A few more days passed since Alexandra I had given a message for the Emperor to Alexandra, and there was still nothing.

Not a single sign of life from anyone. I had been sure that someone from the Emperor’s side would have contacted me by now, which meant one of two things.

Either Alexandra hadn’t told the Emperor anything, or she had lied to him.

Both of those options were something that I had anticipated since Alexandra was more of a snake than anything else. I wasn’t surprised by any of the actions that she would take.

However, I couldn’t leave and go see the Emperor in person at the moment. My training and Zero took priority over all of this without a doubt.

I could always clear up the situation with the Emperor once I returned to the Empire. After all, even if I had become some kind of enemy, I didn’t believe they would send someone capable of dealing with me to kill me.

It wouldn’t make any sense considering that I was still fighting on their side. I was still fighting against the demons for their interest. There was no need to treat me as an enemy, which was also the reason why I had told Alexandra that I wouldn’t consider the Emperor and his people enemies.

We had a common goal and I would do anything to achieve it even if some of our personal opinions clashed against one another.

Nevertheless, as time passed, I removed the Emperor from my mind as a whole. After all, I still hadn’t mastered how to use aether in general.

I had only discovered one use for it, which was the one of the ancient tribe. However, there were bound to be thousands of different methods to make me stronger by using aether. It was an energy that Gods used, there was no doubt that this energy would become my strongest weapon.

***

A few more days passed, and it was now a month since I had started my training with Zale.

He still wasn’t satisfied with my control over Aether.

I had to admit that it wasn’t anywhere close to his, but I also didn’t have thousands of years of practice. I was starting to get tired of only meditating all day and controlling the aether inside my body.

I wanted to test new ways to use it. I wanted to fight against Zoe again.

However, if Zale was telling me that this was the right path to becoming stronger. I could only believe in him.

After all, he could see glimpses of the future. If he thought that I would be able to succeed in defeating Zero this way, then I would keep doing it without complaining.

***

A week passed by, and the same thing was happening once again.

All we did of our days was just meditating, increasing the amount of aether inside my body. That was all we did over and over again.

I wanted to do something else, but I didn’t want to complain to Zale.

Sometimes I just looking at him and sighed. After all, he knew of most of my thoughts, he surely knew that I was tired of doing this. He was not stupid at all and he knew most of my thoughts.

“Caedrel.” He suddenly called out to me as we were about to start another day of training.

“Yes? Is there a problem?”

“I think I understand why you became so powerful at such a young age. I hadn’t truly understood while I was looking at your memories. But spending all this time with you truly enlightened me.”

I frowned as I honestly ignored what he meant.

“And why did I become so powerful?”

He smiled. “You most likely know already, but it’s your willpower. I have never seen anyone like you. You will do everything that is asked of you if you believe that it is the best course of action. Your talent obviously helps, but I think your willpower is what makes you different from anyone else.”

After saying that, he shook his head.

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“Never mind how much aether you can gather in your right palm now?”

I didn’t answer using my mouth as I simply summoned as aether as I could in my right palm.

The small purple flame from a month ago was nowhere to be seen as a true purple flame flew out of my hand going at least give meters into the air.

“Good. Can you condense all of it?”

Before, I hadn’t been able to manage such a thing; however, after all this training with Zale, controlling my aether was practically second nature.

I condensed all the aether in my right palm into a small purple ball. However, it was very small, around the size of a marble that kids used to play with on Earth.

“Impressive.”

I looked over to Zale with some expectations since he was praising me in such a way.

“Is it finally time to reach the second part of my training?”

Zale nodded. He was clearly satisfied with my progress. “Yes. I think it’s time for you to train by having some duels against the rest of the tribe. Your body might not be as strong as before, and you might not realize it yet. But you are very close to your past strength with the aether inside your body.

Well, as long as you use it accordingly, obviously.”

I nodded as I could only trust those words.

“What do you suggest?” I asked.

“A small tournament should do the trick,” Zale smirked as he couldn’t wait to see how I would measure against the rest of the tribe.

I also couldn’t wait to figure it out, and a tournament would show to everyone who the strongest within the tribe was. It was the perfect idea.

“The tournament will mark the end of your training. As soon as it is over, you will be able to search for Zero within the Snowy Mountains. Well, as long as you are not mediocre and show some potential.” Zale smirked.

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