Chapter 152 - Devourer of the Living (1/2)

XXXX Continent, Seraph Kingdom, Arcana Tower.

Dane had an aura of seriousness radiating about him as he looked at Erea, his student, with a gaze also filled with seriousness. He then opened his mouth to ask her, ”Would you like to join Vanadir's faction in the fight for the throne?”

”Eh?” A few seconds of silence ensued between the two of them, before Erea let out a tiny sound of confusion as she cleaned her ears with her fingers. She then looked at her teacher not long after and asked, ”Was I hearing your question incorrectly, teacher? Could you repeat the question one more time?”

Fortunately, Dane did not take offense to Erea's request, since it was quite a surprising favor to get in full honesty. He then cleared his throat and said the question one more time. ”Erea, would you like to join Prince Vanadir Seraph, the Ninth Prince of Seraph Kingdom, in his fight for the throne?”

”I didn't hear wrongly,” Erea could not help but mutter in disbelief, still processing the fact that her teacher was actually requesting a favor from her, quite an extravagant favor at that. She then pondered over Dane's question in silence for a few minutes and then asked him, ”But why me, teacher?”

”Err…” Dane scratched his head as he lightly chuckled in an awkward manner. A few seconds later, he replied to her question, saying, ”Well…as his advisor and helper, it wouldn't make sense if the advisor's student doesn't help the prince in the fight for the throne, right?”

Hearing the words that came out of her teacher's mouth, Erea could not help but feel like those words were forced, as if it was meant to coerce her into accepting his favor. Not only that, she also felt like what he said was more or less a blatant lie. With those thoughts in mind, she could not help but look at her teacher with quite a serious gaze and ask, ”Is that really the case, teacher?”

”Hahaha, yeah…it definitely is…” Dane lightly chuckled in awkward manner, with silence enveloping the two of them not long after. Eventually, the silence between the two became incredibly deafening, leaving Dane with no choice but to let out a sigh as he replied with a light smile, ”Fine, fine. I'll admit to it.”

”Although I'm a Rank 4 High Mage of this tower, I'm not a pretty social guy,” Dane said. ”So, when the Ninth Prince tasked me to build a team that had class ranks around the same level as him, I was more or less forced to consider you as part of his team. I hope you can understand.”

”Of course I do, teacher,” Erea answered back, adding not long after, ”I would also like to apologize if my question hurt your feelings.”

”Not at all, not at all,” Dane replied with a light smile. He then continued, ”To be honest, I should've been honest in the first place.”

”Anyways, would you help me out this time? I would answer anything you ask me in exchange, no limits whatsoever,” Dane asked one more time, adding on a reward at the end of it, like some sort of carrot on a stick.

”Although I would like to help you out teacher, I would have to decline.” Erea let out a sigh. ”It's not that I don't want to join. To be honest, I really do. It's just that I could not help but fear that I would become a burden to the Ninth Prince's team, acting as the weakest link which would lead to the team's demise.”

”Why are you thinking about that? You don't even know what you're participating in.” Dane could not help but frown after hearing his student's reasoning. ”The fight for the throne consists of multiple rounds, and I can tell you with certainty that you won't become a burden in almost every round it consists of.”

”But what if I…” Just as Erea was about to give another reason, Dane interrupted her from continuing her words, saying in exchange, ”Trust me on this one. The fight for the throne doesn't start until about a month from now, which is more or less enough time for you to transition to a Rank 3 class. Now, will you be a burden by then?”

Hearing her teacher's words, Erea was left with no choice but to sigh, looking at her teacher and saying, ”Alright then, teacher. If it is as you say…”

”I'll join Prince Vanadir's team in the fight for the throne.”

…

XXXX Continent, Tempest Cliff, Tempest Branch Alliance, Tower of Seclusion.

Whoosh! Fwoosh!

About half a minute has passed since Aurus left the room where Fenrir and Charisa was, teleporting here and there through the multiple floors that constituted the Tower of Seclusion, eventually finding the room that he was looking for after another minute or so.

Whoosh!

He closed the door behind him as he entered the room that had a dummy that could gauge the damage he would output. But then, just as he was expecting a training dummy that had the appearance of a scarecrow, instead, a long stone pole appeared in front of his field of vision, slightly surprising him in the process.

Seeing the stone pole in front of his field of vision, he could not help but recall back to the time when he was about to evolve to S-grade Inanimate, and how he tested the strength of his offensive skills back then. At that point, he then vividly remembered the fact that it wasn't a training dummy that he was hitting to gauge damage, it was actually a long stone pole, just like the one in front of him right now.

Since that was the case, he decided to just get on with testing the damage output of his skills. Of course, he was going to first test out the skill, well…his offensive and reconnaissance trump card, that he made a while ago.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

Due to being used to it already, eight soul vessels had formed in front of Aurus, not even taking a second to form. With a negligible level of burden affecting his mind rather than a severe level, he was able to command these eight soul vessels in front of him independently like a commander commanding his soldiers, moving the eight soul vessels in a circular pattern around the stone pole.

Just as he was looking at how the eight soul vessels were positioned, he could not help but notice their appearance as he muttered to himself, ”Since this trump card is going to be used more as reconnaissance, rather than a sneak attack, wouldn't it be better to hide them from being seen by others?”

After thinking about it for a while, he could not help but call himself an idiot for not thinking about it earlier. Fortunately, the skill that controlled the soul vessel did not just focus on manipulation and seeing using the soul, but also focused on suppressing the presence of the soul. With that activated, the eight soul vessels surrounding the stone pole had seemingly vanished into thin air, as if they weren't there in the first place.

But thanks to the connection Aurus had with the soul vessels since those vessels were ultimately a part of his soul, he knew for a fact that they were there, molding them into small yet sharp swords not long after.

With the eight soul swords pointing their tips towards the stone pole, a thought popped up in his mind, prompting him to ask himself, ”What name should this attack have?”