“You dare!” Ziza trembled with fury and pointed his finger at Asher.
“Cease him this instant!”
The knights swiftly closed the gap, but to their shock, their control over their force faltered. The solidified water that formed the spearhead dissolved mid-air, splashing uselessly to the ground!
Then, as if their very essence had been stripped away, they fell to their knees, their bodies devoid of power.
The noblemen and women were initially stunned into silence, but as respected figures in their midst began to gasp and collapse, dread crept over the crowd like a chilling mist.
Jonah, once a symbol of unshakable strength, now wavered precariously. His knees buckled, sending him crashing to the stone ground. The sound of his impact was like a crack of thunder, and yet, instead of his flesh tearing, the stone beneath him formed a web of jagged cracks, as if the very earth itself was shattering under the force.
Ziza’s fall was without grace. His fall, face-flat to the ground, was the least of his worries as he found it hard to move his own body.
Panic clawed in their chests; their bodies weren’t used to the loss of their force and so broke down. Although they were bound to recover, it didn’t change the reality before them:
Their enemy could easily cut them down in an instant.
Ziza had to admit that their noblemen and women, those that were not affected, were useless.
None of them could help at a time like this.
‘Did anything happen to Okeanos?!’ Jonah’s eyes widened. For some reason, a terrible certainty gripped him—this white-eyed man approaching the platform was the cause.
“You are a disgrace to me, to my name, to my throne, to my cause!” Zorah’s voice, simmering with anger, rumbled like thunder as it came from Asher’s mouth.
Undisturbed, he ascended to the top of the platform, staring down at Jonah, who was still struggling to move.
“Okeanos… you chose him?”
Asher’s white eyes pierced through Jonah. A sharp, unnatural chill ran down Jonah’s spine. Then he felt it.
Glowing droplets of water seeped out of his back and rose into the air.
Terror gripped him.
Okeanos, the mythical beast, the mother of Clan El, was stripping the power from her very own chosen one?
She was taking away her force from him!
Just then, the great doors of the hall exploded outward, their wooden slab reduced to splinters. A gray-haired man stepped forward, his presence radiating authority despite being clad in a simple woolen robe.
His staff remained grounded firmly in one hand, as if an extension of himself. His other hand remained outstretched, palm facing the now opened door. The implication was clear: he was the one who had unleashed that blast of wind, blowing the door open with effortless ease.
“It’s Lord Matthew.”
The whispers of relief from the crowd were nothing to Matthew compared to the chilling weight of those white eyes staring down at him.
Matthew’s knees crashed into the floor with a dull thud, his lips parting in desperate reverence. “Your Lordship, forgive us. We were ignorant of your presence.”
“Listen to the boy. He’s different,” Zorah said through Asher, and the white eyes dissipated.
The glowing water droplets fused back with Jonah. He and the others, who had been struggling a moment ago, slowly rose to their feet. But their expression had transformed.
Their mockery had turned to apprehension.
Matthew let out a relieved sigh as he stood up. “Lord Asher, Okeanos requests a word with you.”
Asher cast a fleeting glance at Jonah before descending the stairs, his entourage—Nero and Moses—falling into step behind him. As they exited the hall, Jonah turned to Ziza, concern flickering across his face.
“Where is Alicia?”
_____
Matthew’s thoughts churned as he followed. ‘I see. So the reason Lord Zorah has accepted him, a member of that family, is because of that sword.’
His gaze flickered to Euodias, which Asher had taken from the guards on their way out of the hall.
They boarded a carriage straight to the sanctuary—a grand edifice made of stones, its entrance framed with towering monoliths on both sides.
Blue-armored guards stood in formation, swords sheathed at their waists.
Asher glanced at the exquisitely forged basket hilts strapped to their waist belts. Just an observation.
Upon entering the hall, he noticed that the Sanctuary was just a cavern with a large pool at its center and an opening at the roof from which the light filtered in.
A voice, soft yet edged with history, broke the silence.
“Do not be offended, Lord Asher. We just haven’t grown past what the Ashbournes did to our ancestors centuries ago.”
“They betrayed him,” Asher said.
The voice continued. “They chopped off his right arm after killing his pet beast and feeding its flesh to other wolves. Then, he was exiled to these lands which we call Bashan. Even after being exiled, a troop was sent to hunt for him. If he was caught, he would die. If they failed, he would live. A cruel game.”
A calm female voice came from the golden scaled koi who no one knew when it emerged from the pool’s depths.
Although Asher could see its large head, blue eyes and long fleshy whiskers, he couldn’t see its tail!
The fish’s scales were as thick as those of a dragon, and its massive head hinted at its truly enormous body, suggesting a length that was anything but modest.
Okeanos blinked. “They never intended for him to survive. I was surprised that he chose to let go of the treachery of your House—until I saw Euodias. That sword holds the spirit of his wolf, and it will kill anyone that isn’t Zorah.”
Shing!
Asher unsheathed Euodias.
A phantom wolf, massive and spectral, appeared behind him. After Asher’s journey to the spirit world and back, Euodias had dropped all the hate it had for him.
It now loomed behind him, watchful.
“El…” Matthew’s pupils shook.
“You’re different.” Okeanos regarded Asher with an unreadable expression.
Asher exhaled, his grip firm on the hilt. “House Ashbourne was wiped out by my father when he still stuck to the traditions of our predecessors. My sister and I are the last of the Ashbourne lineage and a new generation.”
He sheathed his sword.
“You are more than a new generation,” Okeanos mused. “You are Kryos.”
Her calm tone made Asher raise an eyebrow.
She knew all along?!
This being right here, was the foundation of this clan’s power. Kill her, and the clan would become powerless overnight! A fatal flaw.
Yet Okeanos was no mere leader. She was like the Golden Rider, a mythical guardian beast.
Okeanos was clearly more powerful since she was able to build a network with hundreds of thousands of humans, sharing her energy with them.
They thrived through her, not through battle force or magi force, which was why everything about them simply had to do with water.
It was also the reason everyone here had blue eyes.
Such a network also made Okeanos more powerful than anything Asher had ever faced, yet she was also the most fragile!
And to make things even worse, the energy Asher felt from the gray-haired man was beyond the Exalted rank!
“Why are you here?” Okeanos questioned.
Asher sighed. “To forge an alliance. I believe we can benefit from each other.”
Okeanos floated around the water in a slow, measured circle. “I accept. But in return, I need your ice for something, something that would benefit us both.”
Creases formed on Asher’s forehead. “And what would that be?”
The koi’s blue eyes gleamed, her voice dropping lower. “To kill a red dragon.”