Since the day Sora decided to ask — or rather to forcefully oblige — Kaden to help her to write her own song as the only person in both worlds who knew about it, she had been in this forest, unseen by everyone, and came at the exact spot Kaden disappeared last time.

She engraved on the ground, the rocks and even the tree with glowing golden runes that would aid her to hide her presence and scare away unwanted guests.

She then sat there leisurely, on a chair made of oily golden flame dripping under the grassed soil, blackening it like charcoal.

No one was with her, not even Rome. She tasked him to go to the golden castle in the forest of eternal sunshine, and guard the door of her room as if she was there while she was here, waiting for some bastard to come up.

Needless to say, waiting without knowing how long you have to wait is agonizing.

At the start you would be confident, full of energy, telling yourself it will be alright and you would be patient.

But after some days without any sign your patience started to wither like a dead flower. You start to feel frustrated, anxious and even angry all at once together and that, especially if what you are waiting for is important — even life altering — for you.

Just like a prayer.

You kneel. You lower yourself to the ground. You raise your cupped hands together and pray to your god for whatever you desire.

Then wait.

No one knew when your prayers would be answered… or if even it would be answered.

Simply, it's a test of patience.

And if there was anything Sora was not, it was being patient.

After waiting for days without anything new, she grumbled, cursed at Kaden. Sometimes, she was so angry that she needed to vent her frustration by grilling some unfortunate beast under fiery fire.

After that, she would return to her flaming chair, looking at the spot Kaden disappeared while cursing again, using all the profane words a sheltered princess like her could have.

Predictably, it was some cute ones.

Inara would have been disappointed in her.

But now after weeks with no Kaden in sight, at that exact moment when she was about to explode into fury and burn this whole forest down and the consequences of that action be damned…

…the space in front of her wobbled like unstable water before a young man with black raven hair, blood-red eyes, handsome face, appeared suddenly out of nowhere.

Sora instantly stood up and dismissed her chair, her heart beating in excitement after finally seeing what she was after so long.

She saw Kaden looking around before his bloody gaze locked into her golden retriever ones.

"You are finally here, damned Warborn." She growled.

Kaden stared at her for a brief moment, before slowly raising his arms in the air like wings spread wide, a grin on his face as he spoke:

"Go on. Honor me and kill me, golden voice."

His voice, to Sora, was annoyingly confident. And for a moment she was extremely tempted to take hold of his head with her flaming hands and burn him down until his very skull melted away in a river of brain matter.

But she held back, clenched her fist tightly until her knuckles went white, all to control her boiling anger.

She glared at Kaden, then parted her lips.

"You are coming with me." She ordered.

It was not a question, nor a request but an order.

One a princess with status feared across the world would give to those lower than her. It was something that would have worked if it was anyone else except… well, a Warborn.

Kaden's grin faltered for a moment then slowly he lowered his arms on his side.

"So we are not killing anyone anymore? Did you become soft in the meantime, golden voice?" He said, his voice still confident, as if not realizing that he was in front of the princess of the Celestial.

It was the thing that infuriated Sora the most. Kaden always acted with her as if she was some contemptible random girl out there.

And she was not.

She was an Asterion.

The sun that illuminates the world, the moon that gives the world the time to rest, and the stars in the sky that give the world hope, something to reach out.

Her eyes started to glow with a bright blistering light, "You are coming with me." She repeated, the space around her started to shimmer with the heat emanating from her.

It was such an intense, immaculate heat that even Kaden couldn't help but frown as the hot air slammed in his face.

'An Asterion indeed…' he mused in his mind but his smile didn't falter. Instead, it widened even more.

"I appreciate the invitation but I have to decline it, golden voice." He said and immediately turned his body swiftly.

He took a steady step on the ground, making it crack under his weight then he propelled himself forward, causing a deafening sound to echo behind him with a wall of dust that rise to cloud the sky.

His body sliced the wind as he ran with impossible speed.

Behind him, he heard the voice of Sora bellowing under the whipping wind followed by a detonating explosion.

He turned his head behind him and saw Sora chasing after him, her eyes glowing molten gold in fury, her body covered in deep incandescent fire that turned the trees in the forest into flaming torches and the ground into a canopy of fire.

Kaden smirked at this sight and increased his speed, the ground beneath him exploded from the strength of his feet. Then, mirages started to emerge behind him, showing how fast he was moving.

But Sora was able to follow him closely, all while shouting and cursing behind him and attacking at long range.

A torrent of fire started to rain down from the sky, plunging the whole forest into an ocean of gold.

Hot air blistered in cascading waves all around the forest, making it unbearable.

But all of this was useless, with his perception at the limit of intermediate rank, Kaden was able to evade all those attacks thrown at his back all while protecting his body with his own black flames.

Clearly, he was going easy on her.

But Sora, too, was going easy.

She didn't want to melt down the person who was going to help her. But at the rate all of this was going…

"I WILL BURN YOU DOWN!" She bellowed, angry.

Kaden didn't even mind her, he continued his sprint looking like he already had an idea of where he was going.

And so they continued their chase inside the forest before soon they were outside of it and stepped into a wide expanse of sand as eyes can see, running at full speed.

Kaden was running through his physical strength and agility alone. While Sora was using her flame under her feet as a propeller, burning everything down without care.

They looked like two trails of light chasing each other.

One dreadful red, the other searing golden.

Kaden's eyes were darting around the expanse as if looking for something.

Something that could help him with this frenzied girl behind him but also, something that could aid him in his goal to find an evolution stone.

It was an information he obtained long ago inside that fateful dungeon where he met his cute Rory.

'That hypocrite Soulless better not scam me.' He grunted in his mind and just at that moment, with his perception at full, Kaden saw something on his left.

It was a small object. Something you wouldn't even notice if you weren't specifically looking at it.

It was a small pebble brimming with glowing blue runes.

Kaden slammed his right foot on the ground, changed abruptly in direction, and darted towards the blue pebble. He stretched his right hand, and grabbed it into his palm all while full speed.

At this time, Sora was not far behind him.

Without stopping, he twisted unnaturally his body, rotated toward the approaching Sora encased in a mantle of fire and dashed towards her with unrestrained speed, making her yelp as she stopped for a moment, surprised.

That time was enough as Kaden appeared at the edge of her scorching aura, Reditha flashed with crimson hue as he cut her wrist, making her dense golden blood spill on the glowing blue runic pebble in his palm.

Sora cried out in outrage, her eyes blazing as she raised her flaming hand ready to strike in anger.

But before her strike even landed, the blue runic rock on Kaden's hand glowed brightly before the space parted away, like a dropping cloak of reality, between them and an intense blinding light burst through it like tidal waves.

Kaden grinned, his crimson eyes dancing with uncontrollable madness.

"Thank you for taking me with you, golden voice."

The light swallowed them whole.

Then it disappeared.

The voice of The Will thundered.

{Asterion's hidden realm (dungeon) found.}

{Type: Inheritance Ground.}

{Name: The Moonborne Trial.}

—End of chapter 207—

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