Chaos Heir

Chapter 1591: Favorite

Needless to say, the sudden request surprised Airrak. Despite being teammates, the Thilku didn’t exactly strike her as the cooperative bunch. They never had much time to bond, either, making their different allegiances still quite relevant.

Of course, Airrak had joined that universal struggle with the proper mindset. Flags had no place on that battlefield. Politics had never disappeared, but she could put them aside for now. The noble family she served wanted a good performance from her, but she wasn’t stupid enough to let that get in the way of the higher goal.

"We old timers have to look out for each other, don’t we?" Airrak responded, smiling amiably at the tall Royal Guard beside her.

Airrak’s messy white hair partially hid her warm smile, but Lord Envoy only had to hear her cooperative tone to smile back. They were professionals after all, so they could skip most of the pleasantries to get straight to business.

"I’m glad we are in agreement," Lord Envoy announced. "If I may ask, can you redirect incoming energy anywhere?"

"I can also enhance its flow to various degrees," Airrak explained. "What do you need, Lord Envoy?"

"If you would open your mind, Lady Airrak," Lord Envoy requested. "I can transfer my strategy directly to you."

Airrak wasn’t using any mental defense, but her existence innately protected her from internal attacks. Letting a foreign energy enter her brain was no different than exposing herself to a deadly danger, but the situation made her cast her precautions aside.

Lord Envoy transferred his thoughts as soon as he sensed Airrak lowering her innate defenses. A mass of foreign but harmless energy teleported right into Airrak’s brain, dispersing to instantly convey a strategy that would have taken multiple exchanges to explain.

Due to a mixture of habit and experience, Airrak had kept her element’s details a secret. That interspecies team had never demanded to reveal her skills in the first place, and she didn’t forget how that alliance was temporary.

The more mysterious Airrak remained, the more her potential future political opponents would be wary of her. She had also applied the same strategy against her King, limiting herself to a basic but effective use of her element to keep her real worth hidden.

However, the detailed strategy that expanded in Airrak’s mind made her aware of Lord Envoy’s terrifying analytical skills. His plan heavily relied on Airrak’s element, describing uses that he could have only guessed since she had never revealed or hinted at her ability to implement them.

Airrak was nothing short of the best humankind had to offer when it came to evolved warriors. She was a secret, core asset of some of the greatest forces the Global Army had ever produced.

Yet, discovering how much Lord Envoy had learned during a short battle while he was busy fighting someone else left Airrak speechless and petrified. His guesses had been so on point that Airrak believed even extensive reports about her element would have failed to represent it so accurately.

Obviously, Airrak perfectly hid her shock, but that didn’t prevent a profound realization from spreading alongside that foreign strategy. The Thilku’s Royal Guards were entities far above what humankind had ever produced, and there was someone even stronger than they were.

Actually, Airrak realized that humankind had produced someone at that level, but he was far beyond the Global Army’s reach at that point.

"This is an ingenious plan, Lord Envoy," Airrak ended up praising to hide her shocking realization even further. "However, couldn’t you have implemented it on your own?"

"I’m afraid it would have taken me too long to untangle the patterns in this distorted space," Lord Envoy commented, not falling into the trap of revealing too much about his ability. "I trust your expertise can compensate for that."

Airrak didn’t really trust that answer, but it was too late to refuse Lord Envoy’s request. Besides, the plan was indeed solid, except for one not-so-tiny detail.

The burly King whom Airrak was fighting had long since recovered, jumping from wherever she had flung him to return to the area.

The same went for the tall, long-haired King whom Lord Envoy was facing. He couldn’t just ignore his two opponents’ cooperation, so he descended toward their location.

The two Kings landed a few meters away from Lord Envoy and Airrak almost at the same time, their fuming wings unfolded and glowing with power. They didn’t look too keen on the idea of fighting together, but their opponents’ sudden cooperation demanded a similar response.

Now, as solid and suitable for Airrak as the plan was, she still needed some time to implement it. Lord Envoy basically wanted her to send his energy to specific spots of that distorted space, meaning he would also be busy coordinating with her.

That wouldn’t make the two completely defenseless, but it would definitely affect their ability to implement their strategy since the two Kings would try to mess with it.

Yet, what followed told Airrak that Lord Envoy had accounted for that, too.

"[Old Envoy, are you sure]?" Lord Blind Sword’s voice resounded in the area before his figure gracefully landed in front of his two companions. "[You might not get another opportunity to fight to your fullest]."

"[Our duty is to reunite with the Emperor]," Lord Envoy announced. "[My personal enjoyment is irrelevant]."

"[That’s why you are the favorite Royal Guard]," Lord Blind Sword declared.

"[To my great honor]," Lord Envoy said. "[Lord Blind Sword, we’ll only need a moment]."

"[You won’t mind if I kill them both first, right]?" Lord Blind Sword wondered. "[My previous fight has left me unsatisfied]."

"[Of course]," Lord Envoy reassured before switching to the human language to address Airrak. "Lady Airrak, may I begin?"

With Lord Blind Sword protecting the two, Airrak had no more complaints. She took a step back and lifted her cane as much as her crooked back allowed her to, while sending her mana into it.

The cane started to shine with a faint, grey glow, which Lord Envoy inspected for a few seconds before gathering seemingly simple masses of his own mana into his huge hands, only to throw them at the glowing item.