It seed the Zerogs had only just realized there were others in the room. Peter glanced at and then at my parents, understanding dawning upon him, while his wife’s gaze moved slowly through the room. Her attention lingered on longer than on my parents, and my body reacted instinctively. Goosebumps spread all over my skin, and I wanted nothing more than to run away and hide as the vibrant eyes of Daniel’s sister landed on .
If mory served right, she was two years older than Daniel—and , for that matter—but she looked so… different. So mature.
She had long, silky hair that fell smoothly down her back, and ocean-blue eyes that seed to catch the light even more than her father’s. She was at least a head shorter than , and standing next to her uncle’s towering figure made her seem even smaller. Daniel’s sister looked delicate—almost like a doll—with a quiet, flawless kind of beauty.
My heart skipped a beat as our eyes t, but the beauty of her surface was quickly washed away as a wave of pressure crashed over . I didn’t sense any ether. Instead, the weight pressing on my shoulders contained sothing else—sothing powerful that resembled bloodlust, though it wasn’t quite the sa.
Daniel stepped forward and slid between and his sister, blocking my view of her, and the pressure dissipated.
“This is my friend and his family. I decided to bring them to the estate until the chaos of the tide has been removed.” He glanced at his mother, who nodded subtly, and then turned to the towering man. “Adam hasn’t been a Blessed for long, Uncle. Please be nice to him.”
That confird it. It had already been clear, but hearing it aloud didn’t make it easier to accept. The towering man was Daniel’s uncle—the Blessed of the massive wyvern who’d effortlessly killed two Guardian beasts. He was also hard to read. Was he a good guy with a tough exterior, or was he as tough as he looked?
“Good afternoon, Mr… Zerog?” Unsure, I continued, “Thank you for protecting the Bastion.”
“Call rlin. I do not like confusion, and there are too many mbers of our family present today,” Daniel’s uncle said hoarsely. His voice was nice, yet there was a stab to it.
Daniel pulled back until he stood beside and whispered, “Uncle is the strongest in the family. Well, he’s a special case.” He shrugged. “Just make sure you don’t get on his wrong side.”
Thanks, Daniel. That’s really reassuring. I grimaced and stiffened when rlin’s deep eyes locked onto . He studied for a mont, and sothing shifted in his features, as though he recognized sothing. He… threw a dirty look in my direction?
“Is that the retinue you picked for Daniel?” rlin asked Chloe Zerog, not even trying to hide the displeasure in his voice.
The dirty look was imprinted in my mind. I couldn’t help but feel like a gold digger. rlin’s displeasure rang in my ears, and I felt smaller than ever—weak and insignificant.
rlin turned back to with a motion to step closer. “Let’s see if you have what it takes to help Daniel,” he said, his eyes speaking volus. “Show what you got.”
What? rlin remained unmoving, his gaze urging to attack him.
Daniel groaned beside but shoved ahead. “Just do it. Hit him as hard as you can. Use your sword, though.” He cursed softly, but I didn’t hear a thing. “Give it your all… good luck.”
I slowly unsheathed the refined silvernit sword. My mind drifted to rlin’s fight with the Mistrals, and I shuddered involuntarily as my imagination went wild, showing images of getting crushed by rlin—or swallowed by his wyvern.
“No pressure. Bad posture. He barely has any ether,” rlin said, glancing at Chloe Zerog and shaking his head. “I expected more from you, sister.”
Sohow, that made angrier than it should have. Daniel’s mother had been incredibly generous with . She and Peter Zerog had been patient and… much better than I’d expected a renowned family of Blessed to be. Sure, they weren’t perfect, but they loved their son more than anything and were willing to give their all to help him. Yet, as much as they wanted to help Daniel, they didn’t force anything upon . They helped , and they… they trusted .
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I didn’t suppress the anger and called upon my ether reserves as I stepped forward, only to rember there was no more ether to use. Pulling ether out of the dry core was not only impossible—it was painful, too. A pained grunt escaped my lips, and my World rippled, as if to tell not to do that again. I didn’t.
Clutching the silvernit sword tighter than ever, I felt pain, but it did little to disperse the worries etched onto my mind. Nonetheless, I stepped forward, confidence slowly filling my strides as I closed the distance. Then, I felt Aureus again—his emotions. The bond was still frail, yet feeling my Soulkin flooded with more confidence than I should have felt. His anger reached , but also his uncertainty. Aureus was like a beast that had been suppressed.
Allowing the anger to guide , I kicked the ground, following Swordmaster Selene’s instructions, and barreled toward rlin. I closed the distance near-instantly and slashed at rlin. Daniel’s uncle didn’t move an inch. The blade should have cut into his abdon—but it hadn’t.
I gritted my teeth as the silvernit sword collided with sothing tallic. It was harder than anything I’d slashed before, and it blocked my attack easily. My montum halted instantly, and a shockwave shot through my arms. It felt like my forearms had just chipped and shattered from the impact of my own attack.
rlin looked down at , his eyes speaking volus.
“Is that all?” his eyes seed to scream at , and I wanted to shout back and explain my situation, but it was to no avail.
rlin sighed deeply and shook his head in disappointnt. Seeing him like that was crushing, yet it wasn’t until he flexed his abdominal muscles that the difference in power was fully imprinted in my mind.
He flexed, and all of a sudden, it was like rlin repelled . He hadn’t moved, yet I was yanked through the air. I was hurled across the living room and smashed into the wall on the far side. A stifled scream escaped my lips as pain and cracking noises mixed.
My back was broken, for sure, just like every other part of my body.
What in the…
My vision blurred as I slumped to the ground, unable to comprehend what had just happened. I would have seen if rlin had moved, even if it had been nothing more than a blur—but there hadn’t been anything. He had rely flexed and hurled through the air.
A distant scream reached , and I was certain it was Mom shouting at soone. Even Chloe’s voice rang in my ears—oddly clear compared to my mother’s.
“Did you really just do that, rlin? What in the Rulers’ nas is going on in that pea-sized brain of yours? We’ve been training him hard for the last few months, and you appear from—where the hell have you been with my daughter, in the first place!?—and hurt your nephew’s retinue? What is wrong with you!?”
I was picked up from the ground and a viscous liquid was poured into my mouth. Awareness of my body’s condition flooded , and I was happy to find that no bones were broken. So were chipped and would need ti to recover, but it looked like Peter’s serums were working wonders. His steely eyes lingered on for a while after I finished the third serum—one sweeter than the last—and he placed the fourth one back into his storage unit.
Peter pressed his hand flat onto my chest and channeled ether into .
“Your bond is damaged.” His expression soured.
“Y-yeah… My core is empty too, and my World is itchy,” I croaked. “Has been like that since we found my parents.”
Mom and Dad were beside , tears trickling down my mother’s cheeks.
“That’s not good,” he said, dead serious. “You’re lucky your bond is firm, Adam. Normally, bonds as young as yours wouldn’t survive any kind of damage. No matter how small, the bond would’ve been severed—and that, I’m sure you can tell, would result in a fucking ss.”
It was the first ti I heard Peter curse, but that was all the more reason to take him seriously.
rlin stepped up beside Peter Zerog, his eyebrow raised as he turned to his sister—whom he’d ignored until a mont ago.
“What is Peter talking about?”
Chloe cursed but spoke up anyway. “Adam has a malleable World. Too small to bind a beast. As you can see, he fixed that issue, but only a few months ago. As far as I can tell, he’s been refining his World for a decade before he could bind a small, mutant beast egg. That has been about—…”
She looked at , tilting her head.
“—about four months and a bit, if I’m not wrong.”
I scrambled to my feet, ignoring the blood pouring down my face, and got up. My back still hurt as if Coco bulldozed , but I was getting better. Peter’s healing serum only seed to ignore my poor buttocks. I’d survive that, though.
“He awakened four months ago and his bond is already past the first threshold?” rlin regarded once more. The disdain was no longer visible, but he shrugged nonchalantly. “Still not good enough. Below average. Half-decent at best. Maybe a quarter of an acceptable retinue.”
Sohow, that was enough for the other mbers of the Zerog family to flick toward rlin.
“What?” rlin snapped back.
“Nothing…” Chloe said, but that didn’t feel quite right.
There was definitely more to rlin’s comnt. If not, Daniel’s sister wouldn’t be glaring at like I was dead to her.
Whatever. My butt was hurting.
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