epThe Guardian base on Morir looked exactly as Kael rembered it.
George Gibson stood at the entrance with Bruno beside him.
The four-star hunter looked the sa with that sa round eyeglasses perched on his nose—but his cultivation base had shifted again. Peak Mana Heart Rank 9. c;c;n
Bruno hadn’t changed at all. Except his aura now radiated the cultivation base of a peak rank 5 Mana Heart realm cultivator.
George’s eyes swept across the trio.
"Welco to the Guardian base." George’s voice was professionally pleasant. "You must be Miss Aria Nightshade of the Shadow Guild of the Thirteen Worlds." His gaze shifted to Rue. "And you must be Lady Rue of the Royal Fox Family."
He paused.
His eyes returned to Kael.
"I must say, Kael." A thin smile crossed his face. "Your charms are your only redeemable quality."
"Co on, George." Kael grinned. "Don’t be so grumpy."
The smile on George’s face widened as an evil expression spread across his face.
His hand moved faster than Kael could track. His fingers closed around a fistful of Kael’s hair and yanked downward.
"Ow—what the—"
"O boy." George’s voice was almost sing-song as he began dragging Kael toward the corridor that led to his office. "We have a lot of catching up to do. You haven’t been here for at least four months. I will have to vent my frustration sowhere, won’t I?"
"George—seriously—let go—"
"Co, ladies." George didn’t look back. "Lend a hand here."
Kael’s eyes found Aria and Rue.
Aria’s expression was carefully neutral.
Rue was smiling.
Not a sweet smile. Not her usual adoring expression. An evil smirk that looked deeply wrong on her innocent features with her arms were folded. Her tails were swishing with evident satisfaction.
"You heard him." Rue’s voice was sweet and poisonous. "Lend him a hand."
"I don’t think—"
"Have fun, Kael!" Rue called out cheerfully as George hauled him around the corner and out of sight.
"Betrayers!" Kael’s voice echoed back. "Both of you! Absolute traitors!"
The corridor swallowed his protests.
Aria and Rue stood in the entrance hall for a mont, listening to the distant sounds of what was either a thorough administrative discussion or a one-sided beating.
Five minutes later, George erged from his office.
He looked satisfied. His smile was almost benevolent.
Kael followed.
He looked like he’d been betrayed by everyone he’d ever trusted.
A lump had ford on the side of his head and his hair was disheveled where George had gripped it. His expression carried the particular wounded dignity of a man who had expected better from his companions.
"Kael." Aria’s voice was flat. "Your head."
Rue covered her mouth with both hands. Her shoulders were shaking. She was definitely laughing.
Before Kael could respond to either of them, the temperature in the entrance hall shifted.
A presence that demanded attention without demanding anything at all.
Miss Lyra appeared.
Kael crossed the distance between them in in a few steps and threw himself at her leg, arms wrapping around her thigh like a child seeking comfort from an indifferent parent.
"Miss Beauty!" His voice carried genuine wounded emotion. "You have to save . George was bullying ."
Lyra looked down at him.
The mask made her expression impossible to read, but sothing in her posture suggested she was not impressed.
"You deserve it." Her voice was cold. Utterly without sympathy. "You skipped missions for almost five months straight. Refused every summons. Made my operatives look incompetent. George has been filing complaints about you for months."
"But—"
"Get up."
Kael released her leg like a dog being denied affection.
Lyra stared down at him for a long mont.
"Would you like to have your revenge on the fla goddess who bullied you?"
Kael’s head snapped up.
Fla goddess.
The woman from Athelas. Seraphina.
He nodded.
"Alright." Lyra turned. "Buckle up, kids. We’re going to planet Hevaria."
She walked toward the exi without waiting for them to follow.
Another figure fell into step beside the group—a woman Kael didn’t recognize. Beautiful, like everyone in this organization apparently had to be. Tall, with silver-white hair that fell past her shoulders and eyes the color of frozen lakes. She wore the sa dark Guardian uniform as everyone else, but hers had additional markings on the shoulders that Kael didn’t recognize.
Silas. Three-star guardian. Her cultivation base pressed against Kael’s senses—Mana Heart Rank 2.
The five of them boarded a sleek black spacecraft that waited in the base’s private docking bay. Interior luxury—leather seats, ambient lighting, a small bar stocked with drinks that probably cost more than most families earned in a year. The kind of vehicle designed for comfort over combat efficiency.
Kael settled into a seat, Rue taking the one beside him, Aria across the aisle. Lyra sat at the front with Silas. The engines humd to life, and the ground fell away beneath them.
Hevaria.
Kael had never heard of it. Probably another planet in the Skyfall Galaxy, another piece of a map he hadn’t morized yet.
Seraphina.
The fla goddess who had nearly killed him.
"How did you break through so fast?"
Lyra didn’t turn around.
"An annoying old man sealed my cultivation base."
The words were simple. The implication was not.
Sealing soone’s cultivation required overwhelming power differential. You couldn’t just suppress a cultivator’s energy—you had to fundantally alter the flow of mana through their ridians, create a lock so thorough that even the victim couldn’t break it without external assistance. It was the kind of technique that required not just skill but raw, crushing dominance.
"He must be at least Origin Realm," Kael said. "To do that to you. To seal a Mana Heart cultivator."
Silence.
"No." Lyra’s voice was quiet. "He is even stronger."
The spacecraft humd.
Kael stared at the back of her head, processing that statent. Stronger than Origin Realm. Stronger than the ceiling of what most cultivators even knew existed. The kind of power that belonged in legends, in myths, in stories told to children to make them behave.
Then this old man had to be incredible.
The flight took four hours.
Planet Hevaria erged from the void—a world of red deserts and crystalline mountains, twin suns casting everything in shades of amber and shadow. They descended through a thin atmosphere, the spacecraft’s shields flickering slightly as they entered what must have been a localized mana storm.
They disembarked into a private hangar—sleek, modern, staffed by people in dark uniforms who moved with the efficient urgency of those accustod to dealing with important visitors. No one spoke to them. No one made eye contact. They simply existed around the group like furniture.
A vehicle waited outside the hangar.
Two vehicles, actually. Both luxury models with interiors that probably cost more than Kael’s entire Guardian reward. A man in a crisp suit stood beside the lead vehicle, posture perfect, expression professionally blank.
He bowed as Lyra approached.
"My Lady."
"The usual arrangents," Lyra said.
"Of course."
She gestured toward the vehicles. "Kael, Rue, Aria. You’ll take the second car. Silas is with ."
The man in the suit held open the door of the second vehicle. Kael climbed in first, Rue following, then Aria. The interior was even nicer than it looked from outside.
The vehicles pulled away from the hangar, rging into traffic that flowed through streets lined with buildings made of red stone and crystal.
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