Chapter 18

The days passed swiftly after that. News of my Grandmaster Sculptor status spread far and wide after the Proulx Gallery opened up 'Daring Charge' for public viewing. They even talked it out with Marquis Jebs to let the Gallery extend the show case period for the rest of the year, for a generous fee to the Lucas clan of course. The Gallery tried to rope me in on the deal but I washed my hands of it by stating the sculpture was now the property of the Lucas clan. I was once again beseeched by boot-lickers that sought to ingratiate themselves towards me in some form or the other but I handled it as best as I could.

I also formally took up the position of Court Mage for King Clayde which served to reassure the Church of my loyalty while also giving me a chance to learn more about Clayde. While the Church was also a target, I had a particular grudge with Clayde and his brother Duke Patterson as they were the ones to first find and kidnap Mother. I planned to make their end slow and painful but for now, know your enemy and all that…

Clayde himself had no idea of my actual intentions towards him and was very free with the resources and information I asked for with the church being the same. They also gave me the bare minimum of responsibilities as they felt that I was still in the prime of my developmental phase and should just focus on my training for now. The most I had to do was show my face for a few public events on occasion so that the Church can show me off like a prize and tell other parties that my allegiance was to the Radiant Church alone.

The higher ups of the Church tried to once again have me apprentice under one of their strongest Saints- Fallen Leaf- but I managed to dodge that by coming off as incompatible with Fallen Leaf's requirements of 'kind and pure hearted'. While the walk through the slums and especially looking at the poor innocent children was a humbling experience, I knew there was little I could do for them even if I were to use my full power. This world was just that sort of place and as for Fallen Leaf's requirement, I could barely restrain myself from calling him and his Church out for being the dirty rotten hypocrites they were.

I still had to deal with a couple of assassination attempts mainly by the Cult of Shadows but with my awareness of my surroundings as well as some security formations I had discreetly set around my residence, I was never caught by surprise. I made sure to make it appear as though my guards got lucky detecting the assassins as well using just enough strength to help them repel the attack until backup arrived.

Even that got some attention from the Union and had them test out my abilities in a few spars. In the end they thought that I was just particularly talented for combat and had a very strategic mindset. I had mostly used low powered spells to control the range and movement of my opponents so I could eventually use my warrior strength to finish the fight or just blow them up with a powerful spell. My technique had me evaluated as being a whole rank above my projected level which just had the Church value me more.

I still stayed in touch with my friends, mainly so we could completely finish copying and sharing all the books I had gotten from Beirut. There were also a few final lessons that I wanted to give them before some of us separated to head home. Plus, any excuse to go on a date with Delia was good in my books, and so the days flew by.

"Now spiritual attacks and defences are different from your regular ones. In fact, I feel as though even the few existing ones in the Darkness, Necromantic and Oracular magics are just too inefficient. Now the main thing you need to understand is that you are not forcing your spiritual energy to condense enough to let you hit your opponents in the head or use it like a physical shield. By its very nature, spirit energy does not behave that way and that is what gives people trying to develop these techniques such hard time, their basic approach is wrong." I start as my audience eagerly pay attention.

"The second thing to note is the method of application. Let me ask you, what do you think would be the best way to attack your opponent's Soul directly or even defend your own, Fourth Bro?" I ask and call out Reynolds seeing as he had an answer.

"Well, I had read in the book that I had found that Necromancy had a good number of spiritual poisons but that had me confused if there was some odd connection with our Soul and stomach. It also had some mentions of the eyes being windows to the Soul. That got me thinking, did the poisons have more to do with digestion or with a person's sense of taste and were the other senses like sight just as good targets." He responds to which I eagerly nod before expanding more on the topic.

"You are absolutely right Fourth Bro. Our senses are indeed the pathways through which spiritual attacks mainly propagate and it is these very ones we should be most careful of in the initial stages, this is also why you can still dodge most of these attacks as they need a physical connection first before striking your Soul. It is very easy to affect another's Soul by messing with their perception, be it sight, sound, smell, taste or touch. The idea for spiritual attacks is to have a strand of your spiritual power enclosed in either your Qi or Mageforce and have the physical force or effect of the former let the core spiritual energy slip in through the senses and attack the opponent's Soul directly. Some of the direct power and/or properties of the Qi or Mageforce is carried over by the spiritual power strand that will enable it to strike at the opponents in a manner similar to a physical attack on a physical target. This leads to a variety of attack methods with varying effects and power." I add.

"The defence is much the same, you use your Qi or Mageforce with some of your spiritual power as the core to create shields around your Soul Core. Again, the effects will vary with type and design so now here are a few low powered spiritual attack and defence spells I created for different elements. Study and practice them on your own for now before I test them with you all one by one. At your current level it is not advised to try on each other as you could end up severely hurting or even killing one another by accident. I'm being serious, you are not to try these out to attack each other for practice, until you reach the Saint level yourself, reserve it for enemies only for now." I finish my lecture before I help them get some practical experience with these techniques.

I let them use the attacks on me and give them feedback on how to improve seeing as with their current power level, they have no chance breeching my defences even if I did not have a Sovereign Soul protection artifact on me. I then hit them with various low powered attacks that would at worst make them faint if they failed to defend themselves. I used various different elements and techniques when attacking to let them have a better idea of how this all works. At the end of the lesson, everyone was grateful despite the head ache that they would no doubt have for a few hours from all that intense spiritual workout.

"You guys do know you can soothe or even heal your Souls faster by using the same principles, right?" I ask with a smirk at the end of the session. They all smack their heads and groan with renewed pain. Taking pity on them, I give out various healing spells targeted towards one's Soul, they are still mostly based on elements with a healing nature but all my friends thankfully have an affinity for at least one of them anyway so it was much appreciated.

"What is it Delia, do you need something?" I ask with a bit of longing. This was supposed to be the last major gathering with all of us together seeing as Dixie, Delia and Anna were going to depart for the Yulan Empire in a couple of days.

"I will be leaving in two days and I don't know when exactly I will see you again. Do I need any more reasons to spent as much time with my fiancé as possible?" She replies back with a sad smile.

"I am surprised you even need a reason to spend time with your betrothed, I for one don't. Spend time together first and think of excuses later, that is the Linley way." I reply back as I embrace her in a hug and kiss her forehead, causing her to break out in giggles.

We then spend the rest of the day just making small talk or just enjoying each other's company. At one point I decide to just give her the weapon I had upgraded especially for her a day in advance. This will also give me some more time to help her adjust to the changes and let me know if any minor adjustments were needed. I had offered to upgrade all of my friend's weapons after I had stabilised my Nebula and they had all happily agreed when they heard I would use a special Saint level technique. The enhancements for the others were pretty basic with most of the improvements being done to refine the old materials while also adding some new ores I had gotten and just blending the alloy better for a stronger bond.

Delia's short swords were a different matter though as I wanted to do something special for her. After a lot of pondering, I decided to completely redesign her weapons which is why it took so long, I was just glad I was done in time. It was still a pair of short swords but they were half a foot longer than her old ones and seemed to be covered in numerous thin feathers. There were 54 thin flexible feathers on each blade to be exact, I had finally learnt how to create a strong but very flexible alloy similar to the one used in Bloodviolet from the books provided by Beirut, I also had the raw materials required. The thing that needed the most work was how to incorporate all that I had wanted into the swords.

The blades were set to have three modes- the first being that they are used like normal short swords as is. The second would require some practice and a bit of insight into the Laws of Wind to create a powerful wind blade on the edge of each individual feather so that each slash would create numerous cuts to shred the opponent. For the third mode I used the inspiration of Reynolds' flame feather form from a CD fanfic of in the Transmigrator's world. The various feathers would separate from the main blade and enable the wielder to control them separately to act as numerous flying daggers and the core of the blades being reduced to the dimensions of her old swords that Delia would still be able to use. This last mode required a lot of insight into the Laws so I did not expect Delia to get it down for quite a while.

The two blades were also slightly different from one another as I made one black, infused with Death attribute and the other white, infused with Life. They both shared a few Water attribute components to smoothly pair them both. (AN: Picture Kanshou and Bakuya in Overedge form.)

The feathers themselves as well as their arrangement over the blades were based off of the wings of a real magical beast, Fey's in this case. I also used her moulted feathers as the base core while creating each of the 108 individual feather blades. With so many details Delia could even use the individual feathers like reeds to create music to train and fight, she currently seems to be most interested in developing a battle style centred around the Mysteries of Music and Sound Waves.

I took her down to the secret underground space I had created under the hot spring area of my manor to give her a demonstration of the new and improved 'Winged Tiger Swords'. I had created this place with numerous concealment runes that could even hide against through scans from a Saint. I needed a safe spot to train without fear of certain parties peeking on me after all.

"Woah, that was amazing Linley!" Delia exclaimed after I showed her a brief demonstration of how the blades could be used. There would certainly be many more uses of course based on the various Laws she gains insight into but I just gave her some pointers to show the tip of the ice berg. Even I was not yet capable of fully controlling all 108 feathers individually despite my numerous advantages so I made sure to comfort her when she got upset over only being able to control only a couple of feathers separately at her current level. I also took time to reassure her that I was confident she would eventually master it as well as telling her to not over work herself with too much pressure if progress was slow.

"Hmm… Delia dear, what is exactly is the meaning of this?" I nervously ask her that night. We had spent the rest of the day in each other's company whether it be more training, meals or even just relaxing. I was already plenty satisfied and content to not push for more in our relationship so seeing Delia sprawled out on my bed in very s*xy lingerie caused my mind to go into overdrive.

"What do you mean Linley? Is this not something people in a serious relationship do?" She asks in a smooth voice despite her face being just as red as mine. Bold, I tell you, even in canon Delia was a very bold girl.

"mutter mutter… Seductive Tigress… mutter mutter…" despite my grumbling I had devested of most of my clothes in record and washed up before diving into bed to join my fiancée.

"…" there was some long awkward silence as we just cuddled each other under the covers. We had never gotten this far in our relationship before despite all the teasing from our friends as we both had agreed to only take that final step after we were married. That still did not help the current heated and I was starting to worry if we would do something we would not be able to take back in a moment of passion. I really did not know what I would do if we went through with it right now, I could almost see the stupid plot make it so that Delia would get pregnant just from this one night of passion.

"Gulp, Delia, this… not to sound like I'm ungrateful… or unhappy…or…" I start rambling off only to be cut off by her cute giggles as she snuggles into my neck.

"Hehehe, no need to explain yourself Linley, I understand completely. This attitude of yours was actually one of the things that I found very endearing." She whispers softly. How the h*ll was she able to still speak so coherently when her face is so red and I can hear her hear thundering under her… damn it, bad brain, bad brain.

"De… Delia… I love you a lot dear but… gulp… but you are making things very hard for me…" I start off.

"Oh, I can tell. It is very very hard for you." The cheeky minx teases me some more as her voice is downright seductive right now. Not to mention she moves a bit so that the very lively Little Linley is poking her stomach.

"Gah…!" Not able to take it anymore I take a page out of today's lesson and use a self-directed spiritual attack to knock myself out for the rest of the night.

"Linley… Linley…?" Delia softly calls out to me before getting up to check up on me. "Really, this boy…" she finally shakes her head at seeing me unconscious and lets out another giggle.

"A lot of people are already in awe of you after what you have revealed of your power." She whispers softly while gently caressing my face and continues- "I can only imagine what their reactions would be if they knew your true strength. Even I am sometimes jealous and wonder what you even see in me to pursue me with all your heart as you do. Giggle, these small moments and your adorable nervousness just show me that you are still the same Linley underneath all that despite everything you have achieved. I love you, Linley Baruch, with all my heart." She gives me one final tender kiss before dropping down to snuggle into my neck and trying to get her heart calm enough to also fall asleep.

I woke up feeling very refreshed and well rested the next morning despite having knocked myself out earlier. It certainly did help that I was able to cuddle with the girl of my dreams the whole night and now that she was not actively teasing or seducing me, I could just enjoy the simple joy of cuddling her. She looked so adorable while sleeping peacefully, seriously how could someone that looks so innocent actually be a seductive temptress, I shake my head thinking of last night. I wonder if I could turn the tables around now that I am better prepared, after thinking some more I gave it up as a bad job, Delia would still win that round too.

For now, I just settled to gently running my hand down her back while enjoying her warmth, there was just something about the way that she breaths into my neck that sent tingles down my spine. I seriously did not want this moment to end but sadly the naughty minx eventually woke up too but still seemed to want to feign sleep.

"Delia love, I know you're awake." I whisper into her ear before gently placing a kiss on her forehead.

"Uuuhh…" She whines pitifully and seems to not want to get out of bed. That makes two of us.

"Haha, I know you don't want to get up and neither do I but we have much to do today." I gently coax her.

"Can we just spend some more time like this? I will be leaving to my parent's place soon enough." She raises her head to look me directly in the eyes. There is no way I could refuse that and besides I wanted this as much as she did.

Fate had other plans unfortunately as after just a few more moments of us just enjoying each other's company, I detected someone entering my property through the wards I had set up. Normally I would just ignore the visitors I got as the it was usually some bootlicking noble or such and the few more important persons would be received by the steward I was assigned. This time however I felt I needed to personally show my face as the one I detected was a Saint level presence, someone of that calibre warranted some extra precautions.

"Sigh, it seems as though we will have to cut short this wonderful morning Delia. I seem to have gotten the interest of a Saint level personage and they have come for a visit it seems." I gently tell her.

"Humph, stupid Saint… ruining my happiness…" She mutters softly while pouting cutely. We both proceed to get ready soon but not before I sense a powerful Spiritual sense try to observe my room. Try being the key word, I had naturally put in plenty of formations around certain private places in my manor to prevent certain busy body experts from peeping on me. I normally only use them when I want to make absolutely sure the Church cannot spy on me but since I wanted a private moment with my fiancée, I had activated them.

I was naturally pissed someone tried to spy on me like that and more importantly on Delia while she was dressing so I spread my own spirit sense to see who this idiot was and if I could get away with assassinating them. Imagine my surprise when I found none other than the Yulan continent's top assassin, Cesar whom I had recognized thanks to the intelligence reports of the Church and the Dawson conglomerate. I had naturally gone over all the available details on the major players of Yulan and also shared it with my friends so they do not carelessly cross someone they should not.

Cesar had just finished notifying my steward while flashing a Church Cardinal medallion, asking for an audience with me and was now seated in the formal reception room. Seeing as my spiritual energy was vastly stronger than his and the addition of a portion of Will, he had no way of detecting my own scans of him so I got a clear view of his look of confusion at not being able to see into my room.

POV Change-

Cesar was an old salted fish of the Yulan plane, he was regarded as one of the Prime Saints of Yulan who had survived the disaster of 5000 years ago and held the title as the King of Killers as the continent's top assassin. He had seen a lot in his long life and there was not much that could interest him, indeed other than training to improve himself and playing around with women, the only thing he seemed to be interested in was beautiful stone sculptures. So naturally with news being spread around that there was a wee little brat in Fenlai city that had risen into the ranks of Grandmaster sculptors, he had to make a personal visit.

He had just kindly asked the steward who had received him to call for the little Grandmaster sculptor and thought to check up on why the person himself seemed to still be in bed so late in the day. Imagine his surprise when he found that his spiritual sense was actually blocked from looking into the master bedroom and the shock did not end there-

"Humph, I thought that Saint level experts would be at least a little more courteous to their hosts. I would kindly ask you to not peek in on my life ever again." A voice was mentally transmitted to him.

Now who could that be, he knew this grandmaster sculptor Linley was also regarded as a new up and coming magus genius of the Union so there might be some experts looking over him. The main cause of concern was that the expert was able to send him a mental voice transmission and to be able to do that you would have to be as strong as a Prime Saint at least. Now with that new information he had to be a lot more careful, it was a good thing he did not come here with any bad intentions as the Church seemed to value this Linley kid a lot.

He soon got to meet the kid in question but he seemed to be upset, just as he was wondering what could have caused such a sour mood on their first meeting, he saw an equally angry pretty blonde girl glaring at him from beside Linley. It was only then realization struck Cesar, as a very experienced playboy he knew what that look on a woman meant, hehehe, it looks like I might have intruded on this Linley's quality time with his woman, oops, hehehe.

POV Change-

"My lord, there seems to be someone with a Cardinal medallion of the Church here to see you." One of my attendants calls out to me after knocking on my closed door.

"I will be their shortly." I call back as I was still getting ready. Delia was still grumbling though and the fact that the person who had come might be a Saint of the Church did not seem to bother her at all. Maybe it would be for the best that I don't tell her that our uninvited guest had also tried to peep in on us, better take that secret to my grave, besides it's not like they got past my defences.

I still kept an eye on Cesar to make sure he did not do anything that would cause me further issues, he could not detect my own spiritual scans as my Soul was a lot stronger than his. I already sort of lashed back when he spied on me so I had to be extra careful he did not leak some of my secrets. He should not be that close to the Church or anything so I was moderately sure he would not rat me out; especially if he had come asking me for a favour like in canon.

"Ready love? Remember to not take it too far, the other party is still a Saint level expert." I gently remind Delia as we were both about to make our way to meet Cesar. I had to reduce her temper even a little bit before the confrontation after all.

"Master Linley, such an honour it is to finally make your acquaintance." Cesar greets me with a small polite bow as soon as I enter the room. Unfortunately, the sickly smile that grows on his face after his eyes dart between Delia and me is making me want to smack the idiot.

"Leave us be for now, I will call you if have need of your help." I decide to ignore the old man for now and dismiss all the servants so we may talk in private for now.

"As you wish Lord Linley." My steward answers and promptly guides all the other servants that were lingering out of the area. He has been in this profession for a long time so he is well aware that there would be some meetings he should not poke his nose in when serving important people. A meeting with a Cardinal of the Church no doubt falls under that criterion so not only did he leave quickly, he also made sure to keep an eye on all the other servants and prevents them from snooping out of curiosity.

"To what do I owe this 'pleasure' of your visit, Lord Cesar?" I clearly ask him while letting him know that I clearly knew who he is and that I don't fear him.

"My, I am indeed honoured that you know of me Master Linley. Still, I can tell that you seem to be unhappy with me." He responds and I see his smile grow more as he continues- "I really am sorry for the untimely intrusion Master Linley, especially since I come to ask a favour. If only I was more aware… I would have picked a better time to visit."

"While I honestly can't say that I don't mind your visit this morning… the thing that really has me… upset… is what you did after being invited into my abode. Please give me one good reason to not simply turn down whatever request you have for that… incident alone." I tell him seriously with a cold glare.

"Ahem, well I truly am sorry about that little… ummm, rude gesture on my part. I will strive to make it up to you." He finally has the decency to look sheepish after I called him out on his peeping. Guess he never expected that to happen.

"Again, it is not really me you should be apologising to." I state while still being vague enough so that Delia does not find out that I am grilling the old pervert over trying to peep on us. I also send him a spiritual message in private so that he does not say anything damning in front of Delia, since nothing came out of Cesar's rudeness, I am willing to let it go after a stern warning.

'I haven't told her the details of you trying to peep on us old man but understand this; the only reason I am even willing to excuse you is because nothing came of it. If you try something like that again, you will not like how I respond.' I tell him via spiritual message.

"Whaa…?!" Cesar was truly shocked by that as he certainly did not expect the mysterious Prime Saint to be me. He looks at me in shock as he can't seem to grasp that I have shown Prime Saint level of power.

"Yes, I am a whole lot stronger than I let on to the public and I would very much appreciate it if you don't go advertising that fact. Now can we get on to the reason for your visit this fine day?" I ask out loud.

"Yes… why yes… the reason that I came to visit…" He starts to mumble as he tries to process these new revelations. Guess I may have broken the old man a bit, a 17-year-old Prime Saint is completely unheard of after all.

"Master Linley… you…" he still tries to process this piece of news.

"Hehehe, yes. My Linley is also a powerful Saint so you better behave." Delia finally pipes up. She seems to be a lot happier now that I have taken Cesar down a peg or so after he had interrupted our quality time together.

"You… Sigh, well whatever, I guess I walked right in to that one. I truly am sorry for earlier Master Linley. I hope this would not spoil any future interactions or relations between us." Cesar is a lot more sincere this time around and no longer has that sh*t-eating grin. Before he only had some admiration for me as a Grandmaster Sculptor but now, upon finding out that my personal power was also close to his, he was more sincere.

"Thank you for understanding Lord Cesar. Now, would you like to join us for some breakfast and you could tell me a bit more about your reason for visiting us? You mentioned a favour and I am really curious as to what someone of your standing would want from me?" I respond more politely now after I had got him to bow his head a bit.

With that rough start out of the way, I invited Cesar to join us at the informal dining room I had specially requested to be added in my manor. It was like a modern-day kitchen with attached dining counter to one side. With my understanding of enchanting, it was very easy for me to replicate all the conveniences of a modern kitchen. For his part, Cesar did not raise more than an eyebrow at seeing this odd room with strange equipment or even the fact that I had stepped up to do the cooking myself. Guess I had already shocked him enough as is and nothing else I did would faze him now.

"Now you never mentioned exactly what you need from me?" I ask while I prepare breakfast.

"Yes, well ahem, you already seem to know a bit about me so you should know that I have lived a very long life. Few things are of any interest to me now, I like women, I like to train and break through to a higher level and I also like to admire sculptures. Well, as for what exactly I want from you… Ahem…" He looks a little embarrassed to actually state his request.

"Well? What is it?" I push.

"Well, you see I was hoping I could commission a Grandmaster Sculptor such as yourself to make a sculpture for me. Naturally, since I am asking you for this Master Linley, I will owe you a favour and assist you with a task as long as it is within my capability." He finally states.

"Hmmm… very well, I'll see what I can do." I reply easily. I had long since expected something like this after 'Daring Charge' created such a big splash upon it's unveiling. Besides, while I am now a Saint myself, I still intend to hide under the Church's nose for a few months, I had planned to strike on Apocalypse Day so I can't run around for now. I could use this favour from Cesar to have him run some errands for me in the meanwhile.

"That is great! Now I have some… requirements for this sculpture…" he starts getting embarrassed again.

"Sigh, please feel free Lord Cesar. As long as it is within my capability, I will fulfil it." I stat.

"I want you to make a sculpture of me capturing my unique aura when I am at my manliest." He states.

"And pray tell when are you at your manliest, Lord Cesar?" Delia finally asks on my behalf. I could understand her a bit though as that request by Cesar was really odd and if I didn't already know what he wanted, I would also misunderstand.

"When I am killing someone of course." He answers with a calm smile.

"Right… well. I would kindly ask you to not do any killing around my manor Lord Cesar. That tends to attract the wrong sort of attention you know." I tell him with a deadpan expression.

"Hahahaha, no no, I won't really need to kill anyone per say. I only need to show you how I look when I am about to kill, here let's say this flower vase is my target." He reassures me and after I motion him to continue, I see that his previous laid-back attitude has completely changed as he gazes at his target.

He now has a cold calm expression and I could barely detect any hint of an aura from him at all. He was completely focused on the flower vase… no his target and slowly I saw the vase disintegrate into dust inch by inch. I raise my eyebrows as that really was something, I could feel a bit of the Laws of Darkness there, mostly Essence of darkness with a bit of Evil and Devour aspects also thrown in. It was very interesting for me to see the fighting style of another peak expert of Yulan. I had already gained much from my fight with Selene and Sylvia and now I had the idea to again expand my horizon once more. Let's see if I can possibly push for more and see if Cesar would be willing to spar for a bit so I can learn more.

"Hmmm… that was indeed incredible Lord Cesar. Very inspiring, I believe I should be able to make an adequate sculpture of you now, only…" I say while planning how best to ask for a spar.

"Yes Master Linley? Is there something else?" Cesar politely asks.

"Well, I thought it would be even better if we could actually spar for a bit. I mean, I have not been a Saint for long and I might not be your match but I feel as though it would help me observe you more. That way the final sculpture would be even better." I state.

"Hmmm… very well Master Linley, I see the merit in your words. When would you like to spar?" He agrees to my request.

"How about after breakfast, we head out towards the edges of the mountain range of magical beasts. I certainly don't want to be disturbed by anyone from the Church. I was also hoping you would let Delia and my magical beast companion Bebe observe and make a recording. Bebe is also a Darkness type beast so this fight may prove useful to him." I state. He was originally a little hesitant about the request to record the fight but after he saw Bebe, his eyes widened a bit and he agreed readily.

We finish up our morning meal soon after and Cesar heads of first to head to our pre-arranged meeting point. I retreat into my private quarters with Delia after telling my servants to not disturb us for the rest of the day before sneaking off with Bebe and Delia. This way I will not attract attention from the numerous watchers who are discreetly keeping tabs on me. We then meet up with Cesar without any problems in the outer regions of the mountain range.

"Let me just get all these memory crystals positioned around the forest a bit." Delia says as she pulls out some of the handy recording devices and with some help from Bebe and Fey she manages to cover a good area. The three spectators also hold on to one each and fly using wind magic to try and capture the whole fight from the air.

"Ready, Master Linley?" Cesar asks. He has not even drawn any weapons and seems to be looking down on me a little too much, can't have that now.

"Sure, thing Lord Cesar." I answer back before fading into the shadows. I can see him raising an eyebrow at that as he wasn't expecting me to also use the Laws of Darkness. My own understanding in those Laws might not be the best but I had decent understanding of the Essence, Shadow Doppelganger and Devour aspects and I had also fused them to a higher degree than Cesar. Thus, although Cesar had a much deeper understanding on a single aspect, my understanding of partial fusions of different aspects was more than enough to challenge him.

"Well, things just got a whole lot more interesting." Cesar Comments before he also fades away into the darkness. I had to admit, the old man was good but he still couldn't completely hide from me as my spiritual energy was much stronger thanks to mutation and the portion of Will, not to mention my extensive training in various detection methods other than Saint level spirit sense.

Hehehe, the old man might as well not bother to hide. I blend in with the shadows and use the Devour aspect to suppress any disturbances my movement causes as I sneak up to him. Using a few shadowy tendrils given physical substance I lash out at him, that seems to catch him off guard as he was not expecting to be found so easily. I don't want him to hold back too much on me so I put my all in that attack, there were a couple dozen tendrils with only around six solid attacks as I had also used the Shadow Doppelganger that would make avoiding hard, not to mention my understanding of Devour ensured that if any attack connected… it would not be entirely pleasant for him.

This proved to true as he only managed to avoid two of the six attacks while the rest landed solid hits and elicited a grunt from him.

"I advise you not to take this spar too lightly Lord Cesar." I take the time to tell him- "My next attacks will only get stronger." I warn him as I pull out my Blades of Chaos before slipping back into the darkness to hide.

"Tch, young ones these days… no respect for their seniors." Cesar complains a bit but now I see that he is taking this fight more seriously and his demeanour shifts. He also pulls out a pair of dark curved daggers as a sign of accepting me as a worthy opponent.

What followed was an intense exchange of ever escalating ambush attacks from the shadows. Much to the frustration of Cesar though it was mostly me doing the ambushing as I had an unfair advantage in being able to track him. That was not to say I completely dominated as the old man had plenty of tricks thanks to years of experience, experience that I gladly soaked up myself.

Neither of us could land a decent critical hit on the other though as we could still see through each other's attacks and avoid the worst of them. While I was able to polish up my technique as the battle progressed and made it more difficult for Cesar to detect me, his instincts were on point so I couldn't end it.

"I must say, I'm impressed Master Linley. There are not many who can push me so far, more so in the Laws of Darkness. You truly are a genius and I must confess I am humbled by this fight. To show my appreciation let me show you my full power." He completely abandons trying to hide as I have proved I could keep finding him. His demeanour shifts again and he looks a lot more sinister now like when he was 'killing' my flower vase.

Looks like he had abandoned stealth for power, I could now feel the pressure like a tangible force on my body. My instincts were screaming at me telling me that if I rashly ambush him once more, the counter would be swift and lethal. I saw no way of coming out on top using only my pitiful understanding in the Laws of Darkness against someone like Cesar who had 1000s of years head start. Thankfully I wasn't only limited to darkness.

I made a few shadow-doppelgangers to improve my chances of striking and evasion in the next exchange but added a little something extra to one clone by increasing the concentration of Life elements in it. This way it would act better as a decoy and improve my chances of victory.

Indeed, in our next exchange, Cesar fell for my ruse and focused on attacking the decoy and in the split second he was distracted I struck. I have to hand it to him though as his instincts were impressive as he still managed to put up a defence in the last second and even try for a counter. Both of us were blasted away from each other as we sustained considerable damage from our opponent's attacks. Cesar's attacks were very powerful indeed and I was sure I would have been a goner if I hadn't used my pulse-guard defence technique in the last second, I still suffered a horrifying wound though.

It must be said that while I had currently only grasped 3 layers of the Throbbing Pulse, each of them was also enhanced by fusing my understanding of Strength, World Walking and Essence of Earth making it comparable to the power of a standard 150+ layered waves. The fact that Cesar was able to still manage piercing that defence was a true testament to his strength, he still did not get away without paying a price though. The blowback of my defence as well as my own attack made Cesar vomit a mouthful of blood along with the nasty cut on his torso.

I used the time Cesar caught his breath to heal myself back up using the Edicts of Life. That seemed to be the straw that broke the camel's back though as Cesar instantly gave up in frustration after that- "WHAT?! You can heal that fast as well? That's just unfair, I'm not fighting you anymore." He cried out.

He just stored his daggers and sat down to glare at me as if I was a cheater who was bullying him. I just stared at him for a while and eventually, I also stored my blades away seeing as the fight was seemed to be over. "Let's call it a draw then, thank you for your guidance, Lord Cesar." I say politely before casting some healing Life magic his way.

"Humph, crazy young geniuses." He grumbles- "You could have gone a little easier on this old man though. I must say I had already thought you were a monster to have reached Saint rank at your age but you surpassed my already lofty impression with your actual combat capability. Such diversity of technique and so smoothly executed." He praises me.

"I still have a long way to go if I need to match up with someone like you though. I am sure you still went easy on me." I honestly thank him. he was still able to injure me despite me putting up the best defence I could and I still felt he was holding back. I was sure if I pushed further, the next round of exchanges would be lethal so it was best to stop here.

Delia, Fey and Bebe return not long after collecting all the recording crystals and we all discuss some more. "That was amazing Big Bro, you'll teach me all about those awesome techniques, right?" Bebe asks me with shiny watery eyes and I just laugh a bit in amusement before telling him that I will teach him in time.

"Well, I hope you now have enough reference material for the sculpture I've requested for." Cesar asks about his original request.

"Yes Lord Cesar, with all that I have learnt here, you can rest assured I will make a spectacular piece." I reassure him. I was being honest after all as I truly did obtain a lot of new insights and inspiration, I had confidence that the finished product would be another Grandmaster level piece, much better than 'Daring Charge'.

"That's good to hear, otherwise I would hate to think all that effort I put in went to waste. How long do you think it will take you to complete my request, Master Linley and what of my favour? As I've said, I hate to owe others, so if you have something you need me to do, I will try my best." Cesar responds with a smile.

"It will take about a month for me to complete the project, Lord Cesar. I'll show you a hidden place where you can pick up the finished piece later, I'd rather not have this transaction happen in my manor; oh, and bring a spatial ring with sufficient space otherwise transportation could be an issue." I respond. I then take a moment to think about what I can request from Cesar; I don't need his help to deal with Clayde or the Church like in canon and my own strength is pretty good for most things.

Just as I was wondering what I could ask for that would be reasonable and beneficial for me, I get an idea- "Lord Cesar, I just thought of something that I could use your help with. It won't be difficult, just a little time consuming, I hope you won't decline?" I ask.

"Hmmm, well state your request first, then we will see." Cesar responds back.

"Well, before that I would like to ask you to not spread the information I am about to share with you Lord Cesar." I request of him and only continue on after getting a nod of agreement from him- "Well, in that case, how much do you know about the Four Supreme Warrior clans Lord Cesar and are you aware of my family's connection with them?" I ask further while also partially transforming my right hand so it was covered in black draconic scales.

"You….!" He is completely taken aback by this new revelation and his gaze alternates between my arm and face a couple more times before he calms down and responds- "Tch, looks like I was not the only one holding back. Young ones these days though… no respect for their seniors…" he starts grumbling away towards the end.

"Coming back to the main issue…" I try to bring his attention back to my main request. "Lord Cesar, I would like to request a little help to rebuild the clans of all the Supreme Warriors, not just my own. I have found out that all of us have fallen on hard times, not just my clan so even a little help from you could go a long way." I tell him before gesturing to Delia to also reveal her heritage. I trusted Cesar with at least this much as I was aware he had some friendly relations with my ancestors.

"Well now, this is interesting. A Scion of both the Dragonblood and Tigerstriped warriors, isn't this a rare sight? Still, what exactly would you have me do Linley, while it is true that I owe you a favour and I do indeed have some good relations with past members of your clans… I cannot constantly help you with something like this." He states.

"That is understandable, Lord Cesar. Rest assured, I won't ask for much, I just need your help in tracing a few people and then help them relocate to a safer place. I know the rough location of some descendants of the Undying Warriors but I just can't make the time to personally visit them myself so I would like to ask you to help me, Lord Cesar." I tell him a few more details.

"Undying Warriors? You know where some of them might be?" He asks with a little bit of hope and nostalgia in his voice. I knew I could ask this of him, I did know about his close friendship with Armand, the founder of the Undying Warrior clan in the Yulan plane.

"Yes, Lord Cesar. According to my sources though, they seem to have lost all information and knowledge about their legacies. The current members should be entirely unaware about their true strength so I hope you would help me get in touch with them. Also, the fact that they seem to be staying around dangerous places with constant conflict between the Church, Cult and local powers near the Northern Duchies is not good. Especially since I found out about both the religions having a disposition for kidnapping people with a strong physique and no Qi." I expand some more.

"Tell me everything you know, I will help. There is no way I will leave the descendants of my good friend Armand remain in such a state if I can help it." The sharp and fierce look has returned to his eyes as he agrees to help me. I knew I could trust Cesar with this so I gave him all the details about the five brothers.

"… Please give them this book as well, it contains their clan's secret methods as well as this letter. If you can, please arrange for them to be escorted to Channe in the O'Brian Empire. My brother, cousins and some members of the Violetflame Warrior clan are staying at this address, the place is big enough so it should be a safe place for them to slowly grow and develop into their full power." I finish my request.

"Very well, I will see to it. I will try to return in a month's time, all things said and done, I doubt the descendants of Armand would need me to constantly look after them over their journey. Still there might be some delays, you can never say with these things. Is there any way I could use to contact you; you are obviously wary of the Church's network?" Cesar asks back.

"Please feel free to contact the people from the Dawson Conglomerate, they should be able relay any messages to me." I tell him, Yale and his father Munroe had already agreed to help me with small matters like this long ago. We parted ways soon after with Cesar flying off towards the north east and Delia, Fey, Bebe and I making our way back to my manor in Fenlai.

"Well, we can cross that off our list now Linley. You were always worrying about how to get in touch with the members of the Undying Warriors and now we have a way. Hopefully everything will work out fine." Delia says as we were flying back.

"Same here Delia. Still, I feel that I got a good bargain, what with the added opportunity to spar with a peak Saint level combatant, recording and all. The cost of only a sculpture from me, it was basically a steal." I tell her excitedly.

"Don't say that, Linley. Your Sculptures are amazing, it is only natural for even peak Saints like that Cesar to want one for himself. After seeing that amazing battle earlier, I'm sure you will make a fantastic piece. I just wish I would still be here to see it." She pouts towards the end.

"Hahaha, worry not Delia, I will at least capture a recording of the finished piece to show you later. You know, I bet I could request Cesar to let you see the finished piece sometime in the future, I'm sure he would agree." I comfort her before continuing- "But that is for tomorrow. I plan to spend the rest of today with my lovely fiancée."

Just like that the rest of the day went by in a blur and Delia had to return to the place her brother and Anna were staying at for the night as they were leaving early the next day.

"You'll come see me off, right Linley?" She asks one last time.

"Of course, Delia. Here I have one more thing I had prepared for you." I say as I release her from my embrace to hold her left hand that had our engagement ring on it.

"Honestly, Linley. Sometimes I feel like you spoil me so much by giving me so many wonderful things. What is it this time?" She asks with fond exasperation.

"Hahaha, well you can't really blame me for this can you. As for what this gift is…" I trail off as I use my understanding of the Edicts of Death to draw out all the reserves of refined Soul energy from the CD ring and channel them into Delia's ring. Soon a thick golden misty strand can be seen flowing into Delia's ring from the CD ring. I had really gone all out in making Delia's ring after all and though it might not be anywhere near as powerful as the CD ring, it did have all its features albeit watered down considerably.

I then explain to her what it was I had given her and also tell her that she can also use her ring to absorb and refine Souls of the deceased from a few dozen meters. This amount of refined Soul energy was not much for someone at my level and besides, I was confident I could easily recoup my expenditure here once Apocalypse Day came around. For Delia on the other hand, this bit of Soul energy could help her break through to 9th rank mage within the next 5 years so I thought it was worth it.

"Really Linley. Thank you so much for all that you've done. Make sure you come see me in 3 years or else…" She gives me one final hug and kiss before leaving me with a warning. I see her off the following morning again as she was setting off in a caravan with Dixie, Anna and some family retainers in tow.

Sigh, it really felt like my heart and soul just flew away from me after that. I decided to distract myself and keep busy in order to not let myself be overcome by sadness from Delia's departure. Thankfully I had Cesar's task to focus on and when I was not in a mood for that I threw myself into meditating on the Laws or research into enchanting to keep busy.

I also make a few more preparations for Apocalypse Day as well and also make sure my dorm bros who had all elected to stay back in Fenlai City for now, would also be prepared. While I could not always spend time with them now, they did not reduce their training one bit. Under the unexpected lead of Yale, they continued to train rigorously to build upon the basics I had taught them and they also had a couple of new members in Alice and Windsor to teach in turn.

For my plan against Clayde and the Church, in addition to keeping an eye on all their movements, I had a few more plans up my sleeves. I had naturally made dozens of inter-spatial rings with just a single wind element Saint beast core but I only gave my friends one each. The rest I still had on me and I planned to use them to loot the treasuries of the Church and the Kingdom of Fenlai while everyone else is distracted by the invasion of the Magical Beasts. No point in leaving all those shiny trinkets to collect dust of become some beast's chew toy after all.

I finished Cesar's sculpture within the months' time I thought it would take so I discreetly slipped my observers again one day to head to the now abandoned hideout of my gang. There was no one staying here long term now and it was about to become expendable so it was an ideal venue for a secret deal like this. I positioned each of the 13 different pieces of the complete set in the large formations room before taking a step back to admire my work.

I must say I had sort of gotten into the habit of making multiple pieces to represent a large scene as a set these days what with 'Relentless' and now this as of yet unnamed piece. This new work of mine could definitely be considered a vast improvement compared to 'Daring Charge' but was still slightly inferior to 'Relentless' but only by a smidgen, looks like I was on the right track back when I was pondering on the direction of the future of my sculpting.

This new piece consisted of two figures battling it out with the aim to kill the other. One of the figures was masked so his identity was unknown while the other looked exactly like Cesar. I had completely captured Cesar's aura as well as a bit of my own as the entire arrangement seemed to be playing hide and seek with the light and shadows. What scene you would see was largely dependent on your angle of view and even then, the subjects seemed to want to fade into hiding after their exchanges the longer you stared at each individual piece. The fight escalated as you continued on to the next pair until on the final 6th pair, Cesar could finally be seen as to going all out as I had put my all to capture that moment of the final clash of our spar in it. I hope I managed to captured his 'manliness' properly as his masked opponent was slain in that scene.

The fun did not end their though as just as the viewer turned around after being completely enraptured by that scene, they would be caught by surprise by the final hidden 13th piece of the sculpture. This piece was truly well hidden within the shadows of all the others and would normally only be noticed at this point with the tip of a dagger poised to strike the unsuspecting viewer. That's right, the final surprise would be a sculpture of the 'King of Killers' Cesar himself moments away from assassinating the viewer in all his 'manliness'. Hehehe, I have truly outdone myself with this one I thought while giving myself a good pat on the back as I eagerly await Cesar's return and his reaction to my work.