The next morning, a giant silver falcon could be seen flying through the sky. On its back sat Lauriella, Ace and Kannal.
After their chat the night before, Kannal agreed to join the Yin-Yang Pavilion with the aim of getting strong enough to achieve his dreams, but he never would've imagined that his first tribulation would be simply sitting on the back of an eighth-rank four-winged falcon.
Seeing the colour fade from the boy's face, a gentle chuckle escaped Laurielle's supple cherry lips. "Okay, Elise. You need to slow down before our young friend throws up all over your beautiful feathers."
Hearing Laurielle's words, Elise – the four-winged falcon – cried out disapprovingly whilst turning its head to give Kannal a warning glare. Unfortunately, Kannal was too busy holding on for dear life to even notice. Still, the giant bird still slowed down enough for all her passengers to stay stable.
Ace, on the other hand, was sat cross-legged without a care in the world, completely unphased by the bird's speed, a feat that didn't go unnoticed by the violet-haired supreme warrior descendant.
After Kannal agreed to join the pavilion, it was decided that Mathias would fly Wukong back to the pavilion in advance so he could receive treatment for his injuries, whilst Lauriella would take the boys to Shurgard city where Milianna, Killian and the others were still waiting.
Thankfully, as a rank eight magical beast, Elise had more than enough room on her back for everyone.
Although it had only been a couple of days, so much had happened. Ace was looking forward to being able to relax with the people he cared about most in this life.
Even though Elise had to slow down for Kannal's sake, she still managed to make it to Shurgard city in a few hours.
The sight of such a big magical beast flying over the castle in the middle of the city wasn't something you saw every day. Many of the city's residents cautiously came out of their houses to see what was going on, only to see Ace casually jumping off the beast's back and onto the castle's walls.
The guards all saw Ace's descent, but after seeing him hop off the back of such a terrifying beast, many of them were hesitant about how to proceed.
"It's okay, men. You can stand down; they're not enemies." Announced a stocky middle-aged man whom Ace recognised as the city lord, Alan Shurgard.
Ace merely glanced at the man before dashing straight past him and into his mother's arms. "I've missed you."
Even though mentally he was in his late twenties, this was the first time in the last eight years that he'd gone over a day without seeing his mother.
"I've missed you too, son," Milianna replied lovingly as she caressed her son's dark hair.
It was only when he sensed Lauriella and Kannal approaching from behind that Ace broke away from his mother's embrace.
"Ooh, right, mom, everyone, this is Lauriella. She's Wukong's senior sister and also a member of staff at the Pavilion, and that's Kannal; he's also one of the new students of the pavilion." Ace quickly explained. "Lauriella, Kannal, this is my mother, Milianna and her… friend Lance."
As his voice waned, a blush could be seen on the faces of both Milianna and Lance. Though they'd become very close as of recently, they still hadn't put a label on it. Thankfully, Lauriella cut through the awkwardness as she shook their hands. "It's a pleasure to meet you both. Ace has told us a lot about you."
"I hope he hasn't been too much of a handful," Milianna replied.
"No, quite the opposite, actually. You've raised quite the incredible son." Lauriella said sincerely before looking towards the two children just behind them. "And you two must be Killian and Alissa."
Ace's body trembled as he fought to hold back his laugh. He knew Lauriella was beautiful, but he'd seen all kinds of beautiful women in his last life.
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Killian, on the other hand, was an eight-year-old boy who was raised in an orphanage in a small village. This was his first time seeing a woman as beautiful as Lauriella. He couldn't even find the words to introduce himself.
It was only when a cold snort came out of the young silver-haired girl to his left that he realised he'd been standing staring like an idiot. He was just lucky that his dark, ebony skin did such a good job of hiding the blood that was definitely rushing to his face.
"How was the training anyway? Did you manage to comprehend one with the glaive?" Lance asked, attempting to save Killian from further embarrassment.
"Huh? Oh, right. Yeah, I was lucky enough to make the breakthrough yesterday." Ace answered.
Alissa, who was the most well-informed member of their group, stared at Ace incredulously. She knew just how impressive such a feat would be for a teenage genius, let alone a child as young as them.
"Freak!" Was all she could say in the end.
"Thanks…
I think." Ace shrugged.
"Where's Mr Wukong anyway?" Milianna asked, not understanding the importance of such an achievement.
"He had to return to the pavilion to see our master, so I agreed to pick you guys up in his place," Lauriella answered, calmly omitting the truth, having already been told by Ace that no one knew where they were going or what they were planning to do. "It should take us a little over two weeks to arrive at the pavilion; by that time, little Kong should be there waiting for you. So, unless you have anything left to do here, we can get going."
"No, we're all ready to go," Lance replied before Lauriella led them back to Elise.
"Erm, excuse me," Alan, who had been completely quiet, despite being completely ignored in his own city, called out. "Aren't you forgetting your carriage and your cloud wolves?"
"It's fine. You can keep it as a thank you for taking care of our friends." Lauriella replied without a second thought as she signalled for Elise to set off.
Despite Elise flying slower than ever, Lance still had to wrap his arms around Milianna to keep her steady, but other than that, given that the others were all warriors of at least the second rank, no one struggled with the turbulence.
Their journey from that point on was pretty uneventful. Whenever they came to a stop, the four children would all complete their warrior training as a group, each of whom looked to Ace as their target.
Ace would then go hunting for magical beasts of the fourth rank to further hone his glaivesmanship, something that he enjoyed more and more with each battle.
When back in the air, whilst the others focused on their mage training, instead of practicing his [observation] like usual, Ace continued practicing with the glaive.
Ace had always loved a good battle in his previous life, but he had never put that much effort into actually training, but he had to admit he had been missing out. The feeling of becoming stronger was genuinely addictive.
When he first began to train on Elise's back, the others had been worried he'd fall off, but after observing, they noticed the ease with which he retained his balance, and then they noticed the elegance of his techniques.
Even the likes of Milianna and Killian, who didn't really understand the meaning of becoming one with a weapon, noticed the visible improvement in Ace's technique from before he went on his training trip with Wukong.
Whilst Milianna was happy for her little genius, Ace's breakthrough lit a fire in Kil. It wasn't that he wanted to compete with Ace, but he was scared that if Ace became too much stronger than him, then he would leave him behind.
Killian's desire to train and grow stronger was no weaker than Ace's. Every day he would take his body way past its limits.
It wasn't just him. Both Alissa and Kannal felt similar. They were supposed to be about the same age, and yet the difference between them was so striking. That was especially true for Alissa, who was trained as an assassin and hailed as a prodigy by everyone around her.
Even Lance began to train with renewed vigour, having been influenced by the kids. Despite knowing Milianna didn't need or want him to be the most powerful man in the world, he still wanted to be a man who was worthy of her love.
Lauriella watched all of this with a smile. She couldn't have asked for a better group for her husband's first batch of students. There was no doubt in her mind that each of them would go on to achieve great things in the future.
In spite of the fact that each of them made the most of their time travelling to train, all of them were looking forward to finally arriving at the pavilion so they could start the next chapter of their lives, and after almost two weeks, they had finally arrived.
In front of them was a giant mountain that reached all the way into the clouds.
"Welcome to the Yin-Yang Mountain," Lauriella announced before she commanded Elise to take them to the bottom. "This is the end of the lift for you kids; you are to make it to the top on your own from here."
"What about Aunt Milli?" Alissa asked whilst jumping off with Killian and the others, knowing that this wasn't a climb that an ordinairy mortal would be able to complete.
"This climb is only for you students to complete. Milianna and Lance will come up with me." Lauriella explained. "Don't worry, there are no magical beasts for you to worry about. All you have to do is climb to the top, where we'll be waiting for you."
"Is it possible for me to do the climb as well?" Lance asked, wanting to take advantage of every opportunity he could to progress as a warrior.
"If you want to," Lauriella shrugged before commanding Elise to take off, not waiting for Ace and the others to ask any further questions.