Book 5: Chapter 1 – A Little Detour

It had been a week since the end of the battle by Redwin Town.

Although it hadn't spread to the regular citizens, with the extensive intelligence-gathering capabilities of each of the continent's major forces, all the senior executives of each of those superpowers had heard the news of the result, and without a doubt, they were all left speechless.

The least surprising but still noteworthy fact was the breakthrough of Kaymin Banux to the saint realm. Although he was only an early-stage saint and had even lost an arm, he was still an elite among elites that had broke through as a warrior and mage. They didn't doubt for a minute that he could challenge and even defeat some of the weaker mid-stage saints.

The second point that came as a shock was the strength that Aiden showed when neutralising the War God's 22nd disciple.

By single-handedly almost defeating a well-known peak-stage saint like the Rohault Empire's Elder Ejiro and even taking Kaymin's arm, it was clear that Lanke wasn't your average peak saint, and yet, Aiden, a mortal, was able to defeat him with surprising ease.

Though the commoners believed that those like the former duke Kaymin and Olivier, the O'Brien Empire's sword prodigy were the strongest mortals on the continent, those in the know already knew that none of them could compare to Aiden.

But since his clash with Byrius O'Brien a few hundred years ago, Aiden seemed to have all but disappeared. They didn't know if he was alive or dead, but as far as they were concerned, even if he was still alive, he had to have reached his limits in strength. But now they realised they couldn't have been any further from the truth.

Learning of Aiden's prowess as a mere mortal made all their eyes light up with greed as they desperately wanted to know his secrets.

Unfortunately, the strength he showed put him on a level just below that of the few prime saints on the continent. The number of people that could match him in terms of power could be counted on one hand. As a result, as much as they wanted to know the secret behind his improvement, they were at a loss for how to go looking for answers.

But without a shadow of a doubt, the thing that they were all most shocked by was the boy known as Gol D. Ace.

With a bit of digging, they were all able to uncover that it was the same Ace that had set the record for spiritual essence during the school selections almost seven years ago.

That in and of itself was shocking, as it was common knowledge that he somehow had no elemental affinity, so when they then learnt that not only had he somehow fixed his lack of affinity problem but also reached the profound realm of comprehension in the laws of fire, how could they not be dumbfounded.

The only faction that wasn't all that surprised by the ability Ace showed was the Dark Alliance led by the Cult of Shadows. They had already experienced Ace's power first-hand.

What they were surprised to learn was that, unlike what Amira had told them, Ace wasn't actually a member of the Rohault Empire. Instead, he and Amira both appeared to be students of the mysterious Yin-Yang Pavilion.

It was after learning that that many of the higher-ups in the know began to speculate that Aiden was either the senior brother that Wukong had mentioned was the head of the Pavilion or potentially Wukong's master.

Either way, what they did know was that this mysterious new organisation was one that they needed to learn more about.

Unfortunately, there was simply too little information for them to go off.

But whilst all the other major forces were scrambling to gather as much information as possible about this new mystery force, the whole of the Rohault Empire was celebrating like never before.

After their win, not only had there been no movement on the side of the O'Brien Empire, even the steppe riders of the great plains had decided to retreat from their battlefield, giving up some of their territories in order to sign a temporary peace treaty.

The decision of the steppe riders wasn't hard to understand. With the Rohault Empire no longer having to focus the majority of its army on the O'Brien Empire, it would easily be able to focus on suppressing and defeating them.

Luckily for them, Emperor Jordon Rohault had never seen them as anything more than a whetstone for his soldiers.

The Steppe riders only had a single mid-stage saint and a couple of saints at the early stages. If they had really wanted to conquer them, it would've been a simple endeavour.

The main reason the Jordon agreed to sign the 10-year peace treaty was that he understood that although the O'Brien Empire had retreated, this was merely the peace before the storm.

He didn't know what the O'Brien was waiting for nor when they would be ready, but when they finally returned to the battlefield, the war would likely be the most brutal his Empire had ever seen.

He just wanted his citizens to be able to enjoy this little stretch of peace whilst it lasted.

As the guests of honour, Ace, Killian, and Leonel had been forced to stay and celebrate with the army the whole week, and as a result, it was only this evening that they finally departed. Not that Ace was complaining.

After declaring his undying love for Amira, the two teens become virtually inseparable, and although they had both agreed to wait, their feelings for one another were clear as day.

Seeing how the two love birds were acting together, the Empress had to drag her 'daughter' away to borderline interrogate her on what was happening.

When Amira revealed that Ace had confessed his love for her and even stolen her first kiss, the very pregnant saint was a hair's breadth from banishing the young hero of her husband's empire and grounding Amira to keep them apart, but when she heard that Ace had been the one to say he wanted to wait until his business with O'Brien had concluded, off his own back no less, her opinion of the youngster improved greatly.

When she looked at the infatuation on her niece's face, she couldn't help but ask if she was worried that Ace wouldn't be able to defeat the War God, and in response, all she got was an "Ace won't lose!"

The look on Amira's face as she said that was calm and composed with a hint of adoration, but there was no hesitation; it was as if she was stating a fact.

Thinking about the relationship between her brother and his wife, and now Ace and Amira, she couldn't help but feel slightly envious. As much as she loved Jordon, she knew it would never be the same as the relationship between soulmates.

Still, other than a hint of envy, she mainly felt happy. Amira, the girl she raised as though she were her own, had found someone reliable that would make her happy.

After being seen off, Ace, Kil, and Leo were making their way towards the Forest of Darkness, preparing to return to the Pavilion after completing everything they set out to do, with each of them having seen a significant improvement in strength and Ace having successfully cleared his head reaching a state of focus and happiness he didn't think was possible all things considered.

But ever since they left, Ace could sense there was something off with Killian.

Although Kil hadn't said anything and was trying to hide it as best he could, Ace's [Observation] had long since reached the stage where he could read the emotions of those around him.

"Okay, that's it," Ace suddenly came to a stop surprising both Kil and Leo as he turned to face his sworn brother. "Are you gonna tell me what's wrong, or do I need to beat it out of you?"

"It's fi…" Killian suddenly stopped himself before he finished his lie as he saw the dangerous glint in Ace's eye.

Knowing that Ace wasn't kidding about beating the truth out of him, a helpless sigh escaped Killian's lips. "I didn't want to say anything to ruin your mood."

"Ahh, that hurt!" Killian exclaimed as he rubbed the back of his head where Ace had slapped him. "What was that for?"

"Because you're an idiot!" Ace snorted. "We're brothers! If you have a problem, you should know I'll always be here for you!

Now hurry up and tell me what's got you in a mood."

Killian couldn't help but feel warm inside hearing that, but seeing the dangerous glint in Ace's eye, he didn't dare to hesitate for fear of getting slapped again.

"It's not that I don't want to tell you; I just don't understand it much myself," Killian said as he looked at the sky, not entirely sure of his current thoughts and feelings. "For some reason, I haven't been able to stop thinking about Alissa recently."

When he heard that, Ace couldn't help but think back to Killian's odd behaviour over the last week.

This little brother of his had never been particularly sociable, but this last week, Killian's been particularly restless.

At first, he believed it was because they were in a home that wasn't theirs, surrounded by people he didn't know, but now it all made sense.

Even if Killian didn't know it, Ace had always suspected that Killian had feelings for the young assassin but didn't know what to do with those feelings. Seeing him and Amira getting so close must've triggered him without him even realising.

'I'm sorry, Kil,' Ace thought to himself as he looked at the dark-skinned herculean teen before him. 'I've been so focused on Amira that I didn't even realise your struggles.'

"Let's go find her," Ace said suddenly, taking Killian by surprise and causing him to hesitantly shake his head.

"If you can't get her out of your head, why not go find her?" Ace asked.

"She was part of the team that tried to kill us…" Kil sighed.

A soft sigh escaped Ace as he had long since come to understand that Killian had never completely forgiven the young assassin for her part in the attempt on their life almost a decade ago.

"Kil, you need to understand that Alissa was raised as an assassin," Ace explained slowly. "To her, it wasn't personal; we were just another mission."

"How can I let it go?" Killian asked back, his feelings still a little confusing. "What if she had killed one of us?"

As his voice trailed off, a dense killing intent erupted from Ace.

"If they had killed a single one of us, I would've slaughtered every single member of Sabre!" Ace said coldly before his casual smile returned as though it had been there the whole time. "But since they didn't, why hold a grudge?

The one deserving of our anger was Lina Baruch, but since we learnt the truth about her tainted soul, there's no point holding on to all that negativity any longer."

Killian didn't respond immediately. Instead, he simply stared at Ace, his thoughts running at 100 miles per hour, before eventually sighing helplessly. "I need to speak to Alissa!"

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Book 6: Chapter 38 – A Race