I will be the Strongest

Chapter 31

"Aaaaaaaahhh!"

Boom!

A small cloud of dust was created when the twins hit the ground. Their aching and heavy bodies made it strangely difficult for them to get up.

"Argh! What’s happening...?"

Their brows furrowed and their eyes widened as Tae Hyun struggled to understand why his movements were so restricted. Previously, he could easily leap above the clouds with a single jump. But now, he felt he couldn’t even reach the top of the tree beside him.

"The gravity... it's immensely greater here."

Looking around, Ji Yoo noticed that despite the collision they had just experienced, the ground remained completely intact. The dust settled, and both of their eyes widened. They had fallen in three pieces, but why were only two of them present?

"Hyung! Hyun hyung!"

Moving quickly in all directions, the two felt the weight pressing down on their bodies. Walking was challenging, as if buildings were weighing down on their shoulders. Moving quickly was painful, with invisible chains seemingly holding them back. As their hearts raced and their breathing became labored, they glanced up when they heard Lior's voice.

"Calm down, why the commotion?"

Unlike them, who had hit the ground with little warning, Lior descended from the floating castle with Jung Hyun tucked under his arm, calm and majestic as if walking in the air, accompanied by Alyia.

"What did you expect? That I would let him fall from that height?"

"But you did that to us...!"

"You’re rank S; you can handle this small drop. But him? Look, he can barely stay conscious just by getting closer to the ground."

As Lior set Jung down, the latter immediately removed his hand from his mouth and released everything that had been trapped in his throat.

"Eh..., are you okay, hyung?"

Tae Hyun approached and received a nod from Jung, who looked at him with a pained expression before returning to what he was doing.

"Alright... if you say so..."

Halting his approach, Tae reluctantly withdrew his hand.

"What is this place? The ground feels as resilient as the earth’s surface right now."

"Oh, that?" Alyia began to explain but was interrupted by the rapid approach of two flaming birds.

"Alyia!"

The feathers quickly shrank, disappearing altogether. In their place, a girl in a red dress that looked like flames and a boy in elaborately detailed blue clothes appeared.

With arms open, smiling, Alyia caught both in mid-air.

"You little rascals, it’s only been a week, and you’re already hiding your feathers so well?"

Their eyes naturally closed with the rise of their cheeks, and the children smiled proudly.

"Cool, right?" The boy jumped to the ground, spinning slowly with a smile, showing his human form with light blue hair and eyes. "Mom said we could, so we’ve been training every day!"

"Yeah..." The girl sighed, her yellow eyes flicking toward Lior. Before she turned her gaze away, he could have sworn she rolled her eyes. "... unlike a certain someone..."

Frowning, Lior clenched his fist. To Ji Yoo, Tae Hyun, and Jung, it seemed as if sparks were flying from the eyes of those two.

"You... I won’t bring hidden ice cream for you anymore!"

"Ice cream...?" Alyia’s lips tightened as she tried to control her growing anger. "So it was you eating my ice cream..."

With the flames in her bright yellow eyes seemingly extinguished by tears, she ceased her words and concluded the matter with a simple sigh. Grasping her neck and resting her chin on her shoulders, the girl smiled quietly.

"Hey, Alyia, remember you promised?"

Feeling her legs being touched, Alyia looked down to see the boy smiling with enthusiasm.

"You said you’d take us out when we could maintain our human form. You’re going to do that now, right?"

"Of course. I’ve even thought about where we’ll go." Smiling, she petted the boy’s extremely soft and strangely cold hair. "But first, I need to finish up with these three."

"So... they’re also trainees...?"

Tilting his head slightly, the boy glanced briefly at the three, who appeared paralyzed. At that moment, they felt such an intense cold that, looking around, it was as if they were in an endless sea of ice.

"Yeah, so why don’t you wait outside? It’ll be quick."

"I don’t think so..."

Tae Hyun and Ji Yoo knelt, straining to control their breathing and not yield to those eyes. However, Jung, who couldn’t compare to the other two, with his vision blurred, trembling eyes, uncontrollable breathing, and excessive shivering, clutched his chest with all his strength, struggling to stay conscious.

The boy sighed.

"Alright, then I’ll go play for a while..." Walking toward the three hunters, all of them shuddered. He stopped beside Jung and touched his shoulder with one of his small hands. "Sorry, uncle, it wasn’t on purpose."

With a leap and the appearance of wings that seemed to be made of blue flames, the boy flew away.

The yellow-flamed wings appeared on his back, and after giving Alyia a kiss on the cheek, the girl quickly followed him back to the floating castle.

"Going to play..." Lior murmured. "He said he was going to play, right?"

Raising his eyebrows and widening his eyes, he immediately looked up. "Hey! I’ve told you not to mess with my stuff! Are you all listening?!" His voice echoed everywhere as if the very air was vibrating.

"Alright, enough. They’re just kids."

"Favoritism... look who’s talking about favoritism..." Lior grumbled silently as if puffing his cheeks. "That’s favoritism!"

Taking a hand to his eyebrows for a moment, Alyia sighed.

She brought two of her fingers closer together, and as if something were being crystallized in the air, a brilliant blue stone slowly formed.

"Alright, that’s enough." With the distance between her fingers decreasing, the accumulation of mana stopped, as the stone was now ready. "Let’s get this over with."