"What should we do to him?" Silverio asked his younger brother, Tyrell.
"We just need to teach him a lesson. Breaking his arm and making him grovel on our feet should be just fine." Tyrell replied with a cruel smile.
Both of them have lean figures for their age and have similar characteristics to Lesley. They have dark hair and grey eyes.
However, their grey eyes were definitely not as beautiful as Lesley's eyes. It looks like it lacks vitality compared to her.
"Hmmm… Are you sure that he would agree to a duel? Everything will be useless if he doesn't agree to fight."
"It's fine, I heard that he wasn't focused on practicing mana and doesn't know any Elemental Mana Arts without magic tools. He was only focused on his soul cultivation and calling himself an Aura Knight. As a young Aura Knight, we only need to ask him to prove his skills…"
"What? Haha! I thought he's already a Master Magician. He's probably just starting to cultivate his soul. What could a beginner like him do?" Silverio finally smiled.
All Soul Cultivators are proud of themselves even if they haven't become a 1-Star Aura Knight yet. It means that taunting Vincent into battle shouldn't be a problem for them.
"Right, all of them always want to prove that they're stronger than mana practitioners. We'll just make him suffer a bit so he'll know his place and leave this place." Tyrell chuckled as well as they waited for Vincent to arrive.
The training ground they were at wasn't empty.
There were a few people that are training their martial skills but there is still enough space where they could fight against Vincent.
"He's here… The one coveting our little sister…" Tyrell looked at Vincent hatefully.
They immediately greeted him with a fake smile on their faces as they started to ask about his skill level without his magic tools. They reasoned that they were curious as Lesley's older brothers.
"I have learned a bit of Tier 1 Mana Arts. Unfortunately, I haven't learned any Tier 2 Mana Arts." Vincent replied honestly.
This is something very easy to find out after all. As a matter of fact, everyone who had seen him in a fight probably noticed this as well.
Of course, Silverio and Tyrell were a bit surprised since they thought that he should at least know Tier 2 Mana Arts!
'So he's really just relying on his items in battle, huh…'
'What a terrible talent… And you're still thinking of marrying our sister? Wishful thinking!' Tyrell and Silverio thought as they hid their disdain.
Well, they didn't want to scare Vincent away since he might not accept the duel if they came to him too aggressively.
"Oh~ It's already impressive since you do not have the support of a large clan unlike the two of us…" Tyrell replied with a sneer on his face.
"Anyway, we'd like to experience the battle techniques of the people outside the clan… Would you mind if we exchange a few moves?" Silverio asked.
Vincent tilted his head as he thought for a moment. He found this sudden suggestion unusual. Furthermore, he also noticed something else.
"You don't have experience fighting someone outside the clan? That's weird, Lesley is younger than the two of you but she's already fighting to prevent Barbarian Invasion…"
These were his real thoughts. He can tell that these two were older than Lesley. Shouldn't they participate with the defense? Why were they left here? They were supposed to be the ones leading the elites of their clan and not a fifteen-year-old Master Magician, right?
"Hmph… We would've gone there as well if we didn't go to the Decadence Soul Temple."
"Decadence Soul Temple?" This was the first time Vincent heard of such a temple.
"Yes! It's a place of trial… A place where you won't even last for ten breaths..."
Silverio said as he immediately paused as if he recalled something. Tyrell was the same as he looked at his brother.
"Do you want to try it?" The two asked at the same time.
Vincent wasn't an idiot so he knows how suspicious these two were acting. However, he still decided to be led by them.
"What's this temple all about?" Vincent asked. He also couldn't help but smile as they seem to have forgotten how they wanted to duel him just a while ago.
"It's just another type of training ground… Your body may not enter but your mind will… Any injury you incur inside will not affect you after you're done."
Silverio said with excitement. However, with their evil smile, Vincent can obviously tell that they were hiding something so he asked.
"Are there any side effects after entering?"
"Nothing really… You might just feel a little dizzy but that's all." Tyrell hastily replied.
"However, you will benefit from it since it can help you train your soul as well. For Aura Knight like you, this is a huge opportunity. Would you like to try it now? I can guarantee you that nothing bad will happen. You can just experience it for a bit and you won't lose anything." Silverio said.
They were really doing their best to have him try it.
Vincent felt that this is some kind of trap already. However, he still decided to ask a few more questions before he agreed.
He was finally brought by the two grinning brothers in front of the Decadence Soul Temple. It was just a small building guarded by a couple of guards and Vincent didn't find the place majestic at all.
It was like some old building similar to the other ones outside.
Without the signboard outside, Vincent would probably just ignore this building.
"Young masters… You've just come out of the hall, you will try it again?"
"No wonder our Zemin Clan is prospering to this date, our young masters are diligent and hard-working."
The two guards didn't forget to praise the two. It wasn't surprising that they have such an attitude considering their position in the clan.
Anyway, Vincent was surprised that they aren't questioning his presence at all.
'Perhaps they thought that I was their servant or something?' Vincent thought.
As he was invited inside the building, Vincent noticed in the corner of his eyes that Tara was indeed following him silently.
He smiled at this as that should be enough for his backup plan. He then entered the building to see what this temple is all about.
Ever since he had gotten near, he already felt something unusual and he couldn't point it out.
***
Inside a large meeting hall, the top figures of the Zemin Clan were having a heated discussion to ensure the survival of their clan no matter who took the crown.
Some of them wanted to secretly give offerings to Duke France to ensure that even if he became the ruler of the kingdom, they wouldn't get too affected.
However, it was opposed immediately after learning about the deaths of many young elites of the clan.
Furthermore, the Duke's revolutionary army had allied with the Barbarians! Although only a small portion of barbarians was seen and not a single Barbarian King was confirmed to have allied with them, it doesn't change the fact that the Duke has a method to communicate with them and make transactions!
Many of them had their relatives killed by the Barbarians, so they didn't consider giving any peace offerings to the Grand Knight at all.
In the end, they can only trust the Royal Family to win. After all, even though the Zemin Clan is powerful, they do not have a single Grand Magus!
Of course, they do have a couple of Grand Knights as well but they were certainly not a match to Duke France who was rumored to have reached the fifth or the peak stage of the rank.
The Grand Knights of their clan were only at the first stage after all!
"Fine… We will leave it at that. However, I have also decided to contact the Black Tower in case we need to leave this country."
At the Clan Head's final words, everyone couldn't help but be stunned. Black Tower is an organization outside of this country! If they truly have to leave, it would be a difficult start for them who had all the riches and prosperous land in this kingdom!
To think that their Clan Head was actually willing to do this just for the survival of their clan, they couldn't help but reevaluate the danger of having a new king allied with Barbarians.
"I do not believe that France will stay to his promise of following the rules of the Celestial Beings. He's only doing it right now to ensure that the other clans and organizations won't be sending their Celestial Beings. Once they defeated the strong ones in the capital, they wouldn't want any other organization to have a Celestial Being…"
His words have hidden meanings… It is likely that France would take or eliminate their Celestial Beings once he has control of the capital!
This sudden revelation was something they didn't want to happen.
They do not have any Celestial that could fight a single number or even a double number at all! If the enemy truly utilized the Celestial Beings as they wished, they would be doomed for sure.
Even if the contractor of the Celestial Being loses a lot of Blood Essence and suffers irrevocable damages or even death, they probably wouldn't care at all!