Adion felt his emotions surge through him, almost taking him over.

Calm down. Calm down. Calm down. Adion thought while focusing on his breathing. He knew that should he let his emotions get out of his control, he would be noticed by the two silver mages outside the room. His killing intent would probably alert the entire house if he let it free.

I suspected this. And it’s a good thing. I know a lot more about my enemies than before. Now, what to do?

Adion tried to go through every option in his mind. But he didn’t have a lot of time. He couldn’t be seen walking out of the mansion much later than he should, after all.

Adion quickly grabbed a few papers that seemed important and shoved them down his pants. Then, he focused on the space in the hallway he had been walking through just before. He took control of it using his Authority and infused as much of his Will into the space mana there as he could.

I am there. I am there. I am there.

A few seconds later, Adion successfully teleported into the hallway again and continued walking the way he had come when he arrived at the mansion.

He tried to walk naturally and not think about anything specific, careful not to hide his aura entirely anymore, just his strength and space core as usual.

Calm thoughts; don’t think about anything.

Adion successfully made it to the entrance and stepped out of the mansion. The servants he passed along the way didn’t give him a second look. He slowly made his way out of the manor and onto the busy streets again. Heading for the inn in a calm walk.

Okay, well done. Unfortunately, I have no way to carry much of the treasure with me at the moment. And there is always a chance someone would notice and then suspect me of robbing them. Hopefully, a few missing papers won’t be noticed for a while.

But I’ll be damned if I let them get away now that I have them in my sight.

Adion got back to the inn and headed straight for his room. Before meeting the others, he needed to read through the papers he found in case there was any important information there. He also needed to get his head straight; he knew he couldn’t stay long enough for him to be forced into taking an Oath. But he also didn’t want to just leave his enemies alive now that he finally found them.

And they know my face. There is a chance my life won’t be easy if they suspect me of running away and are adamant about finding me. I need to solve this in some other way.

Adion took out the papers from his pants and started looking through them. Most were nothing interesting, some information from around the Silver Wall. The only thing he noted was that the Tyllen family had recently managed to have one of their members reach the Soft Soul stage, and had now been promoted to a Noble family. There was news of a big ceremony taking place in the capital at the end of summer. Many big names, even from outside the Empire, were coming to congratulate them.

But one thing caught Adion’s attention more than anything, a letter sent from the Valis Kingdom. There was a call for every post to send reinforcements there in preparation for an attack. An attack on the Remori manor.

There weren’t many details in the letter, but Adion understood that the teleportation formation was now under the control of the Royal family. They were working with the Grath family, which his great aunt Arissa was a part of, to investigate the ancient formation.

Grandpa must have told them about it, lest it gets in the hands of our attackers.

But it didn’t seem that even that was enough. Heavenly Light was planning a large-scale attack to recover the formation.

Why are they so adamant about taking it for themselves? What have they figured out? And do they actually have the manpower to take on a whole Kingdom? Just how powerful are the top brass of Heavenly Light?

Adion sighed deeply and began thinking of his options.

I believe the best thing would probably be to leave and not think about any of this until I’m strong enough to handle it. But now I’m already involved. A Diamond mage is interested in me. And a lot of people have seen my face. I should not underestimate their intelligence network.

My only choice is to figure out how to kill them before they can send out any information about me.

Adion left his room and headed to Benji’s and Sahra’s room. He could feel that Rufus and Lomin were also there.

First, I have to tell the others to leave. I shouldn’t drag them into this. I can count on their help to a certain limit, but this is my enemy, and they are too strong for a few Silvers to fight.

“Benji, it’s Adion,” Adion knocked on the door and called out.

The door was swung open by Sahra, who looked concerned, “Adion, are you okay?”

“More or less,” Adion nodded, “I will tell you what happened.”

Adion took a seat and began narrating how the meeting had gone, along with the things he had found in the treasury of the mansion.

“We should leave,” Rufus said at the end of Adion’s story, “It’s not a good idea to stay any longer since you have no intention of actually swearing that Oath. We might get a headstart if we leave now.”

“I thought so at first, too,” Adion said, “But they have a vast information network that seemingly spreads throughout the entire continent. Since they have seen my face and that Diamond is interested in me, I can only postpone the inevitable by running away.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“So what are you planning?” Benji asked.

“I’ll kill him, of course,” Adion said with a light smile.

The group turned silent for a while, staring at Adion.

“He’s a Diamond mage, Adion,” Sahra said after a while.

“Yeah,” Adion nodded, “He’s a strong mage, for sure. But he’s not immortal. If I can catch him unaware, he’ll bleed just like anyone else.”

“But how?” Benji asked, “Even if you somehow managed to sneak up on him while sleeping, you wouldn’t be able to do anything. Even you can’t hide your aura well enough to escape the danger sense of a Diamond mage. And if you try freezing him in space, it won’t work, his Will is on another level entirely. And your fire is far too weak. Your only chance would be to cut his head off with a sword, but I have a hard time imagining him letting you do so.”

Sahra nodded her head in agreement, “He’s certainly not immortal, but neither are you, Adion. Even if you find a way to kill him, he can find hundreds of ways to kill you, and a lot quicker than you can. To get out of this unscathed seems impossible.”

“It will take some time to figure out a way,” Adion said in response, “But I bet that being faced with space powers for the first time will catch him off guard. It will take some careful planning, but if I can find a way to grasp a more offensive concept and implement it in my space core, I think I have a good chance.”

“That’s not something that happens overnight,” Benji commented.

“I know,” Adion nodded, “That’s why I’ll stay here and practice for as long as I can, and try to push up the meeting with Eulen. I think you should go somewhere else in the meantime, it will be dangerous, and these are some powerful enemies. My enemies, not yours.”

“Absolutely not,” Rufus immediately said, “I would rather die than do something so shameless.”

“I agree,” Sahra nodded seriously, “Don’t suggest something like that again, Adion. It’s an insult.”

Adion sighed but couldn’t help but smile a little.

I’m lucky that this is the group I got to join. Friends like these can’t be easy to come by.

“We will definitely stay together,” Benji said in agreement, “But Adion. Are you sure you’re making this decision with a clear head? I know they are the same organization that killed your family, but…they’re not the same people. Do you really have to kill them?”

“I do,” Adion said seriously.

“This will only cause more bloodshed, more people looking for revenge for their loved ones,” Benji said, trying to convince Adion.

Who the hell cares!? Adion thought angrily.

“Make no mistake, Benji,” Adion said in a grave voice, “I didn’t become stronger because I wanted to make the world a better place. I became strong to kill these bastards. And make sure they can’t touch a single hair on my remaining family.”

Adion and Benji stared at each other in silence for a while, before Sahra's laugh broke the tension.

“Haha! Good, Adion,” She said happily, “I didn’t know you had this side in you. Benji can be too soft sometimes, which I love, but don’t give mercy to those who wouldn’t show you any. That’s foolish and only endangers your loved ones.”

“I agree,” Adion said and looked at Sahra in appreciation.

“What about those young kids?” Benji asked, “Those who were recruited along with you. They only want to make the world a safe place and don’t know anything about what their organization has done.”

“Of course, I won’t kill them,” Adion shrugged.

“Then where will you draw the line?” Benji asked seriously.

“I kill those I want to kill. I spare those I want to spare,” Adion answered, matching Benji’s serious expression, “I don’t need to draw any lines other than that. That’s the privilege of the strong.”

The room turned silent for a while, before Rufus low sounded.

“Okay, that was pretty cool,” he muttered.

“Haah,” Benji sighed, “Just make sure you think through things properly, Adion. I won’t tell you what to do. I just don’t want you to regret your actions in the future.”

“Mm,” Adion nodded, happy to drop the matter.

“I won’t say anything about the matter of your revenge, as that is your journey,” Lomin’s calm voice sounded for the first time, “But I do have some thoughts of our actions from here on out that make the most sense to me, would you like to hear?”

“Of course,” Adion nodded.

“Instead of staying here,” Lomin began, “Contact someone from Heavenly Light, perhaps that boy from yesterday, and tell them that you plan on heading to the Outskirts for a while to think things through. That way, we can leave without raising suspicion. You can have a lot of training against beasts there. And you, once you’re ready, can head back here in only a few days. If you are called back before you are ready, it will be more convenient for us to escape from there than from the city.”

“That makes sense,” Adion nodded.

“I agree,” Benji said, “Do you have a way to contact anyone from Heavenly Light?”

“I don’t,” Adion said, “But I guess I could head to the old chapel and look around?”

“That might be good,” Benji agreed, “We should leave tomorrow if we can.”

“Alright, I’ll head there now, then,” Adion said and got up to leave.

“I’ll tell the manager that we won’t need our rooms after tonight,” Benji said and also got up to leave.

Adion left the inn and made his way to the old chapel where the previous meetings had taken place.

When he got there, it appeared to be empty. But Adion could feel someone through his space sphere. As he felt their location, he focused on their aura and noticed it was a man in the middle Bronze stage.

Adion knocked on the doors to the old chapel while pretending he hadn’t noticed the Bronze looking at him from a distance.

Fortunately, the man appeared after a while, as Adion expected.

“Who are you?” The man asked, “What do you want?”

“I’m Adion,” Adion answered, “I met Diamond Eulen today and am to meet him again when I’ve made a decision about something. I will head out to the Outskirts tomorrow to think things through. I just wanted to let the organization know first.”

The man nodded, “Okay, I’ll let someone know,”

“Thank you,” Adion said and then turned around to leave.

Hopefully, no one will come to bother me for a while. The more time I have, the bigger my chances of succeeding in killing Eulen will be.

Adion headed to the inn again and started practicing immediately. He had been focusing on his aura for the past week, but now it was time to focus on his space core once again.

Now, I just need to decide what concept I want to implement in my core. Well, if I don’t want to use ‘stable,’ I will have to begin grasping it first, but it might be more beneficial to have something more offensive in my arsenal.

If I want to be able to kill a Diamond mage, I would need to make use of my space powers. But how?