Arad opened the door and took a step outside, the barrier around Hati’s house crackled like lightning, sending waves of heat as it assaulted Arad’s body in the blink of an eye. The barrier was a massive array designed to attack intruders and burn them into ash.

Arad was carrying Serin on his shoulders and Ignis on his back, but even so, he wasn’t worried a single bit. The large bolts of magic and lightning instantly shifted toward his body as he acted like a ground wire, absorbing all the damage. The void is always hungry and seeks to be filled, and magic wasn’t an exception to it.

The flash of lightning illuminated Hati’s whole garden and its radian glow reached the lions’ houses in the distance, sending them into a panic. It was thirty years since the array attacked something, and they didn’t expect anyone to be such a foot as to intrude on Hati’s house so they all rushed to attack.

Maintaining the array is one of the duties of Hati’s daughters, their mother only created the barrier the first time and is supplying it with mana, nothing more. Each day, the array must be reconfigured with a new passcode for strangers other than Hati and her daughters. In the past two days, it was the duty of the twins Astrid and Frida, and of course, they couldn’t do it since they were captured by Merlin.

Hati who was sitting on her large pillow basking in the sweet smell of her essence and wine blinked, looking up as the array short-circuited and fried itself. “Oh…I forgot.” She disappeared and emerged in the garden, watching as Arad took his first step before the main gate, about to leave into the city. His body offered so much resistance to the point the barrier destroyed itself, like a stone shattering a blender’s blades.

Ignis and Serin were both giggling and laughing, they enjoyed the sudden light show, beneath the protection of their father, even the deadliest of barriers was nothing more than an amusing light show.

“Are you okay?” Hati looked at him with a worried face.

“It stung a bit, but I’m fine. In fact, it helped relax my sore neck.” Arad cracked his neck and Serin held to his hair, almost falling but Ignis supported her with her head.

Right outside Hati’s mansion, countless lions were armed to the teeth, looking around for the intruder. When Arad opened the gate and glared at them, half shrunk in fear and the other half held their weapons in shaking hands. They’ve seen the Tall Neck getting killed before, and they heard how it was Arad who did it.

They didn’t fully understand the extent of Arad’s power but knew they weren’t winning without some heavy losses.

Hati pulled her fan and waved it, “Calm down, Lions of the beast kingdom. This was simply a misfire of the array, there is no intruder.”

“A misfire?” One of the lions approached; he was an elderly that had lived here for far too long and was now the chieftain of the lion’s village. “Do you mean, it fired at him?” He looked at Arad, hoping she would say no.

“Yeah, but he seems to have tanked it without any problems.” She smiled, “Move out of the way, and as I’ve ordered before, don’t anyone of you dare mess with him, I know how excited you might be.” She waved her fan and immediately disappeared.

Lions were known for their hot blood, always striving for blood and thrilling fights. It was a common occurrence to see their men fighting in the city plaza, it was like a sport, but with more blood than any sport should have. But none of them was a fool, they’ll never start a fight they are certain to lose, or they’ll lose the respect of their wives.

Arad walked as forward as the lions opened a path, staring at him with worried yet puzzled faces. Albeit tanking Hati’s barrier, he didn’t have a scratch on him, and what’s more impressive, the little girl on his shoulders and the wyrmling were unharmed.

Arad disappeared into the distance, leaving the lions standing there, confused even further. Arad landed beside the area where the other students were living, he looked up at Serin and back at Ignis, if he used gravity magic, he could protect them from the sudden acceleration. After putting Serin on the ground so she could walk a bit, Arad let her look around with Ignis as he turned toward Lucia who approached him with a slightly worried face. “Aron, there is something I wanted to talk to you about…” She looked around with a scared face.

“What is it?” Arad asked as looked around, following her line of sight. “Wait…I don’t sense Matilda around, where is she?” That was strange, if she was within 40 kilometres he would’ve sniffed her out.

“She… I couldn’t find her anywhere since yesterday, and I’m starting to get worried.” She looked at Arad with a scared face, waiting for him to snap.

“Leave it to me…” Arad immediately uses Gemini So that his clone can remain here and watch Serin and Ignis as he looks for Matilda. In the next second, the Arad standing before Lucia smiled, looking at Serin and telling her not to wander too far away.

Arad’s true body was already far above the cloud, looking down at the jungle with his glowing amethyst eyes. All the magic in the jungle looked normal, like a transparent layer of fog, barely visible but still could be detected. Matilda was indeed nowhere to be seen.

Anyone would’ve been fooled, but Arad wasn’t that dumb, looking normal doesn’t mean it’s normal. His eyes traced the magic, inspecting the mana in the air and comparing it to the mana in different areas of the jungle, counting all the sours of natural energy like magic ore deposits and old lakes as sources of interference.

In seconds, he was able to conjure a mental image of the forest and noticed that there was an area that had it’s magic slightly off, it was extremely similar to the other parts of the jungle, but not perfect.

****

In the jungle, Matilda’s body flew back with a splash of blood, crashing into the large trees and toppling them over. But the painful impact wasn’t enough to knock her out, she immediately stood and caught Selena’s foot that flew at her face, biting her calve and swinging her to the ground with her powerful neck.

Selena landed on her hand and swung Matilda away, punching her in the stomach and sending her rolling on the ground. “Are you done yet-nya?” She said with a smile as she watched Matilda struggle to stand.

Matilda’s mind was already getting foggy, she couldn’t even remember why they were fighting, how long she’d been there, and she could barely remember the face of the woman she was fighting with how exhausted her mind had become.

The two had been fighting here since yesterday, no matter how far Selena pushed Matilda, she always stood back like a zombie, fighting relentlessly. Selena herself didn’t have a problem, she had once fought a fight that lasted a whole decade, fighting for a day straight was like a minute of exercise to her.

Albeit her godly physical capabilities, Selena was in fact far less competent when it came to magic; Arad was standing behind her, lifting his arms to smack her down.

Before Arad’s palms could reach her, she disappeared and landed a fair distance away from him. “You managed to find us?” Selena glared at him with glowing golden eyes, she had easily dodged his attack and had the leisure to run all the way back. Only that move alone told Arad that she was a problem, and the fact Matilda was still alive was because she was holding

back a lot.

In the blink of an eye, Arad had carried Matilda from the ground and was looking at Selena, making sure to keep her in his vision. Matilda gasped, “Aron?” She recognized him by the smell. She could barely see at this moment, but thanks to her extreme endurance and draconic blood, she was still able to move.

Arad pulled a stamina potion and a healing potion, immediately pouring them into her mouth. “What is this all about?” By Matilda’s injuries, he could tell that this wasn’t any fight, it was a training fight. Matilda’s injuries were all uniform as if Selena kept using the same attack until Matilda got used to them and stopped getting injured.

Punching someone in the face repeatedly with straight punches until he figures out how to block or dodge them. It was a primitive way of training, but it also spoke volumes about Selena’s lack of understanding of how to teach someone.

Since Matilda could barely drink the potions, Arad carried her in his arms as he stood. “Well, I’ll ask her later, and about you…” He disappeared, his foot flying straight at Selena’s face. Selena dodged it and burst running into the jungle, zooming across the trees. As she looked to the side, Arad was keeping up, running backward at a mind-boggling speed, his legs barely touching the ground as he kept his torso straight so Matilda wouldn’t spill the potions. Nothing could beat the suspensions of his knees and hips, not a single vibration reached

Matilda.

“Your magic is quite similar to Maharaja, no, it’s the same.” Arad looked at Selena with glowing eyes, “What is a warlock patron doing in the mortal world? You’re the one I sensed yesterday, right?” He swung a kick at her and she shifted into a massive black jaguar the side

of a bull, running at Arad’s side.

Matilda finally recovered her vision, and the first thing she saw was mountains zooming around he vision as the jungle blurred, she was being carried by Arad as he ran around a whole mountain range chasing Selena at his top speed.