Chapter 0203

Tempest was in a grumpy mood when she was jostled awake. The screeching banshee near her didn’t help the situation.

She stared at the red-haired man with contempt. A grown man using a child as a shield is pathetic. Tempest would have given the cowardly bastard a beating if she didn’t notice Cardis off to the side laughing his butt off at her current predicament.

Tempest wrinkled her brow as she assesses her current situation. She could have sworn she went to sleep on a soft bed in a nice room yet she ended up on the ground in the middle of a forest.

Obviously, Cardis brought her here. As to why, well, she wanted to ask the man himself but he was still in his fit of laughter. Tempest didn’t believe she’d get a straight answer from the cowardly dumbass so that left the preteen boy.

With speed augmented by two movement spells, Tempest snatched the preteen out of the cowardly dumbass’ hand sending the fool flying with a powerful punch.

“Since you’re the only one who has any sense, could you tell me what is going on?”

Tempest should have known better. Cardis is the flirtiest frivolous flibbergit known to man. The people around him are not normal. They might seem normal but they aren’t. They are faking it. Tempest was sure of it.

Despite reaffirming her convictions everyone around Cardis were perverts and swearing she put her guard up she end up being fooled by appearances. The preteen she ‘saved’ from the cowardly dumbass jumped her the first chance she got.

His hands wrapped around her waist to hold her steady while his mouth went after her nonexistence breast. He nuzzled her flat bosoms, using his teeth to gnaw on them through her thin layer of clothes.

Tempest became furious. Never in her life had she be sexually molested. Never. Even when she was in a dubious institution, she was wary enough to avoid being taken advantage of.

Tempest felt like a fool. As the wave of humiliation crested, anger followed right behind.

Tempest smack the daring bastard away. She followed up her attack with Spiral Ice Bolt and Vibrating Wind Blade. Tempest was going to teach the lecher a lesson and no one was going to stop her.

Except for Cardis.

He pushed the preteen behind him and blocked all of Tempest’s attack with a wall of earth. Angered beyond reason, Tempest continued her onslaught and Cardis let her wear herself out.

Cardis’ defense is no joke. Even ten of Tempest at maximum output can’t break through his wall of earth.

“Are you done venting?” Cardis asked, mildly amused. He found the whole situation hilarious and went to another bout of laughter behind his defensive spell Earthen Shield. Cardis asked his question when he was assured he got his laughter under control.

“I should have known no one around you was normal.” Tempest ground out behind clenched teeth. She wanted to continue her attack against the preteen but knew she can’t win against Cardis. She might as well save her strength.

“You spoke as if you are the exception. You should include yourself in that generalization as well.” Mouthwatering chocolate-covered strawberry said.

Tempest glared at cowardly dumbass who had found enough spine to stand up to her. She was going to get them back. They say a gentleman’s revenge for ten years isn’t too late. Well, she’d let them know about the proverb hell hath no fury as a woman scorned. Wait a gosh darn minute. Tempest was never scorned! Shesh. She needs to think of better lines.

Anyways, she was saying the Grudge has nothing on her. All it did was turn into a ghost and killed everyone. Tempest would do better. Tempest would teach them a lesson they would never forget. Just not now.

“Now now, Tempest calm down and let me explain.”

“Explain,” Tempest said tersely to Cardis. There was none of the Teacher-Successor respect at all in her tone.

“This muscle bound idiot beside me is Valstein Yoresteven, Son of Forge.” When Cardis said the red hair man was a muscle bound idiot, Tempest wholeheartedly concurs.

Muscles upon muscles graced his upper body tapering into a lean waist and strong longs legs. He looked like a young red hair Schwarzenegger but hunkier and better proportion.

“Who are you calling a muscle bound idiot?” Valstein Yoresteven protest only to be ignored by Cardis.

Oh, that voice. Chocolate laced with crack. Tempest could get addicted to that voice. It was a deep dreamy baritone filled with masculine virility and vitality that captures Tempest the moment the sound hits her ears. Tempest nearly melted into a puddle of goo if an electric shock didn’t knock her out of her daze.

“Thanks, Astrapi. Ventus, muffle that voice so I don’t become a mindless zombie in front of that man.” Tempest hasn’t forgiven Astrapi for taking over her body but she has started to soften.

A horny zombie slut you mean.

“Don’t tease Ventus. This is serious. My body shouldn’t feel sexual attraction yet I want to jump the man’s bones the minute he opens his mouth. That’s not right.” Tempest bite her lip in worry. Tempest had her mental issues, but she was never a nymphomaniac. It was the opposite. She had no sexual desire at all.

I’m sorry to say but your conjecture is completely wrong. He isn’t using any charms or mental compulsion. It is pure voice.

“You too huh?” Tempest said knowingly. It feels good to know the spirits aren’t stronger than she is.

“If Ventus wasn’t a spirit, she’d drop her panties and jump the man.”

“Mizu?”

“Yes, it’s me.”

“How are you talking to me?” Tempest asked, perplexed at the new development.

“We can speak directly to you after you invited us into your sea of consciousness.”

“Ahhh,” Tempest said grimly. She knew there was a trick. She didn’t realize it was this.

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“Don’t worry too much. We are constricted to speaking to you after you address one of us first.” Mizu said lyrically, a soothing creek meandering through a lush valley. To get Tempest’s mind her new communication channel, Mizu didn’t hesitate to sell Ventus out. “Ventus secretly record Valstein Yoresteven’s voice whenever she gets the chance. There is this one where -”

Enough!

“Uhhh?”

“Ventus prefer to use the wind to speak to you,” Mizu smirked.

Tempest was about to ask about Ventus’ collection of voices when the preteen was shoved into her face. She got a good look at him before shoving the boy back.

Tempest wanted to slap herself forever mistaking the preteen as anything other than normal.

Bright fiery red eyes glowed under the moonlight, except instead of sinister intentions coming from those eyes, a childish innocence can be seen. Then there was the adorably chubby face that belongs to the poster boy for the mental handicap. The perpetually silly expression on the preteen’s face scream ‘I’m dumb and I’m happy about it’. The drool didn’t help either. It wasn’t the lascivious drooling a man does when he sees a hot woman but the drooling of a baby hungry for milk. The poor boy was probably hungry for milk, hungry enough to mistake Tempest’s chest as something other than the airplane runway that is.

All and all, the preteen screams dumb and dopey. Definitely not normal, though this time it was more towards the not normal stupid variety instead of the not normal perverted variety.

“And this guy here is the natural fire element everyone is after.” Cardis cuddled the preteen like a baby in his arms.

Again, Tempest stupidly relaxed her guard. She was getting the homosexual vibes from the guys and figured they weren't interested in her. Not Cardis. That man is as straight as a ruler. He’s so in love with that Eva woman it wasn’t even funny anymore.

“Oh, dear. I think you need to get your eyes checked because you got the wrong person. I have black hair. I shouldn’t be at the ginger party.” Tempest said flippantly.

For an insult, it wasn’t insulting at all. It was, however, accurate. Cardis has dark red hair with brown undertones and a slightly green tint while Valstein Yoresteven’s red hair leaned towards the coppery side with a shiny tint to it. As for the natural fire element, his hair was so fiery red if a stranger thought someone lit the kid’s hair on fire, Tempest would have cast a water spell to put it out.

Cardis’ lip twitched but he held back his laughter. “We aren’t gathered here for a party.”

“Then what are you here for?”

“For the boy here. You see, he isn’t a natural fire element anymore. He hasn’t been for a long time. He was a natural fire earth element, but I gave him a treasure I got from the chaotic rift, and it allowed him to upgrade himself to a natural fire earth thunder element.”

“Congratulations,” Tempest said, deadpanned.

“It is indeed a good thing as now it has more protection since only a fire earth lightning mage can make use of it and its power is nothing to scoff at. It won’t protect him from the encirclement by a group of mages. That’s why we’re here.”

“Go on,” Tempest said magnanimously. Tempest couldn’t care less about the preteen but she figured she owed Cardis enough to hear him out.

Cardis’ eyes twitched at his Successor’s attitude but he continued with his explanation. “It sensed a True Blessing cast within the vicinity recently and insist on investigating. Actually, I was heading here to investigate the situation when I met you.”

“I thought Blessing or True Blessing is issued by a cultivator by drawing mana into their bodies then transforming it into a special power with their intent and fuses it into the child, slowly shaping the child physically and/or mentally,” Tempest asked cautiously.

“It is for normal mortals. There are additional effects if the recipient has the blood of the spirits in their veins or is a natural element. A True Blessing bestowed upon them a true name. Without knowing the true name, it is hard for a cultivator to track down the recipient. The benefit I want from a True Blessing is the added effect of divine retribution. Should the recipient be used as a tool for cultivation without invoking the true name, then divine retribution is invoked. The cultivator has to withstand the wrath of the heavens before they can ‘refine’ the spirit or natural element.”

Cardis thought it would take a while for Tempest’s small mind to digest the information given so he silently waited.

Tempest kept an impassive face but she was screaming up a storm at her spirits inside her sea of consciousness.

“You damn liars! You set me up!”

“We did not.” Mizu righteously refuted but Ventus and Astrapi couldn’t look her in the eyes.

“Really? The True Blessing I cast on Nicholas Bravon Kataigida was an accident then?” Tempest countered icily.

“You wanted to protect the mother and child. A True Blessing was the most efficient method available at the time.” This was from Astrapi. “Drawing Cardis’ attention was an added bonus.”

“Can you say you had no part in maneuvering the situation to the outcome you favored?”

“Yes, we can.” Ventus quickly stepped in. If it was left to either Mizu or Astrapi then they would all be thrown into the pit they dug for themselves. This wasn’t something wanted to see no matter despite her desire to monopolize Tempest all to herself. “Aria Se Jivock ignited the karma link between you and your sisters to lure you here. We had nothing to do about it. We do admit we did cast the True Blessing, but it was in response to your desire to protect the mother and child. You might not know this but the mother is half human half spirit. Without a True Blessing protecting her child, the boy would be hunted down and refined into a tool for unscrupulous mages.”

“What? The mother was half human half spirit? How did it happen?” Tempest asked, trying to find fault in Ventus’ logic.

“Sex with a natural element.”

Tempest knew there was more to the story than the spirits were willing to share. More precisely, they gave the impression there was more to the story so Tempest would press them for answers and get sidetracked from the issue at hand, namely, using the True Blessing to lure Cardis here.

“More like you took advantage of the situation to lure Cardis here.” Tempest accused them.

“Not Cardis,” Ventus insisted. “Valstein. Despite the shared wind element between you and Cardis, I wanted Valstein as your teacher.”

“Why?” Tempest asked sharply. She hadn’t forgiven the spirits for manipulating her and she won’t for a long time. They have to be aware that although she doesn’t have the power to control her fate now, it doesn’t mean they would get away with their scheme when she finds out about it.

Ventus chewed on her lips as if she didn’t want to say what she was about to say but knew she had to say it to appease Tempest.

“My god, you heard is voice,” Ventus blurted out in a rush. “That voice is the manliest man voice I’ve ever heard. It is a nice deep timber with just the right pitch and tone it makes even the iciest feminist wet the panties. Ahh, I can’t listen to that man talk all day.”

“Eeeeewwwww.” Tempest squealed because Ventus had to look of a hardcore fan, all bright eyed bushy tailed, ready to attack her idol at any given moment. Those people are crazy. Never mess with a hardcore fan. Ventus went beyond hardcore though. She went into slutty hardcore.

When she was talking about Valstein Yoresteven’s voice, she squeezed her thighs like she was a horny slut. It reminded Tempest of the rock star groupies, the ones who would have sex with said rockstar at the drop of a hat.

Tempest slapped her hands over her eyes. She saw something she didn’t want to see. She also realized the spirits are very human.

Before, Tempest had thought the spirits were above earthly desire, that they were intelligent beings who act with rationality instead of being driven by their hormones. That their thought process was so different that humans couldn't guess their reasoning. Tempest had always put them high above her. She had thought they were omnipotent supreme beings watching humans scuttling like ants.

Well, there goes that thought.

“Ah, my eyes, my eyes. I’m blind. Hurry, I need to wash out the image with soap and water.”

Smack.

“Damn it Tempest. I tell important information and your mind goes down the gutter although how the hell information about a True Blessing can pollute your eyes, I’d never know.” Cardis complained.

“Awaaaaah,” Tempest hugged Cardis and started crying. “I saw something horrible.”

Cardis let his little Successor cry on his manly chest all the while regretting his perfectionist nature. He wouldn’t be in this predicament otherwise.

Ventus commiserated with Cardis as she too was lamenting her plight. “You two owe me big time!” Ventus growled. Ventus finally realized why cultivators would rather face a strong enemy rather than have a pig teammate. Forget wishing for a hole to swallow her up, she can go invisible!