Sleepless Night

Blaze was dismayed, to say the least.

He sensed Leus' aura before he saw him, Causing him to quicken his pace to almost running. And when he saw him waiting outside in the garden his suspicions were confirmed.

'What the hell happened that he became like this'

Blaze knew Leus' aura like the back of his hand, He noticed every single change in it, The places that darkened, The places that intensified, everything.

He didn't understand exactly what happened or what that meant but one thing was sure

'Whatever happened wasn't a good thing, That much is understandable'

Blaze stood in front of Leus but didn't say anything, He was just staring at Leus' aura and hair.

Leus looked back at him and didn't say anything either, They stayed for a couple of minutes like this, Until eventually

Blaze hugged Leus

"Are you okay?"

That's when Leus broke down and literally burst into tears.

For the first time, he was able to actually share his emotions with someone who could understand him

Arno did understand him as well, However, Leus wasn't as emotionally comfortable around Arno as he was around Blaze, his relationship with Arno had its boundaries.

It's true that Leus trusts Arno a lot, And seriously considers him as a grandfather figure, not just a Master. But still, Arno isn't his father.

It took long.

Blaze didn't interrupt Leus or say anything, He let him bawl and weep as much as he needed, Neither of them knew how many minutes passed like that, But Blaze felt relieved

'It's good for him to cry'

And so he waited and waited until Leus stopped sobbing and washed his face with Water then asked

"Do you want to talk about it?"

What came to Blaze's mind was that

'Maybe Scar or whatever his name was abused something Leus taught him or used his power on innocent people and Leus had to kill his first friend'

But when he heard the actual story from Leus he was both astonished and concerned

'First of all, I didn't expect such an elaborate incident to happen so soon ...'

He was astonished because

'Never in my life I've heard of a Knight capable of using a Skill, and I've seen many many Knights dying in front of me.

Whatever Arno said about exceeding limits and achieving a breakthrough after facing mortal danger is indeed true, But ... Theory crafting doesn't work in real life, people just die.'

And at the same time, he was worried because

'I didn't expect Leus to commit a massacre and not feel any guilt or remorse about it.

His entire story revolves around himself and his so-called friends, with absolutely no regard for anyone else.

He doesn't even know if those he killed are actually all just The Butchers or had some other people been with them, Actually, He doesn't care.'

The contrast in Leus' personality was very confusing for Blaze

'He's nice and likes to help people, But at the same time, he mercilessly slaughters those whom he deems worth dying ...

You'd expect someone nice like him to be benevolent, or at the very, very least, Opt for clean kills, Especially since he can easily do it.

Yet he opted for horrendously committing a gruesome massacre...'

He decided to have a talk about it with Leus later,

'He must not become a monster himself while trying to kill monsters'

Throughout his life, Blaze has seen far too many people getting consumed by their desire for revenge

'Sometimes, seeking vengeance isn't the right thing to do, and if it's a must, then he shouldn't transform into a deranged monster in the process, I don't want my son to end up like that.'

However, He decided that he wouldn't talk about it now.

Right now Leus is grieving in his own way, Whatever he says won't get through to him, or he might interpret it in an incorrect way resulting in him not accepting Blaze's advice in the future

'After all, He's still a kid'

So Blaze would wait, And right now, He'll do his best to ease Leus' pain.

Blaze spent a while talking with Leus in the garden, When Leus explained to him the details of the process of his training he became shocked

"You think you will be able to learn multiple Abstracts?"

Blaze couldn't wrap his head around that fact

'I spent most of my life trying to unlock my Domain and Regeneration Abstract ... Does Arno really think he can unlock multiple?'

"How many Crystals are there again?"

"Three of each element"

Blaze's mouth became agape

"Are you sure he said ELITE mana?"

Leus nodded

"That's crazy"

"What's crazy?"

"Money ... Crazy money ... We're talking about gold coins in 3 digits, Elite Mana Crystal means that he filled the Crystals with Mana from Elite Mages"

"It's that expensive?"

Blaze nodded

"The Crystals themselves are expensive, Then he has to send them to an appropriate mage to fill them.

Depending on the amount of Mana needed it could take weeks to fill them.

Just think about hiring someone like ... Remedy, oh that reminds me, Remedy became an Elite, 

Anyway, Hiring someone like Remedy to sit in a room and fill a Crystal with Mana all day.

Not only that, some of these Crystals must've been filled by Elites residing in the capital.

Damn, I can't afford that even if I sold my house"

Leus was speechless, He knew that it was expensive but he didn't think much about it, He didn't expect it to be THAT expensive

'Ahhh- This just makes it more pressurizing for me to unlock the Abstract only in 3 sessions'

Leus sighed

After they both regained their wits they kept conversing for a while about how things would be from now on, And Leus told Blaze how he should contact him in an emergency if he was still inside the Barrier

Eventually, After they were done talking about the important things Leus asked Blaze

"So Remedy became an Elite Mage?"

Blaze nodded

"Yeah, Looks like it happened two years ago or so but I never heard about it until recently.

There was an event, The Luminous Ascent, where they gathered Light Affinity people to go to the Capital and become Healers and Mages.

Strangely, both the death of the old Elite Light Mage of the Duchy and Remedy's rising happened around that time. Strange coincidence huh"

"Heh, Okay? What's even The Luminous Ascent? Why only Light Affinity people?"

Blaze shrugged

"No idea, something like that happens every 10 years or so, it seems that the Kingdom lacks Light Mages, so they gather people and train them to become Mages and healers.

funnily enough, despite their efforts, the number of Elite Light Mages never increased throughout my lifetime, it has always been just 1"

" ... I see"

Blaze turned to Leus and said

"Enough talking about irrelevant matters, Go to sleep now.

You will need to stay awake as much as possible inside the Barrier"

Leus nodded and went inside with Blaze

He went and lay down on the bed

'I need to create my Moral Code like I promised Arno ...'

'It should be simple'

Leus thought about it for a bit

'My main priority is to protect my loved ones.'

'Rule 1: Kill those who are a threat to my family and friends.'

'As for myself ... Hmm, I can deal with those who threaten me, I'm not going to kill everyone who displeases me or something'

'Rule 2: Deal appropriately with those who threaten Only me'

'Oh well, I think that's enough, right?'

' ... Ah, and just so I don't find a loop hole'

'Rule 3: Don't use power, connection, or underhanded means to kill people.'

'Rule 4: Kill everyone by myself.'

Leus smiled in satisfaction

'Right, I think this is pretty good'

'Now all I have to do is to adhere to it'

Leus vowed in his heart

'I'll always follow this Code.'

Then he drained all his Mana on random spells and Forced himself to sleep.

However, As soon as he regained 20% of his Mana he had a nightmare and got up, The image of Kenton's body didn't leave his mind.

The process repeated, He'd force himself to sleep then as soon as he regained 20% of his mana he'd have a nightmare and get up.

His night was sleepless; He kept awakening every few minutes, At some point he even thought to himself

'This is terrible, I'm ending up more tired than I was before I started sleeping'

He suffered the entire night but on the bright side

'All the physical pain and annoyance is making it too difficult for any emotional pain to hit me, Except for the horrible nightmares ... '

Because Leus kept consuming his mana, He was constantly tired and exhausted, And because his sleep kept getting interrupted and disturbed by the nightmares, His head was severely paining because of both the lack of Mana/Stamina and the lack of sleep.

Overall, The sleepless night was terrible, Still, Leus preferred it over the heartache he felt when he wasn't suffering from pain and exhaustion.

That's why Leus kept repeating the same thing until dawn.