Rising god

Tasha’s murmur stirred Aires’s agreement. "It’s true," he said, his eyes narrowing. "But who is that?"

Tasha’s frown deepened as she scrutinized the so-called Jin Malakar in the sparring arena. Doubts gnawed at her. First, his aura registered at the 5th star, not the 6th star Jin was known for. The second was that Jin accepted a challenge, which didn’t make sense. He was one to run from a challenge, not accept it. The third and most disturbing was that he was smiling.

If anyone had met Jin, they would immediately know this was only a fake.

Also, one would wonder, just what the fuck was Tasha doing here? Well, the truth was, to advance to her fifth year, she needed real-world experience, which led her to follow her father to the Last Front, then the set of missions she took with Baines.

"Think about it," Aires said. "After receiving his One Sun rank, how many guards were assigned to him?"

"Ten," Tasha replied, scanning the entourage.

"But I see only nine," Aires noted thoughtfully.

Tasha’s eyes widened. "Oh, yeah." The pieces clicked: Basically, Jin was tricking the whole empire at the moment.

"Do you think others have noticed?" Aires asked, his gaze drifting toward the distant Sun Palace.

"Of course," Tasha said. "They likely realized it the moment it happened. The real question is, where is he?"

Boom!