“You lot are always this lively, huh?” came Melissa’s amused voice as she watched the pool being repaired.
Nyla looked at the merchant’s daughter with a slight smile. Putting an arm around the girl’s slender shoulder, she said, “The boys in our group are just too immature. Come, why don’t you join me for a jump?”
“Will it be okay?”
Hearing the nervousness in the other girl’s voice, Nyla drew out an arrayment with unmatched speed. Upon activation, the other girl was momentarily surrounded by a golden light that subsided into nothingness after a few moments.
“There. Now you’ll be fine even if you land on the patio.”
Walnut eyes shining with admiration and awe, Melissa grabbed hold of Nyla’s arm and gave her an excited hug. “As I thought, you’re really the best arrayment practitioner of the group!”
“Hold on to my arm.”
Nyla carried the other girl skywards as she flew up in a leisurely manner, her sable hair flailing around and mixing with Melissa’s sandy strands as they prepared to jump down into the water from above.
After watching the two of them shrink in size with the distance, Esteban ran over to another table with excited steps and tried to convince Aine and Alicia to jump down with him.
Rolling his shoulder, Nolan went over to the table where some of his friends were playing their drinking games and casually took a seat.
May poured him a cup of amberwood ale from the barrel at the table’s centre and served it to him with two hands. The care in her movements and the affection in her cool hazel eyes gave her the image of a young wife tending to her husband in a subtle, feminine manner. Thanking her with a smile, he cast a discreet glance at her voluptuous bust that threatened to break free from the confines of her blue bathing suit.
“So? Do you still think it was a bad idea to kick back for a bit?”
May, along with a few others in the group, had protested his suggestion to make the most of one of their last days of peace before the eventual confrontation with the powers that be.
She let out a soft snicker and brushed a clump of waist-length auburn hair from her clear, enticing face. “I’ll admit that it’s nice. This tanning that you were talking about is quite relaxing, though it doesn’t seem to have much of an effect on me.”
May and the rest of the girls had followed his suggestion to lay atop the reclining pool chairs that he’d created along the side of the pool before he’d decided to modify it with Nyla’s help. The sight of the six of them lying poolside in the bathing suits that he’d made for them, alternating from their stomachs to their backs while enjoying chilled drinks and light snacks had momentarily brought him back to the summer vacations his family had taken to various beaches along Lake Huron’s 5,500-kilometre coastline before the Interspatial Migration had irreversibly changed his life. Those days, he could only sneak glances at the beautiful girls that filled those busy summer destinations, only dreaming about breaking away from watching over his siblings to attempt to flirt with those beauties that seemed forever out of his reach.
Things worked themselves out in the end, he thought as he ran a gentle hand along May’s thigh beneath the table’s surface. If only we had some tunes, this would be perfect.
May smiled but said nothing more.
Hearing that Sean had just called out to him, he turned to his older friend and said, “Hmm?”
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“He picked you to drink,” said Lyra. “Stop messing around with May and get in the game.”
After emptying his cup in one gulp, he asked, “What are we playing?” Sensing a familiar aura approaching the villa from several hundred metres away, he said, “Ah, hold that thought. Seems like we’ve got a visitor.”
“Is she a child?” snickered Lyra, giving her golden eyes a roll. “Why do you need to go and greet her?”
“This is Nolan we’re talking about,” said Ian with a sigh. “This ravenous beast already found another prey that he wants to sink his fangs into.”
“Jesus, what kind of opinion do you guys have of me?”
May pinched his thigh beneath the table, her calm smile masking her subtle movement.
“It’s just business,” he assured them as he stood up from the table and conjured the white-handled flying sword that he’d taken from Delia on the day that he’d enslaved her. “Just shut up and play your game and let the big boss take care of things like always.”
Sean spat out some ale with a laugh.
“Shameless,” came Lyra’s voice, but Nolan was already flying away from the villa toward the southern entrance.
A short while later and he arrived at the gates, at which point he stowed the sword away in the spatial bag within his bathing suit pocket and landed on the smooth cobblestones with a light sound.
“Katerina,” he said with a smile. “What brings you to my humble abode?”
The young merchant looked at him with disbelief, the sense of urgency in her expression giving way to an odd look of wonder. It was worthy of noting that she had been sprinting up until this point.
Straightening up and adjusting her thin, decorated robes—the electric-blue colour that all CMA members wore—she cut straight to the point.
“I just met with Welson. It seems that they’ll be here by tomorrow evening.”
Nolan stretched in a leisurely manner and then turned around, motioning for her to follow him.
She hurried after him, falling into step beside him as she cast a sweeping glance at his exposed torso through the smart strands of her dark bob-cut hair. “You were swimming?”
He nodded, conjuring a cup of ale from his spatial bag and taking a satisfying sip as he strode along the long, immaculate pathway with the great multi-leveled mansion painting an imposing picture up ahead. It was important to note that all of the servants that had been working there had fled following the brief but frightening battle between his group and the forces of the now-deceased chamberlains, two men that had been amongst the top sixty most influential people within the CMA.
“So, they’re about a day out, huh? Any surprises?”
“Welson had a spy mixed in with Merchant Lord Kalvin’s people. He sent a sound transference talisman describing the situation.” With her wrists, ankles and neckline decorated with all sorts of jewelry made from star gold, the astute woman seemed to glitter like a living treasure. “They’ve mustered a far stronger force than we initially suspected.”
“How many people are we talking about here?”
Her face was a bit pale. “Kalvin’s brought with him an army of about six thousand cultivators, all at the Integration stage. As for the Falling Rain Sect, they’ve sent about five hundred people, mostly elders of high station within their organization.”
“Phht, just that many? I was facing armies that big when I was just a little wimp at the Profound Entry stage.”
“Truly?”
He shrugged. “I didn’t tell the Bloodhand Sect to invade Hauss. What am I supposed to do when they keep trying to kill me?”
Her expression sharpened. “You’ve also made enemies of that sect? Who haven’t you offended?” Shaking her head, she added, “Not that they’ll be much a threat for much longer.”
“What do you mean?”
“Last I’ve heard, the Easterly Kingdoms are about to launch a massive counteroffensive. More than ten million soldiers have been mustered across all fronts.”
Nolan stopped in place, a frown on his flushed face. From what he knew of the Bloodhand Sect, what didn’t kill them only served to make them stronger. This counteroffensive had the potential to create a lot more problems for him by the time he returned to the Three-River Valley where he intended to base the Earth Sect once they successfully helped Nyla obtain the first part of her ancestor’s inheritance. From what he knew, the Red Mountain King was secretly a member of said sect, for Delia had revealed that she’d heard rumours of some of those in his service relying on the Blood Burning Heart Technique in their conquests of the surrounding settlements and states. Since the man in question had tricked Nyla and Lyra into eating a menacing medicinal pellet that had effectually enslaved them, the last thing he wanted was for this man to grow even stronger than he currently was in light of the fact that Nolan was destined to cross swords with him.
“Nolan?”
He shook his head and voiced his concerns.
After hearing his take on things, Katerina mirrored his frown. “You’re saying that the sect might grow stronger because of it? You should know that over five million of their disciples have died since the war started.”