“Before I will lead you to my sect as I promised, I want you to answer my question.”

Rhodes protectively put his arm around his son’s shoulders while looking at the black-haired man putting together some makeshift clothes from what others have to spare and whatever else they had on hand.

p “Ask away.”

Zoemi shrugged his shoulders while making sure that he isn’t exposing himself while moving because f the lack of fabric in certain areas.

“You weren’t just using the heat generated by the spiritual energy being transformed into star power for too long, were you? You actually gained control over fire. That’s why you said that it took a while for you to gain access to the ranged attacks.”

“?!?!”

“…!”

It was more of a declaration than actually questioning anything, and it sure did shock both Alan and Aaron listening in on the conversation between the two older men.

“Listen… it’s enough that people don’t believe me when I tell them about the supernova level. Adding control over one of the elements would be a step too far.”

Zoemi scoffed, shaking his head with a mischievous smile.

“So, that’s a yes.”

Rhodes raised his brows and nodded at the black-haired man.

“What it is about? Oh, and just a reminder – I can punch through you at any given moment. So maybe don’t test my patience with some random questions?”

Zoemi straightened his back and his lighthearted expression turned into a grim one in a second.

“You also know to keep quiet about the use of elements… say, who is your master? They cannot be anyone considered normal by this land’s standard.”

Instead of backing off or getting scared, Rhodes perked up and his eyes shone with interest.

“I don’t have a master. But my journey with star power was kick-started – or rather punch-started – by a certain white-haired black-eyed man who appeared in my homeland.”

Zoemi answered without changing his expression even a little bit, sounding almost mechanical – as if his explanation, despite being a bit on the humorous side, was something that he read out something from a dictionary.

“Hey, it’s basically the same thing that you told me, isn’t it?”

Alan joined in the conversation and asked with a hesitant voice.

“But… now that you said that you are from the land of magic… You do realize that the ONLY possible person that matches the description you gave and would have the power to at least appear in the mana-contaminated land is the Heavenly Star Warrior, William?”

The young man pointed out, and from the skeptical look in his eyes, it was obvious that he thinks it was simply one of Zoemi’s lies. The tone of his voice suggested that he believed to catch the black-haired man red-handed.

“A white-haired black-eyed man calling himself a simple florist took part in the tournament for the hand of Ehmi Gamemi Victureo organized by the Victureo family. Until the semi-finals during which the two of us met he won with a single punch. Truth be told, the same happened with me – but at the time I had another personality and a unique shadow of a vengeful murderer living in my body so the two took over while I was out. The fight was ridiculously spectacular. After that, he revealed himself without a scratch at a completely different part of the arena and declared that the Heavenly Star Nation will hold back the invasion until it will be ready.”

Zoemi turned towards the reddish-brown-haired man and declared without batting an eye.

“I was unable to take part in the final match because of what at the time I believed to be an injury. But after seeing watching how the Raging Bull sect trains I realized it was simply that Willliam ended up accidentally passing some of his star power onto me which resulted in me awakening the predisposition for spiritual power. I thought that my mana reservoir broke, but it was clearly spiritual energy trying to push away mana from its rightful spot.”

𝑜𝑣𝓵xt.𝗇𝓔t

The black-haired man continued without any break, not even to take a breath.

“…my head hurts… did you say that you had another personality and a… unique shadow – whatever that is – of a vengeful murderer in your body…? I thought that you were explaining stuff, not making everything even more outrageously unbelievable!”

Alan groaned, hiding his face in both hands before raising his head back up and exploding into an angry rant.

“Don’t get fooled. Alan. I don’t know how much of it is the truth, but he isn’t willing to explain a thing. Everything that he just said, he said to not answer my question. Who is your master? Even a mage should not be able to figure out how laws and elements are connected.”

Rhodes glanced at the young man and shook his head with a soft smile before breathing out and revelaing, not backing off even under Zoemi’s furious glare.

“Huh?! Wait… but he did answer…? Or not…?”

Alan flinched and frowned, looking to the sides trying to figure out what exactly was going on.

It bothered him greatly, to tell the truth – he knew the black-haired man far longer than the member of the dark sect that they met literal hours earlier, but for some reason, it felt like that man has already a better grasp on Zoemi’s personality than he did…

“You have been lost in the sea of trees for over a year and a half, right? Perchance you met your teacher there? For example, a monster capable of hu…”

Rhodes pushed on with the questioning, but then his eyes moved from Zoemi’s face to his right hand – the black-haired man’s fingers were constantly moving as if they had minds of their own and every single one was yearning for crushing something into nothingness – that something being Rhodes’s head.

Immediately, the older man swallowed his words and shut his mouth with buckets of cold sweat drenching his clothes.

“I don’t know what are you talking about. I was lost, plain and simple.”

Zoemi let out a heavy sigh, pushing out the anger together with his breath before he crossed his arms as if even he himself didn’t trust himself to not attack Rhodes otherwise.

“…I see… Let’s go to my sect now…”

Aaron’s father, humbled without actually having anything done to him, nodded, gulping down his saliva with an uneasy expression.

“Let’s.”

Zoemi nodded in agreement.