In a rather spacious hall where a large circular table was seated with hundreds of beings, each having unique and different looks, Etia stared at the floating orb in front of her with a rather stiff expression.
"That mortal... Did he just..."
"Yeah, we all have seen it. A mere mortal just killed a Guardian."
"But how is that even possible? I mean, it is not an impossible feat to achieve, but it was pretty obvious he was just at the sixth Rank."
"Who knows... The Guardian even talked about something like pu-"
"That is enough."
Suddenly, as every God and Goddess in the hall began to whisper, wondering just what they have witnessed, Etia's cold voice rumbled loudly, silencing everyone in seconds.
"Lady Etia, please, calm down. No one wishes to see this masterpiece getting demolished." in front of Etia, the young beauty named Calene talked calmly, her beautiful silver gaze fixed on Etia's hand which at the moment threatened to split the large table in half.
Etia immediately snapped her cold eyes at Calene, who just smiled even more before shifting her gaze at Leion beside her.
Feeling the pair of eyes on his skin, Leion, who all this time sat with his eyes closed finally moved and opened his eyelids.
In an instant, as if time seemed to freeze everyone held their breaths and waited for what will happen.
Etia, upon seeing that Leion focused his attention on her inhaled deeply before she loosened her grip and waved her hand.
Whoosh!
"Here. A promise is a promise, and as I am a woman of my words, I will give you what we have agreed on."
Shifting his eyes at the boxes and crates piled on each other on the table, Leion curved his lips upward and extended his hand forward.
Whoosh!
Like a black hole pulling everything towards it with great force, the black ring on Leion's fingers flashed with a black glow and sucked all the boxes on the table inside without leaving anything behind!
"It was a pleasure to play with you, Lady Etia. Now if you excuse us..." once all the crates vanished, Leion stood up while also helping Calene, "We would like to leave."
"What? So soon?" a goddess with large assets and seemingly crystal-like skin looked at Leion's leaving figure when suddenly a cold shiver ran down her body.
"I hope both of you have enjoyed your stay here." after staring at the goddess for a few seconds, Etia looked at the departing figures of Leion and Calene, showing a rather stiff smile.
Stopping right before the door, Leion looked back over his right shoulder and nodded, "We did, it was fun. So much that from now on we would like to come here more often."
The smile on Etia's face stiffened even more upon hearing Leion's words, but soon forced a smile and nodded.
"My doors are always open before everyone, so feel free to visit whenever you have time."
Leion smiled after hearing Etia's words and after grabbing Calene's hands he opened the doors.
Once the two deities walked out and the doors were closed, Etia clenched her teeth and looked at the masked figure behind her.
"You know what you have to do."
The masked individual nodded softly and like a shadow slipping into darkness, he vanished from everyone's sight.
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Darkness and pain.
That was the only thing Raven sensed the moment he somewhat regained his consciousness.
'Where... am I?'
Raven wished to move and open his eyes to see his surroundings, but to his absolute shock, he failed to do it; everything felt as if his whole body was tired of ropes!
'Urgh... Why do I feel like I have been thrown before a truck? My whole body screams from pain...' Raven groaned inwardly, feeling helpless at the moment.
"The seal... You have to break the seal..."
'Huh...? This voice again?' Raven was surprised to hear the familiar voice again and quickly spoke, or ar least wished to speak, but just as he was unable to move his limbs, his mouth didn't open either!
"Little Raven... You must listen carefully... When the first eclipse arrives you must follow the beam..."
The voice kept speaking, confusing Raven even more.
'First eclipse? Follow the beam? Breaking the seal? What the hell is going on here?'
"You will be able to break the seal there! You just have to... fi... th... w..."
'I have to what? Hey! Talk to me! I have to do what!?' ignoring the pain in his body and the exhaustion in his mind, Raven yelled, but only to no avail.
In the very next second, as the voice seemed to fade into the darkness, almost as if the person talking walked further away from him, Raven finally felt the shackles around his body freed and snapped his eyes wide open.
However, when he did, the very first thing he saw was not the expected sight of his room's ceiling, but the face of someone he was rather familiar with; his little sister, Luna!
"Eeikk!" scared by the sudden movement Raven has done, Luna, who was just a few inches away from her brother's face with hers, pulled her head back so fast that she ended up falling back.
Paff!
"L-Lulu? What are you doing her-, argh..." trying to sit up only to fail because of the immense pain that swept through him, Raven clenched his teeth and looked down at his body.
Currently, he was wearing his white suit, covered in blood stains and signs of it getting scorched, possibly because of his flames.
As for the golden mask, well, Raven could see it placed on his desk, seemingly in two pieces.
While Raven examined his body with a pained expression, Luna slowly pushed herself up from the ground and with visible worry looked at Raven.
"How are you feeling?"
Surprised by this seemingly simple question, as he expected her to lecture him or curse at him for how he could be so stupid to risk his life, Raven coughed awkwardly and said;
"Well, considering that I have a few broken bones and possibly some internal injuries that luckily don't seem to be fatal, I am fine."
Luna became silent and just stared at Raven with eyes that held various emotions. It was unknown what she was currently thinking much less knowing what she wished to say or ask next.
Time ticked by in silence and after about 5 minutes she finally decided to speak.
"Why did you do it?"
The answer was simple, once again, and only a fool would not know what she meant by it.
Raven looked at his little sister's face and watched as the corner of her eyes were slightly moist, seemingly because she was holding back her tears.
Seeing her like that, Raven sighed and once he placed his head back on the bed he explained everything to her, including how the urge within his body 'forced' him to buy Avatar Flasks and join the event, and also the two visions he has seen.
"I know, you think I have gone mad, but this is th-"
"I believe you."
"Huh?" Raven was shocked and raised his head, only to see Luna staring at her with a grave complexion.
"Wait... Do you really believe me even without showing you any proof? Why?" with a frown, Raven asked.
"Because I know you way too well, Raven. After all, I am your little sister for a reason." Luna spoke calmly, and after wiping the small teardrop away from the corner of her eyes, she added, "Also, when you have asked me to help, you seemed to be... different than usual."
"Different?" Raven raised a brow, but as he thought about it he really looked, 'eager' to get some help.
"I see..." sighing once again, Raven looked at Luna and with a wry smile, he said, "I promise that I will pay you back the money. I don't know how or when, but I will definitely pay it back to you."
Upon hearing that Luna just smiled and shook her head, "As I said, that was not mine. It was just a gift that I have not even used once. Though, if you want to pay me back this bad, how about 1 hour of massage for every million Novas you have spent?"
"Cough!" Raven almost spit up seven liters of blood when he heard what his little sister just said and started to cough wildly.
Luna just laughed sweetly and quickly shook her head, "Just kidding. Though, if you ever feel the need to repay my kindness, you know what I want."
Raven coughed for a few seconds after Luna finished giggling, and after taking a deep breath to calm himself down he asked, "Who else knows about my current condition?"
"No one. In fact, Dad doesn't even know I am here nor does Thomas."
"Then how did you come back? I thought you were in Redmond City, which is several hours from here even with a car." Raven asked with confusion.
Luna, however, just smiled and said, "I asked for a friend's help."
Raven frowned and wished to ask which friend when suddenly somebody knocked on his door.
The source of this c𝓸ntent is fr𝒆e(w)𝒆bnovel