The underground world beneath the eternal canopy was utterly silent.
It was a vast region, spanning many kilometers in every direction. The people of the Starhaven family who failed to bond with the spirits were going about their daily lives, dedicating their time to finding a way to finally bond with the spirits.
It was a depressing task. Living every day of their lives knowing that the rest of their family had branded them as trash, defects who needed to be discarded. Many in the underground world had come here against their will. The way unbonded Starhavens were treated in the sector was worse than the way animals were treated.
However, as terribly sad as their situation was, today was the day that would intensify it manifold.
As the people observed the ethereal spirits floating through the air, the underground world turned silent.
It was strange.
In the first place, it had never been a place that was usually noisy. Silence was the norm. However, there was something about this silence. It was hard to explain. It was the sort of silence that descended when something catastrophic was about to happen.
Then, the people felt something else.
Tension.
It was so intense that it sent a slight chill across the people in the underground world.
The humans froze. The spirits stopped moving. And all eyes turned towards the direction of the spiritual lake in the distance, where an intense coldness was emanating from.
Something was coming.
Meanwhile, at the spiritual lake where all the tension was emanating from, Veylor, the leader of the Crimson Vows, had his gaze narrowed in slight shock.
It was an odd scene. There was no single person in the whole of Sector 8 who didn't know who Veylor was. He had carried out many public executions, spreading the ideals of the Crimson Vows all over the sector. And he had never been known to lose his calm.
However, now, gazing at this boy standing by the lake, his expression crumbled.
'How?'
The process of synchronizing your mana with spiritual energy was a daunting task. One that required your body to work many times harder than usual.
This was a process that every member of the Starhaven family underwent when they first bonded with a spirit at a very young age.
At that time, the mana and spiritual energy in their bodies weren't that significant, making the process more bearable.
The higher the amount of mana and spiritual energy one had, the more strain it put on the body. However, one fact remained unchanged: at the end of the process, the body would be left utterly overwhelmed and exhausted.
Atticus had an insane amount of mana. And considering the spiritual energy around him, it was obvious that it was staggering as well.
Atticus had just finished the synchronization process, so why, just why, was his aura so profound?
It wasn't only Veylor. Even Elder Lorthan and Kaelan had their eyes almost bulging out of their sockets. The latter had bonded with a tier-6 spirit, and his spiritual energy had been high when he went through this process.
He, of all people, knew how strenuous it was, which was why he was finding it hard to believe what he was currently seeing.
There were more than 30 grandmasters surrounding Atticus, their bloodlust covering the area like a heavy blanket. And yet, Atticus seemed as though he was a beacon in the darkness.
None of the bloodlust reached him. It was as though an invisible, impenetrable shield surrounded him, rendering the murderous intent and aura of more than thirty grandmasters utterly useless.
They had all watched the Nexus event. They had all witnessed his prowess. And although they had been shocked, at the end of the day, watching a battle through a screen and actually witnessing it firsthand were two completely different things.
Many had labeled it as visual effects. While it was true that during the battle, they were moving at incomprehensible speeds, it was impossible to accurately determine how fast they were, especially since they were watching from a screen.
The surroundings might have been destroyed, but that was a normal occurrence in battle.
Numerous earth-shattering clashes had occurred, but it was impossible to determine the weight of each while watching from a screen.
Their Apex was extremely powerful; the people had accepted that fact. However, the people in the grandmaster ranks, especially the older ones with vast battle experience, had refused to believe that a 17-year-old could be more powerful than them.
But reality had always told the truth. And it was an absolute truth that couldn't be denied.
The gazes of the grandmasters narrowed dangerously, and their auras flared brighter, the ground beneath their feet fracturing from the sheer pressure. However, despite the increase, not a shred of it touched him, his aura as calm as a lake.
Then, Atticus's gaze shifted.
It landed squarely on Veylor and the twins standing beside him. Veylor's eyes narrowed into slits, and the twins flinched instinctively, their heartbeats quickening.
A cold shiver ran down each of their spines, an action that shocked Veylor to the core.
He didn't need to think; his body knew.
Danger.
As a seasoned warrior, Veylor understood perfectly what had just happened. More than thirty grandmasters had surrounded this boy. They had unleashed their full killing intent, enough to crush armies.
And yet, Atticus stood unmoved. Unshaken.
As he emerged from the lake, he had accepted their presence. He had accepted their intent to kill him.
He didn't care for their reason.
And now, without uttering a word, without any hesitation, Atticus was about to act.
Veylor's instincts screamed like a warning bell. His irises abruptly shifted, splitting into three distinct colors, and his pupils became sharp slits.
His muscles bulged, his clothes straining as his spiritual energy surged outward in an explosive wave of force. The air cracked, the ground beneath him imploded, and with unreal speed, he grabbed the twins by the backs of their shirts.
In an instant, Veylor shot into the sky like a streak of light. The ground where they had stood disintegrated into a crater as a purple-azure slash tore through the air below them, slicing through the earth like butter.
The sheer force of the slash destroyed everything in its path.
Thick roots were shredded, split apart as though they were paper, and the landscape itself was carved into an abyss of destruction.