"Icy rain," Ellis muttered while looking at Gilliard.
The raindrops suddenly paused, before turning to small shards of ice as they rained down on Gilliard.
Gilliard created a rotating wind that he used to protect himself, but his expression changed when he realized that it wasn't stopping the attack.
"Enough," Claude's voice resounded just as the ice shards were about to pierce Gilliard.
With a single word, the ice shards shattered, and Ellis' domain was forcefully destroyed.
Splat!
Ellis spat out a mouthful of blood before falling from the sky.
An Elder acted quickly, catching him before he hit the ground.
"Claude, why did you forcefully destroy the domain, do you plan on damaging his core?" The Elder asked with an angry expression.
"He will be fine, I didn't use too much power," Claude approached Gilliard.
"My boy, you've disappointed me," He said as he stood in front of his son, his voice filled with disappointment.
With Ellis awakening his domain, the difference between the duo was like day and night. Gilliard will be unable to compete against Ellis anymore.
Gilliard clenched his fist so hard that his nails pierced his flesh, making blood drip from it.
Claude shook his head before walking past him, going towards Ellis.
The Elder who helped Ellis stood in front of him, acting as a shield before the approaching Claude.
"Do you think I would kill my nephew?" Claude asked with a serious expression.
"At the moment, I do not know what you are capable of," The Elder refused to move.
Ellis is a genius that might surpass all the geniuses the family has produced over the last three thousand years, there was no way he would allow anything to happen to him, especially if the person causing the harm was from the family.
"I've always put the family first in every decision I've been making, do you think I will allow someone like him to go to waste?" Claude placed his hand on the shoulder of the Elder.
"It's okay, Uncle wouldn't harm me, at least not while Father is still alive, and you all are here," Ellis gave the approval for Claude to come close.
The Elder finally moved to the side, letting Claude walk through.
"Provide the boy you came with, and I'll forget about your past transgressions," Claude said.
"My past transgressions? What have I ever done that harmed the family?" Ellis couldn't reign in his anger when he heard this.
Claude was sounding as if he was taking pity on him. He had never done anything that put the family name in jeopardy, so what was Claude talking about?
"You don't know, do you?" Claude asked.
Confusion appeared on Ellis' face, "Know what?"
Claude narrowed his eyes as he whispered into Ellis' ear, "The reason for Thoma's illness,"
"My father?" Ellis' eyes widened.
"Thoma told us not to speak of it to you if you ever returned, but you're not a child anymore, he was infected by a strange miasma when searching for you," Claude said.
The others couldn't hear what he was saying, but from Ellis' reaction, they could tell it was nothing good.
Tears welled up in Ellis' eyes when he understood what happened.
"Father… is… ill because of me?" His voice went soft as he asked.
"No, at this rate, your father will die because of you," Claude said.
When he was done with his words, he turned around and walked away, his objective complete. Since Ellis has shown such talents, and he couldn't do anything to him physically, he would bring him down emotionally and mentally.
The Elders watched on as tears continued rolling down from Ellis' eyes, unaware of the exchange between the two.
Ellis turned around and walked away, weak and dejected. In a family he came from, he was alone.
"Ellis, what did he tell you?" The Elder who was standing between Ellis and Claude ran after him and asked.
"The truth," Ellis replied before walking.
The Elder sighed, angered by Claude's decision to tell Ellis about the reason for his father's illness. He didn't need Ellis to tell him what they spoke about.
….
The next morning.
The Vaergahl family came at the break of dawn.
"Claude, we're back, where is the boy?" Zylres questioned as they entered the compound.
They didn't even get to the building before he released his powerful aura, drawing the attention of everyone in the O'Brien mansion.
Before long, everyone in the O'Brien mansion was standing outside, facing the group from the Vaergahl family.
"Zylres, the O'Brien family is not somewhere you can act as you want. We're still searching for the boy, when we find him, we'll hand him over to you," An Elder from the O'Brien family said.
"The boy is nowhere in the city, that means he's either hiding here, or has left the city. We can't begin a search since we do not know anything about him," Zylres said, staring coldly at the people from the O'Brien family, especially Ellis and Claude.
"Just like you, we do not know the boy. He's acquainted with Ellis," Claude turned to look at Ellis.
"I don't know where he's from, we only met by chance when I went missing," Ellis said, his expression blank.
He was telling the truth though, he really didn't know anything about Grey. If Grey didn't help him when he was still playing weak in the Magical Beasts' forest, they wouldn't have become friends.
"Then why did you take him with you to the Suyin Canyon?" Claude asked.
"He came along, it's not like I can tell him to go back. After all, I needed all the help I could get," Ellis had the same blank look on his face.
It was evident that he was still suffering from the words Claude told him the previous night. The revelation of finding out he was going to be the reason for his father's death was too much for him to handle. He hadn't even tried to contact Grey since then. And he had completely forgotten about the tracking device he had with him.
"The sooner you provide the boy, the better for you all," Zylres directed his pressure at Ellis.
Just when the pressure was getting too much for Ellis, the sound of soft footsteps could be heard from inside the mansion.
"Zylres, is this how you treat members of the younger generation?"
"That voice, don't tell me he's…"
