It seemed the Zerogs had only just realized there were others in the room. Peter glanced at me and then at my parents, understanding dawning upon him, while his wife’s gaze moved slowly through the room. Her attention lingered on me longer than on my parents, and my body reacted instinctively. Goosebumps spread all over my skin, and I wanted nothing more than to run away and hide as the vibrant eyes of Daniel’s sister landed on me.
If memory served me right, she was two years older than Daniel—and me, for that matter—but she looked so… different. So mature.
She had long, silky hair that fell smoothly down her back, and ocean-blue eyes that seemed to catch the light even more than her father’s. She was at least a head shorter than me, and standing next to her uncle’s towering figure made her seem even smaller. Daniel’s sister looked delicate—almost like a doll—with a quiet, flawless kind of beauty.
My heart skipped a beat as our eyes met, but the beauty of her surface was quickly washed away as a wave of pressure crashed over me. I didn’t sense any ether. Instead, the weight pressing on my shoulders contained something else—something powerful that resembled bloodlust, though it wasn’t quite the same.
Daniel stepped forward and slid between me and his sister, blocking my view of her, and the pressure dissipated.
“This is my friend and his family. I decided to bring them to the estate until the chaos of the tide has been removed.” He glanced at his mother, who nodded subtly, and then turned to the towering man. “Adam hasn’t been a Blessed for long, Uncle. Please be nice to him.”
That confirmed it. It had already been clear, but hearing it aloud didn’t make it easier to accept. The towering man was Daniel’s uncle—the Blessed of the massive wyvern who’d effortlessly killed two Guardian beasts. He was also hard to read. Was he a good guy with a tough exterior, or was he as tough as he looked?
“Good afternoon, Mr… Zerog?” Unsure, I continued, “Thank you for protecting the Bastion.”
“Call me Merlin. I do not like confusion, and there are too many members of our family present today,” Daniel’s uncle said hoarsely. His voice was nice, yet there was a stab to it.
Daniel pulled back until he stood beside me and whispered, “Uncle is the strongest in the family. Well, he’s a special case.” He shrugged. “Just make sure you don’t get on his wrong side.”
Thanks, Daniel. That’s really reassuring. I grimaced and stiffened when Merlin’s deep eyes locked onto me. He studied me for a moment, and something shifted in his features, as though he recognized something. He… threw a dirty look in my direction?
“Is that the retinue you picked for Daniel?” Merlin asked Chloe Zerog, not even trying to hide the displeasure in his voice.
The dirty look was imprinted in my mind. I couldn’t help but feel like a gold digger. Merlin’s displeasure rang in my ears, and I felt smaller than ever—weak and insignificant.
Merlin turned back to me with a motion to step closer. “Let’s see if you have what it takes to help Daniel,” he said, his eyes speaking volumes. “Show me what you got.”
What? Merlin remained unmoving, his gaze urging me to attack him.
Daniel groaned beside me but shoved me ahead. “Just do it. Hit him as hard as you can. Use your sword, though.” He cursed softly, but I didn’t hear a thing. “Give it your all… good luck.”
I slowly unsheathed the refined silvernit sword. My mind drifted to Merlin’s fight with the Mistrals, and I shuddered involuntarily as my imagination went wild, showing me images of getting crushed by Merlin—or swallowed by his wyvern.
“No pressure. Bad posture. He barely has any ether,” Merlin said, glancing at Chloe Zerog and shaking his head. “I expected more from you, sister.”
Somehow, that made me angrier than it should have. Daniel’s mother had been incredibly generous with me. She and Peter Zerog had been patient and… much better than I’d expected a renowned family of Blessed to be. Sure, they weren’t perfect, but they loved their son more than anything and were willing to give their all to help him. Yet, as much as they wanted to help Daniel, they didn’t force anything upon me. They helped me, and they… they trusted me.
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I didn’t suppress the anger and called upon my ether reserves as I stepped forward, only to remember there was no more ether to use. Pulling ether out of the dry core was not only impossible—it was painful, too. A pained grunt escaped my lips, and my World rippled, as if to tell me not to do that again. I didn’t.
Clutching the silvernit sword tighter than ever, I felt pain, but it did little to disperse the worries etched onto my mind. Nonetheless, I stepped forward, confidence slowly filling my strides as I closed the distance. Then, I felt Aureus again—his emotions. The bond was still frail, yet feeling my Soulkin flooded me with more confidence than I should have felt. His anger reached me, but also his uncertainty. Aureus was like a beast that had been suppressed.
Allowing the anger to guide me, I kicked the ground, following Swordmaster Selene’s instructions, and barreled toward Merlin. I closed the distance near-instantly and slashed at Merlin. Daniel’s uncle didn’t move an inch. The blade should have cut into his abdomen—but it hadn’t.
I gritted my teeth as the silvernit sword collided with something metallic. It was harder than anything I’d slashed before, and it blocked my attack easily. My momentum halted instantly, and a shockwave shot through my arms. It felt like my forearms had just chipped and shattered from the impact of my own attack.
Merlin looked down at me, his eyes speaking volumes.
“Is that all?” his eyes seemed to scream at me, and I wanted to shout back and explain my situation, but it was to no avail.
Merlin sighed deeply and shook his head in disappointment. Seeing him like that was crushing, yet it wasn’t until he flexed his abdominal muscles that the difference in power was fully imprinted in my mind.
He flexed, and all of a sudden, it was like Merlin repelled me. He hadn’t moved, yet I was yanked through the air. I was hurled across the living room and smashed into the wall on the far side. A stifled scream escaped my lips as pain and cracking noises mixed.
My back was broken, for sure, just like every other part of my body.
What in the…
My vision blurred as I slumped to the ground, unable to comprehend what had just happened. I would have seen if Merlin had moved, even if it had been nothing more than a blur—but there hadn’t been anything. He had merely flexed and hurled me through the air.
A distant scream reached me, and I was certain it was Mom shouting at someone. Even Chloe’s voice rang in my ears—oddly clear compared to my mother’s.
“Did you really just do that, Merlin? What in the Rulers’ names is going on in that pea-sized brain of yours? We’ve been training him hard for the last few months, and you appear from—where the hell have you been with my daughter, in the first place!?—and hurt your nephew’s retinue? What is wrong with you!?”
I was picked up from the ground and a viscous liquid was poured into my mouth. Awareness of my body’s condition flooded me, and I was happy to find that no bones were broken. Some were chipped and would need time to recover, but it looked like Peter’s serums were working wonders. His steely eyes lingered on me for a while after I finished the third serum—one sweeter than the last—and he placed the fourth one back into his storage unit.
Peter pressed his hand flat onto my chest and channeled ether into me.
“Your bond is damaged.” His expression soured.
“Y-yeah… My core is empty too, and my World is itchy,” I croaked. “Has been like that since we found my parents.”
Mom and Dad were beside me, tears trickling down my mother’s cheeks.
“That’s not good,” he said, dead serious. “You’re lucky your bond is firm, Adam. Normally, bonds as young as yours wouldn’t survive any kind of damage. No matter how small, the bond would’ve been severed—and that, I’m sure you can tell, would result in a fucking mess.”
It was the first time I heard Peter curse, but that was all the more reason to take him seriously.
Merlin stepped up beside Peter Zerog, his eyebrow raised as he turned to his sister—whom he’d ignored until a moment ago.
“What is Peter talking about?”
Chloe cursed but spoke up anyway. “Adam has a malleable World. Too small to bind a beast. As you can see, he fixed that issue, but only a few months ago. As far as I can tell, he’s been refining his World for a decade before he could bind a small, mutant beast egg. That has been about—…”
She looked at me, tilting her head.
“—about four months and a bit, if I’m not wrong.”
I scrambled to my feet, ignoring the blood pouring down my face, and got up. My back still hurt as if Coco bulldozed me, but I was getting better. Peter’s healing serum only seemed to ignore my poor buttocks. I’d survive that, though.
“He awakened four months ago and his bond is already past the first threshold?” Merlin regarded me once more. The disdain was no longer visible, but he shrugged nonchalantly. “Still not good enough. Below average. Half-decent at best. Maybe a quarter of an acceptable retinue.”
Somehow, that was enough for the other members of the Zerog family to flick toward Merlin.
“What?” Merlin snapped back.
“Nothing…” Chloe said, but that didn’t feel quite right.
There was definitely more to Merlin’s comment. If not, Daniel’s sister wouldn’t be glaring at me like I was dead to her.
Whatever. My butt was hurting.