'They are all the same, all these coddled sons of bitches blessed by the Supreme One. Eyes in the clouds, noses in the air, he he he Their arrogance knows no bounds, they all cry the same at the end, and I will make this one cry like they all do when I strip it away from him, his pride, his power I shall love to fuck that apathetic look off his stupid face!'

A shadow crawled beside Andar, fingers digging into the Nyre Flower as he kept pace with the Acolyte, somehow it appeared as if Andar had missed his presence when he was dealing with all the Mages here, and he had stuck beside Andar like a leech, waiting for the right opportunity to strike.

A long brown tongue like that of a frog emerged from his mouth and he tasted the air, 'Weird,' this invisible presence thought to himself, 'it's salty, I wonder why that is.'

Andar had nearly reached the Crown of the Nyre Tree and the invisible presence had judged that the Acolyte concentration was at the lowest because he was so close to his prize. He grinned maliciously and manifested two curved blades in his hands that were supernaturally sharp and secreted venom.

These blades were a unique Tier 4 Mid-Order Spell called Nightmare, it was the perfect accompaniment to the Tier 7 Higher Order Spell that had been weaved into his flesh by the Alchemist Union.

With the Nightmare Spell attuned to the living virus that was the Higher Order Spell in his flesh, he could move unseen through reality and his strike was painless and left no visible effect, his target would perish without even realizing that they had been killed.

He was nameless, one of many young Acolytes collected in the millions by the Alchemist Union, where various cutting-edge experiments were performed on their bodies. Most ended up as failures of course, this was the price of progress, but for those that succeeded like him, they would have the power to break the status quo.

He was a Peak Rank 3 Mage, but he had already assassinated a Rank 8 Mage! The gulf between each Mage rank was massive and unlike freaks like this Acolyte, it was nearly impossible to bridge this gap.

He would not be killing this proud Acolyte, the heat on the Alchemist Union would be too much if he did that, but nothing was stopping him from crippling the cocky bastard.

It would not be the first time someone else was hampering the progress of this Ultra one-in-an-era genius, as rumors of him being denied the Supreme Meditation Art were swirling in the top circles, but that was life, the tallest tree was the one that was most likely to be cut down first.

'Dont hate me for this, just be more discrete next time.' he chuckled inside,

"I don't really hate you. You are too small, but your aggressive thoughts are pretty loud. Frankly, it getting annoying and I need to focus on my Ascension."

Andar veered around to the shocked Mage beside him, appreciation in his eyes, even till this moment he could not see anyone or anything by his side and he had swept his perception through this location multiple times but it was all for naught.

A voice like a snake hissing sounded beside him, "How can you know I am here, even a Rank 9 Mage would find it hard to discover my presence."

Andar's eyes widened in surprise, even when this Mage was speaking beside him, he could not pinpoint his position with any accuracy, and he shook his head in amazement,

"You are something special are you not? It is a shame that although I cannot find you, this can."

He held up his left hand and a bracelet was revealed underneath his sleeves. It was the Talisman Bracelet he crafted that was deemed to be a Named Item by the universe. It took a short while for Andar to discover its abilities and they were surprisingly versatile and powerful.

"That is not right, the price of my agony was to be total invisibility within my realm. Why then do I continue to suffer so?" The shadow whispered towards himself, perhaps in shock, he had forgotten to make his thoughts internal.

Andar shook his head, even till now he had not seen this Mage, and he sighed internally, he understood the frustration the Mage felt, undoubtedly he must be enduring a lot in order for him to be this dangerous.

"I too know the price of power, so do not be ashamed of your loss, you just met someone better. No matter how powerful we are, there is always someone better."

The Shadow stilled, "I don't want your pity, you coddled son of a bitch, I know you believe there is no one better than you."

"No need for bad words now," Andar grinned, and suddenly the shadow's mouth was sealed, the same went for his body which was tied tight and he fell for a few feet before landing on one of the branches of the Nyre Flower with a grunt.

Andar looked at the writhing figure below, before tapping his bracelet and moving on. He would love to excavate the secrets of his invisibility but he did not have time and he was sure the Alchemist Union would not stand by while he did so.

Well, he had already taken a small slice from his body and kept it inside his Endless Vault, he would be taking it apart later to find out how this Spell worked.

The shadow wanted to curse but he could not, all he could do was taste the salt of whatever bound his mouth, 'Wait, salt? Is this my tears?'

Apart from the spells that Andar had placed inside the bracelet which were nine Rank 1 spells that had been strengthened until they were nearly as strong as Rank 3 Spells, for someone like Andar who could effortlessly cast hundreds of powerful spells nearly instantaneously, this amount of firepower was useless to him, what made this bracelet uniquely powerful was related to its name: Weeping Child.

This was the name granted to it by the universe and it was apt. The ability it granted the bracelet would allow the wearer to be able to detect ill intent around him and transmit their aggressive thoughts to him, especially if they were planning to attack him, this overpowered effect only affected the wearer not anyone else besides him, and it only affected those that were within his power threshold, so if say a powerful Mage or an Archmage wanted to attack him, Weeping Child would have no way of revealing their harmful intentions to him.

The second effect of Weeping Child was literally related to its name. The target of its effect would begin to cry, so profusely that if they were to be mortal, the amount of moisture that would be lost from their bodies in just a few minutes would turn them into a shrunken cardever.

These tears cannot be stopped or controlled by the affected party, and Weeping Child gave Andar the means to weaponize these tears, making them as hard as a diamond or sharper than a razor. If he wanted he could mold the tears around the head of his enemies and drown them to death with their own tears.

Although such a move would be for shock value, for a Mage was incredibly difficult to drown, even if it was with their own tears.