Chapter 221: 221
After Kieran left the dorms, Pete glanced at the door before looking down at his hands. Under his command, his hands enlarged, turning into green, scale-covered paws with fingers ending in long, sharp claws.
"I doubted I would ever get this back," he frowned a bit.
The only reason he had followed Michelle to the black god’s sect was to guard her, because the relationship between the black and white god and the Dark Palace was far from good.
He had never expected that he would have such gains from the trip.
Not only did he have the time to cultivate and reach the Dark Paragon level, but he also got back his ability to transform into his monster form. He had lost that when he gained his human form.
The harsh training he had undergone in the Dark Palace made him much stronger, but the price was that he lost his monster form. And even years after that, he found the human body to be inconvenient in some ways.
So getting back his transformation ability was a great gain.
The night passed quite quickly. Everyone did their own thing, and no one bothered the others. Morning came fast, and the group met in the cafeteria for breakfast.
Everyone ate their breakfast, a strange silence enveloping the group.
Anastasia was clearly tense, Ivona was lost in thought, Kieran was exhausted, Pete was indifferent as always, and Michelle ate calmly, taking notice of every little detail.
Finally, she spoke. "In the test, all of us gained back something we had lost before. What did you all get?"
She was speaking to everyone, but most of the time her gaze was on Anastasia. She was sure Anastasia had gotten her memories back and was troubled by it.
For a moment, eerie silence took over the table, but then Ivona spoke. "I didn’t notice anything abnormal since we passed the tests."
"Did you check your spirit energy?" Kieran asked.
Ivona shook her head. "I fell asleep quickly. I’ll check it today."
A nod came from Kieran. Then he chose to speak about himself. "I got back my explosive strength. I can now sprint much faster than before, but not for a long time."
Michelle raised a brow. She didn’t expect Kieran to be a sprinter. "I got back my flexibility and muscle control."
Michelle’s words drew dirty gazes from the group. "You were already extremely flexible, and your muscle control was terrific. So what kind of monster are you now?" Anastasia finally showed a smile.
She was finally relaxing a bit. "I got back my memories..." she added as she leaned on the table, her gaze sweeping over Kieran and Michelle.
Hearing that, Michelle was expecting it a bit, but she still let a whistle escape her mouth. "Whoops..." She smiled. It was obvious that she didn’t regret erasing Anastasia’s memories.
The one who was most shocked was Kieran. "A-" It seemed he wanted to apologize, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Something about the atmosphere was making him feel that if he apologized, it would only further anger Anastasia.
And he was basically right. Anastasia wasn’t in the mood to listen to apologies. And she didn’t want to get an apology from Kieran. She just felt like taking her anger out on Michelle.
Still, seeing that Michelle wasn’t worried, her anger dissipated.
All she could bring herself to do was summon her soul leash, feathers on her arms, and use them to give Michelle a hard slap. "I’ll use it to slice your throat the next time you mess with my memories," she hissed, but she was already mostly calm.
Michelle smiled. "I can’t promise you anything." After that, she turned to Pete. "So, Uncle, will you tell us what ability you regained?" she asked. But no one in the group was really expecting Pete to give a positive answer.
Pete shrugged. "It’s not all that interesting," he said lazily. With that, he waved his left hand and it transformed into a green, scaled paw with long, sharp claws at its ends.
Seeing the paw, Michelle’s eyes lit up. "Uncle, you’re a wind element lizard?"
Pete didn’t like Michelle’s gaze, so he decided to change the subject. "What are you planning to do today? I doubt you want to just sit around until the gate opens."
Michelle gave it a momentary thought before looking at everyone. "What do you-" she started with a nasty, skin-crawling smile.
About half an hour later, the group started walking around the sect, checking all the places available to them.
It didn’t really have a meaning, but it was a good way to pass the time until the time for their real plan came.
And the time came soon after.
When the group entered the forest behind the city, they felt a presence approaching them. A moment later, Mavreth landed in front of them.
"I doubt you are here for an excursion," he started, smiling. "What do you want?"
Next, a very lazy and careless negotiation happened between Michelle and Mavreth. It came to light that the only reason she came to the black god’s sect was that she wanted to know what exact plans he had for her.
Of course, if he didn’t tell her, she didn’t have any way of forcing him. She would have to leave.
But Mavreth was in a good mood, so he decided to explain a bit. In exchange, while Michelle’s friends could leave when the gate opened the next time, Michelle would have to stay in the sect for a month longer.
"Deal!" Michelle didn’t have to consider it for a long time. "But I want access to the cultivation rooms on the lower realm side of the sect," she added, stating her condition.
Mavreth didn’t really know why Michelle wanted access to the spaces since they were basically useless for her after she had broken through the Divine rank, but he didn’t object.
She could go there whenever she liked as long as she promised to stay in the sect for a month longer.
After the deal was done, Mavreth went on to explain a few things he was planning with Michelle.
According to Lavreth’s words, Michelle was supposed to cause a calamity in the world in the future. Lavreth wanted to prevent that.
But Mavreth was constantly at odds with him, so he decided to give Michelle opportunities to grow until she could cause chaos that even Lavreth could never stop.
The next thing Mavreth wanted Michelle to achieve was defeating a person from the upper realm with the power she just had.
That was why he wanted her to stay in the sect for longer. There were a few people from the upper realms around, and Michelle could fight any of them.
In other words, Mavreth wanted Michelle to stop cultivating for a while and focus on fighting people stronger than her by folds.
The group had some complaints, saying it was dangerous, but Michelle was headstrong about her decision. And since she had already promised Mavreth to do it, she doubted he would let her leave.
So until the gate opened, Michelle stayed with the group, exploring the sect. Until they left, Mavreth gave them badges which showed they were allowed everywhere in the sect, even places where students couldn’t go. He also gave them a map with dangerous areas.
Naturally, the group went there to mess around.
They got hurt, but their lives were never really in danger because of their teamwork.
When the day of their departure came, Michelle went with the group to the gate, but she stayed behind when they walked out.
The moment the group was out of sight, Mavreth appeared behind Michelle and she returned to him the badges and the map he had given the group. "When will the fighting start?" she had to admit that she felt a bit excited. She always welcomed a good fight.
"Even right away if you wish so." Mavreth shrugged and turned to walk towards the arena.
It was divided into two parts: the arena for those in the range of power reachable in the middle realm, and those who had already been in the upper realm and surpassed the limits of the middle realm.
Of course, the ones who surpassed the power were suppressed by the Heavenly Law to only be able to use the peak of power attainable in the middle realm.
And those were the ones Mavreth wanted Michelle to fight. And she hadn’t even reached the peak of power attainable in the lower realm.
Mavreth led Michelle to the arena, ignoring that all eyes were on him.
All chatter disappeared from the arena. The sect’s supreme leader had appeared, so they all respectfully stopped their fights.
Mavreth showed no reaction to the silence and continued leading Michelle through the arena. They entered the building, went upstairs, and reached a balcony above the arena.
Everyone’s gazes were on them.
"I have a challenge for you all!" Mavreth’s cold voice boomed through the arena. "This one shall participate in fights on the third platform. Whoever can kill her will be allowed into the Fiend Dungeon for a month."
The silence down below remained, but Michelle noticed the students exchanging glances. The offer was clearly tempting.
But she didn’t like it. Why was Mavreth tasking them with killing her?