Bovorn was rendered unconscious completely, though he had already slept at Pablo's second shot. Pablo overdid this solely to avenge his kingdom. Not only did Bovorn rack up a kill count among Pleast's people comparable to the 8 archmages invasion, he also made the late king and the kingdom's former strongest mage sacrifice themselves to seal him away. He was the type of individual Pablo had always trained to handle. He was the milestone — if a guy like this ever appeared again, Pablo would be sure to crush them completely to keep his people safe. With that determination, one of Pablo's daily routines as a paladin was carrying 2 boulders in one arm and sparring with 3 knights using the other.
His overwhelming victory made all 3 ladies' hearts skip a beat. One mage felt safe, one omnia saw him as dependable, one devil was fascinated by his strength. But this was just a normal thing Pablo always did. Winning every battle against forces that dared to attack Pleast or the provinces under Gaius family.
Ranyu couldn't contain herself, broke free from the gryphon and flew towards Pablo. "Good job, hero. Want some 'extra' reward from your omnia?"
Nicol thought her omnia might act indecent so she took back her body. "Apologies, lady Ranyu. You might want to get some rest already. By the way, are you perhaps single, sir Pablo?"
While Nil embraced her newer and stronger wielder of the sword. "Are you interested in the shadow realm? With that determination, I shall grant you the perfect body here."
The perfect beauty of the divine, the flawless gorgeousness of a maiden, and the irresistible charm of the devil — despite all these gorgeous ones fighting for Pablo's attention, he found no interest in them. Maybe from his childhood and upbringing, Pablo only bore the weight of duty and enjoyed the beauty of gratitude. Ironically, that indifference of his urged those beauties to find the key to his heart even more.
After being humiliated by a one-handed guy, struck by the fear of complete defeat, and losing affinity over the devil sword that could cut anything, Bovorn folded. Sparing the gryphon's life was also the best financial decision Pablo made to save on traveling costs. All three of them rode it to the closest city with Bovorn as the driver.
Then went straight to the market. "I can't believe you're selling him after overworking it like that. It might be the first time in the history of our civilization to have 3 people riding on a single gryphon. Don't you find his strength useful and worth the praise?" Bovorn pleaded with Pablo not to sell the gryphon that had been sealed together with him. So Pablo changed his mind. "Good sir, he's got the strength to carry 3 people at once. I need to raise the price up a bit."
"You heartless!" Bovorn tried to hold on to his gryphon. But there was not even an ounce of mercy from Pablo for him. "No one knows how to ride it except you anyway. Now strip."
They were out of the shop with coins that made them feel like nobles, despite how underpriced Bovorn's necklaces and artifacts went. Nicol was grinning counting the money and dancing around with the amount of coin sacks she had never seen before. Bovorn was crying in the corner hugging his gryphon. Lucky for him, it was too valuable for any merchant in that city to dare buy it.
With that, Pablo, Nicol, and Bovorn as their gryphon driver travelled much faster, like they were the wind. They had more time to rest, ate better, and Nicol got to bathe whenever there was a chance in the area.
Things went smoothly until they reached the far east continent. The trio got to see new people, new places, try new things, and even learn a bit of the local languages for haggling. Nicol was obsessed with tasting new food and sometimes Ranyu took over her body just to have a taste of some sweets. Nil enjoyed watching the scenery from the devil blade over Pablo's shoulder. She often dared him to interact with some life forms and cut something open to see what was inside. As for Bovorn, he always looked for an opportunity to escape after a countless string of failed ambushes on Pablo. Then the day Bovorn heard the party was heading for the eschaton, his eyes flared up with interest and he became surprisingly cooperative. It was like a long fun trip until they were close to the thousand and one cloud-crowned mountains area, the region where the eschaton resided. It was packed with forest and dangerous beasts that could easily destroy a gryphon. Bovorn cried for about 3 days after it was sold when it had no use anymore.
Deep in the thousand and one cloud-crowned mountains, the trio were now hiking up and down one after another, looking for a clue to the eschaton. Pablo single-handedly cut down every monster that attacked them. Nicol and Bovorn discussed the geography and marked out the mountains they had visited. According to Ranyu, the eschaton was eccentric and could hide its presence so well that even she and Nil couldn't sense it. The only way to find it was by seeing it head-on.
The talk about the map died out fast when the place was so vast. Nicol then spiced things up with talk about romance. A maiden who had only studied magic for a living couldn't hold her excitement over what kind of love life the 2 experience-packed warriors had. But her fantasy was ruined real quick when she learned about the centuries of dreadful assaults from the animal called Bovorn. The only reason a stunning beauty like herself was safe from him was Pablo beating him down to a pulp 4 times a night. Seeing this would have cast a permanent panic attack on Nicol, so Ranyu showed up with her own love stories each time she descended, spinning a steamy life every girl would be jealous of. But after her thirteenth story, Nicol passed out with a constant nosebleed. Nil listened to them all but was only perplexed by Pablo's. "I know you're a conceited human. But seriously, why are you still alone?"
Pablo kept walking silently with Nicol on one of his shoulders and Nil manifested on his other. As he had just told them, he did not care about romance. Also, by his age, Pablo strangely thought he was too old to have one. With an overwhelming love and respect from girls who had just discovered love all the way to elders who were head over heels for him, he only ever saw that as gratitude. Discontented with his reaction, Nil stuck her tongue out taunting. "You're no fun."
"And you're in my way." Pablo grabbed the devil sword and slashed to his front. Nil jolted, "What do you think you're doing?!" Then she noticed a gigantic shadow cast over them.
Looking up, Nil found a massive azure dragon baring its fangs before her. It was different from any beast they had faced. Its speed was terrifying for a being the size of 3 mountains, dodging Pablo's sword at this close a range. Pablo calmly did a cross cut, but the dragon still closely evaded it. It conjured endless streaks of thunder like a rain no one could escape. If not for the devil sword, Pablo and Nicol would have been fried long ago. As for Bovorn, he was cooked well-done. Still on his way to recovering. The dragon was highly intelligent. It never got close to Pablo after seeing the devil sword's ability. Flying around, precisely controlling its thunder and concealing itself behind a lightning rain, the dragon trapped Pablo in its hunting ground. Pablo cut incoming thunders one by one until he noticed the dragon's shadow. Knowing his cross cut was not fast enough, Pablo delivered the tri cleave slash. This time one of his blade waves caught the dragon's wing. The massive dragon fell, causing impact wind and a ground tremor so strong it woke Nicol up. She got down from Pablo's shoulder and both of them walked up to the pile of a mountainous being. Pablo then placed his sword on its neck. "What's this? Is it the eschaton?"
"No!! This is the guardian of the east, the azure dragon. It's a mythical beast protecting this part of the mother earth. You almost cursed this land with great disasters by ending it!" Nicol was surprised by how fast Pablo defeated the guardian. As Pablo was about to pull back his sword, an extreme force was directed at his arm. It was so fast Pablo only managed to move back a little before it hit his devil sword's hilt. That attack was also so immensely powerful that the sword he held yanked him up so high they disappeared into the sky.
"Pablo?!" Nicol was taken aback. Standing where Pablo had been was a sage with one leg kicked high. She had bright red long hair swaying in the wind, the plain hanfu of the locals, and an overpowering presence that knocked Nicol unconscious and forced Ranyu to descend. "It's good to see you still strong and energetic. Long time no see, Tianqi."