"Dream on…"

Cecilia didn't waste her time on any further bickering and dug her hand into his chest, grabbing his heart, twisting in her hand, making him scream and twitch and curse. However there was no sympathy on her face. She had seen too much bloodshed in her life, she was a vampire after all.

​​

Cecilia stared at his pale and horror-filled eyes and sweat-covered face and said with an emotionless expression. "Well, I gave you a chance, you can't blame me for being merciless. Now you can die resentfully or peacefully, your choice, no one cares!" as she said the heart in her hand burst into a bloody pulp.

"Pfff!"

Jinn's eyes widened in sheer terror and he vomited a mouthful of blood, but not a single drop fell on Cecilia. She snorted and threw the body on the ground as if it was no living being, but some kind of trash.

However, just as the body fell on the ground, a blue light shone on Jinn's body and a python that appeared to be made of water emerged. But as soon as it came out of his body, the python dashed into the distance, trying to escape this demoness who had literally butchered its master.

"Hmph, do you think it's so easy to escape my grasp?" Cecilia laughed and vanished from where she was standing — and when she appeared she was already standing in front of the Elemental Essence.

The python hissed and the water burst out of its mouth, trying to submerge the girl in front of her into its attack. Kadyn saw this and shook his head. Indeed it was just an elemental essence without much intelligence. Anyone could tell that its attacks had no strength in them. Without Jinn it had become a sword without an owner. No matter how sharp a sword was, it could not battle on its own.

"Even your owner wasn't able to do anything to me. Do you think a mere Elemental Essence like you can fight with me?" Cecilia said as he waved her hand in its direction. "Be suppressed!"

The water attack vanished with just a simple wave of her hand.

Suddenly the space twisted around the Elemental Essence and the dark ropes formed, restraining the snake's movement in an instant. The Elemental Essence twisted and turned its long frame and hissed and tried to break free, but to no avail. Every struggle it made turned out to be futile in front of the restraining of the ropes.

Cecilia appeared in front of the snake and attacked it viciously on its head. In an instant, the snake disintegrated and transformed into a single drop of water. Cecilia grabbed the water drop and then took out a vial before putting it inside and then turned to look towards everyone else. "I think the matter has settled here. What should we do next?"

"Uhh," Kadyn was speechless by this girl's manner. She changed her demeanour as some changed clothes. One minute she could become a grumbling maidservant, and then a ferocious vampire. She could cover the ground in a pool of blood, but she could also become a graceful maiden.

When Kadyn first met her, she was following behind Nefia like an obedient servant. He never thought that she was such a powerful vampire, such a terrible mage. He looked at her right hand that was covered in blood and sucked in a cold breath. Then his gaze fell upon the vial in her left hand and asked. "Is that the Elemental Essence?"

Cecilia looked at the vial and nodded and then threw it at Kadyn. "This is useless to me as I have the dark element. Do whatever you want with it. Use it if you can or give it to someone else if you can't."

Kadyn saw the vial in the air and his heart almost leapt out of his throat, but then he remembered that the Elemental Essence wasn't a fragile thing that would die after falling on the ground and his heart relaxed a bit. He caught it gently and glanced at the swinging water drop inside. "Is it safe to put it inside just a normal vial?" he asked after taking a long breath.

"Of course not," Cecilia said. "It is in a weak state at the moment, but slowly it would regain its strength and break free from that vial. You better find a way to restrain it in the meantime."

"Oh," Kadyn nodded. "Well, if it's just about restraining, it's pretty easy." Not even Rank 3 mage would be able to walk out of his shop if Kadyn wanted him to stay. Controlling this water essence wouldn't be hard for Kadyn as long as he was inside the shop.

As he thought about it, he flipped his hand and a large building emerged in front of everyone. Under the dark sky and in between the towering bamboos. Kadyn looked at them and said. "Let's go. We will stay here tonight and go to the nearest city in the morning. It must have been quite frustrating for all of you to live in the shop for a month without knowing anything outside."

"Alas, just don't remind me about it," Elora said from the side, her voice sounded quite depressed. Others also couldn't help but laugh bitterly when they remembered how frustrating the previous month was for them. They felt weak and useless when they couldn't help Kadyn.

Kadyn smiled and didn't talk about it. He looked at the grand entrance of the shop and said, "Let's go." He was the first to enter and others followed from behind him.

As Kadyn entered the shop he focused on the vial in his hand and the status window appeared in front of him.

[Name: Water Python]

[Rank: 2]

[Element: Water]

[Effects: It can enhance the strength of the water spells by 50%]

[Price: 500 energy points]

Kadyn eyed the screen and his eyes widened in shock and ecstasy. The value of this Elemental Essence was really high. 500 energy points. Kadyn needed to work day and night for a few days before he could brew potions worth that much energy points.

However after giving some thought Kadyn understood why that was.

Although many powerful potions could increase the strength of mages, that was only for a short period. Furthermore, after the effect of some potions runs out, the mages would feel weak for a limited period. That could be fatal and life-threatening if their enemy was able to find them in their period of weakness.

However, there was no such thing with the Elemental Essence. It would increase the strength of a mage by 50% for all the time and there won't be any cooldown period either. Now when Kadyn thought about it he realised that 500 energy points were quite low for such a marvellous treasure.

Anyways he had no thought of selling it, for the time being, he will think about it later.

"Father and big brother Kadyn have returned!" an innocent voice sounded. Kadyn looked towards the source and his face clouded with confusion. Because the owner of the voice was Kove. Father? What does he mean by this?

Before Kadyn could wrap his head around it, Kove dashed towards them and jumped at Khrom like an agile rabbit. "Father, you have returned." He said affectionately to Khrom and giggled pleasantly.

Kadyn saw this scene and his jaw almost touched the ground in shock. Holy shit! He had already seen a few clues before that something was going on between Rayna and Khrom. However, he never envisioned that in this short period of a month they would become husband and wife.

Then he remembered something and looked at Kove. "Hey brat, why are you calling me brother while father to Khrom. Call me uncle. You are ruining the seniority order here. Uncle. You get it?"

"Alright, big brother Kadyn.'

"..."

Kadyn looked at that innocent face and his lips twitch, as if he was screaming from inside: you are doing that on purpose, aren't you, brat?

Everyone chuckled when they saw Kadyn's depressed expression while Khrom became embarrassed. He looked at Kadyn and said. "I'm sorry, boss. I didn't wait for you…"

"It's alright, matters of hearts are not in our control," Kadyn patted Khrom's shoulder. "However, you must treat sister Rayna with respect. She has gone through too much hardship in her life."

"Of course," Khrom said without a hint of hesitation and patted his chest proudly.

Rayna who was standing not far away turned beat red and didn't dare to look up. Kadyn saw this and stopped talking about it so as to not embarrass her anymore and changed the topic. "Sister Rayna, I haven't eaten the food of your hands for a whole month. Can you please make something for me?"

"Of course," Rayna nodded and scurried into the house. Others also followed, but just as Kadyn took a step forward the vial in his hand started to tremble and creaks formed over it and then the Water Python Elemental Essence burst out of it.