"Uh… ok?"

"Anyway, do you plan to tell your siblings about you know… your change? If you'd like I could arrange for them whenever you're ready."

Turning pale if only for a moment, Elizabeth used the information she had learned both from her acupoint technique and the Divine Transmission Persephone had imparted onto her to forcefully calm her soul before she said, "I… I would like for that… but first, let me get my friends as I think it would be best to go through this experience as few times as possible..." In a twisted manner of thinking, "coming out" to the people that mattered to her would be a form of tempering for her soul as it was clear from the anxiety and nervousness she experienced that this was a weakness she possessed at the moment.

"And about your faction, Atid's Dojo. Are you going to continue representing them? You're free to do as you please as our family's Keter Faction is a secret faction and the other faction we've added you into is less of a faction and more of a sect as it allows people from all factions join; provided they have the talent."

"Mhmm… I won't abandon those guys. They picked me up when I started out as a regular person and taught me my first Martial Art in Muay Thai. Though I've helped them more than they've helped me overall… in that place, I met a couple people that I can count on and have established a relatively good relations.h.i.+p with 'most' people."

"So you'll leave here after all… No matter, we can talk whenever through the phone." Kurt took a deep breath which seemed to relieve him of all the tension that had been plaguing him since he entered the room. He gave Elizabeth a couple words of encouragement before being pulled out of the room by his wife to give Elizabeth as much time as she needed.

That was the plan anyway… In reality, Elizabeth stood up when her parents were about to cross into the hallway and didn't seem too bothered as she asked for directions of how to leave without hesitation. Having a nearby maid accompany her, Kurt and Maria saw Elizabeth off as she left the Keter Estate in search of her friends.

Walking out of the Keter Estate, the very first thing Elizabeth did was use her Soulbound Contract with her Clearlight Sparrow to call it from the forests surrounding the Village. It took less than a minute for the bird to come into her view as it immediately stopped the hunting it had been doing in the forest to answer to its master.

'What the f.u.c.k?' Elizabeth thought as the purple and gold sparrow's size became increasingly clearer the closer it got to her.

"Master! Master!" A childish voice suddenly appeared in her mind in the same manner that Persephone used to communicate with her. For a split second, Elizabeth's eyes drew blanks before she realized it was her Tamed Beast that had been calling out to her.

"Mhmm… you can talk now?" Elizabeth said as she checked the bird's status.

[Name: Unnamed Clearlight Sparrow

Bloodline: Peak-tier Mortal Grade Clearlight Sparrow [Ancestral Awakening (99.8%)]

Level: 12

Rank: Early-Phase Soldier Stage Tamed Beast

Affection Rating: Incorruptible Mother-Child Bond

Current State: Joyful

Description: Happy to see you after the night has pa.s.sed while it was hard at work, your Tamed Beast hopes to be praised for its hard work!

Innate Skills

Fire Affinity

*New) Tier: Good

*New) Metal Affinity

Tier: Good

*New) Name: Shapes.h.i.+fting (Beginner)

Grade: Low-tier Spirit Grade

Description: Learned through the heritage contained in its bloodline, with this ability it will be possible to change size and form at will.

Current Effect: Allows the user to grow twice as large or shrink to twice as small at will.]

'Shapes.h.i.+fting?! Perfect~' Elizabeth thought as it told the meter-tall sparrow to shrink through their connection. It did as she commanded and perched itself on her shoulder, still a bit tall for it to look natural, but Elizabeth didn't mind. Instead, she showered it with as much care as she could by rubbing its feathery body and giving it some fire-type herbs and a few words of 'encouragement.'

She walked through the now barren and empty roads of Sharktop Island, following the instructions her parents had given her to reach Tristan. With the tournament completed, the village became a husk of its former state as 90% of the people who had come for the tournament had already left after the results had been announced. As she made her way to the inn where Tristan was located, Elizabeth asked her sparrow, "Say… Since we can talk now, what do you want to be called?"

"Me? Called? Anything for Master!" Thought intelligent enough to understand, apparently, the sparrow couldn't communicate that well through its connection to Elizabeth.

"You want me to name you?" Elizabeth asked, as she was partly confused by the sparrow's response. She was met with the fierce nodding of an immature bird which looked extremely humorous to her. Thus, as she chuckled she said, "Hahaha… You have purple and gold feathers that seem like armor so… how about Knight?"

Now bobbing its head with the fervor of a pious preacher, Elizabeth named one of her Tamed Beasts for the first time. She continued walking through Sharktop Village's roads for another minute before stopping in front of a red-colored inn. Elizabeth looked at the inn's name before confirming it was the right place and entered.

The moment she entered through the doors and had eye contact with the inn's receptionist, the receptionist picked up the phone and Elizabeth could hear from across the room, "Yes, Mr. Fanford? Right, this is the receptionist… The person you wanted to see is down in the lobby… Alright, thank you and have a nice day~"

'Mhmm… Very nice...' Elizabeth thought as she gave the receptionist a head nod and walked over to one of the chairs in the lobby to wait for Tristan to arrive. She didn't have to wait long as Tristan opted for the most ridiculous method of arriving. He literally jumped out of his room on the seventh floor and proceeded to enter through the main entrance the moment his call with the receptionist ended…

"..." Elizabeth's eyes squinted as she watched Tristan throw himself onto the floor in prostration before he even greeted her. Without daring to look her in the eyes, Tristan made a scene right then and there, shouting, "Ms. Ultimatia! I can not convey how grateful I am for everything you've done for me! I know in my heart that nothing I do will be enough to repay you. But if you could be so magnanimous to give me a place by your side I promise I will do everything in my power to serve you until I die!"

[Status Alert!

Name: Tristan Fanford

Affection Rating: Hysterically Faithful

Current State: Die-Hard Seriousness

Description: Rejecting him at this point would probably drive him to suicide...]

Cringing, both at Tristan's flowery speech and the status alert, Elizabeth felt like she had no choice but to say, "Uh… ok? Just get up… this is too embarra.s.sing..." she muttered as she felt conscious of the weird looks people in the lobby were giving them. She helped Tristan up from the ground and took him out of the inn, feeling uncomfortable having a crowd bother them as she planned to have a conversation with him.

Taking him over to the cafe she visited before the Martial Event, Elizabeth cheered up upon receiving an Iced Tea. After taking a sip, she asked Tristan, "So… Where do you want to start?" She had several questions for him, but in an effort to make things less convoluted, she tossed this question at the very start to see if Tristan could explain the mystery behind his actions and change, all at once.

With a burning light flaring in his eyes, Tristan said, "For you, anything!" He seemed utterly insane to Elizabeth, but in a good way… "To start my story I should start by saying that because of my cultivation method, the truth of the matter is that for the past couple years, up until you defeated me, I was not my true self..."

Tristan started, "It all began when I formally entered the world of the Martial Society seven years ago. Even before then, because I was part of a Martial Clan, I had been training for five years. But, because the Martial Society doesn't accept people under the age of ten for fear of causing growth imbalances and crippling hidden injuries, I only did light training."

"When I became ten, I officially joined the Martial Society through my Faction, the Skullflesh Faction. Back then, I was excited beyond belief to start true cultivation and become a powerful pract.i.tioner like the rest of my family. I was even prized as a rarely seen genius as I progressed through the stages of my cultivation method hundreds of times faster than my peers in the faction."

"Even back then I faintly sensed that something was wrong as my personality began to turn malicious and oddly cruel, to the point where I would severely injure my sparring partners. But… because everyone seemed fine with my actions I looked the other way and thought it to be normal to behave how I did."

"However, everything changed for the worst as I neared perfecting the ninth stage of my cultivation methods. At that time, just before I took the final step to become one of the few to master my family's cultivation method, all at the mere age of thirteen, my soul was overtaken by a devil… My devil..."

"All those years of my youth, I had been cultivating the vessel for my devil through the nine stages of my cultivation method and as I approached the threshold for reaching the legendary tenth stage, I became vulnerable enough for my soul to be hijacked. Thereafter, I could only watch in horror and despair as the culmination of my negativity lied, stole, and cheated his way through cultivation."

"It was only after you came along and forced him to use the forbidden technique of my cultivation method to the limit and put him next to death's door that I managed to take my body back. Thought I felt I would die from my devil's actions through suicide, I felt glad you managed to let me feel what it was like to take control again, and after you saved me from certain death, returned me that devil's cultivation base, healed my soul, and even improved my abilities somehow… I owe you much more than my life..."