Chapter 122 - What Happened

Let's take this back 6 hours ago, just before Lucia's bracelet warned her of Cecil's depleted mana level.

Just as Cecil finished firing his Over Flash, the enhanced version of his Flash Canon, he trudged his way over to where the instigators of the Frost Mammoth's stampede.

He had fired off the blast and made sure to fire it close to the general area that the perpetrators were at. He carefully directed the blast just so that it would only graze the general area that they were in, not directly hitting them.

The after-effects of the Over Flash was still ensuing, the large aerial explosion silently rang in the air. The sound waves in the vicinity was still being pushed back by the explosions that it caused the area where the beam passed by to become mute of sound.

Cecil himself was surprised at the destruction his Mana Wave had caused and he was somewhat in disbelief at the sight. He also eyed the place where the beam had stopped and saw the large mountain that was supposed to be kilometers away from where they were at.

'What in the– how? Just how? I... I didn't even put that much mana into the blast!'

Cecil thought incredulously. He wondered how his Flash Canon – Over Flash had even caused such wide spread destruction.

'Did...my mana levels go up? If this was before...I'd have to exhaust all my mana to generate the necessary power to cause this much destruction...'

It was indeed so. Ever since his family's martial arts was successfully converted into a Mana Training Manual, Cecil's mana levels kept soaring in large quantities every time he trained and circulated his mana using his family's martial arts.

The only reason why he hadn't felt any substantial increase was because he was now in the mana sea stage. Every revolution of his mana caused the mana in the surroundings to be attracted into his body and permanently reside inside.

The mana infused into his mana point as well as all over his body, the increase felt insignificant because the vapor-like mana was only adding to the thick liquid mercury-like mana inside his body.

It wasn't only that, but the pathways inside his body that his mana was coursing through had abruptly changed in nature. They were gradually transforming into a higher level of mana pathways known as Mana Circuits.

These Mana Circuits were actually a more efficient form of Mana pathways inside the body that provided a faster more efficient form of circulation. The activation of mana was also enhanced and it provided the owner of the circuits to have an increased efficiency and speed when cultivating their mana levels.

Cecil wasn't aware of this since even the Mana Circuits themselves were actually a rare occurrence that happened to only the very fortunate. It couldn't be cultivated, but oddly enough, due to his family's martial arts Cecil was able to cultivate these circuits himself.

'Looks like I'll have to measure my mana levels later when we get back... I'm glad I'm not in the red yet...'

Cecil arrived at the area where he last sensed Vale's party was hiding at. Fina was also behind him following after in worry. Cecil didn't know it, but he wasn't walking. It was more like he was stumbling and dragging his feet.

He looked around and saw the party of fools that he had frightened. They were in a very sorry state, many of them were collapsed onto the floor. One of them was crying and wailing in horror. Another had directly fainted while standing.

Cecil made his way towards the frozen Vale. He was pale in fright and hadn't even registered Cecil at all even when the boy was standing right in front of him. It was only when he felt a deadly glare directed at him that the frightened teenager raise his gaze.

When he saw the person glaring down at him, he immediately paled and shrieked in fright.

"GAAAAHHH – Uhuk!"

Cecil cut off his shriek with a kick to the boy's face. He laid sprawled over the floor and began begging for mercy and forgiveness.

"Please, please spare me! I'm sorry. I'm sorry! I... I didn't mean to! I'm sorry I'm sorry! Have mercy, please have mercy!" He kept on repeating while tears streamed down his face.

Cecil was surprised seeing this, he then turned towards everyone else who was part of Vale's party and saw that they were looking back at him in pale terror.

It was like they were looking at a monstrosity instead of a person. Cecil wavered a little and even thought that he may have over did it a bit. He was lost in anger earlier and after having kicked Vale in the face, he somewhat calmed down and thought back at his absurd actions.

'Damn... maybe I was a little too excessive.'

Excessive was an understatement. Cecil eradicated the stampede of Frost Mammoths as well as the surroundings using Over Flash, not to mention the deadly beam of mana didn't stop there. It flew all the way to the middle of the dungeon and smashed right into the main mountain and everything in its path was also obliterated.

He had essentially changed the terrain of the dungeon's 5th floor.

'Crap...' Cecil thought with a frown.

His frown however held a different meaning towards the 6 people in front of him. Other than the one who had fainted while standing, the others immediately dashed forward and began kowtowing, desperately begging for mercy and forgiveness.

Cecil was helpless seeing this, but gradually he began to become annoyed. The constant screaming and pleading was annoying him. It was loud and he honestly didn't like seeing 5 grown boys pleading to him like a girlfriend who was suddenly dumped after being in a 10 year long relationship with days before her wedding date.

'Why the heck am I comparing them to that?' Cecil thought stupidly. 'I guess that stupid look on Fatima's boyfriend is still haunting me...'

Yup, instead of girlfriend, it was actually Fatima's boyfriend. They were in a secret relationship for a long time, but suddenly just before Fatima was about to announce to their parents that she was going to get engaged to the boy, she found him cheating on her.

With how prideful she was, Fatima only disdainfully blessed them with a long healthy relationship. She quickly abandoned the cheating bastard and returned to the family. The man in question chased after her. Even all the way to their ancestral home where Cecil witnessed a scene from a drama that he'd never forget.

The man had kneeled down crying and begging for forgiveness, to which of course Fatima didn't hesitate to give. Except, the parents... and brothers didn't agree... the next scene however...was indescribable.

To actually be able to take part in the tearing away of two couples had left Cecil with a bad taste in his mouth, although the experience was still enjoyable to some sense since he was able to protect his beloved older sister from such a cheating bastard of a man.

What the fools in front of him were doing reminded him of such an event and he was very much annoyed.

"Disgusting... you idiots made me remember that... shut up."

"!"

At his words, the parade of tears in front of him quieted down. Cecil then opened his mouth and asked, "Whose stupid idea was this?"

"!"

"He–"

Once again a cacophony of noise rose in front of him. The boys immediately began throwing the blame onto each other, but most of them were directing the blame towards Vale, saying that it was all his idea and he was the mastermind behind all this. Vale himself blamed everyone else for not stopping him and actually carrying out the orders.

Cecil tapped his foot onto the ground in annoyance. The light tap felt like a thunderclap to the boys and they immediately became silent.

"Should I just kill these idiots?" Cecil mumbled.

"CECIL!!!" Fina gasped in horror. Although it was only a soft mumble the girl was just behind him and had inadvertently heard him.

Cecil turned back and thought, 'They were clearly targeting Fina... but I just happened to be there.'

"What do you want to do with them Fina?"

"Uh... just... just let them go... I think they've already received their punishment..." Fina replied softly after she took a light glance at the pitiful state Vale's party was in.

"Okay." Cecil then turned towards the fools in front of him and said.

"I won't kill you fools because we're from the same academy and it'd leave a bad taste in my mouth if I did... and I disdain the thought of having to dirty my hands with your disgusting blood."

"..."

"So right now... you idiots should go and apologize and thank your savior." Cecil said and pointed towards the girl behind him.

Immediately the 5 boys scrambled towards Fina and began apologizing and thanking her. Fina was at a loss at what to do. She turned a look towards Cecil and saw that he was beginning to grow pale.

Cecil growled, "Now that you're done, get the hell out of my face! AND! If I find out that you leaked what happened here today... I'll find you all again... and I'll seriously send you to hell."

"Y-yes!"

"Get out of my face now."

"..."

The Vale's party immediately scrambled away while carrying their unconscious friend with them.

Once Cecil made sure that they were far away, he walked towards a rock wall and slumped down.

"Damn... what the heck... I thought I wasn't in the red..." Cecil cursed.

Fina quickly ran to him and asked worriedly, "Cecil! What's wrong?! You... you're not–"

"Don't worry... it's not that... I just feel... exhausted all of a sudden... let...let me rest a bit." After that Cecil straight away fell asleep.

*****

"After that, I had to carry him all the way over here..." Fina said, finishing her recount of what happened to her and Cecil.

"...well, since everything's okay now... I'll leave it at that..." Lucia said.

"So... those huge explosions and that reason why terrain earlier was reshaped was because of Cecil?!"

"Ah... sorry Lulu... I forgot Ghina was here..." Fina said apologetically.

"Hey!" Ghina exclaimed with a hurt look.

"Just kidding Ghina! Hihi~" Fina giggled.

"But Ghina... please keep this a secret okay." Lucia said.

"O-Of course... but man... to think that Cecil... already had the power of a King... no wait, that's an understatement... he's far surpassed a King... maybe he's already as strong as most of our instructors and teachers..." Ghina said thoughtfully.

It was indeed so, in fact, most if not every member of Little Kings had power and knowledge that was on par with most of the Instructors at the academy. Though they had no way of knowing since they've never seen any of the instructors actually put their power up for display.

But it was safe to say that the Little Kings had far surpassed the other students in the academy. Maybe not every member, but it went without saying that Cecil and Lucia both were already above them.

"Let's get some rest... we have to quickly get back to the city and check on Cecil's condition. Although he only looks like he's sleeping, who knows if his over-usage of mana had left any lingering effects on his body," Fina said.

"Alright...good night you two," Ghina said and went back towards her bed.

Lucia also bade the two good night before she too, fell asleep on top of her bed.