"W…what the h.e.l.l is this?!" Henry James spluttered. Then his eyes widened. "That's right…you summoned this dragon during your duel against Charles Lacroix during the national tournament."

"Oh, I'm glad you remembered. And you still thought I couldn't defeat your Chaos Chimera?" I scoffed. Henry James stiffened, trembling from both the chill and dead.

"But…but it wasn't as powerful back then…I don't remember it being this powerful…!"

"What, did you think I was going to stay the same forever? Of course I would be continuing to grow stronger. And my Constellation spirits will be growing stronger with me."

Draco slammed another claw down upon the wailing Chaos Chimera before triple bursts of black mana formed in its mouth and lanced into it, blowing shards of bone out. An entire portion of the t.i.tanic beast simply ceased to exist, disintegrated by the potent rays of Draco's spell.

Not only that, but the areas where Draco had slashed with his claws were beginning to freeze over, ice rapidly expanding across the cracked, skeletal portions and encasing bone in ice. The Chaos Chimera's struggles slowly ceased, even as it crumbled under Draco's a.s.sault.

However, it still had several cards to play. The bony spines along its neck, body and tail s.h.i.+fted and over thirty concentrated mana beams surged toward Draco. Explosions seemed to litter across Draco's body, only for the fog to slowly dissipate and reveal dozens of ice s.h.i.+elds hovering between the two t.i.tans.

Evidently Draco had summoned individual ice s.h.i.+elds to block the incoming beams.

"Your dragon isn't supposed to have that ability!" James yelled, almost frothing in the mouth from both rage and despair.

"Oh?" I looked at him coldly. "Says who?"

"You…you…!" he spluttered.

The Chaos Chimera whipped its head up, its long neck stiffening as it prepared a charged mana beam. The more powerful spell streaked out of its jaws and detonated against Draco, smas.h.i.+ng through his multiple ice s.h.i.+elds and engulfing my t.i.tanic Constellation spirit in a colossal conflagration. More of the already demolished museum continued to fall apart, debris disintegrating from the sheer firepower. Sprawled on the ground, James laughed triumphantly.

"Hah! No matter how powerful your Soul Beast is, even it can't withstand a direct hit from the Chaos Chimera's charged mana beam!"

I didn't say anything, and just waited for the smoke to disperse. Draco didn't disappoint, bursting out of the smoke in shards of ice, snarling as he clobbered the Chaos Chimera with his tail, sending the gargauntaun skeletal monster to the ground with an earthshaking impact.

"What…?!"

"My Draco is a lot tougher than you think," I explained with a smile. "He's been through quite a few fights. As you already surmised, he is my strongest Constellation spirit. It'll take a lot more than a charged particle cannon…ahem, I mean charged mana beam to break his energy s.h.i.+eld…ahem, I mean ice s.h.i.+eld."

James tried to scrabble away, but I closed in on him. Drawing one of my swords, Hei Yue in my right hand, I approached. Behind me, Green Dragon materialized, rearing up to fix the pale criminal sc.u.m with his majestic eyes.

Then Green Dragon swung down a claw and pulverized the shrieking guy. Behind us, Draco finished off the Chaos Chimera, freezing black rays streaming from his jaws and obliterating its bulk. The skeletal monster shattered and fell apart, its pieces scattering across the ground and disappearing.

I glanced at the s.p.a.ce where the Emergence event had occurred, but the rip in time-s.p.a.ce fabric had already mended, sealing off the other dimension from others. Whatever ritual Grimaldus planned to conduct, it only had enough power to summon a single Chaos Chimera. I didn't have to worry about other monsters coming through.

"You…"

To his credit, James was still alive. His body was crushed and broken, and he was speaking through bloodied lips and missing teeth, but he continued to draw breath. What a tenacious b.a.s.t.a.r.d.

"What about me?" I asked, turning back to him.

"What is someone as strong as you doing here in Flandor?" he growled. "Why are you even pretending to be a private tutor and playing make-believe?! You have the potential to move beyond here and achieve greater things…"

"Like what?" I scoffed, sheathing my sword and crossing my arms. "And if I'm truly as strong as you make me out to be, isn't that more of a reason for me to impart my knowledge to others, to ensure that we have more powerful people?"

"Hah! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" James laughed, despite his crushed chest and ruined lungs. "Don't be naïve! In this world, the only person you can trust is yourself! You can't rely on other people! The moment you believe in somebody, they will turn around and stab you in the back!"

Wow, we had a nihilistic edgelord here. I rolled my eyes and shook my head, but didn't bother to argue with him. It would be a total waste of time, and he was going to die anyway.

Take note, I wasn't naïve enough to make blanket declarations like the world is good, and we shouldn't be afraid to trust everyone. It was just that I found it ridiculous to go off to the opposite end and claim that we should never trust anyone either. The truth was, like everything else, somewhere in between. There were people you could trust, and people you should never trust. Most people were lucky enough to be born in families where they could trust their parents. Now, n.o.body was perfect – there would be times where the people you trust lie. But think about it – are you so sure you have never told a single lie before? I know I have…there were times where I was dishonest with my own family. If I couldn't be 100% honest with others, how could I expect the same of others?

Even so, that didn't mean you couldn't trust people just because they lied a few times. As I said, things weren't so black and white. You could, for example, trust your family to always have your back. Friends for being there for you. Stuff like that. The key was just to know who to trust and who to doubt. Not go one opposite end or the other. Reality was fluid, and you had to adapt accordingly to circ.u.mstances and learn more about the other people around you.

That was all.

However, I said none of that to James, and turned to leave. Green Dragon raised a claw to finish him off.

"W…wait!"

Before I could go, James cried out desperately, searching for one final chance of salvation.

"Don't kill me! I'm sure there's something I can do for you!"

"Oh?" I stopped to stare at him curiously, a smile on my lips. "What can you do for me? Are you perhaps willing to divulge the ident.i.ty of your client?"

"No! I can't do that, even if you kill me!" Cold beads of sweat formed on James's pale face as he shook his head. He swallowed. "But I can help you pa.s.s back misinformation to mislead them. I'll…I'll tell them that I captured Melina to try and change her cla.s.s, but right before the ritual, I suddenly felt latent paladin-like power, and deduced that she must have paladin blood. After consulting with you, we decided that the risks were too great for too little reward, and will ask the client to reconsider…"

I had heard enough. A mental nudge from me and Green Dragon stomped the rambling Henry James into oblivion, leaving nothing more than a b.l.o.o.d.y splatter.

"What the f.u.c.k was he ranting about?" I demanded, frowning. "Changing cla.s.s? Paladin power and blood? Wasn't this a ritual to summon a monster, what's with the whole changing cla.s.s thing all of a sudden?"

The guy had probably gone insane and mistook reality for some scenario in a light novel. I was surprised that he read a.s.sa.s.sin's Pride. Oh, well. I honestly couldn't care less. I had more important things to worry about.

Beyond the wreck of the museuem, I heard sirens. The police was finally here. d.a.m.n it, they certainly took their time, arriving only after I had eliminated all the enemies and taken care of the product of the criminal guild's demonic ritual.

Dismissing Draco and Green Dragon, I then left the destroyed exhibition hall and proceeded toward Zhao Yan, Melina and Adrian. The police were already rus.h.i.+ng in, aiming their carbines and doing a sweep in the remains of the museum. There was no sign of the other three, and I became aware of Zhao Yan informing me through a cell phone text message that she had taken the two kids out of the museum and into a safer place. They were now being encircled by the police, and were answering a few questions here and there.

"Hands up!" one of the policemen shouted. A sergeant, I supposed.

I obeyed, crouching down as they surrounded me. The police were in full riot gear, wearing visored helmets and armor. Shock mauls and power swords emanated faint auras of mana, hanging from their belts, but right now they were wielding their magic carbines and keeping the muzzles trained on me.

"Wait!" One of the police officers stepped forward. He was casting an anti-illusion and anti-transformation spell on me, to ensure that I was who I looked like. After all, there were mages capable of disguising themselves through illusion and transformation magic, and it never hurt to be cautious. "Are you Richard Huang?"

"Yes, sir."

The police officer confirmed again with another couple of anti-disguise spells, and then nodded. He gestured for the rest of the police to back off, and they obeyed without question. He then approached me.

"We'll need you to cooperate with the investigations later."

"That will be easy." I tapped my gla.s.ses and sent a transmission of data. "I will be uploading the entire recording to the police database."

"Thank you." The police officer nodded. "We'll still need to ask you a few questions, so we would appreciate if you stick around."

"Will do."

I exited from the ruins of the museum, leaving the burned out husk to the police who were now doing a full sweep and searching the wreck for any other enemies. They would probably start casting tracking spells to look for clues and all that.

That wasn't my area of expertise, so I didn't bother to linger. I was tired, and annoyed. Grimaldus. I was going to track them down and destroy them, so that they would never threaten my students again. Right now I lacked the power and resources to do so, but perhaps sometime in the future…

"Heh…"

I smiled, realizing that I was approaching my goal. Dad went around destroying criminal organizations and dark guilds on a regular basis, part of his job as a freelance mercenary. Even though he was an independent mercenary, as I grew up, I realized that there was no way he did all of it alone. He often liased with other agencies and worked with other mercenary groups – such as the Silver Wolves – to root out and exterminate these evil organizations.

"There's the a.s.sa.s.sin's Guild, and now Grimaldus, huh? Not to mention the Dark Church. They just keep coming, one after another."

Well, it didn't matter. One thing at a time. Right now, the destruction of these ent.i.ties still seemed far in the future, but as long as I kept moving forward, one step at a time, I would eventually reach it.

"Brother Richie!"

"Sensei!"

Looking up, I caught sight of Adrian and Melina waving at me from the distance. They were currently s.h.i.+elded by an armored police van, and guarded by a couple of heavy armored policemen. Zhao Yan continued to accompany me, and she acknowledged me with a nod.

I returned the smile and waved back, watching in satisfaction as both of my students eagerly sprinted toward me.

Right now, they were both safe, and the enemies who threatened them directly had been slain. That was more than enough.

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