When Aster reacted, he checked how much time passed and luckily the flow of time was different on the inner space of the book so only a couple of minutes have passed which also meant that probably Lilia only felt the talisman breaking when he returned to the inn, without wasting time he immediately took out the communication talisman and contacted his mother.
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A few seconds ago.
Lilia was leisurely laying in her bed feeling a bit depressed, her precious son wasn't around and her day only consisted on meditating, eating and sleeping so she was bored, while she was wondering how to convince her son of letting her accompany him on his training her heart feel unease and she immediately stood up from the bed.
After identifying the source of her uneasiness her aura exploded, her son's life-saving talisman activated!!!, the castle started trembling, Isaac was cultivating in his room when his eyes widened before he vomited blood, the spiritual energy of the azure sky planet seemed to be going crazy, he opened a window and saw the sky being covered by dark clouds.
"What the hell is happening" he thought, he couldn't feel the source of the phenomenon because there was a barrier on Lilia's room although her aura was making the spiritual energy on the planet to go on a rampage.
Just when Lilia was about to transport to Ghaleria and turn the city upside down the bracelet she was wearing on her left hand illuminated which made her calm down a bit.
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Aster felt his heart stopping for a second, usually his mother answer's immediately but this time it took a couple of seconds before he could hear Lilia's worried voice saying.
"My dear son what happened, are you alright?".
Aster felt a bit guilty because he had to lie to her but it was not the time to explain about the twins or Rya yet so he came up with an excuse.
"Don't worry mom, I'm fine in fact I called you because the talisman you gave me activated but I'm not in any danger it's just that I miscalculated and when I was cultivating I… broke through the earth origin realm, but the talisman healed me after the process finished".
Aster decided to use his advance as an excuse because one of the side effects of the lose of his origin blood according to Lilia was that he would have to suffer a lot of pain when he advanced to the earth origin realm due to the impurities being forced out of his meridians.
For a moment silence remained on the room, it was just a couple of seconds but for Aster it was like an eternity until he heard his mother saying.
"I will be taking you back to the castle in a moment", Aster wanted to say something but Lilia finished the transmission which made him wonder if she wasn't convinced of his story.
"The next time I see Alessia I'm going to make her pay for this" he thought before he dispelled the barrier on the room and communicated with Alice.
"Sis, mom is coming for me so I will be leaving for a moment, I will explain later".
Alice uncomfortable voice could be heard after a second.
"O…Okay".
Aster wondered if his current state will convince his mother to believe him.
Luckily his clothes were a bit ragged and dirty, his body was still fatigated due to his fight with Alessia earlier so he would not have to fake the state he was supposed to be experiencing due to his advance.
After a moment he felt someone touching his shoulder and his vision blurred, when he reacted, he was already in a place he knew better than anyone else, his mother's room, feeling Lilia's body trembling he turned around and hugged her.
"Don't cry mom, I'm fine….".
Lilia tightened her embrace as if she wanted to feel her son's warm, then with a broken tone she spoke while caressing Aster's hair.
"Thank to the heavens, for a moment I thought that something bad happened to you… please don't ever make me worry like this again".
Aster didn't say anything he just tightened his embrace on his mother, while with the other girls he always had that confident strong attitude, when he was with Lilia things were a bit different maybe because she was his beloved mother and the closest one to him.
"This is the second time I made someone important to me cry" he thought, while gritting his teeth.
Even though he was acting all calm when he was with Rya and the twins it didn't change the fact that he was... defeated, he actually lost, even though this time the result was good for him, he was angry at his own weakness because if not for Rya he would be dead and it will be his fault, after all he was the one that decided to check the black book.
"Mmm?".
Rya was sitting on top of the giant golden sword in Aster's mind space when she felt his emotions turning dark, her heart felt pain, this is not the first time she saw him suffering or cursing himself, when Aster was still a child on earth while many kids were adopted, for some reason he wasn't, on his sixteen birthday he passed the adoption age that the orphanage permitted so he decided to start taking part time jobs because he only could live on the orphanage another year.
Even though the sisters that worked on the orphanage were good people, seeing all the other kids getting a family and not being able to experience that happiness made him feel quite depressed for some time, until one day he realized that even if he wasn't loved by his biologic parents the people of the orphanage treated him like family, it was then when his point of view changed, for the first time instead of an orphanage that place became his home.
That's why he decided to work hard and support the orphanage which finally led to his new life as Lilia's son, unfortunately back on earth there wasn't spiritual energy so even if Rya was somehow conscious she couldn't communicate with him nor do anything to help him.
Just when Rya was about to interfere she felt all those negative emotions fading away, she focused on Aster′s face and saw him smile?
While she wondered what was happening, Aster gently separated from his mother before kissing her cheek and telling her.
"I'm sorry but I can't promise that I won't make you worry again mom…" seeing his mother sad expression his eyes turned golden before he continued "but what I can promise is that I won't make you cry again, no matter what difficulties I afront in the future as long as you are with me, I will overcome them all".
Lilia saw the resolution on her son's eyes and she couldn't doubt his words, whenever her son had that expression, for some reason she knew everything will be fine, Aster felt as if a weight had been lifted from his heart.
Lilia sensed the aura that his son was radiating and she felt happy, she took out a wooden sword out of her ring and handed it to Aster while she pointed at a chair on the room.
"Try to swing it at that".
Aster was confused by his mother actions but he didn't want to argue with her over such a small thing so he did as she said and the result made him speechless, the chair… was cleanly cut in half, the wooden sword he used was a blunt weapon as it had no edge and he didn't use spiritual energy on that attack so he didn't understand what happened.
Seeing his confused expression Lilia covered her mouth with her right hand and laughed a bit before explaining with a proudful tone.
"That my dear son is what happens when one comprehends sword intent although it is still on the rudimentary stage which is only the tip of the iceberg, one can only call himself a swordman after learning sword intent and you actually got it at such a young age ?".
Aster was convinced by Lilia's explanation but he still wondered how did it happen, even if he had practiced swordsmanship with his mother, he has only trained during one year it did not make sense for him, so Rya decided to help him understand.
"Think of it like this, how is the metal prepared when a blacksmith forges a sword?".
Aster thought for a moment before answering, "the steel needs to be heated and hammered many times to expel the impurities…", when he was answering he finally understood what Rya meant, sword intent is not something that one can simply get through training.
Other people have to resort to many years of practice before understanding it, but in this case his own heart and determination were forged due to the hardships he has gone through which resulted on him obtaining sword intent, Rya sighed before she continued with her explanation.
"Honestly, can you stop being so reckless? although the sword intent you can develop with this method is far superior to the one those half assed "swordsmen" get by swinging a sword like idiots for a lot of years, steel tends to break while being hammered if the materials used for its creation are not of top quality you know?".
Aster internally smiled when he answered.
"Well, if my will was weak then I wouldn't be worthy to have you, wouldn't I?".
"Indeed ?".
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