How long had it been since Adriel had last felt like this? He truly could not say.
A wound on the spiritual body would often mean that the person receiving the wound would lack energy and their feelings would be muted. That was especially so for Adriel, whose spiritual body had been wounded quite gravely.
This meant that he would appear devoid of emotions, making others think of them as uncaring and detached from the world. This facade had landed him many unflattering titles when he had acted as the Grandmaster of the order. Adriel the listless, because of his lack of interest in most things. Adriel the walking dead, since he had a clear lack of energy. Adriel the executioner, owing to the fact that he would often go about politics and fighting with frightening efficiency, never allowing feelings to influence his judgement. Those were only some among the many things that he had been called by his underlings. Although he had never been called those things to his face, it had nonetheless caused him a great deal of stress.
It was truly hard to make Adriel smile or feel any other emotion for that matter. The times that he truly felt happiness in the past decade only numbered somewhere in the twenties. Of those times, it had mostly been Ivis that had provoked the feelings, with the rare visit of some old friends taking the rest.
In short, it would not be strange to compare it to depression, with the only difference being that it was actively killing him. A doctor from the mortal world would likely try to diagnose him as such. It usually required a momentous occasion for Adriel to feel anything. Yet, someway, and somehow, the youth before him left him dumbfounded with a tingling feeling in his chest.
How could this be? Adriel truly could not wrap his head around the strange scenario. He had merely asked the young man to tell him what he thought of the painting that he had just painted. It was only normal courtesy and a conversation starter. Yet, the words of the young man, with only a few short sentences, had almost caused him to chuckle in delight for the first time in centuries.
How could he not stare in amazement at the other party?
The strange thing was that the other party barely knew anything about the intricacies of painting. In the years past, especially during his tenure as a grandmaster, he had many high-level painters and appraisers visit him, all of whom had been invited to speak their minds of the paintings he had painted. They had all been full of praise, speaking highly of the techniques and complexities that existed within the painting.
The youngster, on the other hand, had been completely different. He had no idea what brush strokes he had used or which grandmaster painter he had taken his inspiration from. His thoughts had been entirely surface level. Had it been in a professional setting, he would surely have been laughed out of the house, but Adriel could not help but feel completely refreshed by the other party’s words and perspective.
Still, Adriel did not believe that this was the only reason why he suddenly felt this way. If such words could bring out feelings in him, he would have long since sought out amateur appraisers. No, there was something else going on. Something that he had not noticed in the first couple of minutes.
Giving in to his confusion, Adriel allowed his mind to take in the essence that was all around him. He soon found out the reason why he was so entranced by the young man.
Every word that the youngster spoke was filled with small specks of both the essence of darkness and the dream attribute. The dream attribute specks were the reason for his sudden lift in mood. As the target of the words, the dream attribute would naturally flow towards Adriel and influence him.
Adriel fell into wonder. He almost did not catch himself before his mouth came agape at the revelation. The kid, no, the man before him commanded the dream attribute with such skill that others would not even notice it.
With such skill, the other party could easily influence others with his mood. If he felt good, others would feel good. If he were angry, others would become angry, as well. To someone with a weakened spiritual body like Adriel, the effectiveness of those transferred feelings would be countless times greater.
Adriel and Ivis had been searching for a person with exactly such skills for decades with no luck. Yet, who would have thought that their saviour would suddenly and randomly arrive at their doorstep without invitation or prompt. If it was not fate, Adriel did not know what was.
Without tearing his eyes from the young man before him, fearing that the other party would disappear into thin air, Adriel sent a silent telepathic message to Ivis.
‘Ivis, just who is this young man?’
‘Oh?’ Adriel could faintly feel the fox chuckling through their shared connection. ‘Are you interested master? The kid is indeed quite interesting…’
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‘Stop being ambiguous, you ungrateful fox.’ Adriel could hardly help but shake his head hearing his tamed beast and life-long friend playing coy with him at such a pivotal moment. ‘How could I not be interested. With such talent in the world of dreams, he might just be able to save us.’
Though Adriel had been utterly unconvinced of Ivis’s words when he first arrived here, he had long since jumped ship. In only a few minutes, he had become completely convinced that the young man before them was a heaven-sent blessing that would save the two of them from an untimely death.
‘Indeed. I know very little about the young man. His name is Sett, and he should be a member of the crusader order. I can only guess that he has a slight connection with the current Grandmaster, given that he mentioned that the Grandmaster ordered him to hide.’
Adriel lightly nodded along with Ivis’s words, but when the fox mentioned his eyebrows scrunched up. If the young man, no, Sett was a man of the current Grandmaster, it could be problematic if he wished to win him over.
‘As it stands currently, his strength should be nearing the first threshold of the first tier of ascendancy. As you have noticed, he wields considerable strength and mastery over the dream attribute.’
Adriel could not help but sigh. He had indeed noticed that Sett did not exude all that much essence from his body, but he had never thought that it would be this bad. With such little essence, it was unlikely for him to repair their spiritual bodies in their entirety.
‘Are you certain?’
Not wanting what Ivis had said to be true, Adriel asked the fox to reaffirm what he had said.
‘Of course. The other party even allowed me to circulate my essence in their body. There can be doubt of the matter.’
‘Such brazenness…’
‘I, too, was stumped by his actions, but I understand them, as well. As it stands currently, I know that the other party is, without a doubt, genuinely interested in helping us.’
‘I see.’ Adriel was happy to know that the other party wanted to help but saddened that it would go to waste. ‘It is unfortunate that he is too weak and cannot reach the required heights before it is too late…’
Adriel despaired, but he could not blame the young man. They had simply met too late. If he had discovered Sett in his youth, it might have been possible to take him as an apprentice and train him to reach a high enough level, but now it was all too late.
‘Do not jump to conclusions so early, master. Sett’s mastery of the dream attribute is certainly beyond our understanding. With appropriate training, I believe that he might be able to reach the required level to cure us before it is too late.’
‘Oh… and why do you say that?’
‘When he arrived earlier, we exchanged moves. With a single attack, he managed to breach the defences of my spiritual body, rendering me completely unable to fight back. Should he have wanted, I believe he could have easily killed me at that moment.’
‘What!’ Hearing Ivis’s words and entranced by Sett’s dream attribute, Adriel nearly lost his composure. ‘Do not spout nonsense, old friend. I know that you dearly wish for a cure, but that is no reason to make up lies. How could you, a fox of the dream attribute, be brought low by a youngster’s dream attack? Even if his mastery is great, he should by no means be able to bridge the gap between your tiers!’
‘I know how it sounds, master, but I know what I saw. He traversed my mind and saw my memories. Of that, I am certain. If you are still doubtful, you may ask him of our history.’
‘This…’
Adriel fell into thought once more. He desperately wanted to believe in his tamed beast’s words, but he found it hard to believe the words. This was not the first time that they had been close to an answer to their plight. They had been burned way too many times and he dared not get his hopes up again.
He knew that Ivis, whose wounds were considerably lesser due to his connection to the dream affinity, was much more sentimental and emotional than he was. He had seen the disappointment that the fox had felt every time a potential fix to their issues had proven to be insufficient. He had long since resigned himself for death, but he knew that Ivis still held on to this day.
Each time he saw the fox’s disappointed and teary eyes, he would feel as if something within him broke even further. It was not something that he wished to see again. He even dreaded seeing the master physician that they had invited, due to this fact.
At the same time, if he simply gave up right at this moment, Ivis would never forgive him. That was not something he could accept either.
There was no perfect answer.
In the end, Adriel made his choice and refocused his gaze on Sett. One last attempt would not hurt.
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Sett, who was completely unaware of Adriel’s conflicting thoughts or the long discussion that was happening between Adriel and Ivis, had been rambling on about the painting for some time.
Truthfully, he had never been much into art and the culture that it entailed, but today, he felt as if he could write a ten-page essay about this one picture alone. He did not know whether it was because of how masterful it was or if it was because essence was involved, but he felt far more interested in the art.
In the end, Sett caught himself in his excitement. He noticed that Adriel’s eyes had been glazing over and was fully listening to him talking. It was likely that he had long since lost all interest in his analysis of the painting and was only feigning interest. Honestly, Sett could not fault him. He was, after all, a complete amateur in the matter and every other word he spoke was likely to be wrong.
“Ah…” Sett lightly shook his head. “I am sorry, Master Adriel, I have been rambling. I apologize for taking up your time.”
At this moment, light returned to Adriel’s eyes and he stared intently at Sett.
“It is quite alright, young Sett.”
Sett sighed in relief. He was quite scared that he had offended the former grandmaster and caused him to become angry. The relief, however, quickly faded. Did he not mention his name, just now? If his memory did not fail him, neither he nor Ivis had mentioned his name since he arrived. How could he possibly know? Did he know more than he let on?
Sett felt a sinking feeling arriving at this conjecture.
“Sett, would you be willing to become my student?”