Atticus took in deep breaths with his eyes closed, calming his mind completely. His brain was racing, thinking of different crazy thoughts that shouldn’t have any business running through his mind.

At this stage, should he decide to do what was currently in his head, not even he knew what would happen.

But regardless, no matter the circumstances and no matter how long, every single one of them would pay.

The water encompassing Atticus’s arms suddenly intensified, their forms swirling around them with speed, simultaneously increasing the rate at which the arms were being healed.

The dislodged bones were shifted back into place, and broken parts regenerated.

After a few seconds of intense focus, Atticus’ hands were as good as new. This was the height of level 3 of the water element. It would be next to impossible to heal a wound this severe if his water element had been at level 2.

Atticus stood up from his seated position and used the water element to wash off all the blood that smeared his back and arms.

Then, with a deep look at the tree in which he had just vented his frustrations, Atticus turned and started heading back towards the camp.

Atticus arrived at the camp after a few seconds and walked directly towards the mansion. His form was basically as good as new, with not a single drop of blood remaining on his body or clothes.

He walked through the gates of the mansion, and before anyone could spot him, he muttered under his breath, “Ethereal cloak.”

A cloak of mana instantaneously enveloped Atticus’s form as he immediately started becoming translucent until his form completely blended with the surroundings.

It was currently nighttime, and although Atticus would have preferred to use his darkness element for stealth, he hadn’t mastered it to a level where he would be able to sneak through a brightly lit mansion.

With his form invisible, Atticus started making his way through the mansion and into the living room where each of the Ravenstein youth was having a more peaceful conversation compared to the last time he was there.

He also noted that Isla, Moon, and Luna had already joined them downstairs.

Atticus turned his gaze away from the youths and made his way upstairs directly towards Aurora’s room.

The door was locked as expected, but a locked door wasn’t nearly enough to stop the current Atticus.

With intense focus on the space element, Atticus’ form seemed to swirl and twist until his figure abruptly disappeared from the front of the door.

In the next instance, a hole appeared on the other side of the door, and Atticus’ figure swirled out from it.

To briefly explain what Atticus had just done, he had used space mimicry to traverse the short distance between both sides of the door. It was an ingenious approach that not many would dare to try.

Atticus’s gaze instantly landed on the sleeping figure of Aurora a few meters away from him.

Despite the fact that there was a king-sized mattress in the room, Aurora had slept on the couch by the side of the room.

Atticus released the ethereal cloak art and with silent strides, he approached Aurora’s sleeping figure.

She currently had a thick blanket draped haphazardly around her.

‘She’s still the same,’ Atticus thought with a smile.

As he got close to her, she tossed and turned as though she could feel his presence.

Atticus gazed at Aurora silently for a while, noting the tear marks that appeared down her cheeks.

Then, Atticus sighed.

He had wanted nothing more than to enter the room and check up on Aurora earlier, but he had gone back because of the intense amounts of guilt that had threatened to overwhelm him.

Atticus smiled warmly and grabbed the blanket covering only her legs, using it to cover her body fully, leaving only her head out in the open.

Aurora stirred as though she could feel the warmth, turning her face towards Atticus.

Atticus smiled, placing his hand on her cheeks as he used his thumb to wipe away the tear marks on her face.

Just as he was about to take back his hand, Aurora’s hand suddenly grabbed his, startling him a little bit. 𝘳𝘦.𝒸𝑜𝘮

“Don’t leave me, Dad,” Aurora suddenly muttered softly, making Atticus’s face darken.

‘Dad?’ Atticus’ thoughts raced. He still hadn’t gotten the specifics of how they had managed to get the jump on Aurora.

He found it incredibly odd that the Aurora he knew all too well was acting like this.

But hearing what she had just muttered, Atticus was starting to understand what might have transpired.

Rowan was dead, no doubt about that, and Aurora wasn’t one to become like this because of provocations. In fact, she would turn said person into ash immediately, of that he was sure.

Aside from that, apart from him and Ember and a few instructors, no one had any idea of how Rowan had been treating Aurora at the Raven camp.

‘The death of a grandmaster is hard to keep under wraps so it’s not surprising that they had found out about it. They must have intended on using her dead father to catch her off guard, but she reacted badly because of her trauma. There’s only one way they could get this sort of reaction from her, if she saw Rowan alive.’

Atticus ran multiple scenarios in his head using all the information he had available.

‘The Nebulon family, huh,’

Atticus could still vividly remember the Nebulon family youth he had battled with during the entrance exams. His illusions were completely lifelike. He could still remember almost getting fooled by them.

‘He’s too strong to be just a normal member of the family, he’s probably one of the important heirs.’

Atticus couldn’t help but ponder about the youth.

Although he was probably one of the important heirs of the Nebulon family and the strongest amongst them, he wasn’t the Nebulon youth in the leader’s section.

Which meant that because he had encountered Atticus, he hadn’t been able to make the top 1000 cut.

A perfect motive.

This content is taken from 𝘪𝘳.𝘤𝑜