"He said that, huh? The Mist Demon... It's been quite a while since I saw my old friend."
Though her tone was wistful, it was ethereal and soothing. This was the woman known as the Undying Reaper.
Despite her terrifying reputation, she was breathtakingly beautiful, showing none of the madness and bloodlust typically associated with her moniker.
She sat with her legs casually propped up on the round table before her, draped in a striking blood-red dress. Her flawless white skin and matching white hair were so exquisite they could make any man's pulse race.
"From the way he described you... it's hard to picture you two as friends, Mother," Telmear jested casually, taking two seats to her right as he finished recounting the confrontation between Arthur and the Principal.
"I might have destroyed a few of his clones the last time he tried to interfere with my hunt... or at least, I thought he was trying to," Lily explained airily, entirely unbothered by Telmear's informal tone.
Contrary to public belief, the Undying Reaper wasn't cruel to her children. She cared for each of them deeply—often showing it in the most disturbing ways, but she did.
"Mother? You weren't even sure if he was interfering, and you killed his clones?" Lettia, seated closest to her mother, spoke in a slightly reprimanding yet questioning tone. As the one who managed the family's delicate political relations with various Transcendent factions and families, she had every right to worry when her mother went around making enemies out of figures they really couldn't afford to antagonize.
"That's the Mist Demon, Mother. You're already at odds with two other Legendaries; if the Mist Demon joins them, we're going to have a real crisis on our hands. Even the elders won't let you off easy if that happens."
"Ha! So what? My youngest son is now part of the Legendaries—or rather, is he?" Lily's smile widened before she slowly muttered to herself. "He didn't stop at the Sixth Summit as we did so... We might need an entirely new title for him."
"With two Transcendents holding high-ranking authorities, the rest of them will have to think twice before testing what the Cross surname stands for," Lily stated, boundless pride bleeding into every word. In her eyes, Arthur's achievement was monumental.
Lettia, the Second Cross, quickly shot down the notion, acutely aware of the mountains of trouble their mother loved to invite. "Either that, or our family becomes such an immediate threat that the other Legendaries decide to eliminate Arthur before he grows strong enough to challenge their authority."
"Ohohoho... I'd love to see them try," Lily murmured, a dangerous lilt to her voice. "This world hasn't seen a proper war in so long. I almost hope one of these puny families calling themselves 'noble Transcendents' tries something, just to give me the chance to remind them what a Cross looks like on a battlefield."
In an instant, Lily's calm, refreshing presence vanished, suffocating the room under an oppressive wave of bloodlust that billowed like a rising sea of crimson from her dainty frame.
Suddenly, all of them shifted their gaze toward the closed entrance, instinctively suppressing their auras without ever breaking eye contact with the door.
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The heavy silence made his entry awkward. Arthur tried his best to slip inside quietly, doing everything he could to minimize the noise.
Steadying himself, he closed the door behind him and walked purposefully toward the center of the hall.
"Greetings, Mother. I hope your journey back wasn't an inconvenience." Arthur offered a gentle bow, maintaining a slight, polite smile to match the one Lily gave him as she watched him approach.
"My baby... inconvenient or not, if you knew how much bragging I'm gonna be doing with your name in every sentence, you wouldn't bother about something as insignificant as inconvenience." Dropping her legs from the edge of the table, Lily beamed at him.
From his inherited memories, Arthur knew who she was. Lily Cross, the Matriarch of the Cross Family, and while the Cross family had some outstanding figures, their presence only served the numbers after her awakening, reaching the Sixth summit.
"Come over here, my baby, you've been nervous ever since you arrived. You weren't like this the last time I saw you. What's wrong?" Lily's voice was motherly and soft; she seemed incapable of harm.
But the aura she deliberately suppressed said otherwise. Arthur could sense the density of aura, like a burning mass of flame, in all five of them in the room.
"He wasn't awakened the last time you saw him," Abel spoke with a faint, battle-crazed grin as he watched Arthur around the table towards their Mother.
But the aura she was deliberately suppressing said otherwise. Arthur could sense the density of aura, like a burning mass of flame, all five of them within his senses.
Arthur couldn't help but glance at Abel, who had just spoken, but seeing that grin, he couldn't help but avert his gaze, looking back at their mother.
"Oh, I forgot about that; you must still sense our auras." Lily suddenly spoke with concern, standing up slowly from her chair as Arthur approached with a helpless expression.
There was nothing she could do about her aura; she was already suppressing it the best she could.
Arthur finally reached her side as he was pulled into a very welcoming embrace, drowning in that familiar scent she gave. It seemed his body still remembered a few things.
"There, do you feel better?" Lily spoke, looking down at Arthur, whose head barely reached her belly button, while stroking his hair softly.
"Actually, I do," Arthur spoke absentmindedly, feeling his mind clearing up slowly; he suddenly didn't feel as tired anymore.
"You still had a few injuries to your consciousness; the potions don't heal that," Lily commented gently, seeing Arthur's surprise, which made her smile in return.
"H... how?" Arthur asked while shaking his head slowly as he felt the change. He truly felt better after the potion; he couldn't shake the feeling of tiredness clouding his mind the entire time.
But suddenly, after a simple hug, His mother was able to heal him without him even noticing.
Looking up to meet her smile, he almost seemed enchanted. There were a few memories where he'd appreciated her ethereal beauty a dozen times to the point where he thought he wouldn't feel the surprise, but he did.
From her wavy, snow-white hair and pale, smooth skin, she wore a thin red layer of lipstick that seemed to add all the color needed to her face, blending with the scarlet red dress she donned.
There was not one trace of a battle-hardened veteran in her features.
She suddenly chuckled, seeing Arthur stunned expression, ruffling his hair slightly as she responded while leaning down towards him, "Do you mean how I soothed your soul energy or how I knew about it?"
"It is one simple answer, really. I'm a Transcendent."
Taking a step back from Arthur, she sat back down while shooing away Abel, who was sitting to her right.
Abel moved to the only other seat that was left for Arthur without much of a thought, following his mother's wishes. Following that, she pointed towards the chair for Arthur to take a seat before she spoke again, this time in a solemn voice.
"We're all Transcendents."
Arthur looked around the faces in the room: Lettia, who wore a faint, knowing smile; Terria, carrying her usual cold expression; Abel, still eyeing him with that excited grin; and finally, the towering mountain that was Telmear.
For the first time since arriving in this bizarre new world, a genuine thrill sparked in his chest—not the terrifying, life-or-death panic of his awakening, but a sharp, undeniable surge of excitement.