"Is he finally dead?" Nico broke the silence.
He had watched as the dust settled revealing Todd as the victor.
"Yes," confirmed Gavin.
Todd walked to the group as blood dripped from his injuries. He had not come out of the clash easily. His body still shook as he tried to suppress his internal injury. But that didn't stop a smile from appearing on his face.
"Did you see it?" He asked Gavin, "The technique of our family."
"Yes!" shouted an enthusiastic Gavin.
"The Meteor series is an amazing technique. It is a shame that for the past three generations, no one has ever unleashed its full potential. That was one of the reasons our family deteriorated to Viscount rank," sighed Todd.
He once thought with his talent he could uplift his family's status, but sadly the truth was cruel. Sure he had potential, but they were others like him who also had potential. He was just one out of the many.
That was why ever since Gavin's amazing talent was discovered, he had made it his life mission to groom his nephew, into something he, himself, couldn't be.
"Uncle Todd?" Gavin tilted his head as he saw his uncle absent-minded.
"Hmm, that's right..."
Todd went back to Krees' corpse. He fumbled through his clothes and took out an emblem. The emblem was just like the technique of Krees. On the emblem was a sword flaming with hot flames at the blade edge.
Looking at the emblem, Todd gasped, "It appears the situation is bigger than we can manage."
"Uncle Todd, is that?--" Gavin asked, surprised, as he saw the emblem.
"Yes, It is the emblem of the earl ranked Vargas Family," solemnly replied Todd.
The Vargas family was one rank higher than the Elliot family, which denoted their strength. They held more authority than the Elliot family in the kingdom.
'I will need to report this to my elder brother. We must tread this matter carefully.'
Gavin stood beside his uncle. Seeing he was deep in thoughts, he kept quiet and allowed the man to think.
"Gavin, what is the full situation?" Todd broke out of his thoughts, asking Gavin. He believed that Gavin should have collected information by now.
"Yes, uncle. It goes like this...." Gavin recounted everything he had been told to his uncle.
It took a while for Todd to digest the whole information. Now that he understood the full picture, he looked at Jake and co.
He asked, "Where is the ring?"
Nico, Lola, and Jaya glanced at Jake, indicating for him to give Todd the ring.
Dipping his hands into his pockets, Jake brought out the crystalline ring and offered it to Todd.
He took a few steps back, as he calmly watched Todd's next action.
Amidst, the distracted crowd, he took a few more steps back.
Todd rubbed his finger on the gem on the spatial ring.
*Whing!*
The ring released a black glow. A big black bean the size of a dog was sent out from the crystal.
The moment it appeared, it shined like a star and exploded, before anyone could react.
*Boom!!*
The explosion was so fierce that it changed the surrounding, making it barren.
Luckily, Todd had reacted just in time. He had used his body to shield the group from the explosion. Still, they got affected by it, as Todd couldn't cover all of them.
After the explosion, Todd shouted, "Are you all okay?"
He was replied by muffled yesses.
They all stood up bloodied and injured.
"I guess now we know what was in the ring," said Nico, as he tried to joke.
But all he got were deep stares from the rest.
They did not understand why someone would try to joke in that situation.
Nico looked around and noticed that Jake wasn't nearby
"Where is Jake?"
"Isn't he with us?"
"No, he is not here."
The group was confused by the disappearance of Jake.
"How could he go missing?" asked Todd.
He didn't want to jump to a conclusion, but since Jake was not with them, and he was the one to give them the ring, did it mean..
"Looks. That's Jake," shouted Nico.
Having suspected something wrong with the ring, Jake had escaped to a long distance before the explosion.
Now, he appeared in front of them clean and sparkly white, like a White bird untouched by the foulness of the land.
"Where were you?" Todd asked loudly.
"I went to take something," he feigned surprise as he looked around
"Huh, what happened here?"
"The ring. It exploded," informed Nico.
"What did you go and take?" scrutinized Todd.
His expression became more fierce at every passing second. He began to suspect Jake, as the timing was too convenient.
Upon hearing Todd, Jake smiled as he brought out a broken sword. It was the weapon he made in the Dark Forest.
"This. I left it at my previous location."
Providing proof, Todd could not say anything. He could only watch as Jake smiled at him.
'Hmm, that didn't kill him,' thought Jake.
Since he guessed that they would be a bomb in the ring, he left the group for safety.
He didn't tell them his assumption due to his curiosity. Yes, curiosity.
Watching Todd fight, he began to wonder what his limit was. He could not help but think about what would be needed to take Todd down.
So when he gave Todd the ring, he didn't warn the group. So that he could test Todd's durability.
'He is barely alive. But he is not dead. Interesting, someone of his level can take an explosion of that caliber and even manage to protect others.'
Jake smiled as he examined Todd with a beaming interest. If not for their power difference, he would have kidnapped Todd, to examine his body.
'I am the seeker of truth. As long as there is something before me, I would decipher it!'
Todd dropped the case as he addressed the teenagers, "This matter must not spread. Do you understand?"
"Yes sir," replied all of them.
"Good. Good. Seeing as you all are good seedlings, I will give you something to motivate you."
He removed his gloved hand which revealed his spatial ring. Rubbing on it, a scroll came out.
"This is the information on how to break through to the next realm. Treat it well," he said as he presented it to Jaya, as she looked like the leader of the group.
"Thank you, sir," they bowed their heads at him.