Finally, it was his turn. He entered the formation, the first from the right which meant he would be the last to be tested. Which as fine by him since this would be his last chance to observe the formations at work. In his batch, there was a delicate girl that looked younger than she was, like a porcelain doll. She looked shy at being stared at by so many people. She was the first to be tested so quite a bit of attention of focused on her, after all as the last group, people were waiting to see if someone else would show talent. Someone other than the clan head's grandson of course. The branch of the clan head has always produced talented heirs, with no exceptions so it was basically a given that he would possess an affinity, the only question was which one.
This young girl was called Ellirya. She was the daughter of Ezra's best friend, and her parents had died when she was just two years old. Ezra took it upon himself to raise the girl, and Karina was more than happy to oblige. Ellirya and Kieran were thus raised as siblings, and she was always following him around, the epitome of a loving little sister.
"Don't worry Elli, dad told me both your parents were quite talented. Both of them were of Moonfyre blood so I bet you'll have a fire affinity too!" Giving her a thumbs up and what he hoped was an encouraging smile, Kieran tried to calm her nerves.
On the podium, both Ezra and Karina showed encouraging smiles, with Ezra even throwing a wink at her.
This girl was too pitiful, having lost her parents at such a tender age to the point where she barely remembers them. Sometimes he wondered if that wasn't actually a good thing, perhaps it makes it hurt less. He still remembered how proud his best friend was when she was born, saying he hoped his Kieran and her would treat each other as siblings just like they did to each other. Sigh, Oh how right he was!
"Okay Brother!" Nodding cutely, the girl clenched her fists and finally took a step toward the runes. As she placed her hand over the rune of earth, several seconds passed with no change.
Not seeming concerned, her brother told her she would have a fire affinity after all and her brother is super smart and always right, she placed her hand on the fire rune. Seconds went by with no change and Ellirya's face paled.
Then, it seemed as if a force descended on the assembly hall, a buzzing filling the air and a stifling feeling spreading. Then it was as if the sun had appeared in the formation where Ellirya was. An extremely bright aura manifested around her, so bright it hurt to look at. However, instead of the red aura that normally manifested around those with a fire affinity, her aura shone white. Looking more closely, they discovered that the white was not her aura but a blazing inferno of white flames, pulsing and distorting the air around it.
Erick, Ezra, Karina and the Elders all stood up at the same time an incredulous look on their faces.
"Moon Flames! Those are Moon Flames!" One of the elders screamed, rubbing his eyes to ensure he wasn't seeing things.
"By the heavens, Moon Flames! It has been thousands of years since a member of the Moonfyre clan has manifested the power of Moon Flames! But this glow, this colour and the feeling it gives my blood are unmistakable! The heavens have eyes! It wants my Moonfyre clan to rise again!" Erick had a crazed look in his eyes as he shouted.
The Moonfyre clan was named such because of a special bloodline inheritance they possess. Thousands of years ago, before even the Scarlet Star Empire where they live, was founded, a Grandmaster Rank mutated magical beast ate a special spirit fruit it found by accident in the depths of the Starfall Mountain range. That fruit allowed it to take a humanoid form, a feat normally only possible for Saint-level magical beasts. He decided to roam the world until it finally fell in love with a human woman. The progeny they produced are the ancestors of the Moonfyre clan. This magical beast was a Lunar Hound, a magical beast generally born with a gift towards light magic and whose power increases under the light of the moon. He was mutated, however, since his father was a Blazing Wolf who has a powerful affinity toward fire. Thus he was born with a unique fire, a fire that burned with the colour of the moon and a serene and calm flame. But make no mistake, the power of those flames was fearsome. They emanated little heat but burned with vicious ferocity once it touched anything.
It is a form of natural compound magic, a mixture of light and fire elements and as such anyone who possesses the bloodline inheritance has no problem reaching and progressing through the Adept Rank, allowing them to breakthrough to Master Rank at an incredibly young age. In the history of the Moonfyre Clan, every single individual who manifested the bloodline was able to reach Grandmaster Rank at a minimum, with the exception of those who died an early death.
"Lockdown the Assembly Hall! No one is to leave before swearing Unbreakable Oaths to never share the information here with anyone before Ellirya reaches the Master-Rank! If the other clans in the city find out about this, they might attempt to assassinate her before she reaches maturity. They might even ally together to fight against us! Even though we are the strongest clan in Purple Grove, we can't win against all the other clans combined." With a thunderous roar, Erick released the full might of his aura, pressing it on everyone present so that everyone below the Master-Rank couldn't move.
Suddenly, however, an even stronger aura descended on the place. An aura with the feeling of shadows, that brought to mind long lost memories that seemed embedded in the very blood of everyone present, memories of darkness and fear, of things that lurk in the shadows and from when humans were nothing more than prey.
"Tsk, tsk tsk. It seems I picked the right day to make a visit, no?" A man who had similar age as the Family Head walked in from the shadows, seeming to just appear out of nowhere. This man had hair as black as tar and a pale face of someone not used to the sun.
"Imagine my surprise when I found out today would be the day when your only grandson was going to have his affinity tested, and yet I didn't receive an invitation for such momentous occasion? Erick, old friend, you wound me!" With a mock hurt look on his face, the man continued walking toward the podium and as such also toward the children in the formations.
The Elder manning the formations stepped forward to block his path.
"Who are you? How dare you trespass during such an important event?!" As the Elder exclaimed, he started circulating his magical energy, preparing to attack.
"Tsk, ant!" The man in black looked at that elder, and with that single look if felt as if a mountain had fallen on top of that elder. He immediately went red in the face, kneeling on the ground with a grunt.
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"Blackthorne!" Erick finally spoke, with gritted teeth and a look of absolute hatred in his face. With a roar, his body immediately blazed with fire, making him look like a fire deity. With a single step, he moved at blistering speeds, appearing in front of the kneeling elder and blocking the effect of the opponent's aura.
"I see you still haven't lost your bad habit of bullying those weaker than you!" Erick spoke furiously.
What the man in black had done was the same as Erick did when he ordered the lockdown of the Assembly Hall, Aura Suppression. When facing those weaker than you, practitioners can use the weight of their superior magic pools to apply a form of spiritual suppression. The "weight" the target feels is not actually real, but something that affects their souls only. The weight is a psychic echo that manifests on their bodies. The thing being suppressed and pressed down is their souls. Of course, they can manifest their aura enough to truly affect the physical realm, but it takes a lot more power and it's seen as a waste.
"Sigh... and I see you're still as sanctimonious as ever. No wonder our friendship couldn't last. Even though we had such good rapport back in those old days... You, me and Elsbeth." Seemingly with a wistful look on his face, Blackthorne still had a sneer on his lips.
"Don't you DARE speak her name! You are unworthy! She treated you like a brother and yet you betrayed us all! You knew that giving birth to Ezra had shortened her already short lifespan by decades, you knew that no normal means of recovering her life force would work and yet you still stole the fruit of life I risked my LIFE to acquire" Wrath distorted the features of Erick's face and fire blazed into an inferno around him.
Fruits of life were precious magical wares because they could increase one's lifespan by a fixed amount, regardless of how old or how injured, eating a fruit of life will increase your life span by at least 100 years and restore your body to its peak condition. Even amongst practitioners not experiencing lifespan problems, the ability of the fruit of life to heal almost any physical injury and bring someone back from the brink of death to good health, it's still beyond precious.
"Sigh... She was a mortal, Erick. Mortals die. It would've been an utter waste to give it to her. I tried to convince you to give it to someone in power in the capital, or to someone important in one of the magical Orders but you refused. The favours those people would owe use could've set us up for life. We could've joined a powerful organization, having endless resources pouring in and your family could've finally produced it's first Grandmaster-rank practitioner in millennia. You let love blind you old friend." With a cold face, Blackthorn spoke in an apathetic tone.
"Shut the fuck up! I'm not you, someone who can disregard personal relationships for the sake of profit! What, did you expect me to make my son motherless because of ambition? Even if I had managed to bring the clan to greater heights, how could I possibly look my ancestors in the eyes in the Netherworld after I passed? The Moonfyre Clan doesn't have ungrateful wretches!" The around Erick was now buzzing and screeching like the wail of ghosts, the fire burning with an intensity that made everyone's hair stand on end.
"Tsk, I'm not here to debate with you. I'm here to pay you back for the attack that day. You truly almost killed me, never had I expected that in your moment of fury you would burn your bloodline in order to invoke sacrificial magic and temporarily wield Moon Flames. You had the potential to reach the Grandmaster-rank, and you threw it away. I used to think that the stories about the terror of the Moonfyre Clan's Moon Flames had been exaggerated to increase your clan's fame, little did I know that those rumours still didn't make those flames justice." With a wave of his hand, the robe he was using faded into shadows and his upper body was revealed, leaving him only wearing trousers.
His body was covered in hideous scars, in some places, it was clear that the fire had reached the bone. The skin around the wound was still pitch black as if the burns were fresh. The skin stretched tautly looked like burnt, warped leather.
"It took me years to heal, old friend, years of misery and pain! Feeling as if I was being burnt alive. The only thing that ensured I didn't go insane, was my desire for revenge. The knowledge that one day I would come and rip your entire world apart! I would take from you what you love most, I would bury the Moonfyre clan in the abyss of darkness!" With madness in his eyes, Blackthorne screamed.
"The hell you will!" Like a human bonfire, Erick rushed in Blackthorne's direction but before he could take even 3 steps, a fearsome aura was released by Blackthorne and blasted him away like a cannonball.
After spitting a mouthful of blood and struggling to stand up, Erick showed a horrified look.
"Grandmaster! How is that possible!?" Ghastly pale, Erick spat out another mouthful of blood.
"Suprised? I did what you should've done in the first place! I traded the Fruit of Life for a place amongst the rank of a powerful Magical Order. With their resources, not only was I able to survive your attack but after I healed i made great progress in my comprehension of the Darkness elemental aspects. One year ago, I finally reached the Grandmaster-Rank! While I had to use a sacrificial ritual that meant I would only gain one-third of the lifespan granted by the breakthrough, it's still enough! I managed to achieve that which you never did!" Cackling madly, Blackthorne attacked.
A massive aura burst out of his body, destroying the entire hall and sending the people inside it screaming and tumbling through the air. The day seemed to become night as darkness elemental energy started to gather from all direction and combine with the energy coming out of his body. Turning in the shape of spears, they launched at ridiculous speeds towards all the elders at Master-rank present. This was a full-powered attack from a Grandmaster-Rank opponent, the defence magics deployed by the elders only lasted a second before crumbling. As the spears pierced into their bodies, the area around the wound started blackening and then just crumbling and disappearing. Before the spears vanished, massive holes could be seen on the bodies of all those hit.
"The devouring aspect!" Erick, who was rushing in Blackthorne's direction screamed before fury warped his features.
Of the people targeted, the only survivors were Karina and Ezra, around whom a formation manifested that protected them against the attack. All the other Master-rank practitioners of the family had perished.
"Indeed! It's the Grandmaster-rank aspect I've chosen to comprehend. At Master-Rank I chose the aspect of obscurity because it made me a great scout, something that many adventuring parties prize. The ability to not only hide in the shadows but to also hide others was quite useful but lacked a certain might. Speaking of which...Come out!" Waving his hand at a certain place near the now destroyed Assembly Hall, a group of 7 individuals appeared. The moment they were uncloaked, they released Master-Rank auras.
"Kill everyone, leave none alive! Especially not the girl with the Moon Flames, she must not be allowed to live!" With his order, the group silently obeyed. A massacre had begun.
"Ezra, take Kiera and Ellirya and leave. I'll deploy battle formations to hold them back long enough." In the chaos, Karina seemed oddly calm. A cold as ice look in her eyes as she saw the group killing the people of the Moonfyre Clan.
"I will not leave you!" With pain in his eyes, Ezra constantly shook his head.
"Leave! This will not be a debate! I won't allow my son to die!" With a furious roar, the sound of thunder started echoing around her. The Storm Caller was here.
"Fine, but I will return!" With a final look at his wife and father, who was once more burning with white flames and fighting against Blackthorne, Ezra grabbed the unconscious Kieran and Ellirya and started running.
Burning in White Flames, Erick looked emaciated even as a power beyond words emanated from him.
"Humph! Do you think you can play the same trick twice? The first time you burnt your bloodline, it cost you the chance of entering the Grandmaster-Rank. Now it will cost you your life! Your White Flames might be powerful, but they are not enough to bridge the gap between ranks!" With a wild laugh, the black darkness around Blackthorne transformed into hundreds of weapons, all flying in Erick's direction. His white flame was able to ward off some of them, but he had to dodge several others. Cuts started appearing on his body, a devouring force making them larger.
Karina deployed battle formation after battle formation, formation anchors manifesting out of thin air around here as a storm brewed in the sky above the Moonfyre Clan. Gales of wind strong enough to rip trees from the ground started blowing around her, as the air became ionized with lightning. The group of attackers had long since noticed her presence and were attacking her furiously, but her formations warded off most of the attacks so she could keep them busy for now.
Suddenly, one of the individuals manifested an aura of fierce light around himself, then he sped away in the direction Ezra had taken Kieran and Ellirya. He was too fast, light element practitioners being the fastest of all, and Karina could not stop him.
Noticing his actions, Karina blanched and got distracted. She lost control of the formation she was deploying and suffered a backlash. That was all the opening the enemies needed. As one they started to bombard her with elemental attacks, until finally, an Earthen Spear pierced her through the heart. Her last thought was that she hoped Ezra could escape, and her last action was to detonate all the formations she had set up, hoping to bring at least of the enemies with her.
One of the attackers, the same one that conjured the Earthen Spear, couldn't escape fast enough and got swallowed by the explosion.
A vicious grin was the last expression on Karina The Storm Caller's face, as all the lightning that had been building up in the air suddenly was released, and another enemy ended up fried.