Gust tried to remain calm as he stood in a dim forest with a pair of Masters looking for answers.

Several mana senses laid over his soul and the increasing pressure pressed the Demon down to his knees. His arms trembled as he held himself up, teeth clenched. He hadn’t seen any other Masters in the woods as they flew by, but evidently, they were there. Perhaps even the Matriarch.

Master Ephraim leaned against a tree with his arms crossed and an unreadable expression while Master Christos took the lead. “We’ve already heard the story you relayed upon returning, but we wanted to give you the opportunity to fill us in on anything you wouldn’t tell your fellow students,” he said, arching an eyebrow. The various mana senses softened their touch to let Gust reply, but they did not disappear. The Demon remained kneeling, despite bristling with anger for having to do so.

Gust’s heart raced. He didn’t answer immediately. It was clear Christos knew Gust hadn’t told the whole truth, but the young man didn’t know what tipped him off. He fell back upon an old lie. “The Swordsman helped me, but he doesn’t want me to say more.”

Christos gritted his teeth and his eyes grew colder. “He helped you do what? Kill the beast, or advance?”

“Both,” Gust replied quickly. “He saw I was in danger and provided sword mana when I ran out. Then he taught me a better way of consuming the beast’s core, which let me advance early.”

“That is not necessarily a good thing, Augustus,” Ephraim commented. “Your fellow students at the first level are taking the time to master their current skills before opening another meridian. A student like Keziah would certainly still defeat you, despite being a level lower.”

Gust bowed his head to the Master. “That may be true, but if she were given the opportunity to advance at a moment’s notice, do you think she would have declined?”

The Master shook his head reluctantly. “No, but that doesn’t mean she would be making the right decision. Careful, optimal advancements help us reach greater heights. You couldn’t even beat Jonas in your last sparring session, and now you hope to fight students a level higher, most of which could kill him without breaking a sweat? How do you expect to place in the upcoming school tournament like this?”

Gust opened his black eye and hoped that it would give his answer more weight. “I’m sorry, Masters, but I’ve seen your students at the second level, and they have barely any aspected mana. With a source like the Subtle Blade, and its owner as a teacher, it shouldn’t be long before I catch up.”

Not one, but two offensive spells were on his mind. The first was the obvious Mana Sword, but second was the strange maroon flame which he forced out of his core. He didn’t have name for that yet, nor an understanding, but some of Philo’s words sprung to mind. She didn’t see a maroon flame lighting the forest, but instead it was a growing darkness. This made some sense to Gust. If people couldn’t see his maroon core, why should they be able to see the flame it produced? But it did little to explain why no one could see it.

Master Christos let out a laugh and straightened his back. “Oh, you think so? Very well. Why don’t you show us an example of such advantages?” A blue barrier appeared before him. “Strike me,” he said with a slightly mocking smile. “Show me what fearsome weapon the Swordsman has provided you.”

Gust sighed. “I used all my sword mana in the fight. If you would wait a day or two, I could-“

“Ha! You will find excuses to be a particularly inefficient defense next month. You said he helped you before, ask him for help now,” the man asked simply.

Gust tried to keep his voice calm. “He doesn’t help me when I want it, only when I need it. Please, without the right mana my spell just isn’t as powerful.”

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A small part of him wanted to summon the maroon fire within his soul, just to see the Master’s shocked expression. Would he be able to put it out, or would the flames be as invisible to him as they were to Philo? Whatever the case, Gust wanted to speak with Saith about it as soon as possible.

“Does the Swordsman teach you to rely on your resources? Or yourself?” Christos asked.

Gust gave in and spread out his mana sense. He quickly conjured a large blue Mana Sword and brought it down upon Christos’s shield with all his strength. While he’d hoped it would shock the Master and send him stumbling backward, Christos only snorted as his shield released a burst of blue light and the sword dissipated.

“Is that all? My own disciples could do better. Perhaps I should be the new Swordsman,” he smirked. Then he abruptly gritted his teeth and turned his head upward as if a voice were speaking to him. Ephraim did the same, then he shot Christos a disapproving look. Christos cleared his throat. “But never mind all that. Where did you find this beast?”

Gust winced. “I’m, uh, not very good with maps. I was searching for goldenseal a few miles southwest of town,” he lied. Myles and Philo’s encampment was east of the road. Gust wanted to be as honest as possible without leading the Masters to his new friends, even if friends was a strong word for their current relationship.

Christos listened for a moment. Gust didn’t hear anything and wondered how the Master communicated with the listeners. “And was this boy alone?’

“Yes,” Gust replied quickly.

A heavy mana sense suddenly landed upon him and Gust fell forward, catching himself with his hands and struggling to suck in strained breaths. “Yes!” he repeated, not knowing where the powerful mana sense was coming from. It made the rest feel as light as a blade of grass.

The weight lifted as Christos glanced upwards and nodded abruptly. Then he grinned. “The Grandmaster would like to thank you for saving that young man. If he can fight off a Pathway Establishment beast, even with help, he might make a worthwhile investment. When he is well, we will offer him a place here as an honorary student.”

“I’m sure he’ll appreciate that, Master.” But Gust knew the opposite was true. The term Grandmaster distracted him, however. Did this refer to the Matriarch, or was there another tier of mages that stood above even her?

“Yes,” Christos grinned. “Where did you say he was living, again? We will need to gather his belongings,” he explained.

Gust froze and realized it wasn’t Myles’s possessions Christos cared about. It was his sister. There was an easy way out of that question, though.

“I don’t know, Master. We merely met in the wild,” Gust answered.

“Ah, right. Of course. We will wait for the young man to heal, then. You hold a shocking amount of mana for someone who just advanced. One’s mana stores are usually used up in such a process. Leave us. Return home and solidify your new cultivation state.” he waved a hand, and a sword flew out. Gust blinked a few times as the weight upon his shoulders finally disappeared completely, then he clasped his hands and bowed his head, and stepped upon the flying sword.

When the Demon disappeared, Christos turned to face the dark forest. A half dozen other masters had gathered, but they stayed quiet now as their superiors spoke. Only a pair of Mana Star ancestors remained in the Fallen Leaf school. Their cultivation was too important to bother with small matters, and so they left the administration of their school to others.

The Matriarch, in turn, delegated such responsibility to a select few Masters. She was nearby, but even Alyre Roux held her tongue when a Mana Star spoke. Especially when it was her former teacher.

His voice resonated in the Masters’ minds. “Send someone to search the area the boy described and have him followed them they retrieve Myles’s belongings. Bring the girl to me. Alive. Use her brother, if necessary. My current subjects are failing without her example. Do not let her get away, for I am also in need of a cultivation furnace. Should you fail… one of your bodies will serve me well.”

Even Christos and Ephraim bowed before this voice. Ephraim replied out loud, as his mana sense couldn’t reach far enough to reply, “Yes, Grandmaster. What about the Demon?”

There was a moment of paused before the voice answered. “He is a strange one, indeed. I sense nothing from that eye, nor from the darkness within him, but a Starsoul would have that ability to veil his presence, even from myself. Until I find a way to seal the Swordsman’s power, you are to continue treating this Demon as any other student. Do not allow him to win a place in the upcoming tournament, however. Our resources should not be wasted on a boy who will not last the year…”

Master Christos smiled as he flew home. The other Masters might fear the Swordsman, even in death, but he was reassuring to hear the Grandmasters still held onto their ambitions.