Juliet punched straight through a Plain Stalker and burned it on the spot. It was only at the Early Stage of the Hound Realm. She could have killed tens of these stupid fuckers just like that.

And that was exactly what she was doing. She had gone out hunting, alone.

She couldn’t take it anymore.

Helena was a patient person. Juliet was not.

She went through a nest of Plain Stalkers she had found with incredible viciousness. It calmed her, the violence. Being in her raging state was like being a creature with ice flowing freely in her veins. She was so clear-headed, but so angry.

It wasn’t undirected.

She knew which problems plagued their current operation. And she wanted to do something about it. The problem about anger was that she wasn’t able to wait.

Juliet had to act.

That was the drawback.

Helena, instead, was playing a longer game.

Juliet just wondered whether this longer game would have them all fail once some problems started corrupting the very cloth of their being enough.

“Fucking bitch,” Juliet screamed while using a Black Phoenix Nova right in the face of a Plain Stalker at the Intermediate Stage of the Hound Realm.

As soon as she was finished dousing everything in Black Flames, Juliet started running again toward the camp.

She had yet to master flying. She could summon wings, but she had no patience to perfect the fine control needed to maneuver them.

Jacob had offered to teach her a quick method to learn how to fly just before he went off.

Goddamn Jacob.

That little piece of filth.

…

Three Months Before

“Are you joking?” Juliet stared hard at the man in front of him.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

No, not the man.

The bastard.

“I am not. We are hampering with the progress of humanity. We will leave enough resources to let you thrive, but we need to step onto the bigger stage. Nerea will always be a step ahead of us, otherwise. And I have no idea where the other Tyrants currently stand. The Necromancer and the Black Tyrant could be both stronger than we are. They have no obligation to anyone outside themselves. And there are Tyrants that are even more scary than them. Now that Bob has signed the Soul Contract, we have an edge. But we are going to lose it very quick unless we go for something bigger than just…”

“Than just staying with us,” Juliet finished his words.

“Yes.”

There was no point in lying. Not when those two spoke together.

“I know you are hurt and that you can’t see why my actions are—”

“FUCK! JACOB, FUCK! That’s the point of the fucking Ancestral Bond. That’s exactly the point. I can see why. I just despise everything you are thinking. Everything you want to become to just fight harder. We could very well find a solution here. We could storm Ancestral Ruins, go fight goddamn Dragons if that helped. You want a challenge? There are challenges here!”

“I—Juliet. The challenges here are not what we need. There’s a place in South-America that will allow us to become stronger, or at least try. The Ancient Ruins in Italy that I know are not even close to that. And you will need those Ancient Ruins if they exist. But we need a bigger stage, we need bigger stakes. Otherwise, we will quickly stagnate here. Look at Hektor, he fought and fought and fought since he arrived. He’s still probably much weaker than Nerea.”

“Why can’t I come with you?” she asked, hurt.

“I need you here. You and Helena are—”

“I don’t give a rat’s ass about that bitch!” Juliet screamed. “I’m trying, Jacob! I’m trying to be stronger because of you, to be better! And why are you doing this to me?”

That was the real question for her.

Not why Jacob needed to do it for himself; that was clear enough.

Juliet needed to know why she wasn’t being considered at all in this decision.

“You are young, Juliet. I am not. If we want to save humanity, us older warriors need to take the same risks you people are. But we are too strong to do that,” Jacob scratched his ear. “I am not used to this. My body is a mystery to me. I don’t even know if I’ve been myself so far or a mindless drone trying to do ‘what’s right’.”

Jacob’s air quotes fell on a silent audience.

“You are a piece of shit.”

Juliet had tears in her eyes.

“I am. That’s why you need me gone to grow. Otherwise, you risk becoming a bad copy of myself. Not that the original is any good,” Jacob said with a rueful smile.

“I have tried really hard,” Juliet started sobbing.

“And you are following a path that it’s not yours as a result of that. You can’t decide who you are based on who I am.”

“You love fucking Helena, Jacob. Why do you love her so much?”

Jacob was taken back by the abrupt question. In this emotional state, it was hard to understand everything the Ancestral Bond was getting through. He could feel the whole range of emotions but making something out of each and every one of them was difficult. Probably for both.

“She is special. But even she’s just a kid. I can’t protect her forever. She would never grow by my side. And the same goes for you. I would never allow anything bad to happen to you if you were always with me. I’d rather die.”

Juliet began crying even harder after hearing those words and confirming that he was telling the truth.