Leon patiently waited as Kai’s comrades arrived at the clearing where he waited for them. He still had a menacing aura hanging around him, so when they arrived, they paused, hesitating. But their faces were stern. Under the pressure from Leon’s aura, they could not clearly feel whether or not Kai was still alive.
“He’s still alive.” As if he could read their minds, Leon raised his arm that held Kai and shook him slightly, causing the young man to let out a pained groan.
“Let him go!” Joseph wanted to take a step forward, but paused when a spike of earth jutted out below Kai’s head and pricked his chin, causing a line of fresh blood to run down his chin.
“I would not try anything rash if I were you. I don’t want to kill such a promising individual.” Leon chuckled. He took a look at Kai, who had returned to his normal self after losing consciousness. His other persona, Lynx, was also out cold.
“What do you want?” Everyone was agitated, but out of all the Beastkin present, Estella managed to regain a bit of composure the earliest. She hesitantly asked Leon what he wanted in exchange for Kai’s life.
“Hmm, well I do not know much about you, but I have to assume that you all are important in the Gublin Empire. I will have to think of what I need from you all.” Leon hummed. “Until then, I would prefer to drag you all in chains.” He grin fiendishly at them.
“Don’t be stupid! If we do not get back in a certain amount of time, then people will look for us. You don’t have the means to hide us from those who will come looking for us!” Joseph growled. He knew very well that they were on the lower stand in this bargain.
“Don’t worry, I won’t do anything too brash to you. I will just say this, follow me to clear this tower. If you do anything I consider to be detrimental to my plans, then I will kill him, and the rest of you will follow.” Leon said, his voice turning dark and icy.
Silence stretched out in the dark as the party from Gublin exchanged looks. They did not see any other choice. They did not think that they could outrun Leon, and any attempts to call for help would most likely alert Leon. It would not take him long to kill them and flee then.
“We accept your terms.” Estella took in a deep breath and said. In the back of her mind, she prayed to Dardan that they could get through this alive.
“Good. You can just follow me. I will keep hold of Kai here for now.” Leon tipped his head with a grin on his face and turned around. He had still yet to find the path to the next floor, so he needed to be quick.
.
.
“He is strong. Kai is also an ‘Ace Candidate’.” In a dimly lit room, two people laid on a bed, their legs tangled under the velvety sheets. The woman who spoke had a head full of luscious red hair. The sheets were draped over her full chest, but did nothing to hide her body from the man in bed with her.
“Of course, he is strong. He is my candidate, after all.” The man with gunmetal hair grunted. He reached forward to push a few strands of red hair behind the woman’s ear, revealing her mischievous eyes.
“My father’s candidate, you mean.” Asteria chuckled.
“Well, not really. I have done all the work, so Leon is my candidate.” Michael laughed with her. “Dardan will be pissed when he hears that one of his candidates tasted defeat at the hands of my sole candidate.”
“I will make sure to steer clear of that. I can already imagine the sight.” Asteria sighed, leaning forward to rest her head on Michael’s chest.
“Hmm.” Michael hummed and held her close, but he had a thoughtful expression on his face.
The Gods had chosen several people as Ace Candidates. They were the aces of this world when the approaching darkness arrived. Most of the aces had come from the world itself, while a few had come from other worlds.
Michael had also taken Leon from another world, but it was different from the others. Earth was a lesser world. Not one that was worse than the current world, but lesser in the sense that it lacked an abundance of mana. That would change in time, but that was a story for another time.
Anyway, because of the fact that lesser worlds did not have mana, the souls that were born there were much more malleable to the workings of mana. It allowed those souls to adapt and grown in incomprehensible manners when exposed to the wonders of mana.
This was part of the reason why Leon’s growth had been so stellar. Technically, Leon was only a few months old in this world. Yet, he had already reached A rank. It was simply absurd in comparison to the other ace candidates that had been picked from mana abundant worlds.
Take Kai, for example. He was an ace candidate that came from a world that was similar to the current one. The world of Hestia, where Kai’s soul had been originally born in, was a world that was a bit more behind in terms of mana development when compared to the current world. The fact that his soul had not originally been configured with this world in mind had made it slightly more malleable to mana in this world, but the effects were still much more limited in scope.
There were many other examples all over the world. But Michael did not pay attention to all of them. Instead, he paid attention to the best of all of them, and most importantly, he paid attention to Leon. He wanted to make sure that Leon faced adequate opposition as he grew in order to temper him for what was to come.