"Oh, is that so? Too bad for you; I am not the only one who will be defeating you guys. After all, your hypnosis girl seems to have screwed up a bit after seeing me.” He replied with excitement on his face.

Bonsai is taken aback by the surprise that hypnosis over Kaito was released because of the inexperience of Sakura.

“It doesn't make any change. If hypnosis is broken, then we will just apply it again after we deal with you. It's not like someone without a sponsor can break free from a spell like that, which is supposed to restrain even inexperienced ephemeral ranks; I tested it myself on Sakura before applying it on him.” Bonsai said this with an arrogant expression.

'I finally have my sword with me. I can crack it if I just focus enough astral energy on the tip of the sword and then wrap the barrier around with my astral energy.' Kaito thought this as he prepared to break free from the spell.

He used the tip of his sword as he planned, and within some time, the barrier started to crack.

"Impossible!" Bonsai gasped as he watched Kaito crack his spell.

'No wait, I can just restore the broken part of the barrier; I can restore the parts way faster than he can break them.'

“Stealth serpent binding" He used the same spell he used before to try and restore the binding.

“What? Why is it not restored yet? Wa-wait are you using your astral energy to block the restoration? But you are not supposed to be able to use astral energy in the barrier.” Bonsai screamed with panic.

Soon, Kaito was able to use all his astral energy due to the barrier being weakened and break the barrier entirely.

“But how? It did restrain Sakura; even if she was a new incarnate, she had an ephemeral rank; meanwhile, this brat doesn't even have any sponsors.” He was shocked.

“Your barrier has many weaknesses. And one of the weaknesses is that it does not restrict astral energy buildup over time. And I managed to exploit that weakness and started building up my astral energy the moment I realised about it.” Kaito replied, Bonsai, after his voice was sounding a little exhausted from breaking the barrier's bindings.

“As for that girl named Sakura, I can see that even if she has an ephemeral rank celestial, she is nowhere near this guy's combat skills nor astral energy.” The boy explained to Bonsai about the situation with a smile on his face.

Meanwhile, the first person out of three that were waiting for Bonsai in the room tried to attack the boy from behind, thinking he had left his guard down.

“How foolish of you to think that you can attack me stealthily when you are not even hiding your astral energy.” The boy smiled and said it with confidence.

Within moments, a powerful lightning struck him, and he fell unconscious almost immediately.

Bonsai's eyes widened in shock as he screamed, ”Brother Kenta!"

It seemed like that person was Bonsai's younger brother, 'Kenta Hakuryu'.

Bonsai was shocked, as within a few minutes, all of his planning for the last six months was wasted. He was the only one left out of all of them.

“Fine, I surrender. Please do not kill me!" Bonsai replied with an inner grudge, thinking that he would deal with them later.

“You really think I will fall for that trick again? You have to form an astral contract with me that you will not attack me ever again. Otherwise, I'm turning you to imperial guards for kidnapping and attacking me.” Kaito replied with a slight anger on his face.

'He wants me to do an astral contract with him? A mere commoner? But I cannot even deny this; otherwise, he will kill me right away. I'll play for now and find a way to take my revenge on you, peasant.'

“Fine, I hereby make a vow in the name of cosmic rulers that I will not attack you anymore."

An Astral contract is a contract that is formed between two incarnates. It is witnessed by one or more cosmic rulers (nebulous and primordial astral beings). And whoever breaches the contract suffers immeasurable pain and is sentenced to death immediately. The astral pact has a duration of one month.

“I accept the contract in the name of the cosmic rulers.” Kaito accepts the contract and then spares Bonsai and his friends.

Then both the mysterious boy and Kaito decided to leave the place together.

“Thank you very much for saving me.” Kaito showed his gratitude towards the boy.

The boy smiled and replied,”No need to thank me. Even if I weren't there, you probably would have broken free from them after some time.”

"Yes, but still, you saved me, so I am indebted to you. Also, I forgot to ask your name; what is it?"

“My name is Sora Ishikawa, what is your name?”

“My name is Kaito Mizuki. Can I ask you what you were doing in the forest this late?”

“I was just training for an upcoming event at the capital.”

“An event? If you don't mind, may I know what event you are talking about?"

“It is a tournament for fighters like you and me, held in the capital every year. Everyone from around the empire can participate in it. Here, you can fight many strong people and find out about exciting sponsors and their abilities of others. Even those without any sponsors come to fight here in order to attract members to join them before they set off on their 'Astral adventures'. It will be held next month, so I was practicing for it.” Sora explained with his bright eyes filled with excitement.

“It seems that you really are interested in this tournament, but what is an Astral adventure?” Kaito asked with confusion on his face.

“Wait? You do not know about Astral Adventure? I thought since you are this strong, you would have heard of it before from either someone else or your astral being.”

“I have not heard about it from anyone else before, and as for the astral being, I do not have any sponsor, I failed the ceremony.” Kaito replied with a little disappointment on his face.

“Oh, I see. Worry not, you will find many strong people at the tournament who are not sponsored but are still strong. And as for the Astral adventure, I should start by explaining the four realms of our world. You probably know about only two realms: 'Astral realm' and 'living realm'. But there are two more realms in this world, and astral adventure is related to that.”