If Rein thought it difficult to return to the central outpost controlled by the Hall of Heroes, he would be mistaken.
He soon discovered that Wilo’s ability was far more advanced than he imagined. He had previously observed the androgynous form of Wilo-- it was Wilo’s higher-pitched tranquil voice that led to Rein believing her to be a woman-- ‘communicating’ with the roots of a tree.
Wilo might not have displayed this ability openly prior to this day, but she no longer cared to obscure said ability under the current situation. She repeatedly placed her ears and her wooden mask against different vegetation-- bushes, grass, trunks, leaves and more.
Their path through this supposedly perilous western wilderness was bewilderingly smooth. It was certainly easier with many of the demons having been drawn into the supposed demon beast wave, but Wilo’s navigation played a role as well.
Rein began to wonder if somehow, Wilo had inherited some sort of ancient elven magic not belonging to the orthodox modern advancer system-- in tales passed down to modern humans, occasionally sung by bards, elves supposedly could speak to all sorts of vegetation. If the remnant elves had melded into the human population eventually, then it wouldn’t be at all surprising if some of their magic was passed down through a few human inheritance lines.
This, however, also placed a seed of fear and uncertainty in his heart. He had originally thought that with his origin ability that is teleportation, to be a surefire method of escape. Now, he understood that he would not be able to escape a pursuer capable of communicating with the essence of nature to track all existences under the heavens.
As the journey continued, Rein began to consider how exactly he would approach the issue of making use of his origin ability without drawing inquisitive eyes.
As that remnant will of Dragonknight Zelli had suggested, understanding his origin ability and imprinting a specific quality of said magic into a weapon or armor should be an effective first layer of obfuscation.
The predecessor of his origin ability, Dragonknight Zelli, existed in a time before the era of ‘Spear of Heaven’, before inscription-powered weapons had become the norm. This was why it should be unlikely for any to make a connection.
As for the appearance of said armaments-- Rein decided he would have to examine and imitate ancient relics. If he could craft said armaments to look like ancient relics-- he discovered that he could recognize runes due to Gent’s remnant will within his mind-- that would certainly cause observers to believe some ancient magic to be at work even if some suspicion was aroused. Ancient magics do not follow the rules of the now common orthodox advancer path.
However, that wouldn’t be enough. If a somewhat knowledgeable advancer forcibly examined such a weapon, they might soon discover clues.
As such, Rein thought of an additional method that he had already taken some interest in-- alchemy. Originally, Rein had wished to learn of poisons, a common tool of the devils that had captured his brother. And useful against the expansive and dominating Dingien Clan.
He had seen the Harvest Devil Ailehr consume pills to raise her strength beyond comprehension.
The way Rein saw it, if he could build a reputation of creating unique and powerful pills, it would add a second layer of obfuscation over said origin ability, even if he drew suspicions from overcoming ‘impossible’ odds.
And of course, his physical body from a dragon, combined with the flashy and potentially theatrical quality of lightning arts, would add a third layer of obfuscation.
Rein had the space and time to consider all these factors, due to his mindless following of Wilo’s form. Regardless, in just a single day, Rein discovered himself back in the central outpost, safe and sound, just as the sun began to set!
The two immediately received a piece of paper with an order from the silver-clad soldier guarding the gate.
The order was for all to return to the Halls, in preparation to defend against the incoming demon beast waves. Wilo was truly skilled-- Rein had noticed no signs of demon beasts during his return journey thanks to her expert navigation around their gathering spots.
However, Rein would not be able to follow this order, after the arrival of a certain someone-- Jory. This raven-haired twin sister of Suey had a rather… attention-drawing return to the central outpost.
She arrived on the back of a demon beast, its appearance best described as a cross between a tiger and a bear, its fur between orange and brown, accompanied with black stripes. As such, the demon beast was like an extra-wide tiger lumbering at a breakneck speed towards the central outpost.
A current commander within the outpost initially, vice-leader Kurhz shouted to ready the defenses, and the Halls’ silver-clad guards lined up in perfect formation, their aura combining into a heat capable of burning all within their sight.
Once closer, Kurhz recognized Jory as one of the new initiates that had passed through but a few days ago, and thus called for the guards to stand down while remaining vigilant for the possibility of this Jory being an imposter.
That was unnecessary. Jory leapt off the tiger-bear in front of the central outpost entrance, her crimson dress torn and exposing flesh in many inconvenient areas. However, the guards and other Halls’ members’ eyes were drawn by another spectacle.
The tiger-bear demon beast’s knotted phallus stood tall below its belly.
“Don’t tell me…” Kurhz, the white-robed tall and slender vice-leader of the central outpost muttered.
Jory understood that her appearance did not help her case. She could only explain her situation.
“Vice-leader Kurhz. I had no choice but to use all my wiles to escape the discovered ancient dwarven ruins. It was only with luck that I successfully ‘convinced’ a member of the Demon Taming Sect to lend me their tamed demon beast for my return journey. This demon beast was fed some pill by its master to ensure the timely execution of its orders. It will leave upon receiving some demon meat.”
“Convinced…” muttered Kurhz as his left eye twitched. “Demon Taming Sect…” A sect considered to be dodgy with relation to the orthodox advancer path.
Vice-leader Kurhz had, of course, received news of the ancient dwarven ruins. His higher-ups had not called for action though, so he had stayed put to guard the central outpost.
Rein motioned for Wilo to hand him a piece of the three-headed cobra’s meat. He had discarded the pieces stored within his own storage pouch, in order to collect dwarven blacksmith books.
Wilo ejected a piece of said cobra meat, and Rein, with his physical strength, hurled it over the ramparts towards the tiger-bear demon.
The ten-feet-tall tiger-bear demon’s eyes glowed cutely like a puppy being rewarded treats as it bowed its head. Its huge tongue gave Jory a suffocating lick, drenching the woman in beastly saliva, before picking up the piece of cobra meat in its jaws and dashing back towards the west.
The demon beast’s actions confirmed Jory’s words, and as such, she was allowed in. The silver-clad soldiers, though well-trained, could not help but wince at Jory, beastly saliva dripping off her soaked body. It certainly did not help that her torn crimson dress became semi-transparent.
Jory, blushing, hurried in and instantly rushed towards Rein, who upon his return, had already set up a tent in hopes of gathering the Iron Ant team together once again.
“I… I need it… It is your duty. I…” Jory became a bit of an incoherent mess, to Rein’s shock. A lewdness had entered her eyes. If not for the fact that this raven-haired twin lady did not have a scar on her cheek, Rein might have mistaken the woman for Suey-- The most obvious difference between the two ladies is their temperament. Jory always maintained a withdrawn and quiet demeanor. Until now.
Well. There are three other differences. Suey had long developed the habit of calling Rein, ‘My Celest.’ Also, based on Rein’s memory of their initial coupling, Jory had a slightly smaller chest, and was of a shorter height.
Anyhow, Jory’s change in temperament, combined with the smell of the beastly saliva, caused Rein to take a few steps back in apprehension.
“You…” Jory was suddenly filled with fury after seeing the man back away. “Did my sister not say she was fine with others? Now. Just satisfy me, you prick! Give it to me like how you railed my mmmph--”
Rein was flabbergasted at Jory’s current demeanor, his eyes wide in astonishment. He resisted his aversion to the demon beast’s saliva, and reached forth an arm to grip the out-of-control woman’s neck to stifle her ability to speak such egregious words.
The silver-clad Halls soldiers remained professional at their task, and revealed nothing. However, many onlookers, in their minds, began to wonder as to what sort of drama might be occurring.
There was no drama, of course. Something must have caused Jory to lose her senses.
Rein pulled the woman into his tent, suspecting that it might have something to do with the demon beast saliva.
“Stay,” he ordered, and went back out in search of a large tub of water, typically used in these outposts.
When he returned, he discovered that Jory had already stripped herself bare, and her skin was mostly covered in a layer of thin pink aurae cloud-- an aurae shell of seductive qualities. The woman had also rolled onto her side, posing in an incredibly provocative manner, chest arched, hand on hips, legs extended, disgustingly accentuated by a layer of persistent beastly saliva.
He maintained control of his mind and went out to retrieve a second large tub of water.
“Get in.” Rein said as he lowered the second large tub that he had carried over his head after his return.
“Mmmm~” Jory shook her head and rejected Rein’s request. Instead, she rolled across the ground a few times with her wrists squeezed between her thighs as she glanced coquettishly into Rein’s eyes.
Rein internally sighed. He wondered if Jory would feel overwhelming embarrassment once she regained her senses. He braced himself and picked up the wanton woman.
Upon contacting the pink aurae shell, he could feel an assault on his mind, a lifting of his sexual inhibitions.
His own manhood rose to a full mast, and he felt a desire to ravish, to ravage, and perhaps even, in a man’s mind, sexually ‘break’ the woman in his arms.
He barely retained his self-control, and exhaled as he lowered Jory into the large tub of water. He began cleaning the similarly lithe form of Jory with a wet cloth.
Jory oo-ed and ah-ed the whole way through, and Rein sighed internally with relief. With the demon beast’s saliva washed off, Jory should return to normal. He was wrong.
“So. Where’s Suey? What happened to your twin sister?” Rein asked, assuming his ‘ordeal’ to be over.
“I’ll tell you after… if you satisfy me with this… monster,” she whispered as she recoated her hands in a pink mist and reached under Rein’s robes. “I think I begin to understand why some women love advancers who temper their bodies~”
Rein temporarily lost control of himself at Jory’s actions and climbed into the large tube of water as well after quickly stripping himself of his robes.
His mind cleared enough for a short moment of clarity, allowing him to lean back on the opposite side of the large tub relative to Jory.
“I had to employ seductive arts to escape the ancient dwarven ruins,” Jory explained. “A typical downside of such magical arts is that, sooner or later, the user themselves need some sort of… release.”
She edged forwards to close the small gap, and partook in a sloppy tongue-lashing kiss with Rein.
“So,” she then whispered in Rein’s right ear. “You could think of me as just a bitch who has succumbed to her base desires.”
She then dove her head underneath the water surface, oralling pleasuring Rein’s rod as her tongue lashed about. She certainly was not mentally as experienced as Suey was, but her effort was no less.
Rein could not resist holding down her head and forcing himself down her throat. After twenty heartbeats, Jory was allowed to rise, the water rolling down her olive skin and raven hair creating an erotic sight. She coughed a few times, but she grinned happily and dove her head back underneath the surface.
Rein had originally thought Jory to be of a completely withdrawn nature. He discovered that to be false, at least, if Jory overused her seductive art-- an art supposedly inherent and came easily to the twin ladies.
“Where is Suey?” Rein asked once again as Jory rose back above the water, and positioned herself in preparation to impale her body upon Rein’s third leg.
“That dumb and careless bitch,” Jory bemoaned as she forcibly stretched her own honeypot to receive Rein’s spear. “She has forgotten the fates of our mothers, grandmothers, great… she has succumbed to the curse of the seer. Now, I am left alone to carry on our monumental task.”
Though Jory called her twin sister a bitch, Rein could tell that she was masking a deep sorrow, a sense of abandonment, and even anger.
“The curse of the seer?”
“Yes. Whe--heekh” Jory squealed as she successfully forced Rein into herself with her body weight.
A moment of silence filled the tent.
“If I didn't pick up that water-based body-tempering art…” The woman panted lewdly with a ragged breath. She probably wouldn’t be able to receive Rein’s abnormal rod.
“Where we come from… our home is constantly under siege.” She now stayed relatively still as she allowed herself to adjust to Rein’s manhood. “Me and my sister… we are the twin head priestesses of our temple of worship.”
“The elder twin would always be born with the ability to peer into the hazy future, and take up the main role of head priestess. The younger twin would assist the elder while being given the role of giving birth to the next generation of the twin priestesses. My body has long been engraved an art to guarantee the birth of twin priestesses.”
“The fate of all our previous head priestesses-- mothers and grandmothers and… well you might say it’s more accurate to refer to them as aunts, but we consider ourselves to have two mothers and one father-- is to see a false vision and succumb to said false vision.”
“Once such an event occurs, the head priestess always ends up walking to her torturous end. For example… well-- my sister has already mentioned her horrible visions of her future to you. I need not say more.”
“You mean to say…” Reini muttered. Though he felt somewhat downhearted, his lower half could not resist the pleasure of Jory’s inner folds, especially with Jory exuding a layer of pink mist.
“Yes. My sister’s end is… almost assured,” Jory muttered. “I must give birth to the next generation of priestesses. My mate must be the one picked by the primary head priestess. As it has always been in all previous generations.”
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“What?” Rein was baffled as Jory finally recovered somewhat and chose to fearlessly go all out. She lifted herself up with a moan before forcefully lowering herself down with a squeal. Not wishing to risk potential non-compliance from Rein, Jory poured more aurae to strengthen her pink misty aurae shell, bringing Rein to the brink of sanity.
Jory would proceed to describe Suey’s actions: Suey had traded her body to the Harvest Devil Ailehr, offering to allow Ailehr to freely possess her body, negotiating for Xeeseir’s freedom.
No wonder Jory considered Suey to be doomed. Ailehr, a quasi-telekinetic devil, has now imprisoned Suey’s body, and would soon take possession of said body. As for the captured Lyne? She would, no doubt, be offered to the Dingien Clan.
Rein could suspect this, because prior to entering Green Trout City, he had been informed by Master Yirn’s investigations that a royal in Dingien Clan was cooperating with the devils out west, in order to gather more power for the ongoing tug-of-war between the princes of Minhr Nation.
Jory’s seductive art caused Rein’s lower body to remain fully engaged in the current debauchery, while his head’s original downhearted understanding of Suey’s fate was gradually blanketed by a rising anger.
He was, of course, recalling Suey leaving herself safely in his grasp while using her seer art to see critical visions, prior to the battle between Ailehr and Uni Sect’s Bienze.
After said vision, Suey had in no way communicated to Rein what she had seen, or planned to do. At least, Rein suspected that it was due to said vision that Suey had chosen her eventual course of action.
This frustration wormed its way to Rein’s hips, and his hands gripped onto Jory’s hips as he lashed out with a twist of his lower half.
A wanton yelp sounded through the central outpost.
“By the fallen gods…” Kurhz muttered atop the ramparts. “That damn demon beast saliva must have some aphrodisiac in it. Perhaps part of the demon beast contract or something along those lines.” He flicked the sleeve of his left arm. “Take out the silencing rods!”
Little did he know it was something else entirely. Regardless, a marching row of silver-clad soldiers came forth and planted wooden stakes in a circle around Rein’s tent, The inscriptions upon each stake lit up and Jory’s squeals vanished from the ears of all others within the Halls’ central outpost.
Inside the tent, Jory was screaming her lungs out and her eyelids fluttered as she very nearly lost consciousness. Rein finally calmed enough to give the woman a rest.
“Xune’s spear…” Jory whispered bashfully. “No wonder my sister threw herself at you. Though my elder sister is all but lost, perhaps you were a successful vision of hers. As the remaining head priestess, I am of the opinion that you must follow me back to my home.”
Rein doubted this to be true. Suey had never mentioned their coupling in said future visions. The primary reason for her approach must be something else.
“I have unfinished business here,” Rein grunted, feeling a deep sense of… loss. He did not even understand why he now treasured Suey’s company that much. Perhaps his soul recognized value while his mind lagged behind.
Then… a thought occurred to Rein. A crazy and half-mad idea.
Is it possible that Suey… intended to draw Rein to the Harvest Devil Ailehr’s lair? The Harvest Devil Sect?!
He suddenly recalled the words of Dujahrn, another member of the Harvest Devil Sect. That man, before his careless death from Xeeseir’s origin ability, had mocked Rein for his attempt to rescue his brother.
Supposedly, Saenise, that bewitching devil who had captured Jein in the now destroyed Golden Desert Town, had been sent to the devil realm. A realm belonging to some powerful ruling devil named Devil God Hehrn.
A connection may exist in Harvest Devil Sect!
This insane thought, though possible, only led to more baffling questions. Suey could have informed him of this possibility if she had seen such a possibility in her vision. There is no need to… unless Xeeseir might have an important role in a future event?
By now, Rein had begun to use Suey’s actions to predict possible futures.
Yet the more he thought, the more infuriated he became. Once again, he felt himself dancing like a puppet on strings to mistress fate.
He hated it. The fact that Gent was somehow… imposing certain wishes onto himself through the draconic metamorphose bead that had transformed Rein. Dragonknight Zelli, though less direct, too, must have laid some sort of hidden groundwork that led to the current world.
The events of the Golden Desert Town, to Rein’s understanding, was an inevitable result due to Dingien Clan’s internal conflict, and possibly, the inaction of other powers that be.
Then there was Suey… now also partaking in this unhinged sort of string-pulling game of fate.
He absolutely detested the whole game. As he saw it, he only entered the advancer world to see out at least a hair of justice for his family, and primarily, to rescue his younger brother.
All these brewing frustrations came to a head at this very moment, and the unfortunate-- or perhaps a rare few might consider this fortunate-- receiver of Rein’s internal storm was the flesh of Jory in his arms.
He stood up and lifted Jory into the air. He then promptly unleashed his deep frustrations into Jory’s folds.
A rather harrowing ordeal for the mostly inexperienced woman.
Luckily, she shared certain similar traits as her twin sister, which eventually revealed itself as her lust-befuddled mind led her to scream for Rein to seed her such that she could give birth to the next generation of twin priestesses.
“Seed me! I, as a head priestess, demand that you obey and seed me!” Well. It would seem unlike Suey, Jory actually hid a level of pretentiousness behind her normally withdrawn demeanor.
Without Kurhz’s call for the silencing formation, Jory’s scream of final pleasure would have caused the loins of all those within the central outpost to rise to a heated peak.
Rein stepped out of the large tub of dirtied water with himself still buried within Jory, before lifting the woman and throwing her limp form onto the soft earth.
He wondered if Jory was only normally withdrawn because of Suey’s presence as the supposed main head priestess.
Jory gazed up at Rein’s hulking form, a hint of fear in her eyes. Her body felt absolutely ravaged. She had initially felt close to heaven at the peak, but now, her body ached like never before.
If Rein had left her as such, perhaps this fear might have festered and been given a new harmful form.
However, Rein’s mind had somewhat calmed, and he admittedly felt guilty at having lost control. Thus, he bent down to gently pick up Jory with the aim of lowering her into the second tub of water, now somewhat cool, but usable for another round of cleanup.
“No,” Jory first muttered before uttering in a demanding tone. “No! I must guarantee the next generation of twin priestesses. And unlike my idiotic elder sister, I understand what is necessary. You must… ensure your seed stays within me.” She reached into her spatial pouch and withdrew a short rod-like object.
“You should serve me now,” She stated with a glimmer in her eye.
Rein rolled his eyes. He had never expected Jory to have such a nature hidden behind her quiet facade.
He cared not for its implications, grasped the rod, and inserted it into Jory’s gaping opening to as she said, ‘ensure’ what she desired.
“Blanket!” Jory further demanded, and Rein, from his storage pouch, withdrew a warm fur to cover the ravished simultaneously absolutely filthy but lovely body of Jory.
Rein opted to clean himself within that other large tub of water as Jory drifted off to sleep with her half-closed eyelids turned to observe Rein.
“Rein, my dear brother!” Xeeseir’s voice soon sounded, and Rein exitted his tent. Once he did so, a number of silver-laden soldiers removed the stakes creating the sound barrier.
“You survived,” Rein simply replied.
“Suey sacrificed herself,” Xeeseir shook his head with a sigh.
“Mmmm.” Rein explained that Jory had already informed him of Suey’s actions.
Xeeseir sighed and he shook his head a number of times.
“Many have sacrificed themselves to give me a chance. This time included,” he said. “In some ways, I think they all paved the way. For me to accomplish something bigger than myself.”
“Bigger than yourself?” Rein himself was certainly feeling perturbed by his ties to the ancient past.
“Indeed,” Xeeseir continued. “When I was young, my older sister sacrificed herself to some noble, after I rushed into a conflict headstrong and caused unnecessary… complications. Her actions guaranteed that I would have another chance.”
“I had friends who did the same for me, when we ventured carelessly into the western wilderness for a bit of glory.”
“I believe those before pave the possibility for something greater in the future. So it goes. Even if it may not be obvious.” Xeeseir patted Rein’s shoulder, and sensing Rein’s internal struggle, left the impressionable youngster with these words.
Xeeseir sighed again and began setting up his own tent. The man must have experienced many difficult situations in the past, and well… simply kept marching forward despite his unsettled heart.
When Rein returned to his tent, Jory was deep asleep.
Rein sat himself down on one side, and his mind returned to his connection to Gent, his connection to Dragonknight Zelli. The destruction of the Golden Desert Town.
What is fate, really?
Rein once interpreted it as some sort of omniscient being controlling his future. As such, he detested fate. For that would mean the fall of the Golden Desert Town was meant to be.
Now, however, Xeeseir’s words led his mind towards another interpretation.
Rein’s mind escaped into the very sky, gazing down at the world from a far-flung perspective.
Everyone is born from their mothers’ wombs, with the world in a state built and paved by those before. No matter who, they will have to live in such a world, and interact with and perhaps even be controlled by the dangling elements that are strings of ‘fate’, created by those of the past, no matter how limiting some of them may be.
Rein’s thoughts now turned to the zone between the Minhr Nation and the Zoh Empire to the East.
Indeed, he had heard of the families and children inhabiting that region, often born not even knowing if they were of the Minhr or of the Zoh. Many of these children grow up rejected by those of both nations. This was common knowledge, with the Minhr Nation and the Zoh Empire having traded lands repeatedly over many centuries of conflict.
This was the fate of those mixed children. To contend against such unfortunate circumstances. They can only make the best of their lives, with every chosen action.
His mind began to expand. He realized that there was no need for him to rile himself up against supposed fate. He only needed to do what needed to be done. What he believed to be the right course of action.
It mattered not what Gent or Dragonknight Zelli wished for. If he was pulled by a string to take certain action, it was fine as long as he himself believed such action to be just. If he was yanked by a string to take questionable action, it was fine to reject such an act as long as he bore the consequences with his back straight and true, even if said consequences were unjust.
His path forward mattered the most. The will within his beating heart. To live and act with no regrets. One matter at a time.
As Rein’s will coalesced, he began to feel the aurae within him rising. And when he opened his eyes, his body was cloaked in a nearly-complete aurae shell of blackish-purple aurae, with sparks of orange lightning dancing across the blackish aurae cloud surrounding much of his form.
An instinct entered his mind, and he hardened the blackish aurae cloud into a gleaming thick concentrated layer around his skin. The only exposed circular area that he could not wrap in this shell aurae was the top of his head, around a few fingers width in diameter.
That meant he wasn’t in the shell realm yet, but his mental elevation has gotten him much closer.
He activated an instinctual art within the echo of the fallen god of his origin ability, and the blackish-purple shell roiled, before forming a gleaming dark mirror surrounding most of his body.
Rein discovered that he could no longer see, and had to quickly remove the aurae layer from his eyes. Then, he suddenly began falling into the very ground!
He panicked and attempted to disable the art, only to discover that he could not as he continued to fall into the earth.
He gazed upwards, and activated his origin ability with his hands forming a circular dark sphere.
He popped into the air, and he discovered that he now could disable the aurae shell. He landed back on the ground, slightly disoriented as he bent his knees to find his balance.
The spring lady’s words echoed in his mind-- spatial arts are supportive in nature, and space is something that objects exist in. Indeed, Rien understood that portals cannot close as long as a solid object occupied said space through said portal.
Rein now recreated that gleaming dark mirror around one hand.
He pushed this hand against the walls of his tent.
Amazingly, his hand passed through the fabric. The piece of tent his hand passed through seemed to be all warped within the dark mirror layer coating his hand. Alarmingly, he could not disable the magical art.
When he pulled back his hand, no damage was done to his hand or the tent. Without the presence of an object passing through the dark mirror layer, he could now cancel said art.
He began testing this shell advancer art in various ways, and discovered that the dark mirror layer was like a portal. He could create these gleaming mirrors across various parts of his body with a connection, and objects that entered one area would exit from another.
Truly a godly defensive art.
Except for the issue of how he was not able to deactivate said art as long as an object was passing through the space-warping mirror surrounding his body.
As such, he could very well trap himself or exhaust his aurae reserves under certain conditions if he acted carelessly.
And of course, the exposed area above his head.
Another potential problem was his inability to interact with objects with any body part covered with the dark mirror.
Speaking of which, he was now completely in the nude due to his initial recklessness of covering nearly his whole body in the dark mirror.
Rein redressed himself and began testing with partial small-scaled aurae shells. Indeed, his black-knotted jacket and Halls’ robes would not fall off if he only created a dark mirror over his heart, and another dark mirror on his back, to ensure any weapons targeting his heart would pass through out of the portal on his back.
The robes effectively clung onto his body through his shoulders and limbs.
Rein suddenly understood Dragonknight Zelli’s prowess against the dragons during her age. It must have been incredibly confusing for her opponents. To believe themselves to have delivered a mortal blow to Zelli, only for Zelli to reappear unscathed. Timely small dark mirrors hidden underneath clothing should be rather difficult to sense in the cacophony of an intense battle.
Of course, in the case of Dragonknight Zelli, most attributed her resilience to her stone form and molten form. Rein suspected that the dwarf, in her days, must have abused this dark mirror technique without drawing any suspicion through such trickery.
Rein closed his eyes. He also finally understood why Master Yirn had laid down the rule of rejecting psychedelics' use. His mental state had risen to a vital degree this day. He might not have gained this much if he used psychedelics to overcome the gap between his previous advancer realm and the shell realm.
But of course, this was not the end of his transformation.
A will awakened within him. He no longer considered whether he should accept or reject fate. He no longer bemoaned fate, or held misgivings regarding the events that had imposed itself upon his life.
He simply needed to take action. To ensure his heart remained his, content in his chosen course of action.
And who is he?
His father had taught him many things-- one being that a fair deal was always key for long term dealings with the northern desert tribes.
Many northern desert tribes had ceased doing business with most merchants of the Minhr Nation, primarily because they later discovered they had been taken advantage of in agreed deals with a significant number of overly greedy merchants.
For those northern tribes, these merchants’ common excuse of, “You agreed to the deal and should have known better,” was always seen as a joke. The northern desert tribes did not rely on administrative laws, but rather, simply, upheld values.
To the northern tribes, such laws, rules and regulations, are built upon certain values to push for positive relations. If one technically broke no law, but desecrated said values… From the northern tribes’ perspective, this was as good as breaking said law.
It was precisely the Hehr Merchant Family’s-- Rein’s father-- understanding of this that allowed them to continue trading with the northern desert tribes.
And it was precisely this element that had long entrenched itself within Rein’s heart. Ever since his hazy recollection of unjust expulsion from the household of the Hehr’s supposed ancestors.
This element now revealed itself, as Rein made a critical decision.
Master Yirn had bid him to avoid using his origin ability, in fear of attracting unwanted attention.
And the ghost of Dragonknight Zelli had implored him to not overly depend upon it.
However, certain risks must be taken, so Rein thought.
Suey had thrown herself at him with excessive devotion, and traded the place of prisoner with Xeeseir.
It was only fair that he went out of his way to rescue the damn minx, regardless of what strings she might be attempting to pull.
Rein had a wry smile on his face.
Indeed, Suey had prepared for such a situation well beforehand. For when he now activated the ‘Sole Cauldron’ Art, he could feel the faint direction of Suey’s location!
Though Rein might not fully understand the origin of this advancer art, it was developed many years ago, and carried ancient qualities of magic such as tying together the souls of the ‘slave’ to the ‘master’.
The typical long ranged sensory advancer art would require an outer advancer realm to execute, and it could be interfered with as well.
This was why the ‘Sole Cauldron’ Art was once seen in a much better light before it was used for more nefarious purposes.
Obviously, it was far more limiting compared to all outer advancer ranked sensory arts, usable in all sorts of situations to search for every sort of target. The ‘Sole Cauldron’ Art only allowed one soul to sense another. Incredibly limiting in most cases, but perfect for the current situation.
Rein chuckled to himself. Indeed, Suey was pulling his strings all along. Perhaps prior to his recent enlightenment, he would have reacted negatively to such a realization.
He was no longer preoccupied with such notions of fate and string-pulling. Since Suey had shown such unearned devotion and had never acted maliciously against him, then he would play along. At least, his heart felt it to be fair!
He left his storage pouch within the tent, and even removed the protection of his Halls’ robes.
Though the watcher should generally not be able to monitor that far into the west, Rein preferred to be careful, to keep his cards hidden.
He procured a horse from the stables, and galloped out of the central outpost, westward.
“The team I belong to completed a few dangerous tasks. Take my credits should it be needed,” Rein said he passed the silver-clad soldiers guarding the gate.
“Very well,” one of them replied.
The silver-clad soldiers made no attempts to stop Rein.
The Hall of Heroes was just such an organization. Its members simply needed to bring-- results! Those who carelessly charge to their death? Unneeded. But if they achieve the impossible? Elevated to the heavens! An endless test of one’s prowess!