The Almighty Ring

“Crap… That must be Tchaikovsky,” Caylan grunted.

“Tchaikovsky?” Jiang Fei repeated the name.

“Another V.I.P, much like Caylan himself,” Bacca shrunk and whispered to him.

Not noticing Bacca’s explanation, Caylan continued rambling about Tchaikovsky.

“That rat bastard is always on my tail, always trying to one-up me! He must have tracked me down to compete with me!” He sounded pissed. Tchaikovsky’s father, as Caylan would so “delightfully” say, was the son of another high ranking officer under Commander Alexis. Since young, the two had always chased each other’s shadows, trying to compete with one another in order to please their fathers and Commander Alexis. The two had crossed swords and exchanged blows, but none was the clear winner.

Indeed as presumed, Tchaikovsky had heard about Caylan’s progress at the island and purposely tracked him down in order to snatch his achievement. Unlike Jiang Fei, whose support was only fictional, Tchaikovsky and Caylan’s fathers had prepared their sons with as much help as they could, feeding them information and arming them with specific tools to counter the contents of the trial.

“How many are there?” Bacca turned to Mingsk and Waxus.

“20,” said Mingsk instantly.

Knowing the new challengers had arrived, both Bacca and Caylan could not hide their disgruntled expressions. A fight would be unwise as their numbers were greater.

“What can we do now?” Bacca asked.

“Nothing yet but we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” Caylan replied. It would not matter if the entire group sped things up and got to the altar first as Tchaikovsky’s group would find them and fight for the weapon. Caylan had to rely on waiting instead, hoping that Tchaikovsky’s group would fight the guardian of the weapon and perish. As such, Caylan ordered everyone to spend the rest of the time resting. They would fully recover and try to “talk” it out with Tchaikovsky’s group.

After an hour or so, a large group of trainees, with Tchaikovsky leading the way, came out of the reef region, unharmed and unscathed. He was just like Caylan, a regular Valsalrian.

“Caylan, you son of a b*tch! You’re still devoid of a weapon!” Were Tchaikovsky’s first words.

“Well, well, well. I could say the same to you!” Caylan retorted. There was no need for subtleties as the two go a long way back.

“Says the man who could never stand on his own!” Tchaikovsky barked condescendingly.

“Says the man with so many dancers prancing behind his back!” Caylan returned the insult.

The two kept their animosity with words alone as they knew that they were both only trying to rattle each other’s composure. Once either side broke and attempted to attack, the other would fight it all out. There was no reason to fight now as both of them were empty-handed. It would only be a waste of time trying to solve their differences there and then.

“Talking to you is a waste of breath!” Tchaikovsky threw one last insult. Seeing as how calm Caylan was made Tchaikovsky a little dejected.

“Well then, best not breathe the same air I breathe or you’ll suffocate! If you’re heading to the altar, be on your way! I am not in the mood to waste my attention for the likes of you!” Caylan snorted.

“Well said, for a cowardly prick!” Tchaikovsky said and turned away.

“Let us leave! We have the responsibility to show the coward how a true warrior is to fight!” said Tchaikovsky as he waltzed away with his group.

“That’s too much, even for comedy! I was unable to hold back myself from cringing all the way!” Bacca laughed.

“So, what now? Do we sit all day?” Jiang Fei interrupted.

“What would you do? We are outnumbered! There’s no way we could fight the lot of them!” Caylan snarled. Both he and Bacca had given up on aiming for the Primordial Weapon on this island but since Jiang Fei was just a “hitchhiker”, there was no reason to inform him about their decision.

“As you are. I’m going to see what all the fuss is about!” said Jiang Fei with a certain gusto before leaving.

“I would advise you not to approach that kid. Tchaikovsky is known for many things, and being understanding and kind are the two things he is not. That son of a gun would not hesitate to wrong anyone,” said Caylan in an attempt to save Jiang Fei from all the trouble. He did help the entire group in the lake after all, and for that, Caylan was liking him already. He would not want someone like him to lose his life to that Tchaikovsky jerk.

“Thanks. I’ll be fine. I’ll only be watching from a distance,” said Jiang Fei. When Tchaikovsky was busy exchanging insults with Caylan, he had taken his time scanning every one of his members. Their strongest member was only at around 750,000 combat level while the majority of his group were only 400,000 combat level. Jiang Fei had every reason not to be afraid of that prick knowing that he could easily wipe them all out without even using the power of his domain ability.

“Just keep your eyes peeled,” Caylan advised again, not planning on stopping him. He had done what he could and if Jiang Fei was voluntarily heading for a certain death, so shall he be.

“I will. I’ll be off now. Rest well.”

Jiang Fei smirked and left. He knew what Caylan was trying to do but he had other plans in mind. Right now, Caylan and Bacca had expressed their discouragement in pursuing the weapon. That gave Jiang Fei the green light to get the weapon for himself. Tchaikovsky might be someone Caylan knew but from Jiang Fei’s perspective, he was an enemy that he would have no problem killing.

Jiang Fei took his time walking, pretending to enjoy the view of nature that was the simulated environment. After a few turns and twists, he kicked off the ground and zoomed across the forest at nearly the speed of sound.

With the power of the Blackhole Core feeding him, his footwork was now upgraded to its maximum potential, granting him speed no other human could achieve. In a blink of an eye, what took Tchaikovsky half a day to cover, was covered instantly by Jiang Fei.

Before getting closer, he enveloped himself with a powerful psychic barrier, rendering himself invisible to every other person. Following the last member of Tchaikovsky’s group, Jiang Fei observed their movements and watched the leader himself entering the altar.

The altar was different than the one Jiang Fei had entered before. This one was constructed entirely out of skeletons, bones of perished creatures.

“Begin the summoning.” Tchaikovsky ordered one of his lackeys. The strongest one came forward and pricked his finger. The blood that oozed out was dripped onto a ceremonial altar inside. In response, the entire altar shook, with bones rattling and an eerie voice echoing from all corners of the skeletal altar.

“Who is the fool that summons the great Prophet Nas!”

A translucent being appeared. Like an elderly elf, the being was dressed in dried leaves that were sewn together and wielded a larger than normal wooden staff. Albeit looking entirely normal, the being was at least three times larger than Tchaikovsky.

Spirit Being

Combat Level: 1,200,000

Note: A Spiritual Being that has been fused saturated with the power of Death. Regular means would not be able to harm it.

Jiang Fei could not help but snort at the result tabulated by the scope. The self-proclaimed prophet might be strong but compared to Grundel, the prophet was nothing but a shriveled old man!