The Golden Fury

Chapter 78

Chapter 78

After Leon bade farewell to his mother, he headed back to his courtyard. The room was being cleaned by palace maids. Their smoky-black faces showed their unhappiness with the job, but they did not dare to direct it at him, the culprit.

"Your Highness." The guards greeted upon entry.

"Mm." Leon acknowledged their greeting with a nod and found himself a spot in the courtyard to sit down and practice his [Hegemony of Primal Chaos]. The world's energy gathered to him in a slow but steady stream.

Half an hour later, his cultivation didn't increase but he had recovered to his peak mental state.

"Your Highness, the pill cauldron you ordered."

The palace guard took the chance to inform him of the pill cauldron delivery. It had arrived much earlier, but seeing the prince cultivating, he chose not to disturb and waited quietly. Every awakener knew better than to disturb another awakener's cultivation.

"What is your name?" Leon asked. He was not ignorant of the guard's small action of consideration. Although it wouldn't cause any detrimental effects if he was disturbed during cultivation, he still had a good impression of the guard.

"I-It is Howard, your highness."

After being taken aback the prince's sudden interest in his name, the guard was flattered by the honor.

"Thank you, Howard. You can just leave the pill cauldron there."

Leon didn't say too much and set aside the pill cauldron for another matter.

"Fire-users should also be capable of flight, right?"

He silently pondered as he entered a strange leaping stance.

Howard joined the other palace guards as they watched the prince. They couldn't understand his highness wanted to do.

"What do you guys think his highness is trying to do?" Howard whispered to the guards.

"I feel like his highness is trying to jump."

"Are you being serious? Would jumping require such an exaggerated leaping stance?"

Their questions were answered in the next startling moment.

A strong burst of fire impacted the ground where the soles of Leon's feet were, and his figure was shot high into the skies swiftly. Leon was no stranger to flight, but it was under the circumstance that he had full control over his ability to fly. Flying through clever usage and control of his fire ability was a new experience to him, and he had no mastery over this new skill.

The moment he started free falling from the skies, not only did he started panicking, even Howard and the palace guards started panicking. If he didn't break his fall, the injuries he would sustain from such high fall would not be light.

"Quick! Get ready to catch his highness!" Howard shouted to the other guards.

The palace guards were all earth-users and had no way of controlling the earth to help with the entire place made of metal. They could only stretch their arms out and shuffling back and forth chaotically, while looking up.

Falling headfirst, Leon tried to break his fall by thrusting the air using his fire ability with great force and was launched even higher into the skies.

…

Elizabeth was on her way to the outer palace when the soft bang forced glance back from her. What she saw made her heart freeze with fright. Just when she was about to fly over and catch her free-falling son, she paused her steps. Her son had shot back up into the skies with a burst of fire.

She watched as her son flipped and spin in the sky chaotically as he tried to regain his bearing. She sighed in relief when Leon seemed to have become familiar with his fire flight ability and was able to hover in the sky stably.

"Haih… this child… doesn't even realized how much he is making his mother worried." Elizabeth shook her head with a distressed yet amusing smile. She was surprised by her son's quick wits and intuitiveness. He was able to derive from her flight ability and gain enough insight to not only create his own flight ability but master it in such a short time.

Indeed, there was no weak element and only weak awakeners. An awakener's abilities are only limited by their own imagination. Her son was a genius with such remarkable and skillful flame control.

Elizabeth mood was jubilant, but she had mix feelings about Leon's attainments in his fire ability. She naturally wished for Leon to be a metal-user, but he had already found his own path in the fire element.

"Haih…"

Elizabeth heaved another sigh and continued her trip to the outer palace. The ruler of Crawford Kingdom was required to be a metal-user as set by their ancestors, but she could only worry it later as she currently had things to settle.

The moment she took her eyes off her son, he suddenly fell out of the sky.

…

Leon had become familiar with his new flight ability and continued testing different maneuvers in the sky with growing interest. This method of flying was much more exciting than how Energy Condensation Realm practitioners fly by surfing on their spirit swords.

He was having a lot of fun in the sky when he suddenly unable to produce anymore fire essence to keep him afloat in the skies and started plummeting. He was immediately shocked! He had depleted his fire essence reserves!

"Ahhhh!"

"Your highness!"

The palace guards shouted. They couldn't rest easy the entire time with Leon flying in the sky, even after he had mastered his flight ability. The queen had put them in charge of his safety and they were always under constant fear that their heads would roll if they didn't do a good job. Thus, they had never relaxed their guard and… finally something happened!

When Leon plummeted, they immediately reacted!

Howard was one step ahead and broke Leon's fall by catching him with a forward leap. The two landed on the ground with a bang, but not much damage was received from the crash.

"Are you alright, your highness?" The guards asked.

"I'm alright. Thanks for catching me." Leon said as he picked himself off the ground and dusted his clothes with some embarrassment. To think that he had overlooked his fire seed's fast depleting essence reserve.

The expenditure of flying was tremendous and at his current level, he was only capable of short flight. However, he had gained much insight from the short flight and feel his fire flight ability could still be improved. With better control, he would be able to reduce his consumption to some degree. Otherwise, he could just improve his cultivation.

…

- One Star Advancement

- One Star Advancement

- One Star Advancement

Atop the Great Wall, the watchers on duty stared at the lonely figure of the general marquis gazing into the Wildlands, sometimes lost, sometimes deep in thought. They couldn't figure what was weighing on the general marquis's mind, but it must have something to do with the events of the past days.

As the general marquis, Hendrick Graham stood at the apex of the military hierarchy and oversaw the entire operations of the western frontier. It was a grand and lofty position but came with an equally heavy responsibility that only those who stood in his position would understand the crushing weight bearing down on his shoulders.

Even with the Great Wall and increasingly sophisticated weaponry the soldiers were equipped with, defending the wall was no easy task. Each command given could result in the death of many good soldiers. The general marquis had to ensure every course of action the made were the best there was and the long years of serving the western frontier had drained him.

The news of no war was like heavenly hymns to the troops stationed on the western frontier. The stress, anxiety and fears were like water vapors that disappeared into the air. The mood was naturally a light and relaxed one after the beast army left the words to stay out of each other's way.

However, the general marquis felt the atmosphere of the western frontier was wrong. It would indeed be no problem if what the transcendent beast said was true. But if it was a lie, their complacency would be the downfall of humanity. They shouldn't be lowering their guard.

But on another note, they would not be able to stop the beast army with the Transcendent beast around anyway. The Hero King, whom was the first to ever Transcendent to appear in the history of mankind should have enjoyed a long life that transcended mortality, but the Transcendent disappeared without a trace. Without a Transcendent of their own, any resistance was futile should the beasts choose to invade.

With that thought in mind, although he was conflicted, he had no choice but accept things as the way they are.

The general marquis felt the weight being lifted off his shoulders and entered a special state of deep relaxation. It was like he had just been released from a long-time suppression. All his pores opened in sync with his breathing and the wind in the world was greedily sucked into his body, invoking a whirlwind with himself at the center.

He had long hit the peak th step and the quantity of his wind essence would not increase. The wind failed enter his body and started to circulate outside his body instead.

"What's happening to the general marquis?"

"How is the general marquis able to gather so much wind to himself?"

The watchers were surprised. Even the nearby garrison were attracted to the scene.

Hendrick's body was lifted off his feet and rose into the skies. In a state of emptiness, he felt he was one with the wind and able to comprehend its profundities. The wind circulated into a dense sphere of wind and created a vacuum.

The wind essence inside his wind seed also mimicked the outside phenomena and started compressing itself. Compression created room and the wind essence outside was channeled inside.

The garrisons were awed by the scene.

"Is the general marquis transcending?"

Someone suddenly thought. The eyes of the listeners lit up. That could be the case! Even if a transcendent could not turn the western frontier in humanity's favor, at least they would not be as helpless like fish on the chopping board.

"No! not right. A Transcendent was said to have at least tenfold the strength of a peak th step awakener!"

"You're right! But you can't deny that force generating by the general marquis has already exceeded the peak th step!"