“Do you really think Mathias win against a prime saint without his domain?” Kimika asked sceptically as she watched her senior brother end up on the losing side against O’Brien’s sed disciple, time and time again.

  Though she was sceptical, she didn’t seem all that worried. Especially not with her sed sister standing beside her.

  “Mathias won’t lose!” Lauriel excimed fidently as she calmly watched her husband’s fight whilst casually standing on top of Byrius’ unscious body.

  “Knowing that masochist, he’s probably using that Tana woman as a whetstone so that he finally have his prehensiohrough to the deity realm,” Wukong surmised as he too casually watched the battle whilst sitting zily on the branch of one of the few remaining trees in the area.

  “Masochist?” Lazerim asked with a raised brow as he turo his junior brother. “You’re oo talk about masochism.”

  “This king’s a genius,” Wukong argued back. “You’re just jealous of this king’s brilliance!”

  “I ’t argue with that!” Lazerim sighed. “To think you’ve already begun fusing two profound mysteries…”

  “You say that like you haven’t,” Kimika rolled her eyes as she remembered the tree her third brother created previously.

  It must be remembered that at the saint level, earth mages could form pure diamonds with their mageforce, but Kimika and the others could seraces of adamantium in Lazerim’s tree.

  It was clear that he had begun to fuse the Profound Mysteries of the Essence of Earth with Strength.

  “But look at the age difference,” Lazerim reminded his fourth sister whilst gng at his fifth brother. “I’m over 150 now, whilst little Kong’s only in his 30s. Plus, after his enlighte, his prehension of the Profound Mystery of Movement seems to have reached the level of a prime saint.”

  The more he spoke, the more jealous he became. As it stood, the only reason he was still slightly stronger was because he was a saint, whilst Wukong was still in the middle stages of the ninth rank. The moment he decided he was ready to break through to the saint realm, Wukong’s strength would reach the level of Byrius or maybe even a prime saint.

  “Still, I don’t want to hear you pining,” Kimika snorted as she g her junior brother, not b to hide her envy. “I’m already over 80, and this brat has already caught up to me.”

  If any other saio hear their versation, they’d be hard-pressed not to cough a mouthful of blood of pure frustration.

  One was sidered a peak genius if they were able to break through to the saint realm by the age of 100 and the peak of the saint realm in under 500 years.

  Ead every one of Arianna’s inal disciples had attaihe strength of a peak saint well before 100.

  Still, that only went to show the standards they all had for themselves. It was why they were able to look down on all the saints of their ti with such disdain – at the same level, they were literally invincible!

  Lazerim was just about to reply when they all sensed a sudden ge itle.

  “He did it,” Lauriel said softly with a proud smile.

  “You…

  You just…”

  “That’s right,” Mathias said, cutting Tana off mid-stammer, a proud and fiendish smirk suffusing his face as he looked at the burly axe-wielding Amazonian before him. “I helped you make a breakthrough, and now you helped me make one. Now we’re even; I think it’s finally time to end this.”

  Till now, though Tana had been the one dominating the fight, Mathias had been able to somewhat hold his own.

  There were multiple mitigating factors that went into making such a feat possible. For ohough not quite at the level of Aiden, Wukong, and Kimika, Mathias’ on handling was sublime. To the point where even a warrior like Tana had to admit her inferiority.

  Sed was that Tana’s fighting style matched Mathias perfectly. Had she been a prime saint who focused on speed, Mathias never would’ve been able to pete, being easily dominated. But with her being a power hitter and him being a saint who focused on the edict of destru – the w famed for its overwhelming power – Mathias was in his element.

  Finally, and arguably most importantly, Tana was on her own whilst being watched by four other saints with the power to threaten her, one of whom was no weaker than her, even with her breakthrough.

  The moment the rest of her juniors had lost, she had wao escape, but she had promptly been forced to stay here.

  The only good thing was that it appeared that the others seemed to have no iion of getting involved. Still, the stress of them being there was ultimately a big enough distra that prevented her from being able to go all out.

  Now though, Mathias’ prehension had stepped into the realms of deities. Meaning that even without any support, Mathias could calmly face off against prime saints.

  The moment she sehe ge in Mathias’ aura, Tana gave up attempting to fight her way out. She khat as small as the ce was, if she were to stand any ce of esg with her life, she would have to go for broke and try her best at running.

  Unfortunately, whether she tried to escape ht to the bitter end made no differen Mathias’ eyes.

  “[World Decimation]!” Mathias excimed as he slowly swung his axe from top to bottom.

  Wukong and the others watched with rapt attention, but unlike what they expected, there was no giant axe light or earth-shaking explosion. Instead, Tana’s body simply disied until there was simply nothi.

  “Well, that was anticlimactic,” Wukong yawned zily as he stood up and hopped off the branch.

  It wasn’t that Mathias couldn’t have made it more showy it was just that after his breakthrough, he realised that there was no need.

  “True Gods of Destru ‘destroy’ only what they want to!” Mathias said slowly as he nded on the ground before Lauriel and the others.

  As they looked at him, they couldn’t help but raise their brows slightly as they found his presence had evolved, being closer to that of their master’s. If they had to use a word to describe it, it would be “natural”.

  Uh Arianna, they could still sehias, but it was definitely a lot harder. He seemed to have bee a lot closer to nature.

  “You all stayed here?” Mathias asked as he sed his junior brothers and sisters. “What about Ad Milianna?”

  “Don’t worry,” Kimika said to put his mind at ease. “Elise used our bond of equals to let me know that she picked them all up.

  Apparently, they got caught by another saint, but everyone’s alive and back at the Pavilion.

  With Elise and Jax there, they’ll be safe until we get back.”

  “What about Cesar and Uncle Aiden?” Mathias frowned pensively.

  “Apparently, her of their groups made it back yet,” Kimika replied somewhat edly.

  “I see,” Mathias nodded. “Well, there’s no need for ; with the strength of Uncle Aiden and Cesar, the ces of anything happening to them are virtually ent.”

  “What do you wanna do with him?” Lauriel asked as she casually stomped on Byrius, startling him awake.

  Seeing all of Arianna’s disciple’s still alive and kig with none of his fellow disciples around, Byrius’ heart dropped as the fear of death overwhelmed him.

  “Uncle Aiden will likely want to finish him himself iure,” Mathias sighed. “I’ll take him back to his empire and go get master.

  The rest of you go back to the pavilion to stop any other surprises from happening.”

  At the same time, atop War God’s Mountain, the sound of deafening, violent explosi through the empire, shog and putting the fear of god in the empire’s residents.

  As one of the two most powerful nations on the ti, there wasn’t much that could scare them, but the repeated thunderous roars of battle…

  The only ones capable of creating such terrifying sounds were deities. Most believed that it had to be the High Priest returning to challeheir empire’s founder and spiritual god, but those who were present for Ace’s challenge on War God Mountaihe truth.

  It was hard to believe that one saint was capable of g with a deity for so long, but they khat was the case. And every explosion that resounded was just another reminder of how powerful that woman was and, in turn, how powerful and untouchable this Yin-Yang Pavilion and its students were.

  Still, as shocked as they were, their surprise paled in parison to that of Fain and O’Brien!

  From the very beginning of the fight, O’Brien had been pced firmly on the back foot, and even with Fain’s support, there was rig himself.

  What was even more inceivable was that despite it appearing as though Arianna was going all out to Fain, O’Brien had this nagging suspi that she was still holding back.

  “Mathias,” Arianna called out, her sword ing to a halt mid-swing, giving Fain a ce to escape what looked to be certaih. “Since you’re here, I’m guessing Milianna and the others are safe?”

  O’Brien and Fain had been under so much pressure previously that her of them had detected the arrival of the dishevelled and bloodied man carrying Byrius over his shoulder, but when they did, their eyes couldn’t help but narrow.

  Like Arianna, Mathias was only at the middle stages of the saint realm, but the aura he unknowingly gave off made it clear he wasn’t to be uimated.

  After battling Arianna for so long, they had both uood the implications of her aura, despite being so much weaker, still seeming much closer to nature thaher of theirs.

  “Yes, master. Ad the others suffered a few injuries, but all are alive now and back at the pavilion with Lauriel and the others.

  As for his disciples,” Mathias said, gng indifferently at O’Brien. “Other than this one, all who came paid with their lives.”

  “Good,” Arianna nodded gently as she casually put away her swords. “Let’s go.”

  “Yes, master.” Mathias nodded before tossing Byrius like a rag doll at O’Brien, f Fain to step forward and catch him.

  O’Brien couldn’t remember the st time he had beeed with such disdain, but as much as he hated everything to do with the situation, he didn’t dare say or do anything to agitate the situation further, but before leaving, Arianna’s soft but soul-chilling voitered his ears.

  “I have no iion of harming you or your people, but O’Brien,” As she said to there, Arianna’s voice became several times frostier in a sed as her killing i returned with a vengeance. “If you so much as breathe in my disciple’s dire, I will erase your miserable existence from this world.”

  O’Brien and Faye stood in the skies, silently staring at the spot Arianna disappeared from for several minutes before O’Brie out an enraged roar that shook the whole of the empire as the heat suddenly spiked throughout the whole empire.

  “Fain,” O’Brien growled. “No one is to disturb me; I’ll call for you when I’m ready!”

  Before he even got the ce to respond, Fain could only watch as his master disappeared before turning to Byrius, eared to be the most shaken up of them all.

  “Tell me what happened,” Fain anded his master’s crimson-haired desdant. “I want to know everything about that Mathias fellow and the rest of this Yin-Yang Pavilion’s members…”

  .

  .

  .

  Several hours had passed sihe explosions stopped ringing in the empire, but the mood was anything but harmonious. Most still didn’t know the oute, but from O’Brien’s roar, they could guess that it was less than desirable.

  O’Brien was still in his personal cave, lig his wounds after his humiliati when the doors to his abode opened without his permission.

  “ART OF NO DISTURBANCES DIDN’T YOU UAND?!” O’Brien boomed as he attacked the door without holding baot g who it was.

  Space burnt and ed uhe heat of O’Brien’s attack, but when it approached the door, it simply fizzled out, but even before that, O’Brien’s body had already frozen in shod horror.

  “Lo… Lord Beirut!” O’Brien excimed as he hurriedly took a knee and bowed his head. “I…

  I apologise for my…”

  “The boy and his mother,” Beirut indifferently interrupted the crimson-haired deity from his grovelling. “Where did they e from?”

  O’Brieated when he heard that. As far as he knew, other than opening the doors to a certain ruin every few thousand years, Beirut rarely bothered to i with the rest of the world in any way, shape or form. Hearing him take an i in his woman and son, especially when they may well be the key to everything he’d been dreaming of since his being a deity, how could O’Brien not be hesitant?

  Still, as strong as Arianna was, in front of this man, she was nothing but a child. If Beirut wanted his life, he could only obediently hand it over.

  “The boy, Ace, is my long-lost son, and his mother was once my woman,” O’Brien expined. “She escaped a little over 16 years ago when you st came to see me.”

  “Not that,” Beirut shook his head. “I don’t care about their e to you; I want to know where she’s from.

  Do you know who that Milianna’s parents are?”

  “No, Milord,” O’Brien shook his head respectfully. “As far as I know, Milianna grew up an orphan in an orphanage in my empire.”

  “I see,” Beirut replied vatly, a calcutive light flickering in his eyes as he casually made his way to the exit. ‘The timelines should match. Milianna should be that man’s daughter…’

  “Milord,” O’Brien called out nervously before Beirut disappeared. “Would you like me to pass the order not to touch them as they’re ected to you?”

  Beirut opened his mouth to say yes when an idea suddenly popped into his head and ged his mind.

  “No need,” Beirut shook his head as his body vanished, moving at a speed that not even O’Brien could catch a glimpse of. “What happeween you all is your business; I won’t interfere.”

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  Book 11: Part 18 – Aral Baptism