Inside the Rosaria Household, in the sa reception room where Atlas and Seraphiel had made their contract agreent, Seraphiel was sitting on the couch. This ti she was leaning back with a relaxed expression, no business on her mind for the mont.
She sighed and looked at Flora standing beside the couch. "Hah...Flora, can you now guess as to why I made the contract with him? And even gave up the favour my father had on Veloran?"
Flora shook her head. "No, My Lady...I am still in contemplation as to why you would go that far for a commoner Explorer just because he found an Epic Rank Relic."
Seraphiel smiled slightly at that reply. From Flora’s perspective she was completely right. That was the only information Flora had and from that alone the decision did look excessive. Seraphiel picked up the spherical relic Atlas had brought back from the Abyss-Rank Ruin and held it on her palm.
"Do you know what this relic is?"
Flora looked at it and shook her head again. "It looks peculiar My Lady, but I don’t feel that much Spirit emitting from it...so my conclusion is, it’s an....Uncommon grade relic."
Seraphiel chuckled softly. "Haha Flora, this relic is even above Epic grade. That’s exactly why you can’t sense a massive amount of Spirit from it."
Flora’s expression shifted but she stayed quiet and listened.
"It’s a Mythic Rank Relic." Seraphiel continued, rotating it slowly between her fingers as she looked at it. "I don’t know if he is lucky or sothing else entirely but...to gain sothing of this caliber from a single ruin makes him the most valuable resource for information and relics that our Household could have."
Flora’s eyes went wide. She processed the words several tis before she managed to respond. "I understand that Lady Seraphiel but...when you made the contract with him, he didn’t have this value yet, right? So how did you conclude that he could beco this valuable?"
Seraphiel turned toward her and smiled again. "Flora, you know that he cleared twelve Hollow-Rank Ruins in just twelve days right? From that alone one could draw certain conclusions and...not only that. When I asked for his information from the Guild in private, I learned that he had undergone an assessnt and was officially a C-rank Explorer at that point but...just twelve days later he had beco an A-rank."
Seraphiel paused and let Flora take that in.
The more Flora processed it, the wider her eyes got. She couldn’t put together how a growth rate like that was even possible within the rules of how cultivation worked.
"Flora, you are an A-rank. A peak A-rank at that." Seraphiel looked at her. "Tell , how much ti did it take you to reach this stage?"
"It-It took a whole year to reach A-rank from B-rank..." Flora spoke slowly, her expression sowhere between disbelief and confusion. "How can a Human reach it in twelve days? It doesn’t make any sense...."
Seraphiel gave her a mont before continuing. "Even I needed six months to go from B-rank to A-rank. And when he told about his growth, he had also added that he was planning to enter an Abyss-Rank Ruin alone...that’s exactly why he wanted to have that weapon made."
Flora’s attention ca fully back to Seraphiel as she listened.
"When he ca back with that scythe, it gave off an ominous aura. I didn’t think much of it at the ti because he had told it was Legendary grade...but now, looking at this Mythic relic he just pulled out of that sa Abyss-Rank Ruin, I think we can both agree that the favour to Veloran was not too much to pay." Seraphiel finished and looked at Flora.
Flora nodded slowly, though her expression still carried so disbelief about the whole situation.
A knock ca from outside the room.
"Co in."
Horliax entered. The Household steward walked in with his usual calm face and his hands crossed in front of him. Seraphiel looked at him. "Did you deal with that pesky Ronan?"
Horliax smiled and stretched out his right hand toward her. "Yes My Lady. I even retrieved the relic from him. That Luxas was really tough...he gave Kaelion a hard ti but nonetheless we dislocated his arm. It will take at least a month to recover."
Seraphiel arched an eyebrow. "Luxas gave Kaelion a hard ti?...did he use relics?"
"Yes, you are spot on as always My Lady." Horliax spoke calmly. "He used an Ancestral grade relic that nullified Kaelion’s attacks completely...but as always he overca that within a few minutes and almost crippled Luxas."
Seraphiel nodded with a small smile and took the relic from Horliax’s hand. It was the sa one Ronan had stolen. She examined it briefly before setting it on the glass table in front of her. Then she turned back to Horliax.
"Now, let inform you about so good news, Horliax....."
- - -
At the sa ti, far away from the noble district of Lumivale, in front of the Abyss-Rank Ruin, Atlas stood looking down at both assassins.
Blood continued flowing from their heads. Even in that state their eyes stayed focused and their hands hadn’t loosened around the daggers. That was the part Atlas was most careful about. Atlas did not know that they were trained from birth for exactly this kind of situation and a downed assassin with a weapon still in hand was not the sa as a finished one.
But he did know they were still thinking and planning sothing, and Atlas had to be careful about that.
After Atlas finished his earlier statent about pulling their organs out, the two of them glanced at each other for just a mont. Their heads were slightly embedded in the cracked ground but the look between them was deliberate.
A signal passed between them.
Atlas caught it but before he could act on what he noticed, both their bodies began to glow. The Spirit around them fluctuated violently, the pressure of it spiking outward in an instant. Atlas read the situation imdiately and grabbed the scythe from where it was embedded in the ground, pulling it free and trying to move—
’Shit!’
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
An ear-deafening explosion erupted that swallowed Atlas and the surrounding area completely.
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