Chapter Fifty-Nine

Waves of power hit Arden and Solanine, but it lacked the bite it should have. The man had to be well into grade three, as his mana overpowered the ambient mana, but it didn’t matter when he couldn’t move or use his deck.

Used to his parents flexing their aura’s Arden didn’t even flinch. His parents were much stronger. He still didn’t know their mana grade, but it must have been above grade three since they felt overwhelming compared to the captive. That or his increased strength skewed his experience.

Even subdued, he couldn’t risk their territory. They needed to find a solution quick before the poison wore off. He found it odd how it hadn’t already. With his level one poison resistance, he fought off Solanine’s poison, or maybe that wasn’t a full dose.

Arden fought off the temptation to glance at Sola, who remained silent next to him and instead focused down on the man silently fuming. He expected the man to scream some obscenities, but he was eerily silent, too silent. Instead, the captive glared at the two of them, but it almost seemed like his focus was elsewhere.

His eyes widened. He extended his mana sense. At first the aura of the mana clouded it, but he found his answer. A thin line of mana stretched outward so thin it only took a swipe of his mental hands to sever it.

The captive jerked, but not much else, at least on the surface.

His melody was a different story. It sung wild tunes. Some dark, others light. It was a complete mess. The man in front of him had an amazing control over his expression because internally he had to be panicking.

As an afterthought, he sent out his equilibrium sense. Surprise flashing when he found the man had a higher-than-normal response from the typically silent sense. Not enough that he feared a consequence, but more like a warning that issues could arise if he chose wrong. The feedback wasn’t all that helpful since he knew what happened next had consequences whether they were good or bad was still up in the air.

Before breaking the silent standoff since Sola didn’t take the initiative, he asked said girl through their bond. “Why did you summon him?”

“Higher ranked representative.”

He figured as much. A grade one like the intruders wouldn’t have the pull to solve anything, but their backers would. The question was, did the man in front of them have enough pull, either?

Deciding to cut through all the verbal dancing, Arden stared down at the man while pointing at the restrained team, mustering as much authority as he could. “Your team invaded our territory, so we captured them. We don’t want further hostility, but can’t let such a violation to go unpunished.”

The man stared up at him for several more seconds. It went well into awkward territory before speaking in a perfectly calm, emotionless tone on par with his resident snake. “Release of my trainees.”

Something about the man sent a spike of annoyance through him. From the outside, he looked to be disregarding the situation.

When Arden checked the man’s melody again, any annoyance vanished. His melody was still all over the place. He may look calm on the surface, but that was far from the truth.

“I cannot release our captives until we have assurances no more trespassing will occur.”

“I do not have the authority to grant such a request.” A spike in his melody said otherwise. At least he thought it did. He wasn’t an expert in reading melodies, that was just the feeling he got.

Arden turned his mental attention to Sola. “Any idea on how to deal with this? You brought him here, so you must have a plan.”

As if looking at a bug, Sola stared down at the prisoner with a blank face. “Torture?”

He tried his best to keep his expression blank as he questioned her. “You want to torture someone far stronger than us? We want to create peace, not start a war.”

“Peace through fear is viable.”

“We don’t have the strength to rule through fear.”

“One doesn’t need strength to rule with fear, only the illusion of strength.”

Arden paused for a moment, considering her dark suggestion. “How would we give the illusion of strength?”

Sola answered right away with a tone saying the answer was obvious. “Territory authority.”

“Territory authority?”

Suddenly, a wave of power, far stronger than what should be possible, exploded out of Sola and crashed down on the kneeling man. The effect was immediate. He crashed face first into the ground and stayed there. One glance at his melody told him whatever Solanine did was effective, but he knew ruling by fear wasn’t a good long-term solution.

Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

That didn’t mean he couldn’t use it to lay the groundwork for something more concrete. With a deep, powerful tone, he decreed, “Swear on Ortus that your faction will stay out of our territory unless we give permission.”

The pressure relented soon after, Arden shifting slightly to the side to support the trembling girl. Whatever that pressure was, it took a lot out of her. They couldn’t afford to show weakness, so best to use it sparingly.

Fortunately, by the time the man forced himself upright using only his core muscles, Sola recovered enough to stand on her own.

Not that their prisoner would have noticed. His previous calm façade shattered, revealing his true feelings underneath. Maybe he didn’t believe them before or thought they couldn’t back it up. Or he was just good at hiding it. He knew he would be enraged and terrified in his situation.

In case he didn’t hear him the first time, he repeated himself. “Swear on Ortus that you and your faction will stay out of our territory unless we give permission.”

Even with fear on clear display in the man’s grayish green eyes, he refused to budge. “Release my trainees.”

He was at a crossroads. There was a route to build some goodwill, but it may ruin the momentum they built. It was a risk, too.

An idea came to him as a potential best of both worlds route. A show of power while throwing the man a bone. The question was if it was possible. He never tried it before, but it should be theoretically possible for the current him.

Arden shifted his focused from the man to the most injured of the team, figuring she was the least risky to release. It wasn’t the releasing but how he did it, though. He activated Conjure Roots, straining himself to plant it next to the still unconscious and heavily injured girl. A headache sprouted to life, but a root shot out of the ground.

The kneeling prisoner’s attention jerked to the root, but he could do nothing to stop the root other than roll.

Before he could do anything, Arden made his move. With Nature Manipulation, which ratcheted up his headache, he moved the root to touch the wood restraints.

A slight smile formed when he felt the wood turn to putty, allowing him to use the root to lift the girl’s wrists and ankles out of the wood.

Now she was technically free. Well, not really. The poisonous wall crushed an escape attempt if she was conscious.

Display made, he cut the connection to the root, shoulders slumping as the pressure on his mind dimmed, but a throbbing remained as evidence.

Still, the headache was worth it, as the display worked. Maybe a little too well.

His ears twitched as he picked up some muttering. “Wood? Plant? No. Both? No, it’s more. Omni-Nature? Could he pull it off? Would he?”

As the man muttered, his expressions shifted all over the place along with his melody. Some expressions made Arden uncomfortable. A little too close to admiration, with a hint of insanity.

All he did was show off a little, but based on the look Solanine gave him, he made a mistake. What did he do wrong? Sick of being in the dark, he turned his mental attention to Solanine. “What’s going on? I wanted to do a show of power, not this.”

“Why did you think it was a good idea to use an epic ranked nature attuned card? You broadcasted you have every nature attunement.”

A sigh escaped him. “Well, if it was that easy to out myself, it would happen eventually unless I never used essential cards in my deck. Better than outing our other secrets like prime magic.”

“Oh, if he knew how to look, we already gave away our prime nature. Fortunately, he doesn’t. We radiate it like every prime. It is impossible to hide it unless we close ourselves from the ambient mana.”

Arden’s gaze jerked to Solanine, then he focused outward. Just like she said, life mana flowed out of them, announcing their status. He didn’t notice before because the capital clearing had thick life mana, but he would be a beacon outside their territory.

He had to fix that. Outing himself as an Omni nature mage was one thing and probably unavoidable, but he needed to keep his prime status secret for now.

Unfortunately, before he could attempt to solve that issue, the man below broke the silence. One look at him sent a shiver up Arden’s spine. No fear remained, even his aura turned solid light a little too light for his liking.

Uncaring for his state, the man spoke with a hopeful tone. The previous battle-hardened demeanor vanishing in favor of an excited gleam, but what worried Arden was the hint of insanity. “I will swear on Ortus to keep my clan, the Ashwoods, out of your territory unless given permission on one condition. Both of you must take a scholarship sponsorship from The Ashwood clan to attend Magna Schola Magica.”

Arden’s eyes narrowed. What was his angle? What did he gain from offering a scholarship?

To his surprise, Solanine spoke in his mind. “Accept. We can use it as a cover.”

She had a point. It would look suspicious if they showed up at random. They could play it off as the Ashwood clan discovered them. That was probably his angle. An Omni-Nature mage was rare, really rare, so he wanted to capitalize on it. If he allied himself to them, it may solve the dungeon issue. The offer seemed perfect. A little too perfect.

On that thought, he returned his attention to the man who to Arden’s panic was no longer kneeling. In fact, he stood without a hint of disability.

Worse, the wood restraints locking down the trainees no longer existed either. The only barrier between him and the no longer subdued man was the poisonous wall. Even worse, the previously suppressed bracelets of the man glowed a dim greenish gray.

Instead of taking advantage of the shift to attack, he waved his hand at the still unconscious trainees, causing them to vanish. He then grabbed his sword and shield, sheathing the sword and clipping the shield on his back.

When he returned his attention to the duo, a wave of power exploded out of him far eclipsing what he displayed earlier. It wasn’t to the level of the omni elemental elf, but it wasn’t lacking either. He wasn’t some simple trainer rescuing his trainees. No, he was something more, much more. What did Solanine bring to our territory?

Arden snuck a glance at Solanine, but she remained calm, too calm, as if she knew all along. What was he missing? He hated being in the dark.

As if a different person, the previously captive man nodded in respect to both with his hands clasped behind his back.

Another wave of power, this time eerily similar to what Solanine used earlier, washed over them. It didn’t feel threatening, more like a display of status. “I, Patriarch Ashwood, greet Arden and Solanine of the Great Stone Forest.”

When he checked the man’s melody again, it felt obscured. It was there and seemed light, but it was too hazy to tell for sure.

Fear spiked through him. Another monster entered their territory. He just hoped this one meant no harm as well.