What was that!? Words of Truth? Can they be so powerful? Adion thought, looking at the distant fire.

She killed over 20 SIilver beasts in an instant. As a Bronze mage…

Adion snapped out of his thoughts as he noticed Sell had fallen to the ground.

“Sell? Are you okay?” Adion asked and approached her.

Adion could tell that she was uninjured from her aura, but he still checked her pulse and breathing to be safe.

I’ll have to carry her with me, I guess. The others are still fighting. I can think about all this once I know everyone is safe.

Adion bent down and picked up Sell in a princess carry. His heart started beating quicker from being this close to a girl for the first time.

Don’t think about stupid things. You need to hurry.

Adion took off running as fast as he could manage while carrying Sell, heading for the others who had gone to help Mashi’s group.

Thankfully, it didn’t take long before he was caught up with them. Once he arrived, their fight was already over. Benji, Sahra, Lomin, and Rufus were all standing there uninjured, but Mashi, Kelv, and Tella were on the ground, alive but with plenty of injuries.

“Are they okay?” Adion asked as he ran up to his team.

Benji turned from checking on Kelv to look at Adion. “They’ll be fine. I’ve given them some healing pills. What happened to Sell?”

“Is she okay?” Sahra looked at Sell and asked worriedly.

“She should be fine,” Adion said, “I think she’s just exhausted.”

“Exhausted?” Sahra asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah,” Adion nodded.

Just then, a horn being blown could be heard from the distance.

“That’s the signal for the mission being completed. We should get back so they don’t leave us, thinking we’re dead,” Benji said, “Lomin, Rufus, help me carry them,”

“I’ll carry, Sell,” Sahra said, stepping up to Adion.

“It’s okay,” Adion said.

Sahra flicked her finger on his forehead, “I wasn’t thinking about you, stupid. I’ll take her.”

Adion handed over the unconscious Sell and turned away, slightly embarrassed.

“It was a nice try,” Rufus said with a grin as he stepped up next to him.

“I wasn’t…whatever,” Adion said and started heading back to where the different teams were to meet up.

His teammates were not far behind him, and it didn’t take long before they reached the gathering place. Many of the Outskirters seemed injured to some degree. Adion and his teammates sat down to rest and waited for everyone else to get there.

About 20 minutes later, Harran stepped forward to speak. Judging from the happy expressions of the people from the Derolm family, the mission was a success.

“Alright, everyone,” Harran said, “You have all done a wonderful job. You will all receive a hefty bonus once we get back.”

That got a cheer from the tired Outskirters listening.

“We will be moving back to the outpost where we spent the night,” Harran continued, “We can rest there for a day so that everyone can heal some of their injuries before the return trip. Let’s go!”

Everyone got up and started moving. No one questioned that they were leaving before everyone had returned. If someone hadn’t gotten back by now, they were probably dead. Considering how many beasts there were in the area, the losses on the sapi side were relatively small. Adion thought that maybe a sixth or so of the teams were missing.

I’m just glad it’s no one I know.

The expedition force got moving relatively quickly, considering the number of injured people. Everyone wanted to get back to the outpost to rest as soon as possible after all.

After a few hours of walking, Sell woke up. Adion turned to look at how Sahra let her down to stand on her own.

“Are you okay?” Adion stepped up and asked.

“I’m fine,” Sell smiled, “Just a little tired. I-” Sell seemed to have an excited sparkle in her eyes. Adion could guess what she wanted to talk about. But as she noticed Mashi and his teammates being around, she stopped herself. “I’ll be back to normal in a few hours.”

“Good,” Sahra said, “You should take a healing pill just in case, though.”

“Okay,” Sell didn’t argue and accepted the pill Sahra handed to her.

Adion didn’t mention her incredible attack or anything about his own space powers. There were too many ears around for that. So the group continued walking, a few quiet conversations popping up from time to time.

A few hours before the sun would go down, the expedition force arrived at the small outpost where they had spent the previous night. Adion and his teammates immediately made camp and prepared for dinner.

While waiting for the meat to cook, as they were far away from prying eyes, Adion decided to announce what he had revealed earlier in front of Sell.

“I showed Sell what I could do,” Adion said, “So everyone finally knows I’m a space mage,”

“Was it a week? Less than a week, right?” Rufus asked.

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“It was a little more than a week,” Lomin said.

“Damn,” Rufus lamented, “It seems we lost the bet, Sahra.”

“You guys actually bet that I would reveal my powers?” Adion asked.

“Well,” Benji shrugged, “We figured you would do so soon enough. Thought we could make a bet out of it while we wait.”

“It’s hard to keep stuff like that a secret while fighting, you know,” Adion said.

“Especially so if you want to show off, I imagine,” Rufus nodded.

“Whatever,” Adion said. He turned to Sell, who he could see was laughing at the situation.

“By the way, you were about to say something before passing out. Do you know something about space as an element?” Adion asked.

“No, not really,” Sell answered. She looked around at everyone for a second before sighing, “I guess it’s not that important of a secret since you all already know of Adion’s powers.”

“Well, you shouldn’t say something that’s an Amyss family secret,” Benji said hesitantly.

“It’s okay,” Sell said, “It’s nothing compared to an actual space mage.”

“I guess not much can compare to that,” Benji agreed.

“Okay, let’s not build up Adion’s ego too much,” Sahra said, “So what do you know about the space element, Sell?”

“Nothing really,” Sell said, “But I have heard of it as an element. The Amyss family is very old, you see. We were a Noble family thousands of years ago. Back then, we were located on Quemer, just like everyone else. When the Sages discovered Shiora, our ancestors decided to relocate here just like many people did back then. As a Noble family, we were among the strongest forces here, and when the Empires and Kingdoms of Shiora banded together and declared independence from their home nations on Quemer, our family became Royals.

“But our ancestors didn’t know we would take such a leap in power, of course. Their reason for coming here was another. It was because of an old book that had been in our family for generations. A book that spoke of a continent named Shiora, and of a certain sect located on this continent. That sect was called the Celestial Phoenix Sect.”

Adion and his teammates exchanged a few glances.

“Have you heard of it?” Sell asked, surprised.

“We’ll get to that, finish the story,” Adion urged.

Sell looked around, curiosity shining through in her eyes. “Fine. Well, that sect was apparently extremely powerful. During the time this book was written, a powerful space mage was in charge of the sect. He could do marvelous things, and it was said that you could go from one corner to another on Shiora in the blink of an eye with the help of the teleportation formations he had created.

“Unfortunately, the book is very old, and not much was legible after so much time had passed, but it was enough for our family to decide to take a gamble on Shiora once the Sages revealed its location. Since then, our family has been looking for the location of this ancient sect, hoping to find the treasures surely buried there.”

“Over the years, though, it has been mostly left to the wayside. It is still something every generation is aware of. But after thousands of years without any clues, finding the old sect has been more like a dream than an actual goal we are working towards.

“Now,” Sell looked at Adion with shining eyes, “What do you know about this? No one here reacted much to hearing this information. I even mentioned the Celestial Phoenix! How did you not react? Do you already know that there was another Phoenix besides the Fire Phoenix? How?”

Adion held his hands up to calm Sell down. It would really have been an amazing story for everyone in the world besides Adion and his team. “Well, I might know something,” Adion said, “But I’m not telling.”

“What? That’s not fair!” Sell yelled out.

“Sorry,” Adion shrugged with a small smile, “But if your family is after that place, that means we are in competition. That old sect is mine.”

“How is it yours?” Sell questioned.

“I’m a space mage, and I’m the one who-” Adion stopped himself from speaking further.

“You’re the one who what?” Sell asked.

The one who found it first.

“Nevermind,” Adion said, “Sorry, Sell. You should give up the idea that your family will get that place. It will never happen.”

“I don’t care about what my family gets,” Sell said, “I want to find it. I want the treasures there. I want to find out more about the Ages of the past. So tell me, please.”

Adion looked at Sell’s pleading look and felt a little bad about not telling her more. He had already revealed that he was a space mage, so there shouldn’t be anything stopping him from speaking further. Not if he trusted Sell. But he had told her about his space powers mainly because she had figured out a lot of it on her own and because it was something hard to hide while fighting and training together.

But there wasn’t really a reason to share anything else he had been through. He only did so with his teammates because it was a heavy burden to carry alone. He needed to get it off his chest. But now that he had friends who knew about it, he no longer felt that need. Adion actually felt the rare feeling of not wanting to spill his secrets, so even though he felt a little bad for Sell, he wasn’t planning on telling her everything. At least not right away.

“Sorry, Sell,” Adion said, “I won’t share that. It would cause me too much trouble if information got out.”

“What could cause more trouble than information about you being a space mage getting out?” Sell asked.

“Well, you won’t tell anyone about that, will you?” Adion asked.

“Of course not,” Sell said, “And I won’t say anything about this either, so tell me.”

“I’m sure you’ll figure it out eventually anyway,” Adion said.

“I’m sure too,” Sell agreed, “So you might as well tell me. Spare us both the effort.”

“Hmm,” Adion considered it. It wasn’t really anything that important, considering what Sell already knew. But a part of him just wanted to keep some things to himself. He felt like Sell still had a lot of secrets, too. “Maybe some other time. But enough about my space powers, that thing you did with your fire…” Adion glanced around at his teammates. He wasn’t going to say anything if Sell didn’t want to.

Sell just crossed her arms in front of her chest stubbornly, “What thing?”

“Right,” Adion said.

“So…” Rufus cut in, “Does this mean you’re going to start teleporting around again?”

“You can teleport!?” Sell looked at Adion in shock.

“I’m a space mage, after all,” Adion shrugged, but he was pretty happy on the inside.

“Amazing,” Sell said, “How far? How many times? Can you take people with you?”

“Um, I can only do it about 300 feet. I’ve been practicing doing it while fighting. It takes a few seconds to concentrate,” Adion answered, “As for taking people with me, I haven’t gotten to try that yet, but it should be possible if they don’t resist and aren’t too big.”

“I want to try!” Sell said excitedly, completely dropping her earlier grumping attitude.

“Okay,” Adion agreed, “We can head out and do it outside the outpost. It will be good practice. I can help train your spatial sense as well.”

“Mm,” Sell nodded, grabbing a piece of meat that had just finished cooking.

Adion also grabbed a piece for himself, wanting to finish eating quickly so he could go train.

“You two,” Benji said awkwardly, “Are you sure it’s not more appropriate to rest for the night? We just had a pretty hectic day. We will stay here tomorrow in order to recharge our batteries. It will lose meaning if you don’t rest.”

Adion realized that Benji didn’t even know that Sell had fought and killed over 20 Silver beasts, passing out from the effort. He was glad he didn’t have to tell him.

“I forgot about that,” Adion said and then looked at Sell, “That means we can practice all day tomorrow too.”

“Fun!” Sell said with a smile.