[QUICK ALERTS:

  1.  LEONEL’S NAME WILL NOW BE GING TO LEONA, AND HE WILL NOW BE A SHE! YOU WILL UAND THE REASON FOR THE GE IURE!

  2.  I AM GING KILLIAN’S AFFINITY OF LIGHTNING TO FIRE. FROM THIS MOMENT ON, HE WILL HAVE NEAR-PERFECT AFFINITY TO THE LAW OF THE EARTH, EXCEPTIONAL AFFINITY TO THE EDICT OF DESTRU, AND A HIGH AFFINITY TO THE LAWS OF FIRE.

  3.  I AM ALSO GING THE LAW OF WATER’S PROFOUND MYSTERY OF ICE TO FREEZING, AS FUSING THE MYSTERIES ESSENCE OF WATER AND FREEZING WOULD MAKE ICE.

  4.  AND LASTLY, I’M GING LIGHTNING’S PROFOUND MYSTERY OF BIOELECTRICITY TO VOLTAGE AS BIOELECTRICITY AND LIGHTNING BODY ARE SIMILAR AND VOLTAGE IS A FUAL ASPECT OF ELECTRICITY/LIGHTNING (’T BELIEVE I FOT SUCH A BASIC PRINCIPLE).

  END OF ALERT]

  With Amira and Wukong injured, it was good that Emperor Jordon and his wife, Empress Sharanthia, came when they did. Especially as her Emperor nor Empress were members of the Pavilion, they were free to get involved iter with no blowba the Pavilion, something both were more than willing to do after Amira was attacked and almost killed.

  Still, instead of going out to watch over divisions three and four, like Amira and Wukong previously had, Sharanthia chose to stay behind with her daughter and two young children.

  Even though it didn’t look like their enemies po send any more saints into battle, with the Cult of Darkness almost pletely withdrawing from the Anarchids, it was better to be safe than sorry.

  At least if anyone did try to attack the city of Gol to finish what the Cult had started, there would be at least one uninjured saint to hold down the fort.

  Oher hand, Emperor Jordon remained by Ace’s side, along with Leona.

  After telling Cirulus about his discovery, Ace watched silently as his Grand Marshall ged the pns he had already made so they could silently take advantage of their ret find.

  Instead of the four divisions splitting up and heading out to four battlefields, Cirulus had them act as e battalion.

  To the rest of the ti, and even the lower-ranking soldiers, they did this to prevent an i like the oh the cult from happening again. But the truth was, there were three reasons Cirulus had e up with to proceed in this manner.

  For one, Cirulus wao steamroll through each of the six cities standiween them and their target with as much speed as possible whilst losing as few of their soldiers as possible. And with Killian and the others fighting together, they precisely did that.

  Their opposing armies were all but obliterated with little to no help from the ordinairy soldiers.

  When all together, Land the students of the Pavilion were like a natural disaster in how they swept through their enemies, leaving a trail of blood and limbs in their wake.

  The sed reason was that, with Killian and the other Acolytes of the Pavilion all in one pce, it allowed him to allocate part of their forces – those who were strong enough and he felt he could trust – to remain in their newly quered territories, to slowly work on assimiting them into the rest of their territories.

  The third and final reason was simply to prepare for the worst-case sario. They were doing all of this to take trol of such a high-quality magicite mine, ohey couldn’t afford to lose.

  They were hoping they could smoothly take over the territories around the mihout their enemies clog on to their true iions, but should those other fas learruth, they khat their enemies would likely stop at nothing to get their hands on that particur windfall.

  Still, although they were ging their tactics, Cirulus khat no one would think anything was strange about it. After the saint-level attacks on each division, they would likely just assume that Ace was choosing to proceed cautiously from then on.

  “The Pavilion really cherry-picked the best of the best,” Jordon sighed in amazement as he watched Killiahe charge in sughtering their way through the fifth of the six territories between them and the plete trol of the mine.

  “Hmm?” Ace, who had been sitting in the air iation, opened his eyes to look at Amira’s father curiously. “Did you say something?”

  “It’s fine,” Emperor Jordon shook his head with a wry smile as he watched Ace go back to his meditation. ‘I now uand how he had such aplishments at such a young age.’

  It wasn’t just Ace, Leona, oher side of the young teen, also had her eyes closed as she focused on her prehension.

  Although, with their mutated bond, Leona was essentially just abs Ace’s prehension to increase her own. Still, she was deeply engrossed iraining, not that Jordon knew about that unbelievable fact.

  Being so close to them and watg their diligence made him feel a deep sense of shame. Ad Leona were both a fra of his age, with prehension of the natural ws either just shy of or far surpassing his, a, her of them dared to sck off in the slightest. He couldn’t help but feel as though he was being zy.

  ‘I ’t believe my as are now being influenced by these two little upstarts,’ Jordon mused as he too sat down to focus on his prehension.

  At the same time, within the O’Brien Empire’s sphere of influen the region, a refined, schorly-looking older man with a pair of beady eyes through the reports of Ace’s ret activity with a slight frown. “It doesn’t make sense.”

  “What doesn’t?” Lanke – O’Brien’s 22nd disciple asked with a ugh as he calmly ehe man’s office.

  “Lord Lahe elderly gentleman hurriedly got up to bow respectfully towards the saint.

  “It’s fine, General Marnur,” Lanke waved his hand dismissively as he casually sat across from the bck-robed schor. “There’s o stand on ceremony when it’s just the two of us. I was, after all, the one who requested your presence here in the Anarchids.”

  General Marnur had a very uanding in the O’Brien Empire. As an Empire that focused primarily on the ways of the warrior, Marnur had always been looked down on by his fellow trymen for his choosing to pursue the path of a mage.

  Still, he never argued or fought back; he simply tinued down his chosen path – without a magistitute or teacher to guide him, no less.

  It was only when he reached the seventh rank, being a senie, that the empire uood the man’s importand chose to i in his future.

  Sihen, the now General’s rise could only be described as meteoriot only had he reached the peak of the ninth rank – only oep away from sainthood – they also found that he had a particurly astute mind which allowed him to bee the empire’s leading tacti.

  There were two reasons for Lanke requesting the presence of this particur General, aher of which had anything to do with his power.

  Though he owerhouse in his ht, the Gol Territory reason had five known experts who were either at or above the General’s current level.

  No, the first reason behind his requested presence was his mind. Only a mind as sharp as Marnur’s could weave its way through the mihat surrounded Gol D. Ad find the best path to take him down.

  And the sed reason was ohey only factored in after Lanke read the reports of Ace’s forces’ most ret wins, fog not on the individual power of Killian and the other Acolytes of the Yin-Yang Pavilion but the subtle and surprisingly impressive tactics employed by the various divisions of the Gol Army.

  Unlike most of his fellow martial brothers and sisters, Lanke was one of the few of O’Brien’s disciples who hadn’t been chosen from the War God’s College. Instead, he had been cherry-picked by O’Brien himself straight from the O’Brien Army after choosing to head straight to the battlefield after graduating from the War God’s Academy a few hundred years ago.

  Whilst in the army, not only did he shine due to his incredible prowess as a warrior. He also showed his ability as a talented leader.

  Still, that’s not what’s important here. What is important is that having spent so many years in the army on various battlefields, Lanke was at a very high level when it came to military tactics, a, even he had to marvel at the tactics used by Ace’s force.

  Obviously, the focal point of the Gol Army’s achievements had e from Killian and the others, but still, as a new force who hadn’t traiogether for very long, they should’ve seen heavy losses, or at least heavier than what they had seen. Instead, each battle saw minimal losses, and Lanke could easily dis that it was because of their ingenious tactics.

  As hard as it was, Lanke could only admit his inferiority. And after looking into it, he found that the tacti at py was a former el from his Empire’s army.

  Part of him wao go and give the current Empire and his eldest son a piece of his mind for chasing such a man away and into the arms of their enemy. Still, that would do nothing to help their current situation.

  As such, all he could do was request the presence of General Marnur. Still, Marnur had been here for a week already, but he was yet to make a move; all he could do was go over the reports of the st few days over and ain, seemingly making nress.

  “The reason I’m here now is to ask if you were any closer to deg on a path moving forward,” Lanke said calmly. “Whatever happens, we ot allow Ace to form his own kingdom, let alone Empire. It’ll be too big of a stain on my master’s name.”

  “I uand, Lor… I mean Mr Lanke,” Marnur hurriedly corrected himself. “But something’s not adding up, and until I make sense of the Gol Territory’s ret as, I’m unfortable making any definitive decisions.”

  “What’s not making sense?” Lanke asked curiously.

  “Well, before the i with them and the Cult, the four divisions of the Gol Army had been ag indepely, with incredible success, but now, they seem to have amalgamated.” Marnur frowned pensively.

  “I still don’t uand what has you so fused; you know that although the Gol Empire won in the end, two of their top experts were severely injured. It would be more strange if they chose to do nothing and carried on with their same tactics.” Lanke said back, w if the rumours of Marnur’s tactical abilities were exaggerated.

  “For normal people, that would be true, but Ace is anything but normal,” Marnur expined. “On my journey up here, I went through all the intelligence reports we have on Ace, and if there’s ohing I know, it’s that he’s extremely arrogant. Whether it’s those from his geion or those older, it’s clear he doesn’t put many in his eyes, regardless of whether you’re currently strohan him.”

  Hearing that, Lanke’s brows furrowed slightly as he thought back to the disrespect he showed his master and their Empire. Even if he is the biological child of his master, he wouldn’t five him for showing such disrespect to the man he, Lanke, respects most in this life. Still, he knew everything Marnur said was true, so he didn’t interrupt.

  “Many would argue that the injuries Amira and Wukooo severe for them to get back to supervising one of the divisions f Ad his familiar to watch over all of them together, but we both know that for an expert like Wukong’s master, Arianna, injuries like that are quickly healed.

  Even though she said her she nor the rest of the pavilion would get involved with their flict with us, I very much doubt she would sit bad watch two of her disciples die.”

  “What makes you think they didn’t die from their injuries?” Lanke asked curiously. “We ’t get spies close in to figure out the true extent of their injuries. They very well could be dead, which would also make Ace’s as of destroying the various bases of the Cult in the region uandable.”

  “No. They’re definitely alive,” General Marnur replied categorically. “All the reports on Ace’s exploits, from his giving himself up to the cult to protect Amira, his familiar, and that Julius fellow, to his and Killian’s repeated atta Sabre to find and save their cssmate Alissa, to everything that happe year, they all suggest that Ace is the emotional type who would do anything if it’s for those he cares about.

  If either Wukong or Amira had died, Ace’s rea would’ve been much mgressive, especially as all of the Cult’s powerhouses had pulled out of the region. Not so mu fear of Ace, but probably out of fear of the Pavilion going ba their word.

  Plus, if Amira had really died, even if the Pavilioheir word and did nothing, do you really believe that her parents, the Emperor and Empress of the Rohault Empire, two extremely powerful saints, would sit bad do nothing?

  “If I were to wager, I’d bet that at the very least, the Rohault Empress, and potentially even the Emperor, has arrived in the region to che their daughter.

  From this moment on, it’d be best to assume that there are two additional saints in the Gol ’s territory.

  But all of that only makes the as of the Gol Army all the more curious. Their ge in behaviour… it’s like they’re looking to take over a certain region in a hurry, but after going over the map, I haven’t found anything that would warrant their attention.”

  The more he spoke, the more Marnur focused on the map when suddenly, “Hmm, Mr Lanke? Yoing?”

  “You said you couldn’t find anything of i on the map, but maybe I’ll be able to find something by flying over there personally.” Lanke ughed casually as he took his leave.

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  P.atreon./ACoilingDragon

  Book 13: Part 31 – Ace’s Wrath