Chapter 23 - Bright Prince

Jumping up, Haize's figure flickered before stopping above a tree branch, where he sat down and observed his surroundings. At the same time, Haize wasn't worried about letting the trio stay on the Safe Zone for two reasons. The first being that no allies can attack each other, and the second being that they are the strongest out of the group.

Just as he leisurely observed everything around, Haize suddenly got goosebumps as an overwhelmingly powerful aura rose to the skies. From the portal, an enormous head slowly popped out. It was a monster with a lion's head, and the rest of its body couldn't be identified due to only the head popping out.

As if to assert majesty, a roar left its mouth along with a shockwave, ''ROAAAR!''

From its mouth, a shockwave spread to the surroundings without care, and just these shockwaves turned countless buildings that were already in ruins to stones scattered in the ground. Within a radius of 50 meters of that monster, it was as if a plain ground full of stones appeared.

Haize instinctively shuddered upon sensing its aura, he couldn't determine its strength. He hadn't seen a being above 1-Star at all, 'What is that?! 2-Star? Or perhaps, an even stronger one? 3-Star? 4-Star?'

Slowly, an enormous monster that seemed to be a majestic Lion with golden-colored fur left the portal. Its height was around ten meters, and its body was equally long. It didn't have a pair of wings, but it was somehow flying in the air. However, someone with good eyesight would easily find out that it was actually stepping on air, not flying.

And Haize was one such person, around that Lion, the air seemed to welcome him as faint green-colored breezes surrounded its body. Its eyes possessed intelligence, and its aura instinctively suppressed the beings around it.

The golden-eyed man thought that it couldn't get scarier than its aura, but in the next seconds, his whole being shuddered. Haize saw the Lion slowly opening its mouth, as a deep voice left it, ''Human, for how much time are you going to stay on your hiding spot?''

'It can speak! Its intelligence is not comparable to a measly White-furred Bear or Horned Lizard, this level of intelligence... It's comparable to human beings, or even higher.' Haize thought while silently observing the Lion hundreds of meters away from him. He didn't think it was talking to him, because he is just an insignificant human right now.

Ziam told him about the otherworldly humans, so Haize wasn't totally clueless. Sure enough, a young man in a golden-colored robe slowly stepped on the air, rising to the same height as the lion. The young man seemed to be just around twenty years old, and his long golden-colored hair was flowing wildly in the air.

''Hahaha! I didn't expect that a measly 3-Star monster would be able to detect me, are you a mixed breed? No, maybe you just awakened good abilities, didn't you? Perhaps, a bloodline ability?'' The young man didn't seem to take the lion seriously, as he laughed and talked.

The Golden-furred Lion narrowed its huge eyes while looking towards the young man in front of it, ''I wonder what the Bright Empire's youngest Prince is doing here? Is the Bright Emperor trying to break our peace treaty?''

Looking at the monster in front of him, the Prince laughed shortly, ''Hehe, of course not. It's just that we also obtained permission from the Bright God to come to this land, don't you have that huge forest over there to live in? Why bother to conquer the native humans?''

'Huge forest...?' Haize, who was observing, thought. He was a bit confused but paid close attention to their conversation, his eyes seemed to be special, and could see things hundreds of meters away. He was able to hear their conversation through his enhanced senses and Abyssal Wind, which transmitted the sound to him.

''Our reasons aren't to be told to you. I have killed many geniuses that adventure on the land of our King, but I'll see if killing the most promising genius of the Bright Empire gives me a different sensation.'' As the Golden-furred Lion said that, green rays of light floated around him at high speeds.

''Hahahaha, it seems that the intelligence of beasts is only that.'' The Bright Prince said before a fiery white-colored aura wrapped his entire body. It was a flame that gave off an intense temperature, and even hundreds of meters away, Haize felt as if the sun was in front of him.

Despite that, it was still a comfortable feeling, as if the Flame was welcoming him. Haize didn't bother to feel it, but just paid close attention to the two fighters, what he lacked the most wasn't battle experience, but an understanding of Mana and his abilities.

With more understanding of Mana and his abilities, the faster Haize would grow in power. At the same time, the titan-like Lion and the ant-like human collided, and with their contact as the epicenter, a shockwave spread around. The Golden-furred Lion growled, ''You... The rumors that you've awakened the Bright Flames were true?''

In response, the intensity of the flame increased exponentially. Contrary to the tense Lion, the Bright Prince was as calm as gentle water. His right hand slowly stretched forward, before a gentle tone came out of his mouth, ''May the Bright God accommodate your soul, Bright Punishment.''

From his five fingertips, threads of White Flames shot out in form of a plasma-like substance, a result of an intense condensation of his flame. These threads rose up to the sky, before becoming a huge white-colored Sun. From the sun, fiery white-colored Swords condensed and shot downwards.

''This is not enough to kill me! Blessing of the Wind!'' The Golden-furred Lion roared as green rays of light condensed into a huge shield, it was an actual shield made of his wind ability. But the Bright Prince certainly wouldn't allow it to resist, and a sonic boom was heard as he disappeared from the place.

Appearing behind the huge Lion, the Bright Prince's ant-like leg was used as a whip, and it hit the Lion like a truck, sending it towards the White Sun. Fiery swords of White Flames descended at a quick speed, and the sound of flesh being pierced was heard.

The poor lion, who was once destined to dominate Ottawa and help its King to dominate the rest of the world, fell because of the otherworldly human's interference. Haize was speechless, it seemed that his previous plan of slowly dominating Ottawa wouldn't be necessary.

That so-called Prince just killed the city boss easily, despite both of them having the same strength, one of them was instantly crushed. Maybe that was the gap of abilities, and Haize felt that he had benefitted a lot from the Bright Prince's way of using his ability.

'I guess the city will be safer than I thought due to these otherworldly humans, eh?' Haize thought to himself before deciding to return to the Safe Zone, the scene of the Bright Prince fighting with the Golden-furred Lion was deeply engraved on his mind.

Their way of using Mana was also unique, and he planned to train his Mana Control by trying to copy them. Then, Haize went back to the Lightwood Townhouse.

...

At the same time, within the underground garage of a lapidated building, a dark-skinned young man quickly bowed in front of Ethan, ''Boss, I found traces of the Covering Sun Faction through my ability! I can identify where they are hiding now!''

Hearing what the young man said, Ethan's eyes shone with a cold light before a vicious smile appeared on his face, ''Oh? That's good. Alert the rest, we will attack them tomorrow.''

''Yes!"'

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