that he’d display open anger in front of all these Akura Golds.
Instead, Eithan’s eyebrows shot up.
“Underlord? Haven’t you heard? Lindon’s a Sage.”
This time, Jai Long did snort in disbelief. He didn’t say anything, but his contempt should be clear. Joking around was one thing, but Eithan would have to make his lies more believable if he wanted to deceive Jai Long.
But Jai Long didn’t like the look of the smile that slowly widened on Eithan’s face. “Waaaaait a moment. Have you not scanned Yerin?”
He hadn’t, but only because he’d been trying to stay away from Yerin as much as possible. Even if Lindon didn’t hold a grudge—which Jai Long still doubted—the Sword Sage’s apprentice certainly would.
“I did,” Jai Chen put in. “I don’t mean to be rude, but is there something wrong with her? Her spirit was…strange.”
“How so?” Eithan asked, in the tone of a man who already knew the exact answer to his question.
“It felt like her spirit was all tangled up with her body. Like her madra channels had melted into her, if that makes sense.” Jai Chen lowered her voice. “Was she injured? Is that why she’s so weak now?”
“That is not why,” Eithan said. “Young lady, you have done well to keep your eyes open. Your brother is…woefully uninformed.”
Eithan was clearly implying something, but if he expected Jai Long to display any curiosity whatsoever, then he was hoping in vain. This would all end with the Underlord trying to get something out of them, he was sure, and Jai Long wasn’t about to fall for it.
Eithan waved a hand, and a Truegold in Akura colors quickly sped up to catch up with him. “Yes, Eithan?”
“Ikari, if you don’t mind, would you address me by title? Just once.”
“Of course, Archlord. In fact, I would be happy to continue—”
“You can go back to before, thank you, Ikari.”
The Truegold woman gave a bow and fell back among her fellows, but Jai Long was staring at Eithan.
Archlord.
There was no way it was true.
Jai Long hadn’t thoroughly scanned Eithan, that being a good way to start a fight, but he had been close enough to the man to get a good sense of his power. He was still an Underlord, Jai Long was sure.
Even accounting for the curse of Sacred Valley, which left them all little better than Jades, he was certain that Eithan hadn’t grown any stronger than before.
He was…almost certain.
Eithan spread his arms wide. “By all means, Jai Long, I invite you to scan me and confirm for yourself.”
With the feeling that he was falling for some kind of trap, Jai Long extended his spiritual perception.
He wasn’t sure what he was looking for, exactly. He had never had the chance to personally sense an Overlord, much less an Archlord. If he could feel the full force of Eithan’s spirit, he could be certain, but everyone was suppressed here.
Certainly, Eithan’s body had been thoroughly reforged in soulfire. It felt like a perfect conduit for energy, even more so than the Underlords Jai Long had sensed before. But did that mean he had advanced, or just that he was above average in this one aspect?
Jai Long couldn’t tell if the man was truly an Archlord or simply a peak Underlord, and was about to say so.
“Ah, excuse me, I forgot a veil.”
Then a dim part of Eithan’s spirit became clear, and Jai Long felt the pool of soulfire at the center of his spirit. A dense flame of reflective chrome, like quicksilver imitating fire.
Archlord soulfire. It had to be.
Jai Long had never seen it before, but it was unmistakable. This was at least two grades higher than the soulfire he held in his own spirit.
He withdrew his perception as though the silver flame had burned him and fell to one knee. He was breathing unnaturally quickly, but he couldn’t keep it under control.
This was what Eithan had been after. He’d been toying with them all along, just to see their reactions.
The difference between Underlord and Archlord was like the distance between the lowest valley and the highest stars. There was no Archlord in all the Blackflame Empire.
Even in Sacred Valley, where Eithan would be closer to mortal than anywhere else, Jai Long couldn’t antagonize him any further. Who knew what an Archlord could do?
“Archlord, I apologize for any disrespect. I was ignorant and unaware.”
“Aren’t we all?” Eithan didn’t seem to have reacted much to Jai Long’s panic, though even Jai Chen had curled up and was holding Fingerling protectively in her