Chapter 159: Alexa Hargreaves

“You came to steal something from my association and didn’t come to say hello?” An amused female voice echoed throughout the entire cave.

I couldn’t move, speak, or look elsewhere. Hell I couldn’t even blink.

A feeling of intense dread soon slowly crept up my spine as a female figure silently appeared before me, floating a few centimeters off the ground.

The woman was extremely beautiful, and had that otherworldly aura that said; I am out of this world. She had long wheat chestnut hair, and velvet blue eyes that locked onto me, putting an overbearing pressure on both my body and my mind just enough not to break my bones, and shatter my mind. She had a soft smile on her lips, but her smile did nothing to quell the dread welling up inside me. If anything, it only intensified my despair.

This woman was none other than Alexa Hargreaves herself, the chairwoman of the Aetherials association. Shit! did she have to be in sterling city at the moment. Beads of sweat began forming on my forehead. I was sure that even if she didn’t freeze me, my body would have frozen itself out of sheer dread.

Thankfully, Alexa ignored my frozen figure, and averted her gaze from me. She turned to her granddaughter, and beckoned with her index finger. The sword embedded in Hannah’s shoulder extracted itself, and clattered to the ground. Hannah herself was flown over and landed next to Alexa.

“Thanks, Grandma.” Hannah grimaced, holding her injured shoulder. But Alexa clicked her tongue. “Tsk, I told you to stop calling me grandma, call me big sister, and if not, then call me aunt.”

“Hmmm?” Alexa slowly turned her head to me. “Something about you just changed, but I can’t tell what.” Her brows knit. “Forget about that.” She changed the topic much to my pleasure. However, my cloak and mask suddenly flew off my body, revealing my face, and my actual rank.

“Tsk, you’re not even handsome.” Alexa clicked her tongue once more.

“Grandma!” Hannah whined.

“What? It’s the truth.”

At the moment, I had the disguise of a clean shaven average middle aged man, with brown eyes and hair, so of course I couldn’t be considered handsome in the slightest. And Alexa could be very blunt even in the novel.

Alexa turned back to me. “Mind telling me while you tried to steal from my association, and gravely injured my granddaughter? She is quite precious to me, just so you know.”

“Go on now, don’t keep me waiting.” Alexa said after a few moments.

“….” How the hell was I supposed to speak when I couldn’t even move a muscle or blink? Luckily for me, Hannah interjected at that moment.

“Grandma, you’re not letting him speak.”

“Right, I forgot about that.” Alexa muttered. “And would it kill you to stop calling me grandma?!” She snapped at Hannah.

“Sorry.” The young woman shrank away.

Suddenly, I felt myself free again. But I wasn’t all that free. My body was still locked in place, but at least I could blink and speak now.

“Forgive me, Madam Alexa, I had no clue…” I began, but was quickly cut off by Alexa.

“Madam Alexa huh? You recognizing who I am implies that you’re well informed.” Alexa smirked.

’Shit!’ I fucked up! I wasn’t supposed to recognize Alexa. Infact, since she became the chairwoman of the Aetherials association decades ago, only few people see her. Even when she went from branch to branch, only the head of the branch usually knows she was around.

Still, I quickly salvaged the situation. If any issues hadn’t rose with me recognizing Alexa, I would have went with I didn’t know Hannah was her granddaughter. But now that it did, I had to use that same granddaughter.

“If I may, Madam Alexa. Everyone knows who your granddaughter is, I merely recognized who you were because she called you her grandmother.” I said smoothly. But perhaps it might not have looked smooth coming from an unscrupulous middle aged man, because Alexa looked skeptical.

“Is that so, then explain why you gravely injured her knowing she was my granddaughter.”

Gods, this woman! Was I supposed to just stand there and let Hannah hack me to her heart’s? Granted, the situation wasn’t nearly as exaggerated as that, but even so.

“I stumbled in here while on a hunt, only to be attacked by your granddaughter. Forgive me if it was a crime to not let myself get hacked to death.”

“Do not listen to him, Big sis, he came here specifically for the orb.” Hannah hurriedly fanned the flames.

“I’m big sis now huh?” Alexa leaned towards Hannah teasingly, but soon turned to me. “You’re unusually and suspiciously calm for someone who knows they’re before an Alpha ranked being.” Her eyes narrowed, and I dropped to my knees with a bang.

The floor beneath my knees cracked along with my knee caps.

Mmph!

I stifled a groan, and gritted my teeth, not letting a sound escape my mouth.

“I won’t be unreasonable, I reckon this is punishment enough for your deeds. Now hand over the Orb.” My spatial ring flew off my finger and landed in Alexa’s palm.

“No, Big sis, I want to watch him suffer.” Hannah suddenly spoke glaring at me hatefully.

’…This bitch.’

Alexa turned to Hannah, the surprise unmistakable in her eyes. “You usually don’t bother dealing with low lives, guess this one really pushed your buttons huh?.”

Ouch, so now I was a low live. Didn’t matter I’ve been called worse.

“But since you called me Big sis today, worry not, I’ll erase him this instant.” Alexa turned back to me.

“You know what, fuck this!” I muttered.

My words stunned the two women, but before any of them could say anything, I shattered in an epic display of light.

Back in my room at the Darkfell garden, I calmed my racing heart, and let out a breath of relief. Thanks to my quick thinking, I had quickly swapped the moment Alexa turned to free Hannah from the walls of the cave. It was why she turned to me, and said, something about me just changed.

The Orb had already left the cave at that moment. The only reason why I didn’t dispell myself at that time was that I was banking on the fact that Alexa would let me go and that I wouldn’t have to show my ability before her.

But now that I did, it was only a matter of when and not if. She would surely find out who I was with the extensive information of the Aetherial association. If not now, then by the Ivos Gala, Alexa would recognize who I was the moment I came into her sight because I was hella sure she had memorized my aether signature, after she took off my cloak- not that a low rank artifact like that could block her senses.

But at that point, what could she do even if she figured it out? I would never accept it. Hell, even if I did accept it, it was not like she could touch me in front of Amon. Indifferent as he was towards me, his pride and the face of the family wouldn’t allow it.

Not bothering myself over the matter, I brought out the silver sphere. Seeing it in my hand, everything was well worth it.

————-

Back in the cave Damon disappeared from.

Alexa stared at the spot Damon had been before he suddenly began to unravel. She had watched as his body slowly turned into photons, before dispersing.

At first she had thought he was teleporting, but then she didn’t sense any disturbance in the spatial fabric. Even still, she locked the space around the entire cave, but it didn’t change nothing, and he still didappeared.

“What a fascinating turn of events.” Alexa’s eyes twinkled. ’I’ll find them, no matter who they are and wherever they are.’ She smirked. She was certain that wasnt even their real face, which made their gender even more uncertain.

“Grandma, you let him escape?!” Hannah yelled. It didn’t even occur to Hannah that her all powerful grandmother couldn’t stop a filthy Eta+ ranked man from escaping. She had been immensely frustrated when the man’s cloak came off and she realized that he was merely an Eta+ ranked aetherial. What did that mean? That an aether ranked had defeated her who was two realms higher?

“Grandma? So I’m not ’Big sis’ anymore because he escaped?” She gave Hannah a slight knock on the head. “Tsk, youngsters nowadays.” Alexa clicked her tongue.

“Let’s go.” Alexa said, and Hannah felt herself floating mid air. “Failing to beat a mere Eta+ ranked aetherial, I guess you’ve not been training till you drop.”

With no disturbance further, the figures of both Alexa and Hannah faded away.

***********

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