Rio and the others left Anna and Jin alone for a while and went to another room.
Link and Riya also finished their ascension process and finally came back to the mansion.
They both first congratulated Jin and Anna for Jin’s successful recovery before taking their leave to give the two lovebirds some space.
Jin and Anna were very happy at Riya’s breakthrough to rank S; they also congratulated her and Link.
Riya was a great benefactor for them and their student too, so it was obvious that they were very proud of her.
After leaving the two alone, Link and Riya also came over to the same room the other three were waiting in.
"Hoh, the young boy finally grew up and became a decent man. ahhh~ come to think of it... it was just a few years ago when little Link used to be so fragile, weak and cute..."
Raji teased Link the moment he came in, causing him feel a bit awkward.
"Ahem, t-that was a long time ago; I don’t even remember it anymore..."
Even Ashtel nodded his head and gave a rare compliment.
"You have finally taken your first step towards the peak of strength; reaching S-rank is just the beginning. it gives you the basic-level qualifications to protect yourself in the world..."
"But don’t be overconfident either; before becoming stronger than everyone else, it’s better to be cautious, calm and calculative..."
Link committed Ashtel’s words in his heart and sat down opposite Rio on the couch.
Riya, on the other hand, was given a lot of candies by everyone as a congratulation; everyone present in the room, including Rio, had already prepared some candies for her.
She took them all happily and curled up into a ball as she laid her head on Link’s lap and relaxed in a lazy posture.
Rio grinned a bit and asked Link,
"You are finally in the S-rank; how about a ’friendly spar,’ hehe? Except for killing each other, everything goes! Wait, how about we kill each other! keke..."
Link also licked his lips in excitement at those words as he clenched his fists before saying,
"I have been waiting for you to say just that!! Hehehe, let’s go! I have been itching to bash my head into your sword for a while now!"
Sparks flew between their eyes as they both stared daggers into each other’s faces; it was as if they would both jump at each other any moment and start attacking each other like crazed animals.
"Cough!... Do your ’friendly spar’ sometime later, also, don’t do it in the capital city... if the two of fought, it would shatter half of the capital city in just a few minutes..."
Rio has already been in the S-rank for nearly half a year now, and he’s obviously solidified his realm and has also learned a sh*t ton of skills from his hunting missions.
Link has only just reached rank S, but he’s got one major advantage, and that is his perverted defensive capabilities!
Even though it’s difficult for him to actually injure Rio with his current speed, Rio might not be able to injure Link either! His defense is already starting to reach the level of SS-rankers!
This is one of the main reasons why Rio wants to fight Link so much and is so excited to fight him.
Other S-rankers can’t keep up with Rio anymore; he needs someone stronger and more powerful who won’t die instantly after just a few moves from him.
A tank like Link is the ideal opponent and punching bag in Rio’s eyes.
"Also I have something to talk about right now; that’s why I called Raji over too..."
Raji had already decided to leave and go back to her rest after greeting Jin and Anna, but Ashtel asked her to stay, as he wanted to talk about important matters.
"Ugh, can’t we like talk about troublesome stuff a few days later? I am feeling exhausted and I seriously don’t want to shoulder anymore burden..."
Hearing Raji’s complaints, Ashtel shook his head and replied in a solemn voice,
"No, this matter cannot be delayed... I woke up yesterday and I haven’t had the chance to talk to you all about this matter until now due to various reasons..."
"But I can’t delay this matter anymore than this, as the more we delay it, the more problematic it will become..."
Ashtel’s solemn voice made everyone feel tense and pressured.
Something that can make even the strongest man on this planet so solemn and troubled is definitely not a small matter.
Rio and Link stopped glaring at each other and looked at Ashtel with confusion, wondering what could be such a big trouble that he needed to be so solemn about it.
"I... I want to talk about ’Liam Aldif’ and ’Neo Aldif’, to all of you..."
Hearing those names, Raji sat up straight, and the others also widened their eyes as the topic instantly grabbed their interest.
Ashtel sighed deeply as he looked at each of them before saying,
"Let me start it from the beginning... as you all might already know, Neo Aldif was with the Demon Prince Alverto, and many SS-rankers saw him standing beside Alverto when the ’Spire of Ascension’ was summoned..."
"I got teleported into the ’Spire of Ascension’... although I could have indeed stopped myself from getting teleported with my strength, I had an intuition that I must not do so..."
"I got teleported willingly and arrived at the ’Floor 100’ of the ’Ascension Spire’..."
Ashtel’s words made everyone feel tense as he told his personal experience of the incident to everyone.
"There, I met ’Neo Aldif.’ Neo Aldif was indeed working with the Demon Prince Alverto and it was confirmed without a single chance of error that he had betrayed humanity..."
While saying those words, Ashtel looked at Raji to explain that Neo was a traitor and she must not try to defend him.
Although Raji had some bad past with Neo, she once actually loved him, and it was a better idea to explain things properly to her with solid evidence.
"Hmph! I already knew he was not a good person; I am not even surprised he betrayed us!"
Ashtel sighed and continued speaking after hearing Raji’s words.
"Neo Aldif wanted to help Alverto achieve his plan of ’Connecting to the origin’ of the world..."
"I don’t know what Alverto wanted to do by establishing such a connection, but Neo was proudly claiming those words so I don’t know if it’s true or false..."
"Due to his ideals and his betrayal of humanity, I could not let him do as he pleased... to put a stop to his plans, to make him stop supporting the demon prince and to keep humanity safe, I had to take a cruel decision..."
Ashtel looked into Raji’s eyes before saying,
"I killed Neo Aldif in the ’Spire of Ascension’..."
After Ashtel spoke those words, the silence in the room was terrifying.
The entire world seemed to have gone silent in that moment as a look of shock and disbelief appeared on everyone’s faces; even Rio couldn’t keep a straight face at that shocking revelation.
Raji’s eyes widened in shock, and it took her a long while to process those words; she leaned her back onto the sofa as if she had lost her strength and fell into a daze.
"I kept warning him not to play with fire... he never listened... sigh, in the end, he died following his ’selfish’ ways till the end... why did I even... sigh..."
At one point, Raji genuinely loved him; she was angry at him for betraying her, but there were still some lingering emotions deep in her heart.
Although she did not want anything to do with him anymore, she did not wish for him to die such a miserable death either.
Seeing her sister in such a devastated state, Riya had no other choice but to go over and console her by hugging her in her small arms.