Unlike the opening ceremony, Cielo was sporting the traditional garbs of the Regalia Clan—a samurai hakama of pure black. Though he was not sporting any samurai right now, the dagger under his hakama was enough, and of course, Rito. The moment he stepped down from the car, what the people, who were waiting to see the warriors for the Trials of Eights, saw first was the pair of geta sandals—a complete contrast to the sparkling black shoes he had worn yesterday.With every step he made to the entrance of the arena, the sound of the wooden sandals resonated amid the clicking of cameras and rainfall of questions.Cielo was midway to the entrance when a Lamborghini arrived right after the Volvo drove away. Turning back to see Velicia in a pastel dress, he did not have some second thoughts and went straight to her.Smiling down at her as a way of greeting, he asked for permission. “May I?”Like always, Velicia nodded.-“You entered the entrance twice together? Are the two clans merging?”-“
“—ready? And fight!”The crowd of warriors seated on the surrounding bleachers erupted when Shuha took the lead in the offensive. Without moving from his spot, Cielo remained standing—as if he was openly welcoming Shuha’s attack.For Shuha, who had seen many types of beasts in the wild, he could not help but frown at his opponent’s response. Shuha openly jumped in front of Cielo. He jumped high enough to make Cielo squint his eyes as Shuha’s silhouette covered the blazing sun hovering over them, only to appear behind Cielo in a blink of an eye.Eyes yet to gleam blue, Cielo nodded his head as he glanced behind him. Meeting the eyes of Shuha, he smiled. “For a man who is only a year older than me, you are quite good. If you met me a few months back, I would definitely lose.”Before Shuha’s deadly fish destroy his head to bits, Cielo had already dodged to his right and jumped a few meters from the frowning Shuha.“Fight me.” Shuha stretched his arms and neck.Cielo finally moved his han
“Stop staring.” For the nth time, Velicia said these words. This time, it was laced with shyness from Cielo’s blatant staring. “You know that I can’t eat straight if someone is staring at me as if I have grown a tail.” “Well, will you grow a tail?” Like an eager child who was served a toy for the first time, Cielo’s black eyes gleamed with excitement. Not minding the fact that they were in the deserted restaurant located in the lobby of the arena, Cielo’s voice raised a pitch higher than usual. Raising her brows, Velicia asked back. “Did you also grow a tail when you finally merged with the Black Serpent?” Cielo’s shoulders slumped after getting the answer to his question. Upon seeing Cielo’s puppy-dog expression, Velicia could not help but continue. “Well, if you keep on watching my following matches, or when you are lucky enough to meet me in the finals, maybe I will show you my 70% merging body with my guardian beast.” “Merging body? Is it the same with merged cores? Rito did
Sweat splashed in sync as he slashed the air with his wooden sword. With his black-and-white hakama, Cielo spent his night practicing kendo to calm his chaotic emotions and turbulent mind. “Are you calm now? There are blisters on your palms from your nonstop swaying of that damn wooden stick.” Rito, who was in his young boy form, remained slumped at the corner of the dojo while eating seafood pizza. “Raella still managed to enter the family register like the original timeline.” Rito burped. “So what? Jun Regalia is not the successor anymore, you are.” “It also means that Cael will be joining the clan anytime soon. That sly son of a bitch will start his devious schemes right after entering the household.” Cielo stopped midway from hitting the air with a clean strike as if he remembered something vital. “No. Maybe, the plan had long started way before he entered the household and even Raella is only a pawn—his eyes and ears—in his game.” “Then that man is indeed dangerous.” Cielo
“You are being too much! You are taking things too personally! Just because he pointed a spear at you last time, you cannot humiliate him like this!” Senya Roxas, who was coincidentally a few meters away from Velicia and Cielo, took a few steps before stopping midway after seeing the glowing pair of bright blue eyes that belonged to the man who also took a single step forward toward her.Velicia cocked her head as if she was wondering what nonsense Senya was spouting. “I don’t plan to humiliate him.” She glanced at her opponent and smiled at him. “I plan to kill him.”“!!!”Everyone, even the announcer, was taken aback by how a petite young girl could be so brutal. But upon remembering who she was and where she came from, their shell-shocked expressions dwindled. They also remembered how she brutally killed a member of a Roxas Tribe in a blink of an eye.“Y-You are a despicable human being!” Senya’s voice cracked, earning the sympathy of those around her even from the people of the fr
“Softest moon,So big and bright.Softest dawn,So warm and might.Light my way,Here I pray.”Cielo felt the harrowing sadness from the familiar singing voice. Entranced, he followed the direction where the source of the voice was coming from. He did not know where he was nor did he care. What he wanted was to see the owner of the voice at the end of the dark tunnel.Upon reaching the end of the hallway, Cielo’s heart dropped with dread.‘Velicia!’ Cielo screamed, at least he tried to, but he only ended up screaming at the back of his mind. His fingertips touched his lips and tried to open his mouth to say something.But no words could come out from his lips no matter how hard he tried. Seeing that he really could not speak, Cielo shifted his attention to his legs and willed his feet to move and rescue Velicia.‘I can’t move! Rito, where are you? Rito!’ He called for Rito at the back of his mind and tried to conjure the God’s Eyes……but still, nothing.Eyes shaking, Cielo looked up a
“Why did you give him that dream? That was not what happened the last time you died.” A deep sage-like voice resonated within the Aberon Clan’s secret room.With her back against the one who had spoken, she stared at the banner of the four hidden families before her. “I know. That was my death when I first regressed. I merely want to give him a small warning, think of it as a little push to make him work harder. Time is not our friend and so does fate.”“Why? Why do you want to do this for that brat? Is he that worth it?” The silhouette of a colossal dragon that occupied the eight-pillared halls compressed into a smaller one—turning into a silhouette of an adult man with long white hair tied around his back. “Many times did you die just to find a way to save him and many did you suffer death because of it!”Velicia turned around and looked into the eyes of her partner who knew everything. “And I will keep doing it until I defeat those wretched people and save him!”The white-haired ma
Each time Cielo remembered how Velicia easily merged the two energies before pulling back into her body, he would regain profound energy even in the throes of dying from the training module that Velicia had sent to him.“I give up! K.O.! I declared myself K.O.!” Rito, who was in his little kid human form, slumped on the dojo’s wooden. “Is the dragon girl secretly hating you, boy? Why did she give us this piece of garbage to begin with and then dragged me with your misery?”Cielo refused to slump on the floor as Rito did. With the wooden sword as his support, he was able to keep his body standing. “The first step is done. The endurance test is done, Rito. Now, let us follow this second step.”With heavy steps, Rito inched himself toward Cielo and tiptoed to read the words written on a piece of paper. “Combine into one without merging your bodies, minds, and strength. Wait, what? Is there something wrong with that dragon girl’s head, boy?”Flicking Rito’s head, Cielo contemplated the wo