“You heard that?! He IS leading us to the Heavenly Archer sect’s ambush!”

“…”

Alan groaned covering his eyes with one hand, but Zoemi only squinted his eyes in suspicion.

“Wha…?”

The next moment he was already by the boy, locking his arm in a vice- grip-like grip, causing him to flinch and let out a whimper.

“NO! LET ME GO! IT’S MY DAD! I KNOW IT! LET ME GO!”

After an attempt to tug his hand free, Aaron barely hold himself back from bursting into tears and started screaming while flailing wildly…

“LET ME GO! LET ME GO!”

…all to no effect…

“Let me go…! Please…!”

As no amount of strength was going

to help him, Aaron crumbled down onto his knees and sobbed.

“I don’t know about you, but I feel like once again, both of us were wrong.”

The black-haired man’s smirk disappeared completely, replaced by a concerned expression as he looked over at the bewildered Alan.

“Aaron, you are trying to get to your dad, right? So that means that you are leading us towards the Heavenly Archer sect’s trap, aren’t you?”

The young man breathed out and asked with a serious voice.𝒐𝓥𝓁xt.𝗇𝓔t

“No! Dad is not from the Heavenly Archer sect!”

The boy cried out pitifully, trying to pull his hand free once again but it had just as much effect as before. None.

“Then what? Is he an official from the Star Pagoda or…”

“NO!”

Alan raised his brow and his eyes widened at the suggestion he made himself, but Aaron immediately refuted it while shaking his head and gritting his teeth.

“Dad is from a dark sect! The Blood Star sect! I was in the Havenly Archer sect only because they killed my mom and kidnapped me from the Blood Star sect!”

The beloved child of Sagittarius cried, hunching over and clenching his fist.

“The people from the Heavenly Archer’s sect thought that they wiped off my memory and made me forget, but I remember it all! That’s why…! DAD! Dad…! It’s me…! Please wait…!”

Aaron sobbed while explaining, before turning towards the two alleyways and crying out in a miserable voice.

“…yeah, so if that’s true then the lawful sects do not sound so good anymore, don’t you think…?”

Zoemi raised his brows and turned towards Alan, motioning with his chin at the emotional boy.

“I… No. This needs more details. First, we should really check whether the person who you saw really was your father, then we will start from that point.”

The young man took a deep breath and decided, straightening his back and nodding.

“Aaron, you are the beloved child of Sagittarius, aren’t you? Did you manage to read his spiritual energy to track him down?”

Alan said, looking between the two possible routes their target might have gone to.

“I did… but then the reading completely disappeared right at this spot… It never happened before…”

Aaron looked up at him and nodded just before lowering his head in defeat.

“Well… if he is from a dark sect I bet he has his methods to conceal himself…”

Alan sighed, rubbing his left arm with his right hand.

“We will just have to pick one at random, I guess…”

“What’s his name?”

The young man sighed, not really happy about the outcome and still very much worried about this whole thing being one big trap when the black-haired man released the boy’s arm and started patting his head instead to help him calm down.

“Rh-Rhodes…”

Aaron sniffled a few times before answering, looking up at Zoemi with reddened eyes.

“Okay. I will be very mean now, but don’t worry, no matter what I say I will not actually hurt you, okay?”

“Oka… wait, what…?!”

Zoemi whispered with a reassuring smile and Aaron almost agreed to his words before their meaning fully settled in his mind – and when it did, he was not so keen on cooperating, but it was too late…

“AAAHHHH?!”

Zoemi’s grip closed on Aaron’s skull and the black-haired man lifted the up effortlessly, causing him to scream in shock.

“RHODES! I KNOW THAT YOU CAN HEAR ME! IF YOU DON’T WANT TO LOSE YOUR KID JUST LIKE YOU LOST YOUR WIFE, YOU BETTER SHOW UP HERE RIGHT NOW!”

“!!!”

Zoemi’s voice was so booming in the enclosed location that Alan had to cover his ears because the volume honestly gave him a headache.

But the black-haired man wasn’t even done…

“YOU ARE A FAST ONE, SO TEN SECONDS WILL BE ENOUGH FOR YOU, RIGHT? AT ZERO, AARON’S HEAD WILL GO POP! TEN!”

“N-no…!”

Zoemi roared and started the countdown immediately while Aaron yelped, hopelessly wiggling his legs while grabbing onto the black-haired man’s wrist to keep steady.

“NINE!”

“…I am here. Let go of the boy or I will put a hole through your chest…”

Zoemi barely started the countdown when a voice from above interrupted him.

“!!!”

When the trio all looked up on one of the rooftops stood a fair-haired man with piercing blue eyes. His stance was that of an archer, and although he didn’t wield an actual bow, the fluctuating dark energy was forming the shape of one as he was aiming it right at the black-haired man.

“DAD!”

After spotting the man, Aaron wiggled even more, but Zoemi did not let go of him quite yet.

“I can see from whom our young friend got the talent in the law of Sagittarius.”

“You know **. Put him down, now. I will not waste my time with countdowns, this is your one chance.”

Zoemi smiled, observing the rather different display of the law of Sagittarius then he saw until that point, but the man with piercing blue eyes didn’t seem eager to play around.

“I wonder. The spirit power you are using seems more impressive than the one your son can use. But just so you know, my law of Aries is at the supernova level, you are in no position to negotiate.”

“…again with that…”

Zoemi’s confident words even in the serious situation made Alan let out a bothered sigh. Once again the young man wanted to remind his black-haired companion that the law of Aries consists only of six stars and…

“…you’re bluffing…!”

“…huh…?”

…and yet still the man on the rooftop faltered and took a step back as his eyes widened in shock as he tensed up.

Alan was the first to notice the way Rhodes behaved.

Aaron’s father said that Zoemi was bluffing, not that it was impossible. Quite the opposite really.

“I would not be standing here with your kid’s head in my hand if that was not the truth. Now back to our negotiations… come right down here, or I will squeeze out his gray matter just as I did with the head of the justice magistrate.”

Zoemi smirked and scoffed before his face turned deadly serious as he lifted up Aaron for Rhodes to have a better look at.

“Like you did what…? Are… are you saying that you killed the leader of the Heavenly Archer sect, Daniel Hunter?”

“Are you telling me that the news didn’t reach this far yet?”

Rhodes asked lowering his hands and the dark energy bow and gulping down his saliva as Zoemi answered his question with another question.

“He did, dad! I’ve seen it with my own eyes! That gramps took me with him to deal with someone suspected of being a dark sect member, and Zoemi was there. His strength is insane – I’ve seen people kill themselves with their own star power while trying to harm him!”

“…”

Aaron called out, although in Zoemi’s opinion it was unnecessary.

“What sect do you belong to, mister Zoemi? Aside from the prodigy from the Great Ram sect, Zoey, I have not heard about anyone with a similar name to yours… and considering the star level you claim to have reached, that seems very unlikely…”

Rhodes raised his brow and asked, not recalling his energy bow and not getting down from his advantageous position.

“I am not from these parts. I was born and raised in the land of mana. More specifically, the kingdom of Bellcephora.”

The black-haired man was in a good mood since for the first time his star level in the law of Aries wasn’t ridiculed as not existing, so he revealed his origin to Aaron’s father.

“…land of mana… so you are not a martial artist but a magician then? Does that mean you are one of the scum trying to take over our land? “

Rhodes lowered his gaze repeating the words spoken by Zoemi all while nodding to himself as if molding over something…

“Aaron, brace yourself!”

“D-dad…?!”

Then, all of a sudden the man raised his hands and released a spectral arrow from his energy bow while calling out to and surprising his son.

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOM* *RUMBLE*

The launch projectile reached the chest of the black-haired man before he could react and the power of the hit caused the surrounding walls to crack and crumble releasing a shocking amount of dust.

“Aaron! Are you alright?! Don’t get yourself captured by the magician’s companion! I’m coming down to help you!”

Rhodes called out and jumped down to his son before the dust even settled.

“Aaron? Damn it! It was supposed to be a piercing arrow, why did the energy disperse like that…? Arron, don’t worry, dad is here!”

The man bit his lips, mumbling to himself while waving his arms around in search of his son or at least the black-haired man’s remains.

The problem was, it was odd – the passage was rather small – no matter how much dust there was, finding another person should not be all that difficult for the law of Sagittarius user…