CHAPTER 213: The Wandering Star Alliance and the Silent Edge
The stellar portal blinked one last time before collapsing in on itself, devoured by the mountain's void. Even though the runic towers of Aethelgard stood out majestically on the horizon, the squad had deliberately landed several leagues away, adhering to the military prudence of not revealing a dimensional insertion point before the eyes of a commercial empire.
The cold northern wind tossed the robes of the twelve young Morningstars.
Aia stepped forward, pushing back the silver strands falling over her forehead, and looked at the group.
"Alright, this is where we part ways," she announced in a clear, serene voice. "We will head to the Wandering Star Alliance to register the clan's name on the surface and take official missions. If all twelve of us walk in together, we will draw too much unnecessary attention."
Dante crossed his arms, caressing the obsidian handle of his Asura dagger.
"You're right, Aia," he nodded, his dull gray eyes flashing coldly. "As for us, we won't go down into the crater's Underworld immediately. First, we will find an isolated area in these woods to completely master the stealth technique the Patriarch gave us: the Shadowless Specter Sutra. In unfamiliar territory, an absolute escape technique is worth more than ten thousand swords. And remember..."
Dante's gaze hardened, sweeping over every single one of them.
"If the situation forces you to unleash your dragon bloodline powers, not a single witness must be left alive. No one."
Everyone nodded in solemn silence. They understood the weight of those words perfectly; if the secret of the Sequences and their dragon blood leaked prematurely, the powers of the continent would throw themselves at them like hyenas. And although they always had the option of retreating to Samael's palace, the martial pride of a Morningstar warrior would never allow them to flee with their tails between their legs.
"Now that we're in agreement, let's get moving," said Aia, pulling the hood of her black cloak over her face. "And don't forget. Any anomalies, use the Soul Nexus."
With a burst of agility, Aia, Varian, Ciro, Lia, and Ren vanished into the thicket of the forest, moving at full speed toward the metropolis.
Dante watched them disappear among the millennial pines and then turned toward Lyra, Altair, Joren, Rowan, Tamsin, and Mira.
"Alright, specters," Dante whispered with a grim half-smile. "Let's start practicing that technique."
Hours later, hidden beneath heavy black cloaks that concealed their faces and compressed their auras, Aia's squad approached the immense monumental gate of Aethelgard.
The entrance was a bustling hub of merchant caravans, exotic beasts of burden, and heavily armed mercenaries. Upon reaching the checkpoint, two armored guards bearing the emblems of the City Lord crossed their spears, blocking their path.
"Halt right there! Who are you and what is your business in Aethelgard?" grunted the officer in charge, a scarred man with a shrewd gaze.
Aia took a step forward, speaking calmly from beneath her hood:
"We are an independent squad. We are here to register as mercenaries at the Wandering Star Alliance."
The officer shamelessly released his divine sense, scanning the five cloaked figures from top to bottom. Upon sensing that four of them barely radiated the Qi of Stage 7 of the Sea of Qi Realm, and that the girl in command only reflected Stage 8 of the Transcendence Realm, a contemptuous smile curled his lips. These brats looked like simple peasants playing at being adventurers.
Knowing they were young, unbacked outsiders, the guard saw a golden opportunity to line his pockets.
"Registering at the Alliance?" the officer scoffed, spitting a toothpick to the side. "Mmm... the city entrance fee for unaffiliated cultivators is three hundred gold coins per head."
Behind Aia, Ciro's and Varian's bodies crackled with a faint spark of bloodlust. Three hundred gold just to enter a public city? This bastard is extorting us, Ren's voice echoed through the Soul Nexus.
Aia discreetly raised a hand beneath her cloak, ordering her companions to remain silent. Without dropping the polite smile from her face, she pulled a small leather pouch from her space ring and tossed it against the officer's chest.
"Here is a total of one thousand five hundred gold coins for all five of us," said Aia.
The guard caught the pouch, weighing the coins with greed gleaming in his eyes.
"Hehehe, very good, very good... Open the gates for the young masters!"
As she walked past him, Aia paused for a fraction of a second. Without turning around, she tilted her head slightly and whispered in a voice so freezing it chilled the breath in the officer's throat:
"Be very careful about being so greedy, officer... Who knows, maybe one of these days you'll go out on patrol out there and end up dying a horrible death from an 'accident'."
The officer froze on the spot, feeling a macabre shiver run down his spine. For a second, he thought he saw the shadow of a predatory dragon behind the girl's back. But by the time he blinked and shook his head, the group of cloaked figures had already melted into the crowd on the main street.
Entering the upper metropolis, the five youths stood admiring the ivory terrace architecture, the pristine waterways, and the overwhelming density of cultivators traveling the avenues. The group's divine sense immediately picked up dozens of immensely powerful Qi signatures hidden behind the walls of the palaces and pavilions; Aethelgard was, indeed, a true den of crouching tigers and hidden dragons.
As they passed through the great commercial market, the clamor was deafening:
"Ancient artifacts for sale! Step right up, great deals from the east!"
"Pills to break through bottlenecks at the best price!"
"Hello, beautiful young lady!" a dirty-bearded old man tried to block Lia's path, displaying a yellowed scroll. "Wouldn't you be interested in this secret cultivation technique? I personally rescued it from a secret realm—it is an unsurpassed divine art!"
"Hey, you old scammer, stop tricking the youngsters!" yelled the merchant next to him. "Miss, don't listen to him! Look at this runic steel sword—it looks like a Heaven Grade treasure! I'll let you have it for only one thousand medium-grade spiritual stones!"
"WHO ARE YOU CALLING A SCAMMER, YOU MISERABLE DOG?! That sword of yours is a Mortal Grade trinket, charging a thousand medium-grade stones is highway robbery! Why don't you just go rob a sect instead, bastard?!"
Arguments, insults, and haggling erupted on every corner. Aia, Varian, Ciro, Lia, and Ren simply walked past, completely ignoring the offers. The Morningstar Family storehouses were overflowing with Saint Grade weapons, divine codices, and celestial pills that would make the king of this empire weep with envy; those street trinkets were nothing more than scrap metal to them.
Minutes later, they reached the administrative heart of the city.
It was a monolithic, colossal skyscraper, built entirely of runic black crystal blocks that seemed to absorb the northern sunlight. At the main entrance, flanking massive bronze doors, stood two guards in dark metal armor with immovable posture. The Wandering Star Alliance.
As they walked past them, Aia and her companions discreetly scanned the perimeter. Even though the two guards kept their auras hidden, the Morningstar squad's sharpened senses easily pierced their defenses, discovering the truth: both guards were consolidated experts in the Grand Saint Realm!
Wow... look at that, Aia's telepathic voice echoed through the Soul Nexus into the minds of her four companions as they climbed the marble steps. This Alliance is no ordinary force. To have the luxury of using Grand Saint Realm cultivators as mere doormen at the main entrance, their foundation must be truly monstrous. In the lower realms, someone with that power would be the supreme patriarch of a sect. No wonder the Patriarch ordered us to come here first.
Keep your guard up, but act natural, Varian replied through the same channel. If the doormen are Grand Saints, I don't even want to imagine what kind of monsters rule inside.
Stepping across the threshold and entering the Alliance's immense lobby, the atmosphere changed radically. The Qi inside the lobby was so dense, refined, and oppressive that a common mortal would have suffered instant lung collapse. The vast hall was filled with holographic bulletin boards projecting criminal faces and hunting coordinates, spiritual liquor bars where veteran mercenaries boasted of their scars, and hundreds of solitary assassins, sect deserters, and bounty hunters with bloodthirsty auras looking for their next meal or their death.
The five cloaked figures walked over to one of the long rows of service counters.
"Hello. We're here to register as mercenaries," Varian said in a neutral voice at one of the windows.
The secretary behind the desk, a harsh-faced woman wearing heavy makeup, lazily looked up from the scroll she was reading. Her gaze swept over the group's simple, dusty cloaks, and she let out a disdainful snort upon seeing no emblems of nobility or expensive silk.
"Rookie and beggar window is at the back to the right. Don't waste my time," the woman spat, pointing her quill toward the far end of the lobby and turning back to ignore them.
This arrogant bitch... does she want me to open a hole in her head? Lia growled through the Soul Nexus, her hands clenching beneath her cloak.
Easy, Lia. Remember to keep a low profile, Aia replied with an amused smile.
Without saying a word, they stepped away from the counter and walked toward the window she had indicated. Upon arriving, they found another receptionist: a young woman with long blonde hair, beautiful blue eyes framed by thin glasses, and truly delicate, charming features.
The young woman was completely engrossed, nibbling on the end of a quill while reviewing a ledger, oblivious to the world.
Aia leaned against the counter and spoke in a warm, polite tone:
"Hello, good day. We would like to register."
The girl jumped in her seat, scared half to death at hearing the voice so close to her ear. In a desperate attempt to quickly regain her professional posture, she awkwardly swatted her glasses back into place and opened her mouth to reply with a bow:
"H-hel... yipe!"
A sharp, pitiful squeak cut her words short. Out of pure nervousness and rushing to speak, her jaw snapped shut prematurely, delivering a savage, painful bite directly to the tip of her tongue.
The pain was so sharp and immediate that the blonde's blue eyes welled with tears in seconds. She covered her mouth with both hands as a crimson blush exploded across her cheeks, rapidly spreading down her neck and to her ears from the embarrassment of the moment.
From the adjacent counters, the other secretaries and nearby mercenaries didn't let the scene pass.
"Hahaha! Look at clumsy Yue again!"
"Hahaha, she bit her tongue again! What a disaster of a girl!"
Knowing laughter echoed across the west wing of the lobby. Utterly humiliated and wishing the floor would swallow her whole, the young blonde named Yue lowered her head until her forehead almost touched the desk, frantically twiddling her fingers as she trembled, fighting with all her strength not to burst into tears right there. Oh no... I ruined everything again... so embarrassing, so embarrassing... she thought in her mental agony.
Aia smiled sweetly, reaching out a hand to gently touch the edge of the desk.
"Hey... are you okay, little one? It's fine, just breathe."
Yue blinked, stunned, slowly looking up through her tear-fogged glasses. She expected these cloaked mercenaries to mock her or scream at her for her incompetence too. Seeing Aia's empathetic smile and her companions' calm demeanor, she swallowed hard, wiped away a small tear with the back of her sleeve, and sat up straight, trying to salvage her professional dignity at all costs.
"Mmm... y-yes, I am perfectly fine, thank you so much for asking!" Yue said, her voice a little thick from the pain. "How... how can I help you, gentlemen?"
"We want to officially register with the guild," Aia repeated. "Though... out of curiosity, why did your colleagues over there look at us with such contempt and send us over here as if we were a plague?"
Yue glanced over at her arrogant colleagues and then looked at the group's simple black cloaks. She sighed with a touch of sadness.
"Well... it's just that most of them only want to serve noble clans or high-ranking mercenaries to earn big tips," Yue explained sincerely. "But don't pay any attention to that. To register with the Wandering Star Alliance, the official fee is one hundred medium-grade spiritual stones per group... or the equivalent in low-grade stones, which would be roughly fifty thousand... or about five million mortal gold coins."
Aia raised an eyebrow beneath her hood, genuinely surprised. Five million gold just to put a name on a piece of paper... Wow, the house never loses in this business. No wonder only the truly strong or the wealthy manage to step foot in here; the entry filter itself is already a fortress wall.
"I understand it's quite a large sum for those just starting out," Yue added upon noticing Aia's silence, trying to be helpful. "But don't worry, if you don't have that amount right now, the Guild offers a starter loan system. You can register for free, and the guild will collect the debt by withholding fifty percent of the rewards from your first missions until the balance is cleared."
"Mmm, that's a pretty aggressive interest rate, though efficient," Aia mused aloud. "Mortal gold is no issue for anyone, but demanding medium-grade stones right at the entrance is on another level."
At that exact second, a shadow cast over Yue's desk.
It was the first secretary, the heavy-makeup woman who had shooed them away earlier. She had walked over, resting her elbows on the wood, glaring at Yue with a smile dripping with venom and superiority.
"Well, well... look who we have here. The ever-charming and ridiculous Yue wasting her time with beggars," mocked the woman, whose metallic nameplate gleamed on her chest with the name Feng Hua. With a haughty strut, she approached the counter, sweeping her disdainful gaze over the group before continuing: "Hey, clumsy girl, can't you see these paupers don't have a single spiritual stone in their clean pockets?"
Feng Hua turned her face toward Aia and the rest, looking at them with sheer disgust.
"If you can't afford the registration fee, there's the door—get out and go beg for alms in the alleys. Guards! Come get these starving troublemakers out of my sight!"
Several mercenaries at nearby tables turned around, snickering under their breath at the drama.
Aia's smile vanished instantly. The polite warmth on her face was replaced by a freezing, relentless winter frost.
"And who told you, you screeching bitch... that we can't pay?" Aia whispered with sepulchral coldness.
Without moving a single finger, Aia released a fraction of Saint Realm spiritual pressure.
There was no wind, no visible Qi explosions. But for Feng Hua—whose strength amounted to a pathetic Stage 1 of the Sea of Qi Realm achieved through cheap pills—the air around her instantly turned into molten lead. She felt an invisible, icy hand grip her windpipe until she choked; her made-up face drained of all color, turning as pale as paper, while heavy beads of cold sweat broke out on her forehead and her knees trembled violently, unable to utter a single sound to call the guards.
"Who dares cause a disturbance in my Alliance lobby?"
A mature, haughty female voice tinged with an echo of absolute authority resonated from the second-floor staircase.
The clamor in the lobby was sliced short as if by a scythe. Hundreds of hardened mercenaries, assassins, and secretaries immediately stepped aside, lowering their heads in deep respect and fear.
Descending the steps was a woman of dazzling, mature beauty, draped in an elegant black and gold business dress that accentuated her dangerous curves. Between her fingers she held a delicate spiritual lotus pipe, exhaling fragrant, bluish trails of smoke.
She was the true shadow ruler of the skyscraper: Vice-Master of Operations, Valeria "The Ebony Feather". In Aethelgard, where the Alliance Master was a ghost who never appeared in public, Valeria and the other Vice-Masters were the supreme law.
Valeria paused at the foot of the stairs, her eagle-sharp eyes sweeping over the group of five cloaked figures and the trembling Feng Hua.
"I asked a question," Valeria repeated, exhaling lotus smoke. "Who has the guts to unleash their spiritual pressure in front of my desks?"
Feng Hua, feeling Aia's pressure lessen slightly upon her superior's arrival, dropped to her knees and pointed frantically with a trembling finger toward Aia and her group.
"It was them, Vice-Master Valeria! It's them!" Feng Hua shrieked with false victim tears. "They're beggars who came in without money to pay for registration! When I told them the Alliance rules, they flew into a rage and threatened to attack me and cause a massacre in the guild!"
Valeria narrowed her eyes. She was well aware of Feng Hua's classist, lying, and venomous nature, but it was also her duty to maintain the guild's untouchable reputation before strangers.
With slow steps, she approached until standing two meters from Aia.
"Is what this woman says true? Did you come to my Alliance to cause trouble because you can't afford the entry fee? If so, I suggest you walk out on your own two feet right now... before I decide to use your heads to decorate the skyscraper's entrance."
To back up her warning, Valeria released her own martial aura.
An overwhelming Saint King pressure erupted from her figure, sweeping through the lobby like an invisible hurricane!
The marble floor creaked, and dozens of veteran mercenaries in the hall were forced backward or down onto their knees, suffocated by the immense gap in level. Valeria focused that crushing gravity directly upon the five cloaked youths to force them to prostrate themselves.
However... what happened next left the Vice-Master bewildered.
Aia, Varian, Ciro, Lia, and Ren did not kneel. They didn't even step back an inch. They stood in the center of the Qi hurricane with exasperating tranquility, hands beneath their cloaks, looking at her as if a Saint King's pressure were nothing more than a gentle summer breeze caressing their cheeks.
What...? This makes no sense, Valeria thought, her pupils contracting behind the smoke of her pipe. None of them look over twenty, their external signatures are pathetically weak... yet they are resisting my direct pressure as if it were nothing. These are no ordinary cultivators.
Knowing Valeria was merely testing their martial background, Aia shifted her gaze away from the Vice-Master with total indifference. She reached into her cloak, pulled out an embroidered velvet pouch, and tossed it in a clean arc onto the desk, landing right in front of a startled Yue.
Clink-clink!
The crystalline chime of jewels inside echoed through the silent hall. The drawstring of the pouch loosened slightly, revealing a blinding, concentrated glow: five hundred medium-grade spiritual stones of the highest purity! Five times the demanded sum.
"I never said we didn't have the money to pay for a simple registration," Aia spoke in a calm, cold voice laden with nobility, staring directly into Valeria's eyes. "We simply walked up to the counter, and that incompetent woman started insulting us, lying, and calling guards to throw us out like trash just because we aren't wearing ostentatious silk."
Aia crossed her arms beneath her cloak, holding the ruler's gaze without blinking.
"If this is how you treat warriors who come to offer their swords, allowing your staff to abuse and lie to intimidate clients... then the great Wandering Star Alliance has a pretty shitty reputation."
A deathly silence, so tense you could hear a feather drop, took over the entire skyscraper. No one had ever spoken with such boldness and disdain to the Ebony Feather in her own den!
Valeria looked at the pouch overflowing with pure spiritual stones, then observed Aia's unflappable calm, and finally looked down at Feng Hua, who was trembling on the marble floor like a leaf in the wind upon realizing her lie had been completely exposed.
The Vice-Master exhaled a long puff of blue smoke, and a faint smile of satisfaction touched the corner of her lips. She liked strong people who led with the truth.
"You are entirely right. I offer you a formal apology on behalf of the Alliance for the improper actions of this waste of staff," Valeria said elegantly.
With that, she snapped her fingers sharply.
"Shadow guards! Remove this woman from the building immediately. Effective this minute, Feng Hua is stripped of her position and strictly forbidden from ever setting foot in any Wandering Star Alliance facility again."
Two armored shadows emerged from the pillars and grabbed Feng Hua by the arms.
"No! No, please, Vice-Master Valeria! Have mercy, don't kick me out, I'll starve to death out there! NOOOOO!" Feng Hua screamed, kicking and weeping in desperation, but she was mercilessly dragged out into the street, leaving behind an echo of wails that quickly faded away.
Valeria turned toward the desk and smiled at the bespectacled blonde who was still stunned.
"Yue, dear, I will personally handle completing the registration and evaluation of these gentlemen in my private office. But don't worry, the accounting commission for this high-level registration will be credited in full to your record for the month."
"T-thank you so much, Vice-Master!" Yue bowed, blushing right to the roots of her hair.
Valeria looked at Aia and gestured toward the stairs.
"You five, follow me, please."
Careful, Aia, Lia warned through the Soul Nexus as they climbed behind the woman in the black dress. This woman is no joke. Her Qi control is exquisite—she's at least at the Saint King realm. Let's not lower our guard in her territory.
Understood. But there is no fear in our blood, Aia replied firmly.
They followed Valeria up to the upper floors of the crystal monolith, entering her private office. Crossing the double mahogany doors, the young Morningstars were slightly surprised: they expected an opulent hall filled with gold, beast furs, and ostentatious artifacts. Instead, the Vice-Master's office was spacious, yet extremely simple and almost austere: bookshelves filled with accounting ledgers, maps, a couple of polished wooden chairs, and a neat desk.
"I don't care much for material luxuries or ostentatious eccentricities," Valeria said upon noticing the group's gaze, sitting down behind her desk and relighting her pipe. "Those who truly understand the weight of power and responsibility don't need to drape themselves in shiny gold to prove their status. Make yourselves comfortable."
Aia smiled inwardly; in that respect, the woman's philosophy resonated with the teachings of the Morningstar palace.
"Let me formally introduce myself," Valeria spoke, exhaling lotus smoke. "I am Valeria, Vice-Master of Operations for the Guild. And with whom do I have the pleasure of dealing?"
Aia approached the guest chair, sat down, crossing one leg with total confidence, and with a fluid movement, pulled back the hood of her black cloak, revealing her silver hair and storm-gray eyes. Varian, Ciro, Lia, and Ren mirrored her action, uncovering their young, proud faces with perfectly sculpted features.
"I am Aia Morningstar," she introduced herself directly. "And these are my clan companions."
Valeria narrowed her eyes, searching for the surname in her vast mental archive. Morningstar...? Mmm... I have never heard or read that name in any intelligence report from the Northern Continent. Could they be the descendants of some ancient clan that has remained hidden for millennia? Given the purity of their features and their resistance to my Saint King aura, it is very likely.
Despite her burning curiosity, the Vice-Master's face showed no emotion.
"Very well, Aia Morningstar. Before sealing your registration, as a martial expert I have a personal question: why are five young warriors, whose true power is so overwhelming that they can shrug off the direct pressure of a Saint King as if it were nothing, here in Aethelgard suppressing their auras beneath black cloaks? What exactly are you seeking to hide?" Valeria asked with a piercing look.
Aia didn't blink or show a shred of nervousness. She rested an elbow on the armrest and gave a knowing smile:
"As far as I know... the First Rule carved at the entrance of your Alliance is very clear, Vice-Master: 'The Guild asks no questions. The Guild takes no sides.' Am I mistaken?"
Valeria froze for a second with the pipe halfway to her lips... and then let out a delighted, musical laugh.
"Hahaha! It is absolutely true. You have a good memory for house rules, little one," Valeria nodded with a gleam in her eyes. "Very well, I won't ask a single further question about your secrets or your origins. But as the ruler of this skyscraper, I will give you friendly warning: don't even think about doing anything foolish that compromises the neutrality or security of the Guild while you are in my territory. Is that clear?"
"Crystal clear," Aia nodded.
The registration process was completed without further delay. Only their martial names were recorded, and they were assigned affiliation as an independent squad. Valeria knew full well that the cultivation signatures they projected were fake, so she didn't waste time conducting spiritual stone tests to measure their ranks.
Minutes later, a gentle knock sounded on the office door, and little Yue walked in with timid steps, carrying a silver tray holding five beautifully carved metal plates. She handed them to Valeria and withdrew with a quick bow, still blushing whenever she made eye contact with Aia.
Valeria took the plates and slid them across the desk toward the five youths. They weren't the typical wooden or copper tokens given to rookies; they were heavy credentials forged from gleaming runic gold, embedded with a black wandering star in the center.
"Here are your official credentials," Valeria declared. "Do not lose them, or you will have to pay an administrative fee for replacements. I have decided to skip protocol and place you directly into [Gold Rank]. It makes no martial sense to throw monsters of your caliber into iron or copper rank missions to clean out sewer rats; consider this a privilege of the strong, earned by enduring my pressure without flinching."
Valeria stood up, resting her hands on the wood:
"But remember the two golden conditions of the Guild: First, the Alliance takes a fixed twenty percent commission on all published mission rewards. Second and most importantly: breaking an accepted mission contract here or betraying a client under official protection means the Alliance itself will immediately place a bounty on your heads on every hunting board across the continent. So... don't get clever."
"A fair trade," said Aia, taking her credentials. "It was a pleasure doing business with you, Vice-Master Valeria."
The five young Morningstars pulled their cloaks back up and left the office.
Alone in the silence of her office, Valeria slowly stood up, walked over to the black glass window overlooking the lower city, and murmured to herself, exhaling lotus smoke:
"Morningstar... what fascinating creatures have arrived in Aethelgard. I will have to keep a very close eye on that squad."
Descending back to the main lobby, the group walked over to Yue's desk, who greeted them with a much more relaxed smile, deeply grateful to them for saving her earlier.
"Hello again, guys!" Yue greeted them, pushing up her glasses. "Would you like to review the catalog of available Gold Rank missions for today?"
Aia glanced at the holographic screens behind the desk, but shook her head.
"Not today, Yue. It's been a long day of travel and paperwork. We want to get some rest at a clean inn first. We'll be back first thing tomorrow morning to take our first job."
"Understood! I'll be right here waiting for you," the blonde smiled.
The group left the skyscraper and headed into the residential sector of the upper city. They found a high-end inn managed by veteran cultivators, whose rates ranged from one hundred copper coins in the basement to luxury executive suites paid in gold pieces. Aia paid two hundred gold coins without blinking for two top-floor suite rooms, which came equipped with Origin Grade soundproofing and Qi-gathering arrays, guaranteeing absolute privacy.
Varian, Ciro, and Ren took one room, while Aia and Lia settled into the other. After a brief meditation session to stabilize their meridians and a nightly telepathic check-in with Dante in the forest, the five surrendered to some well-deserved rest.
The next morning, the northern sun was barely bathing the ivory terraces when the Morningstar squad returned to the central square to head to the crystal monolith.
However, fifty meters from the entrance steps of the Wandering Star Alliance, a noisy commotion was disrupting the morning traffic. Several cultivators and mercenaries were hurriedly stepping aside, forming a trembling circle around an incident on the sidewalk, whispering among themselves in palpable panic:
"Damn it, look who it is! It's Young Master Cassian Aurelia!"
"That arrogant useless bum! All he knows how to do is waste his family's fortune in brothels and commit crimes all over the city..."
"Shhh! Shut your mouth, idiot! If one of his guards hears you, they'll rip your tongue out and throw you into the death canals. The Aurelia Family is one of Aethelgard's great families; even the City Lord's guard prefers to look the other way when they do their filth on the streets. Let's get out of here fast!"
Many passersby picked up their pace with their heads down. In a city where Guild rules guaranteed absolute security behind closed doors, the public street outside the steps was still the law of the jungle, where great families enforced their every whim.
Aia, Varian, Ciro, Lia, and Ren calmly pushed their way through the crowd to see what was happening.
In the center of a circle of armored guards, a young man dressed in gold silk robes embroidered with gems—bearing a pale face, dark bags under his eyes from excessive indulgence, and a revolting smile—had trapped a girl against a marble pillar as she tried to get to her work at the Guild.
It was the little bespectacled blonde, Yue.
Cassian Aurelia blocked her path with one arm, verbally harassing her with unbearable contempt while his sixteen thug guards, all in the intermediate stages of the Sea of Qi Realm, laughed as they formed a perimeter.
"Why are you playing so hard to get with me, you stupid bitch?!" Cassian shouted at Yue, trying to grab her chin as she turned her face away, weeping helplessly. "I've offered you thousands of gold coins to spend just one night with me, and you dare reject me over and over again! I already had your sad life investigated, girl! I know full well you're just a wretched orphan—no parents, no clan, and nobody to back you up in this world! You can barely afford to eat on a secretary's salary! You're nothing more than a cheap toy, so drop the self-respect act and come to my bed willingly!"
Yue trembled against the pillar, tears streaming down her cheeks, biting her lip in despair. She looked around, pleading with her eyes for help, but every mercenary and citizen she made eye contact with immediately looked away, terrified of incurring the mortal hatred of the Aurelia Family. Seeing herself completely alone in the middle of that merciless jungle, despair devoured her heart.
Until firm footsteps broke through the circle of thugs.
"Hey, you piece of shit... get out of the way, you're blocking the entrance to the Guild," resonated a female voice—cold, sharp, and entirely devoid of fear.
Silence fell over the sidewalk. Cassian Aurelia stopped his harassment, blinking in disbelief that anyone in all of Aethelgard had the guts to speak to him that way. His face twisting with rage, he slowly turned around to see what suicidal fool had insulted him.
But upon finding himself face to face with Aia and Lia—who had pulled back their hoods to see clearly—the rage in Cassian's eyes vanished instantly, replaced by a sickly, viscous, and revolting lust. The superhuman, exotic, and haughty beauty of the two maidens eclipsed any woman he had ever seen a million times over.
Cassian licked his dry lips, his eyes gleaming with animalistic greed.
"Well, well... what celestial treasures have dropped from the sky into my path this morning," the arrogant noble smiled, taking a condescending step toward them. "Hello, beautiful ladies. My name is Cassian Aurelia, future heir to the great Family..."
None of the young Morningstars gave him the slightest second of attention.
As if Cassian were a mere bag of trash or a fly buzzing in the wind, Aia and Lia bypassed him completely, walking right past him without a glance to kneel beside Yue.
"Are you alright, Yue?" Aia asked, reaching out a hand to help her stand up.
Yue looked at them with wide eyes, shaking her head frantically:
"Aia, Lia! Please, go away! He is the young master of the Aurelias—he's a violent madman! If you get involved for me, they'll kill you...!"
"Easy. We came here today to get our first official mission, and we need our favorite secretary to assist us," Lia smiled, winking at her and helping her up.
Seeing that these two women had not only completely ignored his name and lineage, but treated him like a nonexistent presence in front of the whole street, Cassian Aurelia's arrogant pride shattered into a thousand pieces. Blood rushed to his head in a fit of homicidal madness.
"HOW DARE YOU IGNORE ME LIKE THAT, YOU DAMN BITCHES?!" Cassian lunged forward, losing all control.
Taking a violent stride forward, Cassian reached out his right hand, imbued with a dirty, low-level Qi, intending to savagely grab Lia by the shoulder and drag her toward him.
"Hey, you damn bit—!"
The phrase never left his mouth.
At that exact second, Ciro—the youth with messy green hair standing one step behind Lia in absolute martial silence—reacted.
He didn't even blink or show an expression of anger. His left hand fell with unearthly fluidity onto the hilt of his weapons: the [Short Swords: Twins of the Silent Shadow].
The instant his fingers touched the leather grip, he executed the skill [Sword Art: Phantom Gale Slash]: [Acoustic Void].
The classic metallic sound of drawing a blade (clink!), the vibration of steel leaving the sheath, and the whistle of wind being sliced at high speed were completely erased from reality.
The eyes of Cassian Aurelia and his sixteen guards only registered a fleeting streak of silver light that flashed and vanished in space in the millisecond it took Ciro to draw, slash in a perfect crescent arc, and re-sheath his sword in one continuous, fluid motion.
There was no sound whatsoever. Zero decibels.
By the time Cassian's brain visually processed the silver flash and the sound of the attack tried to reach his ears... his physical reality had already been claimed by the divine steel of the Sequences.
"Huh...?" Cassian blinked, watching how his right hand remained suspended in mid-air half a meter from Lia's shoulder... except it was no longer connected to his body.
SHHHHHK-SPLASH!
A fountain of hot, dark blood erupted from Cassian's shoulder stump. His entire right arm, severed cleanly from the collarbone with surgical precision, hit the marble floor with a dull, wet thud (splash!), splattering the boots of his own guards.
"AAAAAAAGH! MY ARM! AHHHHHHH!" Cassian's heart-rending, high-pitched, pathetic shriek shattered the silence of the outer street, bouncing off the Alliance facade like a pig in a slaughterhouse.
But Ciro wasn't finished with his punishment after a single silent strike.
Without giving the one-armed noble time to drop to his knees from the pain, Ciro pivoted on his heel and delivered a brutal side kick directly into the right side of Cassian's ribcage.
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!
The sound of five ribs fracturing and caving into his lungs was horrifying. Cassian launched like a human projectile, flying ten meters through the air before slamming violently into the Guild's crystal steps, where he rolled in a mixture of his own vomit and blood, groaning in agony:
"Ghuu... my... my chest...!"
The entire sequence occurred in under two seconds.
The sixteen elite guards of the Aurelia Family took a moment to snap out of their shock at seeing their untouchable young master mutilated and tossed aside like a stray dog. Their faces distorting with panic at the death sentence that would fall upon them if they didn't avenge him, they roared in unison:
"YOU DAMN BASTARDS! YOU CUT OFF THE MASTER'S ARM! KILL THEM ALL!"
The sixteen thugs drew their scimitars and channeled their Qi to swarm the five youths en masse.
But before they could take a single offensive step, they found themselves staring into the abyss.
Without anyone seeing how they moved, Varian and Lia already held their dragon bone longbows in their hands, bowstrings drawn to the absolute limit with two runic arrows aimed straight at the foreheads of the two guard captains. At the same instant, Ren had slithered through the shadows of the pedestrians like a ghost, reappearing right behind the three rearguard thugs, pressing his short daggers coldly against their carotid arteries.
"One more step..." Aia spoke, turning toward the circle of swords with her storm-gray eyes flashing with a freezing, deadly glow. "...and I swear on my family name that all sixteen heads will roll across the floor right now."
As she delivered that sentence, Aia unleashed her bloodlust.
BOOM!
It was no physical attack; it was an overwhelming mental and spiritual projection that drove straight into the minds of the sixteen Aurelia mercenaries. To the guards' eyes, Aethelgard's morning sky vanished, replaced by a nightmarish vision: they saw themselves standing atop a mountain of mangled corpses in a sea of hot red blood, where primordial beasts and dragons devoured their souls.
The Aurelia thugs froze like statues of salt. Their swords trembled in their hands as they broke out in a cold sweat of terror, sensing that if they twitched a single muscle, death would devour them without leaving a trace. How... how many thousands of people has this girl slaughtered to possess such an apocalyptic killing intent?! they thought, their souls turned to ice.
Just as the tension was one millisecond away from exploding into a public bloodbath, a slow, rhythmically measured, and resonant applause echoed down the monolith's steps.
Clap! Clap! Clap!
Vice-Master of Operations, Valeria "The Ebony Feather," descended the crystal steps smoking her lotus pipe, flanked by four Saint King rank shadow assassins.
"Well, well... what is all this bloody mess outside my front doors?" Valeria spoke in a freezing voice that shattered Aia's mental illusion in the air. "Have you completely forgotten the Guild's laws of peace and order?"
Valeria swept her gaze across the scene: the sixteen guards paralyzed at arrow and dagger point, little Yue safe behind Aia and Lia, the pool of blood with a severed arm on the sidewalk, and finally, the agonizing figure of Cassian Aurelia groaning on the marble.
"Cassian Aurelia..." Valeria pronounced with utter disdain, exhaling smoke toward him.
Cassian, being hoisted off the ground by two of his guards who rushed to aid him, clutched the bleeding stump of his left shoulder, his face green from pain and blood loss. His subordinates quickly shoved several Earth Grade coagulant pills into his mouth to seal the hemorrhage before he bled to death.
Knowing full well that Valeria wouldn't hesitate to order his execution if he caused an all-out battle within the territorial boundaries of the Alliance, Cassian swallowed his screams along with the blood filling his throat.
He didn't say a single word. But as his guards dragged him toward the retreat carriages, he turned his head and shot Aia, Ciro, and Yue a glare laden with hatred so venomous, sadistic, and absolute that it promised to flay the skin from their bones the moment they set foot outside the city's protection.
The Aurelia carriages fled down the main avenue at full speed.
Valeria walked over to stand before the Morningstar squad, looking at them with a mix of professional reproach and deep, hidden admiration.
"You haven't even been in Aethelgard for two full days... and you've already severed an arm from the heir of one of the city's most troublesome and vengeful families," Valeria said, exhaling a blue cloud. "I see you are incredibly bold youths with an exceptionally fast edge. But let me make one detail very clear: here, on these steps and inside my building, no one will dare touch a hair on your heads. But out there—in the woods, on the roads, and in the Underworld—it is a completely different territory."
Valeria pointed her pipe in the direction the noble had fled.
"Even if you are exceptional warriors, the Aurelia Family has elders in the Grand Saint ranks—and that Cassian's grandfather is a Quasi-Saint King, though nobody knows if he's still alive or died in seclusion—along with thousands of hired assassins on their payroll. I don't think a small group like yours can survive a hunt by a great family... unless you have a true, supreme monster backing you from the shadows."
Aia sheathed her weapons, adjusted her cloak, and looked at the Vice-Master with unflappable calm.
"You don't need to worry about our safety at all, Vice-Master Valeria. We know very well how to clean up the trash when it piles up in our path," Aia replied. She then turned toward a trembling Yue, gave her a tender smile, and gently took her hand. "Come on, Yue. Let's go inside. Today we want to pick our first official mission."
Valeria stood on the steps, watching the five youths enter the monolith with the blonde secretary. Intrigue burned in her chest. Limitless audacity, an absolute disregard for death, and total contempt for Aethelgard's families... Curiosity won't let me sleep in peace until I investigate where the hell this Morningstar Clan came from, thought the Ebony Feather, taking a deep draw from her pipe.
Inside the safety of the Gold Rank counter, Yue—her eyes still wet with endless gratitude—opened the classified catalog of high-priority missions on the holographic screen for her rescuers.
"Thank you so much for saving my life out there, Aia, Ciro! I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't...!" Yue stammered, bowing awkwardly over and over until she almost bit her tongue again.
"It was nothing, Yue. Nobody touches our people in front of our eyes," Lia smiled. "Now, show us what's good on that golden board."
Yue adjusted her glasses and filtered out two of the most lucrative and urgent missions posted that morning by the city's commercial alliances:
"Mmm... here I have two perfect requests for a squad of your level in Gold Rank," Yue indicated, pointing at the holographic scrolls. "The first: Big Game Hunt. Exterminate a pair of Grade 5 Monarch Beasts (whose combat power equals human experts at the peak of the True Saint Realm) that have been destroying mining caravans in the Frost Peaks east of the city. The reward is five hundred medium-grade spiritual stones."
Yue slid a finger to the second contract:
"The second: Blood Cleansing. Completely wipe out a stronghold of mercenary bandits who have seized the trade pass in Raven Valley. They have slaughtered over a thousand merchants this month, and their true combat power is unknown since they leave no survivors. Reward: six hundred medium-grade spiritual stones plus whatever loot you manage to plunder from their camp."
Aia examined the coordinates for both missions. Both pointed toward remote, cold, mountainous routes on the outskirts. She exchanged glances with Varian, Ciro, Lia, and Ren.
"We'll take the first request. We'll hunt down those two Monarch Beasts," Aia decided without hesitation.
"Perfect!" Yue nodded, stamping the contracts with the Wandering Star emblem. "Here is all the territorial data, tracking maps, and registration tokens. Remember that once you present the carcasses or cores at this window, the Alliance will withhold twenty percent for administrative fees, and the rest will be paid to you instantly in runic gold or pure stones. Please, be extremely careful out there!"
"We will, Yue. See you soon," Lia waved goodbye.
With the sealed contracts stored in their space rings, the five cloaked figures left the crystal monolith and headed straight for Aethelgard's eastern gates to begin their march toward the Frost Peaks.
They knew full well that once they crossed the city's outer walls, they wouldn't be alone. Hundreds of eyes belonging to mercenaries, spies, and bounty hunters tracked them from the shadows of the buildings; having publicly humiliated and mutilated the Aurelia heir, their names were surely already on half the city's blacklist as top-priority prey for revenge.
But that was exactly what they were hoping for.
An hour after crossing the border checkpoints and delving into the dense, wild mountain forests surrounding Aethelgard, the squad advanced at a swift, silent pace among the frozen trunks.
Suddenly, Ren—whose tracking senses were the sharpest in the group—stopped dead on a high branch, his pupils contracting as he scanned the wind from the rear.
"We're being followed," Ren announced through the Soul Nexus in a cold voice. "And it's no informal little group. It is a tight, massive military formation. I count exactly one hundred Qi signatures moving at top speed behind us... and several of them are in the Saint Realm."
Varian leaped onto a nearby boulder, resting his bone bow on his shoulder.
"It's more than obvious who owns those dogs. It has to be the one-armed little prince of the Aurelias. If it's him... today he'll have to leave his other hand, both legs, and his head nailed to these trees. The only issue is the great family behind him; we can't just send a signal to the palace and ask the clan for reinforcements to clean up an all-out war when we've barely been in the outside world for a day. It would be an embarrassment to our training."
"Exactly why," Aia smiled beneath her hood, her storm-gray eyes flashing with martial anticipation, "...we must handle this hunt with extreme delicacy—leaving not a single clue, not a single recognizable corpse, nor the slightest trace that we were the ones responsible for their evaporation."
Lia let out a crystalline laugh as they moved into a clearing on the path.
"And lucky for us... right here in this very forest, we happen to have a group of ten professional assassins suited for these kinds of clean jobs, don't we?"
"We sure do," agreed Varian with a predatory smile.
The squad intentionally picked up their pace for two more hours, guiding their pursuers into terrain completely isolated from any trade route or prying eyes: an expansive, gloomy glacial lake surrounded by black stone cliffs and thick pine forests shrouded in perpetual shadow.
Reaching the edge of the freezing water, Aia stopped. The five young Morningstars turned toward the tree line, crossing their arms in absolute tranquility.
"Come out already!" Ren shouted, projecting his voice with Qi into the bushes. "Aren't you tired of crawling around after us like dogs for hours? Here's a nice clearing for you to die in!"
The silence of the forest broke with the snapping of branches and the rumble of heavy footsteps.
From the brush and lower tree canopies emerged exactly one hundred cloaked warriors, clad in black leather breastplates devoid of noble emblems, wielding siege sabers and reeking with the unmistakable stench of elite underworld mercenaries and hired killers.
At the front of the battalion, walking surrounded by eight Saint-level bodyguards, came Cassian Aurelia.
The young noble had swapped his gold silks for reinforced leather armor. His right shoulder was heavily bandaged, sealed with a greenish alchemical ointment stopping the bleeding, and his face was twisted with rage, humiliation, and phantom pain. After his own father slapped him and denied him supreme medical support within the estate for causing a public scandal in front of the Guild skyscraper, Cassian had hired these Underworld mercenaries, ready to take justice and dismemberment into his own hands.
To his right walked a gigantic barbarian standing nearly two and a half meters tall, his chest covered in tribal scars, bearing an enormous two-handed executioner's greatsword strapped to his back and exhaling the brutal Qi of Stage 3 of the Saint Realm.
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Cassian Aurelia's hysterical, deranged laughter echoed across the frozen surface of the lake. "I THOUGHT YOU'D KEEP RUNNING LIKE RATS INTO THE MOUNTAINS! BUT IT'S A GOOD THING YOU STOPPED IN THIS ISOLATED HOLE! YOU CAN ALL DIE HERE WITHOUT VICE-MASTER VALERIA OR ANYONE ELSE COMING TO SAVE YOUR ASSES!"
Cassian pointed his intact left hand toward Ciro and Varian, his eyes bloodshot:
"This morning you caught me by surprise with that cowardly little sword trick... but that will never happen again! I have one hundred Underworld masters surrounding you! I'm going to mince the three men into pieces and feed your guts to the hunting dogs! And as for you two... bitches...!"
The one-armed noble licked his lips revoltingly, panting with sadism.
"I'm going to spend weeks having fun with your bodies! I'll make you beg for death in my bed over and over again until your voices break! Hehehehe!"
The gigantic barbarian beside him let out a guttural chuckle, stroking the pommel of his executioner's greatsword.
"Hey, Cassian... you're going to let us have some fun with those two beauties when you're done, right? It would be a waste to break such fine figures without sharing them with the boys."
"Of course I will, Gorn!" Cassian grunted madly. "But I get my fill until I break them first. So stop the unnecessary chatting and help me mutilate those three bastards right now. I want to hear them scream!"
The barbarian named Gorn nodded with a fierce smile, lifted his greatsword, and opened his mouth to order the general charge of the hundred assassins onto the lake shore.
But before a single weapon could be raised into the air...
Aia let out a laugh.
It wasn't a laugh of nervousness or fear; it was a crystalline laugh, purely amused and overflowing with mocking pity toward an insect that failed to grasp the immensity of the sky.
"Hahaha!" Aia laughed, holding her stomach. "Please, look at this wretched, miserable worm celebrating his victory and divvying up the loot ahead of time... Doesn't that strike you as fascinatingly stupid, Dante?"
Dante?
Cassian and the barbarian Gorn blinked in confusion, looking around the empty shore. Who was this crazy girl talking to?
From the dense shadows of the millennial pine canopies located exactly twenty meters above the heads of Cassian's hundred assassins, a male voice—soft, devoid of any human warmth, and carrying the freezing chill of the Asura abyss—descended like a graveyard whisper:
"Honestly... it actually surprises me quite a bit, Aia. You haven't even been in this outside world for two full days... and you've already brought us an entire regiment of problems to clean up. No wonder the Patriarch ordered us to cause chaos on this continent... though I didn't imagine you'd be so fast and efficient about it."
The barbarian Gorn's heart skipped a violent beat inside his chest. His Saint Realm survival instincts flared in an alarm of atavistic panic. Someone was in the branches directly above them, and not a single one of the hundred Underworld veterans had managed to detect their breathing, their Qi, or their heartbeat!
"WHO GOES THERE?! UP IN THE TREES!" roared Gorn, pointing his greatsword toward the dark foliage.
In the upper branches, Dante's figure materialized out of thin air, sitting quietly on a trunk with one leg dangling over the void, accompanied by the silent, cloaked silhouettes of Lyra, Altair, Joren, Rowan, Tamsin, and Mira. The stealth squad had been tracking the group's scent for hours, waiting patiently in the shadows for the exact moment to act.
Dante looked down with his dull gray eyes and smiled:
"Well... I can't complain at all. At least thanks to you guys I'll get a little fun and real practice in this boring forest. So... Aia, you five can go ahead and hunt down those Monarch Beasts to the east. We'll take care of mopping the floor with this trash."
Aia, Varian, Ciro, Lia, and Ren nodded calmly. They turned around and strolled leisurely along the lake shore, walking away from the hundred surrounded thugs as if taking a stroll through a public garden.
Before stepping onto the mountain trail, Lia paused for a second, looked up into the branches, and yelled to Dante:
"Hey, Dante! Remember the Patriarch's instructions! Don't leave absolutely any recognizable trace of our Qi, not a single witness, and don't compromise our legal Guild registration! Make all this look like they were ambushed by wild swamp bandits or something!"
Dante stroked the obsidian hilt of his Asura dagger, spinning it between his fingers in a black flash.
"Don't worry about the technical details, Lia. There won't even be a bone left large enough here to be identified. Go in peace."
Aia's group vanished into the eastern fog.
On the shore of the glacial lake, Cassian Aurelia felt his breath paralyze. His spoiled noble brain and logic of power couldn't process what was happening. Who were these other seven cloaked figures that appeared out of nowhere in the trees?! Why were they treating him and a hundred elite assassins like a nuisance to be swept under the rug?!
"KILL THEM! KILL THEM ALL RIGHT NOW! DON'T LEAVE A SINGLE ONE ALIVE!" Cassian shrieked hysterically, pointing toward the pine tops.
Dante stood up on the branch.
At that exact second, the ambient temperature around the waters of the glacial lake plummeted thirty degrees instantly, freezing the moisture in the air into black frost crystals. The morning sunlight was completely devoured, as if a blood eclipse had fallen exclusively over that coordinate of the forest.
"Tell me something, one-armed little prince..." Dante whispered, his voice resonating directly inside the skulls of the hundred mercenaries. "...are you all truly ready to die today?"
The floodgates of the Underworld shattered open inside Dante's body.
Without unleashing dragon fire to comply with the stealth order, he released the fullness of his supreme assassin bloodline's martial intent: [The Asura Intent].
The space behind Dante's back warped and tore open. In the complete darkness of the foliage materialized the spiritual, illusory projection of a primordial demon of war: two titanic, bloodied, and deranged scarlet eyes blinking in the darkness of the clouds, illuminating the lake with a crimson glow and impending death.
"Hunt, shadows," Dante ordered.
And the seven black figures plunged from the sky like shadowless specters upon the hundred men on the shore.
Note from Void_Scribe: 🐉
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