the leaders and the elves that held the position of the historians, they just couldn't use them.

Although the clan had been destroyed, because Aricia was the leader of the clan before the demise of the rest of the members she had the records of all the technique the clan had ever used and the seal of authorization to access the forbidden technique,

She browsed through the library of arts in her mindscape until she arrived at where a sole book lay floating while it released a bright golden glow.

The last time she was before this book was before she stormed her way out of the coalition headquarters. At the defeat of the general, the white dragon lord, she earned the title the dragon slayer, a meteoric title given only to warriors that had achieved feats that were on the verge of impossible.

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Aricia stormed her war into the hall where the council members that made up the helms of the coalition were discussing.

She demanded an explanation for how the final battle turned out, why she and her sisters had to face the general's forces alone but she was only told they had difficulties in getting to the fortress due to other forces that sprang out of nowhere.

Nothing but a formality as she sensed the apathy and disgust apparent in the eyes of most of the coalition leaders, they looked at her as if she was a pest.

To add insult on injury the saint that was supposed to look after her condition and treat her said while she could deal with repulsive energy that was lying within her body, the spell would leave render unable to use her energy for at least a year, leaving defenseless and the council declared it was a risk they weren't willing to take, especially as they had just driven the invading forces away.

Aricia grimaced as she remembered the words of one of the council members as he stared at her

"Now is a crucial time when the council has to be at its full strength. We need to expand our influence across all the continents and root out any forces that invaders left behind and clean away all the influence they left behind. We also need to ensure that the channel that links this world to theirs never opens again so we must be at our full strength.

We can't allow the elven saint, the luminous queen, to sacrifice her strength to attempt to heal you at this time. Not when there's no assurance you'll return to your full strength immediately or if her healing spell would even be successful. I'm sorry, but I'll take all responsibility for this situation.``

The council head representing the dragon race spoke out as he stared down on Aricia,

Aricia gritted her teeth as she stared at the elven saint, lady mira, one of the royalty of elven nation ****** at the time.

"Is this the decision you came to ******"

She asked her friend, blood dripping from her wrist as the fingernails dug into her palms from the excessive force she used in clutching it.

"Aricia, please calm down. This was not my decision, I am against the council's decision, I ….."

But she didn't get the chance to continue her statement, the loud grunt of the demon head cutting her off, while the beast lord merely scuffed, turning his face away.

Aricia looked at everyone standing at the council members before she laughed, with the way she locked eyes with each and everyone and her imposing aura as she stood before them, it didn't seem, like she was blind and half crippled but instead she looked like a wolf before a pack of sheeps

"So that's how it is.

Even now you guys wouldn't stop your petty squabble for power, you have already taken everything from me and now you wouldn't even let me have my dignity. What do I have to do to be healed?

Crawl under your feet, kiss your ass, or are you just doing this to keep my race in check?"

The dragon lord banged his hand against the table before him, unfurling his aura as he screamed out

"Watch your words Aricia, you stand before the council and i can exercise the right as a leader to have you expelled from it"

"Hahahaha, you wouldn't have to do that Ariman, I'm done, I quit."

Aricia spat out as ripped the medals that were attached to her uniform and threw it forward.

"The war is over, you've won amd there's no need for a injured dog after the hunt"

She closed her eyes and in a split second she fell into her mindscape and reached out to a book that floated alone in the midst of the library where other books were carefully arranged in their bookshelves.

The hidden tome of the Irlst tribe that they had been instructed to not use unless necessary as their burdens couldn't bear the burden of using it.

She opened the book and her body in the real world glowed, soldiers that stood at the edge of the room came rushing in her direction as her aura spiked, their weapon unsheathed as they aimed to deliver a deadly strike in her direction.

Time seemed to come to a stop the minute Aricia opened her eyes, she then glanced in the direction of the elven saint, *****, that was about to make a move to stop the guard, and smiled before she sent her a mental transmission.

"Don't do it, I've lost too much already.

Don't let me lose you too, I'll deal with this, so grit your teeth and turn away, just stay safe and don't fall for their schemes"

Aricia then turned and faced the four warriors that cornered her, they still appeared to be frozen time while Aricia shook her head coming to terms with the changes that was occuring in her body due to using the art,

"I'm still blind, but i can see everything clearly, i can feel the positions of everything and everything in the room and beyond"

She flexed her muscles and got into a fighting stance, channeling mana through her muscles, getting ready to strike.

"The corrupted mana in the body remains untouched, in fact it's isolated, instead I'm using the mana in the surroundings"

She launched attacks in the direction of the four warriors that were still frozen in the air and afterwards the flow of time returned to normal.

What the council members saw was four of their strongest warriors rushing to subdue the injured elf but get sent flying back in the direction they were coming from. With a glance they could see that they were all severely injured but the elf stood unmoving and unchanging, only the strongest, the heads of the councils could barely keep up with her movements.

Aricia coughed blood as her body couldn't bear the strain of the art she just used, but she stood strong and glanced at the council heads, using the mana in the surroundings to hold them in their positions, the only exception being lady ******.

"Don't look for me, and don't force me to act. Allow me to live out the rest of my days in peace.

From this moment on, I am dead and no matter what you do, it has nothing to do with me."

She uttered before she walked out of the hall, her steps faltering as her legs trembled with every step she took, but no one dared to approach her.