Chapter 66: The Supreme Sage
The hospital building began to shake as the lights overhead flickered violently. Outside, dark clouds started to gather in the sky, making it feel as if a natural disaster was just a step away.
The floor groaned and creaked as large cracks began to form across the tiles. Even the high-tier magical barrier maintaining the hospital’s protection shattered like fragile glass.
All of this destruction was caused by the sheer presence of the man standing in the room. He was none other than Damian Empyrea the ’Supreme Sage’.
The air itself started to distort under his overwhelming aura.
However, Serene, who was securely embraced by her father, felt absolutely nothing. The pressure was not directed at her; Damian had deliberately isolated her from feeling his killing intent because he didn’t want to worry her.
"Dad... What are you doing? You should stop, or the other patients in the hospital might suffer," Serene scolded.
At Serene’s voice, Damian instantly stopped leaking his killing intent. He replied softly, acting as if he had never released a terrifying aura in the first place.
"Hehe... I was just trying to intimidate the kid. Nothing else. Don’t worry, Sera..."
"Hmph! Okay... But don’t do anything stupid, or I might stop talking to you," Serene threatened with a pout.
"W-What? No! Please don’t do that! I promise I won’t do anything! You already know that I can’t live without hearing your voice..."
"Hmph! It will depend on what you choose to do..."
As Damian flawlessly switched from "Angry Powerhouse" to "Sweet Father" mode, Zane finally let out a massive sigh of relief. It seemed his life had just been saved by his childhood sweetheart. Still, the physical strain he had suffered from enduring just a fraction of her father’s killing intent had completely exhausted his mana pool and severely strained his muscles.
As Zane stood there staring at the floor, he suddenly felt a large shadow fall over him.
He looked up. His survival instincts began to scream in pure danger. The man had suddenly appeared directly in front of him, wearing a polite smile that completely contradicted his cold, murderous eyes.
Zane looked past him, silently begging for Serene’s help, but Damian entirely blocked his view. Zane swallowed hard.
"What do you want, Fa—I mean, Sir...?" Zane stammered.
Damian placed a heavy hand on the boy’s shoulder and leaned in.
"So... judging by the situation, and after investigating my butler by beating the information out of him, I found out that you are the one who took my daughter away. Aren’t you?"
Zane swallowed hard again and nodded, not daring to meet the man’s terrifying eyes.
"Hmm... You have definitely inherited your father’s genes. Always being a pain in someone else’s ass..."
"Could you do me a favor and tell me why you happen to be so late? Or should I just torture you to find out the truth?"
"No! I’m going to tell you! I mean..."
"After we entered the Ascension Realm together, we got separated into different trials!"
"After that, I didn’t know where she might be, so I attempted another trial. Fortunately, I found Serene in that last dungeon."
"I gave my absolute best to protect her... but in the end, I couldn’t beat the dungeon boss and was knocked unconscious. I’m sorry. I will accept any punishment for failing to protect her."
Damian’s eyes turned ice-cold as he stared at the boy with a blank expression.
Zane was so horrified that, for a second, he genuinely thought Damian was going to execute him right there in the hospital room. But contrary to his expectations, Damian simply patted his shoulder and moved back toward Serene.
Zane blinked. He hadn’t expected Damian to show him mercy. Ever since they were children, the man had never missed an opportunity to beat Zane up for getting too close to his daughter. Zane thought he might actually be beaten to death this time, but it seemed the man still cared about his daughter’s feelings.
In truth, Damian didn’t actually hate Zane. Just as Zane was incredibly protective of Serene, Damian—who had raised her from childhood—was even more so. She was his only child and the absolute light of his life; he had every reason to be overprotective.
...
Alen’s POV:
’Who is that man, and why is he emitting such an ominous pressure?’ Alen thought from the corner of the room.
’Is he Serene’s father?’
Alen had felt the suffocating presence of the man the moment he entered. For the very first time, Alen’s body had refused to react purely because of someone else’s mere presence.
The slight leak of killing intent had originally been directed entirely toward Zane, but even from afar, Alen could still feel the suffocating weight in the air.
However, the moment the man receded his intent, the pressure vanished completely, as if it had never been there to begin with. The man’s presence disappeared. Even the natural mana fluctuations in his body were kept under such perfect control that it was incredibly difficult to even sense he was standing there.
Every Awakener contained mana in their body, and that mana naturally created slight fluctuations in the surrounding air, even unconsciously. For someone to control their internal mana so precisely that their presence effectively vanished meant that the man standing in front of him was no small figure.
Alen couldn’t even guess Serene’s father’s rank, as there were zero fluctuations to read. Sensing mana leakage was the easiest method to roughly guess an Awakener’s strength, and this man gave absolutely nothing away.
As Alen stared at him in quiet analysis, the man suddenly felt the gaze and turned to look at him.
"Who might this guy be?"
Damian asked, his eyes locking onto the silver-haired boy.
Serene looked at Alen and then turned to her father to answer.
"He is Alen... He is the guy I teamed up with after getting separated from Zane..."
"He also joined me in the next trial where I finally met back up with Zane. He is the reason we both survived the last trial."
Hearing his daughter’s words, Damian looked closely at Alen.
Alen felt incredibly awkward under the intense scrutiny.
Damian took a step toward him. Alen instinctively tried to back away, but the hospital wall blocked his path. Gathering his courage, Alen met the older man’s gaze.
"So, what’s your lineage, boy? Judging by your looks, you must be from some high-ranking noble family..."
Alen looked at the man in a slight daze. This wasn’t the first time someone had mistaken him for a noble. His face and physique had refined into something so handsome and flawless that it was impossible for him not to attract attention.
In this magical world, the physical beauty of a person often depended on the purity and power of their bloodline. As an Awakener ranked up, their physical body developed, their skin refined, and their muscles strengthened perfectly. For a person at such a young age to possess such a refined body, society naturally assumed they belonged to a powerful, wealthy family.
Alen replied calmly, not caring about what the man thought.
"I don’t have a lineage or a family name. I’m not a noble, either. You can just call me Alen."
"Is that so? Hmmm..."
Damian rubbed his chin as he looked at the boy carefully. He couldn’t deny a very weird sensation washing over him as he stood close to the teenager.
It wasn’t that the boy was terrifyingly strong. It wasn’t just that his face was exceptionally handsome, or the assumption that he might belong to a strong lineage erased from history.
Damian felt a strange, nagging instinct that the boy simply did not belong here. But Damian quickly dismissed the thought, considering that he was just overthinking things. After all, he had much more important things to be concerned about right now.
"Okay... So, for helping my daughter, what do you want as a reward, boy? Just name your price," Damian offered generously.
"I don’t want anything... I didn’t protect her. She protected herself. I am not going to take a reward when I didn’t do anything to earn one from you."
Alen gestured toward Zane.
"You should give the reward to that blonde guy instead. He protected her even after he was half-dead. He shielded her with everything he had until he completely lost consciousness."
Zane looked at Alen, utterly speechless.
He hadn’t expected the greedy scumbag to actually reject a massive reward handed to him on a silver platter. And on top of that, Alen had actually praised him in front of Serene’s terrifying father!
Zane couldn’t help but smile in shock.
’Damn. I’m actually going to have to thank this bastard for saving my impression in front of her dad...’
