Kiona jerked awake from her reverie and stared at her master in confusion. She found the situation very odd and perplexing. If he wanted to kill him, then why didn't he do so from the start?
He could have even killed him after the questioning...
Kael felt the rush of Soul Power and smiled in bliss. He could feel the bottleneck on his Soul Core loosening, and so changes began to appear.
But nothing else happened.
'I guess I still need so more kills.'
He turned towards the lion family and found them still confused over his actions. He rolled his eyes and asked, "You seriously don't understand?"
The three shook their heads simultaneously.
"It's pretty simple and an effective way of revenge. You see, he was ready to die when I attacked him, so if I had killed him back then, it wouldn't have a big impact."
He explained with a cold smile on his face.
"He is responsible for the death of your whole pride and for bringing you so much pain. He almost killed you. Did you really think I would let him off so easily?"
He pointed at the corpse and said,
"I gave him hope... and then I shoved it down into the ground right before his eyes."
Kiona felt her body shivering as she looked at her master. This was just too cruel, and even she felt a mild pity toward Stephen, though that quickly disappeared when she rembered what he had done.
He did deserve a death like that.
She pursed her lips, trying to hide the smile blooming on her face. While she was satisfied with her revenge, she also found Kael's actions way too cool, making her heart flutter.
'He did all of that for !'
On the other hand, the twin lions looked at each other and could see the sa thoughts swirling in one another's eyes. They didn't want to beco Kael's enemy—never, ever.
All of a sudden, Kael's deanor changed as he returned to his usual self and smiled, "That concludes our Revenge Arc with our overwhelming victory."
He turned to Kiona and asked, "Are you finally feeling relaxed now that you've got your revenge?"
Kiona lingered for a while before speaking, "It feels... satisfying, but also quite bland. It feels empty."
"Good! You'll get used to it."
"But Master, I have sothing to ask. Do you break promises?" Kiona asked in a low, hesitant voice.
"No? When did I break a promise?" Kael blinked in confusion.
"But you told him..."
Kael waved his hand, "I told him I'd release him, which I did. And that I wouldn't let you guys kill him, which I also fulfilled. I don't see where I broke the promise."
Kiona was left speechless as she thought, 'This works too?'
She shook her head and asked, "What about you swearing on the Dawnfire Goddess? Does your faith lie in her?"
"Quite the opposite. I hate her church," he shrugged. "And I kept my word, so there won't be any consequences. You don't need to worry."
"I know..." Kael took a step forward, and before he knew it, he fell face-first to the ground. His consciousness turned buzzy and hazy, making his thoughts slow.
'W-What is happening? I'm sure I didn't take any powerful poison!'
Alard, Kael tried to find the reason for his strange state and a solution, but his thoughts grew slower, and he began to lose his connection to his senses.
Before he completely blacked out, he heard the concerned and worried voices of Kiona and the twins calling out to him.
'Alpha...'
[Analyzing the abnormalities!]
[Failed! Failed! Failed!]
[An abnormal connection detected!]
[ntal defenses activated!]
[Failed! Failed! Failed!]
[Soul leaving the physical realm!]
[Failed!]
Slowly, the voice of Alpha faded into the background, and a high-pitched voice sounded from all directions.
[Ranked up quite fast, eh?]
Kael jerked awake upon hearing the familiar voice and looked around him in panic. But that action made him even more confused and nervous.
The world around him had changed completely, and all he could see were strange surroundings represented by chaotic colors.
They were moving randomly, and he felt his head spinning just from observing so of them. What kind of place was this?
[Beautiful, isn't it?]
He blinked—or at least tried to blink—when he realized he wasn't in his body. Instead, he was a similar blob of silver color that seed to be distorting on itself.
He tried to raise his hand but felt a weird sensation coursing through both his body and mind. It felt like they weren't in sync. One second, he felt his 'hand' was down, but when he tried to raise it, it was suddenly right before his face.
But when he moved it slightly back, it was behind him...
'The hell is this shit?' Kael wanted to curse out loud, but even that wasn't possible.
[Haha! Don't think too much about it, otherwise your brain will get fried. This is the Astral World.]
Kael cald down and asked through their ntal connection, 'Old man Draven, why did you drag out to this strange world?'
[I didn't. You ca here by yourself, but I do have a hand in keeping you here. I wanted you to experience this realm. It's beautiful, right?]
Kael noticed the weirdly nostalgic tone in Draven's voice and raised an eyebrow. Did this strange Astral World an a lot to the Ancient Dragon, or was he just reminiscing about old battles?
'It is kinda beautiful,' Kael admitted, looking at the chaotic mix of various colors around him.
[This is the Astral World—a transcendent realm overlapping the Physical World. Everything here is jumbled up and chaotic, including the concepts like space, ti, and direction.]
'Interesting. So, do we need so powerful soul to co here?' Kael asked, intrigued by this strange world.
[Yes. Your evolution is supporting your current Astral Projection. Otherwise, E-Rank isn't really enough to observe the Astral World.]
'I see. So evolution basically connects you better to the Astral World?' Kael guessed.
[Smart. Anyways, we can talk about this later. The real reason I made you stay is because I wanted to show you sothing. As I said, direction and space are ssed up here. What might be a thousand kiloters in the Physical World could be just an arm's length here—or even vice versa.]
'Wait! Is this how you teleported into the Valoran Wilds?'
[Yes. I used the Astral World to do that. This world encompasses everything and anything, so I can use it to go anywhere in a very short ti, because ti itself is also chaotic here.]
Kael's heart thumped loudly as a possibility began to rise within him—sothing he so dearly wished.
[Yes, you can travel back to your old world using the Astral World. You just need to grow strong enough to travel through it.]
He could go back to Earth... to his mother... to his family...
In this Astral World.
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