Two streaks of flashes are traveling across the desert of Snuirhiel, pushing away the sand away all over the side. Sometimes, they go straight. Sometimes, they suddenly change the direction. And sometimes, they even go in zig-zag.
The various low-grade beasts like giant centipedes, sand vipers, giant silver ants, giant Scorpions, and ostriches, all of them that are on the way were seen dumbfounded and a part scared when they were passed by the blurred figures.
"This kid is too fast." As Izora's strength was suppressed to peak-rank-6, Izora was trailing behind Azzy by a long distance. She had to use soul energy to keep up with him and make sure he doesn't go out of her sight.
As Azzy made a sharp cut towards 2 o'clock, she furrowed her brows, "Was he here to train or play around?"
It's not that Azzy was in a hurry or something. He was moving at his fastest speed while trying to improve his control like changing directions, slowing down, then, accelerating, etc...
In about half an hour, they already traveled over 350 kilometers from the city and reached the barren land in the region where surprisingly, no wild beast is being seen.
There was nothing but a lone pyramid, built in the middle of nowhere.
Azzy finally decided to put his break to his speedrunning. Due to the lack of control, he skids for several meters before he stopped with his foot buried a couple of feet into the ground.
"What is this place?" He looked straight at the pyramid.
A few seconds later caught up with him. She controlled her breathing in order to show that she was feeling exhausted, and said, "The Pyramid of Nephthys. I wanted to you to this place but didn't expect we ended up here even without I say anything."
"Nephthys?" Azzy looked at her.
Izora explained, "This is basically a tomb of someone. No one knows the identity of the person who was resting here but according to the records, this tomb was built at the ending of the 4th Epoch by King Nephthys, who once ruled the kingdom of Hildegard."
"Hildegard?" Azzy remembered Vann as well as Barbara. The former was the prince who was killed by the Galarian King and the latter was the disciple of the royal teacher of Hildegard.
While he was thinking about how it was a pity to lose Vann, Izora's face turned serious, "there are two people inside. Both are in the Upper Elite realm."
"Hmm?" His thoughts were interrupted and his attention was grabbed by her words.
He activated Aura Sensing ability right away and saw through the walls of the pyramid and searched for life.
Three figures are found inside. Seeing the shape of the auras, Azzy fell into thoughts, "two females and one monster. But, the aura of one of them appears to be a little familiar. I only know a few female Arcana Masters who are in Upper Elite or higher realms, though. Is it Aunt Evelyn? I can't think of anyone else other than her."
Azzy and Izora entered the Pyramid through its large entrance that is facing the east.
Meanwhile, inside the final chamber, Leah was in the midst of the battle. The aqua girl was nowhere to be seen. It was dismissed a while ago for it was becoming an obstacle to her swordplay training.
The Sphinx appeared to be badly injured. After recovering countless times, its recovery ability was reduced by a lot.
Leah had yet to use a soul skill of Excalibur, skill cards, or her other trump cards lying in her storage card. Until now, she didn't even get to use a healing card as the Sphinx failed to injure her even once.
As for the soul energy recovery cards, it is common to use them and one can't expect otherwise during such a tough battle.
Cynthia continued to stay on the sidelines, not intending to help her niece as she did for the past one hour.
She suddenly sensed the presence of intruders and so was Leah.
The latter spoke, "Aunt, the creature is about to die at any moment. I don't want anyone to steal my prey after all the battle. Stop them."
Cynthia was confident in Leah's life-saving trump cards. She nodded and rushed towards the entrance.
Sensing the enemy is coming towards them, Azzy and Izora stopped in their tracks and waited until they encounter Cynthia, only to be surprised by each other.
"Azrael?" "Princess Cynthia?"
Both of them called out each other names, making Izora let down her guard and asked Azzy, "Do you know her?"
Azzy nodded and answered while looking at Cynthia, "she's the princess of Camelot. I was more acquainted with her niece though."
After informing his mother, he asked Cynthia in suspicion, "The other person with you, is it perhaps, Princess Leah?"
Cynthia replied, "Leah is busy in battle and she doesn't want anyone to disturb her until she was done with it."
Izora let out a sigh, "I guess we are late. Now, we have to travel all the way to the west of the city to let you fight the overlord of the region."
"It doesn't matter." Azzy shrugged his shoulders in response. "I'm not here to improve my soul power anyway."
Very soon, the three of them started to walk together.
On the way, Cynthia kept glancing at Azzy from the corner of her eyes, being surprised at his soul power levels, "This boy isn't even a mid-rank-5, a few months ago. Now, he has already surpassed Leah and reached high-rank-6? That's some tremendous improvement. But then again, soul power isn't everything. Even with mid-rank-6 soul power, Leah could easily defeat him. Once she completes the new technique, she will be unstoppable in the upcoming world league."
After reaching the final chamber, Cynthia no longer paid attention to him and fixed her eyes on the battle.
Just like Cynthia, Leah was also surprised to see Azzy. More than her, the sword was more excited. Its voice echoed in her head, "See, I told you before. He's your destined knight. What are the odds of you meeting him of the people and that too, here, at this time?"
Maybe, she wanted to show off her strength, or, maybe, she had enough of practice. All of a sudden, Leah suddenly raised her sword and poured soul energy into it, unleashing the soul skill for the first time.
"Soul skill: Amalgamation of Ice and Fire"
All of her surroundings started to freeze in ice. "Get back," Cynthia warned Azzy and Izora as she backed off. Just as Izora grabbed him to escape the freezing, Leah spoke out loud, "don't need to."
The ice only covered just a few meters around her before a thick beam of flames burst from the ground, burning away the Sphinx.
*Thud*
The corpse of the Sphinx fell on the ground before disintegrating into million specks of light.
There was no core left by the Sphinx. So, there's nothing to gain for the one that killed it.
"Hey, Azrael," She waved her hands with a pleasant smile. But, in the next second, she was stunned on the spot, "high-rank-6?"
"Hello, Princess Leah." Azzy was formal with her as always. He was also maintaining his usual blank face.
"It looks like you are doing well." She commented upon reaching the others. She observed him again. Compared to the last time, he also grew a little more than two centimeters. He's 5'7" now.
"Not bad, I would say…" At the same time, Azzy also observed her. The last time he saw her, she was at peak-rank-5 but now she is mid-rank-6, almost reaching an advanced stage.
He remembered how she didn't receive any improvement of soul power back when they killed the Draco-Galarian and absorbed half of its core as a part of her share.
Was she hiding her true strength, back then? Or has she just improved during the past few months?
Either way, it doesn't matter for him.
Eventually, everyone's attention was grabbed at the tomb with Cynthia's reminder.
"Is that the tomb of an alleged demigod?" He asked Leah as the latter walked towards it.
"Yes," Leah confirmed it upon reaching the tomb and caressed the runes engraved all over the tomb.
It was then the Reaper's voice echoed in his head, "Not just ordinary demi-god. It's the tomb of a powerful one."
"Hmm?" Azzy halted his footsteps when he was about to follow Leah to the tomb. "Do you know who it is?"
"No, I don't. But, I can sense the presence of spirit as well as some ancient treasure present inside it. There's no doubt about it.. The spirit of a demigod was trapped inside."