Arumanfi of the Bright.
He was one of the Twelve Spirits of Perugius Dola — and, like most of them, he possessed a very unique ability. But even among them, his ability was especially impressive in terms of utility.
He could travel by literally transforming into light.
Arumanfi could not reach the literal speed of light, but because his magical source was intimately tied to the element of light, his speed surpassed that of any living creature.
Therefore, he was recognized as the fastest traveler in the entire world — vastly outpacing even monsters like Rygar or Laplace.
In fact, only teleportation circles were capable of movements faster than his.
But Teleportation lacked maneuverability, and was limited to pre-defined routes.
Arumanfi, on the other hand, was sentient. He could move freely, bypass obstacles, change course at any moment, and cross continents in a few minutes.
That mobility automatically made him the best scout in the world.
By observing the world from the sky, from remote hills or distant mountains, he could literally keep watch over the entire world, crossing borders at the speed of light.
Even though his combat speed did not approach his travel speed, Arumanfi was considered a King-level fighter — and, above all, someone who simply could not be caught.
In his opinion, it did not matter who it was, even the Sword God, the North God, the Water God or even the powerful Fighter God... he could escape them all.
Lately, however, a single exception had arisen.
The Beast God.
When investigating the newly-formed Kingdom of Gaia, Arumanfi had only one absolutely explicit order:
Never get close to the Beast God.
That was the only being in the world that awakened his caution. Not that he was the strongest in the world, but he was... unpredictable.
The combination of supernatural senses, detection capability and strange magical methods that still baffled even Perugius made it uncertain whether he could perceive and even capture Arumanfi.
By that time, the world already knew about Rygar's monstrous instincts, and about his magical techniques that defied any traditional classification.
Things like Lightning Magic, Gravity, Vacuum, Regeneration and even Barrier Magics so complex they were impossible to study.
And Perugius knew that long before the rest of the world.
Having established that order, the rest was simple. As long as Arumanfi completely avoided the Beast God, using the concealment methods created by the Armored Dragon King himself, there should be no one in the Kingdom of Gaia capable of detecting him.
The main reason for this was that his mission did not even involve delving into Gaia's territory. He did not need to uncover secrets, research or weapons.
The mission was simply to observe the growth of the new Kingdom. Collect general information. Monitor its rise up close.
Rygar was a huge variable in the future War against Laplace, and Perugius Dola was someone used to having control over everything. Thus, instead of attempting direct contact, he opted for investigation.
And, for some time, everything went perfectly well.
Arumanfi watched from a distance and never approached Rygar.
Exactly what Perugius had expected from the start.
But every plan is subject to setbacks and changes.
And this time, the unforeseen came from Jino Britz.
Now called the Martial Emperor, Jino had established himself as the second strongest in the Kingdom of Gaia, surpassing even Ghislaine Adoldia.
At eighteen, he held the title of Emperor in the four sword styles taught at the Combat Temple: North God Style, Sword God Style, Beast God Style and Water God Style.
He was also proficient in the combat techniques of demonic, beast, elf and even merman warriors.
His fame was at its peak.
The story of how he mastered the Pistol Shrimp in battle had circulated the whole world. Some even dared to claim that he could defeat the current Sword God or North God.
That naturally caught Arumanfi's attention, but it did not worry him.
In his mind, the boy was an absurd talent — but still a boy.
And, after all, Arumanfi moved at the speed of light.
Who in the world could capture him? If he wanted to withdraw, no one would be able to follow him.
That's where his mistakes began.
Centuries of watching the world from above, above any living being, centuries accustomed to seeing everything from an omniscient perspective…
In a way, he was somewhat like a certain god who liked to visit people's dreams.
His arrogance and confidence became unconscious and intrinsic to his nature. And his caution diminished, little by little.
While Jino trained the Long-Range Prediction Technique of the Beast God Style, the luminous presence of Arumanfi entered his field of perception.
And so, without even realizing it, Arumanfi stopped being the investigator. Now, he was the one being investigated.
Jino followed him silently for hours.
The North God Style and the Beast God Style possessed stealth and presence-suppression methods far superior to those of the Spirit of Light — who had always essentially relied on his speed.
Thus, all of Arumanfi's patterns and methods were exposed before the sword genius.
Knowing he could not stop the light from moving, Jino did something different.
He went to Aisha Greyrat.
And so, Aisha, with her innate talent for Barrier Magic, created a Magic Circle of Magic Restriction, specialized in interrupting Arumanfi's luminous transformation.
A circle designed specifically to prevent the instantaneous movement of light.
And so, after hundreds of years roaming unhindered across the world, Arumanfi of the Bright, was captured.
His shock was absolute.
----
A few days later, Aisha walked across the Star Rise Academy campus with a cheerful smile on her face. She looked particularly happy as she guided a young blonde-haired girl at her side.
"Come on, Jasmine, this time you made a big contribution! Ask for something better!" said Aisha, full of enthusiasm.
The blonde girl smiled bashfully, clearly not knowing how to deal with that excess of praise.
"I really don't know what to ask for besides this, Lady Aisha… I think a promotion would be great."
The powers of the Memory Miko Jasmine were mysterious and powerful.
Thanks to those powers, even someone as loyal as Arumanfi had revealed his own secrets — and more importantly, the secrets of his Master. That had allowed the Kingdom of Gaia to obtain really important information.
Aisha puffed her cheeks in immediate displeasure.
"Look! Even the Master wanted information about the inner circle of the Princess of Asura. I can't simply promote you to the Barrier Division and leave it at that!"
She crossed her arms, dissatisfied with the simplicity of the request.
"How about this: when you know what you want, ask me in the future. I won't forget, so just mention it!"
Jasmine could only sigh, accepting.
"All right, Lady Aisha… but he escaped in the middle of the interrogation. Is it really appropriate to reward me so much?"
Aisha shook her head nonchalantly.
"No problem. We discovered most of what we wanted about the fight for the throne."
The Memory Miko's ability was very simple: all Jasmine needed to do to see someone's memories was to look into that person's eyes.
With just a fleeting glance, she could see the superficial thoughts.
If she kept the gaze fixed for longer, she could see more hidden memories, gradually revealing all the target's thoughts.
This, however, caused great mental strain, which prevented continuous use of the ability.
During the interrogation, everything proceeded as expected, until Arumanfi had his Summoning abruptly terminated by force.
Aisha deduced that this was probably Perugius's doing.
Perhaps he had discovered something strange and canceled the Summoning. Or perhaps the Spirit had some hidden means of alerting his Master to warn about his situation.
In any case, in the middle of the interrogation, Arumanfi managed to escape.
But that no longer mattered much — because the main information had already been obtained.
Aisha said goodbye to Jasmine and, shortly after, called Helios.
The Red Dragon was growing larger and larger. His draconic body had strong muscles, the result of the rigid training to which Aisha subjected him. Thanks to that, he was the most obedient Red Dragon in the entire Kingdom of Gaia.
Mounting him, Aisha crossed the city of Tinaver, heading quickly to one of the teleportation circles that led directly to the Combat Temple.
She had already been informed that Rygar was about to return from the Demon Continent — and that he would go to the Temple first.
She had a lot to report, and it would be better to do it in person.
---
Meanwhile, in the Combat Temple, in a spacious Arena, the sound of blows and impacts echoed throughout the place. At the center of the Arena, Linia Dedoldia was in direct confrontation with Ornthorn.
Although Ornthorn was a North Emperor, with explosive physical strength and devastating strikes, he simply could not reach her.
Linia moved across the field like an agile cat.
Linia was not very good at using magic directly in her weapon like Taes and Rygar, but she made up for it in another way: she was extremely proficient at combining Magic and Swordsmanship simultaneously.
Thus, even while attacking with her blade, Ornthorn was still met with fireballs, gusts of wind and stone cannons flying toward him at the same time.
But the Beast Princess's greatest trump was Howling Magic.
During the War against Milis, countless enemies had fallen before the deadly combination of the Longsword of Silence with Howling Magic.
It was visible that, despite being lazy in training, Linia had talent.
As the fight unfolded, three spectators watched from the stands.
"Linia finally reached the level of Sword Saint. What did Eris do to her?" asked Clint, the Sword Emperor, sitting in a butterfly position and analyzing every movement in the Arena.
Ghislaine replied:
"A few months ago she threw Linia into the depths of the Leaf Tiger Territory. After she returned, Linia continued training incessantly until she reached the Saint level."
Ghislaine spoke while holding two children on her lap.
Iris, completely asleep, breathed softly, while Diana looked distractedly at the sky.
Clint made a sound of understanding:
"So she realized her weakness and started dedicating herself after almost dying?"
Before Ghislaine could answer, someone else did:
"Hehe, actually no, I wish it were that!" said Jino, who was standing beside them, also watching the fight in the Arena.
He continued:
"She came to ask me for help to train. I also thought she had resolved to become stronger… but her reason was much simpler than that."
Clint and Ghislaine looked at him.
Jino explained:
"She said Eris threatened to release her into the Blue Dragon Mountain Range if she still wasn't a Sword Saint when she returned from the Demon Continent…"
Clint's eyebrow twitched, while Ghislaine only smiled faintly, as if not very surprised.
Jino added:
"Well, don't question the methods but the results. She didn't become a Sword Saint after all? Hahahaha!"
Meanwhile, the fight in the Arena gradually came to an end.
After a sudden and explosive advance, Ornthorn finally managed to strike Linia — and she lost the match.
But even so, she had done very well.
Clint sighed.
"Well, it worked, but…"
He looked around and remembered, once again, that this was not the Sword Sanctuary.
He needed to remind himself of that frequently — because the oddities he encountered in the Combat Temple were many.
Maybe he would never fully get used to it.
He sighed again. Those sighs had been becoming more frequent lately.
"And your son, Jino? How is he?" asked Clint.
Jino smiled immediately, proud:
"He is very healthy! Nina is also very caring with him, so I don't need to worry much."
Ghislaine looked at him sideways.
"I think our children will grow up in the same generation, then. Tell Nina to bring Nel to meet Diana, Iris and the others."
"I'll pass the message!" replied Jino, still smiling.
They continued chatting casually while watching other warriors enter the Arena to fight.
Then, on the horizon, a Red Dragon appeared cutting through the sky, its immense silhouette approaching rapidly.
-----
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