Kyran did not bother asking Anette to use the transmission scroll because he already had a memory of the cottage where he planned to go. Apart from this, he had taken Zephyr with them. With the restrictions from the array around the cottage, Zephyr would not be allowed to enter, so Kyran needed to be the first one to step into the cottage and give him access.
As he appeared in the cottage with Anette and Zephyr, Kyran found Nolan, Silas, and Gage gathered around the dining table.
By the dining area, the three gaped at Kyran and Anette—whom they only recognized from their clothes—then at the boy with the unusual colored long hair on the floor. If they did not know how powerful the cottage’s array restrictions were, they would have thought they were under attack.
“Back so soon?”
Nolan was the first one to speak. He crossed his arms across his chest as he casually sat at the edge of the dining table. His eyes swept at Anette and then at the unconscious boy sprawled on the floor.
“Aren’t you suppose to be looking for a rare stone?” He asked with a raised brow while looking at the boy. “Why’d you end up taking someone else’s kid?”
“He’s not a kid,” Kyran replied and was about to remove the black mask when he remembered that Silas was not familiar with Nar’s face.
But Kyran only hesitated for a second because Silas was now a Regis emissary, and he felt he could use him more than Gage, so it should be okay to let him know about ‘Nar’. Besides, Kyran knew the two had a talk with Nolan and Anette while he went to Noser. They were likely to have mentioned his ‘other disguise’ during their conversation.
Kyran paid close attention to Silas as he took off his mask. As expected, he caught sight of Silas’s surprised look. However, the latter only raised his brows and did not say anything.
Seeing Silas’s reaction, Kyran was satisfied. He no longer hesitated when he also removed the face-altering mask.
Then he turned to Nolan before adding to his reply, “He’s the rare stone.”
The moment he said it, all four reacted at once.
“He’s the Quilin?”
“What the f*ck?”
“What?”
“Huh?”
Anette, Nolan, Silas, and Gage, respectively, exclaimed at the same time.
Hearing Anette’s words, Nolan scowled and looked at her, “What did you say?”
Anette, who was a little distracted at Kyran’s revelation, also looked at Nolan, “What did I say?”
Silas and Gage also frowned, trying to make sense of what Kyran had said and recall Anette’s words simultaneously.
“I think she said Kiln? Wait, the boy is what?”
“Killing? The boy is killing for the rare stone?”
Silas looked at Gage with a blank expression, and he said, “What killing are you talking about?”
Gage turned to him and shrugged, “What? That’s what I heard.”
Nolan scowled at them and said, “You two, shut up.”
Anette, on the other hand, rolled her eyes at them and replied, “It’s Quilin. Not Killing. Quilin as in the offspring of a lesser dragon and a unicorn!”
Once again, the three turned their heads at her with a stun expression.
“The f*ck?”
“Quilin? That Quilin?”
“Huh?”
Nolan, Silas, and Gage exclaimed, respectively.
However, while Nolan and Silas exclaimed in shock, Gage, on the other hand, exclaimed in confusion.
Kyran could not help but look at them with a blank expression while listening in their exchange. Honestly, since the four of them knew a lot more about his secret, he thought that they would be the ‘core team’ who would help him go against the Royal Army. However, he suddenly felt an incoming headache, seeing and hearing them now.
Why did it seem that every person he met appeared to be unreliable?
It was the same with Byron.
As for Cyneah. Let’s forget her for now.
With a sigh of resignation, Kyran ignored them as they questioned Anette. He focused instead on Zephyr, who was still unconscious on the ground.
Kyran guessed that Zephyr probably passed out when he used the transmission scroll, thinking he was about to warp again.
People had always regarded the Dark Sage’s warp ability as formidable, and Kyran agreed. But his idea of the warp ability’s formidability was very different from other people. Others saw it as a trump card when used to take a battalion to an enemy’s base for a sneak attack. But Kyran saw warping as a sneak attack itself. As soon as he got close to his enemy and warp him, his enemy would end up on his knees, and Kyran did not have to break a sweat if that happened.
Pushing the random thought at the back of his mind, Kyran shook his head with a faint smile. Then he took out the bottle of Core Tonic potion Anette gave him before kneeling on the floor beside Zephyr.
“If I pass out, can you make sure I wake up in the evening? My deadline in delivering the rare stone is tomorrow. I can’t miss it,” Kyran asked no one in particular.
The four immediately stopped their discussion and turned their attention to him.
Nolan’s eyes narrowed as he saw Kyran drinking the potion and returning the empty bottle in his pouch.
“Oi, kid. What are you—.”
Nolan never finished his question because Kyran had already answered him through his actions.
‘Sigil!’
Kyran’s eyes glowed silver as he touched Zephyr’s head. Two silver rings appeared on the floor with him and Zephyr in the middle. A curling dragon appeared in the middle and circled Kyran. The dragon’s head rested on his hand that held Zephyr’s head.
Nolan’s eyes instantly widened after seeing the silver and gold writings that appeared and circled above the back of Kyran’s hand.
‘The Regis’s Sigil!’ He thought in alarm.
He was familiar with this because he once witnessed Cade use it to tame a beast back when they were in that ‘place’. But using the Sigil would put a lot of strain on the caster’s body. And right now, Kyran was not in good condition.
“Oi, kid!”
Nolan stood up at once and was about to interrupt Kyran when a huge magic fluctuation erupted around them, threatening to destroy the cottage’s array.
Zephyr’s eyes snapped open. His dark red reptilian eyes constricted as a symbol of two dragons with their heads resting on top of each other appearing on his forehead.
“AAAHHH!”
Zephyr screamed in pain. His eyes glowed, and his magic pressure erupted, trying to resist the symbol from fully entering his head. A silhouette of his horn also flickered on his forehead.
“Stop resisting!” Kyran growled at him as he gritted his teeth. He could feel the magic energy in his central core tremble in agitation while it responded to his Draconic core.
Kyran was aware of the danger of performing the Sigil on a powerful beast such as a Quilin. After all, a Quilin was an epic-type beast. However, he knew that once Zephyr woke up, he would definitely fight to the death in order to return to the ruins. And to avoid that, Kyran had decided to tame him while he was unconscious and his will was vulnerable.
But Kyran also had a problem with his magic cores and the flow of magic energy in his body. And performing the Sigil was really not a good idea, even when he took the Core Tonic potion to alleviate the pain.
CRACK!
“Guh!” Kyran spat out a mouthful of blood as he felt a crack appearing on his central core.
“Kyran!”
Anette, Nolan, Silas, and Gage all exclaimed.
“Seriously this kid!” Nolan growled in frustration as he moved at once.
He stood a meter behind Kyran and aimed a hand on his hand. His dark eyes turned light blue as runes appeared on his body.
Anette also made a move.
She stood a meter in front of Kyran and raised her hand. Her eyes turned back to their original emerald green color as she roused her magic.
The two of them immediately transferred their magic energy to Kyran.
Silas and Gage gawked at them from the side.
They actually wanted to help, but they could only watch in silence. After all, what could a Master mage do in this situation?
The magic fluctuation inside the cottage tripled the burden on the cottage’s array.
Outside, a huge magic array suddenly appeared on the ground, with the cottage in the middle. The flowering tree, which was the array’s core, also glowed and crackled.
“AAAHHH!”
Inside the cottage, Zephyr’s scream filled the air.
Kyran gritted his teeth while roused his Void core to assist his Draconic core.
With the help of Nolan and Anette, the burden on Kyran’s central core lessened, and he was able to take complete control of the Sigil.
After a few minutes, the symbol that Zephyr had tried to resist had finally started to imprint on his forehead.
