Laden blinked in confusion with his eyes before immediately turning to miss Dally to get a grasp of what was going on.

"Do you want to kill him?" Laden suddenly heard her say.

"Kill him? what do you mean?" he asked while turning his eyes to look back at Maxwell.

Laden was shocked to see Maxwell lying completely unconscious on the ground with a puddle of a transparent liquid trickling out from beneath him.

"He is unconscious," he muttered with a shocked face.

The sight in front of him suddenly made him realize something he hadn’t earlier.

"All of my new skills are absolutely insane."

He didn’t just come to this conclusion just because of the last event but because he could see multiple bruises all over his opponent’s body despite the dragon scales.

"I didn’t mean to," Laden said with a straight bow.

"It’s alright; thankfully I managed to stop it in time," Miss Dally said, her eyes locked on Laden, an interested glint flashing through them.

"The duel is now over and Laden wins," she declared before turning around to leave, ignoring the unconscious Maxwell.

While she left, a soft smile suddenly appeared on her face while a thought wandered in.

"Now this will be interesting to watch."

Seeing Miss Dally leave the arena, Laden’s eyes turned to look at the surrounding audience, who were also staring straight at him, but there was a difference. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

Laden’s eyes were neutral and also slightly confused, but the eyes of the audience displayed a vast array of emotions, but just two were the most prominent; Fear and Mind bending shock.

But Laden ignored all of them and just turned around, ready to leave as soon as possible. Something was going on in him.

While he left, Laden didn’t entertain any sort of approach; he even ignored all of Maxwell’s lackeys who were heading towards the ring to pick up his unconscious body.

"What’s going on," he muttered in confusion.

Since the moment he had seen Maxwell’s unconscious body, Laden had felt some sort of loosening in his body as if a burden was being released.

"Is the original owner truly letting go now?" he wondered.

But the changes weren’t just happening to Cole’s physical body; even Prime, who was in his Nascent Space, could feel it, making his eyes widen in shock.

"His Nascent Space and Core are getting even purer."

After his battle, Laden didn’t wait in class at all; he just picked up his luggage and prepared to head back home with a pestering feeling in his head.

"I need to talk to my new parents," he thought.

For the past few days, he had been mostly avoiding any talk with them since he felt quite strange and distant, but now he couldn’t delay anymore as he felt he needed to talk to them as soon as possible.

Laden sped home as fast as he could, and as fate would have it, he saw his parents sitting in front of the television in the living room.

The loud sound of the opening door made the two of them turn their heads towards the door. Laden immediately noticed their expression more from neutral to worried in an instant.

His mom rushed to her feet and approached him quickly.

"What happened, baby? why do you look so ragged?" she said with an extremely worried tone. Laden could also see his dad also looking worried.

Though he had planned all that he wanted to say before he got home, now that he actually arrived and saw their worried expression, he couldn’t say a single thing; he just went blank.

"I beat him, I beat the bully," he finally managed to say.

"I am a summoner now."

Laden could feel his mother’s hands immediately tense up the moment he said that before she instantly pulled him into a close hug without saying a single thing.

He couldn’t see it, but Laden knew drops of tears were streaming down her face at that moment.

He also noticed his dad stand up from his seat and approach the two of them.

"Well done," he muttered while giving Laden a strong pat on the shoulder.

After that short emotional bout, Laden and his parents moved back towards the chair where they sat down to discuss it. It seemed they had also noticed his distant nature for the past few days, but they had decided to give him time.

On the chair, the three of them discussed quite a lot of things, from how he became a summoner to an excuse he made up for why he had been distant to other things.

While they were discussing, they shared smiles, laughs, and even quite a nod, making the home become bathed in an extremely jovial and cheerful vibe.

They sat there for hours talking about various things, and as the sky eventually darkened, Laden returned to his room. While sitting on his bed, he held it to his chest while muttering.

"You have finally completely relinquished it uhhh, I promise to take care of them and won’t let anything happen to them," he said with a determined gaze.

Right now Laden felt completely free; the burdening that had been slowly loosening for the past few days had now been completely lifted. The body now completely belongs to him.

Laden didn’t move from his sitting position; he just sat there ruminating about his earlier battle, trying to find out what he could do better.

But Laden noticed that there was almost nothing he could pick at; his forms were perfect and almost impeccable, as if instinctual.

"I think the only problem was my force exertion, and that’s an area the ability can’t help me with. I need to do that myself."

He was just about to talk to Prime since it had been extremely quiet for the past when he suddenly felt a presence descend on him.

"Laden, hurry to the Spirit World now," the familiar voice said loudly, urgency laid evidently in her tone.

Laden froze in shock as he realized what she was about to say next.

"It has begun."