Unlike when looking at the armless prisoner, there was no killing intent when Ragnor’s eyes silently fell on Ace. There was only curiosity.

He knew how hard his last strike was. Forget rank five’s like Ace, even warriors of the seventh rank would’ve died, and yet, not only had the teen survived, he was even able to move by himself.

He had seen the ‘blackened’ skin when his fist met the boy’s chest, and although he had never seen or heard of an ability like that before, he understood that it was an ability of some sort to strengthen the user’s body. Still, that was only one reason for his surprise.

It had to be remembered that the young man sprawled out unconscious on the ground behind him was his disciple. A disciple, he had spared no expense when it came to training.

He, better than anyone, understood how strong Silas was right now, which made it all the more confusing for him to have lost to a boy not even half his age.

Had his opponent been Olivier, Wukong, or even the princess from the Dark Alliance, he might’ve understood it, but aside from the three of them, there shouldn’t have been anyone else from the younger generation that could fight on par with his disciple, let alone defeat him.

Unfortunately, like his disciple and master, he, too, had spent the last few years in seclusion, attempting to make a breakthrough of his own. If it weren’t for one of his right hands coming to him with news of one of their younger members awakening their Tigerstriped warrior bloodline, he would still be in seclusion now.

As such, he hadn’t read the reports of Ace and Killian’s exploits these last few months.

“Who are you?” Ragnor asked curiously.

“They’re my fri…”

“My name’s Gol D. Ace,” Ace replied, cutting Alissa off mid-sentence. “And Alissa’s coming with us!”

“Gol D…?” Ragnor repeated to himself, trying to search through his memories to figure out if he had heard of such a ‘unique’ name in the past, but no matter how hard he tried, the name didn’t ring any bells.

Focusing back on Ace, he noticed the boy to his right tightening his grip on his axe and the lion on his left growling threateningly; it was clear that they had no intention of budging.

Speaking of the lion, as Ragnor’s darkened eyes fell on Leo, they couldn’t help but pause briefly. With the power of his soul and his wealth of knowledge and experience, he was able to sense the power it radiated.

‘Divine Beast?!’ As he came to that realisation, a flicker of greed flashed across his dark iris’.

He knew from the limited records of them that even the weakest of Divine Beasts were innately prideful and wouldn’t lower their heads to follow anyone unless they saw that individual as family, and as ace wasn’t a magical beast of any kind, let alone a lion, he also guessed that it had already formed a bond of equals with one of the two boys. Still, all wasn’t lost.

“How would you like to join ‘Saber’ as my own personal disciple,” Ragnor suddenly suggested, much to the shock of all those present. “In fact, for a talent of your level, my own master mi…”

“Not interested!” Ace stated directly, leaving no room for debate.

Number one, he already had a master, and he had no intention of taking another, but more importantly, with his senses, how could he have missed the greed flashing through the eyes of the peak saint in front of him?

He could tell he wasn’t lying about his master being interested in taking him as a disciple, but he was undoubtedly more interested in Leonel.

Other than those from the Pavilion who all had faith that they would one day reach the deity realm themselves with time, every other force on the continent would die to have a divine beast among their ranks, and Saber was no exception.

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“I see,” Ragnor sighed as his eyes went back and forth between Ace and Alissa as if he was hesitating.

Ace could sense the man’s hesitation; he could also feel the man’s growing killing intent and resolve, which was why when he heard Ragnor’s following words, he wasn’t surprised.

“I’m sorry,” Ragnor said with his eyes closed as a regretful sigh left his lips. “But I can’t allow a boy with such talent and a strong prejudice against my ‘Saber’ to live.”

Ace frowned when he heard Ragnor’s declaration, not because he didn’t expect his decision but because, to him, it almost sounded like the person he was apologising to wasn’t him, but Alissa.

Still, even though he knew he would stand no chance against an opponent like Ragnor, even if he weren’t injured, he wasn’t the least bit worried. In fact, a relieved smile appeared on his immature face as he looked into the distance. “It’s about time you showed up, old man,”

As he said that, the eyes of Alissa, Leo, Killian, and the armless man followed Ace’s line of sight, only to see a burly figure standing in the skies with a giant war cleaver resting on his shoulder, looking down at them calmly.

The only person not surprised by the man’s appearance was Ragnor, who appeared to have long since sensed him.

“Master!” Killian called out as his body relaxed from its previously tense state.

“Do you brats have to go around provoking all the major forces?” Mathias asked helplessly as he looked at Ace, who seemed to have the same knack for causing trouble as his junior brother – Wukong.

Even though he said that, he couldn’t help but sigh in relief that he made it in time. When he heard the reports of the demonic trio’s exploits over the last few years, he had been rushing around trying to find them, praying he could get to them before they provoked any of the old monsters hiding in Saber.

After doing a cursory scan of Ace and Killian to make sure neither of their injuries was fatal, his eyes moved back to Ragnor, whose eyes were still on the group of youngsters, or more specifically, Leonel.

“I would like to apologise on behalf of the children for all the damage they’ve done these last few months,” Mathias voiced calmly. “And as Alissa’s a disciple of the Pavilion, she too will need to come with us. As payment, we’d be willing to pay appropriate remuneration.”

“The pavilion?” Ragnor asked indifferently as his eyes left the lion for the first time since Mathias’ arrival to meet the gaze of the newcomer. “Never heard of it.”

“We’re still new, so all of our members are incredibly important to us,” Mathias replied calmly.

“I see. Well, you can take the dark-skinned boy and be on your way,” Ragnor stated dismissively, not putting a mere mid-staged saint in his sights. “The girl won’t be going anywhere, my master will want to see her personally, and as for that Ace boy, for trying to kill my disciple, he will need to pay with his life.”

“What kind of saint goes around killing other juniors for defeating their disciples?” Ace snorted disdainfully. “Pathetic!

I have respect for Silas, but it’s a miracle he reached his current level of strength with a master like you!”

Before, he only wished to kill Ace to free the Divine Beast of its bond of equals so that he could force it to submit to him instead, but now…

He had been a saint for over a millennium now, and as one of the few saints belonging to the most prolific assassination guild, second only to his master, it had been a long time since anyone dared to disrespect him to his face.

The killing intent radiating from Ragnor was so terrifying that it had Alissa, a highly trained assassin quivering in fear. Even Killian felt a cold sweat trickling down the back of his neck, but Ace remained unphased.

He had to admit, it was the most potent killing intent he’d ever felt, which was to be expected from such an old monster who specialised in killing, but, with willpower like his, he was able to shrug it off as though he couldn’t feel it at all.

“You can die,” Ragnor snorted upon realising his killing intent didn’t have the intended effect.

With a seemingly gentle wave of his palm, a giant crescent-shaped blade of wind tore through the air aiming to cleave him in two.

Ace was far too injured to dodge, and Killian and the others were too slow to even react, but still, Ace remained calm. A subtle smile appeared on his immature face as Mathias’ sturdy body appeared between them.

“You used my movement technique!” Ace smirked when upon noticing Mathias using [Soru], albeit at a much higher level than he could.

“You sold it to the pavilion,” Mathias reminded this carefree disciple of his. “It’s my movement technique now.”

Ace ignored Mathias’ retort as he sighed helplessly. As it stood right now, Ace could only perform 31 kicks when using [Soru], but with his [Observation], Ace watched Mathias perform over 300. The difference was more than ten times.

He knew that the difference wasn’t due to a lack of comprehension but because, as a saint, Mathias’ body was far stronger than Ace’s; as such, his body was capable of handling a lot more strain than Ace’s.

Mathias paid no more attention to the troublemaker. Focusing his attention solely on the man before him, a sigh escaped his full lips. “I guess we’ll have to do this the hard way.”