Long red hair like a waterfall of flames, a pair of feisty gold eyes that hid a hint of melancholy, and a dazzling smile that would one day steal the hearts of men.

Aeriole Von Basten stood in front of the herb store with a victorious grin as she looked at the stunned dark-skinned child opposite. She would never forget how this young man shrugged her off like she was an annoying leech before running into the forest. Such and affront heavily wounded her pride as the youngest lady of Linmead.

“Hehe, what is it? Are you shocked I was able to find you?” Aeriole chuckled with glee. “Are you in awe of a noble lady’s abilities?”

Rao Wu stared at the smug girl for a while, and then cocked his head to the side, “Who are you?”

“Urk—Who am I?” Aeriole nearly choked. He didn’t even recognize her!? Was her presence that little? Oh, no, wait. Back then, she was covered in dust and grime from the fight. Yes. She was probably so beautiful that he did not match her to that dirty girl. “Mm.” Having convinced herself, she nodded and then said, “Remember, you saved me earlier?”

“Uh… You’ll have to be more specific. I save a lot of people.”

“You!” Aeriole’s finger trembled as she fiercely pointed at the savage child. For some reason, his indifferent gaze pissed her off. However, determined to maintain her noble grace, the little girl, put down her hand and swallowed a breath. After calming down, she carefully explained, “You saved me from the Wild Warthogs a few days ago?”

“Ah!” Rao Wu’s eyes widened with recognition. “The crying, snotty girl from back then?”

“I wasn’t snotty!”

“What was your name again? Aaron, Rolly—”

“Aeriole!” Aeriole nearly exploded, her gaze apoplectic. “My name is Aeriole.”

“Ah, Aeriole.” Rao Wu’s lips curled in a teasing grin. “Aeriole Von Basten. How’ve you been?”

Aeriole wasn’t stupid. Seeing Rao Wu’s smirk, she instantly realized he had been teasing her. Half of her wanted to squeeze his neck, but the other was relieved. Indeed, she wasn’t so forgettable. “I have been well. I did not think we would be meeting again so soon. Fate is indeed a tricky mistress.”

“Fate?” Rao Wu gave the girl a skeptic stare. “Didn’t you just say you found me? That doesn’t sound like fate.”

Kehum! Aeriole coughed to hide her embarrassment. “Indeed, I had my people keep an eye out for you at the gate. But I did not envision you would arrive so soon. I finally have a chance to pay back the favor.”

“Favor? Ah. You mean saving your life? No worries. That was kinda my fault to begin with, so we’re even.”

“Your fault?”

“Yeah. I kinda, sorta killed their Berserk Wild Warthog leader. I think they were just looking to kill the closest small human they could find.”

One of Aeriole’s guards looked at Rao Wu with shock in his eyes. “You killed a Berserk Wild Warthog? By yourself?”

“Nah, not really,” Rao Wu promptly answered. “I had help from a friend.” Following Uncle Twilight’s advice, he chose not to divulge too much information. “Well, if that’s all, I’ve got to get back home, so I’ll be lea—”

“Wait!” Aeriole grabbed Rao Wu’s hand before he could walk past her.

Rao Wu looked at the dainty hands wrapped around his arm and then at Aeriole. What was this girl’s deal with holding people? Realizing she wouldn’t let him go, he sighed and questioned, “What is it?”

Aeriole really did not like the indifference in the child’s eyes. They seemed to view her as someone of an alien race. No, it wasn’t just her. The child’s eyes looked at her guards and passing humans the same way. “I do not care that you caused the rampage. You still saved my life, so I must repay you.”

“That’s fi—”

“Besides, I would like to show your cub companion around. I’m certain it will be excited to see more of the city, right?” Aeriole, realizing a direct tactic would not work, quickly shifted gears to the cute wolf cub on the child’s shoulder.

Rao Wu hesitated. His instincts wanted to flee this world of iron and steel to return to his familiar world of wood and dirt. However, he had to take Xian Da’s thoughts into consideration. “Hey, you heard her Xian Da. What do you think? Want to see the city?”

“Rrao!” Xian Da pumped its chest forward and let out a defiant bark, claiming it was not a baby that wanted to see the city. However, its constantly roaming eyes betrayed its inner excitement.

Rao Wu let out a wry chuckle and then looked at Aeriole. “Guess I’m following you.”

“Rraff!”

“Haha, I know you’re not a kid.” Rao Wu laughingly soothed the indignant Xian Da. “I’m doing this for myself too. I also want to see the city.” Once Xian Da finally settled down, Rao Wu turned to look at Aeriole. “Alright. Where are we going?”

“Uh…um.” Aeriole stared at Rao Wu, at a loss for words.

“Aeriole.”

“Ah, yes. My apologies.” Aeriole’s cheeks turned bright red with embarrassment. She could not believe just how charming Xian Da looked when he laughed and looked lovingly at Xian Da. It was such a stark difference from when his indifferent gaze. “Is there any thing you particularly like?”

“Soul Monsters,” Rao Wu answered without skipping a beat. To the child who grew up on adventuring stories from his Uncle Twilight, there was nothing more fascinating than soul monsters.

“Ah, really? Then we should go to Soul Society? We can’t sign up, but we can look at their museum.”

“What’s a Soul Society?”

Aeriole looked at Rao Wu with shock and disbelief. “You don’t know Soul Society?” When Rao Wu shrugged, she shook her head and explained, “It’s one of the biggest organizations in the world! They specialize in trading soul monsters or soul monster cores and crystals. Almost every soul trainer relies on their services.”

“Wow… sounds important.” To Rao Wu his ‘world’ consisted of the forest and this city. Hence, he could not fathom the supposedly ‘world-sized organization.’

“Anyway, it’s pretty cool! I’m sure you’ll like it!” Aeriole excitedly waved her hands. “Afterwards, we can have dinner before you leave.”

“Hm…” Rao Wu performed a quick estimate. If he left in the evening, he would still be able make it to one of his designated ‘safe zones’ before nightfall. “Alright. That sounds good. Let’s go.”

With a beaming smile, Aeriole grabbed Rao Wu’s hand and then dragged him out of the plaza to the streets outside. Once they were outside, she looked imploringly at her bodyguards. The pair of stalwart men broke into smiles and then summoned their Windfarer Colts.

“Woah.” Rao Wu’s eyes shone with envy and love as he admired the beautiful creatures. “They’re even cooler up close.”

“Hehe. You haven’t seen anything yet,” One of the bodyguards could not help boasting as he lifted Rao Wu onto the Windfarer’s Colt’s back. “Hiaah!”

With a proud whinny the Windfarer Colt charged down the streets.

“Whoa!” Rao Wu held Xian Da close to his chest, his eyes watering as blistering wind brushed past the speeding colt. The little child had never experienced such speed in his life! Right on that spot, he swore to one day ride on a soul monster that was just as fast, if not faster!

With the Windfarer Colts’ speed, the journey did not take long. Within a few minutes, the Windfarer Colts pulled to a stop in front of a gargantuan building. While it was not the biggest in the city, Rao Wu was certain very few could match its opulence. Especially with the five, ten-meter soul monster statues that stood at the very front of the building.

They depicted, in no particular order, a Razorfang Wolf, a Dread Serpent, an Infernal Drake, and finally a Stormbreaker Hydra.

Rao Wu gazed at each of the life-like sculptures with a mix of trepidation and excitement in his heart. These soul monsters were just a few of the many soul monsters that stood at the apex of the known word. The child steeled his nerves. One day, he would become a soul trainer capable of challenging those monsters.

“Rraff!” Xian Da challenged the statues’ overbearing aura. One day it would reach a power level that could crush these monsters beneath its feet.

The guard carrying Rao Wu whistled in surprise when he saw Xian Da’s eyes. “Your soul pet is interesting. Most soul monsters are oppressed the first time they see these statues.”

“Haha, Xian Da’s special.” Rao Wu scratched the Dusklight Wolf’s chin. Since it was born, Xian Da had to fight for every meal against its much stronger siblings. Growing up in that environment made the little Xian Da used to being the underdog challenger. Fear was useless to an underdog. Since the odds were already stacked against them, their only option was to fight hard or die out.

Xian Da refused to die out.

“Come, Come.” The excited Aeriole called impatiently, and then dragged Rao Wu into the building once he dismounted. She took him through the reception to the publicly opened museum where life-sized statues of hundreds of monsters were placed on display.

“What in the—” Rao Wu felt like he had died and gone to heaven. The little boy dashed around the museum, frequently exclaiming in shock as he finally life-like depictions of the soul monsters he had read in the encyclopedias. If it weren’t for the severe restrictions, he would have run up and touched each of the statues to see what they felt like for himself.

Soul Society’s museum was very thorough. Almost all known soul monsters, from the lowly Rock Ants, to great, strange monsters like Specter Wraiths were accurately portrayed in the museum.

As they explored the museum, Rao Wu and Aeriole would often exchange notes and argue over which types of monsters were the best. As someone who grew up in the forest, Rao Wu was partial to beast-type monsters whereas Aeriole was partial to elemental soul monsters. And so, several hours passed as the children got lost in discussing the wonders of soul pets.

For Rao Wu, it was the first time he had met a human he could discuss with. More so, it was someone who enjoyed soul monsters as much as he did. His soul monster theories and combinations were often in his head. It was nice to have someone to finally bounce those ideas against. Meanwhile, for Aeriole, she rarely found anyone who did not care about her position or history. She did not have to pretend in front of Rao Wu and could happily run her mouth off as long as she wanted without him looking down on her.

Kehum. “My lady, it will soon be dinnertime.”

Eventually, one of Aeriole’s bodyguards regretfully cut the conversation short. Indeed, Aeriole was required to attended an important dinner. No matter how much she wanted to play around, she could not miss this dinner.

“Alright.” Aeriole regretfully looked at the museum. In all their time here, they barely covered ten percent of the enormous structure that stretched several floors down. She was about to leave, but then she spotted Xian Da, and her eyes lit up with an idea. “One last place!”

Aeriole then dragged Rao Wu to an elevator and then rode it down to the lowest, basement floor. Unlike the other floors, this floor was dimly lit and held an oppressive vibe that made it hard to breathe.

Rao Wu looked at the floor with a strange look in his eyes. “What’s this floor?”

Aeriole smiled and explained, “It’s where they keep the mythic-level soul monsters.”

“Mythic?”

“Yeah. There are many soul monsters whose strength we can’t even begin to classify. Soul trainers refer to them as Mythic level.”

Rao Wu swallowed hard as Aeriole led him through the hall. Unlike previous floors, Aeriole was noticeably more subdued as she led Rao Wu to a particular corner of the hall. There, she stopped and looked at the panel in front of her. She swallowed a deep breath and then looked at Rao Wu. “Be careful.”

Ding!

Rao Wu’s entire body trembled in fright as a terrifying figure appeared in front of him. A twenty-meter long wolf bared its man-sized teeth as if threatening to rip him to pieces. A series of fish-like tentacles filled with eyes protruded from its head and hovered around it. It’s gaze was horribly evil, yet filled with a pride that disdained all of creation.

Ba-dump! Ba-dump!

Rao Wu’s heart accelerated. He was short of breath, and felt like he would faint at any second. However, at the same time, for some reason, he could not bring himself to look away from the creature. The young man’s blood boiled with heat, and he felt an internal instinct to destroy the statue. It was as if some bloodline instinct did not permit the statue to live.

“Rrraff!!!” On Rao Wu’s shoulder, Xian Da let out an extreme, painful bark. As a fellow wolf, the pressure on it was a million times more intense. Its legs were trembling, its heart was racing and its instincts ordered it to bow down to the superior species, but Xian Da, influenced by Rao Wu’s raging emotions, glared at the statue with bloodshot eyes. It resisted the urge to bow and instead burned the searing figure into its eyes. The Razortail Wolf statue outside was nothing compared to this one. Xian Da erased the previous image and instantly set this statue as its goal.

After a few moments, Rao Wu’s blood began to settle as the pressure eased. Eventually, he swallowed hard and asked, “This soul monster. What’s its name?”

Aeriole’s eyes shone as she looked at Rao Wu. The first time she came here, she actually fell and almost peed herself. Most adults did not fare any better which was why this floor was usually empty. Rao Wu, on the other hand, had withstood the pressure without any external aid. She hid her curious gaze and answered, “Some theorize it might be Hades, but others think its Fenrir, the god of destruction.”

“Fenrir?”

Aeriole nodded. “Some old records suggest Fenrir is a god-level soul monster. Each time it breaks free, it leads a mass slaughter of any intelligent race on the planet, leaving only monsters behind. Each time it appears, every living being must come together to combat it or risk annihilation. Many species that are extinct today are so because of Fenrir.”

“Then what about Hades?”

“Hades is Chaos personified. History books suggest Hades causes destruction wherever it goes, but they are vague on its purpose. The major difference between Hades and Fenrir is that Fenrir seeks total annihilation while Hades is like a natural disaster, coming and going as it pleases.”

“What? So, if these guys appear, we’re doomed?”

“Not exactly.” Aeriole’s eyes sparkled with a strange light as she said, “Just as there are destructive soul monsters, there are also soul monsters that seek peace. Humanity has contracted some of the most powerful of these soul monsters to act as guardians, protecting us from these calamities. However, humanity needs to pay huge prices each time they help us.”

Aeriole’s lips churned into a bitter smile, but the stunned Rao Wu failed to notice as he was enraptured by the statue’s form. Eventually, Aeriole regained her cheery smile and then said, “Alright, now we have to go. I do not wish to be late for this dinner.”

Rao Wu longingly gazed one last time at the statue. After permanently burning its image and pressure into his mind, he finally turned around and followed Aeriole out of Soul Society.