Thousands of meters above Minora
Orion could only watch in horror as he saw his mother figure cough up blood and change direction while falling. At that moment, for the first time in days, he was filled with hatred. He had often questioned himself: Why wasn't he angry? His father died. And yet, he did not harbor hatred which a son should have. Instead, he sulked. He felt pain in his heart, sadness. And yet, he did not feel like getting revenge. To the point where he asked himself if he truly loved his father. Fortunately, he knew that these thoughts were pointless because he felt sadness, proving he loved his father. But now, for the first time in a long time—perhaps ages— he felt a fire in his heart. Not the type which made him feel pain, but one which made him feel rage—true, uncontrolled rage.
"How cute." Orion's current archenemy stated with an amused expression as he brought his fingers together and snapped them.
Snap—!
Instantly, all illusory swords disappeared, as well as the flames brought by Julia. Orion's face fell. He felt rage, dread… and fear. Honestly, he himself did not know what exactly he could do. He was falling at high speed, and his protectors were powerless. His stepmother was injured. He was powerless.
From the other side, an arrow empowered by wind magic zoomed in between Nicolas and the space mage with immense speed, breaking the sound barrier along its journey, and was inches from piercing Orion. Time seemingly slowed as Orion's brain worked faster than ever before.
Orion knew he was talented ever since he was a child. He was the only child in history who could manipulate and use mana prematurely without awakening—hence why his father opted for a space ring when he left at 14 years of age. So, at that moment, he tried something desperate. He knew it was probably impossible, who knows... maybe he could save himself. Just maybe... he could survive the attack of a Master ranked archer...
Orion's eyes widened as he exerted his mana core and brain power to their limits—trying to manipulate the wind magic enveloping the arrow. Each decisecond, he could see the arrow coming closer and closer until it was only a single inch away from his chest. It was at that moment that a single thought crossed his mind.
'I failed…'
Orion braced, not for pain, but for death. He knew he was going to die. However, the attack never came.
Michael was a genius, not only as a person but as a rising space mage. But he was also someone filled with pride. Pride was a sin, but not for him. Pride was what made him stand out from the rest. To protect his pride, he tried harder, learned more, and trained harder and more efficiently, to the point where he became the disciple of one of the High Seats of the Dark Brotherhood. Hours after the escape of Elisa Constantine from Iridia's White Palace, his master tasked him with a mission: silence the witness. He was prepared for many eventual scenarios for this mission, but what he did not expect was for there to be a kid and 3 Raven Blades to accompany his prey. In the back of his mind, he felt something was off, but didn't question much when he initially saw them at IWTA of New Ottawa. However, what he saw made him frown.
He had instinctively followed the trajectory of his accomplice's arrow, and when it was about to impale the kid before him, he sensed a powerful mana signature on the kid's ring—one far more powerful than his own. It glowed brightly with a purple color as it suddenly dissolved and enveloped the kid's body entirely. In the next microsecond, the arrow finally hit its target, and a powerful shockwave detonated.
The instant the Arrow hit Orion's chest, dozens of wind slashes were unleashed upon his body. However, though he felt pain, it was not what he had expected. Instead of slashes, he felt as if being hit by dozens of hammers; furthermore, the pain was not as intense as he expected.
Emerging from the windy shockwave, he felt all eyes were on him as he quickly looked down.
'An Exo-suit? Dad—'
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA"
His thoughts were cut short as he heard a wild laugh.
A dozen meters away from his fall was Michael, who laughed wildly.
"No wonder there were three Raven Blades who appeared out of nowhere! You must be the one they were guarding. And judging from their strengths and their number, you must be a prodigy from Great House Blade! And this powerful mana signature—You are from the main branch!" Michael grinned as he continued, "How lucky, not only can I get rid of a witness, but also a young star of House Blade!"
Michael glanced towards the ground, 'Less than fifteen seconds before hitting the barrier.'
He immediately brought his palms together and shouted, "Space Dive!"
Before Elisa could react, the space mage was already upon her, arms reaching out to grasp her. She tried using an artefact from her space ring, but it was futile. Before she could even take the artefact out of her ring, Michael palmed her abdomen and chanted.
"Pride of evil darkness, Master of Space, Follower of Time—Space Reversal!"
Michael called upon himself, manifesting his Will and delivering a soundless attack. Orion's brain froze. He was lost. He could not comprehend what he was seeing. There, in the air, was his stepmother, but... only half of her. Her entire lower body was missing; Instead, below her navel was a clean wound where her insides spilt from and dangled as she fell along with everyone. The attack did not interrupt her descent. It was as if her lower body had simply disappeared.
"Wow. I meant to obliterate your heart along, how—oh! I see. How clumsy of me."
In one of Elisa's hands was a small translucent pearl—an artefact. Although she didn't have time to pull out the artefact before Michael touched her, by the time he chanted the spell, she still managed to successfully pull it out from her space ring and used its inherent Will to protect her vitals.
"Doesn't matter, you will die soon. Now, the kid is next!"
Michael flicked his gaze to stare at a bewildered Orion. "Don't be sad kid, you'll join her soon—or maybe you will die first, and she will join you, whatever."
"No!"
Nicolas shot towards Michael with all his strength, but he was stopped by the two swordsmen and the mage before reaching him. As for Alex, he was falling, unconscious and powerless, as the blood vessels along his injured shoulder glowed deep purple, while Julia got hit by three arrows simultaneously in the thigh, shoulder, and leg. Furthermore, before she could even try to use her Life affinity, the blood vessels on her thigh— where she was previously injured by the metal piece— glowed deep purple and made her movements sluggish.
'What is happening... This is a nightmare—' Orion told himself as he stared at Michael, who was now in front of him.
"Goodbye, young Bla—"
Suddenly, Michael paused, his head flicked towards the distant clouds. None could feel what he was feeling, but he knew; if he wasted a single second, he was dead.
'The woman will die from corruption; my job is done here.'
Instantly, he pulled out a piece of paper adorned with gleaming yellow text and symbols. He wasted not a single decisecond as he chanted as fast as possible, "Warp!"
Within the next second, just as Michael disappeared, a calamity had arrived; Graves Blade appeared to have flickered into existence where Michael had warped from. In his right hand was Elisa Constantine, whom he gripped at the back of her collar, like a cat.
With a wave of his left hand, his aura exploded, making the assailants from the Dark Brotherhood freeze completely. And with another wave, everyone's descent came to a stop, and after that, wild winds enveloped everyone, making them shoot towards the Azure Estate.
Before anyone could even scream from the sheer speed, they crashed into a grand balcony of the estate.
In the next second, the two swordsmen and the bowman had their heads sliced clean, while the female mage had her limbs amputated. Graves frowned as he saw the purple veins on the two Raven Blades' bodies. He immediately approached and placed his hands on their body, calling forth his Will to stop the corruption.
Meanwhile, Orion, who had just got taken in his surroundings, rushed towards Graves, who had Elisa in his hands.
"Elisa!"
Orion removed Elisa from Graves's grasp. He gently placed her on the floor and urged Julia to heal her. Julia sprang into action and immediately used all the higher-end healing spells she knew. Soon, the lower part of Elisa's body was slowly regrowing.
After a few seconds, Graves noticed Julia was struggling and placed his hand on Julia's back, supplying her with mana until finally, Elisa's entire lower body was healed. Orion quickly removed Elisa's ripped cloak and placed it on her lower body. Orion was about to let out a sigh of relief when suddenly, all the blood vessels in Elisa's body started glowing deep purple. At that moment, Graves immediately tried to use his Will, but frowned deeply as he saw his Will do nothing to remove the corruption.
"This... How?"
"What's going on?!"
"I should've been able to remove the corruption... but it seems that this person's Will is stronger than expected."
"What? What do you mean? His Will is stronger than yours?!"
"No. To remove corruption, one's Will must be at least two realms above the caster. I advanced to a Rank 6—a Warlord. Yet, my Will cannot remove this Arch Mage's corruption."
Graves knelt and touched Elisa's abdomen; following that, he stared at his hand and sighed.
"This Arch Mage is not a simple one. I will explain later, right now I need to keep her alive. Emilian, take the mage into custody and prepare a room for Orion."
"Yes, My Lord." The voice of an old man was heard as the person who was presumably named Emilian emerged from the shadow of Graves Blade and got to work. As for Graves, he merely nodded at Orion before bursting out of the terrace and flying into the sky with a wild gust of wind, while carrying Elisa in his hands.
Emilian turned to Orion and said, "Long time no see, Young Master." He disposed of the dead swordsmen and bowman's bodies into a space ring, and as for the mage, he merely snapped his fingers, and the woman was pulled into the shadows. He paused for a second before continuing, "I will prepare a room for you, Young Master. Raven Blades, take a break. You deserve it. Good job protecting the Young Master."
Orion stood up; his legs were weak and wobbly. Though he was protected by the Exo-suit prepared by his father, his body was still of the first rank. The body of a mere peak stage Novice could never come out of this battle unscathed. Especially from that wind-powered arrow he took straight at the center of his chest.
Seeing Orion wobble and struggle to remain standing, Julia immediately rushed to his side and used her remaining mana to heal him. "Your Highness! Are you okay?"
"Sigh, I am fine. Just exhausted."
Orion felt his insides shift a bit as Julia healed him. After getting healed, he felt better than before, but he was still utterly exhausted, even though he did nothing during the fight. He exited the balcony and entered the room. What he saw was quite beautiful. The room was grand, luxurious and styled similarly to a royal chamber. He barely had time to appreciate anything, as he threw himself onto the King-sized bed and closed his eyes.
"I'm going to sleep..."
In that situation, he would have been extremely worried about his stepmother and would have been angry towards the man who did this. But at that moment, he felt an unbearable fatigue. From falling at unbearable speeds, enduring a powerful attack, stopping and shooting down once more and crashing into a balcony, his body was fried, and his mind was crashing. And let us not forget about the adrenaline. If he hadn't seen a king-sized bed in his peripheral vision, he would've let go earlier and fallen unconscious without a care in the world. He let go of everything and placed his trust in his Uncle and fell asleep.