“[ASHES TO ASHES]!!!”

Out of nowhere an enormous white tree appeared above Zed with Its branches filled with pitch-black leaves that swayed in the wind ever so slightly, falling slowly, creating a mesmerizing scene.

Valor and his men who were still alive had their eyes peering towards the white tree unable to take them away slowly getting detached from reality.

“Father! I finally made you proud!”

“W-Wife what did you say? Our daughter was actually not k-killed by that bastard in the academy? She actually ran away safely? Where is she? take me to her!”

“Hehe Brothers I’ll be part of the Lower Guards soon! Come find me if you run into any problems!”

“Mother, stop working and come eat first. You have become so weary…”

“Old Teammates! I killed that bastard in your stead and even killed the kid he was protecting!”

Voices filled with laughter and sorrow filled the area as Valor and his comrades seem to have entered a trance like state. It seemed like they had fallen into some sort of illusion with each experiencing their own story.

Above them, the air sizzled as it seemed that the whole sky was filled with black butterflies fluttering away.

The black leaves fell down caressing the circular stone wall. The stone wall instantly lit on fire as the black fire blazed on it, melting it to liquid.

Some of the black leaves hit the five men below and lit them on fire, but not a shred of pain could be seen on their faces as they continued to bask in their own world.

Black fire corroded their bodies inch by inch and burned them all to dust. In a matter of seconds, Valor and his remaining comrades turned to ashes and disappeared from the world forever, not even having a chance to fight against Zed because of his decisive onslaught.

‘Ashes to ashes yet not at peace. Such a paradox are the lives of living beings. Maybe this world of illusion I created for them, will give them some closure on their inner demons in their death.’

Zed thought as he looked at the scene apathetically, landing on the ground below. The majestic bird who was no longer being attacked, landed beside Zed with the Young Lord on its back.

“YOU IDIOT! HOW DID YOU FALL FOR SUCH A PATHETIC TRICK?!”

The majestic bird roared aggressively looking at Zed

“Umm… Ah… You see…”

Zed stuttered as he looked sheepishly at the majestic bird

“Whatever. Don’t try to think of an excuse, just don’t fall for such a trick again. They were too weak to take advantage of such a great chance, but if it was someone with even a bit of intellect, you would have died for certain.”

The majestic bird spoke seriously

Zed nodded seriously in affirmation when he heard the majestic bird

“It’s such a pity that it didn’t take long for them to arrive and set up an ambush that was specifically targeting you, Zed.” The majestic bird spoke

“Partner, there’s no need to pity those traitorous crooks, who can go any lows just to fulfil their goals. His liege had already suspected that something like this might happen if I openly left with a child in my hands. This was actually his liege’s last try to maintain the long-lasting status quo within the empire, but these bastards just had to go and spit on his face. This time they have crossed his bottom-line. From what I see, this could be the start of a long and arduous war where his liege will stop showing any mercy.”

Zed spoke seriously to the majestic bird as he took out a talisman from his spatial pouch. With the talisman in his hand, he activated it and spoke a detailed report on everything that had happened since he left with the Young Lord. He finished his report and crushed the talisman sending the report to his liege.

Zed looked around the battlefield He burnt all the remaining enemy bodies to ashes making sure none of the enemies were alive and did an inspecting, to check if he had missed anything.

‘It’s good that his liege and the top figures of the faction had already went for a walk to several key locations of various enemies inside and outside the empire to tie up the powerful forces. This rendered the enemies like Gordwok being unable to spare their key leadership figures, leaving them only capable of sending lower rank officials like Valor. If someone from the enemy’s leadership figures had come, it would have been a much harder and maybe even a deadly fight like partner said.’

Zed thought as he took out a box from his spatial pouch and opened it. In the soft padding inside the box was another talisman but the inscriptions on it looked completely different from the talismans he had seen before and had a more archaic feel to it. Zed took out the talisman and placed the box back inside his spatial pouch. He examined the talisman carefully thinking inside

‘Don’t know what’s so special about this talisman… Well whatever we will know after we reach the destination. My liege did say that it was a spatial route rarely used and only a few knew about it. He also said that the enemy will never be able to find us after we used this talisman to travel to our destination, rendering our trail going cold. If this talisman really works, I would really like to have a couple more of them.’

Zed thought as he jumped on the majestic bird and picked the Young Lord in one of his hands. Zed created a crimson barrier around the Young Lord to protect him so that he would not be affected by turbulent space when they travel.

Zed crushed the archaic talisman in his hands.

A huge archaic door materialized in front of them out of nowhere with its doors slowly opening. The archaic door had inscriptions all over it just like the archaic talisman that was used to activate it.

In a second, the door was wide open. Nothing could be seen on the inside as the area inside the door was completely black.

“Hmm… So, this is what a long-distance spatial route looks like. Young Lord, partner, it’s time to go.”

Zed spoke as he asked the majestic bird to enter the doorway.

The majestic bird hummed his consent and passed through the door. After they passed, the archaic door closed behind them and faded away as if it had never existed as soon as the three of them passed through it.

---------------------------------

||Couple of Days Later Somewhere Zed Never Expected He Would Ever Be||

“Oye!!! Oye!!! Oye!!! Oye!!! Oye!!!”

Zed was looking around constantly moving his head from left to right while jumping on stone boulders and huge trees as he kept on shouting

‘Where the fuck is this place! There is such a sparse amount of celestial energy here!’

‘FUCK!!! Even the heavenly laws in this space are broken and imperfect! Where the hell did my liege send me and the Young Lord?!’

Zed was shouting in his head as he tried to figure out where the fuck he was at this moment.

‘Sparse Celestial Energy… Broken and Imperfect Heavenly Laws…’

Zed started repeating the same thing over and over again in his head trying to figure out where they had reached. He went all over the maps of the different realms he had in his head and knew for certain that there was not a single realm that he had been to where such a place existed.

After a couple of minutes cold sweat started rolling down his face like waterfall and his eyes slowly started popping out of their sockets. He had an unnatural gobsmacked look on his face as he roared

“DAMN YOU MY LEIGE!!!”

“YOU FUCKING SENT US TO THE MORTAL REALM!!!”

His face aggrieved as he huffed and started berating his liege by making faces and imitating him sarcastically

“It’s a special spatial talisman, little Zed! Even if the strongest of the enemy came to tail you, they won’t be able to find you after you use it!”

“Damn You! You Swindler! Of course, no one would be able to find us! We are not even in the Same Fucking Realm anymore!”

“Stay by your Fourth Young Lord’s side from now on little Zed, you’ll have endless glory following him!”

“Fuck You! You Swindler! I never thought I would ever be on the receiving end of your swindles one day…”

Just as he finished speaking, Zed suddenly remembered the condition his liege had said that he needed to complete before he could go back and fell down on his knees and started bawling like crazy

“NO!!! NO!!! NO!!! NO!!!”

“WHY?! WHY?! Why my Liege?! What did I ever do to you?!”

“When you were not married to the mistress, I have saved you countless times by taking the blame for your perverted actions. I have been beaten to death by the women around you, who knows how many times, to make sure your reputation remains untarnished!”

“During our travels through the Nether Realm, I battled the Royal Guards of Netherworld singlehandedly when the Queen of Netherworld assaulted us in rage because of you. I even gave up on, a once in a lifetime chance to enter the Moon Palace and let you go in disguised as me because you perverted swindler wanted to secretly do something at the moon palace.”

“After all these! Tell me! Tell me why are you doing this to me, you swindler!”

Zed roared out lout letting out all the grievances he felt for countless years.

“Young Lord you have really killed me this time… How long will it take you to become as powerful as me in the Mortal Realm?”

Zed spoke looking at his Young Lord in his hands and smiled wryly

After letting out his grief Zed started thinking about the words his liege had said to him before he left

‘First of all, the moment you reach your destination, you are to leave your Young Lord in the hands of the person that this talisman selects, whoever it might be, as it was specially made for this purpose.

To use the Talisman, you just need to crush it and follow the Talisman light with your God Sense. The Talisman light will lead you to the person that is destined to be his parent. You are not to stay with your Young Lord nor are you to come in contact with the person that the talisman selects.

Just leave a wisp of your God Sense in your Young Lord’s Soul Sea, so that you know about his situation and can act quickly if he was in some kind of mortal danger. Remember that you are not to help him until he is at his last breath.

Secondly, don’t even think about coming back unless your Young Lord is powerful enough to challenge the current you or I specifically ask for you to come back.

Don’t interfere in your Young Lord’s life and let him live any way he wants. If he finds a way to cultivate let him do so while if he can’t find a way or does not want to cultivate let him be.

Little Zed, I know your character well, so I know that If someone is bullying him you will be the first to blow your head and jump to his aid, but you are not to do so unless he’s going to be killed.

I know these decisions seem cruel, but they are also my way of protecting him. The less we come in contact with him the safer he will be while he is growing up, cause if someone somehow makes the connection between him and us, it would just put him in harm’s way.

Finally, I’ve a different mission for you after you have placed your Young Lord in his new household. Take this book and open it only after all the other tasks have been completed. It has the details of everything you need to know about the mission.’

Taking out the last talisman his liege, that fucking swindler had given him, Zed even though aggrieved at the moment continued to complete his mission.

Even though he was in a bad mood, he could not help but be amazed at just how deep the art of talisman creation is and how vast its uses are.

Zed jumped on the back of the majestic bird and crushed the talisman. A Black Light emerged out of the talisman only visible to those who have opened their God Sense.

“Let’s go partner, follow the Talisman’s Light.”

Zed spoke to the majestic bird as he jumped on its back.