"Did I say that?"
Sevrak gave a grin that feigned surprise. "I thought I’d made my intentions clear from the beginning."
It was an obvious lie, and he didn’t seem to care. He knew there would be no consequences—power had made sure of that.
"Besides, my grandson is the pride of the Umbraen race. He just turned 35 and has already reached Rank 2. Serving soone like him should be considered an honor for a mortal. Aren’t you the ones always preaching serve, obey, and sacrifice? Well—here’s your chance." His tone dripped with mockery.
"Those words are the teachings of the Astra Church. How dare you say that so shalessly?" Liora looked visibly enraged. Even if those words weren’t directly spoken by the gods, they still embodied the people’s faith.
But Sevrak remained indifferent. "I’m just stating facts."
Disrespecting other gods and Paths was sothing utterly unacceptable—unthinkable, even. But to him, it was nothing more than a belief system the people had made up.
"Hmph." Liora seethed at his condescending tone and the way he belittled the Velari people. The others likely felt the sa—neither Lucen nor Mirela attempted to interrupt. They simply listened.
"So what if your grandson reached Rank 2 at 35? That’s hardly impressive." Liora scoffed and glanced at Malrik—but imdiately t his uneasy gaze.
Malrik had only reached Rank 2, approaching the age of 100. He couldn’t compare to a so-called genius.
Liora faltered, unsure how to continue. Her eye twitched. She couldn’t use Malrik as an example—but then her gaze landed on Adyr. A slow, sly smile spread across her face.
"And what does your grandson amount to in front of a real genius like Adyr? He’s not even 20, yet he’s already Rank 2." She crossed her arms, clearly pleased with her rhetorical victory.
Why the fuck are you dragging into this?
Adyr kept the thought to himself. On the outside, his expression remained calm, exactly how a true genius was expected to look.
"Twenty?" Sevrak’s brows drew together. He wasn’t an Astra Path, so he lacked their sensitivity to life energy and couldn’t accurately gauge age. Still, he could clearly sense that Adyr was Rank 2, and the boy looked young. Very young.
Of course, the higher one climbed, especially in the Astra Path, the younger they tended to appear. But even with that in mind, Adyr looked unnaturally young.
"Is that true?" Sevrak asked, his voice filled with disbelief.
A Rank 2 practitioner at 20? He hadn’t expected to find soone of that caliber in this region. And the irony was—Adyr wasn’t even 20 yet. He was still only 18.
"Yes, Lord Sevrak," Adyr replied calmly and politely. He couldn’t risk lying here. These weren’t the kind of people who would miss a falsehood.
"It’s my first ti seeing such a promising Velari," Sevrak said, narrowing his eyes. "Assuming you’re actually one of them."
Adyr stiffened slightly, wondering if his mask had slipped—but he kept it from showing. He said nothing, waiting.
Liora answered for him. "Of course, he’s a Velari. Does it bother you that soone from our bloodline might surpass you?"
She snapped without hesitation, her tone biting.
This ti, Mirela and Lucen visibly tensed. Liora was pushing things too far. Just as they prepared to intervene and defuse the tension, a laugh rang out.
"Hahaha," Sevrak chuckled, sounding genuinely amused rather than angry. "No, no—I don’t look down on your people. Quite the opposite. I’m actually pleased."
He truly seed happy for so reason, and it didn’t take long for him to make that reason clear.
"Now that such a genius has appeared among you, how about a little tournant?"
The tension in the air deepened.
Sevrak didn’t give them ti to respond.
"Just a friendly competition between the young practitioners of our two kingdoms. Velari’s next generation against Umbraen’s. We’ll even offer a nice reward to the winner. What do you say? No need to worry—I’ll cover the prize myself, since it’s my suggestion."
Liora stared at him, trying to see through the pleasant smile to the scheming beneath.
"Do you think that’s fair?" She asked coldly. "There are only five of us left in Velari. And when you say ’next generation,’ you an Adyr. There’s no one else. You want him to compete alone against the dozens of well-fed practitioners in your Umbraen kingdom?"
Velari had lost over twenty practitioners to Colossith in the past three years alone. The kingdom’s strength had dwindled severely. The only reason Umbraen hadn’t invaded already was that there was nothing to gain from the fight.
Especially with a Rank 4 like Liora still active.
She may have been weaker than Sevrak, but Rank 4 was still Rank 4. Even if she fought to her dying breath, she’d take plenty of enemies with her on the way down.
That’s why the two kingdoms had kept their conflict constrained under an unspoken truce—one shaped by old, silent rules.
One of those unspoken rules was that practitioners never engaged in direct warfare between the two kingdoms. Instead, they competed through rare, carefully controlled tournants to assert their superiority.
And given the current state of Velari, this tournant offer could only an one thing: Sevrak intended to eliminate Adyr before he could grow any stronger—a preemptive strike to wipe out Velari’s most promising practitioner while they still had the chance.
"Bullshit." Liora responded flatly, her tone openly revealing her stance. She would never allow such a tournant to take place.
But Sevrak remained persistent. "What if I insist?" He said coldly.
As he spoke, the deep, rumbling breath of the black dragon stretched behind him, accentuating his words.
It was a clear threat.
Liora clenched her jaw. If it ca to war, she was ready to fight with everything she had—and she wouldn’t be an easy opponent. But she also knew the outco all too well. Such a conflict would an the total collapse or enslavent of her kingdom. And Umbraen was infamous for both its slave systems and its cruelty toward those it conquered.
She cast a sidelong glance at Adyr, hoping to see so reaction. But there was nothing. No fear, no tension. Just that unreadable expression, calm and still.
Is this boy really that young? She couldn’t help but wonder.
To sit quietly in such an environnt, surrounded by beings capable of deciding the fate of hundreds of thousands with a single sentence—and remain so composed—it was beyond unusual. It was unnerving.
Even Malrik looked visibly tense. Lucen and Mirela, too, couldn’t hide their discomfort.
Of course, none of them could hear Adyr’s thoughts.
If they could, they might have realized that this boy wasn’t truly an Astra Path practitioner.
Outwardly, Adyr appeared calm, even indifferent—but beneath the surface, a different current ran.
This conflict can give a good opportunity. He had already begun calculating how much he could gain from the chaos to co.
He didn’t actually care if any kingdom crumbled or if people died and suffered. For him, death was just an inevitable part of life. And as soone who took pleasure in killing, he might even be said to welco it.
What truly mattered was gaining as much benefit as possible from both sides—and Liora and the others could play a significant role in that.
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