Born In Ashes: The Enigma

When Ashara asked Azrael about his trial, he didn't respond immediately. Instead, he glanced at Maelir from the corner of his eye.

Although Ashara had told him that Maelir was his uncle and even helped heal him, Azrael didn't know anything about the man, so he preferred not to speak anything about his trial in front of him.

Maelir noticed Azrael's glance, and his lips twitched.

'Where is the basic trust that should exist between an uncle and nephew?' He shouted inwardly, but soon felt another gaze land on him.

Seeing that even Ashara was now staring at him, Maelir sighed inwardly.

"There is a room over there…" He pointed in a certain direction. "Just go there, and I will wait for you two here… alone."

He emphasized the word alone, as if making sure they heard it clearly.

Ashara didn't care about Maelir's expression and brought Azrael to the room. She first scanned the space and even created a protective barrier around them.

Once she was done, she nodded and looked at Azrael.

"Now you can speak freely. No one will be able to hear us."

Azrael nodded and began to tell her about his trial. He didn't intend to hide anything that had happened, as there was no reason to.

He simply said that he used the Hell level token she had given him and that the trial he was sent into turned out to be far harder than he had anticipated.

If he tried to downplay the trial or its difficulty while telling Ashara about it, he had a strong feeling she would take him back home instead of letting him stay at Slayers Academy, claiming he got his ass kicked even in a Hell level trial and wasn't ready to join.

As Ashara listened to Azrael's account, her expression changed from serious to one of shock.

'Class level beings in the trial of someone who was just level 1 when he entered…' She thought, dumbfounded. 'And there were more than one.'

When Azrael told her that three of the class level beings in the trial were actually vessels of corruption, her eyes contracted, and her heart turned cold.

She was well aware of the vessels of corruption and knew they were far stronger than ordinary people of the same level.

A level 11 vessel of corruption could even fight against a level 14 or 15 Class level being.

But in Azrael's trial, there had been three of them, and the strongest among them was level 17— capable of displaying power close to level 22 or 23.

When Azrael casually said that he had just used some of the information he obtained to make the class level beings fight among themselves, Ashara gave him a weird look, wondering just what kind of information he had used.

However, Azrael didn't explain anything further.

Soon, he finished recounting everything, and after hearing about all the twists and turns in the trial, even Ashara was left speechless. It felt as though the trial had simply been designed to kill her son.

"It seems you really got a good deal by just losing one of your arms…" She said after a long silence, her eyes still filled with traces of fear, as though if Azrael had made even a single mistake, he might have lost his life in that trial.

Azrael noticed the fear in Ashara's eyes, so he smiled and spoke in a tone that seemed to beg for a scolding.

"Even Eonrift was jealous of my talent and tried to stop me by giving such a tough trial. But alas! I am just too awesome to be defeated by something like that… even more awesome than a certain beautiful lady."

Ashara's mouth twitched at Azrael's cringeworthy words, and she rolled her eyes.

She took a deep breath and finally smiled.

"It's good that you are safe."

Azrael nodded, then smirked. "By the way, the rewards I got for completing my trial are quite generous."

As he spoke, Azrael took out all five items from his storage ring.

As soon as the items appeared, a profound aura enveloped the entire room.

Ashara, who was already delighted by the mention of generous rewards, eagerly looked at the items.

But the moment her eyes landed on the first item— a heart shaped green-colored crystal that seemed to contain the source of wind— her expression froze, and her eyes widened.

She quickly used her cosmic energy to reinforce the barrier she had created and even extended her senses to make sure no one was spying on them.

Azrael was surprised by Ashara's sudden change in demeanor and looked at her in confusion.

However, Ashara didn't say anything immediately. After confirming that no one was spying on them, she sighed in relief and looked again at the green colored crystal heart with visible shock on her face.

"Is this the Heart of Wind?" She asked in a low voice, her face serious.

Azrael nodded at her question.

"It's indeed the Heart of Wind," He responded, then asked in confusion, "Is there something wrong with this thing?"

Ashara took a deep breath upon hearing Azrael's confirmation, and an excited look appeared on her face.

"To think you would receive this thing… If this is one of the rewards, then the difficulty of that trial can be justified."

Azrael relaxed when he heard Ashara's words. After seeing her reaction, he had thought there was something wrong with the Heart of Wind, but judging from her excitement, it seemed it was actually something good.

"Mom, this thing can activate my Power of Wind, right?"

"Activate your Power of Wind?" Ashara rolled her eyes at his question. "This thing can do much more than that."

She grabbed the green colored crystal heart and spoke in a low voice.

"If other people found out you had this, even Cosmic Emperors and Cosmic Monarchs would be tempted to steal it. Because… this thing has the potential to make you the strongest among the Wind Power user."