Chapter 7: Cat With Nine Lives

  Lucian who pretended to be asleep woke up silently in the middle of the night, after checking his sister’s room and discovering she was asleep, he quietly sneaked out of the house.

Aster who pretended to be asleep by casting an illusion over the bed immediately scowled when she saw him leaving without informing her of where he was going.

Lucian walked hiding in the shadows towards a cave I the lower glory district that had avian half rank 9 sun monsters. He wanted to hunt this monster because he sensed a dangerous feeling from one of the participants in the competition, something he never felt before.

“It must be the awakening, she must have awakened an innate talent to give that kind of dangerous feeling. I keep feeling that I am missing something, what is it?”

Killing a half rank 9 monster did not take much energy, he removed blood from the heart of the creature and after multiple experiments, he swallowed this drop of blood using half his mind to seal.

Monster creatures have high level of malice, they had almost no fear of death. Everything on their body was extremely corrosive especially to the mind.

  “Master, I still feel guilty about your death so I have made sure to continue watching your descendants. It has been 2,000 years and now there is little chance for me to become rank 0.

I have finally gotten the final material after years of searching but I can feel my consciousness slipping away.

Thank you master for giving this bird a dream. Your descendants have a grown a lot over this period of time and I am sure they can live for a long time without me.

Of course, they are not happy whenever I stop them from going to certain places but how can they understand the horror of this world. If you didn’t sacrifice your energy to me after the war maybe you will be alive now watching the sunset while drinking tea.

If I fall in this advancement, then only death remains.”

Within the void around a chaotic plane, oceans, metallic wings, sandstorms with each grain of sand burning like meteors about to explode and volcanoes.

Nothing could be made from this images in the void because this was a creature that was attempting advancement to rank 0.

Just as it was about to fail, a light ball flew past the chaotic void.

The consciousness that was slipping instantly knew this was an extraordinary treasure, just as it was about to grab, the light ball flew away continuing on its journey.

The consciousness in the void began to regain control of itself, all the phenomenon in the void began to fuse together, faintly showing the figure of a phoenix.

The Phoenix began to burn seemingly having a rebirth. It flew with a jubilant arc across the void before finally reducing its size facing the direction the light ball flew.

“Master, I succeeded.I finally advanced to rank 0 thanks to that treasure. I have reached the rank you could not reach due to that calamity,

 I can now take care of your family better.

 But what is that treasure?”

  The final day of the competition has arrived, the districts of both teams were already celebrating because they were going to be in the limelight no matter who won.

Group 3 led by Reina a moon path warrior with Lucian a sun path warrior and George a planet or world path warrior as her teammates, walked into the arena with resounding cheers following them.

High level figures from different families in the central district were already waiting for the participants of the competition.

“Something tells me we are going to see something major today, that’s why I am here.”

“I will change my name if I believed you, you must have checked the stars before coming here and acting like a charlatan.”

The man who checked the stars laughed off his friends words, “you are the only one who understands me the best.”

Group 8 led by Astor a sun warrior with Zaria a moon warrior and Benard a star warrior as teammates.

The spectators conversation was all about the winner, Xander and other members of the tyrant team were among the spectators because they had prospective talents in this final.

John said, “none of them are easy to deal with even with Lucian thunderlike attacks, so I think this match will be even.”

Xander said, “whoever can employ the best strategy will have the advantage, multiple opponents fighting Lucian won’t really work.”

Leylah remained silent but her eyes did not leave Zaria and Lucian, “there is something different about this two, they seem like they are suppressing something.

Aster immediately became alert when she heeard this… “suppressing something, is it related to what he did last night?”

The judge came up to the stage with his customary flag. He squinted his eyes slightly when he saw Zaria and Lucian.

“The rules remain the same, group 3 versus group 8… there are spectators here from the central district watching this match, make sure to put your best in this match.

The judge dropped the raised flag after he gave his speech.

Astor and Lucian began to release fireballs, filling the arena with flames. Bernard did not look at the outcome of this battle but instead blinked at George.

George clenched his right fist and hit the ground, raising the phantom of an illusory sandstorm. Mentally prepared for Bernard’s blink, he materialised within the sandstorm dodging his attack.

Reina attacked Zaria trying to gain the advantage for the team but something unexpected happen, Zaria who was also a rank 9 suddenly stopped, her eyes turning icy blue looked at Reina.

Reina suddenly stopped her thoughts freezing, the more she resisted the more she felt like too long as passed like a long dream.

Spirit freezing of the moon path. Using the accumulated power of the moon to freeze the target thought.

For moon path rank 9, the accumulated energy they had was not enough to handle this kind of spell without draining them. Which will render them incapable of moving after using this. And they also needed a medium like their eyes or a moon path artifact to achieve this effect.

Zaria though could move as if it was nothing to her.

She pressed forward clenched her hand condensing ice that threw Reina out of the stage. And at the same Lucian also threw Astor out of the stage.

The spectators drew in a sharp breath… they already expected that things will be a little difficult for each team but they didn’t expect the leaders to be eliminated first.

Other newly awakened warriors in the central district who came to watch on the instructions of their teacher immediately sat up.

One of them said, “something is strange about those two.”

Zaria turned to Lucian. Everyone who was familiar with Lucian immediately looked strange because they thought they had seen this expression before.

It was Lucian expression whenever he wanted to do something crazy.

George and Bernard attacks became more intense with neither side gaining an advantage.

Zaria’s body began to expand, turning into a vortex of water that released a suction force at both Lucian and George slowing down their reactions.

The scouts and high level figures of the shelter became focused, a man with a deep gaze sitting among this group muttered under his breath, “I thought Lucian was the only monster in this batch, where is this lass from?

“Find out everything about those two, there must be something that connects them together… a member of the Valencia family Valero said to the aide behind him.

Reina and Astor were in disbelief at the turn of events…

Reina thought, “it seems we are going to lose this time.”

Bernard wanted to take advantage of George slowing down, but he couldn’t continue his next course of action as blazing flares of light lit up around them.

He could hardly piece his thoughts together, making him forget what he wanted to do.

Lucian transformed into a flaming bird releasing heat waves and bright flares in the arena, stopping everyone from seeing each other. Himself and Zaria knew they could not continue this transformation for a long time so they gambled it all on a final attack.

The entire field was suddenly divided into two, one freezing another burning. They could not gain advantage for a while.

Zaria finally returned to her human form while still maintaining the freezing ice.

Lucian who was waiting for this signaled to George before flying straight at Zaria, weakening her control over the ice. She could not disperse the ice due to Lucian interference giving George the opportunity to control the entire element in the field.

George control at first was weak due to Zaria holding on but because she couldn’t handle Lucian’s pressure, she could only watch helplessly as she and Bernard were thrown out of the stage.

Lucian who already returned to normal form squinted his eyes, “she was still holding back, that’s right after all it is just a competition for a superior art. She will get it after displaying her talents today.

Resounding cheers continued among the people of lower district, they started throwing flowers at the stage while waiting for the awards to be rewarded.

“Sir, their parents were part of the survivors of the ruin disaster years ago.” The aide who investigated Lucian and Zaria came back with results.

Valero who heard this squinted his eyes but remained quiet.

The awards for the winners were given by a representative from the Valencia family. A superior energy conversion art and an invitation into the Valencia family.

George, Astor and Zaria immediately accepted the invitation… the representative looked at Lucian who was calm after collecting the art and without answering returned to his sister’s side with Reina.

He had no intention of joining this family at all.

  The five explorers felt a chill in their hearts when the zombies turned to them. They almost turned back but immediately regained confidence after thinking of the abilities they possessed.

Besides, returning without results was the same as proclaiming they had no use to the leader.

The star path member of the team made a wish using his lucky star mutated skill for their goodluck before entering the building.

In order to avoid the majority of zombies, they decided to use a building that looked a library with gardens around it. This building had everything from the old world according to the knowledge they had but it felt crept because everything seemed alive.

Gunvor walked to a rotting table when he saw a book that had a language he could read, he was cautious, not touching anything until he was sure it was not an illusion.

“The legend of the snake called Dell.” He felt a chill in his spine and could not help but shiver.