Whilst the meeting of four of the seven superpowers was going on, as predicted by General Marnur, Ace had just arrived at the Baruch Duchies capital looking to find Linley.

  Though he was there, it hadn't been his idea. As soon as he told Cirulus what happened, Cirulus was the one who told Ace that if they were serious about fighting for ownership of the mihey should speak to the Baru about a partnership.

  Like General Marnur, Grand Marshal Cirulus was able to take a step bad predict what the O'Brien Empire would do based on the information they had access to.

  Ace grumbled about it as he didn't want to look weak in front of the man he had chosen to aowledge as his rival, but it couldn't be helped. He'd rather ask for Linley's support than lose to the O'Brien Empire and Cult of Darkness.

  "Ace?" Lina voiced in surprise as he noticed the arrival of the dark-haired youth in the skies above their residence.

  She had just been calmly watg her husband and you son train when she looked up and saw Ace seem to teleport above them.

  Hearing her voice, both Hogg and Wharton looked up to find Ace zily looking down at them.

  Wharton's body subsciously tensed when he saw that all too familiar figure. Even though he had been able to suppress the demon Ace had left in his heart to help his brother revitalise their , seeing Ace brought it all back.

  He had sparred with his brother a few times, so he was very much aware of how powerful Linley had bee. When Linley really tried, he wasn't able to withstand everike.

  As far as he was ed, there was virtually no one in their geion who was a match for his older brother. Even in the geion above, Linley would struggle to find an oppo, with the only one he could think of being Olivier, and even then, he doubted it.

  Still, there was one person Wharton believed was still strohan Linley, and that was Ace. The shadow he had cast over Wharton's heart was seemingly iructible. The invincible might he had shown to defeat Olivier, who had just broken through to the saint realm at the time, was simply peerless.

  A sigh escaped Hogg's mouth when he saw Wharton's rea to Ace's presehe differeween his two sons was like night and day, not just in talent but also in temperament. Whilst Linley was able to aowledge Ace's ability and turn it into a sourotivation, Whartohe plete opposite dire, struggling to fun with any sort of normalcy.

  Still, he didn't say anything to his son. Before leaving the O'Brien Empire, he and Linley went to the residence of Haydson, the Monolithic Sword Saint, not just to thank him for taking care of his son and wife but also to see if, as unlikely as it was, there was any way they would be able to vince him to join them.

  Unfortunately, Haydson had no iion of leaving the O'Brien Empire; it was his home, and like most others there, be they mortal or saint, they were extremely loyal.

  Before leaving, Haydson expined i detail the extent of Wharton's heart demon before saying that this heart demon was something that Wharton had to overe on his own.

  And as hard as it was to accept, both Linley and Hogg uood that Haydson was telling the truth.

  "Ace," Hogg called out, ign his son. "Are you looking for Linley? Would you like me to take you to him?"

  "No need," Ace said as his afterimage suddenly disappeared. "I've found him."

  Hogg could only shake his head helplessly at that. Still, he didn't mind that Ace was treatiory as his own back garden. Without Ace, it wasn't a stretch to say that the Baru wouldn't be anywhere near as far along as it currently was.

  "He didn't even aowledge us," Lina sighed remorsefully. "I didn't get the ce to apologise."

  "It's fine; I'm fident he doesn't hold it against you," Hogg took his wife's hand in his. "And I'm sure you'll have other ces to apologise iure."

  At the same time, Linley was currently sat in a meeting with Zassler talking about the future pns of their Baruch Duchy when he sensed someone rapidly approag. "Is that…"

  "There you are, Linley," Ace said as he blew a hole in the window to their hall before casually stepping through.

  Zassler's eyes stricted when he heard the window shatter. Subsciously he summoned his magi staff and began ting, thinking they were utack, when he heard his boss' calm voice.

  "Must you destroy my property when you visit, Ace?" Linley sighed, not even b to get up.

  "No," Ace grinned. "But I couldn't be bothered to walk around the long way."

  "Why are you here?" Linley said, ging the subjeot b to bicker with this rival of his, a mog glint flickering in his eyes as he tinued. "Don't tell me you need our help."

  "Who needs your help?" Aorted. "I came here to offer your little lizard opportunity."

  "An opportunity?" Linley asked back, his i clearly piqued. "What sort of opportunity?"

  "My found a high-level magicite mine…" Ace began expining the situation to Linley.

  "It sounds like he does need our help after all, boss." Bebe chortled from Linley's shoulder.

  Even though he couldn't uand Bebe's words, with his [Observation], Ace was able to sehe i behind Bebe's squeaks.

  It had to be uood that Haki user's ability to 'foresee the future' in battle didn't actually e from the ability to peer into the future. Iy, it was aension of their ability to sehe emotions of their targets.

  Above sensing one's emotions, was sensing their i, or iion in full. With that, they could sense what their target was intending to do , or in this case, sehe i of a magical beast's words, despite not uanding their 'screeg'.

  "Are you deaf, little rodent?" Aapped back. "I said this is an opportunity for you guys. You're free not to take it; it just means I'll have to give up the mine, essentially strengthening both of our enemies."

  As shocked as he was by Ace's ability to uand Bebe, Linley didn't have time to pay it a sed thought; he was too focused on the sed half of Ace's sentence.

  Like Ace, he too was focused mainly oing stronger, leaving Zassler to hahe day-to-day operations of their duchy. Still, he was no idiot. He was smart enough to grasp the big picture and how it could ively impact his duchy's future operations when targeting the Radiant Church here in the Anarchids.

  "Zassler," Linley called out, turning to the frail, elderly-looking man sitting quietly beside him. "What do you think?"

  "I think Young Master Ace is correct," Zassler nodded, still thinking about the situation. "Because they don't know the full extent of your retionship, the O'Brien Empire is likely to enter an alliah the Yun Empire, the church, and the cult for fear of our interference.

  And if the church were to get their hands on such a windfall, it would only help stres position here in the region, making our futures here all the more difficult.

  I think it would be in our best io ally ourselves with the Gol d send a portion of our force to participate in this battle."

  "My thoughts exactly," Linley nodded in agreement. "But how many of our troops should we send?"

  "Not many," Zassler answered. "pared to all the other forces in the region, our Baruch Duchy's greatest strength is our top-level experts.

  Aside from yourself, Bebe, and Barker, who all have the power of a saint-level expert, we have seven experts who have the power of peak mortals. As such, I think sending five of our seven generals should suffice."

  Linley nodded in agreement. Of those seven, six were desdants of the supreme warriors, whilst the st was Zassler himself, a neancer who could effectively be sidered a one-man army.

  "Will that suffice?" Linley asked, turning back to Ace.

  "That should do perfectly," Aodded.

  Although he didn't know much about these seven in terms of prehension, he could sehat of the six supreme warrior desdants iion, Wharton was the weakest, being a warrior of the seventh rank. Still, after transf, he would be equal to a warrior at the ninth rank; plus, even though he doubted it could pare to his cssmates, he khat Wharton's prehension was nothing to scoff at.

  As for the other five, they were all in the eighth rank, meaning each of them was equal to a peak ninth-rank warrior.

  And as desdants of supreme warriors, when transformed, they were far superior to warriors in the same rank. Of those in the eighth rank, even if they hadn't prehended oh their on, just by relying on their innate gifts post-transformation, they would be equal to a ninth-rank warrior who had prehended impose.

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  Book 13: Part 35 – Ace's Crazy Pn