Chapter 213 - Five Years

Inside an isolated area within the Raizel mansion, sounds of deep breathing echoed against the walls. Underneath a huge bird"s statue was a seated figure who had his eyes closed, and his chest rose and fell with each breath he took.

"Now."

Calron whispered as his grey eyes flashed open and he gazed at the tiny crawling worm on the ground. The worm halted momentarily as if it was confused, but soon proceeded to squiggle ahead on the same path.

"s.h.i.t."

Calron cursed out loud. This was the sixth time he"d done this and failed.

He was currently training his Divine Perception technique to manipulate the other people"s senses, including hearing, sight, smell, etc. He started with sight as it was the easiest to visualize and to see its results on others. After locating the tiny bolts of lightning circulating inside the worm, Calron tried to enforce inside its mind that there was a wall in front of it and that it would have to turn around.

However, each time he tried it, the worm would stop for a brief second but continue ahead as if a wall didn"t exist.

It"s impossible to control the individual bolts of lightning inside the worm, and if I force my consciousness into it any further, the worm will die.

Calron contemplated inwardly, remembering the death of the bear when he first began using the Divine Perception.

"The pauses become longer, but in the end, the worm still goes on ahead."

Calron closed his eyes once again and formed the image of a wall inside his mind. Connecting to the tiny bolts of lightning within the worm, Calron slowly pushed that thought into the creature"s mind.

The worm abruptly stopped in its tracks and shifted its body slightly to the right as if it was changing direction. However, right then, the power of Calron"s influence eroded away, and the worm squirmed ahead, ignoring Calron"s imaginary wall.

"Stupid worm!"

Calron sent a thin bolt of lightning a few inches from worm"s back to scare it. However, the worm merely glanced back briefly before resuming its squiggly run.

If Calron did not know any better, he would have thought that the worm was purposefully mocking him.

"Argghh…"

He raised his hands up in the air and let his body fall back onto the gra.s.s in exhaustion.

If I can"t manipulate the mind of a stupid worm, it won"t even work on a small beast, let alone a human.

Calron stared at the darkening sky above, a faint hint of the sunlight still shimmering amongst the clouds.

"This will be my last day here…"

Calron felt the soft wind on his cheek and reveled in the cold sensation. It had been a long time since he stopped to simply enjoy nature and admire its beauty.

*step*

It was a barely audible sound of a footstep, and if Calron wasn"t concentrating on the wind, he might"ve not heard it.

Keeping his eyes fixed above, Calron silently leaked his essence towards his fists.

Come.

"Is everyone here?"

The Grand Elder of the Raizel clan stood in the middle of a ma.s.sive hall as he addressed the gathered people around him on the impressive and ornate table. If Calron were here, he would recognize this chamber as it was the same one where he met with the Grand Elder and the Patriarch.

"Yes…"

One of the men seated on the table yawned, resting his head on his forearms and lazily gazing at the Grand Elder.

"Everyone"s here."

Morain gave the lazy man a stern glare and answered the Elder. There were around eleven people in the hall including the Grand Elder, the Patriarch, and Morain.

"The process for the clan"s departure is going smoothly, and all our artifacts and resources are inside Quen"s spatial ring. Around dawn, we"ll leave the mansion with the young ones and wait for the ex-slaves to come to us before we head to the unoccupied territory."

The Grand Elder began explaining.

"Why do we need a separate spatial tool when we can move this entire mansion and all the villas to the new area with our s.p.a.ce techniques?"

A woman on the table interrupted the old man.

"The clan has some artifacts and items that are sensitive to extreme changes in the environment, so it"s best we store them separately to avoid any complications during our moving."

The old man responded amicably, to which the woman nodded in acceptance.

"Enough with the logistics, Jedan, we all know you"re more than capable of dealing with it. I want to know how the boy is faring?"

A bald and muscular man sitting beside Morain stopped the old man from talking and posed his own question.

"The boy has a steady and firm mind but is ignorant when it comes to the perception of the world around him. He sees it as either white or black and simplifies things to better suit his understanding. Calron believes feeding and governing those thousands of slaves is going to be an easy job as long as he has jobs and farms to provide. However, he fails to see the darkness that can creep on us with those many unaccounted slaves so close to our clan. The boy still has to grow more before we can tell him everything."

Morain gave his input to the gathered people.

"Time is precisely what we don"t have… I heard the Violet-Eyed Executioner is back in the Divine Realm and causing havoc for them. I don"t know where that man had been all these centuries, but if he"s made a move, then that leaves us with very little time."

A man with trimmed grey hair sighed.

"We cannot push the lad more until he"s ready. We continue to train his combat skills with the missions and have him experience war and the world around him. Quen, once we reach the new place, you need to start training him on his bloodline abilities. Shape-shifting into the Divine Bird is only a part of the bloodline and the first requirement of using its other skills."

The bald man spoke up while looking at the Patriarch.

"Morain, I"ll leave you to take care of things here. Call us if you need any help."

The bald man stood up, and with a wave of his hand, a glowing blue portal appeared in front of the table.

"That lad will need to reach the Heavenly stage within five years if he"s to survive what will be waiting for him in the Divine Realm."

The bald man spoke for the last time, and three more figures stood up from the table and joined him as they stepped into the portal and disappeared from the room.

The portal was connected to the Divine Realm.