“Then why did you?” Erus inquired. Indeed, if he and Mourn were talking like this, if this was their last respectable exchange, he wanted to ask at least that much. He didn't flinch as Mourn brandished his sword, he wasn't even surprised.

“That man would have never agreed to what I have to do now. Though I do admit there were reasons I was angry at him at the time and that allowed me to go through with it but the reality of the matter is that I killed him because I knew he’d try and stop me,” Said Mourn.

Erus closed his eyes and then shook his head. Half a second, no, not even that, later and the prince leapt to his feet. Ash coalesced in his hand to form a weapon of his own; a sword, a gladias, only larger and thicker than the norm.

Such a swift Advanced Manifestation was far, far beyond what the likes of Alexander and Rapture had yet to display, in fact, it was likely on the same level as Melany herself. That sight made it clear enough that Erus was skilled beyond his years when it comes to war, when it comes to battle.

All this power he had amassed since young to avenge the death of his father at the hands of Nidhogg’s Emperor. That was the kind of might that now pressed down, with supreme confidence, upon Mourn’s waiting skull.

From the beginning Mourn knew that Erus would sense his trap, he knew that Erus would walk into it regardless, and he knew this was why.

The prince’s confidence was fully justified, he was every bit the warrior he knew himself to be. However, even so, his sword was blocked, and he knew not by what.

“What was that?” Erus asked as he took a step back. Mourn had never even reacted yet still something blocked his attack. The mist around them, formed of Ash, was suspect, but what stopped him was most certainly a solid object.

The door clicked opened once again. From behind Mourn then a young girl emerged. Hair of blonde and clad in garments of gold and silver. She was a youngster aged somewhere between twelve and thirteen on the surface and yet she carried the air of an elder in her sharp eyes.

Erus took notice of this child immediately. This girl was a Platinum Class that he did not know about, a Platinum Class that he, the prince and future Sovereign, had no knowledge of.

She could not belong to the Centurion Kingdom, which meant she most likely belonged to Cain, that was his immediate conclusion.

The mist around them was coming from her. The prince looked her dead in the eye. She was unmoved, she stepped forward as if this battlefield was her own backyard.

“This body isn’t mature enough yet to handle Advanced Mutation,” She spoke somewhat bitterly those few words.

Erus trembled, the way she put it made it sound like if she could do that, if she could use Ash’s fourth and final power, she’d easily crush his merry band of Jupiter’s best.

His instincts screamed at him, he sensed a change in the mist around him and summoned his Ash to form a shield in his free hand. He blocked something, a strike not unlike the naked edge of a blade.

He had suspected from the start that this mist existed to conceal a hidden enemy, it was a familiar tactic, but now he realised he had been mistaken.

“The mist itself...is a weapon?” The prince forced out such a whisper in horror. He looked towards the girl, towards Uriel, and did not see a child, but a freak, a monster even. “Who...or what, are you?”

The girl stepped forward until at last she was by Mourn’s side. She cast him a cold glance. Had she not stepped in a moment ago, Erus would’ve lopped off his head, she couldn’t help but be angry about it, especially since she couldn’t shake the idea that he’d knowingly waited for her to step in.

The man cast a glance upon her as if to confirm her suspicion. They both then turned to face Erus once more.

The girl pinched the corners of her dress and then curtsied before the prince with every formality in local custom held to mind.

“My name is Uriel of Cain, I know it will mean nothing to tell you this, but I am one of the four pillars, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Prince Erus.” Erus’ gaze turned cold. Uriel made no attempt to hide who she was, she made no attempt to run away either.

This girl clearly did not fear him at all, and why would she? He was surrounded by her Ash, which clearly concealed something. How many men stood between him and her? She was fully in control of the battlefield that this room had now become.

The Prince’s four Platinum Class subordinates leapt forward into the fray. They were not slow, until now they had only been waiting, sizing up their foes, and they judged that this girl had to die first, else the situation would never improve. Yet Uriel made no attempt to move.

The men numbered four and they were all elite even by Jupiter’s standards, they’d seen her trick before, the trick of hiding one’s allies in mist of Ash. Their wartime knowledge guided them right into a complete misunderstanding of her abilities.

The girl waved her hands, they felt for sure that she was panicked, that she was trying to shield her fragile body from their attacks, which were too sudden and fast for aid to come for her. They were wrong.

The Ash formed mist around them did not conceal an enemy, it was the enemy. From the motions of Uriel’s eight fingers and two thumbs, cuts appeared in the mist and their bodies too were pulled apart.

Even Erus was attacked, but he raised his shield swift to stop it. The prince felt a chill fall down his spine in the next instant. This girl was indeed no mere child. This time he’d seen it, the mist had become blades, she’d used Advanced Manifestation to create cuts in the air itself.

This wasn’t an easy feat, to create a solid structure so large, numerous and distant from one’s own body, not to mention doing it all in an instant. She had mastered Manifestation so completely as to erase the distinction between the basic and advanced forms, it was all the same to her.

Indeed, he realised all too quickly that if she really could use Advanced Mutation on top of that, and perhaps to the same extent too, then she wasn’t a foe he could best on his own. He needed an army.

The Platinum Class men of Jupiter backed away from the girl with rough steps. Cuts and gashes covered their bodies, but they did not die so easily.

The power of Advanced Mutation let them reattach their severed limbs, close their wounds and limp away. Uriel’s expression showed mild shock but then even that was consumed by understanding, admiration even.

These men had been sliced up like onions but they’d protected their heads at the last second and started healing in the next, the word elite, even if it was only by the Centurion Kingdom’s backwater standard, did indeed suit them.

The girl of course did understand that if not for the fact that she had not fought much yet with her current body and thus wasn’t able to aim her strike flawlessly, they’d be dead regardless however.

Until now she did not consider this factor to be a large issue but now that she had witnessed her enemy’s own ability she changed her mind on the matter.

Jupiter’s men were not as pathetically inferior as she had assumed them to be, she admitted that her current self would have some measure of difficulty killing them.