"No, it's not safe, Avia. Listen to your mother and come with me." Azzy was stern.
"You want me to sit around and do nothing when my parents are risking their lives?" Avia screamed at him, again while struggling to free from his grip. But, it was too strong for her.
Azzy answered with a straight tone, "If you'll go, you will end up dying."
Avia already hates him. So, she couldn't help but spout rude words in the heat of the moment, "You might not care about their lives since they aren't your parents but I would rather die than live like an orphan like you."
Azzy furrowed his brows. He felt hurt a little bit by her harsh words but he could understand her position and age. She gets to reunite with her parents after a whole year and then, this happens.
Even he wanted to go out there and save his mother, who had an aura of death on her and was captured by an enemy but he couldn't because of this little baggage handed to him.
He was extremely grateful to Affea and Oakley. Whatever he was enjoying the life, it was because of them. If something happens to Avia, then, he wouldn't be able to look them in the eye, ever.
Taking a deep breath, Azzy lectured sternly, "Even if you go there, what can a mere rank-2 like you do?
Moreover, I heard that you were abducted once. What if you get abducted again and this time, they use it against your parents? When you are weak, you are nothing more than a liability.
Now, I'm asking you for the last time. Don't be a burden to your parents and quietly follow me. Be a brat and I will knock you out and take you back home. Either way, you aren't going there."
With Azzy's lecture and a warning, Avia became silent. She was an intelligent person. She could understand things when they made sense.
She nodded and opened her slowly after thinking calmly, "alright, let's go but not to home. We'll stay in the nearby city."
Grabbing her hand, Azzy ran at a slow pace as she neither could bear his top speed nor she wants to be carried.
Since they were several kilometers from the palace and the Death clan members stayed behind to fight them, he wasn't in too much of a hurry to escape the city.
Little did he expect their path will be obstructed by more than ten mysterious Arcana Masters in a secluded alley. What's surprising is that all of them are in the Upper Elite realm (rank-6).
"You must be Avia Night and Azrael." The leader of the group said to the two of them.
Azzy looked at them. Judging by their outfits, they don't belong to the church. "Who are you?" He asked.
"Let's just say you made quite a lot of enemies with powerful backgrounds. We belong to one of those." The leader replied in a calm tone. After a brief silence, she added, "however, we aren't here for you. We are here for the little heiress of the Night Clan. But, since you are also here, then, it's even better. We can present your dead body and her alive to our master. He will be happy."
She proceeds to take out a message item card and send a message.
An expression of panic appeared on Avia as she remembered Azzy's earlier warning and she instinctively hid behind Azzy.
Azzy clenched in a fist. He spoke in his head, "Chronos, I want to know whether I can use my powers or not. They don't seem like they are from the hidden clan."
"Against this bunch, the powers of the sage will be enough. However, if you intend to kill them, you can even summon the Death Scythe." The Reaper answered him, almost immediately.
"I won't." Azzy was stubborn about not killing human beings as he believed it would corrupt his mind and made him fall into an abyss where there is no return. Not to mention, there isn't any Aura of Death on them either. That means their lives aren't in danger.
"Anyway, just don't use the hourglass and you are fine." The Reaper said to him after listening to his reply. For some reason, there's a smile on his skeletal face and it's damn creepy to even imagine.
He started to absorb the natural energy from the surroundings. With his gaze fixed on the enemies, he said to Avia, "Don't panic. I won't let them harm even a single strand of your hair."
His announcement stunned her a little bit before he unleashed the soul skill. His eyes turned pitch black with no visible pupils.
"Soul skill: Rise of the Undead. Come out, Aurora."
A large skeletal wolf appeared beside Azzy, taking everyone by surprise.
"Rank-6?" The enemies furrowed their brows but since they were large in numbers, they weren't afraid at all.
"Aurora, protect Avia." He ordered the beast before he conjured his four spears and two rank-5 laughing skulls.
As they continuously laughed hysterically, Avia's face paled in fright. She felt that her Night Clan was scary enough but this foster brother of hers is even more of a dark attribute. He is a necromancer where all of his fellow clan members in the entire clan village would do anything to acquire such ability.
Of course, she wasn't envious at all. If anything, she felt like she would pee in her pants at any minute because of the presence of this undead wolf and then, these laughing skulls.
"Kid, now, are you finally prepared to give your best?" The leader of the enemy party asked him as if she was mocking him. Not only her, but all the remaining nine also don't seem like they were surprised by his unique skills. She added, "Don't worry, I have already sent the message to our master. He ordered me not to kill you and is on the way. Until he arrives, we play with you. I also wanted to fight a fellow platinum grade Arcana user."
"Sorry but I'm not in a mood to fight your boss. I'll be finishing this, right away." Azzy threw all the four spears and the two laughing skulls at the enemies.
"Fool, we already know about your powers and how to counter them too." The enemy party's leader curled her lips up and gave an order, "Now…"
Three of the mages came forward and raised their staves. One of them successfully erected a barrier and Powerful fireballs are created at the tip of the other two staves.
The leader was confident and was smiling.
However, in the next second, everyone's face facial expressions changed.
"Soul skill: Eyes of God"
"Soul skill: Soul Absorption."
All of their soul energy was escaping their bodies and being absorbed by Azzy. After gaining mastery over this particular soul skill, Azzy could not only refine their soul energy into his but also use a certain amount of excess energy as a weapon.
In this situation, the enemies collectively had a soul power of about 54 million. To fulfill Azzy's 600,000 worth of soul power, he needs to absorb about 6 million worth of soul power from Arcana Masters.
And at the present stage, Azzy could use about 3 million worth of excess energy. That would mean he absorbed an additional 30 million soul power worth of soul energy from his enemies.
Of the ten enemies, three of them were low-rank-6, four of them were mid-rank-6, two of them were high-rank-6, and their leader was at peak-rank-6.
Except for the high-rank-6 and the peak-rank-6 experts, all the other seven lost their consciousness already. Only the leader was faring well with almost 80% of soul power still present in her body. She managed to resist it, somehow with the help of its platinum grade Arcana.
The two fire mages took a step back in fear. "monster…"
Meanwhile, their leader frowned as he shouted at them, "we didn't know that his absorption is this high and miscalculated. It doesn't matter. There's no harm done even now. Everyone is still breathing and they weren't our comrades either.
You two continue with spells and destroy the undead beast. Look for an opportunity to abduct the girl. Meanwhile, I will take care of him."
If they were in a different situation, the two mages would have rolled their eyes at her.. As the captain, she was too careless with her planning and was too arrogant.