Luis was in his room with the Aura Conduit Disk, practicing his aura control. He was able to imbue aura to form three dots and move them across the intricate spiderweb design simultaneously without losing control and having them dissipate. However, it required his full focus, so any distractions would cause the aura to dissipate. Still, the disk allowed Luis to lose only a small amount of aura when losing control compared to imbuing his limbs or trying to reach the next tier.

  As Luis started imbuing aura to form a fourth dot, the sound of his mother calling made him lose focus. He heard her yelling from downstairs.

  "Luis, your friends are here get down!"

  Luis quickly dressed and headed downstairs, where he saw Aelina pying with his younger siblings and her younger brother, Ardyn. Aelina wore an elegant white dress, while Ardyn her younger brother, a year younger than Luis's siblings was dressed in shorts and a pin white shirt.

  Luis greeted them, "Morning. Is it already time?"

  "It's already one," Aelina responded. "The showcase is gonna start in two hours, and it's not morning anymore."

  "Oh, really? I think I was too focused on the disk," Luis replied in a surprised tone.

  "Oh, Luis, this is Ardyn. I think you've only met him once when he was a bit younger," Aelina introduced.

  "Hello, Ardyn. Also, I have to say, you really resemble your dad," Luis said, surprised.

  "Hello, Luis. I do hear that a lot," Ardyn replied.

  "Are you excited for today? What's your blessing?" Luis asked curiously, smiling.

  "Ardyn's blessing can't be shown. It's Phoenix Wings, which is also what my second blessing is," Aelina expined. "He's gonna say the same as your siblings that he has support blessings that help make the body stronger."

  "What? I want that! Flying seems so cool," Luis said, envious.

  "It's not like we can use them, though, so there's no point," Aelina said in a disappointed tone.

  Before they could continue the conversation, Taran arrived with a broad grin through the front door. "Morning, everyone! Am I te?"

  Aelina shook her head. "There's still time until the showcase. The stalls should be open right now, so let's go."

  "Let's go, then," Aelina said, motioning for everyone to follow along.

  It took the group ten minutes to get to where the stalls were set up. Vendors chatted, children ran around, and everyone talked about seeing cool blessings during the showcase. Luis's twin siblings and Ardyn also ran around, pointing at anything they thought was interesting.

  Luis was keeping a close eye on them, but his focus shifted when he noticed a man in a cloak moving toward them. His steps were so quiet that Luis didn't notice him until he was right behind them.

  Unknown to the Xoliti Cn and Phoenix Cn, when the empire went to get the Savrohgous blessing, they had brought Bck Talons members with them. These operatives had received the Savrohgous blessing to help detect Phoenix blessings and a blessing from a creature called an Umbracryn a jet-bck entity with cws for feet and hands, standing on two legs but with no head. It relied on temperature to locate enemies. What made it terrifying was its ability to turn into mist and remain undetected even by high-tier creatures.

  Only people with blessings from uncssified creatures could detect them, but this was only the case if they were on high alert. Over the years, with nothing significant happening, the vigince of the three elite-tier Xoliti Cn members in the vilge had waned. The Bck Talons had formed a new division in their ranks that possessed both these abilities. They roamed alone, exploring pces. If they found any Phoenix Cn members, they would initiate extraction and notify all nearby squads through their communication devices.

  As the man approached, his attention locked onto Ardyn and Kael, whose auras unmistakably resembled those of the Phoenix Cn. His decision was made in an instant.

  No one was able to react fast enough. The operative stepped forward with unmatched speed, grabbing Ardyn and Kael by the backs of their shirts with one hand.

  "Let go!" Aelina shouted, pulling at the two, but the operative's grip was too strong.

  Luis yelled, "Let go of him!" and charged at the man.

  The operative gnced at Luis, sensing no Phoenix blessings in him. He swung his free arm not forming a fist, just swinging but as soon as it connected with Luis, it sent him flying back, rolling on the ground twenty meters away.

  After gncing at Aelina, the operative took out a small bck device. "There are three PHOENIX CLAN members here kid ones. That means there are more. Send in all nearby members. I will extract with two of the smaller ones."

  Putting down his communication device, he gnced at Taran, who was taking deep breaths, panicking as he tried to loosen the soldier's grip.

  "Let go, kid. Just like the other one, you're not a part of the Phoenix Cn. If you don't want to die, let go. It's none of your business."

  Seeing that there were eyes on him and that Taran wasn't letting go, the soldier sprouted wings, preparing to fly. "I told you to let go," he said, summoning cws and stabbing Taran in the heart with cold, indifferent eyes.

  Transforming his cws back into a hand, he proceeded to hit Ardyn and Kael on the back of the head to knock them out. Then, looking at the scared girl Aelina he tried flicking her head with his finger to knock her out, his finger imbued with aura. "Just nicely stay here for me."

  To his surprise, he hit nothing but an illusion. "I see a blessing."

  One thing Lira had always been taught by Sera was to use her illusions and run to get help in scary situations. Aelina had given the scared little girl a look, signaling her to run, and had gone behind the soldier, hidden by Lira's blessing. But he could still sense her aura. Turning around, he punched Aelina, who was about to strike the soldier's head. The punch to her stomach sent her flying. Before she was punched she had infused aura in the feather in her pocket. The feather turned from white to red and then disintegrated.

  The entire exchange had taken less than 35 seconds. It was enough time to attract attention from people nearby but the soldier had made sure to be louder when saying Phoenix cn members. He did this because everyone knew the Phoenix cn was being hunted down there were big bounties for them but above all else everyone knew what would happen to pces that helped harbor Phoenix cn members there was already news of many such pces being destroyed even if residents left were not members of the cn. Afterward, as the soldier flew off at max speed, thinking inwardly, "The kids actually fought back. They must have been trained. There might be a strong member here."

  "Ardyn!" Aelina screamed, trying to get up, watching helplessly as her brother was taken away.

  Luis got to his feet a few seconds after being sent flying. With his vision blurred, he saw his brother being taken away, unable to do anything as the operative vanished into the sky.