NOVPUB"Who's that?" Adolf asked as he narrowed his eyes and a dangerous heat escaped from his body. He stepped forward, surprisingly standing in front of the whole group.
Ever since he had learned about the certain existence, he had been very jumpy and aggressive, outmatching even Orion in anxiety.
"A golden lion?" The spirit lion, King Larvis's grandson muttered.
At this time, Baba, who had been walking with the group, froze in silence, his eyes wide and his five limbs shaking.
His claws pressed the marble floor, unfortunately, it wasn't soil and he couldn't stabilize himself to ease his fear.
He could recognize that golden fur anywhere. After all, he only knew one lion with golden fur.
"Wait, there's another person beside him," The one-horned vegetation lion spoke.
Chloe was a lioness with pure black feathers and fur, so it was easy for her figure to blend well into the dark area of the info orbs library.
Luckily, someone among them was familiar enough to point out her identity.
"That's Chloe," Alora said as she stepped forward, standing next to Adolf and releasing a terrible chill from her body. In a moment, she seemed to have turned into the embodiment of a freezing vengeful hunter.
If Chloe was here, then…
"That's Kael," Xu Ying, the biggest lion among them said as his expression became calm again, but his eyes ruthlessly calculated different probabilities.
One by one, their auras erupted as they all prepared for a battle.
They were now in the same space with the legendary Primordial Lion, anything could go right or wrong.
….
"Kael," Chloe's eyes were glued to the distant group but her mind was alert and present.
However, she didn't need to call Kael's name. The rising auras and their faint scent had already gotten his attention.
Kael raised his head carefully away from the floating info orbs, his eyes wide open and his irises letting off a malicious golden glow.
*BAM!*
The floating info orb in front of him crashed to the floor, unable to withstand the sudden increase in spatial and magic pressure emanating from Kael.
Not just that one, the other info orbs close to him either swerved away from him or fell to the ground.
Kael stepped forward, his golden claws fully out and clanking against the marble floor.
Chloe looked at the group, then at
Kael, confused.
"Oh look at that," Adolf growled as his body instantly erupted with destructive red and orange flames, "This one wants to fight,"
He took another step closer, it was unclear who was provoking the other and who was asking for the other to back off.
Kael looked like he was ready to take on all of them head-on, he wasn't even hiding his aura despite their numbers.
The distance between Kael and Xu Ying's group was less than three hundred meters, a distance that could be covered in a short amount of time.
"Chloe!" Alora shouted, her voice echoing off the walls of the library.
Chloe shook, she didn't know what to do.
Xu Ying on the other hand was rather silent, he calmly observed Kael with a thoughtful gaze. He studied Kael's aura and found that he couldn't tell exactly how powerful Kael was.
Sure, Kael looked like a tier 3 lion in size, and his aura was that of someone between tier 3 and tier 4. But this was the Primordial Lion, everything about his aura seemed weird and unsettled.
Seeing that Chloe did not respond to her call, Alora was alarmed, her frown deepened and the temperature around her dropped significantly.
She took two more steps forward, her fangs bare and showing that she was ready to fight.
The other lions behind her were already having their claws bared and flexing their muscles.
Kael, seeing their unwillingness to back off, finally released it all.
*BAM!*
The info orbs in the surrounding twenty meters around him immediately collapsed to the ground and many more swerved out of the way.
Two large golden wings burst out of his back and two antlers grew out of his head. Kael took steps forward, and unlike before, he did not stop walking.
Every step he took forward was accompanied by a heavy sound as it seemed his weight was increasing. His muscles expanded, and his claws and fangs became longer.
Flames rolled out of his nostrils and black winds wrapped around his pillar-like limbs.
"Oh no," Baba muttered as he immediately turned and headed straight from where he had entered from. Even Xu Ying wasn't giving him the confidence needed to stay.
Adolf and Alora were visibly shocked by Kael's rising aura and his myriad display of powers. What was more alarming was that he was walking toward them and he was picking up momentum.
Adolf subconsciously took a step back.
Chloe was surprised at the power Kael was currently displaying, it was…different.
What she didn't know was that since Kael had been able to sense the intangible law of Conquering present in the pyramid, his power had been growing ever since.
He was edging ever so closely to tier 4.
It was at this time that Xu Ying finally made a move.
His body flashed red and blue, appearing in front of Adolf, Alora, and the rest. A magic barrier spread out from his body, encompassing all of them.
"Kael, hold on," Xu Ying's telepathic words reached Kael fast. Xu Ying spoke in a firm respectful tone.
Kael, not the one to be unreasonable, stopped moving. He wasn't afraid of them but he was very wary of Xu Ying.
Magus Lions were very tricky to deal with generally. There was a big difference between fighting someone like the Cheetah brothers and someone like Xu Ying or N'bayé.
It was fascinating how combat became complex when high intelligence was added to the mix.
Kael folded his wings to his side, he calmed down but his aura remained at its peak. It even seemed to be rising still.
"Xu Ying, we finally met at last," Kael said telepathically.
His voice was deep and firm, like that of a regal ruler. The way it vibrated in their minds caused them, who were not used to it, to feel strange.
Especially the few lionesses among them, they felt their bodies shake as Kael's voice settled in their minds.
For a moment, Alora's mind went blank. Powerful. Kael's voice was the voice of a powerful lion.
For a brief moment, she almost lost all willingness to fight Kael…almost.
She instantly returned to her senses, acting like nothing had happened.
However, Chloe could guess. She too had experienced the same thing when she heard Kael's voice. It was just so…majestic.
"That's me," Xu Ying nodded, apparently not bothered by Kael's voice or regality.
"You helped Isaiah take his revenge, at the cost of one of my consorts being seriously injured," Kael said. He didn't care about how his voice or appearance looked to them.
Xu Ying waited for a while before talking, saying the wrong thing could easily lead to Kael overreacting and attacking.
"Well, I claim fault for that, I was too busy to look deeply into the information he was feeding us. He's a master planner, you know that right?" Xu Ying said.
"Perhaps," Kael responded, his eyes scanning each lion one after the other.
His eyes lingered longer on Alora before looking away. The pristine white lioness was looking at him intensely like he was the one who killed her mother.
"Can we have Chloe back?" Alora asked.
"Yeah, and Wadolius too!" Adolf added, feeling extra confident with Xu Ying's magical barrier present.
"Chloe won't be able to join you at the moment," Kael responded swiftly. Chloe breathed a sigh of relief, Kael made it look like he was holding her hostage and she didn't have a choice but to stay with him.
Although, technically, he did hold her hostage, it wasn't the way they imagined.
"And Wadolius? Where is he?" Adolf asked.
"He's dead, isn't he?" Before Kael could respond, Xu Ying spoke.
They delved into silence, waiting for Kael to talk. Chloe sighed.
"Yes, he's dead," Kael said. His words caused the eyes of the youthful lions to widen in shock, not because they cared about Wadolius, but because of the kind of person backing him.
Xu Ying shook his head, "That's bad for you Kael, you killed the son of a lion king who absolutely hates the idea of Primordial Lions" He said.
Kael frowned but didn't say anything.
"Anyways, we'll be on our way now," Xu Ying said. He didn't press the matter of Chloe, to the dissatisfaction of Alora.
"Okay," Kael nodded.
"Prince Xu Ying, aren't we going to check the info orbs?" Thawne asked.
By this time, Baba had long left the library.
"Walk fast," Was Xu Ying's response.
….
Kael watched them leave, after they left the library, his aura diminished. His muscular body returned to normal, the wings shrunk in, and his horns disappeared.
He turned to Chloe and spoke, "Let's move,"
