As the spaceship traversed the Lumina Stellar System, it moved gracefully, almost as if it was gliding through space. The entire vessel was imbued with a sense of mystery and wonder – something Michael wanted to study and explore. He wished to dismantle the spaceship, inspect every single piece, and put it back together. Then he would do it all over again until he got answers to all of his questions.
But there was something that obstructed him. Not only was it the fact that they were in space and would all die if he started dismantling the spaceship, or the fact that Alice distracted him by beating his ass regularly. It was more the fact that the antique spaceship seemed to harness the power of the universe itself to move through space. It was almost like the spaceship could connect distant points in space and create anchors to push itself forward in a magical and highly technological way.
It almost felt like the spaceship warped through space.
At last, the antique spaceship landed.
"So…what are you doing now? You are not really planning to run through the realm all alone, are you?" Maria asked as she removed the multitude of seatbelts around her. She glanced at Michael, waiting to hear his answer.
"I've been training alone to focus on my individual combat prowess. That's also the only reason why I'm about to reach the Peak of Tier-2. If not for that I would probably end up a nameless corpse on the battlefield before others realize that I'm missing," Michael joked lightly.
Michael spent some time talking to Maria in the antique spaceship – not that he had much free time, in the first place. However, it was quite pleasant. Maria didn't seem arrogant like other prodigious Descendants, and she was quite smart. Michael never found himself in awkward silence around Maria, which was a little odd because there were so many things they wanted to talk about…just to not talk about them.
Maria never mentioned the Mark of Fate or the fact that Michael became her Primal Amplifier. Both noticed that Maria's Soultrait Shard inside Michael was slowly getting charged and that the connection was growing stronger.
Michael tried using Archangel's Grace once and he noticed that he could heal himself rather quickly. The interesting thing was that his natural regeneration accelerated his stamina and energy recovery as well. Even if Michael didn't want to think about his connection with Maria Seraph, he felt that the Soultrait Shard within him could be of great use.
As long as he was around Maria, the Shard would be fueled and empowered. Its effect would be stronger when he was closer to Maria, but the fuel could also be churned to use Archangel's Grace despite being far away from her – in a weakened state. Maria, on the other hand, could use her Soultrait without any restraints. If anything, the power of her Soultrait increased as her distance to Michael decreased. She didn't even have to use Heaven's Descent to amplify her Soultrait's power given that Michael was close to her.
That was exceptional. It was too good to be true. And it was the reason why Maria didn't dare to speak to Michael about the future. All she thought about when she used Heaven's Descent was to help the injured around her. Maria never expected Michael to be compatible with her Soultrait. It didn't even make sense…yet it somehow happened.
Fate brought them together.
It was bittersweet…and it would create problems in the future, mostly for Michael. That bothered Maria the most. She was the reason why Michael would be forced into the treacherous games and political alliances of High Society. It was not what Maria wanted to happen to Michael…to anyone for that matter…
Alice didn't join Michael and Maria during their breaks. She was busy dealing with the other higher-ups who'd fly to the capital of the Berserkers and Warlock Centaurs where they would wait for their students to return from the Flag War. They would focus on establishing trading routes and socializing while their lovely students would fight for their survival.
This year's mission was pretty simple; destroy one Dimensional Pillar in the Flag War and strengthen the relations with the Berserkers and Warlock Centaurs.
Alice was certain that she could do the latter rather easily now that she could use her relationship with Michael to her advantage. Palika Mavenham and Silvana Zentur held Michael in high regard. Since she was his teacher, their respect and attitude toward her improved significantly. The other human Awakened didn't like that, but Alice was more than pleased. She was overjoyed.
Once the participants of the Flag War got out of the antique spaceship, the scene around them surprised them quite a bit. Even the Berserkers and Warlock Centaurs were left stunned. They didn't expect to see a humongous purple Runic Gate the height of a skyscraper near the antique capital.
Michael's eyes were drawn to the antique capital for a while. It was an impressive sight to behold. There weren't many skyscrapers or structures made with the help of highly advanced technology. Instead, it was a city from ancient times that hadn't been forgotten by history. It was bustling with life. The buildings were made of wood and stone.
They stood proudly in the radiance of the sun and the architectural marvel surrounding him left him speechless. The facades were weathered by time, and flowery vines had claimed ownership of some of those moss-draped structures. But that just added to the rustic appeal of the place.
Just looking at the old buildings made Michael feel many things.
"Beautiful…" Michael mumbled, taking Maria by surprise. She'd been watching the dimensional portal and its eerie resemblance to a Runic Gate.
"W-what do you mean?" She asked, fumbling around only to see that Michael was not even looking at her. He didn't even notice her standing next to him.
All Michael saw were the narrow, winding cobblestone streets that created a network through the entire city. People were going about their lives, and he observed them in fascination, their attire and how idyllic everything in the ancient capital seemed to be.
"You don't have to ignore me, you know?" Maria grumbled, glaring at Michael who finally turned back to her.
"What did you say?" He asked, his eyes gleaming with joy.
'Is he not nervous, at all? Where is this confidence coming from? Or is he just an idiot? Maybe an overconfident idiot?'
Maria studied Michael for a few seconds but it was not long before people began to gather around her. She had some alone time in the antique spaceship because everyone was assigned specific seats. Unfortunately, there was no alone time outside the spaceship. It was not that she could flee into the Origin Expanse either. Suppressing a sigh, Maria turned to her team.
Instead of consisting of only 10 members, Maria's team had a total of 25 members. Her Soultrait was powerful enough to tend to the wounds of many Awakened simultaneously. But that was not the whole reason.
Most members of Maria's loyal fan club wanted to be part of her team. They would want to enter the isolated dimension with her, either way. Therefore, the higher-ups of the Tritan Alliance made the least problematic decision; they allowed everyone who wanted to join Maria's team.
Adding the Support Soultraits of two Descendants, Maria could easily heal everyone while paying attention to their surroundings.
She had been jointly with the people around her for a long time – much longer than she wished. Maria even trained with some of them from a young age. Their families must have been hoping that training together would increase their compatibility for one of them to become Maria's Primal Amplifier once she manifested her Soultrait. Once one of the Descendants would have become her Primal Amplifier, their engagement would have been announced and they would marry the moment both turned 20 years old.
Fortunately, Maria manifested a 7-Star Soultrait, giving her some leeway. She didn't have to utilize her Inheritance Technique because her family was searching for a perfect candidate to become her Primal Amplifier. It would be best if her Primal Amplifier was the second child of a Supreme Family or a High Noble with great influence. Their families could expand their influence and power whereas their children could become the strongest couple of the century to further increase their popularity.
Little did anyone expect that Maria would use her Inheritance Technique in Piloq with a 'nobody' and in an extreme twist of fate, this said 'nobody' would turn out to be extremely compatible with Maria and Archangel's Grace.
Maria didn't want to implicate Michael for now. She researched enough about him to understand that he was already busy enough. It would be troublesome to tell Michael about certain…issues. Therefore, Maria decided to bid Michael farewell and to meet up with him once everything was over. Maybe the Interdimensional Flag War could solve some of their problems. Hopefully.
Her eyes flicked to Killian, who glared at Michael with uncontrollable fury in his eyes and she had to clench her hands into fists and summon her entire focus and control not to do anything stupid.
'Don't do anything stupid…please…'
Michael spotted that Maria left, but he didn't mind. The hateful stare locked on him disappeared the moment Maria stepped aside. Only a few pairs of eyes remained locked on him. It was a good thing that Michael didn't care about them – especially not the daggers shooting out of Killian's eyes.
It didn't take long before the purple portal began to hum loudly. Energy burst forth from the dimensional portal and it opened by manifesting a swirl of energy within the replica of the Runic Gate. The swirl expanded and turned into a purple mass that resembled the blue liquid inside Summoning Gates.
Michael was intrigued and he stepped closer to the portal.
"You seem to be in a hurry," A voice next to Michael called out.
Marie Wang and Sera Kani from the Blazing Sun team approached him.
"Did your girlfriend leave you behind?" Marie Wang asked, gently pushing a strand of crimson hair out of her face.
"She is not–"
"Not your girlfriend? Even better. Enter the dimension gate with us." Sera Kani offered hurriedly.
Michael beheld Ludwig Pearl with the Flag War Soultrait standing next to the two young women. There were also Zelda Norman and Ashryn Hard in that group. It was the same old Blazing Sun Team Michael fought jointly with Kaleb earlier.
"Why?" He couldn't help but ask.
"Why? That's simple. Because you are strong!"
Michael raised an eyebrow. Faced with four Peak Tier-3 Lords and another Tier-3 Awakened, he didn't think he gazed too strong – at least in his head.
In reality, Michael didn't possess much less energy than the Peak Tier-3 Lords. Refining his War Rune while being in possession of 10 Soultraits was certainly not great, but one of the advantages it generated was a larger energy storage. That was definitely a big advantage - especially for someone like Michael.
He could only smile at that thought. If he had been the same as a few weeks ago, Michael would have felt like the Blazing Sun team was joking. But he was not the same as a few weeks ago. Many things happened in the last few weeks and Michael was certain that he'd grown stronger.
The energy that coursed through his body didn't feel any weaker or lesser than the energy that resided in the body of Peak Tier-3 Lords.
He was…strong. A lot stronger than ever.
"We beheld you spar with Alice. Even without your Soultraits, you've got some decent moves. How about this? Enter the dimension with us and fight with us against the Tekur once. After we beat the shit out of some Tekur, we can see where we'll go." Marie Wang offered again, lifting her hand to shake Michael's.
Michael grasped her hand and returned a smile.
"It's worth a try. I always desired to see the true power of the Wang Family's Blazing Sun!"
